Good morning. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. So, did they receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at that moment, or did it not happen until the day of Pentecost like some believe? My Bible even says that it was in anticipation of what would happen 50 days later. I heard a tape one time by Oral Roberts that he asked some members of the faculty of his university who taught Greek exactly what did it mean; and they said it meant to receive right now the Holy Spirit. Also the Greek word translated “breathed on“ used here is the same word that was used in the Septuagint (The translation into Greek of the Hebrew Scriptures years before Christ was born) when it says in Genesis that the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and “breathed into“ his nostrils the breath of life. The word in both instances literally means to breathe in. In Acts, before He ascended, Jesus told the disciples that they would receive power after the Holy Spirit came upon – not in – them. That was what the day of Pentecost was about, receiving power, not the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. That did not mean that the disciples would “create“ the forgiving or retaining of sins. The Greek says that it had already been done (in heaven); they were just proclaiming it. Father thank You that You breathed on us, and we received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Help us to allow Him full control of our lives.

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