Recovery in the Bible (RIB)

THE QUESTION CORNER

Today I was reading Acts 2 and bumped into something I'd never noticed before -- namely, that Jesus had already baptized the disciples in His Holy Spirit (John 20:19-22) before Pentecost. This (John 20:19-22) occurred after His resurrection, but before Pentecost.  I never saw this before.

Before this morning, I had thought that Spirit baptism came at Pentecost. Now I see it as follows and would be interested in hearing others about this perspective:

• Before His crucifixion, Jesus told His followers that they would be baptized in the future WITH the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). 

• Then, after His crucifixion (John 20:19-22), Jesus comes to the place where they were hiding for fear of the Jews and breathes on them,saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit." 

Following HIs impartation of the Holy Spirit INTO them, Jesus tells them they will be baptized WITH the Holy Spirit "not many days from now" and ascends into heaven, as documented in Acts 1:9. Pentecost occurs after HIs ascension, when the believers were gathering "with one accord and in one place" (Acts 2:2). Now, they, who had already been baptized IN the Holy Spirit (by Jesus in John 20:22) -- were  filled WITH the Holy Spirit -- to the point that onlookers were astonished and thought they were drunk.

My commentary says, "The filling with the Holy Spirit is separate from the baptism of the Spirit. The Spirit's baptism occurs once for each believer at the moment of salvation, but the Spirit's filling occurs also on a number of occasions after salvation. So today, this very morning, John 3:30 suddenly takes a higher place in my life than it ever did before -- and did before! Suddenly I see that all who are saved have been given the Holy Spirit by our SAVIOR, who desires also to be our LORD. Suddenly it seems that LORDSHIP is a key issue for us believers. How much "self" are we willing to decrease in order that He may increase? 

Galatians 2:20 says we are to die daily; Romans 12:1 says this is the sacrifice that is wholly acceptable to God. Surrendering to His Power seems to be how He increases. Our crucifixion of self is tied to His Resurrection in us. He arises and lives in us as much as we will allow. Proverbs 3:5-5 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." And so I say, as one believer to another, as iron sharpens iron, Jesus desires to be more than just our Savior! He desires to reign as LORD of our lives: First and Foremost; First Thing First; our First Love. And so my question (intended to be heard as a humble one), is simply this:

Are we letting the LORD be LORD?