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Baptism with the Holy Spirit By Paris Reidhead*
Will you please turn to Acts chapter 1? This is number “10” in your outline. We have stated and repeat, because repetition to the soul is the soul of learning that everything that begins in the Christian life is a crisis. It is preceded by a process and followed by a process. The crisis of the new birth followed by that process leading now to the crisis being baptized with the Holy Spirit, Baptism with the Holy Spirit is the title is this tenth step and it’s part of “So Great Salvation”. We know that because John the Baptist told us that his generation were to repent, be baptized for the remission of sins, that they might receive the “baptism with fire.” So we are therefore quite correct in this too is part of “So Great Salvation”.
Now in Hebrews in the 2nd chapter, the 3rd verse, you’ll recall: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation.”
Dealing with the subject of the baptizing with the Holy Spirit Charles Finney1 had this to say. “This is not a matter of option; this is not a matter of choice; this is the responsibility of every believer. The promise is to you,” said he. “Your children, and to them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. If you’ve been called to Him, then you’ve been called to be a candidate for the baptism with the Holy Spirit.”
Mr. Finney went on to say that if we fail to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, walk in the Spirit, we will be responsible for all that we did that dishonored the Lord, because we had not been baptized with the Holy Spirit. We will be responsible for all we failed to understand of that provision of God in grace, because we were not equipped by the Holy Spirit, for “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the mind of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit which He has given us.” (I Cor. 2:9,10) People neglect to be baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit they will be responsible for all the good that they might have done had they been filled with the Holy Spirit.
So it is not a matter of options or not a matter of choice. There is again the danger implicit in the text that we are using as the overall text for this series ministries, “How shall we escape if we neglect” that which the Lord Jesus purchased with His blood and intended to be the birthright of everyone born into the Father’s family.
Now the text then from Acts chapter 1, verses 1-8:
“The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which He was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith He, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
We saw this morning for those of you that were there in His high priestly prayer our Lord Jesus, addressing the Father, said, “As Thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” (John 17:18) On the night of the resurrection when He met with His disciples, Christ said, “As the Father hath sent Me (into the world), even so have I also send you.” (John 20:21)
We saw that the Lord Jesus had been conceived by the Holy Ghost, was born of the Spirit, but He wasn’t ready for His ministry, 3 year ministry until after His baptism in water and the Holy Ghost came upon Him. (John 1:32) Then He read from the Book of Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me and He has sent me.” (Luke 4:18) Everything done by Christ
1 Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) An American Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States.

in the subsequent three years of ministry was done by the Father through the Spirit. And so He said, “As the Father sent me, so send I you.” We too are born of the Spirit, and thus when we come to this matter of the baptism of the Spirit, very precisely, the Lord Jesus said, “The Holy Ghost is to come upon you.” This is an ‘upon’ baptism. The Spirit of God had come into the disciples that night of the resurrection in the Upper Room, the Lord Jesus had breathed on them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” and now He is telling them that “the Spirit of God shall come upon them.” (John 20:22; Acts 1:8) So, it will parallel what had happened to Him.
Now I recall years ago being told, taught that since the Spirit of God came into us at the New Birth (and God is a person) we got all there is to get of God at salvation and salvation was made synonymous with the new birth. We are extending that term to include ALL the provisions of God’s love that we have being seeing. But that is what I was taught. The consequence was we would hear something like this: “All he is asking now is that— since a person can’t come in parts— he got all there was to get of God, now it is just for Him to get more of you.”
Well, I never did really get around to answering the question, if the Spirit of God can’t come in parts, how can I “go” in parts? How can I give more of me? I never did get that quite answered satisfactory, but the fact that’s what we were taught and that’s what we preached. And it is quite enough to preach it as long as your heart isn’t hungry, but when the Spirit of God begins to stir you with a hunger from Himself and for Himself you go to the Word of God and begin to study the Word and read and find out what the Word has to say, and you’ll discover some very interesting things.
For instances, you discover that the Holy Spirit was in Christ, or if He wasn’t, then Christ wasn’t God. From His birth Christ was indwelt by the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So at the very time the Holy Spirit was IN our Lord Jesus Christ, He came UPON our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, what do we learn? We learn that we cannot apply those rules that are true of human personality to God. You see, God the Holy Spirit in Christ, while He came upon Christ, once and for all, does away with that teaching that says that when you are born again you got all there was to get of God. You didn’t. Or in a sense, you did. Everything that belongs to the children of God became yours in that sense that you were born into His family. But it didn’t all come to you at once.
We will discover that there are many blessings that after we have been baptized with the Holy Spirit “that God provided for them that love Him.” We will have to meet Him in terms of that particular need and that particular desire. But still the point that I am making is that the dispensationalists (of which I was one, who was very active and vociferous) were quite incorrect when we said that since He comes at the new birth, you get all there is to get of God. It’s not true.
Now the pattern is clear. The Father sent the Son, and He sent us. So our Lord Jesus as we saw at the Jordan symbolizing by His baptism the relinquishing of the right to His rights. He didn’t relinquish His deity; He only relinquished the right to act in His essential deity as Son. Therefore, in those years of ministry “He was in all things LIKE unto His brethren.” (Heb. 2:17) Everything done by Him was done by the Father through the Spirit.
I’m so glad that F.B. Meyer2, that great English preacher who so blessed England and America and the world by his books. In the little book published by Moody’s Colportage. The 37th title they published and the title of the book was The Christ-Life for the Self-Life, makes the statement, “That everything done by Christ, we must remember, is done by the Father through the Spirit.” That has done a great deal, that came to me at a time of very real need in my life.
Now seeing that and understanding that you realized how important it is for you to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. But there are, as we saw earlier today, were preparations that must be made. We are thus assuming that you have made those preparations? You have relinquished the right to your rights?
There are a lot of people that would like to be baptized with the Holy Spirit so they could get a hold of God, get a handle on God, and use God. But that’s not what this is all about.
2 Frederick Brotherton Meyer (1847-1929) A Baptist Pastor

I was in Charleston, West Virginia for a meeting some years ago. A Pastor was on the radio every day and the Pastor of a church asked to see me and took me to lunch. While we were there he said, “Brother Reidhead, I heard you speak and I really would like to have what you are talking about.” He said, “I have a great church and a great Sunday School. We got seven buses and we are doing this, and we are doing that, but I need power in my ministry.” Well, I looked at him and he was very active very able young man and one that you would feel a go getter in very sense of the word. I said, “I think you think I am coming to you as a celestial spiritual filling station attendant.” I saw him driving up in his big activity Cadillac and leaning out the window and saying, “Filler up, Bud, high test.” And I got a picture of him. If he were filled with the Holy Ghost in his present state, my, would he go roaring down the highway. I said, “No, I don’t think you’re ready.” And I told him about the idea I had of him coming up in his big Cadillac. He didn’t have a Cadillac, but that’s the way I saw it. And I said, “There’s no way God is going to meet your need when you are still behind the wheel of your life. You’re going to have to crawl into the back seat.” But I looked at him and he was agile and he was aggressive and I figured he’d be leaning right over the back seat and grabbing the wheel. “No” I said, “the back seat won’t do, won’t do at all. I can’t trust you there, not that way. I’ll tell you I won’t even talk to you until you snap the truck lid and open the lid you get out in back and crawl in the trunk and slam the door down. And then whisper through the keyhole, ‘Lord, if there is something You would like to do for me, I’m a candidate for it.’” You see everyone wants to get a handle on God. They want to use God. But that’s not what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is about. Our Lord Jesus said, “I do nothing of myself. I don’t speak of myself; I only do what I see the Father do.” (John 5:19)
Do you remember that time when He went down to the Pool of Bethesda, where all the sick people were lying around it? He came in, with His Disciples, and He looked at them. I’m sure He knew some of them, He had been about there. He nodded to them and spoke to them and they looked at Him. He walked around the pool until He came to one man... just one. And He said, “Wilt thou be made whole? And the man said, ‘Yes, but every time the angel comes to stir the waters, somebody gets there before I do, and so I have been here and I haven’t been healed.’” (John 5:6,7) And the Lord Jesus said, “Rise, take up thy bed and walk, follow Me. And the man did it. And he was healed, instantly.” (John 5:8,9)
Afterwards, the Disciples said to Him, Now, Lord, please explain this that has happened. Was that man a bigger sinner than all the rest of the folks around there? Or was he better than the rest of them? How come only one was healed? And He gave this answer, “I can only do what I see My Father do.”
Now, apparently, He had, while in early morning worship and prayer, God the Father had given Him a vision of a certain man, a certain appearance, at a certain place and He could offer... Now, you see normally people came to Him and said, “Lord, will Thou make me whole?” Apparently, the Father had said anybody that asks He could heal, but this was a case where nobody was asking. And therefore “He could only do what He saw the Father do.” He couldn’t initiate. He accepted the limitations of His humanity. And He is asking us to do the same thing. To present our bodies to Him, our brains, our eyes, our ears, ours hearts, ours hands, our feet, our lips, so that living in us, He can do through us. That was His prayer. Father, That they all maybe in union, the same kind of union I have with Thee, You had with Me I want to have with them. I want to live in them the way You lived in Me. I want them to live in Me the way I lived in You. And when that happens the world will know and the world will be able to believe.
So that’s what He’s looking for, asking for. That’s what the baptism of the Holy Spirit means, that we are presenting to Him, without any strings, signing a quit-claim deed, our names, our reputation, our time, our talent, our treasure—everything we have and everything we are, and saying, “Now Lord Jesus, I want You to live in me the same way the Father lived in you.” That is what this is all about.
Now we find that there were several cases when people were baptized with the Holy Spirit. In Acts the 2nd chapter and the 4th verse we read, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Then we read in the 6th verse: “When this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.” Then the Bible tells some of the languages.
Interesting though, that some of these people spoke Aramaic. Since all the disciples spoke Aramaic and if everybody heard in his own language, then some of these, who had been baptized with the Holy Spirit, were speaking in Aramaic; if they were

speaking in their own language by the Spirit of God, then it’s prophecy, and it’s not other tongues. And so even at that point, we had a place where the Spirit of God sovereignly and supernaturally manifested that these people had been filled with the Spirit.
Now I want to call to your attention something that is very important to me. There was in the city of Minneapolis, quite a while ago, some 60 or 70 years ago, a Presbyterian preacher by the name of T. J. McCrossan. McCrossan was a lecturer in Greek and Hebrew. He was a master of those areas. The man came to an understanding of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He had one man, who was an elder in his church, by the name of Charles Ingersoll. When I went to Northwestern Bible School, every Sunday Charles Ingersoll had a healing service. You maybe didn’t have known that. Charles Ingersoll had been under the ministry of T. J. McCrossan and he had been filled with the Holy Spirit and had been given the gift of healing. On one occasion, Charles Ingersoll, who had a seat on the Grain Exchange here in Minneapolis. He had a secretary a Jewish woman, who had worked for him for some time and whose father was extremely ill. Finally, she got up nerve enough to ask her mother if she could bring her boss, this man who had this gift of healing, to her home to pray for her father. Charlie Ingersoll said, “Yes, but I want you to bring in all of your relatives, your near relatives and your Rabbi. I want them all there when I come.” So he went to this Jewish home and he told them about the Lord Jesus Christ, who He was, and that He was God come in the flesh. He was the Messiah. And that He was going to pray in the Name of their Messiah that this father would be healed. Now he was dying. The doctor was also there and he said he wouldn’t live till morning. The family was kind of waiting to be with him, till he died. And so Charlie Ingersoll, after having explained all of this, prayed for this man in the Name of our wonderful Sovereign Lord. The next morning when he came to work, his secretary was there and he said, “How’s your father?” “Oh,” she said, “he is fine. The fever broke in the night and he regained consciousness. And this morning he asked for breakfast and when I left he was sitting up. He is fine.” Because of that one miracle healing in that one Jewish home. There was at that time Ruben A. Torry3, Jewish Mission in Minneapolis, Hebrew Mission. Ruben A. Torry said of that event or the people of the Mission said, “That more Jewish people came to Christ as a result of that one miraculous healing that in several years of ministry to the Jewish community.”
Now that was T. J. McCrossan, an elder in his church and he wrote a book “Christ’s Paralyzed Church X-rayed”. I searched around and found it. It is an excellent book, one of the problems in the book is that Mr. McCrossan took a little bit of umbrage with the dispensationalists, who were sniping at him, so there is a little bit of an over tone of sarcasm here and there. But the book is a good book. I’d like to see it republished with a little bit of vetting done on that, because it is an excellent book. In there he makes this point. “Every time the word ‘speak’ or ‘speaking’ is used concerning the gift of tongues it is always in the imperfect tense, which means they spoke and continued to speak. Now, if it were in the aorist tense there could be a point at which they spoke and didn’t speak any more.” Now, I am quoting McCrossan. I don’t know much about the Greek language. I think I told you once before about, a little Greek and a little Hebrew. The little Greek runs a restaurant and the little Hebrew runs a clothing store. And I make no claim to the original languages. But I like to get men like McCrossan, if they are writing in English that I can understand, because I can hide behind them. I am like a rabbit during hunting season, if I can find a stump bigger than I am I’ll just stay behind it. And so I am hiding behind Mr. McCrossan. Now his point was, “Anyone who would have the position that there was a sign as distinct from a gift, would have a little bit of difficulty in defending it exegetically.”
In Acts the 10th chapter and 46th verse, we have another example when Peter is there at the home of Cornelius. Acts 10:44 states: “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.” (Acts 10:44-46) We have a second, but that word is in the imperfect, “spoke and continued to speak”. If you turn to Acts the 19th chapter here in the 6th verse we have the third reference to this in the New Testament. Paul has met these people from... I will begin reading with the 1st verse: “And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto
3 Reuben Archer Torrey (1856-1928) An American evangelist, pastor, educator and writer

John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.” (Acts 19:1-6) They didn’t all speak in tongues, some of them prophesied.
That brings me to illustrate it this way. Here is the human spirit in defiant rebellion against God. God the Holy Spirit, with the help of someone to witness for Christ to intercede and live Christ, begins to work, awakening that sinner, convicting that sinner, bringing him to repentance and quickening faith. In response to that saving faith He joins Himself, quickening and bringing life. Then He begins to stir that heart with hunger and with yearning and longing, until there is a total surrender to the Lord. Then the Spirit of God comes upon, to cover and to clothe, and to immerse and submerge that individual, that spirit.
You’ve got two words used, one is “filled” and the other is “covered or immersed”. Think of the body as a baptistery as a tank in which the human spirit resides. It is the human spirit that is being baptized. So the Spirit of God clothes the human spirit covers him, comes upon the human spirit, but the human spirit is in the tank with the illustrate of the body. So the person is filled, but the human spirit is clothed upon or covered with the Holy Spirit. That’s why it is called an upon baptism.
One of the most helpful little books that I’ve had come to my hand on this subject by Dr. A. W. Tozer4 a little book, “How to Know That You Are Filled with the Holy Spirit.” He has three points that he makes and they’re good points.
The first point he makes is this: “Everyone who has been baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit knows it.” He knows it, she knows it, they know it. Well, why? Well, the part of a man that knows the things of a man is the spirit of man that’s in him. If the Spirit of God can stir the human spirit with hunger for the Lord, hunger to the place that the individual is willing to relinquish the right to his rights, if that person knows they aren’t filled and then they are baptized with the Holy Spirit, they’re going to know it, because they spoke in tongues or because they prophesied? No. That was never to be a sign to the person. That’s a sign or evidence for the people outside. The one that’s been baptized with the Holy Spirit doesn’t need that. Why? Because God is real and if one knows they’re born of God and they have the witness of the Spirit to the new birth, then they know they have been hunger for a relationship don’t you think that God the Holy Spirit is self-evidencing enough that He can tell us that our hunger has been met, that we’ve been satisfied. Of course, He can.
Look what would happen if it had to come, it had to come by prophesy or tongues here the human spirit is the part that knows the things of a man. So the Spirit of God gives a language that one hasn’t learned through the mind it comes to the lips and tongue and goes out as sound. It comes back as sound to the ear and goes back to the mind and the mind interprets it. Isn’t that an awful long way to go to find out that something that you have been yearning for and longing for has transpired? The Holy Spirit letting you know immediately letting you know that the hunger of your heart has been met others are surely interested, but that’s for them. And Dr. Tozer said, “Everybody that has ever been baptized with the Holy Spirit knows it. He knows it.” I don’t have to say to you, “Do you know that you are here?” You look around and say, “Well, I’m not in Indianapolis. I’m here.” You have to figure that out, you’re in trouble. You’re in trouble. The part of you that knows you’re here is the part of you that knows that you have been baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Now Dr. Tozer’s had something else to say that was important: “Everyone who has been baptized with the Spirit of God or initially filled with the Holy Ghost knows when it happened.” Now, a lot of people don’t know when they were born of God. I haven’t said anything about that. I’m not interested in the “when,” when it comes to the new birth what I’m interested in the “that”. The “when” is academic. The question isn’t when was it, the question is “has it been, are you born of God?” That’s the important thing. I don’t even ask anybody anymore, “Do you know the Lord?” I know that isn’t important. I found that when I read Matthew 6 and 7 that there were a lot of people that know the Lord and that He said, “In that day I’ll say unto you I never knew you.” (Matt. 7:23) I never ask anyone anymore, “Do you know the Lord?” I ask, “When did you discover that the Lord knew you as one of His own?” I think that’s more precise or more exact. When one is baptized with the Holy Spirit, they know when it happened, because they were there, they were conscious and it was a response to their faith. He that ministry you the
4 Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963) Pastor and Author. Christian and Missionary Alliance

Spirit does He do it by works of flesh or by faith? It is done by faith and you were there actively receiving, so you have been baptized with the Spirit or initially filled by the Spirit, you know and you know when that happened.
And the third thing Dr. Tozer said was this: “Everyone who has been baptized with the Holy Spirit or filled with the Holy Spirit was filled suddenly.” There was a moment when it wasn’t and a moment when it was and it happened suddenly.
Now I believe those are true. I have tested them a great many times in a great many places. I’m satisfied in my own mind that that is correct. But what is the purpose of it all? Why? Why? What did Christ say? “After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, you shall receive power and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) I’ve never had anything to do the Charismatic Movement as such. For two reasons, I came into the experience of the baptized of the Holy Spirit in 1953 before there was any such thing. When that Movement began, I was elated because I saw it in the light of Acts 1:8, “After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto Me.” But I found as time went on that most of the people wanted the first half of the verse. “You shall receive power” period. They were more interested, it seemed to me, in playing parlor games with the supernatural, than they were getting the Gospel out “to the ends of the earth.” Those that hadn’t heard and it troubled me. And therefore I wasn’t able—I didn’t have the freedom or the liberty—I never fought it, I never criticized it, other than to say I do believe that the Scripture makes it clear that when one is baptized with the Holy Ghost they will be witnesses, missions will become their consuming passion, and their ruling governing principle. I believe there should recognize that this is why God has poured out His Spirit. And I have often wondered if we really taken cognizance of that as much as we should?
Let me illustrate. You know that verse “you shall receive power.” Do you recall the day when that “woman who had the issue of blood. Said she had given all her living to the physicians and none the better.” (Luke 8:43) She heard the Lord was coming through her village along that path and she said, if I could just touch the hem of His garment, I’ll be healed. The throng is there along the road side opening as He comes. And she makes her way, please pardon me young man, can I get by? She gets to the inside of where He is coming and she waits there as He comes along she reaches her hand out the lower hem of His garment goes through her fingers. The Lord Jesus stopped and said, “Someone touched Me.” (Luke 8:45) Of course, the Disciples say, Lord look at all these hands. There is a lot of people trying to touch You. Oh He said, I didn’t say they jostled Me. “Someone touched Me in faith. For I perceive that.” (Luke 8:46)
Now the King James translators got scared and they didn’t dare translate that the same way they did in Acts 1:8, because it is identically the same word, “I perceive that power hath gone out of Me.” Virtue the way the King James put it. I think they were a little frighten that we were going to receive the very thing that went out of Christ when the woman was healed. That’s exactly what we receive “you shall receive dunamin (δύναμιν), you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto Me.” I believe that it is God’s intended and purpose that everyone baptized in the Holy Spirit should recognize that a mortgage has been laid upon them that they can never finish paying and that the whole purpose God’s gracious dealing in their life is to use them in getting this message of His grace out to those who haven’t heard. Anyone that makes it an end in itself for their own pleasure, their own joy, and not to satisfy the heart of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to get the message out to the world, I believe it is rather on a slippery slope, A muddy sliding slope. They’re in trouble. I think God will gives us a certain amount of time, but if He finds and hearts are not prepared to permit Him to fulfill His purpose through the baptism of the Holy Spirit there will be judgement.
I believe we are going to see happen in the next 12 or 14 or 18 months...Remember when you’ve had a dinner and had crusty rolls a lot of crumbs on the table, I think you’re going to see God just take a scraper and scrap away a lot of big programs and a lot of big activities and a lot of things and they’re just going to disappear. Because they’ve never understood the necessity of being involved with God, the Holy Ghost in getting the message of God’s grace “out to Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
In 1950 a group of Southern Baptist pastors asked me, “What’s going to happen between 1950 and 2000?” A lot of Southern Baptist churches were taking on the support of missionaries, SIM(Sudan Interior Mission) missionaries and others. And I made a study and this is what I had to report back after 3 months after they asked the question. Based in what’s been done in last

100 years with the best average of those 100 years, as the bases average for the next 50 years. The time between 1950 and 2000 is going to be the period of the greatest failure in the history of the church, based on what’s presently happening. By 2000, there will be nearly 3 times as many that have never heard the Name of Jesus Christ than there were in 1950. In spite of the so called Charismatic Movement, in spite of all the missionary effort we’ve being doing.
So what must there be, there must be a breathing of God upon the people filled with the Spirit, who abandoned everything they are and have to the task of getting the message of God’s redeeming love out to those who haven’t heard. This is the agenda of the Godhead. I believe this is the test over who will survive until the year 2000 and anything that is less than commit to this unfinished task, I think is going to be looking for some kind of discipline or chastening or judgment from the Lord. These gifts the presence and person of the Holy Ghost pouring out of His Spirit was not given as an end our comfort, our pleasure, or our joy, alone it was given that we might be used of Him to get His message out. He said, “Father, I will live in them the way you lived in Me, and they will live in Me the way I lived in you, and the world will know, and the world will be able to believe.” (John 17:21,23) This is the supreme purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And if we are satisfied with less than this, I think we have a fearful looking for of chastening, discipline or judgment from the Lord. This is nothing to be played with. This is God’s great provision through the poured out life of His Son to equip us to do the thing that He started when He came and said, “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.” I fear for those who claim to be and have been baptized with the Spirit, who are not commit to this unfinished task of getting the Gospel out to the ends of the earth. I say that here at Bethany, which is committed to that task, which exists for that, which God has blessed in it. But I say it because I am trusting that every one of you will recognize the supreme importance, the supreme task of the church is the evangelization of the world, and the pouring forth of the Spirit of God was to equip His people to be more effective in that ministry. Let us bow in prayer.
* Reference such as: Delivered at Bethany Fellowship, Minneapolis, MN Saturday, June 13, 1987 by Paris W. Reidhead, Pastor. ©PRBTMI 1987






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