produce fruit all at once. It takes time for a tree to mature and for the fruit on its branches to
grow and develop. It's the same way with a baby Christian.
A baby Christian can be filled with the Holy Ghost, however, and have power, and can even
have the gifts of the Spirit operating in his life. For example, the Corinthians were babes. Paul
called them babes in Christ: "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as
unto carnal, even
as unto babes in Christ" (1 Cor. 3:1). Yet he also said, ". . . ye come behind in no gift.. ."(1 Cor.
1:7).
Therefore, even though the Corinthians were babes in Christ and didn't have a lot of fruit of the
spirit evident yet in their lives, they did have gifts of the Spirit operating in their lives.
The fruit of the spirit are for holiness, but the gifts of the Holy Ghost are for power. You can be
holy without having much power, and you can have power without being so holy. Yet the
combination of holiness and power in a Christian's life is best, and that is what God desires.
I have seen plenty of people who are wonderful Christians and who have marvelously
developed the fruit of the spirit in their lives, but they have no power in their lives whatsoever.
Then I know of other Christians who are certainly powerhouses for God, but it is obvious they
need to grow a little more fruit of the spirit in their lives.
The Ministry of the Laying On of Hands
In a meeting I preached in Texas many years ago, we held day services for a number of
months, as well as the night services. People came daily, some from more than one hundred
miles away. After I taught on the baptism in the Holy Ghost for about seven weeks, no one
came to the meetings without receiving the Holy Spirit. Folks received the Holy Ghost in every
service.
We spent a week talking about the laying on of hands as a fundamental doctrine of the Bible
(Heb. 6:2). As I've said, in the days of the Early Church the laying on of hands was widely
practiced in receiving the Holy Ghost.
ACTS 8:18-20
18 ... when Simon saw that THROUGH LAYING ON OF THE APOSTLES' HANDS the Holy
Ghost was given, he offered them money,
19 Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the
Holy Ghost.
20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that
the gift of God may be purchased with money.
Some have thought Simon was trying to buy the gift of the Holy Ghost, but he wasn't. He was
trying to buy the gift or the ability to impart the Holy Spirit to people through the laying on of
hands.
The Lord Jesus appeared to me in a vision years ago in which He told me to lay hands on
believers to receive the Holy Ghost. When I hesitated because that was not widely practiced in
that day, the Lord