Many Christians tell me they have received the Holy Spirit, but not all, however.  Why is that?  The Holy Spirit has been available to every believer since that day of Pentecost over two thousand years ago when the Holy Spirit fell upon the 120 believers gathered in the upper room, which we read about in Acts chapter two.
Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Act 2:5  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
Act 2:6  Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Act 2:7  And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Act 2:8  And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Act 2:9  Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Act 2:10  Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11  Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
Act 2:12  And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
Act 2:13  Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
Act 2:14  But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
Act 2:15  For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
Act 2:16  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
Act 2:17  And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
Act 2:18  And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
Act 2:19  And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
Act 2:20  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
Act 2:21  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
    I don’t know if you caught this or not, but when the Holy Ghost filled the people, they were changed!  We can go on to read that over three thousand people heard the testimony of these Holy Ghost filled believers, and they were so moved by what they heard that they said in Acts 2:37-39
Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
   The Holy Ghost FIRST changed the believers who were filled.  THEN the Holy Ghost speaking through them brought others to repentance and salvation.  And I have to ask, Why do we not see this going on today?  The answer came pretty quickly; The Holy Ghost had the believers!  You see, we have it all backwards.  We think WE have the Holy Ghost, and so we try to get the Holy Ghost to work according to OUR plan.  We contrive this plan and that plan to fill churches, and that obviously isn’t working, is it?  When the last time you went into any church and three thousand people were saved in that service?  How about one thousand?  How about one hundred?  How about even a dozen?  Come on now, what is the problem?  Has the Holy Ghost stopped working, or has He lost His power?  Uh, no, the problem is we are not letting the Holy Ghost have US!  As long as YOU have the Holy Ghost, He is not in charge to do HIS work.  We can clearly see how the ministry of the disciples and believers took off once the Holy Ghost had the freedom to use them as He needed to.
    Realize this; the world is in a real mess.  And though we each desire to see things changed for the better, as an individual there really isn’t much any of us can do.  But if we stop trying to do it on our own, and let the Holy Ghost work in each one of us individually, using us as HE wills, then HE can orchestrate real change for good.  You know, when the disciples asked the Lord Jesus to teach them the right way to pray, He said the following in Luke 11:2;
When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
   The first thing that needs to happen is that the Holy Ghost must have the freedom to move each and every believer according to the heavenly Father’s will.  Let it be done on EARTH as it is done in HEAVEN.  You can be assured the Holy Ghost knows what’s going on in heaven and He knows exactly what it will take to make it like that on earth.  And we think WE know how to do it, so we’re trying to do the Holy Spirit’s job for Him, instead of letting HIM have US, we go around saying WE have HIM.  See the problem?  I saw a bumper sticker recently that said Jesus is my Co-Pilot.  There’s the problem, they stuck Jesus is in the wrong seat!  And the church is doing it too!
   That means as individual believers, we’re doing it, whether we realize it or not.  Individual believers make up the body of the church.  So, if the church isn’t bring forth fruit of the Holy Spirit like we see in Acts chapter two, then the individual believers must surely be the problem.  We can’t blame it on the building, or the color of the carpet or the chairs, or even the Pastor.  If the Holy Ghost can’t have free reign like He did in the believers back on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two, then how do we seriously expect for God to work?  Again, WE’RE trying to do the work of the Holy Ghost, instead of humbling and submitting ourselves to Him and letting HIM work.  And God, being a true gentleman, will continue to allow us to “play church” as long as we like, but nothing much is going to happen.  Of course, we know that already, don’t we?  We’ve seen it year after year after year.  Oh, we can come to church every week and put in our two hours or so and think we’re doing God some wonderful favor, but the truth is, it STINKS!
   We pray for revival but it doesn’t happen.  We can put up a huge REVIVAL!!! sign, but we can’t make revival happen.  I know, because I’ve been to churches that did that and there weren’t a handful of people showed up.  And the Holy Ghost told me ahead of time that He had not been invited.  We pray for miracles, but they don’t happen.  We think up this plan and that plan, but it comes to naught, and the churches actually are getting emptier by the week.  Why?  Because the Holy Ghost doesn’t have US!  Don’t you think it’s time to change all that?  Wouldn’t you like to go to church this weekend and see the Holy Ghost break out and fall upon everyone there and two or three thousand people crowding in and standing in the parking lot asking HOW CAN WE BE SAVED??  Can it happen today?  It can if YOU and I get out of the Holy Spirit’s way and let HIM be in charge.  Will it happen?  Well, that depends on YOU.  A hundred and twenty or so gathered in the upper room back two thousand years ago and as individuals, they humbled themselves and submitted themselves unto God, to do what HE wanted them to do.
   Look at how the Holy Ghost used Peter.  Now, Peter had been doing things his own way for some time.  Face it, we’ve all done it.  We can look in John chapter 21, and even though Jesus had presented himself twice previously to the disciples, Peter told some of the disciples he was going fishing. For FISH, mind you, not men, even though Jesus told him he was to be a fisher of men.  Well, we know that night they caught nothing, and in the morning Jesus told Peter not once, but THREE times, Feed My lambs, feed My sheep.  The problem was, as long as Peter was in charge, the LORD could not use him mightily.  But once the Holy Ghost had PETER, he became a world changer for God.  In fact, every one of those believers whom the Holy Ghost got hold of turned the world upside down.  Wouldn’t YOU like to be a world changer for God?  Then let the Holy Ghost have YOU!