By Brother Ray Leonard
The Spirit brings life. Without the Spirit everything we do is lifeless. When we pray in the Spirit it brings life to everything we do and realigns everything to the ‘WILL OF GOD’.
(2 Cor. 3:5-6) “Not that we are sufficient of (in) ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God who also made us sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant. ‘NOT OF THE LETTER BUT OF THE SPIRIT’; The ‘Letter kills’ but the ‘Spirit gives life”.
Nothing of any major importance originates in or from us. God is the ‘Originator’ of all necessary and important things. God is the Creator, and Originator of ‘ALL GOOD’, and all good and eternal things.
READ: BE STRONG IN THE LORD AND THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. HOW DO WE DO THAT?
If God is Creator, and nothing or any lasting good originates from us, then all things of importance and of lasting and eternal matters must spring forth from God.
In coming to this understanding, we could then fall into a faulty position of ‘false humility’ and think, “GOD I KNOW YOU LOVE AND DESIRE ME, BUT YOU DON’T NEED ME, BECAUSE YOU EXISTED BEFORE ANY CREATIONS, AND YOU DON’T HAVE THE HUMAN WEAKNESS OF NEEDING ANYTHING OR ANYONE.
I was reminded by a Spirit-filled Baptist, (Pastor Morris), of this very point. He said, “I said to God, ‘I love You, and I know you love me, but You don’t need me”. And the Lord said to me, “Yes, I do need you”. “Lord, I don’t understand.” And the Lord began to reveal to him the truth of His statement.
In essence He was saying to Brother Morris, “I don’t need you, for me to exist, because I existed before you ever were. I have no needs because I am the supplier of all needs.
So, why then, do I need you? Because, before I created man, ‘I CHOSE TO NEED HIM. I CHOSE TO NEED YOU. AS A RESULT NOTHING HAPPENS CONCERNING WHAT I DO ON EARTH, OR MY ETERNAL KINGDOM WITHOUT MANKIND WHOM I HAVE REDEEMED. YOU HAVE YOUR PLACE THAT YOU MUST ALSO FULFILL, OR SOMETHING GOES LACKING, OR SOMETHING IS MISSING IN MY PLANS FOR THE CHURCH AND EVEN FOR MY ETERNAL KINGDOM.
So, Dear Reader, because God has chosen to need you (and me), we must be faithful to our ‘calling’, and not drop the ball. WHAT A JOY IT IS TO SERVE GOD FAITHFULLY AND TO BE LOYAL TO OUR GOD, BECAUSE WE ARE NEEDED.
Brother Morris said, “For God to need us, is another way of saying, ‘WE ARE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD’
NOW, BECAUSE WE CANNOT CREATE OR ORIGINATE ANYTHING, BUT RATHER ARE PARTNERS WITH GOD, WE THEN, OF NECESSITY MUST RELY ON AND BE FILLED WITH ‘GOD’S SPIRIT’.
READ: WE’RE WALKING IN TWO WORLDS AT THE SAME TIME
The Holy Spirit protects us in so many ways. He is called the ‘COMFORTER’, and He comforts us in our distresses. He comforts us in our fears. The wonder of God is the intertwining and working together with His Word, His Son, His Holy Spirit, His Holy angels, and with REDEEMED MAN, the ‘Crowned Jewel’ of His creation. We, human beings are the only beings of His creation who were ever created in God’s image and likeness, not the angels of all kinds and orders, (mighty beings, majestic beings). WE ALONE WERE CREATED ‘LIKE GOD’, and ‘FROM GOD’…YET NOT GOD.
SINCE YOU’VE BEEN SAVED, HAVE YOU BEEN BAPTIZED IN THE SPIRIT? True, when we were saved we we’re saved by the Spirit, and so we have the Spirit, but not the fullness. Salvation is a threshold experience and we have entered into the door, Jesus being the Door to ‘eternal life’.
Receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is another threshold experience, when we enter into the spirit realm, the supernatural realm of the kingdom of God, with all the gifts, and power, and understanding, and wisdom, and closeness, and intimacy with God. We don’t receive all these things at once, but little by little as we learn more in Scripture, learn more by our spiritual ears and understanding being opened and enlightened, and by our spiritual eyes being opened to see into the spirit realm. We may see Jesus, hear his voice and listen to His instructions. We may see and hear the angels and learn to work with and cooperate with them in fulfilling the will of the Father.
Through the gift of discerning of Spirits, we may be shown the enemy’s plans, and the Holy Spirit may give us the strategy for launching an attack against him that will defeat him.
Have you received the initial physical evidence of being Spirit filled, speaking in ‘TONGUES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?’
Many, have minimized speaking in tongues, by saying it’s the ‘least of the gifts’ (if they even believe that the ‘gifts of the Spirit’ are for Christians today), but I believe, ‘Speaking in Tongues may be perhaps the ‘Greatest gift of all’.
WHY? Because it seems like all the other gifts spring forth from it’s ‘Fountain-head’.
(Romans 8:26-28) “Likewise the Spirit helps our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us, with groaning’s too deep for words. And He who searches the hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God”. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are called according to His purpose (to those who are fitting into His Plans).
There’s all kinds of prayer available to the ‘Spirit-filled believer’. Prayers in ‘Tongues’ (many types, even in tongues).
(I Cor. 14:2) “He who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God, for no one understands him, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries”.
God and man (Spirit-filled man), have a Divine, human relationship. Under the circumstances above no man understands him because he speaks ‘MYSTERIES’ IN THE SPIRIT. Notice, it is not God speaking through them, rather it is man speaking to God (by the enablement of the Holy Spirit). Our spirit is actually conversing with God about these mysteries and God is speaking back to us and making these mysteries clear to our spirit.
There are other times when speaking in tongues is directed and spoken to others in their own language, making them to understand that no one knew that particular thing, event, or condition of their very heart, except God Himself.
(I Cor 14:21-22) “In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people, and yet for all that they will not hear me, says the Lord. Wherefore, tongues are for a ‘SIGN’, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.
What does that mean?
It means that there may be times when someone may visit the Assembly gathered, and Through the Holy Spirit, one may unknowingly speak forth (perfectly in a language they’ve never learned). (directed by the Spirit) to the hearer in their native language other than the congregations main (native tongue).
They may speak to an issue they need to deal with, a sin they need to depart from, and encouragement about a very discouraging situation, or the pronouncing of a prayer (in their heart nobody knows about) being answered.
TONGUES IS VERY VERSATILE, AND USEFUL AND HELPFUL TO THE SPEAKER, THE RECEIVER, AND GIVES GLORY TO GOD, AND PROMOTES THE KINGDOM OF GOD. PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME.
EXAMPLE: A preacher was invited to preach at a certain church, and when he got up to preach, he couldn’t understand why the urge to speak in tongues was so strong, and he just wasn’t given the go ahead in his spirit to preach. He started speaking in tongues, and after several minutes of this, a woman somewhere in the congregation, cried out, and then spoke up and said, “My daughter is a missionary to a tribe so far away from civilization that it takes ‘two weeks by foot’ to get out. That tribe has informed me that my daughter is dying and they will not be able to bring her out in time to get help. She would die before they could get her out.
Well, when my daughter was home on fur-low, she taught me a little bit of their very rare, language, and you just spoke in that language, and said, “REJOICE, YOUR DAUGHTER IS HEALED”. And praise God she was.
Notice, that Spirit filled Preacher spoke in tongues, (wondering why?), but was obedient to the Lord. He had never heard of that language, and of course had no idea of what he was saying, but that’s exactly what speaking in tongues (languages) is. What encouragement that message brought to the mother of her missionary daughter. What faith it built up within the hearts of those who knew this lady, and worshiped together with her in that assembly.
TO LEARN MORE: SHOULD I SPEAK IN TONGUES?
There’s so much more to the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, than I can tell you in this article, but mark this website and return to it. IT WILL HELP, ENCOURAGE, AND BLESS YOU. GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU CONTINUE TO DRAW CLOSER TO GOD AND ALLOW GOD TO FILL YOU WITH HIS HOLY SPIRIT, WITH THE INITIAL PHYSICAL EVIDENCE OF SPEAKING IN TONGUES. TONGUES ARE JUST THE BEGINNING. ALL THESE SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS ARE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.
