| Special Word on the Holy Ghost!!! I already know the cessationists and the naysayers will counter with "But there is so much deception/I have heard that tongues are of the devil/how can I know that God is truly filling me," etc, etc, etc. So I will refrain from delving into exegesis here and just point you to the most relevant scripture set...Luke 11:9-13: And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Bread, fish, eggs, and the Holy Ghost. The first three build up and nourish the body. The other builds up and nourishes the inner man, brings glory to God and points people to His kingdom. Stones, snakes, scorpions, and a manifestation from the devil. The first three injure the physical body, and the other harms the inner man, is counterfeit, and attempts to tear down what God has built up. Don't you think our loving heavenly Father knows the difference? What Jesus is saying, is that even we as humans with inherently sinful natures would not intentionally deceive our children. We love them and would never want to maliciously hurt them. Why then would we doubt the intentions of our heavenly Father, the Lover of our souls and Sustainer of our very lives? If you, with repentance, brokenness, and worship, ask God to fill you with the Holy Ghost, He will - it's just that plain and simple! It's a gift, but remember, you still have to ask for it. Go to your prayer closet and ask for it. Don't check with your friends, the prayer line, the Christian bookstore or other church members first. If you want the power to be His witness with signs following as the disciples did, just do like Jesus said and ask the Father. As to the people you may have encountered in life who claimed they were filled with the Holy Ghost but acted more like they were in league with the devil or did obviously unwise things and tried to claim they were led by God...all I can say is that when you receive the Holy Ghost a few concrete things take place. For one, the fruit of the Spirit, as referenced in Galatians 5:22 begins to become very conspicuous in your life. Both you and others will take notice. Additionally, you will get a strong check in our spirit any time you begin to lean toward the works of the flesh, as listed in Galatians 5:19-21. The word of God will "illuminate" as you read it and meditate on it and will become your first response to life's situations. The Old Testament will cast light on the New, and the New Testament will shed light on the Old, as you read. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 13:52, "Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." There is rich treasure in both the Old and New Testaments, and the entire word is Living. And because these three bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and The Holy Ghost (I John 5:7) you will have power to be His witness in the earth! Additionally, it will comfort you, guide you into all truth, and enable you to pray (through tongues) far more effectively than you can with your mere human comprehension. When you pray in tongues, you can always be assured you are praying according to the will of God. Although most prayers are well intentioned, this is not necessarily so when we pray according to our own understanding, because our fleshly nature and our own will tend to get in the way of complete surrender to the will of God. Praying only in our own understanding when we could be praying in the Holy Ghost can be compared to the story of King Joash and the prophet Elisha in II Kings 13:14-22. Elisha is on his deathbed...but he has a blessing for the King of Israel if he will obey... Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands. And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the LORD's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. Praying always only in your own understanding is like striking the ground only three times. You will get a measure of victory, but not the overwhelming power and victory intended for you in God's eternal plan. There is divine authority infused in the "effectual fervent prayer" that James speaks about! Don't misunderstand me. There is a time and place for all things. Sometimes you just have to pray on the spot, and often you will be in public. But when you are alone in our prayer closet, that is the time to pray in the Holy Ghost! Now, notice all the changes the dying prophet was making King Joash go through. Take bow and arrows. Put thine hand upon the bow. Open the window eastward. Shoot. Take the arrows. Smite upon the ground. Why could Elisha not have just laid his hands upon the King and pronounced a blessing upon him? Because there is something very valuable in God's sight about being willing to obey, even when the process or the outcome seems foolish. Like building an ark when it's never rained before. Like taking your last bit of flour and oil and feeding a prophet who wanders in off the street, when there will be no more food in the house afterward. Like dipping in the Jordan seven times in a foreign country to get cured of leprosy when there are bigger and better rivers in your own country.As a matter of fact, it probably seemed kind of foolish to all be packed in an upper room, waiting for a promise Jesus said would come, even though he was no longer there to further confirm it. But as they were worshipping and praising God on one accord (with one purpose in mind) the Father's promise arrived. With great timing, I might add -- right on the Day of Pentecost! And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Acts 1:5-6 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. Acts 1:8-9 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 2:2-4 They had to wait, and God sure chose a weird way to manifest His infilling...foreign languages...but once that took place, the gospel was preached with great power - signs and wonders following!!! These days, everyone wants the power, the signs and wonders...but nobody wants the perceived embarrassment of the infilling of the Holy Ghost, the offence of the cross, of the constant mortifying of the flesh and submission to the Spirit necessary to facilitate the supernatural move of God. If we want the results of the first century church, we will have to go back, examine what they did, and duplicate it, instead of being "purpose driven", continually "finding God", trying to avoid being "left behind,"and all the other distracting bunny trails that lead everywhere but to the real power source ---- the infilling of the Holy Ghost. May God bless each of you in the reading of this study, and give you eyes to see and ears to hear what His Spirit is saying to the church. Trenet Worlds |