How to Know God's Spirit is With You (Part 2)

On the day the Spirit came to earth from heaven and manifest Himself to and through 120 believers, Peter gave two conditions of receiving and experiencing the Holy Spirit:

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”  And Peter said to them, “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.  Acts 2:37-39 ESV

Peter gives two conditions to receive two things:

1. Repent and be baptized.
2. Receive forgiveness and the Holy Spirit.

REPENT
The Jews Peter spoke to had rejected Jesus as their Messiah and Lord.  For them to repent meant to change their mind and will about Jesus.  They were to stop rejecting Jesus and start accepting Him.  The Jews were to stop rebelling against His Lordship and start submitting to the Lord Jesus.  The same condition is true for you, if you haven't already met it.  Stop distrusting Jesus and start trusting him; stop trusting in yourself and start distrusting yourself.  That's repentance.  Next is baptism

BE BAPTIZED
To be baptized means to publically make known your faith in Jesus.  It can involve being immersed in water, which symbolizes your union with Christ; when He died you died with Him, when He rose, you rose with Him--you are born again.  But if you don't have the opportunity to get baptized in water as soon as you finish my blog, you can tell two people that you believe Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for your sins and rose so you would be born again.  If you've already been baptized in water, or you've already made your faith known publically, then you have already met the second condition.  Your sins are forgiven.  You have the Spirit's manifestation.  Right now.  You don't need to wait or ask or anything.

Do you believe this?  Think of it this way.
If you told someone that Jesus died for their sins to be forgiven, and they prayed like this, "God, thank you for giving Jesus to die for me.  I hope my sins are forgiven.  I believe they will be forgiven," would you be confident that person is saved?  No.  Unless he or she prays something like this, "God, thank you that my sins are forgiven because of Jesus' crucifixion," you know they have not fully believed  in Jesus.  In other words, they won't ask for forgiveness in the future, but they will thank God for forgiveness they already have based on what Jesus alone did in the past.

Do you see it?

In the same way, based on what Jesus did in the past, and your meeting the two condition of changing your mind and publically making known your faith in Christ, you already have the Spirit of God upon you.  You don't need to pray for it, wait for it, or do anything to get it, any more than you need to wait for Jesus to die, rise again, or be exalted into heaven.

What is the experience supposed to feel like when the Spirit is manifest upon you? 
You will know it.  In other words, you will feel a certainty of the Spirit's presence and power consciously on you, even if it's nothing more than unexplainable peace.  I can't tell you exactly how you will know it.  The Spirit of God is God.  He is who He is.  And you will know Him when He makes Himself known.