What is the Difference Between the 'indwelling' and the 'empowerment' of the Holy Spirit?
Dear Mike,
What is the difference between the 'indwelling' and the 'empowerment' of the Holy Spirit?
The "indwelling" of the Holy Spirit is a gift which everyone who obeys the gospel receives - Acts 2:38. The significance of this gift is explained by Paul in Romans 8.
Primarily it is by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within each Christian that powers the resurrection.
Then there is the "empowerment" of the Holy Spirit which enables a person to perform miracles, healings, speak in tongues etc. This was accomplished in two ways: First, by the falling upon, or coming upon a person(s). This is how the Apostles received the empowerment on Pentecost Sunday, the Spirit fell on them or they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. The only other example of this aside from the Apostles was the house of Cornelius in Acts 10. The Spirit fell on that household of Gentiles and the proof was that they were speaking in tongues Acts 10:44-46. God did this to prove to Peter and his Jewish brethren that the Gentiles were to be considered eligible for the Gospel. Note that after this occurred Peter goes ahead and baptizes these people (immersed in water) for the forgiveness of sins and so that they would receive the indwelling of the Spirit which only comes at baptism.
Now the second way to receive the empowerment was by the laying on of the Apostles' hands - Acts 18:8. This is how the Samaritans received empowerment. They already had the indwelling (Philip had baptized them) but in order to be empowered, there needed to be the imposition of hands by the Apostles.
This is why we teach that the ability to do miracles, heal and speak in tongues (true languages that one did not previously know) eventually stopped as the Apostles died off. This is because one who had received empowerment from the Apostles did not have the ability to pass along this power. It only came through the laying on of the Apostles' hands. When they died, this power stopped. Of course, we now have the New Testament that provides the proof of the resurrection as well as the teachings of Christ and His Apostles, two things that the miracles and tongues helped to confirm in the first century. Paul tells us that these things would eventually recede I Corinthians 13:8.
