This person I was talking to started laughing and patted me on the back, saying, "Oh, you have
me pegged. You are exactly right. That is the first thing I said after I received — if only
someone would have told me, I could have received years before I finally did. If you had just
been there to tell me, Brother Hagin, I could have received years before."
As I said, in more than fifty-five years of having the Holy Ghost myself, I have never told
anyone to wait or tarry to receive Him.
Someone else said, "More people have received the Holy Ghost after the midnight hour than at
any other time." My answer to that is if they received the Holy Ghost after midnight, it's
because they didn't believe God before midnight! God is not any different after midnight than
He is before midnight!
Then there are those who warn, "Be careful about getting in the flesh." In one sense I
understand what they mean by the words, "in the flesh." However, in another sense of the
expression, you can't get the Holy Ghost any other way but in the flesh! Every person who ever
got the Holy Ghost was in the flesh, because we are all still clothed in mortal bodies — the
flesh.
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter quoted Joel's prophecy saying, "And it shall come to pass in
the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all FLESH . . ." (Acts 2:17). And the
Apostle Paul said, ". . . know ye not that your body [flesh] is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" (1
Cor. 6:19).
Let's look at what Jesus had to say in John chapter 14 on this subject.
JOHN 14:17,23
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not,
neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and SHALL BE IN YOU
[your body or your flesh]... .
23 ... If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will
come unto him, and MAKE OUR ABODE WITH HIM [in his body or his flesh].
The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us in the new birth; our bodies become His temple. So in that
sense, we will receive the Holy Spirit in the flesh too!
To receive the Holy Spirit, open your entire being to God with a strong desire toward Him. In
simple faith, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost that God freely offers, breathe in or drink in of
the Spirit of God, and you will be filled with the precious Holy Spirit.
Then as a sign or evidence that you have been filled, utterance in other tongues will be given
to you. If you are simple enough in faith and strong enough in courage, you can speak that
utterance out immediately.
If you can drink water, you can drink of the Spirit right now. I am quoting good authority — the
Word of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 7:37-39).
Chapter 7 How Important Is Speaking in Tongues?