Tuesday, January 24, 2023

 The Holy Spirit is God. He gifts people according to His will. He came in power in the baptism of Christ as the witness as Christ was headed to the dessert to be tempted at the start of His ministry. the Spirit is the Spirit of power. Then as Christ was speaking to His disciples after His resurrection He promised to bring the comforter. Now this kind of promise was filled with more of the goodness of God than had ever been experienced by any disciple.This was a promise of power to be given to the 12 disciples, one of whom would join them. So Christ was sealed with the Holy Spirit of power and then He gave His disciples this seal or testimony at Pentecost. I do not believe in the Charismatic view of the second baptism. First, I don't believe this is a consistent experience. It is strictly an experience and does not necessarily have anything to do with the level of sanctification of a believer. But it does increase the speed of the sanctification process. There are many evidences of the baptism of Christ giving the Spirit other than tongues. He came in various ways to the church in Acts and there were different manifestations. Sometimes people would predict the future, or speak words that they believed came from God. Sometimes they would speak with great power, or in tongues – which may have been other languages, but which came as part of an ecstatic experience and felt like a new way of speaking. But the Spirit says that in the last days He will be poured out and people will be speaking in tongues, prophesying, etc. So when the Spirit comes in this way, He manifests Himself in a way that is different from when He brings salvation.He comes in power and then all of the people are experiencing a profound, life-changing experience as if there was a rain of God coming down on a group. And then there was profound unity that attended this reviving of the Spirit. Everyone looked as if they were drunk on wine but it was the Spirit coming down and then all the people were experiencing this power that did not come from within but it was something that come on them and then they were immediately infused with this rejoicing and this unity. Its as if the Spirit came as He willed and heaven came down on them in the crowd.The church's origins can be traced back to the moment when the disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit. This event united them into a powerful force, focused on the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, and breaking of bread. They experienced a deep sense of joy, accompanied by various supernatural manifestations.There have been various attempts throughout history to copy the manifestations of the Spirit seen in the Bible. This has happened at different times and in different places, such as Wales and England, and more recently in the United States during the Great Awakening.

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