HEAVENLY POWER
There is no suggestion in the writings of the Prophets or the Apostles that we should expect in the latter days to find religious stirs, mesmerism and other strange activities such as we have witnessed over the last century. These activities are unsatisfactory for God’s people to participate in. They are extra-biblical – not recorded in the Bible.
God pre-ordained the Feast of First-Fruits, the Feast of Harvest to be chosen as the beginnings to the Gospel of the World Harvest.28.
The mystery of the one true church – the Body of Christ was hidden over time in the foreknowledge of God. The historical record of the birthday of the church and its development are recorded in the Book of Acts. These special, precious and extraordinary events are unrepeatable except where they can be proven in the Epistles. It is an event that ensured, and will ensure for each believer of the gospel, entry into the invisible church only by Spirit Baptism. It is an event that is repeated every time someone believes in the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) and is saved by faith through God’s grace plus nothing.
(Acts 1: v 8) ….. “but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
The primary purpose of the giving and receiving of the power of the Holy Spirit was for the purpose of accomplishing the task of taking the gospel to the Gentiles who would, once indwelt with the Holy Spirit, provoke the Jews to jealousy. The gospel message was carried to Palestine, north to Antioch, westward to Asia Minor, thence to Greece and then Rome.
Consider the truly astounding spectacle of the Apostles speaking under tongues of fire to representatives of all nations explaining the while that it was in fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy. This all being clearly the definite plan and within the foreknowledge of God as revealed in (Isaiah 53) and must have been the dominant thought in the minds of the listeners.
The conscience-stricken multitudes knowing they were guilty of shedding the blood of Jesus Christ – the Lord’s Anointed One cry out: “But what shall we do?” They were given an assurance for their troubled souls – the gift of the Holy Spirit would be given by God if they repented and were baptised in the name of Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. 29. Little wonder 3000 souls were immediately convicted of sin when exhorted by Peter to “save themselves from this perverse generation.”
This was the beginnings of the first Christian Church – the beginnings of the Church Age.
(Acts 2: 14-16) “But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven raised his voice and declared to them:
“Men of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words.
For these men are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:
“And it shall be in the last days, God says, That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind, And your sons and daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams, even upon my bondslaves, both men and women. I will in those days pour forth of my Spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will grant wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, listen to these words, Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs performed through him in your midst, must as you yourselves know.”
Some theologians believe that the reference to “the great and glorious day of the Lord” refers to “the whole of the Christian age”. Others take the view that this refers to the whole of the Great Tribulation concluding with the second coming of Jesus Christ and I subscribe towards this latter view.
What then of the amazement of those “from every nation under heaven” when they heard a crowd of Galileans speaking in the native languages of the Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia….”
“We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another. “What does this mean?” Some made fun of them and said:
“They have had too much wine to drink.”
There is no mention of falling backwards. The statement alluded only to the listeners commenting that they must be drunk to be talking in their native languages.
It must be said the human body has a limited capacity to absorb emotional experience on a continuing basis.
I pray that the time will come when those within the Pentecostal movement will acquire Pastors who have come out of sound Theological Colleges and really know the Word. May it also be that God will remove the spiritual veil which seems to have blinded them to the truth.
The sermon delivered by Peter as he stood with the rest of the Apostles recorded in Acts 2:14-36 refers to the “last days” which include all days between Christ’s first and second comings.
The prophetic Word Peter delivered to his “fellow Jews” first given by the prophet Joel refers specifically to the regeneration of the Jewish people at that time in history and also looks far beyond to the “day of the Lord”. At this time there will be dramatic manifestations, accompanied by wonders in the heavens and on the earth with blood, fire and pillars of smoke. The reason for these manifestations is to bring the Jewish nation to saving faith. They will see the truth of the prophecy recorded in Isaiah 52:12 to 53:12 and pray for their Messiah to deliver them. Specifically, the Jewish nation will pray Psalms 79 and 80 which will herald the return of Jesus at His second coming for judgment.
The Jewish people had sought to establish righteousness for their own glory by their own works. They refused to submit to the righteousness Jesus offered by faith in Him. (Matthew 12:24-32). Their pride was far too great to accept Jesus as their Messiah in exchange for their law-keeping and so committed the unpardonable sin – – the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This historical event only applied to the Jewish Nation at that time.
At Pentecost – the birthday of the Church Age – the Holy Spirit was now available to all who would believe by faith through God’s Grace plus nothing in (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) .
At Pentecost – at the ascension of Jesus Christ he gave the authority for His Holy Spirit to be released to the whole world. From then on all who believed by faith in the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) were baptised into the Body of Christ. Christ now lives by His Holy Spirit in each individual. We are in Him – and He in us – baptised by His Spirit into the Body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:13).
We are baptised with Him and we cannot belong to Him without the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17).
We are not adopted as “His children” unless we have the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:14-17)
Jesus Christ is the baptiser NOT the Holy Spirit – Jesus always takes pre-eminence – the Holy Spirit always points to Christ.
We cannot be saved by believing in the Holy Spirit we are saved by believing in faith by God’s grace ONLY on the work Jesus accomplished for us on the Cross.
There is therefore nothing in the Word to indicate that we should be pursuing the Holy Spirit.
Seeking after power:
There is no evidence within the Bible to suggest the disciples sought God’s power for the purposes of receiving an experience of joy just because they were “dried up and bored” Christians.
The Bible, most assuredly, is the only book in this world where in its reading our discoveries are always new and its Spirit-breathed teachings deliver spiritual refreshment to thirsty souls.
Joy is found in refreshment following repentance. Joy is to be found in discovering the boundless and wonderful truths of God’s Word and in an ever-deepening intimacy with Jesus in sweet communion with Him.
There are some people who have an experience and then try to make Scripture bend to the experience. Experiences should never be used to validate doctrinal truth but too many Christians do not want to apply themselves to any study of sound Doctrine.
The book of Acts chronicles the Apostles experiences and it is to this book that Pentecostals turn when they try to justify extra-biblical phenomena and they do not understand how or why the “stirs” or “happenings” in the book of Acts have occurred. In fact they are historical facts. Doctrine is not made from historical facts.
This was a baby church which was being transformed from a group of Jewish believers to a body made up of Jews and Gentiles now united by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and therefore united in Christ Jesus.
There were exciting transformations taking place.
Together they were now in a unique relationship, moving from the Old covenant to the New. This was effected place over quite a long period of time.
The transition from the law to grace actually took a period of time to establish. These extraordinary events were always associated with the ministry of the apostles.
The continuous methodical record of these important public events covered a time in history over a period of thirty years. Because these events were the beginnings of the Church Age they cannot be accepted as normal for the church today unless they are clearly and explicitly confirmed elsewhere in Scripture.
The Doctrine of Subsequence to which Pentecostals adhere “so they can get more of God” has caused so much confusion in Pentecostal circles.
They do not understand that if they believe the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-they are saved and in a modicum of time are immediately baptised by/in/with the Holy Spirit. And at the moment of Spirit baptism they also receive their positional truth in Christ and cannot fall out or fall away from the position of being in Christ’s Body.
Confusion has arisen because Charles Parham (the father of Pentecostalism 1906) taught that the baptism in the Spirit can be repeated and this is proven or evidenced in/by/with speaking in other tongues.
Therefore, Baptism in the Spirit has become something that Pentecostals pursue with undiminished fervour.
One of the activities of demons is to propagate error and so, I believe, “other spirits” have entered into this unbiblical practice.
The ugliest effect of this scenario that in pursuit of this diet of ungodly experience it has become a badge of honour – a pride-filled pursuit between those who “have it” as against those who “have-not”.
I believe there are very few adherents to this system of belief that actually seek to prove anything at all by “being a Berean” as God directs. There has been blind acceptance of everything that is spilled forth from the preacher’s mouth. No one ever made or makes today any attempt to gain a sound understanding of the Ministries and Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Spirit filling then is a continuous work of the Holy Spirit which relates to spiritual growth.