Quote:
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.
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I've posted this before but it expresses how I understand some of the Spirit's work in us and agrees with your post
This is from pages 83 - 85 of a book titled Charisma Versus Charismania by Chuck Smith copyright 1992
Recently a young man came up to me and said, “I
accepted Christ several years ago, but I was never too
excited about it. I found reading the Bible uninteresting. In
fact, my mind would wander, and I couldn’t really concentrate
on the Word. I never really knew what it was to worship
God, and my prayer life was erratic. But since I was
filled with the Spirit a few months ago, my life has completely
changed. I have a great love for the things of God.
I can’t seem to get enough of the Word, and now I love to
fellowship with the believers. What a great change has happened
in my life since I was filled with the Spirit!”
This story, with variations, has been told to me hundreds
of times over by those who have found that there is
something more than just having the Spirit indwelling their
life at conversion. We do recognize that every born again
believer has the Spirit dwelling in him. Writing in 1 Corinthians
6:19, Paul declares that our bodies are the temples of
the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. He also declares in 1 Corinthians
12:3 that you cannot call Christ Lord except by the
Spirit.
The Spirit and the Believer
There are three Greek prepositions used in the New Testament
to designate the different relationships of the Spirit
to the believer: para, en, and epi. In
John 14:17 Jesus said
to His disciples concerning the Holy Spirit, “Ye know him;
for he dwelleth with [para] you and shall be in [en] you.”
Here a twofold relationship is expressed: para (with) and en
(in). The Holy Spirit was with us prior to our conversion. He
is the One who brought us conviction of sin and revealed
Christ as the answer. When we accepted Jesus as our Savior
and invited Him into our lives, the Holy Spirit began to
indwell us.
But God has something more—the beautiful empowering
through the epi relationship. Note that this is what
Jesus was promising His disciples just prior to His ascension.
In
Luke 24:49 He said, “Behold, I send the promise of
my Father upon [epi] you” or “over you.” In
Acts 1:8 He
said, “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy [Spirit]
is come upon [epi] you.”
We read in
Acts 10:44 that the Holy Spirit descended
“upon” the Gentile believers in the house of Cornelius:
“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy [Spirit] fell
upon [epi] all of them which heard the word.” In
Acts 19:6,
when Paul laid hands upon the Ephesian believers, the
Holy Spirit came upon [epi] them.
We read in
Acts 8 that Philip had gone to Samaria and
preached Christ unto them; many people believed Philip’s
preaching of the things of the kingdom of God and the
name of Jesus Christ, and they were baptized. If there is
just one baptism (
Ephesians 4:5), then we must accept that
at this point the Samaritan believers were baptized by the
Spirit into the body of Christ (
1 Corinthians 12:13), and the
Holy Spirit began to indwell them. It is obvious, however,
that there was yet a further relationship to the Holy Spirit
to be received, for when the church in Jerusalem heard that
the Samaritans had received the gospel, they sent Peter and
John unto them that they might pray for them to receive
the Holy Spirit, for as yet He had fallen upon [epi] none of
them.
The Overflowing Life
When Paul came to the church in Ephesus and found
that the believers’ experience was lacking, possibly in love
or joy and zeal, he asked them, “Did you receive the Holy
Spirit when you believed?” If the full relationship with the
Spirit is attained simultaneously with conversion, the question
makes no sense. The question itself acknowledged a
relationship deeper and beyond the conversion experience.
What they were lacking was the epi relationship with the
Holy Spirit, for that is what resulted when Paul laid his
hands upon them in
Acts 19:6: “and the Spirit came upon
[epi] them.”
Being filled with the Spirit adds new dimensions of
love, joy, and exuberance to the Christian life. If Paul the
apostle would meet you and begin to share the glories of
Christ with you, would he be apt to ask, “Did you receive
the Spirit when you believed?” God wants your life not to
just be indwelt or even filled with the Spirit. He wants your
life to overflow.
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