By: Pastor/Teacher James R. Paxton
If you believe in Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as your Savior, repenting of your sins; then you have received the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. Jesus sent Him when He ascended to Heaven to be your helper, comforter and teacher. However, I have a question for you. You have the Holy Spirit, but does He have you?
When Jesus told the disciples to wait in the upper room, they didn’t know what to expect. They just knew something wonderful was going to happen. When the time came, approximately 120 hungry hearts were assembled in that upper room waiting and praying and seeking God. Suddenly, something happened. The had never seen anything like this. They had no explanation except it was God in their midst. It was so wonderful that there was physical evidence that something was happening. They had prepared themselves as best they knew how and were open to God. Their hearts were yield to Him. What was the evidence? They began speaking in tongues. They were speaking a language they did not understand by their own intellect. To them, it was a foreign language. However, those that heard it were representative of many languages and nations and they heard these speaking in their own languages honoring and giving glory to God.
Not only did they have the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit had them. They were yielded to and being led by the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit. He was giving them the words to speak. It was not their words but it was their speaking those words that were given. It was a supernatural occurrence. It was a spiritual experience orchestrated by the Holy Ghost. It was man moving or being moved by Almighty God. He was giving evidence that He was moving in their midst.
Some teach that what happened that day was only for the disciples. However, every occurrence we see in the book of Acts where anyone received the infilling of the Holy Ghost it is authenticated or evidenced by speaking in an unknown tongue. Nowhere in the Word of God does it ever say that this evidence is no longer used of God. Nowhere! To fight against a move of God or an act of God is to fight against God. The Apostle Paul wasn’t one of the original disciples and yet he said that he spake in tongues more than anyone.
1Co 14:18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: he also said. 1Co 14:39 Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. You can choose to believe the Word of God or you can choose to believe someone explaining away what God has placed in His Word for our edification. He didn’t say we had to understand everything but to simply believe. Pr 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Our understanding can never match the workings of God. He doesn’t always explain His self but asks us to simply exercise the faith He has given given us and believe.
Maranatha!
