It would seem that this is the hardest truth for people to learn.
All phases of Christianity where works are prominent are popular. But where we lay aside every human effort and trust the Word, and the Word alone, a storm of protest arises.
Justification or the new birth must be of grace, through faith.
Receiving the Holy Spirit must be purely of grace, by faith.
How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (Luke 11:13)
It does not happen by trying to buy it by consecration and surrender, but by simple faith in His Word.
It is not trusting in our physical senses, but it is trusting in His simple Word.
And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.. (Ephesians 2:6–10)
For by grace we have been saved. Read it again, carefully.
He made us alive together with Him. He raised us up with Him. He made us to sit with Him. All that we did was to accept that as our own—and it was ours. We did nothing to earn it; rather, it was a gift from God.
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. (Romans 4:4–5)
If you work and struggle for your salvation, and pay a price for the Holy Spirit, then you receive the Holy Spirit as a payment on a debt for your work.
But you receive the Holy Spirit as a gift of grace. You receive the answer to your prayer as a gift of grace. You receive your healing as a gift.
It is all of grace.
“Not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
It is given “to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly.”
This gift of God is “not of works, that no man should glory” (Ephesians 2:9 ASV).
It is not of works, but it is all of grace through faith.