These are serious days for the Body of Christ and for us as individuals. The clock is ticking steadily as we continue to advance through another year, another century, and toward the time when our Lord will return for His Church.

I am convinced that now more than ever the Body of Christ must mature in the ways of the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill God's plan and purpose for His Kingdom.

As I travel and teach in churches and conferences, it is evident to me that despite the awakening and fresh wave of the Holy Spirit we are seeing and experiencing, many Christians still do not know how to walk in holiness or how to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit in their daily walk.

As sin abounds and as the kingdom of darkness wages its final battles, it is time to destroy the lies and deceptions Satan has used to confuse and separate the Body of Christ on this subject.

The only way we are going to fulfill the Commission Jesus left with us is to have both the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and His power and might fully operating in our lives. The problem is most believers don't know the difference between the two or how to walk forth in the fullness of all that God has called them to do.

I once wrote a book entitled, "Learning the Ways of the Holy Spirit," and in it I shared a very concise and simple explanation of the functions of the Holy Spirit, the working of the Holy Spirit within, how to learn the ways of the Holy Spirit and how to be perfected by the Holy Spirit. After teaching this material for a number of years, it is now time to take this teaching up another level.

Now, I would like to share the expanded wisdom and revelation the Lord has imparted to me to bring greater growth and maturity to the Body of Christ through the Spirit of Truth and the enlightenment of the Word.

When you come into the kingdom of God by receiving Jesus as your Savior, the Holy Spirit indwells you with His presence. This indwelling is to benefit you as an individual and to help you learn to walk in holiness and oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a part to play in this process in that you must allow the Holy Spirit to work on the inside of you.

We look at Jesus Christ to see what we ought to be, and we look to the Holy Spirit to make us what we ought to be. It is the indwelling Holy Spirit that brings the nine fruits of the Spirit to maturity in our recreated human spirits so we learn to walk in the righteousness of Christ on the earth in God's plan of salvation. The fruit of the Spirit will mature in us and that fruit will be seen because we are alive in God. It is through that vine that our branches bloom with fruit.

Once we are established in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the fullness causes an overflow, an outpouring, that reaches out to others. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is for the benefit of others to bring them into the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the work of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is to renew us continually so that the power can come forth to manifest as the Spirit wills to bless others.

First The Indwelling Then The Outpouring
When we receive Jesus as our Savior by asking Him into our hearts and confessing Him as Lord, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us—to indwell us through the new birth. Not only that, the Holy Spirit woos us into the new birth.

First Corinthians 12:3 tells us we cannot even call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking under the power and influence of the [Holy] Spirit of God can [ever] say, Jesus be cursed! And no one can [really] say, Jesus is [my] Lord, except by and under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit.
(Amplified)
Why is that? It is because the Holy Spirit is the One that draws us to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the One that is doing the work in this earth through the believer because Jesus is no longer on the earth in Person.
And I [Jesus] will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever, The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (Welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.
(John 14:16-17 AMP)
In this Scripture, Jesus said He was not going to leave us comfortless and helpless when He went back to his Father. He said He was leaving Someone here on this earth to dwell in us forever who will help bring His Word to Pass.

That Someone is the Holy Spirit.

He comes to indwell us, and it is through that indwelling presence that we, individually, allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and accomplish God's purpose in us. The maturing, perfecting, growing, understanding, knowledge and wisdom we receive comes from the indwelling presence within us of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is to benefit the individual. And then when we receive the fullness or infilling of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, there is power that comes upon us—an outpouring—so we not only have the indwelling presence, but we have the power to fulfill the Commission Jesus left with us.
But you shall receive power—ability, efficiency, and Might—when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends—the very bounds—of the earth.
(Acts 1:8 AMP)
Through the infilling or fullness of walking in the Holy Spirit—learning to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, to speak in tongues, and to pray in the Spirit that perfect prayer one for another—we are empowered to reach out and bless others.

The indwelling is for the individual, and the outpouring or the endowment of power is to benefit or bless others. As you study this issue further, you will see how in some areas we have tried to work this backwards.

I want to stress the difference between the indwelling and the outpouring and endowment of power.

You can be witnesses of the "born again experience" spoken of by Jesus in Acts 1:8 through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But you can't be a witness to His power and all the things that come along with that power until you have experienced it by receiving the Holy Spirit in His fullness. It is important to understand the difference.

We need to be educated on these things in order to position ourselves for the power that will come forth to manifest as the Spirit wills. Why? So we can bless others in His name.


Source: Overflowing With The Holy Spirit by Pat Harrison
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers