How Should I Pray So That I Am Sure of Being Filled With the Holy Spirit?

No Positive Result?

“A young man was looking for counsel, since he wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He was really struggling. The pastor asked him: ‘Have you completely submitted your will to God?’ ‘I don’t think I completely have.’ ‘Well’, said the pastor, ‘then it won’t do any good to pray [to be filled with the Holy Spirit], till you have completely submitted your will to God. Don’t you want to submit your will to God now?’ ‘I can‘t’, he replied. ‘Are you willing for God to do it for you?’ ‘Yes’, he answered. ‘Then ask Him to do it.’ He prayed: ‘Oh God, empty me from my own will. Bring me into complete submission to your will. Lay down my will for me. I pray in Jesus’ name.’ Then the pastor asked: ‘Did it happen?’ ‘It must have’, he said. ‘I asked God for something according to His will and I know that He answered me and that I have that which I prayed for (1 John 5:14-15). Yes, it has happened—my will has been laid down.’ Then the pastor said: ‘Now pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit [being filled with the Holy Spirit].’ He prayed: ‘Oh God, baptize me now with Your Holy Spirit. I pray in Jesus’ name.’ And it happened immediately when he laid down his will.”¹

The Great Difference Before and After

Even though I was acquainted with praying with promises for a long time and used it in special situations and experienced wonderful answers to prayer, I thought for many years that it was good enough if I just simply asked for the Holy Spirit in prayer without relying on specific promises. I know that many have the same opinion. I don’t want to say that this is something wrong. But when I look back at my personal experience, I regret that I prayed this way without any promises. For a few years now, I have been praying daily with promises for the Holy Spirit, so that after my prayer, I have the assurance that I am now filled with the Holy Spirit. Through an experience on October 28, 2011, I realized the great difference in my life: before and after. (more on this below under More Differences: Before and After).

Since I have started praying with promises my relationship with God has become more intimate and Jesus is closer to me and has become greater to me. This isn’t just a subjective feeling; I can link it to the following things:

• While reading the Bible, I often have new and encouraging insights.
• In the battle with temptation, I can remain victorious.
• My prayer time has become very precious to me and brings me great joy.
• God answers many of my prayers.
• I have greater joy and more “boldness” (Acts 4:31c) to tell others about Jesus.
• I have become more sociable with my own friends.
• I live happily through God’s grace and feel secure in His hand.
• In a difficult phase—my dear wife was ill and disabled for four years and then died—the Lord sustained me in a wonderful way and strengthened me from within.
• I realized what spiritual gifts the Lord had given me.
• Criticism stopped. When I hear others criticizing, I feel uncomfortable.

The change took place quietly. I noticed it first after I had spent some time daily praying for the Holy Spirit with Biblical promises. Since then I am experiencing a different kind of Christianity. Previously, my life with God was often laborious and difficult; now I experience joy and power.

I am sorry for the losses in my personal life because of the lack of the Holy Spirit, for the losses within my marriage and family and for the losses in the churches where I served as a pastor. When I realized this I asked the Lord for forgiveness.

It is unfortunately true in this area that we can’t lead anyone further than we are ourselves. We also want to remember that the personal shortcomings of individuals in the family and the church add up or multiply.

In order for others not to lament the same mistakes in their lives, I want to add a few thoughts.

In 2 Peter 1:3-4 it says that through an intimate relationship with Jesus we may “through the … great and precious promises … be partakers of the divine nature”.

More Differences: Before and After

This also means that the Holy Spirit is given to me through the promises. You can compare the promises to bank checks. When we present a signed check from an account holder, we can withdraw money from someone else’s account. As God’s children (John 1:12), we can daily withdraw with the checks (the promises) signed by Jesus. It wouldn’t do any good to present our own checks, even if we had the checks made by an artist. We need the signed checks from the account holder.

There is another reason that may encourage us to pray with promises. There is power in God’s word. Why did Jesus pray on the cross three times with words from the Psalms? Why did He defend Himself and rout Satan with Bible verses during Satan’s temptations in the wilderness? (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10) Jesus said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).

Jesus, the creator, knew that there is power in God’s word. “In every command and in every promise of the word of God is the power, the very life of God, by which the command may be fulfilled, and the promise realized.”² What a wonderful statement! The power of God and His life are in every promise. When we pray with promises, we are using God’s word in our prayer. It says about God’s word: “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void...” (Isaiah 55:11).

I plan only to pray for the Holy Spirit with promises. When praying with promises, I know that after I have asked for the Holy Spirit, I have received Him based on the promise in God’s word in 1 John 5:15 (emphasis added): “And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” When I pray without a promise, then I hope that my prayer will be answered. It’s better to take the time for a prayer like this and experience a blessed day rather than to complain about failures in the evening.

I received an email which was written with great joy: “I never thought it was possible that it would make such a big difference if I prayed for God’s leading throughout the day with ‘my own words’ or if I prayed with promises from the Bible! Promises have always been very important to me. I have always believed in them, but I failed to claim them daily. My life with Jesus has gained a deeper, more joyful, more confident and calmer dimension. I thank God for this.”³

Pray in Twos

Jesus himself wants to live in us through the Holy Spirit (1 John 3:24; John 14:23), and so “The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul.”⁴ The power that changed Peter, Paul, and many other people is also available to us. He also gives us the verse, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16).

Being filled by the Holy Spirit is the key to a life of faith, joy, power, love and victory over sin. “...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17b).

In a message I received it said the following: “Many church members daily pray the suggested prayer in twos. For the last five months I have been praying it with my girlfriend. Not only is everything progressing in personal areas, but also in the home, relationship, marriage, spiritually, and in church—not in a manner that causes great conflicts, but rather it happens in a quiet, natural way. We are amazed and see this as God’s clarification process, which can make life easier in ways, since we feel God’s closeness more and more.”⁵

Call to Action: Pray with Promises

I have decided to share an example of a prayer with promises for the Holy Spirit. Naturally, it can be shortened. It is important that we learn to pray for ourselves directly from God’s word. But the vital point is that our faith is strengthened by the promises in such a way that after we have prayed, we have the assurance that we have received the Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit when we believe what we pray.

Father in heaven, I come to you in the name of Jesus, our Savior. You said: Give me your heart. (Proverbs 23:26) I want to do that now by submitting myself to you today with everything I am and have.⁶ Thank you that you have already answered this prayer according to Your will, because Your word says that if we pray according to Your will, we know that we have already received it (1 John 5:15). And you also said that you would by no means cast anyone out who comes to you (John 6:37).

Jesus said: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13).

You further said that you would give the Holy Spirit to those who believe in you (John 7:38-39), who obey you (Acts 5:32), who let themselves be renewed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), and who walk in the Spirit (Galatians5:16). This is my desire. Please accomplish this in me. For this reason, I sincerely ask you, Father, to give me the Holy Spirit today. Since it is a request according to Your will, I thank You that have given me the Holy Spirit now (1 John 5:15). Thank You that I have received Your divine love at the same time, because Your word says: “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5; Ephesians 3:17). I want to say with the psalmist: “I will love You, O Lord, my strength” (Psalm 18:1). Thank you that I can love my fellow human beings with Your love.

Thank You that through the Holy Spirit the power of sin has been broken in me (Romans 8:13, Galatians 5:16). Please save and protect me today from sin and from the world, give me protection from the fallen angels, save me from temptations, and when necessary snatch me and save me from my old corrupt nature (1 John 5:18).

And please help me to be Your witness in word and deed (Acts 1:8). I praise You and thank You for hearing my prayer. Amen.

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The above is an excerpt from Steps to Personal Revival.

Unless noted otherwise, scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1. Reuben A. Torrey, DerHeiligeGeist–SeinWesenundWirken (Frankfurt, 1966), S. 150
2. Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons (Battle Creek, Michigan: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1900), 38.
3. Email to H. Haubeil C. S.
4. Editor Francis D. Nichol, Adventist Bible Commentary vol. 6 (Hagerstown, 1980), p. 1112
5. Email to Helmut Haubeil: E.S.
6. “Only those who will become co-workers with Christ, only those who will say, Lord, all I have and all I am is Thine, will be acknowledged as sons and daughters of God.” Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, California: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1898), 523.