Sparks From The Gospel Anvil
Acts 1:4
The Holy Spirit dwelling in us is one thing and the Holy Spirit upon us for service is another thing. According to the scriptures there are only three places we find are the dwelling places for the Holy Spirit.
In Exodus 40:33-35 are these words, “And (Moses) reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So, Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
The moment that Moses finished the work, the moment that the tabernacle was ready, the cloud came, God’s glory before the presence of the Lord. I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and self-seeking and everything that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Ghost will come and fill every corner of our hearts.
But if we are full of pride and conceit, and ambition and self-seeking, and pleasure and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. I believe many people are praying to God to fill them when they are full with something else. Before we pray that God should fill us, I believe we ought to pray for God to empty us. There must be an emptying before there can be a filling and when the heart is turned upside down and everything is turned out that is contrary to God, then the Holy Spirit will come just as He did in the tabernacle and fill us with His glory.
What is needed is for the church today is to speak for the Lord Jesus Christ. A great many people are thinking that we need new measures, new churches, new music, new choirs, and all these new things. That is not what the church of God needs today. It is the old power that the Apostles had; that is what we want; and if we have that in our churches, there will be new life.
Then we will have new ministers – the same old ministers renewed with power, filled with the Spirit of God. The reason why the church cannot overcome the enemy is because she doesn’t know how to use the sword of the Spirit. People will get up and try to fight the devil with their experiences, but he doesn’t care for that; he will overcome them every time. People are trying to fight the devil with theories and pet ideas, but he will get the victory over them otherwise. What we want is to draw the sword of the Spirit, it is that which cuts deeper than anything else.
The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and what we need specially is to be filled with the Spirit, so we shall know how to use the Word. If a person is filled with the Holy Spirit; they will magnify the Word of God; they will preach the Word, and not themselves; they will give this lost world the Word of the living God!
The disciples of Jesus were all filled with the Spirit, and the Word was published; and when the Spirit of God is in us and on us, the Word will be published on the streets of Union County; in the lanes; and in the alleys. There will not be a home where the gospel will not be carried by some loving heart, if the Spirit comes upon the Lord’s people in demonstration and in power.
(Lieutenant Charles Smith is commanding officer of the Salvation Army of El Dorado).
Ancient Words – Fire of the Holy Spirit
The chariots of fire and horses must have been one spectacular sight for Elisha as he witnessed Elijah ascend to heaven in whirlwind fashion. His request for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit would now come true because Elisha saw with his own eyes the departure of Elijah as he shouts, “My father! My father! The chariots and horseman of Israel!”
The story is found in 2 Kings 2 and is a type of prophecy and forerunner to the ascension of Jesus as well as the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection. With Elijah gone, Elisha picks up the mantel left on the ground and returns to the east bank of the Jordan River. Just moments before, Elijah had struck the Jordan with his mantel and the two men walked over on dry ground from the western side of the river.
Now, Elisha strikes the water and the same miracle happens – Elisha walks back on dry ground to the west bank of the Jordan. Elisha is greeted by the same 50 prophets from nearby Jericho who have witnessed both miracles on this day of changing of the guard. They proclaim, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.”
Not convinced of Elijah’s departure to heaven, the 50 prophets persuade Elisha to let them go and search for Elijah. Thinking the Spirit of the Lord may have picked him up and set him down on a mountain or in a valley, they look for him for three days while Elijah waits in Jericho. Upon the search party return, with nothing to show, Elisha reminds them that he was right. Now the 50 prophets believe Elisha and ask him, with this newly acquired power, to help their city’s economy. Jericho has bad water and unproductive land and they want Elisha to help.
Elisha, now equipped with a double portion of Elijah’s spirit and robed with Elijah’s mantel, puts salt in a new bowl and goes out to the springs of Jericho. There, he throws the salt into the water and proclaims the actual dialogue of God saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” The writer of Kings states that the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word spoken by Elisha.
Sunday, the day of Pentecost, finally arrived as foretold by the prophet Joel, (June 4, is our Pentecost this year). About 120 men and women were assembled per instructions from the resurrected Savior awaiting power that would come from on high. They were in constant prayer possibly in the same upper room where just weeks before Jesus washed their feet and communed with his last supper.
“Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues (languages) as the Spirit enabled them,” Acts 2.1-4.
God confused the single language of man as recorded in Gen. 11 right after the flood. Now about 2,500 years later God unites the languages of man to hear Peter’s sermon about the saving message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The event of Pentecost initiates these chosen ones now to become like Christ, full of grace and truth with the Law of the Holy Spirit.
The Church is born through this baptism, the gift of God’s Holy Spirit is poured out on all who receive this message, and God adds to His church those who are being saved. The church grows — first hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands.
Later in America/England, thousands continue to attend church meetings held by Jonathan Edwards, Dwight Moody, Charles Finney, Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley and others. The people are drinking of the same living water poured out on the day of Pentecost.
Today the healing provision of the Spirit’s fire, the life-giving sustenance of the water of life, remains accessible to all mankind – but they must come to the fountain and drink. Church assemblies began at Pentecost and have proven over time to be the fountain where man can drink. To neglect and forsake the meeting together as Christians is to cut off a vital supply of fire and water we need for our own spirit’s life. May the Spirit continue to refine us by fire (Romans 8).
The fire was not quenched during the persecution by the Romans, it was not quenched for Christians born out of the Great Awakening, may it not go out in 2017, as the Ancient Words announce: “Quench not the Spirit (1 Thes. 5:19)” for “The Spirit and the Bride (the Church) say, ‘Come!’— (Come to Church!)….and take the free gift of the water of life (Rev. 22:17).”
(Scott Johnson is pastor at East Faulkner Church of Christ and author of the BRG Bible).