The Baptism of Holy Spirit – Will You Seek Him and “Go There” - Purity 963

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a flock of ducks floating toward the edge of a partially frozen lake underneath the sun setting into the trees on the horizon comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene during my spontaneous visit to Green Lake State Park in Fayetteville, New York on February 8th. I had never seen or even heard of Green Lake State Park before that day, but when a Google search for nearby state parks told me of its existence, I decided to believe that it was real and went out there to see it for myself. Here I present some photographic evidence of its existence. And can assure you that it— assure you that the state park and lake really are there, but would suggest— would also suggest that you do— you— sorry— that you go and see it for yourself to have an experiential knowledge of it to remove any doubts. Once you go there and experience it for yourself, it is unlikely that anyone would be able to convince you that it isn't real And you may actually testify of its existence and encourage others to trust you and the other information out there about it and tell them to go and see it for themselves. Well, it's Friday, thank God. It is my prayer that anyone who reads or hears this message would have a great weekend and that they would trust me when I tell them that God is real and that they would— that they should consider seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy now, M.t. Clark. You are letting your charismatic craziness show a little bit here. My pastor tells me that all Christians receive the Holy Spirit, and thus the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the moment they put their faith in Christ— is the moment they put their faith in Christ. Uh, I don't need anything other than what I received when I first believed. I have the Holy Spirit, I guess. So why would I seek something I already have? Well, just like I can show you photos of Green Lake State Park, tell you about it, and you can research information about it online to give you an intellectual understanding about Green Lake State Park, your knowing Green Lake State Park would undoubtedly be increased and benefited, benefited by actually going there. Visiting it for yourself. Until then, you may be a believer in Green Lake State Park, but you're stepping out in faith to actually go there. And diving into the experience of Green Lake State Park would make, uh, would, would put you in a relationship with Green Lake State Park. From the, the day you go to Green Lake State Park, you will have an experiential knowledge of it and relationship to it. After you visit, you can say you spent time there, experienced and related to it, and know it because you have been there. And while I wholeheartedly agree with the fact that every person who puts their faith in Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior receives the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, I would have to tell you that there is more to receive from him and discover What I mean requires that you seek, and to discover what I mean requires that you seek to develop your relationship with him. The Holy Spirit is a person and is perhaps the most mysterious member of the Trinity. Acts 11:15-17 testifies to the fact that Jesus spoke of, of those who trust in him being baptized, baptized with the Holy Spirit, In and this passage, the Apostle Peter says, "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' Therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus. Who was I?" that I could withstand God. So this confirms we receive the Holy Spirit, but other passages in the Bible indicate that there may be more to our relationship with the Holy Spirit than just receiving his indwelling presence on the day of our salvation. John 14:26, Jesus indicates the Holy Spirit will teach us and cause us to remember things. He said in, in the verse, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring you to— bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Romans 8:26-27 indicates the Holy Spirit helps us by interceding for us. He prays for us. The Apostle Paul writes, likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. In Acts 1:8, Jesus indicates the Holy Spirit will give us power and boldness to share our faith. Christ said, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and all of all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. 2 Corinthians 3:17, the Apostle Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit gives us freedom. Paul writes, now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. In John 16:13-14, Jesus states that He will guide us and show us things to come. Jesus said, however, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All of these passages indicate that there is an experiential aspect to our relationship to the Holy Spirit. I can attest to the fact that the Holy Spirit is a real person who, who will help you in your faith walk and can show up in your life in very dramatic ways. This passage in Acts indicates that the baptism of the Holy Spirit can reveal His manifest presence. Acts 19:1-6 says, And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples, he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? So they said to him, 'We have not so much as heard of whether there is a Holy Spirit.' And he said to them, 'In what then were you baptized?' So they said, 'Into John's baptism.' Then Paul said, 'John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who 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 laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. And the Holy Spirit showed up and stuff happened. But if you notice, these believers had, had to be told about him and be willing to receive him. Jesus indicates that we are supposed to ask for him. Luke 11:13, Christ said, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father God does give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. So, have you asked for Him? Do you relate to Him? Have you experienced Him? For most of us, when— for most of us, we were brought— we were brought into Christianity by proxy. Our parents took us to church, and for many of us, our faith was pretty shallow. My parents are Christians, so I guess I'm a Christian. Sure, I believe, I guess. You guess? Our culture may have caused us to never genuinely seek the Lord for ourselves. We may have never actually made Jesus the LORD, all caps again, of our lives. We may have never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit because we didn't know that that was a thing, or we may have never experienced the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives because we never sought him or asked for him to come into our lives. Hearing about the baptism of the Holy Spirit may fill us with curiosity or skepticism because we never heard of it, and the people who speak about it may seem a little unbalanced because they speak in tongues. Believe me, I completely understand. I was extremely skeptical skeptical about anyone speaking in tongues, and it was only after I got to know some of the people in my life that claimed to experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit that I became curious, curious enough to investigate it and seek it for myself. I researched, I researched the baptism of the Holy Spirit quite a bit and found all kinds of teachings about him and how one could receive him. Quick edit here, guys, sorry. Anyway, there are plenty of Christians historically and currently who speak on the second, quote-unquote, second blessing of the Holy Spirit's baptism and experiencing his manifest presence of love and joy and the sign of speaking in tongues at times. So was all of these— so were all of these accounts that I read about something that people just made up, or was it real? Of all the lessons and how to receive the Holy Spirit recipes out there, one can easily be confused or even more skeptical, skeptical about there even being a baptism of the Holy Spirit beyond just believing. But after having experienced his presence for myself, I can tell you that, in my case anyway, we receive him when we surrender to the Lord's will, repent of our sins, pray by faith, and ask for him to come. I really believe that we receive the Holy Spirit when we believe. He is with us the moment we put our faith in Jesus. But the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which I would say is a maturation of our relationship with him and is an experience of his presence manifesting outside of the four walls of our body. The Shekinah glory of the Lord surrounds you, pours over you, giving you a supernatural experience, direct contact with the living God in the terra firma of unbelievable joy and love. And I did speak in tongues. I I believe that the experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues are signs to show us the experiential reality of God and is given to those who seek Him to encourage them and embolden them to serve the Lord and witness— and to be a witness of Him throughout the earth. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, I believe, is given to us for a reason. To give us an unshakable faith that propels us to continuously speak of the Lord's goodness and the desire to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. The experience happened to me, and I have written about it before, so if you're curious, dive into the archives of the blog. For those who want to research, research it, I would recommend looking up Derek Prince, Andrew Murray, Charles Finney, Perry Stone, Pastor Bob Englehart of Catskill Mountain Christian Center, and maybe reading The Holy Spirit, My Senior Partner by David Cheong Gi Cho. They will all give you plenty of information about it. However, just like reading about Green Lake State Park, you won't discover the baptism of the Holy Spirit unless you go there by believing it's real. You have to have faith, and by asking and seeking him for yourself. A great way to start the journey of receiving an experiential knowledge of our Lord is by simply walking and talking with him. As Christ said in Matthew 7:8, for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it, it will be open. So ask, seek, and knock if you have to, and see what happens in your life when you go there. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is is James 1:19, and it says, 'Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: you must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.' Today's Bible verse is great practical advice for those who seek to walk by faith on the path of Christian discipleship. Our faith should change us, and the way it does is by obeying the word of God. We must actually practice what the word teaches us. And if we want to experience the fruit of peace in our lives, James 1:19 will certainly help us on our way. Reactive emotions like anger are often expressed with a quick verbal response of indignation. So before we go there with an angry outburst, the Word of God directs us to slow our roll and be— by being, by being quick to listen rather than being quick to speak. So when we are talking to anyone about anything, we should practice active listening, where we pay close attention to what is said, and pausing before we speak. If we listen intently, the likelihood of a misunderstanding is decreased, and if we pause before we speak, the likelihood of saying anything regrettable is decreased. So practice James 1:19 and see how paying attention to what others say and taking time to consider our responses can help you to avoid anger and experience peace. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from the pro— from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God, and today we begin chapter 6, The Sovereignty of God in Operation. Basically, uh, how does God, you know, work? So if you wanted to check that out, see what A.W. Pink had to say about that in the beginning of chapter 6, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. Well, I experienced serious internet interference last night, so it's gonna be my hope and prayer that there's no problems uploading the podcast or the blog today. We're on the road and these things happen, I guess. But well, we're gonna hope for the best. We are going into work and then we're gonna roll on, roll on down to our countryside home after work to to see our beloved wife today, so we're looking forward to that. Um, and I, I wish— I do wish everyone a happy, uh, a happy Friday. And, uh, I honestly do encourage you to seek out the baptism of the Holy Spirit when you know God is real experientially. Um, you know, that sort of surpasses anything you might read about him in a book. Um, experience the real presence of the Lord is a game changer, and it changed my life. And, uh, you do need both. You do need wisdom of the Word of God and the experience of the Spirit in your life. Um, that's what walking in the Spirit's all about, walking in truth, not just in some sort of mystic weird, uh, journey. So we ground ourselves with the Word of God, and we do seek the Lord's guidance by asking him for it. So it's called Listening Prayer, so check that out too. Anyway, uh, let's pray because my— I'm running late and I don't want to be late and, uh, starting the day. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you've done in our lives, especially greeting us with— at the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Um, Lord, we just thank you so much for what you've done and who you've made us to be in Christ. And so, Lord, we pray for anyone who might be listening or reading this message today, that they would seek you and know you for themselves. And Lord, that you would come alongside them in their, in their, in their walk and bless their prayer requests. Um, Lord, we just, uh, we just pray as always that you go before us today. We'd like you to open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead our steps into the things you want to do, because all we want to do is represent and serve your kingdom, Lord. And, uh, we do it because you, you loved us, and, and now we love you. Um, so Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.