An Invitation to the Dance of Life

It's interesting this one - I don't think Christians like dancing very much. Particularly Western Christians! And I must confess I'm not overly keen on it in church - maybe once a year at the Brighton conference during the offering night. But I do have a guilty pleasure - I like going out and dancing in clubs. If you assumed I got drunk when you read that - you assumed wrongly and shame on you. I just like dancing.

So I was at the gym yesterday and was listening to Madonna's newish song "Celebration" (I won't post the video - you can watch it only if you're bad like me!). Say what you like about Madonna and disapprove of her if you will but it was the lyrics that caught my attention. In particular;

"And if it makes you feel good then I say do it
I don’t know what you’re waiting for ...
But for now just come here, let me whisper in your ear
An invitation to the dance of life".

I love the song and have heard it and danced to it a number of times but surprisingly as I was running on the treadmill I felt the Holy Spirit remind me of a prophecy that Terry Virgo brought at the first Stoneleigh Bible Week I went to (2000) which said;

"As you come on your hands and knees, ground that you would have thought was outside your sphere that you were disqualified to get near, I've cleared the ground for you" says the Lord. "I've cleared it for you so that you can dance now. You can dance on holy ground. I've cleared the ground for you! I've provided grounds that are level and clear and steady. Even as I came to My servant Isaiah, undone and ruined by the revelation of My purity, undone forever, I've provided him a burning coal - clensing and purging so that he could be in the holy place. I want you to know that I have provided for you, my sons and my daughters out of My love. You will never stamp the ground to make it level, you will never clear the grounds of thorns and weeds. I have cleared the ground for you.

You are free to dance now because of my eternal grace to you, my kindness and my celebration over you. I celebrate in My finished work. I celebrate in embracing My sons and daughters running home. I invite and welcome the prodigal into dancing ground. I draw back the man whose head is hung low with a sense of inadequacy and failure and say, "This is dancing ground! This is dancing ground!". This, My son, was dead, he is alive again! He was lost and now is found. This is dancing ground! I welcome you into My heart and into My Presence as mercy and a gift to you", says the Lord.

"Out of My heart of love and out of My full embrace, I don't want you to come timidly. I don't want you to come wondering, can I accumulate enough worth, can I demonstrate enough merit that I am allowed in? I tell you, I have cleared the ground by My blood. Only there will you find fullness of mercy and because it is fullness, it is not simply ground to kneel upon but it is ground to dance upon for your welcome is complete. The ground is clear! Come My sons and My daughters - I welcome you to this very place. I am full of ambition for you, full of desire to bless you with My love. Full of tenderness and mercy because of the obedience of My Son that frees Me to bless you. Some come dance, rejoice, drink deeply of My love, says the Lord. Enter in, enter in to the mercy of God. The joy and favour and everlasting love of your God, says the Lord".

The two threads seemed so obvious.

A Christian + real grace = dancing.

Don't worry - this wasn't some legalistic charismatic way to force dancing. The impression I got was simply that when Christians really get grace, they will be so overflowed with joy and celebration that they will dance. The more I thought about it as I sweated on the treadmill, I became rather overcome with an image of nightclubs left empty - because the wonders of the grace of God were so thrilling the church and drawing the lost - that who needs a nightclub to dance in (and hide away) when you can dance and celebrate and rejoice in the church?

Whereas the void at the moment is that if you do dance in church (even many so-called charismatic churches) you will be seen as excessive and "showy". Maybe that's why many Christians do escape to secular music. Maybe that's why God can and does use secular music to speak to His people!

But a day IS coming when the wonder of the revelation of the New Covenant WILL break through to His people and the earth will shake in awe at a people who dance and must dance to express their joy!

Terry Virgo and Angels Snipers!!

I had a rather odd series of dreams last night mainly about Terry Virgo. I must admit I don't quite understand them but I thought I would document them and see if some sort of interpretation comes - or whether I can just hold up my hands and admit I ate too much cheese last night!

The first dream was based around some sort of cell group meeting in Terry Virgo's home. I was with my family as though I was a child (but still my own age and thought processes). I remember that there was a wonderful feeling of community and belonging. I can't quite place whether we actually were just visiting Brighton and CCK or whether we belonged to the church but it was a wonderful feeling. Of community. Of togetherness.

The second dream was the interesting one. I was following Terry and Wendy Virgo into what looked like the Stoneleigh Bible Week meeting hall. And Terry was sort of the narrator during the dream. And yet even though he was narrating - I could actually see what he was saying. He was talking about angels being present everywhere. And the angels present in the room were looking at each person gathered there - no one was missed out! But everywhere the angels looked and pointed, there appeared a target - as though it was a shooting gallery. The guns the angels were carrying were golden. And the narration explained that they were glory guns - that each person was targeted for downloads of glory. That no one would or could miss out on being "shot" with the glory from heaven! That was the angels roles.

And Terry in my dream said; "They are marksmen! They are marksmen!".

So there we have it. Too much cheese?! Or something God is trying to say?!

"The Hidden Springs" by Arthur Wallis

One of the traditional charges against the Charismatic Movement in the 1970's and 80's was that there was no much Biblical depth to what the charismatic teachers taught. That charge is becoming less and less viable as Terry Virgo's recent invitation to the FIEC Council suggests. Interestingly enough one charismatic leader who escaped the charge (even Terry himself came under fire at a Westminter fraternal hosted by Peter Lewis for teaching on apostolic ministry) - was Arthur Wallis. Arthur Wallis was very much a statesman of the Charismatic Movement in the United Kingdom like Ern Baxter was in the USA. Arthur always taught with the Word of God first and foremost in his mind. It is with interest then that I present his teaching from a Restoration Magazine I discovered while re-organising some of my library. The theme of the magazine was; "The New Testament Prophet" and contributers to the magazine included David Mansell and Alan Vincent (who worked with Terry Virgo and what was Coastlands for a while).

"A prophet of God" - what does the phrase conjure up in your mind? Moses stretching out his rod to part the Red Sea? Elijah calling down fire from heaven? Or maybe Agabus predicting a severe famine throughout the world? In this article we are not so concerned with the spectacular revelations of the prophet, as with the hidden springs of his life and ministry. Or to put it more colloquially, let's find out what makes the prophet tick.

According to God's estimate being takes precedence over doing. In other words God's primary concern is with a man's character and only secondarily with his ministry. The reason for this is not far to seek. What we do must spring from what we are and if what we do appears more spiritual than what we are, sooner or later (and it is usually sooner) our doing is sabotaged.

This is vividly illustrated by the tragic history of Samson, whose spectacular feats against the Philistines were offset by his own carnality. In the end he spent his last days a prisoner of his enemies and never achieved a full deliverance for Israel.

Though the theme of this issue of the magazine is the NT prophet we shall find that all the basic principles that govern this NT ministry are to be found in what the OT teaches us, especially when we investigate the hidden springs. Let us look at the earliest prophets mentioned in the Bible.

We have to reach almost the closing book of the Bible before we learn that the first prophet in the history of mankind was Enoch. We would never have known if Jude had not told us (v14). We don't usually think of Enoch as a prophet but as the saintly man who walked with God for 300 years. Just to think that we consider ourselves if we have a day's unbroken fellowship with God! So Enoch set the standard, living as he did in the dawn of human history, for all successive generations of prophets. Someone has described him as an Alpine climber last seen heading for the summit. And of course we have the inside story. He didn't slip and break his neck. He made it.

1. The prophet is called first and foremost to a life of intimacy with God.

It wasn't that Enoch had it in him. The record in Genesis 5 makes it clear that he didn't start to walk with God till he reached what we now regard as retiring age. Life really began for Enoch at 65! That should teach us that it's never too late.

This brings us to Abraham. He is the first man that God ever called a prophet and in quite a surprising connection. Not because he brought some stupendous prediction like Enoch who prophesised the day of the Lord at the dawn of human history. A tribal king called Abimelech had taken Abraham's wife for his harem, thinking her to be Abraham's sister with the result that a judgement of barrenness had fallen on his household. God spoke to him in a dream and having explained the situation told him; "Now return the man's wife for he is a prophet and he will pray for you and you will live" (Genesis 20:7).

2. So the first thing that God ever said about a prophet was that he was a man who had access to God - not just a man who prayed, but a man who got his prayers answered!

It is significant that Abraham the prophet was also called "God's friend" (2 Chronicles 20:7, Jas 2:23) and this is clearly illustrated in connection with his prayer life. God was about to bring destruction on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their heinous wickedness. "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" God asked Himself. Why should He? Abraham was His friend with whom He was accustomed to sharing His secrets, so He shared this one with him. The result was what God intended. Abraham got involved. He wrestled with God in prayer. Although these two great cities were not saved by Abraham's praying, Lot and his family were, and that would have been one of Abraham's major concerns in his intercession.

This friendship, this intimacy with God is one of the most beautiful features of Abraham's life. God loved to walk with him under the stars and share with him His heavenly secrets. What exciting times they were. Sometimes the magnitude of what God promised him was enough to stagger his faith but "Abraham staggered not". God would say to him when he still had no child "and try to count the stars. That's how numerous your descendents will be". And on another occasion; "Look as far as you can to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west. All this land I am going to give to your descendents".

3. So the prophet is privilidged to share God's secrets and to what God plans to do. "Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secrets to His servants, the prophets". (Amos 3:7 RSV).

The next great prophet in the line of succession was Moses.

We may think of him as the prophet par excellence of the OT for he enjoyed face to face communion with God beyond that generally experienced by prophets. God said of him; "I reveal myself to (a prophet) in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of My servant Moses ... With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles" (Num 12:6-8).

To him it was revealed that the greatest prophet of all, the coming Messiah, would be a prophet like himself (Deut 18:15). Moses unique-ness is confirmed by his obiturary; "Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses who the Lord knew face to face" (Deut 34:10).

There are two expressions used of Moses that are characteristic and that must shape our whole thinking about the hidden springs of the prophet's ministry. The first we find in the above quotations from Numbers when God refers to him as "My servant Moses". Again and again he is called the "servant of the Lord". In coming to know God, the prophet's attitudes and inner disposition have been so shaped that all self-possession, self-importance and independence of spirit have been eliminated. His posture before the Lord is that of the servant waiting at the door-post to come to the master's call or to run to do his bidding or to stand forth to speak his word.

The other expression is "Moses, the man of God". From then on "man of God" became a synonym for a prophet. It is used of Samuel and of David, and of Elijah and of Elisha. Many prophets in the record are anonymous. We simply read; "A man of God came ...". What does the experience suggest? That here is someone whose relationship with God is deep and intimate and real. He knows God. A brother and I were discussing a young man in the church whose lack of spiritual progress was giving us cause for concern, when my friend remarked; "What he needs is a big dose of God". The same could be said of many believers. A prophet is someone who has had just that.

That is what we must have if we are to be a prophetic people. There must be a God-conciousness about us. We must feel at home in His Presence. Our fellowship with God must be one of reverent intimacy. Something of the inner life of the man of God must characterise the people of God.

Inevitably a man of God is someone in who a goodly measure of the character of God has been formed. There is a saying; "You can't walk with a miller without getting flour on your shoulder". You can't walk with God, spend time with God without something of God brushing off. There were many sons of the prophets at the time of Elisha but the woman of Shunem discerned there was something different about Elisha. She described him as a "holy man of God". When Elijah suddenly appeared in the courts of king Ahab with an ultimatum from heaven, no-one knew who he was or where he came from. So first he presented his credentials; "As the Lord God of Israel lives, before Whom I stand" (1 Kings 17:1). Here was an ambassador who had come from heaven's courts, who was accustomed to standing before the King of Kings.

4. These are the only true credentials of a NT prophet. He is a man who stands before God. He comes to men from God's Presence to speak God's Word. This is the secret of his authority.

There are those today, even as in the past, who claim to be the prophets, but who cannot produce these credentials. They have not been standing before God. They have not been hearing what God was saying. They speak the visions of their own mind, the thoughts of their own hearts and not from the mouth of the Lord. They may even speak what is true and biblical, but it is not God's "now" word. Listen to what God says about such; "I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their own message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. But if they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people" (Jer 23:21-22).

There is always a temptation to put prophets, whether biblical ones or present-day ones on a spiritual pedestal. "They must be of different stuff from us" we say to ourselves. James will not allow us to get away with such thinking. He tells us firstly that we must look on them as examples of a man who prevailed in prayer, he anticipates our objections by saying first of all that he was a "man just like us" (5:17). At one point he ran away in fear and then even gave way to self-pity and self-justification. Nevertheless he accomplished the will of God.

Let me say it again; the prophets are our examples. They are there to challenge and inspire us. We are to be motivated by the same prophetic spirit. How could it be otherwise if we are indeed a prophetic people. Prophets were never intended to monopolise the audience chamber of the King of Kings or to "corner fellowship with God". There are many councils over which the Almighty presides and if you are not called to stand before God in the same council as the prophet then be assured that there is one in which your name is called, and where God will share secrets that you need to hear. The health of that pot plant in your home is determined in great measure by what lies below the surface of the soil. You cannot have a healthy plant and an unhealthy root. Let me ask you, what have you got hidden beneath the surface? Is the hidden life robust and strong, or weak and sickly? Is our spiritual root system suffering from neglect? What about the hidden springs? Have they dried up? It is in this hidden area most of all that the life of the prophet should provoke and challenge us.

Once we are convinced that such a life of fellowship with God is for us too, the big question is how to get there. "You will seek Me and find Me", God is still saying, "When you search for Me with all of your heart". Those who have the experience are those who want it badly. There are scores and scores of true believers who would love it, yet they never enjoy it. Why? Because they don't want it with all their heart. Those who enter in are those who hunger and thirst for it. This is invariably where the failure lies. The remedy is to ask God to show us why we are not hungry for Him. It may be for the same reasons that the seed of the sower in the parable did not bring forth fruit (Luke 8:12-14). If so when we have dealt with all that He has shown us, we will find a growing hunger within. Otherwise it may be simply lack of motivation. We must ask God to show us the unspeakable honour and privilidge of being invited to stand before the God of the whole earth. "Blessed is the man you choose and bring near to live in your courts! What joy! What fulfillment! What fruitfulness! What harmony! What security!

Once we are really motivated there must come the discipline of curtailment. This is the discipline of the lumberjack who stops working in order to sharpen his axe.

Some of us will never find God in this way because we are much too busy working for Him. Our activism is our biggest hindrance. We must lay aside all our self-justifying arguments and learn all over again from the story of Martha and Mary what our Lord considers is the "one thing needful".

Finally we must learn to wait on God by restraining our much speaking in His Presence. Only so we can train our ears to listen. There are some 15 or more Hebrew words used in the OT that are translated "wait" but with various shades of meaning, such as to wait patiently, to wait in silence, to wait expectantly and to wait in hope. If we are constant and persevering God will draw near and speak. He will reveal Himself to us and we shall understand what it was that so captivated David that this fellowship with God despite the affairs of state became his consuming passion;

"One thing I ask of the Lord, that will I seek - that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple" - (Psalm 27:4).

Remembering the Past!

One of the things I love about Rob Rufus's ministry (and Ern Baxter's) was their deep appreciation for the past. Not remembering the past in a sentimental manner believing that any new act or move of God must represent what happened in the past but praising God for what He did then and seizing the anointing of those periods and seeing it add to the glory and Kingdom of God in the present day.

I was thrilled to find this page from the Restoration Magazine 1978 that advertised Celebration Evenings that happened around the United Kingdom during the 1970's and early 80's. You will notice that my home church features - West Street Baptist Church in Dunstable (before it became New Covenant Church). We held regular "All Saints Nights" where guest speakers such as David Mansell, Arthur Wallis, Terry Virgo and Bryn Jones would come and speak. There was also much going on in Brighton.

We don't want to see a "return" to those days of the 1970's. They were a unique time and a unique season and God gave much that is to be appreciated and valued and learnt from. We want MORE!

Prophecy from Terry Virgo at Stoneleigh Bible Week 2000!!

"My love, My grace is made available to you for participation in the Holy Spirit. I come to be your partner, to have fellowship with you, says the Spirit. I come to come alongside. I love it when you call Me alongside, when you lean into My strength, feel My energy flooding you, supporting you, enabling you. I am here to grant you an ability beyond your strength. I am here to do works through you that bring glory to the Saviour. I am here to flood your life with confidence in God. Therefore enjoy the fellowship and participation of the Spirit.

I am here to communicate love and faith to you. Drink in My Presence, not as a mere emotion but as energy for your soul. Life for you to live by, strength to run with, even as My servant Elijah outran the chariot he was enabled by the enabling of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I come to fellowship with you, I come to strengthen you and I come not only to ease you but also to fortify you with My enabling power. As you go from this place, you will have been fortified by Me, waiting upon Me, hearing My word, feeling your spirit rise up, soaring, mounting above circumstances, delays, bewildering circumstances, refusing to allow Satan to put you down by events.

I am making you soldiers who learn how to gain strength even in the midst of difficulties, delays, things that cause your mind to be filled with questions but no longer allowing questions to be the end of the story for now you have fellowship with the One who sees the throne, that seven-fold Spirit ever before the throne, ever knowing Who is ruling. He is here for you, He is here for fellowship, He is here to fortify you, to make you soldiers, energised with strenght. Receive from Me, receive empowering, receive grace, receive strength".

Prophecy from Terry Virgo at Stoneleigh Bible Week 2000!

"I believe God is saying, "Receive My grace, receive it! I want you to turn off the tap that is giving you discouragement, anxiety, self-pity and I want you just to take the hande and turn it off. Just turn it off. Just say, "I am not taking from that tap anymore. I am just not having it! I refuse it!". Be anxious for nothing; don't give yourself to self-pity, if only sadness and bad attitudes. Just say that you are not having it and just turn that tap off by the power of God. Now turn on this tap, this tap that says, "Abundant Grace". Receive it, receive it, this is for you, keep receiving even in these moments of worship, praise and celebration. Be receiving, grace, grace, grace. Just open up that tap and let it flood you, flood you. Don't the mixture. Turn off the negatives, really receiving mercy, grace and kindness".

Prophecy from Terry Virgo at Stoneleigh Bible Week 2000!

"I want you to realise the value you have on high, that you are represented there. I want you to ponder that in the depths of your heart; you are represented on high by the Prince of the universe, by the darling of the heart of God, the Prince and the Saviour. One whose worth defies your understanding, represents you on high. You don't have simply a name; you don't have simply an angel representing you but you are represented on high by the King of Glory Himself and that He pleads your cause. He pleads your name. He pleads on your behalf forever and ever. He has joined Himself forever to you, you are joined to Him forever, never to turn away, never to grow weary. You are represented on high by the King of Glory!

I want you to realise the massive value I put upon your life, says the Lord. Often you feel yourself tossed about by your circumstances. You feel you are the plaything of other people's temper, people's requirements. I want you to know that you are the apple of My eye. I want you to know you are in My hand, I want you to know these things and to know them so well that other problems bounce off you. You are so filled with the knowledge of My will for you, so assured of My overwhealming love for you, My hand being upon you, that those circumstances which would, to others, seem almost insurmountable, obstacles that seem impossible are as nothing to you because of the certainity of the love of God, flooding your inner being. The certainties of God are bigger to you than anything that stands in your way.

I want you to be like that My dear children for this is reality, this truth, that I have loved you, chosen you, ordained steps for you. I want you to march and run and jump and dance with courage, clarity, dignity and celebration because you are beloved and known. You are valued on high! You are forever valued and it is for you to celebrate this reality with such joy that you bring Me praise and all the angels look on in wonder because I have such a secure child on the earth. Therefore, drink deeply during these days, beloved, drink deeply of My love and the certainities of My love and the value that I have placed upon you.

Know the high, high value that you have. Know that I have My eye continually upon you to teach, to change you. If you will receive from Me, you will, even in these days, learn and grow and develop and you will learn in your inner man, truths that will set you free. Therefore, I want grow and develop and you will learn in your inner man, truths that will set you free. Therefore, I want you to know this. I don't just throw away My truths, I have focussed them on you with great love and great delight and great purpose says the Lord. Therefore receive from Me, knowing that I give you out of My love, right into your heart, in My purposes, says the Lord.

Charismatica - Revival, Renewal and Referral Blog

Thanks to Janelle Phillips for this link - Charismatica. It is by Dr. Michael G. Davis who attends a Vineyard church in California. I have yet to read everything on the site but there is an incredible amount of material on this site and a lot of links that he has gathered together. Here's just a few that caught my eye;


1. Vineyard Blogs

2. Revival Ministries:

"Catch the Fire" - Guy Chevreau.

"Encounters Network" - Jim Goll.

"Global Awakening" - Randy Clark.

"Global Harvest Ministries" - C Peter Wagner.

"International House of Prayer" - Mike Bickle.

"John Kilpatrick Ministries" - John Kilpatrick.

"Jack Deere Ministries" - Jack Deere.

"Watch of the Lord" - Mahesh Chavda.

"Morningstar Ministries" - Rick Joyner.

"Revival Ministries" - Rodney Howard-Browne.

"Streams Ministries International" - John Paul Jackson.

"Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship".

3. Church Associations and Denominations:

"Assemblies of God"

"Association of Vineyard Churches"

"Foursquare Churches" - President: Dr Jack Hayford

"Morning Star Fellowship of Churches".

"Newfrontiers" - Leader: Terry Virgo.

4. Prophetic Ministries.

Terry Virgo and Dave Holden on Being Truly Charismatic!

I have just added these two quotes to the Pentecostal Post-It Notes Blog. They are fruits of my labours spending some very happy hours going through my Archives of old Newfrontiers Magazines prior to them being made available online! However both quotes were of such gravity and challenge that I really felt that I should reproduce them here for our consideration. Is the Holy Spirit truly free to move among us?

Terry Virgo said;

"Our churches must be centres of Holy Spirit activity. God is with us! His Presence is to be enjoyed. Beware the danger of thoughtlessly grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit and getting used to meetings where His Presence is hardly known ... When did you last feel the powerful sense of the Lord's Presence in your meetings? When were you last genuinely built up by a prophetic utterance? We must 'covet to prophesy'. Beware creeping passivity and simply waiting to see what the lead guitarist will do next.

God is present! He is willing to scatter spiritual gifts among you and the manifestation of the Spirit is for the good of us all".

And Dave Holden urged;

"Being a charismatic church means that you have a deluge of spiritual gifts in your worship. Is that true for you? How can you be truly charismatic if it is only by reputation and not in reality? When was the last time you had a tongue and an interpretation in your meeting or a time when many individuals brough "songs in the Spirit"? Gifts are not an option; they are essential for biblical worship and for the churches to come to maturity. Gifts are not the pinnacle of worship; they are aids to help us to worship more effectively".

A "deluge" of spiritual gifts! He used the same phrase in our seminar at Together on a Mission. Can any of us claim that we have a "deluge" of spiritual gifts? If the Holy Spirit is eager to pour out those gifts and Paul commands us to "eagerly desire ... especially" then there is nothing wrong with God. The problem may be us!

Prophecy of a Rainbow from Hong Kong!

I'm just listening to an awesome message that Rob Rufus made reference to at "TOAM 07" and at CCK the Sunday before when angels came down and manifested themselves in their church. That in and of itself was absolutely awesome enough but Rob made reference to a prophecy that came during the worship.

"A Rainbow means that judgement is over!".

I have always "known" that because I grew up in a Word church. But I don't think I ever really "knew" it. Rob said that the prophecy made reference to the rainbow circling the throne and that truth just sank into me. Judgement is over! Peace is made! I must be honest - Terry Virgo's last session at TOAM 07 didn't really bless me very much. I found it quite odd being in the overflow session with the corresponding sound issues and was struggling that the conference was coming to an end so my overwhelming impression from that message was Terry pointing at the screen (and what seemed like me) saying "You stupid man".

Please don't misunderstand me. I know Terry and I know why he preached what he did. I'm just being honest - that's how I reacted to the sermon then. I'm going to listen to it again sometime and I am sure that in the context of grace that Terry preaches, I will benefit from the message but the enemy did a hatchet job on me and plunged me into doom and condemnation.

This prophecy is like a Patriot missile to totally wreck that.

"A Rainbow means Judgement is over! And a Rainbow circles the throne! Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown! Hallelujah! God doesn't look at me and say "You stupid man" - He looks at me and says "My beloved son!".

"Receving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit" - Terry Virgo - Stoneleigh Bible Week 1999

I hope this will prove to be a helpful seminar – life-changing and for many of us a time when we will have a fresh encounter with God and even know what it is to be baptised with the Spirit for ourselves personally. I certainly don’t want this just to be a teaching thing only in terms of explanation though I do believe that explanation is very important for us in terms of being comfortable to come and receive from God. I don’t think it’s enough for us to simply be in the general atmosphere and hope that perhaps we are touched by it. It is much more profitable to understand what we are doing, come to God and receive from God.

So if you have your Bible would you like to turn to Acts chapter 1. I’m going to read just the opening few verses. This is Luke’s introduction. You remember having read the Gospel which we call “Luke” he refers back to that;

“The first account which I composed Theophilus about all that Jesus Christ began to do and teach until the day which He was taken up after He had, by the Holy Spirit, given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering them together He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised which He said, “You heard of from Me for John baptised with water but you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now”.

So when they had come together they were asking Him saying, “Lord is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”. He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times and epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth”. After He had said these things He was lifted up while they were looking on and a cloud received Him out of their sight”.

Let’s just pray.

“Father we thank You so much for Your desire to give to us the Holy Spirit. We acknowledge our great need of Him, our great desire to be filled by the Spirit at all times and Jesus we thank You for Your clean instructions here that Lord, Your early apostles here should wait for this clothing with power. So now Lord Jesus we look to You. We ask You Lord that You would come to us afresh. Holy Spirit we invited You to be our teacher now. We pray that You will take hold of these things and really Lord, quicken our faith, our expectation and our understanding. Bless us with Your truth, Lord we pray. Meet with many of us this afternoon so that it might be a memorable occasion when Your Spirit comes into many lives we pray. We ask it Father in Jesus’ Name. Amen”.

I believe that it is important for us to do a seminar on receiving the Spirit because we want to be a Spirit-filled community and in recent years we have enjoyed quite a flood of the Spirit. We have been singing songs like, “There’s a river” and we have been very aware of the coming of the Spirit associated with the Toronto church and that whole manifestation but sometimes that has left people with an experience but not quite clear about what they did experience if any. Sometimes they have been slightly bewildered about the whole thing because it has been very outward and sometimes with not much biblical teaching going with it. Many of us have been tremendously blessed but we are not quite sure where we are. Sometimes even people are coming on Alpha who have not really not yet closed the deal with Jesus, and really know that they are saved, have had the Spirit of God touch them. Sometimes people have even fallen under the power of the Spirit who have said, “Well I am not even a Christian yet” – they have just been to Alpha and felt the Presence of God there and there have been these different manifestations and often that has left people saying, “Does that mean I have been baptised in the Holy Spirit? Does that mean I have had that experience?”. Well it is important for us to know where we are.

Also during this period there has been a lot of blessing from the ministry of John Wimber in particular. Of course what came out from Toronto was very identified with the movement and Wimber’s stance. Actually John Wimber’s stance was that you received everything at conversion. In that way, strangely John although he was such a charismatic figure, theologically he stood on the same ground as evangelical brothers who believe that you have received everything at conversion and John would teach that the Spirit is received at conversion totally and later there would come a release of the Spirit – that was the language that John would use. A sort of “time-bomb” doctrine that He is with you and later on will explode but effectively you have received everything. So you find that there is a drift there, people have been wondering where are we, have we received the Spirit, is there more for us? Many of us, certainly we who organise this conference, were affected by the charismatic movement of the 60’s and 70’s when having been Christians for some time we subsequently heard about the coming of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit. Someone laid hands on us and we came into a new dimension speaking with tongues etc so it is important for us to know where we are so that we can be confident about the doctrine.

Doctrinal Narrative of Acts.
I want in a moment to take you through some Scriptures to help you see where we are coming from, what is my basis for expecting that we should receive the Spirit and I will be taking you through what happened particularly in the book of Acts. Now some people would say that you mustn’t use the book of Acts particularly for doctrine because Acts is narrative and historical – it is not theological statement like the Epistles. But the fact is that in the Gospels the outpouring of the Spirit is anticipated. Jesus talks about the fact that He has come to spread fire on the earth but He says that He is constrained or shut in until He has gone through His own personal baptism which is speaking of His death and all that He would endure. He had come to give the Spirit! John the Baptist introduced Jesus. He said, “He is the One who will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”. So the Gospels continually talk about the future aspect of the Spirit’s coming. Jesus in John 14, 15, 16 says that the Spirit will come. It will be better for you even that I go away so that the Spirit can come. You will find that the Gospels continually are looking forward to the coming of the Spirit. Meanwhile the Epistles take for granted the fact that the Christians have already had that experience – they have had the Spirit so when Paul writes his letters for instance to Galatians or Ephesians he knows that they have already had the experience of the Spirit coming upon them.

So they are looking back to an experience that has taken place whereas the Gospels are looking forward to an experience that will take place. We desperately must get into the book of Acts to see how the Spirit was actually given. If we don’t study the book of Acts we have no biblical framework for seeing how the Spirit was actually poured out upon Christians. It is important for us to look at the actual experience of those Christians and to build a theology around what God did, what God said, what the apostles said to them and how the people received. It is the context where we learn these things. For any of you who have perhaps come through a teaching background that has said, “No, no it is only the Epistles that teach”, we just need to notice that one of the Epistles says this (in 2 Timothy 3:16); “All Scripture is given by inspiration (could be translated ‘God-breathed’) and is profitable for … doctrine”. All Scripture is profitable for doctrine, not just the explicit teaching passages. All Scripture is good for teaching. We mustn’t dismiss the book of Acts somehow and again in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul writing about the history of Israel says, “All these things happened to them as an example and were written down for our instruction”. So history passages do provide instruction and it is a very limited view that says you mustn’t look at Acts for teaching because the Bible itself says – hey, you look at everything for teaching. So it is important that we become comfortable with that approach.

Foreseen in the Old Testament.
Just one more thing before we get into the book of Acts, namely that the concept of receiving power goes right back into the Old Testament. The passage I just read to you from Acts 1:8 where Jesus says to the apostles, now you wait until you receive power – that wasn’t a new concept! It wasn’t as though they said, “What on earth does that mean?”. What could such a thing mean? They were good Jewish guys and they knew their Bibles and they would have known that back in the Old Testament the Spirit frequently came “upon” people. So for instance you would find that the Spirit came upon Gideon and Gideon together with many of the other Judges was transformed by the Spirit coming “upon” him. That is how he performed his ministry. It would appear from Judges 6 that naturally and temperamentally Gideon was not a leader-type. He was a fearful man – He felt his own limitations and then the Spirit came upon Gideon and he arose as a great national charismatic leader. He was anointed to lead because the Spirit came “upon” him! Similarly with other Old Testament figures – the Spirit came upon David when Samuel laid hands upon him, poured oil upon him and the Spirit came upon him. He became a great leader. You remember Elisha said to Elijah; “I must have the Spirit that is upon you if I am to fulfil the ministry”. So the concept of being anointed with the Spirit in order to do what God wants us to do is a very established principle routed in the Old Testament and then there comes a time in the Old Testament hinted at in Isaiah but more explicitly mentioned in Joel where God says, “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy – your old men and your young men shall see visions”. Now that was totally new.

In the Old Testament the outpouring of the Spirit tended to be on individuals usually people with particular ministries like anointed to be king, anointed to be prophet, even priests had anointing oil to be put upon them – so anointing tended to be associated with special tasks. Now Joel is saying that a day is coming when the Spirit is poured out widely, indiscriminately, old and young, male and female. There is going to be an amazing outpouring of the Spirit which will be unlike anything that had happened before. The nearest thing you can get to it before was when Moses said, “I can’t handle this whole job alone” and God said that he should choose 70 other guys and the 70 would come and it is said that they prophesied. It is a kind of miniature Pentecost back there in the Old Testament – an example coming of the Spirit coming on a group. So it is always important to know what would have been in their minds hearing something. When Jesus said them, “Wait until you receive power from on high” you have got to think what would have been in their minds. What would have been in their minds was “Well we know that happened before – that’s happened many times when the Spirit has come upon people and they have performed ministry”. Even Jesus Himself for 30 years was without this powerful anointing that came upon Him at His baptism. It is hard for us to think about Jesus without anything. But the Bible says that when He was baptised the Holy Spirit came “upon” Him and then He declared in Luke 4 that, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach, to bring deliverance etc”.

So Jesus Himself was anointed with the Spirit’s power and He said to the apostles, “Now you wait until you are endued with power from on high”. Jesus is telling these people to get ready to wait. John the Baptist actually introduced Jesus in these terms. It is reported in every Gospel and he introduced Jesus in two ways; “He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” and then he said, “I baptise you with water but there is One coming after me and He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire”. So Jesus was introduced as the One who will baptise with the Holy Spirit. David Pawson in his very helpful book, “Jesus Baptises in One Holy Spirit” says this that when John the Baptist actually made that declaration probably the word “the” would not have been understood by the people and the word “the” doesn’t have to be translated in Greek. They would probably have not had a developed Trinitarian understanding. So He would have said, “He will baptise you in Holy Spirit” or “Holy power”. Then Pawson says also that word “baptise” for us has a kind of religious feel for us. It isn’t a word we tend to use in any other context when we say “baptise” we being fairly religious know what we are talking about. Baptism has certain connotations for us. He said that if you need another word, you could use the word “drench”. So what Pawson said very helpfully is that John the Baptist preached saying, “I have baptised you in water. I have drenched you in water for the forgiveness of your sins. If you are a sinner and you are coming to John and he says, “Repent and change your life” – it is great to hear that I can have my past dealt with! Thank God for a forgiven past! He says, “I will drench you in water for the forgiveness of your sins”. Thank God my past is being dealt with. But how will I live for the future? How will I live a new style life? John the Baptist says – listen, there is someone coming after me who will drench you in holy power. That sounds better doesn’t it than ‘He will baptise you in the Holy Spirit’? He will drench you in holy power! It sounds a good deal to me!

I know when I was first saved in my teenage years and was struggling to know how to live this kind of life coming from a non-Christian background and a very worldly lifestyle. I thought how do you actually live this new life? I was very much needing to get drenched in some holy power to change my life. Here Jesus is promising us that we can get drenched in holy power. Hallelujah! So let’s quickly look – I am going to take you through the book of Acts to see what took place. Jesus promised them that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. That’s what we read initially in Acts 1:8. So we know the apostles and others were waiting for this event – this coming of power that was going to take place. They were waiting and I am sure we are very familiar with this passage so I won’t go into loads of detail but just read the opening verses of Acts 2;

“When the Day of Pentecost had come they were altogether in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, a noise like the sound of a violent rushing wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. There appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves and resting on each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance”.

Suddenly the Spirit came upon them! Suddenly this enduing of power which took place as recorded there in Acts 2 and with that some fairly unique things took place. Wind-fire but they also knew this new language which they began to speak and we are familiar with what happened next. They burst out from wherever they were to the streets. Thousands gathered and they began to preach the gospel. Some people used to think that the speaking in new languages was for preaching. It is quite clear that the speaking in new languages gathered the crowds and then Peter stood up and preached presumably in Aramaic, maybe in Greek, a language that they were all able to comprehend, get hold of and they were cut to their heart. When they heard the people speak in other tongues they said, “Wow the wonderful mysteries of God” because they recognised their languages but when Peter preached they were cut to the heart in a language that they could understand and was preaching the Gospel.

So on the Day of Pentecost the Spirit fell on these disciples who were told to wait for the promise of the Spirit. I will quickly show you some five areas where the Spirit is freshly given, then some common features and bring from that a summary that I believe will help us this afternoon. 1. 120 in the Upper Room were filled with the Holy Spirit. I would say that they were already children of God. They were already believers – they believed in Him but this subsequently was an enduing with power for ministry. Acts 8 – 2. You will find the next clear outpouring of the Spirit when Philip the evangelist went down to Samaria. It says in Acts 8:12;

“Then they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ and they were being baptised men and women alike”.

So here were people saved through the gospel preaching of the evangelist Philip. Their testimony if they had given it was that we were saved when Philip preached about the Name of Jesus and the kingdom of God. We were baptised to demonstrate the reality of our conversion. We were now believers. But then it says in (v14);

“When the apostles heard that Samaria had received the Word of God that they sent down Peter and John down to them who prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit for He had not yet fallen on any of them. They had simply been baptised in the Name of Jesus and began laying hands on them and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles hands he offered them money”.

We won’t get into Simon – it is a bit of a side track but here is the simple fact. Some people were evangelised, converted, baptised but had not yet received the Spirit. So the apostles went down, laid their hands on them and the Spirit came upon them. Their testimony now would have been saved through Philip’s preaching, subsequently received the Holy Spirit when Peter and John laid their hands on them. There is no reference there to them speaking with tongues, no wind, no fire – something happened that Simon the sorcerer was impacted by and was willing to pay money that he might be able to do this. So we are not talking about something that is simply in the mind. It isn’t something where they said, “Oh thank you very much”. I don’t think Simon would have paid much money for that. He was a magician and was used to seeing some power around and here he saw something that made him willing to pay money for it. There Acts 8 at Samaria – the coming of the Spirit.

3. Then in Acts 9 you see Paul’s conversion. Paul gives testimony to his conversion twice in the book of Acts. He always refers to what happened on the Damascus Road. That was his conversion. He saw the Lord and God commissioned him. God who commanded light to shine in darkness shone into his heart and he was soundly converted on the Damascus Road. No question. But then you will find in (v17) of Acts 9 that Ananias (whoever he was – we really don’t know) entered the house and after laying hands on Paul or Saul and said, “Brother Saul”. You see he is calling him a brother – he is a Christian brother. “Brother Saul the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road on which you were coming has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit”. So Paul got filled with the Spirit three days after his conversion. He was converted on the Damascus Road, led away blinded by the light, Ananias comes subsequently to lay hands upon him for his sight and also that he might be filled with the Spirit. Notice incidentally that Ananias didn’t say that you need to go and pray and find some Upper Room somewhere and wait. He just laid hands on him and immediately the Spirit came upon him. 4. Next Acts 10. We have done three – two to go. Acts 10. Again I am taking some background for granted. I expect you to know these stories. Peter went somewhat reluctantly to the home of Cornelius who was a Gentile and preached the Gospel in that home. It says, (v46);

“While he was preaching the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also for they heard them speaking with tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, surely no one can refuse water for these to be baptised who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did. And he ordered them to be baptised”.

So this is a different kind of style. Here he is still preaching and while he is preaching I guess he said enough (if you look at the context you will find that he has preached about Jesus – he has given them the essential content of the gospel) and I guess people were beginning to believe and as he was still speaking the Spirit fell and they began speaking with tongues. No laying on of hands – no delay. He hasn’t even finished preaching and the Spirit fell. 5. Then lastly Acts chapter 19. In doing this I am showing you every place that the book of Acts records a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. These are all the places where that is recorded. In Acts 19 you will find that Paul arrives at Ephesus and there he asks some disciples (they are so called in verse 1) “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” or “Have you received the Spirit since you believed?” – it depends which translation you are reading from. I don’t particularly want to press that point one way or another. The question is – do you have the Spirit?

They said “No – we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit”. He says to them (v3) “Into what then were you baptised?”. He is confused because he took them to be disciples and so how come you don’t know what’s going on? So he asks them what they were baptised into. They said John’s baptism. Now which John was that? John the Baptist. So Paul says, “John baptised with a baptism of repentance telling the people to believe in Him who is coming after him – that is Jesus”. In other words these were disciples of John the Baptist so far. He thought they were Christian but they plainly say that they only have known John’s baptism. You remember that all Judea went out to hear John. He had his own disciples and here are people who have only had John’s baptism thus far. So Paul immediately tells them about Jesus at the end of verse 4. So in other words he preaches the gospel and tells them about Jesus. When they heard this (v5) they were baptised in the Name of the Lord Jesus. In other words they are now believing in Jesus and he has led them to Jesus! Because they have now come to Jesus he baptises them in water. He brings them right through just like some of the early followers of John the Baptist like Andrew and others had come to John the Baptist and had no doubt been baptised by him but subsequently came to Jesus. So here we find these guys who had heard John the Baptists message and came to hear about Jesus and are immediately baptised by Paul. Then (v6) you almost get the context that they are still dripping with water when Paul laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. So here on the same day they are converted and then subsequently have hands laid on them to receive the Spirit after which they begin speaking with tongues. So two stages but in one day.

Summary of Various Positions.
Now I would like to sum up some of these. Just to try and sum up – when I was first saved I must confess I went through a pretty bad time for four years. Very backslidden. I knew I was born again no question but I was often very defeated and certainly lacked courage to be a witness about Jesus. I could not find freedom to say “Jesus is the answer to your need”. I really didn’t tell anyone and was a secret Christian behind closed doors as Duncan Watkinson said. I knew limitations and I knew defeat. About four or five years later I met a Pentecostal guy. Before I met him I was getting very hungry thinking, “Surely there is more for me”. I began to read books and testimonies. I didn’t know quite what was more but I could see that the apostles seemed to have more. Now at that time there seemed to be two or three teachings about the Holy Spirit. The main one in those days was that everything that is going, you got at conversion. You had received it. You just grow gradually and you get more and more full of the Spirit as you grow in the Christian life. Men like John Stott who I had very great respect for would teach that, that you just grow in the Spirit and you just gradually grow. Then I went to the Keswick Convention and the Keswick Convention seemed to be saying that there is a second kind of blessing but it comes with sanctification and maturity. It is like a later crisis when you are much older in God and as you get more mature you will get full of the Spirit. It is for the mature – those walking with God for some years.

So some were saying that you got everything at conversion and grow gradually and others were saying, no there is more but it is for mature believers and you can have that later. Now I was desperate for something now please! Then I met this Pentecostal guy and he said, “What you need is to be baptised in the Spirit”. I said, “Whatever you call it – I want it!”. I was hungry but very confused reading different books that seemed to be saying different things and I found that undermined my faith a bit. That’s why I wanted to take time here today to explain it from the Bible.

“It Happens at Conversion”.
Now just to go back to those teachings: The teaching that says you have received everything at conversion automatically simply doesn’t seem to stand up to several of those passages that I have read. Certainly the apostles themselves had not received everything. They had to wait for power from on high. Jesus explicitly told them. Paul on the Damascus Road did not receive everything automatically and Ananias had to lay hands on him three days later. It was not automatic. If I said to a guy from Samaria, “Come up and give your testimony” he would have to say, “I was saved when Philip preached and then a few days later the news got down to Jerusalem and Peter and John came up then we received the Holy Spirit”. To say that it is definite or automatic, that once you are born again you have received everything does not stand up to Scripture. It simply doesn’t! So the first teaching that says you have automatically received everything at conversion is not what happened in the book of Acts. It did happen in Cornelius’s household! The Spirit came upon them immediately and I will come back to that in a moment. There is the possibility of it but it doesn’t automatically happen. I am not saying that you can’t be filled with the Spirit from day one or from the first moment – it is possible but it is not automatic. We need to know whether we have received or not. So the first teaching that was given was that you must accept that you already have it – which wasn’t good news for me. I felt I wanted something more.

“Keswick Teaching”.
The second teaching which was that when you are much more mature as a Christian you will have another experience. Maybe you have been walking with God for years and come to a crisis of freshly handing your life over to God and in those sort of Keswick teachings you will see loads of illustrations about glasses that are full of stuff and you have to empty it out in order to be filled with God. I would say that it is muddled with sanctification teaching. If you empty out your old life then God will fill you. It is a matter of devotion, yielding a second time to God. Well I am afraid that again that just doesn’t stand up to Scripture because that isn’t what Peter and John when they went down to Samaria did. They just said, “You haven’t received the Spirit” and laid hands on these guys who had been saved a few days. They were not now amazingly mature and having a crisis of handing over their lives in a new deep profound way. They were just lacking the Spirit so he lays hands on them. In Cornelius’s house Peter can’t even finish his sermon and the Spirit is on them. So the concept that you have to wait a long time doesn’t quite stand up even when Paul comes to Ephesus and explains to them about Christ and baptises them, then laying hands on them – there is no question about them being told about a later experience off in the future. He lays hands on them immediately and they receive the Spirit. It is for them – immediately. Immediately! It is available.

I remember when I was teaching in Hove Town Hall. My home town is Brighton and Hove – they are like two towns as one. We used put on celebrations and I remember very well when a girl responded to the gospel one night there and got saved. She was a student and I led her to Christ and she was born again. It was very exciting and she said, “There is more here isn’t there. There is a kind of power in this place”. I said, “Yes that’s true”. She said, “Can I receive this?”. I said, “I tell you what – come to my home next weekend and I will tell you more”. So I made arrangement for her to come and the following weekend (her name was Celia) she came to my home and she came with her roommate. Her roommate was not yet a Christian and she said, “This is my roommate and I think she wants to become a Christian”. So she said, “Yes what happened to her?!”. So I explained to the second girl about becoming a Christian and she was born again and she received Christ. Then Celia said, “I really came here to be prayed for to receive the Holy Spirit”. So I went through the stuff I am going through with you now. At the end of my time with them, she said “Well can I receive then?”. She had been saved a week. I said, “Of course!”. Then the other girl who had been saved 20 minutes now said, “Well what about me?”. With this passage open I said of course! So I explained about the laying on of hands and they said sure yes please! So I laid hands on them and they both immediately received the Spirit, both immediately started singing in tongues with one being saved a week and one 20 minutes. So the gift is immediately available! You don’t have to think that this is for the very holy or sanctified. No! This girl had been 20 minutes saved!

The gift is for every one of us and that is what Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost. He stood there and said, “The promise is for you and for your children and as many as the Lord our God has called”. The promise of the Spirit is for everyone who has been called. So the promise is not down the road, have you proved yourself, are you holy enough. Sometimes I hear people who have been prayed for and they get a bit passive (which I will deal with in a minute) and they say, “Oh perhaps I am not ready yet”. Well that is not a Biblical concept. Or “perhaps God doesn’t want me to have the Holy Spirit”. No that isn’t biblical! God wants you filled with the Spirit! In fact He says in Ephesians 5, “Be filled with the Spirit”. It is like a command. Be filled! So let’s not have in our minds that I am perhaps not holy enough or not been a Christian long enough or it isn’t for me. It is for everyone! If you are saved then it is for you. Even if you are not saved and would like to be saved then it is for you. So the promise of the Spirit is freely available. You don’t have to wait.

You might say, “Well wait a minute – isn’t that the very opposite of what Jesus said? Terry – you are saying that we don’t have to wait. Jesus said wait!”. Well let’s just think about that. Jesus did say to these men, “Wait in Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high”. So to understand that verse I would like you to turn to John 7:37. It says there that on a particular feast day when they would pour out water ceremonially because they were celebrating the fact that God gave them water in their journey through the wilderness Jesus pushed though the crowd and shouted out, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to Me and drink”. But if you had gone forward that day He would have said, “Well not yet” because the verse goes on;

“This He spoke of concerning the Spirit which those who believed in Him were to receive. But the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified”.

The Spirit was not yet given – why? Because they were not yet holy enough. They had not yet proven themselves enough. No – nothing to do with them! He didn’t tell them to wait because they weren’t ready. He told them to wait because He wasn’t yet ready. That is very important especially when some of us feel that we are not ready yet. That isn’t even the issue. He says to them if you are thirsty come to Me and drink – this He spoke of the Spirit which those who believed in Him were to receive. But the Spirit was not yet given because He was not yet ready – because He was not yet glorified. The fact is that now He is glorified! He was speaking of what He was to experience in the Cross and then also the Resurrection and particularly the Ascension. He is glorified! Come to Me and drink – but not yet! Now on the Day of Pentecost Peter effectively preached on this verse almost. Peter stood publicly and said, “This Jesus whom you crucified, God has now raised up of whom we are witnesses and He now, ascended to the Father and has shed forth this which you now see and hear”. He IS now glorified! He has now fulfilled the “not yet” clause. If He is now glorified then this text is up to date! So now we can come to this text without the “not yet” clause that the apostles had. The apostles were told to “wait until”. Not until they had prayed long enough in the Upper Room. That wasn’t the point. It was until the Day of Pentecost had come and so the outpouring of the Spirit would fulfil all sorts of Old Testament types about harvest.

Now He has ascended and the Spirit is available! The Spirit is available now – you can receive the Spirit now just like this girl I prayed for. She received and had believed for 20 minutes. You can receive before you leave this shed this afternoon. I say that with all confidence. You can receive the Holy Spirit this afternoon – I know it! Now what does it say in the verse? 1. It says if anyone is thirsty. It doesn’t say if anyone is mature or holy. It says if anyone is thirsty. That’s all you have to be – thirsty. You are demonstrating some kind of thirst by being here this afternoon. That is the only thing. That’s what Jesus said. The other idea is that if you do well then you will get the Holy Spirit later. It is rather like a general of an army saying – now you go out and fight and if you do well you can have a gun next time. It is crazy! We need guns now! We need the Spirit as soon as possible!

So if anyone is thirsty then what? 2. Come to Jesus. I want to invite any of you who want to be prayed for this afternoon in a few moments to come to Jesus. I will probably also invite you to come to some place. Maybe the front up here. But if we are coming to have the laying on of hands (which I have shown you is a biblical concept – the laying on of hands is biblical) as you come to have hands laid on – you are coming to Jesus. Now I say that because when I was younger I went to a church where I was told, “That guy will pray for you”. I went to a special meeting one Sunday afternoon and he went round the circle. As he went round the circle they got very happy! I thought, “Wow here he comes” and as he got to me I felt his hand on my head and he prayed a prayer and guess what I felt? I felt a hand on my head. That was it – nothing less, nothing more. After he had prayed his prayer he moved on to the next guy and I was devastated. Because I had thought fireworks were coming and then nothing! I believe what happened to me at that very moment was that I got my eyes on a specialist man who would do it for me, who would wave the wand over me. But Jesus said, “Come to Me and drink”. So in a moment when I invite you to come and be prayed for I want you to remember in your heart that you are coming to Jesus to drink. I am not coming to a specialist – I am coming to Jesus although the laying on of hands is biblical whether it is Peter and John or Ananias – it doesn’t matter whose hands, we are coming to Jesus. It’s biblical!

Then it says, 3. And Drink. It doesn’t say come and plead, come and cry, come and wait. It says come and drink. Drinking means receive. Come and receive. He that believes in Me is the next phrase. In other words Galatians 3 says that we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. We must believe in Him. We come to drink. He has promised to give the Spirit to those who ask so we must come believing that He will give. Some of you may remember the day or night that you got saved. You came and believed. You said, “Lord I ask you – come into my life”. Maybe you have done that quite recently. It is the same kind of thing – we come to Him expecting Him to do what He promised to do. He will give the Spirit to those who ask. Luke 11 says if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. So we come asking expecting to receive. He that believes in Me out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. This He spoke concerning the Spirit. There is a flowing out, an overflow of the Spirit. He will begin to flow out of us and it is simple – we just come and drink!

I remember years ago I was talking to a couple of friends of mine and the husband had recently been converted. They asked me about being filled with the Spirit so I went to their home and we were sitting talking and the husband said to the wife, “Could we have some coffee?”. So she went to the kitchen to get some coffee and after a few minutes she ran back in saying, “It’s wonderful! It’s wonderful!”. She had received in the kitchen! She had understood enough and said, “Please Lord!” and got hit in the kitchen! She is overwhelmed with God – “he that believes”. I didn’t even get to lay hands on her! The Spirit came upon her. I have prayed with groups and you are going round the circle laying hands over here and someone starts speaking in tongues down here. It is not that there is some kind of particular thing … God just comes! Come and drink come and receive, come and take. Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water, this He spoke of concerning the Spirit. I prayed for one lady and had to go to the station to collect someone just after I had prayed for her. I said, “Wait on God and pray”. When I got back she was speaking in tongues like mad and she said, “It is like rivers of living water flowing from within my inner man”. So I said, “I’m not sure that’s what that verse means” but I do want to say a few words about tongues.



Tongues
Speaking in tongues or in unlearned languages is often referred to at the time of the giving of the Spirit. In the passages that I have read out to you, you will find that speaking in tongues frequently occurs. Now it would not be right to argue that you must speak in tongues to demonstrate that you have been filled with the Spirit. That would be going beyond what the Scripture says – the Scripture never says that. But it is often there. It is there more than it isn’t! So when I lay hands on people for the filling of the Spirit I expect them to speak with tongues because it seems to be fairly normal but I don’t get uptight if they don’t because it doesn’t say that they did every time. So my expectation is that they will but if they don’t it isn’t the biggest deal. What we find is that when this girl said speaking in tongues is like a river flowing from the inside, I would like to say some things about tongues and I would like to encourage you that if you would like to be prayed for to expect to speak with tongues. It is what happens most often. It is you who speak with tongues – it isn’t God. God doesn’t speak in tongues – you do. Sometimes when one prays for people you can take on passive mode and don’t speak with tongues. The Bible says, “They spoke with tongues”. They did it! Let me put it this way; if you don’t speak with tongues, you won’t speak with tongues. Let me say that again because it’s very simple but very true. If you don’t speak with tongues, then you won’t speak with tongues. You do it! God doesn’t do it for you. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, “I will pray with my spirit, I will pray with understanding”. That reference, “with my spirit” in context is clearly talking about tongues. I will do it. I will pray with tongues – I will pray with my mind.

That brings me to my second point. When I pray with tongues, it says in 1 Corinthians that my mind is unfruitful. It is my spirit that prays. In other words when someone speaks in tongues they are not engaging the intellect. Their spirit prays without using the intellect. That is the whole point that you are getting into another way of expressing worship to God. Like sometimes melody lifts you out in expressing worship to God as such intellect – intellect is another sphere to melody. So speaking in tongues is like Charles Wesley saying, “Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my Great Redeemer’s praise”. I wish I had something else to say! Sometimes people say that they don’t know what to say in prayer. Well it says in Romans 8 that the Spirit prays through us and for us when we are limited. The Spirit is expressing things which are not coming from our mind. Sometimes when people begin to speak in tongues they start listening and sometimes start analysing. They think, “I wonder what I’m saying” and instead of worshipping they become somewhat preoccupied and distracted and even say things like, “I think I am just saying that”. Now I got baptised in 1962 and it is now 1999 and I have laid hands on thousands of people over the years and I have heard so many say, “I think I am just saying things”. I wonder whether it is a law that people say that. That happened to me! When they laid hands on me and nothing happened they said, “Just praise God” and I said, “What for?”. “Do you believe the promise? Have you come and drank?”. I was struggling and I think I was probably the most difficult case that there ever was. I argued and didn’t want to make anything up. I am very sympathetic with people because I was there. I too didn’t want just sounds. But the problem is when we start listening and analysing and instead of speaking to God we are speaking to our ear. “Wonder what that is?”. I want to encourage you – your mind will not understand and remember what it says in Luke 11. If we ask for fishes will He give us a serpent? If we ask for bread will He give us a stone? We must have a faith element, “Lord I am asking you and I am believing you”.

Then as we receive we begin to speak. I understand that 65 of the 14/15 year old kids received the Spirit and spoke in tongues. 65 of them! Just received and spoke. That is only the ones who knew they received – that was yesterday here on the Stoneleigh site. God gives that gift and you do the speaking. You do it. If you say you are waiting for God then He won’t do it. You do it. It is like many of the miracles in the Bible you will find that there is that initial step that comes from you. You will find that Joshua is told to shout at the Jericho wall and it will fall down. I think I would have said to God, You make it fall down and then I will shout as much as You like! But they had to walk around it and then down it came. Do you remember that they were told to fill up the water pots and then go and pour out wine. It was the pouring out I believe.

The illustration in the Old Testament of the woman who ran out of oil was told to go and collect the vessels and then had to pour out the little amount of oil that she had in that vessel. Little oil and into as many pots as she wanted to. Now the temptation is to think that if I pour that oil out then it is only in that point and not in this. But the miracle isn’t that she sat there saying, “Come on oil” – the miracle came in the pouring. When she started, the oil kept coming. Speaking in tongues is like that. The miracle is that as you begin to speak God will give you the utterance.
So we don’t want to be passive. Jesus was walking on the water and Peter asked if he could come to him. He said, “If you want me to come to you”. Very smart statement! It is Jesus responsibility now. So Jesus said, “Come”. Now it is Peter’s responsibility. Peter didn’t sit in the boat and say “I am sure that it will come anytime now. Here it comes … here it comes … I am sure the spirit of walking on water will hit me anytime now”. It isn’t like that. He had to get out of the boat and trust himself into another dimension. He used his walking apparatus in another dimension. Speaking in tongues uses your speaking apparatus – tongues, teeth, lungs – and you speak in another dimension. A language you’ve never learned and you find yourself speaking it out. You don’t sit there thinking “I am waiting for God”. You begin to speak – God gives you the utterance. Some have said that they utter a few words and then stop. Actually what happens is that you run out of air! (*laughter*). Because I am speaking English and you are all used to this, you probably haven’t noticed that I keep stopping and filling my lungs and then go again. I keep exhausting my lungs but that do it again. I don’t stop when my lungs are full – I just do it again. People speaking in tongues do that and panic! No – just breathe in!

Now I spent some time on that because I know that so many people over the years have worried. I prayed with a lady at Hove Town Hall and she said to me, “I have been prayed with by so many people and have never received”. So I said, “May I speak with you for a little while”. She said, “Yes”. So I taught her how tongues works and asked if anyone had told her that before. She said, “No! I just thought it would happen”. I said, “Do you understand now?”. She said, “Oh yes!”. So I said, “Shall we pray now?”. “Yes please!”. BOOM! She’s away! Happy as Larry! God filled her with the Holy Spirit! Now she had been waiting for the moving of the water. Jesus said if anyone is thirsty then come to Me and drink! He that believes out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. I want to encourage you if you want to come and be prayed for – we have ministry team and would love to pray for you. There is no reason why many will not receive. Today could be your day. Maybe you have had an experience with the Toronto move and are not sure where you are. I find my faith is more secure if I know this is Biblical. If I come from a certain line of teaching and are not sure that this is Biblical then it is not a good idea to just “see”. Faith doesn’t come from that. Faith comes from hearing the Word of God and thinking, yes I believe that! That is an honest interpretation of Scripture and I come to Jesus today. I will believe God and will receive. I have taken a long time because I believe that the more you have received in your understanding, the simpler it is to receive.

“Father I thank You that the promise is for everyone that the Lord our God shall call. We thank You that Peter could confidently say that the promise is for you. We thank You that Day of Pentecost that many thousands were baptised and received the promise of the Spirit. Lord we thank You for down through the centuries and especially in these last few decades millions are receiving the Spirit and launching into a dimension of charismatic gifts. Father we thank You for Your Presence right here and now and we ask You for clarity of thought and of faith for those who have come to drink this afternoon. Bless us now as we are before You in Jesus Name. Amen”.