Since
the "reception" of the Holy Spirit on the pre-Pentecost basis of
John 20:22 made little or no improvement in the recipient's service, it
became necessary to seek a second blessing, known as "The Baptism of
the Spirit": an "enduement of power for service and aggressive
warfare against Satan and his hosts of darkness": an "influx of
the Spirit." This experience also has "conditions," as we
shall see.
QUESTION
- "Is there such an experience today for the believer, as a Baptism of
the Spirit such as the disciples received at Pentecost?"
MRS.
J. PENN-LEWIS - "Without hesitation, Yes.
For if you have proved it in your own experience, you have no other
answer to give. You have passed
beyond the region of debate and theory, and you know.
Some say the term is not a correct one, but there is
the experience, and in Acts 11:16 the Apostle Peter used the words 'ye
shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit' in connection with the enduement of
power that he and the other men and women received on the day of Pentecost;
and I am at a loss to find other words to use for attempting to make clear
this crucially important subject.
"There
are large numbers of God's children today, who have definitely received the
Holy Spirit as a Person, and who do know Him, but they have no power for
service. They have fulfilled the
conditions for His indwelling in an absolute surrender to God to do His will;
in the cleansing of the heart from the love of sin, and in the faithful
obedience up to light, with the resulting fruit of the Spirit.'
To them it has meant inward victory, and fellowship with God, but very
little change in service. There is,
then, an 'enduement of power,' or a 'Baptism of the Spirit,' that means power
of utterance for witness - an infilling of the Spirit that has to do with
service for God, rather than the personal life of fellowship with Him, and
victory over sin." (1912 Overcomer,
p. 83.)
"There
are a number of conditions connected with the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, or
the enduement for service. Those
who have received the Holy Spirit as a Person, and who have walked in
communion with God for some time, may say, 'I have no power for service, and I
see that I need a real fulness of the Spirit for definite service.
"For
this enduement of power the man's spirit has to be separated from the
entanglements of the soul, and the lawful things belonging to the natural, or
soul-man, have to be surrendered, so that he may become a spiritual man,
governed only by his spirit. He
must have every trace of an unbending spirit removed, that his spirit may
cooperate with the Holy Spirit pliantly; he must lose every degree of an
unforgiving spirit, so as to give no inlet to demons, when, by the moving of
the Holy Spirit, he may be charged to rebuke sin, or suffer rejection for
Christ's sake; and be freed from a narrow grasping spirit, if he is to be a
wide channel for the outflow of the gracious life-giving Spirit of God.
"Moreover,
the man who seeks an enduement of power must be willing for the Spirit of God
to thoroughly deal with his life, and remove out of it every obstacle to his
immediate readiness to fulfil all the will of God; he must be searched in
motive, and taught the principles of righteousness, for the enduement of the
Spirit which he seeks to know, means an aggressive warfare against sin, and
the powers of evil, and how can the Holy Spirit convict of sin by the
preaching of righteousness, if the man He equips as a messenger of God is
ignorant of the law of righteousness?
"Revival
is the outflow of the Spirit of God through the organ of the human spirit, and
the Baptism of the Spirit is the influx of the Spirit of God into man's
spirit, whereby it is released from all obstacles and bonds which oppress or
hold it down, and closes or reduces its capacity as an outlet for the Holy
Spirit. These obstacles may
return through the deceptive workings of the Adversary, and the believer
become locked up in spirit again, or rendered practically useless to God, and
His people." (War On the Saints,
pp. 293-295.)
"If
a man becomes spiritual through a very real Baptism of the Spirit, and yet is
ignorant of the laws of the Spirit, and especially the tactics of Satan, he is
liable to yield to an onslaught of deceiving spirits upon his spirit, by which
they (1) force his spirit into strained ecstasy, or elation; or as it were (2)
press it down into a vise. In the
former he is given 'visions' and revelations which appear to be divine, but
afterwards are proved to have been of the enemy, by their passing away as
smoke, with no results; in the latter the soul sinks into darkness and
deadness as if he had lost all knowledge of God." - J.
Penn-Lewis
(1912
Overcomer, p. 120.)
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