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The Immersion with the Holy
Spirit Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Gifts of the Spirit in the Early Church “How is it then my fellow
believers? When you meet together, every one of you has a song, has a
teaching, has a tongue, has some special revelation God has given, has a
tongue [speaks in an unknown language], has an interpretation. Let all that
is done strengthen you all in the Lord.”
– 1 Corinthians 14:26 “Through the work of Christ
Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing He promised to
Abraham, so that we who are true believers might receive the promise of the
Holy Spirit through faith.” – Galatians
3:14 The Bible repeatedly shows that all that God gave
to the early New Testament church He desires to give to us today. All the
gifts of the Holy Spirit (of 1 Cor. 12:4-11) in the lives of believers are
recorded in the early chapters of Acts after the reception of the Holy Spirit baptism,
except one; and no doubt that was also manifest many times. Note the
following: 1. Tongues (2:4; 10:44-48; 19:1-7) See
also “The Gift of Tongues” below. 2. Healings (2:43; 3:6; 5:12-16) 3. Miracles (2:43; 4:22; 5:16) 4. Prophecy (2:17-21; 3:19-21; 13:1) 5. Knowledge (2:15-40; 8:19-25) 6. Wisdom (3:12-26; 6:10) 7. Faith (3:6, 16; 5:12-16) 8. Discernment (2:15; 3:4-6; 4:3-11) Note Other Miraculous Manifestations: 1. Executing judgment (5:1-12; 13:6-12;
1 Cor. 4:18-21; 5:4-5) 2. Miraculous deliverances (Acts
5:19-29; 9:3-7, 31; 12:1-19) 3. Imparting Holy Spirit (8:14-25;
9:17-19; 19:1-7) 4. Immunity from poisons (28:3-6; Mk.
16:17-18; Lk.10:19) 5. Imparting spiritual gifts (Rom.
1:11; 1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6) 6. Raising the dead (Acts 9:40; 20:10) 7. Earthquakes to protect believers
(Acts 4:31; 16:26) 8. Special miracles to confirm the Word
(Acts 19:11-12) 9. Fullness of the Spirit manifest
(Rom. 15:18-19, 29; Heb. 2:4) 10. Many kinds of spiritual powers (See
above) All Spiritual Manifestations are Strange Paul said that the things of the Spirit of God
would be foolishness to the ‘natural man’ (1 Cor. 2:14) and that He would
take the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (1 Cor. 1:26-31).
Naturally, any manifestation of any one of the nine gifts mentioned in 1 Cor.
12 and above would be foolishness and very strange to any person who had
never seen these gifts in operation. But why reject or criticize something
that we know nothing about either scripturally or experimentally? The natural
man is not used to any spiritual experience and every one of them will be
foolishness to him until he makes up his mind to be open enough to them to
investigate the truth from what is written about them. When something is
clearly written about any spiritual blessing that should settle it as being
biblical and as being of God. We should then bring the natural man under
control and refuse to reject the truth. Earnest Christians Cannot Get a Wrong Spirit Many are fearful that God will permit them to get a
wrong spirit if they seek spiritual experiences, but this is a groundless
fear, as proved by Luke 11:7-13. God will not permit any honest person to be
deceived and get a wrong spirit if s/he will but walk uprightly in harmony
with the Word of God and ask only those things that are promised by God. Only
people who are dishonest and seek to evade truth and live unclean lives need
to fear because they are open to demonic deception. The true child of God
should walk in simple faith and obedience to all known truth, praying daily, keeping
under the blood of Christ, and s/he will not need to have one thought of
getting a wrong spirit. The One Great Need of the Modern Church The greatest need of all in any church is to forget
petty differences and seek God for the New Testament enduement of power for
service to do the works of Christ in delivering people from the power of sin,
health issues, failure, and poverty. The Church as a
whole may not be willing to do this, but as individuals it must be done if
the full benefits of the gospel are to be realized in personal experience. The world today is dying for apostolic power and
Christian living and the command of one of the last letters of the New
Testament is to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
Instead of doing this, the modern Church as a whole is making war on the few
who are earnestly contending for this faith. No preacher today can lead his people into a
revival of faith and power in God who fights the experiences that will bring
these benefits. Every preacher should encourage anyone in his congregation
who hungers and thirsts for righteousness and who has the least desire for
deeper experiences in God than those manifested today in the average church.
This is the least thing he can do to bring about a New Testament revival in
the world today. But when leaders of Christianity begin to oppose and resist
the Holy Spirit like Israel of old, and when the least manifestation of the
Spirit of God is fought and rejected as being of the devil, it is hard for
others to attain to these experiences. No person is required of God to
accept such experiences if s/he does not want them, but every person should
encourage others to get them if he does not want them personally. “The fruit of the Holy
Spirit in our lives is love; and it produces joy, peace,
patience, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, a firm grip;
against such there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23 Christians Should Unite to
Fight Satan Christians, instead of fighting one another, should
unite to fight sin, sickness, and the devil and realize that they have a
common foe. As long as the devil can get saved people to fight each other he
knows that they will not be united to fight him. He agitates people to differ
over church creeds, rituals, petty theories in doctrines, and even to condemn
each other over spiritual experiences that there should never be a single
difference about. The devil's long range program is to keep men and women
from accessing power with God over him and his works. As long as he can keep
Christians from aggressive warfare against him and from getting power to
defeat him he can feel free to carry on his work of sin, health issues, defeat, and poverty in the lives of
people. The
Gift of Tongues “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they
were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from
heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they
were sitting. …And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” - Acts 2:1-4 This is supernatural utterance in tongues that are
unknown to the speaker, but known somewhere in the universe, or they would
not be languages. The word "unknown" in 1 Cor. 14 (KJV) is in italics, and that means it is not in the original
Greek. It was supplied by the translators to make sense and to express the
idea that the tongues are unknown to the speakers. The idea never was that
they were not real languages spoken by someone in the universe. Tongues may
be that of people or of angels (1 Cor. 13:1-3). It may sound to the hearers
that it is not a real language being spoken for there are many hundreds of
languages and dialects, and many of them do not sound like a real language.
Some sound like a language to one more than another, but all such judgment is
purely human and means nothing. We do not want the reader to get the idea that we
are giving more prominence to the gift of tongues than to other gifts, but
this one gift is so much misunderstood that the whole church world seems to
be poisoned against it, and it is our duty to plainly state what the Bible
says about it, just as we are doing with every doctrine of Scripture. We are
giving an impartial study of the Bible and all of its doctrines, nod we must
be faithful to do this regardless of the narrow-mindedness and unfairness of
the multitudes concerning certain truths of Scripture. When a truth is being
rejected, as is the doctrine of speaking in tongues, then it is the duty of
every man and woman to state fairly and honestly what the Bible says about it
to correct these false ideas. It is one of the three gifts Paul gives so much
prominence to in 1 Cor. 14. It is peculiar that not one of the other gifts is
dealt with in this chapter, thus proving that the vocal gifts are the three
main ones to be used in the meetings of believers. The vocal gifts are so
evidently supernatural that they naturally challenge at once those who reject
such gifts (Acts 2:1-21; 10:44-48; 19:1-7; 1 Cor. 14). Scripture is so simple
and clear on this subject that it is easy to answer all questions concerning
it. It has nothing to do with linguistic ability nor
with the mind or intellect as far as the understanding is concerned. It is
simply the Spirit employing the vocal organs and other faculties of speech.
Humankind's will and spirit are active and in perfect accord with God who is
the one directly speaking through the man or woman by the Spirit. This is
merely a miracle of utterance in unknown languages, the fact of God directly
speaking through people spiritual mysteries unknown to the individual, that
we cannot understand (Rom. 8:26-27; 1 Cor. 14:2-5). It is God's way of
speaking directly by the Spirit to the spirit of man and through a person's
spirit and imparting to it supernatural power and strength. One of the
dearest truths of the Bible is that of the weakness of man's spirit, which
has been under the domination of satanic power for so many centuries. Tongues
is the provision of God to communicate and edify human's spirit and
strengthen the inner self (1 Cor. 14:2-4). Can it be possible that in this one Bible doctrine
God has given something to the church that is of no value, that is to be the
object of ridicule and slander, and that is to be the object of blasphemy on
the part of humankind? Can we afford to reject this blessing of the Spirit
because we are ignorant of its purposes and benefits? Would He have spent so
much time and effort and said so much about it if it were of no importance?
Shall we reject gifts because they are not possible to reproduce or cultivate
in human schools? Must His ways be lowered to the human plane before we can
believe that He has a good purpose in them? Like
prophecy, it is God's desire that speaking in tongues be practiced by all,
but many of us cannot do it because of our lack of understanding, faith,
consecration, and yieldedness to the Spirit (1 Cor. 14:5, 39; Mark 16:15-20;
Isa. 28:9-11; John 15:26; 16:13-16). We must control this gift like all
others (1 Cor. 14:32). We are not to forbid the use of it (1 Cor. 14:39). It
should be used for public edification in public meetings (1 Cor. 14:45, 12-40). It is not
for personal leading, but for edification (1 Cor. 14:2). If used in private
it is speaking to God alone, but in public it is for public edification (1
Cor. 14:2-5, 12, 26-28). There are twenty-eight passages in the Bible on the
subject. "Within fifty days of
Jesus’ death and the apparent collapse of His cause, the city of Jerusalem
rang with the cries of those who boldly declared that God had raised Jesus
from the dead, and that they were eyewitnesses to that truth. Hundreds had
seen the resurrected Jesus! Please consider also, this
suburb book. Links Consider
this plain and simple audio/video teaching on the baptism with the Holy
Spirit by Pastor Chris Hodges at Church
of the Highlands. You can also download the video, audio, and his notes. Understand more about the Fruit of the Holy Spirit “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15; 1 John 5:2-3; 2 John 1:6) “And God is able to make all
grace abound toward you; that
you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every
good work..” (2 Cor. 9:8) Understand
God’s grace And the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly, and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”
(1 Thess. 5:23). See
the tri-unity
of humans. Some links require
Adobe Acrobat Reader “This Good News tells us how God makes
us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures
say, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Habakkuk 2:4) “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Hebrews
3:19) See Doubt and Unbelief
concerning God’s Word “For His divine power has given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who has
called us to glory and goodness. And by that same mighty power, He has given
to us exceeding great
and precious promises; that by these you all might be partakers of the
Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust.” (2 Peter1:3-4) There are 750 promises in the New
Testament alone. The Key
That Unlocks all promises Link
to the list of 250
separate benefits of the 750 New Testament promises “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even
as your soul prospers.” (3 John 1:2) “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in
high places.” (Ephesians 6:12) See the reality of evil, Satan, or the devil “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication
[prayer as from neediness] with thanksgiving let your requests be made known
unto God.” (Philippians 4:6) See The Art of Prayer “…The eternal purpose which He [God]
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11). “…Rightly dividing the
word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Link to God's
Plan for Mankind Thank you Finis
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