There are still numerous denominations that hold the position that the Holy Spirit no longer does miraculous or supernatural acts through God’s people and that God no longer intervenes in the affairs of men in miraculous ways.  In other words, these churches teach that since the end of the first century, the Holy Spirit no longer activates the gifts of prophecy, tongues, words of knowledge, miracles, healing, and so forth given to the church.  Since those days, we should no longer expect angels to visit men with messages from God, or bodies of water parting for God’s people, or angels being sent out to defeat the enemies of God without a battle.  According to these denominations, for the last 1900 years or so, God has answered prayers through natural means rather than supernatural.  There have even been books written in the past ten years railing against the deception of supernatural spiritual gifts and the supernatural intervention of God in our circumstances.

I was part of one of those denominations for two decades.  Our people loved God and they loved the Word of God.  They prayed.  They worshipped.  They served.  I have no reason to doubt they were saved.  There was a common denominator among many of the people I fellowshipped with, however.  They all felt as if there was something “more” they should be experiencing, but were not sure what it was.  It just felt like something was missing.

I believe the missing piece was the opportunity to experience God, not just know about God.  If you think about it, the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation is a record of men and women encountering God in supernatural moments. Something happened to them outside the natural order of things.  God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden.  God directed to Noah to build an ark.  God visited Abraham with angels and promises of a son to be born long after it was physically possible for Sarah.  Then we have Moses and the burning bush, the ten plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea.  These kinds of moments are recorded throughout the Old Testament. Visions and dreams, angelic visits, supernatural victories in war, deliverance from fire and lions, supernatural provision, and so on.  

In the New Testament that theme continues.  E very encounter with Jesus was supernatural…God in the flesh.  Healings, raising the dead, supernatural catches of fish, demons being dispatched, and storms being quieted with a word.  After Jesus returned to the Father, we see tongues of fire on Pentecost, jail breaks facilitated by angels, more healings, deliverance and people raised from the dead.  The church is given the spiritual gifts of healings, tongues, miracles, words of knowledge, prophecy, etc. and was instructed to use them for building up the body of Christ. 

The notion that God revealed himself to his people through miracles, visions, and angelic visits from the beginning of scripture to the end and then suddenly stopped the flow of power and supernatural encounters to his church seems unreasonable and out of character for God. In scripture, the very thing that propelled Gods’ people through each crisis was the expectation that God would move in some miraculous way to deliver them.  That attitude is what the Bible calls faith and without faith it is impossible to please God.

nterestingly, we see the Apostle Paul in Athens in Acts 17.  He is invited to speak to the intellectual elites of the day by sharing the gospel on Mars Hill.  Paul gave his best explanation of the gospel, perhaps using the learning and training he had received at the feat of his mentor, Rabbi Gamaliel, when he was growing up.  A few responded, but not many.  Paul was disappointed.  

His next stop was Corinth, and when he wrote his first letter to them, he recalled their initial encounters.  He said, “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:1-5).

It seems after his experience on Mars Hill, he put away intellectually persuasive arguments and rhetoric and began preaching a simple gospel…but with a demonstration of power.  In other words, he still preached but then enabled those who heard the word to actually experience God through the exercise of spiritual gifts…a supernatural moment.  The pattern of Jesus had been to preach the coming of the kingdom of God and then to demonstrate it through healing, deliverance, miracles (loaves and fish), and sometimes calling people back from the dead.  We can safely assume Paul did the same. After all, a gospel without power is no gospel at all.  

The “more” that most believers are looking for is an experience with God, not just more knowledge about him.  That is the biblical pattern from Genesis to Revelation and should still be our pattern in the church.  Can spiritual gifts and claims of miracles be abused?  Of course. They were abused in Corinth, but rather than telling the people to stop using the gifts or that the gifts were fraudulent, he simply instructed them about how to use the gifts as God intended.   Many believers suffer from a faith that is devoid of power.   Rather than confronting the attacks of Satan they are instructed to simply endure the attacks.  Without the use of the divine (supernatural) weapons that Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 10, we cannot confront spiritual forces.  Therefore, those who believe that God no longer intervenes or that the Holy Spirit no longer imparts power, simply have to take what Satan is handing out.  That is not the character of God nor should it be the character of his people. 

Let me encourage you to seek more experiences with God…biblically balanced and tested.  Those experiences will always have some supernatural component because God is supernatural. And remember that God is interactive not simply observational.  He always has been.  He has always extended the invitation to experience him whether at a burning bush, the Tent of Meeting, or through his Holy Spirit living in us,. So let’s accept the invitation and find the “more” we are looking for.
  

Back in 1970, a little book came out entitled The Late, Great, Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey.  It was viewed by many as the ultimate blueprint of the end times.  Of course, the beginning of the countdown to the return of Christ was the establishment of Israel in 1948.  Lindsey took all kinds of Old Testament prophecies as well as the book of Revelation and some prophetic statements by Christ in the gospels to connect nations, leaders, and world events to a seven-year tribulation of terrible plagues and natural disasters on the earth. 

Then, either before or in the middle of this great tribulation, the rapture of the church would occur when Jesus would evacuate every believer from the face of the earth to avoid what was coming.  Then, after the tribulation Christ would return to begin a thousand-year reign on the earth during which Satan would be bound and then released for a final confrontation. Then would come the end of time when Christ would destroy all his enemies and the eternal heaven would be ushered in on a renewed earth.

This book had a profound impact on the church in the coming decades.  Lindsey was not the first to develop this theology but he was the first to popularize it in such a way.  For me, the discouraging part of this view of the end times was that all of the earth would plunge into an inevitable spiritual darkness that no efforts of the church could forestall.  It suggested that no matter how hard the church prayed or evangelized, this inevitable triumph of darkness over light would transpire until things were so bad that Jesus “raptured” every believer from the face of the earth.

As a result, an attitude developed that any great efforts of the church at redeeming nations and cultures were doomed to fail.  Some believers simply took on the notion that we could no longer be world changers, but simply needed to bunker in until Jesus returned.  That mindset still exists in many believers today. I believe that some of this theology crept into churches to the extent that Christians began to pull back and isolate themselves from our culture with the sense that our involvement could actually make no difference. We handed over politics, education, science, and the arts to relative unbelievers – an expanded version of separation of church and state. 

This separation has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Someone prophesied that culture would continue to inevitably deteriorate in spite of our best efforts and so Christians abandoned it.  Because we withdrew from these cultural playing fields, of course it is deteriorating.  My objection to this view is that it inadvertently presents the power of Christ and his church to be insufficient to withstand the power of evil for decades while billions of people that Jesus died for are funneled into hell.  

And yet, Jesus demonstrated his power over evil through preaching, healing, and deliverance during his entire ministry on the earth.  His greatest demonstration of power came through the resurrection. He then sent his Spirit to empower believers to do what he had been doing.  Jesus himself declared that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church.  We are also told in Isaiah, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Isa.9:6-7). 

This prophetic passage declares that the increase of his government will have no end.  In other words, his kingdom will continue to advance until the end of the age.  Jesus stands for victory rather than defeat. He taught us to pray…thy kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven.  There is no place for a sense of inevitable failure, defeat or impotence in the kingdom of God.  Every election cycle, it feels like many Christians believe that their involvement in the political process is either futile or unbiblical…because they refuse to vote.  It seems that many believing parents discourage their children from academia or politics or involvement in the arts because those systems have been heavily infiltrated by the enemy.  

The questions is whether we should withdraw or retake those influential systems of culture for the kingdom of God?  To do so will require a theology of victory rather than defeat, power rather than weakness, and engagement rather than abandonment.  That is the Spirit of Christ. No matter how the end times roll out, we should remain committed to taking back the world from the enemy until Jesus appears again. God commanded Adam and Eve to subdue the earth for his purposes. That command was restated in the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. We may want to begin right here in America to reclaim what belongs to God.

But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils. Luke 11:20-22.

Jesus spoke the words above in one of many confrontations with the Pharisees. Seeing Jesus cast out demons, the religious leaders declared that he was casting them out by the power of Satan rather than the power of God. Religious people have always had a problem with those who operate in the power of God. They have the problem, because they don’t operate in the same power. God does not work miracles through those who trust in rules and rituals for their salvation, but through those who trust in Him. Though healing and deliverance, Jesus demonstrated that the power of the kingdom of God is much greater than the kingdom of darkness. That same demonstration needs take place today.

Religion, in the sense of being a system of rules and rituals through which one tries to find favor with God, can be a hindrance to actually discovering God himself. The rules can become the thing rather than the relationship. it is interesting to note that many of the men through whom God did his greatest miracles, such as Elijah and Elisha, did not spend much time at the temple in Jerusalem, but spent much of their time in the wilderness pursuing a relationship with God. Jesus did spend time at the Temple but did so trying to redeem those at the Temple from religion rather than participating in all the temple rituals himself. It is those who have a relationship with God that God will entrust with his power.

This is not an invitation to spurn churches and go to the lake every weekend. We are commanded to meet with fellow believers, but the emphasis is love God and love one another. The Old Testament was full of detailed rituals regarding sacrifices, temple worship, being clean or unclean, etc. But the New Testament has very little instruction on what we do when we come together or how we do it. It is relational. Our commands are to love God with all of our heart , soul, mind and strength and to love one another, encourage one another, serve one another, pray for one another, and so forth. It is in that environment that God will impart his power to be used to build up the body of Christ and to bless each other.

There are still many voices today who accuse those who prophesy, speak in tongues, heal, and cast out demons of being false prophets and pawns of the devil. Even though Paul was clear that the church must not despise prophecies nor forbid tongues, many church leaders still do so. I’m not saying that “prophetic words” or tongues or even healings are always from the Lord. There were plenty who abused spiritual gifts in the days of the apostles and some tried to lead the young churches in the first century away from the truth. Most of those were in it for personal gain or were in it to lead these new believers back to religion and away from relationship. It is important to note that in the face of these abuses, Paul didn’t forbid the exercise of these gifts, but simply instructed the church in their proper use.

The reason he did not forbid the exercise of these gifts was they were one way in which the reality of the kingdom of heaven and the Kingship of Jesus was demonstrated. Again, Jesus said, “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” The pattern of gospel preaching in the New Testament was always with power. Preach it, then demonstrate it. A gospel without a demonstration of power is a different gospel from the one the apostles preached. In Acts 17, Paul made his way to Athens where philosophers and pagan priests stood on every corner. Paul was invited to speak at the Areopagus, a public forum where philosophers and religionists gathered to share their ideas. There Paul stood and expounded the gospel with great elocution and with his most persuasive words. At the end of the day, only a few believed.

His next stop was Corinth. There he declared to the church, “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:1-5). He had different results in Corinth. After Athens, he determkned that a simple gospel with a demonstation of God’s power, was much more effective that eloqurnce and education.

It appears that we are on the brink of a great move of God in the world once more and in our nation. Churches are beginning to fill again. Revivals are breaking out on college campuses. God is bringing in a great harvest around the world. Where true revival breaks out, there have always been manifestations of the power of the Spirit. That was true on the Day of Pentecost, during the Great Awakening, during the Restoration Movement of the 1800’s, and even during the Jesus Revolution of the 70’s. Those who embrace the power of the Spirit along with faithful preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be those who God uses to bring in the Lion’s share of the harvest. If you are not in a church that embraces a gospel of power, I hope you will pray for that chuch to open up to the Spirit of God. If you sense they will not open up, I encourage you to find a healthy, holy church that points you to Jesus and to his Holy Spirit.

Worship without the Spirit becomes entertainment. Eloquent preaching without the Spirit draws men to the preacher rather than to Jesus. Prayers without the Spirit, are bereft of power. Without power we are left to turn to men for the best man can do rather than turning to God who can do all things.

For the word of God is living and active. Hebrews 4:12
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. John 6:63

The two verses above speak about God’s word. The text from the book of Hebrews describes it as living and active. The Greek word translated as “living” means that it contains its own vitality. It is as much alive as humans or plants or animals. The fact that it is living suggests that it grows and bears fruit. The parable of the soils (Lk.8:4) that Jesus taught, compared the word of God to seed that would bear tremendous fruit if planted in fertile soil. Just as one seed produces much more than itself, , the word of God produces much more than itself.

The Greek word that is translated “active” means more than just moving around or animation. It is a word that means something is surging with energy in a way that significantly impacts its environment. It indicates that something alive and powerful is moving and accomplishing a divine purpose in both natural and the supernatural realm. This definition takes the word of God far beyond information to be simply transmitted or principles to be learned. It is much more than a philosophy of life. While we study the word, meditate on it, and quote it, we can be sure that something is at work in the unseen realm that is fulfilling that word in ways we may or may not be aware of. It may be accomplishing something in us or something external to us that the spiritual realm is operating on.

The second verse from above was spoken by Jesus and adds to our understanding. Jesus declared that his words are spirit and they are life. What does it mean that his words are spirit? I believe they are spirit in two senses. First of all, his words originated in the spiritual realm. While on earth, Jesus still operated as a citizen of heaven whose perspective was always anchored in heaven. In addition, he said that he spoke only what he heard his Father saying. To his disciples he said, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work” (Jhn.14:10). His words flowed from the spiritual realm to the natural realm, not the other way around. When Jesus spoke the words of the Father, they went forth guaranteed to fulfill the Father’s purpose. It is the same when we, as children of God, declare his word.

Secondly, they came to him from the Father via the Holy Spirit. Jesus declared that the Spirit gives life. As they came from the Father through the Spirit, they were infused with the life-giving power of the Spirit. God declared to Isaiah, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” ( Isa.55:10-11).

That is how the word of God becomes living and active (Heb.4:12). As his words are broadcast, they are infused with spiritual power by the Spirit of God. They activate something in the spiritual realm that fulfills God’s purpose as in those words as they impact the natural realm. As a result, the words of Jesus created life in various forms. For some it was spiritual life. Men were born again in response to the gospel. For others, it was physical life. Thousands were healed and physically restored and some were literally raised from the dead. For others, emotional life was imparted to them as broken hearts were healed. And for even more, life was restored as men and women were set free from their bondage to demons and addictions. His words imparted life because his words carried authority and were infused with the same power that created the universe through the words of God.

But what about today? How is the word activated? There is life in a seed – enough to grow a giant redwood – but that life is not manifested until it is planted and watered. The word of God rests on the pages of a Bible or in the heart of a believer. It may do a work in the believer but not in the world that surrounds the believer until it is activated. It is activated when it is spoken or declared with faith. Throughout scripture, God deposited his word in the hearts of his prophets and empowered those words when they were proclaimed. Moses declared each plague before Pharaoh and then God produced each one. He put his words in the mouth of Jeremiah and as Jeremiah declared that word over nations, those words came to pass. I have heard today’s prophets put it this way –   prophetic words don’t tell the future, they create it.

God’s word is filled with power and purpose. When we pray it or declare it, those words go forth alive and energized by the Spirit to produce more life and fulfill their purpose. When we speak healing, hope, provision, or peace over a person or ourselves, we should believe by faith that something is going to happen because the word has been activated and is filled with God’s energy and purpose. When we declare his word by faith, the fuse is lit and power will be released at the proper time.

Read the word, hear the word, pray the word, write the word and declare the word. When we partner with God, he will honor his word. What situation do you need to be declaring the word of God over right now? Find your scripture and activate it in your life or in the life of someone you know by faith.

This is the final blog of this series and our discussion on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  This “baptism” has often been misunderstood and often maligned by those who believe that God’s miraculous interventions and the miraculous gifts of the Spirit have ceased to function. However, I believe it is still an essential part of the Christian life.  Let me bullet point what I have said so far.

• John the Baptist declared to the Jewish crowds around him that Jesus was going to baptize them (or some of them) with the Holy Spirit and fire.  That is recorded in all four gospels.
  

• Jesus stated on several occasions that it was better for him to return to the Father because only then could he send the Holy Spirit.  This obviously meant that the Spirit would come after the ascension of Jesus and manifest himself in ways he had not done before.
  

• After his resurrection, Jesus commanded his disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit which would impart power for effectively being his witnesses to the world.
  

• After Jesus ascended to heaven, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was “poured out” on about 120 believers who had gathered in a room to pray and fast as they waited for direction from the Father.
  

• Suddenly, the Holy Spirit came as a mighty rushing wind and formed tongues of fire above the believers, who then began to speak in languages they had not known before and began to preach in the temple courts with a boldness they had never known before.
  

• The language used to describe this “baptism of the Spirit” was:  to receive the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, have the Spirit come on you, have the Spirit fall on you, and for the Spirit to be poured out.  (Remember the world “baptism” means to be immersed, saturated, overwhelmed, etc.).
  

• The Holy Spirit was also poured out on the Gentiles in Acts 10 as Peter began to share the gospel with the household of Cornelius.  Peter explains that this was another moment when Gentiles were baptized in the Spirit just the disciples had been on Pentecost.  The evidence of their “baptism” was that they began to speak in tongues.  
  

• This “power” experience of the Holy Spirit sometimes came directly as the Spirit would fall on someone or as people, who were Spirit-filled, would lay hands on others who were then empowered by the Spirit. In Acts, we see evidence of the “baptism” as the gifts of tongues, prophecy, and boldness which were displayed by those who were filled with the Spirit.
  

• On several occasions, people who had already been water baptized in the name of Jesus were then baptized in the Spirit.  At other times, people were baptized in the Spirit and then water baptized.  
  

• On several occasions, those who had been baptized in the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, seemed to get a “fresh filling” of the Spirit on occasions where it was required for boldness, healing, miracles, etc.
  

All of this suggests that there are two functions of the Holy Spirit in relation to us.  First of all, when we come to faith and confess Jesus, the Spirit comes to live in us and begins to bear his fruit of love, joy, peace, etc. in us as well as giving us understanding of scripture, comfort, counsel, and so forth.  He takes up residence and then begins an interior renovation of our soul. 

The other function of the Holy Spirit is power for ministry through the gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12-14, Romans 12, and few other places.  I believe we can receive both at once, but we can also receive them as separate events based on our understanding of the Holy Spirit and God’s sovereignty.

The final question is whether that power is for the believer today, or if it was just a first century phenomenon.  You already know what I believe, but let me walk you briefly through my reasoning.

First of all, Jesus clearly stated, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (Jn. 14:14-16).  

This declaration by Jesus was in the context of miracles.  There is nothing in his statement that suggests this promise was only for a few followers or had a shelf life of only a few years.  Jesus said this capacity to do miracles was for anyone who had faith. The only limitation stated was a lack of faith.

Secondly, Jesus clearly stated to his followers that they could not fulfill the “Great Commission” in their own strength and abilities, but had to receive power via the baptism of the Holy Spirit for them to adequately witness the reality of Jesus as they evangelized the world.  Why would our need be less today as we go into a hostile world of atheists, satanists, Muslims, Hindu’s, and a vast array of other cults and religions?  

Paul declared that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but rather against the spiritual powers of darkness (Eph. 6:10).  The spiritual gifts of healing, prophecy, words of knowledge, spiritual discernment, and even miracles are often needed to free people from demonic bondage or sickness.  Those “power gifts” come only through the baptism of the Spirit.

Most conservative, Bible believing churches look for patterns in the New Testament that we are to replicate if we want to be like the church that Jesus and the apostles established.  One pattern we see over and over is the gospel being preached and then followed by supernatural signs – healings, casting our demons, and even raising the dead.  That is what Jesus did.  That is what the twelve did when he sent them out on their own as well as the seventy.  That is also what we see in the book of Acts as men like Philip, Barnabas, and Stephen went out to preach the good news.  If we are to replicate that pattern for evangelism, we must do the same and to do so requires baptism in the Holy Spirit.

We could add numerous other scriptures that teach that the followers of Jesus are to have power and authority over the enemy and that we are to preach the gospel and then demonstrate the kingdom through miracles.  There are no time limits in scripture attached to these promises and commands.  Faith or a lack of faith seem to be the only limiting features.  For me personally, being baptized in the Spirit and having spiritual gifts activated by the Spirit, has made all the difference in my ministry and in my personal life.  Being with people who believe in the power of God for healing and spiritual warfare, for speaking prophetically, and for the move of God to take on supernatural dimensions make life as a believer an adventure more than a struggle.  Multitudes of believers who do not know about the baptism of the Spirit live a life of following Jesus with the sense that “there must be more.”  There is if you know how to receive it.

In closing, I also want to mention that baptism in the Spirit does not always look like tongues of fire dancing on your head or falling and having spasms for hours.   It can look like that, but it can also look like a quiet moment of faith that the Spirit will fill you when you ask and the evidence will simply be something noticeably different in your life or ministry over the next few weeks.  Speaking in tongues is the normative evidence of “the baptism” in scripture, but not all speak in tongues, at least not right away.  Receiving power from the Spirit is like hearing the voice of God.  It can sound like thunder, but it can also sound like the still, quiet voice of Elijah’s cave.

 The important thing is that you desire everything that God has for you and that you ask for it,   seek it. And knock on every door to find it.  We will not evangelize the world without demonstrating the power and authority of our Lord.  Many have tried to do so in their own strengths and with natural talents that are often impressive.  But the natural cannot overcome the spiritual.  Power and authority to do that comes from the Holy Spirit.  I hope you will go after that power and authority and ask for fresh fillings on a regular basis  because it essential for being His witness to the world.