There are several things that a believer can do to position himself so the Lord can baptize him [in the Holy Spirit].
1) The believer must seek the Lord with all his heart. Halfhearted seekers will never receive this blessing (Jeremiah 29:13). God demands unwavering faith when we ask the Lord to do anything for us (James 1:6-7).
When we combine a strong faith with a deep sense of our need, we have met the necessary prerequisites for receiving this glorious experience.
2) We must thirst after a deep relationship with the Lord. God feeds hungry souls. When a believer feels that his greatest need is to be baptized with the Spirit, then they will receive the divine blessing and be satisfied (Psalm 143:6; 119:174). Do we feel what the Psalmist felt? Is our spirit parched and dry? Do we long for God in the same way that the desert longs for water? He has promised that He would quench our thirst (Isaiah 44:3).
3) Our motives must be right! If we are to receive, we must thirst and we must pray. We cannot expect Him to give us the blessing until we are obedient. Our hearts must be free from condemnation (1 John 3:21-27).
As a candidate for this baptism, we must examine our motives and seek the Lord with a pure heart. A sanctifying work must be done in our lives so that we are free from the controlling influence of pride, from the negative power of bitterness, and from the destructive forces of anger and resentment. The believer must have a pure heart to be a receiver.
4) The seeker must not allow discouragement! Jesus tells the story in Luke 11:5 about a friend who arose and granted a neighbor his request because the man continued to ask. If we keep asking and seeking and knocking, our request will be granted.
5) To receive, we must confess our weakness! Too many of us tend to feel self-sufficient. We need spiritual power for spiritual living. The source of this power is in the Spirit of God. The baptism in the Holy Spirit brings a deeper relationship with the Lord, a wonderful sensitiveness to the things of God, a new dimension in prayer and praise, and permits us to be channels through which the Holy Spirit can manifest Himself in so many ways.
[For the sake of consecutive learning in the manner in which the book was intended (all in one chapter), comments to this post have been turned off. Discussion will open on Part 7.]