Overcoming Hindrances To Receiving The Baptism in The Holy Spirit PDF
Overcoming Hindrances To Receiving The Baptism in The Holy Spirit PDF
by
John Osteen
Copyright © 1987 by John Osteen
ISBN 0-912631-37-6
Contents
Introduction.....................................................................5
Chapter One
You Have to Fight Pride.................................................7
Chapter 2
Hindrance Number One: You Automatically Receive
the Holy Ghost When You Get Saved..........................11
Chapter 3
Hindrance Number Two: The Same Spirit that Saves
You, Baptizes You in the Holy Spirit...........................17
Chapter 4
Hindrance Number Three: You Don't Have to Speak
in Tongues to Be Baptized in The Holy Spirit............21
Chapter 5
The Purpose of this Experience....................................29
Chapter 6
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit Is for Everyone.........33
Chapter 7
How You Can Be Baptized in the Holy Spirit.............43
Introduction
5
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
6
Chapter One
7
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
8
You Have to Fight Pride
9
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
10
Chapter 2
11
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
12
Hindrance Number One: You Automatically Receive the Holy
Ghost When You Get Saved
13
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
14
Hindrance Number One: You Automatically Receive the Holy
Ghost When You Get Saved
15
Chapter 3
17
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
when you get saved and receive the new birth. This is
when the Holy Ghost baptizes, or immerses you into the
Body of Christ, the Church.
You don't have to join the true Church. You're born
into it. I don't mean when you're born as a baby; I mean
when you are born again. When a sinner accepts Jesus as
Savior, he is not only born again, but he is baptized,
placed into the Body of Christ and thus automatically
becomes a member of the one true Church. For by one
Spirit are we all baptized into one body. At that moment,
the Holy Ghost regenerates you and makes you a new
creature.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things
are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Jesus referred to the experience of receiving the Holy
Ghost as a "baptism." In Acts 1:4,5, He commanded His
disciples not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait there
for the promise of the Father, which He had told them
about. He said, For John truly baptized with water; but ye
shall be BAPTIZED with the Holy Ghost not many days
hence (emphasis mine).
Keep the word "baptism" uppermost in your mind,
and you will understand what Jesus meant here.
The meaning of baptism
Baptism, which is baptismo in the Greek, means "to
18
Hindrance Number Two: The Same Spirit that Saves You,
Baptizes You in the Holy Spirit
19
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
20
Chapter 4
21
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
22
Hindrance Number Three: You Don't Have to Speak in Tongues
to Be Baptized in The Holy Spirit
23
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
24
Hindrance Number Three: You Don't Have to Speak in Tongues
to Be Baptized in The Holy Spirit
25
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
26
Hindrance Number Three: You Don't Have to Speak in Tongues
to Be Baptized in The Holy Spirit
garbled talk to the Jews, and they said, These men are full
of new wine (Acts 2:13).
"They are drunk!" they said. The disciples were
drunk, but not on wine. They were intoxicated on the new
wine of the Holy Spirit.
I believe that then God immediately manifested the
gift of tongues, and the people who had gathered began to
understand in their own languages what the disciples were
saying in tongues.
Acts 2:7,8,11 says, And they were all amazed and
marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all
these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every
man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful
works of God.
The prayer language is for your private use. Of
course, a church can pray and worship together in the
prayer language by common consent. But these tongues
are essentially for your private use.
The Apostle Paul spoke in tongues. He said, I thank
my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: Yet in the
church I had rather speak five words with my
understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also,
than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue (1
Corinthians 14:18,19).
If I got up in the pulpit on Sunday morning and spoke
in the prayer language for an hour, you might as well stay
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Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
28
Chapter 5
29
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
30
The Purpose of this Experience
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Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
and receive Jesus when they see the same power and
miracles that He performed on earth being performed in
lives today. This is what happens when you receive the
baptism in the Holy Spirit.
32
Chapter 6
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Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
34
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit Is for Everyone
glad. If you are thirsty for God, rejoice. God gave you that
thirst. There are thirsty people all over this world. And
Jesus said, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and
drink.
A Preacher Who Thirsted
One day I got a call from a minister on the East
Coast. He is an example of how God draws people to Him
and makes them thirsty. When I picked up the phone, the
voice on the other end of the line said, "Pastor Osteen, I'm
a Baptist preacher. I understand that you have received
the baptism in the Holy Spirit."
I replied, "Yes, I have."
"I'm interested in this experience," he said, "but I'm
wondering about speaking in tongues."
I said, "Brother, don't waste your time on a long
distance call. When you receive the baptism in the Holy
Spirit, you're going to speak in tongues. You're calling me
to see if I can talk you out of that, but I'm not going to.
You'll speak in tongues if you ever get the Baptism."
He said, "Thank you," and hung up.
In a few days this preacher called back and said,
"Brother Osteen, I'm the man that hung up on you a few
days ago. But I'm thirsty. I want the baptism in the Holy
Spirit."
I said, "If you are thirsty and you seek God with an
open heart, you're going to receive. And when you do,
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Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
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The Baptism in the Holy Spirit Is for Everyone
Can't you just see this man getting on that plane and
flying all the way from the East Coast, weeping, yearning
for God? Oh, this kind of spirit touches God! Some
people wouldn't walk down a church aisle to receive the
blessed baptism in the Holy Spirit from the hands of Jesus
himself. Yet there are people who will cross a nation, who
will go around the world, to receive the Holy Ghost.
I took two men from our church with me to the
airport to meet this minister. We had never seen him, and
I wondered how we would recognize him. But it isn't hard
to recognize the long, lean, hungry look of a person
thirsting after God.
When this preacher got off the plane, tears were
rolling down his face, and we recognized him right away.
As we put him in the car and started driving from the
airport, I noticed his hands were shaking. God's Spirit was
all over him. I thought, We'd better leave him alone in
this car. He's going to have to have plenty of room when
Jesus baptizes him.
Curtis Bell, one of the men with me, had built a little
place in his home especially for people who wanted to get
the Baptism. He would keep them in his house and pray
with them. So we took this minister there.
As soon as he set his suitcases down, I said, "Let's
first just pray a little while." I asked the preacher to kneel
in the middle of the room. Then we all found places to
pray so that we surrounded him in prayer.
As we were praying, the Lord spoke to me and said,
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Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
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The Baptism in the Holy Spirit Is for Everyone
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Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
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The Baptism in the Holy Spirit Is for Everyone
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Chapter 7
43
Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
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How You Can Be Baptized in the Holy Spirit
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Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
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How You Can Be Baptized in the Holy Spirit
saved. Lord Jesus, come into my heart right now and save
me. Wash me in Your blood and cleanse me from my
sins. From this moment, I turn from my old ways and my
old life. I make You the Lord of my life. Thank You for
saving me and for helping me to live the rest of my life
for You. Amen."
Accept the Spirit as God's Gift
The Holy Spirit is a gift from God just as salvation is
a gift. God's gift to the sinner is eternal life. His gift to the
Christian is the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, If a son shall ask bread of any of you that
is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish,
will he for a fish give him a serpent? Of if he shall ask an
egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children: how
much more shall your heavenly Father GIVE the Holy
Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:11-13, emphasis
mine).
You do not have to do penance or bribe God for this
gift. Neither can you earn it by your holiness or goodness.
Do not worry about trying to give up this or that before
you receive. Get the full glory of the Spirit inside you.
Then you will have power to break any habit or overcome
any hindrance to a holy life. Acts 1:8 says that you will
receive power AFTER the Holy Ghost comes upon you.
Base Your Experience on God's Word
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Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
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How You Can Be Baptized in the Holy Spirit
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Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
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How You Can Be Baptized in the Holy Spirit
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Overcoming Hindrances to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
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