IN ALL the religions of the world there is nothing that corresponds with the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And nothing is more vital to the Christian's life than the consciousness of the indwelling of the Spirit. One can be a baptized member of the church, however, and know nothing of this experience. When Paul came to Ephesus and met with a small group of Christians he discerned a very real lack in their lives, so he asked, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" We know their reply. Not only did they know nothing of the experience but they had not even been instructed concerning the Spirit. Yet the church itself is the creation of the Holy Spirit. We are not just a fellowship of culture, but a body of twice-born men and women.
To have a theology of the Holy Spirit and yet know nothing of His presence or power in our lives is quite possible. Apollos, the pastor of the church at Ephesus, was a brilliant scholar and an impressive preacher. He had earned distinction in Alexandria. He was a "learned" man, "mighty in the scriptures." He "preached Jesus accurately." He had everything it takes to make a great leader except the one thing needful his life lacked a personal Pentecost. The few that comprised his congregation were passionless in service. But what a change took place when the apostle Paul preached unto them Jesus in the fullness of the gospel message.' Their eyes were opened to a new life. They were rebaptized and the Spirit of God filled them with power.
Today we gather as a group of ministers from all parts of the earth. We have come with the sense of personal need. We represent thousands and thousands of churches and nearly 3 million believers. We thank God for the outward reach of this Advent Movement, but if Paul were to visit our churches, how many of them would be in the same tragic condition as was the church at Ephesus? Those twelve men were really not to be blamed. They lacked the power of God because their pastor, their preacher, had never known what it was to be baptized with the Spirit of God. He was a clever exegete and a moving orator, but there was no Pentecost in his life.
Writing to the believers in Rome, Paul said, "I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift" (Rom. 1:11). He sensed he had something to impart or share with them. It is obvious that one can never impart what he does not have. Now let us ask ourselves in all earnestness, when we go back to our churches will we have something to impart? Oh yes, we will have many stories to tell. We will have listened to some very wonderful reports during this session. But will we be able to impart some spiritual gift?
In ancient times God called certain individuals and designated them "for signs and wonders." But since Pentecost all are for signs and wonders for the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh. It is easy to give lip service to the Holy Spirit, for we know the vocabulary of the apostles. But do we know the power of the apostles? These men had all been called and trained and ordained. Jesus said they were "not of the world," and they had been "kept by the word." So their standing was clear as far as salvation was concerned. But they were not equipped for service. As regenerated men they had already received the gift of spiritual life. But they needed to receive the gift of spiritual power. There are many wonderful Christians today who love and serve their Lord, who have never experienced a personal Pentecost. Maybe some of us here today, perhaps most of us, stand in need of that blessing. And because of our lack, we are unable to impart to our congregations the spiritual gifts that are their birthright.
Now what makes spirit baptism or a personal Pentecost so important? What will this experience do for us? (1) It makes us powerful in prayer. Prayer is a wearying, impossible task without the Holy Spirit. "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us. ... He maketh inter cession . . . according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26, 27). Before Pentecost we pray in the Spirit, after Pentecost the Spirit prays through us.
(2) Pentecost brings liberty. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." No greater blessing can come to a Christian and especially to a minister than to be delivered from the inward struggle portrayed in Romans 7. As workers we need to live in the experience of Romans 8. And we should be able to lift our churches into that experience.
(3) Pentecost brings abounding vitality. The Spirit of God creates radiant over flowing Christians, people in whose inner most beings is "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Anemic believers are turned into exuberant saints. These well-known words must come with new meaning:
"All who consecrate soul, body, and spirit to God will be constantly receiving a new endowment of physical and mental power. The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. Christ gives them the breath of His own spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind. The grace of God enlarges and multiplies their faculties, and every perfection of the divine nature comes to their assistance in the work of saving souls. Through cooperation with Christ they are complete in Him, and in their human weakness they are enabled to do the deeds of Omnipotence." The Desire of Ages, p. 827.
"But the gifts of the Spirit are promised to every believer according to his need for the Lord's work. The promise is just as strong and trustworthy now as in the days of the apostles, 'These signs shall follow them that believe.' This is the privilege of God's children, and faith should lay hold on all that it is possible to have as an in dorsement of faith. 'They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.' This world is a vast lazar house, but Christ came to heal the sick, to proclaim deliverance to the captives of Satan. . . . The gospel still possesses the same power, and why should we not today witness the same results?" Ibid., p. 823.
Pentecost brings that power. Jesus said, "I have given you authority . . . over all the power of the enemy" (Luke 10:19, R.S.V.). Man needs power and this was our Lord's last promise before His ascension. The gift of the Spirit of God is a gift of power power for holy living and for effective witnessing. "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7). We read: "Power belongeth unto God" (Ps. 62:11), and when the spirit of power possesses us, we are endowed with every kind of power necessary intellectual, moral, and spiritual. The Spirit turns ordinary persons into extraordinary personalities.
God's work depends upon spiritual power and no other power will do. Not argued abstractions, but the power of living witnesses is what will turn the world upside down. When we are completely possessed by the Spirit of God, then we are continually strengthened in the inner man (Eph. 3:16). "But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16). Let us ask ourselves, Am I giving the Holy Spirit His rightful place in my life?
The baptism of the Spirit is a definite and distinct experience, something beyond the baptism of water. For that the disciples were commanded to wait. Their future work required that they be imbued with power from on high. Some of those men had been disciples of John the Baptist who declared: "I indeed baptize you with water . . . : but he that cometh after me is mightier than I . . . : he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire" (Matt. 3:11). John came as a partial fulfillment of the promise, "I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." And what a mighty man Elijah was prophet of fire indeed. He turned a whole nation back to God. And John was the same type.
We know nothing of the boyhood of John the Baptist, but the angel said to his father: "He shall be great in the sight of the Lord." God's people at that time were facing a great challenge. God needed a great man. There were many men around, but they were all too small. John's ministry was short, but powerful. His messages were not philosophical, but prophetic. The Word of God was in his hand as a sharp sword. He cut his way through the muddled thinking and encrustation of a dead formal ism. He reached all classes the rich, the poor, the rulers of Israel, even the Roman soldiers. He preached "in the spirit and power of Elijah" and his work was a type of our work.
If we were asked, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" we could reply, "Just where He has always been on the throne." But the searching question today is, Where are the Elijahs of the Lord God? We possess the Elijah message, but where is the Elijah power? We know almost nothing about the background of Elijah. The Scripture merely calls him Elijah the Tishbite, from "the inhabitants of Gilead." He certainly was no graduate from any school of higher learning. But there is no doubt of his having graduated from the school of Christ. He needed no greater credential. He faced a nation steeped in immorality, idolatry, and sin. He was God's man for a tragic hour. It is wonderful when God lays hold of a man. But it is just as wonderful when a man lays hold of God. Here is his academic certification "and the word of the Lord came unto him."
Who a man is, is not important. What a man knows means little. But what a man is means everything. In this Laodicean period believers are blind, bankrupt yet boasting; naked, yet they don't know it; poor, yet laden with every material com fort; claiming to need nothing, yet needing everything. As ministers in the Laodicean period, we need more than scholarship or even sound doctrine. We need unction. The "letter" is not enough. Unless the letter is kindled by the Spirit, there will be no life in the church. It was a blazing bush that attracted Moses. The world is weary of "men in soft raiment and softer speech, who use rivers of words but only a spoonful of unction; who know more about competition than consecration, about promotion than prayer, caring more for people's happiness than their holiness."
We read that John the Baptist did not perform miracles; that is, he gave no out ward demonstration to prove his calling. His authority was in the Word. Yet, like Elijah, he raised a dead nation to life again. Two hundred years ago another man was sent from God whose name was John John Wesley. He had the brain of a scholar, the zeal of an evangelist, the tongue of an orator. But he failed in Georgia. Re turning to England, dejected and disillusioned, he went to a prayer meeting in an upper room at Aldersgate. In that atmosphere he felt his heart "strangely warmed." He emerged from that upper room with a new vision and a new passion. He was filled with the Spirit of God. In 13 years this man and his companions shook three kingdoms. The Lord gave him 50 years more of life and with a heart like a volcano he moved through the British Isles like a firebrand, turning a nation from the power of Satan unto God. He moved into areas that were demon possessed and some historians claim that Western civilization owes more to John Wesley and his companions than to any other group. They reformed the church, society, and the prisons. And civil rights never had greater champions than these Spirit-impelled preachers. True, they were scholars, but no educational institution could confine these men. When they were not permitted to preach in the churches or even in the city they preached in the fields, and thousands climbed to the top of the London wall to hear these men of God. No Laodicean spirit dampened their ardor. The powers of hell trembled when these messengers of God unsheathed the sword of the Word. They knew the reality of Romans 8:37: "We are more than conquerors through him that loved us." They preached the living Christ.
What does it mean, "We are more than conquerors"? asked a Bible teacher of a young man. He thought for a moment then replied, "When you fight 12 men and kill 13!" Crude, perhaps, but true, for the devil is always there. Righteousness by faith was their message and they saw the enemies of the king fall right and left as the arrows of truth pierced their hearts. Like the Jews of old, hundreds cried out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" And the answer was just as real: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you . . . and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." The power of Pentecost was again evident.
Two of nature's greatest forces are fire and wind, and both were present at Pentecost. An automobile may be ever so beautiful in appearance, but not until it is ignited is it of use. "Cloven tongues like as of fire," was the outstanding symbol on that great day. The consuming fires of God had burned up all the dross of carnal pride and fear and gave to the 120 disciples a super natural power that shook the hardest city in the world and brought three thousand sinners to Christ in a single day. Sin in all its subtle forms is banished when the fire of the Holy Ghost does its work in the human heart.
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, taught his people to sing:
"To burn up every trace of sin,
To bring the light of Glory in,
The revolution now begin,
Send the fire!"
The great plague of London in 1665 swept 60,000 people to their death. One seventh of the city's population was swept before the all-conquering cholera. Medical science was powerless to arrest the awful march of death. Then came the great fire of London. It burned big businesses, big houses, little houses, and hovels, but it purged the place of the deadly plague. "The fever fled before the fire." In this dark hour when the plague of sin is destroying our youth, we need the fire of the Holy Ghost. We read "[God] is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." That is wonderful. But why does He not do it now? Read the rest of the verse "according to the power that worketh in us" (Eph. 3:20).
Is that power working in you my brother, my sister? The church began with a few men and women praying in an upper room. The charter members of the church were men of heat, not men of high standing. Even the brilliant Paul was accounted "mad." But he and a few of his fellow workers turned the world upside down. We need what they had. Our God is not only the God of the past, He is the God of the present the God of the prophecy. When Paul said at the close of his ministry, "I have fought a good fight," every demon in hell could have agreed, for they suffered more from him than he suffered from them. And what was the secret of his power? When one day a man came along pretending to do what Paul did, the devils cried out, "Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you?" He said, "I am crucified with Christ." But no man can crucify himself; he must be crucified by another. It was the Holy Spirit that crucified Paul so that he could say, I am dead, yet I am alive; dead to all lust for recognition, dead to all fashions of human pride, to all hurts when someone else got the credit for what he had done, dead to blame and dead to praise.
Forty years ago when Samuel Chadwick, that Spirit-baptized president of Cliff College in England, was training his preachers, this was one of the choruses they sang: "Glory, glory to God!
My heart is now cleansed from sin, I've abandoned myself to the Holy Ghost, And His fullness abides within."
Can we say, "I've abandoned myself to the Holy Ghost"? Nothing less than that will do. We need the baptism of the Spirit. Let us make this our first concern during these days together.