Living in the Abundance of God (16 page)

This is an hour when we need to tell people what Jesus has to say. In Acts 1:1, it tells “of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.” I am so glad Jesus did not finish everything in the Gospels. Of course, He finished the work of redemption through the cross and resurrection. But we are to continue to carry on the work of the church as started in the book of Acts.

Jesus “commanded” the apostles that they were “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4). The command from Jesus was to wait. They had not yet received the power of the Holy Spirit.

Many church people love the Lord Jesus. They are doing the best they know how to do to serve Him. They are walking in all the light they have, but they do not know what Jesus commanded them! They need to take off their religious glasses and unplug their denominational headphones, then read the Bible and simply believe what it says. Do not just let another person tell you what they think the Bible is saying. Read it for yourself.

Jesus commanded the disciples to not leave Jerusalem until they had received power from on high. He told them they were not ready to be His witnesses without that power of the Holy Spirit. He said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

I do not know of anyone who is making a living, raising a family, and trying to serve God who does not need the ability, efficiency, and might of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “You shall receive power.” This power does not work just as
dynamite
to bring one explosive experience in your life. It is continual power from God! It works as a
dynamo
on the inside of you. It gives continual light and power throughout the years. “But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).

Jesus said we would receive power and be witnesses to Him wherever we go and whatever we do. We should go out with joy into our neighborhoods and into this hungering and thirsting generation with the good news about Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

I can remember when I had not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. For nineteen years I pastored churches and did my very best. I knew the presence of God in a shallow way, but I did not have any continuing power. I had learned and accepted the fact that this was the way it was. I had been taught in college and seminary that all the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit had passed away with the last apostle. There were to be no more signs and no more miracles. “All supernatural things ended when the last apostle died,” they said.

Think about that teaching for a moment. How ridiculous! Why would God do that? I was taught this sad thing, and I believed it.

I thank God that there are people in all churches today who are sick and tired of being sick and tired of this nonsense! They are weary of a form of godliness that denies the power! They are not going to be denied the power of God any longer! Hunger for the things of God is a wonderful thing. It will bring God on the scene.

John G. Lake, a preacher of another generation who shook nations for God, said, “Hunger can be a good thing. It is the greatest persuader I know of. It is a marvelous power. Nations have learned that you can do almost anything with a populace until they get hungry. But when they get hungry, watch out. There is a certain spirit of desperation that accompanies hunger.”

I wish we all had it spiritually. I wish we were desperately hungry for God. Wouldn’t it be glorious?

I will guarantee you that after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus there were 120 mighty hungry people in the upper room in Jerusalem. If they had not been exceedingly hungry, they would not have gotten so gloriously filled. It was because they were hungry that they were filled.

No matter what your soul may be desiring,
if God’s power becomes the supreme cry of your life, not the secondary matter, or the third or tenth, but the supreme desire of your soul, the paramount issue—all the powers and energies of your spirit, soul, and body are reaching out and crying to God for the answer—it is going to come!

Over the years, especially through what seemed to be a family cycle of constant sickness and disease, I finally got to the place where my supreme heart cry was for deliverance. I could hear the groans and cries and feel my family’s desperation for wellness. My heart cried, my soul sobbed, my spirit wept tears. I wanted help. I did not know enough to call directly on God for it. (Isn’t it a strange thing that we do not have enough sense to call on God for physical difficulties as well as spiritual ones? But I did not.)

But one thing matured in my heart—a real hunger. And the hunger of a man’s soul must be satisfied. It is a law of God that is in the depths of the Spirit. God will answer the heart that cries; God will answer the soul that asks. Christ Jesus comes to us with divine assurance and invites us when we are hungry, to pray, to believe, to take from the Lord that for which our soul desires and our heart yearns.

One day the Lord of heaven came our way, and in a little while the cloud of darkness, that curse of death, was lifted. The light of God shone into our lives and into our home, just the same as it existed in other men’s lives and other men’s homes. We learned the truth of Jesus and were able to apply the divine power of God. We were healed of the Lord. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6).

God created a supernatural hunger and a thirst in my heart for more of Him. I began to feel a divine restlessness. There was a divine dissatisfaction in my spirit. I said, “Oh, God, I do not want to die without having had a more fruitful ministry. I want to see more than I have ever seen in all of my life.” That was the beginning of my quest for the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Rejoice if there has been an awakening in your heart for the same! Be glad that there is a hunger and thirst in your heart. Be glad that God smiled upon you to give you a desire to come to Him. Jesus said,

Another thing that brought me to the realization of the truth of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was the healing of our daughter Lisa. When she was born, my wife, who is a registered nurse, knew immediately that something was wrong. Our pediatrician confirmed it later. She told us that our baby had brain damage and would never be normal. She had no sucking reflexes, no muscle tone, and symptoms similar to cerebral palsy. She was not able to lift her head from the bed, even a fraction of an inch, until she was five months old, and she never had enough strength to crawl.

We needed a miracle! I had been a pastor for nineteen years, but I knew very little about healing. The books in my library and my seminary professors said God sent sickness to bless us or teach us good lessons. They said little about the miracle-working power of God.

Desperate for an answer, I closed my office and went alone day after day with the Word of God. I read the four Gospels until I began to see Jesus. There emerged from those pages a mighty compassionate miracle worker. He was not the person I had been taught. He was the Son of the Living God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

I beheld Him as One greater than all our concepts of Him! I saw Him as One great and loving enough to encompass all people everywhere in His mighty arms! We read His promises to us over and over. We saw that it was not God’s will that Lisa be afflicted, but rather that God wanted to heal her.

Those were some dark days for us as we struggled to believe. But God was so merciful and compassionate. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, as we stood fast on the promises of God to heal her. Then one glorious day, Jesus touched our baby. She was delivered!

I am sure the angels watching broke forth in a heavenly song, praising God for His love and faithfulness to His Word. I am sure our blessed Jesus smiled at our joy, for He had taken all our sins, sicknesses, and pains in His own body and purchased our healing. And today, Lisa remains every bit whole, a mighty miracle of God!