I believe that in the purposes of God, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is intended to be merely a doorway. There has been discussion in the Pentecostal movement in past years as to whether it was a goal or a gateway. And there was a time when some Pentecostals took the attitude, well, I'm saved, I'm baptized in water, I'm baptized in the Holy Spirit, I speak in tongues, I've arrived. Unfortunately, that's incorrect. And people who think they've arrived have just dropped out, that's all. The baptism is not a goal. It is a gateway. It's not the termination, it's the starting point of a life lived in supernatural power.
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I believe it is impossible to live the Christian life to the full on the plane of the natural. It is permeated with the supernatural. Every chapter in the book of Acts, and there are 28, contains descriptions of events that are totally supernatural. And the book of Acts is the only official record we have of what the Lord intended the church to be.
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I believe every believer baptized in the Holy Spirit has the divine right and gift to communicate personally with the Lord in another tongue at any time. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14 about that. We'll see you in a minute. All right. He that speaketh in another tongue speaketh not to men, but to God. For no man understandeth him, howbeit in the Spirit he speaks mysteries. He that speaketh in another tongue edifieth himself.
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The use of speaking in tongues is to communicate direct with God, to speak mysteries and to build yourself up. If there were no other reasons, those would be sufficient. But I believe that the full gift of kinds of tongues goes on beyond that.
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Another use of the tongues is as a sign to unbelievers. This is very rare, most charismatics don't think about it. But it happens at times that when God's people are together or God's people are ministering, a believer will speak a language which he doesn't know, but an unbeliever present understands that language. That's a sign to unbelievers.
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Tongues is a very rich field. Now, we're not going to deal with that any further now, but we're going to go on to the other two vocal gifts, interpreting and prophesying. We need to begin with a definition. The gift of interpretation has no meaning apart from the gift of tongues. But if someone has spoken in an unknown tongue by the Holy Spirit, the gift of interpretation enables either that person or another person, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, not through intellectual understanding, to speak out in a known language that which...which was said beforehand in an unknown language.
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So there's quite a lot of room for flexibility in this area of interpretation. However, it is communicating in a known language the sense of what was said previously in an unknown language. And then prophesying just goes one step further. Prophesying is speaking in a language that is known, words that are given by the Holy Spirit. They do not proceed from human understanding. They are given supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.
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If you come into this experience and you walk in it, it'll bring you into a new dimension of personal communication with God. I spoke to you yesterday about finding your place and I think I challenged some of you to seek God for your calling. This is one of the ways that God can begin to direct you into your place.
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If God gives you, let's say, a prophecy, and you're too faint -hearted to give it out, not only have you cheated yourself, but you've cheated the others and the members. of the body of Christ. You see, it's a stewardship. It's not something that you just use if you feel like it for yourself. You're responsible. God may want to speak to your neighbor through you, He may want to speak to the whole assembly, He may want to speak to the preacher.
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The gifts are not toys, they're tools. You need them to do the job. And if you refuse God's equipment and can't do the job, you're going to be answerable to God for the job you didn't do.
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Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. But particularly that you may prophesy. Are you particularly desiring this morning to prophesy? If not, you're not obeying Scripture.
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When God's people come together, we should not come, each of us merely to receive. We should come, each of us, with something to contribute. And one of the main ways we can contribute is out of the gifts of the Spirit. See, that's God's equalizer.
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But the truth of the matter is God gives you supernatural ability. And Paul says He gives it to the part that needs it most. You have two people in a church. One is a doctor, the other is what we call in Britain a child lady. You wouldn't know what that is, but a cleaning woman. All right, now in the average non -spiritual church, the doctor becomes a deacon, the child lady just sits in a pew. Everybody knows that's her place. But when the Holy Spirit moves, the doctor is still a deacon, but the child lady becomes a prophetess. You see, that's God's wisdom, that's God's justice.
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Now, if God says, let him that speaketh in a tongue pray that he may interpret, to me that indicates it's God's will for you to interpret. Otherwise, God wouldn't tell you to do it.
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If you ask for something good, you will never get something bad. Turn to your neighbour and say that. If you ask for something good, you will never get something bad.
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Normally when you interpret, it'll take one or other of two forms. It'll either be praise and worship, or it will be God taking your lips and speaking to you. A message for you. Now when I first started this, the percentage used to be about sixty percent praise and worship. About forty percent God speaking to you. But things are changing and now it's the other way round. Which to me is indicative that God wants more and more to speak to His people.
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The exercise of the gifts of spirit, very few people start exercising them perfectly, but the people who wait to be perfect before they exercise them, never exercise them.
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What's the good of God speaking if we don't act on what He says? Now, the Lord spoke through Ruth and He said, There are many that have doubts and fears, and you are to lay them aside.
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Because without faith it is impossible to please God. But if I give the first sentence, then the rest follows. You see?
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See how consistent the theme is, the love of God, His concern for us, that He wants us to be free from care and fear and to be bold. Amen.
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