Conditions of Receiving the Holy Ghost by R. D. Quinn

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 14, 1911

Conditions of Receiving the Holy Ghost

By R. D. Quinn

In the first place, a Spirit-filled man will be a Word-filled man. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Study the Word. If we neglect our Bibles, we may pray, and ask God to use us; but God can not use us, because there is not much for the Holy Ghost to work upon. “By looking constantly to Jesus with the eye of faith, we shall be strengthened. God will make the most precious revelations to his hungering, thirsting people. . . . As they feed upon his Word, they will find that it is spirit and life. The Word destroys the natural, earthly nature, and imparts a new life in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes to the soul as a comforter. . . . This is what it means to live ‘by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’”—“Desire of Ages,” page 458.

Perfect Obedience

“If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter.” Our part is to keep God’s commandments, and his part is to give us the Comforter. This second step that leads into the blessing is complete renunciation of sin. The Holy Spirit is a Holy Spirit, and we can not have both him and unholy sin. Therefore, instant and perfect obedience to every intimation of the divine will is the one supreme condition of receiving and retaining the Holy Ghost. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Prevailing Prayer

“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 11:13. It was while Christ was in prayer on the banks of the Jordan that the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him. It was in answer to earnest and continued prayer for ten days that the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost. And even after Pentecost we read, in Acts 4:31: “When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”

Peter and John went down to Samaria and prayed for the new converts, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. “Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain;” “then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” Zech. 10:1; Hosea 6:3. “What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

The Reckoning of Faith

After we have complied with all the conditions, the only thing for us to do is to accept what God has promised, and go on believing that we are filled, whether we feel like it or not. A little girl was once asked by a gentleman how old she was. Her quick reply was, “I feel ten, but mama says I am only eight.” It is not a question of feeling, but of fact.

Read Gal. 3:13, 14: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” If we have received the blessing of Abraham, which is righteousness by faith, then there is no reason why we should not claim the Spirit by faith, and go on our way rejoicing, believing that “at all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all afflictions, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone, the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith. Circumstances may separate us from every earthly friend; but no circumstance, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, he is always at our right hand to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer.”—“Desire of Ages,” page 800.

R. D. Quinn.