The Biblical response to ACTS 2:38

[BeenThinkin]

Originally Posted by snicker1986

I'm going way out on a limb here...

I was very active for years in "mainstream" church, and unlike many in pentecost, loved it, had a fantastic experience, and found God there.

I married a Pentecostal woman, have joined her church, and now have experinced a new a more vibrant faith community (and "recieved the Holy Ghost" and spoken in tongues).

Here's where I step on dangerous ground with some on here..

I can say (for sure) that I had recieved the Holy spirit in my prior church life, in a quiet, demoninational, trinitarian church. We put God in a box so easily, don't we? I knew right then that God was in my life, and was empowering me. I felt and knew his presence intimately.

When I spoke in tongues after coming to this church (and I have many times since then), it did feel a wonderful closeness to God, but other than the vocal expression, it esssentially felt NO DIFFERENT than that which I had already experienced when I had a move of the Holy Spirit in my life. When you get the Holy Spirit YOU KNOW IT! You don't need something to prove it to you, and you dont need to prove it to someone else.

Tongues is a wonderful closeness to God, and a sign of his presense and love, but I think God meets us how and where we are. We're the ones who box him in, and tell each other he can only meet us in a certain place or way. That's kind of the same thing the early Apostles did with their assumtions that the Holy Ghost would only come to Jews, and not Samaritans or Gentiles. Aren't we thankful they were wrong??

Just my own personal experience, so takeit for what it's worth.

THANKS for speaking your heart. I think you're on good ground with this summary of your experience.

I have a question. I hope it's not too far off topic.

Has anyone on the Forum ever known of a Oneness Church or a Oneness Preacher requiring someone from a Trinitarian background to go to the altar and seek for the Holy Ghost, denying that the Holy Ghost that they supposedly received in a Trinity church wasn't the real thing?

It would seem to me that if God gave them the Holy Ghost, (and I believe He does), then why should we make ourselves judges and choose to not fellowship someone that God loved enough to give them His Spirit.

Just asking, Just "thinkin."

Been Thinkin