The world cannot receive the promise of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. The world can
receive eternal life, however. The Bible says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
EVERLASTING LIFE" (John 3:16).
Jesus Christ is God's Gift to the world. The world can receive Christ as Savior. A sinner can be
born again. But a person has to be born again before he can receive the baptism of the Holy
Ghost.
Extreme Teachings in the Church
There are some extreme teachings in the church today. When I speak of the church, I am not
speaking of any particular group or denomination. I am speaking of the church world as a
whole.
I began my ministry as a denominational preacher, and I know what that particular
denomination teaches. And I have been among Full Gospel people for a great number of years
now, and I know what they teach. I have found that we have extreme teaching that is
unscriptural, even among Pentecostals.
Does One Receive the Fullness of the Holy Spirit in the New Birth?
The denominational church that I belonged to taught me that if you are born again, then you
have the Holy Ghost — and you have all the Holy Ghost there is to have. They are partly right,
but mostly wrong in that assertion.
They are right in that if you are born again, you do have the Holy Ghost because there is a
work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth (John 3:5-8; Rom. 8:16).
It is the Holy Spirit who imparts eternal life to the unregenerated spirit of the sinner (Titus 3:57). It is the Holy Spirit who recreates the sinner's spirit and makes him a new creature in Christ
Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17). It is the Holy Spirit who bears witness with the spirit of the born-again one
that he is a child of God (Rom. 8:16).
But this is not the same as the infilling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8), or the enduement of power
from on High, even though the Holy Spirit is present in the life of the born-again believer.
Jesus illustrated the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation for us very beautifully in the Gospel of
John. In chapter 4, Jesus was talking to the woman of Samaria at the well about salvation.
Salvation: The Well of Water
JOHN 4:13,14
13 ... Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of THE WATER that I shall give him shall never thirst; but
THE WATER that I shall give him shall be in him A WELL OF WATER springing up into
EVERLASTING LIFE.
Here we see that Jesus was speaking of the well of water or the work of the Holy Spirit in
salvation. Jesus referred to salvation as the well of water.