Tarrying for the Holy Ghost Baptism

[Sam]

Years ago it was often preached that the Holy Ghost Baptism was available to God's children if they would just "tarry" long enough. Tarrying was defined as waiting in prayer or "waiting on" God to baptize you in His Spirit. So we had prayer meetings where people would come and pray and plead and beg God to baptize them in His Spirit or to pour out His Spirit upon them. There are still churches where people gather at the altar or in a prayer room and "seek for the Holy Ghost" like He was hiding somewhere.

I think the idea of "tarrying" is based on a misunderstanding of the command of Jesus in Luke 24:44-49 when He told the church to tarry/wait in Jerusalem until the feast day of Pentecost or Shavu'ot to begin their world-wide proclamation of His message. It is my understanding that at that time the population of Jerusalem was about 50,000 but there could be as many as 2 million there for some of the feasts.

I was born again on March 28, 1955 at the age of 17 when Jesus Christ came into my heart as the Holy Spirit and made me a new creature. Later as I studied the Word I came to the realization that there was "something more" for me--and experience called the HGB (Holy Ghost Baptism) or an enduement of power or a clothing with power. People told me I had to pray for that experience so I would pray for long periods of time asking God to fill me or pour out His Spirit upon me or to baptize me in His Spirit.

It wasn't until later that I learned that people in the early church received this experience differently.

In Acts chapter 2, about one fourth (120 out of over 500 members) of the church were baptized in the Holy Spirit as they sat in the temple.

In Acts chapter 8, Christians in Samaria were baptized in the Holy Spirit as hands were laid upon them. This happened some time after their salvation and water baptism experience.

In Acts chapter 8 it seems the Ethopian eunuch was baptized in the Spirit as he came out of the water where he was baptized.

Saul of Tarsus received the Holy Ghost baptism through the laying on or hands three days after his conversion experience on the road outside Damascus. This story is found in Acts chapter 9.

Gentiles received an outpouring of the Holy Spirit as they heard and believed the Word as preached by the Apostle Peter in Acts chapter 10

Believers in Ephesus received the Holy Ghost Baptism through the laying on of hands after he explained the message of the cross to them and baptized them in water. This story is found in Acts chapter 19.

I did not receive the Holy Ghost Baptism until May 20, 1956 --a little over a year after my salvation experience. It happened on a Sunday night at Bethel Tabernacle (UPC) in Racine, Wisconsin. By then people had told me that I did not have to beg and plead for God to give me a gift that He had promised me. I just had to praise Him for His promise and yield to Him. I was kneeling at the altar just giving God glory and praise --no frantic pleading or begging or repeating words faster and faster so I could "lose my tongue"-- just surrendering to Him in worship and praise. I realized that I was praising Him in English (or so I thought) but it was coming out in some other language with which I was not familiar. I yielded and continued to speak that "other language" whatever it was for a while and people around me rejoiced with me.

It just so happened that Sunday May 20, 1956 was Pentecost Sunday although I don't remember anything being said about it in any of the services that day.

[Sam]

Kenneth Hagin was born again on April 22, 1933 at 405 North College Street in McKinney, Texas. About a year later he was healed of a life threatening heart disorder and began to preach the Word of God as a Baptist preacher. Then he became acquainted with Full Gospel folks and heard about the Holy Ghost Baptism. After searching the Scriptures he realized that although the Holy Spirit was dwelling within him because he was a child of God, there was also a work of the Holy Spirit that God desires to perform in the life of every believer subsequent to or following the new birth experience. That subsequent experience is called being filled with the Holy Spirit or being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

He decided he wanted the Holy Ghost Baptism so he walked over to the parsonage of the Full Gospel Church and knocked on the door. The pastor came to the door and Bro. Hagin told him, “I’ve come to receive the Holy Ghost.”

The pastor told him, “Son, you need to wait.” The church was having a revival service that night, and it was then already 6:00 in the evening, so the pastor wanted him to wait and seek for the baptism in the Spirit in the service.

Bro. Hagin knew he would have to wait till 7:00 for the service to begin, then wait for the preliminaries to be finished, then wait for the preaching to be done and by then it would have been about 9:00 o’clock. He believed that the promise of the HGB was a gift and did not think he would have to wait for a while before receiving a gift that was offered. He blurted out, “But it won’t take me long to receive.”

Because of his obvious eagerness, the pastor said, “Well, come on in then.” As he stepped in the door the pastor told him, “I know you can receive the Holy Ghost right away because we read about it in the Acts of the Apostles. But when you have to wait a long time before you receive the Holy Spirit, the experience means so much more to you.” The pastor continued, “Take me, for instance. It took me three years and six months to receive the Holy Ghost. Oh, I waited and waited; I tarried and I sought. Now that I’ve finally received, the Holy Ghost really means something to me.”

Bro. Hagin said, “Well, poor old Paul didn’t know that. I wish you could have gotten to him and told him about waiting. He didn’t know that, because he received the Holy Ghost immediately when Ananias laid hands on him (Acts 9:17-18). Paul didn’t wait or tarry or seek.” He continued, “But then, all Paul ever did was write about half the New Testament! Of course, he did more single-handedly in the years of his ministry than any denomination has done in five hundred years put together. But, if you could have gotten to him and told him to wait three years and six months to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, then maybe the Holy Spirit would have meant something to him too.”

Bro. Hagin continues his story of how he received the Holy Ghost Baptism. He walked into the living room and knelt at a large chair. This is how he relates his experience:

As I knelt in that Full Gospel parsonage in April 1937, I said to the Lord, “Lord the Holy Ghost is a gift. I received salvation by faith. I received healing for my body three years ago by faith. Now I receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by faith. And I want to thank You now, Heavenly Father, because I receive the Holy Spirit.”

Then I said to the Lord “By faith I have now received the Holy Ghost. Thank God He is in me because Jesus promised that in His Word. And I say it with my mouth because I believe in my heart that I have received the Holy Ghost. Now I expect to speak with tongues because believers spoke with tongues on the Day of Pentecost. And thank God, I will, too as the Holy Ghost gives me utterance.”

After I had prayed that, because I was grateful for the Holy Ghost that I had just received and for the speaking with tongues that God was going to give me, I said, “Hallelujah, hallelujah.” But I had never felt so “dry” in all my life saying that word.

Feelings and faith are far removed from each other; in fact, some times when you feel as if you have the least faith, that is when you have the most faith because you do not base your faith on your feelings. So I said, “Hallelujah” about seven or eight times, even though it seemed as if the word was going to choke me.

About the time I had said “Hallelujah” seven or eight times, way down inside of me, in my spirit, I heard these strange words. It seemed as if they were just going around and around in there. It seemed to me that I would know what they would sound like if they were spoken, so I just started speaking them out!

So about eight minutes from the time I first knocked on that pastor’s door, I was speaking with tongues! The pastor had said, “Wait,” but instead of waiting, I spent that hour and a half before the church service speaking in tongues! it is much better to wait with the Holy Ghost than to wait without the Holy Ghost!

[Sam]

A year or two ago I read a book called “Nine O’clock In The Morning” by Dennis J. Bennett, copyright 1970.

Dennis J. Bennett (born 10/28/17, died 11/1/91) was an Episcopal clergyman prominently identified with the Charismatic Renewal from the beginning. He was pastor of the St. Mark Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, CA., a congregation of about 2600, and in 1959 and early 1960, he and several others in the church were baptized in the Holy Spirit. The group of Spirit-filled believers in the congregation grew and and there was some division among church members over the experience. On April 3, 1960, Pastor Bennett announced his experience in a sermon to the congregation and later resigned his position as pastor. He then moved to St. Luke’s in Seattle and from there traveled nationally and internationally teaching on and ministering the Holy Spirit. At the time the book was written he estimated that between 8 and 10 thousand people had received the Holy Ghost Baptism through meetings in the Seattle area. The April 3, 1960 date is usually considered the beginning of the Charismatic Renewal.

The book starts out on his day off when a fellow Episcopal priest named Frank visited him and expressed concern about a couple of members in his (Frank’s) church. When Father Bennett asked him why he is concerned about his members, the priest says that, although they had been members of the church when he first came as pastor, they recently started coming to church on a regular basis, and seemed to be "enjoying" their religion. When asked, they explained that the reason for the big change in them is that they had recently been baptized in the Holy Spirit and had spoken with tongues.

Well, Father Bennett becomes intrigued and starts visiting with them and then attending some prayer meetings, talking to people, and investigating by reading the Bible. After about three months of cautiously looking on, he is told that if he wants to be baptized in the Spirit, all he has to do is ask for the experience. On a Saturday afternoon, Father Bennett and another priest from his diocese (not Frank) were in the couple’s home and it happened.

Here’s how the book describes the event on pages 20 and 21.

John came across the room and laid his hands first on my head, and then on my friend’s. He began to pray, very quietly, and I recognized the same thing as when Bud had prayed with me a few days before: he was speaking a language that I did not understand, and speaking it very fluently. He wasn’t a bit “worked up” about it either. Then he prayed in English for Jesus to baptize me in the Holy Spirit.

I began to pray, as he told me, and I prayed very quietly, too. I was not about to get even a little bit excited! I was simply following instructions. I suppose I must have prayed out loud for about twenty minutes --at least it seemed to be a log time-- and was just about to give up when a very strange thing happened. My tongue tripped, just as it might when you are trying to recite a tongue twister, and I began to speak in a new language!

Right away I recognized several things: first, it wasn’t some kind of psychological trick or compulsion. There was nothing compulsive about it. I was allowing these new words to come to my lips and was speaking them out of my own volition, without in any way being forced to do it. I wasn’t “carried away” in any sense of the word, but was fully in possession of my wits and my willpower. I spoke the new language because it was interesting to speak a language I had never learned, even though I didn’t know what I was saying. I had taken quite a while to learn a small amount of German and French, but here was a language “for free”! Secondly, it was a real language, not some kind of “baby-talk.” It had grammar and syntax: it had inflection and expression --and it was rather beautiful! I went on allowing these new words to come to my lips for about five minutes, then said to my friends: “Well, that must be what you mean by ‘speaking in tongues’ --but what is it all about? I don’t feel anything?”

They said joyfully, “Praise the Lord!”

This seemed a bit irrelevant and was a little strong for my constitution. It bordered on the fanatical for such a thing to be said by Episcopalians on a fine Saturday afternoon sitting right in the front room of their own home.

[tv1a]

I am about 4 weeks away from releasing my book the Psychology of a Seeker. I share the techniques I've used for over 10 years with close to 90 percent success rate. I'm scheduling a few webinars to discuss the book. PM me if you want more information.

[Sam]

from page 20 of the January 1962 Pentecostal Herald

God has promised that in the last days He would pour out of His Spirit upon all flesh. Stirring reports are coming to us of how large numbers in nominal churches are receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Recently an Episcopalian minister named Bennett, pastor of St. Mark's Church of the Holy Spirit, in Van Nuys, California, was scheduled to speak at a convention in Moody Memorial Church. As he could not be present, Mrs. Gene Stone, a member of his church, addressed the convention. This young woman is not a minister. In a pleasing manner, interjecting praises to the Lord, she told of how the Lord was doing a new thing in our day. (It is new to them, of course.) Mrs. Stone told of an Anglican priest in Canada receiving the Holy Ghost. (Episcopalians in Canada are called Anglicans.) She also stated that 1,300 Episcopalian
priests and lay people in the Los Angeles area had received the Holy Ghost, speaking in
other tongues. The experience is changing their lives. They have no time now for dances and cocktail parties. They spend their lives witnessing for the Lord.

Mrs. Stone was invited to lunch with seven Episcopalians. While sitting at the table, a message was given in tongues, and interpreted. The waitress, a Baptist, trembling with coffee cups in her hand said, "That's what I want; I've always wanted something more." She received the Holy Ghost right there in the restaurant.

Later at a motel the manager, a woman, knocked at Mrs. Stone's door, saying, "May I speak with you?" But she seemed speechless. Soon Mrs. Stone asked, “Did you want to speak about the Holy Ghost?" The woman answered, "Yes." Soon she was speaking with other tongues. All this proves that we indeed are living in the last days.

[AreYouReady?]

These are good reports of your testimony and Kenneth Hagin.

I don't think anybody knows the feeling that another person has when they received something as precious as the Holy Ghost. Instead, often times we go out into a world where doubt and jealousy tries to take away this precious gift from God.

Christ only has one church, one bride and He alone knows who belongs in the body. Perhaps we should not be so fragmented because we are going to need each other more and more as that day approaches when the new world order launches it's rule, should Christ tarry in His coming.

[acerrak]

Originally Posted by AreYouReady?

These are good reports of your testimony and Kenneth Hagin.

I don't think anybody knows the feeling that another person has when they received something as precious as the Holy Ghost. Instead, often times we go out into a world where doubt and jealousy tries to take away this precious gift from God.

Christ only has one church, one bride and He alone knows who belongs in the body. Perhaps we should not be so fragmented because we are going to need each other more and more as that day approaches when the new world order launches it's rule, should Christ tarry in His coming.

people in the church and i know the road to failure and hurt was paved with good intentions but some people want to force their experience on you.


people mis interpret acts 2:38 thus why it is called the 3 step program. you see they have it all wrong.

acts says repent.
be baptized
You shall recieve.

it doesnt say
repent
be baptized
and must be fulled with the Holy spirit.

see the difference>?

If we obey the first 2 we repent, we get baptized, then it is a definite you shall recieve the promise of the Holy Spirit.

if doesnt say ok you have repented and baptized, now lets get 50 guys up here and pray for the baptism of the holy spirit. NO GOD said you shall recieve it.

So why should we doubt it.

[AreYouReady?]

I don't have any problem with what you say.

I guess I try to ignore a lot of the "things one must do" that others say. I just want Christ in my life and heart. He is the Comforter, the Savior and the Creator all rolled into one.

[Cindy]

We don't have to ask for a gift. It is freely given.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Cindy

We don't have to ask for a gift. It is freely given.

We RECEiVE a gift
We ACCEPT a gift