Every Christian receives the Holy Spirit at salvation, but Pastor Josh Howerton says Scripture calls us to seek His filling continually.
During a recent episode of the “Live Free with Josh Howerton” podcast, Howerton explained that Christians use different terms for this experience. Some call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Others describe it as being filled with the Spirit or receiving spiritual unction.
While the terminology varies, Howerton emphasized that the Holy Spirit’s empowering presence remains available to us today.
“You receive the Spirit at salvation,” Howerton said. “Without the work of the Spirit, you would not even have believed in Jesus.”
Yet salvation is not the end of our experience with the Spirit. Howerton pointed to Ephesians 5:18, where Paul commanded believers to “be filled with the Spirit.” He said the passage calls Christians to seek repeated fillings after conversion.
“If your theology does not allow you to look at a person that’s already saved and say, ‘Hey, brother, you need to seek to be continually, over and over, filled with the Spirit,’ your theology doesn’t allow for Ephesians 5:18,” Howerton said.
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Power to Live Boldly
The book of Acts presents the same pattern. The disciples received the Holy Spirit and were later filled again when persecution came. That fresh filling empowered them to proclaim God’s Word with boldness.
The Spirit also enables us to reject fear as the controlling force in our lives. Howerton connected this truth to Paul’s instruction to Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God.”
“What you can never do is let the fear get in you and begin to control you in the way that the Holy Spirit is designed to control a Christian,” he said.
Howerton also rejected the idea that we must reach spiritual perfection before receiving this empowerment.
“It’s called a gift, brother,” he said. “There’s a reason it’s called a gift.”
His invitation to the church is simple: Ask, seek and knock. We should come before our heavenly Father in faith and ask Him to fill us from the tops of our heads to the soles of our feet.
God did not call us to live powerless Christian lives. The Holy Spirit empowers us for holiness, courage and ministry. We should desire everything He has for us.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].