Acts 9:17 “And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Altogether there are six accounts given as examples of the saints being filled with the Holy Spirit, and those accounts are found in the book of Acts and the epistles. Of the six, two are accounts where the saints were filled directly from heaven, which we have already discussed. The other four accounts recorded in scripture are of the saints being filled with the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. And so we come to the second method that our Lord uses to fill His saints with the Holy Spirit, which is through the laying on of hands. Of the four accounts recorded where the laying on of hands was used, we have already looked at the first account which was a record of Peter and John going to Samaria to lay hands on the new converts for them to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17). In the second account quoted above we see the disciple Ananias being sent by the Lord Jesus to lay his hands on Paul so that he could receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. We know that when Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit that he also spoke with tongues, because he said to the church at Corinth that he thanked God that he spoke with tongues more than all (1 Corinthians 14:18). There is another very important observation that we can make from this example, which is that Ananias was simply a disciple of the Lord. In other words the Holy Spirit is teaching us from this example that it is entirely scriptural for ordinary disciples to lay hands on fellow disciples to minister the baptism of the Holy Spirit to them.
Acts 19:1-7 “And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples (2) he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" So they said to him, "We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." (3) And he said to them, "Into what then were you baptized?" So they said, "Into John's baptism." (4) Then Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." (5) When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. (6) And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. (7) Now the men were about twelve in all.”
The above quoted passage of scripture is the third account of the saints being filled with the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. In this account we see that the apostle Paul laid his hands on these new believers in Ephesus, and they were then filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with tongues. This incident was different to the others however, for in this instance they also received one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit at the same time, for scripture reveals to us that they also prophesied. Nevertheless the main point I wanted to highlight for this section is that the saints received the baptism of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.
Michael E.B. Maher
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