Now we are to begin to see the
awful progression of this error. The best these leader have to offer
becomes the worst they have to endure.
QUESTION
- "Why are those who receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost so often
misled by the enemy in guidance and action?"
EVAN ROBERTS
(Acknowledged leader in the holiness Welsh Revival of 1904-05, and
co-author of the book War On the Saints, as well as the Overcomer
magazine in its formative years) - "Up to the time of receiving the Baptism
of the Holy Ghost, the Christian obeys God from principle--that is, from a
sense of right and wrong; but when he is baptized by the Spirit, he is
conscious that he has come into contact with a Person, and begins to obey a
Person. It is then that the demons begin to counterfeit that Person,
and the soul is liable to be misled unless he is forearmed by knowing their
existence, and the methods of their working.
"Immediately after the Baptism of
the Holy Ghost, all temptations may seem to cease, and it seems as if there
is 'no devil,' or that he is unable to touch the believer; but the enemy was
never so busy, for now he is planning a counterfeit of the Divine workings.
The temptation to sin appears to cease, but the enemy has only ceased to
tempt with a view to getting the soul blinded to its own condition, and to
the counterfeit of the Divine with which he is planning to deceive him."
QUESTION- "Why, after the Baptism
of the Holy Spirit, should the believer be so specially open to the
deceiver's workings; and, with the Holy Spirit so manifestly in possession,
how can 'ground' be so possible, or the believer so open to the deceiver's
approach?"
J. Penn-Lewis- "Possibly because
in preceding years, through yielding to sine, an evil spirit may have
obtained access to body or mind, and, hiding deeply in the structure of the
man, never be detected, or dislodged. The manifestation of this demon
possibly being so apparently 'natural,' or so identified with the person's
character, as to have had unhindered sway in his being; such as some
peculiar idea in the mind being considered as part of the man's
idiosyncrasy; some habit of body, as part of the upbringing of the man
himself, therefore 'put up with' by others, and looked upon by the believer
as a lawful thing, or of trival importance; or else this demon had lodgment
through some secret sin known only to the person, or through some
disposition which gave him sway.
"The Baptism of the Spirit takes
place, and the Holy Spirit fills the spirit of the man; the body and mind
are 'surrendered' to God, but hidden secretly in one, or both, is the demon,
or demons, which obtained lodgment years before, but who are now breaking
forth into activity, and hide their 'manifestations' under cover of the true
workings of the Spirit of god, dwelling within the inner shrine of the
spirit.
"The result of this is, that for
a time, the heart is filled with love; the spirit is full of light and joy;
the tongue is loosed to witness, but ere long a 'fanatical spirit' may be
detected creeping in, or a subtle spirit of pride, or self-importance, and
self-aggrandizement, concurrent with the pure fruits of the Spirit." (War
On the Saints, pp. 54, 55.)
Here we will see a faltering, and a wondering why that which they
consider to be their cardinal blessing, actually becomes their worst
enemy--with nearly everyone who enters the experience ending in
wreckage.
"As we glance back over the history of the Church, and watch the rise of
various 'heresies' or delusions--as they have sometimes been called--we can
trace the period of deception as beginning with some great spiritual crisis,
such as that which, in later years, we have termed 'the Baptism of the Holy
Ghost'; a crisis in which the man is brought to give himself in full
abandonment to the Holy Spirit, and in so doing thus opens himself to the
supernatural powers of the invisible world.
"The question whether this surrender to 'obey the Spirit' is one that is in
accord with Scripture, should be examined in view of the way in which so
many whole-hearted believers have been misled, for it is strange (sic) that
an attitude which is Scriptural should be so grievously the cause of danger,
and often complete wreckage, to so many devoted children of God.
"We have seen that the period in the believer's life wherein he receives the
Baptism of the Holy Ghost is the special time of danger from the evil
supernatural world. Few go through this crisis without deception by
the enemy in more or less degree, and only those who cling to the use of
their reasoning faculties at this time, can hope to be saved from the
catastrophe of becoming a victim to the subtle workings of evil supernatural
powers.
"If the believer does become deceived at the time he is baptized with
the Spirit, almost immediately after the highest point of his experience, he
begins through deception to descend into a pit which ultimately means the
depths of darkness, bondage and misery, until he is undeceived and returns
to a normal path. Those who do not discover the deceptions sink into
deeper deception, and become practically useless to God, and the Church."
(War
On the Saints, pp. 50-55, 279.)
Let us insert here a timely
word from Dr. Wm. G. Scroggie:
"Thank God, we may and
should be filled with the Spirit, with a fulness which means nothing
less than the dethronement of self, and the enthronement of Christ, or,
in the terminology of Paul, the reckoning of self dead in Christ's
death, and of ourselves newly alive in His resurrection. The
craving today, on the part of many believers, for sensuous signs, is
most unhealthy; it is destructive of sober Bible study, and invariably
leads to pitiful extremes of belief and conduct.
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