Readings for such a time as this(1): - from: The Counselor, by A.W. Tozer Do You Have All God Wants for You? And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. (Luke 24:49) For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. (Acts 1:5) It is my contention that the individual believers who comprise the membership of our evangelical Christian churches ought to be leading fruitful and happy Spirit-filled lives. If you will set aside the necessary time to search the Scriptures with an honest and open being, you will be convinced that fruitfulness and joy and peace and blessing and contentment are all part and parcel of what the Holy Spirit expects to provide in and through the yielded life of the Christian believer. Now, I know that some say that I have confused people about the blessing of the Holy Spirit, and in answer I want to point out that if the Lords people were only half as eager to be filled with the Spirit, the Church would be crowded out. I have never tried to bend people to the working of God merely by eloquence, for if I dont teach according to the truth found in the Bible, Im wrong no matter how eloquent I try to be. But in these matters, I have spent a long time in the Word of God myself, and I can speak with a good deal of authority because I have gone through it, and I know what Im speaking about. However, I wouldnt ever try to push one of Gods children into any knowledge or any experience, because I have found that we try to push too much and too soon. We only result in kicking Gods children out of their shells too soon, and as a result, we have a lot of weird monstrosities instead of saints. I dont want to do that! I can only wonder why it is that Christian people can go on and on and not be concerned about actually lacking the blessings and gifts promised by a loving Father in heaven. As a Christian believer, shouldnt my life and outlook, and the very life of my church, be affected by the promise of the Father God that He would give the Spirit as a gift to His children? In Luke 11:13, I am sure God had in mind the love we have for our children when He 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? Nothing to Fear In making the Spirit the promise of the Father, I believe God wanted to show that we dont have to be afraid of the Holy Spirit. I say this because I have found that it is very difficult to get Christians over the fear of the Holy Spirit. Just remember that He is given to us as the Fathers promised gift. If a man promises his son a beautiful bicycle for Christmas, the son is certainly never afraid of the promise made by a father who loves him and wants to provide the best for him. The members of the redeemed Church should be bound into a bundle of love with the Holy Spirit. The truth is that God never fathered His Church apart from the Holy Spirit. We should be anointed with the Spirit. We are led of the Spirit. We are taught by the Spirit. The Spirit, then, is the medium, the divine solution, in which God holds His Church. The Bible plainly indicates that God never dreamed of His people apart from the Holy Spirit. Actually, He made many promises to them based on the coming of the Spirit. Lets note some of the promises He made. In Isaiah 32:15-17, He said: Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness... shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. Further on, in Isaiah 44:3, He said: For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. There is also that passage in Joel 2:28-29: And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. Now, those were the words of the Father, and Jesus interpreted them and called them the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4). Let me say that whenever you read about Jesus, our Lord, interpreting the Old Testament, you stay close by His interpretation. Dont lean too hard on the interpretations of men, because they can be wrong. Our Lord, the man Christ Jesus, never was wrong—and He called this the promise of the Father. Recall that in Luke 24:49, Jesus said, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye... until ye be endued with power. Now, I say that Jesus further interpreted this in chapters 14, 15 and 16 of the Gospel of John, as He talked about the Holy Spirit and His coming to the Church. Three Discernible Periods Here I should point out that in reading the Gospels, the book of Acts and the Epistles, we can easily trace three periods that are discernible with respect to the Holy Spirit and His work in the Church. The Promise First is what we may call the period of the promise, from the time of John the Baptist to the resurrection of Christ. In this three-year period, the disciples were called, commissioned and taught in the best Bible school in the world, for there isnt a seminary on earth that can equal the seminary in which Jesus was the entire faculty! They didnt get a degree which they could frame and put on the wall, but they had a degree inside of them, and they loved Christ, our Lord. They loved Him living, they loved Him dead, and they loved Him living again. Now at that time they had only been promised something. Jesus had told them and taught them that there was a new kind of life coming to them—not poetic, not psychic and not physical. It was to be an afflatus from above. It was to be something that was to come to them out of the world beyond them, over the threshold of their beings, into the sanctum sanctorum, into the deep of their spirits. The Counselor would live there and teach them and lead them and make them holy and give them power. Jesus taught that all the way through! As He came nearer to the end of His earthly life, He intensified this teaching as revealed in John 14, 15 and 16. He told them that there was a new and superior kind of life coming, and He told them that it was to be an infusion, an outpouring of spiritual energy. Then He left them. Do you know that if we could get together today a congregation as spiritually minded as the disciples were before Pentecost, we would feel that we had an intensely spiritual church? We would make bishops out of the leadership of that kind of group. We would elect them to boards and write the stories of their lives and name churches after them. But in that period of promise, the disciples were just getting ready. They had not yet received the promise. Jesus was creating an expectation within them. The Preparation The second period outlined is the period of preparation. In some measure, they were being prepared while Jesus was with them, but after He was gone, they actually began to prepare. They stopped their activities, and this is one of the great lessons for us in our hectic day. I think we are the busiest bunch of eager beavers ever seen in the religious world. The idea seems to be that if we are not running in a circle, breathing down the back of our own neck, we are not pleasing God! When Jesus said, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15), Peter probably leaped to his feet and, no doubt, scooped up his hat on the way out. He was going to go right then! But the Lord said, Peter, come back, and tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49). I heard a Christian leader warn recently that we are suffering from a rash of amateurism in Christian circles. Christianity has leveled down and down and down. We are as light as butterflies—though we flit, flit, flit around in the sunshine and imagine that we are eagles flapping our broad wings. Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. Thats what they did before Pentecost. We spend time praying for the Holy Spirit to unite us, but at Pentecost the Spirit of God came upon the disciples because they were already united—they were all with one accord in one place (Acts 2:1). Many are trying to work for God when they are not really prepared to work. There needs to be some preparation, some getting ready. I think we often make mistakes with our newest converts. We think nothing of taking one of our babes in Christ, pushing a bunch of tracts into his hands, and saying, Now, Bud, get going! Perhaps we ought not to forget that in the Old Testament the priests in the service of God were born priests but they had to be anointed before they could serve. Not only was blood placed on their ears, on their thumbs and toes, but fragrant sweet oil, the type of the Holy Spirit, was put on the blood. The Realization The third period indicated was that of the period of realization, and I read that the Holy Spirit came upon them suddenly. I have noted that this word suddenly, as found in the book of Acts, occurs often in places in the Scriptures. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting (2:2). I have to smile to myself because of that word suddenly. Gods people in our day are so afraid of the implications of suddenly. Most of us in the Church want things to slip up on us gradually, a little bit at a time—slowly, not suddenly. Everyone is willing to be filled with the Holy Spirit providing God does it very gingerly, very slowly, and doesnt embarrass or frighten them! The Scriptures say that Suddenly.... They were all filled with the Holy Ghost (2:2, 4). The Scriptures also declare that And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God (Luke 2:13). It is amazing that we will find the word suddenly whenever God did a wonderful thing. He did it suddenly—but we are afraid of that. We want to grow in grace because we know that we can grow and not be embarrassed. It seems to be an embarrassment to believers to get down on their knees to seek Almighty God, to have to get out a handkerchief to wipe away the tears and then to find themselves saying, Thank God, the Counselor has come! It might take something away from their reputation—chairman of the board, Sunday school teachers, workers in the ladies aid. The result of this kind of embarrassment is that we go on year after year and learn to live with death. We find ourselves able to live with a spiritual corpse. Our breath is frosty, our cheeks are pale, our toes are frostbitten and we havent any spirituality. We learn to live with that—and we imagine that is normal. We even write books to prove that it is normal, but the Holy Spirit isnt on us, and thats our trouble. The period of the realization came suddenly, and the Father fulfilled His promise. The expectations were fully met and more! An Error in the Church I am concerned about anything that hinders Gods people and keeps them from their full privileges in the Christian life. Sometimes I have to tear into things that I cannot believe are right, and which I feel become a hindrance to the people of God. Some have said that it is none of my business, but it is my business. I have been anointed of God to make this concern my business! One of these things is an error often presented to the Church in this form: that the individual Christian is not concerned with this promise by the Father that He would send the Holy Spirit, that this already happened once in the Christian Church and that it is not to be repeated. Therefore, this position holds that the Church need no longer be concerned about the Holy Spirit. So, they try to brush us off. Well, here I would like to ask you some questions and let you do your own teaching as you answer them. Is it true that the Fathers promise was valid only to the Christians of the first century? I think we are living in the period of the last days, which began with Pentecost and continues until Christ returns. That makes the Prophet Joels text active and efficacious and applicable to you and me. We are now living in the latter days when God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Recall what Peter said in Acts 2:38-39: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. It wasnt just that first generation crowd—unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off (2:39)—thats the promise. Many of us believe and know the witness of the Spirit—and this takes the place of a lot of argument. If you can argue a man into believing he is filled, someone else will come along who can argue him out of believing that he is filled. I point to the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world and the promise of the Father for a holy and fruitful life in the Spirit—if anything happens to me, he will have the promise of the Father. He wont be cast back on mans uncertainty. A second question: Does the new birth of the first century make my new birth unnecessary? The Lord said that we would have to be born again, and He said we were to be filled with the Spirit. Yet someone comes along and tells us that what it really means is that they were to be filled with the Spirit back there—and not us. That leaves us high and dry hanging on a wire, without any hope, born a long time too late. But, wait! Peter was born again. Does Peters experience of being born again suffice for me? Peter was filled with the Spirit. Does Peters being filled with the Spirit suffice for me? Would the breakfast that Peter ate in 33 A.D. nourish and suffice me in the twentieth century? No, of course not. I have to eat now if Im going to be nourished now. Peters being born again wont help me now. I must be born again as he was born again then. Peters being filled that day wont help me now. I must be filled now as he was filled then. Is there any difference between that and the outpouring of the Spirit? A third question: Have you ever seen anyone in the Christian Church today that received at conversion what Peter received in the upper chamber? I am asking this because some would teach that we now receive at conversion what the disciples received back there at Pentecost. When you were converted, did you have the power Peter had when he was filled? Bring it down farther—down to the common folk around Peter. Doesnt the Scripture make it pretty plain that they received something and had something that we apparently dont have in this day in which we live? I think they did! Now a final question: Is modern fundamental belief a satisfactory fulfillment of the expectation raised by the Father in Christ, and does your heart personally witness that what you now enjoy is what our Lord promised to His people? Brethren, our heavenly Father promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to come upon His children. Jesus Himself promised that we should have the Spirit, that He would take the things of Christ and make them known to us, and that we should have power from on high. Now, I look around at cold, dead, dried-up, fundamental textualism hanging out to dry. Then they want me to believe that what they have now is what those early Christians had back there. I just cant believe it! They were thoroughbreds in those early days. Something from God had come to them, and they blazed with light and power and life. Most of us are scrubs compared with those early-day Christians. When I was a boy on the farm in Pennsylvania, we had scrub chickens. Occasionally, my mother would try to improve the strain, bringing in some Plymouth Rocks or some other good breed. But just let the hens go awhile. In five or six years, they will revert back to type. They will go back to scrubs, and you cant figure out what they are—just old, dried-up clucking biddies that lay little eggs, and not too many of them! We Christians have just reverted back to old Adamic type. Just look at us, and then try to say that we automatically have the same spiritual life of those thoroughbreds. Think it over! Do you have the witness in your being now that what you possess in spiritual life and victory is all God meant when He painted that wonderful picture of the fullness of the Spirit? A Modern Testimony Let me remind you of Mother Cook, a nice little old lady who lived in her modest home on Chicagos South Side and who knew the blessing of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. A young man got converted in this city, and he would have made a good salesman. He was very busy—he loved to run in circles, and he did. He went everywhere running in circles, and his name was Dwight Lyman Moody. One day Mother Cook saw Dwight and said, Son, Id like to have you come over to my house sometime—I want to talk to you. So Moody went over, and she set him down on a chair and said something to this general effect: Now, Dwight, its wonderful to see you saved so wonderfully and to see your zeal for the Lord, but do you know what you need? You need to be anointed with the Holy Spirit. Well, he said, Mother Cook, I want whatever God has for me. All right, she said, get down here. So he knelt down on the linoleum, and they prayed. Mother Cook prayed, Oh, God, fill this young man with Thine own Spirit. Moody died out right there, opened his heart, yielded himself as an empty vessel and took the promise by faith—but nothing happened. But a few days afterward, he was in another city, and he said, As I was walking down the street, suddenly God fulfilled the promise He had made to me in that kitchen. Down into him came a horn of oil, and the Holy Spirit came on him. He said he turned up an alley and raised his hand and said, Oh, God, stay Your power, or Ill die! Later he said, I went out from there preaching the same sermons with the same texts, but oh, the difference now—the Holy Spirit had come! Yes, the Holy Spirit had been there. The Holy Spirit was there causing him to be born again, for Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his (Romans 8:9). But it is quite a different thing to have the Spirit as the agent in my regeneration than to have the horn of oil poured out on my head—quite a different thing—and that was Moodys testimony and appeal concerning the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Where did we get this idea that because the disciples were filled with the Spirit back there in the first century, it is unnecessary for us to be filled with the Spirit now? There was a time when the Holy Spirit came upon the Church, and it went forth in a blaze of fire to preach the gospel to the known world in the first 100 years. Then came the long death. Now, here we are in our time, and we have teachers who are so infinitely silly as to tell us that all we have to do is just go quietly along until the Lord comes and makes us to rule over many cities. I only ask that you search the Scriptures and see whether these things be so. Pray and yield and believe and obey—and see what God will do for you! - via WORDsearch10 #readingsforsuchatimeasthis #christjesus #vineofchristministries #theword #studyscripture #god #biblestudy #bible #jesus #faith
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 21:07:06 +0000