It is very important for every christian to learn and understand, that the Holy Ghost, or, Holy Spirit, is the presence of the Kingdom of God here right now, which was part of what Christ's blood paid for, for us to have.
God does not expect you to be able to do the wonders he said we would do, without His power doing the work. This power is In Us, and it needs to be realized in a big and conscious way, in order for His kind of faith to opporate through us to accomplish this work.
Just having the Holy Ghost is not enough. We need to be saturated or filled or baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Some believers do not think they should desire or ask for the Holy Ghost, or, that if they were meant to be filled with the Spirit, God would do it on His own. But! God has instructed us in His word, that we are to desire it, to ask for it, and to expect it, And, that the Holy Ghost infilling in us is Better than the initial Glorious event of Salvation.
I would like to give my personal experience testamony, of the Holy Spirit activating in my own life.
I heard about the baptism of the Holy Ghost at times before becoming fully dedicated to follow Jesus; But after I became surrendered to His Lordship, There arose a strong passion for reading the new testament. After reading the 4 gospels, and getting into the book of Acts, I became hungry to know personally, this thing that was happening all throughout that book, where people were getting the Holy Ghost and speaking with other tongues.
Even though there was several different doctrines and teachings going around about the baptism and tongues and stuff, I could not escape this longing inside to have it for sure myself.
This very attitude I just described is the very same attitude one must obtain to get saved. No one actually gets saved by half heartedly thinking that maybe Jesus is who the bible says he is; The bible says, no one comes to him unless they believe he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.
That is a principle attitude for getting God to move on our behalf. That same principle is a place we must arrive at in order to get connected with the infilling of the Holy Ghost to the overflowing extent we call baptism. This attitude is the same as wholeheartedness on this subject. Being in doubt about a subject, or doubleminded, will prevent it from happening. This is why we need this good correct understanding.
At the same time, we are not to have an anxiety about it. Faith is like an inward witness that something is so, before it has a manifest evidence. So we ASK believing, and expect God to make good on His word.
For me, I didnt experience a loosing of my tongue in a spirit language until more than a year after I had asked for it, and after having been baptized in water.
This is what it was like, and how it happened to me.
I had gone around all day on the city bus, looking for work, and all the while thinking about a couple verses that were ministering to me. I had known myself as an unstable wavering emotional person, up one second, down the next; But I saw in the bible that God had unchanging love, steadfast love, I really wanted to know and have that. I saw also how it said, If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Ghost to them that just ask.
I went through some attacks in my mind after sharing those things with others riding the bus. Latter that evening at a home group fellowship, at the end, the man of the house prayed and even spoke in tongues. That ministered to my mind and soul.
At home in my bed, I wanted to thank God for such a wonderful day . I was so full of thanks, that I felt like there was no way of expressing my thanks to him.
As I began to speak, lo and behold, a very strange language came out my mouth. It was so strange to hear it come out my own mouth, that I stopped right away.
Then I wanted to begin again, but couldn't figure out how. You see, the ability to speak in a heavenly language is not something to figure out by the rational mind, it comes from the spirit; Our spirit and Gods Spirit are become one in the Lord, so we could say our spirit or His Spirit in us speaks, It's actually the same thing now. We are one.
After a while, I remembered a pastor's words, he said the Spirit will not force you to speak in tongues, He is there in you to enable what You do.
He said, If you want to speak in tongues, you have to begin to make the sound, and the Spirit will begin to work through you.
So, I began as I recalled what the pastor said, and it happened. That night I spoke in many different languages of men. Then, I even began to worship God in an Angel's language. It was SO wonderful, the whole room looked like it was crammed full of a thick white cloud that felt like God's love pressed all around me. I just lay there with my hands stretched out towards God, Praising and Worshipping Him in this Magnificant Angelic language, with such a tremendous feeling all over me that my face was flooded with tears of extreem joy.
It was so deep, that I had forgotten that part completly, until I read about it in the bible the next day.
I still didn't know how to just begin doing it again, at first, but, I found that God gave us a spirit of sound mind, which means, self control, so, I saw that God gave me the ability to control it, so I then had the faith to do it at will. Learning to mature in tongues gradually, like a baby learns to walk.
Now, to address the biblical things I mentioned earlier; About the bible saying we should desire, and ask for the Holy Spirit baptism, and how it is written that it is Better than our salvation.
In Mark 16:17 Jesus said "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;"
Look at what Jesus said there! See what he did not say. He didn't say ' some will or all might' He said "these signs SHALL follow them that believe".
If Jesus said these signs will follow those who believe, then If you believe, you should seek, knock, and ask for the Holy Ghost to empower you to obey God in this His word.
In Luke 11:13 Jesus said "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?" .
This is how simple and easy it is to cross over into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, just ask.
Jesus was our example. He went down into the water by John the baptist, and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit when He came up. Jesus was God in the form of man, and yet He received the baptism of the Spirit before going into service to the heavenly Father.
It may be argued that Jesus never spoke in tongues and so we dont need to; But , that would be contrary to his words we just saw He said, above.
The fact is, Jesus didnt come to minister to all languages, He came for the lost sheep of Israel, because salvation was for the Jew first !
The ministry to all the world was commissioned to the church, which is us, the believers in all the world.
Another reason why Jesus didnt speak in tongues is, He was still under the Old Covenant. The old covenant was to be fullfilled by Him. It was the old covenant that told us about the new covenant having this new language coming upon us, as told by the Prophet Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:14-21.
So Jesus, having still been under the old covenant while he was still serving us here on earth, did not break his own word by speaking in tongues before that day when the Spirit was poured out upon all flesh, as seen in Acts chapter two. And that day happened only after Jesus went back up again to heaven to stay, and sent down the Holy Ghost; Because a testament is not valid as long as the testator lives.
Now, as concerning the Holy Spirit baptism being better than even getting saved; In the old covenant, it tells of the former rain and the latter rain, and the former house and the latter house. In these things are types and images of the difference between being saved in Jesus, and being Filled with the Holy Spirit.
It says there is ; corn and wine and oil;
The 'corn' of the former rain is the word of God made in the likeness of sinful man; Jesus.
The 'wine' of the former rain is the blood Christ shed to cleanse us of sin, and heal us, and purify our conscious.
The 'oil' of the former rain is the anointing that comes upon you when you receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour.
The 'corn' of the latter rain is the Promise of the Father, that He would send the Holy Spirit upon all flesh.
The 'wine' of the latter rain is the initial infilling baptism of the Holy Ghost, that can give an intoxicating effect; getting drunk in the Spirit.
The 'oil' of the latter rain is the anointing that goes along with being baptised in the Holy Spirit; And it is written, and I know it is true, that the latter rain is better than the former.
Jesus said He would send "another comforter" which in the greek means: a different helper . This is one place that shows us there is difference between receiving Jesus, and receiving the Holy Ghost.
In Acts 19:2 Paul the Apostle spoke to some men he met , and asked them "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? " .
It is true that these men had not yet known the actual gospel of Jesus, and were only following the order of repentance John the baptism ministered; but never the less ; Paul still asked them that question before knowing anything about those men.
So ! It is more evidence and proof, that there is difference between the event of initial salvation, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that both are vitally important, or else the Holy Ghost would not be such a talked about topic in the bible.
There is no condemnation for anyone who is in Christ Jesus. This message is not to make you feel you must perform, for that is an attitude of works orientation, and we are saved by faith in the completed works of Jesus, not anything we can or could do.
This message is to put a thirst in anyone who has not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Blessed is everyone who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
If you have taken any of this in a negative way, that is not the intention, nor the goal of this message. The attitude in the ministry of this message is like the verse that describes Jesus coming to this world;
" For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." John 3:17
There are some very good church's that err in thinking you get the baptism of the Holy Spirit automaticly along with receiving Jesus. Now, I know that is posible, yet not likely. If you are opposed to speaking in tongues, or miracles or healings ; I would say you have not been baptised in the Holy Spirit, for He will not opose Himself. I urge everyone to set aside their doctrine and humbly sincerly hear these words again. If you have not yet received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the majority of Wisdom, joy, enlightenment and Gods Power has yet to be realized by you.
Tongues are Not a secret language only God understands, through the Spirit, we can understand; Also, anyone who speakes the language you speak in understands, Also, when you speak in tongues of Angels, Angels understand, and so do devils, who are fallen angels; they know their own former angelic language.
We do not need a secret or coded language, we are not hiding or need to hide. We have authority over spirits; They want to hide from US! When Paul referred to speaking to God, he didn't mean it was a tongue only God knew; He meant it was what you do with tongues in a church meeting, when you don't have the interpretation of tongues.
Please press on into the things as I explained. You will not regret it.
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