Baptism in Holy Spirit

5 Ways Another Pentecost Will Surprise Us by J. Lee Grady

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J. Lee Grady writes:

5 Ways Another Pentecost Will Surprise Us

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When people staged surprise birthday parties for me in the past, I usually figured out their plans. But two years ago some friends organized a party without my knowing, and when I walked into the room I was totally shocked. There were banners, balloons, a cake and 30 people—and I didn’t see it coming. This must be how it felt to be one of the disciples on the day of Pentecost.

Jesus told His followers they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit, but He gave them no clue about when or how. The key word in Acts 2 is “suddenly,” found in verse 2. When they were gathered together they heard the sound of wind; they saw flames of fire; and they began to speak in languages they didn’t know. The commotion attracted a huge international crowd. After Peter preached, 3,000 people decided to believe in Jesus. And none of this was rehearsed.

We will celebrate Pentecost this year on Sunday, May 23. Are you ready for another surprise? On the first Pentecost, heaven literally came down. The Holy Spirit “filled” the room (v. 2) and “filled” the disciples (v. 4). That’s because they needed supernatural power to do the work Jesus commissioned them to do. The church can’t do its job if we are filled with ourselves; we must be empty and surrendered, so God can work.

We are overdue for another heavenly visitation. As I have read and reread the book of Acts this year, I see five blessings of Pentecost that we need today:

1. We need the rushing wind of new life. Acts 2:2 says “a noise like a violent rushing wind” filled the upper room where the disciples prayed. The sound was evidence of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Spirit brooded over the waters of creation to bring life (Gen. 1:2), the Holy Spirit breathed His life into dry bones and brought forth a living church.

We need this new life today. The church is dry. Our congregations are aging. Many churches today haven’t baptized a new convert in years. We can’t jumpstart new life in our churches with programs, nice buildings or slick social media promotions. We need heaven’s wind to resuscitate and revive us. Lord, send the wind again!

2. We need the fire of God’s holiness. There was no giant pillar of fire standing nearby on the day of Pentecost. In the time of the New Covenant, the flame rests on each person. The fire burns much closer to us. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of each of us, and the flame rests on every head. Every believer is ignited with a holy passion for God.

We will not impact our wayward culture unless every Christian carries the fire inside. Not only does everyone need to be filled with the Spirit, but we must also learn to maintain the fire and never quench it. This requires that we crucify our ungodly desires and develop close intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Lord, send the fire again!

3. We need the tongues of supernatural anointing. I hear a lot of talk about the Holy Spirit these days, but words can be cheap. In the New Testament, the disciples had more than words—they had the demonstration of supernatural miracles. They had what the Bible calls “the manifestation of the Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:7). One definition of “manifestation” is “a perceptible, outward or visible expression.”

Many Christians today have gone so long without seeing the reality of God’s healing power that they don’t even believe God heals today. But God never unplugged His power; we short-circuited it with our unbelief. People need to know that the same Jesus who makes lame beggars walk and blind men see is still working in us. Lord, send Your miracles again!

4. We need bold preaching that produces conversion. The miracles of wind, fire and speaking in tongues were important. But the biggest miracle happened when Peter, a flawed man who had denied Jesus three times, preached a bold sermon. Peter had many weaknesses, yet the Spirit worked through him anyway. He “raised his voice” (v. 14) and bravely defended his faith.

This is a lesson for us all. You may speak in tongues, but if you don’t use the Spirit’s power to reach lost souls, you have cheapened the definition of a Pentecostal. We often say that tongues is the initial evidence of the infilling of the Spirit. But if someone isn’t bold to witness, they can’t be full of the Spirit. Lord, give us souls again!

5. We need the miraculous unity of the Holy Spirit. Before the day of Pentecost was over, people from all over the Roman Empire had come to know Jesus Christ—people from Egypt, Libya, Mesopotamia, Rome, Persia and beyond. Peter had prophesied this miracle when he said the Holy Spirit would fall “on all mankind” (Acts 2:17). Pentecost is not Pentecost if it does not break down racial and cultural barriers. The Holy Spirit is grieved by racism and classism. Lord, break down the walls again!

I hope you are praying for another visitation of Pentecost. We can’t predict what it will look like exactly, or where it might begin, but our hearts should be desperate for God to unleash it.

Becky Dvorak: Prayer for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

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I have been a witness to a mighty move of the Spirit moving throughout the entire earth. It is a wave of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The altars have been filled with people asking and receiving this empowerment of Holy Spirit. The Lord knows what is ahead of us and His desire is that we are ready for what is to come.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is for anyone who has received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is what the apostle Peter preached immediately following the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:38-39, NKJV. 

It is the Father who gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask of Him, and He always gives us good gifts.

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J. Lee Grady: Why Is the Gift of Speaking in Tongues So Awkward?

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J. Lee Grady: Why Is the Gift of Speaking in Tongues So Awkward?

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This Pentecost, don’t apologize for the secret of the apostle Paul’s power just because it’s awkward. (Aaron Amat via Getty Images)

From Charisma

Churches across the world will commemorate the day of Pentecost this next Sunday, whether they meet online or in their buildings. Most will celebrate the need for the Holy Spirit’s power, and they might read Acts 2:1-4, which tells how the Spirit’s flame rested on all the disciples who prayed in the upper room that day.

But when they read verse 4 (NASB)—”And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance”—some people will shift in their seats or clear their throats. This aspect of Pentecost makes people uncomfortable. We don’t know what to do or say about tongues. It’s just too weird for most people.

It was awkward for me too, when I first heard about it. I’d never met a Pentecostal. Speaking in tongues wasn’t part of my church tradition, and I had never heard anyone do it. In fact, the first person I heard speak in tongues was myself, when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1976!

Since then, I have prayed for countless people to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I don’t force them to speak in tongues. I just warn them that it might happen, since it happened in Acts 2.

 

Several years ago, when I was teaching at a ministry school, a 22-year-old guy from Maryland asked if I could pray with him. He had heard me share how I was baptized in the Holy Spirit at age 18, and he wanted the same experience.

This young man, Eric, understood that he already had the Holy Spirit living inside of him. But he knew that Jesus offers us more. He knew the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a second experience in which the fullness of God’s divine power anoints us for ministry.

I explained to Eric that speaking in tongues makes no sense in the natural. It actually sounds like gibberish, yet the Bible says praying in the Spirit strengthens us profoundly (see 1 Cor. 14:2, 4). I laid hands on Eric and asked Jesus to fill him with divine power and to release the Holy Spirit’s language as a manifestation of the overflow.

Nothing dramatic happened at that moment, but I told Eric to remain expectant. I’ve learned that oftentimes, the release of the Spirit comes more easily when people are alone and not distracted by people standing around. I encouraged him to go home and pray some more.

 

A couple of days later I received a message from him, letting me know that a small miracle had occurred in his life. He wrote: “Thank you for praying for me to speak in tongues. That night was interesting because phrases started to pop into my head. I began speaking the phrases, and by the next night I was speaking in tongues as I was falling asleep. Now, every moment that I am not worshipping, praying, eating or speaking to someone, I am practicing this gift. Praise God!”

Many of us fall into the trap of downplaying speaking in tongues, even after we’ve received the gift ourselves. We may consider it divisive (and it certainly can be when it is abused) or we’re embarrassed because it seems fanatical to our friends or family members.

Yet when I read the apostle Paul’s comments on the issue, I realize that speaking in tongues was a key component of the New Testament church. Not only did tongues play a fundamental role on the day of Pentecost when the church was born, but this strange gift also fueled Paul’s personal zeal. The same apostle who wrote the book of Romans and preached to Caesar wrote: “I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all” (1 Cor. 14:18). Paul most likely prayed in tongues for hours at a time.

Paul also instructed the Corinthians: “Do not forbid to speak in tongues” (1 Cor. 14:39). He knew that even though some people might be tempted to misuse this gift (and this is usually why people restrict it), we must never shut it down.

Eliminating the gift of tongues can have a direct impact on the flow of the Holy Spirit’s anointing in the church. If you forbid tongues or pretend this gift is not needed today, you might as well flip a breaker switch and turn off all the lights.

Speaking in tongues doesn’t make us holier than anyone else. And if we don’t exhibit love and Christian character, Paul said it becomes a useless gift comparable to a noisy gong (see 1 Cor. 13:1). But when stewarded properly and tempered with humility, this seemingly insignificant gift becomes an invisible spiritual weapon.

I’m not saying we should showcase tongues in church gatherings, scream at people in tongues or make people feel like misfits if they haven’t experienced the gift. (We must forgive immature Christians for doing those things.) When the Corinthians put tongues on the platform and turned their meetings into chaotic circus sideshows, Paul rebuked them sternly.

But the same apostle who warned his followers not to flaunt tongues in public also spent countless hours praying in tongues privately—because it’s a vital source of spiritual power that we must never neglect. This Pentecost, don’t apologize for the secret of the apostle Paul’s power just because it’s awkward. We need the Holy Spirit’s power like never before.

Anna Gibson- “No Longer Thirsty.”

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A powerful testimony from Mark Virkler’s blog of God reaching into a person’s heart and transforming her life.

No Longer Thirsty Since I Received the Gift of Speaking In Tongues – Testimony by Anna Gibson

At the age of 6, my dad introduced me to a prayer that if I prayed it, he claimed I would then be a Christian. I wanted Jesus in my heart. I constantly lived to please Him, but after this prayer, I expected to be perfect. No more spankings, no more corners. But instead, I felt worse. I struggled more everyday and I didn’t understand. My parents didn’t explain.

At 14 I began realizing I was trying to be good on my own. I didn’t know the next step. For several weeks at church an elder came up to me and asked if I wanted to be baptized. I denied him each time. One Sunday he asked my dad. To my dad’s knowledge I was saved so he told me to get baptized. I was frustrated. He didn’t see my heart. There was no way I was saved. But because I had been taught to be submissive, I did not argue with my dad. “In the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I now baptize you.” I arose out of the water as if a heavy blanket were over me. Burden… I felt the guilt and shame of lying to the church as they all cheered for me. Every compliment that day made me sick.

At the age of 19, just before going to college, my spirit was being tormented. I heard the Holy Spirit calling me, but my flesh was crawling with demons of fear, desires, lust and hatred. I slammed my Bible to the floor and spoke out loud, “If you really are God, then show me a verse!” I really wanted an answer!!! Immediately I put my finger on a verse that said, “Be slow to anger.” That made me more mad. I said, “There is no way I am settling down.” Again I slammed the Bible, threw it open and put my finger down. This time the verse was, “Be slow to speak and quick to listen.” How could I listen!! I was so mad and there was no way I wanted to cool down. I wouldn’t hear a thing!! The third time, again, “Be slow to anger.” I just dropped to the floor. “Okay, God! What is it?”

I heard God say, “Choose this day. Me or the world?” It wasn’t long before I said, “Jesus! I want Jesus!!” Immediately God led me to repentance. The next step was baptism. A bitter word in my mouth, but I knew this time, I was depending on Jesus to help me through this life. He wasn’t just sitting on the sidelines waiting for me to mess up so He could go back to the cross. The day of the baptism we went to the river. As I went into the water, my eyes were open and I saw a bright light enter my soul and darkness rushed out of me. I just watched the spirit of shame wash down the river.

I began to journal my prayers when I realized I would fall asleep during prayer on my bed. I didn’t want to fall asleep on my Lord. During these prayers I heard the spontaneous thoughts and knew it was God. I just had no idea I was doing what you teach, Mark! Miracles and pain, blessings and curses later my dad sent me an email from your videos with Charity explaining dreams. My dad knew I dreamed a lot. That’s when I started hearing more. I wanted what you had. I wanted what Charity had. Joy didn’t seem to stop flowing from you. I felt that through the videos. I asked myself, “Why am I not happy? I have tried minimalism, I’ve tried requesting my husband to do more for me. I’ve tried hanging with new friends. I’ve tried working from home. I’ve tried having children, etc. Nothing is working.” There were days I was happy and thought that was the Joy of the Lord, but it was not sustaining. I wanted MORE!!!!!!!!!

Then I received the email that you were coming to my area… wow! My spirit jumped up and down. I just knew we were to go. The first evening my husband and I met Don and Kay Martin from Kansas. I heard they led groups in their home. That’s what piqued my interest. Saturday morning we arrived early. When Don and Kay walked in I inquired about their meetings and how they did that. From that moment, Don gave us a word from the Lord and we were connected. We had lunch together, then from 4:30-11:30 p.m. we were with them. At 10:30 Don asked, “Are you filled with the Holy Spirit?” We said, “Well yes….” He added, “With the gift of speaking in tongues?” Immediately, “NO!

Oh goodness, no.” That moment opened up questions and I began to shake. I told them that for many years how I felt something in my stomach rise up and flow to my head whenever I prayed, but it was becoming far more frequent that I was beginning to think I had a disease that would come on if I bowed my head. Don asked me if it made me feel like it just wanted to come out and I said, “YES! I feel like my brain is going to explode!” He led us to his hotel room and there we yielded to the Holy Spirit and within moments, Spiritual beautiful language was flowing from our mouths! The Holy Spirit was finally flowing! What a relief!!! I felt ten pounds lighter within MINUTES!!!! How could this be and how can you explain this feeling?

My sweet Jesus brought this illustration to my mind: The Potter and the clay. When you find natural clay to work with, it is suggested to bring it in and dry so that you can smash it and grind it into a smooth powder. At this point you pour a little water at a time to mix it in. Once you can make ribbons of clay through your fingers when you squeeze it, it is ready to be formed.

Before receiving this gift I felt like a clay pot that had been formed but set aside and dried. I was thirsty. I was not a good vessel. I could not hold what was being poured into me. The occasional moisture was nice, but I was not where I knew I could be. When we met with Don and Kay Martin they took us to the Potter’s house. My opinions, my analytical self and my weariness were crushed and refined to powder. Yielding to the Holy Spirit I felt Him adding water and mixing together my spirit and His. He threw me to the wheel and began spinning! I am refreshed! I am redeemed! I am whole! I have been made into a beautiful vessel! Already the demons are fighting, (this is where the fire comes in.) Just enough fire, just enough heat will “bake” me. I will mature the longer I am in the fire/ the kiln. I want to be completed in His time!

I thank God for being patient with me. His mercy endures forever! I am His creation! I am proud of it! Thank you for yielding to our Savior and not giving up after 11 years of silence.

Jo Ellen Stevens: A Resurgence Of The Baptism Of Holy Spirit

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Jo Ellen StevensThe Lord has been speaking to me that there is about to be a resurgence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in this season! He said that people are going to rise up and desire the power that they see in the early Church but that they no longer see in their denominational churches. And He said that they will have a desire for this because they are seeing that on their own they cannot be set free of the depth of darkness that their generation has taken them into.

I see this stirring in people again like never before! They are seeing their need of the power of God again in their lives. I am also hearing that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are once again going to become something that people desire and not look at as some backwoods thing that their parents and grandparents did that caused them embarrassment in the past, but they are going to remember the things that happened when Grandma prayed in tongues and God moved on her behalf! God is going to bring these things to their remembrance in this hour, and a new, deep desire for the deep things of God is about to begin stirring in their souls until they will have nothing less than all that God has for them!

The Lord has looked on these young souls and seen the poverty of their spirits and souls, and His heart is hurting to come near them so that He can heal them. So, He is beginning to place a desire in their hearts to come after that which they saw in their parents and grandparents that caused them to long to be clean. It caused them to know peace and to know that there was something in this world that was holy. So, He is putting the desire in their hearts again for the Holy Spirit! Be ready to bring them into this!

 

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5 Ways That Praying in Tongues Will Change Your Life Forever by LARRY SPARKS

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praying in tongues

5 Ways That Praying in Tongues Will Change Your Life Forever

One of the most controversial and, sadly, most misunderstood gifts of the Holy Spirit is praying in tongues. I am convinced that there is so much antagonism aimed at this gift because of the incredible power it releases into our lives. In the same way that many reject the prophetic ministry because of abuses, misuses and bad experiences, the same approach has been taken—perhaps in greater extremes—toward praying in tongues.
Tongues Is a Controversial Subject That Requires Our Attention
At the end of the day, we need to be honest with ourselves and honest with the biblical text. This unique gift of the Holy Spirit actually announced the birth of Christianity on the Day of Pentecost. It was highly prized by the man who wrote the majority of the New Testament (Paul). It equips believers to communicate with God on a unique level and empowers us to effectively live the supernatural life. In short, it would make a lot of sense that the enemy would tirelessly fight against something that has such strong potential to pillage his expansion of darkness in our lives and on the earth.
Corey Russell, a senior leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, wrote the book and curriculum The Glory Within not simply as a teaching on the subject of tongues, but as a summons to experience the power of a Person—the Holy Spirit. In the past, many books and teachings have emphasized tongues in almost a robotic way. What was intended to be a source of supernatural power and a catalyst for deep intimacy with God has been reduced to a mere theological position in many charismatic churches.
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