‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
upon you; and you will be my witnesses…’ (Acts 1:8)
In the book of Acts, there were two ways in which the
Holy Spirit was poured out and came upon believers. Firstly, in some cases he came upon them
directly and unexpectedly, without anyone laying hands upon them. In this way, he sometimes descended upon
whole groups of believers at the same time. On the day of Pentecost, every one of the 120 believers
who were gathered together was filled with the Holy Spirit. They were filled in order that they might
live as Spirit-empowered witnesses to Christ, even though only one of them
(Peter) actually preached that day (2:1-4).
Similarly, in Cornelius’ house, the Holy Spirit descended and came upon
everyone who had gathered to hear Peter speak (10:44-47). Secondly, he also came upon believers when
hands were laid upon them (8:15-17, 9:17-18, 19:6; 2 Tim. 1:6).
In the early church, it was normative for believers to
experience a distinct and powerful infilling of the Holy Spirit subsequent to
their conversion, and the apostles laid hands on believers and prayed to this
end. They knew when people had not
experienced it (cf. 8:15-16, 19:2). For
them, the Christian life was supposed to be a Spirit-filled life, because the
Holy Spirit was the seal of the covenant which God has made with us all in Christ. The picture which the book of Acts presents
us with is that of a whole community which is Spirit-filled, rather than simply
a few individuals here and there. The apostles made no dichotomy between life
and ministry: everyone was intended to be a living, empowered witness to Christ,
although ministries, calls and spiritual gifts would always differ from person to
person.
The
coming upon a believer of the Holy Spirit was a distinct and powerful experience
in their life.
People knew when it had happened to
them, and other people around them also knew.
Its effects upon a person were discernible. They spoke in tongues, they poured out praises
unto God, or they prophesied (2:4, 10:46, 19:6). Furthermore, this empowerment of a person was
evidenced by the effective and fruitful working of ministry gifts through them
(cf. 2 Tim. 1:6). The infilling of the
Holy Spirit transformed a person; they were never the same again afterwards as
they had been before they experienced it.
To
be baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled to a greater or
lesser extent with the fire of God. John
the Baptist said that Jesus would baptise believers with the Holy Spirit and with
fire (Matt. 3:11). On the day of Pentecost,
when the 120 believers were filled with the Holy Spirit tongues of fire settled
upon each of them. This kind of dynamic and
powerful infilling with the fire of God’s presence was experienced in a remarkable
way by many young girls in the revival at Mukti during Pandita Ramabai’s
ministry (detailed in a previous blog).
Our
God is a consuming fire and his free, dynamic presence in a believer’s life will
therefore be characterised by burning fire. To be filled with God
is to be filled with the consuming fire of his presence (1 Thess. 5:19,
Heb. 12:26). This baptism with the
Holy Spirit creates within us a deep, intimate and loving spiritual union of our
own spirit with the presence of God.
However, we are not filled with the Holy Spirit merely so that we can
feel the presence of God with us and yet continue to live an un-surrendered,
self-centred and comfort-oriented life. No, the Holy Spirit’s fire and
presence come upon us, consume us and fill us in order to possess us for purpose:
to initiate and fulfil the particular vision which God has for our lives.
When
God develops in our heart a specific vision for his work, his presence burns
within us with a burden and desire to see this vision fulfilled. As this
develops and grows, it becomes an all-consuming passion within us which eats us
up day and night. It is like a fire in our hearts, and it inwardly
compels us to pray and seek God for the fulfilment of the vision which he has
given us, and to obey him in seeing this vision worked out and fulfilled practically. To use the proverbial phrase, we are ‘on fire’
for God![1] People who are used powerfully and
fruitfully by God are invariably characterised by this inner, consuming fire and
deep, intimate love for him.
So
in the book of Acts the purpose of the infilling with the Holy Spirit was so that
a person was then equipped to co-operate with God in the outworking of his purpose
to build up the body of Christ and to reach a lost world with the gospel of
Christ. God’s desire was that the whole community of
believers should be permeated by his presence and power, with the intent that they
all then became effective witnesses for Christ (1:8). Believers were to be filled and constantly
overflowing with God’s presence and life, just as streams flow from a brook, so
that living in the dynamic, moving presence and power of God became an ongoing,
daily reality for them (John 7:37-39, Eph. 5:18-20). Those who were involved in ministry could
expect new and fresh influxes of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power as they needed
this in specific situations (cf. 4:8,31; 13:9).
Today
we need to return to early apostolic expectation, belief and practice in regard
to the Holy Spirit. Although ministries, gifts and calls will
always differ, and although God’s purpose and levels of fruitfulness will
always differ from individual to individual, yet the one essential biblical
qualification for ministry remains the same as it has always been: the baptism
with the Holy Spirit and fire. This
is the empowering dynamic underlying fruitful ministry in the kingdom of God. Whether it was for an uneducated fisherman
like Peter, or for a well-read and cultured polyglot like Paul, the need was
the same. The Holy Spirit could not do
much with either of them until he could first fill them, possess them, and anoint
them for ministry, so that they could then successfully fulfil the purpose
which God had for them (Luke 24:49, Acts 9:17).
Furthermore, if Jesus the Son of Man himself needed such an enduement
with power for his ministry, then we too cannot escape from or circumvent this
need in our own ministry (Isa 61:1-3; Luke 3:22; 4:1,14,18-19; Acts
10:38). A lack of spiritual empowerment
and an absence of the anointing of the Holy Spirit is the bane of Christian ministry
and leads to nothing but dearth, ineffectiveness and lack of fruitfulness in the
time of harvest.
When we do an honest and objective study of the
writings and/or biographies of those who have been greatly used by God, we get
the same picture coming through all of them.
Duncan Campbell was outspoken on the need for a definite and profound experience
of the baptism of the Holy Spirit subsequent to conversion, no doubt recalling
his own powerful baptism with the Holy Spirit.[2] Charles G. Finney also insisted on this, saying:
‘No one has, at any time, any right to expect success [in ministry], unless he
first secures this enduement of power from on high.’[3]
Although Rees Howells was already born again and experienced
personally the power and joy of the 1904 Welsh Revival, and although he tried
to help the new converts as much as he could, he became deeply aware of his own
weakness and powerlessness in his attempts to minister to people. This powerlessness found its remedy when he was
mightily filled with the Holy Spirit at the Llandrindod Convention in 1906, an experience
which led him into the anointed and very powerful ministry which followed.[4]
John
‘Praying’ Hyde thought that he was already filled with the Holy Spirit before
he went to India as a missionary, and he was offended by a letter he received
from a man he respected which implied that he wasn’t. The writer said that he would not stop
praying for Hyde until he was filled with the Holy Spirit, clearly implying that
he lacked this essential qualification for his coming ministry. However, upon sober reflection, Hyde realised
that the writer of the letter was right, and from that time on he began to seek
to be truly and genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit. His ministry that followed in India was eventually
marked by outbreaks of revival.[5]
These observations and experiences of highly respected
servants of God who were used mightily in revival ministry, underline the fact
that, although a person may have repented and been genuinely born again, this
does not mean that they are necessarily empowered for ministry. The empowerment of the Holy Spirit is the
one essential biblical qualification for ministry. This is God’s way for all of us as to how
ministry should be done, and none of us are exceptions!
The
well-known American evangelist Dwight L. Moody knew undoubtedly that he had the
baptism with the Holy Spirit as an enduement with power for ministry. In his early days, he was a great worker for
God, but he had no real power. He oversaw
the largest congregation in Chicago and a well-attended Sunday school, and saw some
conversions, but he worked very largely in his human strength and in the energy
of his flesh.
However, there were two godly women who used to come to
his meetings, and at the end of the meetings they would come up to him and tell
him that they were praying for him, that he would ‘get the power.’ Not understanding what they were saying, he
asked them what they meant, and they told him about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. They prayed together fervently, and after this
Moody began to experience a great inward hunger for God’s power in his ministry,
so he spent much time praying that God would fill him with the Holy Spirit.
Then, not long after this, he was walking one day down
a street in the city of New York and suddenly the power of God came upon him as
he walked. He hurried over to the house
of a friend where he spent several hours alone in a room with God. He came out with the power of the Holy Spirit
upon him. When he got to the UK for his
next series of evangelistic meetings, the power of God worked mightily through
him in London, and hundreds of people were converted. He said that, after this experience of empowerment,
the content of his sermons was no different than it had been previously. He did not present any new truths, but now hundreds
were converted. It was this experience of the
empowerment of the Holy Spirit that made the big difference in his ministry.[6]
On the 10th October 1821, after a period of struggle and
inward conviction of sin, the revivalist Charles G. Finney was converted. In the evening of that same day, he had a vision
of Christ and after this he experienced a mighty baptism of power as the Holy Spirit
came upon him suddenly and unexpectedly.
This led him into his powerful evangelistic revival ministry, during which
thousands of people were converted:
‘But as I returned and was about to
take a seat by the fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit. Without any expectation of it, without ever
having the thought in my mind that there was any such thing for me, without any
recollection that I had ever heard the thing mentioned by any person in the
world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through
me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going
through and through me. Indeed it seemed
to come in waves and waves of liquid love, for I could not express it in any
other way. It seemed like the very
breath of God. I can recollect distinctly
that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings…
No words can express the wonderful
love that was shed abroad in my heart. I
wept aloud with joy and love; and I do not know but I should say, I literally bellowed
out the unutterable gushings of my heart.
These waves came over me, and over me, and over me, one after the other,
until I recollect I cried out, “I shall die if these waves continue to pass
over me.” I said, “Lord, I cannot bear
any more;” yet I had no fear of death.
How long I continued in this state,
with this baptism continuing to roll over me and go through me, I do not know.
[When I went to bed that evening,]
I soon fell asleep, but almost as soon awoke again on account of the great flow
of the love of God that was in my heart.
I was so filled with love that I could not sleep. Soon I fell asleep again, and awoke in the
same manner. When I awoke, this temptation
would return upon me, and the love that seemed to be in my heart would abate;
but as soon as I was asleep, it was so warm within me that I would immediately
awake. Thus I continued till, late at
night, I obtained some sound repose.
When I awoke in the morning the sun
had risen, and was pouring a clear light into my room... Instantly the baptism that I had received the
night before, returned upon me in the same manner. I arose upon my knees in the bed and wept
aloud with joy, and remained for some time too much overwhelmed with the
baptism of the Spirit to do anything but pour out my soul to God.’[7]
After many years of doubt and struggling
as a woman with God’s call on her life to preach the gospel, Maria Woodworth-Etter
(1844 – 1924) received her baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire:
‘Then I asked God to give me the power
He gave to the Galilean fishermen – to anoint me for service. I came like a child asking for bread. I looked for it. God did not disappoint me. The power of the Holy Ghost came down as a cloud. It was brighter than the sun. I was covered and wrapped up in it. My body was light as the air. It seemed that heaven came down. I was baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire and
power which has never left me. Oh,
praise the Lord! There was liquid fire,
and the angels were all around in the fire and glory. It is through the Lord Jesus Christ, and by this
power, that I have stood before hundreds of thousands of men and women, proclaiming
the unsearchable riches of Christ.’[8]
After
this experience, this timid woman obeyed the Lord, organised meetings and began
to preach, and God used her mightily over several decades in the USA as an
itinerant healing evangelist. Under the
anointing of the Holy Spirit her natural timidity was turned into boldness and
she became a warrior for Christ. In her
evangelistic campaigns and meetings, thousands of people found Christ and were set
free from the common social vices of those days, and many were powerfully healed
of all kinds of physical conditions.
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THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright ©
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[1] See my blogs “Fire, Fire, Fire, We
Need the Fire of God!” and “Vision, Burden, Prayer and Breakthrough” at https://mikeandsuelabrown.blogspot.com.
[2] Unknown source.
[3] From “Power from on High”, Chapter
1, Power from on High, in The Life and Works of Charles Finney: Volume
1, Kindle Version, Christian Classics Treasury, no date, accessed 05.03.2020.
[4] Grubb.
N. Rees Howells: Intercessor, Fort Washington: CLC, 1973, pp.32-44.
[5] Carré,
E.G. (Ed.), pp.70-75.
[6] See Torrey, R.A. Why God Used D.L. Moody, no details.
[7] From The Memoirs
of Charles G. Finney, “Conversion to Christ”, Chapter 2, sourced
from https://www.gospeltruth.net/memoirsrestored/memrest02.htm,
accessed 24.06.2020.
[8] Woodworth-Etter, M. Signs and Wonders, New Kensington: Whitaker
House, 1997, p.16.
