In the book of Acts, the laying on of hands is mentioned in relation to the reception of the Holy Spirit: the Samaritans (8.17), Saul (9.17), and the Ephesians (19.6).

“Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied.” Ac 19.6

When we pray for the Spirit to fill someone, we still recognize that God is sovereign and cannot be manipulated and that God is the sole source of power (Ac 8.18, 10.44-48).  “The association of prayer with the gesture [laying on of hands] indicates that people like Peter or Paul, although ‘filled with the Spirit,’ have neither the [authority] nor [power] to bestow the Spirit, but depend wholly on God to use them as mere channels of power… The evidence in Acts points to the fact that the disciples stand in a different relation to the Spirit from that of Jesus. In their role as petitioners of the numinous power they must pray to God, the source of power, so that the Spirit would be granted to the new converts.” (J.F. Tipei, The Laying On of Hands in the New Testament, p. 217)

Let’s depend wholly on God and fulfill our role as petitioners, praying to God, the source of power, to fill us with the Spirit!

-JP