Expert: Rev. Robert Woods - 7/1/2006

Question
FOURTH, I WANT YOU TO SEE THE WORK THE SPIRIT DOES SINCE HE HAS BEEN SENT FROM THE FATHER AND HAS BEEN POURED OUT UPON ALL FLESH.
1. Convicts the world of it’s guilt,
John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
2.  Comes into and resides in the believer.       Very important Scripture.  Pre-Pentecost H.S. was not IN them. *******John 14:16-18****** And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
1 Cor 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
3.  Be our Helper, Comforter, Counselor John 14:16-17And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-17 the Spirit of truth…   
This is a reference to what the Spirit would do for the believer once the Father gave him.  When did the Father give him?  Answer - Pentecost.
4.  Be our Guide into all truth, John 16:13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
When did He come?  Answer - Pentecost.
5.  Empowers us to witness, Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth." When did He come?  Answer - Pentecost.   When does He come on you?  When you repent and believe in the name of Jesus “you will receive the gift” –Acts 2:38.
6.  Gives us gifts for the common good of the church. 1 Cor 12:7“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”  1 Cor 12 describes some of the manifestations of the Spirit who was given on the day of Pentecost to live in men who believe in Jesus.
7.  Gives Young men- visions, old - dreams   prophesy, prophesy, prophesy Acts 2:17-18 your sons and daughters willprophesy, your young men will see visions; your old men will dream dreams. 18Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. When will these things happen?  In the days after Pentecost.
8.  Rivers of Living Water will flow out of those who believe. John 7:37-39 "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
I show you some of the works of the Spirit in relation to the Baptism of the Spirit because we tend to think that the “power to be witnesses and enabling to speak in tongues and maybe the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Cor 12,” are the only enablements connected to the experience.  This is not the case.  The most fundamental aspects of the Christian experience: becoming the temple of the Holy Ghost, having a Comforter, and being led into all Truth will not be realized in a person’s life until they have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Certain teachings separate the Holy Spirit by saying He can be in you enough to dwell in you, Comfort you and lead you into all Truth, but you need a second experience after salvation to have His power and the ability to speak in tongues.  I believe, however, if you’ve been born again - GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU, THAN he that is in the world... you have the Spirit in you and He is able to Comfort you and lead you into all Truth, as well as enable you to speak in new tongues, heal the sick and raise the dead.  I do believe however, that we will “receive” the manifestation of those gifts, or “allow” the manifestation of those gifts in our lives only to the degree of our faith.
Rom 12:6-7If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.
1 Cor 12:31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts.
Do you know that if you don’t get the power to be a witness until a subsequent experience of being baptized in the Holy Ghost then you don’t, according to John 14, get the H.S. living inside you until that subsequent event either.  If you don’t get the ability to speak in tongues until some future, secondary event after salvation, then you don’t get the Counselor or the One who will lead you into all truth until that second event either.  

Answer
Blessings and thank you for your question.

You are right, I am not a traditional Baptist.  I am a Charismatic Baptist.  I have read through your arguements.

I believe that when you are saved the Holy Spirit enters you, seals you, saves you, indwells in you, and keeps you.  I believe that only by salvation can one recieve the Spirit of God.  But I also believe in a baptism of the Spirit.

I was saved when I was eight years old.  I followed the Lord, read my Bible, and was diligently following him.  Yet, I did not have any of the power gifts (tongues, prophecy, words of wisdom, words of knowledge, etc).  Not only that, but I did not know a single person in my church of 3000 people who had these gifts.  We had a few that were gifted evangelists and some with gifts of hospitality and mercy, but none of the power gifts.   I was taught in my Baptist Church, that those gifts no longer exist.  I was taught that those gifts stopped with the death of the apostles.  I believed it.

I graduated from college and was ready to go into law school when God spoke to me and told me to go to seminary.  Frankly, I fought it, I did not want to change "my plans" for God.  But,  the Lord convicted my heart, so I gave up law school for the Southern Baptist Seminary.   I spent the next 3 1/2 years learning Greek, Hebrew, the Bible, leadership, theology, and church history.  I even took a course on the Holy Spirit.  The class was all about the arguments you brought forth:  that the Holy Spirit comes upon salvation and that there is no reason for a second filling of the Spirit. The class taught the history of the view of the Spirit and it taught that the power gifts no longer exist.

I graduated from Seminary and went on to Pastor my first church.  I taught the things that I was taught.  I never even questioned that these things could be wrong.

Then God called me to this little town in Western PA.  Again, I did not want to come here, but my wife and I both heard the Lord tell us to come.  So we did.  I continued teaching the way I was taught.  

I made friends with several local pastors and ministers.  One of them was going to be ordained and asked me to participate in the service.  I loved this brother in the Lord and was happy to be a part of his ordination.  My brother was a Charismatic, which I tried not to hold against him.  At his service, the local church had asked a "Prophet" (Denny Cramer) to speak.  I almost declined to attend because I could not believe that anyone could call themselves a prophet since the prophetic gifts no longer existed.  My friendship for my brother was stronger than my "misgivings" about this prophet so I decided to go.

After the ordination part of the service, the prophet got up and explained what New Prophesy is.  In short, he quoted from pentecost "Ac 2:17 “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams."

He explained that as we get closer to the end of days, God will continue to pour out His Spirit.  THere will be more Prophets, more Dreamers, and more Visionaries.  God will pour out his Spirit and the miracles of the Past will begin to happen more and more.

Frankly, I didn't believe him.

He went on to say that Biblical Prophesy (that is the Bible) is the highest form of God's word.  No prophet can contradict GOd's word and still be of God.  (Okay I believe that).  He went on to say that New Testament prophecy was in the early church to edify the church and the believer, to convict of sin, and to give direction.

Frankly, I started to tune him out.  I didn't believe what he was saying but I couldn't leave since I had been placed on the front row in a place of honor.  So I tried to listen to him.

He began to explain that he would come down from the stage, and God would instruct him on who he was to "prophesy" over.  He would have that person stand up and God would speak through him to that person.  He told the crowd (of several hundred) that the entire time of his speaking was being recorded and said anyone who wanted could recieve a copy.  He also said that if he spoke over you, then you would get a copy of that tape.  He said go home listen to it, write it out word for word, pray over it, and test it to see if it was from God or not.

THat was the first thing he said that made sense to me.  This guy wanted us to prove him wrong.  Denny asked everyone to stand and then said a prayer.  We all sat back down waiting to see what was going to happen next.

Now I had never met this man before. In fact, he stayed in a room praying during the entire ordination part of the service.  He hadn't seen me before nor did he know anything about me.

After his prayer, he came down from the stage and came directly to me.  I was shocked and speechless.  He asked me to stand.  THen he began to tell me (with the crowd listening) all about my past life.  He told me the very things (word for word) that I had been praying to the Lord about.  (THERE IS NO WAY HE COULD HAVE KNOW THIS ON HIS OWN, I hadn't told anyone what I was praying for).  Then he told me the answers God was going to give to those prayers.  Then he told me about the prayers that My wife and I had been praying.  Also, he told me about the concerns that my wife and I had about our family and our church.  (THERE IS NO WAY HE COULD HAVE KNOWN THIS.  MY WIFE AND I HAD TOLD NO ONE)

Now he had my attention.  He then began to tell me what was going to happen in my life over the next few years. He then prayed over me and went on to the couple next to me. (I will get back to them).  At first, I was in total shock.  How could he know so much about my thoughts, fears, and prayers?  There could be no other explaination other than God told him.  It couldn't be the enemy telling him these things because these were Godly prayers, the name of Jesus was constantly being said, and it was evident in my spirit that this was God.

Denny went on to the couple next to me, who just so happened to be my head deacon and his wife.  He did the same thing to them that he did to me.  Telling them of their prayers, worries, past, and future.

Again, the Spirit confirmed these things in my heart and in theirs as well.

I went home that night, I listened to the tape over and over again.  I wrote it completely down.  I agreed with about 90% of it.  The last 10% were things that were going to happen in the future.  I wasn't sure about them.  But they came true just as he said they would.

Over the next month, I reread the New Testament. All of my life and seminary training, I was told that prophesy and the other power gifts of the Spirit no longer exist.  That teaching was truly wrong.  God had just proven to me that His Spirit was still working miracles and giving gifts of the Spirit.  SO if seminary and traditional baptist theology was wrong about this, then what else did they get wrong?

Over the next year, the Bible opened up to me like never before.  I began to believe that we did have the power to overcome the enemy, heal the sick, deliever people from demons, and have the power gifts of the Spirit.  I went back to my Charismatic friends, I began to ask them questions about the baptism of the Spirit, how to get the power gifts, was it wrong to ask for them.  I soon learned that God wants to give good gifts to his children (Matt 7:9).  My friends prayed for me to recieve the FULLNESS of the Holy Spirit.  At that moment I experienced a newness with God like I have never experienced before.  I began to speak in tongues and I knew from that moment on that there is more.

Over the years, my giftings have increased.  God often gives me words of knowledge, words of wisdom, and words of prophesy over people.  We have seen great healings of cancer, heart disease, blindness and deafness be healed.  Our church is now full of the SPirit of God.  Does that mean everybody speaks in tongues? NO

Just like Scripture says, God has given gifts in accordance to the work of the church.  Most of my church is "Spirit filled" but most do not speak in tongues. But ALL now have giftings they did not have before.

I have come to learn that the Spirit of God does enter you upon salvation.  It still fills you, endwells within you, seals you, and gives you gifts.  But I believe that we as Christians should constantly seek an intimate relationship with Jesus.  Intimate, not distant.  The Baptism of the Spirit become not a one time thing but a constant weekly filling.  I challenge my church to come to the alter often to seek the Spirit, to seek answer for prayers, and to seek healings.

You can choose to believe that God only fills us once at salavtion.  YOu will still go to heaven, you are still a brother in Christ, but you will never have the gifts of power without asking for them.  I can tell you this only from experience.

So have faith, and experience Him.