Foundations of the Christian Life. Chapter 29. The Holy Spirit #10 - Entering into the Pentecostal Experience.

Foundations of the Christian Life.
Chapter 29. The Holy Spirit #10 - Entering into the Pentecostal Experience.

We have said in earlier chapters the following statements.
* The Holy Spirit is the sum of the gifts of God to us.
* He who takes the Son takes everything.
* Spiritual growth is the process of entering into what we already have in Christ.

This implies there is a process of growing in the Holy Spirit – all Christians acknowledge this.
This process of growth is generally understood to consist of a series of crisis encounters with God, each followed by a period of “bedding in” the life principle encapsulated in the crisis experience.
I.e. growth in the Spirit is a series of crisis experiences. In each experience we enter into a deeper walk with the Holy Spirit.

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE BIBLE OF THIS "DEEPER WALK".

1. The River of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 47:1-5.
“The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side. As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in - a river that no one could cross.”

* The river represents the Holy Spirit. There is a sense in which we can get our toes wet with the Spirit, we can paddle in the Spirit, we can wade in the Spirit, or we can swim in the Spirit.
* The 1000 cubits is the cube of 10. 10 is the number of testing in the Bible, the cubing of the number indicates a perfect testing bringing us to maturity.
* The emphasis on distance tells us that this is a progressive walk being illustrated.
* The lesson is this: We enter into a deeper walk with God only through His word being tested in us.

2. The Idea of Pilgrimage.

Every year the people of Israel had to pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to come to the presence of God. This indicates there are different levels of God’s presence:
* God dwells in all the earth. “The Earth is the Lord’s.” God is omnipresent.
* But God dwells in Israel in a special way. His presence is found there in a way not found in the rest of the earth.
* But even in Israel He has chosen Jerusalem to be his special home and it has been blessed with a special presence.
* But even in Jerusalem there is a greater degree of God’s presence in the temple.
* Even in the temple there is a greater degree of God’s presence in the Holy of Holies where God appeared in his shekinah glory.

This pattern of pilgrimage is there to teach us, as Christians, that we need to press into God, come closer to him, and experience his presence in greater ways. Christian growth is not an event but a continuous walk.

3. Christian Experience of the Holy Spirit.

Even in Christian experience there are clearly degrees of God’s presence.
* In a sense, every man experiences something of the presence of God because God is omnipresent.
* But for those who receive Christ there is a greater presence of the Spirit of God. We are “born again” and the Holy Spirit indwells us.
* And there is an even greater presence for those who are filled with the Spirit and this “filling” can grow, as we have already discussed.
* There is an entering into the experience of the Baptism of the Spirit.
* But again there is a greater presence when “two or three are gathered” in Jesus name. The Spirit “presences” himself with a group in a way that he doesn’t when we are on our own.

So we readily acknowledge that there are degrees, or levels, of God’s presence that we can enter into.

Typically each of these levels is entered into in a crisis experience with God and then we have to learn to walk in it as an ongoing discipline.

When we come to the Baptism in the Spirit the scripture outlines several “levels” of the Baptism in the Spirit that we can enter into. This is clearly portrayed to us in the Exodus story.


THE EXODUS WANDERINGS- A TYPE (PICTURE) OF CHRISTIAN GROWTH.

1 Corinthians 10:1-6,11-13.
“For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did….
….These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

The Apostle Paul talks here of the Exodus wanderings of Israel. The important thing he says (and he says it twice so we get the point) is that “these things happened to them as examples…for us”, i.e. for Christians.
The word “examples” here is a technical word and means a die, stamp, pattern, model or a type. The idea Paul is trying to convey here is that the Exodus story is a picture. All of the events that happened to Israel back in history were actually a symbolic picture, but like a stamp or die it is a sort of “mirror image”, of things that will happen to us in a spiritual way.

In actual fact the Exodus story is a picture of the Christian walk. In it is contained all of the lessons God wants to teach us – and that he will test us on – in our spiritual walk. And the story contains these lessons in the order that we will encounter them in our spiritual walk. Each episode in the Exodus story contains principles we need to learn and build into our spiritual lives if we are to continue to grow in God. For each of us the circumstances of life that God uses to teach us the principles will be different, but the principle of the lesson remains the same for all of us. We need to learn to see beyond the external circumstances to the principle behind the situation we are in that God is trying to teach us.

We will all experience the same lessons and tests. Paul makes this clear in verse 13 where he says this: “No temptation has seized you that is not common to man.”
* The Greek word for “temptation” literally means “a test, a trial”. It came to have a negative connotation (temptation) by its use in the Bible. But the root meaning is “a test”. This is all about testing to bring about spiritual growth.
* Paul is clear: these tests will be some thing we will all experience. They are “common to man”. God has the same plan for all of us. He deals with us individually but on the basis of unchanging principles that are true for all of us. His “ways” are the same for all of us. There are lessons we all have to learn in God. In one sense your spiritual walk in growing with God will be the same as everybody else’s.
* But in each test God has a “way of escape” – by living in God’s principles we can escape the test and pass it. By this Paul does not mean that we can avoid the test altogether - that is impossible. We must be tested. But whether we pass or fail the test is determined by whether or not we find God’s principle that leads to escape.
* If we pass the test we grow spiritually.
* If we fail the test we sin, and we have to come to repentance. After repentance God will set up another test situation in our lives so that we can learn the lesson and pass the test.
* We do not get to go on to the next lesson until we have passed the one we are on. Some Christians spend their whole lives failing the same test because they never learn the principles behind the lesson.

In this type we see an outline of the walk of spiritual growth – steps of growing in the Spirit in the order we have to enter into them. I.e. there are a series of crisis experiences we need to enter into each embodying a principle we need to learn to walk in.

GROWTH IN THE EXPERIENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Some of the Exodus episodes speak directly to the theme of the experience of the Holy Spirit we have been discussing in the previous chapters. Let’s note just a few:

1. Sealing.

Exodus 13:9,14-16.
“This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand…
…"In days to come, when your son asks you, `What does this mean?' say to him, `With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.' And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand."

* As we saw in Chapter 24 this idea of marking, or tattooing, slaves was a form of sealing. The Israelites Moses was talking to would all have carried such a mark of slavery, a seal of ownership saying to whom they had belonged to as slaves in Egypt.
* What God is saying to them here (and they would have clearly understood this) is that he is exchanging one owner for another, God for Pharaoh. And consequently they get to wear a new “seal” on them. This, then, is a type of being sealed with the Spirit of God.
* The meaning of the seal is intimately tied in with the act of redemption from slavery, in type the redemption of Christ we receive when we become Christians. Sealing is true of every person who accepts Christ as Saviour.

2. Baptism in the Cloud.

Exodus 14:19.
“Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them,…”

Derek Prince in his booklet, “From Jordan to Pentecost” says that the meaning of the Hebrew words here is that the cloud moved through the whole community of Israel in such a way that they were all immersed (baptised) in the cloud. This is confirmed by the Apostle Paul:

1 Corinthians 10:1,2.
“For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea."

This is clearly a type of being experientially baptised in the Holy Spirit. The type clearly reveals that there is a difference in our experience between being sealed and experiencing the Baptism in the Spirit.

In this series this is what we have been calling “The Pentecostal Experience.”

Included in this is an experience of being immersed in God’s love as we read of in:
Romans 5:5.
“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

This is a gift of love – and we are going to need it. The gift of love is going to be tested – in fact it is the first test of the wilderness - when we come to a place called Marah, meaning “Bitterness”. Here God is going to allow us to be offended by some leader in the Church we go to so that we can “fix” this gift of love into our hearts as a personal reality. Many Christians never get past this test. They go from church to church getting offended at leaders, not realising that all the time it is God engineering the offences so that they can learn to live in “the love of God shed abroad in our hearts.” The rebellion in our hearts towards authority placed there by the Fall, originating in Satan, has to be rooted out if we are to grow in God. It is a test you will face right at the beginning of your Christian walk - but if you fail it you will encounter the same test over and over again until you get it right.

3. Water from the Rock.

Exodus 17:1-7.
“The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?" But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?"
Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me." The LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

* Remember God was leading them through the desert so this situation was a “set-up” by God. He was wanting to reveal their hearts to them – the rebellion seen in the grumbling against Moses, and the lack of trust in God. After all, the presence of God was visible in the cloud that led them. It shielded them from the heat of the sun and at night became a pillar of fire to keep them warm and give light. God could hardly be more visibly present with them. But he let them thirst – just as he will for us. He will let us go through a barren patch where we don’t feel God’s presence. Everyone else around us could be having tremendous experiences in God but we are missing out. And it is not because of sin in our lives. It is simply the plan of God to make us reach out to him for a greater release of the Spirit in and through us. He wants us to grow up.
* The answer to the need is to go to the rock, who is Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). We see the rock smitten – there is an new revelation to us of the Crucified Christ that breaks our hearts of stone in such a way that the Holy Spirit can flow out of us in a new way.

The Ultimate Aim.

John 7:37-39.
“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 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.”

God's aim is that our lives be so full of the Spirit that he is able to gush out of us like a mighty river or spring. This brings blessing to others.

An assumption often made (erroneously) by Pentecostals is that once we have experienced the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (i.e. Baptism in the Cloud) that we are now automatically a gushing spring. But in the type of the Exodus they are clearly two different experiences and require walking in different principles to maintain them.

To be established as a flowing spring we need to pass the previous tests:
* The test of love at Marah.
* Establishing daily devotions in the Word (Eating manna daily – Exodus 16).
* A new revelation of Christ on the Cross.
* We need to have the Filling of the Holy Spirit in our lives connected to the Baptism in the Spirit through a released human spirit. This needs to be nurtured with a daily discipline of speaking in tongues to grow and maintain the freedom we have been given.

The Pentecostal Experience has three parts:
(i) A Baptism in the Spirit.
(ii) A filling of the Spirit.
(iii) A release of the human spirit through tongues.

It is like 3-phase electricity – there are three “live wires”. If you have ever tried to operate a 3-phase machine when one of the phases is “out” you will know how it doesn’t work too well – if at all.

Speaking in tongues is that “thing” that God has given us that makes the connection between the “Phase one wire” – the Baptism in the Spirit, the Spirit “on” us, and the “Phase two wire” – the Filling of the Spirit, or the Spirit “in” us. When we speak in tongues it is like we complete the circuit and the phases flow together. Our own human spirit is the third phase. The power of the Spirit on and in us come together and are released through our spirit, soul and body through our mouth.

The mouth is the key to releasing power in the Spiritual realm. What we speak releases power for good or evil. Speaking in tongues releases the power of the Spirit of God in us and on us. The more we speak in tongues the greater the flow we generate.

To be a flow of living water we need to live in speaking in tongues.

4. Sinai.

Exodus 19 - Leviticus 27.

The events of Sinai were commemorated with the feast of Pentecost so clearly the events of Sinai symbolise aspects of the gift of the Spirit to us. This is where several things promised to us as gifts of the New Covenant are built into our experience as realities, including:

* The Law was given at Sinai, symbolising how it will be written on our hearts.

Jeremiah 31:33.
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

God will take each one of the Ten Commandments and write it on our hearts as a life principle that we walk in. We will be tested on each one individually.

* They entered into a new level of relationship with God and each other through a covenant.

Exodus 19:4-6.
“(God said)`You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' “

In this relationship we learn to minister as kings and priests of God in the earth. There is a level of rulership God has for us in this life that very few Christians have ever touched. It is not that God doesn’t want us to enter into it but we fail to press in to the Spirit.

Again there will be tests – Satan is determined to stop God’s people ever coming together in covenant relationship because he knows that if we do then his work of deception is finished.

* They built a tabernacle for God – each one contributed the gifts God had given them.

Exodus 25:1,2.
The LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive
the offering for me from each man whose heart prompts him to give.”

Exodus 25:8.
"Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.”

There is a level of God’s presence where “he will dwell amongst us” that will only be achieved when the Church comes together and each one offers the gift God has given him for the greater good.

Summary:
As you can see there are levels of God’s presence with us by his Spirit that we can enter into. Entering into the experience of each of these promises will be a crisis experience followed by a period of learning to walk in the discipline of the principles involved. At each step we will be tested by God so that the principle is etched into our lives by fire.

Receiving the seal is not all there is to receiving the Spirit, nor is receiving the Pentecostal experience. But these two, receiving the seal and receiving the baptism in the cloud (the Pentecostal experience) belong to the essential foundations of our Christian life. They are things we receive while we are still “in Egypt”. They are part of what God wants for us to get us started. We cannot get out of Egypt without them.


RECEIVING THE PENTECOSTAL EXPERIENCE.

Preparation.

(1) Establish the person SEEKING THE Pentecostal experience is a Christian, i.e. has at some time made a real committal to Christ as Saviour and Lord.

(2) Re-emphasise if necessary that the Pentecostal gift of the Spirit is:

(i) For all, therefore for that person.

Acts 2:39.
“The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off- for all whom the Lord our God will call."

(ii) A Gift, therefore not earned, or in any way dependent on our own "goodness". It comes to us because of Christ’s work not because of any effort of our own.

Acts 2:33.
“Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.”

(iii) We already have it in promise, all we are seeking is the experience of what is already ours legally, and is clearly God's desire for us.

Ephesians 1:3.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

Ephesians 1:13,14.
“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:17-20.
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, …”

“Know” here means “to know in experience”.

(3) Establish the person has a desire:
(i) For a real experience of God.
(ii) For Christ's lordship.

(4) Knowledge is important - the person should know what they are in for, what is likely to happen and why.

What we are asking for is a gift of the Spirit that has three parts:
* An experience of being baptised in the Holy Spirit.
* An experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
* A release of the human spirit, which is seen in speaking in tongues.

Acts 2:1-4.
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

How does speaking in tongues happen?
(i) Words come to mind that the person does not understand.
(ii) The person actually has to speak them out for themselves, as they do more will come.

But the Holy Spirit is a gentleman - he does not force us to speak in tongues, all he does is give the inspiration and the empowering to do so. We must CHOOSE to do so and co-operate with the Spirit if we are to experience this release. God will never override our wills. Only if we will to do his will are we be able to do it.

At this point we are energized by the Holy Spirit, but often nothing has happened to us that we can physically or spiritually feel. We need to co-operate with God if we are to experience spiritual release. We need to do our part of the miracle and step out. Our part is perfectly natural - it is speaking, but not in the language our mind runs on, rather in tongues. When we step out God steps in and makes it possible.

Without God we can't, without us he won’t.

Two facts that are absolutely obvious – but many people miss the obvious:
1. No one ever spoke in tongues who did not start speaking. In this fact speaking in tongues is just like anything else we do. No one ever learned to ride a bike without hopping on the bike. One thing is absolutely sure – you will never speak in tongues if you do not open your mouth and start speaking.
2. A second thing is also absolutely sure – no one can speak in two languages at a time so it is guaranteed that while you speak in a language you know you wont speak in tongues. Don’t speak in a language you know – let the language rise out of your spirit.

Normally the feelings of the Baptism and Filling of the Holy Spirit and any personal emotional release do not occur until we step out and begin to speak in tongues. It is like the switch that makes it all happen.

Ministry time.

(1) Prayer of Repentance, Cleansing and submission to Christ as Lord.

“Father God, I come to you through Jesus Christ. I repent of my sin and ask again for his cleansing blood to wash me from sin and guilt. I submit to him as Lord of my life.

(2) A simple prayer of RECEIVING.

"Father I receive now the fullness of the Spirit, the Baptism and Infilling of the Spirit into my life in Jesus Name. I recognise that these are a gift of God received by faith in the work of Jesus on my behalf."

(3) In Faith thank God for the gift.

"Thank you Father I believe you have given me this gift of the Holy Spirit because it says in your word in Luke 11:13: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to
your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

(4) Begin to speak out in tongues.

It can help to have someone there with you praying alongside in tongues. If there appears to be difficulties in speaking in tongues try to IMITATE what the other person is doing. You will not be able to imitate them, but the ATTEMPT will allow the tongue to be loosened from the mind and the spirit language will flow.

Often at this point there can be tremendous feelings in the Spirit as the “three phases” are connected for the first time.

(5) Continued blockages may indicate the need for further ministry. There may be inner hurts, fears, demonic bondage that needs release. Be prepared to do this if needed.

(6) Reaffirm that this is not necessarily a FEELING experience, and that they will have received the Baptism even if they felt nothing, so long as they received in faith. Tongues is not the Baptism, but is one of the fruits of the Baptism, hence it is important that they realise that failure to speak in tongues at that time does not mean they have "missed out".

Well, that’s it for the Holy Spirit in this series. I hope you found it made sense and explained the issues in a scriptural way.

HOMEWORK:
Now would be a good time to read the whole section on the Holy Spirit, Chapters 20-29, in one sitting to get an overview of the topic again. You will find as you do this that things fall into place and things you struggled with on the way through make sense.

PRAYER:
Keep speaking in tongues. Try to build your daily discipline of tongues speaking up to at least 10 minutes morning and evening.