Evidence of The Holy Spirit

(Continuing reading together "Prayer On Fire" by Fred Hartley III. Chapter 4. You are invited to become a follower/friend of RichInHisGrace, and to comment graciously.)

In my first several years of Christian faith, I was distinctly taught by pastors and leaders that there are folks who believe some strange things about something called 'the Holy Spirit'. The problem was that 'those people' were going around getting all excited, even emotional, and believing that they could do things that the people in the Bible did - things referred to as 'gifts of the Spirit' in New Testament. "Well," we all agreed,"we don't want to get all emotional, and out of control." The problem, it was explained, was that those Christians who believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit for their lives (those pentecostals and charismatics) teach that you have to speak in tongues to be saved, that people can get healed, and that God talks directly to them. Pretty wild stuff.

Our biggest value as young believers was to study the Bible and thereby learn to know Jesus as Lord of our lives. In '71 I went to Bible study groups four or five times each week with my new Christian friends. My life changed for the better. I not only believed what the Bible was teaching me, I truly became a lover of God for what He who He is and what He did for me. At 17, in 1971, I did not yet know that I had entered into an historic time of God's moving among people - a 'river' of His moving. I didn't know there was a Jesus-movement happening, I was just glad that He had changed me. Actually, I was a teen-aged Jesus freak, and didn't yet know what that was. I just loved God with all I had, and I was learning to love people like my Lord does, and serving Jesus gave me a future and a hope. What a life!!!

Guess what my life was showing. My life was showing evidence that I was living by faith and in the fulness of the Holy Spirit. But at the same time, I was being taught by very well meaning people that the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit were "not for today". What was the problem? Where had this divide come between different Christians and their views of what God would do in their lives? I didn't worry too much about it. Over the next few years of my young adulthood, I learned that I most wanted to let God's Word speak for God and believe what it says - no more, and no less. After high school I served in the US Coast Guard in New York, Alaska, and Oregon. In all those places I got together with Christians, joined the church, and taught Bible studies and kept on loving the Lord. I was carrying a deep sense of calling to serve the Lord as a pastor.

In '76, one of my pals in the service insisted that I come with him to the church he had found. I resisted because that church was one of those pentecostal churches that I had been taught was off into emotionalism and speaking in tongues. But God bless Jim and Liz Connolly for lovingly keeping that invitation open. Beside that was the fact that about half the people attending the Tuesday Bible study at our apartment were from the Coos Bay Foursquare Church, where Jim and Liz attended. One Sunday evening in September I went with them to hear a special speaker. Roy Hicks was that church's Supervisor and a wonderful Bible teacher. That evening, Dr. Hicks opened up the Bible that I so thoroughly believed and showed me that the gifts and fulness of the Spirit could not be put aside for today, even though some believers did get out of control in the way they try to use them. He showed that it wasn't alright to get out of control, but it also wasn't alright to take the misbehavior of some and then try to throw out the gifts and power of God. After all, as I had always seen in studying the Scriptures that the power and gifts did not disappear from the page when my old teachers said they ceased to function.

So if the gifts and promise of God in sending His Spirit - His own Presence - to live in fulness in each and every Christian was still true, then it was definitely God's gift for me. So then what did God have for me? And what does He have for you?

Primarily, your spiritual gift is this - it is the baptism and Personal Presence of the God the Holy Spirit in your life. The Holy Spirit comes into you when you first believe. But the fulness of His working in you requires that you keep on completely surrendering your life to Him. Make Him Lord of all you do and all of you. Don't hold anything back. His joy will fill you, and His voice will speak to you through the Bible, through other believers, and yes, through His voice in your own spirit.

And last but not least - what's the deal with the gift of tongues? The faith statement of the Foursquare Church is a very balanced place to turn. It says this - We believe in the Baptism with the Holy Spirit for every believer, with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues. I have no problem with stating it that way because that is what the Bible says. Stick with me now. When the Holy Spirit came upon the first Christians in Acts 2, the Scripture says that "they spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." (KVJ) It doesn't name any other gift being given at that initial point of the Spirit's work. All the other gifts were manifest in them as they went forward and the church grew. But at that initial point, the gift of speaking in a way that simply rose up in them, and in which they cooperated with the Spirit's fire.

And now I'm going to stop because Sandy is all dressed up like a 1971 hippie and is insisting that I go with her to her brother's 60th birthday party.

More about the gifts next time.

Grace and fullness to you,

Pastor Rich rich5244@aol.com