Glossolalia:
Ten Steps of Faith to Receive
the Baptism of
the Holy Ghost
By Harry A.
Peyton
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
DEDICATION &
ACKNOWLEDGMENT (2)
INTRODUCTION (2)
CHAPTER 1 YOU MUST BELIEVE JESUS LOVES YOU (4)
CHAPTER 2 YOU MUST REPENT OF AL SINS (7)
CHAPTER 3 YOU MUST BELIEVE THE BLOOD OF JESUS WILL CLEANSE YOU FROM ALL SIN (13)
CHAPTER 4 YOU MUST RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST AS A GIFT (15)
CHAPTER 5 YOU MUST BELIEVE GOD IS NOT A RESPECTOR OF PERSONS (17)
CHAPTER 6 YOU MUST BELIEVE GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT IS ANXIOU TO COME IN YOU (21)
CHAPTER 7 YOU MUST PLACE YOUR WHOLE MIND ON JESUS,
AS YOU WORSHIP HIM WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART (25)
CHAPTER 8 YOU MUST YIELD YOUR TONGUE AND VOICE
TO GOD’S SPIRIT BY FAITH IN VERBAL WORSHIP (28)
CHAPTER 9 YOU MUST BELIEVE IN YOUR FAITH (34)
CHAPTER 10 PRAYING FOR THE HOLY GHOST (35)
My Personal
Testimony Of How I Received The Holy Ghost (37)
BIBLIOGRAPHY (44)
ENDNOTES (45)
Copyright May 30,
1996 by Harry A. Peyton under the title of “The Doctrines Of Christ.”
A Note from the Author: Since Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
gives His Salvation and His Word to all freely (Rev 22:17, Mt 10:7-8), this
book, and all other books, written by Harry A. Peyton are given without charge,
and can be accessed through the Internet at the following address: http://www.DoctrinesOfChrist.com. Therefore, fell
free to copy it in digital or written form, and share it with others. Since
this book is copyrighted, the author forbids any alteration of its contents,
and the reproduction of it in any form for Marketing Purposes. This book may be
placed on anyone’s web page, as long as my website address is attached to it.
The
author believes that the Word of God is infallible in the ORIGINAL
LANGUAGE it was written in, and all translations of the Bible regardless of how
good they may be are NOT. Since the author has implicit faith in the infallibility
of the Word of God, the author has formed his beliefs firmly on the truth of
the Bible. This author uses the ancient ANTIOCHIAN LITERAL-HISTORICAL METHOD OF
INTERPRETING THE BIBLE, which was used by early Christian Prophets and Apostles
of the Bible.
I
definitely believe that the ancient Alexandrian Allegorical Method of
spiritualizing scripture, which was made popular by the ancient Jewish
philosopher Philo Judaeus (13 BC – 50 AD) and later used by the Ante-Nicene
Catholic Priests, especially Origen and his student Clement of Alexandria (200
AD), is an abomination to our Lord. Therefore, all scriptures will be
interpreted in a literal exegetical fashion, unless the language used and the
context demands a spiritual interpretation.
All CAPITALIZATION and ITALICIZATION in QUOTES used in this book
is always MINE. All Biblical quotes used in this book will be in dark red, and from the New King James version of
the Bible, unless another version is stated as the reference. The vast majority
of all translations of the Bible, as well as Hebrew and Greek Lexical
definitions and grammar, will come from BibleWorks computer
software program version 7.0. The author in most
places will quote verses from the Bible instead of commenting on a verse and
giving a reference; for He believes that the written Word of God’s has greater
power to inspire and enlighten a heart to understand and act upon truth, than
the elegant oratory or writings of any man.
If this book has been a
blessing to my beloved readers, and they would like to send an offering to the
author, feel free to do so. If anyone wishes to send any biblical or historical
materials to the author, my address is: 148 Little Creek Hills Rd.: Alto, NM
88312: Phone # 575-336-2800: Email address: DoctrineOfChrist@Hotmail.com.
Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior came to give Eternal Life to all
who will enter into a covenant relationship with Him through the New Birth, and
walk with Him in Spirit and Truth. This book is designed to reveal the absolute
truth pertaining to the Eternal Life that our Lord Jesus purchased for us
through His peerless death, burial and resurrection. It is dedicated to all the
courageous men, women and children of the present and past centuries, who loved
the Lord Jesus Christ and believed His Truths. I would especially like to
acknowledge those who suffered social scorn, loss of income, loss of property,
imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom for their faith in Christ’s New Birth
message and their monotheistic belief in Jesus’ Supreme Deity.
I
would like to acknowledge my Lord, Jesus Christ, whose love, grace, and
inspiration made this book possible. May He use this work for the propagation
of His Gospel; so many souls may be able to enter into His great Kingdom. I
would also like to thank Bridget Joseph and Joan Brooking for their invaluable
assistance in editing this book. I deeply appreciate their labor of love.
The Holy Spirit is God’s power dwelling in the believer. Our lovely
Lord said: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). Therefore, if you want power to lay down your sins of lying,
cheating, smoking, drugs, alcohol, and so on, you need the Baptism of the Holy
Spirit. It is God’s “righteousness, peace, and joy,” which He puts in the believer’s spirit (Rom 14:17). Who among all the believers in Christ would not want all the peace
and joy that God could give them? Who would not want God to declare them
righteous? These are just a few of the benefits of having the Baptism of the
Holy Ghost. Receiving God’s Rest and Refreshing is very simple and childlike.
In fact, God made it easy.
Therefore, I would like to present for your consideration, ten steps of
faith to receiving the great and beautiful gift of the Baptism of the Holy
Ghost. One should always remember that every good gift that comes from God, we
must receive it by faith, or in other words, we must believe and acting
upon the Word of God. This Bible study is an expanded form of a
preaching and teaching message, which I have given to believers who wanted to
receive this great and powerful gift. It is a proven message, for I have seen
hundreds receive God’s gift. This study is designed to build faith in the
reader, and to remove any unscriptural ideas from his or her mind that will
hinder him or her from receiving God’s glorious indescribable gift.
A repentant believer can receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost
at any point in this message. In fact, when my beloved readers feel a desire
come over them to pray and worship Jesus, by telling Him how much they love
Him, they should stop reading and take a few minutes and let their faith loose
and do it. Remember, these desires can only come from God’s Spirit that is on
you, so do not quench the Spirit but yield to it. If my beloved readers do not
receive Baptism of the Holy Ghost quickly within five minutes, they should stop
worshipping God, unless they feel a very strong presence of God
upon them. If they do not, they should continue to read this book until they
feel another desire to start worshipping God. I truly believe God will
baptize my beloved readers with His Ghost, before they finish reading this
book.
This Bible study is also designed to help increase the faith, of
those who have already received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. That is of
course, so they may be able to understand how to yield their tongue to the Holy
Spirit by faith, whereby they can pray and sing fluently in tongues.
Because I did not know some of the truths of this study, the devil had me
believing one of his lies, as a result, I only spoke seven words in tongues
every time I prayed or worshipped, for the first three and half years of my
walk with God. When I learned that it was an act of faith, and by faith I must
yield my tongue, and not wait for the Holy Spirit to take control of it, my
faith turned loose and I started speaking in tongues fluently, and even sang in
tongues.
For those who are not
familiar with the term “glossolalia,” permit me to define it. The
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99, under the heading of “Glossolalia” stated: (Greek glossa,’tongue’;
lalein,’to speak’), [a] religious term for the ancient and modern
practice of speaking in a state of ecstasy…. Two New Testament
authors, Paul and Luke, indicate that speaking in tongues was a notable
part of early Christian church life. The descent of the Holy Spirit at
the festival of Pentecost that followed the first Easter marked the first
exercise of this gift of speech (see Acts 2:1-42) in the church…. The consistent
element in the New Testament references to glossolalia is the belief
that the Holy Spirit causes Christians to speak in tongues…. Speaking in
tongues is thus considered a manifestation of one’s being under the direction
of the Spirit rather than of one’s own rational faculty.
Thus,
glossolalia is speaking in a modern or ancient language, which is known
somewhere in the world, but it is unknown to the speakers, for they were not
taught that language (Acts 2:6-11). In the Bible, believers spoke as the
Holy Ghost anointed each one to speak, by giving them the words to speak! In
other words, the language each individual speaks in does not come from their mind,
but the Holy Spirit anoints their human spirit to speak. It is the Holy Spirit
anointing their spirit to converse with its creator. It is not the soul
of man that is communicating with God in a language that it has been taught,
but it is their human spirit that is pouring out its heart to God
in prayer or worship (1Co 14:14).
As one who has
been praying, worshipping, and singing in tongues through the Holy Ghost for 33
years, and as one who is sometimes used to give a message or interpret a
message in the church (1Co 14:2, 4, 15, 27-28), I can say
without any hesitation or doubt, this is one of the greatest and most glorious
experiences I have even had with my God and Savior. I have always been amazed
and awed by the reality of God’s beautiful and exciting presence in my life, in
which I am so thankful! No one deserves to receive this great and holy gift,
but our sweet Lord gives it to the undeserving, who truly believes and repents
of all his or her sins.
Now, according to the Word
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ opened up the New Covenant on the Day of
Pentecost by pouring out the great, wondrous, and holy gift of His Spirit on
approximately 3,120 souls (Acts
2:1-4, 41).
Professor Phillip Schaff in his History
Of The Christian Church, spoke of this when he wrote: The ascension of Christ to heaven was followed ten
days (actually
7-days) afterwards by the descent of
the Holy Spirit upon earth and the birth of the Christian Church…. The
communication of the Holy Spirit was not confined to the Twelve. It extended
to the brethren of the Lord, the mother of Jesus, the pious women who had
attended his ministry, and the whole brotherhood of a hundred and twenty souls
who were assembled in the that chamber. They were ‘all’ filled with the Spirit,
and all spoke with tongues. [1]
Speaking
of glossolalia that took place at Pentecost, A New Standard Bible Dictionary made this interesting statement: The Church of Christ, as it
appears in the NT, is essentially Spirit-anointed and conscious of a heightened
religious experience, a new quality of life, communicated through Jesus; and
all this goes back to an initial experience of Spirit-baptism through faith
in the Name (1 Co 1:21 f.). From the opening of the Apostolic Age, however, the
Spirit-baptism of Jesus the Christ (cf. Jn 7:39, 16:7), a
sensible [or rational or conscious] experience and one recognizable
by outward signs (e.g. rapt utterance, glossolalia, Ac 2:4,
10:46, 19:6), was associated with water-baptism (Ac 2:38).... [The] Spirit-baptism was the ‘seal’
of Divine acceptance. [2]
According to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, speaking in tongues: Appeared as a sign of the
Holy Spirit, which marked the character of the earliest Christians.... The
account in Acts (2:38; 8:14‑17; 10:44‑48; 11:15; 19:1‑7)
indicates that in the beginning of the Christian Church the phenomenon reappeared
whenever conversion and commitment to Christianity occurred. In time, the
Church began to expect and very nearly demand its manifestation to verify the
possession of the Holy Spirit. [3]
After
this initial outpouring of God’s spirit, we can see in the Book of the Acts,
the Holy Ghost being poured out on a multitude of hungry hearts from AD 30-96.
John Sherrill, in his book
entitled They Speak In Other Tongues, reveals that glossolalia or: Tongues continued to play a part in Christian
experience down through the centuries. [4]
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica: In modern times, glossolalia has been found
chiefly among Holiness and Pentecostal groups.... In the 1960s by an upsurge of
the phenomenon among some members of the more established churches, such
as Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Lutheran. [5]
So with these things in mind, let us begin our Bible Study!
CHAPTER 1
YOU MUST BELIEVE JESUS LOVES YOU
The majority of those who will read this already believe the Gospel.
But because of all the hardships of life, everyone needs to be reminded that
Jesus really loves them. The Bible says: “for God so loved
the world [you and I], that he gave his only begotten Son” to die for our sins on Calvary's Cross (Jn 3:16). Anyone who wants to be saved or receive the gift of Holy Ghost must
believe that Jesus really loves them and that He died for all and not just some
their sins. Their faith will be in proportion to the degree that they truly
believe this in their hearts.
Now Jesus suffered a very excruciating painful death at Calvary, so
that He could prove His love for you and I. God could have chosen other ways of
redeeming lost humanity from sin. He could have sent some man, or even one of
the angels to suffer and die on Calvary’s Cross. The very fact that God
Almighty, the Creator of the world, decided to become a man Himself, and to be
beaten, mocked, spat upon and nailed to a cross to redeem us, is an
indisputable proof of His great love for all men. Since God did all this just
for you and I, you know it has to be His will for you to receive the gift of
His Spirit. In fact, He wants you to have His Spirit much more than you want to
receive it. So He is not going to make it hard for you to receive it. He made
it simple and child like, as I will explain later.
Permit me to give you two examples of God’s love reaching out for men.
One Sunday, in the year of 1972, I was praying
for a move of God in my Church. It was about 5 PM, when I started praying. After a few minutes of prayer, God spoke to
my mind, and told me to go to Jackson Square Park and witness for Him. I
immediately went to the park. When I arrived, I found many hippies and drug
addicts sitting and laying on the grass. For one hour I tried talking to them,
but to no avail. As I was leaving, I saw a man, about 28 years old, lying on the grass by himself. He was a short man in stature, and had
long blond hair hanging down to his waist. All he had on were cut off Jean
shorts, a leather vest that was open, and sandals. I went over to where he was,
and asked for permission to sit down by him. He replied: “Hey man, it is a
free country, you can sit wherever you want.”
I sat down and started talking with him. After a few minutes, I began
to tell him how much Jesus loved him and really cared for him. He stopped me
and said he did not want to hear my lies. He told me: “Jesus does not love
me or anyone else. Jesus hates me and He hates you. Jesus is not a God of love
but a God of hate, if He is God at all.” I asked
him, why he would say such a horrible thing as that? He then told me this
story. He said: “When I lived in Tennessee a few years ago, I had a
beautiful wife, whom I loved very much. As she was delivering our first child
she died in childbirth and the baby died with her. Now, if Jesus loves me as
you say, why did he take from me the one and only person whom I loved? Jesus
must hate me!” No matter what I said, he did not
want to hear it.
As I was leaving, Richard, for that was his name, asked me for some
money to buy something to eat. He told me he had eaten in three days. I told
him that I did not give money to anyone, for fear of what they may buy with it.
I told him I would go and buy him some food, but it was late and Church would
be starting in a few minutes. I said to
him: “Richard, if you come to Church with me, as soon as Church is over, I
will take you to a nice restaurant and buy you a steak dinner.” Richard agreed, and off to Church we went. When we arrived at Church,
Richard wanted to sit in the very back of the Church. Before the service began,
most of God’s people came to him, in love and true sincerity, shook his hand
and told him how glad they were that he was there. I could tell that this had a
real effect on him.
As the service began God’s Spirit started moving through His people,
Richard could hardly believe what he was seeing and hearing. There is not a
doubt in my mind that God had that service prepared just for him. Somewhere
during that service, Richard started believing that Jesus not only loved him,
but also would truly forgive him for his blasphemy. When the Altar call was
given, Richard was the first to go to the Altar, knelt down and started to
pray. As he prayed and wept, with his face buried in his hands, I heard him
say: “Jesus can you ever forgive me for all the hateful things I said about
You.” The very moment he said that, the Holy
Ghost into him and he began to speak in tongues as God’s Spirit gave him the
language to speak in! He then lifted up his head, opened his eyes look up as
though he could see into heaven. As I looked into his big blue eyes, I could
actually see the excitement and wonder that was in them. My heart was immediately
filled with joy and praise for my God, for He is truly a God of love and
forgiveness!
In March of 1982, for
a short time, I was holding some Bible studies in the country jail in
Lovington, NM. There I met a man who responded to the gospel of Christ. I
believe his name was John. I told him that Christ loved him and wanted
to fill him with the Holy Spirit today, if he would believe
Him. The next day, when I came back to see him, I look into his eyes and
immediately knew that he received it. John then asked me baptize him.
Therefore, I went to the Sheriff and asked permission to baptize John. The
Sheriff told me there was no way he was going to let John out of his cell. I
asked him: “why
not?” The Sheriff then told me John was in the Santa Fe
prison, a few months earlier, when they had a riot, in which several guards and
many prisoners were brutally tortured and murdered. He said that John agreed to
be the state witness against those who committed these murders. Therefore, the
state secretly moved him to the Lovington’s county jail, and placed him in
isolation for his protection, for there was a contract out on his life.
I then
proceeded to tell the Sheriff this is why he had to let him out to be baptized,
for not only was he in danger of losing his physical life, but more important
his eternal life. Even though the Sheriff was a Baptist, and did not believe in
the essentiality of water baptism, after a very long discussion with him, and
after he talking to John, he agreed to do it. The only stipulation was that no
one could be in the Church but the pastor and myself, when they brought him in.
Therefore, on Sunday at 2 PM, five sheriff’s cars pulled up to the United
Pentecostal Church, with John and eleven deputy-sheriffs in them. Six deputies
came into the Church, who were fully armed with shotguns, and searched every
room, including the attic. When they were satisfied that no one was there, they
brought John in.
As
John and I stood in the baptistery, the pastor and four deputies stood around
it, and the other deputies were throughout the sanctuary. After I baptized John
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, John came up out of the water whispering
in tongues. I immediately realized that this is how he must have receive
the Holy Ghost is his prison cell. He must have prayed to God in a
whisper, not wanting the other prisoners to hear him. I told him: “John you are not in prison
right now, lift up your voice like a trumpet and praise your God for saving
you.” John immediately began to shout praises in tongues to
the Lord Jesus Christ, while jumping in the baptistery and splashing water all
over the Church in his excitement. One
of the deputies standing by the baptistery thought John was going berserk, so
he drew his pistol. I immediately told the deputy to put away his pistol, for
John was just excited about the reality and presence of God he felt in his
spirit.
Now, I
do not know how much emotion John felt in his prison cell when he received the
gift of the Holy Spirit, I suppose very little; but one thing is for sure, John
believed that God loved him and would fulfill His promise to him. John
expected God to come into that jail cell and fill him with His Spirit, and God
did! John found out that when a sinner is ready to believe and repent of his
sins, God is ready to fill him with His Spirit. My beloved readers, what is
stopping you from receiving God’s gift right now? Do you believe God loves you
as much as he loved Richard or John? If God loved them more than He loves you
and me, then He would have to shed more of His precious blood for their filthy
sins than He did for our sins. However, since His blood was shed equally for
all of mankind, He loves all of us the same when it comes to salvation!
Is it not strange, that many of the sinners I have met over the years,
that had tragedy in their life, always blame Jesus for it? I have never met one
that ever blamed Satan, or even sin in their life for their problems. Why do
sinners never get angry with Lucifer and cuss his demonic name? Why do they not
mock his name, or use it as a cussword? They have it all wrong! Jesus is the
one who truly loves them, and Lucifer is the one who hates them! Jesus proved
His love for us once and for all time, when He went he hung on the old rugged
Cross for our sins! Therefore, my beloved readers, you must believe in and
accept Jesus’ love by faith. A million praises to our God for His unselfish
love.
CHAPTER 2
YOU MUST REPENT OF AL SINS
The Need
For Repentance: Repentance is one of the most importance steps
in salvation; for no one can be water baptized in Jesus’ name or be filled with
the Holy Spirit without true biblical repentance. In fact, if believer’s faith
has not led him or her to truly repent of all their sins, they are not a
believer, and they are not eligible for water baptism. If they are baptized in
an un-repented state, all they did was to get wet, for they did not enter into
Jesus’ death and burial. Only old-fashioned biblical repentance will set the
spirit and soul of man free and bring the holy presence of the Lord to them!
There
is a great need to for the preaching of repentance today, for denominational
preachers in their efforts to fill the pews of their churches, have back away
form preaching the true biblical doctrine of repentance, and went to the “easy believeism doctrine.”
Therefore, their churches are filled with unregenerate people who profess to
know Christ, but do not know how to repent. These people seek for all kinds of
spiritual blessings, miracles, emotional highs, and the gifts of the Spirit,
and do not even realize that they need to repent of their sins and become
born-again, before God will give them any of these things.
The
Definition Of Repentance: “Repent [metanoeo] therefore and
be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing
may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
Peter told these Jews that they had to repent of their sins, before God would
fill them with His great and holy Comforter. According to Drs. J.P. Louw and
E.A. Nida, in their Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament, the
Greek word “metanoeo”
means: to change one’s way of life as the result of a complete
change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness…. A
focal component of repent is the sorrow or contrition that a
person experiences because of sin, the emphasis… seems to be more specifically
the total change, both in thought and behavior, with respect to how one
should both think and act. [6]
A good biblical definition of repentance can be found in the Book of
Acts, when God commissioned Paul to be a preacher; for He commanded him to
preach repentance so that He may: “open their [the
sinner’s] eyes, in order to turn
them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who
are sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18). Thus God defined repentance as:
a “turning away from sins and Satan, and a turning to God
and the light of His Holy Word.”
In the Old Testament God told His children to: “Repent [shuwb]! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your
downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new
heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no
pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and
live” (Eze 18:30-32). The Hebrew words for “repentance” are “nacham” and “shuwb.” The
word “nacham”
means: “to
breathe hard, to sigh, or to lament over one’s sins.” It
signifies difficulty in breathing because of deep sorrow for sins. “Shuwb”
means: to “turn
away from sin.” Thus, true repentance implies: “a sinner should realize that
they have grieved the heart of God with their sinful ways, which should lead
him or her to feel a deep remorse for their sins, which in turn will lead him
or her to be determined in their heart to turn away from their sins.”
The Jewish Encyclopedia spoke
of repentance this way: All the prophets were preachers of repentance.... As long as man lives
he may repent, but there is no repentance after death, only submissive
acceptance of God’s punitive justice.... Wherefore R. Eliezer said, ‘Repent one
day before death’ (Ab. ii. 10) - that is, every day.... The righteous repent
for every sin they have committed (Ex. Rl xxiii. 3); the disciple of the wise
repents every night for his sin.... Repentance is not an outward act...but an
inner cleansing of the heart (Pesik. 161b). It must be perfectly sincere, true
contrition, coupled with shame and self-reproach, and confession. [7]
It is
God’s will for all to come to true repentance and receive Eternal Life. It is
not God’s will that anyone die lost. God said: “Do I have any
pleasure at all that the wicked should die [eternally]?’ Says the
Lord GOD, ‘and not that he should turn from his ways and live [eternally]” (Eze 18:23). The apostle Paul said it this way: “For
the wages of sin is [eternal] death; but the
gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:23).
Forgiveness is not possible, if you do not repent of all of your sins.
True
repentance is very important in the eyes of God, and it involves
seven actions: 1) Acknowledge You Are A Sinner: You
must acknowledge or admit to yourself and God that you are a sinner: for “If
we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”
(1Jn 1:8). The Bible also declared: “All
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).
Therefore, you must be willing to face and acknowledge your sins to receive
forgiveness: for Jesus “did not come to call the righteous,
but sinners, to repentance” (Mk 2:17).
2) Take Full Responsible For All Of You Sins: Do
not blame any person for your sins. The devil, no doubt brought the temptation,
and even brought pressure against you to commit the sin, but you are the one
who committed the act. As Ex-president Harry S. Truman once said: “The buck stops here.” Do
not try to justify any sin you committed. Just look up into heaven with a
broken heart, and tell your loving heavenly Father the Lord Jesus Christ: “Lord I am guilty, please
forgive me,” and He will.
3) Forsake All Sins: You must thoroughly make
up your mind to forsake all sins and be determined to do what
is right, for sin separates man from God. For the Word of God declared: “If I
regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear” me (Psa 66:18); and “Let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let
him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him” (Isa 55:7); and “He
that covers his sins will not prosper: but whoever confesses and forsakes
them will have mercy” (Pro 28:13, also Ecc 7:25-26). The
apostle Paul told sinners: “They should repent, turn to God, and
do works befitting [or suitable for] repentance” (Acts 26:20). When John the Baptist saw
hypocrites coming to him to be baptized, he refused to baptize them and scolded
them saying: “Who warned you to flee
from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of
repentance” (Lk 3:7-8). All of the above scriptures are clear in what they
teach, true repentance requires a turning away or a forsaking of sins in your
life. This is the “fruits” or “works” or “evidence” of true repentance.
4) Godly Sorrow For Offending God’s Holiness: You
should have a sincere godly sorrow for committing sin. This will involve
a deep feeling of shame for all disobedience toward God. Paul said it this way:
“For godly
sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation” (2Co 7:10).
David told God’s children: “The LORD is near to those who
have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite
spirit” (Psa 34:18 & 51:17). God
told His children: “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping,
and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness” (Joel 2:12-13).
Therefore,
you should ask God to soften your heart, so you can truly be sorry for
committing sins. Some weep and feel sorry, not for committing sins, but because
they are reaping the effects of their sins. Whereas their sorrow is for
themselves because of the dilemma or fix that their sins has placed them in.
This is not sincere godly sorrow but worldly fleshly sorrow. Therefore, let
your tears flow, as you realize how much your sins have grieved the heart of
God, and that it was your sins that nailed your sweet Lord to the cross. A good
example of godly sorrow for sins is the great apostle Peter, for after he
denied His Lord three times: “he went out and wept
bitterly” (Mt 26:75).
5) Confess All Your Sins To God: You must make a sincere
verbal confession of your sins to God. The apostle John wrote: “If
we confess our sins, He [Jesus Christ] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn 1:9).
Confession must be made to God and not to a preacher or priest; for the man
Jesus Christ is the one and only mediator between the sins of man and God’s
holy nature (Heb
9:14-15, 1Ti 2:5). This is why the king David said: “I acknowledge
my sin to You, and my iniquity have I not hidden. I said, ‘I will
confess my transgressions to my Lord; and You forgave the iniquity of my
sin” (Psa 32:5, also 38:18, and compare Dan 9:5-20 with Neh 1:6-37). You
must admit and confess specific sins. Ask God to bring to your
remembrance sins you committed in the past.
6) Make Restitution For Your Sins: You must be willing to
make restitution wherever possible. If you wounded someone with your
tongue or with your actions, you need to go to that person and ask forgiveness,
and do you best to make it right. Jesus taught this principle when He said: “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember
that your brother has something against you, leave your
gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to
your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Mt 5:23-24).
Permit
me to give you an example of restitution: There was a sister in our Church, who
wanted to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. She was a schoolteacher and lived
a good moral life. She repented of all the sins she could remember, but every
time she prayed for the Holy Ghost, something in her heart kept killing her
faith. Since she was determined in her spirit to receive the Holy Ghost, she
sought God through prayer and fasting for a week. At the end of the week, God
spoke to her in prayer and told her that she hated her aunt, and has not
forgiven her. Because she had not seen or spoken to her aunt in years, she did
not think about it. She immediately called her aunt, and with tears of
repentance, she asked her to forgive her for hating her. In a short time, both
were crying and asking each other for forgiveness. This sister, then told the
Church: “The
moment I hung the phone up, I started speaking in tongues. Praise the Lord!”
If you stole something from
someone, you need to do you best to make it right. A good
example of this kind of restitution is Zacchaeus the tax collector. This man
was so hungry for God’s forgiveness that he told Jesus: “Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything
from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.’ And Jesus said to
him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house” (Lk
19:8-9).
My
personal example of restitution: In 1964, I was eighteen and a senior
in High School; I belong to a fraternity of about 40 young men, and each one
was trying to earn for himself a reputation for being the coolest and baddest
dude in the Phi Lambda Epsilon. At that time, I was a young man with low
morals. I worked for a department store in their sporting goods section. I
planned a robbery, in which I filled two large suitcases with cameras and other
very expensive things. A fellow PLE came and carried them out. The things I
stole amounted up to more than a thousand dollars.
On March 16, 1971, God
saw fit to save my poor sinful soul and I received His New Birth. A year later,
as I was praying, God spoke to me about the things I stole, and told me I had
to make restitution. Up to this point in time, I had never even thought about
my crime, for I put it under the blood of Christ when I repented and asked Him
to forgive me, and then I forgot about it. When God spoke to me about it in
prayer, I immediately became frighten and told God: “Lord Jesus this is a felony,
they will put me in jail for this. I have a wife and two baby boys. Who is going
to take care of them when I am in prison? Lord, I cannot do this.” For
one month, every time I prayed, the Lord spoke to me about my sin. I became so
miserable, I felt like 200 pounds of sin on a Popsicle stick. I then had a
carnal brainstorm. I would give my share of all the things I stole to the
Church, and let them sell it to raise money for our missionaries. Therefore,
this is what I did!
About
a week later, I was talking to brother Cupit, my pastor, and asked him if he
sold any of the things I gave Him. He said: “No, and I am not going to. I
prayed about this, and I do not feel right about it. Is there something you
want to tell me about these things?” I then confessed my sin to
him. He told me: “Brother Peyton you have to take this stuff back and make restitution.” I
said: “Brother,
God has been telling me the same thing for over a month now in prayer. It is
not because I do not want to give it back and make restitution, but I cannot.
This is a felony and they will put me in jail for this. Brother, as you know, I
have a wife and two baby boys that I need to support. Who is going to take care
of them when I am in prison?” Brother Cupit said: “Brother Peyton, you need to
trust God, and whatever happen will happen. You need to take this stuff back.
So, please take this suitcase home with you.”
After
wrestling with God in prayer for another month, hoping to change His mind, I
finally surrendered to His will and told Him I would do it. I called the
department store and made an appointment with the manager. I then went to my
pastor and asked him to go with me to this meeting. As we sat in the manager’s
office, I began to confess to Mrs. W mine crime, but I did not name the PLE
member that helped me to commit this crime. I gave her a verbal list of all the
things I had stolen. I then told her: “Mrs. W, I do not do things like thing any more,
since the Lord Jesus Christ chose to save and deliver me from my sins. I am
married man, and I have two wonderful baby boys. I am a carpenter’s helper, and
I make minimum wage. If you could see fit to forgive me, and allow me to make
monthly payments until everything is paid for, I would eternally be in your
debt.” To my utter amazement, she agreed and told me that she
would send me a payment book in the mail.
I
literally floated our of her office. I felt like the entire weight of the world
was lifted off my shoulders. I cried and praised my God for having mercy on me.
About a week later, as I was waiting for the payment book to come, the spirit
of fear came upon me again. I started thinking to myself: “what if the payment is more
than I can pay. I am only earning $3.00 a hour; every bit of my money is going
to rent, utility bills, and food, I have nothing to spare for this payment
regardless of the amount. I need to start looking for a part-time job to pay
this bill.” Therefore, I did, but could not find one.
After
a month had pass, and still no payment book came in the mail. Another spirit of
fear came over me, this time it told me that Mrs. W had changed her mind, and
she was going to prosecute me! This was too much, so I called Mrs. W and said: “Mrs. W, the reason why I have
not made a payment so far, is because I have not receive a payment book in the
mail.” She replied: “Didn’t you get my letter?” I
answer: “what
letter?” She said: “I sent you a letter telling you to forget the matter,
for our insurance company paid for these things, and if you made any payments,
it would just mess up our records. So, please forget about it.” I was
so choked-up that I could not speak for a minute or two. I finally manage to
get out a thank you in-between the tears of my sobbing. Praise God, Jesus is my
Deliverer and Provider, as well as my Lord and Savior.
After
my 3-month trial was finished, I looked back and started analyzing what had
happen to me during this time. I asked myself: “Why did my Lord waiting one
year to speak to me about this sin of the past, when He could have dwelt with
me about this, when I was repenting of my sins?” I
then realized that if He had spoken to me about this sin at that time, I would
not have had the faith to trust Him, or the strength to repent at that time. As
it was, even after loving and walking with Him for a year, it took my Lord
2-months of speaking to me in prayer, before I was willing to repent and trust
Him with this problem. A scripture then came into my mind: “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be
tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make
the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1Co 10:13). I then
realized that my Lord was building my faith, so I could trust Him with all my
future problems, as well as mold the character of Christ in me.
Therefore, what I am telling
my beloved readers is this: if you can make restitution you should,
especially if God speaks to you about it. If God does speak to you about make
restitution it will be a very deep conviction, in which there is no escape,
until you repent. Some things God may require you to do before you receive the
Holy Ghost, and others things after you receive it. God may not even deal with
you about it at all. There are things you and I have done in our sinful state
that we cannot undo, change, or make restitution. They are forever under the
blood of Christ, and have been washed away in His sea of forgiveness! There may
be one or more sins that we have committed, in which we may reap the
effects of it as long as you live.
7) Make A Total Surrender Of Your Life To Christ: You must be
willing to surrender every aspect of your life to your Lord and Savior.
Practically speaking, what does it mean to surrender your life to Christ? An
unregenerate person has been the master of their life. Their old man or sinful
nature has been in control of their life. It has been sitting on the throne of their
heart and dictating to them its desires for their life, that is, their value
system, their short and long range goals, their wants and desires, and all
other areas of their life.
Therefore,
one must surrender to Jesus all of their ways of self-government,
self-dependence and all others. They all must come to an end! They must be
willing to allow the Spirit of Jesus Christ to come in and take totally control
over their life; so His Spirit can rule and reign freely on the throne of their
heart. This is what Paul meant when he wrote: “if we live, we
live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live
or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived
again, that He might be Lord” over our hearts (Rom 14:8-9, also Gal 2:20, Phm
1:21).
If you
fail to surrender your life completely to Christ, you are saying with those who
had him crucified: “We will not have this man to reign over us.” As a
result, He will say to his angels on the Day of Judgment: “bring here
those enemies of Mine, who did not want Me to reign over them, and slay them
before Me;” and
He will tell the sinner, “why” did “you
call Me ‘Lord, Lord,” and
did “not do the things” that I told you to do (Lk 19:14, 27; 6:46). As
my readers can perceive by now, total surrender of your life is a vital to your
happiness and salvation. Reformation will only change your outward actions of
sin or sinful habits, but true repentance will change you inwardly, that is,
your heart, whereby Christ can come into you through His Holy Spirit and live
His life through you.
The
Prodigal Son, A Good Example Of True Repentance: After
he “squandered his wealth in wild living,” he
became destitute. When he became tired of living in the pigpen of sin: “he
came to his senses,” he admitted to himself
and to God he was a sinner. He made a decision to turn his back on
sin and turn his face towards his “Father
house.” He said to himself, I will humble myself and go to my
Father, I will acknowledge and confess my sins to Him, I will say
to Him: Father “I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no
longer worthy to be called your son.” I
will tell Him, from now on my life belongs to you: “make
me like one of your hired men” or servants (Lk 15:11-19, N.I.V).
Because
his Father loved him greatly, he was yearning for his son to return home. Every
day the Father looked down the road, hoping to see his son. Then when he saw
him coming “a long way off he ran to
his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” The
Father said: “Let’s have a feast and celebrate, for this son of mine was
dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Lk 15:20-24, N.I.V). This
story vividly reveals and demonstrates God love for lost humanity. When God see
that a sinner has truly repented of his or her sins, the power and presence of
God will immediately come upon that person, and God will begin to make
Himself known to him or her.
Repentance
Must Be A Sincere Attitude Of The Heart: Let us look at another
side of repentance that is not often talked about. What about the sinner, who
wants deliverance from his or her sins, but is bound by their sins? This person
acknowledges that he or she is a sinner, and in their heart sincerely wants to
give up their sins, but does not have the faith or strength to do it at that
time. Will God give that person the Holy Ghost on credit? I know the answer is
yes, for I have seen God do it.
There
is an old but true proverb that states: “A sinner does not become good to get God, but
gets God to become good.” However, for God to save and
deliver a sinner, he or she must be totally sincere in their desire for God and
deliverance from sin. For example, let us look at the sin of tobacco. I have
also known people who received deliverance from cigarettes before they received
the Holy Spirit. I have also known people who received deliverance the very
moment they received God’s Spirit; and I have known people who have
received their deliverance after they received the Holy Ghost.
Now is
God a respecter of persons? Was it God who determine the length of time it took
for them to receive the Holy Ghost and deliverance from cigarettes, or was it
their faith and the sincerity of their repentance? Since God is not a respecter
of persons, it had to be the other. God is the one who looks at the sinner’s
heart, and sinner friend you cannot fool God. A person, who is bound by sin,
needs to be sincerely seeking God for deliverance every day. He
or she should never try to justify their sin. No matter how much
good he or she may do, never try to justify sin. For your faith will be in
proportion to the sincerity of your repentance. A sincere person can rest
in the blood of Jesus, until their faith is strong enough to obtain their
deliverance.
Let us
also remember that today is the day we need to repent and believe the gospel,
for we have no promise of tomorrow. The Word of God commands us to: “Seek the LORD
while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near” (Isa 55:6). The Bible also declared: “Today
if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Heb 3:15). God
is telling us through His Word that we need to repent of all of our sins right
now, and not wait for tomorrow. True repentance will give the sinner a clear
and a clean conscience before God. A good and sincere repentance will
definite bring the presence of God upon you. The greater the repentance,
the greater will be your faith, and more of the presence of God you will feel.
Therefore, it is really up to you how fast you receive the Holy Spirit. Always
remember, God is not a respecter of persons; for God will pour out His Spirit
on all races of people, if they are willing to believe the gospel and
repent!
The
Results Of True Repentance: Absolutely no one will
receive God’s forgiveness without true repentance. At the very moment you fully
repent of all sins, you will probably feel as though a heavy weight has been
lifted off of your shoulders. You will probably experience a tremendous sense
of relief, for your conscience is now clean and the presence
of Christ’s Holy Spirit is now on you. You now have God’s attention,
whereby communion and fellowship with Him is possible, for He will answer your
prayers. Your spirit, soul and body are now prepared and ready for His great
gift of the Holy Spirit to come into, whereby your body can become the
temple of the living God.
CHAPTER 3
YOU MUST BELIEVE THE BLOOD OF JESUS
WILL CLEANSE YOU FROM ALL SIN
God, speaking to His people said: “This is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put
My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He
adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’
Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering
for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest
by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for
us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water” (Heb 10:16‑22).
Let my beloved readers take note: according to the above passage of
scripture, a believer in the gospel of Christ can now enter into the Holiest,
where the power and presence of a holy God dwelt, by means of the precious
blood of Jesus. Because of the sinless blood of Jesus, God promised He would
never remember any of the sins that you and I have committed. Oh, praise the
Lord! Therefore, you and I can boldly enter into the presence of the Holy
Spirit. In the Tabernacle Plan, the High Priest could only enter into the
presence of God in the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement, but
it was not without fear and trembling. The reason being, if he went into God's
presence without the precious blood of a Lamb, God would kill him immediately.
Yes, the only way I, you, or anyone else, can ever come into God’s
presence or Spirit is through the holy blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. For His
blood, and only through His blood, are we made righteousness and holy, whereby
we can enter into His Presence without fear (Rom 5:8-9). Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse the mind from all the horrible
guilt of past sins, so you can worship God with faith and full assurance that
He will hear and answer your prayers (Heb 9:14, 22; 10:1-3, 10). Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse your soul from all sin, where God
will not remember your sins anymore (Eph 1:6-7; Col 1:14). Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse your mind so it becomes holy and
yielded to God. Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse your body and make it holy,
so God's Holy Spirit can enter into it (1Jn 1:7; Rev 1:5). Oh, praise the Lord!
Yes friend, the only thing that can prepare, cleanse, and make your
mind and body holy, so that God’s Spirit can come in, is the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. There are three places were a believer can come into
contact with the Jesus’ blood: repentance, water baptism in the Name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and Spirit baptism (1Jn 5:7). This is why the precious blood of God’s Lamb had to be applied in
three places around the door of each home in Egypt at the Passover, and on the
Day of Atonement, it had to be applied in the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and
on the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies, as I revealed before.
Now, no one can receive the Holy Ghost under guilt, because guilt kills
faith. Permit me to give you a illustration of this truth. I preached a revival
in Pineville, LA, in which the Lord gloriously filled about nine believers with
His Holy Spirit. There was also a mother and daughter who were renewed in the
Holy Ghost during that revival. This sister’s husband did not have the Holy
Ghost, but wanted it. Therefore, the pastor brought me over there to give him this
Bible study. I believe this brother’s name was Lloyd.
I gave the brother this study, and when I finished, I started praying
for him. In a short time, he then began to cry. As I was praying for him, the
Lord spoke to my mind, and told me he was bound with fear. I immediately
stopped praying for him, and asked him what he was afraid of. He denied that
there was any fear in his heart. Therefore, I thought to myself that it must
have been my thoughts and not the Holy Ghost telling me this. I continued praying
with him. After about twenty minutes, I stopped and turned to the pastor and
said: “There is something killing his faith, and either he does not know what
it is, or he is not going to tell me.”
As we were about to leave, brother Lloyd started crying again, and said
to me: “Brother Peyton, I am so ashamed of myself. For my dad is a Pentecostal
minister in the Alexandria Church, and I was raised in the truth, but for some
reason, I have never given my life to the Lord. I have rejected the Lord and
His Spirit all of my life. A few month ago, I made up my mind to serve the
Lord, but I am afraid that I may have waited to long.” When he told me this, then I knew it was the Lord that told me he was
bound with fear. The Lord then revealed to me, what it was that he was made him
afraid. He was afraid that he had blasphemed the Holy Ghost because of his
rejection. I then said to this brother: “Brother Lloyd, the devil has
convinced you that you have blaspheme the Holy Ghost through your rejection of
Christ, but this is a lie! Brother you have not blasphemed, but you are very
close. For when you lose faith in the precious blood of Jesus to cleanse you
of your sins, there is no more hope for you. You are literally
walking on the blood of Jesus and counting it as nothing under your feet.”
Brother Lloyd stopped me and said: “Brother Peyton, I would never do
that. I believe in the blood of Jesus.” I then said to him: “Brother Lloyd, do
you believe that the blood of Jesus can cleanse you from all sins, or just some
sins?” He responded and said: “All sins.” I said: “Brother Lloyd, have you ever committed murder.” He said: “no.” I asked him: “have you ever
committed adultery.” He said: “no again.” I then said: “I know a man in the Bible, by the name of David, who
committed both of these terrible acts, and yet God in His abundant love forgave
him. The apostle Paul called himself the chief of sinners because he beat, put
in jail, and even murdered some of God’s children, but God forgave and saved
him.
When the Prodigal son
repented of all of his sins, the Father forgave him and freely gave him His
love and forgiveness. Now, brother Lloyd, what have you done that the precious
blood of Jesus cannot cleanse you from all of your sins? God promised you in
His Word that He would forgive you, but you are making yourself more righteous
than God, for you cannot forgive yourself. Now brother Lloyd, I am going to
pray for you one more time, and if you do not want to blaspheme against the
Holy Ghost, you need to forgive yourself and accepts God’s forgiveness!” The very moment I started praying for him, the iron chain of fear that
Satan placed around his heart was broken, and faith came in, whereby God was
able to gloriously filled him with His Spirit. He praised God in tongues as tears
of joy filled his eyes. Praise God for His long suffering. Surely, David
was right when he said 25 times, in one Psalm, that God’s “mercy endures
forever” (Psa 136:1-24).
The apostle John spoke of God’s forgiveness, as he admonished us not to
sin. But he told us, if we did sin: “We [should] confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness” (1Jn 1:9). David said the same thing this way: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His
benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving kindness
and tender mercies” (Psa 103:2-4). In just a few minutes, we are going to confess all of our sins to God.
Notice, I said to God, and not man. For God is the only one who can forgive us,
and He is the only one we need to confess our sins to. The Bible says it this
way: “Who can forgive sins but God
alone” (Lk 5:21)? Praise the Lord, for our God is a loving
and forgiving God!
CHAPTER 4
YOU MUST RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST AS A GIFT
After
the apostles and disciples received God's gift of the Holy Ghost on the Day of
Pentecost, Peter began to preach the gospel to the multitudes. When he finished
preaching, thousands of Jews who believed the gospel were pricked in their
hearts, and wanted to know what they should do to become saved. Peter told them: to “repent, and
be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to
all that are afar off” meaning you and me (Acts 2:36-39).
According
to Peter, God made a personal promise to give the gift of the Holy Ghost to all
those who would believe and obey the gospel, by repenting of all their sins,
and by becoming baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now a believer
can receive the Holy Ghost before being water baptized, as the apostle Paul and
Cornelius and his household did, but a believer cannot be saved without water
baptism, for he or she could never enter into Jesus’ death and burial
without it. Since the Holy Ghost places a believer into the resurrection of
Christ, and it is a gift of God, a believer must never beg God
for it. Anyone that begs God for the His precious gift does not believe
God’s promise. You must receive it by faith. God meant what He said, and
said what He meant.
Permit
me to give you two examples of someone begging God to give them the gift of His
Spirit. I can remember visiting a Hispanic Apostolic
Church one Sunday in 1983, in which there was a sister who was on her knees at
the altar, praying, weeping, and begging God to give her the Holy Ghost. After
watching her for about ten minutes, my heart was deeply touched by the
intensity of her sincerity and prayers. I decided to help her, even though I
knew the ministers in that church would disapprove, for I was not ordain by
anyone in their organization. I went to her, knelt down beside her, and said:
“Sister do you want God to give you the Holy Ghost right now?” She said yes
with tears running down her cheeks. I then asked her: “Have you been baptized
in Jesus Name.” She said “yes.” I then said to her: “Well then God has
promised to fill you with the Holy Ghost, and He wants to do it now. So, stop
begging God for what He promised to give you, for God cannot lie. Stand up
and by faith worship God and receive it now.”
I then stood up and just looked at her as she was on her knees. She
then stood up and raised her hands to heaven, and began to verbally worshipped
her Lord. About five minutes later, God gloriously filled her with His Spirit.
Praise God forever! A young Pharisee came over to me at this time and reproved
me for praying for her, because, as I said, I was not one of their ministers. I
said to this young man: “I am not God, I did not give her the Holy Ghost, God
did! So, I believe you need to talk to God about it.” I then turned around and departed. Yes friend, receiving the Holy
Ghost is not hard. It is very simple and childlike. You just need to
believe Jesus loves you, and He will fulfill the promise He made to you in Acts 2:38.
I
preached a three-day revival in Yuma, AZ, in which eight people receive the
precious gift of the Holy Spirit. One of them was an Air Force Sergeant who
came to the altar every night, and begged God to give him the Holy Ghost. I
told him each night to stop begging God and believe His promise, but he
continued to beg God any way. Every night people received the Holy Ghost all
around him. On the last night of the revival, a young Marine private, who was
standing next to Sarge at the altar, received the precious gift of Holy Ghost
as he stood at attention in a full dress uniform, with tears running down his
cheeks. This definitely increased Sarge’s desire to be filled with the Holy
Spirit as he watched and listened to this Marine speak in tongues.
When
everyone left the church that night, I looked at Sarge who was sitting on the
back pew crying, along with his two children. My heart was moved with
compassion for him. It was then that I made up my mind that I was not going to
leave the church until he received God’s gift. I walked over to him and said: “Sarge, what is hindering you
from receiving the Holy Ghost?” He replied: “when God gets ready, He will
give it to me.” I said to him: “Sarge, have you repented of
your sins and been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ?” He
answered: “Yes,
I repented and was baptized by pastor E a years ago.”
I said
to him in a scolding tone: “Sarge, why are you calling Jesus Christ a liar?” He
immediately became red in the face with anger as he replied: “I would never do that.” I
said: “Oh
yes you are, for Jesus speaking through Peter said, ‘repent, and be baptized
everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.’ He did not
say: ‘you might receive it,’ or ‘maybe God will give it to you,’ but ‘you will
receive it.’ God is not a man that He would tell a lie! Sarge, God wanted to
give you His gift a year ago. He has given you His promise and wants you to
receive it now, but you do not believe that He wants to give it to you now.
Therefore, you are calling Him a liar. Now Sarge, I am going to pray for you
one more time, and I am commanding you in the name of Jesus Christ to
accept God’s gift now.”
I then
laid my hand on his head, closed my eyes and started praying. Since it was Holy
Spirit in me giving my human spirit mind the language to pray in, my soul mind
was free to think. As I was praying in Spirit for Sarge, I could not help but
wonder in my soul mind if he was going to hit me, for in my mind’s eye I could
still see his face flushed with anger. I must have prayed for him in the Spirit
for about five minutes, and there was dead silence. Then, instead of hitting me
he started laughing. I immediately opened my eyes and looked upon him, as his
belly shook like Jell-O. Sarge being a good soldier knew how to follow orders,
for within a few minutes he received the glorious infilling of God’s Holy
Spirit. In fact for about an hour, he alternated between speaking in tongues
and laughing. Praise our God for His abundant patience with our
unbelief.
Over
the years, I have met others like Sarge who sought for the Holy Spirit for a
year or more. The longer they go, the stronger their unbelief becomes. I have
discovered, if I sympathies with them, I am only adding to their unbelief and
self-pity. If we truly love people, we will help them to have faith by telling
them the truth. The only way these people can receive genuine helped is to be candid
with them, and sometimes they need to be shocked a little. They need to
realize they are grieving God by doubting His Word. I do not advise anyone to
ever talk to a person the way I talked to Sarge. Believe you me, I did not want
to or enjoyed talking to him that way, but it was Holy Ghost who was speaking
through me. Sarge was a good military man who knew how to take orders, and I
suppose that is what he found so funny; for I commanded him to receive the Holy
Ghost and he did!
Chronic
seekers needs someone to counsel with them, to discover what lie or lies Satan
has told them that are killing their faith. A good question to ask them is: “what do you believe is
hindering you from receiving the Holy Ghost?” Some
know and will tell you, but others will not. There are some who do not know.
Ask them about their fears pertaining to God, the Baptism of the Holy
Ghost, the doctrines of the Bible such as repentance, or spiritual things.
There must be an honest communication and trust between you and the
seeker, for you to help them receive the victory.
After
the counselor discovers what their problem is, the healing balm
of God’s truth must be applied to their hearts. Only faith in the truth
can set the seeker free (Jn 8:32). Remember, either we will believe Satan’s lie,
or we will believe God’s truth. The seeker must verbally denounce the lie of
Satan, and command that lie to leave his or her heart and mind in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. After the seeker has verbally repented to God for
believing Satan’s lie, they need to confess the truth to God in prayer.
Only then are they ready to come face to face with God’s promise of the
receiving the Holy Ghost again. Knowing that God can never lie.
Tarrying
for the Holy Ghost is not Scriptural. It is God’s will for everyone to receive
His gift immediately. On the day of Pentecost, God filled a 120 with the Holy
Ghost immediately. Then within a few hours, God filled 3,000 with His
Holy Spirit. Cornelius and his household did not know anything about tarrying,
or waiting for an altar call, for while Peter was still preaching, their faith
reached up into heaven, walked right into God’s throne room, looked God in His
eyes and said: “we
believe, we repent, therefore give us the Holy Ghost right now.” So,
God immediately filled them with the Holy Ghost. When Paul baptized the
believers in Ephesus, he laid his hand on their head, and they immediately
received the Holy Ghost.
Let my
beloved readers take note: the Holy Ghost came easily and quickly to all those
who believed and obeyed the gospel. No one wrestled with God for weeks, months,
or years trying to get God to give them the beautiful gift of His Holy Spirit.
Now friend, God is ready to fill you with His Spirit today, for the Bible
says: “behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of
salvation” (2Co 6:2). Do not put off receiving His
unmerited gift another day, another hour, or even another minute. Believe God’s
promise and hold Him to His Word, and God will pour out His Spirit upon you
abundantly. Always remember, the Holy Ghost is God’s special gift to you, and
He is waiting on you to claim it by faith. Expect to receive the Holy
Ghost quickly and you will.
CHAPTER 5
YOU MUST BELIEVE GOD IS NOT A RESPECTOR OF PERSONS
God’s Spirit is for all races
of people. Permit me to give you a biblical example of this truth. The first
gentile to receive God's great gift of the Holy Ghost was Cornelius. By the
way, anyone who is not of the Jewish race is a gentile. The apostle Peter said
to Cornelius, and to you and I also: “In truth I
perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him
and works righteousness is accepted by Him…. While Peter was still speaking
these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those
of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter,
because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.
For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God” (Acts 10:34-35, 44-46).
Under
the New Covenant, God promise to pour out His Spirit on all races of people.
Under the Old Covenant, only the prophets and a few others of the Jewish race
could have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in them. But today because of Calvary,
anyone who wants God's Spirit can have it. Yes friend, God loves you, just as
much as He loves me or anyone else. If God loved me more than you, He would
have to shed more of His precious blood for my filthy sins then He did for
yours. But since He shed the same amount of blood for all of us, He loves all
of us the same when it comes to salvation.
Permit
me to give you two examples of a people from different races receiving the Holy
Ghost. In 1976, I
was on a plane heading for San Francisco. I was sitting between a black lady
and her son. When I looked at this woman, I could discern that she was very
troubled about something. I said to her: “Ma’am, I am a minister, and if there is anything
I can do for you, I would be happy to do it.” She
said to me: “There
is nothing you can do, for I am very worried about my son. He has equilibrium
problems, and he sometimes looses his balance when he walks. I am taking him to
Stanford University Hospital to be operated on, and I am afraid of this
operation.” I asked her, if she had received any Biblical teaching
on the precious blood of Jesus, which was shed at the whipping post, for the
supernatural healing of our bodies. She said to me: “My Dad is a Baptist Pastor. He
has taught many times on the blood of Jesus that was shed for our sins, but he
has never mentioned anything about it being shed for the healing of the body.”
I then
told her about some of the miraculous healing God has given to me, and of
others whom I have personally witness in my ministry. After this, I asked
permission to explain certain scriptures to her on this very important subject.
She agreed. When I finished, I asked her to agree with me in prayer, that God
could do anything, but lie. She did. I then asked permission to pray for her
son. She agreed again. I laid my hand on the boy’s head, and started praying in
English at first and then in the Spirit. The power of God came over the boy,
and he felt it. He told his mother: “Mom I feel something moving up and down my neck and
back. Mom I am healed.” Praise God for the healing blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
As we
all were rejoicing, God spoke to my mind and told me to tell her about His
Spirit. I then began to tell her about my and others experience in receiving
the Holy Ghost. After I finished, I asked her: “Ma’am do you personally know
anyone in your church who claims to be able to speak in tongues?” She
said: “O’
no, my dad does not believe in that.” Then she paused and said: “There is an older sister in
our church, who claims that she can speak in tongues, but no one has ever heard
her for she does in her prayer closet at home.” I
then asked permission to give her this study, and she agreed again. When I was
finished, tears were rolling down her cheeks; I then asked her if she would
like to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. She replied: “I would give everything I have
for it.”
I
asked her if she would like to receive God’s Spirit right now. She said: “Yes!” I
said to her: “For
you to receive the Holy Ghost right now there is something you and I must be
willing to do. We must be willing to pray and worship Jesus with our voices,
that is, in a normal tone of voice. We must not be ashamed to verbally
tell Jesus that we love Him. We must do this with our whole heart. We must
forget about anyone on this plane, who might hear us. Are you willing to do
this?” She replied: “Yes, I am.” I replied: “Well, so am I.” When
I started praying in the Spirit for her, the stewardess was in the process of
serving the evening meal. By the time she reached the people sitting in front
of us, God had gloriously filled this black lady with His Holy Spirit.
When I look into the stewardess’ eyes, I could see she was a little concern
about our praying in tongues. Therefore, I leaned forward and told the
stewardess: “honey,
we are not going to cause a disturbance. God has just given this lady the Holy
Spirit, so please let her talk to God in the Spirit a little longer. Please
pass us by, and when you have served everyone else, we will then be ready to
eat.” O’ praise God forever.
The
great truth we should learn from this is: our great God and Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, will fill anyone with His Holy Spirit at any
time and in any place. Whenever you are ready, and you believe His
promise, God will be there ready to fill your cup with rivers of living water.
Also we should always remember, when it comes to salvation God has no favorite
race, He loves all the same. Thank God that the beautiful gift of the Holy
Spirit is for all races of people. The Bible stated that the twenty-four
elders, who represent God's children in every nation, sang this song unto the
Lord Jesus: “You are worthy
to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have
redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people
and nation” (Rev
5:9). Praise God,
every race of people will be in heaven. Friend, you are very important to God,
and God wants you to receive His Spirit today. Always remember, Jesus loves you
and me just as much as He loved the apostles and prophets.
In 1977, I
just finished my third years of Bible College in Stockton CA, and one of my
beloved fellow students, brother Huckabe, was helping me in door-to-door
evangelism. We were in a large apartment complex witnessing for the Lord, when
we knocked on one door and a Hispanic lady answered. We introduced
ourselves to her and told her why we were there. She said to us: “I am Catholic and I do not
believe in any other religion. So please do not come back again!” She
then slammed the door in our face. The next Saturday, we were in the very same
apartment complex, for there were a few doors we had not knocked. So, as we
were knocking doors, the Holy Spirit of Christ kept speaking to my mind,
saying: “Go
back and talk to the Catholic woman, who told you not to come back.” I
resisted these thoughts for I believed they were coming from my mind. I kept
saying to myself every time these thoughts came to me: “That’s crazy! The woman told us
not to come back. You cannot push the gospel on anyone.”
After
wrestling with these thoughts for about ten minutes, I said to brother Huckabe:
“I believe
God wants us to go and talk to the Catholic lady that slammed the door in our
faces last Saturday.” I then said: “Has God said anything to you
about this.” Brother Huckabe replied: “No brother Peyton, He has not.” He
then look at me with a big grin on his face and said: “Lets go, for the worst thing
that can happen to us is, she will cuss us out before she slams the door on
us.” So, off we went, and when we came to her door, I
knocked. When she came to the door and saw that it was us, to my and brother
Huckabe’s complete amazement, she invited us in. She was crying and very
nervous. She told us that her name was Mrs. Garcia, and her husband was an
alcoholic. She went on to tell us that the night before, she gave her two small
children to a neighbor friend, went into her bedroom with a gun and tried to
commit suicide. She then said: “I need help! Can you help me?” I
said to her: “Mrs.
Garcia, it is not our help you need, you need Jesus to come into your heart and
fill you with His Spirit.”
We
immediately began to pray for Jesus to cover her spirit, soul, and body with
his precious blood. We commanded every spirit that came against her, especially
the spirit of suicide, to depart from her and not return. I asked her if she
believed in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ with
her whole heart. She said she did. I then led her through repentance. After she
asked Jesus to forgive her for her sins, I told her that I was going to pray
for the Holy Spirit to come into her.
Since
I knew that God had sent us there, I had no doubts that God was
going to fill her with His Spirit. I told her that all I wanted her to do is
verbally tell Jesus, with all of her heart, that she loved Him. As she opened
her mouth to worship Jesus, the first words that came out of her mouth
were in tongues. As she heard herself speaking in tongues, she became
nervous again. She kept saying: “I am going crazy.” I did not tell her
anything about the Holy Ghost speaking through her in tongues. Therefore, the
devil told her that she had lost her mind because she was speaking in tongues.
I
calmed her down, and began to explain to her what God had just done for her. I
told her about Mary the mother of the Lord, being one of the 120
disciples that spoke in tongues on the Day of Pentecost. I showed her the
passage in my small pocket Bible. She then said several times in an excited
voice: “I
can see the print.” I asked her what she meant by that statement.
She said: “When
I was a small girl, I looked at an eclipse of the sun and burnt part of the
tissues in my eyes. From that time to this, I have never been able to see small
print without my glasses.” Then she looked at us with an
expression on her face of complete astonishment and said: “But I can clearly see that, and
I can see it clearly.”
She
went to the kitchen, picked up her eyeglasses, and put it on; but to her
surprise, she could not clearly see anything through it. She calmly took her eyeglasses
off and wipe then with tissue paper, and put it on again; but to her utter
amazement, she still could not see clearly through her eyeglasses. Mrs. Garcia
went through this ritual three times, and each time she wiped the lenses of her
eyeglasses a little longer than before; but she still could not see clearly
through it. Then in total bewilderment she looked at us and said: “What is going on here? I can
see perfectly without my eyeglasses, and I can see nothing with it on.” I
said to her: “Mrs.
Garcia, the Lord Jesus Christ in His great love for you, has not only filled
you with His great and glorious Spirit, but has healed you at the very same
time.” I perceived, in her present stated of mind, that she
was looking for me to give her some logical explanation for the reason why she
was now seeing.
After
I said this, brother Huckabe and I could not contain the joy we felt
building in our hearts, so we started verbally praising the Lord and danced in
the Spirit, for who knows how long. I really do not know to this day, how long
Brother Huckabe and I dance and shouted in the Holy Spirit in Mrs. Garcia
living room. All I do know is that we became totally absorbed in the Spirit of
praise, whereby we lost consciousness of our surroundings and ourselves. When
we came to ourselves, we made an appointment with Mrs. Garcia to bring her and
her children to church the next morning.
After
we left Mrs. Garcia apartment, the Lord immediately led us to an Anglo-American
woman who was a heroin addict. After we told her what the Lord did for her
neighbor, this woman invited in. She told us that she was demon possessed and
had been praying to God to deliver her. Therefore, as we started rebuking these
demons and commanding them to come out in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I
commanded them to tell me how many they were. They spoke through this woman and
said “seven.” They
then proceeded to tell us: “We are not coming out,” and “this is our house,” and “this house belong to us.”
After
a half of an hour of rebuking these demons, they then told us: “if we come out, we are going to
come back in.” At last, after an hour, all seven came out and
the woman was totally delivered from these drug demons. She wept, praised, and
thanked the Lord Jesus for hearing and answering her prayers for deliverance.
Praise God forever more, for nothing in this world can match His power to heal
the sick, deliver those who are possess, and save the lost from their sins!
Truly, Jesus loves all races of people, for He did not died on the Cross for
one race of people, but all races of people!
CHAPTER 6
YOU MUST BELIEVE GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT
IS ANXIOU TO COME IN YOU
When
the apostles and disciples received the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, a
multitude of Jews gathered around them. The Bible says: “They were all
amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘Whatever could this mean?’ Others
mocking said, ‘They are full of new wine.’ But Peter, standing up with the
eleven, raised his voice and said to them, ‘Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem,
let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as
you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is
what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last
days, says God that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh” or all races of people (Acts
2:12-18).
I
would like my beloved readers to notice: the Bible does not tell us what kind
of emotion the apostles and disciples felt before they received the Holy Ghost.
The Bible only says they were praying and praising God (Acts 1:14). It
is not good for anyone to have preconceived ideas how he or she
will feel or act before or after they receive the Holy Ghost, because these
preconceived ideas could kill their faith; that is, if it does not happen the
way he or she thinks it should happen. I have prayed with some that felt the
presence of God in an overwhelming fashion in which their whole body trembled
and tears flowed like a river. I have also prayed with others who felt the
Spirit of God in a very calm and tender way; but I have seen God fill all of
these people with His glorious Spirit. I have come to the conclusion, and I
could be wrong, that seekers responds to the presence of God according to their
belief about God’s Spirit, their personality, and their faith in how they
expect to feel.
The
Bible does tell us what happened to the apostles and disciples after they
received God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. They became exuberantly and ecstatically
happy, and even acted as if they were drunk. Some of these people no doubt,
while they were speaking in tongues, were probably staggering like someone who
was drunk. Others could have been jumping up and down, or maybe even running
around the upper room. Some could have been laughing or crying for joy, while
others were shouting or even singing praises to God in tongues. Whatever they
were doing, they were all overwhelmed with joy. The prophet David speaking of
the beautiful and exciting presence of God wrote: “in Your
presence is fullness of joy” (Psa 16:11).
Now I
do not know what emotion you may, or may not feel, before you receive the Holy
Ghost. I do not even know how you will act, or how emotional you may get after
you receive the Holy Spirit, but one thing is for sure, you will be very
happy. The presence of the Spirit of Christ always excites the emotions of
man. You may run, or you may sit or stand there with a big smile and tears of
joy running down your face, as the Spirit of God moves in your human spirit.
You may shout, or you may whisper in tongues, as God’s Spirit speaks through
you. The point I am making is this, regardless of how much or little of God’s
presence you feel before you receive the Holy Spirit, you must believe that
God’s Spirit is on you and is ready and anxious to come in you.
Permit
me to share three stories with you to illustrate my point: Back in 1972, in
my home church in New Orleans, there was a sister who was always asking the
church to pray for her husband’s salvation. I was definitely took sister
Allen’s prayer request to heart and prayed for her husband. One night, guess
who walked into the church. You guessed it, her husband. When the altar call
was given, brother Allen went to the altar and prayed. I immediately followed
him to the altar and started praying for him to receive the Holy Ghost. At this
time, I knew very little about how to help someone to receive the Holy
Spirit. I was only a year old in the Lord.
I did
everything wrong. As he was standing in the front of the altar praying, I stood
on the backside facing him. I felt like he should raise his hands to God while
he was praying, as an act of surrendering his life to God. So, I locked the
fingers of each of his hands with mine, and we lifted our hands to God
together. Now, I am 5’11” and brother Allen was about 6’3”. I then started
crying and begging God to give him the Holy Ghost. After a few minutes, brother
Allen started crying and begging God to give him the Holy Spirit. We had lots
of emotion going on, but very little faith. For about ten minutes, we cried and
begged God to pour out the gift of His Spirit, while we did the Pentecostal
rock and roll over the altar.
As we
were rocking back and forth over the altar, brother Allen fell backward and
began pulling me over the altar, our hands slipped apart, and he went down. As
he was falling, the back of his neck hit the seat side of the first pew. It hit
with a loud crash. Everyone in the church ran to the front, believing he was
dead. It was our wonderful and compassionate Savior,
who saved his life that day, for He filled brother Allen with the Holy Ghost as
he was falling backwards. As a result, this brother did not feel a thing; He
just laid on the floor talking to God in tongues. As I look back at this, I
believe that there are times when God overlooks our stupidity and lack of
faith, and just sees out heart crying out to him. Your God really does want you
to receive His Spirit today or right now!
Reverend
J. T. Pugh in his book entitled, How To
Receive The Holy Ghost, mentioned a dear sister: Who was seeking to be filled
with the Holy Ghost. [She] dreamed one night that she received this
experience. It came in her dream as a ball of fire, bursting over her head. No
matter how tremendously the Spirit moved upon her after her dream, she could
not believe God was ready to fill her. Her faith in her dream stopped
the Holy Spirit from coming in. One night, as she was praying around the
altar, lightning struck a transformer near the Church, and, in turn, the
electric motor to the ceiling fan above her head blew up in a dazzling ball of
fire. This happened just as the lights flickered out. What happened to this
sister? She received the Holy Ghost! [8]
Now, I
do not know if God really gave her this dream, but I do not think so, for it is
not God’s will for her or anyone else to tarry or wait to receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost. This is why I personally believe that God in his love for
this dear sister, actually sent a thunderstorm and caused lightning to strike
that transformer, just so she could believe that He was ready to give her
the Holy Ghost. Is it not a shame that she could not believe that God was
ready and anxious to give her the Holy Spirit the day she believed the gospel
of Christ and repented of her sins. I wonder how many believers, like this
sister, are looking for a sign from God, before they believe that His Spirit is
ready to come in.
Therefore,
I admonish my beloved readers, do not count on dreams to be your guide, when it
comes to receiving the Holy Spirit, because even if the dream is from God, you
can still misinterpret it. The Word of God is the only sure foundation we can
put our faith and confidence in. Here is another example of a believer placing
their faith in a dream: I preached a three day revival in Las Cruces, NM, and
as I was sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast with the Pastor, sister Sylvia
and her husband David came in. It was about 7 AM, and
I was going to leave after breakfast, for the revival had ended the night
before, or so we thought. Sister Sylvia said to me: “Brother Peyton, my husband
David could not come to the revival because he was working each night. Brother
Peyton, you are not going to leave without praying for David to receive the
Holy Ghost are you?” I said: “Well, since you put it that way, I guess not!
Take David next door to the Church, and we will be over there shortly.”
When
we arrive at the Church, I looked deep into David’s eyes, and I saw faith
shinning in them like rays from the sun. I knew his wife must have told him
about the ten who had received the Holy Ghost in the revival. Since David could
not speak English, his wife translated what I said into Spanish. As I taught
David about the Holy Ghost, his eyes were telling me, stop talking and pray for
me now. I did not do this, because I wanted to be sure his faith was solidly
base on the Word of God, for “faith cometh by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 10:17). I
totally believe in this Bible study, for I have seen hundreds of believers
receive the Holy Ghost through it.
After
I finished the study, I laid my hand on David’s head and started praying for
him in the Spirit. As David opened his mouth to speak, the first words that
came out were in tongues. After he spoke in tongues for about four minutes, I
did something I very rarely do when I am praying for someone, I left David
alone and started shouting and dancing in the Spirit. Now there is nothing
wrong with worshipping God, but one should never leave someone who just
received the Holy Ghost. They need to stay there and encouraging them to keep
worshipping Jesus until they are speaking fluently in tongues.
After
about five minutes of worshipping my Lord, I went back to David and asked him: “David, did you receive the Holy
Ghost?” Expecting him to immediately say yes, but instead he
replied: “I
do not know.” This answer confused me, because I clearly heard
him speak in tongues for at least four minutes, even though he did not
manifest the joy of the Holy Ghost. I ask then him: “David did you know the language
you were speaking in?” He replied: “No.” I
asked him: “David
have you ever heard anyone speaking the words you were saying?” He
again said: “No.” I
then said to him: “David, since you heard yourself speak in tongues, and you did not know
the language you were speaking in, why do you doubt that you have receive the
Holy Ghost?” He replied: “I had a dream, and in my dream,
I was in this Church and the brothers were around me praying for me. I fell to
the floor and I started speaking in tongues.” I
said unto him: “David,
from what you have told me, you do not believe that you have the Holy Ghost
until this happens. Is this correct?” He replied: “Yes.”
I
realized at that moment, why David did not receive the joy of the Holy Ghost
when he received it. For what happen to him was this: the Word of God and his
wife sparked his faith to such a peak, that his spirit mind believed but
his soul mind had some doubt because of his dream. I then told
David: “If
this dream is of God, it will happen. If it does happen, God will not be giving
you the Holy Ghost, but He will be blessing you at that time. David here is the
Word of God. There is not one place in it that says, you must fall to the
floor, or lift your hands, laugh, sing, shout, run around the church, jump up
and down, roll on the floor, or dance before or after God gives you the Holy
Ghost.
The Bible does tell us ‘whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved’ (Rom 10:13). You did that just a few minutes ago! You lifted your
voice to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your heart. When you did, He
immediately started speaking through you by His Holy Spirit. Now David, I am
going to pray for you one more time, if you do not want to offend and grieve
the Holy Spirit of God, you must accept what God has already done for you.
Let us pray. As I pray this prayer from my heart, you pray it from yours: Lord
Jesus, please forgive me for doubting the beautiful gift of the Holy Ghost that
you have given me. I accept and acknowledge your gift. I yield my voice and
tongue to Your Spirit, which is in me right now, in Jesus’ Name.” As I
started praying for him in the Spirit, David immediately started to speak in
tongues again, but this time he had the joy of the Holy Ghost, for all
of his doubts were gone. He spoke in tongues about a half an hour.
When
we allow Satan to fill our heart with doubt or unbelief concerning God’s
promises, it is a very great insult to God. In fact, God is deeply grieved when
we disbelieve His Word. It is an insult against God’s integrity, honor and
character. Therefore friend, tarrying for the Holy Ghost is unscriptural,
as well as seeking for a sign, or having some preconceived idea of how
it will happen, or even how you will feel before and after you receive God’s
Spirit. Anyone who does not believe that Jesus is here with them right now
through His Holy Spirit, and is anxious to come into them right now, is
grieving Him with their unbelief. We will be praying for the Holy Spirit in a
few minutes, and when we do, you must open your heart and ask the Holy Spirit
to come in, and He will. Therefore, do not wait for any sign or felling before
you believe that he has come in. Just, verbally love the Lord!
According
to the Bible, God said He would pour out His Spirit on every race in the last
days. Now, when did the last days begin? They evidently began on the Day of
Pentecost, almost 2,000 years ago. Since that day, no one tarries or waits for
the Holy Ghost to be poured out any longer, because it is already been poured
out. The Holy Ghost is now dwelling on the earth. In fact, it is moving on you
right now while you are reading this book. It wants to come into you
immediately. You can receive it while you are still reading this book. You do
not have to wait for an altar call, or a particular church service, or a
certain preacher to lay his hands on your head. You can lift up your hands and
worship God and receive it right now in the privacy of your own home.
Let us
remember what Jesus said: “No one can come to Me unless
the Father who sent Me draws him” (Jn 6:44). Jesus said that you could not come to Him,
unless the Father draws you. The Father draws you to Himself through His Holy
Spirit. Before you gave your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, there had to be a
period of time when the Holy Spirit was drawing you and speaking to you, so you
could open your heart to the Lord. In other words, it is no accident that you
came to the Lord, for the Holy Ghost moved on you from the first day you heard
the gospel of Christ. It has moved on you to give your life to Jesus. It has
moved on you to pray and study the Bible. It is now moving on you to believe
this message so it can come into you.
Jesus
told all believers: “For where two or three are gathered
together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). How
is Jesus with us? Is He standing bodily in our midst? No, for the scripture
says: “heaven must receive [the
Lord Jesus Christ] until the times of restitution of all things” (Acts 3:20‑21).
Since the body of Jesus must stay in heaven until the end of the tribulation
period, this can only mean that Jesus is dwelling with you and I right now by
His Spirit, which is the Holy Ghost. This is what you feel tugging on your
heart right now, for it is on you and wants to come in you!
The
Bible reveals: “the just shall live by faith” (Heb 10:38).
Notice, the Bible said by “faith” and “not feelings.” Faith
does not need signs or miracles to believe, it just believes because God said
it. Some of you may feel the presence of the Holy Spirit that is with you right
now, others may not, but whether you feel Him or not, He is with you just the
same. By faith, let us welcome and acknowledge the Holy Spirit of Christ.
Let us
pray together this prayer with our whole heart: “Lord Jesus, I believe with all
my heart that Your Holy Spirit is with me at this very moment. I thank You that
Your Spirit drew me to Calvary. I thank You that Your Holy Spirit has led me to
repent of my sins. I thank You that Your Holy Spirit has prepared my heart so
You can now come in me. I acknowledge that I would not have believed any of
these things, if Your Holy Spirit had not given me the faith to believe.” Let us now take a few minutes to verbally
praise and love Jesus with our whole heart for Calvary!
CHAPTER 7
YOU MUST PLACE YOUR WHOLE MIND ON JESUS,
AS YOU WORSHIP HIM WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART
The apostles, the disciples, and Mary the mother of Jesus received the
Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The Bible revealed that there were a 120
of them in the upper room in Jerusalem, and they were all in “one accord in prayer
and supplication.... And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a
rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting" (Ac 1:12-15;
2:1-2). Let my beloved readers take note, of what
the Bible revealed concerning the state of mind the apostles, the
disciples, and Mary the mother of Jesus were in, when they received the gift of
the Holy Ghost. The Bible stated that all of them were in one accord, or
in other words, the same mind. Their mind was totally or completely
on the Lord Jesus Christ. They all believed God’s promise of
receiving the Holy Spirit; therefore, they were praying and worshipping
God with a glad heart, as they waited for God to fulfill His
promise.
Keeping your mind on your Savior is a very important step. Many are
hindered in receiving the Holy Ghost, because they do not know how to keep
their minds on Jesus, as they pour out their hearts to Him in
loving worship. Jesus has to be the center of your attention, if you want
to receive God’s gift. Your mind cannot be on your husband, wife, son,
daughter, dad, mother, brother, sister, boyfriend or girlfriend. Your mind
cannot be on your job, or any problem you or someone else may be having. The
devil’s imps will come to you and try to divert your mind away from your Savor.
These imps will also try to put doubts and fear in your mind, by telling you
lies. For example: “Jesus will not forgive you,” or “You are not good or holy enough for Jesus to give you His Spirit,” or “Jesus will give you the Holy Ghost later but not now,” or “Jesus will give you the Holy Spirit when you feel His presence in an
overwhelming earth shaking fashion,” and so on.
If these imps persist in coming back to you and filling your mind with
these lies, then you must resist the devil; for God says: “Submit yourselves
therefore to God,” which you have done in repentance, and “Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will
draw near to you” (Ja 4:7-8). You resist the devil by rebuking these thought in the name of Jesus
Christ, and commanding them to leave. For example, for months after I received
the Holy Ghost, filthy thoughts would come into to my mind about women, even
when I was in prayer this would happen to me. I became so upset and frustrated with
my flesh, I would literal take my hand and bit it, and tell Jesus: “I hate this flesh.
Please forgive me for thinking these thoughts. Lord deliver me from all
thoughts of evil.”
One day the Lord spoke to me and told me: “Your spirit is
under attack by an evil spirit, who is putting these thoughts into your mind. I
have given you a new heart, and I have placed My Spirit in you. Resist the
devil and he shall flee from you.” After Jesus said
this to me, I said to myself: “that is the truth. I do not want to think
these thoughts. I hate them.” From that moment
on I had victory, for I verbally rebuke them in the name of Jesus until they
left! If you do not know you are in a battle with the devil for your life, it
will be hard to resist him and win the battle by faith, for the devil will keep
you under condemnation. Therefore, I keep rebuking the devil for several
months, until he knew that I was not going to believe his lies any longer, for
Jesus gave me a new heart, whereby he cleans and renewed my human spirit, so I do not desire the
filth of the flesh any longer, but hunger for His Word and the things of God.
In short, He made me a new man in Christ (2Co 5:17).
Permit me to give you example how the Satan’s imps can work on someone
who is seeking for the Holy Ghost. In 1981, I met a black Army sergeant at Fort Polk, LA by the name of Emmet. I
witness to this man about Jesus’ great love for him and His glorious gift of
the Holy Ghost. One day, Emmet asked me to go with him to his room and pray for
him to receive God’s Spirit. When we went into his room, I gave him a short
version of this Bible study. As I gave him the study, I could see his faith
and desire for the Holy Spirit escalating.
When I was finished, I began to pray for him. As I started praying, there
was a knock on his door. Emmet answered, and there at the door stood a black
lady. She asked Emmet to go with her to her room, for she lost her door key,
and need him to cut the padlock off her door. Emmet being a very good-hearted
individual agreed to help her. I told him that I would come back in a week. As
I was leaving, I said to him: “Emmet, every night before you go to bed, pray
and ask God to give you the Holy Ghost. First, clear your mind of all worldly
thoughts, and place your mind totally on the Lord. Mentally go through each
step on how to receive the Holy Spirit, and then do them.
When I came back a week later, Emmet told me: “Something strange
is going on around here, and it is scaring me.” I said to him: “Emmet, what are you talking about?” Emmet said: “Every time I start to pray at night, something weird
always happens. The first night as I start to pray, one my neighbors came over
and asked me to open the door to the animal clinic, so he could get a coke. He
said the Coke Machine in our barrack was broken. I told him no, but he kept on
insisting that he was having a coke fit, and had to have a coke right now. I
gave in and went over with him. I was so frustrated with him when I came back,
that I could not pray. The next night, just as I started to pray about 10 PM,
my neighbor in the room next to mine, whom I share a closet with, started going
through the closet looking for something. For two hours he went on a rampage
throwing everything around in the closet. It appears to me that every time I
start to pray, something like this always happens. This is not natural. I am
becoming afraid to pray.”
I said to Emmet: “The Devil knows where you live. Is there
some place we can go, where we will not be interrupted?” Emmet said: “We can go over to the animal clinic. It is locked and
there is no one over there but the animals.” I said: “Lets go, before the Devil sends someone else to your
door.” We made our way over to the animal clinic.
We went into the room next to where the animals were kept. I gave Emmet a quick
review of the steps on receiving the Holy Ghost. Now, just as we started to
pray, guess what happen? I know what I am going to say will be a little hard
for my readers to believe, for it is even hard for me to believe, even though
it happen to me. As we started to pray, a lady started pounding on the outer
door. She was yelling saying: “I know someone is in there. Open the door.
I need to clean the clinic.” This was not her
regular cleaning time.
I told Emmet: “Don’t do it. She will go away soon.” However, Emmet said: “I need to open the door before the Military
Police come. I reluctantly gave in. Therefore, he opened the door, and this
woman went into the room where all the animals were kept. As a result, she
disturbed the dogs, and they started barking and made a lot of noise. I became
very angry at the Devil. I said to the Devil in my heart: “Devil, you are not
going to win. God is going to give Emmet the Holy Ghost right here and right
now.” I looked Emmet in the eye, and he in turn looked
me in the eye. I said to him: “Emmet, God wants to give you the Holy Ghost
right now. We must somehow tune out all the noise, and place all of our minds
on Jesus.
Emmet agreed, so we began to loudly cry out to the Lord Jesus for help
and to fill Emmet with His Spirit. I told Emmet: “God will somehow
give us the grace to become lost in the Spirit of worship.” I laid my hand on Emmet’s head and started praying for him. I pleaded
the blood of Jesus over Emmet’s ears and mind. I then started praying for him
in the Spirit. Emmet kept telling Jesus that he loved him repeatedly. About ten
minutes later, Emmet started crying and began to worship Jesus from his heart.
He placed his mind totally on the King in verbal worship, and as a result, his
spirit locked in with God’s Holy Spirit; for our sweet Lord gloriously filled
him with His beautiful Spirit, and Emmet began to praise His Savior in tongues.
Praise our God forever!
Yes friend, you must keep your mind totally on Jesus in worship, for
you cannot receive anything from God with a divided mind. If your mind drifts
off on to something else as you are worshipping Him, you must bring it back on
Him. If your mind keeps drifting while your are verbally loving Jesus, plead
the precious blood of Jesus over your mind, and ask Jesus to help you to keep
your mind on Him and give you the ability to lovingly worship Him with all of
your heart! Then begin to worship Him again.
This is all many need to do to receive the Holy Ghost; for
usually after a short time, their heart will become involve in verbal worship
of their Savior, and they will begin to cry. Now this is good for it means God
is softening your heart and your desire for the Holy Spirit is intensifying.
When this happens, do not allow the devil to trick you into stopping your
worship of God, for you are not far away from receiving the Holy Spirit. You
need to be determined to press on, and in a short time you will begin to speak
in tongues. Now a believer does not have to cry to get their heart
involved in worship, but for many that is the way it happens.
For some believers to get their heart involve in worship of
their Lord, they need to raise their voice in worship. What usually
happens, when they worship God with a raised voice, in a short time,
their hearts will begin to melt and they will begin to cry. The Bible does
command us to “shout to God with the voice
of triumph” (Psa 47:1); and “Be glad in the LORD and rejoice,
you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart”
(Psa 32:11)!
The voice of triumph implies
that we do it by faith expecting the victory and joy to come. Be determined to
keep praising God until you yield your tongue to His Spirit by faith, and start
speaking in tongues by faith.
The best way to get your whole mind on Jesus is by closing your eyes.
Why? Because your conscious mind is usually focus on what your eyes are seeing.
Try to imagine Jesus as the apostles saw Him, when He appeared to them with His
hands stretched out, saying to them and to you: “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I
myself! Touch Me” (Lk 24:39). Jesus wants you
to touch Him. Now try to imagine yourself as a five years old child, and you
are sitting in the Jesus’ lap, for He is your heavenly Father. Jesus is a good
Father, who will never hurt you in any way. No earthly father will ever love
you with the depth of love He has for you. You are very special in His sight.
He died just for you. He shed His blood just for you. Do not let the devil make
you doubt His love for you, because of some tragedy or circumstance in your
life.
The reason why I want you to imagine that you are five years old is
because children can speak from their hearts much easier than
grown ups. Maybe that is the reason why Jesus said: “Verily I say unto
you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall
not enter therein” (Mk 10:15). Therefore,
humble yourself and try to imagine yourself as a little child sitting in Jesus’
lap and telling Him you love Him, and let it come with all of the emotions that
comes from speaking with your heart. I remember when my boys were this age, and
they would climb in my lap. I can remember, as though it was yesterday, how I
felt when they looked me in the eye and said: “Daddy, I love you.” There was great power in those words, because I knew it came form
their heart! I could feel a very warm and wonderful feeling that filled my
heart as they told me they loved me. This is how your heavenly Father feels
when you tell Him to love Him from your heart!
Lovingly worshipping Jesus with all of our heart is exactly how we must
talk to our heavenly Father. Our Daddy told us: “you will seek
Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer 29:13). Our Daddy also told us: “you shall love the LORD your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your
strength” (Mk 12:30). If you will verbally love and
worship Jesus this way, you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Yes
friend, when you come into the King's presence, you must verbally love and
worship Him with your entire physical mind, all of your spirit mind, all of
your soul mind, and with all of your physical strength.
The Bible instructed us to: “Enter into His [God’s] gates with thanksgiving,
and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His
Name” (Psa 100:4). God loves it when we thank Him for
what He has already done in our lives. The spirit of praise is the spirit of
thankfulness. Praise is a verbal expression of love. When we verbally
love our Heavenly Father from our hearts, He will respond by sending His
presence. Nothing brings the power and presence of God like sincere verbal
expressions of love from the heart. I have helped many people to receive the
Holy Ghost.
I have seen many receive it when they were worshipping God either
standing up or sitting down, but I have seen only a very few receive it
kneeling down. The reason is because they have a hard time keeping their mind
on the Lord, if they have pain in their knees. There is also no liberty to feel
free in worship, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2Co 3:17). According to the Bible, the apostles and disciples received it while
they were “sitting” down (Acts 2:2). The point I am making is this, get into a sitting or standing position
in which you feel comfortable and free to verbally worship God with your whole
being. You may want to pray and repent on your knees, but you do not want to
worship God in a kneeling position.
CHAPTER 8
YOU MUST YIELD YOUR TONGUE AND VOICE
TO GOD’S SPIRIT BY FAITH IN VERBAL WORSHIP
In Acts 2:4, we read that the apostles, the
disciples and even Mary the mother of Jesus, were all “filled with the
Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance.” The Bible clearly stated that they spoke in
tongues or languages. How did they speak in these languages, as their soul mind
gave them the utterance? No, as God’s Holy Spirit gave their human spirit mind
the words to speak. God is not going to yank your tongue out of your mouth, and
make you speak in tongues. He will not speak in tongues through you with some
strange voice that is not yours. You must yield your tongue and voice to
Christ’s Holy Spirit by faith. You must believe that God knows what He
is doing and what He is saying through you.
If you truly believe the gospel, have repented of your sins, and have
surrendered your life to God, then you can be sure that whatever words comes
out of your mouth, in loving worship to your Savior, will not come from your
soul mind, or from Satan, but from the Holy Spirit of Christ. Praise the Lord
Jesus forever more! Remember, the Word of God commands us to yield our physical
body or “members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom 6:13). Our tongue and voice are definitely bodily members. So, go ahead and
speak in tongues by faith.
James said: “No man can tame the tongue” (Ja
3:8). So, you must yield your tongue to God by faith, for when God’s Spirit
has complete control over your untamable tongue, it is a sure sign that your
whole body is yielded to God. James also said: “Faith without works
is dead” (Ja 2:26). If you do not open your mouth and
use your voice to verbally love your Lord, your faith cannot be release. John
said: “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith” (1Jn 5:4). I have also discovered, anyone of us can speak in tongues as much as
we want to, for it is not up to God how much we speak in tongues, but up to us.
For the Jesus said: “According to your faith be it to you” (Mt 9:29). Let us remember, without a battle, there cannot be a victory.
In Bible College, one of my instructors told the class one day: “No one can get into
the Spirit, without going through their flesh first.” My first impression was: “that dumb, for everyone knows that you must
get the flesh out of the way, before you can get into the Spirit.” This saying really troubled me, because I knew this man was a real man
of God and a great soul winner. I personally witness many people receive the
Holy Ghost as he was praying for them. I thought on this saying for some time,
and then it dawn on me what he was saying. I realized that he was right.
I thought about the blessings, healings, and miracles that God had
given me up to that time, the acts of faith that involved using my flesh. Here
are some examples: God did not give me the Holy Ghost, until I started using my
tongue and voice in worship. I did not dance in the Spirit until I had my hands
and feet involved in worship. God did not heal the cyst, which was growing over
my left eye, until I went to the altar and had the brethren anoint me with oil
and pray for me. After that, I verbally thanked him for healing me. Each time I
thanked Him, I raised my voice to a higher pitch and put more of my heart into
my praise. The third time I thanked him: I was instantaneously and miraculously
healed, for the abscess immediately disappeared. O’ praise God forever! In all
these examples and more, God only moved after I got my flesh involve in
worship. It was only then, that I able to make the transition from flesh to
Spirit.
Now, how does the believer make the transition from flesh to Spirit, so
he or she can receive the Holy Spirit, or in other words make contact with the
Spirit of Christ? Paul tells us that we: “should seek God, in the hope that they
might feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from
each one of us” (Acts 17:27, ESV). There is
no secret formula or magical words, which brings the Holy Presence of God; for
God’s Spirit responds to three things that must come from your human spirit:
faith, love, and true repentance. Your faith in God must be manifested by
verbal expressions of love and thanksgiving for Him. This is how you seek and
feel after Him. This is why the prophet David wrote: “Thou art
holy, O Thou that inhabits [or dwells in] the praises of Israel” (Psa 22:3). God
is not on any ego trip, and He does not need your or me to praise Him, but God
loves to be love, and praise is nothing but a verbal expression of love!
When we verbally love God from our hearts, in song or just by telling Him so,
the power and presence of the Holy Spirit comes all over us, for God responds
to true love.
I remember helping a contractor to receive the Holy Ghost in a Church I
was pastoring. After he received it, he told me: “When I was a child,
I can remember singing some songs to God that I learned in Sunday-school, as I
was swinging on my swing. As I did, I started singing in some language. I
thought I had made these words up. But as I listened to myself talk to God in
tongues, it reminded me of this experience, and it sounds much like the
language I sang in as a kid.” Friend, as I
stated above, God loves to be loved, and it makes no difference if we
are 10 or 100 years old. Simple child-like worship is pure worship.
There is no sham or hypocrisy.
Singing to God with all your heart is also a good way to receive the
Holy Spirit. My mother, who was Catholic, said to me after I was witnessed to
her about being filled with the Holy Ghost: “Harry, I can
remember in 1964, I was in this kitchen doing my dishes, when a song was played
over the radio, ‘He Got The Whole World In His Hands.’ I stopped doing my
dishes, and I started singing this song to my Lord, as I clap my hands. In a
short time, I started singing this song in some language. After I finished, I
said to my Lord, Jesus I do not know what happen just now, but use it for your
glory.”
To best way to get your heart or human spirit involved in singing unto
the Lord is: sing a chorus that you know by heart, that is, without
looking at a songbook. It should be one that you have felt the presence of
the Lord before, when you sung it. In other words, it should be one that moves
you and glorifies the Lord. For me, it is “The Old Rugged Cross,” that
turns me on. Most of the time I lovingly sing this song to my Lord, I can feel
something warm chills all over me. If you do not know a chorus that turns you
on, find one!
The believer should set aside a certain time each day to worship the
Lord, whereby he or she can place their whole mind on the Lord without any
disturbances. He or she should start by reading about Calvary in one of the
gospels, and then taking a few minutes to meditate on what he or she has read.
If you really love Jesus, Calvary should stir up your heart as you personalize
His great love for you! After this, you can start singing to the your Lord from
your heart, or just start by telling Him you love Him, as a child would tell
their parents he or she loved them.
Let your heart speak and not your intellect. All your pride and
self-exaltation of human reason and intellect must go. You must forget all
forms of ritualism and so-called pious stiff-neck and stiff-chin worship that
is taught in religion today. If you start crying, let the tears flow, do not
try to hold them back. If you start trembling do not be upset, let it happen.
If you feel your voice getting tense or intensifying to a higher pitch, this is
all right also, as long as it does not get so high where the words God is
speaking through you in tongues are not clear, if this happens just try to
relax, and keep loving Jesus with verbal praise until the words come out clear.
Remember, God commanded you to worship Him with your voice. He said for you to:
“open your mouth
wide, and I will fill it” (Psa 81:10). God cannot speak
through you, if you do not open your mouth, and call on Him with your voice. No
one receives the Holy Ghost with a close mouth.
Another good way to receive the Holy Ghost is by repeating certain
loving phrases in verbal worship. This is something your soul mind wants to
rebel against, for your soul mind operates by logic, and it believes that it is
foolish. It goes against our reason, why we should repeatedly say: “Jesus, I love you,”
or “Jesus, I thank you for loving me,” or “Jesus, thank you for dieing for my
sins,” or “Jesus, thank you for the promise of the Holy Spirit.” There are some good reasons why you should repeat one or more of these
phrases:
FIRST, the name of Jesus has all the power of heaven and earth in
it, and demons fear this holy name. Therefore, when you use this name in an
expression of love, praise, and thanksgiving, it draws God attention to you. By
saying this phrase or phrases, and hearing yourself say them, it will help your
heart to say them with more sincerity and felling; that is, until you are
saying these words with all your heart or human spirit mind in faith, expecting
God to honor your act of faith. This phrase or phrases should be said with
great feeling and emotion, as one meditates on His love shown at Calvary!
These words should never be chanted.
SECOND, the verbal repetition of these phrases will help the
believer’s soul mind to disengage from speaking, for it goes against it logical
thought process. This will help your soul mind to release it control over your
tongue, whereby the Holy Ghost can speak through your human spirit mind.
Because this process is so simple and childlike, our soul mind does not like
it, for it is an insult to our intelligence. I believe this is why God chose
simple love and faith of a child to conquer our carnal mind.
It has been my experience that woman can speak from their heart my
quicker than a man. If I am praying for a husband and wife to receive the Holy
Ghost, the wife in the majority of the cases receives it before her husband. I
can remember a revival I preacher in Denver, CO, in which about 8 received the
Holy Ghost in about two days. A Chiropractic Doctor came to the Sunday night
service, seeking for the Holy Ghost. As I prayed for the man, God revealed to
me he was demon-possessed. At the end of the service, I took him into the
pastor’s office and rebuked demons out of him for more than an hour. The man
did not receive the Holy Spirit.
The next morning, this doctor called the Church and spoke to me. He
said to me: “Reverend Peyton, do you know God has a sense of humor.” I said: “Yes, if He did not, He would not have made so many
different kinds of monkeys.” He then said: “Last night when I
went home, God gave me a dream. In the dream, I was lying on my back on an operating
table, and a bright light from heaven was shining right into my chest. As it
did, I saw these weird looking creatures coming out of my chest. Reverend
Peyton, I believe God delivered me from some horrible sins that had me bound.” I said: “ I do not know what you were into, but God definitely
delivered you last knight.” He then said: “Reverend Peyton,
would you please come over to my house tonight, and have dinners us; and after
dinner my wife and I will put the kids to bed, and maybe you can give us the
same Bible study that you gave last knight, for we both need to receive the
Holy Spirit.”
I agreed and had dinner with them. After dinner, I gave them a shorter
form of this Bible Study. When I was finished, I had them to verbal confess
their faith in the gospel, that is, their faith in Jesus’ death, burial, and
resurrection. After this, I lead them through repentance and started praying
for both of them, as my hand was their forehead. Within a few minutes, I could
tell that Doc’s wife was close to receiving God’s Spirit; so, I took my hand
off Doc’s forehead and gave her all my attention. God gloriously filled her
with the Holy Ghost within 5-minutes. When Doc heard his wife speaking in
tongues, he opened his eyes, and looked up and said with tears in his eyes:
“Lord, it is my turn to receive your Spirit.” Doc’s wife and I gathered around
him and started to intently pray for him. In about 20-minutes, Doc finally got
his intellect and pride out of the way, and starting telling Jesus he loved Him
from his heart. As a result, he immediately began to pray and worship God in
speak in tongues.
Permit me to give you two examples of what I mean by
yielding your tongue and voice to God by faith. When I was an Assistant Pastor
in a Church in California, there was a beautiful young woman who came to our
Friday night youth services. Now, this woman hated herself, because she was
living an immoral life. After I finished preaching that night, I gave an altar
call and she came weeping to the altar. After I prayed with her for a little
while, she gave her life to Jesus, repented of her sins, and was delivered from
demons that were trying to get her to commit suicide. We then baptized her in
the holy, sin cleansing name of the Lord Jesus Christ. She did not receive the
Holy Ghost at this time.
This young woman came back for our Sunday morning service. At the end
of the service I gave another altar call, and she responded. As she was at the
altar praying for the Holy Ghost, God spoke to my mind and told me to ask her
if she heard strange words going through her mind. I immediately rejected these
thought. I said to myself: “It did not happen to me that way, and I do
not know of anyone who received it that way. This cannot be of God.” Even though I rejected these thoughts, I felt I should go and ask her,
because this was a very strong impression that kept coming into my mind.
When I asked this sister about this, she said: “Yes, but I thought
I was making these words up in my mind because I greatly desire to be filled with
Holy Ghost.” I then told her that God was putting
those words in her mind, and for her to take her tongue and voice and speak out
the words she heard in her mind by faith. The very moment she obeyed, she
immediately began to speak in tongues. A few minutes later, she began to
sing in tongues. In fact, she sang three songs in three different
languages. Her face radiated with joy or glowed like an angel as she became
drunk in the Spirit of God. This dear sister spoke in tongues for hours.
Afterwards, I discovered there were others who received the Holy Ghost
this way; that is, God spoke a word or more into their mind, before they gave
utterance to it or them. The devil will use a believer’s sincerity against
them, by telling them that their mind is making up these words. As a result,
some go a long time before they have faith enough to speak out what God had
given them at the beginning. Now God does do this for some, I suppose, to help
their faith. If He chooses to do this for you, do not doubt it! You need to
realized and believe that since you have confessed your sins to God, and
pleaded the blood of Jesus over your mind and body before you started to
worship God, they are now in a holy stated, whereby a holy God can now speak to
you and come in. Therefore, by faith yield your tongue and voice to the words
that the Holy Spirit placed in your mind.
In 1980, I was preaching a revival in my home church in New Orleans. My
Uncle Harry, who was my mother’s brother, attended the revival on a Sunday
morning. He was the most devout Catholic I have ever known; for he went to 6 AM Mass seven days a week, and fifty-two weeks a year. I preached a
message on Calvary that Sunday, and my uncle cried throughout the entire
message. At the end of the service I went to him and said: “Uncle Harry the
Lord really blessed you this morning.” He
replied: “No Harry, no blessings just a heart filled with pain as I think of my
Lord’s sufferings.”
After the service, my Dad, my Uncle Harry, and I, went to my brother
Lawrence’s house. As we were sitting in Lawrence’s living room, Cathy,
Lawrence’s wife, came to me and said: “Harry went you gave the altar call
this morning, I wanted to go and pray but I did not. Would you pray for me now
and ask God to give me the Holy Spirit? I really do want it.” I said to her: “Sure I will.” As we stood in
the middle of her living room, I laid hand on her head and prayed with all my
heart. In just a few minutes time, sister Cathy was filled with God’s Spirit
and began to speaking in tongues.
When my uncle saw this, he said to me: “Harry will you pray
for me, for I also want the Holy Spirit to come into me.” I went to couch where my Uncle Harry was sitting, and started praying
for him. At first I could not get him to open his mouth and say: “I love you Jesus.” After about 15-minutes of encouraging him to open his mouth and
verbally tell Jesus he loved him, he finally started speaking; but instead of
saying, “I love you Jesus,” he started
speaking like a baby. That is, he started speaking in syllables and not
complete words. I greatly wondered what was going on, but I keep praying for
him. My uncle prayed this way for about 5-minutes. Then it happen, my uncle
Harry finally released his tongue to God’s Spirit, and he began to speak
clearly in tongues as the Holy Spirit spoke through him. Praise God forever! I
have never seen anyone before or since receive the Holy Spirit by speaking like
a baby, but God knows how to get us to yield our tongue and voice to Him!
The next morning my uncle, who worked for City of New Orleans repairing
streets, skipped work and came over to my Dad’s house. He was skipping and
jumping like a kid. Now, my uncle was a super shy man who was fifty
years old. I had never seen him so excited before. He said to me: “Harry when I left
Lawrence’s house I went home, and in the kitchen of my apartment I started
praising the Lord again. I wanted to see if I could speak in tongues without
you praying for me.” He then went on to say: “I did, and I
discovered that I can control my voice, for I can speak in tongues as loud as I
want to, or as soft as I want to. I can control my voice as the Holy Ghost
speaks through me.” I said to him: “Why sure you can.
The Holy Ghost does not speak through you with someone else’s voice. If you do
not open your mouth, and use your voice to praise the Lord, the Holy Ghost
cannot speak. This is why Jude instructed the church to ‘pray in the Holy
Ghost’ (Jude 1:20); and Paul told them to ‘pray without
ceasing… [and] quench not the Spirit’ (1Th 5:17, 19).
God’s people can quench the Holy Spirit, when they do not yield their voice and
tongue over to Him in prayer and worship.”
The Spirit of God is gentle, it will never force you to praise God or
do anything else. You must become sensitive to its leading. Just as it will
lead and guide you into all truth, it will lead you through strong impressions
in your mind to do other things. God leads His children two ways, through His
Spirit and His Word. When we are praying for someone to receive the Holy Ghost,
we should repeatedly use phrases like: “Yield your tongue to God by faith,” or “Let God speak in tongues through you by faith,” or “By faith release your tongue to the Holy Spirit.” The seeker should have a clear understanding or mental picture in
their mind that speaking in tongues is an act of faith. Every blessing
we get from God comes by an act of faith. For “without faith it is
impossible to please” God (Heb 11:6); and “God has dealt to
each one a measure of faith” (Rom 12:3, ASV). All we need to do is to direct and channel our faith in the promises
of God and then act on it.
After you hear yourself speaking in tongues, you should keep
worshipping Jesus in tongues until you speaking fluently in tongues, or in
other words, until it flowing from you without any struggle, or where it
becomes natural like a second language. If your faith is not strong enough the
first night, go through these steps each night, until all doubts are removed,
and God’s Spirit is flowing through you freely. Whereas, your own human intellect
and the devil imps are no longer quenching your faith with doubts.
Because speaking in tongues is so simple and child-like, the devil as I
said before, will try to put fear in you, by telling you that your mind is
making up the words. It was this lie that Satan told me for three and a half
years. I knew in my spirit that I had received the Holy Ghost, but I could not
understand why I could not speak more in tongues. The most I could speak was
about seven words. My problem was that I had doubts in my heart, which came
from my ignorance of how to yield my tongue to the Spirit by faith. I keep
waiting for God to physically take control over my tongue, where I did not have
control over it any longer.
It was this stupid preconceived idea of how it was suppose to happen
that keep killing my faith. As a result, it never happened because speaking in
tongues is an act of faith. Satan used my honesty, sincerity, and ignorance
against me. Because I keep waiting for God to take my tongue in worship, I did
not completely yield my tongue to God by faith. My mind keep a firm hold on my
tongue and would not yield to God’s Spirit. If only someone would have told me
about speaking by faith, I would have spoken fluently in tongues the day I
received it.
In 1974, my first semester of Bible College,
I was in a class entitled, ‘Dynamics Of Soul Winning’. The teacher was
instructing us on how to help someone to receive the Holy Ghost. It was there
that I learned about speaking by faith. As the full realization of what my instructor
was teaching, I became very angry with Satan for deceiving me for three years.
As soon as class was finished, I skipped my next class, and I went to the Upper
Room of the Church to pray. My heart was deeply stirred within me. I asked God
to forgive me for my doubts concerning speaking in tongues, and my lack of
understanding the ways of His Spirit. I then started praising Him with all my
heart, and within 5-minutes, I started speaking in tongues fluently. This time
I was not looking for God to take control of my tongue, I simply, in a child
like fashion, yielded my tongue to God by faith, and for a hour and thirty
minutes I spoke, shouted, and even sang in tongues. Praise our Lord Jesus
forever.
Faith in the Holy Spirit’s power to speak through you always produces
joy in the believer, but doubt always produces fear and mental torment. Truly,
the Bible is right when it says: “You shall know the Truth and the Truth
shall set you free” (Jn 8:32). Satan can only
keep us bound as long as we believe his lie or lies. Truth and acting on Truth
by faith will always work. I love to worship God through song, and shouts of
praise, through dancing in the Spirit, and even running around the church, but
the Word of God has to be our main love, which is far above all others. There
are many Truths in the Bible, and when we know and act on these Truths, God
will break every chain Satan tries to put on us.
Yes friend, receiving the Holy Ghost is so simple and
child like, that the prideful will miss it every time. There is nothing hard
about verbally telling Jesus that you love Him, and verbally thank Him for all
the great things He had done at Calvary. Jesus paid a great price to save you
and I, so He could fill us with His Spirit. Therefore, He is not going to make
it hard for you and I to receive it, and thank God, He made it simple. The more
you love and thank Him as a little child, with child like faith, the greater
His Presence will be felt, because as I stated before, God loves to be love,
and when we verbally praise him that is what we are doing (Psa 22:3).
CHAPTER 9
YOU MUST BELIEVE IN YOUR FAITH
Before we pray the prayer of faith, permit me to ask you a few
questions. Do you truly believe that Jesus loved you enough to die “for your sins” (1Co
15:3)? Did you see Him die on Calvary’s Cross?
Since you believe He did but cannot prove it, where did your faith come from?
Do you believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead “for your
justification” (Rom 4:25, NIV)? Did you see
Him rise from the dead? The answer is obviously no, but yet you believe with
all your heart that He did. Now, where did your faith come from? God’s Spirit
must have moved on you and gave it to you, because it sure did not come from
your own intellect, for you soul operates on reason not faith.
Do you believe that God spoke the worlds into existence, and that He
made man in His image and likeness? There are many so-called intellectuals in
the world today who vehemently deny this great Biblical truth. Can you prove to
anyone that He really did? Since you cannot, but yet you believe it, where did
your faith come from? How do you know that the Bible really is the Word of God
and not the word of man? There are over six billion people in the world today,
and only a few hundred million believe in the Bible. Now, since you believe
that the Bible is the Word of God, where did your faith come from?
The Bible stated: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must
believe that He is, and that He
is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb
11:6); and “God has dealt to
each one a measure of faith” (Rom 12:3). Notice, what the Word of God said about your faith. It declared:
because you prayed and sought after God, that is, to know Him, God gave you
faith to believe in Him and His Holy Word. In fact, your measure of faith is
really great faith. You have greater faith than Thomas, who was one of the
apostles of Christ. For Thomas said he would not believe in the resurrection of
Christ until he saw Him. Now you have not seen Him, but you believe in His
resurrection. This takes great faith. Remember, everything you get from God
comes by faith, which includes receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the
beauty of it is that God has already given you all the faith you need to receive
it.
It takes great faith for you to believe that the Bible is the Word of
God, God created the universe and man, and because He loves you with an
everlasting love, He became a man and as a man He lived a sinless life and died
for your sins. Can you or I prove any of these things to anyone? No, but we
believe these things with all of our hearts. Where did that kind of faith come
from? Out of six billion people in the world today, most of them do not believe
any of these things, but you do! Most of the so-called scientists in the world
do not believe that God created man, but you do! Now where did you faith come
from? The Bible says that God gave it to you! It does not take one ounce more
of faith to believe these things than it does to receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost. Therefore, you have all the faith you need right now, to receive the
greatest gift that God can give anyone, which is Himself.
CHAPTER 10
PRAYING FOR THE HOLY GHOST
Now, close your eyes, and imagine yourself as a child sitting in
lap of Jesus. Knowing that He really loves you and you love Him. You are now
ready to ask your heavenly Father to send His Holy Spirit into your heart, and
He will, whether you feel it come in or not. After you ask the Spirit of Christ
to come into you, I want you to let your tongue go by faith and love Him
verbally as a child, with
complete sincerity and all the emotion that comes
from talking from your heart. Just tell Him you love Him over and over again
until you say it from your heart.
Just remember how you felt when your child told you that he or she loved you. Can you remember the beautiful
feel you felt when those words came into your heart? Words do have power and words of love do bring the presence of the one being loved. If you do not have any children, just remember
how you felt when your husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend told you they
loved you. We all love someone to tell us he or she love us, and God is no
different. In fact, He is the one who gave you the desire to give love and
receive love.
Therefore, let your praises for Him come from down deep within your
spirit. Do not be afraid to let your tongue speak by faith, for whatever comes
out will not come from your mind, but from God’s Holy Spirit. For the Holy
Spirit cannot come into you and speak through you, until your soul and spirit
is made holy by the blood of the Lamb of God. This is why we are going to ask
Jesus, to send His precious blood into your soul and spirit, and cleanse them of all the guilt of past sins, whereby they can become holy and acceptable
to God. Only the blood of Jesus, and nothing else, can make your soul and
spirit holy, whereby a holy God can dwell in you. For God cannot dwell in an
unclean temple, therefore He must cleanse it before He takes up residence. Oh
praise the Lord.
Before you pray the prayer of faith for His blood to cleanse you, I
want you to go to your prayer closet and read about Calvary, then meditate on what you read, until you can
feel His love for you. Then pray and ask God to bring to your remembrance every sin, which you need to confess and ask forgiveness for; also ask
Him to give you a heart to repent, whereby you can feel godly sorrow for
your sins. After this, be silent for a few minutes, so God can speak to you about your sins. As God
reveals to you your sins, ask Him with all of your heart to forgive you, and He will. Be sure to verbally name each sin you desire Him to forgive. Remember, the greater the repentance,
the more of the presence of God you will experience, and the more faith
you will have. Therefore, do not rush through repentance! Oh, praise the
Lord forever!
It is now time to put your faith into action by praying to the One who
loved and died for you. I want you to pray this prayer out loud, and with
all boldness as the scripture
commanded you. Are you ready to receive God’s Holy Spirit? I want you to pray
this prayer with all of your heart:
“Lord Jesus, I love you, and I am so thankful for your precious blood
that you shed at Calvary for the remission of all of my sins. I believe with
all my heart in the power of your blood to make my soul and spirit holy, so that they may acceptable to You. I am asking you to send
your precious blood into my soul and
spirit, and cleanse them of all
guilt of past sins right now. Lord Jesus since I
have confessed my sins to You, as you told me to, I now want to thank You by faith for forgiving me and cleansing my soul and
spirit from all sins! I believe that my spirit is now holy and ready to receive
Your Holy Spirit. Therefore, I am asking You with all of my heart to send Your Holy Spirit into my heart right now. I am
giving my tongue and voice, by faith, to Your Spirit right now, so that
your Holy Spirit can use my tongue and voice to verbally love and praise You
forever! ‘I love you Jesus,’ ‘I love you Jesus,’ ‘I love you Jesus.”
Be persistent! Keep loving Him with verbally praise, until you touch
the hem of Jesus’ garment, or in other words, your faith has prevailed! It
should not take long for your soul to release its control over its tongue and
let the Holy Spirit speak through your human spirit. In other words, it may or
may not take a little time for you to stop worshipping God with your mind, and
allow your heart to speak. Verbally loving God is new to most people, so keep
doing it until the words you are saying are coming from your heart. Be like a child and speak from your heart. The more you verbally love Him from the
heart, the more of His presence you will feel! For “God dwells in the
praises of His people” (Psa 22:3), and praise is nothing but a verbal expression of love, and our God
loves to be loved, just like any good parent. Remember, you must think about
Jesus’ love for you and nothing else, as you verbally love Him. Keep your
whole mind on Him!
If you have any problems receiving the Holy Spirit in your prayer
closet quickly, and you have verbally loved Him for twenty minutes, try loving
Him by singing a chorus to a song to Him. If you are still having a problem of
speaking from your heart in love to God, check your repentance. Be sure you
have repented of all the sins you can
remember, also check your heart to be sure you do not have any bitterness,
hate, or unforgiveness towards anyone; if you do, call or go to that person and
ask forgiveness. Remember repentance can only take place when you have made up
mind to turn from all sins, and turn your whole life over to the control of
God’s Spirit and Word.
After a week of going through each step and verbally loving Jesus and
singing to Jesus for twenty minutes, and you still have not receive the Holy
Spirit, then God may want to give it to you in water baptism, just as He gave
it to me! You will need to seek out a one God Jesus Name Holiness preacher in
your town, or one near by, to baptize you in the holy sin cleansing name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then lay his hand on your forehead and pray an anointed prayer for you to receive the
Holy Spirit.
Always remember, God promised to give the gift of His Spirit to all who
obeys Acts 2:38 and 5:32. Do not forget, water baptism in Jesus’ Name is part of the New Birth (Jn 3:5; Tit 3:5), it is not an option, it is a command from the Lord (Mk 16:15-16; Acts
10: 40-45; 1Pe 3:20-21). Hence, you cannot be saved without
it, for you cannot enter into Jesus’ death and burial without be baptize in the
name of Jesus (Rom 6:1-5; Col 2:9-12). Therefore, you need to be baptize in His name, even if you received
the Holy Spirit before you are baptized!
A Word To Pentecostal Preachers: There
is nothing wrong with a believer, who is seeking for the Holy Ghost, to lift up
their hands in worship, or laughing, singing, shouting, run around the church,
jumping up and down, rolling on the floor, and dancing, if it sparks their
faith. These things are good for kids, and those who have a strong spirit of
pride, or an unbroken will, or those who have a hard time speaking from their
heart to God. They need to become a little emotional so they can stop verbally
worshipping God with their soul mind and start worshipping Him with their human
spirit mind. If I believe that anyone of these forms of God ordain and blessed
worship, for saints of God, is what it will take for those I am praying
with to receive the Holy Ghost, I will lead them to do these things. It depends
on what they tell me when I am counseling with them.
If the
believer performs any of these acts of worship, he or she should never
believe that doing these things will earn him or her the Holy Ghost,
for that would be offensive to God, and destructive to their faith. Anyone who
is wrestling with God in prayer, is trying to earn the Holy Ghost, and is not
seeking God with faith, for God is not reluctant to give His gift.
Anyone who is waiting on God to give His Spirit, or as some say: “When God get ready He will give
it to me,” is calling God a liar, because he or she does not
believe that God wants to give it now. Anyone who is deeply worried about
receiving the Holy Ghost is deeply grieving God with his or her unbelief. God
wants him or her to wait with expectation and with thanksgiving. If a
believer will start rejoicing in God’s promises by faith, knowing that
their God cannot lie, this will definitely put and build faith in their heart.
My Personal Testimony Of How I Received The Holy Ghost
Since
the “false
doctrine of believeism” is a very popular message in Christendom today,
many believers have been taught, they have been born again; just to find out
that they did not have power over their old sinful nature. They read the
scriptures where Paul tells God’s children that they have power over sin, and
are no longer slaves to sin, or they should not practice sin, and wonder what
is wrong with their experience with God (Rom 6:1-2, 6, 12, 16-18). My
heart grieves for them, for that was my experience also.
I can
remember the day when I gave my sinful life to the Lord Jesus Christ; it was
somewhere around November 12 of 1970, at 1 AM in
the morning. This was the first time in my life that I had truly repented of my
sins. I have done penance thousands of time in a Catholic confessional box, but
no priest ever told me I had to give up my sins. I, like most Catholics, felt
sorry and guilty for my sins, but I had no intentions of giving them up,
because I enjoyed them. This all changed when I gave my life to my Savor; for
my prayer to Him went something like this: “Lord Jesus, I truly believe
with all my heart that you died for my sins, was buried, and rose from the
dead, so You could save me. Lord, you know I love alcohol, and other things. I
do not know how I am going to stop these sins, but by your help and grace, from
this moment on, I am going to stop doing these things. Lord Jesus, please come
into my heart and save me.”
Immediately,
after I prayed this prayer, the Spirit of God moved on me. I started crying, my
heart began to beat fast and hard in my chest, my body trembled, and my hand
automatically rose above my head, and I verbally started worshipping Jesus. My
whole being was filled with joy. Through stammering or trembling lips (Isa 28:11-12), I
keep saying: “I
love You Jesus, and thank You for being real, thank You for coming into my
life.” When Satan’s demon, who was my close companion in sin,
saw I was close to receiving the Holy Ghost, he tried divert my mind, by
placing fear upon me, by telling me: “if you do not go to sleep right now, you will be late
for work, for you know you must get up at 5 AM.” But I
was to excited to go to sleep, so I brush those thought aside, and keep
worshipping my God.
When
Satan’s demon saw that was not going to put me to sleep, he told me: “You need to call your mother
and tell her about your experience with God.” I
thought for a moment: “it is 1:15 in the morning; my mom and dad are sound asleep.” But
Satan’s demon said: “It would make your mother very happy to know that you have given your
life to Jesus.” I though about this for a moment and said to
myself: “Yes
it would, it really would make her happy.” So, I stop my worship
of God and called my mother and she cried. As I began to tell my dad about my
experience with God, my dad said: “Son, you know what time it is?” I
said: “yes sir.” He said: “Son, this can wait, called me after work today, and
then tell me about it. Son, you and I both have to go to work in a few hours,
so we both need to get some sleep now.” Therefore, I hung up
and went to sleep, without even knowing I had not receive the Holy Spirit.
Since
a Baptist deacon led me to the Lord, I came out of Catholicism and joined the
Southern Baptist Church. I read my Bible everyday for a couple of hours, and on
weekends all days long. I prayed for at least an hour a day every day. My
pastor told me the moment I believed the gospel and accepted Christ into my
heart I was born-again, and I became a new man in Christ. The only problem with
this: it was a lie. I can remember going to him after three months of struggling
with a continuous desire for alcohol and saying: “Pastor is their something
missing in my relationship with God?” He said: “Why do you ask?” I
then told him: “Every day I wake up, I have to ask myself, if I am going to
drink alcohol today? Even though I do not, I still want to. Now, I told God I
would not drink any more. This desire for alcohol is eating at me like a
cancer. It is making me miserable. Every day I pleaded with my Savior to
deliver me from this awful and sinful desire.
He
then told me that I had everything God wanted me to have, but I needed to grow
in grace and knowledge of the Lord. This just confused me, because I knew in my
heart that something was missing in my walk with God, but I had no idea what it
was. I knew that the Word of God stated: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold,
all things have become new” (2Co 5:17); and “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you” (Acts 1:8). Therefore, I knew their was something wrong with my
heart, for the desire of alcohol had not passed with from me, and I knew I
needed God’s power working in my life to overcome this desire. I felt like I
was the one who was resisting the temptation to drink, which was making me weak
and tired. I keep asking myself where is the power of God that is supposed to
be in my life?
After four months of struggling
with this awful desire, I was worn out, and I could not go on any longer.
Therefore, I told my God: “Lord Jesus, I really do love
you, and I do not want to give up walking with you, but I cannot resist the
desire for alcohol any longer. I have asked you every day to take away this
desire, and You have not. Now Lord, I really do not want to go back to my sins,
and I do not want to stay in church and drink and become a hypocrite, so please
deliver me soon.” At this time, I had no idea that I need the Holy Spirit to come in me, and
give me power over the world, the flesh, and the devil. The Holy Ghost was
definitely on me leading me to pray and study God’s Word, but it was
not in me.
About
two weeks later, on March 14, 1971, I was invited by my neighbor to attend a
revival meeting that night, which was held at the First Pentecostal Church in
New Orleans. This was my first experience with Pentecostal worship and
preaching. I am sorry to say, because of carnality at that time, my first
impression of Pentecostal worship was: these people were nuts, for they acted
as though they were at a party, instead of being in church. Some were crying in
the Spirit, others were laughing in the Spirit and some were even dancing and
running around the church in the Spirit. I had never seen anything like that in
all my life. They acted like they really felt the presence of God, and I did
not feel at thing. Of course, I was not worshiping God, for I was to
busy watching the show. I thought at first they were putting on a show for
me. After awhile, I thought to myself: “If they are acting, they are surely doing a good
job of it.” Then I thought: “Why would they want to put on a show for me?” I was
trying to understand what was going on, but my mind could not come up with a
logical explanation for their actions. Therefore, I thought they were nuts.
In the
pew in front of me, there was a young woman, whose body and hands were
trembling as she worshipped God, tears ran down her cheeks, and her face
radiated with joy, as she spoke in tongues. Now, at that time I did not believe
in speaking in tongues, for I was taught that this experience was done away
with in AD
96, when the New Testament canon was completed. Therefore,
I was an unbeliever in the Biblical doctrine of the New Birth. But thank God
for this great sign, for as I watch her intently, I could clearly see that she
was experiencing the Spirit of God in the exact same manner as I did,
except for the speaking in tongues, when I gave my life to Christ. I thought to
myself: “Why
is she still experiencing the beautiful and exciting presence of God, and I
only experienced it once.”
I have
no doubts, God prepared that service for me, for after He gave me this sign,
and used the beautiful worship of this sister and others in the Church, and
especially the anointed and powerful preaching of a young Pentecostal
evangelist, whose father was a Southern Baptist pastor, many of the doubts and
fears I had disappeared. Therefore, when the altar call was given, I went up to
the altar, knelt down, folded my hands, bowed my head, and prayed with all my
heart to my God. As I asked God to forgive me of my sinful desires again, my
mind went back to a time when I was a child, and my mother and I were
praying in a Catholic Church. This was something I had never thought about
before. I remembered, we were climbing up a metal staircase, on our knees, as
we prayed at each station of the Cross, which was a picture of the sufferings
of Christ on His way to Calvary. I then remembered how I felt, as a child, as I
looked at each picture and my heart started aching.
Immediately
after this, God gave me my first vision, and I saw my Lord hanging on the
Cross, but I could not see His face. I then began to weep bitterly, as I felt
like my heart would break! Soon after that Satan’s demon spoke to me and said: “Here you are, a grown man, and
you are crying, and to matters worse, you are crying in public. You are making
a fool of yourself, and not only that, but these people are laughing at you
behind you back.” I then said to myself: “These people are emotional, and
they are causing me to be emotional, and I am not the emotional times. I need
to get out of here.” As I fought to get control of my emotions, I
finally stopped crying. I was so ashamed of myself for crying, for my Dad
always told my brothers and I: “Men don’t cry.” This was a new
experience for me, for it only happen to me one other time, and that was when I
gave my life to Christ.
I then stood up and started walking toward
the door, thinking to myself: “I am never going to come back to this church again.” As I
was about half way to the door, my Lord spoke to me and said: “Harry, why are you crying?” I
said to my Lord: “Because of what You did for me at Calvary.” Jesus
than said to me: “Harry, is that anything to be ashamed of?” I
said: “No,
Lord it isn’t.” My Lord than said to me: “Harry, turn around and go back
to the altar, for I am not finished with you.”
Therefore, I turned around, swallowed my pride, and went back to the altar. For
it was my pride, which Satan’s demon was using against me, to get me out of the
church so God could not save me.
The
moment I knelt down again at the altar, I started weeping again. Several of the
brothers then gathered around me, and told me to stand up and worship God, and
He would give me the Holy Ghost. For a moment I felt insulted, because
they did not think I had the Holy Spirit; but I knew God was there, and He was
the one who told me to come back to the altar. Therefore, I swallowed my
pride again, lifted my hands toward heaven, and started worshipping my
Lord. Then it happen, the sweet, beautiful, exciting presence of the Spirit of
God moved on me again, just the way it moved on me in my bedroom when I
repented, and gave my life to Him. I wept, my body, arms, and hands trembled,
my heart pounded in my chest, and I had stammering lips as I told Jesus how
much I loved Him. The power of God was on me for about two and half hours. At
12:00 AM, we all went home.
The
next night of the revival, which by the way lasted six weeks, I went to the
altar again and the Holy Spirit moved on me the very same way it did the night
before. At midnight again, everyone started leaving the church, but I was not
finished praying, so I asked Rev. Cupit for permission to stay longer. I told
him: “I am
not leaving unto I get what I want from God.” I did
not tell him I was seeking for the gift of tongues, because these people did not
believe I had the Holy Ghost; and I was not going to dispute with him about
salvation. All I did know was this: God was there, and I did not know anyone
else that believed in speaking in tongues. So, Rev. Cupit told me I could stay,
and to lock the doors when I was ready to leave.
Therefore,
after everyone left the church, I laid with face buried in the carpet behind
the pulpit; and for one hour, I cried out to God, with tears running down my
cheeks, begging God to give me the gift of tongues. I told God
that I believed this gift was real, and I wanted it. I said: “Jesus, you do not love these
people any more than you love me. Now, since you gave them this gift, I know
you will give it to me also. Jesus, maybe this gift will help me with my desire
for alcohol, I really need it.” As I was praying this way, to
my utter amazement, I heard myself say: “Lord Jesus, please give me the Holy
Spirit.”
Immediately after I said this, I started apologizing to my Lord saying: “Lord, I do not know why I said
that. Please forgive me for saying that. I know I have received your Holy
Spirit. I know that you gave me the Holy Spirit the morning I believed your
gospel, repented of my sins, and surrendered my life to you. Nothing could ever
make me doubt that. So, please forgive me for saying that. Lord, I want the
gift of tongues.”
After
praying for another twenty minutes, I heard myself say again: “Lord Jesus, please give me the
Holy Spirit.” I immediately again began to apologize to my
Lord by saying: “Lord Jesus, please forgive for saying that! I do not know why I said
this again. I know you gave me your Spirit the morning I gave my heart to you.
So, please forgive me for saying that. These people must be confusing me
somehow. I know I do not believe them, for I know You came into me the morning
I believed. So, why am I saying this?” About ten minutes
later, I heard myself say again: “Lord Jesus, please give me the Holy Spirit.” When
I heard myself pray this prayer for the third time, I stopped praying and
looked up to heaven with eyes filled with tears, and I did not know what to
say. I was confused, and what confused me the most was: I knew the presence and
power of God was on me the whole time I was praying.
I
finally open my mouth and said: “Ok Lord, what is going on here.” Then a
thought came to me, which at the time, I did not know it was God speaking to
me. The thought was this: “How do you know you have the Holy Spirit?” My
mind immediately when back to the morning, I accepted Christ as my personal
Savior, and I remembered the joy I felt, as I felt the reality, power, and
presence of God for the first time. I remember what my pastor told me that the
Holy Spirit came into me the moment I believed. Then God spoke to me again and
said: “Did
you not make a vow to God when you came out of Catholicism, that you would
never again place your faith in any man or organization, but only in the Word
of God. Where in the Bible does it say the Spirit of God immediately comes into
a believer the moment they accept Christ as their personal Savior?” I
said to myself: “I do not know, but I am going to find out right now.”
I then
prayed this pray to God: “Lord Jesus, please forgive me for I am a little
confused about how and when Your Holy Spirit came into my heart. Therefore, I
am going to stop praying right now and start reading Your Word. Dear Lord, I
thank you for the tremendous joy I felt when I gave my life to you, and Your
presence I have felt the last two day, and even now, but Lord I cannot base my
salvation on feelings. There must be some place in Your Word that clearly
tells me that Your Spirit came into me the moment I believed in You, and
also how I can know that I have been filled with Your Holy Spirit.”
I then
started reading the Book of Acts; it was about 1:30 in
the morning. As I read, I looked for the answer to two questions, which were
burning in my heart. FIRST, I wanted to see what happen to the believers in the
Bile the moment they believed in Christ. SECOND, how they knew that they had
received the Holy Spirit. When I reached the chapter eight, I was shocked
to read that no one in the City of Samaria had received the Holy Spirit, the
moment they believed the gospel of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. In
fact, as I read verses 6-18 several times, in utter astonishment, I
realized that not only did they not receive the gift of the Holy Spirit the
moment they believed, but that it was several days (actually around 14 days)
before they received it. For the Bible stated that Peter and John came to
Samaria and “prayed for them
that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet, He
had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus.”
I kept
asking myself: why didn’t these people received the Holy Spirit the
moment they believed. I then said to myself: “the Bible cannot lie,
therefore, my pastor lied to me when he told me the moment I believed in
Christ, the Holy Spirit came into my heart.” I
then cried out to Jesus saying: “Lord, how does one know when Your Holy Spirit comes into
their heart?” When I read the tenth chapter of Acts, the
answer came, for verses 43-48 revealed that Peter and the Jewish brethren
that came with him, knew that these gentiles received the Holy
Ghost because: “they heard them speaking in tongues, and magnify
God.” After I read these verses several times, I said
to the Jesus: “Lord,
it did not happen to me that way.”
When I
read the nineteenth
chapter of Acts, verses 1-7, I was shocked again. For in
these verses, the apostle Paul asked the disciples of John the Baptist: “Did you receive the Holy
Spirit when you believed?”
They answered no. Paul then rebaptized them in water. He
laid his hands on them and “the
Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues.” After I read these things, I
then made up my mind to trust the Bible over my feelings. I said: “Lord, according to these
scriptures, I have not received the gift of the Holy Spirit, but I really want
to. Lord, I am tired and I need to go to work in a few hours, but I am coming
back tonight and I am going to receive the Holy Spirit.”
I kept
my promise and I went there with a made up mind that I was not going to leave
there until I was filled with God’s Spirit. When the altar call was given, I
went forward, and I walked up to the pastor and said: “Rev. Cupit, early this
morning the Lord revealed to me through prayer and His Holy Word, that I have
not received His Spirit. What must I do to be filled with the Holy Spirit?”
Rev. Cupit then proceeded to quote Acts 2:38. He said: “The Bible says ‘Repent.” I immediately stopped him
there, and said to him: “I repented of sins four months ago, when I gave my life to Christ.
From that moment on, I have stopped doing everything that I knew was wrong.” Rev.
Cupit then said: “Brother Peyton, it sure sounds like to me you have repented.”
He
then continued to quote this verse to me by saying: “Brother Peyton, you also need
to ‘be baptized.” I
stopped him again and said: “Rev. Cupit, I have been sprinkled in the Catholic
Church as a baby, and I have been immerged in water in the Baptist Church. I
have been baptized.” Rev. Cupit then replied: “Brother Peyton, it grieves me
to tell you this, but you have never been baptized. For the Bible teaches that
you must ‘be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ for the remission of your sins,’ for this is the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”
I said
to him: “Rev.
Cupit, God did not tell me anything about water baptism this morning, but only
that I needed to receive His Spirit. Now, how do I do that?” Rev.
Cupit said: “Brother
Peyton, I am trying to tell you, if you will allow me to speak. The Bible says
‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost.’ Brother Peyton, if you will obey Acts 2:38, and
allow me to baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ tonight, I promise
you upon the authority of God’s Word, that when you come up out of the water
you will have the Holy Ghost.” I said to him: “You promise.” He
then said to me: I promise, for the Word of God teaches that ‘God gives the Holy Ghost
to them that obey Him’ (Acts 5:32). If you will obey Acts 2:38, God promised to give you
the Holy Ghost.” I said: “Rev. Cupit, I do
not understand any of this, if you want to baptize me, I have no problem with
that, but I am not leaving here until I receive the Holy Spirit.”
It was on March 16, 1971, that great and
glorious day, Rev. John Cupit baptized me in the precious holy name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and I came up out of the water speaking in tongues as God’s
Spirit gave me the words to speak. From that day to this day, I have never
had one desire to take a drink of alcohol, or go out with a friend to a bar, or
to go to a party. Praise God forever! God’s New Birth really works. The
Word of God spoke the truth when it stated: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have
passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2Co
5:17); and “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you” (Acts 1:8).
Yes friend, the new nature that God gives really works. God knows how
to take away the sinful heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh,
whereby His children do not desire the life of sin any more. It is no longer
the attitude of: do I have to stop doing this or that, but now it is I do not
want to do any sinful thing! I do not want to do anything that will break my
communion with my Savior. I love Jesus, and He love me, and I now have His holy
nature working in my heart.
If you have received the Holy Ghost through this Bible study, please
email me and tell me about your experience. My email address is: DoctrinesOfChrist@yahoo.com. If
you need a one God, Jesus Name Preacher to lay hands on you, and pray an
anointed pray for you to receive the Holy Ghost, email me. If God in His mercy
has shown you that you need to be baptized in the beautiful, sin cleansing name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, so He can fill you with the Holy Spirit, or because
you have already received the it, please email me. For I will email you the
name, address, and phone number of the nearest oneness Apostolic Pentecostal
Church to you.
This
day our Lord and Savior is offering you a way of life or a way of death. The
decision is yours. God is offering you Eternal Life! Will you choose to enter
into Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, by being baptized in the Holy and
Precious Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by receiving the miraculous gift of
the Holy Ghost, or will you continue to believe the traditions and philosophies
of religious organizations? God has given you a free will and He will never
violate your free will, so the choice is yours!
My
earnest prayer for you is that our Lord Jesus, who is the one and only true
God, open your heart as well as your understanding to this great Biblical
Truth, and give you the strength not only to obey it but also to teach it. This
is the rapture generation, which will see the coming of our great King. Jesus
is coming very soon, so let us remember what God admonished us in Romans: “Knowing
the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11). God
also said: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have
helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the
day of salvation” (2Co 6:2).
This
is the time for all believers in Christ to awake out of sleep (Eph 5:14). If
you are willing to obey this message, you will be caught up with the Bride of
Christ in the first rapture and escape the soon coming tribulation period (Lk 21:25‑36).
Unless a person is baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and has
received the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the biblical evidence of speaking
in tongues, they have not been born again. They do not have Eternal Life;
therefore they are not ready for the rapture. I take no pleasure saying these
things, but I must speak the truth, if I truly love you. This message was
written, for those who are sincere in their walk with God, and love our dear
Lord, to help them find that straight and narrow path that leads to Eternal
Life. If anyone denies water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they
are guilty of denying His name. In fact, they are actually fighting against His
name, for if they are not for the truth, they are automatically against it.
My
dear readers, who are beloved of God, I have written this book under the
direction of the Holy Spirit in order that those who have spiritual eyes may
see the truth, and those who hunger and thirst for truth may be fed, and those
who have been deceived concerning the New Birth may know the truth, and be set
free from Satan’s lies. Today is the day of salvation! Today is the day to believe
and obey Acts two thirty-eight, thereby receiving the New Birth and entering
into Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection! I beg you, please do not be one of
those who say to our Lord on the Day of Judgment: “Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and
done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never [at any time] knew you; depart from Me!” (Mt 7:22-23).
Books Written by the Author and
Given Away on His Website:
A Biblical, Medical, and Psychological
Account of the Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ
The Heresy of the Nicolaitans
Biblical Creationism vs Pantheistic
Theories of Evolution (Nature Worship)
A Prophetic History of God’s Apostolic Pentecostal
Church (The Seven Prophetic Periods of the Church Age)
The Mysteries of Prophecy Revealed
What Do You Mean I Must Be Born Again?
Preacher, What Must I Do to Inherit
Eternal Life?
A Historical Record of Speaking in Tongues
The Mysteries of the Godhead Revealed
A History of Oneness Throughout the Centuries (Baptism
in Jesus’ Name, the Godhead in Christ)
What Happens to Man’s Spirit, Soul and
Body Immediately after Death?
What Is Lost Man’s Eternal Destiny? (Immediate
Annihilation, Eternal Torment, Torment for a Time
and Then Universal Salvation, or Torment for a Time
and Then Annihilation)
The Mysteries of the Spirit and Soul of
Man Revealed
(What Are They? Does Each Nature of Man
Have Mind, Will, and Emotions?)
Holiness: God’s Beauty College
What Is God’s
Rest for the Believer: the Sabbath Day or God’s Sabbath Spirit
How to Study the Bible
A Calendar of
Biblical and Historical Dates and Events Beginning with the Creation of Adam
The Heresies of the
Pharisaical Jewish Ebionites
William Marion Branham: His Life,
Teachings, and Demonic Spirit-Guide
Nutrition and Nutritional Charts
Law vs Grace or Works vs Faith
Water Baptism: the Essentiality, the Mode, and the
Formula
Glossolalia: Ten Steps of Faith to
Receiving the Baptism of the Holy Ghost
Glossolalia and the New Birth
Benefits of Salvation and the False
Doctrines that Hinder It
Eternal Life vs Eternal Death
Christ’s Loving Servant,
Harry A. Peyton
148
Little Creek Hills Rd.
Alto, NM 88312
Telephone # 575-336-2800
Internet Address:
DoctrinesOfChrist@hotmail.com
Website:
DoctrinesOfChrist.com
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A Greek-English Lexicon Of
The New Testament, 1889, Joseph Henry Thayer: (being C. G. Grimm - 1861-1868;
1879 and C. L. W. Wilke – 1851, Clavis Novi Testamenti, tr., revised and
enlarged by J. H. Thayer, D.D., Hon. Litt.D., Professor of New Testament,
Divinity School of Harvard University: found in BibleWorks For Windows)
A New Standard Bible Dictionary, 1936, Melancthon W.
Jacobus, ed.: Blakinston: Philadelphia, PA
A New Standard Bible
Dictionary, 3rd edition, Funk & Wagnalls: NY, NY
BibleWorks For Windows™,
95/NT Release V 3.5 Copyright 1996, Michael S. Bushell, Hermeneutika Computer
Bible Research Software: P.O. Box 2200, Big Fork, MT 59911-2200
History Of The Christian
Church, 1970, 1980, Philip Schaff: William B. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, MI
How To Receive The Holy
Ghost, 1969, J. T. Pugh: Pentecostal Publishing House: Hazelwood, MO
Louw-Nida Greek-English
Lexicon, 2nd edition, J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida ed., (Copyright © 1988 by the
United Bible Societies, New York, NY: found in BibleWorks For Windows)
Strong’s Exhaustive
Concordance Of The Bible, 1980, James Strong: World Bible Pub.: Iowa Falls, IA
The Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 1910, 1972, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.: NY
The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1905, Isidore Singer, ed.:
Funk & Wagnalls Co.: NY, NY
They Speak In Other Tongues,
1976, John L. Sherrill: McGraw Hill: NY, NY
ENDNOTES
All Lexical
definitions from Lexicons, Dictionaries, and Translations of the Bible are from
BibleWorks software program, that is: BibleWorks, LLC, P.O. box 6158, Norfolk,
VA 23508.
Lexicons: 1)
Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, by J.P Louw & E.A.
Nida; 2) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, by Henry J. Thayer; 3)
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (unabridged coded to Strong’s
numbers), by Henry J. Thayer.
[1] History Of The Christian
Church, Schaff, vol 1, pp 225-229.
[2] A New Standard Bible
Dictionary, pg 94.
[3] The Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 1972, vol. 22, pg 75.
[4] They Speak In Other Tongues,
Sherrill, pg 82.
[5] The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1972, vol. 22 pg 75.
[6] Louw-Nida
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, #4227; 41.52
(BibleWorks).
[7] The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol 10, pg 378.
[8] How To Receive The Holy Ghost,
Pugh, pg 38.