Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” [He said,] “you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” [Acts 1:4-5 NASB95]
Peter [said] to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” [Acts 2:38-39 NASB95]
Currently, my wife and I attend a local church that I think God highlighted for us to attend, but after a year, I’m still not sure why He did that. It’s a “nice” church, and I like going there, and the lead pastor obviously loves God with all his heart, which is why we’re still there. We do pray for our church, that they would allow the Holy Spirit to take full charge of the services, but apparently that hasn’t yet happened. We hear a lot about Jesus, as we should, and the pastor always gives an altar call at the conclusion of his sermons, as he should, but it is my opinion that this pastor’s a bit light on linking biblical Christianity with concurrent civic responsibilities…and then there is the glaring elephant in the room – the Holy Spirit, which we would be more accurate in describing as: The Holy Secret.
I was raised in an old-fashioned, biblically conservative Presbyterian Church. It was there I was first introduced to the biblical Trinity, God the Father, Jesus the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, but in those early days of my life the Holy Spirit was more widely known as the Holy Ghost, thanks no doubt to King James. Even today, in many American church services and programs, the Holy Spirit is still more like a ‘ghost’; present in name only, and I am asking why, as I have since 1972.
It was in that year that I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, as a separate, unique experience from water baptism, and I do not understand why so many American churches still do not understand that it is a uniquely different experience than water baptism. It is NOT the same, and scripture is abundantly clear on this point, although most pastors are either blind to the obvious, or do not want to address it for fear of offending some tithing portions of their congregations. I have a typical example from yesterday:
An American missionary from Africa addressed our congregation yesterday, and apparently was carelessly given free rein to speak unedited. He did an outstanding job, and his message was highly motivating. He related the testimony of an African woman being delivered from demons, and he even mentioned the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’! My wife and I were on the edges of our seats as the missionary finished his message. We were pumped because we had prayed for a year that the Holy Spirit’s baptism, and the critical importance of it, would be acknowledged and taught by our pastor, but he let the air out of our optimistic balloon when he resumed the podium and closed out the service with a generic admonition to go into the world and represent Christ. We were stunned and greatly disappointed, but not surprised.
Jesus commanded His first disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they had been baptized in the Holy Spirit, and on the day of Pentecost they were. They were then “empowered” to ‘go into all the world’. The baptism in the Holy Spirit was obviously a unique baptism, and the gospel accounts all say that Jesus would be the baptizer. The disciples of Jesus did baptize folks in water for a while, but this was not the same event as the promised Holy Spirit Baptism.
Water baptism serves as a public testimony to both the earthly and spiritual worlds that the person baptized has accepted Jesus as Lord over their lives. In contrast, the Holy Spirit Baptism is a baptism of power, to equip a believer to serve Jesus in the ministry gifts of power. The scriptures are glaringly clear on this, but how do we still not hear it preached and taught in most American churches? This is totally unacceptable!
I saw a girl delivered from demons in Uganda in 2014. She was being water baptized, and as she came up out of the water she began yelling and fighting. It took four men to hold her down while she was being delivered from the demons she had been dedicated to as a child. After a few tense moments, she was at peace and began praising Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit was on full view, and her freedom had nothing to do with church membership! Her freedom happened because of the raw power of the Holy Spirit, operating through believers who had been previously baptized or ‘filled’ with the Holy Spirit.
If one were to travel to nearly any other continent than North America, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is universally accepted as part and parcel of the “normal” Christian experience. Christians on all those continents wonder why it is so difficult to accept it in the Western world. Perhaps it is true that America has a unique destiny to spread the Gospel message to all the world, and if so, that would explain why it is such an uphill battle to hear the full Christian message that Christ intended for us to obey.
No revival will spread far or last long without the Holy Spirit being actively engaged. Christianity was never meant to be just another cerebral belief system; it was meant from the beginning to be totally experiential, and we are missing the mark of Christ’s intention if we do not wake up quick and get back to the basics He died for. And if we don’t, American destiny will be given to another nation, for God always has a Plan B.
John Miltenberger
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