Is there a difference between being filled with the Holy Spirit and being baptized with the Holy Spirit?
I don’t know. However, verses such as the following three give me the impression there might not be any difference:
“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4).
“And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning” (Acts 11:15).
“Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 11:16).
At Pentecost, the record shows they were filled (2:4). Yet when Peter looks back on that event later, he speaks of it as being baptized with the Holy Spirit. (11:15,16).
Personally, I have been satisfied to leave the issue at that.
I am challenged to yield to the Spirit and to resist the devil.
I am challenged to live in the Spirit and to die to self.
I am challenged to walk in the Spirit and to crucify the flesh.
I am challenged to grow in the yielding, living, and walking.
Back in 2000 sometime, I asked this question: Is the filling of the Holy Spirit something to be sought? I also gave an answer here: The Day of Pentecost.
Thanks for writing this, it got me to click back to your older post on “the day of Pentecost” and I’ll admit my wife and I have been trying that for some time, we need to surrender and that does seem biblical. The story I was often told was completely connected to an act of the hands but nothing ever happens from that to me at least.
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