There was a trusted kid on the college campus. When I say the kid was trusted, I mean that he was the representative of the student body to the board that governed the college. He discovered that his mailbox key, which he'd received long before he was appointed board representative had a property that it would open any super secured lock on campus - not just his mailbox.
Being the inquisitive young man that he was, he checked it out and truly, the most sophisticated locks that he could find were no match to his key. He didn't try to unlock simple locks. If what was locked could be easily breached by physical means, why bother using his special key. After all, using the key too much might wear out its special properties. He found anything tough could be unlocked with no issue whatsoever.
When he reported this to the board at the university, they didn't believe him, so he showed them how it worked. They immediately tried to figure out how to hide the key away, and also to buy or build a better lock that would again keep their secrets safe so the special key wouldn't be effective.
That key is a lot like the power of God. If you think back, God helped Israel out of some really big binds. The Egyptian army went down in the sea. The walls of Jericho fell down. There were times an angel came down to cause an entire army to destroy itself. Other times heavenly forces surrounded an enemy army. You can find many more as Israel possessed the land or worked to keep it. As long as the people stayed true to God and stayed in His will, He fought with them or before them, and many times they didn't have to lend a hand. He was much like their key.
When the baptism of the Holy Spirit came to the New Testament church, and as it continued throughout the centuries since, God has provided that key to His people. The key won't solve every problem you have. Wouldn't that be nice? I think the reason that God doesn't solve all of our problems is that we have a tendency to keep asking for more and more things until we ask for something that will ultimately destroy us or take us away from God. Humans are just like that. We keep wanting more and more to make our lives better, even at the cost of our own salvation. We're never satisfied until we're on the path to destruction. And I think that is the main reason that God doesn't give us everything for which we ask. James was right in saying we tend to ask amiss.
But back to the work of the Holy Spirit. God gave the Holy Spirit so that when we prayed for something in His will, He would do it and it would be tied to believers who were close enough to Him that the world would have evidence that it was Him working, by their lifestyle and by their witness, both before He used the gifts of the Spirit and after a particular situation was resolved.
The thing is, the gifts of the Spirit are just like that mail box key that could open anything. God is omnipotent with respect to us. There are things He can't do. He won't break a promise, as long as we meet the conditions of the promise and are in His will, for example. But God is the creator of the entire universe that we see. There is nothing He cannot do, if He is in agreement that it needs done.
But He also made a process by which much of what He was going to do would happen in the New Testament church. There are many denominations today who are uncomfortable with that process. Some think it was just for a few. Some think it was for many, but only long ago. But Joel declared (Acts 2:16-18) that it was intended for everyone and for all time.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is available to every Christian. But the reality is that most Christians go through life not knowing the power of the Holy Spirit. They are saved, just as the Jewish people of the Old Testament were who followed the law and lived according to His will. But they are walking around, like the rest of the Christian students were on that campus, with a key in their pocket that could open up tremendous things by God. They just haven't sought out how to unlock the extra features of their key from God (Acts 1:1-11,2:1-2:18;1 Corinthians 12:8-11).
They are just using the key to check their personal mailbox for answers to their prayers or words to them, a letter from home as it were. Sometimes, in our illustration, God will drop a bill off and the envelope will have something He wants us to do for Him. Of course the key is also trying to keep them from sinning against God as well.
The non-Christian kids on campus have a mailbox key also. For them, God is just trying to keep them from sinning and prompt them to find their mailbox in the first place, accept Christ as savior and find their home in Him. The boxes have numbers. The key has a number. It isn't hard to connect. But it is up to them to have the desire and put in the minimal effort required to open their box and connect with God.
There are many things in the world, people in the world, institutions in the world that Satan thinks he has secured behind a lock that makes it impregnable. But the Holy Spirit is the key to success. The only way through a particular lock might just be you. Listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling you to do. Use your key.
Seek out the baptism of the Spirit and put your key to use according to the will of the Father. He will do great things with your ministry. Just remember that you need to be asking in His will and for His glory.