The theme for my talk today is
indicated, once again, by the title, “Receive the
Holy Spirit.” This is a very central theme to
the whole of the New Testament. It’s a theme which vitally
concerned every Christian because every Christian is expected
to receive the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately within the church,
particularly, shall we say, the Evangelical–Pentecostal–Charismatic
section of the church, there is a great deal of
confusion and misunderstanding about what it means to
receive the Holy Spirit. For instance,
your good Baptist will say, “Well, I received the Holy
Spirit when I was born again. There’s nothing
more to receive.” The Pentecostal
will say, “No, you didn’t receive the Holy
Spirit when you were born again. You don’t receive the Holy Spirit
till you’re baptized in the Spirit and speak in
tongues.” And they tend to get rather
angry with one another. Now, as in most cases
where sincere Christians disagree on the
basis of Scripture, the truth is that each of them
is partly right and partly wrong. And I believe I can help you
today to unravel this confusion. The fact of the matter
is that the New Testament speaks of two different ways in which
people receive the Holy Spirit. When we distinguish these two ways,
then there’s no more confusion. I’m going to use two historical
situations from the New Testament to define the two ways, to describe
them and to distinguish between them. I’m going to refer
to two Sundays, two Sundays of tremendous historical
importance for the Christian church. The first I call
Resurrection Sunday; the second, which came seven weeks
later, I call Pentecost Sunday. Now on both
those Sundays the believers had an experience
of receiving the Holy Spirit. But,
it was different. And when we can see the
nature of each experience, then we can understand where we
are in relation to this personally. Have I received
the Holy Spirit, is there something
more for me to receive? What is involved in
receiving the Holy Spirit? I’d like to read therefore,
first of all, the account of the Resurrection
Sunday first appearance of Jesus to His disciples in a
group as it’s recorded in John 20, reading from
verse 9... John chapter 20 from
verse 19 through verse 22. All right, John 20:19-22: Then the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week... You know, of course, that the first day
of the week is what we call Sunday. The Sabbath is the
seventh day of the week, Sunday is the beginning
of a new week. In Hebrew it’s called
yom reshon, the first day. So, Hebrew is actually much
more faithful to the Bible in its titles for the days
of the week than we are. Regrettably,
our days of the week in English, and in most European languages,
are named after pagan deities. Like Wednesday
is Woden’s day. Thursday is
Thor’s day. Sunday is the day of the
sun, you understand? It’s a
regrettable fact that we are very pagan in the way
we define the days of the week. Whereas in
Hebrew it’s day one, day two, day three,
day four, day five, day six. Then day seven is
shabbat, the Sabbath, and then Sunday
is yom reshon. If you live, for instance,
as we do in Jerusalem, the busiest day of
the week is Sunday. Everything
takes off. They’ve been resting
on the Sabbath and then everybody gets going
the first day of the week. And most or many congregations
of believers in Israel hold their worship
services on Saturday because Sunday is a day of work.
You understand? That’s just by the way but as I say,
there’s no extra charge for that! So, going back
to verse 19: ... being the first
day of the week, when the doors were shut where
the disciples were assembled for fear of
the Jews, Jesus came and stood in
the midst and said to them, “Peace be
with you.” Now when he had said this, he
showed them his hands and his side. Why did he do that? To convince them they were
looking at the same body that they had seen
pierced on the cross. Gloriously transformed
but still the same body. Then the disciples were
glad when they saw the Lord. I always thought,
that was an understatement. Then Jesus said to them
again, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me,
I also send you.” And when he had said
this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.” Now, I want to comment on
that last verse that I read. The word that’s translated
breathed in secular language is used of a
flute player blowing into the mouthpiece of
his instrument to produce music. The suggestion to me is not
that Jesus stood at a distance and breathed at
them collectively but that he breathed
into each of them, and as he did so, said,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Greek language is very
sensitive about tenses. There’s more than one
tense of the imperative. And this
particular tense indicates that they were to
receive when he said the words. So at that time, each of those
disciples received the Holy Spirit. There’s no question
about that. What was the
implication of that? My understanding is
that at that point they passed from Old Testament
salvation to New Testament salvation. You understand, there were people who
were saved in the Old Testament. They were saved
through faith in a sacrifice that had
not yet been offered but was promised through
prophecies and types. So, their faith looked forward
to something incomplete. But in the New Testament,
we are saved through faith in sacrifice, the sacrifice
of Jesus on the cross which is historically
accomplished. When Jesus died, He
said, “It is finished.” We look back to
a finished work. Now, in order to experience
New Testament salvation, Paul says there are two
things that are needed. In Romans 10:9: If thou shall confess with
thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that
God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. So, for New Testament salvation
there are two requirements. You confess
Jesus as Lord and you believe that God has
raised Him from the dead. Well, those disciples had
already confessed Jesus as Lord but this was
the first moment that they believed that God
had raised Him from the dead. They passed out of the
Old Testament dispensation into the New Testament
dispensation. And,
it’s a pattern. And it happened to them through
encountering the resurrected Christ face to face, and through receiving
from Him the inbreathed Spirit. Now, the word in Greek for
spirit, pneuma, is also the word for
wind and for breath. So when He
breathed into them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,”
he was saying receive holy breath. It was a direct person to
person transaction between them. They became part of
the new creation. Your mind goes back
to the first creation when God formed a body of
clay there in the garden, in order to make him a living
soul, what did He do? He breathed into him the breath
of life and he became created, he became a
living soul. The new creation
follows the same pattern but it’s not the
Lord in the garden, it’s the resurrected Savior
who has passed through death and come out of the tomb and
who breathes into His disciples a life that is
totally victorious. It’s a life that has conquered sin
and Satan and death and the grave. That’s the inbreathed breath
of the resurrected Savior. I personally believe that
it’s a pattern for everybody who is to enter
into new salvation. I don’t believe you can be
saved without meeting Jesus. I don’t mean that you meet Him
visibly as the disciples did, but I don’t believe
there’s any way into the true church of
Jesus Christ except Jesus. He said,
“I am the door. By me, if any man enter in,
he shall be saved.” So, I believe this is a pattern
for the new birth for every person. We have to
meet Jesus. Not just believe a
doctrine or join a church, but have a personal encounter
with the resurrected Christ and receive
from Him the inbreathed breath of God
which is the Holy Spirit, and become a
new creation. We pass from
death to life. I remember when I met Jesus face to
face — not visibly but face to face — in an Army barrack room in the
British Army in World War II. I didn’t have any doctrinal
knowledge of salvation. I couldn’t say I
was born again, I didn’t know what you
had to do to be saved but believe me,
I was saved. Later on I got the doctrine
but I had met Jesus. I just want
to tell you, dear friends, that you cannot
meet Jesus and stay the same. You can join a church
and remain unchanged. You can believe all sorts of things
with your head and remain unchanged. But when you meet the resurrected
Christ, it’s transforming. And,
it’s permanent. That’s 45 years ago,
that’s stood the test of time. There was nothing in
it of doctrine for me. Really, there wasn’t
for the disciples. They didn’t have a sudden scriptural
revelation, they met Jesus and they received the Holy Spirit. Divine, eternal,
resurrection life. Incorruptible life,
life that’s undefeatable. John says later
about that, “Whoever is born of God
overcomes the world.” You can’t be defeated with that
life in you, it’s undefeatable. It’s conquered
all evil. It’s supreme. That’s wonderful. Now, I read from my
outline at this point. At this point the disciples received
divine, eternal resurrection life. But, they still lacked
direction for ministry. It wasn’t many days later that
Peter went out fishing again. He still didn’t know what
God’s destiny for him was. And, they made no impact
on the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem just
went on the same. They were in the temple praising
and blessing God every day but it didn’t change
anything in Jerusalem. And Jesus told them
after this experience in the period between
this Resurrection Sunday and the time of
His ascension, Jesus told them,
“There is more to receive. Don’t believe that
you’ve got it all.” When I meet people who tell me
“I got it all when I was saved,” I say, “If you’ve got it all,
let’s see it, where is it?” It should show. I want to read two passages in
which Jesus made it very clear that there was more to
receive than they had received through a new birth,
wonderful though that was. Luke 24 verses 48 and 49. And bear in mind these words were
spoken shortly before His ascension. Something like 40 days
after His resurrection. “And you are witnesses of these things
[He’s talking to the disciples]. Behold, I sent the promise
of my Father upon you: but tarry in the
city of Jerusalem until you are endued
with power from on high.” So he said there’s
more to come. The Father’s promise you
haven’t yet received. But when you receive it, you’ll
receive power to be my witnesses. And then again
in Acts chapter 1 verses 4 and 5: Being assembled
together with them, he commanded them not
to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the
promise of the Father which, he said,
“you have heard from me.” And then he explains what
the promise of the Father is: “For John truly
baptized with water; but you shall be baptized
with the Holy Spirit not many days
from now.” That’s the promise
of the Father. Somebody has estimated there are
7,000 promises of God in the Bible. But, this is the promise,
the promise of the Father for His children. “You shall be baptized
with the Holy Spirit.” And then He explained
the purpose in verse 8. He said:
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses
to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the end of the earth.” So, that’s the promise to be
baptized with the Holy Spirit. And the purpose:
to receive power to be witnesses. That had not
yet happened. But Jesus said,
“There’s another experience coming in which you’ll be endued with
power to be my witnesses.” And almost all commentators of
the Bible from every background agree that that second promise was
fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. So we turn now to
Acts 2 and we read some verses that describe the
fulfillment of the promise. First of all, we’ll read the
first 4 verses of Acts 2. We’re talking now
about Pentecost Sunday. Now 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. Then there appeared to them
divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon
each of them. And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance [or gave them
to speak]. Now this is the
fulfillment of the promise. I want to point out to you three
successive phases of this experience. First of all, the Holy Spirit
descended like a mighty wind and filled all the
house they were sitting. Bear in mind that
linguistically, the word baptize means
to dip or to immerse. This is an unquestionable
linguistic fact. So, every baptism has
to be an immersion. Baptism in water is
an immersion in water. But baptism in the Holy Spirit is
an immersion in the Holy Spirit. You see,
baptism in water, you go down into the water
and come up out of it. But baptism in the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit comes down upon you and immerses
you from above. You can compare going
down into a swimming pool, being baptized or walking
under Niagara Falls. Each of them is
an immersion. But the second one is
an immersion from above. I remember the first time
I watched Niagara Falls, I said to myself you couldn’t
be half a second under that without being
immersed. But it’s not an immersion
by which you go down into, it’s an immersion by which
it comes down over you. And so, every one of the disciples
in that upper room at that point was immersed in the Holy Spirit
descending upon them from above. It says it filled all the
place where they were sitting. So, they were totally immersed
in the Holy Spirit — phase one. Phase two, it says they were
all filled with the Holy Spirit. Each one received the Holy Spirit
within to the point of being filled. And phase three is what
I call the overflow. They began to speak with new languages as the
Spirit gave them to speak. In Matthew 12:34,
Jesus says this: “Out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaks.” In other words, when your
heart is filled to overflowing, the overflow will take place
through your mouth in speech. So,
this is scriptural. When they were filled and
could contain no more, the overflow
took place. They began to speak as the
Spirit gave them to speak. Those are the three
phases of that experience. Immersion from above,
infilling, and outflow. Now, theoretically you
can stop at any point. They could have been
immersed but not filled. Or they could have been immersed and
filled but not had any overflow. But my question is why settle
for less than the best? I often preach
to Catholics, and when I do so,
I always remind them that their two favorite
figures in the New Testament— Mary and Peter—both
received it that way. I say to them,
“If that’s how they received it, why should you receive
it any other way?” When I put it that way,
I’ve seen hundreds of Catholics receive the Holy Spirit
in the next few minutes. All right. Now let me read my commentary
on this second experience. “The disciples now received
manifest, supernatural power.” Let’s emphasize those words.
It was manifest. Everybody knew
it had happened. It wasn’t just an
inward experience. It was supernatural
and it was power. They received boldness to witness,
which they hadn’t had before. They’d been born again but they
had no boldness in their witness. They received insight
into Scripture. In the next few minutes,
Peter without any concordance, without any notes,
stood up and said, “This is that which the prophet
Joel prophesied.” He couldn’t have said
that an hour earlier, he wouldn’t have
had any insight. Instantly the Scriptures became
alive to them in a new way. And thirdly, they were released
to the apostolic mission. Peter never talked about
going fishing after Pentecost. And, finally,
all Jerusalem felt the impact. Within a few hours,
everybody in Jerusalem knew that something unusual
had taken place. Now, when they were born
again, it didn’t get around. But when they were baptized in
the Holy Spirit, it got around. How many of you know from experience
it doesn’t stay hidden for long! And somehow it stirs things
up, have you ever noticed that? Somebody asked my friend Bob Mumford
what’s the evidence of the baptism. He replied:
Trouble! Now let’s look at this little
summation at the bottom here. I just want to put the
two Sundays side by side. On the left-hand side,
Resurrection Sunday. And on the right-hand side,
Pentecost Sunday. And you notice there
are three differences. That exclamation
mark down there in my original
outline was up here, but never mind about
that, that’s okay. Resurrection Sunday,
the resurrected Christ. Pentecost Sunday,
the ascended glorified Christ. Resurrection Sunday,
the inbreathed— It should be inbreathed Spirit,
not inbreathed Christ. Just correct that,
if you are writing it down. Inbreathed Spirit. Pentecost Sunday,
the outpoured Spirit. Resurrection Sunday,
the result was life. Pentecost Sunday,
the result was power. Neither contradicts
the other. It isn’t a question
of either/or, both are God’s purpose
for all of His people. But the fact that you’ve had the
Resurrection Sunday experience doesn’t mean that you don’t need
the Pentecost Sunday experience. Is that clear
to you? See? So, the Baptist who says, “I got
it when I was saved,” he’s right. But, he didn’t
get it all. In fact, I don’t think most of us have
got it all, to tell you the truth. I think there’s a lot more
for most of us to get. But, I hope that
makes it clear. To me, when I saw that and put
those two Sundays side by side, I no longer had
any problems— who has received
the Holy Spirit, who hasn’t received
the Holy Spirit. Every born again
child of God through rebirth has received
the Holy Spirit as life. But, every born again
child of God, according to the
New Testament, needs to be baptized
in the Holy Spirit and receive the supernatural
power for witness. They don’t conflict,
they fit together perfectly. Fernu, would you be kind
enough to turn the sheet over, and let's see what
we've got there. Now,
the next... Now we’ve got the exclamation
mark in the right place. All right.
Receive the Holy Spirit. I want to point out to you that
that was not a recommendation, it was a command. Jesus doesn’t usually make
recommendations, He gives orders. All right. Now,
here’s something very crucial. From Acts 2 onwards,
in the New Testament the phrase “receiving
the Holy Spirit” always refers to the Pentecost
Sunday experience. Okay? This is simply a matter
of New Testament usage. It doesn’t set aside the other
but it means from Acts 2 onwards, wherever it speaks about
receiving the Holy Spirit, it’s the Pentecost Sunday experience
which is being referred to. Let’s look quickly
at three examples. Acts 8,
the events in Samaria after Philip went there and
preached Christ to them. It says in verse
12 of Acts 8: When they believed Philip, they
were baptized, both men and women. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved.” So we have to acknowledge that
those Samaritans were saved. They believed,
they’d been baptized. But their experience
was not complete. And they didn’t get
any more from Philip. We read now
in verse 14: Now when the apostles
who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had
received the word of God, they sent Peter
and John to them, who, when they had come
down, prayed for them that they might receive
the Holy Spirit... They were saved but the
apostles prayed for them to receive the
Holy Spirit. Not the Resurrection
Sunday experience but the Pentecost
Sunday experience. ... for as yet he [the Holy Spirit]
had fallen upon none of them. Notice everywhere it speaks about
the baptism in the Holy Spirit, it always indicated the Holy
Spirit comes down from above. He had fallen
upon none of them, they had only been baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus. They were saved,
baptized believers but the Holy Spirit had
not fallen upon them. Then they laid hands on them and
they received the Holy Spirit. Okay. Three times we’re
told there that these saved, baptized believers still needed
to receive the Holy Spirit. Not the Resurrection
Sunday experience but the Pentecost
Sunday experience. And then in Acts 10:47, the
events in the house of Cornelius. You remember Peter went there and
brought them the testimony of Jesus. And,
the Holy Spirit fell. It interrupted
Peter’s sermon and all these Gentiles
began to speak with tongues. Then this is the
comment made by Peter: “Can anyone forbid water that
these should not be baptized to have received the Holy
Spirit just as we have?” He was referring to the fact that
they’d heard them speak with tongues. So, they had received the Holy
Spirit the Pentecost Sunday way. And then in Acts
19 and verse 2, when Paul first came to
Ephesus, he met some disciples. But he felt there was
something lacking in experience so he asked them
this question. He said to them: “Did you receive
the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they
said to him, “We have not so much heard
whether there is a Holy Spirit.” Now, if everybody automatically
received the Holy Spirit in every sense when they believed,
that would be a meaningless question, wouldn’t it? So he was not talking
about being born again, he was talking about receiving
the Pentecost Sunday experience. Now I want to come down
to being very practical. I want to tell you
how to receive. Doubtless,
many of you have received. I think it’s improbable that
in a gathering this size all of you
have received. Not merely am I
telling you this for the sake of those who
have not received— although I have you first
and foremost in mind— but I’m also telling
you this as a pattern for instructing people on how
to receive the Holy Spirit. And I want to tell you
that I know it works. I have proved it
in experience. I’m not offering
theories. Ruth and I were with a team in
Zambia about two years ago now and there was a gathering
of about 7,000 Africans in a very remote
part of Zambia. I taught them very carefully and
systematically the work of the cross, deliverance from curses,
deliverance from demons— which is essential
in Africa. And then the
fourth morning I brought them to the
teaching on the Holy Spirit. And I taught them almost exactly
what I’ve been teaching you. Then I said, “Now I want to
teach you how to receive.” When I brought them to the
point of receiving, I said, “From now on I
don’t want you to talk another word in your own
language—only a new language.” There was a pause
of about one minute and then one man began
to speak in a new tongue and in the next thirty seconds
I think at least 4,000 people received the baptism in the
Holy Spirit simultaneously. This, not on the same scale,
I’ve seen duplicated in many places. I was in a Catholic church
in Austria some time earlier. The Catholic priest invited
me to tell the people about the baptism and
speaking in tongues. When you’ve got the
priest on your side in the Catholic
Church, you can’t lose. I mean, you’re just the same as
if you were the prophet Elijah. So I told them just
what I’m telling you. There were about 900
people in that church. When I said,
“How many of you want to receive?” at least 500
came forward. I gave them simple instruction and
away they went, speaking in tongues. And then singing
in tongues. I’ll tell you, that beautiful
stone and marble building heard sounds that I think had
never been heard in it before. What a wonderful
sight! 500 people all newly
baptized in the Holy Spirit worshipping the Lord,
singing in tongues. You see, once you turn Catholics
loose, there’s no stopping them. You just don’t know
where they’ll end up. Protestants have got
a lot of inhibitions. They question, whether the preacher
is right, and is this doctrine sound As long as it comes from the authority
in the Catholic church, that’s it. There’s a lot to be said for that
though it does breed problems also. Now I want to say one more
thing, very important. The distinctive seal of the
baptism in the Holy Spirit is speaking
with tongues. Some people call
it the evidence. Actually, I prefer myself to call
it the culmination of the baptism. It’s not the immersion,
it’s not the infilling but what is it? It’s the outflow. Now, you can stop
short of the outflow. Lots of people have been
filled with the Spirit but they never
have the outflow. But why stop short
of the outflow? Paul speaks about receiving
the seal of the Holy Spirit both in Ephesians
and in Corinthians. A seal is something that’s
placed on an object, whatever it may be, a package,
whatever, that marks it out visibly. It’s not invisible, it’s something
that distinguishes it from all others. That’s what the seal
of the Holy Spirit is. It distinguishes those
people from all others. You’re a marked person once
you’ve received the Holy Spirit. Marked by men and be warned
also, marked by Satan. Now, the seal that I see in the New
Testament—this is my personal view— is speaking with
other tongues. I make these
four comments. Number one, it was the
seal the apostles received. They tarried for
about ten days but once they spoke in tongues
they never tarried again. And incidentally, nobody ever did
tarry for the baptism after that. The idea that you have
to wait around for weeks, months or even years
is unscriptural. After Pentecost there
was no more tarrying. I met a man in a Pentecostal
church once, he said, “I’ve been tarrying for
the baptism 25 years.” I said, “I know your problem,
you want God to do it all.” He said, “That’s right,
I want it all to of God.” I said,
“You’ll never get it. God will do His part,
you have to do yours.” I can easily believe he went to the
grace without speaking in tongues. Tarrying is not scriptural
after Pentecost. All right. It was the seal the
apostles received, it was the seal they
recognized in others. The outstanding example is
the household of Cornelius. Peter didn’t even believe that
Gentiles could become Christians. The moment he heard them
speak in tongues he said, “Baptize them, they’ve
received the same as we have.” He didn’t wait
around for fruit, he didn’t check if they
knew the doctrines; he said,
they’ve received. They never asked
for any other seal. And the New Testament offers
no other alternative seal. I think, we've got seal and alternative
the wrong way around there, but you're all smart
enough to be able to put the words in the right
order, I'm sure. Now, coming back to
how to receive. Let’s look, first of all,
in Luke chapter 11, verses 11 to 13. These are words
of encouragement. Jesus is speaking, He says: “If a son asks for bread
from any father among you, will he give
him a stone? Or if he asks
for a fish, will he give him a
serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg,
will he offer him a scorpion?” In essence He’s saying a father whose
child asks him for something good will never give
him something bad. Then He applies that
to our heavenly Father. He says: “If ye
then being evil, know how to give good
gifts to your children, how much more will
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who [what?] ask him.” You see, I’ve heard
Christians say it’s not scriptural to
ask for the Holy Spirit. But Jesus said if you’re a
child of God, born again, then you have the right to
ask for the Holy Spirit. And He actually places the
responsibility upon us to ask. Bear in mind if you are
a born again child of God and you come to God your Father
through Jesus the Son, the only way; if you ask for something
good and scriptural, you will never
receive something bad. That’s your
guarantee. But the responsibility
to ask is placed on you. And then the actual
steps to receiving, we turn to John chapter 7, and we read three
verses, 37, 38 and 39. In the last day, that great day of the feast, [which I believe was the
Feast of Tabernacles] Jesus stood and
cried out saying, “If anyone thirsts,
let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture
has said, out of his heart... But that’s too polite.
The Bible says “out of his belly.” I remember as a boy growing
up in the Anglican church, I was always a little shocked
when they read that passage that you would speak about anything
so vulgar as the belly in church. The truth of the matter is
that’s where it comes from. There is an area in
us, it’s interesting the Greek word means
“a kind of concave place.” It’s the same root word that’s
used for the vault of heaven. So, there is an area in
the body of the believer which is reserved for the Holy
Spirit. Did you know that? See,
don’t be too spiritual. This brings the Holy Spirit
right down into your body. Out of his belly. When I received the baptism
there in an Army barrack room, without anybody
else present, I felt it in
my belly. I thought what’s
going to happen next? Then I said out
loud to God, “If you want me to speak with
other tongues, I’m ready to do it.” I wasn’t ambitious. The moment I
said that, this fire moved up from my
belly to my chest, to my throat. The next thing I knew, there was
something like a piece of hard rubber bouncing about in
the back of my mouth. I realized it was
my own tongue. I opened my mouth and these
strange sounds started to come out. But it’s always been so vivid
to me it started in my belly. And that’s what
Jesus said. “Out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water.” Isn’t that a marvelous
transformation? We have a thirsty man who
doesn’t have enough for himself, he receives the Holy Spirit and
he becomes a channel of rivers— not a river but rivers
of living water. What a
transformation! Now, the comment is put in
by the writer of the gospel: But this Jesus spoke
concerning the Spirit, [capital S,
the Holy Spirit] whom those believing in
Him [Jesus] would receive. All right. Believers are
to receive the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit
was not yet given, because Jesus was
not yet glorified. The Holy Spirit in this
sense could not be given till Jesus had
been glorified. When was Jesus
glorified? When He ascended
into heaven and took His place at the
right hand of the Father. Now, if you go back to Acts 2,
just very briefly for a moment, you’ll see that Peter summing up what
happened on the day of Pentecost says in verses
32–33 of Acts 2: This Jesus God has
raised up [resurrected], of which we all
are witnesses. Therefore, being exalted
to the right hand of God [that’s being
glorified], and having received from the Father
the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which
you now see and hear. So, the glorified Christ
received from the Father the gift of the Holy Spirit and
poured it out on the disciples and the result, notice, was something
that could be seen and heard. It wasn’t just an
invisible inner experience, it was an experience that
impacted their bodies and impacted
their senses. We come back to John 7,
how to receive. I’ve got here four
very simple steps. The problem is not
that it’s complicated, the problem is
that it’s simple. The people who are theologically
minded and want complication sometimes find it too simple
to believe and to act on. What are the steps? Number one,
be thirsty. "If anybody
is thirsty..." Okay.
That’s your qualification. You don’t have to be
able to quote Scriptures, you don’t even have to have a
record of paying your tithes but you have
to be thirsty. That’s essential. I tell people when
they come to me, “Remember this, the baptism
is for those who are thirsty and deliverance is for
those who are desperate.” When people come to me for deliverance,
I sometimes say to them, “Listen, I can’t help
you, you’re not desperate. Come back when
you are.” However, we’re not
talking about that now, we’re talking about
receiving the Holy Spirit. It’s for one group of
people, for the thirsty. It’s not for
theologians unless they’re
thirsty. It’s not for the super-spiritual,
it’s for the thirsty. So if you feel very
inadequate, very weak and really incapable
of producing what God requires of
you, you’ll qualify. That’s your
qualification. You know you need more of
God than you already have. That is to
be thirsty. That’s all
God asks. Number two, Jesus
said, “Come unto me.” Brother David DuPlessis
has said so clearly, there’s only one baptizer in the
Holy Spirit and His name is Jesus. I didn’t hear that.
Jesus, that’s right. So if you want the baptism
in the Holy Spirit, you have to go
to the baptizer. There’s no other
place you can get it. No human being baptizes
in the Holy Spirit. They baptize in water but only
Jesus baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Fortunate for
us Jesus said, “Him that cometh to me I
will in no wise cast out.” So if you come,
you know He will receive you. What’s the next
thing you have to do? Here’s the problem. Here’s where it becomes
so practical and so simple that religious
people have problems. You have to drink. Nobody can force you to
drink against your will. You know the
old saying, “You can lead a horse to water
but you can’t make him drink”; that’s true of church
members, too. Nobody else can
make you drink. It’s a decision
of your will and it’s something very
simple that you have to do. I tell people this,
no one ever received the baptism in the Holy
Spirit with his mouth closed. It never
will happen. You have to open up
your physical being and begin to drink
in the Spirit of God. You’re not drinking
visible water but you’re drinking the
invisible Spirit of God which Jesus is
pouring out over you. Why is He pouring
it out over you? Because you
asked Him to. It’s that simple. He said, “If you come,
I’ll do it.” Now, the simplest way to drink
is just to begin to breath in. I’ve seen hundreds of people doing
it at one time but I tell you what, not one person who did
it failed to receive. People who have stood there with a
hmm, hmm, hmm, didn’t get anything. I saying this because
this is the problem. See, people are
self-conscious. “Well, they never taught
me to do this in church.” Maybe not. All right,
now one more stage. You’ve drunk, now you have
to release the outflow. “Out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke
of the Holy Spirit.” So, the final phase
is the outflow. How does
that happen? Through the
mouth in speech. “Out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaks.” Because it’s a
supernatural infilling it will be a
supernatural outflow. You’ll not speak a
language you know, you’ll speak a language
the Holy Spirit gives you, one you’ve never heard,
one you don’t understand, one you never learned and you
probably never will understand. How do you know
it’s right? How do you know
it’s right? The answer is because you
asked the right thing. See? God’s given you a written
guarantee, Luke 11:11–13, if you ask for the right thing you
will never get the wrong thing. I’d like you
all to say that. “If I ask for the right thing I
will never get the wrong thing.” Now turn to your neighbor
and say it to him. “If you ask for the right thing you
will never get the wrong thing.” Okay! Now we’re convinced.
All right. Now let me just come to
Satan’s two objections. If I were to ask
for hands up here amongst those who have been
baptized in the Spirit, you’ll find 90 percent of the
people would put their hands up. Objection number one, the old
accuser is right there by your side and when you begin to
speak in tongues he says, “That’s not real,
you’re doing it yourself.” How many—just put your
hand up for a moment. You see?
It’s almost everybody here. All right.
What’s the answer? You need to
have the answer. The answer is,
“You’re quite right, Satan. I am doing
it myself. I am doing the speaking but the Holy
Spirit is giving me the language.” You see,
in Acts 2 it says “they all began to speak as the
Spirit gave them utterance.” The Spirit didn’t do the speaking,
He gave them the words. They did the
speaking. That’s why I said to that
man who tarried 25 years he’d go to his grave
without receiving because he wanted
God to do it all. God won’t
do it all. You do your part
and God will do His. But He’s not going
to make you speak. I’ve heard people say the Holy
Spirit made me do this and that. I don’t
believe that. The Holy Spirit never makes
a child of God do anything. The apostle Peter said,
“The Holy Spirit bade me go.” But he didn’t say,
“He made me go.” You have a free will and God will
never overrule your free will because He created
you that way. You’ve got to
decide to speak. And you can’t speak
with your mouth closed. I’ve helped so
many people. I say, “Listen, open your mouth,
move your tongue, move your lips. Speak articulately. Form every word. You’re in the
driver’s seat. You make the
decisions. Your will is
the switch. The power is there but
only you can switch it on.” All right.
So the answer to Satan is, “That’s right, Satan.
I am doing it myself, I’m doing the speaking,
the Holy Spirit is giving me the words.” The next objection is how do you
know you got the right thing? It sounds
very silly. Well, almost any language
you don’t know sounds silly. I’ve heard scores of
languages I don’t know in different parts of the world,
they all sound strange to me. An unknown language
is strange. But how do you know you’ve
got the right thing? Well, we’ve just
told one another. How do we know we
got the right thing? Because we asked
for the right thing and God guaranteed we’d
never get the wrong thing if we asked for
the right thing. Brothers and sisters,
the basis of this thing is faith. There is no other
way to come to God. “He that cometh to
God must [do what?] believe that God is
[that’s not enough], that He’s a rewarder of those
who diligently seek Him.” The only thing there remains
to do now is receive. There are some of you who have not
been baptized in the Holy Spirit in the sense you
don’t have this seal. You may have received but
you don’t have the outflow. And there are some of you
who have had an outflow but you wondered whether
it was the right thing and you never had the faith or
the courage to go on doing it. You’ve never had
a real release. If you would like that
full release this morning here before this meeting
closes, I want to help you. I’m going to ask you
to stand to your feet. Don’t be
embarrassed. And when you’re standing I’m
going to lead you in a prayer by which you can come
to Jesus and receive. Now, we don’t
have long so if you want to receive,
just stand to your feet now. Wherever you are, don’t be
embarrassed, don’t be ashamed. It’s nothing to be ashamed
of, it’s common sense to go to God
for the best. There are some of you who are not
quite sure whether you’ve received. You said a few words, your lips
moved but you don’t really know. I’d like you to stand, too,
because you can have a clear river. I tell people, “Remember,
this thing isn’t a puddle, it’s a river.
It goes on and on and on.” You don’t just say in 1974
I spoke in tongues once. That’s not
the story. That’s not a river,
that’s a puddle. Okay! Any others that want to
stand, you do so. About how long do we
have, somebody tell me? Five minutes. Okay, that’s ample.
We can get it in five minutes. That’s really a super allowance.
Okay? It doesn’t take long. Okay, now,
I’m going to pray a prayer out loud and I want you to pray
it after me sentence by sentence. Bear in mind you are
not praying to me. You’re praying to the baptizer,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I will cause you to say those
things which qualify you as a thirsty person
coming to Him. When you’ve said
the final word, we’ll say amen so you
know to stop praying. Now, after that,
don’t do any praying. Okay?
What do you do? You begin to drink.
All right? You don’t need to gasp, just
quietly take in the Spirit of God. Shut yourself in with the Lord, forget
there are any other people here. hen there’s that
moment of faith when you begin to
release the new language. Some of you are right
ready to do it right now. You’ve got to break
the sound barrier. You don’t need to shout,
you don’t need to scream, but you need to say it loud
enough to hear yourselves so that when you walk
out of this place you know you’ve heard yourself
speak with other tongues, with another tongue, okay? Remember, when we come to
amen, no more English, no more Filipino, no more
whatever it might be— Spanish, no more Chinese,
no more Japanese. Some unknown
language, okay. These are the words: “Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you
are the Son of God and that on the cross
you died for my sins and rose again
from the dead. I trust you
for forgiveness and for cleansing. I believe you
have received me as a child of God. And because you
have received me I receive myself
as a child of God. If there’s any resentment
in my heart now, any unforgiveness
against anyone, I lay it down, I forgive every
other person as I would have
God forgive me. If I’ve ever been
involved in the occult I acknowledge
that as a sin, I ask your
forgiveness and I loose
myself now from every contact with Satan and
with occult power, in the name
of Jesus. And now,
Lord Jesus, I come to you
as my baptizer in the Holy Spirit. I present to
you my body to be a temple
of your Spirit. I yield to you
my tongue to be an instrument
of righteousness, to worship you in
a new language. By faith I
receive this now and I thank
you for it in the name
of Jesus, amen.” Now just begin
to drink. Just breathe in,
take it in. Then,
begin to speak out. When you speak,
just open your mouth, move your tongue and your
lips and give Him your voice. Many of you are
ready to do it now. That’s right,
that’s right. When your lips and your tongue
are moving, give Him your voice. That’s right. You don’t have to be ashamed
that the Holy Spirit has come in. He’s an
honored guest. Hallelujah,
thank you Lord. Let’s all stand to our feet and
worship God together in tongues.
