6-8-20<\/p>\n
I write this as the third part of an informal tracking of a neglected but essential part of church history \u2013 the period after Jesus\u2019s crucifixion and death; Resurrection and 40 days of preaching and witnessing; His bodily Ascension into Heaven, confirming His divine nature; then came the day of Pentecost.<\/p>\n
It was the promise of Pentecost \u2013 what we have come to call the Pentecostal experience \u2013 and Jesus\u2019s careful explanation that it was good<\/em> that He leave earth, because He would then send to believers the Helper, the Healer, the Comforter: One who would empower and instruct. The Holy Spirit, third manifestation, the third Person, of the Trinity. We shared how the Spirit first fell on worshipers in the upper room, how they received a strange gift of speaking in unknown languages, but understood or interpreted.<\/p>\n This was the \u201cBaptism of the Holy Spirit,\u201d this spiritual joy and maturity. It was not a one-day event in history. It was merely the first time.<\/p>\n I write this in the midst, whew, of the worldwide pandemic\u2019s fears, afflictions, and social disruption; and in the equally chaotic riots following a police suspect\u2019s death. And\u2026 what\u2019s next? People are right to be unsure if not unsafe. Or vice-versa.<\/p>\n As a natural skeptic, I wonder whether we will look back on the shutdowns, this virus, and feel blessed, feel relieved, or feel scammed. And these riots \u2013 will we look back and see an explosion of righteousness, or a period of anarchy and looting?<\/p>\n I will keep to my promised theme. I can write about things we see and don\u2019t know are true; or I can write about things we cannot see, but know<\/em> are true.<\/p>\n Things were different, once the Holy Spirit came. Peter, for instance, had been a bumbling and impulsive disciple who denied knowing Jesus three times when things were dicey \u2013 scarcely less an offense than Judas\u2019s betrayal. Yet after the Spirit came upon him in the upper room, Peter became the mature leader of the new church that formed, and a powerful preacher.<\/p>\n What happened to Peter 2000 years ago can happen to believers today, and does happen to believers today. Can you have salvation without the \u201cbaptism\u201d of the Holy Spirit? Yes. The gifts are\u2026 extra. But who would reject gifts, especially from Almighty God? Would children at birthday parties reject gifts?<\/p>\n Yet, some Christians do. If God chose to express Himself in three ways, we need to remember they were equ<\/em>al manifestations. Jesus was all God and all man; and so is the Spirit.<\/p>\n This same Spirit was explained by this same Peter after he was blessed with gifts of wisdom. He recalled, and shared, the passage from Joel chapter 28 (500-800 years earlier) \u2013 And it shall come to pass\u2026 says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams\u2026. I will pour out My Spirit in those days…<\/em><\/p>\n Now it became clear. \u201cGreater is He that is within you [the Holy Spirit], than he who is in the world [Satan].\u201d<\/p>\n Some Christians claim that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were only for that first crowd. But that is to doubt Jesus and limit the Father, not to mention denying the subsequent evidence. I know because I have experienced the Baptism, and I have witnessed miracles; I have received the gifts. Many people have.<\/p>\n Other Christians believe that sudden outbreaks of tongues, ecstatic worship, and miracles broke out in Wichita around 1900 and in a black church on Asuza Street, Los Angeles, in 1906 is where it started. And then, as we shared, Pentecostalism spread to half a billion people around the world, second only to Roman Catholicism among Christians. Not for now? How would that explain miracles, church growth, healings, and blessings over the following 2000 years?<\/p>\n There are accounts (described by no less a person than Theodore Roosevelt in his classic book The Winning of West<\/em>) of pioneer camp-meetings and revivals where worshipers would gather for several days, overtaken by ecstatic worship and strange tongues. In the 1700s, similar responses in Philadelphia to public sermons of Charles Whitefield; Benjamin Franklin recorded these. In the 1800s, a similar reaction among lunchtime worshipers on Wall Street, of all places. The blind hymn-writer Fanny Crosby prayed in \u201cthe language of angels\u201d only she and her Lord knew. And so forth, all before Azusa Street.<\/p>\n After that, however, there were spontaneous and simultaneous \u201ceruptions\u201d of Holy Spirit preaching, singing, worship, healings, Words of prophecy, and such, all over the world. Two decades ago I twice attended a famous such revival in Pensacola, Florida \u2013 a visiting evangelist was used by God to spark ecstatic worship that was not extinguished \u2013 24\/7, for month after month; people attracted from all over the world.<\/p>\n If the Holy Spirit is the equal of Jesus\u2026 but you don\u2019t have to receive this \u201cSpirit baptism\u201d to enter heaven\u2026 why do some of us consider it so important? But as I implied before, if God offers a spiritual gift and we decline it, we are spiritual fools.<\/p>\n What are the Gifts of the Spirit? They listed several times in the New Testament. Any can be prayed for; they can be-one-time gifts \u2013 for self-edification, or ministering to a situation \u2013 or occasionally are specialized lifetime ministering gifts, for instance to evangelists with healing ministries. They are wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues.<\/p>\n As I said, I have experienced some (blessing others when needed, or to communicate with God when I felt helpless) and I have witnessed healings, emotional breakthroughs, astonishing revelations.<\/p>\n Listen: Christianity is nothing if not a system of faith and belief and miracles<\/em>. Plain and simple. How have Christians become so blas\u00e9 about a Man who was born of a virgin, performed miracles, and rose from the dead? \u201cOh, well, that was<\/em> God, 2000 years ago.\u201d How can there be so many people who go to church (if at all) out of dull habit; who never feel joyful when \u201cHallelujah\u201d is read from the same old prayer book; who have \u201cforms of godliness, but deny the power thereof\u201d?<\/p>\n They quench the Holy Spirit, embarrassed to seek\u2026 reluctant to accept gifts\u2026 afraid to exercise the power it enables.<\/p>\n Instead \u2013 bringing it today \u2013 Christians complain about current events in the news. They feel helpless to do anything about them. They are lost, spiritually, in these uncertain times. In this time of threats and potential disasters facing us, they might even wish for some miracles.<\/p>\n You know what? It is as easy to pray for miracles, as to wish for them. And you have a loving Father who has stored up gifts you can access. Why, oh why, do people neglect the third Person of the Trinity?<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n Since the Pentecostal movement is spread across the world, with no one denomination or pope \u2013 the Bible is sole authority \u2013 it is joyful to see the workings of the Holy Ghost everywhere\u2026 and especially, in these day of persecution, how the Spirit empowers traditional Christians, new believers, and persecuted Christians. Here, a group of Iranians who support underground Christians churches in Iran, singing of the sweet Spirit of God.<\/p>\n