Repentance Required to Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Excerpted reading from a sermon by Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947) entitled: "Ye Shall Receive Power"

-------Repentance Required to Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit-----

“'Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you.' The disciples had been asking whether the Lord would at that time restore again the kingdom to Israel. Christ told them that it was not for them to know the times and seasons which the Father had put in His own power, but He promised them that when they received the Holy Ghost they should receive power to witness for Him in all the world. To receive the Holy Ghost is to receive power with God, and power with men…."

"…The Lord wants all saved people to receive power from on High--power to witness, power to act, power to live, and power to show forth the divine manifestation of God within. The power of God will take you out of your own plans and put you into the plan of God. You will be unmantled and divested of that which is purely of yourself and put into a divine order. The Lord will change you and put His mind where yours was, and thus enable you to have the mind of Christ. Instead of you labouring according to your own plan, it will be God working in you and through you to do His own good pleasure through the power of the Spirit within. Someone has said that you are no good until you have your “I” knocked out. Christ must reign within, and the life in the Holy Ghost means at all times the subjection of your own will to make way for the working out of the good and acceptable and perfect will of God within…"

"The Holy Spirit will come when a man is cleansed. There must be a purging of the old life. I never saw anyone baptized who was not clean within.

I remember being in a meeting at one time, where there was a man seeking the Baptism, and he looked like he was in trouble. He was very restless, and finally he said to me, “I will have to go.” I said, “What's up?” He said, “God is unveiling things to me, and I feel so unworthy.” I said, “Repent of everything that is wrong.” He continued to tarry and the Lord continued to search his heart. These times of waiting on God for the fullness of the Spirit are times when He searches the heart and tries the reins. Later the man said to me, “I have a hard thing to do, the hardest thing I have ever had to do.” I said to him, “Tell the Lord you will do it, and never mind the consequences.” He agreed, and the next morning he had to take a ride of thirty miles and go with a bag of gold to a certain party with whom he dealt. This man had a hundred of cattle and he bought all his feed at a certain place. He always paid his accounts on a certain day, but one day he missed. He was always so punctual in paying his accounts that when later the people of his firm went over their books, they thought they must have made a mistake in not crediting the man with the money and so they sent him a receipt. The man never intended not to pay the account, but if you defer to do a right thing the devil will see that you never do it. But when that man was seeking the Lord that night the Lord dealt with him on this point, and he had to go and straighten the thing the next morning. He paid the account and then the Lord baptized him in the Spirit. They that bear the vessels of the Lord must be clean, must be holy.

When the Holy Spirit comes He always brings a rich revelation of Christ. Christ becomes so real to you that, when, under the power of the Spirit, you begin to express your love and praise to Him, you find yourself speaking in another tongue. Oh, it is a wonderful thing! At one time I belonged to a class who believed that they had received the Baptism in the Spirit without the speaking in tongues. There are many folks like that today, but if you can go with them to a prayer meeting you will find them asking the Lord again and again to baptize them in the Spirit. Why all this asking if they really have received the Baptism? I have never heard anyone who has received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost after the original pattern asking the Lord to give them the Holy Ghost. They know of a surety that He has come.

I was once traveling from Belgium to England. As I landed I received a request to stop at a place between Harwich and Colchester. The people were delighted that God had sent me, and told me of a special case they wanted me to pray for. They said, “We have a brother here who believes in the Lord, and he is paralyzed from his loins downward. He cannot stand on his legs and he has been twenty years in this condition.” They took me to this man and as I saw him there in his chair I put the question to him. “What is the greatest desire in your heart?” He said, “Oh, if I could only receive the Holy Ghost!” I was somewhat surprised at this answer, and I laid my hands on his head and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Instantly the power of God fell upon him and he began breathing very heavily. He rolled off the chair and there he lay like a bag of potatoes, utterly helpless. I like anything that God does. I like to watch God working. There he was with his great, fat body, and his head was working just as though it was on a swivel. Then to our joy he began speaking in tongues. I had my eyes on every bit of him and as I saw the condition of his legs I said, “Those legs can never carry that body.” Then I looked up and said, “Lord, tell me what to do.” The Holy Ghost is the executive of Jesus Christ and the Father. If you want to know the mind of God you must have the Holy Ghost to bring God's latest thought to you and to tell you what to do. The Lord said to me, “Command him in My name to walk” But I missed it, of course. I said to the people there, “Let's see if we can lift him up.” But we could not lift him, he was like a ton weight. I cried, “Oh Lord, forgive me.” I repented of doing the wrong thing, and then the Lord said to me again, “Command him to walk.” I said to him, “Arise in the name of Jesus.” His legs were immediately strengthened. Did he walk? He ran all round. A month after this he walked ten miles and back. He has a Pentecostal work now. When the power of the Holy Ghost is present, things will happen."

Message in it's entirety:
http://www.smithwigglesworth.com/sermons/ftp5.htm

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Spiritual Tips 2 Share It!

'The Skinny on sharing your Testimony'

Why do it?

1.  Why we need to testify...  It's plain in the word of God.... in the book of Revelation 12:11 "But they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony..." 

I also want to add that by stepping out verbally is part of a process...

In 1 Corinthians 2:4&5 we hear Paul say, "My conversation and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on the power of God."

Your testimony is a shoe-in for people to be receptive to the power of God, and the process we go through is less and less of Us (as Paul was talking of those 'persuasive words of wisdom') but instead more and more of the physical presence of God flowing through us touching people.  So He's laid this burden upon my heart to encourage people in sharing their testimonies...  like an athlete has to train the body, we too should be taking heed of the scriptures and step out into being a vessel for the power of God.

2.  Multiplication with a video is wisdom.  If you find yourself repeating your testimony to people, consider all the people out there that could benefit from it that you don't personally run across.  Consider getting it out there 24/7 for people to come across and be blessed by it, by the direction of the Holy Spirit.  Seems like a no-brainer.  If you cast the net, Jesus will fill it, but the key is that you have to get that net out there.  Want to catch one fish... tell your neighbor.... want to allow God to do more, put it in a medium that can reach many.

3.  Reaching the one.  It's not about quality. The Spirit of God on a piece is felt regardless... and although multiplication is wisdom, as far as quantity... we could be used as a shepherd that goes after the 1 from the 99. So-- after publishing a video, and not getting responses, don't lose heart... you could be the only one to reach one that would then turn around and reach millions. Can you see the honor in that?  Some sow, some water and some harvest... each cannot live without the hand of the other and each is equally important in the Kingdom.

4.  Builds our own faith.  When our past is healed, we can give praise to God, which of course, encourages others (if you got through it, I can get through this too!).  The very act of delivering your testimony can be a powerful signpost for you.

So let's talk about Getting Hands-on and doing it!

From 'Bystander' to Participant

1.  Go with what bears. As I exhort you to share your walk of faith, I'm not asking you to throw all your pearls to swine.  If you have victory and you are at peace with a segment of your walk... maybe you are to only give a chapter in your life or just one experience.  There's nothing wrong with testimony blog style, so long as it doesn't focus on 'poor ole' me', NO, remember a testimony is 'look what the Lord has done!'.   

For some, you hold your audience better with small chapters of your walk then an exhaustive commentary of everything from birth to what you prayed this morning.  So also think of your audience... think of a person having one problem and your one segment of testimony perhaps only addressing that one issue.  I personally share tidbits of testimony throughout teachings…everyone is different, seek Yeshua for personal direction, Father knows best!

If inevitably, your sharing will be sharing pearls with swine  ..and you know what I mean... (Matthew 13:30a Let both grow together until the harvest..") sometimes it's better to reach the lost then some 'christians', who like to vaunt themselves over having a cleaner past then you might've had... anyways, if this is an issue but it still bears on your heart to share... get another youtube account, blur your image or put a picture backdrop with your testimonial voiceover.  Let there be no hindrance to the fruit you have to bear to help others draw near to Christ!

2.  Be real & don't sugarcoat!  People give the results & are too proud to elaborate that they 'know this' because they failed.... hey, I started to do this & God said "Ah, ah, ah... that's not what Really happened... you need to be real", and this is why; if you are too proud to admit the process...it just looks unattainable to people.  I think this is called humility  : )  So this is really the difference between a sermon and a testimony... a sermon says do this or that because of the character in this 'story' (again recall, Paul's mention of 'persuasive words of wisdom' in 1 Corinthians 2).... but a testimony says don't do it or do it because I'm a living witness to it's result.  There is real power in being the living breathing witness.

3.  On a technical note... you may not have a great camera or video editing software, but you can be aware of your surroundings.  Turn your camera on and speak a bit, then watch what you just created.  Are there any distractions... do you have a bobble head in the window sill? Not loud enough? Kids fighting or a cat meowing in the background, that might turn people off from taking your word of testimony seriously?  There are some quality issues you can control so take full advantage of doing the best you can... remember this isn't some story... this is a precious testimony of Faith in the creator of the Universe!

4.  Do you have stage-fright?  Consider writing out your testimony as a script you can scroll through on your computer screen as you record.  Or, invite a friend over and have them behind the camera and just focus on them as you speak or allow them to interact with you interview-style.  Worst case scenario... pick a spirit-filled person that your testimony has personally touched and have them share for you.

5.  Don't give up!  I can always tell when God is flowing out my mouth in power... it's because there is so much adversity in producing a video.  Everything you can imagine happens to try to thwart the production process. A video that should take a couple of hours from start to finish ends up taking days.

The enemy is going to throw all kinds of FEAR at you and excuses, but it's time you come off the sidelines and quit believing that you have nothing new to offer.  You have lots to offer.  This isn't about being a christian rockstar of sorts, or a ministry mogul.. this is about been there, done that... and my Redeemer Lives.
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