Pentecost was the day of God’s power, the time
when the Holy Spirit was poured out and began to work powerfully as he led and
directed the working out of God’s purpose to redeem and save. It therefore comes as no surprise when we
read the book of Acts to find him working and operating in powerful and ‘unusual’
ways. This book is permeated through and
through by such things, and for this reason it is sometimes called ‘the Acts of
the Holy Spirit.’
Someone once described the Holy Spirit as the
divine choreographer in the working out of God’s purposes. In Acts, he initiates events himself, he speaks
to and guides God’s people, working through them powerfully, and he openly manifests
and demonstrates his presence and power. He is very much like a general in charge of and
directing his troops.
Of course, in this warfare of the kingdom of God
against the dominion of Satan in this world, recorded for us by Luke, there was
no match between the Holy Spirit’s power and working, on the one hand, and that
of Satan on the other. The devil is no
match for the Holy Spirit, and, although Satan may seem to fight tooth and nail
at times against the progress of the work of God, yet when the Holy Spirit is
honoured and truly in charge of God’s work, as he was at Pentecost and in the
events that followed, then the strongman is always overcome and his goods are spoiled
(Matt. 12:29). The Holy Spirit working through
the church is the dominant spiritual power in this world.
Although the kind of things which we see recorded
in the book of Acts in relation to the Holy Spirit’s working and ministry may
seem unusual to us, yet they are perfectly normal occurrences in the day of God’s
power, i.e. they reflect the ways in which the Holy Spirit often works and operates
in times of revival. Some of these things
can be seen in the excerpts used in the previous blogs from the descriptions of times of revival. If the reader makes an in-depth and extensive
study of different revivals, and especially of the biographies and writings of
the key figures whom God used, then s/he will discover that the same or similar
things have happened, just as they did in the book of Acts.
However, these things are not normative in the sense
that we can expect to see all of them happen in every revival, and therefore in
our own experience of seeing the Holy Spirit work. The historical records would suggest that they
do not. However, we should never extrapolate
from this that we cannot expect to see the Holy Spirit manifest his presence
and power among us in such ways when he is working. That would be wrong, and it is the kind of
error that gives rise to false doctrines such as cessationism.[1] We cannot determine how the Holy Spirit will
work on any given occasion, but, as we pray for and allow him to work freely amongst
us as our leader, then we can expect to see and experience manifestations of
his presence and power which will correspond to some of the things which are
recorded in the book of Acts. When
he works freely and powerfully, it cannot be otherwise.
There
are many remarkable and unusual ways in which the Holy Spirit worked in the
book of Acts, and these are summarised below.
For the sake of space, I have outlined in more detail and illustrated from
historical revivals only two of these: firstly, visions, dreams and trances,
and secondly, the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, healing and exorcism ministries are
outlined in more detail and illustrated in a later blog.
When
the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, he came in a tremendously
powerful way, like a ‘rushing mighty wind,’ a sound which was evidently audible
both to those in the upper room and to many others in the immediate vicinity, because
they all came running to see what was happening (2:2,6). Tongues of fire appeared upon each one of the
120 believers in the upper room, and they were all baptised with the Holy Spirit
and fire (2:3-4). They all began to
speak in tongues, declaring the wonders of God to those who gathered around (2:4).
So the coming of the Holy Spirit was manifested
both to people’s sense of seeing and to their sense of hearing. The 120 believers were speaking in the native
languages of those who gathered (2:6,11), so this was the gift known as xenolalia
(speaking a foreign human language under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit),
rather than glossolalia (speaking an unknown tongue which requires the
gift of interpretation in order to understand what is said, cf. 1 Cor. 12:10). This manifestation of speaking in tongues also
occurred when the Holy Spirit fell on all those gathered in Cornelius’ house, and
when he came upon the disciples in Ephesus (10:46, 19:6). Furthermore, it seems as though some of those
who had been filled with the Holy Spirit could not walk properly under this
influence, since they seemed to others to be staggering around as though they
were drunk (2:13).
There is repeated evidence of angelic activity in
the book of Acts, with these heavenly servants of God being sent to minister to
believers on several occasions. When the
apostles were arrested by the Sadducees and put in jail, an angel came during
the night and opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. He told them to go back to the temple courts
and to carry on preaching, which they did. Next day, the jail was found securely locked and
yet the apostles were missing, and the guards knew nothing about what had happened
during the night (5:17-24).
Similarly, in answer to the day and night praying
of believers, Peter was released from his chains in prison by an angel who then
physically opened the prison gate without a key, and led Peter to a place from where
he could then get safely to John Mark’s house, all without any of the guards
knowing or seeing him. Even Peter didn’t
believe what was happening to him until he was physically out of the prison; he
thought he was seeing a vision (12:5-19).
After being used powerfully in revival scenes in
Samaria, Philip was told by an angel to go south and meet the Ethiopian eunuch on
the desert road. Everything about this
meeting was wonderfully choreographed by the Holy Spirit. After leading this man to Christ and baptising
him, Philip had the remarkable experience of being physically translated by the
Holy Spirit from the place where he was to Azotus, and he then continued on, preaching
in all the towns between there and Caesarea Philippi. He seems to have settled down in this city and
got married. He and his wife had four
daughters who each exercised the prophetic gift (8:4-7,26-40; 21:8-9).
During the extended and dangerous storm in the
Mediterranean, when it seemed that hope was all but lost, an angel appeared to
Paul during the night to encourage him that neither he nor anyone else on the
ship would be lost, and to affirm to him that he was indeed going to stand before
Caesar and would therefore be saved from the storm. This word renewed Paul’s faith, and he was able
to bring encouragement to the other men on the ship the next day (27:21-26).
On two occasions, the power of God is recorded in
Acts as having been manifested in terms of shaking buildings. Firstly, after opposition had arisen from the
Sanhedrin, the believers prayed together and the place where they were meeting
was shaken. They were all filled again
with the Holy Spirit and with boldness, and continued preaching (4:31). And secondly, after Paul and Silas had been
flogged and thrown into jail in Philippi, they prayed and praised God well into
the night. He responded to their faith by
causing an earthquake which shook the foundations of the prison. All the doors flew open and everyone’s chains
came loose. This powerful event brought
about the conversion of the jailer and his whole family (16:22-34).
Some of the other remarkable operations of the
Holy Spirit recorded in Acts include the following: Ananias and his wife Sapphira
both fell down dead as the judgement of God came upon them for their hypocrisy,
causing great fear to come upon the whole community (5:1-11). Saul/Paul was blinded by the intense light
that flashed around him when he was approaching Damascus, and he was later healed
through Ananias (of Damascus), with something like scales falling from his eyes
(9:3-19). Elymas the sorcerer was also
blinded for a time because of his attempts to turn the proconsul in Paphos away
from the faith (13:6-12). In Malta, Paul
miraculously survived a bite from a viper and suffered no ill effects at all,
and this opened the door into fruitful ministry on that island (28:1-10).
Visions,
dreams and trances
The prophecy of Joel, fulfilled on the day of
Pentecost, tells us that visions and dreams (and we can include trances here)
are one of the marks of the working of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, it implies that these are closely
linked to the prophetic ministry, just as they were under the old covenant:
‘Your sons and daughters
will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.’ (Acts
2:17; cf. Num. 12:6)
There are a number of such experiences recorded in
the book of Acts, in which God spoke to various people at significant and strategic
times. For example, when he spoke before
the Sanhedrin, Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and had a vision of an open
heaven, in which he saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. As Stephen shared this vision, it angered the
priests so much that they dragged him outside the city and stoned him to death.
However, it had a profound effect upon
Saul who was stood nearby and was a witness to all that happened that day. It was a major factor which eventually led to
his conversion (7:55-60).
After Saul was blinded by the light from heaven
on the road to Damascus, God spoke to Ananias in a vision. He instructed him to go to Saul in the house
of Judas, and to lay hands on him so that his sight might be restored and that he
might be filled with the Holy Spirit. Saul
also saw in a vision that Ananias would come to him and lay hands on him. As Ananias acted in obedience to his vision, something
like scales fell from Saul’s eyes and his sight was restored, and soon afterwards
he began to preach powerfully (9:10-30).
While he was praying one day before eating lunch,
Peter fell into a trance in which God spoke to him figuratively about being willing
to associate with Gentiles and to bring the gospel to them. To emphasise to Peter the importance of this vision,
God caused it to be repeated to him three times. This vision then had its outworking almost
immediately when men sent by the Roman centurion Cornelius came to visit Peter,
and he set out with them to share the word of God with Cornelius and his household
(Acts ch.10).
On one occasion, in order to direct Paul’s steps
strategically into the outworking of his purpose, God spoke to him through a
night vision in which Paul saw a man from Macedonia begging him and his companions
to come and help them. After he had seen
this vision, Paul concluded that God had shown him the way forward, and immediately
he and his companions got ready to leave to preach in Macedonia (16:6-10). A few months later, when he was in Corinth,
God spoke to him again in a night vision to affirm and encourage him to continue
in his ministry there. So he stayed for
eighteen months and his ministry bore much fruit (18:9-11).
A vision given to one of the two elderly Smith
sisters gave them great encouragement and played a key role before the outbreak
of revival in the Hebrides in 1949. In this
vision, she saw their almost empty church filled with young people and a man
she did not know (i.e. Duncan Campbell) in the pulpit. This vision eventually led to her minister contacting
Campbell and inviting him to come to preach and evangelise on the Isle of Lewis:
‘One night, one of the sisters had
a vision. Now remember, in revival, God
works in wonderful ways. A vision came
to one of them, and in the vision she saw the church of her fathers crowded with
young people, packed to the doors, and a strange minister standing in the pulpit.
And she was so impressed by the vision that
she sent for the parish minister…’[2]
In the 1953 revival in Congo referred to previously,
there were several people whose visions were recorded in writing at the time. As this revival began to spread, one such
vision came to a woman called Peleza who was being powerfully moved upon by the
Holy Spirit during that time:
‘It
was then she got a vision from the Lord.
She saw a great light, and a voice said to her, “Peleza, I want to do a
great work here at Opienga, but there is much hardness. If you want to light a good fire, do you get
one by laying wood among the ashes?” “No,”
she answered. Then the voice asked, “What
must be done then?” “Clean away the ashes
first.” “That is right,” the voice said,
“I want a clean place for my fire.” The
following Sunday the Spirit came again upon Peleza in the service…’[3]
Before he began his ministry as a teenager in Henan
province in China in the 1970s, Brother Yun received visions/dreams about a
Bible being brought to him in answer to his desperate praying for one, and also
about beginning to preach the gospel. In
his second vision, he was directed to go west and south to preach, and the Lord
showed him that many people would become believers. His testimony of how the Lord worked is
thrilling!
‘Around
four o’clock the next morning I received a dream from the Lord. I saw the same loving old man who had given me
the bread in my previous vision. As he
walked towards me he looked into my eyes and said, “You should face the west and
south to proclaim the gospel and be the Lord’s witness.” In my dream I also saw a large meeting with a
multitude of people…’[4]
Visions, dreams and trances are just one way in
which God speaks to believers. However,
they are not the only way, of course. One
thing which becomes clear as we read the narrative of the book of Acts is that
those who had been filled with the Holy Spirit were drawn into a depth of
intimacy in their relationship with God out of which they could discern when
God was speaking to them. They
knew the voice of God. As a
consequence of this and as the narrative makes clear, these early believers knew
what it was to be led and directed by the Holy Spirit in their ministries. Learning to discern when God is speaking
to us is one of the most important developmental lessons in the life of anyone
who would aspire to become a successful and fruitful minister in the work of God.
Of central importance to these early believers was
the written word of God. When they preached,
they used the Scriptures regularly. They
knew the word of God very well and they knew what it was for God to speak to them
through it, and to then speak out what God had spoken to them (see 2:17-28,34-35;
4:11,25-26; 7:2-53; 13:32-35,40-41,47; 15:15-18; 28:25-27). Furthermore, there are several occasions when
the Holy Spirit seems to have spoken to them in an audible voice to speak to
them and guide them (8:29, 10:19), and they were also aware of the inaudible, inward,
subjective impressions which the Holy Spirit used in order to speak to them and
guide them (13:2, 15:28, 16:6-7).
The charismatic
gifts of the Holy Spirit
The literal meaning of the term ‘gifts of the Holy
Spirit’ indicates that they are expressions of the working of God’s grace (cf. 1 Peter 4:10). Although there are as many as twenty-seven of
these mentioned in various passages in the epistles, the particular sub-group of
nine of them which are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 (and which are often called
‘the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit’) played a conspicuous and strategic role in
the outworking of the God’s purposes in the book of Acts. They are word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith,
gifts of healings, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking
in different kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues. Through the operation of these gifts, we see
how God worked powerfully by his grace to reach people and transform their lives. They both confirmed and complemented the preaching
of the gospel and the teaching of the word of God.
We can see eight of these nine gifts in operation
in the book of Acts, working to complement and further the gospel message and the
teaching of the word of God. It was through
the gift of tongues that the wonders of God were communicated to the hearers on
the day of Pentecost (2:1-12); a word of knowledge exposed the hypocrisy of
Ananias and Sapphira (5:1-11); Stephen is described as being a man filled with
wisdom, wisdom against which his opposers had no answer (6:3,10); gifts of healing
and miracles brought healing to the sick on many occasions; the discernment of
spirits (with consequent exorcisms) operated powerfully in Philip’s ministry in
Samaria, and also brought freedom to the slave girl in Philippi (8:5-8, 16:16-18);
faith was key to bringing about the healing of the crippled man in Lystra (14:8-10),
and Stephen and Barnabas are described as being men filled with the Holy Spirit
and faith (6:5, 11:24); and Agabus’ prophetic word allowed the believers in
Antioch to gather financial help for their fellow believers suffering in Judea
during a time of famine (11:27-30).
If the book of Acts presents us with a pattern or
paradigm of how the Holy Spirit works (particularly in times of revival), as I believe
it does, then we cannot reach any other conclusion than that the operation of
these gifts of the Holy Spirit is normative for the life of a Spirit-filled church
in every age. Although gifts and ministries
differ from individual to individual, yet the operation of the gifts is indeed
normative for the church community as a whole (1 Cor. 12:29-30). One of the marks of a Spirit-filled life
is the operation of one or more of these gifts in a believer’s life.
In a practical sense, the gifts of the Holy Spirit
are ‘tools for the job,’ as it were, in Christian ministry. Without them, much that could be done and achieved
in people’s lives, remains undone. Without
them, the church is impoverished to the degree that they are missing, and it remains
bereft of the working of God’s power in many ways, often leading to a lack of
incisive thrust in spiritual breakthrough and a consequent lack of transformation
in people’s lives. For this reason, Paul
encouraged us to seek and pray for them to operate amongst us (1 Cor. 12:31, 14:1).
The motif of the body which Paul uses in 1 Corinthians
ch.12 shows us that the church needs the functioning of the whole variety of
the different gifts, if we are to operate in the way that God intends us to in
our work and mission. A church without
the operating of the gifts is akin to a person living with a dysfunctional body. Although such a person can certainly operate in
many ways, yet they have limitations (perhaps even severely so) to their capacity
to live and function as fully as God intended. Similarly, although an artist could no doubt paint
a picture using only a couple of different brushes, yet to produce a work worthy
of note, s/he needs the whole variety of different brushes and tips which are
available.
The writings of the Early Fathers provide abundant
testimony for the continuation of the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit in the
ministry of the church in the post-apostolic period. These did not die out and cease to
function at the close of the apostolic age. For example, Irenaeus the bishop of Lyon (140
– 203 AD) penned the following in the mid-late second century:
‘For
which cause also his true disciples, having received grace from him, use it in his
name for the benefit of the rest of mankind, even as each has received the gifts
from him. For some do, really and truly
drive out demons, so that those who have thus been cleansed from evil spirits
frequently believe and join themselves to the church. Others have foreknowledge of things to come:
they see visions, and utter prophetic expressions. Others still, heal the sick by laying their hands
on them, and they are made whole. Yes,
moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among
us for many years. And what shall I more
say? It is not possible to name the number
of the gifts which the church, [scattered] throughout the world, has received
from God, in the name of Jesus Christ.’[5]
Similarly,
in the third century, Novatian the bishop of Rome (210 – 280 AD) also affirmed
the continuation of the charismatic gifts:
‘They
were armed by the same Spirit, having themselves the gifts which this same
Spirit distributes, and appropriates to the church. This is he [the Spirit] who places prophets
in the church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives powers and healings,
does wonderful works, offers discrimination of spirits, affords powers of government,
suggests counsels, and orders and arranges whatever other gifts there are of charismata;
and thus makes the Lord’s church everywhere, and in all, perfected and completed.’[6]
Coming
more up to date into the twentieth century, John G. Lake was an example of a
man who seems to have hungered more and more for God as he went through life. He wasn’t satisfied with any particular level
of spiritual life that he had attained to.
He always wanted and sought God for more, and this fact breathes through
many of his sermons. Even though he
experienced the Holy Spirit ministering healing through him, yet he was not satisfied
with this, and he sought God for more of the presence, power and anointing of
the Holy Spirit upon him. He gave extended
testimonies of his experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the new empowerment
and anointing that is described below was God’s preparation of him for the revival
ministry in which he was used later in South Africa:
‘Then the ministry of healing was opened
to me, and I ministered in the power of God.
Hundreds and hundreds of people were healed by the power of God during these
ten years, and I could feel the conscious flow of the Holy Spirit through my soul
and my hands.
But at the end of that ten years I believe
I was the hungriest man for God that ever lived. There was such a hunger for God that as I
left my offices in Chicago and walked down the street, my soul would break out,
and I would cry, “Oh God!” It was the
yearning passion of my soul, asking for God in a greater measure than I then knew. But my friends would say: “Mr. Lake, you have
a beautiful baptism in the Holy Spirit.” Yes, it was nice as far as it went, but it was
not answering the cry of my heart. I was
growing up into a larger understanding of God and my own soul’s need. My soul was demanding a greater entrance into
God, his love, presence and power...
I went into fasting and prayer and waiting
on God for nine months. And one day the
glory of God in a new manifestation and a new incoming came to my life. […currents of power began to rush through my
being from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. These shocks of power increased in rapidity and
voltage. As these currents of power
would pass through me, they seemed to come upon my head, rush through my body
and through my feet into the floor. This
power was so great that my body began to vibrate intensely so that I believe if
I had not been sitting in such a low, deep chair I might have fallen upon the floor.] And when the phenomenon had passed, and the
glory of it remained in my soul, I found that my life began to manifest in the
varied range of the gifts of the Spirit.
And I spoke in tongues by the power of God, and God flowed through me
with a new force. Healings were of a more
powerful order. Oh, God lived in me, God
manifested in me, God spoke through me...’[7]
It is the operation of these gifts of the Holy
Spirit that leads to a widening, deepening and multiplication of the effectiveness
of ministry in the church. Their
operation reflects God’s way of working. His ways have not changed, just as the depth of
human need has not changed. We should
pray and seek God for the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit through us just
as the early church did, and thereby reap similar results in our own day.
[1] The false teaching that the charismatic
gifts passed away at the end of the apostolic age and therefore no longer operate
today.
[2] From http://www.revival-library.org/index.php/pensketches-menu/historical-revivals/the-hebrides-revival,
accessed 21.05.2020.
[3] From Grubb, N. (Comp. and Ed.). This is That: The Spirit of Revival, https://www.gospeltruth.net/spiritofrevival.htm,
accessed 15.06.2020.
[4] Yun, Brother and Hathaway, P. The Heavenly Man, London: Monarch, 2002,
pp.33-41.
[5] Irenaeus, Against Heresies,
sourced in Backhouse, R. (comp.), The Classics on Revival, London: Hodder
& Stoughton, 1996, p.26.
[6] Novatian, Treatise Concerning the
Trinity, Chapter 29, sourced in Backhouse (1996:40).
[7] Synthesised from John
G. Lake: His Life, His Sermons and His Boldness of Faith, Revised Edition, Fort
Worth: KCP, 1995, pp.483-484, and Liardon,
R. (comp.), John G. Lake: The Complete Collection
of His Life Teachings, “My Baptism in the Holy Spirit and How the Lord Sent
Me to South Africa”, Roberts Liardon Ministries: Laguna Hills, 1999, p.737-749.
