Nicky Gumbel, author of the Alpha Course, maintains that all Christians should be completely overwhelmed by, immersed in and plunged into the Spirit of God. He likens the experience sometimes to be like a hard dry sponge being dropped into water. – There can be a hardness in our lives, which stops us absorbing the Spirit of God. – It may take some time for the initial hardness to wear off and for the sponge to be filled. You see it is one thing for the sponge to be in the water, it’s another for the water to be in the sponge. But when the sponge is filled the water literally pours out of it. – Same with a Spirit filled Christian, the presence of God the Holy Spirit flows out from them.

Nicky Gumbel, Alpha Questions of Life, 2007 edition, Eastbourne: Kingsway Communications, p.123