“For God does not give the Spirit by measure” (John 3: 34b, NKJV).

God doesn’t give the Holy Spirit by measure. God didn’t decide to give some people more Holy Spirit or less Holy Spirit. Jesus, presumably, lived His whole life with the Holy Spirit with Him, from conception. But then the Holy Spirit descends upon Him when He’s anointed for His ministry and is sent out. There’s no other instance of the Holy Spirit coming upon Him. It flowed in and out of Him as natural as breathing. He felt the power leave Him when the woman touched his garment. He didn’t then ask God for more Holy Spirit. It flowed in as it flowed out. We’re told God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask, but we also never hear the apostles asking for the Holy Spirit.

The disciples were breathed upon by Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. The verb there shows that it happened then, not something that was going to happen. But they, too, had another experience of anointing with the Holy Spirit when they were launched into ministry. The Holy Spirit comes upon them and they receive power to be God’s witnesses. The church grows. Peter preaches for the first time.

The word for breath and the word for spirit are the same word. Once we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, we have a continual flow, as natural as breathing. We breathe out, and our bodies, instinctively, breathe in. When the Holy Spirit flows out, it fills back in, if we are abiding in Christ. We know we can quench the Holy Spirit. We don’t want to dam up the works. A life focused on loving God and others is a life flowing with the Holy Spirit. God pours His love into our hearts and we pour it out back to Him and in love and service to others. It’s to be a continuous flow, rivers of living water flowing through us.

He gives the Holy Spirit without measure. You can’t use it up. Stay in Christ and He will stay in you. You have in you the same power in you that resurrected Jesus from the dead.