Alpha Session 8 - How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit

Alpha Session 8: How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit?

To be strong Christians, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

1. What happens when people experience the Holy Spirit?
At Pentecost: There was great hunger and the disciplines were filled for the first time. It was an overwhelming experience.

Ephesians 3:18
“..power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ"
Therefore, know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

In Samaria:

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them;
they had simply been baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. – Acts 8:14

The Holy Spirit’s work was so dramatic that the local magician tried to buy His power.

On the road to Damascus:
When Paul received the Holy Spirit, he received his sight back.
- A complete turnaround

in Ephesus :
- those who believe but have not heard of the Spirit
- They were filled and began to speak in a new language

In the house of Cornelius the Roman
• The Gentiles were seen as outsiders.
• Everyone was given a new language of praise.
This new language is sometimes called the gift of tongues - it is a language for prayer

We can use it to
• pray for ourselves,
• for others
• to worship God.

2. Can anything stop us from being filled?
God wants to fill all his children with His Holy Spirit
but sometimes ..
we put up BARRIERS that make it difficult
We doubt that God wants to give us such good gifts
……but He does!
because ..

He loves us.
We get scared but fail to see that God gives only good things!
We doubt we’re unworthy of the gift…
but God promises to give to anyone who asks him!

Matthew 7:11 “...How much more, Will your father in heaven, Give good things to those who ask Him”