Jeremiah Tipton argues that believers receive the full Holy Spirit at conversion, not in stages. Like an app already installed on your phone, the Spirit's power is there; it just needs your permission through surrender to activate.
How do you get more of the Holy Spirit? More of his presence? More of his power? The good news is you can't. John chapter 3, Ephesians chapter 1, Romans chapter 8 all make it clear that the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer from the very moment they're born again. Not a baby Holy Spirit, not a new convert Holy Spirit, not a portion of the Holy Spirit. The fullness of the Holy Spirit dwells in you the moment that you put your faith in Jesus. Romans chapter 8, verse 11 tells us that the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells dwells in you. So that same power you have— all love, all power, all grace, all righteousness, all joy, all gifts already deposited in you. So how do you make use of that which God has deposited in you? Think about it like this, because I used to think there was this contradiction. I knew that I had the Holy Spirit, yet I also saw in Scripture these secondary experiences. Does this mean that the Holy Spirit has to be received again and again and again? Think about John chapter 20, verse 22. Jesus Jesus breathes on His disciples and tells them, receive the Holy Spirit. Some of these same disciples are in Acts chapter 2 receiving the Holy Spirit, and some of those very same disciples are found in Acts chapter 4 being filled with the Holy Spirit again. And so I thought that was a contradiction, and this confused me. What exactly is happening here? Think about your smartphone. When you download an app for the first time and you open that app, that app is going to ask you for permission. It's going to ask you for access to your camera, to your microphone, to your Photos. The code is already loaded onto your phone. The app is already downloaded. It's not that the app isn't installed; it's that the features aren't yet enabled. But as you allow more access, more features come online. As you allow more access, you gain more capabilities. So it's the same for the believer. You already have the Holy Spirit, the code of the Holy Spirit, the code of Christ's nature. The code of grace and power and holiness and boldness, all of that already downloaded. You're Adam 2.0. A new nature has been gained. Now it's just a matter of surrendering to the Holy Spirit. So the question isn't, do you have the Holy Spirit? The question is, does he have you? We gain more from the Holy Spirit, not in gaining more of the Holy Spirit, but in surrendering more to the Holy Spirit. And as you begin to yield to the Holy Spirit, more of what is already in you is released in your life. If you want to learn more about the Holy Spirit, I have a book available titled Holy Spirit: God Within You, and you can get your copy right now at encounterthespirit.com.
