Have You Ever Received The Holy Ghost?

And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.(Acts 19:1-6).

Thought For Today:

Do you have the Holy Ghost?  Paul was not trying to be rude, when he asked if they had received the Holy Ghost. It was an evaluation.  So many people say that they have the Holy Ghost, but their lives reflect otherwise.  If someone says that they are a Christian, they should know when and how God filled them with His Spirit. The evidence that you have been filled with God's Spirit is speaking in another tongue as the Spirit gives the utterance.  I know that there are many that will disagree with this statement, but every mention in the Bible has the same experience. You can't have the Fruit of the Spirit nor the Gifts of the Spirit without the Spirit. Don't get me wrong, I am not focusing merely on speaking in tongues, but there is no other evidence in scripture after Jesus' death, burial, resurrection and ascension to contradict speaking in tongues. John wrote in the Gospel of John, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" (John 7:37-39).  

So let me warn you, the devil has always tried to imitate everything that God does, even speaking in tongues.  But when you are truly filled with God's Spirit, you are going to speak with another tongue just like they did in Acts 2:1-4, Acts 8:12-17,  Acts 10:44-48, and Acts 19:6, and it's going to be real not an imitation of the real thing.  The Apostle Paul, also wrote, I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all (1Corinthians 14:18) knowing that these were believers he would have never asked them if they had received the Holy Ghost since they had believed if it was not a separate and distinct experience.  As he told the church at Rome, "For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged" (Romans 3:3-4). The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ and Paul informs us that if any have not the Spirit of God, they are none of His (Romans 8:9).