Years ago it was often preached that the Holy Ghost Baptism was available to God's children if they would just "tarry" long enough. Tarrying was defined as waiting in prayer or "waiting on" God to baptize you in His Spirit. So we had prayer meetings where people would come and pray and plead and beg God to baptize them in His Spirit or to pour out His Spirit upon them. There are still churches where people gather at the altar or in a prayer room and "seek for the Holy Ghost" like He was hiding somewhere.
I think the idea of "tarrying" is based on a misunderstanding of the command of Jesus in
Luke 24:44-49 when He told the church to tarry/wait in Jerusalem until the feast day of Pentecost or Shavu'ot to begin their world-wide proclamation of His message. It is my understanding that at that time the population of Jerusalem was about 50,000 but there could be as many as 2 million there for some of the feasts.
I was born again on March 28, 1955 at the age of 17 when Jesus Christ came into my heart as the Holy Spirit and made me a new creature. Later as I studied the Word I came to the realization that there was "something more" for me--and experience called the HGB (Holy Ghost Baptism) or an enduement of power or a clothing with power. People told me I had to pray for that experience so I would pray for long periods of time asking God to fill me or pour out His Spirit upon me or to baptize me in His Spirit.
It wasn't until later that I learned that people in the early church received this experience differently.
In Acts chapter 2, about one fourth (120 out of over 500 members) of the church were baptized in the Holy Spirit as they sat in the temple.
In Acts chapter 8, Christians in Samaria were baptized in the Holy Spirit as hands were laid upon them. This happened some time after their salvation and water baptism experience.
In Acts chapter 8 it seems the Ethopian eunuch was baptized in the Spirit as he came out of the water where he was baptized.
Saul of Tarsus received the Holy Ghost baptism through the laying on or hands three days after his conversion experience on the road outside Damascus. This story is found in Acts chapter 9.
Gentiles received an outpouring of the Holy Spirit as they heard and believed the Word as preached by the Apostle Peter in Acts chapter 10
Believers in Ephesus received the Holy Ghost Baptism through the laying on of hands after he explained the message of the cross to them and baptized them in water. This story is found in Acts chapter 19.
I did not receive the Holy Ghost Baptism until May 20, 1956 --a little over a year after my salvation experience. It happened on a Sunday night at Bethel Tabernacle (UPC) in Racine, Wisconsin. By then people had told me that I did not have to beg and plead for God to give me a gift that He had promised me. I just had to praise Him for His promise and yield to Him. I was kneeling at the altar just giving God glory and praise --no frantic pleading or begging or repeating words faster and faster so I could "lose my tongue"-- just surrendering to Him in worship and praise. I realized that I was praising Him in English (or so I thought) but it was coming out in some other language with which I was not familiar. I yielded and continued to speak that "other language" whatever it was for a while and people around me rejoiced with me.
It just so happened that Sunday May 20, 1956 was Pentecost Sunday although I don't remember anything being said about it in any of the services that day.
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