Paul met some disciples in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-2), and the first question he asked them was this—Have you received after you believed? They indicated to him that they had not heard of the Holy Ghost before. Paul was amazed. How can you be a believer without knowing and receiving the Holy Spirit of God? How can you survive as a Christian in this perilous world? Not knowing, those disciples were taught and baptized wrongly. Paul baptized them anew and laid hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit of God. You know what? They did receive the Spirit. Glory to God.

The early church became powerful because they had the Holy Spirit in them. Anytime they had difficulty, they would pray and their prayer grounds would shake because of the power of the Spirit they generated through their corporate prayers (Acts 4:31). Peter became bold. In the face of persecution, the disciples were fearless. The early church made a huge impact through the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

• Must every Christian receive the Holy Spirit?
• Is it a must?

Yes, and this is why:

• It is a must that every believer receives the Promise of the Father. See, Jesus was excited to leave so His disciples would receive the Helper. The reason is that, without the Helper (the Holy Spirit), no one can live above the limitations and weaknesses of the human life. It is a fact that the Christian Life is a Higher Life. The Christian life is God’s way of being. How can humans live like God? This is incompatible, right? It is the Holy Spirit who makes it possible for the human life to be supplanted with God’s life. Without the Spirit of God in the life of a Christian, he/she will struggle with the ways of God – it becomes difficult to love your enemies, avoid vengeance, or show mercy to undeserving people. Without the Holy Spirit, Peter trembled at the accusation of a little girl (Matthew 26:69-70). He denied his own master thrice. How can a true Christian stand without fear or shame for Jesus? Except he/she is full of the Holy Ghost.

• It is the Holy Spirit who knows your assignment or purpose of your calling in Christ (Acts 13:2), and He can guide you into that assignment.

• It is the Holy Spirit who can guide you out of the geographical areas where your assignments do not relate (Acts 16:6). He knows where you need to be at any given time in your life.

• How can the words of a man affect another man’s spirit and mind unless he speaks through the Spirit (Acts 1:1–2)? That which comes through the Spirit is eternal and contains life.

• God is a spirit. Those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24). How can a Christian worship God in spirit and in truth? How can an immortal God appreciate the worship of a man who has an element of the flesh in all he does? Except that man steps into the Spirit (Romans 8:9) and offers his worship through the Eternal Spirit of God (Hebrews 9:14) without spot and blemish.

• There is no human endeavour that tells exactly the events of tomorrow. Man can predict the future with past trends, but to foretell tomorrow is not within human capacity. Who can tell that he will die tomorrow or encounter an accident? Who can tell that his or her child will go wayward someday? But there is the speciality of the Spirit of God. He can show you things to come (John 16:13).

• I have heard many times that some Christians complain that when they read the Holy Scriptures they do not understand. Unfortunately, the Holy Scripture is not a textbook or a fiction book. The Holy Spirit inspired men to write the Scriptures of the Bible (2 Peter 1:21). The human mind cannot just grasp that which comes from the Spirit of God. We will need the help of the Spirit to know and grasp the intent of the spirit in every scripture of the Bible. This is why Jesus said that when the Spirit of Truth (Holy Spirit) comes, He will teach us everything that we have been commanded to do as disciples of Christ (John 14:26).

• God bestowed talent(s) on each of us. These talents can be singing, drawing, designing, running, innovating, etc. These talents make us unique and we can build a career with them. However, there are gifts that God will want His children to have, to enable us to bring supernatural manifestations into the natural realm. In this way things that natural abilities and efforts have failed, supernatural manifestations would easily take care of them. It is the Holy Spirit of God who comes into your life and releases a gift or a combination of gifts into your life (1 Corinthians 12:7; I Corinthians 12:11)