The Holy Spirit Is a Gift
You don't get the Holy Ghost just because you have graduated to some marvellous degree of spirituality beyond everyone else, and, therefore, God puts a seal on you saying you are perfect. The Holy Ghost is a Gift. The Bible says, ". . . ye shall receive THE GIFT of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38). And if you are born again, you are ready to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit right away. If you had to do one more thing after the new birth to receive the Holy Spirit, then the baptism of the Holy Spirit ceases to be a gift and becomes a reward. The Holy Ghost is not a reward; He is a Gift. Some say that I make it too easy for folks to receive the Holy Ghost. But it's not me who has made it easy to receive Him. It was God who made it easy to receive this gift. It wasn't me who said, "Come and drink and get filled with the Holy Spirit." It was Jesus. I wasn't the one who put receiving the Holy Spirit on a gift basis, it was God.
Someone else said, "Yes, but I don't believe in railroading' people through to receiving the Holy Ghost." Well, if "railroading" people through means getting them filled quickly, then that same person no doubt doesn't believe in "railroading" people through to salvation. But that is ridiculous! Actually, it isn't a matter of "railroading" people at all. But we should be getting people saved as quickly as we can, because they might die and go to hell tomorrow. And if someone is sick, we should believe in getting them healed quickly. Salvation is a gift. Healing is a gift. And the Holy Ghost is a Gift. You can receive one of these gifts just as quickly as you can the other. Reading in the Acts of the Apostles, we see that the Early Church believed in getting folks filled with the Holy Ghost as quickly as they did getting them saved or healed, as we have already studied in this lesson. I not only believe in "railroading" people through to receiving the Holy Spirit, I believe in "jet planing" them through!
Possessing What Is Yours
Canaan's land is a type of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of all of our rights and privileges in Christ. Some have thought it was a type of heaven. But Canaan's land couldn't be a type of heaven, because there were enemies to overcome in Canaan and there were battles that the children of Israel had to fight. But there won't be any enemies to overcome or battles to fight when we get to heaven. The last enemy shall have been conquered. There won't be any enemies to overcome in the land over there. Canaan is a type of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and our rights and privileges in Christ. The children of Israel came out of Egypt, and Egypt is a type of the world. Then the children of Israel were all baptized, because going through the Red Sea was ;t type of water baptism. They also all drank of Christ; that rock out of which the water flowed was a type and shadow of Christ(Exod. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4). The children of Israel could have gone directly into Canaan's land, but because of unbelief and disobedience, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Their descendants did eventually enter in, but the unbelieving Israelites took quite a detour.
If you want to detour and take the long way into the baptism in the Holy Ghost, you can. For example, you can detour by tarrying unnecessarily at the altar in order to receive the Holy Ghost. You can detour a lot of ways. But you can also come directly in and receive Him immediately if you are born again. That's God's best! The door is open to receive this precious Gift.
FFT: The Holy Spirit is a Gift!
ACTION POINT: Possess what is yours now!
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