Some Pentecostals confuse the Gift, singular, (NT Greek: “dorea” of the Spirit; i.e. The Baptism in the Spirit) with the Gifts, plural, (NT Greek: “charismata”) of the Holy Spirit.
The risen Lord Jesus gives the Gift (singular) to those who’ve repented and been baptised in water; whereas the Holy Spirit distributes the gifts (plural) to those who have been baptised in (and so are filled with) the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38 & 1 Corinthians, chapters 12 & 14).
The Father’s promise of the Gift of the Holy Spirit was received by Jesus , who then poured it out on the disciples who were waiting in the Upper Room.
This took place at 9.00am on the Day of Pentecost. The Spirit later came upon new believers in Samaria, who had repented and been baptised in water. They received the Holy Spirit when Peter and John came down from Jerusalem and laid hands on them.
A little later, those in Caesarea who gathered in the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius received the Holy Spirit through the hands of the apostles Peter and John.
Saul (later renamed Paul) was likewise filled with the Spirit, when Ananias, as instructed by the Lord Jesus, laid his hands on him.
More than twenty years after the memorable Day of Pentecost, Paul water-baptised twelve men who had been baptised well before the Day of Pentecost by John the Baptist. That baptism had been “a baptism of repentance” in preparation for the coming Messiah.
Paul rebaptised them in a baptism of Identification with the crucified, risen, raised, ascended, and glorified Jesus Christ. Some of the rebaptised believers spoke in tongues, and others prophesied (Acts 2:4; 8:14-17; 9:10-18, 10:44-46; 19:1-7).
The apostles’ experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit empowered them to preach the message to “the end of the earth”, to what is today Yemen, once ruled by the Queen of Sheba, who had visited King Solomon, hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus.
Some other Pentecostals think of Pentecost as about going deeper devotionally, when it is more about going wider evangelically. Or they delight in the experiences that come when the Spirit of God ‘moves’ in times of revival; and when spiritual gifts are manifest in church meetings. Primarily, the Gift of the Holy Spirit is given to empower believers for service in ministry,
“And you shall receive power: NT Greek: “dunamis” (from which we have the English words dynamo, dynamic, dynasty, and dynamite) after the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be my witness both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
The “uttermost” to those first apostles was what we know as The Middle East, whereas “uttermost” to us means globally.
The question, then, is: Since the glorified Lord Jesus has baptized you with the Holy Spirit for your service, why are you passive when you could be active and static when you could be dynamic? “Over and Out.”