You Need to Receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit
by John Greene
For years God's Word has been abused! Some people have been ignorant and hurt. Somehow it is accepted for anyone who claims hurt to be the justified for not believing the truth. Someone says something to another person and that person holds a grudge for 22 years and claims that as reason not to go to church or why they aren't Christians. Why? Because someone's feelings have been hurt. This happens in so many circles and to be honest I am tired of that demonic argument. It doesn't have any relevancy. Recently I have heard people saying that telling about God's Word causes guilt and they have no self esteem because they are guilty and they know that is wrong to carry all that guilt! So, stop talking and quoting God's Word! Wow, and this person claims this is the love of God, to be left alone and allow them to remain in their sin. The ignorant Christian who comes along next year and hears about this person's problems and the justification of their hurt blaming other Christians for the hurt! Hey this happens and keeps on happening. Is there any justification for keeping hurt? Is there any justification for sin? Is there any justification for believing a lie? Whatever the truth is that's what the Lord expects us to believe and accept. When someone comes to the truth, then He heals the hurt. It is not, "Lord, I'm hurt so I don't believe Your Word!" During the tribulation a person will need more than ever to be filled with Your Spirit with the evidence of tongues and the maturity as a vessel in order for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be in operation. We'll see why as we go further into what has become a scapegoat topic of the fearful, the unbelieving, and the angry.
Recently in prayer the Lord showed me the parameters of the dynamic of His Holy Spirit outpouring as prophesied by the prophet, Joel (Ch 2). Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost after he and the other 119 disciples in the upper room received the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). Look at part of his sermon. Acts 2:16-21 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The dynamic of the Holy Spirit is clearly from Pentecost because Peter said, "But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel," through the time frame when the sun and moon are changed: "And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come!" Well we know this ending better from what Jesus had told His disciples on the Mount of Olives. Mt 24:29-31 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." So Peter sets the criteria, the parameters for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost until the tribulation ends. Not only does this establish a port tribulational return of the Lord, but it establishes the Joel prophesy.
Peter's exercise of the Scriptures must be correct as the Lord saw fit to have Luke record it the way Peter interpreted it. There are a number of ramifications to this. to begin to see what the full impact is we must digress a little to when the Lord was still with His disciples. Jesus had made quite a number of statements Himself concerning Pentecost, but the disciples didn't know it. John the Baptist started with this in Mt 3:11-12 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Then Jesus said in Luke 11:13, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" This in itself seems profound, but our Lord so much more about the Holy Spirit! Lu 24:49, "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."
Why would someone reject this Word from the Lord's own lips and say that they don't believe it?? Isn't it interesting how a multitude of hard hearted people can reject this and it is okay, but if someone who has received the gift of the Holy Spirit and testifies of what the Lord is doing that that person is arrogant? Well it happens all to ofte that unbelieving people are allowed to slander and malign people because they don't believe and it is okay. But if someone who is Spirit filled quotes the Luke 11 verse, then that person is prideful! Let me see if I have this right, a person is prideful and arrogant because they quote a verse in the Bible, believed it, and the Lord has brought it to pass, and a person who doesn't believe the Bible (well they say they do), but at the very least is unbelieving in this verse or that verse about the Scriptures is a great Christian and demands their position to be acceptable. This unbelieving person makes a statement that is slanderous and cowardly, but demands they are correct and must be accepted, meanwhile to believe what the Lord says is wrong. Somehow I must ask this question! What's wrong with this picture??
Jesus didn't stop here with His comments about the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:4-5 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." What would happen on the Day of Pentecost was what Joel prophesied would happened, called the Promise of the Father, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit by Jesus. Why would Jesus suggest that the disciples wait for the Promise of the Father, the endued power from on high, this baptism in the Holy Spirit if it is meaningless and unbelievable? Something that the Lord Himself places emphasis on, we have multitudes today saying, "I don't believe it!" Why would the Lord force someone who says they don't believe it to have the Holy Spirit in this dynamic? he wouldn't and He doesn't, but tell that to one who doesn't believe and they'll throw knives at you and call you arrogant for thinking that you're better than they are. I have had people tell me that they would not apologize for their statements because their unbelief was correct and what I believed, The Scriptures, was wrong. How sad, how very sad that one must justify their unbelief in such a significant way.
The disciples wanted to know about the tribulation, the new kingdom, the return of the Lord, but look at what Jesus said. Acts 1:6-8 ¶ When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Jesus tells them the important thing in life is enlarging the spiritual kingdom of God, and the way to do that was the dynamic of the Holy Spirit, the empowerment to be witnesses, martyrs for Him! The Promise of the Father was to empower the disciples to preach the Word of God, to disciple all nations, to build the kingdom of God! The Holy Spirit anointing was to confirm the preaching of the Word, to anoint the testimony of the Lord through the lives of man. Look at what Jesus said in another recording of the commission in Mr 16:15-20 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. ¶ So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
The whole reason for the anointing of the Holy Spirit is to propagate the gospel, confirm the Word with signs and wonders that it is true. For all those that don't like that and think that people who think that those who believe this are arrogant might want to rethink what they just said since this is the Word of God much from the Lord's lips. All this is to happen the entire time frame or parameter that Peter sets in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost. Does this make an apostle any better than a pew sitter?? No it doesn't, but listen to what it says about the person who yells foul. If an apostle is used by the Lord and a wonder happens that confirms the Word of God, and someone cries arrogance, that apostle thinks he's better than us, think about what this says. That person crying foul is actually the prideful one. Does that same person sit in the pew, hear the pastor, and think, "Who does this pastor think he is telling me that?" This is pride covered up with spin, the very spirit that works in Washington, D.C. and is in the church. Rather than see that it is a testimony of the Lord, they have jealousy vision, pride vision, then what they say tears apart what the Lord would do. But it gets worse.
Look at what Peter says in another sermon. Acts 10:36-38 The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. The anointing of the Holy Spirit was on Jesus, and God was with Him to do signs and wonders, and this same Jesus tells the disciples of the need for the Holy Spirit to do the same thing that He did for 3 1/2 years! Jesus push it to His disciples this way in John 14:11-12 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. ¶ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. Believing is a part of the commission so that person who chooses to not believe the Holy Sp[irit dynamic for themselves won't have it nor believe the works when the Spirit works through others. This is so sad because people believe the unbeliever and listen to them and accept their slander about those who have believed.
From the 3rd century on, the gnosticism that crept into the early church as John writes about it in his 1st Epistle, unbelief, was at work and then the birth of the catholic church that all but destroyed the belief of the Word merely added to the existing pressures. By the time Calvinism came along after the Luther led reformation that produced protest + ants, he answered the sin stained church and abounding unbelief with the Holy Spirit was gone at the 1st century when the apostle John died. He started cessationism and it is still here today!!
Unbelief and sin have always produced apathy and discouragement. Ironic isn't it, the very Person of the Holy Spirit could change these things, but unbelief stops Him from working as He would. This aspect is critical because of the parameters of the workings of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost until the end of the tribulation. What does this mean? It means that during the tribulation, the doubt and skepticism will be even more at work than now. People will be taking the mark of the beast and justifying it by saying they don't believe it is the mark of the beast. They don't believe the Scripture that way. Sound familiar?? Paul said some things would be happening in this very traumatic time. 2 Th 2:8-12 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. The apathy, the unbelief, the condoning of sin, this all negates or stops the Holy Spirit! All those who don't believe the need or have a desire for the Holy Spirit because they are good Christians the way they are, will also be deceived by signs and lying wonders. Some have proposed that persecutions will purge the church. This is not true because the church is already genuine and blood bought. The real church is already purged! Consider the parable of the 10 virgins, the foolish ones never changed and when the groom came, they were shut our for eternal damnation. They had very little oil, a symbol of the Holy Spirit while the wise trimmed their lamps and were filled with oil, a real vision that the wise get wiser and are ready while the foolish go through the tribulation and receive what their level of belief is, eternal damnation.
During the tribulation there will be hurt, confusion, unbelief, the taking of the mark, and you think you'll wait until then to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit?? You didn't believe the truth today when you didn't have that level of unbelief and you think the Lord will force His Spirit on you?? Think again!! What most non-Pentecostals don't know is that the Lord used the dove as a symbol of the Spirit and the Spirit lighted on the Lord as a dove. Why a dove?? Because a dove is humble and cautious, a dove is frightened off when facing sudden moves or senses a wall of fear! The Spirit like a dove will not be around where there is fear, where their is apathy, where there is unbelief! Why don't some of you scholars check the Word out and see that it is true and worthy of acceptance!!
In maintaining true to the whole time frame of His responsibility in this dynamic, the Holy Spirit will be the same as He was in the 1st century, and as He is today. He is the same throughout the parameters set by Peter under the same Holy Spirit' inspiration. The last hope is the accepting of truth. It is my grave concern that those people who reject the truth of the Holy Spirit today because they don't have a love for the truth will also reject the truth in the tribulation. The reality of this fact happening is alarming as we see the days approaching faster and faster! Sound judgement is rejected at the cost of their feelings. This is exactly what Jesus said would happen! Jesus said it this way! Mt 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Iniquity, lawlessness, unbelief, the whole tribulation will destroy many who today have a somewhat misguided or feelings oriented relationship with the Lord!
Lord!!
I pray in Jesus' name for your name to be gloriied and lifted high. I come against these seducing spirits that have come against so many in the last days and the unbelief that has been produced as a result! I curse those demon spirits in Jesus name and I declare their works halted in the hearts of all those who are affected and read this article in Jesus ' name! By Your Spirit, Lord, remove the scales to these heresies and by Your Spirit guide into the truth in Jesus' name! May the Lord be glorifed and Your people on fire in the dynamic of Your Spirit as You have foretold and desire for the church this hour of need. Lord, anoint and empower Your people to receive the gift of Your Spirit, and then anoint Your people to be the witnesses (martyrs) that You have ordained for this hour. Father, in the Son's name I ask for the church to no longer be unbelieving, but allow the readers of this article to be burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit that John the Baptist said would happen come as a result of the Baptizer, Jesus, who would send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Paracletes, the Spirit of Truth!
Father, rain on us, Your people, the latter rain and may Your Word be a new dynamic in our hearts, Your Spirit the anointing for imparting the life found in the gospel, and confirm Your precious Word with signs and wonders despite the nay sayers and abominable and unbelievers.
Lord, may it be so, in Jesus' name!
If you prayed this prayer with me, I would like to hear from you and encourage you to be open and to be the vessel the Lord may use in these evil days to come! Contact me by email: John Greene