Paul asked the question to twelve believers, 'did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?' He was assuming two things:

1. That they were believers.

2. That the baptism of the Holy Spirit follows salvation.

The five basic experiences that are foundational to the Christian life are: repentance of sin, faith towards God, baptism in water, baptism in the Holy Spirit and being added to a church. When Paul came to the twelve something was missing in their basic foundation of Christian life.

Can I receive the Holy Spirit? Questions and how they are phrased have an incredible impact. A question can be asked to obtain information other than what is being asked for. 'Why are you so stupid?' is not looking for an answer at all but assuming the person is stupid. 'Why did this happen to me?' is more of an accusation looking for someone or something to blame than actually obtaining information. 'Can I receive the Holy Spirit?' is a question whose answer may not actually fit the question.

The question and the way some people phrase it is really asking if you are capacious enough. Take a 200lb pumpkin and a peanut side by side. The peanut is not big enough to contain the fullness of the pumpkin. But the omnipresence of God is not a little bit of the Holy Spirit everywhere like a cloud where a little bit is here and there therefore he is everywhere. God is not particular or partially in one place more or less than another place. The Holy Spirit is altogether everywhere. The Holy Spirit is condensed in you so the peanut is able to contain the pumpkin. (2 Corinthians 4:7) "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God…" But you do not contain all the Holy Spirit because he equally fills other people with the fullness of himself.

The question is often asked, 'have you got to speak in tongues to receive the Holy Spirit?' It is not that you have got to but you get to. Another question that is asked, 'if I do not speak in tongues do it mean I am not born again?' No because the blood of Christ purchased you life. But the things that prevent you from receiving the Holy Spirit may be the same things that keep you from being born again. You receive the Holy Spirit in his fullness when he can you receive the fullness of you. Are you willing to receive all of him in all of you? So the question of whether you can receive him is actually can he receive you?

People are hungry for God - to a degree that is comfortable for them. Sometimes God will not immediately respond to you because the level of hunger and desperation is not enough. God will sometimes allow the building up of the pressure inside you like a dam about to burst. Have you ever considered that you may be born again but not ready to receive the Holy Spirit? We want immediate answers and gratification but we will not wait for God like King Saul waiting for the prophet Samuel. The most enduring believer is the person who has endured. Like King David in the cave of Adullam, Elijah by the brook, Moses on the mountain or Jacob wrestling with the angel. The birth is out of a deep longing. People who are seeking the Holy Spirit sometimes do not culturally know how to explain themselves. After preaching on the Holy Spirit an elderly man jumped up in the middle of the service and shouted out 'the Holy Spirit' several times. He was asked what was the problem. He explained that as a boy on his father's farm he surrendered all his life to the will of God. He had waited half a century for someone to explain this to him.

The answer is profound - I do not know! For every question there is not always an answer. I have seen people whose life is like a clenched fist have the oil and wine of God poured into them. I have seen white men jump higher than black men. God can do things on purpose that go against everything you believe. If you let him in and open the door of your heart he will be gentle with you. If you unlock the door but sit in the armchair with a shotgun he may fill you like Dirty Harry challenging you to 'go ahead, punk, and make my day.' Never covert someone else's experience. Where you are at will determine what he will do. But none of this is the real deal. The original question is the deal, 'can I receive the Holy Spirit?'

If you were a police officer and I was the District Attorney and you presented all the evidence that a particular suspect was the one I would tell you to go and arrest him. You may respond and say, 'Sir, we do not need to arrest the one because we have all the evidence.' You would be on traffic duty for the rest of your career. The evidence is never greater than the one. If the evidence is all you have you may actually not have the one. Seek the one not what the one can do. Seek the baptizer not the baptism. The Holy Spirit is not a Green Card for the believer to work for God or a Credit Card for the believer to get whatever their emotions want. The evidence of the Holy Spirit is not to be presented to anyone except yourself. You have nothing to prove to anyone else. The twelve in Ephesus needed the Holy Spirit not just for speaking in tongues but also for impacting their city.

Because Christ said so. (Luke 11:13) "…how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" In the same way he promised that he would come back and take us to be with him he promised that if we ask we shall receive. (Deuteronomy 23:19) "God is not a man, that he should lie." The expression 'the check is in the mail' is the biggest lie but with God it is in the mail.

What is it that hinders you? (Hebrews 12:1) "Let us throw off everything that hinders…"

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