The Secret to Receive the Holy Spirit

Now, coming back to how to receive. Let’s look, first of all, in Luke chapter 11, verses 11 through 13. These are words of encouragement. Jesus is speaking.

“If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?”

In essence, he’s saying a father whose child asks him for something good will never give him something bad. Then he applies that to our Heavenly Father. He says,

“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who”—what? Ask Him.

You see, I’ve heard Christians say it’s not scriptural to ask for the Holy Spirit. But Jesus said if you’re a child of God, born again, then you have the right to ask for the Holy Spirit. And he actually places the responsibility upon us to ask. Bear in mind, if you are a born-again child of God, and you come to God your Father through Jesus the Son, the only way, if you ask for something good and scriptural, you will never receive something bad. That’s your guarantee. But the responsibility to ask is placed on you.

And then the actual steps to receiving, we turn to John chapter 7, and we read three verses: 37, 38, and 39.

“On the last day, that great day of the feast,” which I believe was the Feast of Tabernacles, “Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.’ ‘He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart’”—but that’s too polite. The Bible says, “‘out of his belly.’”

I remember as a boy growing up in the Anglican Church, I was always a little shocked when they read that passage, that you would speak about anything so vulgar as the belly in church. The truth of the matter is, that’s where it comes from. There is an area in us. It’s interesting, the Greek word means a kind of concave place. It’s the same root word that’s used for the vault of heaven. So, there is an area in the body of the believer which is reserved for the Holy Spirit. Did you know that? See, don’t be too spiritual. This brings the Holy Spirit right down into your body.

“‘Out of his belly.’”

When I received the baptism there in an army barrack room, without anybody else present, I felt it in my belly. I thought, “What’s going to happen next?” Then I said out loud to God, “If you want me to speak with other tongues, I’m ready to do it.” I wasn’t ambitious. The moment I said that, this fire moved up from my belly to my chest, to my throat. The next thing I knew, there was something like a piece of hard rubber bouncing about in the back of my mouth, and I realized it was my own tongue. I opened my mouth, and these strange sounds started to come out. But it’s always been so vivid to me, it started in my belly. And that’s what Jesus said,

“‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’”

Isn’t that a marvelous transformation? We have a thirsty man who doesn’t have enough for himself. He receives the Holy Spirit, and he becomes a channel of rivers—not a river, rivers—of living water. What a transformation!

Now, the comment is put in by the writer of the Gospel,

“But this He spoke concerning the Spirit,” capital S, the Holy Spirit, “whom those believing in Him,” Jesus, “would receive.”

All right, believers are to receive the Holy Spirit.

“For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

The Holy Spirit, in this sense, could not be given till Jesus had been glorified. When was Jesus glorified? When he ascended into heaven and took his place at the right hand of the Father. Now, if you go back to Acts chapter 2, just very briefly for a moment, you’ll see that Peter, summing up what happened on the Day of Pentecost, says in verses 32 and 33 of Acts chapter 2,

“This Jesus God has raised up”—resurrected—“of which we all are witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God,” that’s being glorified, “and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.”

So, the glorified Christ received from the Father the gift of the Holy Spirit and poured it out on the disciples. And the result, notice, was something that could be seen and heard. It wasn’t just an invisible inner experience. It was an experience that impacted their bodies and impacted their senses. So, now we come back to John 7: how to receive.

And I’ve got here four very simple steps. The problem is not that it’s complicated. The problem is that it’s simple. And the people who are theologically minded and want complication sometimes find it too simple to believe and to act on. What are the steps? Number one, be thirsty.

“If anyone is thirsty.”

Okay, that’s your qualification. You don’t have to be able to quote Scripture. You don’t have to even have a record of paying your tithes. But you have to be thirsty. That’s essential. I tell people when they come to me, remember this: the baptism is for those who are thirsty, and deliverance is for those who are desperate. And when people come to me for deliverance, I sometimes say to them, “Listen, I can’t help you. You’re not desperate. Come back when you are.” However, we’re not talking about that now. We’re talking about receiving the Holy Spirit. It’s for one group of people: the thirsty. It’s not for theologians, unless they’re thirsty. It’s not for the super-spiritual. It’s for the thirsty. So, if you feel very inadequate and very weak and really incapable of producing what God requires of you, you’re qualified. That’s your qualification. You know you need more of God than you already have. That is to be thirsty. That’s all God asks.

Number two, Jesus said, “Let him come unto Me.” Brother David du Plessis has said so clearly, there’s only one baptizer in the Holy Spirit, and his name is Jesus. Why didn’t you hear that? Jesus. That’s right. So, if you want the baptism in the Holy Spirit, you have to go to the baptizer. See, there’s no other place you can get it. No human being baptizes in the Holy Spirit. They baptize in water, but only Jesus baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Fortunately for us, Jesus said,

“‘Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.’”

So, if you come, you know he will receive you. What’s the next thing you have to do? Here’s the problem. Here’s where it becomes so practical and so simple that religious people have problems. You have to drink. Nobody can force you to drink against your will. You know, they have a saying, “You can lead a horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink.” That’s true of church members, too. Nobody else can make you drink. It’s a decision of your will, and it’s something very simple that you have to do.

I tell people this: no one ever received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with his mouth closed. It never will happen. You have to open up your physical being and begin to drink in the Spirit of God. Now, you’re not drinking visible water, but you’re drinking the invisible Spirit of God, which Jesus is pouring out over you. Why is he pouring it out over you? Because you asked him to, see? It’s that simple. Said, “If you come, I’ll do it.” Now, the simplest way to drink is just to begin to breathe in. I’ve seen hundreds of people doing it at one time, but I tell you what, not one person who did it failed to receive. People who stood there with a, “Mm, mm, mm,” didn’t get anything. But here, I’m saying this because this is the problem. See, people are self-conscious. “Well, they never taught me to do this in church.” Maybe not. All right. Now, one more stage. You’ve drunk. Now you have to release the outflow.

“‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’” “But this He spoke of the Holy Spirit.”

So, the final phase is the outflow. How does that happen? Through the mouth, in speech.

“‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’”

Because it’s a supernatural infilling, it will be a supernatural outflow. You’ll not speak a language you know. You’ll speak a language the Holy Spirit gives you, one you’ve never heard, one you don’t understand, one you never learned, and you probably never will understand. How do you know it’s right? How do you know it’s right? The answer is, ‘cause you asked for the right thing, see? And God’s given you a written guarantee, Luke 11, verses 11 through 13. If you ask for the right thing, you will never get the wrong thing. I’d like you all to say that. “If I ask for the right thing, I will never get the wrong thing.” Now, turn to your neighbor and say it to him. “If you ask for the right thing, you will never get the wrong thing.” Okay.