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15 to 30 minutes-she already HAO
the Spirit of God.
What the Holy Spirit ls
Just what
IS
this Holy Spirit? First of
all , it is the Spirit which comes di–
rectly from God; which, entering
into a human, impregnates that
human with
Goo-life- eternal life–
just as the male sperm entering into
a female egg cell (ovurn) impreg–
nates the woman with a new human
life then begotten in her womb.
"The [Holy] Spirit itself beareth wit–
ness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God" (Rom. 8: 16).
The Holy Spirit, secondly, is the
Spirit of UNDERSTANDING.
lt
opens
the human MINO, in conjunction
with the human spi.rit, to COM–
PREHEND-to UNDERSTAND- spiritual
knowledge, spiritual principies, spir–
itual facts.
lt
opens the mind to UN–
DERSTAND the LAW of God,
"because the carnal mind [natural
human mind
without
God's Holy
Spirit] is erunity against God: for it
is not subject to the law of God,
neitber indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7).
So the Holy Spirit opens the mind
to UNDERSTAND God's
way of
lije,
and to be willingly subject to it as
the WAY OF LOVE. And LOVE is
out–
goiog. It is love toward God and
concern for the good and welfare of
others equal in amount to our self–
love and self-concern.
Thirdly, the Ho ly Spirit of God
entering into one imparts to the
mind a new and opposite attitude–
God's attitude; instills in that mind
Goo's LOVE, far transcending natu–
ral human love-the love that fulfills
Hislaw.
Fourth, the Spirit instills in one
the gift of CHRIST'S OWN FAITH- the
very same FAITH with which He
healed and performed miracles.
Faith in Goo that BELIEVES what
God SAYS!
It
is the Spirit of
POWER-not physical, but spiritual
power: power to resist temptation,
power ofwiLL to oo God's way.
Now
1
had struggled (with at least
an HONEST mind, I must admit) for
six long months to learn God's wAY
of GIVE as opposed to Satan's way of
GET, which I had previously prac–
ticed. My study had led me to
UN–
CONDITIONAL SURRENDER of my life
to God.
1
learned that Christ had
bought and paid forme by the sacri-
8
fice of H1s life, and
I
now GAVE
OVER MY LIFE TO HIM. Qf course, as
I
said in the previous installment, by
this time my own est imation of my–
self had shrunk so low,
T
didn't see
how God could ever USE my life–
but it was now H1s, ifHe could use
it.
Conditions To Receiving Holy Splrlt
Th e biblical CONDITIONS to receiv–
ing God's Holy Spirit are two: RE–
PENTANCE and BELIEF. Remorse
ÍS
far from real repentance. Real re–
pentance is developed by godly sor–
row. lt rneans a complete ABOUT–
FACE- a total CHANGE from the GET
1had argued that "all
these churches can't be
wrong-and they get
their religion from the
Bible." 1was shocked–
dumbfounded-to learn
that 1had been taught
in most basic doctrines
the very opposite ot
what the Bible actually
says.
way of Satan to the GIVE way of
God.
But I could find no PROMISE in the
Bible that anyone would receive the
Holy Spirit until after water bap–
tism.
As
1
have said,
1
had made a most
THOROUGH and in-depth STUDY of
this whole question in many outside
sources. But
1
had been brought up
in a Protestant church which did not
believe in water baptism, and I had
not yet studied what the Bible said
about water baptism. Now
1
did
study it-thoroughly.
1
did find one exception where the
Holy Spirit was given without- and
prior to-water baptism: at the
house of Cornelius, a Gentile cap–
tain over
lOO
Roman soldiers. But
even so, Peter
commanded
water
baptism. Nevertheless, there is NO
PROMISE of the gift of the Holy
Spirit prior to water baptism. And
l'm sure God did not want me to
come into His ministry the .EASY
way.
Therefore, I was baptized. Now
along witb my Bible study of the
question,
I
had counseled with three
ministers- a Baptist, a Seventh-Day
Adventist and a Quaker.
I
chose to
ask the Baptist minister to baptize
me.
Baptlzed lnto Christ-Not
Denomination
But
1
had learned that we are bap–
tized " into Jesus Christ" (Rom. 6:3),
NOT into a religious denomination.
1
learned, when
1
asked this minister
to baptize me, that he had no au–
thority to baptize me,
except
INTO
HIS CHURCH.
J
was required to go before a
board of trustees to see if they
would give their pastor authority to
baptize me into Jesus Christ. Some–
how I had a peculiar feeling, as I sat
before that digniijed, stern-faced
board.
1
was still comparatively new
in biblical knowledge and under–
standing, but as they questioned me,
I soon saw that their understanding
of the Bible was very elementary
compared to mine. Somehow I felt
almost like Jesus at age
12,
sitting
before the august and dignified
body of doctors of religion, who
"were astonished at his understand–
ing and answers" (Luke 2:42-47).
Anyway, the board members
were sufficiently impressed when l
quoted the scriptures that we are to
be baptized into Jesus Christ- not a
religious denomination- that one
suggested, "Well, after this man has
shown us what the Bible says, l
don ' t see how we can refuse his
request that we authorize our pastor
to baptize him into Christ without
requiring him to join our church."
Tbe others then agreed.
Of course that baptism was an
EXPERIENCE-one I shall never for–
get.
lt
was on a Sunday night. I was
buried under, and carne up out of
the water.
It
was a type of the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus.
What the Experience Was Like
But just what
was
the EXPERIENCE of
receiving the Holy Spirit? Did
1
feel
certain physical sensations- were
there tingling sensations going up
and down rny spine, as sorne Pente–
costal people claim to feel? No!
Nothing of the sort.
But there was
a very definite spiri-
The
PLAIN TRUTH
June
1977