Now this is not a different power that they got, that we get. It's the same power; the same promise. So if we have a look in a couple of scriptures, say look in Luke 24:49. He says: “behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you; wait in Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high”. So now He says that there's something more for you to get. There is a promise for you: it is to be endued; or literally that word ‘endued’ means: ‘to sink into some clothing’; so I am endued with this red shirt and black trousers. In other words, I'm clothed with them - so what He's saying is: you will be clothed with power. That word is supernatural power. God wants you to be clothed with power, wants you to have power available in your life. No power => something's missing.
Many Christians seem to live without any power - and are not disturbed by that - but Jesus said: “wait until you receive the power.” That's what you need to be able to do the work - so He said: “wait until you are clothed with power.” Power will come upon you.
The same thing is repeated in Acts 1:4. He's assembled with them, and He says: “Wait for the promise of the Father, which I've told you about; for John baptised you in water, but you will be baptised in the Holy Spirit, not many days from now.” Verse 8 – “You shall receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you.
So notice He's talking, not about an experience, where the spirit of God enters us. Now He's talking about being baptised, or dipped and immersed, into a dimension where the Holy Spirit operates. He uses different words for it. One word He uses is to be ‘clothed with power’; another one, He says, is for the Holy Ghost to come upon you. Another word He uses is ‘Baptised in the Holy Spirit’. So the Bible uses several words to try and get us to understand what it means. I'll pray for a few people shortly, and try to demonstrate what He is meaning by this...
He used ‘baptised’. So what is the baptism in the Holy Spirit? Notice He says: “You'll be baptised in the spirit; the spirit of God will come upon you”. In some other places it says: “the spirit will be poured out on you”. Another place it says: “the Holy Ghost fell on them”, so clearly it's talking about an experience, where the spirit of God comes upon us, and something changes in us.
Now I believe there are two parts, or two aspects of it. The first is the invisible presence and power of the Holy Spirit comes on you, and begins to clothe you. It begins to saturate your life. You become different when the Holy Ghost comes on you - absolutely certain, you're quite different when the Holy Ghost comes on you. Notice it's a sensation where He comes on you; but not only that, what happens is He fills you; and the life that's in your spirit is able to flow through your soul, because your soul now begins to be free, because it's soaked, saturated in the Holy Ghost.
What is it free to do? It's free to express the life of the spirit that's within us. It's free to move in gifts of the spirit. You're free to receive spontaneous impressions, promptings, pictures, images, things from the Holy Spirit. So we experience the spirit of God baptising us: firstly as something coming on us; and then something arising from being saturated in Him, and beginning to flow through us, and express in the world.
So being baptised in the Holy Spirit - you are immersed into a dimension of the spirit of God moving and operating.
Now Brydon and Sharon, won't you just come up and stand over here for a moment. Just come up on the stage, it'll be a lot easier for the camera to see. So the Holy Spirit comes on us, and then His presence arises within, and flows through us.