[*]The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a gift to be received and not an attainment to be rewarded. It is never referred to as something we can get but as the gift from heaven to be received by all who believe and ask and are ready happily to obey.
At Pentecost the hundred and twenty obedient to the commandment of Jesus remained at Jerusalem until they received the promised Gift of the Holy Spirit. They tarried in great joy and in much brotherly love. They had to wait to receive until Jesus Himself had been glorified and had received the promised Gift. Then they were filled with the Holy Spirit and went out with an authority and boldness that was amazing and literally turned the Jerusalem world upside down. Peter the Coward became Peter the Bold.
At the house of Cornelius where the Holy Spirit was first given to the Gentiles, it was given while Peter was speaking, and the Gentiles were listening with faith and joy (Acts 10:38-45).
St. Paul indicated from his letter to the Galatians they too received the Spirit not according to the works of the law but by listening with faith and joy to the good news concerning Jesus Christ ( Galatians 3:8)
At Samaria the Gift of the Holy Spirit came by the laying on of hands by Peter and John. The Samaritan converts had believed prior to this but had not received the promised Gift.
At Ephesus St. Paul gives another water baptism to those who had been baptized with John’s baptism. Here he baptized them in the name of Jesus Christ and laid his hands upon them (Acts 19:2-6)
Those who believe with joy and who are set free from the false opinion of the group mind and are ready to be led by the Spirit may receive the Spirit simply by receiving the good news with joy.
I know one very blessed woman who cared for an invalid husband at night and worked in a cotton factory during the day who had sought for the Holy Spirit for some time. But one night while not seeking but while happily rejoicing, the Holy Spirit came upon her as a free and joyous possession, which is the baptism.
A very gifted friend, Miss Carro Davis, principal of one of the public schools of Macon, Georgia, was keenly aware that the Holy Spirit that the early Church received and that her own aunt (who had refused to die and leave her and her sisters and brothers alone in the world) had also received was for all Christians who believed and who were willing to obey. She said to the Lord, “I am not willing to go Your way but I am willing to be made willing.” She also told Him that if He were walking down the other side of our leading street she would be ashamed of the crowd that would be with Him but she would like for Him to take the shame out of her. She was soon made so hungry that she was ready to leave everything to follow Him and to be associated with the lowly.
When her aunt first received such a measure of the presence and the glory of the Lord, she and her twin sister put on black indicating the world was becoming dead to them and they were mourning because of it. Later white best expressed their spirit. The way the Holy Spirit came to Miss Carro Davis was more like the way it was given at Pentecost than in any other instance that I know. She has had an unusual ministry and together with her sister, Miss Susie Davis, has been used very much like the early Christians were.
Jesus gladly gives the hunger and thirst after Him and for His Righteousness, and makes us happy to go His way. The Holy Spirit is given quickly and without struggle to those rare simple souls who love the Truth and desire to follow wherever He leads, not counting the cost. Such a soul was the old colored man at Dahlonega, Georgia. When some of his white neighbors were receiving at least a measure of the Holy Spirit, he went alone to the woods and said, “O Lord, some of the white folks say this am of You and some say it ain’t of You. What does You say?” The Lord immediately answered him in the most perfect way of all, by giving him the Holy Spirit. When you want to know His will in order to do His will, you will know at least as much of His will as you are willing to practice. If you really want to know what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is, and want it so earnestly that you are willing happily to receive it, He will give you the Spirit and by having the Spirit and obeying the Spirit, you will know.
About the most genuine and sincere person I know well went by a tent meeting where at least a measure of the Holy Spirit was in evidence. She went at once to her home, entered her bedroom, and kneeling by her bed said, “Lord, if this Power is of you, I want it.” She had hardly finished speaking until the Lord took free possession and control of her by the Holy Spirit, giving her more of the Spirit than she had seen manifested at the tent. How like Jesus to have done that!
In a vision she was shown seven very difficult tasks that were ahead, and after she had met the seventh she saw the ascension. The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy showing us the necessary things that are to come and preparing us for them.
The Holy Spirit is the only consciousness adequate for revealing Jesus. The human mind is always seeking to whittle down Jesus to fit its own thought molds. When I voiced this in the presence of one of the students of one of our best-known schools of religion, he remarked that this is precisely what our seminaries are doing. The Holy Spirit gives an ever increasing revelation of the wonder that is in Jesus and changes us from victory to victory, and glory to glory, in His likeness.
It is only through the Spirit of Truth and Love that we know the Truth. Obedience far more than study is the organ of Truth. The Holy Spirit being the Spirit of Truth is given freely to all who want to know the Truth about the Holy Spirit and who are ready to follow Him against the combined opinion of mankind. Most people seem more bound and enslaved by public opinion and by personal and group prejudices, and find it harder to go against what their neighbors and brethren think, than they do to give up their most cherished sins. To be a disciple of Jesus and to become like Him means overcoming the world and its opinions and prejudices as well as the easier task of overcoming the flesh and the devil.
In my own experience what people think and say has been Enemy Number One. Before I received the Holy Spirit in power and glory and seemingly in entire prepossession there was a whole series of steps that I had to climb. When I reached the summit of these, Jesus manifested Himself first in the Without, and then He came Within. Here are the steps: (1) I believed, (2) I asked, (3) I tarried, (4) I was crucified unto the opinions and friends and family, (5) I chose to go with Him, (6) I invited and wanted the glorified Jesus to come within and give me the ability to go His way, (7) I accepted the Light, Leading and Call, to go with Him to the bottom of human need and live and give His love there. It was then that He came and dwelt within me. After this it was supernaturally easy and happy to yield and respond to Him, to His Spirit, to His Power, to His Light, and to His Glory.
As Professor Paul Tillich of Union Theological Seminary has observed, He reveals Himself as Light, as Power, and as Presence. He is the Light and gives the Light, and as we choose to walk in His Light, in devotion and faithfulness, He puts His Holy Ghost Power upon us, and when we have enough of His Power and Glory it brings us where He Himself can be manifested to us and come and abide within us.
In following Him, some for a time need to go aside in an attitude of lowly listening. But finally, He will make Himself as real and speak as clearly to us in the noise of the street as in the stillness of the closet.
The whole of life must become His, The separation between the so-called spiritual and so-called secular must be bridged. The spiritual must triumph in the so-called natural, and the so-called natural be lifted into the realm of the spiritual.
Always remember that Jesus is far more willing to lead than we are willing to follow, far more willing to give than we are to receive. He longs to give us the Holy Spirit and only awaits our happy willingness to receive.
How very willing our Baptist friends are to baptize with water, even to immerse! This is only a hint of how happily willing and desirous Jesus is to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and Power and Glory.
We can have both baptisms, but if I should leave off one, it should not be the one that Jesus alone gives. He has no set requirements, any more than the lover has to win and receive his beloved. All that is necessary is a happy receptivity and response to Him and His Love.
To ask with desire for the Holy Spirit opens us to receive what He has long been longing and seeking to give us. When we really want and invite Him to come within and take charge of us and our affairs, we are simply opening the door to Him who has been knocking and waiting. To believe in Him and love Him well enough to obey with joy makes us receptive and responsive; and full receptivity and response enable Him to take full, free, and glorious possession and to make the best uses of us. This is called the sealing and the baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit With this sealing and baptism and gift, there should be such happy, continuous and increasing yielding and responding to Him that the way would be made clear for Him to manifest Himself without, and to come within and there abide, and triumph.
Footnotes / Endnotes:
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- * [Note, footnote is on the Subtitle word Gift*.] See Manifest Victory, pp. 91-112. (↩)