When I had that manifestation again, I could no longer question it. I said, "Brother, I am not
wrong. Open your eyes and look at me. I didn't miss it. You have been filled with the Holy
Ghost at some time in your life. Has anyone ever told you that you have received the Spirit?"
"Well," he replied, "about eighteen months ago at a Full Gospel church, the pastor and two or
three of the men praying with me at the altar told me I received the Holy Ghost."
"Then what makes you so sure you didn't receive Him?" I asked.
"Because my wife said. . . * and about that time his wife who was standing nearby spoke up
and began to tell me what she had said.
"Wait a minute, Sister," I said. "It is not you who is wanting the Holy Ghost. It's your husband.
Let him explain."
This man then explained that his wife had said that receiving the Holy Spirit was a far greater
experience than being born again. He said, "I doubted I had received the Holy Spirit because
to me being born again was the greater experience of the two. Therefore, I was sure I had not
received the Holy Spirit."
I said, "Then according to your wife, I am not filled with the Holy Spirit either, for becoming a
child of God is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me too.
"You see," I explained, "you can go to heaven without being filled with the Holy Spirit, but you
can't go to heaven without being born again. God did not promise to give you the Holy Spirit
according to your wife. He promised to give you the Holy Spirit according to the Word."
I continued, "You have no right to expect to be filled with the Holy Spirit according to your
wife's experiences or ideas or according to anyone else's. But you do have a right to expect to
be filled with the Holy Spirit according to the Word of God."
"I guess I did receive the Holy Spirit back then," he answered, "because I did speak something
that wasn't English. But I have never talked in tongues since then."
I said, "You didn't because you were doubting what you had received from God. Doubt will
paralyze the power of God in your life. You don't need to receive the Holy Spirit again now.
You just need to claim what you received eighteen months ago. You just need to reactivate the
Holy Ghost within you."
I once heard a minister on the radio say, "You will not need anyone to tell you when you
receive the Holy Ghost. If you are in doubt, then you've not received Him."
I can't agree with that statement entirely, however. We just discussed the example of a man
who actually received the Holy Spirit with the accompanying evidence of speaking in tongues,
but allowed another person's opinion to cause him to doubt.
That is why I cannot agree that people don't occasionally need someone to tell them whether
or not they have received the Holy Spirit. This man was in doubt about it and needed
someone's encouragement, even though he had actually received. He had listened to his wife
instead of listening to the Word of God.