So Great Salvation: Baptism With the Holy Spirit — Paris Reidhead

Baptism With the Holy Spirit as Part of Salvation

Will you turn, please, to Acts chapter 1? This is number 10 in your outline. We have stated and repeat, because repetition, it is told, is the soul of learning, that everything that begins in the Christian life as a crisis is preceded by a process and followed by a process.

The crisis of the new birth, followed by that process, leading now to the crisis, being baptized with the Holy Spirit. Baptism with the Holy Spirit is the title of this 10th step as part of so great salvation.

We know that because John the Baptist told us that his generation were to repent, be baptized for the remission of sins, that they might receive the baptism with fire. So we are, therefore, quite correct in saying this, too, is part of so great salvation.

Now, in Hebrew's second chapter, in the third verse, you recall, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Dealing with the subject of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, Charles Finney had this to say.

This is not a matter of option. This is not a matter of choice. This is the responsibility of every believer. The promises to you, said he, to your children, to them that are far off, even as many as the Lord are, God shall call.

And if you've been called to him and you've been called to be a candidate for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Mr. Finney went on to say that if we fail to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, walk in the Spirit, we will be responsible for all that we did that dishonored the Lord because we had not been baptized with the Holy Spirit.

We will be responsible for all we fail to understand of that provision of God in grace because we were not equipped by the Holy Spirit. For his eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the mind of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, which he has given us.

If people neglect to be baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit, they will be responsible for all the good that they might have done had they been filled with the Holy Spirit. So it's not a matter of options, not a matter of choice.

There is, again, the danger implicit in the text that we're using as the overall text for this series of ministries, how shall we escape if we neglect that which the Lord Jesus purchased with his blood and intended to be the birthright of everyone born into the Father's family?

Jesus’ Promise of Spirit-Empowered Witness

Now, the text, then, from Acts 1, verses 1 to 8. The former treatise of I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up. After that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.

To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they, therefore, were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

We saw this morning, for those of you who were there, that in his high priestly prayer, our Lord Jesus, addressing the Father, said, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

And the night of the resurrection, when he met with his disciples, he said, as the Father sent me into the world, even so have I also sent you. We saw that the Lord Jesus had been conceived by the Holy Ghost, was born of the Spirit.

But he wasn't ready for his ministry, year's ministry, until, after his baptism in water, the Holy Ghost came upon him. Then he read, from Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me, and he has sent me.

And everything done by Christ in the subsequent three years of ministry was done by the Father through the Spirit. And so he said, as the Father sent me, so send I you. We, too, are born of the Spirit.

And thus, when we come to this matter of the baptism of the Spirit, very precisely, the Lord Jesus said, the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, shall come upon you. This is an upon baptism. The Spirit of God had come into the disciples that night of the resurrection in that upper room when the Lord Jesus had breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost.

And now he is telling them that the Spirit of God shall come upon them. So it will parallel what happened to him. Now, I recall years ago being told, taught, that since the Spirit of God came into us at the new birth, and God is a person, we got all there is to get of God at salvation.

And then salvation was made synonymous with the new birth. We're extending that term to include all the provisions of God's love that we've been seeing. But that was what I was taught. And the consequence was we would hear something like this.

All he's asking now is that since a person can't come in parts, he got all there was to get of God. Now it's just for him to get more of you. Well, I never did really get around to answering the question, if the Spirit of God can't come in parts, how can I go in parts?

How can I give more of me? And I never did get that quite answered satisfactorily. But in fact, that was what we were taught, and that's what we preached. And it's quite enough to preach it, as long as your heart isn't hungry.

But when the Spirit of God begins to stir you with a hunger from himself and for himself, and you go to the word of God and begin to study the word and read the word and find out what the word has to say, you discover some very interesting things.

For instance, you discover that the Holy Spirit was in Christ. For if he wasn't, then he wasn't God. For from his birth, he was indwelt by the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So at the very time the Holy Spirit was in our Lord Jesus Christ, he came upon our Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, what do we learn? We learn that you cannot apply those rules that are true of human personality to God. You see, God, the Holy Spirit, in Christ while he came upon Christ, once and for all does away with that teaching that says that when you were born again, you got all there was to get of God.

You didn't. Or in a sense, you did. Everything that belongs to the children of God became yours in that sense that you were born into his family. But it didn't all come to you at once. And we will discover that there are many blessings that after we've been baptized with the Holy Spirit that God has provided for them that love him.

And we will have to meet him in terms of that particular need and that particular desire. But still, the point that I'm making is that the dispensationalists, of which I was one, very active and vociferous, were quite incorrect when we said that since he comes at the new birth, you get all there is to get of God.

Not true. Now, if the pattern is clear, as the Father sent the Son, he sent us. So our Lord Jesus, as we saw at Jordan, symbolized by his baptism, the relinquishing of the right to his rights. He didn't relinquish his deity.

He only relinquished the right to act in his essential deity as Son. And therefore, in those years of ministry, he was in all things like unto his brethren. And everything done by him was done by the Father through the Spirit.

I'm so glad that F .B. Meyer, that great English preacher that so blessed both England and America and the world by his books, in that little book published by Moody Colportage, the 37th title that they put out, the title of the book was The Christ Life for the Self Life, makes the statement that everything done by Christ, we must remember, is done by the Father through the Spirit.

That has done a great deal. That came to me at a time of very real need in my life. Now, seeing that and understanding that, you realize how important it is for you to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Surrendering the Self to the Holy Spirit

But there are, as we saw earlier today, preparations that must be made. We thus are assuming that you have made those preparations. You have relinquished the right to your right. You see, there are a lot of people that would like to be baptized with the Holy Spirit so they could get a hold of God, get a handle on God, and use God.

But that's not what this is all about. I was in Charleston, West Virginia, for a meeting some years ago. It was on the radio every day. And the pastor of a church asked to see me, took me to lunch. And while we were there, he said, Brother Reed, I heard you speaking, and I really would like to have what you're talking about.

So I got a great church and a great Sunday school. We got seven buses, and we're doing this, and we're doing that, but I need power in my ministry. Well, I looked at him, and he was a very active, very able young man, and one that you feel was a go-getter in every sense of the word.

And I said, well, I think you're coming to me as kind of a celestial, spiritual filling station attendant. And I saw him driving up in his big activity Cadillac and leaning out the window and say, fill her up, bud.

High test. And I got a picture of him. If he were filled with the Holy Ghost in his present state, my, would he go roaring down the highway. And I said, no, I don't think you're ready. And I told him about the idea I had of his coming up in his big Cadillac.

He didn't have a Cadillac, but that's the way I saw it. And I said, there's no way that God's going to meet your need while you're still behind the wheel of your life. You're going to have to crawl in the back seat.

But I looked at him, and he was agile, and he was aggressive. And I figured he'd be leaning right over that back seat and grabbing the wheel. And no, I said, the back seat won't do. Won't do at all. Can't trust you there, not that way.

I'll tell you, I wouldn't even talk to you until you get open and snap the trunk lid and open the lid. And you get out and back, and you crawl in the trunk and slam the door down, and then whisper through the keyhole, Lord, if there's something you'd like to do for me, I'm a candidate for it.

You see, everybody wants to get a handle on God. They want to use God. But that's not what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is about. Our Lord Jesus said, I do nothing of myself. I don't speak of myself.

I only do what I see the Father do. Remember that time he went down to the hospital. Well, it was a pool where all the sick people were lying around it. And he came in with his disciples with him, and he looked at them.

And I'm sure he knew some of them. He'd been about there. He nodded to them and spoke to them. And they looked at him, and he walked around the pool until he came to one man, just one. And he said, wilt thou be made whole?

And the man said, yes, but every time the angel comes to stir the water, somebody gets there before I do. And so I've been here, and I haven't been healed. And the Lord Jesus said, rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

Follow me. And the man did it, and he was healed instantly. And afterwards, the disciples said to him, now, Lord, please explain this that's happened. Was that man a bigger sinner than all the rest of the folks around there?

Or was he better than the rest of them? How come only one, only one was healed? And he gave this answer. I can only do what I see my Father do. Now, apparently, he'd had, while in early morning worship and prayer, God the Father had given him a vision of a certain man, certain appearance and a certain place.

And if he could, he could offer. Now, you see, normally people came to him and said, Lord, wilt thou make me whole? And apparently, the Father had said anybody that asked, he could heal. But this was a case where nobody was asking.

And therefore, he could only do what he saw the Father do. He couldn't initiate. He accepted the limitations of his humanity. And he's asking us to do the same thing, to present our bodies to him, our brains, our eyes, our ears, our hearts, our hands, our feet, our lips, so that living in us, he can do through us.

That was his prayer. Father, that they all may be in union, the same kind of union I had with thee and you had with me, I want to have with them. I want to live in them the way you lived in me. And I want them to live in me the way I lived in you.

And when that happens, the world will know and the world will be able to believe. So that's what he's looking for and asking for. And that's what the baptism of the Holy Spirit means, that we're presenting to him without any strings, signing a quick claim deed, our names, our reputation, our time, our talent, our treasure, everything we have and everything we are, and saying, now, Lord Jesus, I want you to live in me the same way the Father lived in you.

That is what this is all about. Now, we find that there were several cases when people were baptized with the Holy Spirit. In Acts, the second chapter and the fourth verse, we read, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And then we read in the sixth verse, when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because every man heard them speak in his own language. And then it tells some of the languages.

Interesting, though, that some of these people spoke Aramaic, and therefore, if they heard, since all of the disciples spoke Aramaic, and if everybody heard in their own language, then some of these that had been baptized with the Holy Spirit were speaking in Aramaic, and if they're speaking in their own language by the Spirit of God, then it's prophecy, and it's not other tongues.

And so even at that point, we had a place where the Spirit of God sovereignly and supernaturally manifested that these people had been filled with the Spirit. Now, I want to call to your attention something that is very important to me.

Tongues, Prophecy, and the Gift of the Holy Spirit

There was in the city of Minneapolis quite a while ago, about 60 and 70 years ago, a Presbyterian preacher by the name of T .J. McCrossan. McCrossan was a lecturer in Greek and Hebrew. He was a master of those areas.

He was a man who came to an understanding of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We had one man who was an elder in his church by the name of Charles Ingersoll. Now, when I went to Northwestern Bible School, every Sunday, Charles Ingersoll had a healing service, and you maybe didn't know that.

Charles Ingersoll had been under the ministry of T .J. McCrossan, and he'd been filled with the Holy Spirit and been given the gift of healing. On one occasion, Charles Ingersoll, who had a seat on the grain exchange here in Minneapolis, he had a secretary, a Jewish woman, who had worked for him for some times and whose father was extremely ill.

And finally, she got up nerve enough to ask her mother if she could bring her boss, this man who had this gift of healing, to her home to pray for her father. So, Charles Ingersoll said, yes, but I want you to bring in all of your relatives, your near relatives and your rabbi.

I want them all there when I come. So he went to this Jewish home, and he told them about the Lord Jesus Christ, who he was, that he was God come in the flesh, he was the Messiah, and that he was going to pray in the name of their Messiah that this father would be healed.

Now, he was dying. The doctor was also there, and he said he won't live till morning. That was what the family with this was kind of just waiting to be with him till he died. And so, Charlie Ingersoll, after having explained all of this, prayed for this man in the name of our wonderful sovereign Lord.

And the next morning when he came to work, his secretary was there and he said, how's your father? Oh, he said, he's fine. The fever broke in the night, he regained consciousness, and this morning he asked for a breakfast, and when I left him, he was sitting up.

He's fine. Because of that one miracle healing in that one Jewish home, there was at that time by Reuben A. Torrey a Jewish mission in Minneapolis, a Hebrew mission. And Reuben Torrey said of that event, or the people at the mission said, that more Jewish people came to Christ as the result of that one miraculous healing than in several years of ministry to the Jewish community.

Now, that was T .J. McCrossan, an elder in the church, and he wrote a book, Christ Paralyzed Church X-Ray. I searched around and found it. It's an excellent book. One of the problems in the book is that Mr. McCrossan took a little bit of umbrage with the dispensationalists who were sniping at him, and so there's a little bit of a overtone of sarcasm here and there, but the book's a good book.

I'd like to see it republished with a little bit of vetting done on that because it's an excellent book. And in there, he makes this point. Every time the word speak or speaking is used concerning the gift of tongues, it's always in the imperfect tense, which means they spoke and continued to speak.

Now, if it were in the aorist, it could be at a point they spoke and didn't speak anymore. Now, I'm quoting McCrossan. I don't know much about the Greek languages. I think I told you once before, I know a little Greek and a little Hebrew.

The little Greek runs a restaurant, the little Hebrew runs a clothing store, and I make no claim to the original languages. But I like to get men like McCrossan, if they're writing in English, I can understand because I can hide behind them.

I'm like a rabbit in the open day of hunting season. If I can just find a stump bigger than I am, I'll stay behind it. And so I'm hiding right here behind Mr. McCrossan. Now, his point was that every time the word speaks, so anyone who would have the position that there was a sign as distinct from a gift would have a little bit of difficulty in defending it exegetically.

Now, in Acts 10, in the 46th verse, we have another. This is when Peter is there at the Cornelius. I believe that's right. 44, while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished as many as came with Peter, because on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

We have a second, but that word is in the imperfect, spoke and continued to speak. And if you turn to Acts the 19th chapter in the sixth verse, we have the third reference to this in the New Testament.

Paul has met these people from, I'll read beginning with the first verse, and it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus. And finding certain disciples, he said unto them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?

And they said unto him, we've not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, unto what then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John, verily baptized the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him, which would come after him, that is on Christ Jesus.

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and they speak with tongues and prophesied. Now, they didn't all speak with tongues.

Some of them prophesied. Now, it brings me to illustrate it this way. Here is the human spirit in defiant rebellion against God. And God, the Holy Spirit, with the help of someone to witness for it to Christ, intercede and live Christ, begins to work, awakening that sinner, convicting that sinner, bringing him to repentance, quickening faith.

And then in response to that saving faith, he joins himself, quickening, bringing life. And then he begins to stir that heart with hunger and with yarning and with longing until there's a total surrender to the Lord.

And then the Spirit of God comes upon to cover and to clothe and to immerse and to submerge that individual, that spirit. You've got two words used. One is filled and the other is covered or immersed.

Think of the body as a baptistry, as a tank in which the human spirit resides. And it's the human spirit that's still being baptized. So the Spirit of God clothes the human spirit, covers him, comes upon the human spirit.

But the human spirit is in the tank, we're calling for the illustration, a body. So the person is filled, but the human spirit is clothed upon or covered with the Holy Spirit. This is why it's called an upon baptism.

Knowing the Spirit’s Fullness

One of the most helpful little books that I've had come to my hand on this subject was by Dr. A. W. Tozer. Little book how to know that you're filled with the Holy Spirit. And he has three points that he makes and they're good points.

The first point he makes is this, that everyone filled, been baptized with the Holy Spirit or filled with the Holy Spirit, knows it. He knows it, she knows it, they know it. Well, why? Well, the part of a man that knows the things of a man is the Spirit of man that's in him.

And if the Spirit of God can stir the human spirit with hunger for the Lord, hunger to the place that the individual is willing to relinquish the right to his rights, if that person knows they aren't filled and then they are baptized with the Holy Spirit, they're gonna know it.

Because they spoke in tongues or because they prophesied? No, that was never to be assigned to the person. That's a sign or evidence of people outside. The one that's been baptized with the Holy Spirit doesn't need that.

Why? Because God is real. And if one knows they're born of God and they have the witness of the Spirit to the new birth, then they know they've been hungry for a relationship. Don't you think that God, the Holy Spirit, is self-evidencing enough that he can tell us that our hunger has been met, that we've been satisfied?

Of course he can. And look what would happen if it had to come, if it had to come by prophecy or by tongues. Here, the human spirit is the part that knows the things of a man. So, the Spirit of God gives a language one hasn't learned to the mind.

Through the mind, it comes to the lips and tongue and it goes out as sound. It comes back as sound to the ear. It goes back to the mind and the mind interprets it. Isn't that an awful long way to go, to find out that something that you've been yearning for and longing for has transpired?

The Holy Spirit capable of immediately letting you know that the hunger of your heart has been met. Others are surely interested, but that's for them. And Dr. Joseph said, everybody that's ever been baptized with the Holy Spirit knows it.

He knows it. I don't have to say to you, do you know that you're here? And you look around and say, well, I'm not in Indianapolis. I'm here. If you have to figure that out, you're in trouble. You're in trouble.

The part of you that knows you're here is the part of you that knows that you have been baptized with the Holy Ghost. Now, Dr. Tozer had something else to say that was important. Everyone that's been baptized with the Spirit of God or initially filled with the Holy Spirit knows when it happened.

Now, a lot of people don't know when they were born of God. You haven't said anything about that. I'm not interested in the when. When it comes to the new birth, what I'm interested in is the that. The when is academic.

The question isn't when was it? The question is, has it been? Are you born of God? That's the important thing. When, I don't even ask anybody anymore, do you know the Lord? I know that isn't important.

I found when I read Matthew 6 and 7 that there were a lot of people that know the Lord. And he said, in that day, I'll say unto you, I never knew you. I never ask anyone anymore, do you know the Lord?

I ask, when did you discover that the Lord knew you as one of His own? I think that's more precise and more exact. So when one is baptized with the Holy Spirit, they know when it happened. Because they were there, and they were conscious, and it was response to their faith.

He that ministered you the Spirit, does He do it by works of flesh or by faith? It was done by faith. And you were there, actively receiving. And so you've been baptized with the Spirit or initially filled with the Spirit.

You know. You know when that happened. And the third thing Dr. Tozer said was this. Everyone that's been baptized with the Holy Spirit or filled with the Holy Spirit was filled suddenly. There was a moment when it wasn't, and there was a moment when it was.

And it happened suddenly. Now, I believe those are true. I've tested them a great many times in a great many places. And I'm satisfied in my own mind that that is correct. But what's the purpose of it all?

The Purpose of Spirit Baptism Is Evangelistic Witness

Why? Why? What did He say? After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. You shall receive power, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the outermost part of the earth.

I've never had anything to do with the charismatic movement as such for two reasons. I came into the experience of the baptism of the Spirit in 1953 before there was any such thing. And when that movement began, I was elated because I saw it in the light of Acts 1 .8.

After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. You shall be witnesses unto me. But I found, as time went on, that most of the people wanted the first half of the verse. You shall receive power, period.

And they were more interested, it seemed to me, often in playing parlor games with the supernatural than they were getting the gospel out to the ends of the earth, to those that hadn't heard. And it troubled me, and therefore, I wasn't able, I didn't have the freedom or the liberty.

I never fought it. I never criticized it, other than to say, I do believe that the scripture makes it clear that when one is baptized with the Holy Ghost, they will be witnesses. Missions will become their consuming passion, their ruling, governing principle.

I believe, therefore, that we should recognize that this is why God has poured out his spirit. And I've often wondered if we've really taken cognizance of that as much as we should. Let me illustrate.

You know, that verse, you shall receive power. You recall the day when that woman who had the issue of blood said, given all our living to the physicians and none the better. And she heard the Lord was coming through her village along that path.

And she said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment, I'll be healed. And the throng is there along the roadside, opening it as he comes. And she makes her way. Please pardon me, young man. Can I get by?

And she gets to the inside of where he's coming. And she waits there. And as he comes along, she reaches her hand out. And the lower hem of his garment goes through her fingers. And the Lord Jesus stops and says, someone touched me.

Of course, the disciples say, well, Lord, look at all these hands. There's a lot of people trying to touch you. Oh, he said, I didn't say they jostled me. Someone touched me in faith. For I perceive that.

Now, the King James translators got scared. And they didn't dare translate that in the same way they did in Acts 1 .8, because it's identically the same word. I perceive that power has gone out of me.

Virtue is the way the King James put it. I think they were a little frightened that we were going to receive the very thing that went out of Christ when the woman was healed. But that's exactly what we receive.

You shall receive dunamis. You shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me. And I believe that it is God's intent and purpose that everyone baptized in the Holy Spirit should recognize that a mortgage has been laid upon them, that they can never finish paying, and that the whole purpose of God's gracious dealing in their life is to use them in getting this message of His grace out to those that haven't heard.

And anyone that makes it an end in itself for their own pleasure, their own joy, and not to satisfy the heart of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to get the message out to the world, I believe is on rather a slippery slope, a muddy, sliding slope.

They're in trouble. I think God will give a certain amount of time. But if He finds that hearts are not prepared to permit Him to fulfill His purpose through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there will be judgment.

The Church’s Failure to Evangelize the World

I believe we're going to see happen in the next 12, 14 months, 18 months. Sort of God, you remember when you've had a dinner and there's been crusty rolls and a lot of crumbs on the table? I think you're going to see God just take a scraper and scrape away a lot of big programs and a lot of big activities and a lot of things.

And they're just going to disappear because they've never understood the necessity of being involved with God, the Holy Ghost, and getting the message of God's grace out to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.

In 1950, a group of Southern Baptist pastors asked me, what's going to happen between 1950 and 2000? A lot of Southern Baptist churches were taking on the support of missionaries, SIM missionaries, and others.

And I made a study. And this is what I had to report back three months after they asked the question. Based on what's been done in the last 100 years with the best average of that 100 years as the basis average for the next 50, the time between 1950 and 2000 is going to be the period of the greatest failure in the history of the church.

Based on what's presently happening, by 2000, there will be nearly three times as many that have never heard the name of Jesus Christ than there were in 1950, in spite of the so-called charismatic movement, in spite of all the missionary effort we've been doing.

So what must there be? There must be a breathing of God upon the people filled with the Spirit who've abandoned everything they are and have to the task of getting the message of God's redeeming love out to those who haven't heard it.

This is the agenda of the Godhead. And I believe this is the test of who will survive until the year 2000. And anything that is less than committed to this unfinished task, I think, is going to be looking for some kind of discipline or chastening or judgment from the Lord.

These gifts, the presence and person of the Holy Ghost pouring out of His Spirit, was not given as an end for our comfort, our pleasure, our joy alone. It was given that we might be in use of Him to get His message out.

He said, Father, I will live in them the way you lived in me. They will live in me the way I lived in you. And the world will know. And the world will be able to believe. This is the supreme purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And if we are satisfied with less than this, I think we have a fearful looking for of chastening, discipline, or judgment from the Lord. This is nothing to be played with. This is God's great provision through the poured out life of His Son to equip us to do the thing that He started when He came and said, ye shall be witnesses unto me.

I fear for those that claim to be and have been baptized with the Spirit who are not committed to this unfinished task of getting the gospel out to the ends of the earth. I say that here at Bethany, which is committed to that task, which exists for that, which God has blessed in it.