130 GOOD MORNING, HOLY SPIRIT
touch lives at every turn. Their ministry was followed by
"many signs and wonders... among the people" (Acts
5:12). And what was the result? "Believers were
increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and
women" (v. 14). The signs that followed the coming of the
Holy Spirit led people directly to Christ. That's an
important fact to remember.
What happened in the Upper Room was not a one-time
experience; nor a footnote of history. The Spirit-filled
believers established an ongoing relationship with the Holy
Ghost. They continued to be filled. When Peter was called
before the Sanhedrin over the healing of the beggar, they
asked "By what power or by what name have you done
this?" Peter was "filled with the Holy Spirit" when he spoke
(Acts 4:7-8). Not past tense, but present tense. "Filled"
describes the apostle at that very moment.
Over and over in Scripture, when followers of Christ
are portrayed as "filled with the Spirit," the reference is to a
new infilling, not to something that happened yesterday or
last month.
Peter was so full of the Spirit in the temple that he had
authority over his critics. Undaunted, he said: "Rulers of the
people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a
good deed done to the helpless man, by what means he has
been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the
people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the
dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole" (Acts
4:8-10).
Do you realize that the power of the Spirit can so infill
you that you fear absolutely no one? It's possible to
establish such a communion with Him that even addressing
the leader of a nation would cause no apprehension. The
Spirit will lift your head, square your shoulders, and instill