I personally had an interesting experience by which I sought for the Holy Spirit and received the power and gifts and received the Spirit through impartation of men yet what I obtained I can describe as nothing other than soulish witchcraft power which led to my affliction of months of nightmares, voices in my head, visions of demons and ghosts and it wasn't very nice. Mankind has access to a kind of Earth-power which is utilized and manipulated by every false religion: new age, hindu, buddhist, asian martial arts, psychic, hands-on healing etc and dare I say it by uninformed and immature Christians as well. This is what can happen if we seek and receive spiritual power or experiences outside of the person of Jesus Christ. So I hope what I write next is not just doctrine but comes with some practical experience as well:
There are two ways that God gives life giving water (the Spirit) to His people. One way is by digging a well (Number's 21:17), where the Israelites sang "spring up oh well". And the other is by striking a rock (Numbers 20:11). Digging a well typifies digging through the "mud and dirt" in our lives through prayer so that the water may spring up within us. Then we are filled with the Spirit from within.
Striking a rock typifies having the Spirit poured out upon us, as happened at Pentecost. Based upon these types, our regular daily experience should be going to the well of living water through prayer. To drink from the well means to pass through all our thoughts and emotions in our soul and finally touch our spirit by which we are refreshed. I'm sure we all know this experience. We start off praying in our minds, or emotions, we have troublesome and distracting thoughts, we think about our problems with us and others, we may fall into self-pity, self condemnation etc, and we pray through self effort, but if we work through these things, we eventually touch the spirit, some call this 'breakthrough', and we experience life, joy and peace, refreshment and satisfaction - at this point our self-efforts cease and we enjoy freedom in the Spirit and genuine Spirit-led prayer and closeness with the Father. Most people do this in their time of morning prayer, free from all distractions. And as an occasional (sometimes) or once-only experience, we need to have the water poured out upon us, typified by Moses striking the rock.
As as generalization of the evangelical movements: some Christians think they receive the Spirit's power at water baptism or salvation, and they don't have to ask God for the Spirit or do anything more, so they never receive the Spirit poured out from above with signs as evidence. This results in a Christian who has much life and salvation but not much power for service. I can think of some Christians like this, who are very nice genuine and loving people, but they probably wouldn't be able to heal or give a prophetic word. They look like Christ, but they can't do what He did (heal the sick, cast our devils etc). As a generalization of the pentecostal movement: other Christians only seek the pouring out of the Spirit and never take time to 'dig the well' and experience the filling of the Spirit from within. This results in a Christian who has much power for service but not much life. I can think of a number of people who display signs of power or miracles, but who are easily led astray into committing sin, or are just not very nice people to deal with, kind of rude and self-centred. They can do what Christ did (heal the sick, cast out devils etc) but don't look like Him. To be a well rounded Christian and useful to God we need to have both experiences, and not neglect one or the other.
There is two experiences of the Spirit: there is the filling up and the pouring out. Every believer in Christ has received the Spirit at salvation otherwise they do not belong to Him. This is the indwelling of the Spirit in the believer's spirit (1 Cor 6:17). The purpose of this experience is so that life may be imparted to the believer from within (Rom 8:11). There is a second experience of the Spirit which is to receive power (Acts 19:2). The baptism of John is the baptism of water, of repentance. The baptism of Jesus is to be baptised in the Spirit. Often this is accompanied by prophesying, tongues, and other such signs. This experience is not for life but for service, to give the believer the spiritual power and tools to do God's work.
Sometimes a person has both experiences at the same time. It can occur at belief, at water baptism, after asking for the Holy Spirit through prayer, by having someone pray for you and laying on of hands for impartation, or through hearing an inspired message. Perhaps this is what "catching the Spirit" means. Catching the Spirit should not mean that we don't have the Spirit and we have to catch it to get it. The fact is every believer has the Spirit, every believer has drank of this Spirit (1 Cor 12:13), and this Spirit is the flow of blood within the body of Christ, by which we are all members of one body.
The Spirit has already come to Earth at Pentecost so a believer does not need to wait in the upper room and seek power from on high again. A believer only needs to ask for the Spirit and it will be poured out, a Father will not give their child a stone when they ask for bread. And the Spirit may fall by preaching :the Spirit fell upon the Gentiles from Peter's preaching Acts 10:44-46.
John 18:6 proves that people can fall under the power of the Spirit. But in this case it was the unbelievers who fell, not the disciples.
A believer in Christ should be able to stand under the power of the Spirit with full control of their mental and bodily faculties. Falling can happen to you if you have not been living right or are spiritually dry.
Contrary to the pentecostal belief that to be filled with the Spirit is to act drunk.. the bible says that we should be sober-minded (1 Pe 1:13).
How can we be filled with the Spirit and also sober-minded? The answer is, to be filled with the Spirit is not to be drunk with power from without, but to be filled from within by the Spirit as we fellowship with Him in His Word.
In the neo-pentecostal movement is a false new age /hindu spirit, the kundalini spirit, which causes uncontrollable jerking , twitching etc. To see someone oppressed by this look up Todd Bentley of the so-called Florida revival, who has uncontrollable head jerking movements.
A key to not being deceived by spiritual experiences is to know that the Spirit lives in our spirit, and is not merely a mysterious power, or force, outside of us, but is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Every demon, false new age Spirit and angel is outside of us, but the genuine Spirit is within us. Every religion plays with spiritual forces and has spiritual experiences. But only Christians have Christ within them. Many Christians have received a false spirit because they did not receive the person of Christ, but something or someone other than Christ, as a so-called 'third person' mysterious force, and these are pagan tritheists not Trinitarian Christians. They believe in the Father, Jesus and the Spirit, but their Spirit is not Jesus Christ, but another Spirit who seems to go by the name "Holy Spirit" and who they believe is entirely separate to Christ Himself. The Holy Spirit of the bible is none other than the Spirit of Christ, who for all practical purposes is the presence of the Lord Jesus Himself with us. Any other "Holy Spirit" who is not identified with Christ, is not the genuine Holy Spirit.
Another way to judge the work of the Spirit is to look at the fruit. The fruit of a false spirit, is to make a person look and act more like an animal (see Nebuchadnezzar, who behaved like a cow after God sent him an evil spirit). Uncontrollable jerking, screaming, loss of bladder control etc are animal-like behaviours and clearly not from the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit , is to make a person more human, more sober and in control, like Christ. There is no record anywhere in scripture that Christ ever screamed uncontrollably, lost control, or was excessive in any way. Excessiveness and indulgence is a sign of a demon not the Spirit. A fruit of the Spirit is self-control and patience. Christ is the most perfect human being. So the more we look like Christ, the more perfectly human we will become. The less we look like Christ, the more we look like an animal, following our own soulish desires without self-control.
