Spreading the Gospel

Through the technology of the internet, His Gospel Power is now reaching the lost in the United States, Russia, Japan, China, France, The United Kingdom, The Republic of Korea and The Netherlands. It is through you contributions this has been made possible. God is spreading the Good News because of servants like you. Thank you for your faithfulness.

God is Still in the Miracle Business

Healing

             It would seem as though the gift of healing, like many of the other gifts, has ceased in the world today according to cessationists. If God can still heal, why would he not still empower one with the gift of healing? However, what of those countless numbers who have been healed beyond what the doctors can seemingly do. It seems unlikely that one gift would be separated to cease (or more precisely the word gifts) and others would remain. Perhaps that is the reason that many healings are explained away. It is more likely that since healing is physical instead of spiritual, one is less likely to be deceived. As stated earlier, Gaffin is convinced that not all gifts have ceased.  If this is so, it is to the shame of the believer, for God has given us the Holy Spirit to be filled with his power and discernment. If we are walking daily in the Spirit, we will be able to discern between evil or godly spirits, and know which spirits are from God, with the same assuredness as witnessing miraculous healing. Gaffin says, “Like word gifts, healing is simply not an eschatological phenomenon”⁵⁷, but in light of Acts 2:17-19, how can one make such a blanket and decisive statement? Carl Brumback in “What Meaneth This” says that the signs and wonders are rare today “because of our unbelief!”⁵⁸ John Wesley “lays the blame on the church…because the love of many…waxed cold. That was the real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found.”⁵⁹ D.M. Panton writes, “Sapped in faith, in holiness, in aloofness from the world, the church relaxed its grasp of the gifts.”⁶⁰ These men understand that God has told us to abide in Christ and to keep growing in the Spirit daily. It is up to us to nurture our faith and learn what God has for us on a daily basis.

            Possibly, one misconception is the role of the miracles themselves. Miracle was not given as a status symbol or just for the sake of doing miracles. They were given to glorify God and bring souls to the Kingdom. 

Gift of Tongues

Only Believe

            In Mark 9:23-24 Jesus says, “Everything is possible for him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”  Jesus is not speaking only of the “then” but also of the “now”. A theologian is not a theologian unless he understands that the promises of God’s Word apply to us now. If the promises are not the same, then our hope is lost. Why would Jesus say we have eternal life, “all things are possible for him who believes”, and then say that it is only for that inaugural period of time? The same argument that Gaffin uses to refute continuationists earlier about apostles, can be used here. You cannot have it both ways. Cessationists have such a hard time selling their idea of God because it is not consistent with what the Word tells us. It is not even consistent with what they argue amongst themselves. Did Jesus say, “All things are possible” or was he limited only to the day in which he walked the earth and shortly thereafter. If the gifts were for the unbeliever, don’t we have unbelievers today? If the Jews required a sign in the first century, wouldn’t they require a sign today?

The Second Blessing

            Unfortunately, many charismatics today couple miraculous gifts with the belief they are not available to anyone who has not had the “second blessing”. They call this being “baptized in the Spirit” with evidence of speaking in tongues.

First let’s analyze the Second Blessing. The baptism of the Holy Spirit comes on each believer at the moment he or she receives Christ into his or her heart. Merrill Unger has written a book entitled The Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit that explains in great detail the baptism of the Holy Spirit with such clarity that the Lord verified it immediately to this writer’s heart upon reading his words. Even though we do not agree on all terms of the book, we can agree on this, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is not the gift of the Holy Spirit; this is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This, according to Unger, “is not the gift of the Spirit. It is an inseparable part of the salvation the gift of the Spirit has bestowed.”⁶¹ The baptism of the Spirit is what Jesus promised us when he left. He said that he will not leave us alone, but will send a comforter. (Jn 14:16) It is not scriptural to think that we are saved by the grace of God, and then have to wait for more. What more could he give? He has given us the gift of eternal salvation. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is what gives us our strength to persevere until the end. It is part of the grace of God that insures that we will not fall away (Jude 24-25). Without that indwelling we would not have a chance to serve God in completeness. The second part of the baptism, according to charismatics, is speaking in tongues. It should be noted at this time that the use of the word “Charismatic” is used very loosely. It does not always describe someone who believes that speaking in tongues is a gift for everyone. It can also be used for those that want to allow more freedom in the spirit and want to express their worship in a more demonstrative way. I have mainly used it because in the research I have noted that the words “Pentecostal” and “Charismatic” are often used interchangeably.

 This is a ministry that can be used today, but is not a necessary part of being baptized in the Spirit. There is no work that man has to do to be baptized in the Spirit. It is only a work of God. If God wants us to all speak in tongues, then he will enable us, but it is his call, just as it was at Pentecost. Whether tongues are intelligible or not is not the issue of this book, so we will go into no detail about the mechanics of the gift. Paul said that he wished everyone spoke in tongues, (1 Cor 14:5) a statement that when analyzed says that everyone did not speak in tongues.

Pentecostals want to find all that God has for them, just as do evangelicals. Unfortunately, they are looked upon as unreasonable fanatics by many. In 1915, F.F. Bosworth, a fully credentialed member of the Pentecostal community, began to have doubts in the way that some in the community were promoting the evidence of speaking in tongues as a sign of being baptized in the Spirit. He tried to diminish the importance of tongues and stated, “I am sure if this movement could be free of this one error in teaching and would preach the greater things about the baptism our opportunities for usefulness would be increased many fold.”⁶²

God makes available to everyone his power through the work of the Holy Spirit. If we will seek him he will give us what we ask according to his will. The second blessing, according to Unger, is really “the basis of the infilling, but not the experience of the infilling itself.”⁶³ The infilling of the Holy Spirit is what he gives us to carry out the individual ministries that he has assigned to us. The infilling allows us to have the boldness and the wisdom to complete a ministry that we otherwise might not be equipped to do. This is where the gifts of the Spirit are given to us to be able to complete our task. F.F. Bosworth said that the “real mark of the Spirit in a person’s life was that the person developed a new compassion for others and increased ability to minister.”⁶⁴ However, this is exactly what should be noticed in an individual who has accepted Christ in his or heart. As the Christian begins to understand the compassion of Christ and furthers his or her walk in obedience this compassion will grow also. It might be interesting to note that a person that is seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit is seeking all that God has for them. If taught correctly, the individual just has to be told that they are walking in the Spirit daily and needs to give control over to Jesus to allow him to guide them into a deeper walk. The power of the Holy Spirit is already with them and within them. They need to give control to God so that the Spirit can manifest himself. Ken Hemphill says, “If it weren’t for the Spirit of God empowering us to do so, we could no more take the gospels to the far corners of the world than we could take it to the corner of the street.”⁶⁵

One receives the Holy Spirit as soon as he or she is saved. Galatians 3:2 says, “I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?” One receives the Spirit by believing. Ephesians 1:13 says, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit . . .” It would appear that one is filled with the Holy Spirit upon conversion. However, there is a mystery of Acts when it appears as though they received the Spirit after conversion. Acts 19:1-2 says:

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

If one stops in the middle of the passage, one will not get the context of the entire Scripture. It would appear that Paul is talking with disciples of Jesus. However, upon the completion of the verse one gets the entire picture. Acts 19:3-6 continues:

So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

The disciples in question in this passage were disciples of John the Baptist. They had not even heard the complete Good News yet. Once Paul explained it to them they were then baptized in the name of Jesus and the Holy Spirit fell on them.

The promised Holy Spirit was, and is, the Spirit of Jesus. Many have a problem with this concept. In fact, there are those who are afraid they will be equated with the “Jesus Only” doctrine or “Oneness.” Romans 8:9 – 11 says:

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.  ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.  ¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

From this passage one can see that the Spirit of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one in the same. This is called the Trinity; the three in one God. Even though the Trinity is difficult to understand for finite minds, it is not difficult for God. His majesty confounds the minds of the intellectuals. Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God (Matthew 3:17). Jesus said he must go to send the Spirit to us. The Spirit he was sending was the Spirit of God who indwelt Jesus. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in those who have accepted him as Lord and Savior. Paul calls the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of God. They are all one in the same. Does this passage mean that Jesus “threw his voice” up to heaven at his baptism so as to deceive those who were witnesses? God is not the deceiver; neither does he need to deceive. However, if God is omnipresent, and he is, there would be no deception nor would there be any. Nevertheless, God is still three personalities; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If one cannot understand the magnificence of God, one tends to try to justify God with one’s finite mind. The truth is, even though God is three separate persons, he is still one in the same. Romans 3:30 says there is only one God. 1 Corinthians 8:6 says, “. . . yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.” Even though Paul says there is only one God he equates him with Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 8:6 said all things come from God the Father, but John 1:1 says that all things came from Jesus. In fact, John 1:1 equates Jesus with God when he said “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Is this a contradiction? No! It is a confirmation that Jesus was God who came in the flesh, walked on the earth, died and was buried and raised to life on the third day. He ascended to the Father to send us a comforter, the Holy Spirit of God.  

CD Signing

The CD signing was a great success on July 9, 2011. Thank Hastings, Bryan, Texas for your hospitality. I look forward to visiting again soon.

The Power We Leave On the Table

Why can we no longer have apostles? Is not God still God? Is not Jesus still Jesus? Can we not have apostles anymore because “Great men of God” have not experienced Jesus appearing to them? After all, these men who have written so many books and preached so many sermons would surely have had Jesus appear to them as he did to Paul. Moreover, what of Paul? Paul was not an apostle until after the death and resurrection of Jesus. He was called by Jesus on the road to Damascus. He can still do that today. One might ask, “How would believers know if one who claimed to be an apostle was genuine?” The answer is, the same way that they knew in the early church. The Holy Spirit will guide us. The fear is that we will follow Jim Jones or David Karesh, but if the flock is educated to understand the difference, then that will not be allowed to happen. Jesus said, My sheep will know my voice (John 10:26). Acts 2:17 – 19 says:

In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 

Are these not the last days? Those who deny the miraculous today are afraid of the scam or the abuse and will not recognize that the Holy Spirit will guide us and bring these false prophets to the light. Many do not want to be deceived by what the power of the spirits of darkness; but by denying the power of God, they already are guilty of that.

             Some might say, “Wait a minute, Jesus is no longer on the earth in the flesh. Therefore, there can no longer be apostles.” What about Paul? Paul calls himself an apostle yet Jesus was already buried and risen again when he was declared as such. Paul’s declaration was verified by Ananias in Acts 9. Paul even claimed to be taught by Jesus. Galatians 1:12 says, “I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” Even though there are those who say that Paul received this revelation from the Holy Spirit, I believe he quite possibly was taught by Jesus himself when he was dispatched to Arabia and Damascus for three years (Galatians 1:17). That is not to discount the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s Word, but it is an emphasis of Paul the apostle. Wow! What a seminary that must have been. Not to mention the fact that no one has actually come up with an actual way in which the Holy Spirit revealed Scripture to the writers.

Could not Jesus appear to someone today and teach him in the same fashion as Paul? Of course he could! God is not limited by our time continuum. He is only limited by the constraints he places on himself and from his Word it would not appear that he has limited himself to us.

In the book Jesus Freaks: DC Talk and the Voice of the Martyrs there is a story of a Muslim who was converted much the way Paul was. In an account of Zahid, a Muslim priest from 1986 Pakistan, he tells of an experience he had with God. He, like Paul, was a persecutor of Christians. Zahid was a zealot for Islam. He sought those who blasphemed the prophet Muhammad or the Qur’an. Zahid reported he was reviewing the Bible looking for contradictions when a bright light with a voice appeared to him and said, “Zahid, why do you persecute me.”⁵⁶ Sound familiar? Not long after his conversion he was locked up for two years. In a “snafu” by the law he was released instead of being executed as scheduled by his captors. Could he not be called an apostle? Not much more information is given about Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus than Zahid’s. Is Zahid a liar? Is the story in the book fictitious? It is arrogant of anyone to say that God no longer speaks to people in the way he has done in the past.

As a preacher of the Gospel, the Lord speaks to me often. Sometimes he speaks through an individual, but most of the time he comes to me in a still small voice that instructs me in my ministry. He has spoken to me in dreams and prophetic messages. I have experienced what others have said cannot happen today. He has never chosen to speak to me audibly, but I have no doubt that he can if he so chooses. It would be the height of arrogance for me to say that he cannot speak to anyone audibly since he has never spoken to me.