There's disagreement in the church today concerning what Christians should expect regarding infilling and empowerment by the Holy Spirit: two separate experiences, a single experience that encompasses two aspects, or whether there were two distinct events at the launching of the church and at some unrecorded point one of them just kind of went away and now there's only one.
You can probably guess by my wording that I don't believe the last one, simply because the thrust of the New Testament doesn't support the cessation of NT gifts or impartations. (1 Corinthians 13:8-10 doesn't work as an argument; the "end" or "completion" to come is almost certainly the second coming of Christ, not the compilation of the New Testament canon, and there's a danger in drawing doctrine from a single "proof text," especially one that's "not quite.") A much more likely explanation for most of the church's powerlessness today is that we are living in Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22), or that we have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof (2 Timothy 3-5). Sadly, the evidence of the latter is all around us.
I cannot escape stating this: Scripture is abundantly clear about two separate Holy Spirit experiences for the Christian. John 20 not only describes the discovery of the empty tomb, but goes on to tell of Jesus' first appearances to people in His resurrected body. The evening of the day He rose, He miraculously entered the barred upper room where the disciples were secretly meeting, and verse 22 records that He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." This is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the experience all believers have at the time they place their faith in the risen Christ: when the Holy Spirit comes to live inside them. If this were also the infilling and empowerment of the Holy Spirit for ministry, why would Pentecost have even happened? Why would Jesus have said they must tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49), and why would that have happened 50 days after the resurrection?
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit that seals believers for the day of redemption and the infilling of the Holy Spirit that empowers them for ministry are two separate events. And if the eleven apostles who spent three years in person with Jesus dared not start public ministry until the Holy Spirit baptized them and enabled them to function in every spiritual gift, how dare we presume we can? Really--we need to look around at some of our ministry efforts and ask, "How dare we?" instead of saying, "Well, I guess that book of Acts stuff just doesn't happen anymore." Simon Peter, the most striking example in all of scripture of the change in a man brought about by the baptism, would like a word.
So I wish you a happy, blessed Pentecost, with a full understanding and recognition of its meaning. For any who have not received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with fire and power for ministry, I suggest that what we need to do is tarry in Jerusalem--praying and seeking God continually in our prayer closets, groups, and meetings, until we are endued with power from on high. After all, Paul said that the Kingdom is not a matter of talk, but of power.
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