Paul experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit for the first time when he was filled (pletho) with the Holy Spirit right after his conversion (Acts 9:17). Then, he had the same experience again when he was filled (pletho) with the Holy Spirit in his ministry (Acts 13:9). According to the record of Acts, this was Paul’s second time to be filled outwardly, economically, with the Holy Spirit.
There are three extraordinary cases of believers being filled with the Spirit outwardly which we must investigate. First, the Holy Spirit fell upon the Samaritans through Peter and John laying their hands on them (Acts 8:14-17). In the two instances that constitute the baptism in the Spirit (on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius) there was no laying on of hands because the Head baptized His Body in the Spirit directly. With the Samaritans, however, with Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:13-17), and with the twelve disciples in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7), there was the need for the members of the Body to lay hands upon them. The one laying on the hands is a member of the Body and the baptism is upon the Body. When a member of the Body lays hands on another, this means to impart what is on the Body to a new member.
A number of the Samaritans in Acts 8 believed in the Lord Jesus through Philip’s preaching (v. 12). The Samaritans were despised by the Jews and the Jews had no dealings with them (John 4:9). Now some of them believed in the Lord Jesus through some Jewish believers’ preaching of the gospel. The news went to Jerusalem and the church sent Peter and John to come to Samaria to visit them (v. 14). After praying for these believers, Peter and John laid their hands upon them and the Spirit came upon them. This was the outward filling with the Spirit economically. Peter and John’s laying on of hands upon these Samaritan believers confirms that they were added to and accepted by the Body of Christ. Peter and John, who represented the Body of Christ, identified them with the Body of Christ and imparted what the Body of Christ had to them.
Saul of Tarsus was also filled with the Holy Spirit outwardly through Ananias laying his hands on him (Acts 9:13-17). Saul of Tarsus was a Jew who was opposing the church to the uttermost. All of the church people were afraid of him, but the Lord met him on the road to Damascus and saved him directly (Acts 9:3-6). The Lord, however, appeared to Ananias in a vision and told him to go into the street which is called Straight and inquire in the house of Judas for a man named Saul. Ananias, a little member of the Body of Christ, went and told Saul what the Lord had told him. Then he laid his hands upon Saul, whom the Holy Spirit then fell upon. This was a strong confirmation that Saul, the opposer of the church, was saved and received by the Lord into His Body. This was another extraordinary case that needed the laying on of hands to identify Saul as a member of the Body of Christ and to impart to him what was on the Body of Christ.
The third extraordinary case was with the twelve disciples in Ephesus, who received the preaching of John the Baptist’s teaching, which was not a complete gospel. After they received the complete gospel, Paul laid his hands upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied (Acts 19:1-7). Paul laid his hands upon these Gentile believers in Ephesus to impart what was on the Body of Christ to them. They also spoke in tongues because they were Gentiles. They needed this sign so that the Jewish believers would realize that they had been received by the Lord. All three of these extraordinary cases needed the laying on of hands. All of these believers received the Spirit upon them, not directly from the Head, but indirectly through the Body.
Those who were filled with the Spirit outwardly for power, being baptized into one Body, began to drink of one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). When they began to drink of the Spirit, they became full of the Spirit within. This is inwardly and essentially for life. To be baptized into the Spirit is to be filled with the Spirit outwardly for power, but to drink of the Spirit is to be full (Gk. pleres from pletho) of the Spirit inwardly for life. After we have been baptized into the Spirit outwardly, we keep drinking of the Spirit and become full of the Spirit inwardly.
There are four cases in Acts which illustrate this matter of being full of the Spirit inwardly for life. In Acts 6:3 seven were chosen who were full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Acts 6:5 tells us that Stephen was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Acts 7:55 tells us again that Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. Finally, Acts 11:24 tells us that Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. Being full of the Spirit in these verses is not for the outward power, but for the inward life.