Category: Holy Spirit

Posted on

God’s Power Is Available Power

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

Acts 1:8

On this blog, I have shared my experiences of fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit. I can say without hesitation and equivocation that without these very personal and deeply intimate encounters with the Holy Spirit, I would not have stayed in Christian ministry for over thirty years. Ministry is a hard-fought, supernatural battle: preaching the gospel, encouraging others to trust Christ, standing against Satan’s schemes, etc. I need, we all need, God’s power to see hearts changed, souls encouraged, and Satan defeated.

Ministry requires that we walk in supernatural power to fight and win a supernatural war. Our Heavenly Father gives us spiritual tools and supernatural weapons for the battle—the spiritual gifts.  These weapons are concrete expressions of grace, charismata, which enable and empower us as believers to do the words and perform the works of Jesus. This power, God’s power, is available to everyone of us, all need to do is ask (Luke 11:13).

God’s power is available power. We are supernatural people, born again by a supernatural birth, kept by a supernatural power, sustained on supernatural food, taught by the supernatural Teacher from a supernatural Book. We are led by a supernatural Captain in right paths to assured victories.

J. Hudson Taylor, Hudson Taylor on Spiritual Secrets: A 30 Day Devotional Treasury, compiled by Lance Wubbels (Lynnwood, WA: Emerald Books, 1998), Day 2.

Posted on

Walking in the Spirit

 

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Gal. 5:25 ESV

“To keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 NIV) means being so satisfied in God’s great grace and unfathomable love that we are freed from the idols of self. Walking in the Spirit is preferring God’s will over and against the fleeting, false promises of this life. Eternity is valued higher than the passing pleasures of this life as we are led by the Spirit.

According to the Apostle Paul, walking in the Spirit is to led by the Spirit which is an attitude of yielding to where he is going, listening to the his direction, discerning his will, and obeying his guidance.

When we walk in the Spirit . . .

The Holy Spirit changes our motivation: we yearn for holiness instead of demanding our wants and desires to be met now and always.

The Holy Spirit frees our hearts from the fear of retribution for our sins.  In its place, the Spirit gives us hearts that yearn to please our heavenly Father.

The Holy Spirit renews our hearts to prefer and refer everything in our lives to the power of God and his holiness.

The Holy Spirit leads our hearts to obey him. We recognize his Lordship and submit all our hopes, dreams, and desires to his will.

The Holy Spirit empowers our wills to defeat the flesh. The Spirit enables us to say, “yes,” to righteousness and, “no,” to ungodliness.

The great thing that the Holy Spirit reveals is that the supernatural power of God is ours through Jesus Christ, and if we will receive the Holy Spirit He will teach us how to think as well as how to live. Always refer back to the receiving of the Holy Spirit, we receive Him to do His work in us. Just as Jesus glorified God, so the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus; He makes us written epistles not only in living, but in thinking.

Oswald Chambers, Biblical Ethics (Hants, UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996), 97.

Posted on

Are You Assured of Your Salvation?

Arrogance or Confidence?

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

Romans 8:15-16 ESV

Christian assurance is the belief that our salvation is presently secured in Christ’s saving work on the Cross. Therefore, we can be certain in this life that we are accepted and approved by God. Objectively and subjectively, we can experientially know that we are saved by Christ’s finished work on the Cross and by the Holy Spirit’s ongoing testimony. Christian assurance is not a form of arrogance as many suppose. Faith in God’s Word and trust in his Holy Spirit’s witness is true humility. We do not conceive it for the Lord himself gives us confidence. Certainty is not arrogance if it’s given to us by the promise of God’s Word and the witness of the Spirit.

God wants his children to be sure that they belong to him, and does not want us to remain in doubt and uncertainty. So much so, that each of the three persons of the Trinity contributes to our assurance. The witness of God the Holy Spirit confirms the word of God the Father concerning the work of God the Son. The three strong legs of this tripod make it very steady indeed.

John Stott, Your Confirmation, rev. edn. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991), 36.

Posted on

The Resource of the Spirit

The Holy Spirit Dwells in You

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 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 ESV

The resource most neglected by our churches is a resource not purchased or sold. This resource is neither planned nor programmed, promoted or possessed.  It is a benefit that never runs dry or lacks power because of any flaw. The church’s unique asset is the infinite supply of the personal presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The person of the Spirit is available to glorify the Father, make Christ known, and renew the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit convicts, empowers, revives, reveals, illuminates, bears fruit, and unifies. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate resource of the church.

The resources of the Church are in “the supply of the Spirit.” The Spirit is more than the Minister of Consolation. He is Christ without the limitations of the flesh and the material world. He can reveal what Christ could not speak. He has resources of power greater than those Christ could use, and He makes possible greater works than His.

He is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Witness, the Spirit of Conviction, the Spirit of Power, the Spirit of Holiness, the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Adoption, the Spirit of Help, the Spirit of Liberty, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Revelation, the Spirit of Promise, the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Meekness, the Spirit of Sound Mind, the Spirit of Grace, the Spirit of Glory, and the Spirit of Prophecy. It is for the Church to explore the resources of the Spirit.

Samuel Chadwick, The Way of Pentecost (Fort Washington, PA: CLC, 2000), 28.

Posted on

My Baptism in the Spirit (Conclusion)

 

He Wants Us to Ask

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 11:13

My testimony of Spirit-infilling is not intended to be a formula or a model or a pattern for others, but a testimony of God’s faithfulness. I asked for more of his Holy Spirit in my life and ministry and God answered. I found that I lack power for witness that morning in Dallas and by that afternoon God provided through a bold petite African-American witness. God’s word’s was true, “Ask and our Heavenly Father will give us the Holy Spirit” (Luke 11:13).

The Persistent Neighbor

Let us examine Luke 11:5-13 and discern what Jesus would want us to do. The context of the chapter is prayer, with Jesus telling a parable describing a persistent neighbor. In that parable, the main character is the next-door neighbor. He has suddenly received an unexpected guest. The neighbor is very needy because he lives in an age where food is not readily available. He has to care for his guest, and he does not have the resources to provide. He goes to his sleeping neighbor and asks for his leftover bread. The neighbor is perturbed. If he gets out of bed, he will awaken his whole family who are all asleep in the same bed with him. Any parent knows the difficulty of getting a group of children to go asleep, but now the needy neighbor wants to disturb them. Yet, the sleeping neighbor does hand over his leftover bread because of the friend’s boldness. Jesus commends the friend’s boldness as a true characteristic of genuine prayer. All God wants us to do is to ask and to ask boldly! “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13, NIV). How to we receive the Holy Spirit? We ask and we ask boldly!

However, we must have a flexible attitude. Whatever type of bread the Father decides to give must be acceptable to us. Many times, we will say “We want the bread of the Holy Spirit!” but when God gives it we say, “This is not the kind of bread we wanted!” “No Lord, I wanted rye, wheat, or pumpernickel!” When the Holy Spirit comes whatever gifts he wants to display through us, we must be willing to receive. Remember the gifts of the Holy Spirit are just that-gifts. Gifts are for blessing, for encouragement, and for spiritual growth. The purpose of the charismata is to bring you and me, as the Body of Christ, into a deeper love relationship with Jesus. So, Let us ask! [Robert Smith, Jr., “Christian Preaching Practicum” [class notes] (Birmingham, AL: Beeson Divinity School, 2002), April 30.]

Like the disciples, all God desires is that we recognize that we are at our wit’s end and we cannot go on any farther without him. All he waits for us to do is ask! Then, he will come and pour his presence upon us, bathe us in his love, and display his great and mighty mercy. The Holy Spirit will come and will reveal Jesus to us. If you desire more of the Holy Spirit, pray boldly, and you will be filled afresh with the sweetness of his presence.

Glenn E. Davis, “Who Is the Holy Spirit for Us Today?”, Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail, ed., Timothy George (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 97.

Posted on

My Baptism in the Spirit (Part Three)

Holy Spirit: Power for Service

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Acts 1:8 ESV

The Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life: fully God working in the world bestowing life, empowering for service, purifying our hearts, providing God’s presence, and guiding God’s people. My story continues . . .

Later that morning as the team moved north, we began to walk down Commerce Street. We were very conspicuous in a crowd as we carried our Bibles in one hand and held on to our sleeping bags with the other. We turned and began to walk through a plaza where a number of executive-types were sitting on park benches eating sack lunches. Out from the crowd, a short, plump African-American lady stood up and yelled, “What are you boys doing?” We replied that we were from Lindale, Texas and we were out witnessing. At the top of her lungs, she cried out, “Have you ever been filled with the Holy Ghost?” I thought, “Oh, my goodness, we have got a live one.” My team leader, who was standing front of me said, “Yes, I have.” The team member bringing up the end said, “So have I.” I thought, “Good, maybe she will leave us alone.” Then without warning, the last member of the team shouted, “No, I have not!” I thought, “Why did you have to go and say that?” Immediately, she asked us to come over, so that she could pray for him.

This is the scene: four men in their early twenties knelling in front of a park bench as this lady is standing over the one young man praying loudly in tongues. She was praying very loudly in tongues. As she began to pray, I asked the Lord whether this whole thing about the fullness of the Spirit was for real. The denomination in which I was raised discounted the gifts of the Spirit. I told the Lord that I did not want to resist anything if it was genuine, even if it seemed a bit bizarre. At that moment, I began to speak in tongues. Very gently and without great emotion, the Holy Spirit began to touch my heart and bless me with the sweetness of Jesus. My emotions were so subdued that I wondered whether my ministry team understood what God had done in my life. I was experiencing for the first time, a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit with a manifestation of a spiritual gift. Already, God was answering my prayer from that morning; he was responding to my cry for his personal power, presence, and authority. Thank God for that little African-American lady who was willing to be bold for Christ.

Glenn E. Davis, “Who Is the Holy Spirit for Us Today?”, Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail, ed., Timothy George (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 90.

Posted on

My Baptism in the Spirit (Part Two)

My First Experience of the Holy Spirit’s Power

Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

John 20:22 NLT

Yesterday, I defined what I mean by the infilling or baptism of the Holy Spirit. Please allow me to reiterate. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is an overwhelming experience of the Spirit’s presence, power, and purity: a total submergence within the person of God. This individual experience is instantaneous and can be reoccurring: one baptism, many fillings. The Baptism refers to the initial work of the Spirit in uniting believers to Christ as well as on-going encounters with the Spirit bringing refreshment and strengthening in the Christian life.

It was a hot summer in late August 1979. I was a member of a parachurch organization called the Agape Force, which conducted a training program named Crystal Springs Institute. As part of that program, each of us was required to participate in a mission trip. This mission trip was highly unusual. You and your team are dropped off in a Texas town with instructions to minister to whomever God brings in your path, to trust God for shelter and finances, and to rely on the Lord for safe return. The Agape Force ministry called the trip, the “Weekend Mission,” but the students called it the “Trust God or Die” weekend.

My four-man team was assigned South Dallas, I did not know at that time what a rough area it was.  For the first time in my life, I did not know from where my next meal was coming from, with whom I would be staying, what was going to happen, and how I was going to get home. After getting off the bus, the first thing we did was pray.  We were desperate. As we prayed, we felt that the Holy Spirit wanted us to begin at the beginning. So, we decided to start by evangelizing the first people we met on the street. My partner and I began to talk with an African-American man who was obviously down and out.

As we shared, he grew more and more obstinate. The more we shared the less and less effective I felt we were in reaching him. In fact, it seemed as if my words were dropping out of my mouth and straight onto the ground. I felt that I was not communicating the gospel clearly, effectively, or powerfully. Finally, in desperation I said, “If a car hit you this afternoon, where would you go, to heaven or hell?” He just looked at me and began to curse. I walked away feeling empty and helpless. I had no authority and power in my witness. I began to pray anxiously that God would somehow help me to be an effective testifier of God’s grace. I did not want the weekend to be a waste (to be continued).

Glenn E. Davis, “Who Is the Holy Spirit for Us Today?”, Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail, ed., Timothy George (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 89.

Posted on

My Baptism in the Spirit (Part One)

 

 

What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?

Be (continuously) filled with the Spirit.

Eph. 5:18

As I begin this series of personal reflections of my experience in the Holy Spirit, let me define what I mean by the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a state of being totally overwhelmed in the presence of Jesus Christ both within and without. “Being filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) refers to God’s presence fully saturating our hearts, souls, minds, and spirits. This infilling is not only a one time experience at conversion or just a singular dramatic encounter occurring later in the Christian life. The filling of the Spirit is to be a life lived continually in God’s presence. The infilling of the Spirit is a crisis, a one-time encounter, and a process. This on-going experience of the Spirit is sometimes described as one baptism and many fillings.

The filling of the Spirit should be our moment by moment experience of the constant, conscious presence of Christ.  “Being constantly filled,” (Eph. 5:18) with the Holy Spirit is freedom to enjoy Christ and his presence on a daily, if not, hourly, and even possibly, minute-by minute basis. The filling of the Spirit is described by the Apostle Paul as a daily “walking in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). The Lord desires something better for us, a continual abiding in the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9) as we perform the daily tasks of life.

The supreme test and proof of the fullness of the Spirit is the Presence and Preciousness of Christ.

W. H. Griffith Thomas, The Holy Spirit of God(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1913), 278.

The thought is unspeakably full of glory, that God the Holy Ghost can come into my heart and fill it so full that the life of God will manifest itself all through this body which used to manifest exactly the opposite. If I am willing and determined to keep in the light and obey the Spirit, then the characteristics of the indwelling Christ will manifest themselves.

Oswald Chambers, Biblical Psychology : A Treasure Chest for Christian Counselors, (London: Simpkin Marshall., 1996), 146.

Posted on

“Handle Them With Hands”

Ministry That Is Full of the Spirit

And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom.

Acts 6:3 NLT

When I entered the ministry some thirty years ago (it seems like yesterday), the emphasis was on the Holy Spirit’s power. Christian leaders taught that Christian ministry should not be pursued without the Spirit’s blessing. Our ministry could not be successful without the Spirit’s enabling. Our ministry would not have a lasting impact without the anointing of the Spirit. Our ministry could not change hearts without the transforming work of the Spirit. All these statements were true and are still true.

While these “spiritual” concerns were real and should be heeded by any gospel minister: we should not neglect diligent study of the Word, faithful theological reflection, and research into the latest insights in pastoral care and counseling. Emphasis on the Spirit’s anointing should not displace diligent and faithful study. “Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15 NLT).

It’s not an either-or, God blesses the minister with a yielded heart and a faithful mind. We worship and serve the Lord in “Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). We are called to love the Lord with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

However for today’s new minister, the pendulum has swung the other direction. For the training of new pastors, the academic is over emphasized to the neglect of spiritual maturity. The obtaining of advance degrees more prized than a ministry candidate’s prayer life. The size of the congregation more valued than than the depth of the minister’s walk with the Lord.

We need both: faithful men and women who will walk with God while consistently acting on the means of grace: study of the Word of God, earnest prayer, receiving the sacraments, and fellowshipping with other believers.

This practice he [i.e., David Brainerd] earnestly recommended on his death-bed, from his own experience of its great benefits, to some candidates for the ministry that stood by his bedside. He often speaking of the great need of ministers have much of the Spirit of Christ in their work, and how little good they are like to do without it; and how, ‘when ministers were under the special influences of the Spirit of God, it assisted them to come at consciences of men, and (as he expressed it) as it were to handle them with hands: whereas, without the Spirit of God, said he, whatever reason and oratory we make use of, we do but make use of stumps, instead of hands.’

Jonathan Edwards quoted by D. M. Lloyd-Jones, “Jonathan Edwards and the Crucial Importance of Revival,” in The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987), 370.

Posted on

Holy Spirit Power For a Holy Ministry

The Holy Spirit in You

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses . . . .

Acts 1:8

In August of 1979, I attended Crystal Springs Institute (CSI), the training school for the Agape Force ministry located in the city of Lindale in East Texas. We were on a weekend mission of sorts, we called it the “trust God or die” mission. Every semester the student body was divided into teams of four guys, or four girls, and dropped off in various locations around the state of Texas. We were told to trust God for our lodging, food, and transportation. We were encouraged by the leadership that the Lord would provide the people to whom he wanted the Gospel shared. 

Our four man team was dropped off in downtown Dallas. As we were walking through the business district, a petite African-American lady stopped us and asked what we were doing. We were rather conspicuous with our sleeping bags, backpacks, and Bibles. We explained that we were on a short-mission trusting God for his provision, protection, and providential direction. She asked loudly and boldly, “Have you ever been filled with the Holy Ghost”? Two of my companions said, “yes” and one said, “no” and I hoped she would go away. She didn’t. We all gathered next to a park bench as she loudly and boldly prayed that the Holy Spirit would come upon us. 

In a plaza located on Commerce Street, she prayed for us powerfully and I will never forget it. That day, I first experienced the vocal spiritual gifts for the first time. I was forever affected by the Holy Spirit’s person, presence, and power. I felt strengthened by that power with authority for ministry and was freshly enabled by the Spirit to share Christ. In short, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit for ministry–a ministry that would last my lifetime. 

From that day to this, it has been the tendency of carnal Christians and a carnal Church to be more interested in power for performance, than it has been interested in power for purity. More interested in power for conquest than in power for Christlikeness. We need to stress that the power of the Holy Ghost is power for Christlikeness, before it is power to go out and do things that produce headlines in the newspaper. It is power to be like our blessed Lord in mind and motive and spirit.

Paul S. Rees, “Adequacy for Life and Witness,” Daily Thoughts from Keswick: A Year’s Daily Readings, ed. Herbert F. Stevenson (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1980), 363.