UPS does not deliver the HOLY GHOST

Many of you, my friends, know that most recently I am trying to track down the power and authority to confer the holy ghost. I am trying, in essence, to find out how the priesthood can be given to man--how the ability and authority to act as a conduit for our God can be given from our Father in Heaven to any man on earth.

Christ promised us the holy spirit to be with all who will repent, are baptized, and live in righteousness and obedience. This companion shall forever be available to us while our savior is not. We are baptized, and receive the holy ghost in almost every Christian church....GET BAPTIZED, GET THE HOLY GHOST. While the debate for who can baptize rages on, I further wonder, how to we receive the holy ghost? How go we get the GIFT of having its CONSTANT companionship?

In reading the Bible, it is instantly clear.....many who heard the word of God were touched by the spirit and were compelled to be baptized. Men all around the region were baptizing--it was not long from being just John the Baptist to many being able to perform this act! Though it is not directly stated anywhere that I have yet found, how this came to be....this authority must have been given to those men SOMEHOW!? First John (who was ordained by God himself as the baptist of the Lord!) and then others.....but curiously, not so much said about those being baptized receiving the holy ghost until we heard from John himself saying,"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire" (Matthew 3:11). We are first shown that Christ himself shall deliver us with the holy ghost.

While some argue that it was not immediately necessary to have the holy ghost (Christ was living on earth, after all), eventually His companionship and direction WAS required. We needed a way to receive personal revelation, and I am gathering that this was the way that was determined it would happen (could angels come to ALL of us, the way they had come to others before the coming of Christ?). I also assume that all others who were baptized during the ministry but before the death of Christ received the holy ghost spiritually (not requiring to again meet with the apostles to receive this gift)

In Acts 2:1-4, the prophecy was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit fell on the Apostles, just as Jesus also prophesied it would in Acts 1:4-8.

What troubles me is the language and legacy of these gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12, we learn that at baptism--when we join the body of Christ, the Church--we receive spiritual gifts. Each of us is blessed at that time with some manner of power from God. Each is unique, and each necessary. As it states, " Now the body is not made up of one part but of many... If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be....As it is, there are many parts, but one body." It could be argued, that the mere act of being baptized gives us this spiritual gift. Is this the gift of the holy spirit, however?

In Acts, as well as other places, we learn there is indeed a different gift that will come to us. We read that not just anyone can offer us this GIFT, that of the holy spirit. In Acts 6 and 8 we see the apostles step forward and confer the gift of the holy ghost when others could not with the laying on of their hands. Being able to baptize (such as Philip in Acts 8) did not mean being able to offer the gift of the holy ghost. Of course, we know that prior to the assent of Christ, no apostle had been baptized with the holy spirit nor giving away that gift.

Indeed, at the Pentecost, the apostles were baptized with the holy spirit as Jesus had said. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them and in their new ability, could act as Prophets and Seers and could deliver all manner of new miracles including speaking in tongues. Because of this power, many were persuaded that Jesus was the Christ and wondered what they could do. That day, Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit...." Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number.

Did the apostles lay their hands upon all 3000? Or, was some manner of "lower" holy spirit given from heaven to those believers without the laying on of hands? And, what of those in the months to come--those like in Acts 8 who waited on the apostles to receive the holy ghost after they were baptized? They required the hands of the apostles upon their heads to be given this gift--what gift was it? A new one? A higher one?

The gift of authority to baptize? Or, just the gift of the companionship and communication from their heavenly father? The gift to perform miracles, or speak in tongues, or open a Church, or teach? Surely as it says in 1 Corinthians, there is a difference, and different gifts to receive! Different gifts requiring different methods of reception! Perhaps indeed, some gifts of the holy ghost required a higher priest--an apostle only--to give. Perhaps others required someone more lowly--or still others, just faith in Christ itself.

These are the things I am considering. Where does the line begin and end? What can we do in the name and authority of GOD without HIM directly giving it to us.

If there are apostles on earth today--than surely they can act in HIS name and with HIS authority. They can literally put their hands on the heads of believers once they are part of the body of Christ and give them (higher) special gifts, too. But, without them....how will we have the authority to perform miracles, to lead--minister and heal? How will we receive not only the power, but the authority to do it? How can it be validated? How can it be GIVEN?

If God's gifts are GIVEN....someone has to give them. I do believe that heavenly gifts are spiritually endowed. I believe that faith alone can offer us the inspiration of the spirit, the encouragement of the holy ghost. I believe that acting in obedience/ in a Christ-like way can also give us even higher spiritual gifts--but that the holy ghost itself--the direct line to Christ and His thoughts and desires and WILL--that THAT must come just as it did in the times of the bible--from one baptized with fire--. Who has been baptized with fire? How will we recognize them? How will we find them in the masses? How will we know?

these are my questions.