BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT--FOR US NOW! RECEIVE THE POWER FROM ON HIGH!

Miracle Revival Bible Studies L. E. A. SERIES 1-THE ACTS OF THE HOLY GHOST A ND WHEN the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?” (Acts 2:2-8). “And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:12-17). Introduction: [EMPH., PUNCT., AND BRACKETS ADDED] THE FOUR GOSPELS could aptly be called, “The Acts of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The Book of Acts is a continuation of “all Jesus began both to do and teach” (Acts. 1:1). The Four Gospels are concerned with His ministry before the ascension. The book of Acts recounts the beginning of His ministry through Spirit-filled disciples. Before He went away, He promised His disciples, “...He that believeth on me, the Works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12, see John 16:7). “Lo I am with you alway, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD.” (Lit., “age,” Matt. 28:20). In addition to the twelve who were with Him throughout His earthly ministry, and had heard and seen all that He did and taught, there were hundreds of other disciples (lit., pupils) who had received a part of His course of instruction. Five hundred of these, when they had learned of His resurrection, gathered about Him again, and were present at the time of His ascension. These He instructed that they should go into Jerusalem and wait there until He sent the Holy Ghost [NOT THE POPE, CATHOLICS!] into the world to take His place as Head of the Church. During Christ’s earthly life, He remained Head of the disciples. When he went away, He did not urge them to go on out without a leader. Neither did He appoint one of their number to take His place as Head. He asked them rather to wait (“tarry”) until the new leader—the Holy Ghost—arrived (Luke 24:49; John 14:17, 26.) One hundred and twenty, including both men and women, obeyed His order, and went to the Upper Room to await the arrival of their new leader. WHAT BECAME OF THE THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY? Perhaps they returned to the church later, claiming their seniority as members over the converts on the day of Pentecost and forward. Perhaps they are the ones we find later seeking office, advocating legalism, complaining because favor and provision were not distributed to their satisfaction—never once believing that any decision could have been made by any power higher than man! Of these are they who declare, “Why pray about a decision? There are good men on both sides. All that we can do is present all the evidence and vote on the decision.” There always have been, and always will be, in the visible church, those who are too busy, or too restless to wait to find God’s plan. But they usually consider themselves wise enough to direct not only their own ways, but the activities of the entire church as well! When the day of Pentecost was fully come (Acts 2:1), the Holy Spirit came, and each one of the faithful 120 were immediately filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with tongues AND prophesy. A new dispensation had opened. A new General had taken command. There is no record that some were required to “tarry” longer. ALL WERE FILLED AT ONCE. There is no record that any person was ever instructed to “tarry” for the baptism with the Holy Ghost after the day of Pentecost. From that time forward, it was just a matter of yielding to Him, His authority, qualifying for, and receiving the “uniform” of His army. How does one qualify? By submitting completely to His authority (Acts 5:32), and by cleansing himself of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (II Cor. 7:1). Whit is the uniform? The uniform is that mark by which the Spirit-filled are recognized immediately. It is the mark whereby Peter and six other Spirit-filled Jews, on their first tremulous venture into the great task of carrying the Gospel to the Gentiles, were able to recognize that God had purified those Gentiles’ hearts by faith and baptized them with the Holy Ghost. “THEY HEARD THEM SPEAK WITH TONGUES!” (Acts 10:46, 47). After this, Peter did not hesitate to declare, “The Holy Ghost fell on them, AS ON US AT THE BEGINNING...God gave them the like gift as he did unto us.” (Acts 11:15, 17.) Have you received this experience? If not, it is for you! “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39). The second chapter of Acts is the beginning, not merely of a book, but of the age in which we live, the “Church age,” the DISPENSATION OF THE HOLY GHOST. Here we have set out the beginning of the pattern God Himself set up for the church throughout the age. As we study the entire book, let us keep constantly in mind that here we shall find: (1) patterns for worship and conduct; (2) patterns for evangelism, and for church government; (3) examples of success in the early church, as right patterns were followed; (4) examples of failure when men’s ideas superseded the leading of the Holy Ghost. THE MANIFESTATIONS 1. SOUND OF a mighty wind. 2. Tongues of fire. 3. Speaking in other tongues unknown to the ones speaking, but heard and understood by foreigners present. The one hundred and twenty disciples waiting in the upper room for the “promise of the Father,” saw the tongues of fire over each one of them. We do not know if the multitude saw this manifestation. But when the disciples were so full of the marvelous blessing of the Holy Ghost that they could not be still, they ran out into the street and the multitude saw their rejoicing and heard them speaking in tongues. The crowd also heard the sound of the wind, and it was this that brought them running. These manifestations produced a three-fold reaction: 1. THE PEOPLE were amazed. 2. They were perplexed (they “doubted”). 3. They criticized (“These men are drunk”). Later that same day, many of these people were converted, but first they were amazed. That is the purpose of manifestations: to attract the attention of the crowd, to cause people to say “What meaneth this?” Peter might have preached his heart out and had no results if the crowd had not at first been “amazed.” They would not even have stopped to listen. The Spirit-filled church always shows forth the super-natural. Now, as then, it produces amazement, perplexity, and criticism. If these impressions are not made, it is because the church is not Spirit-filled! Today, the church does not want to amaze the people. The church is far more concerned with programs, methods, personalities, doctrines, organization, than with being Spirit-filled. The first witness the church ever made was to make noise, to act like drunk men, and to speak in other tongues. What a strange witness, BUT IT WAS GOD’S METHOD. THE SERMON THE CROWD had asked a question, “What meaneth this?” Peter answered, “This is that!” 1. Joel prophesied this. 2. He said the Spirit would be poured forth on all flesh. 3. It is Jesus of Nazareth who is doing this thing, the same Jesus YOU delivered up to be crucified. 4. He rose from the dead, and He is doing this which you see and hear. 5. This happened “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” “You intended it for evil, but God planned it that way.” This was not a popular message. Peter is no longer concerned about his reputation, or his safety. Peter is a different man than he was. Something new has been added! He is now baptized with the Holy Ghost. THE RESULTS 1. CONVICTION (v. 37). 2. 3,000 converted (v. 41). 3. Steadfast believers, continuing in the faith (v. 46, 47). Did Peter’s eloquence convict the multitude? If eloquence and good preaching could do it, the whole world would be converted: we have plenty of that. No, it had to be the added anointing of the Holy Ghost on his ministry that caused this unpopular message to bring forth such results. “TO ALL THAT ARE AFAR OFF” Verse 39 EIGHT YEARS AFTER this, the same evidence of the Holy Ghost was still occurring (Acts 10). It was this evidence of speaking in other tongues that convinced Peter that the Gentile, Cornelius, and his household, were saved just as were the Jews. Twenty-three years later, Paul laid hands on some believers in Ephesus, prayed, and they were “filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in other tongues and prophesied.” After that, he wrote to the church at Corinth concerning the “speaking in other tongues,” which was common among them. This “evidence” was common then, and it continued on in the church for many, many years, becoming more rare only as the spirituality of the church declined. Now in these last fifty years, God has poured out the Holy Ghost in a mighty outpouring greater than any before. This is the “latter rain” outpouring, spoken of by Joel. A NEW THING GOD DID a new thing at Pentecost. He poured out the Holy Ghost in a new way upon man—filling the individual believer so that from now on, the Christian can say, “It is not I that live, but Christ liveth in me,” “I see with His eyes, His mind is my mind,” “It is God that worketh In me to will and to do of His own good pleasure.” Had the Spirit been absent from the affairs of men previous to this time? No. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God came upon men for the doing of mighty deeds, for prophecy, for leadership, even inspired some to do unusual work in fashioning gold and silver for the temple of God (Deut. 34:9; Numbers 24:2; Exodus 31:1-5). This new work of the Spirit is to fill men: causing an identification of the believer with Christ that could not be otherwise acheived; it is the necessary equipment for God’s witnesses: “it is expedient (very important, necessary) for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (John 16:7). Now Christ has a new body to work through—the church. Each individual filled with the Holy Ghost should, with Christ’s power, with His mind, and with His zeal and love, be able to work limited, only by God’s power, WHICH HAS NO LIMIT. SPECIAL MENTION IN PETER’S SERMON, he mentions Jesus’ credentials. (Yes, Jesus had credentials.) “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves know.” The credentials of Jesus were His works. Once He said, “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works.” How many of today’s ministers would dare to say, “If I do not the works, believe me not” [John 10:37]? Pulpits and pews would empty in a hurry! (See Mark 16:17, 18. These are the credentials that God’s ministers of today are supposed to have.) Works of the kind that Jesus did are credentials. Why this great stress on works? What about the fruit of the Spirit? Shouldn’t that be our yardstick for judging? Certainly, when it is practical and possible so to judge. BUT WORKS ARE OUTWARD AND VISIBLE ALWAYS. The Bible speaks of false manifestations, and the false prophet will be able to perform strange feats. But the good works of healing and deliverance, according to the Bible, are not done except by men anointed by the Holy Ghost. A man may do these works [even though he] is not judged as perfect by all who set themselves up as “Judges” (See Romans 14:4, 10, 13). Even Christ was called: a blasphemer (Matt. 9:3), a glutton and a wine bibber (Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34), a sinner (John 9:24), [and] a deceiver (Matt. 27:63), by the religious leaders of His day. A man does not have to be perfect (i.e. completely perfected) because all men are to “go on unto perfection.” But he will be a man “approved of God.” Blessing and deliverance cannot issue from an evil source (Matt. 12:35). FOR DISCUSSION: 1. WHAT IS the primary purpose of the Book of Acts? 2. Should we expect that Christians should tarry, as before Pentecost, in order to receive the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, or should we expect immediate filling, as soon as the individual has submitted his own will to that of the Holy Ghost? 3. Does the Holy Ghost act as the controlling force in your own personal life?...In the life and decisions of the church which you attend? 4. Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed (See Acts 19:2)? 5. Have you received power, after you received the Holy Ghost? (See Acts 1:8.) FROM DON BASHAM’S BOOK, “A HANDBOOK ON HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM”: Are the Tongues Spoken Today Ever Known Languages like They Were at Pentecost? [EMPH., PUNCT., AND BRACKETS ADDED] A N INDIAN STUDENT in Washington D.C. shared with me this interesting story. A minister who opposed the work of Pentecostal missionaries in India wrote a pamphlet denouncing the experience of speaking in tongues, and in it quoted a single phrase he had heard as “meaningless gibberish.” Disciples of the writer took copies of the pamphlet to distribute them in various villages where the Pentecostal missionaries were at work. Standing in the center of a particular village, one pamphleteer began denouncing the Pentecostal experience. He read aloud the example of “gibberish” included in the pamphlet only to have a native push his way excitedly through the crowd and ask him to repeat the phrase. Examination proved the “gibberish” was actually a quote from Scripture, spoken in the peculiar dialect of this native who lived many miles away. The phrase being shouted in derision was “You have been purchased,” A REFERENCE TO 1ST COR. 6:20. While still in seminary, I heard the story of an American minister praying in tongues, which visiting worshippers recognized as their own language: Chinese. But while the minister was using Chinese syllables, he was stringing them together in ways of unique beauty and originality, forming complex sentences of praise to God which the Chinese Christians themselves had never thought of using. Episcopalian minister Dennis Bennett has a man in his church in Seattle, Washington, whose prayer language has been identified as Mandarin Chinese, described, in his parish newsletter of April 12, 1967, as a most striking example of tongues proving to be a known language. He writes: A pastor in Oregon tells me of a young Japanese woman married to a young American in his congregation. The Japanese girl had never accepted Christ, but came to the altar of the church with her husband, he to worship God, she to pray to Buddha! Just recently, my friend tells me, as the couple knelt at the altar in his church, a woman next to them began to speak in tongues. The Japanese girl clutched her husband’s arm: “Listen,” she said. The woman next to them was speaking Japanese, and through her God said: “You have tried Buddha and he has not helped you; why don’t you try Jesus Christ?” God addressed this Japanese girl by her full name, known to no one in this country, and certainly not to the woman speaking, who had no idea how she was being used. Not only that, but the Japanese girl told my pastor friend: “She was speaking high Japanese, the very formal language which we only use in our temples, and places like that.” Many, many other illustrations of a like nature could be included here, but these should be sufficient for us to see that yes, speaking in tongues today can be in a known language. But again, let us stress that this fact in no way verifies the authenticity of speaking in tongues. It is still a MIRACULOUS GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, even in the majority of cases where no one is present who can identify the language. Baptism For ALL Who Are Far Off ~Introduction~ -by General James Green I WOULD LIKE to address the issue of the baptism in the Holy Ghost and speaking in other tongues (Greek, glossolalia). This most wonderful gift is available today just like it was at the day of Pentecost. Of course, this is a highly controversial subject in the Evangelical world; nevertheless, I want, by God’s grace, to put forth Bible truth to any and all who will read my findings. Both my wife and I received this experience at our salvation back in 1971. We did not know what it was, for we had no one at that time to explain it. Both of us related that this “outpouring” was indeed an “outpouring”—the experience, to me, was like warm liquid love being poured over, not only my physical body, but over my soul and spirit. It was a wonderful feeling. Not only this, but I began to hear a strange language in my head, words that I did not understand, nor would they go away. Being too proud to utter such words (thinking my wife would not understand), I would repeat these words in my mind only. My wife had the same experience, but she chose to say her words, which were not hers at all, but Words of the Spirit. She did this often, and her Spirit language increased. It wasn’t until several months later at several old ladies’ prayer meeting (they were Spirit-filled too!) that I finally, after they laid hands on me and shook me, and commanded me (thank God!), that I spoke out these tongues. Well, that was over 41 years ago, and we both have this gift in abundance. I want to make it clear here that we do not belong to any particular Spirit-filled denomination, nor are we part of, or have anything to do with, this modern Charismatic movement, or even a Pentecostal church. We have the Charismatic gifts and the Pentecostal experience, but we not only feel but also know that some of this “Spirit” stuff that is attributed to the Holy Ghost borders on religious delusion, and sometimes enters into “religious” demon activity. I wish I did not have to say this, but it is true. Of course ,we did, at one time, belong to a Pentecostal church. We were ordained and did missionary work in Mexico. It was there that we began to see strange things that we felt were not of God’s Holy Spirit. After five years, we left. But we still tried to stay in fellowship with other Spirit-filled believers. Finally, the Lord called us to start our own missionary Corps known as Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps. This was done in 1982. I BELIEVE in the baptism of the Holy Ghost and all the gifts listed in 1 Cor. 12. In Chapters 12–14, Paul the great Spirit-apostle deals with the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the body of believers. These gifts were an indispensable part of the early Church’s life and ministry. The Lord intends that these same gifts CONTINUE in operation until He returns in glory. It tells us in 1 Cor. 1:7, “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.” His purposes for the spiritual gifts are as follows: a. TO MANIFEST the grace, love and power of the Holy Spirit among His people in their public meetings, homes, families, and individual lives (vv. 4-7; 14:25; Rom. 15:18-19; Eph. 4:8); b. To help make the teaching/preaching of the Gospel effective by giving supernatural confirmation to the message (Mark 16:15-20; Acts 14:8-18; 16:16-18; 19:11-20; 28:1-10); c. To meet human needs and to strengthen and build up spiritually both the Ekklesia (vv. 7, 14-30; 14:3, 12, 26) and individual Christians (14:4) i.e., to perfect Christians in His love, which comes form a PURE heart and a GOOD conscience and a SINCERE faith (1 Tim.1:5; 1 Cor.13). These things: pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith, are mostly missing today in both Spirit-filled and non-Spirit-filled churches. Sadly, what remains is “religious flesh” posing as Spirit! d. To wage effective spiritual warfare against Satan and ALL his dirty works and demons. (Acts 8:5-7; 26:18; Eph. 6:11-12). (By the sad state of affairs in all churches today, spiritual warfare has been discarded years ago!) Passages dealing with spiritual gifts can be found in Romans 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 1:7, 12-14; Eph. 4:4-16; 1 Peter 4:10, 11. The terms that the Bible uses specify their nature, “Spiritual gifts” (Gk, pneumatika, derived from pneuma, “Spirit”) refers to supernatural (miraculous) manifestations that come as gifts from the Holy Ghost operating through Christian believers for the common good (vv. 1, 7; 14:1). Sadly, the non-believers miss out on God’s “Spirit Power”; therefore, they are left to work by the power of “religious flesh!” How much could be done by HIS SPIRIT?? “Gifts” (“grace gifts”) (Gk. charismatos, derived from charis, “grace”) indicates that spiritual gifts involve both an inward motivation and the POWER to PERFORM your calling /ministry, (i.e., actualized enablement), received from the Spirit of the Living God! Amen and Amen!! Such gifts strengthen spiritually the BELIEVING EKKLESIA and those in need of spiritual help (and all should) (v. 4; see also Romans 12:6; Eph 4:11; 1 Peter 4:10.) “Service” or “ministries” (Gk. diakoniai, derived from diakonia, “service”) emphasizes that there are different ways and means of service and that certain gifts involve receiving the ability and POWER to help others (vv. 4-5, 27-31; Eph. 4:7, 11-13). The apostle Paul indicates that the “ministry” aspect of the gifts reflect the “servant” ministry of Jesus our Lord. So, the operation of the gifts is defined in terms of Christ’s presence and operation among us (cf. v. 3; 1:4) “Working” or “effects” (Gk. energemata, from energes, “active, energetic”) signifies that spiritual gifts are direct operations of the POWER of GOD and produce certain results (vv. 6, 10). Lastly, “The manifestation of the Spirit” (Gk. phanerosis, from phaneros, “manifest”) emphasizes that spiritual gifts are direct manifestations of the working and promise of the Holy Ghost in the congregation (vv. 7-11). In the manifestation of spiritual gifts, Christ Jesus Himself ministers by the Spirit through His Spirit-filled people (vv. 12-27; Matt. 25:40). More will follow on the manifestation of the Spirit in other articles. I would like to mention, in closing, my introductory scripture, 1 Cor. 12:13, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” This baptism “by one Spirit” refers neither to water, nor to Christ’s baptism of the believer in the Holy Ghost, such as occurred on the day of Pentecost. This will be the subject matter of my following articles. Rather, it refers to the Spirit’s baptizing believers into Christ’s universal body, uniting them in the body and making them spiritually one with other believers. Basically, it is a Spirit transformation (i.e., regeneration) that occurs upon REPENTANCE, and then CONVERSION, and puts the believer “in Christ.” Spiritual gifts must be used, not in pride, (God help all of us!) or for personal exaltation. Sadly, too many now use the gifts to get RICH and POPULAR. Much needs to be said here, but I’ll limit my studies to what “used to be” and what “should be.” My next article will deal with, “WERE TONGUES GIVEN AT PENTECOST TO BRIDGE A LANGUAGE BARRIER AND PREACH THE GOSPEL?” I’ll be using NP, short for non-Pentecostal. The NP ministers often claim that the Lord gave tongues at Pentecost (Acts 2) to enable the apostles to preach the Gospel to foreign Jews attending the feast. Donald L. Barrett and Jeff T. McGregor, in their scholarly book, “Speaking in Other Tongues” state: “Non-Pentecostal ministers often claim that God gave tongues on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) to enable the apostles to preach the Gospel to foreign Jews attending the feast. Now, I respectfully ask: Where do these ministers get the idea that the apostles were preaching the Gospel in tongues? The text nowhere says they were preaching. And why do they say that only the apostles were preaching in other tongues, instead of including the rest of “about an hundred and twenty” male disciples, plus women, who spoke in tongues? Nowhere does it say that the twelve apostles, except for Peter, preached to the crowd. And Peter did not preach in other tongues, for he was well aware of what he was saying (When one prays in an unknown tongue, his spirit prays, but his understanding is unfruitful, 1 Cor. 14:14). Peter did speak in tongues also, but that was when he and the others were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began praising God together in tongues before the multitude of Jews had assembled (v. 4). If they were preaching, why did they preach before the people gathered? After all, the tongues were what attracted the crowds to the upper room (v. 6). And why would it be necessary to preach to the foreign Jews in many languages, since the dispersed Jews all shared a common language? And why would the disciples all preach the Gospel at once? That would be utter confusion! Why didn’t they divide up the crowd by languages and preach to each group separately, without confusion? No church today would consider allowing many preachers to speak at the same time! Only if each one was praying to God, not preaching to man, could such a practice be justified. NON-CHARISMATICS HAVE NO SATISFACTORY ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS! If “the apostles” were preaching one at a time, as some say, then why did the mockers say they were drunk? Everyone knew that Jews from many countries were attending the feast. If there was a language barrier, wouldn’t they be accustomed to standing by while various interpretations were made for the foreign Jews? And how could these unlettered apostles be accused of drunkenness if they were suddenly enabled to preach in foreign languages? Do drunks do that? Why is it that all those who believe that tongues were for preaching the Gospel are in the non-Charismatic camp? The Charismatic scholars (most of whom were once non-Charismatic scholars, including men with earned doctorates, esteemed in the church) do not think tongues were used to preach the Gospel. Why not? And if the non-Charismatics really have any proof for the “tongues for preaching” position, why is it that many of their own Bible commentators desert them on this point? (The following commentators reject the "tongues for preaching" theory, either directly (by refuting it) or indirectly (by stating that the disciples were praising God rather than preaching): Lyman Abbott; Henry Alford; M. Baumgarten (Apostolic History); J. A. Bengel; David Brown (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary); P.C. Cook (Anglican Bishops' Commentary); Davidson, Stibbs, and Kevan (New Bible Commentary); AC. Gaebelein; P. J. Gloag; RC. H. Lenski; H.A.W. Meyer: G. Campbell Morgan; ER Plumptre (Ellicott’s Commentary); RB. Rackham; A.T. Robertson; John Wesley.) And if they believe that God gave tongues to bridge a language barrier, why are they against tongues? And why doesn’t anyone offer any Scriptural or historical proof for a language barrier, that we may also see it and be convinced? The only reason anti-tongues teachers could have for advancing such unbiblical, anti-historical, and illogical theories, is that THEY SIMPLY CANNOT ACCEPT THE IDEA THAT TONGUES ARE THE SIGN OF THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, FOR THAT WOULD UPSET THEIR THEOLOGICAL APPLE CART! Their church tradition compels them to find some other purpose for tongues—something that would lend credence to the idea that “tongues have ceased.” They can breathe a lot easier when reading the book of Acts if they can somehow deduce that tongues were only for unusual and temporary purposes. And this is exactly the kind of interpretation they have come up with, as unscriptural as it is. Before determining whether tongues were given at Pentecost to bridge a language barrier, we must answer a more primary question. Was there a language barrier to bridge? This chapter examines the records of history and Scripture to prove that there was not (cf. pgs. 17&18). Baptism For ALL Who Are Far Off ~Part 1~ by General James Green THE LANGUAGE BARRIER? W HEN THE APOSTLE Peter preached to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, they understood him well. The fact is that there was no confusion, for he had to have preached in either Aramaic or Greek. Scholars are divided on this. A.] Aramaic language in a historical perspective: It is agreed among Bible scholars that the first-century Jews’ language in Palestine was Aramaic. [see Colin Brown, ed., “The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology,” Vol. 1, pg. 51]. Aramaic is, as some say, the close cousin of Hebrew, and had at that time in history replaced the Jews’ native tongue. This ancient Near-Eastern language had its beginning during Israel’s 70-year Babylonian Captivity. During Jesus’ day, Scriptures were read in Hebrew during synagogue meetings. The language was still considered “sacred.” The Hebrew language was then translated into the Aramaic vernacular, [see Alfred Edersheim, “The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,” Vol. 1, pg. 10]. So the Diaspora Jews that came to the annual Jewish feasts had to have known Aramaic (or Hebrew) in order to participate in the synagogue services. It is reported that most Jews spoke Aramaic. Researchers say that the Jewish population of Egypt and Babylon was greater than Jerusalem and they spoke Aramaic. The Greek-speaking Jews were smaller and more scattered (w. Zacher, “Aramaic Language Among the Jews,” “The Jewish Encyclopedia” ed. by Isidore Singer, Vol. 2, pg. 69.) They say that even among these, many kept their knowledge of Aramaic, especially the devout ones. Since the time of the Persian and Assyrian empires, Aramaic was the international language from the border of India on the east to Egypt and Asia Minor on the west. This is stated according to “International Standard Bible Encyclopedia,” Vol. pg. 222, under “Aramaic Language.” All this territory would include most of that mentioned in Acts 2. According to Acts 21:37, 38, the Chief Captain thought Paul was an Egyptian and was surprised that he knew Greek. This tells us that he expected Aramaic, not Greek as his language. According to “The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible,” (Vol. 1, pg. 188), the Aramaic language remained the most popular tongue of the east until displaced by Arabic in the Moslem Conquests of the 8th Century. The existence of several Syriac (Aramaic) N.T. Versions is evidence that many Christians east of the Mediterranean found it necessary to have the Greek Scriptures translated into their Aramaic tongue (Ibid., pg.189). In Kurdistan today, this language is spoken by both Christian and Jew. Concerning Spiritual Gifts by Smith Wigglesworth [emph., punct., and brackets added] I N 1 COR. 12:1 we read, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." There is a great weakness in the church of Christ because of an awful ignorance concerning the Spirit of God and the gifts He has come to bring. God would have us powerful on all lines because of the revelation of the knowledge of His will concerning the power and manifestation of His Spirit. He would have us ever-hungering to receive more and more of His Spirit. In times past, I have arranged many conventions, and I have found that it is better to have a man on my platform who has not received the Baptism, but who is hungry for all that God has for him, than a man who has received the Baptism, and is satisfied and has settled down and become stationary and stagnant. But of course, I would prefer a man that is baptized with the Holy Ghost and is still hungry for more of God. A man who is not hungry to receive more of God is out of order in any convention. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of being filled with the Spirit. It is impossible for us to meet the conditions of the day: to walk in the light as He is in the light, to subdue kingdoms, and work righteousness, and bind the power of Satan—unless we are filled with the Holy Ghost. We read that in the early church, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. It is important for us also to continue steadfastly in these same things. For some years, I was associated with the Plymouth Brethren. They are very strong on the Word and are sound on water baptism, and they do not neglect the breaking of bread service but have it every Lord's Day morning as they had it in the early church [Sound to me just like the Amish, Hutterites, and even the Mennonites as well!]. These people seem to have everything except the match: They have the wood, but THEY NEED THE FIRE and then they would be all ablaze. Because they lack the fire of the Holy Spirit, there is no life in their meetings. One young man who attended their meetings received the Baptism with the speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. The brethren were very upset about this and came to the father and said to him, "You must take your son aside and tell him to cease." They did not want any disturbance. The father told the son, "My boy, I have been attending this church for twenty years and have never seen anything of this kind. We are established in the truth and do not want anything new. We won't have it." The son replied, "If that is God's plan, I will obey, but somehow or other I don't think it is." As they were going home, the horse stood still; the wheels were in deep ruts. The father pulled at the reins but the horse did not move. He asked, "What do you think is up?" The son answered, "It has [been] established." GOD SAVE US FROM BECOMING STATIONARY. Beseech God GOD WOULD HAVE us to understand concerning spiritual gifts and to covet earnestly the best gifts, and also to enter into the more excellent way of the fruit of the Spirit. WE MUST BESEECH GOD FOR THESE GIFTS. It is a serious thing to have the Baptism, and yet be stationary; to live two days in succession on the same spiritual plane is a tragedy. We must be willing to DENY OURSELVES EVERYTHING TO RECEIVE THE REVELATION OF GOD'S TRUTH and to receive the fullness of the Spirit. Only that will satisfy God, and nothing less must satisfy us. A young Russian received the Holy Spirit and was mightily endued with power from on High. Some sisters were anxious to know the secret of his power. The secret of his power was continuous waiting upon God. As the Holy Ghost filled him, it seemed as though every breath became a prayer, and so all his ministry was on an increasing line. I know a man who was full of the Holy Ghost and would preach only when he knew that he was mightily unctioned by the power of God. He was asked to preach at a Methodist church. He was staying at the minister's house and he said, "You go on to church, and I will follow." The place was packed with people and this man did not turn up and the Methodist minister, becoming anxious, sent his little girl to inquire why he did not come. As she came to the bedroom door, she heard him crying out three times, "I will not go." She went back and reported that she heard the man say three times that he would not go. The minister was troubled about it, but almost immediately after this, the man came in, and, as he preached that night, the power of God was tremendously manifested. The preacher asked him, "Why did you tell my daughter that you were not coming?" He answered, "I know when I am filled. I am an ordinary man, and I told the Lord that I dared not go and would not go until He gave me a fresh filling of the Spirit. The moment the glory filled me and overflowed, I came to the meeting." The Power YES, THERE IS A POWER, a blessing, an assurance, a rest in the presence of the Holy Ghost. You can feel His presence and know that He is with you. You need not spend an hour without this inner knowledge of His holy presence. With His power upon you, there can be no failure. You are above par all the time. "Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led." This is the Gentile day. When the Jews refused the blessings of God, He scattered them, and He has grafted the Gentiles into the olive tree where the Jews were broken off. There never has been a time when God has been so favorable to a people who were not a people. He has brought in the Gentiles to carry out His purpose of preaching the gospel to all nations and to receive the power of the Holy Ghost to accomplish this task. It is of the MERCY OF GOD that He has turned to the Gentiles and made us partakers of all the blessings that belong to the Jews; and here under this canopy of glory, because we believe, we get all the blessings of faithful Abraham. "Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." There are many evil, deceiving spirits sent forth in these last days who endeavor to rob Jesus of His Lordship and of His rightful place. Many are opening the doors to these latest devils—such as New Theology and New Thought and Christian Science. These evil cults deny the fundamental truths of God's Word. They all deny eternal punishment, and all deny the deity of Jesus Christ. You will never see the Baptism of the Holy Ghost come upon a man who accepts these errors. Neither will you see a Romanist [true Roman Catholic] receive it. They put Mary in the place of the Holy Ghost. I would like you to produce a Romanist who knows that he is saved. No man can know he is saved by works. If you ever speak to a Romanist, you will know that he is not definite on the line of the new birth. He cannot be. Another thing, you will never find a Russellite [Jehovah’s Witness] get baptized in the Holy Ghost; nor a member of any other cult that does not put the Lord Jesus Christ PRE-EMINENT above all. The all important thing is to make JESUS LORD. Men can grow lopsided by emphasizing the truth of divine healing. Man can get wrong by all the time preaching on water baptism. But, we never go wrong in exalting the Lord Jesus Christ—giving Him the preeminent place and magnifying Him as both Lord, and Christ, and yes, as very God, of very God. As we are filled with the Holy Ghost, our one desire is to magnify Him. We need to be filled with the Spirit to get the full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. GOD'S COMMAND IS FOR US TO BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. WE ARE NO GOOD if we have only a full cup; we need to have an overflowing cup all the time. It is a tragedy not to live in the fullness of overflowing. See that you never live below the overflowing tide. "Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit." Every manifestation of the Spirit is given that we might "profit withal." When the Holy Spirit is moving in an assembly, and His gifts are in operation, everyone will receive profit. I have seen some who have been terribly switched. They believe in gifts, in prophecy, and they use these gifts apart from the power of the Holy Ghost. We must look to the Holy Spirit to show us the use of the gifts, what they are for, and when to use them—so that we may never use them without the power of the Holy Ghost [like some modern day Pentecostals/Charismatics do]. I do not know of anything which is so awful today as people using a gift without the power. Never do it; God save us from doing it. A man who is filled with the Holy Ghost, while he may not be conscious of having any gift of the Spirit, can have the gifts made manifest through him. I have gone to many places to help, and have found that under the unction of the Holy Spirit, many wonderful things have happened in the midst when the glory of the Lord was upon the people. Any man who is filled with God and filled with His Spirit might at any moment have any of the nine gifts made manifest through him without [even] knowing that he has a gift. Sometimes, I have wondered whether it was better to be always full of the Holy Ghost, and to see signs, and wonders, and miracles without any consciousness of possessing a gift(s), or whether it was better to know one has a gift. If you have received the gifts of the Spirit, and they have been blessed, you should never under any circumstances use them without the power of God upon you pressing the gift through. Be IN The Spirit SOME HAVE USED the prophetic gift without the holy touch, and they have come into the realm of the natural, and it has brought ruin, caused dissatisfaction, broken hearts, upset assemblies. DO NOT SEEK THE GIFTS UNLESS YOU ARE PURPOSED TO ABIDE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. They should be manifested only in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord will allow you to be very drunk in His presence, but sober among people. I like to see people so filled with the Spirit that they are drunk like the 120 on the Day of Pentecost, but I don't like to see people drunk in the wrong place. That is what troubles us, somebody being drunk in a place of worship where a lot of people come in that know nothing about the Word. If you allow yourself to be drunk there, you send people away; they look at you instead of seeing God. They condemn the whole thing because you have not been sober at the right time. Paul writes, "For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause" (2 Co. 5:13). You can be beside yourself. You can go a bit further than being drunk. You can dance, if you will do it at the right time. So many things are commendable when all the people are in the Spirit. Many things are very foolish if the people round about you are not in the Spirit. We must be careful not to have a good time at the expense of somebody else. When you have a good time, you must see that the spiritual conditions in the place lend themselves to help you, and that the people are falling in line with you. Then you will find it always a blessing. While it is right to covet earnestly the best gifts, you must recognize that the [most] important thing is to be filled with the power of the Holy Ghost Himself. You will never have trouble with people who are filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, but you will have a lot of trouble with people who have the gifts and have no power. The Lord wants us to come behind [Him even if we have no] gift(s), but at the same time, He wants us to be so filled with the Holy Ghost that it will be the Holy Spirit manifesting Himself through the gifts. Where the glory of God alone is desired, you can look for every needed gift to be made manifest. To glorify God is better than to idolize gifts. We prefer the Spirit of God to any gift; but we can look for the Trinity in manifestation—different gifts, but the same Spirit, different administrations, but the same Lord, diversities of operation, but the same God working all in all. Can you conceive of what it will mean for our Triune God to be manifesting Himself in His fullness in our assemblies? Watch that great locomotive boiler as it is filled with steam. You can see the engine letting off some of the steam as it remains stationary. It looks as though the whole thing might burst. You can see saints like that. They start to scream, but that is not to edification. But when the locomotive moves on, it serves the purpose for which it was built, and pulls along much traffic with it. It is wonderful to be filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, and for Him to serve His own purposes through us. Through our lips divine utterances flow, our hearts rejoice, and our tongue is glad. It is an inward power within which is manifested in outward expression. Jesus Christ is glorified. AS YOUR FAITH IN HIM IS QUICKENED, FROM WITHIN YOU THERE WILL FLOW RIVERS OF LIVING WATER! The Holy Spirit will pour through you like a great river of life, and thousands will be blessed because you are a yielded channel thrugh whom the Spirit may flow. OVERFLOWING THE MOST IMPORTANT thing, the one thing that counts, is to see that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, filled to overflowing. Anything less than this is displeasing to God. We are commanded by God to be filled with the Spirit, and in the measure you fail of this, you are that far short of the plan of God. The Lord would have us moving on from faith to faith, from glory to glory, from fullness to overflowing. It is not good for us to be ever thinking in the past tense, but we should be moving on to the place where we dare believe God. He has declared that after the Holy Ghost is come upon us, [then] we shall have power. I believe there is an avalanche of power from God to be apprehended if we will but catch the vision. Paul wrote at one time, "I will now come to visions and revelations." God has put us in a place where He expects us to have His latest revelation—the revelation of that marvelous fact: CHRIST IN US, and what this really means. We can apprehend Christ fully only as we are filled and overflowing with the Spirit of God. Our only safeguard from dropping back into our natural mind from which we can never get anything, is to be filled and yet filled again with the Spirit of God, and to be taken on to visions and revelations on a new line. The reason why I emphasize the importance of the fullness of the Holy Ghost is that I want to get you beyond all human plans and thoughts, and into the fullness of vision, into the full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you want rest? It is in Jesus. Do you want to be saved from everything the devil is bringing up in these last times? Receive and continue in the fullness of the Holy Ghost, and He will be ever revealing to you that all you need for all times is in Christ Jesus your Lord. Spirit-Controlled I DESIRE to emphasize the importance of the Spirit's ministration and of the manifestation of the Spirit which is given to every man to profit withal. As you yield to the Spirit of the Lord, He has power over your intellect, over your heart, and over your voice. The Holy Spirit has power to unveil Christ and to project the vision of Christ upon the canvas of your mind, and then He uses your tongue to glorify and magnify Him in a way that you could never do apart from the Spirit's power. Never say that when you are filled with the Holy Ghost you are "obliged" to do this or that. When people say that they are "obliged" to do this or that, I know it is not the Spirit of God, but their own spirit moving them on to do that which is unseemly and unprofitable. Lots of people spoil meetings because they scream. If you want to do that kind of thing, you had better get into some cellar. That is not to edification. I believe that, when the Spirit of God is upon you, and moving you to speak as He gives utterance, it will always be to edification. BUT DON'T SPOIL THE PRAYER MEETING BECAUSE WHEN YOU OUGHT TO STOP, YOU GO ON. WHO SPOILS THE PRAYER MEETING? THE MAN WHO STARTS IN THE SPIRIT, AND FINISHES IN THE FLESH. Nothing is more lovely than prayer, but a prayer meeting is killed if you will go on and on in your own spirit—when the Spirit of God is through with you. You say as you come from some meetings, "That was a lovely message if the preacher only had stopped half an hour before he did." Learn to cease immediately [once] the unction of the Spirit lifts. The Holy Ghost is jealous. Your body is the temple, the office of the Holy Ghost, but He does not fill the temple for human glorification, but only for the glory of God. You have no license to continue beyond a "Thus saith the Lord." There is another side to this. God would have the assembly as free as possible, and you must not put your hand upon the working of the Spirit, or it will surely bring trouble. You must be prepared to allow a certain amount of extravagance in young and newly baptized souls. YOU MUST REMEMBER THAT WHEN YOU WERE BROUGHT INTO THIS LIFE OF THE SPIRIT, YOU HAD AS MANY EXTRAVAGANCES AS ANYBODY, BUT YOU HAVE NOW BECOME SOMEWHAT SOBERED DOWN. It is a pity that some do get sobered down, for they are not where they were in the early days. WE HAVE TO LOOK TO GOD FOR WISDOM THAT WE DO NOT INTERFERE, OR DAMPEN THE SPIRIT, OR QUENCH THE POWER OF GOD WHEN LIFE IS MANIFESTED IN OUR MEETINGS. If you want to have an assembly full of life, you must have an assembly full of manifestation. Nobody will come if there is no manifestation. We need to look to God for special grace that we do not move back to looking at things from a natural viewpoint. The preacher, after he loses his unction, should inwardly repent and get right with God and get the unction back. We are no good without the unction of the Spirit of God. If you are filled with the grace of God, you will not be judging everybody in the assembly, you will rather be trusting everybody, you will not be frightened at what is being done. You will have a heart to believe all things, and to believe that though there may be some extravagances, the Spirit of God will take control of things and will see that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is exalted, glorified, and revealed to hungry hearts that desire to know Him. The Lord would have us wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil, free from distrust, entering into a divine likeness to Jesus that dares [to] believe that God Almighty will surely watch over all. Hallelujah! In Our Bodies THE HOLY GHOST is the One who magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who gives illumination of Him. If you are filled with the Holy Ghost, it is impossible to keep your tongue still. Talk about a dumb baptized soul! It is not to be found in the Scriptures or outside of the Scriptures. We are filled with the Spirit in order that we may magnify the Lord, and there should be no meeting in which the saints do not glorify, magnify, praise, and worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth. I would like to give one word of caution, for failure often comes through our not recognizing the fact that we are always in the body. We will need our bodies as long as we live. But, our body is to be used and controlled by the Spirit of God. We are to present our bodies, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. Every member of our body must be so sanctified that it works in harmony with the Spirit of God. Our very eyes must be sanctified. God hates the winking of the eye. From the day that I read in the Proverbs what God had to say about the winking of the eye (Pro. 6:13; Pro. 10:10), I have never winked. I desire that my eyes may be so sanctified that they can always be used for the Lord. THE SPIRIT OF GOD WILL BRING WITHIN US A COMPASSION FOR SOULS THAT WILL BE SEEN IN OUR VERY EYES. Natural, Then Spiritual GOD HAS NEVER changed the order of things that first, there comes the natural, and then the spiritual. For instance, when it is on your heart to pray, you begin in the natural and your second word will probably be under the power of the Spirit. You begin and God will end. It is the same in giving forth utterances under the Spirit's power. You feel the moving of the Spirit within, and you begin to speak, and [then] the Spirit of God will give forth utterance. Thousands have missed wonderful blessings because they have not had faith to move out and begin in the natural, in faith that the Lord would take them into the realm of the supernatural. When you receive the Holy Ghost, you receive God's Gift, in whom are all the gifts of the Spirit. Paul counsels Timothy to “stir up the gift...within.” You have power to stir up God's executive within you. The way you stir up the gift within you is by beginning in faith, and then He gives forth what is needed for the occasion. You would never begin, unless you were full of God. When we yield to timidity and fear, we simply yield to Satan. Satan whispers, "It is all self." He is a liar. I have learned this: if the Spirit of God is stirring me up, I have no hesitation in beginning to speak in tongues, and the Spirit of God gives me utterance and gives me the interpretation. I find that every time I yield to the Lord on this line, I get a divine touch, I get a leading thought from the Spirit of God, and the meeting is moved up on the line of faith. Peter and John Had... WHEN A MAN is filled with the Spirit, he has no conception of what he has. We are so limited in our conception of what we have received. The only way we can know the power that has been given, is through the ministration and manifestation of the Spirit of God. Do you think that Peter and John knew what they had when they went up to the temple to pray? They were limited in thought and limited in their expression. The nearer we get to God, the more conscious we are of the poverty of the [self], and we cry with Isaiah, "I am undone, I am unclean." But, the Lord will bring the precious blood, and the flaming coals for cleansing, and refining, and send us out to labor for Him—empowered by His Spirit. God has sent forth this outpouring that we may all be brought into a revelation of our sonship: that we are sons of God, men of power, that we are to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are to have the powers of sonship, the power to lay hold of that which is weak and to quicken it. The Baptism of the Spirit is to make us sons of God with power. We shall be conscious of our human limits, BUT WE SHALL NOT LIMIT THE HOLY ONE WHO HAS COME TO DWELL WITHIN. We must believe that since the Holy Ghost has come upon us, [that] we are indeed sons of God with power... Peter and John knew that they had been in the upper room: they had felt the glory; they had been given divine utterances. They had seen conviction on the people. They knew that they had come into a wonderful thing. They knew that what they had would be ever increasing, and that it would be ever needful to cry, "Enlarge the vessel that the Holy Ghost may have more room within." They knew that all the old things were moved away, and they had entered into an increasing and ever increasing knowledge of God, and that it was their Master's wish that they should be filled with the Spirit of God, and with power every day and every hour. The secret of power is the unveiling of Christ, the all-powerful One within, the revelation of God who comes to abide within us. As they looked upon the crippled man at the Beautiful Gate, they were filled with compassion. They were prompted by the Spirit to stop and speak with him. They said to the lame man, "Look on us." It was God's plan that the man should open his eyes with expectation. Peter said, "Of silver and gold we have none. But we have something and we will give it to you. We don't know what it is, but we give it to you. It is all in the name of Jesus," and then began the ministry of God. To One Is Given... YOU BEGIN IN FAITH, and you see what will happen. It is bidden from us at the beginning, but as we have faith in God, He will come forth. The coming forth of the power is not of us, but of God. There is no limit to what He will do. It is all in a nutshell as you believe God. And so Peter said, "Such as I have I give to thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." And the man who had been in that way for forty years stood up, and began to leap, and entered into the temple walking and leaping and praising God. "For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom." I want you to keep in mind the importance of never expecting the gifts of the Spirit apart from the power of the Spirit. In coveting the best gifts, covet to be so full of God and His glory that the gifts in manifestation will ALWAYS GLORIFY HIM. We do not know all, and we cannot know all that can be brought forth in the manifestation of the word of wisdom. One word of wisdom from God, one flash of light on the Word of God, is sufficient to save us from a thousand pitfalls. People have built without a word from God, they have bought things without a word from God, and they have been ensnared. They have lacked that word of wisdom which will bring them into God's plan for their lives. I have been in many places where I have needed a word of wisdom from God, and this has been vouchsafed. Seek God First! I WILL GIVE YOU one instance. There is one thing I am very grateful to the Lord for, and that is that He has given me grace not to have a desire for money. The love of money is a great hindrance to many; and many a man is crippled in his ministry because he lets his heart run after financial matters. I was walking out one day when I met a godly man who lived opposite me and he said, "My wife and I have been talking together about selling our house, and we feel constrained to sell it to you." As we talked together, he persuaded me to buy his place, and before we said good-by I told him that I would take it. We always make big mistakes when we are in a hurry. I told my wife what I had promised, and she said, "How will you manage it?" I told her that I had managed things so far, but I did not know how I was going to get through this. I somehow knew that I was out of divine order. But when a fellow gets out of divine order, it seems that the last person he goes to is God. I was relying on an architect to help me, but that scheme fell through. I turned to my relations, and I certainly had a wet shirt as one after another turned me down. I tried my friends and managed no better. My wife said to me, "Thou hast never been to God Yet." What could I do? I have a certain place in our house where I go to pray. I Have been there very often. As I went, I said, "Lord, if You will get me out of this scrape, I will never trouble Thee on this line again." As I waited on the Lord, He just gave me one word. It seemed a ridiculous thing, but it was the wisest counsel. There is divine wisdom in every word He speaks. I came down to my wife, saying, "What do you think? The Lord has told me to go to Brother Webster." I said, "It seems very ridiculous, for he is one of the poorest men I know." He was the poorest man I knew, but he was also the richest man I knew, for he knew God. My wife said, "Do what God says, and it will be right." I went off at once to see him, and he said as he greeted me, "Smith, what brings you so early?" I answered, "The word of God." I said to him, "About three weeks ago I promised to buy a house of a man, and I am short 100 pounds ($500). I have tried to get this money, but somehow I seem to have missed God." "How is it," he asked, "that you have come to me only now?" I answered, "Because I went to the Lord about it only last night." "Well," he said, "it is a strange thing; three weeks ago I had 100 pounds. For years, I have been putting money into a co-operative system and three weeks ago I had to go and draw 100 pounds out. I hid it under the mattress. Come with me, and you shall have it. Take it. I hope it will bring as great a blessing to you as it has been a trouble to me." I had [gotten] a word from God, and all my troubles were ended. This has been multiplied in a hundred ways since that time. If I had been walking along filled with the Holy Ghost, I would not have bought that house, and would not have had all that strain. I believe the Lord wants to loose us from [the] things of earth. But I am ever grateful for that word from God. There have been times in my life when I have been in great crises and under great weight of intercession. I have gone to the meeting without the knowledge of what I would say, but somehow or other, God would vouchsafe the coming forth under the power of the Spirit of some word of wisdom, just what some souls in that meeting needed. AS WE LOOK TO GOD, HIS MIND WILL BE MADE KNOWN, AND HIS REVELATION AND HIS WORD OF WISDOM WILL BE FORTH COMING. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth JESUS AS LORD, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). "For TO THIS END Christ died and lived again, THAT HE MIGHT BE LORD of both the dead and the living" (Rom. 14:9). Q: I hear about people ‘speaking in tongues’ but my question is WHY? My life is just fine; what would it help me with? A: Oh, EVERYTHING! However, it won’t help YOU per se, but it will help the Christ-man in you etc. This question can best be answered by an example of what the Holy Spirit can do for people. Note in these true testimonies (among many others), the blessedness of believing, and repenting. Also, compare the attitudes of the ones who do not believe in the Holy Spirit/Jesus moving, with those who believe...and look at what they receive! Glossolalia -or- Speaking in Tongues Donald Lee Barnett D.D. (First printing 1969) [emph., punct., and brackets added] QUESTION: “Can't I be baptized in the Holy Spirit without speaking in tongues?” ANSWER: The answer to the question asked is not so much that one NEEDS to speak in tongues, as it is that he WILL speak in tongues. Just as water is the visible sign of being baptized into Christ's death, (Rom 6:3) so tongues is the visible sign of the Spirit baptism. Those who are not willing to receive the Holy Spirit God's way, do not receive. Charles Finney said: "I have known persons to remain for weeks in great tribulation of mind, pressed by the Spirit; but they could make no progress until the point upon which they were committed was yielded." I have myself, known of several cases where SOMEONE COULD NOT RECEIVE THE BAPTISM UNTIL HE OR SHE BECAME SO HUNGRY FOR GOD THAT THEY NO LONGER CARED WHAT OTHERS THOUGHT ABOUT THEM. The Biblical pattern is for tongues to accompany the receiving of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:4; 10:44-46; 19:6). Even in Acts 8:18 where tongues are not specifically mentioned, the internal weight of evidence would favor this practice (compare Acts 2:4 with 2:16-18; Acts 9:17 with 1 Cor 14:18). In 1960, Father Bennett received a call from a fellow priest in Van Nuys, California, who had noticed something mysterious happening in his church. Two of the parishioners had suddenly begun to attend every service, bringing friends, volunteering for jobs, and tripling their giving. It was found that these two had received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the attended speaking in tongues. After visiting a prayer meeting with several newly baptized believers, Father Bennett asked to be prayed for that he might also receive. "But’" said Father Bennett, "I'd like the Baptism without tongues." “Sorry, Father,” he was told, "But the tongues come with the package. At least, in the Bible, this is the normal sequence." And when Rev. Bennett did receive, it was not without the experience of glossolalia, which he never regretted. I NEVER teach anyone to seek tongues; but I do council them to be willing to yield their speech faculties to the Holy Spirit. We seek the Holy Spirit, not tongues—BUT TONGUES IS THE EVIDENCE OF BEING FILLED. Notice that Luke tells us that upon the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost, “FOR they HEARD them speak with tongues” (Acts 10:45-46). Verses 45 and 46 are rendered as one sentence in Nestle's, Diaglott, Rotherham, etc. Paul expected converts to KNOW whether they were filled; expecting a definite experience subsequent to conversion (Acts 19:2, 6). WE SHOULD NOT FEAR THE GIFT(S) OF OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, for He will not give a stone when we ask for bread—but He will surely give the Holy Ghost IF we ask and seek (Lu. 11:9-13; Mtt. 5:6). When the tongue is yielded, all other less unruly members are also yielded (Ja. 3:2-8). Speaking in an unknown tongue by the Spirit, therefore, indicates that ALL of the faculties of that person are yielded to God. Hence, tongues are a sign of being completely yielded—so as to receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. This question brings the following questions to my mind: 1. "What is the matter with the Scriptural pattern of speaking in tongues when one receives the Holy Spirit?" (Acts 2:4; 10:44-46; 19:2, 6). Paul thanked God that he DID speak in tongues (I Cor. 14:18). 2. Can it be that Christians have too much pride to follow the example of Paul and other early Christians? 3. Are they too afraid of what others who do not understand these spiritual things will say? 4. ARE THEY FEARFUL OF TRUSTING THEMSELVES TO THE HOLY SPIRIT? 5. Is it that many cannot believe that God gives His gifts for a purpose, and therefore they question the value of tongues? The Bible says that the things of the Spirit are foolishness to men (I Cor. 2:13, 14). Were not the 120 mocked on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:13). Was not Jesus spit upon (Mtt. 27:30), the Baptist accused of having a demon (Luke 7:33), and Paul charged with being mad (Acts 26:24)? David was despised for dancing in the Spirit (II Sam 6:14, 16), Phillip was caught away by the Spirit (Acts 8:39), and John fell as dead before the Lord (Rev 1:17). Paul had revelations (Eph 3:3) and sent out anointed aprons (Acts 19:12). Do we believe in these miracles? Would we be ashamed to do likewise? Can we honestly by-pass glossolalia and these other charismatic experiences by relegating them to Bible days? Luther talked with the devil and even threw an ink stand at his apparition. Wesley groaned for hours in the Spirit without uttering a word. On another occasion, he tells of being flooded with intense light, much as Saul of Tarsus was. Finney also was flooded with light that was too intense for his eyes and that almost prostrated him to the ground. Is it possible that these great men of God and countless others that have been the bulwarks of the faith are fanatics?, or insane?, or liars? Similar events still happen quite frequently; men's needs remain the same; and, of course, Jesus is the same. QUESTION: “Is it not true that the two oldest manuscripts do not contain Mk. 16:9-20; and therefore, the reference to tongues in v. 17 is without true authority?” ANSWER: NO, this statement, although often heard and seen in print, is not quite correct and is very misleading. MSS (manuscripts) B and Aleph are often referred to as the two oldest MSS because they are the oldest "substantially complete" Greek MSS. And it is true that in this case the oldest MSS (John Rylands, Eggerton, and Chester Beatty MSS) do not contain the Book of Mark, and so, naturally, cannot enter into the evidence on the question of Mark 16 here. But, not only do the oldest two substantially complete MSS not constitute final authority on any MS question, but there is evidence to suggest that Mk. 16:9-20 belongs in at least one of them. Manuscript B has a large blank area after Mk. 19:9, large enough to include the remainder of the chapter. J. N. Darby says that this blank area is proof that the copyist must have been copying from an obliterated or torn M5, and left a space hoping it could be filled in later from another source. It is true that MS Aleph does not contain these verses, but MSS A, C, and D (the next oldest Gr. [=Greek] M55) do. Jay Green, author of The Multilinear Translation of the New Testament says in a note on Mk. 16:9-2U: B leaves a blank column where this last portion of Mark would have appeared. Aleph in this section is loosely copied, having fully enough excess space to accommodate these twelve verses. The "Vetus Itala," the Latin Vulgate and all Latin Versions from Ambrose and St. Augustus on, contain Mk. 16:17. The "Vetus Itala" MS is approximately 200 years older than MS Aleph (which omits this portion of Scripture). The Gospels which Jerome translated from older Gr. MSS, appeared in 383 A.D., a date not far from that of the Aleph MS. There are sixteen 2nd and 3rd century writings of the early church fathers that quote from the last portion of Mark's Gospel. Inasmuch as these writers lived prior to the writing of M55 B and Aleph, the probability of Mk. 16:17 being authentic is very strong. Out of 618 Gr. MSS that contain the Gospels, only two do not have these verses—Dake’s Annotated Bible. The Syriac (2nd C.), Sahidic (3rd C.), Coptic (4th C.), Gothic (4th C. and later), the Egyptian versions, the Eithioptic (4th C.), the Armenian (Sth C.), and Georgian (6th C.) all have Mark's reference to other tongues. In fact, there are only two important MSS (besides B and Aleph) that do not have these verses: The old Latin MS R and an early Syriac MS discovered at Mt. Sinai in 1892 by Agnes S. Lewis. It would be inconceivable (and most evangelical scholars agree) for the Holy Ghost to have inspired Mark to end his epistle in the middle of the account of the Resurrection news, with the closing words of Mk. 16:8 "and they were afraid." Dummelow says that this Resurrection account would be unaccountably brief, if this were so. Rev. Dummelow comments on the later part of Mark, in his popular Bible Commentary, in these words: "From the 2nd Century onwards, in nearly all MSS, versions, and other authorities, it forms an integral part of the Gospels, and it can be shown to have existed, if not in the Apostolic, at least in the sub-apostolic age. There is a certain amount of evidence against it (though very little can be shown to be independent of Eusebius, the Church Historian, 265-340 A.D.), but certainly not enough to justify its rejection." Summary of Evidence Century Manuscript Mk. 16:17? 2nd Vetus Itala (Latin) yes 2nd Church Fathers (Quotes) yes 2nd Curetonian (Syriac) yes 3rd Church Fathers (Quotes) yes 3rd Sahidic (Egyptian) yes 3rd Old Latin MSS yes 4th MSS B (Greek) Space left 4th MS Aleph (Greek) no 4th? MS K (Latin) no 4th All other Latin MS yes 4th? Syriac MS (Agnes Lewis) no 4th Gothic MSS yes 4th Coptic MSS yes 4th Egyptian MSS yes 4th Peshitto (Aramaic) [Note*] yes 4th Church Fathers yes 4th Latin Vulgate yes 4th-5th Freer MS W (Greek) yes 5th MS A (Greek) yes 5th MS C (Greek) yes 5th Latin MSS yes 5th Armenian MSS yes 5th Gothic MSS yes 5th Coptic MSS yes 5th Aramaic yes 6th MS D (Greek) yes [Note*—"Some" say 150 A.D., but this seems highly doubtful, as most experts agree.] The 8th Century Gr. MS L has a different shorter ending (quite clearly a late change, according to most authorities). Most scholars agree that whether the last part of Mark was written by John Mark or by another, and whether or not it is exactly the same Mark [who] wrote it, that it none the less has an authentic foundation, and is substantially correct. Almostost all scholars think that Mark's original Gospel continued past v. 8 (including: Westcott and Hort, Nestle, Young, Darby, Beza, Rotherham, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Erasmus, and Calvin). The preponderant weight of evidence favors Mk. 16:9-20 as being authentic; but even if it were not, we have many other Scriptures that confirm the same truth. From the book “GLOSSOLALIA” Replies to Anti-Pentecostal Charges Donald Lee Barnett D.D. (First printing 1969) ASSERTION: “Every believer has the indwelling of the Holy Ghost; without it, one cannot be saved.” REPLY: It is impossible for believers to have the Holy Spirit DWELLING in them if they have not RECEIVED Him; and Acts 8:15-17 states very plainly that those who believed in Jesus and were baptized in water, in His name, did not RECEIVE the Holy Ghost until after the Apostles came down from Jerusalem, and laid hands upon them. Up until this time, the Holy Ghost had FALLEN upon none of them (v.16). "Fallen"—the term used here is the same one used in Acts 10:44 when the Holy Spirit FELL on all that heard the word, at which time they spoke in tongues. I Jn. 4:13 is one of the main Scriptures used to endeavor to show that every believer has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is falsely assumed that because this verse says "we know we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit," that we receive the Holy Spirit at conversion. There are several objections to this view-point : (1) Many have assumed that the apostolic church was similar to Christendom today, that they did not speak in tongues, that the addressees did not have the Pentecostal experience. Conversely, if all new converts followed the pattern in Acts, and were baptized in both water and the Spirit—evidenced by tongues—these scriptures would not support their theory. The weight of evidence favors the opinion that the early church was thoroughly Pentecostal in experience. The reasons for believing this are as follows: (a) The Apostles laid great emphasis on RECEIVING the Holy Ghost as soon as possible AFTER the unconverted became believers (Acts 8:14-16; 19:2; 2:38). (b) Jesus said that believers (in the full sense) would speak with new tongues (Mk. 16:17). (c) Tongues were (and still are) a sign of the infilling (I Sa. 28:11-12 with 11:10, with I Cor. 19:21) ([Also] see Acts 2:4; 8:44-47; 19:6). (d) The early church had precedent for seeking the Holy Spirit (Lu. 11:5-13; 24:49; Acts 1:4,5,8,13; Eph. 5:18) and speaking in tongues. (e) It is inconceivable that only those in the Corinthian Church were baptized in the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues; Paul taught it at Ephesus (Acts 19:2,6)—he must have taught it everywhere. It was much easier for the early church to receive the Holy Spirit and allow the Spirit to give them another tongue to magnify the Lord in; they had not been warned that it was only for days gone by. If those who oppose glossolalia would admit that the early church were Spirit-filled believers who spoke in tongues, their argument would collapse. As it is, their case rests purely upon assumption—for it cannot be proven that the readers were non-Spirit-filled (the term used at Pentecost, Acts 2:4). (2) My second objection to the assertion that 1 Jn 4:12-16 proves that ALL Christians have the INDWELLING is that the context proves that the Apostle John was NOT referring to a bodily indwelling. Verse 16 says, "he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Do we dwell (bodily) in love and in God? [Not yet!] How, then, can it be asserted that this word "dwelling" is referring to an actual indwelling of the Holy Spirit? The Greek term here is "meno" meaning "to remain." The meaning of this Greek word is clear in Jn. 19:31— where “bodies should not REMAIN (m' eno') upon the cross on the Sabbath day." Let us substitute the better translation—[put] "remain" for "dwell" in I Jn. 4:16, and see how the text clears up: "...he that REMAINETH in love REMAINETH in God, and God in him." This same Greek word is used throughout the ENTIRE CHAPTER wherever the K.J.V. has the translation DWELL. John is, here, speaking to those that have the Holy Spirit abiding in them concerning the signs of His Spirit REMAINING in them—John is not discussing WHO has the indwelling. John is teaching Spirit-filled Christians that those that REMAIN in love, REMAIN in God and God in them (v. 17). If we love one another (present tense), God REMAINETH in us (v. 12). We know that He REMAINS in us because the Spirit that He has given us bears witness to His presence that continues to remain in us (v. 13). Eph. 1:13 says "...AFTER that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." In Eph. 3:17, Paul said "That Christ MAY DWELL in your hearts by faith" (future tense). The context makes it clear that these Ephesians were already Christians (Eph. 1:1; 2:1-2,19; 3:13,18. K. Wuest says "The personal presence of the Lord Jesus in the heart of the believer is not in view here”). The Greek word translated DWELL in this verse is not "meno" (remain); but "katolkeo" (settle down, to dwell, feeling comfortably at home). Here Paul is talking about full surrender of the heart. They were being built together for a habitation of God, through the Spirit (2:22), but they needed more spiritual comprehension (3:18) and love (3:19) to become complete (mature) in Christ (4:12-16). They needed to die completely to the flesh (4:31-32), and to continue being filled up with the Spirit (5:18—cont. action; Gr.)—putting on the full armour of God (6:10-17). THEN THEIR "WILL" WOULD BE SWALLOWED UP IN GOD'S SO THAT CHRIST COULD BE AT HOME WITHIN THEM. A guest cannot be comfortable in your home unless both of you have the same heart. Without unity, there is no true fellowship. Rom. 8:9 is frequently called to the witness stand to offer testimony that all believers have the Holy Spirit indwelling. An impartial court would not, however, accept the tie of assumption that is necessary to link this verse with such an assertion. Rom. 8:9 reads: "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." There is no proof that this verse is referring to the in-filling of the Holy Ghost. Neither can it be proven that Paul is speaking to non-Spirit-filled Christians. In fact, the context reveals that Paul is speaking to those who HAVE received the Holy Ghost, explaining that if the Spirit of God is dwelling ("olkeo," "to have a home in them so as to possess the house"), then they are walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh. The entire chapter is dealing with the Spirit-life as opposed to the flesh-life (v. 1, 4-10). It is not so much a case of WHO has received the Spirit of God, as it is "are you walking in the Spirit." This is the same teaching that Paul gave the Galatians: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth (has a strong desire-GR.) against the Spirit ..." (Gal. 5:16-18). Everyone who has received the Holy Spirit is not walking in the Spirit! Paul therefore says "walk" ("be walking," Roth; "habitually order your manner of life," R. Wuest). Paul is NOT accusing the non-Spirit-filleds of always walking in the flesh. I would say that dedicated Christians are honest; it does not follow that all the undedicated are dishonest. Rom. 8:9 should not, therefore, be turned around to teach something that was not in the mind of Paul. It is true, as Rom. 8:9 also says, that "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Sweet and bitter water do not come from the same fountain. One cannot be manifesting the spirit of the devil, and yet be Christ's. But, this has nothing to do with receiving the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Some even have the audacity to quote I Cor. 3:16 to prove that all believers have the [in-]dwelling. This verse reads: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." But every Christian acknowledges that the Corinthians were Spirit-filled, so if the reader has not received this precious promise, he is not in the company that Paul wrote to. Some also quote II Jn. 9: "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son," as proof that the Christian has the dwelling of the Holy Ghost. THEY ASSUME THAT THE FIRST PART OF THE VERSE REFERS TO SINNERS, AND THAT THE LATTER PORTION REFERS TO BELIEVERS [yeah right!]; BUT THIS IS NOT THE CASE, AS THE GREEK REVEALS. The Apostle John is actually saying "Whosoever loseth the things which we have wrought (v.8) and transgresses ("parabaino;" "to go aside") and remaineth not ("meno") in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. But he that remaineth ("meno") in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." This verse is teaching against backsliding, not who has "the [in]dwelling." THE SCRIPTURES DO NOT TEACH THAT EVERY BELIEVER HAS THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT; but if those who think so would admit that they still lack the infilling, or the baptism of the Spirit, and would seek to receive it, I would take no issue with them. I am not so concerned about the technicalities as I am about Christians who resist the Holy Ghost; fighting and accusing those who do receive; hindering others from seeking; and, in general, impeding the progress of the power and work of the Holy Spirit. I desire to strip away all the traditional curtains and chains from Christians so that once more "These signs shall follow them that believe." WE NEED THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO WIN THE WAR AGAINST THE ONSLAUGHTS OF MODERNISM, COMMUNISM, CULTISM, MATERIALISM, AND LETHARGY. Glossolalia: PERSONAL TESTIMONIES Donald Lee Barnett D.D. (First printing 1969) 1. REV. PAUL MORRIS: "Once, I was a self-sufficient Presbyterian minister who never dreamed he needed the Holy Spirit. I had degrees from Ursinus College and Princeton Seminary, plus a prep-school background oozing with culture and prestige. What more could a man want for a successful ministry? I found, in the summer of 1955, that there is a degree bestowed only by Christ Himself, and I needed that degree: the B.H.S.—the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. To discover this, I had to go to an Assembly of God Church. There I saw adults genuinely interested in the Bible, filling the church on Sunday evening, young people with a redeemed expression who spoke about the Lord as if they knew Him, and a pastor who preached the Word with grace, love, and power! This assembly resembled the churches I read about in the New Testament. I liked what I saw and heard: the Holy Spirit manifested in tongues and interpretations, bringing forth a message to the believer, all done 'decently and in order'. Those messages pierced my self-sufficient veneer and spoke to the real man on the inside. It seemed God was encouraging me to seek Him and enter deeper into His life! Many persons in that church had never attended college or seminary; yet, it was plain to see they had a heritage from God, and a first hand knowledge of Him that I had never dreamed possible in this 20th Century [written in the 60's]. What God had given them, I wanted Him to give me: I still wanted to be a Presbyterian... but [one] who was redeemed, filled with the Spirit, and walking close to God! Soon a power was welling up within me, and I began to speak a new language with force. All my doubts and fears were blasted out the window. This was real, and I knew it. The change in our lives was immediate and profound. The Spirit gave us new boldness to speak for the Lord. All at once we had a new ministry—helping denominational people receive the Holy Spirit. A surprising number of people have come inquiring and left overflowing; we found out what it is to worship God in 'spirit and in truth'. THE SPIRIT HAS GIVEN US MUCH LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER...HE ENDED MY CRITICIZING AND FAULT-FINDING” (Voice Magazine Presbyterian issue, 1963). 2. E. E. PRANGE, Member of American Foundation for Religion and Psychology; Chaplain at Lutheran Hospital; Studied at Concordia Theo. Seminary; Graduate Studies in Psychology at The New School for Social Research: "When the group began to pray in tongues quietly, I felt a little embarrassed by the cacophony of meaningless sounds. Throughout the room, there was a low, humming sound. Suddenly the words that a housewife was praying into my sensitive right ear began to take on meaning. She was praying in Latin; it sounded like one of the Psalms. This ordinary housewife, I discovered later, never studied Latin or any other language. The place wasn't shaken, but I certainly was. When I finally got home that night, the scientist and the mystic in me were engaged in a tremendous struggle with each other. My subjectivity and objectivity merged into one tortured stream of confusion. When I knelt down to pray in the church, the words went through my mind: ‘The Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the gift of speaking in tongues is for you. It's yours. Open your mouth and praise the Lord.' I opened my mouth and suddenly God became real; the church was filled with His presence. My mouth praised Him in a strange, new language and my whole body tingled with the joy of His presence. Three days later, the Long Island Lutheran pastoral conference took place. Rev. Harold Bredesen and Rev. Ed. Barham presented their testimonies of how they received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The forty Lutheran pastors gathered there sat in amazed silence. Finally, an articulate young man stated: 'Brethren, we can't just walk away from this thing. Either these men are deliberately lying, they are insane, this is demonic, or this is of God. We must somehow come to terms with what we have heard here this morning.' At this point, I arose and said, 'Brethren, what Pastor Barham and Pastor Bredesen described to you this morning happened to me three days ago. It's real, and it's wonderful.' This testimony, coming from one of their own brethren, caused an impact upon those present...” (Voice Magazine Baptist Issue, 1963). 3. WENDELL WALLACE, Church of God: "I had made up my mind that if the Lord would not confirm His Word with signs following when I preached, I was going to quit. Up to this time, I had been serving the Lord to the best of my ability. I will have to admit I wasn't always pleased with the progress in my evangelistic campaign and revival meetings throughout the country. Nor was I perfect as my heart desired to be toward God. Nevertheless, having kept myself morally clean from gross sin, I yearned to be fully consecrated to God's service. I felt a need of God in my soul. I was going into my secret closet and [would] stay there until God did something for me. I didn't make a very good showing the first time, but the following day, I fully yielded. The Lord poured out my soul like water before Him. He showed me the things in my life that were hindering me from receiving his power. God gave me an outpouring of His Spirit. With the experience came a heavenly language from my innermost being. Glory, awe, assurance, peace, power, and an awareness of Divine presence. I can honestly say that my entire life has been different. I have not tried to keep a score sheet of healing, nor reserved a trophy room for crutches, eye glasses, or wheel chairs, but am strongly convinced that God's healing power flows through me when I pray for sick bodies and minds. There is no desire to leave my church when the devil toots his horn. My heart overflows with love for all people..." I am willing to be laughed at, boycotted, mocked, opposed, cold shouldered, humiliated, or overlooked if necessary. I spend hours alone in my room with God, studying the Bible, walking in prayer, praising God in tongues, singing, crying, sometimes kneeling in the ashes of humility. THERE IS A PRICE TO BE PAID FOR THIS ANOINTING. I CANNOT GOSSIP, LAUGH, TALK, AND EAT WITH PEOPLE ALL DAY LONG, AND STILL HAVE GOD'S POWER TO MINISTER IN THE SERVICES" (Voice Magazine, June 1964). 4. DR. JOHN OSTEEN, Southern Baptist Minister: "Pentecost is not a denomination, it is an experience from God for everybody. Dr. William Standish Reed is an Episcopalian surgeon filled with the Holy Ghost. He speaks in other tongues, prophesies and prays for the sick. He tells how, when a child died, the nurse handed him the stethoscope and went to get a death certificate. When Dr. Reed went into the room where the child lay, he couldn't find a heartbeat. He could find no pulse. The Spirit of God swept over him, and this medical doctor rebuked death and commanded life to return; and color flushed into the child's face, and she came alive! ...I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR THE HOLY GHOST THAT YOU COULD NOT PILE A ROOM FULL ENOUGH OF MONEY TO CAUSE ME TO EXCHANGE ONE SUPERNATURAL MANIFESTATION OF THE HOLY GHOST IN MY LIFE FOR ALL THAT MONEY [Yes, John Osteen (now deceased) was the notorious JOEL OSTEEN’s father! Boy how things have changed!!!]...I can't stand for them to be without this experience; it's too wonderful for them not to have it. The joy of the living Presence of God is so marvelous! Oh, that multitudes would enter in. We preach no denomination. We argue no doctrine. We present the glory of God! God's people must be serious. This is the hour when we must have the unexplainable and glorious power of the living God! The enemy has come in like a flood; but God, by His Spirit, is raising up a supernatural standard against the work of the devil. Israel was a nation that was acquainted with the supernatural power of God: Red Sea parted, pillar of fire, manna fell, bitter waters became sweet, looked to the brazen serpent and lived, subdued kingdoms, walls fell down, Samson, nations trembled.... But look at these people who once lived in the realm of God's Holy Light!...dry bones" (Voice Magazine Baptist Issue, 1963). 5. DR. JAMES BROWN, Presbyterian: "After seminary years, we became occupied in two successive rural parishes. After ten years in the ministry, God sent across our path a Spirit-filled pastor who began to teach Bible classes in our area. At first, we attended out of curiosity and a sense of duty. But quickly, we recognized a dynamic relation to Jesus Christ that we professed but certainly did not have. This stranger's Christian love and joy amazed us. As we heard from him the simple Gospel of salvation, but more [than that]—as we saw it confirmed by his thrilling testimonies of daily miraculous answers to prayer—we and eight of our church members really encountered Jesus. People began to respond to our altar calls and to experience conversion; but the more response we received, the hungrier we became to see Gods work increasing. There came a day and hour when the Spirit of God invaded our prayer group. Literally, the Spirit fell! He electrified everyone in the room: Only one of the nine people present spoke freely in unknown tongues that night, but within the next couple of weeks, six more had received as powerful a Baptism with the Holy Spirit as the first one. Immediately, the gifts of the Spirit began to be distributed among us, and we began to see signs, wonders, and miracles that have never ceased to this day. Many have been saved, healed, and filled with the Holy Ghost. At almost any average meeting, we have Spirit-filled Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Quakers, Mennonites, Christian Holiness, and longtime Pentecostals. A young Roman Catholic man, father of three children, who was in the room when the Holy Spirit fell upon us, has since been saved, healed of constant stuttering, left his profession to prepare for the ministry...(Voice Magazine Presbyterian Issue, 1963). 6. REV. Z. S. GAMBLE, Presbyterian: “...my heart was filled with a great love for Christ and I began to praise Him. It was like an artesian well of love suddenly bursting from within me in a language that my head could not understand but that my heart could and did understand. I was 'speaking in tongues and magnifying God!' I was conscious of an abiding Presence and was reminded of the words of Jesus: ‘I will send you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever.' From that day to this, I have remained conscious of this abiding of the Holy Spirit, and often, when in private devotions or in preparing sermons, I speak in other tongues. Always, it is an edifying experience, sometimes with a surge of joy and a deepening of love; at other times, it is a deep anguish of prayer as 'the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.' I am convinced that this experience is for all believers. THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL REVOLUTIONIZE YOUR LIFE!" 7. From an Article by DR. R. F. RICE, Presbyterian: "A Lutheran pastor enumerates the benefits to his congregation since upward of 40 members have been filled with the Spirit: 1. A love for the Word of God not experienced before. 2. A stewardship unknown before. 3. An ability to really face up to sins and confess them. 4. A tremendous growth in evangelistic compassion for others by some members of the fellowship. 5. A new ministry and service to people in the field of counseling by the laity. 6. A singing congregation. 7. Many outstanding experiences in healing." HOW TO RECEIVE THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT From “Glossolalia” By: Donald Barnett 1. ACKNOWLEDGE that the experience is: (a) Biblical (Acts 1:5,8; 2:4; 8:17; 19:6). (b) Necessary (Eph. 5:18). (c) Applicable for you today (Mk. 15:17; Acts 2:38,39; v.4 w/ vs 16-18; Lu 11:13). (d) Not automatically received at conversion (Acts 8:12, 14-17; 19:6; 1:5). (e) Evidenced by tongues (Acts 2:4; 10:96; 19:6; Mk. 16:17 Isa. 28:11 w/ I Cor. 14:21). (f) Beneficial (Rom. 8:26, 27; 1 Cor. 14:2, 18, 22) 2. SURRENDER your whole heart to God, desiring to live righteously (Mtt. 5:6). 3. ASK (Lu. 11:9, 13; Ja. 4:2) Principle: "Ye have not because ye ask not;" Acts 1:14 "supplication" (asking earnestly). 4. BELIEVE (cast away all fear, Lu. 11:10-13; Acts 3:38-39). 5. Do not seek: tongues or an experience; seek God, but be willing to speak in other tongues. 6. Do not attempt to manipulate God or copy technique; simply worship Him and offer your all to God. 7. Do not try to get good enough to earn the Holy Spirit; it is a gift of which you are always unworthy. 8. Do not attempt to work up emotion or work down the blessing. Yielding is passive; it only surrenders to another's will. Many Christians who tarry for the Holy Ghost receive after they quit trying and open up their heart and soul in adoration to Jesus (desiring to be entirely possessed of Him). 9. Realize that you do not have to seek or pray for a certain protracted period of time in order to be eligible to receive (Acts 10:44, 1.9:6). But also realize that you can not force God to give you the Holy Spirit just by trying to talk gibberish. "He who hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled" (Mtt. 5:6). It is often necessary to be much in prayer so that you may become willing and pliable in God's hands. It often takes protracted prayer before a person becomes willing to die to sin and self-desires, willing to submit his all to God. It is often necessary to beseech God to "create" a hunger to be filled with the Spirit. One must have pure motives, desiring the Holy Spirit to glorify Christ, instead of his own ego. Supplicating God with importunity IS Scriptural (Lu. 11:5-13; Acts 1:14). 10. Realize that yielding yourself wholly to God includes and involves the tongue also. Many Christians do not receive because when the Spirit starts to give forth the utterance of unknown speech, the seeker subconsciously resists by insisting upon speaking in his native tongue. If the power of God is strong upon such a one, the combination of the two tongues and/or the resisting results in stammering. Stammering is not pleasant to listen to, and sounds so undignified and inappropriate that the seeker usually resists the utterance of the Holy Spirit even more. 11. Recognize that YOU will speak in tongues, but the HOLY SPIRIT will supply the utterance (Acts 2:4). Many have had difficulty in yielding their speech to God because they have erroneously assumed that the Holy Spirit will force the tongue to change languages. Although you will voluntarily speak, you will not need to think of what to say. The Holy Spirit will fill your mouth as you exert the faith to speak. Yet, you will be voluntarily using your lungs, your lips, your vocal chords, and your "will"—the Holy Spirit will only supply the utterance. Often the one who is seeking "the Baptism" is so lost in worship and adoration of Jesus whom he is in the act of yielding to, that he is not aware of any voluntary action of his own in starting to speak in other tongues. 12. It is important to understand that the emotion felt when receiving the Holy Spirit varies widely depending upon the person's emotional make-up, his depth of dedication, and his desire for this precious gift of God. But this is also true among new converts; everyone does not display the same amount of emotion. Those who seek for either salvation or The Holy Spirit for a long time are usually more elated than those who do not. Some who accept Christ as their Savior seem to receive a great deal more strength and blessing than others. The same is true with the baptism of the Holy Spirit; but in either case, the potential is the same. The fountain from which to drink is unlimited. Man, himself, is the only limiting force. If your portion does not seem to be as satisfying as another's, redouble your consecration and press in until the flood gates of heaven are opened upon you. But remember, this is essentially an “I give myself,” not a "give me" situation. 13. Realize that this Promise of the Father IS for YOU! Do not become discouraged if you do not receive right away. God knows when you are ready to receive. Even though it is a free gift, God "does not put new wine into old bottles," so to speak. Time in soul searching, deepening one's dedication, and waiting upon God to cleanse the heart and implant a hunger for God is time well spent. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a PROMISE! Move in to possess it with faith and humility. God bless you. HOLY GHOST and FIRE BAPTISM The Baptism of the Holy Spirit T HE BIBLE speaks of John's baptism and Christ's baptism. In Matt.3:11, John says:"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." The Holy Spirit has been in the world from the beginning. When "the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen.1:1), the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the Old Testament for, "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). He came upon individuals at different periods and empowered them for special services and occasions—as in the case of Noah, Moses, Samson, David, Daniel, and many others. The Old Testament distinctly mentions this baptism of the Spirit as one of the blessings to be enjoyed under the Gospel dispensation (see Isa. 44:3; Ez. 36:27; Joel 2:28, 29). Under the Old Dispensation, the Holy Spirit, except that small measure of His influence and light which is given to all men in all ages of the world, was only imparted to certain individuals, and on special occasions; but under the Gospel, it is the gracious purpose that the Spirit should be poured out universally and generally upon all His children and that He should abide with them forever. Hence, we conclude from these facts that the Holy Spirit was given under the Old Dispensation, but was imparted only to certain individuals, and on special occasions, and NOT TILL THE DAY OF PENTECOST—according to the prophecy of Joel, DID GOD GRACIOUSLY POUR OUT HIS SPIRIT UNIVERSALLY AND GENERALLY UPON ALL HIS CHILDREN—TO ABIDE WITH THEM FOREVER. THE COMFORTER “AND I WILL PRAY the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever; Even the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 15:16-18). When Jesus was about to leave His disciples, He promised that after His departure, the Father would send in His Name another Comforter who should abide with them forever; and He told them plainly that this Comforter should be the Holy Spirit who should be in them, in His fullness, and with the endued gift of divine power (Acts 15:8, 9; 1:8). In the following passages, the Comforter/the Holy Ghost is promised to the disciples (John 14:16; 26:15; 26:16; 7:13). The baptism of the Holy Spirit was not confined to the apostles and those in the apostolic times only; if so, He would not be given to all Christians at conversion. Peter told the multitude on the day of Pentecost that the promise of the Spirit was to “you and your children” (Acts 2:38, 39). Is not this Spirit received now by all Christians at the time of their conversion? The Pentecostal baptism of the Holy Spirit was not received by the Church of 120 plus souls; nor by Samaritans who accepted the Word of God through Phillip’s preaching until after their conversion (Acts 2:1; 8:1). The fact is that every one receiveth the Holy Spirit in a certain sense at the time of conversion: For "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Rom. 5:5). Whoever receives the Son has The Father and the Spirit also. No man can say Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit, for"if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His" (Rom 8:9). Every justified and converted person is to be the temple of the Holy Ghost. Holiness has begun, and the Spirit—who is the Sanctifier—dwelleth within. There is also a certain measure endued of the Spirit's power, but [there is also] the fullness of the Pentecostal baptism, to which all believers are called. The Holy Spirit was not to present Himself to the Christian Church in a different way than He presented Himself to the ancient Church of the Old Testament, yet we call this "the dispensation of the Spirit"—as if the Old Dispensation was not a dispensation of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit acts the same with the soul today—as He did in David's time, and the holy men of old times. The Spirit came upon Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, etc.—as He came upon John the Baptist, Peter, John, Paul, etc. GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION HAS NOT CHANGED. PROMISE of THE FATHER WHY THEN is the promise of the spirit called "the promise of the Father" in Acts 1:4? Plainly speaking, the Pentecostal gift of the Holy Spirit to the apostles was the power given for the witnessing of the truth, which is confirmed in the New Testament Scriptures, and for them to be endued with divine power to work miracles, as well as to confer supernatural gifts on all converts; hence, the special gift of the Holy Spirit to the Christian Church in the New Testament. That is the only distinguishing feature in the New Dispensation. The Spirit's relation to us is the same as to the old Church of Moses, David, and the apostles. John 14, 15, and 16 were addressed to the apostles especially, though general truths are found in them—which belong to every believer. For instance, our Lord says:"Have I been so long time with you" (John 14:9); "He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26); "Arise, let us go hence" (John 14:31); "Ye have been with me from the beginning" (John 15:27); "They shall put you out of the synagogues" (John 16:2); "A little while and ye shall not see me" (John 16:16). Such and many more expressions are meant only for the apostles; they can not refer to any other. The first five passages quoted are promises to the apostles, and to the Church through them. The Comforter was "the Spirit of truth," i.e., the Spirit to guide the apostles (and also the Church) into all truth. The Father—who sent the Spirit to Moses and David, would send Him to the apostles in Christ's name (i.e., [and they were] full of the story of Christ, testifying of Christ, and bringing all the facts and words of Christ to their remembrance), and they should become the witnesses to the Church and world forever (Acts 1:8). How? By the New Testament, which they, as inspired by the Spirit, would write. The Comforter's promise to the Church came on Pentecost to the apostles, and the work there inaugurated is confirmed in the New Testament. That the disciples were justified, and regenerated, and the Holy Spirit was dwelling with them before Pentecost, cannot be denied, but they had not yet realized "the purifying of their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:8, 9), or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit's fullness, or the offices they hadn’t experienced. PENTECOSTAL: DENOMINATION OR EXPERIENCE ? “AND WHEN THE DAY of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4). The Pentecostal Baptism THE WORD "PENTECOST" indicates “fiftieth,” and refers to a Jewish feast held fifty days after the Passover—a feast held for certain important purposes, as a day of general thanksgiving for harvest, as a solemn festival to commemorate the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, and to remind them of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. Pentecost in the New Testament dispensation indicates the feast of the Holy Spirit, and the organization of the Christian Church. THE CHURCH WAS BORN OF THE SPIRIT. IT SHALL LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, TO WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, AND BE THE BEARER OF THIS SPIRIT. The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Godhead (1 John 5:7; Matt. 28:19), and co-equal with the Father and the Son, of one being, one power, and one glory. The Holy Spirit is not the breath of God, nor the abstract power of God, nor the life of God, nor the life of Christ, but God Himself. The Holy Spirit is not an influence, nor an attribute, nor an emanation, but a person, as He is known by the personal pronouns, He, Him, and Himself in the Holy Scriptures. This Holy Spirit is the agent of divine baptism. According to the Word of God, He is now to dispense the divine baptism upon all flesh (Joel 2:28; Matt. 3:11). Since the day of Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit took place in Jerusalem; hence, the term "Pentecostal Baptism" is used. Now, as then, the Pentecostal baptism was necessary because it was a divine promise. Joel of old said: "Thus saith the Lord. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit" (Joel 2:28). This prophecy was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when Peter, the apostle, confirmed it before the multitude of people at the time of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist as he traveled to and fro in the wilderness preached the baptism of the Holy Ghost and with fire as necessity (Matt. 3:11). Christ, our Lord, necessarily promised His disciples the baptism of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7; Acts 1:4, 5). The Pentecostal baptism is a necessity in order to obtain the purification of the heart. Before Pentecost, the apostles had not yet obtained the purification of their hearts by faith—[even though] they had [already] experienced true conversion long before Pentecost. If we read and examine closely the lives of the apostles, we will find that their hearts had not yet been purified before Pentecost. Take the case of Peter, whose heart was not pure before Pentecost. Nevertheless, he was active and energetic in his Master's cause. He had been impulsive, forward, and loud in His service, and attempted to do many things but failed. Once he had attempted to walk upon the sea, but failed [because of a lack] of faith (Matt. 14:28-30); he had also boastfully asserted that he would never forsake his Lord, but had fled with the others when he was bidden to put up his sword (Matt. 26:52-56); another time, he had declared that he would die rather than deny his Saviour, but was afraid to confess Him in the presence of a servant maid (Mark 14:28-31). But, how changed was Peter on the day of Pentecost after his heart had been purified by faith. Still active and devoted in his Master's cause, he was no longer timid and impulsive, but full of holy enthusiasm and boldness. There are many more such ones like Peter in the Christian world—whose hearts have not yet been purified by faith, whose hearts are filled with fretfulness, impatience, and unholy ambition. Who are too forward and impulsive in the service of God, and assert boastfully to do certain things, but fail for want of faith, and a pure heart. The Pentecostal baptism implies also to be endued with the power of the Holy Spirit. The apostles needed the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts I:8). Pentecost is needed in the Christian Church today; we need the power of the Holy Spirit in the pulpit and in the pew. Where this divine power is needed, there is a lack of true religion, of more spiritual sermons, more sound conversions, and more seeking of sanctification. Many apply [/appeal] to other means to replace the power from on high. Those means may be very good in their appropriate places, but if these human means are employed in the place of the Holy Spirit's power, then all efforts will be a total failure. Many, in some places, secure the service of an Evangelist—who should revive the work of God in the conversion of many souls. THERE ARE SOME EVANGELISTS WHO HAVE NOT THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THEIR POSSESSION; CONSEQUENTLY, THEY WILL ACCOMPLISH MORE HARM THAN GOOD IN THE WORLD. But, if we invite Jesus Christ, who is the true Evangelist, and the Holy Spirit as the great Revivalist, then we can accomplish great results in the service of God. Sound conversion and loyalty to the Church [EKKLESIA] of Christ, is not achieved by human efforts, means, or methods, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let no one suppose that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was a blessing granted only to the apostles and others in the apostolic age. It is the privilege of the Church in all ages of the world to be filled with the Holy Spirit to the end of time. The Power Endued "AND, BEHOLD, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). THE POWER that is endued is an indispensable thing in the Christian life. The proclamation of the divine plan of salvation to the civilizations of the world, and to win souls for Christ, is dependent upon that divine power being endued [to the believer]. That endued power is as necessary as entire sanctification. And so, when the Holy Ghost fell upon the first Christian church at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, they received not only the purification of their hearts by faith, but also that Holy Ghost power that was endued to them. The divine power that is endued is not the power endued in gifts, talents, abilities, or eloquence. I admit that these intellectual faculties and eloquence are very good and necessarily required in the service of God, but the power endued is something totally distinct from human gifts, talents, and eloquence. These mental faculties and qualifications are only good when consecrated to the lord and employed in His service. A man may have good talents and extraordinary abilities, but as long as the same are not consecrated and lead by the endued Holy Ghost power, all his eloquence, efforts, accomplishments, and success will be a total failure. But, it is not that power to tickle the ear, nor to please the fancy and to create pleasurable feelings in the mind, but it is simply power to impress men's hearts to be won to Christ etc. The Holy Ghost power endued is not muscular power, not logical power, not scientific power, not social power, not human power, but divine power. IT IS THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. It is a supernatural power, omnipotent power, all-conquering power. It is the power from on high by which men's hearts are impressed, and their souls won for Christ. That power being endued is necessary because it is a divine promise (Luke 24:49): the apostles needed the power of the Holy Spirit. They were converted men long before the day of Pentecost and had a measure of the Holy Spirit. They must have had the peace of sins forgiven, and of a justified state, but they did not have the in-filling of the power which is necessary for the accomplishment of the work assigned to them. They had the peace which Christ had given them, but not the power which He had promised; for there is a great difference between the peace, and the power, of the Holy Spirit in the soul. THE PROMISE OF BEING FILLED WITH HIS POWER WAS NOT ONLY CONFINED TO THE APOSTLES, BUT ALSO TO ALL THE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST! It means us—just as much as it did those to whom the promise was given. It is the privilege of the church at all times to be endued with divine power. POWER OVER SIN THE IN-FILLING OF POWER is necessary; furthermore, it is also necessary in order to GROW in the state of divine grace. The Holy Spirit gives us power over sin, the flesh, and the devil—power to resist temptation, endure trials and losses with cheerfulness. We need power in our prayers, songs, and testimonials. We need the divine power to lead a consistent Christian life. We need power with God, and power with men. POWER TO TESTIFY WE MAY KNOW all about the Bible; we may be well posted in the prophets and the law; we may be catechized from our youth; we may know and relate correctly the history of the life of Christ and be a close student of God's Word; nevertheless, we stand in need of something else—the in-filling of the Holy Ghost power! Therefore, we need the power from on high to testify of Christ (Acts 1:8), to carry on His cause successfully, and win many souls for Christ and His everlasting Kingdom. GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT 1 Cor 12:1-11 “NOW CONCERNING SPIRITUAL gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” Then, again, we must notice the fact that the Pentecostal baptism is a necessity in order to receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost. The apostles, before Pentecost, were already in possession of the Holy Spirit, but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and His gifts they had not yet experienced. POWER OVER THE ENEMY "RESIST THE DEVIL and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). "The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). "He hath spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them" (Col. 2:15). "Behold I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you" (Luke 10:19). "I give you power over all devils" (Luke 9:1). SPIRITUAL POWER IS A MUST "BE CAREFUL, WATCH OUT FOR ATTACKS FROM SATAN, YOUR GREAT ENEMY. HE PROWLS AROUND LIKE A HUNGRY, ROARING LION, LOOKING FOR SOME VICTIM TO TEAR APART." (I Peter 5:8 LB) Satan's main strategy is to rob the Body of Christ (the true Church—EKKLESIA) of the power to witness the true gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. True believers of Christ who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit have POWER to defeat Satan and his kingdom. Satan knows this! His strategy is to keep the Holy Spirit's POWER out of the church and away from believers. Satan accomplishes this through the weaknesses of men—primarily fear, ignorance, and religious pride. Anyone who is used to come against the Holy Spirit in any way is a blasphemer. DEMONS - DEVILS [THE FACT] THAT DEMONS are highly organized can be seen from the concluding passage of the apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesians: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12). The apostles believed firmly in the existence of demons. Matthew suggested their organization under Satan (Matt. 12:26), and spoke of their final doom (25:41). Luke described their nature (Luke 4:33, 6:18), their expulsion from human beings (9:42), and their place of dwelling (8:27-33). Believers must have the Holy Spirit to do what Christ has commanded. “CAST OUT DEVILS...” (Mark 16:15, 17, KJV) THE HOLY GHOST IS A WEAPON “THE WEAPONS of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4). We are endowed with these gifts that we might fight the good fight of faith and deliver our generation (1 Timothy 6:12). EVERY CHILD OF GOD SHOULD BE A CHANNEL OF THE SUPERNATURAL ENERGY AND THE DIVINE GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST. If the spiritual gifts are not operating in your life, you should stir yourself to pray and seek God. The gifts of the Spirit are the weapons of our warfare! HOW DO WE GET THIS GIFT ? “THEREFORE LET all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:36-39). REPENT - GET SAVED! "BELIEVE ON THE LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31). "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13). "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth into righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:9-10). "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). PRAYER FOR SALVATION MY HEAVENLY FATHER, I come now to open my heart and to receive your promise of eternal life through your Son Jesus Christ. I know that I have sinned and I repent. Please forgive my sins and cleanse me. I now confess aloud that I believe in Jesus Christ. He died for my sins and you raised Him from the dead. I receive Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of my life. I know that through the resurrection power in His name, I have forgiveness and eternal life. I receive all of this by faith in the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen! NOW ARE YOU READY FOR MORE? THE IMPORTANCE of being baptized by the Holy Spirit cannot be over-emphasized. Receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an essential (mandatory) step of obedience that was/is commanded by Christ. The POWER received by the believer from the Holy Spirit is necessary (an absolute must!) to walk as a true witness for Jesus Christ in the world. FROM DON BASHAM’S BOOK, “A HANDBOOK ON HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM”: Where Do I Find the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in Scripture? [EMPH., PUNCT., AND BRACKETS ADDED] J UST AS the coming of Jesus was foretold by the Old Testament prophets hundreds of years before His birth, so was the baptism in the Holy Spirit prophesied long before Pentecost. In lsaiah 28:11, we hear the prophet saying, “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.” Centuries later, as Paul writes under the anointing of the Holy Spirit to the Corinthians, he applies this Scripture to speaking in tongues (1st Cor. 14:21-22). Again, the prophet Isaiah anticipates the coming Pentecostal age with its baptism in the Holy Spirit when he prophesies: “For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit upon your descendants and my blessing on your offspring” (Isaiah 44:3). THEN THE PROPHET JOEL PROCLAIMS: “AND IT shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even upon the menservants and maidservants in those days, I will pour out my spirit” (Joel 2:28-29). You will recall how, on the day of Pentecost, Peter stands to his feet and addresses the multitudes, claiming the phenomenon they have beheld (the disciples praising God in other tongues) is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (Acts 2:14-18). Now, these were all Old Testament prophecies which were spoken hundreds of years before Jesus’ ministry on earth, or the coming of Pentecost. But with the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, we find additional prophecies of the promised baptism in the Holy Spirit. They begin with John the Baptist: John answered them all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” (Luke 3:16 [KJV]). “I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and, remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33). Then there are the words of Jesus Himself: “IF ANYONE thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Now, this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:37-39). “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:11-13). As Jesus’ earthly ministry drew to a close and he met with the disciples for the last time in the upper room, his instructions to them were liberally laced with promises of the coming of the Holy Spirit: “And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you” (John 14:16-17). “These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:25-26). “But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me” (John 15:26). “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment” (John 16:7-8). “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things which are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:12-14). Then after Jesus’ death and resurrection and before his ascension, he gives his disciples repeated assurances of the coming of the Holy Spirit with power, even as He had promised: “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). And while staying with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:4-8). “And these signs will accompany those who believe; in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues...they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17). It is significant to note that the very last statements Jesus made to his disciples before his ascension to the Father were about the power they were to receive from the baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) and the miraculous signs that were to follow their ministry (Mark 16:17). “In obedience to their Lord’s command the disciples turned to Jerusalem, took up their vigil in the upper Room and waited and prayed expectantly, until the day of Pentecost. Then it happened. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4). Jesus had kept his word and had sent them the promise of the Father, and the disciples received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with joy. At this point in history, the baptism in the Holy Spirit was made available to every believer. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). The age of the Holy Spirit had begun! We assume God made no mistakes and that He hasn’t changed His mind about what He did. He did it right when He did it the first time. The disciples received the Holy Spirit and the evidence that they received was that they spoke in other tongues. Pentecost gives us a historic pattern to go by. We know we have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit when our experience matches that of the 120 at Pentecost. All the Scriptures quoted thus far pointed toward the event in Acts 2:4. But there are also Scriptures which record the baptism in the Holy Spirit AFTER Pentecost. “Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:14-17). “So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:17). “While Peter was still saying this the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came (to the house of Cornelius) with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God” (Acts 10:44-46). “While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19:1-6). In addition to the Scriptures quoted here, chapters 12-14 of Paul’s First Corinthian Letter deals at length with the nine spiritual gifts which become available to the Christian, once he is baptized in the Holy Spirit. A DETAILED STUDY OUTLINE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT Henry W. Frost D. D. (1924) THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT A. [THE FACT] THAT He is a divine person is proven by what He does: 1. He made the world (Gen. 1:2). 2. He creates life (Job 33 :4). 3. He speaks (Acts 1:16; 1 Pet. 1:11, 12; 2 Pet. 1:21). 4. He testifies of and glorifies Christ (John 15:26; 16:14). 5. He strives with sinners (Gen. 6:3). 6. He reproves (John 16:8). 7. He teaches (John 14:26; 1 Cor. 12:3). 8. He comforts (Acts 9:31). 9. He helps in prayer (Rom. 8:26). 10. He guides (John 16:13). 11. He sanctifies (Rom. 15:16; 1 Cor. 6:11). 12. He works according to His will (1 Cor. 12:11). B. [The fact] that He is a divine personality is proven by what man can do to Him: 1. They can tempt Him (Acts 5:9). 2. They can lie to Him (Acts 5:3). 3. They can vex Him (Isa. 63:10). 4. They can grieve Him (Eph. 4:30). 5. They can resist Him (Acts 7:51). 6. They can quench Him (1 Thess. 5:19). THE NAMES OF THE SPIRIT A. THE NAMES which describe the relationship of the Spirit: 1. My Spirit (Gen. 6:3). 2. His Spirit (1 John 4:13). 3. The Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2; 1 John 4:2). 4. The Spirit of the Lord (Judges 3:10). 5. The Spirit of the Lord God (Isa. 61:1). 6. The Spirit of the living God (2 Cor. 3:3). 7. The Spirit of your Father (Matt. 10:20). 8. The Spirit of His Son (Gal. 4:6). 9. The Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). 10. The Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). B. The names which describe the character of the Spirit: 1. The eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14). 2. The holy Spirit (Psa. 51:11). 3. The holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13). 4. The holy Spirit of God (Eph. 4:30). 5. The free Spirit (Psa. 51:12). 6. Thy good Spirit (Neh. 9:20). 7. The Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29). 8. The Spirit of truth (John 14:17; 16:13). 9. The Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). 10. The Spirit of glory and of God (1 Pet. 4:14). 11. The Lord the Spirit (2 Cor. 3 :18, R. V.). C. The name which describes the office work of the Spirit: 1. The Comforter (Greek, Paraclete; he who is called alongside of) (John 14:16). EMBLEMS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT A. THE SPIRIT'S NATURE and office are set forth by the following emblems: 1. Oil (1 Sam. 16:13; Zech. 4:1-6). 2. Water (John 3 :5; 7:38, 39). 3. Fire (Matt. 3:11; Acts 2:3). 4. Wind (John 3:8; Acts 2:2, 4). 5. Dove (Matt. 3:16). 6. Cloven tongues (Acts 2:1-4). 7. Seal (Eph. 1:13; 4:30). THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT AT PENTECOST Key verses: Acts 2:1, 2 A. WHAT THE gift was not: 1. Not the manifestation of the Spirit for the first time (Gen. 1:2; 6:3; Exod. 28:3). 2. Not the gift of a new Spirit (Heb. 9:14). B. What the gift was: 1. From a new source; the risen and glorified Christ (Acts 2:32, 33). 2. For new purposes: a. To witness to us of Christ, risen, glorified, and coming (John 15:26; 16:13,14, R. V.). b. To give the spirit of sonship (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15). c. To give guidance as sons (Rom. 8:14). d. To give us divine love (Rom. 5:5). e. To make possible spiritual service (Acts 1:8). f. To set faces toward the resurrection life (Rom. 8:22, 23). g. To give us, finally, resurrection bodies (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:42-44). THE OFFICE WORK OF THE SPIRIT Post-Pentecostal A. HE CONVICTS of sin (John 16:7-11). B. He regenerates (John 3, 3:5; Titus 3:5, 6). C. He seals (Eph. 1:13, 14, R. V.; 4:30). D. He reveals God (John 15:26; 16:13, 14; 1 Cor. 2:9-12; 1 John 2:20). E. He ministers spiritual gifts (Heb. 2:4; 1 Cor. 12:9-12). F. He gives power: 1. For worship (1 Cor. 12 3; John 4:23, 24). 2. For prayer (Rom. 8:26, 27; 1 Cor. 14:15; Jude 20). 3. For praise (1 Cor. 14:15, 16; Eph. 5:18, 19). 4. For right living (Gal. 5:16,17; Rom. 14:17; 8:2-4; Gal. 5:22, 23). 5. For service (Luke 24:49; Acts 2:3, 4; 1:8; 4:31; 21:11). 6. For suffering (John 14:16-18; 1 Thess. 1:6). G. He develops life (Jude 19, 20; 2 Cor. 3:18, R. V). H. He pledges future redemption (2 Cor. 1:21, 22; 5:4, 5). I. He gives at last, the resurrection body (Rom. 8:11). THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT A. THE SPIRIT is given to secure: 1. Life (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:25). 2. Perception of divine things (1 Cor. 2:10-12). 3. Heavenly mindedness (Rom. 8:5, 6). 4. Separation to God (2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2). 5. Fulfillment of God's law (Rom. 8:3, 4, R.V., margin). 6. Abounding strength (Eph. 3:16). 7. Multiplied graces (Gal. 5:22, 23). 8. Prevailing prayer (Rom. 8:26, 27). 9. Power in witnessing (Acts 1:8). THE HOLY SPIRIT In the Gospel of John A. THE NAMES of the Spirit: 1. The Spirit (1:32, 33; 3:5). 2. The Holy Spirit (or Ghost) (1:33; 7:39; 14:26; 20:22). 3. The Spirit of truth (14:17; 15:26; 16:13). 4. The Comforter (or Paraclete) (14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7). THE PURPOSE OF THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT A. FOURFOLD (four S's): 1. Sonship: (1) Under the law, children (Gal. 4:1-3). (2) Under grace, sons (Gal. 4:4-7). (3) One in Spirit (1 Cor. 12:12, 13). (4) Result, Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15). 2. Service: (1) Spirit needful (Acts 1:8). (2) Therefore "Tarry until" (Luke 24:49). (3) The gift made for service (Acts 2:1-4) (4) Result, spiritual temple with spiritual service (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). 3. Suffering: (1) The law of God for all sons: (a) Christ (Heb. 5:8, 9; 2:10). (b) Christians (Rom. 8:14-17). (2) The gift of the Spirit for this purpose (Phil. 1:29; 2:1, 2). 4. Salvation (complete, including body): (1) Three aspects: (a) Past (Titus 3:5). (b) Present (Phil. 2:12, 13). (c) Future (Heb. 9:28). (2) The future, as others, through Spirit: (a) Spirit, now the pledge (Eph. 1:13, 14). (b) Spirit at last to quicken (Rom. 8:11). THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT A. HOW TO be filled (four A's): 1. Acknowledge: CONFESSION of all sins (Matt. 5:23-26; 1 John 1:9; James 5:16). 2. Ask: BESEECHINGLY and confidentially (Luke 11:5-13). 3. Accept: By FAITH in God's Word (Gal. 3:2-4, 13, 14; Acts 2:38, 39). 4. Act: Step out upon the promises, after the filling, ACTION (Acts 3:1-6)! THE NEED OF BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT A. THE NEED of all time: 1. Old Testament saints: (1) Joseph (Gen. 41:38-40). (2) Bezaleel (Exod. 31:2-5). 2. New Testament saints: (1) Apostles (Luke 24:49; Acts 2:4-13). (2) Disciples (Acts 4:31). (3) Deacons (Acts 6:1-5). (4) Peter (Mark 14:71, 72; Acts 4:8-10). (5) Paul (Acts 9:8, 9; 9:17-22). B. The ideal experience: 1. Saved and filled at once: (1) Jews (Acts 2:37-39). (2) Gentiles (Acts 10:43, 44). C. The frequent experience: 1. Saved but not filled: (1) Like the Ephesians Ekklesia (Acts 19:1, 2). 2. Life, but not life abundant (John 10:10). (1) All Christians live [in the Spirit], but many do not walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). (2) All Christians begin in the Spirit, but many try to perfect themselves in the flesh (Gal. 3:2-4). (3) All Christians are born of the Spirit; but the service of many is carnal (1 Cor. 3:1-3 , 11-13). WRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE SPIRIT A. HE MAY be resisted: 1. "Ye stiff-necked...ye do always resist" (Greek, oppose) "the Holy Ghost" (Acts 7:51). B. He may be grieved: 1. "Grieve" (Greek, make sad, distress, as a person) "not the Holy Spirit of God" (Eph. 4:30). C. He may be quenched: 1. "Quench" (Greek, extinguish, as a flame) "not the Spirit" (1 Thess. 5:19). THE RESULTS OF THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT A. THE WORD illuminated: 1. Spirit wrote the truth (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20 21). 2. Spirit promised to reveal truth (John 14:26). 3. Spirit reveals the truth (1 Cor. 2:9-16). B. Needs of the heart revealed: 1. Spirit convicts of sin (John 16:7-9). C. Christ made known: 1. Spirit testifies from Christ (John 16:13, R. V.). 2. Spirit testifies of Christ (John 15:26). 3. Spirit glorifies Christ (John 16:14). D. Service empowered: 1. Spirit coming upon/power (Acts 1:8). 2. Spiritual rivers of water (John 7:37-39). 3. Spiritual diversities of gifts (1 Cor. 12:4, 7-11). E. Life beautified: 1. Spirit subdues flesh (Gal. 5:16, 17). 2. Spirit gives divine graces (Gal. 5:22, 23). F. Life glorified: 1. Spirit, from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:17, 18). THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY GHOST IS FOR ALL CHRISTIANS. ALL CHRISTIANS ARE REGENERATED BY THE HOLY GHOST. AFTER THEY ARE WASHED IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST, THEY ARE MADE WORTHY TO RECEIVE THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY GHOST. PRAYER TO RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST MY HEAVENLY FATHER, Please baptize me with your precious Holy Ghost and manifest in me your gifts and supernatural power—that I might DO YOUR WILL and accomplish your plan and purpose. I ask this and believe I have received it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen! YOU'RE NOW READY TO BE A GREAT WITNESS FOR JESUS CHRIST! "AND WITH GREAT STRENGTH AND ABILITY AND POWER, THE APOSTLES DELIVERED THEIR TESTIMONY OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD JESUS" (Acts 4:33, Amp). Holy Name vs. Holy Spirit I F ONE were to look through the many, many resources available from all denominations, facets, realms, and religions of the world, one could find hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of resources with “information” on God’s Name. But, with all these things suspended in my reader’s ears, let me propose this as well: Is it true that all such resources are nothing but 99% FRIVOLOUS in actuality? What I will attempt to present today will be a overview of the PRIORITIES in the Christian’s life. My goal here is to make it clear that knowing The Lord Jesus Christ, obeying His Will, and following His Spirit, should be every born-again (of His Spirit) believer’s aim. A hypothetical example: SAY YOU HAD a friend, or, maybe even a friendly acquaintance that you’ve known, perhaps for a number of years. Now, let’s believe this friend’s name is Mary Walker. All right, one day Mary calls you up, wanting a little friendly chit-chat. You answer the phone and she starts “Hi, this is Mary; how are you?” You respond, “Oh, Mary...Mary who?” Now, Mary may be assuming you are a little sleepy or something and responds, “It’s me, Mary Walker, the one you’ve known for years!” You, the technicality freak that you are, retort “Mary Walker? What’s your middle initial, name, family tree, heritage, address, name in Greek, date of birth etc.” Now Mary, being the patient kind of person that she is, doesn’t get too angry, and just responds calmly: “It’s me ok. Hey, I was just wanting to see how you are, and what you’re up to.” Then she waits for what she’s hoping will be a more friendly reaction. However, instead of a little cordiality, she finds herself being pelted and harassed with even more rude and uncalled for questions. OK, NOW PLEASE KEEP THIS CONVERSATION IN MIND as you read this short article! I do not think it is fair to do research on close friends/relatives, when you should be asking them yourself. If you met them with one name, why seek to call them something else? It is the author’s knowledge and personal experience that the Lord Jesus/God the Father Almighty will respond to any and all earnest hearts desiring HIM, not just respond because He is being called by some Greek, Hebrew, or other ‘special’ name! Study to...boast? NOW, I DO understand that some people think along these lines: “I do love Him, but we are to study and learn DEEPER things of God also.” I would say to such a soul, “YES, it is not that we do not study, but, if you received salvation through, and believe that Jesus Christ was/is the Messiah, WHY are you trying to find a DIFFERENT name for the one whom you received salvation through?” I think this skewered philosophy is rooted in the pride that started back in the garden when the serpent tempted Eve that she could, “know what God knows/be like God.” It does not make sense to make sure that people call the Lord something that they do not call Him, when they may be closer to God than you! Sometimes, when I meet people, they just want to talk about the name of God. Be it known, when they are so busy talking about His name [supposedly] that they DO NOT KNOW HIM. If they truly knew Him, they would find that the plain old name of Jesus has so much POWER in it, that they need not another. It is also possible that they are seeking for a deeper relationship with Him, and they think they can attain it by finding a “better name!” Friend, do not look to find a closer path to God by finding out His “real name.” It will more than suffice to cry out to “Jesus”—SIMPLY BELIEVING AND SIMPLY RECEIVING! Try it out! Ask them what God is doing in their lives and compare the list to the signs that WILL FOLLOW them that believe in Mark 16:17+18: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” The reason there are very little or no signs in their lives, is because they are looking for the HOLY SPIRIT in the flesh. Paul refers to this type of thing as well, in Galatians 3:3: “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” The remedy is that we, having begun in His Spirit, shall be growing and perfected in His Spirit, NOT by our (self) flesh. Another Scripture to consider is Gal. 4:29: “But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.” When a person is going after those carnal things, and believing those to be his answer, he is literally PERSECUTING THE HOLY SPIRIT! Many are doing what the Bible, in Matthew 23:24 warns against: “You blind guides, filtering out a gnat and gulping down a camel!” (AMP, See also Lev. 27:30; Mic. 6:8). My Inspiration THE OTHER DAY, for the first time ever, I was researching in a Freemason book, and I have to admit I was appalled. The book was over 800 pages long, and the one dominant theme was the supposed name of God. And mind you, there must have been over 1,000 different names of God in that book. How ridiculous! However, this actually isn’t the first time I’ve seen something like this, because I have known Messianics that are so concerned about Jesus’ supposed name, that they will actually consider you an unbeliever if you do not use the name Yashua, Yeshua, Yahweh, etc. And keep in mind that if one is an English-speaker, the English name ‘Jesus’ is good enough! Now, if you want the technical name of God, just keep in mind that it is not something to get obsessed over! Remember, the conversation, or the lack thereof with “Mary?” In this hour, the Lord is calling His people to be one with Him in Spirit and in truth. It is important to let His Spirit lead and guide us into His Will and Way, and to not get side-tracked on issues that are petty. PREACHING THE GOSPEL FOR MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN TO REPENT AND COME TO JESUS IS THE MAIN ISSUE AND FOCUS. If God wants to lead you to a more technical name for Himself, that is God doing the leading and not yourself, then that is good. However, what I am saying is that if you encounter genuine Christians, and are acting like a variant in a name is a doctrine of salvation, you are lacking real-life knowledge of the Lord, and should beg Him for a closer relationship and His Holy Spirit, because that is what He has promised believers: “When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth...” (John 16:13). This Scripture is referring to the promise of being filled with His Spirit. Besides, I will now show that you CANNOT find “the real” name anyhow! ANOTHER POINT I would also like to show is that in heaven, we will not think as men with carnal reasoning, but we will have a much deeper communication level (for extensive references to this, a vast variety of experiences may be found if one looks into Heaven and Hell testimonies available). This is along the same lines as Jesus states in Matt. 22:30: “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (See also Mark 12:25). The angels talk in a heavenly language. We, as Spirit-filled Christians should, or should seek to, speak a heavenly language as well (See the many ACMTC publications on the Holy Spirit and the Evidence of/Gift of tongues). So, considering this, the knowledge we supposedly gain about “His name” will be replaced with the knowledge of Him Himself in Heaven. Although, if we do not know Him now, even if we DO know His name in our dialect (or even if we know it in the thousands of dialects that there are), if we do not know Him, He will say to us: “...Truly, I have no knowledge of you [I NEVER KNEW YOU!!!] or where you come from; go away from me, you workers of evil” (Luke 13:27, BBE). Recall: NOW, I WOULD adjure you to recall the story about our phone conversation with Mary from the beginning of the article and answer these: Questions For Consideration: 1. WAS THE caller truly interested in knowing Mary? 2. Was any NAME outside of the basic Mary Walker necessary for conversation? 3. Do you think that Mary was prevented from talking to the caller because they did not know her full name, or because of their own technicality? 4. How does this apply to our, and everybody who ever has lived’s relationship to God? 5. I have thought of some groups that focus on the name of God/Jesus, instead of being focused ON Jesus/the Holy Spirit, including: ~ Mormons ~ Sects of Sabbath-Keepers ~ Twelve Tribes ~ Messianics ~Can you think of anybody else? And, I will leave you with another question: have you had a real experience with the Holy Ghost? If you have not, ask Him to fill you. If you have been filled with His Spirit already, ask for more! The good thing about the Lord is that if we are in Him, there is no end: we can continually move from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18)! ~M. T. W~ SCRIPTURES RELATING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT HOLY SPIRIT TEACHES: Jn. 14:26; 16:13; I Cor. 2:13,14; Heb. 9:8; I Pe. 1:12,22; 1 Jn. 2:27 HOLY SPIRIT GUIDES: Acts 10:19,20; 11:28; 13:2; 16:6,7,13,16; 20:23; 21:4; Gal. 5:18 HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTS: Jn. 16:7,8 HOLY SPIRIT REVEALS: Jn. 16:13; Acts 8:39; 15:28; 21:11; I Cor.12:3 HOLY SPIRIT SEALS: Eph. 4:30 HOLY SPIRIT REPRESENTS: Lu. 12:12 HOLY SPIRIT CALLS TO THE MINISTRY: Acts 13:2,4; 20:28; Rom. 15:16 ("Sanctified" means "to be set apart"). HOLY SPIRIT GIVES POWER: Lu. 24:49; Acts 1:8; 4:13,33; Rom. 15:13,19; Eph. 3:16 HOLY SPIRIT GIVES JOY AND PEACE: Rom. 14:17; 15:13; I Thess. 1:6 HOLY SPIRIT GIVEN TO OBEDIENT: Acts 5:32 HOLY SPIRIT GIVEN BY MEASURE: Jn.3:34 HOLY SPIRIT GIVES UTTERANCE IN OTHER TONGUES: Acts 2:4; 1 Cor. 14:2 HOLY SPIRIT COMFORTS: Acts 9:31 (Jn. 14:16,18,26; 15:26) HOLY SPIRIT INTERCEDES: Rom. 8:26,27 HOLY SPIRIT FELLOWSHIPS: II Cor. 13:14 (Communes) Heb. 6:4 (Partakers = Partners). HOLY SPIRIT DWELLS: II Tim. 1:14; Ja. 4:5 HOLY SPIRIT RENEWS: Titus 3:5 HOLY SPIRIT WITNESSES TO US: Heb. 10:5 HOLY SPIRIT ANOINTS: II Pe. 1:21 ("See Holy Spirit Gives Power") HOLY SPIRIT ADMONISHES: Heb. 3:7-12 HOLY SPIRIT PROMISED: Mtt. 3:11; Lu. 11:9-13; 24:49; Jn. 7:37-39 (14:16,18,26; 15:26; 16:7,13). Acts 1:4, 5, 8; (Acts 2:4,18,38,39). See "Tongues Promised." HOLY SPIRIT, IMPORTANCE OF RECEIVING: Acts 8:14-17 (See vs. 5-13 also); 19:2 (See vs. 1,3-6 also); 9:17; Eph. 5:18; Lu. 11:9,10,13. HOLY SPIRIT, RECEIVING AFTER CONVERSION: Acts 2:4; 8:14-17; 19:1-6 HOLY SPIRIT, RESISTING: Acts 7:51 (See "Grieve Not"). HOLY SPIRIT, "RECEIVE": Jn. 7:39; 20:22; Acts 2:38; 8:15,17,19; 9:17; 10:38,47; 19:2 HOLY SPIRIT, "CAME UPON" OR "FELL": Acts 10:44; 11:15; 19:6 HOLY SPIRIT, "BAPTIZED WITH": Mtt. 3:11; Mk. 1:8; Lu. 3:16; Jn. 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16 HOLY SPIRIT, "FILLED WITH" OR "FULL OF": Acts 2:4; 4:8,32; 6:3,5; 7:55; 9:17,11:24; 13:9,52; Eph. 5:18 HOLY SPIRIT, "GIVE": Lu. 11:13; Acts 5:32; 15:8; Rom. 5:5; I Thess. 4:8 (See Acts 2:33 for "Shed Forth"). HOLY SPIRIT, "PROMISE OF THE FATHER": Lu. 24:49; Acts 1:4 (2:38,39 "The Promise"). HOLY SPIRIT, GIFTS OF: I Cor. 12:1,7-11,28-31; 13:1,2; 14:1,26 (See Entire Ch.). Heb. 2:4 HOLY SPIRIT, GRIEVE NOT: Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 5:19 HOLY SPIRIT, "THE SPIRITUAL REST" (ANTI-TYPE OF SABBATH): Isa. 11:10; 28:11 (I Cor. 14:21,22) Ps. 132:13,14; Mtt. 11:28; Heb.4:8-11 (See Ch. 3,4) (Gal. 5:16,17). HOLY SPIRIT, AT PENTECOST: Acts 2:4 (i:4,5,8,16-18, 2:1-42) 11:15,17 HOLY SPIRIT, AT SAMARIA: Acts 8:15-19 HOLY SPIRIT, AT CAESAREA: Acts 10:44-47; 11:15-17 HOLY SPIRIT, AT EPHESUS: Acts 19:2-6 HOLY SPIRIT, PRAY FOR: Lu. 11:9-14 (See v. 1-8) Acts 1:14 TONGUES, PROMISED: Isa. 28:11 (I Cor. 14:21,22) Mk. 16:17 TONGUES, SIGN: Acts 10:45,46; I Cor. 14:21,22 (Isa. 28:11) (Acts 2:4,19:6). TONGUES, TO SPEAK TO GOD: I Co.-. 14:2, 14-18 Jude 20 (Rom. 8:26,27) TONGUES, TO SPEAK TO MAN: I Cor. 14:5,13,27 (In conjunction with interpretation) (Acts 2:4-12) TONGUES, KNOWN: Acts 2:4,6-12; I Cor. 13:1 ("Men") TONGUES, UNKNOWN: Cor. 13:1 ("Angels") 14:2,4,14 TONGUES, FORBID NOT: I Cor. 14:39 (See 13,14,15,18,22,26,27; 12:10,11,28) TONGUES, RESTRICTIONS IN THE ASSEMBLY: a. One at a Time: I Cor. 14:27 (Message to the Assembly) b. With Interpretation: I Cor. 14:13,28 (Message to the Assembly) c. By Those With the Gift: I Cor. 12:10,11,28,30, 14:28 (Message to the Assembly) TONGUES, ALL SPEAK AT ONCE, WITHOUT INTERPRETATION: Acts 2:4; 10:44-46, (11:15, 19:6 When Filled) TONGUES, BENEFICIAL: Acts 10:46 ("FOR"; A Sign) I Cor. 12:10,11; 14:2,4,5,15,18, 39; Jude 20 Praise God! The Power of The Name Smith Wigglesworth [emph., punct., and brackets added] WHILE I WAS UP on that mountain top, I was reminded of the transfiguration scene, and I felt thatthe Lord's only purpose in taking us into the glory was to fit us for greater usefulness in the valley. [Speaking in] Tongues and [then the] Interpretation; "The living God has chosen us for His divine inheritance, and He it is who is preparing us for our ministry, that it may be of God and not of man." As I was on the mountain top that day, the Lord said to me, "I want you to go and raise Lazarus." I told the brother who accompanied me of this, and when we got down to the valley, I wrote a postcard: "When I was up on the mountain praying today, God told me that I was to go and raise Lazarus." I addressed the postcard to the man in the place whose name had been given to me by the two lads. When we arrived at the place, we went to the man to whom I had addressed the card. He looked at me and said, "Did you send this?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Do you think we believe in this? Here, take it." And he threw it at me. The man called a servant and said, "Take this man and show him Lazarus." Then he said to me, "The moment you see him, you will be ready to go home. Nothing will hold you." Everything he said was true from the natural viewpoint. The man was helpless. He was nothing but a mass of bones with skin stretched over them. There was no life to be seen. Everything in him spoke of decay. I said to him, "Will you shout? You remember that at Jericho the people shouted while the walls were still up. God has like victory for you if you will only believe." But I could not get him to believe. There was not an atom of faith there. He had made up his mind not to have anything. It is a blessed thing to learn that God's word can never fail. Never hearken to human plans. God can work mightily when you persist in believing Him in spite of discouragements from the human standpoint. When I got back to the man to whom I had sent the post-card, he asked, "Are you ready to go now?" ...But Not Crushed... I AM NOT MOVED BY WHAT I SEE. I AM MOVED ONLY BY WHAT I BELIEVE. I know this: no man looks at appearances if he believes. No man considers how he feels if he believes; the man who believes God has it. Every man who comes into the Pentecostal condition can laugh at all things and believe God. There is something in the Pentecostal work that is different from anything else in the world. Somehow, in Pentecost, you know that God is a reality. Wherever the Holy Ghost has right of way, the gifts of the Spirit will be in manifestation; and where these gifts are never in manifestation, I question whether He is present. Pentecostal people are spoiled for anything else than Pentecostal meetings. We want none of the entertainments that the churches are offering. When God comes in, He entertains us Himself. Entertained by the King of kings and Lord of lords! O, it is wonderful. There were difficult conditions in that Welsh village, and it seemed impossible to get the people to believe. "Ready to go home?" I was asked. But, a man and a woman there asked us to come and stay with them. I said, "I want to know how many of you people can pray." No one wanted to pray. I asked if I could get seven people to pray with me for the poor man's deliverance. I said to the two people who were going to entertain us, "I will count on you two, and there is my friend and myself, and we need three others." I told the people that I trusted that some of them would awaken to their privilege and come in the morning and join us in prayer for the raising of Lazarus. It will never do to give way to human opinions. If God says a thing, you are to believe it. Fasting and Prayer I TOLD THE PEOPLE that I would not eat anything that night. When I got to bed, it seemed as if THE DEVIL TRIED TO PLACE ON ME EVERYTHING THAT HE HAD PLACED ON THAT POOR MAN IN THE BED. When I awoke, I had a cough and all the weakness of a tubercular patient. I rolled out of bed onto the floor, and cried out to God to deliver me from the power of the devil. I shouted loud enough to wake everybody in the house, but nobody was disturbed. God gave victory, and I got back into bed again as free as ever I was in my life. At 5 o'clock, the Lord awakened me and said to me, "Don't break bread until you break it round My table." At 6 o'clock, He gave me these words, "And I will raise him up." I put my elbow into the fellow who was [by] me. He said, "Ugh!" I put my elbow into him again and said, "Do you hear? The Lord says that He will raise him up." At 8 o'clock they said to me, "Have a little refreshment." But I have found prayer and fasting the greatest joy, and you will always find it so when you are led by God. When we went to the house where Lazarus lived there were eight of us altogether. No one can prove to me that God does not always answer prayer. He always does more than that. He always gives the exceedingly abundant above all we ask or think. I shall never forget how the power of God fell on us as we went into that sick man's room. O, it was lovely! As we circled round the bed, I got one brother to hold one of the sick man's hands and I held the other; and we each held the hand of the person next to us. I said, "We are not going to pray; we are just going to use the name of Jesus." We all knelt down and whispered that one word, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" The power of God fell and then it lifted. Five times the power of God fell, and then it remained. But the person who was in the bed was unmoved. Two years previous[ly,] someone had come along and had tried to raise him up, and the devil had used his lack of success as a means of discouraging Lazarus. I said, "I don't care what the devil says; if God says he will raise you up, it must be so. Forget everything else except what God says about Jesus." The sixth time the power fell, and the sick man's lips began moving, and the tears began to fall. I said to him, "The power of God is here; it is yours to accept it." He said, "I have been bitter in my heart, and I know I have grieved the Spirit of God. Here I am helpless. I cannot lift my hands, nor even lift a spoon to my mouth." I said, "Repent, and God will hear you." He repented and cried out, "O God, let this be to Thy glory." As he said this, the virtue of the Lord went right through him. I have asked the Lord to never let me tell this story except as it was, for I realize that God can not bless exaggerations. As we again said, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!," the bed shook, and the man shook. I said to the people that were with me, "You can all go down stairs right away. This is all God. I'm not going to assist him." I SAT AND WATCHED THAT MAN GET UP AND DRESS HIMSELF. We sang the doxology as he walked down the steps. I said to him, "Now tell what has happened." It was soon noised abroad that Lazarus had been raised up, and the people came from Llanelly and all the district round to see him and hear his testimony. And God brought salvation to many. This man told right out in the open air what God had done, and as a result, many were convicted and converted. All this came through the name of Jesus, through faith in His name, yea, THE FAITH THAT IS BY HIM GAVE THIS SICK MAN PERFECT SOUNDNESS IN THE PRESENCE OF THEM ALL. Common, Yet Miraculous PETER AND JOHN were helpless, were illiterate; they had no college education...[but] they had been with Jesus. To them had come a wonderful revelation of the power of the name of Jesus. They had handed out the bread and fish after Jesus had multiplied them. They had sat at the table with Him and John had often gazed into His face. Peter had often to be rebuked, but Jesus manifested His love to Peter through it all. Yea, He loved Peter, the wayward one. O, He's a wonderful lover! I have been wayward, I have been stubborn, I had an unmanageable temper at one time, but how patient He has been. I am here to tell you that THERE IS POWER IN JESUS and in His wondrous name to transform anyone, to heal anyone. If you will see Him as God's Lamb, as God's beloved Son—who had laid upon Him the iniquity of us all—if only you will see that Jesus paid the whole price for our redemption that we might be free, you can enter into your purchased inheritance of salvation, of life, and of power. Poor Peter, and poor John [literally]! They had no money! But, they had faith, they had the power of the Holy Ghost, and they had God. You can have God even though you have nothing else. Even though you have lost your character, you can have God. I have seen the worst men saved by the power of God. FROM SMITH WIGGLESWORTH’S BOOK: Ever Increasing Faith [emph., punct., and brackets added] TONGUES and Interpretation: "The divine will is that you should be filled with God, for the power of the Spirit to fill you with the mightiness of God. There is nothing God will withhold from a man filled with the Holy Ghost." I want to impress the importance of this upon you. It is not healing that I am presenting to you; it is the living Christ. It is a glorious fact that the Son of God came down to bring liberty to the captives. How is it that the moment you are filled with the Holy Ghost, persecution starts? It was so with the Lord Jesus Himself. We do not read of any persecutions before the Holy Spirit came down like a dove upon Him. Shortly after this, we find that, after preaching in His home town, they wanted to throw Him over the brow of a hill. It was the same with the twelve disciples. They had no persecution before the day of Pentecost; but after they were filled with the Spirit, they were soon in prison. The devil and the priests of religion will always get stirred when a man is filled with the Spirit and does things in the power of the Spirit. And persecution is the greatest blessing to a church. When we have persecution, we will have purity. If you desire to be filled with the Spirit, you can count on one thing, and that is persecution. The Lord came to bring division, and EVEN IN YOUR OWN HOUSEHOLD YOU MAY FIND THREE AGAINST TWO. The Lord Jesus came to bring peace; and soon after you get peace within, you get persecution without. If you remain stationary, the devil and his agents will not disturb you much. But when you press on and go the whole length with God the enemy has you as a target. But God will vindicate you in the midst of the whole thing. At a meeting I was holding, the Lord was working, and many were being healed. A man saw what was taking place and remarked, "I'd like to try this thing." He came up for prayer and told me that his body was broken in two places. I laid my hands on him in the name of the Lord, and said to him, "Now, you believe God." The next night he was at meeting, and he got up like a lion. He said, "I want to tell you people that this man here is deceiving you. He laid his hands on me last night for rupture in two places, but I'm not a bit better." I stopped him and said, "You are healed; your trouble is that you won't believe it." He was at meeting the next night and when there was opportunity for testimony this man arose. He said, "I'm a mason by trade. Today, I was working with a laborer and he had to put a big stone in place. I helped him and did not feel any pain. I said to myself, ‘How have I done it?’ I went away to a place where I could strip, and found that I was healed." I told the people, "Last night this man was against the Word of God, but now he believes it. It is true that these signs shall follow them that believe: they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. And all through the power that is in the name of Christ." IT IS THE SPIRIT WHO HAS COME TO REVEAL THE WORD OF GOD AND TO MAKE IT SPIRIT AND LIFE TO US. You people who are seeking the Baptism are entering a place where you will have persecution. Your best friends will leave you, or—those you may esteem your best friends. No good friend will ever leave you. But it is worth while. You enter into a realm of illumination, or revelation, by the power of the Holy Ghost. He reveals the preciousness and the power of the blood of Christ. I find by the revelation of the Spirit that there is not one thing in me that the blood does not cleanse. I find that God sanctifies me by the blood, and reveals that efficacy of the work by the Spirit. Stephen was just an ordinary man clothed with the divine. He was full of faith and power, and great wonders, and miracles were wrought by him. Oh, this life in the Holy Ghost! This life of deep, inward revelation, of transformation from one state to another, of growing in grace and in all knowledge and in the power of the Spirit, the life and the mind of Christ being renewed in you, and of constant revelations of the might of His power. It is the only kind of thing that will enable us to stand. The Biblical Evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit THERE IS MUCH CONTROVERSY today [in] regards [to] the genuineness of this Pentecostal work, but there is nothing so convincing as the fact that over fifteen years ago a revival on Holy Ghost lines began and has never ceased. You will find that in every clime throughout the world, God has poured out His Spirit in a remarkable way in a line parallel with the glorious revival that inaugurated the church of the first century. People, who could not understand what God was doing when He kept them concentrated in prayer, wondered as these days were [and are] being brought about by the Holy Ghost, and found themselves in exactly the same place and entering into an identical experience as the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. Our Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). God promised through the prophet Joel, "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh...Upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit." As there is a widespread misconception concerning this receiving of the Holy Spirit, I believe the Lord would have us examine the Scriptures on this subject. You know, beloved, it had to be something on the line of solid facts to move me. I was as certain as possible that I had received the Holy Ghost and was absolutely rigid in this conviction. When this Pentecostal outpouring began in England, I went to Sunderland and met with the people who had assembled for the purpose of receiving the Holy Ghost. I was continually in those meetings causing disturbances until the people wished I had never come. They said that I was disturbing the whole conditions. But I was hungry and thirsty for God, and had gone to Sunderland because I heard that God was pouring out His Spirit in a new way. I heard that God had now visited His people, had manifested His power, and that people were speaking in tongues as on the day of Pentecost. When I got to this place, I said, "I cannot understand this meeting. I have left a meeting in Bradford all on fire for God. The fire fell last night, and we were all laid out under the power of God. I have come here for tongues, and I don't hear them...I don't hear anything." "Oh!" they said, "when you get baptized with the Holy Ghost, you will speak in tongues." "Oh, is that it?" said I, "When the presence of God came upon me, my tongue was loosened, and really I felt as I went in the open air to preach that I had a new tongue." "Ah no," they said, "that is not it." "What is it, then?" I asked. They said, "When you get baptized in the Holy Ghost..." "I am baptized," I interjected, "and there is no one here who can persuade me that I am not baptized." So I was up against them and they were up against me. Begging I REMEMBER A MAN getting up and saying, "You know, brothers and sisters, I was here three weeks and then the Lord baptized me with the Holy Ghost and I began to speak with other tongues." I said: "Let us hear it. That's what I'm here for." But he would not talk in tongues. I was doing what others are doing today—confusing the 12th [verse] of I Corinthians with the 2nd [verse] of Acts. These two chapters deal with different things: one with the gifts of the Spirit and the other with the Baptism of the Spirit with the accompanying sign. I did not understand this, and so I said to the man, "Let's hear you speak in tongues." But he could not. He had not received the "gift" of tongues, but [only] the Baptism. As the days passed, I became more and more hungry. I had opposed the meetings so much, but the Lord was gracious, and I shall ever remember that last day—the day I was to leave. God was with me so much that last night. They were to have a meeting, and I went, but I could not rest. I went to the Vicarage, and there in the library, I said to Mrs. Boddy, "I cannot rest any longer. I must have these tongues." She replied, "Brother Wigglesworth, it is not the tongues you need, but the Baptism. If you will allow God to baptize you, the other will be all right." "My dear sister, I know I am baptized," I said. "You know that I have to leave here at 4 o'clock. Please lay hands on me that I may receive the tongues." She rose up and laid her hands on me, and the fire fell. I said, "The fire's falling." Then came a persistent knock at the door, and she had to go out. That was the best thing that could have happened, for I was ALONE WITH GOD. Then He gave me a revelation. Oh, it was wonderful! He showed me an empty cross and Jesus glorified. I do thank God that the cross is empty, that Christ is no more on the cross. It was there that He bore the curse, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." He became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, and now, there He is in the glory. Then I saw that God had purified me. It seemed that God gave me a new vision, and I saw a perfect being within me with mouth open, saying, "Clean! Clean! Clean!" When I began to repeat it, I found myself speaking in other tongues. The joy was so great that when I came to utter it, my tongue failed, and I began to worship God in other tongues as the Spirit gave me utterance. It was all as beautiful and peaceful as when Jesus said, "Peace, be still!" and the tranquillity of that moment, and the joy surpassed anything I had ever known up to that moment. But, Hallelujah, these days have grown with greater, mightier, more wonderful divine manifestations, and power. That was but the beginning. There is no end to this kind of beginning. You will never get an end to the Holy Ghost till you are landed in the glory—till you are right in the presence of God forever. And even then, we shall ever be conscious of His presence. From SMITH WIGGLESWORTH’S, “THE GIFT OF TONGUES” Incredible Spiritual Power! [emph., punct., and brackets added] O N THIS LINE, I want to tell you about Willie Burton, who is laboring for God in the Belgium Congo. Brother Burton is a mighty man of God and is giving his life for the heathen in Africa. He took fever and went down to death. They said: "He has preached his last; what shall we do?" All their hopes seemed to be blighted, and there they stood, with broken hearts, wondering what was going to take place. They left him for dead; but, in a moment, without any signal, he stood right in the midst of them; and they could not understand it. The explanation he gave was this, that when he came to himself, he realized a warmth going right through his body, and there wasn't one thing wrong with him. How did it come about? It was a mystery until he went to London and was telling the people how he was left for dead, and then was raised up. A lady came up and asked for a private conversation with him, and arranged a time. She asked, "Do you keep a diary?" He answered, "Yes." She told him, "It happened on a certain day that I went to pray; and as soon as I knelt, I had you on my mind. The Spirit of the Lord took hold of me and prayed through me in an unknown tongue. A vision came before me in which I saw you laid out helpless; and I cried out in the unknown tongue till I saw you rise up and go out of that room." She had kept a note of the time, and when he turned to his diary, he found that it was exactly the time when he was raised up. There are great possibilities as we yield to the Spirit and speak unto God in quiet hours in our bedrooms. God wants you to be filled with the Holy Ghost so that everything about you shall be charged with the dynamic of heaven. from REDEMPTION TIDINGS Clothed With The Spirit A Sermon From SMITH WIGGLESWORTH G OD HAS A PLAN for us in this life of the Spirit—this abundant life. Jesus came that we might have life. Satan comes to steal, and kill, and destroy, but God has for us: abundance, full measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing [and] abundant [in] measure, God filling us with His own personality and presence, making us salt and light, and giving us revelation of Himself, God with us in all circumstances, afflictions, and persecutions, in every trial, girding us with truth— Christ the initiative, the Triune God in control—our every thought, word, and action must be in line with Him, with no weakness or failure. Our God is a God of might, light, and revelation, preparing us for heaven (Col. 3:3). Our life is hid with Christ in God; when He who is our life shall be manifested, we also shall appear with Him in glory.THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord” (2 Co. 5:1-6). God's Word is a tremendous Word, a productive Word, producing what it is—power-producing God-likeness. We get to heaven through the Word of God; we have peace through the blood of His cross. Redemption is ours through the knowledge of the Word. I am saved because God’s Word says so (Rom. 10:9): “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” If I am baptized with the Holy Spirit, it is because Jesus said that ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you. WE MUST ALL HAVE ONE IDEA—TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST, TO BE FILLED WITH GOD. MESSAGE IN TONGUES “God hath sent His Word to free us from the law of sin and death. Except we die, we cannot live; except we cease to be, God cannot be.” The Holy Ghost has a royal plan, a heavenly plan. He came to unveil the King—to show the character of God, to unveil the precious blood. As I have the Holy Spirit within me, I see Jesus clothed for humanity; He was moved by the Spirit, led by the Spirit. We read of some who heard the Word of God but were not profited because faith was lacking in them. WE MUST HAVE A LIVING FAITH IN GOD'S WORD, QUICKENED BY THE SPIRIT. A man may be saved, and [but] still have a human spirit. With many who are spoken to about the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, the human spirit at once arises against the Holy Spirit. The human spirit is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. The disciples at one time, wanted to call down fire from heaven. Jesus said, “Ye know not what spirit ye are of...” THE PLAN OF THE SPIRIT MESSAGE IN TONGUES “This is that which God hath declared, freedom from the law. If we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us” (1 Jn. 2:16). “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.” The Spirit has to breathe in a new tenancy, a new order. He came to give the vision of a life in which Jesus is perfected: “Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Ti. 1:9-10). Saved, called to be saints, called with a holy calling, holy, pure, Godlike sons with power. It is a long time now since it was settled and death abolished. Death has no more power; mortality is a hindrance; sin has no more dominion; you reign in Christ; you appropriate His finished work. Don't groan and travail for a week if you are in need, ONLY BELIEVE. Don’t fight to get some special thing, ONLY BELIEVE. It is according to your faith. God blesses you with faith. Have faith in God. If you are free in God, believe, and it shall be. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Stir yourselves up, beloved; where are you? I am risen with Christ, planted. It was a beautiful planting. Seated. God gives me credit, and I believe Him; why should I doubt? MESSAGE IN TONGUES “WHEREFORE DO you doubt? Faith reigns. God makes it possible. How many receive the Holy Ghost, and [then] Satan gets a doubt in? Don't doubt; believe. There is power and strength in Him; who dares believe God?” Quit Doubting Street; live in Faith-Victory Street. Jesus sent seventy away, and they came back in victory. It takes God to make it real. Dare to believe till there is not a sick person, no sickness, everything withered, and the life of Jesus implanted within. Deliverance to the Captives Smith Wigglesworth Read Luke 4:1-20. OUR PRECIOUS LORD JESUS has everything for everybody: forgiveness of sin, healing of diseases, and the fullness of the Spirit all come from one source—from the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear Him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever as He announces the purpose for which He came: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Jesus had been baptized by John in Jordan, and the Holy Spirit had descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him. Being full of the Holy Ghost, He had been led by the Spirit into the wilderness...there to come off more than conqueror over the arch enemy. Then He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and preached in the synagogues, and at last, He came to His old home town Nazareth, where He announced His mission in the words I have just quoted. For a brief while, He ministered on the earth, and then gave His life a ransom for all. But God raised Him from the dead. And before He went to the glory, He told His disciples that they too should receive the power of the Holy Ghost upon them. Thus, through them, His gracious ministry would continue. This power of the Holy Ghost was not only for a few apostles, but even for them that are afar off, even as many as our God should call (Act. 2:39), even for us in this twentieth [twenty-first etc.] century. Some ask, "But was not this power just for the privileged few in the first century?" No. Read the Master's great commission as recorded by Mark, and you will see it is for them that believe. "This is what I baptized you for." AFTER I HAD RECEIVED the Baptism of the Holy Ghost (and I know that I received, for the Lord gave me the Spirit in just the same way as He gave Him to the disciples at Jerusalem), I sought the mind of the Lord as to why I was baptized. One day, I came home from work and went into the house and my wife asked me, "Which way did you come in?" I told her that I had come in at the back door. She said, "There is a woman upstairs and she has brought an old man of eighty to be prayed for. He is raving up there and a great crowd is outside the front door, ringing the door-bell and wanting to know what is going on in the house." The Lord quietly whispered, "This is what I baptized you for." I carefully opened the door of the room where the man was, desiring to be obedient to what my Lord would say to me. The man was crying and shouting in distress, "I am lost! I am lost! I have committed the unpardonable sin. I am lost! I am lost!" My wife said, "Dad, what shall we do?" The Spirit of the Lord moved me to cry out, "Come out, thou lying spirit." In a moment, the evil spirit went, and the man was free. DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES! And the Lord said to me, "This is what I baptized you for." There is a place where God, through the power of the Holy Ghost, reigns supreme in our lives. The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us, and prepares us to be more than a match for Satanic forces. When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he said, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." Jesus said to him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus was impressed by the miracles wrought, and Jesus pointed out the necessity of a miracle being wrought with every man who would see the kingdom. When a man is born of God, [he] is brought from darkness to light; a mighty miracle is wrought. Jesus saw every touch by God as a miracle, and SO WE MAY EXPECT TO SEE MIRACLES WROUGHT TODAY. It is wonderful to have the Spirit of the Lord upon us. I would rather have the Spirit of God on me for five minutes than to receive a million dollars. Do you see how Jesus mastered the devil in the wilderness? He knew He was the Son of God and Satan came along with an "if." HOW MANY TIMES has Satan come along to YOU this way? He says, "After all, you may be deceived. You know you really are not a child of God." If the devil comes along and says that you are not saved, it is a pretty sure sign that you are. When he comes and tells you that you are not healed, it may be taken as good evidence that the Lord has sent His word and healed you. The devil knows that if he can capture your thought life, he has won a mighty victory over you. His great business is injecting thoughts, but if you are pure and holy, you will instantly shrink from them. God wants us to let the mind that was in Christ Jesus, that pure, holy, humble mind of Christ, be in us. I come across people everywhere I go who are held-bound by deceptive conditions, and THESE CONDITIONS HAVE COME ABOUT SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALLOWED THE DEVIL TO MAKE THEIR MINDS THE PLACE OF HIS STRONGHOLD. How are we to guard against this? The Lord has provided us with WEAPONS that are mighty through God to the pulling down of these strongholds of the enemy, and by means of which “every thought shall be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” The blood of Jesus Christ, and His mighty name are an antidote to all the subtle seeds of unbelief that Satan would sow in your minds. In the first chapter of Acts, we see that Jesus gave commandment to the disciples that they should wait for the promise of the Father, and He told them that not many days hence they would be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Luke tells us that he had written his former treatise concerning all that Jesus began both to do and teach. The ministry of Christ did not end at the cross, but the Acts and the epistles give us accounts of what He continued to do, and teach through those whom He indwelt. And our blessed Lord Jesus is still alive, and continues His ministry through those who are filled with His Spirit. He is still healing the broken-hearted and delivering the captives—through those on whom He places His Spirit. Jesus Does Heal By His Spirit! I WAS TRAVELING one day in a railway train in Sweden. At one station, there boarded the train an old lady with her daughter. The old lady's expression was so troubled that I enquired “what was the matter” with her. I heard that she was going to the hospital to have her leg taken off. She began to weep as she told that the doctors had said there was no hope for her—except through having her leg amputated. She was seventy years old. I said to my interpreter, "Tell her that Jesus can heal her." The instant this was said to her, it was as though a veil was taken off her face; it became so light. We stopped at another station, and the carriage filled up with people. There was a rush of men to board that train and the devil said, "You're done." But I knew I had the best proposition, for hard things are always opportunities to get for the Lord more glory when He manifests His power. Every trial is a blessing. There have been times when I have been pressed through circumstances, and it seemed as if a dozen road engines were going over me, but I have found that the hardest things are just lifting places into the grace of God. We have such a lovely Jesus. He always proves Himself to be such a mighty Deliverer. He never fails to plan the best things for us. The train began moving,, and I crouched down, and in the name of Jesus commanded the disease to leave. The old lady cried, "I'm healed. I know I'm healed." She stamped her leg and said, "I'm going to prove it." So when we stopped at another station, she marched up and down, and shouted, "I'm not going to the hospital." Once again our wonderful Jesus had proven Himself a Healer of the broken-hearted, a Deliverer of one that was bound. At one time, I was so bound that no human power could help me. My wife was looking for me to pass away. There was no help. At that time, I had just had a faint glimpse of Jesus as the Healer. For six months, I had been suffering from appendicitis, occasionally getting temporary relief. I went to the mission of which I was pastor, but I was brought to the floor in awful agony, and they brought me home to my bed. All night, I was praying, pleading for deliverance, but none came. My wife was sure it was my home call and sent for a physician. He said that there was no possible chance for me—my body was too weak. Having had the appendicitis for six months, my whole system was drained, and because of that, he thought that it was too late for an operation. He left my wife in a state of broken-heartedness. After he left, there came to our door a young man and an old lady. I knew that she was a woman of real prayer. They came upstairs to my room. This young man jumped on the bed and commanded the evil spirit to come out of me. He shouted, "Come out, you devil; I command you to come out in the name of Jesus!" There was no chance for an argument, or for me to tell him that I would never believe that there was a devil inside of me. The thing had to go in the name of Jesus, and it went, and I was instantly healed. I arose and dressed and went downstairs. I was still in the plumbing business, and I asked my wife, "Is there any work in? I am all right now, and I am going to work." I found there was a certain job to be done, and I picked up my tools and went off to do it. Just after I left, the doctor came in, put his plug hat down in the hall, and walked up to the bedroom. But the invalid was not there. "Where is Mr. Wigglesworth?" he asked. "Oh, doctor, he's gone out to work," said my wife. "You'll never see him alive again," said the doctor; "They'll bring him back a corpse." Well, I'm the corpse. Since that time, in many parts of the world, the Lord has given me the privilege of praying for people with appendicitis, and I have seen a great many people up and dressed within a quarter of an hour from the time I prayed for them. WE HAVE A LIVING CHRIST WHO IS WILLING TO MEET PEOPLE ON EVERY LINE. Yes, Another Act of His Spirit A number of years ago, I met Brother D. W. Kerr, and he gave me a letter of introduction to a brother in Zion City named Cook. I took his letter to Brother Cook, and he said, "God has sent you here." He gave me the addresses of six people and asked me to go and pray for them and meet him again at 12 o'clock. I got back at about 12:30, and he told me about a young man who was to be married the following Monday. His sweetheart was in Zion City dying of appendicitis. I went to the house and found that the physician had just been there and had pronounced that there was no hope. The mother was nearly distracted and was pulling her hair and saying, "Is there no deliverance!" I said to her, "Woman, believe God and your daughter will be healed and be up and dressed in fifteen minutes." But the mother went on screaming. They took me into the bedroom, and I prayed for the girl and commanded the evil spirit to depart in the name of Jesus. She cried, "I am healed." I said to her, "Do you want me to believe that you are healed? If you are healed, get up." She said, "You get out of the room, and I'll get up." In less than ten minutes, the doctor came in. He wanted to know what had happened. She said, "A man came in and prayed for me, and I'm healed." The doctor pressed his finger right in the place that had been so sore, and the girl neither moaned nor cried. He said, "THIS IS GOD." It made no difference whether he acknowledged it or not, I knew that God had worked. Our God is real in saving and healing power today. Our Jesus is just the same, yesterday, and today, and forever. HE SAVES AND HEALS TODAY JUST AS OF OLD, AND HE WANTS TO BE YOUR SAVIOUR AND YOUR HEALER. Oh, if you would only believe God; what would happen? The greatest things. Some have never tasted the grace of God, have never had the peace of God. Unbelief robs them of these blessings. It is possible to hear, and yet not conceive the truth. It is possible to read the Word, and not share in the life it brings. It is necessary for us to have the Holy Ghost to unfold the Word and bring to us the life that is Christ. WE CAN NEVER FULLY UNDERSTAND THE WONDERS OF THIS REDEMPTION UNTIL WE ARE FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST. Do You Know Jesus? I WAS ONCE at an afternoon meeting. The Lord had been graciously with us, and many had been healed by the power of God. Most of the people had gone home, and I was left alone, when I saw a young man who was evidently hanging back to have a word. I asked, "What do you want?" He said, "I wonder if I could ask you to pray for me." I said, "What's the trouble?" He said, "Can't you smell?" The young fellow had gone into sin and was suffering the consequences. He said, "I have been turned out of two hospitals. I am broken out all over. I have abscesses all over me." And I could see that he had a bad breaking out at the nose. He said, "I heard you preach, and could not understand about this healing business, and was wondering if there was any hope for me." I said to him, "Do you know Jesus?" He did not know the first thing about salvation, but I said to him, "Stand still." I placed my hands on his head and then on his loins and cursed that terrible disease in the name of Jesus. He cried out, "I know I'm healed. I can feel a warmth and a glow all over me." I said, "Who did it?" He said, "Your prayers." I said, "No, it was Jesus!" He said, "Was it He? Oh, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus, save me." And that young man went away healed and saved. Oh, what a merciful God we have! What a wonderful Jesus is ours! Are you oppressed? Cry out to God. It is always good for people to cry out. You may have to cry out. The Holy Ghost and the Word of God will bring to light every hidden, unclean thing that must be revealed. There is always a place of deliverance when you let God search out that which is spoiling and marring your life. That evil spirit that was in the man in the synagogue cried out, "Let us alone!" It was a singular thing that the evil spirit had never cried out like that until Jesus walked into the place where he was. Jesus rebuked the thing, saying, "HOLD THY PEACE AND COME OUT OF HIM," and the man was delivered. He is just the same Jesus [today as He was back then]—exposing the powers of evil, delivering the captives, and letting the oppressed go free—purifying them and cleansing their hearts. Those evil spirits that inhabited the man who had the legion did not want to be sent to the pit to be tormented before their time, and so they cried out to be sent into the swine. HELL IS SUCH AN AWFUL PLACE THAT EVEN THE DEMONS HATE THE THOUGHT OF GOING THERE. How much more should men seek to be saved from the pit? God is compassionate and says, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found." And He has further stated, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Seek Him now, call on His name right now, and there is forgiveness, healing, redemption, deliverance, and everything you need right here and now, and that which will satisfy you throughout eternity. BLESSINGS IN AUSTRALIA SISTER WINNIE ANDREWS, N. Melbourne, Australia, writes: "Our Brother Wigglesworth landed here February 16th, and had a meeting that very night. The dear Lord was present and that to heal. A little girl of six, having never walked, after she had been prayed for, walked out of the front door with her mother, who was full of joy for what the Lord had done for her little one. Another man who had been suffering with bad feet for years, and walked only with the aid of a stick was instantly healed and has been along several times to testify to what the Lord has done for him. Many deaf people have been delivered in answer to the prayer of faith. One night, a dear man and his wife, whom he brought to the meeting in a wheel chair, were both healed. He had been suffering from deafness for 20 years and she had not walked for over 62 years. After prayer she got out of her chair and walked to the station, with her husband pushing the empty chair. He, too, was rejoicing in that he was now able to hear perfectly. O what a wonderful God we have. Blessed be His holy Name! "At the Sunday afternoon service, a dear young woman who had been suffering with tuberculosis for 13 years, and who was in the last stages, came leaning on the arm of a friend and was prayed for. At once, she received new life and was perfectly delivered. The terrible burning sores which were eating their way into her bones have dried up and are peeling off, and she is looking so well, and happy, and is as strong as can be. Glory to God! Last night, a young man suffering from consumption was prayed for and was instantly made whole. O, our hearts overflow at the glorious things God is doing in our midst! "Many have been healed of neuritis, heart and lung trouble, and stiff joints. One woman who had not walked for 22 years, and could not as much as turn her head, after prayer, [she] got out of bed and walked, Praise God!" (Pentecostal Evangel, April 15, 1922). SMITH WIGGLESWORTH (1859 - 1947), was a British religious leader and an important figure in the early history of Pentecostalism. Wigglesworth left his job as a plumber to become a faith healer. He was an early Charismatic theologian and minister, who wrote a number of works on tongues and other gifts of the Holy Spirit. He is considered one of the most influential evangelists in the early history of Pentecostalism. The Power of The Name Smith Wigglesworth [emph., punct., and brackets added] WHILE I WAS UP on that mountain top, I was reminded of the transfiguration scene, and I felt thatthe Lord's only purpose in taking us into the glory was to fit us for greater usefulness in the valley. [Speaking in] Tongues and [then the] Interpretation; "The living God has chosen us for His divine inheritance, and He it is who is preparing us for our ministry, that it may be of God and not of man." As I was on the mountain top that day, the Lord said to me, "I want you to go and raise Lazarus." I told the brother who accompanied me of this, and when we got down to the valley, I wrote a postcard: "When I was up on the mountain praying today, God told me that I was to go and raise Lazarus." I addressed the postcard to the man in the place whose name had been given to me by the two lads. When we arrived at the place, we went to the man to whom I had addressed the card. He looked at me and said, "Did you send this?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Do you think we believe in this? Here, take it." And he threw it at me. The man called a servant and said, "Take this man and show him Lazarus." Then he said to me, "The moment you see him, you will be ready to go home. Nothing will hold you." Everything he said was true from the natural viewpoint. The man was helpless. He was nothing but a mass of bones with skin stretched over them. There was no life to be seen. Everything in him spoke of decay. I said to him, "Will you shout? You remember that at Jericho the people shouted while the walls were still up. God has like victory for you if you will only believe." But I could not get him to believe. There was not an atom of faith there. He had made up his mind not to have anything. It is a blessed thing to learn that God's word can never fail. Never hearken to human plans. God can work mightily when you persist in believing Him in spite of discouragements from the human standpoint. When I got back to the man to whom I had sent the post-card, he asked, "Are you ready to go now?" ...But Not Crushed... I AM NOT MOVED BY WHAT I SEE. I AM MOVED ONLY BY WHAT I BELIEVE. I know this: no man looks at appearances if he believes. No man considers how he feels if he believes; the man who believes God has it. Every man who comes into the Pentecostal condition can laugh at all things and believe God. There is something in the Pentecostal work that is different from anything else in the world. Somehow, in Pentecost, you know that God is a reality. Wherever the Holy Ghost has right of way, the gifts of the Spirit will be in manifestation; and where these gifts are never in manifestation, I question whether He is present. Pentecostal people are spoiled for anything else than Pentecostal meetings. We want none of the entertainments that the churches are offering. When God comes in, He entertains us Himself. Entertained by the King of kings and Lord of lords! O, it is wonderful. There were difficult conditions in that Welsh village, and it seemed impossible to get the people to believe. "Ready to go home?" I was asked. But, a man and a woman there asked us to come and stay with them. I said, "I want to know how many of you people can pray." No one wanted to pray. I asked if I could get seven people to pray with me for the poor man's deliverance. I said to the two people who were going to entertain us, "I will count on you two, and there is my friend and myself, and we need three others." I told the people that I trusted that some of them would awaken to their privilege and come in the morning and join us in prayer for the raising of Lazarus. It will never do to give way to human opinions. If God says a thing, you are to believe it. Fasting and Prayer I TOLD THE PEOPLE that I would not eat anything that night. When I got to bed, it seemed as if THE DEVIL TRIED TO PLACE ON ME EVERYTHING THAT HE HAD PLACED ON THAT POOR MAN IN THE BED. When I awoke, I had a cough and all the weakness of a tubercular patient. I rolled out of bed onto the floor, and cried out to God to deliver me from the power of the devil. I shouted loud enough to wake everybody in the house, but nobody was disturbed. God gave victory, and I got back into bed again as free as ever I was in my life. At 5 o'clock, the Lord awakened me and said to me, "Don't break bread until you break it round My table." At 6 o'clock, He gave me these words, "And I will raise him up." I put my elbow into the fellow who was [by] me. He said, "Ugh!" I put my elbow into him again and said, "Do you hear? The Lord says that He will raise him up." At 8 o'clock they said to me, "Have a little refreshment." But I have found prayer and fasting the greatest joy, and you will always find it so when you are led by God. When we went to the house where Lazarus lived there were eight of us altogether. No one can prove to me that God does not always answer prayer. He always does more than that. He always gives the exceedingly abundant above all we ask or think. I shall never forget how the power of God fell on us as we went into that sick man's room. O, it was lovely! As we circled round the bed, I got one brother to hold one of the sick man's hands and I held the other; and we each held the hand of the person next to us. I said, "We are not going to pray; we are just going to use the name of Jesus." We all knelt down and whispered that one word, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" The power of God fell and then it lifted. Five times the power of God fell, and then it remained. But the person who was in the bed was unmoved. Two years previous[ly,] someone had come along and had tried to raise him up, and the devil had used his lack of success as a means of discouraging Lazarus. I said, "I don't care what the devil says; if God says he will raise you up, it must be so. Forget everything else except what God says about Jesus." The sixth time the power fell, and the sick man's lips began moving, and the tears began to fall. I said to him, "The power of God is here; it is yours to accept it." He said, "I have been bitter in my heart, and I know I have grieved the Spirit of God. Here I am helpless. I cannot lift my hands, nor even lift a spoon to my mouth." I said, "Repent, and God will hear you." He repented and cried out, "O God, let this be to Thy glory." As he said this, the virtue of the Lord went right through him. I have asked the Lord to never let me tell this story except as it was, for I realize that God can not bless exaggerations. As we again said, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!," the bed shook, and the man shook. I said to the people that were with me, "You can all go down stairs right away. This is all God. I'm not going to assist him." I SAT AND WATCHED THAT MAN GET UP AND DRESS HIMSELF. We sang the doxology as he walked down the steps. I said to him, "Now tell what has happened." It was soon noised abroad that Lazarus had been raised up, and the people came from Llanelly and all the district round to see him and hear his testimony. And God brought salvation to many. This man told right out in the open air what God had done, and as a result, many were convicted and converted. All this came through the name of Jesus, through faith in His name, yea, THE FAITH THAT IS BY HIM GAVE THIS SICK MAN PERFECT SOUNDNESS IN THE PRESENCE OF THEM ALL. Common, Yet Miraculous PETER AND JOHN were helpless, were illiterate; they had no college education...[but] they had been with Jesus. To them had come a wonderful revelation of the power of the name of Jesus. They had handed out the bread and fish after Jesus had multiplied them. They had sat at the table with Him and John had often gazed into His face. Peter had often to be rebuked, but Jesus manifested His love to Peter through it all. Yea, He loved Peter, the wayward one. O, He's a wonderful lover! I have been wayward, I have been stubborn, I had an unmanageable temper at one time, but how patient He has been. I am here to tell you that THERE IS POWER IN JESUS and in His wondrous name to transform anyone, to heal anyone. If you will see Him as God's Lamb, as God's beloved Son—who had laid upon Him the iniquity of us all—if only you will see that Jesus paid the whole price for our redemption that we might be free, you can enter into your purchased inheritance of salvation, of life, and of power. Poor Peter, and poor John [literally]! They had no money! But, they had faith, they had the power of the Holy Ghost, and they had God. You can have God even though you have nothing else. Even though you have lost your character, you can have God. I have seen the worst men saved by the power of God. FROM SMITH WIGGLESWORTH’S BOOK: Ever Increasing Faith [emph., punct., and brackets added] TONGUES and Interpretation: "The divine will is that you should be filled with God, for the power of the Spirit to fill you with the mightiness of God. There is nothing God will withhold from a man filled with the Holy Ghost." I want to impress the importance of this upon you. It is not healing that I am presenting to you; it is the living Christ. It is a glorious fact that the Son of God came down to bring liberty to the captives. How is it that the moment you are filled with the Holy Ghost, persecution starts? It was so with the Lord Jesus Himself. We do not read of any persecutions before the Holy Spirit came down like a dove upon Him. Shortly after this, we find that, after preaching in His home town, they wanted to throw Him over the brow of a hill. It was the same with the twelve disciples. They had no persecution before the day of Pentecost; but after they were filled with the Spirit, they were soon in prison. The devil and the priests of religion will always get stirred when a man is filled with the Spirit and does things in the power of the Spirit. And persecution is the greatest blessing to a church. When we have persecution, we will have purity. If you desire to be filled with the Spirit, you can count on one thing, and that is persecution. The Lord came to bring division, and EVEN IN YOUR OWN HOUSEHOLD YOU MAY FIND THREE AGAINST TWO. The Lord Jesus came to bring peace; and soon after you get peace within, you get persecution without. If you remain stationary, the devil and his agents will not disturb you much. But when you press on and go the whole length with God the enemy has you as a target. But God will vindicate you in the midst of the whole thing. At a meeting I was holding, the Lord was working, and many were being healed. A man saw what was taking place and remarked, "I'd like to try this thing." He came up for prayer and told me that his body was broken in two places. I laid my hands on him in the name of the Lord, and said to him, "Now, you believe God." The next night he was at meeting, and he got up like a lion. He said, "I want to tell you people that this man here is deceiving you. He laid his hands on me last night for rupture in two places, but I'm not a bit better." I stopped him and said, "You are healed; your trouble is that you won't believe it." He was at meeting the next night and when there was opportunity for testimony this man arose. He said, "I'm a mason by trade. Today, I was working with a laborer and he had to put a big stone in place. I helped him and did not feel any pain. I said to myself, ‘How have I done it?’ I went away to a place where I could strip, and found that I was healed." I told the people, "Last night this man was against the Word of God, but now he believes it. It is true that these signs shall follow them that believe: they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. And all through the power that is in the name of Christ." IT IS THE SPIRIT WHO HAS COME TO REVEAL THE WORD OF GOD AND TO MAKE IT SPIRIT AND LIFE TO US. You people who are seeking the Baptism are entering a place where you will have persecution. Your best friends will leave you, or—those you may esteem your best friends. No good friend will ever leave you. But it is worth while. You enter into a realm of illumination, or revelation, by the power of the Holy Ghost. He reveals the preciousness and the power of the blood of Christ. I find by the revelation of the Spirit that there is not one thing in me that the blood does not cleanse. I find that God sanctifies me by the blood, and reveals that efficacy of the work by the Spirit. Stephen was just an ordinary man clothed with the divine. He was full of faith and power, and great wonders, and miracles were wrought by him. Oh, this life in the Holy Ghost! This life of deep, inward revelation, of transformation from one state to another, of growing in grace and in all knowledge and in the power of the Spirit, the life and the mind of Christ being renewed in you, and of constant revelations of the might of His power. It is the only kind of thing that will enable us to stand. The Biblical Evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit THERE IS MUCH CONTROVERSY today [in] regards [to] the genuineness of this Pentecostal work, but there is nothing so convincing as the fact that over fifteen years ago a revival on Holy Ghost lines began and has never ceased. You will find that in every clime throughout the world, God has poured out His Spirit in a remarkable way in a line parallel with the glorious revival that inaugurated the church of the first century. People, who could not understand what God was doing when He kept them concentrated in prayer, wondered as these days were [and are] being brought about by the Holy Ghost, and found themselves in exactly the same place and entering into an identical experience as the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. Our Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). God promised through the prophet Joel, "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh...Upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit." As there is a widespread misconception concerning this receiving of the Holy Spirit, I believe the Lord would have us examine the Scriptures on this subject. You know, beloved, it had to be something on the line of solid facts to move me. I was as certain as possible that I had received the Holy Ghost and was absolutely rigid in this conviction. When this Pentecostal outpouring began in England, I went to Sunderland and met with the people who had assembled for the purpose of receiving the Holy Ghost. I was continually in those meetings causing disturbances until the people wished I had never come. They said that I was disturbing the whole conditions. But I was hungry and thirsty for God, and had gone to Sunderland because I heard that God was pouring out His Spirit in a new way. I heard that God had now visited His people, had manifested His power, and that people were speaking in tongues as on the day of Pentecost. When I got to this place, I said, "I cannot understand this meeting. I have left a meeting in Bradford all on fire for God. The fire fell last night, and we were all laid out under the power of God. I have come here for tongues, and I don't hear them...I don't hear anything." "Oh!" they said, "when you get baptized with the Holy Ghost, you will speak in tongues." "Oh, is that it?" said I, "When the presence of God came upon me, my tongue was loosened, and really I felt as I went in the open air to preach that I had a new tongue." "Ah no," they said, "that is not it." "What is it, then?" I asked. They said, "When you get baptized in the Holy Ghost..." "I am baptized," I interjected, "and there is no one here who can persuade me that I am not baptized." So I was up against them and they were up against me. Begging I REMEMBER A MAN getting up and saying, "You know, brothers and sisters, I was here three weeks and then the Lord baptized me with the Holy Ghost and I began to speak with other tongues." I said: "Let us hear it. That's what I'm here for." But he would not talk in tongues. I was doing what others are doing today—confusing the 12th [verse] of I Corinthians with the 2nd [verse] of Acts. These two chapters deal with different things: one with the gifts of the Spirit and the other with the Baptism of the Spirit with the accompanying sign. I did not understand this, and so I said to the man, "Let's hear you speak in tongues." But he could not. He had not received the "gift" of tongues, but [only] the Baptism. As the days passed, I became more and more hungry. I had opposed the meetings so much, but the Lord was gracious, and I shall ever remember that last day—the day I was to leave. God was with me so much that last night. They were to have a meeting, and I went, but I could not rest. I went to the Vicarage, and there in the library, I said to Mrs. Boddy, "I cannot rest any longer. I must have these tongues." She replied, "Brother Wigglesworth, it is not the tongues you need, but the Baptism. If you will allow God to baptize you, the other will be all right." "My dear sister, I know I am baptized," I said. "You know that I have to leave here at 4 o'clock. Please lay hands on me that I may receive the tongues." She rose up and laid her hands on me, and the fire fell. I said, "The fire's falling." Then came a persistent knock at the door, and she had to go out. That was the best thing that could have happened, for I was ALONE WITH GOD. Then He gave me a revelation. Oh, it was wonderful! He showed me an empty cross and Jesus glorified. I do thank God that the cross is empty, that Christ is no more on the cross. It was there that He bore the curse, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." He became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, and now, there He is in the glory. Then I saw that God had purified me. It seemed that God gave me a new vision, and I saw a perfect being within me with mouth open, saying, "Clean! Clean! Clean!" When I began to repeat it, I found myself speaking in other tongues. The joy was so great that when I came to utter it, my tongue failed, and I began to worship God in other tongues as the Spirit gave me utterance. It was all as beautiful and peaceful as when Jesus said, "Peace, be still!" and the tranquillity of that moment, and the joy surpassed anything I had ever known up to that moment. But, Hallelujah, these days have grown with greater, mightier, more wonderful divine manifestations, and power. That was but the beginning. There is no end to this kind of beginning. You will never get an end to the Holy Ghost till you are landed in the glory—till you are right in the presence of God forever. And even then, we shall ever be conscious of His presence. From SMITH WIGGLESWORTH’S, “THE GIFT OF TONGUES” Incredible Spiritual Power! [emph., punct., and brackets added] O N THIS LINE, I want to tell you about Willie Burton, who is laboring for God in the Belgium Congo. Brother Burton is a mighty man of God and is giving his life for the heathen in Africa. He took fever and went down to death. They said: "He has preached his last; what shall we do?" All their hopes seemed to be blighted, and there they stood, with broken hearts, wondering what was going to take place. They left him for dead; but, in a moment, without any signal, he stood right in the midst of them; and they could not understand it. The explanation he gave was this, that when he came to himself, he realized a warmth going right through his body, and there wasn't one thing wrong with him. How did it come about? It was a mystery until he went to London and was telling the people how he was left for dead, and then was raised up. A lady came up and asked for a private conversation with him, and arranged a time. She asked, "Do you keep a diary?" He answered, "Yes." She told him, "It happened on a certain day that I went to pray; and as soon as I knelt, I had you on my mind. The Spirit of the Lord took hold of me and prayed through me in an unknown tongue. A vision came before me in which I saw you laid out helpless; and I cried out in the unknown tongue till I saw you rise up and go out of that room." She had kept a note of the time, and when he turned to his diary, he found that it was exactly the time when he was raised up. There are great possibilities as we yield to the Spirit and speak unto God in quiet hours in our bedrooms. God wants you to be filled with the Holy Ghost so that everything about you shall be charged with the dynamic of heaven. from REDEMPTION TIDINGS Clothed With The Spirit A Sermon From SMITH WIGGLESWORTH G OD HAS A PLAN for us in this life of the Spirit—this abundant life. Jesus came that we might have life. Satan comes to steal, and kill, and destroy, but God has for us: abundance, full measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing [and] abundant [in] measure, God filling us with His own personality and presence, making us salt and light, and giving us revelation of Himself, God with us in all circumstances, afflictions, and persecutions, in every trial, girding us with truth— Christ the initiative, the Triune God in control—our every thought, word, and action must be in line with Him, with no weakness or failure. Our God is a God of might, light, and revelation, preparing us for heaven (Col. 3:3). Our life is hid with Christ in God; when He who is our life shall be manifested, we also shall appear with Him in glory.THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord” (2 Co. 5:1-6). God's Word is a tremendous Word, a productive Word, producing what it is—power-producing God-likeness. We get to heaven through the Word of God; we have peace through the blood of His cross. Redemption is ours through the knowledge of the Word. I am saved because God’s Word says so (Rom. 10:9): “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” If I am baptized with the Holy Spirit, it is because Jesus said that ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you. WE MUST ALL HAVE ONE IDEA—TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST, TO BE FILLED WITH GOD. MESSAGE IN TONGUES “God hath sent His Word to free us from the law of sin and death. Except we die, we cannot live; except we cease to be, God cannot be.” The Holy Ghost has a royal plan, a heavenly plan. He came to unveil the King—to show the character of God, to unveil the precious blood. As I have the Holy Spirit within me, I see Jesus clothed for humanity; He was moved by the Spirit, led by the Spirit. We read of some who heard the Word of God but were not profited because faith was lacking in them. WE MUST HAVE A LIVING FAITH IN GOD'S WORD, QUICKENED BY THE SPIRIT. A man may be saved, and [but] still have a human spirit. With many who are spoken to about the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, the human spirit at once arises against the Holy Spirit. The human spirit is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. The disciples at one time, wanted to call down fire from heaven. Jesus said, “Ye know not what spirit ye are of...” THE PLAN OF THE SPIRIT MESSAGE IN TONGUES “This is that which God hath declared, freedom from the law. If we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us” (1 Jn. 2:16). “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.” The Spirit has to breathe in a new tenancy, a new order. He came to give the vision of a life in which Jesus is perfected: “Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Ti. 1:9-10). Saved, called to be saints, called with a holy calling, holy, pure, Godlike sons with power. It is a long time now since it was settled and death abolished. Death has no more power; mortality is a hindrance; sin has no more dominion; you reign in Christ; you appropriate His finished work. Don't groan and travail for a week if you are in need, ONLY BELIEVE. Don’t fight to get some special thing, ONLY BELIEVE. It is according to your faith. God blesses you with faith. Have faith in God. If you are free in God, believe, and it shall be. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Stir yourselves up, beloved; where are you? I am risen with Christ, planted. It was a beautiful planting. Seated. God gives me credit, and I believe Him; why should I doubt? MESSAGE IN TONGUES “WHEREFORE DO you doubt? Faith reigns. God makes it possible. How many receive the Holy Ghost, and [then] Satan gets a doubt in? Don't doubt; believe. There is power and strength in Him; who dares believe God?” Quit Doubting Street; live in Faith-Victory Street. Jesus sent seventy away, and they came back in victory. It takes God to make it real. Dare to believe till there is not a sick person, no sickness, everything withered, and the life of Jesus implanted within. Deliverance to the Captives Smith Wigglesworth Read Luke 4:1-20. OUR PRECIOUS LORD JESUS has everything for everybody: forgiveness of sin, healing of diseases, and the fullness of the Spirit all come from one source—from the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear Him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever as He announces the purpose for which He came: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Jesus had been baptized by John in Jordan, and the Holy Spirit had descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him. Being full of the Holy Ghost, He had been led by the Spirit into the wilderness...there to come off more than conqueror over the arch enemy. Then He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and preached in the synagogues, and at last, He came to His old home town Nazareth, where He announced His mission in the words I have just quoted. For a brief while, He ministered on the earth, and then gave His life a ransom for all. But God raised Him from the dead. And before He went to the glory, He told His disciples that they too should receive the power of the Holy Ghost upon them. Thus, through them, His gracious ministry would continue. This power of the Holy Ghost was not only for a few apostles, but even for them that are afar off, even as many as our God should call (Act. 2:39), even for us in this twentieth [twenty-first etc.] century. Some ask, "But was not this power just for the privileged few in the first century?" No. Read the Master's great commission as recorded by Mark, and you will see it is for them that believe. "This is what I baptized you for." AFTER I HAD RECEIVED the Baptism of the Holy Ghost (and I know that I received, for the Lord gave me the Spirit in just the same way as He gave Him to the disciples at Jerusalem), I sought the mind of the Lord as to why I was baptized. One day, I came home from work and went into the house and my wife asked me, "Which way did you come in?" I told her that I had come in at the back door. She said, "There is a woman upstairs and she has brought an old man of eighty to be prayed for. He is raving up there and a great crowd is outside the front door, ringing the door-bell and wanting to know what is going on in the house." The Lord quietly whispered, "This is what I baptized you for." I carefully opened the door of the room where the man was, desiring to be obedient to what my Lord would say to me. The man was crying and shouting in distress, "I am lost! I am lost! I have committed the unpardonable sin. I am lost! I am lost!" My wife said, "Dad, what shall we do?" The Spirit of the Lord moved me to cry out, "Come out, thou lying spirit." In a moment, the evil spirit went, and the man was free. DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES! And the Lord said to me, "This is what I baptized you for." There is a place where God, through the power of the Holy Ghost, reigns supreme in our lives. The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us, and prepares us to be more than a match for Satanic forces. When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he said, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." Jesus said to him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus was impressed by the miracles wrought, and Jesus pointed out the necessity of a miracle being wrought with every man who would see the kingdom. When a man is born of God, [he] is brought from darkness to light; a mighty miracle is wrought. Jesus saw every touch by God as a miracle, and SO WE MAY EXPECT TO SEE MIRACLES WROUGHT TODAY. It is wonderful to have the Spirit of the Lord upon us. I would rather have the Spirit of God on me for five minutes than to receive a million dollars. Do you see how Jesus mastered the devil in the wilderness? He knew He was the Son of God and Satan came along with an "if." HOW MANY TIMES has Satan come along to YOU this way? He says, "After all, you may be deceived. You know you really are not a child of God." If the devil comes along and says that you are not saved, it is a pretty sure sign that you are. When he comes and tells you that you are not healed, it may be taken as good evidence that the Lord has sent His word and healed you. The devil knows that if he can capture your thought life, he has won a mighty victory over you. His great business is injecting thoughts, but if you are pure and holy, you will instantly shrink from them. God wants us to let the mind that was in Christ Jesus, that pure, holy, humble mind of Christ, be in us. I come across people everywhere I go who are held-bound by deceptive conditions, and THESE CONDITIONS HAVE COME ABOUT SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALLOWED THE DEVIL TO MAKE THEIR MINDS THE PLACE OF HIS STRONGHOLD. How are we to guard against this? The Lord has provided us with WEAPONS that are mighty through God to the pulling down of these strongholds of the enemy, and by means of which “every thought shall be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” The blood of Jesus Christ, and His mighty name are an antidote to all the subtle seeds of unbelief that Satan would sow in your minds. In the first chapter of Acts, we see that Jesus gave commandment to the disciples that they should wait for the promise of the Father, and He told them that not many days hence they would be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Luke tells us that he had written his former treatise concerning all that Jesus began both to do and teach. The ministry of Christ did not end at the cross, but the Acts and the epistles give us accounts of what He continued to do, and teach through those whom He indwelt. And our blessed Lord Jesus is still alive, and continues His ministry through those who are filled with His Spirit. He is still healing the broken-hearted and delivering the captives—through those on whom He places His Spirit. Jesus Does Heal By His Spirit! I WAS TRAVELING one day in a railway train in Sweden. At one station, there boarded the train an old lady with her daughter. The old lady's expression was so troubled that I enquired “what was the matter” with her. I heard that she was going to the hospital to have her leg taken off. She began to weep as she told that the doctors had said there was no hope for her—except through having her leg amputated. She was seventy years old. I said to my interpreter, "Tell her that Jesus can heal her." The instant this was said to her, it was as though a veil was taken off her face; it became so light. We stopped at another station, and the carriage filled up with people. There was a rush of men to board that train and the devil said, "You're done." But I knew I had the best proposition, for hard things are always opportunities to get for the Lord more glory when He manifests His power. Every trial is a blessing. There have been times when I have been pressed through circumstances, and it seemed as if a dozen road engines were going over me, but I have found that the hardest things are just lifting places into the grace of God. We have such a lovely Jesus. He always proves Himself to be such a mighty Deliverer. He never fails to plan the best things for us. The train began moving,, and I crouched down, and in the name of Jesus commanded the disease to leave. The old lady cried, "I'm healed. I know I'm healed." She stamped her leg and said, "I'm going to prove it." So when we stopped at another station, she marched up and down, and shouted, "I'm not going to the hospital." Once again our wonderful Jesus had proven Himself a Healer of the broken-hearted, a Deliverer of one that was bound. At one time, I was so bound that no human power could help me. My wife was looking for me to pass away. There was no help. At that time, I had just had a faint glimpse of Jesus as the Healer. For six months, I had been suffering from appendicitis, occasionally getting temporary relief. I went to the mission of which I was pastor, but I was brought to the floor in awful agony, and they brought me home to my bed. All night, I was praying, pleading for deliverance, but none came. My wife was sure it was my home call and sent for a physician. He said that there was no possible chance for me—my body was too weak. Having had the appendicitis for six months, my whole system was drained, and because of that, he thought that it was too late for an operation. He left my wife in a state of broken-heartedness. After he left, there came to our door a young man and an old lady. I knew that she was a woman of real prayer. They came upstairs to my room. This young man jumped on the bed and commanded the evil spirit to come out of me. He shouted, "Come out, you devil; I command you to come out in the name of Jesus!" There was no chance for an argument, or for me to tell him that I would never believe that there was a devil inside of me. The thing had to go in the name of Jesus, and it went, and I was instantly healed. I arose and dressed and went downstairs. I was still in the plumbing business, and I asked my wife, "Is there any work in? I am all right now, and I am going to work." I found there was a certain job to be done, and I picked up my tools and went off to do it. Just after I left, the doctor came in, put his plug hat down in the hall, and walked up to the bedroom. But the invalid was not there. "Where is Mr. Wigglesworth?" he asked. "Oh, doctor, he's gone out to work," said my wife. "You'll never see him alive again," said the doctor; "They'll bring him back a corpse." Well, I'm the corpse. Since that time, in many parts of the world, the Lord has given me the privilege of praying for people with appendicitis, and I have seen a great many people up and dressed within a quarter of an hour from the time I prayed for them. WE HAVE A LIVING CHRIST WHO IS WILLING TO MEET PEOPLE ON EVERY LINE. Yes, Another Act of His Spirit A number of years ago, I met Brother D. W. Kerr, and he gave me a letter of introduction to a brother in Zion City named Cook. I took his letter to Brother Cook, and he said, "God has sent you here." He gave me the addresses of six people and asked me to go and pray for them and meet him again at 12 o'clock. I got back at about 12:30, and he told me about a young man who was to be married the following Monday. His sweetheart was in Zion City dying of appendicitis. I went to the house and found that the physician had just been there and had pronounced that there was no hope. The mother was nearly distracted and was pulling her hair and saying, "Is there no deliverance!" I said to her, "Woman, believe God and your daughter will be healed and be up and dressed in fifteen minutes." But the mother went on screaming. They took me into the bedroom, and I prayed for the girl and commanded the evil spirit to depart in the name of Jesus. She cried, "I am healed." I said to her, "Do you want me to believe that you are healed? If you are healed, get up." She said, "You get out of the room, and I'll get up." In less than ten minutes, the doctor came in. He wanted to know what had happened. She said, "A man came in and prayed for me, and I'm healed." The doctor pressed his finger right in the place that had been so sore, and the girl neither moaned nor cried. He said, "THIS IS GOD." It made no difference whether he acknowledged it or not, I knew that God had worked. Our God is real in saving and healing power today. Our Jesus is just the same, yesterday, and today, and forever. HE SAVES AND HEALS TODAY JUST AS OF OLD, AND HE WANTS TO BE YOUR SAVIOUR AND YOUR HEALER. Oh, if you would only believe God; what would happen? The greatest things. Some have never tasted the grace of God, have never had the peace of God. Unbelief robs them of these blessings. It is possible to hear, and yet not conceive the truth. It is possible to read the Word, and not share in the life it brings. It is necessary for us to have the Holy Ghost to unfold the Word and bring to us the life that is Christ. WE CAN NEVER FULLY UNDERSTAND THE WONDERS OF THIS REDEMPTION UNTIL WE ARE FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST. Do You Know Jesus? I WAS ONCE at an afternoon meeting. The Lord had been graciously with us, and many had been healed by the power of God. Most of the people had gone home, and I was left alone, when I saw a young man who was evidently hanging back to have a word. I asked, "What do you want?" He said, "I wonder if I could ask you to pray for me." I said, "What's the trouble?" He said, "Can't you smell?" The young fellow had gone into sin and was suffering the consequences. He said, "I have been turned out of two hospitals. I am broken out all over. I have abscesses all over me." And I could see that he had a bad breaking out at the nose. He said, "I heard you preach, and could not understand about this healing business, and was wondering if there was any hope for me." I said to him, "Do you know Jesus?" He did not know the first thing about salvation, but I said to him, "Stand still." I placed my hands on his head and then on his loins and cursed that terrible disease in the name of Jesus. He cried out, "I know I'm healed. I can feel a warmth and a glow all over me." I said, "Who did it?" He said, "Your prayers." I said, "No, it was Jesus!" He said, "Was it He? Oh, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus, save me." And that young man went away healed and saved. Oh, what a merciful God we have! What a wonderful Jesus is ours! Are you oppressed? Cry out to God. It is always good for people to cry out. You may have to cry out. The Holy Ghost and the Word of God will bring to light every hidden, unclean thing that must be revealed. There is always a place of deliverance when you let God search out that which is spoiling and marring your life. That evil spirit that was in the man in the synagogue cried out, "Let us alone!" It was a singular thing that the evil spirit had never cried out like that until Jesus walked into the place where he was. Jesus rebuked the thing, saying, "HOLD THY PEACE AND COME OUT OF HIM," and the man was delivered. He is just the same Jesus [today as He was back then]—exposing the powers of evil, delivering the captives, and letting the oppressed go free—purifying them and cleansing their hearts. Those evil spirits that inhabited the man who had the legion did not want to be sent to the pit to be tormented before their time, and so they cried out to be sent into the swine. HELL IS SUCH AN AWFUL PLACE THAT EVEN THE DEMONS HATE THE THOUGHT OF GOING THERE. How much more should men seek to be saved from the pit? God is compassionate and says, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found." And He has further stated, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Seek Him now, call on His name right now, and there is forgiveness, healing, redemption, deliverance, and everything you need right here and now, and that which will satisfy you throughout eternity. BLESSINGS IN AUSTRALIA SISTER WINNIE ANDREWS, N. Melbourne, Australia, writes: "Our Brother Wigglesworth landed here February 16th, and had a meeting that very night. The dear Lord was present and that to heal. A little girl of six, having never walked, after she had been prayed for, walked out of the front door with her mother, who was full of joy for what the Lord had done for her little one. Another man who had been suffering with bad feet for years, and walked only with the aid of a stick was instantly healed and has been along several times to testify to what the Lord has done for him. Many deaf people have been delivered in answer to the prayer of faith. One night, a dear man and his wife, whom he brought to the meeting in a wheel chair, were both healed. He had been suffering from deafness for 20 years and she had not walked for over 62 years. After prayer she got out of her chair and walked to the station, with her husband pushing the empty chair. He, too, was rejoicing in that he was now able to hear perfectly. O what a wonderful God we have. Blessed be His holy Name! "At the Sunday afternoon service, a dear young woman who had been suffering with tuberculosis for 13 years, and who was in the last stages, came leaning on the arm of a friend and was prayed for. At once, she received new life and was perfectly delivered. The terrible burning sores which were eating their way into her bones have dried up and are peeling off, and she is looking so well, and happy, and is as strong as can be. Glory to God! Last night, a young man suffering from consumption was prayed for and was instantly made whole. O, our hearts overflow at the glorious things God is doing in our midst! "Many have been healed of neuritis, heart and lung trouble, and stiff joints. One woman who had not walked for 22 years, and could not as much as turn her head, after prayer, [she] got out of bed and walked, Praise God!" (Pentecostal Evangel, April 15, 1922). SMITH WIGGLESWORTH (1859 - 1947), was a British religious leader and an important figure in the early history of Pentecostalism. Wigglesworth left his job as a plumber to become a faith healer. He was an early Charismatic theologian and minister, who wrote a number of works on tongues and other gifts of the Holy Spirit. He is considered one of the most influential evangelists in the early history of Pentecostalism.