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Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[Romans 15:13 NKJV]
[Romans 15:13 NKJV]
This wonderful verse assures us of joy and peace so that we may have abundant hope ... how? ... by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a mystery and to many Christians remains so because there has been no baptism in the Holy Spirit.
For myself, I did not know there was such a thing until a Christian brother offered to pray for it in me. Many have received instant revelation, but with me there was a gradual awakening — which I suspect is the more common experience. Some say they immediately began ‘speaking in tongues’, but again, this can be a gradual move to realisation.
However, ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ releases the power of the Holy Spirit in a life and is a building block in a growing fulfilment of a Spirit-filled life. Without doubt it is a necessary God-breathed step on the road to wholeness in Him.
I was considering this matter a day or two ago, but this morning I read the following in Oswald Chambers’ ‘Devotions For A Deeper Life’, which I feel explains something of it better than I could do:
For myself, I did not know there was such a thing until a Christian brother offered to pray for it in me. Many have received instant revelation, but with me there was a gradual awakening — which I suspect is the more common experience. Some say they immediately began ‘speaking in tongues’, but again, this can be a gradual move to realisation.
However, ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ releases the power of the Holy Spirit in a life and is a building block in a growing fulfilment of a Spirit-filled life. Without doubt it is a necessary God-breathed step on the road to wholeness in Him.
I was considering this matter a day or two ago, but this morning I read the following in Oswald Chambers’ ‘Devotions For A Deeper Life’, which I feel explains something of it better than I could do:
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13).
If you say you are entirely sanctified and have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you have deluded yourself. You have merely accepted a holiness Shibboleth. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is Jesus Christ’s seal on your soul and is your inauguration into service to battle for your King. Sanctification begins at regeneration and goes on to the second crisis and work of grace—that is, entire sanctification and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Are you in one purpose, in one determination? Then receive Him. It is not your waiting, but your wanting; it is not your running, but your receiving that matters in this. You can receive your Pentecost now! If you are born again, it is your birthright.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank You, Lord, for the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit.
Joy means the perfect fulfilment of that for which I was created and regenerated, not the successful doing of a thing. The joy our Lord had lay in doing what the Father sent Him to do.
We all have to find our niche in life and spiritually we find we find it when we receive our ministry from the Lord. In order to do this we must have companied with Jesus; we must know Him as more than a personal Saviour.
Have I received a ministry from the Lord? If so, I have to be loyal to it, to count my life precious only for the fulfilling of that ministry.
[from 'Called of God' by Oswald Chambers]
We all have to find our niche in life and spiritually we find we find it when we receive our ministry from the Lord. In order to do this we must have companied with Jesus; we must know Him as more than a personal Saviour.
Have I received a ministry from the Lord? If so, I have to be loyal to it, to count my life precious only for the fulfilling of that ministry.
[from 'Called of God' by Oswald Chambers]
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