If you happen to live in the Elmira Horseheads area and you are a man, I would like to invite you to our men’s Bible study on the first and third Thursday night of every month. The church I attend is Central Assembly of God in Horseheads, NY and Pastor Joe Chamberlin is a long-time acquaintance and former fellow evangelist. The men’s Bible study this past week will always stand out in my memory as a remarkable evening of fresh revelation or illumination in my life on a certain topic. As I explain I am hopeful that you will feel as enlightened as I was, and I think the other men were that night as well.
I will not name names for the sake of not having everyone’s permission and the most important name I believe that needs to be acknowledged is the Holy Spirit who showed up in a wonderful interaction of prayer and thought that night. For more information find our church on Facebook at simply “Central Assembly of God Horseheads” and many of our services are live-streamed for people’s viewing.
Our topic for the study was “The Holy Spirit in 3D” and as part of our reading we read a quote from one of R.A. Torrey’s books called “Why God Used D. L. Moody.” The following was that reading.
“DL Moody was a famous evangelist based out of Chicago IL. He writes about his baptism in the Holy Spirit experience. He says that after every week’s service, a couple of elderly, kindhearted, gentle ladies would come up to him. These ladies would kindly whisper, “Brother Moody, we are praying that God will fill you with the Holy Ghost.”
Moody would respond, “I am already filled with the Holy Ghost ladies. When I accepted Jesus, I was filled with the Holy Ghost so stop praying.” These ladies would repeat this weekly. They became a source of irritation to him until he described how their prayer was answered. He was sitting in a room when suddenly the presence of God came upon him in a most unusual way. In joyful ecstasy, he began to praise God and utter things that no human could understand. He sensed the presence of God in a way that he had never before when suddenly he began to utter words and sounds that were rising from his innermost being. A wonderful love, joy, and peace engulfed the evangelist. The next week, he walked to the pulpit and preached like he always had but something was different. Ten times more people were responding to his altar calls to receive Christ. There was an unexplainable magnified power in his ministry now. Moody says, “He was now living in a different relationship with the Holy Spirit.” He says, “It is fascinating to know how much of my success came after my baptism in the Holy Spirit.”
We were encouraged after reading that testimony of the famous D. L. Moody to share with the group our thoughts about what we had just read. For most of my adult life now hugely fascinated by both my own experiences and my Grandfather Howard Burnham’s initial family Holy Spirit patriot of the faith and experience, I have studied multiple well-known individual’s testimonies of this glorious experience. However, I had never specifically read D. L. Moody’s. Having been raised primarily in a Southern Baptist Church near Towanda Pa. I was well versed in the Baptist position on the subject and D. L’s initial testimony followed that to the letter. I was delightfully surprised to hear that one of their heroes of the faith openly testified against the normal Baptist grain that he had experienced dare we say a Pentecostal experience. My first comment to the group I believe was about his initial thinking “Yes and there are millions of Americans throughout this whole country who still believe that same way!”
It has been my passionate mission ever since 1980 when I was first introduced to “The more” of God in my life. I happened to be dating the sister of an internationally famous rock star at the time who needed a deeper level of prayer than I knew that I could give her. Ironically as she was on her journey on a path of being a new Christian, she handed me a book which had been written by a former Baptist minister. He had dealt with bizarre symptoms of depression and multi-personality disorder in his wife. As he pleaded with God feeling that she was dealing with demonic activity having been a former witch God had gloriously baptized him in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues also. What I have found is that there are more Baptists who have received this glorious gift but endeavor to keep it hidden from others within their fellowship because of the ingrown prejudice, in-house persecution, and ostracizations that take place within their ranks for those found out. In my three decades of studies on the subject, I find that it’s very similar to the reaction to the “born-again” message by many Catholics and other mainline denominational churches. As I mentioned in my previous article. “What in the World is Happening in America equates such persecution to the rejection Jesus faced by the scribes and the Pharisees, and the early pilgrims faced by the Church of England and Roman Catholic churches in England in 1620.
Because I feel it’s where God goes miraculous after the day of Pentecost with all the followers of Christ and the Holy Spirit opens up the spiritual realm to those newly baptized in Him at a whole new dimension that people get nervous. In my mother’s church as a girl, she told me of a certain Wesleyan Methodist minister who would travel to churches where they had “the problem of tongues” and preach nightly for sometimes two weeks. He had custom-tailored a sermon series in his attempt to prove that speaking in tongues in the modern world was a deception of the devil and had gathered enough bad press from negative testimonies undoubtedly from mental illness cases and people of emotional extremes who have made a bad name for the Pentecostal experience and the Pentecostal denominations. All I know personally is once I was blind and now I see! I know what it is to try to be a Christian for almost fifteen years of my life without the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the last forty years of my life with that glorious experience daily and there is a HUGELY positive difference between the two.
I once found myself debating with a lifelong Baptist brother on the separate experience from the salvation of being Baptized in the Holy Spirit with the biblically demonstrated evidence of speaking in other tongues. It seemed the more scriptural proof I presented the more agitated he got. Finally, and prayerfully realizing that the argument was getting nowhere the Spirit of God’s wisdom dropped this thought and question for him in my heart. I said, “Brother do you believe that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the following gift of speaking in other tongues is for today’s believers?” He said so very emphatically “NO” that I swear that I could see his lips flapping as he said it! I then replied, “Well then brother you will never have to worry about that because Jesus said in Mark 16:17, “And these signs shall follow them that BELIEVE, they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues.” So, because you do not believe in speaking in new tongues you will never speak in new tongues!” At that point, he just walked away from me grumbling something in his own tongue!
In this article, I believe I have covered slightly the wonderful experience that D. L. Moody described that both my locally well-known Wesleyan grandfather Howard Burnham experienced and I experienced myself. However, what does it mean to be “full” of the Spirit of God once you have been previously filled with the Spirit of God which seemed to be the case for at least a few of the disciples in Acts 6:2,3? “Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, FULL of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”
Many through the years have simply applied their own perceived truth here mostly due to their own experiences such as Moody, who felt they got “it all” correctly referred should be “Him all” upon salvation. However, the original Greek points us to the whole truth here literally speaking! The Greek word “PLERES” here used in Acts 6:3 is used in other places in the Bible referring to other things that were “FULL!” Such as in Mark 8:19 which referred to the baskets FULL of breadcrumbs left over at the feeding of the thousand’s miracle, with multiple other references found on page 466 of Vines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Simply put the word does not simply mean such as in a past tense that someone has been filled. It literally means that once someone has been previously filled does not mean that they are currently full! So, Paul wrote referencing the 12 disciples who were looking for seven men who were both of good reputation and FULL of the Holy Ghost!
At our men’s Bible study a couple of weeks ago, this topic came up in a discussion. Pastor Joe produced an interesting analogy of how the same Holy Spirit that had to be present for salvation to occur can be seen similar to a pot of potatoes on a stove. The more heat that is produced by turning up the heat on the burner the more the water begins to boil, and the pot lid eventually begins to rattle with the increased heat. He brought out that the more the fire of the Holy Spirit is applied in the believer’s life the more the present Holy Spirit expands and the fuller the pot becomes. He concluded by asking us “Was there any more potatoes in the pot?” Everyone answered “No.” So, then he explained that it is not more of the Holy Spirit in an individual but the more fire that is burning in their soul.”
Before this exchange of thought another one of the men had read as a part of that week’s reading the story of Jesus explaining the necessity for a seed to have to fall to the ground and die first before it can sprout and grow and bear more fruit found in John 2:24.
All of a sudden, a light turned on in my heart that would change the way that I had thought about this for years. I will state here that I once heard a former evangelist turned pastor state, “God help the pastor who has an evangelist attending his church. As he laughed when he said it, I must humbly say I’m quite sure he was referring to me. Truth be told as an evangelist now with primarily a writing ministry due to choices that are not my own, I try to be very careful never to be a burden to my Senior Pastor of the church that I am attending. I have learned many things through the years and if someone comes to me with a complaint, I immediately redirect them back to the pastor. I refuse to allow myself to get in the middle of any disagreements. The light that came on for me that night was following a quiet prayer admitting that I had never seen this passage the way that Pastor Joe was describing it. However, when the brother brought out the scripture just moments before that discussed Jesus’ teaching describing the parallel between the seed having to die and the obvious truth that we all have to take up our own crosses and die to ourselves before our lives can bear spiritual truth something hit me “BAMB” right in the heart. I raised my hand and began to share what was for me a life-changing illumination from scripture.
“What if what the early twelve disciples were looking for in seven men who were “FULL” of the Holy Spirit were not seven men who somehow had deserved a bigger portion of the Holy Spirit Himself but seven men who had emptied themselves of “SELF” MORE, or actually died to themselves MORE, to make more ROOM for the Holy Spirit to dwell in?” The discussion then continued from there with many sharing from their own experiences with the Holy Spirit. Just as the evening’s topic declared the Holy Spirit for all that night had been brought into some new dimensions for all. I pray that those reading this article who happen to be either Baptist Wesleyans or even Pentecostals will have just read about a life-changing experience that may not be like D. L. Moody has begun with two little old ladies praying for you. But maybe just reading about it has caused a trickle of truth that will lead you to your own life-changing illumination!
I am not sure about the other men who sat in that Bible study circle that night but for me, it was a huge “WOW” moment! I will never again with God’s help ever pray for more of God’s Holy Spirit without first being willing to let God through Jesus make more room for Him by letting His love have more of me!
Long article but worth reading