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THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Rev. Shirley Camp (The following is an excerpt taken from Rev. Camp's Book entitled, Can We Talk? About Tongues)
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
James 1:5
So, why do people need to speak in tongues?
People need to know why they need to talk in another language
or pray in tongues or pray in the Holy Ghost, (whatever you want to
call it). People have
different names for it, people have different understandings, but I
think when Jesus left this earth He made it perfectly clear.
He said,
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I
go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto
you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
John 16:7
He said it’s expedient for you that I go away, so that
I can leave with you the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.
He knew that we would need the Holy Spirit.
So we’re going to talk a little bit about why we need the Holy
Spirit. Praying in tongues
is the evidence of the
infilling...
the filling of the Holy Spirit WITHIN YOU.
And that should be our pattern today as modern, New Testament
Believers. And this is for believers.
It’s for everybody, and God doesn’t want to leave one person
out because it is a gift, and Jesus left that gift for us.
He knew that we would need the gift of tongues, we would need
a Comforter, and we would need this gift to be exercised in our life
as a Helper. There are
a lot of purposes for it, and that’s what we’re going to talk about
today.
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.
Acts 1:4-5
The Holy Spirit is the Gift of the Father.
Wouldn’t you want every gift God left for you?
Everything that He has for me, I want.
He’s the Holy Spirit of Promise.
Jesus is letting his disciples know that they will receive.
They’ve received the gift of water baptism, but they will
receive another gift, and it is the baptism with fire.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place.
Acts 2:1
So already we know two things about the Holy Spirit or the gift of
tongues:
1. It’s a gift from the Father.
2. It puts believers on one accord.
That is one way that we all know that we are on one accord.
You know, you can be in a church and you can think that
you’re on one accord with the pastor, and with the people with your
church. But if you
don’t pray in tongues together, you’re not on one accord.
Everybody should have the Holy Spirit ministered to them.
That’s why when Paul went to Ephesus and he joined the
disciples there, the first thing he asked them was, “Have you
received the Holy Ghost since you’ve believed?”
(Acts 19:1-2) There’s more to God’s plan for us than just believing or
being saved. And if
Jesus did it, and the disciples did it, then why not us?
It is a gift that is for today.
It’s for the New Testament Church.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing
mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Acts 2:2
I think this was more of a sound.
It sounded like wind more than a physical wind rushing in.
It could have been wind, but I think it was more or less the
sound
of wind.
Tongues are that mighty.
The Spirit came as a mighty rushing wind and it filled
the whole house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it
sat upon each of them. Acts 2:3
This was more of an open vision of the Holy Spirit.
When God does something, He does it big, and He likes to
prove Himself to unbelievers, and to those who don’t believe.
He likes to show out because He’s God and He can do it!
He does it because He can!
This was an outward show of His power and His greatness, and
it made a mighty impact on the believers assembled there.
The Holy Spirit filled that place to the point where it
really seemed like there was a storm going on.
We need those manifestations in the earth today.
That is why we need the gift of tongues.
So in Acts 2, they were on one accord in one place, and the Holy
Spirit came as a mighty, rushing wind; mighty but unseen power.
The power of God is mighty, even though it’s unseen.
This tells me something about faith.
When you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there is an
element of faith involved.
And this is why a lot of people try and try and they don’t receive
the first time because the element of faith is not there.
They don’t understand enough about the Holy Spirit, or they
don’t understand enough about Jesus and the gift and His love to
enable them to receive.
That’s why we must minister this gift to people.
When you impart knowledge and wisdom to people about tongues, then
the element of faith increases.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of
God.
Romans 10:17
Receiving the infilling of the Holy Spirit is of God.
We need to have this experience of infilling to do the work
of the ministry, to possess power from On High, to believe the
promises of God, and to do the great and mighty works.
God left us the Holy Spirit so we can believe the promises.
That’s why sometimes people have a hard time believing
because you need the help of the Comforter.
Sometimes it’s because you don’t have the infilling, so you
don’t understand how to do the works of God.
Many people go out and they pass out tracts, and they try to do the
work without the infilling. You get that in traditional churches all the time.
And they wonder why they don’t get a lot of people in the
church to stick with it.
They go to church for about three or four months, and then they
slack off, and it’s because they don’t have the infilling of the
Holy Spirit. See, the
infilling of the Holy Spirit possesses you and He is a Keeper.
He keeps you and separates you from sin, if you allow Him to.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit builds you up on your most holy
faith.
This is how you maintain your life with Christ.
A lot of people receive the gift of tongues, and then they
never use them. Or they
use them once a week.
You need to be built up everyday.
The bible says to keep the word before you day and night.
(Joshua 1:8).
And when you study the Word, you should always pray in tongues.
It will maintain your life.
It will keep you up, it will build you up, and it will keep
you out of sin, if you allow it to.
When you acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit inside
of you by exercising the gift all the time, you won’t want to sin.
Perhaps this is why people fall away, or they fall short, or
they cuss and fuss; they do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do
because they don’t allow the presence of the Holy Spirit to become
alive inside of them.
They don’t exercise the gift enough.
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life.
Jude 1:20-21
Praying in tongues allows you receive the mercy of God.
In other words God will help you when you pray in another
language; if you exercise the gift of the infilling.
Because you’ve been filled with God’s precious Holy Spirit,
and when you exercise that Gift, then God will help you.
He builds you up.
It enables Him to set up a standard against the enemy.
But we must exercise the gift.
It’s a precious gift. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14:15 -17
Luke 11:9 -13
We would like to make available to you a book written
This teaching will strengthen your faith to receive this precious promise of the Father, and will give you a greater understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in the earth today. God has more for you. In addition to blessing you, He wants to use you to bless others 1-800-560-9240 office@ministryofthewatchman.com |
