WE ARE LIVING IN A DAY WHEN THE TERM, “BORN AGAIN,” IS SO COMMONLY USED, THAT IT IS TAKEN VERY LIGHTLY AMONG MOST CIRCLES, YET TO BE SCRIPTURALLY BORN AGAIN, IS TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST, AND THAT BRINGS UP ANOTHER CONTROVERSY. HOW CAN WE KNOW WHO IS, AND WHO IS NOT, AMONG THOSE THAT PROFESS TO BE? FURTHER STILL, HOW CAN WE KNOW BEYOND ANY SHADOW OF DOUBT THAT WE OURSELVES HAVE THE HOLY GHOST? DO YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE THE HOLY GHOST JUST BECAUSE YOU SPOKE IN TONGUES, OR BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE TOLD YOU THAT YOU DID? ARE YOU ABLE TO LINE YOUR SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE UP WITH THE WORD OF GOD? WHAT IS YOUR MOTIVE, AND WHAT DO YOU HUNGER FOR? I JUST WANT TO PROVOKE YOUR THINKING FOR A MOMENT, FOR WE ARE GOING INTO THE SCRIPTURES AND ENDEAVOR TO ANSWER WHATEVER QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE ALONG THIS LINE, FROM GOD’S WORD. EVERY SINCERE PERSON OWES IT TO HIMSELF, OR HERSELF, TO BE ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED FROM THE SCRIPTURES WHETHER HE OR SHE HAS THE GENUINE HOLY GHOST, OR THE DEVIL’S COUNTERFEIT.

I RECEIVED A VERY SAD LETTER FROM A YOUNG MAN WHO SAYS THAT HE CAME AND TALKED TO ME ON THIS SUBJECT OVER TWO YEARS AGO. I VAGUELY REMEMBER IT AT THIS TIME. BUT HE TELLS ME HE HAS BEEN SEEKING THE HOLY GHOST ALL THIS TIME SINCE THEN, AND JUST CANNOT RECEIVE. OF COURSE HE IS SEEKING THE EXPERIENCE FROM THE UNITED PENTECOST CHURCH (U.P.C.) STANDPOINT OF SPEAKING IN TONGUES AS THE INITIAL EVIDENCE, AND HE IS REAL DISTURBED BECAUSE THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED. NOW HE FEELS THAT PERHAPS IT IS BECAUSE HE HAS LIVED SUCH A WICKED LIFE THAT GOD JUST DOES NOT LOVE HIM ENOUGH TO GIVE HIM HIS SPIRIT. HE TELLS ME ALL OF THESE THINGS, BUT HE ENDED UP ASKING ME, WHAT IS WRONG, BRO. JACKSON? WHY CAN I NOT RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST?

I RECEIVED A LETTER FROM ANOTHER PERSON QUITE SOME TIME AGO THAT ALSO ASKED ME A QUESTION CONCERNING THE HOLY GHOST EXPERIENCE. THIS QUESTIONS WAS, BRO. JACKSON, IS IT TRUE THAT BRO. BRANHAM SAID, A PERSON COULD HAVE THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST AND STILL BE LOST AND GO TO HELL? NOW, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, WHEN PEOPLE ASK QUESTIONS LIKE THAT, YOU NEED SOMETHING MORE THAN MAN’S TRADITIONAL OPINIONS TO ANSWER THEM WITH. THEREFORE, I AM GLAD THAT THE WORD OF GOD SUPPLIES US WITH THOSE ANSWERS WHEN WE NEED THEM. WE KNOW HOW THE WORLD OF RELIGION GOT INTO SUCH A MESS OF CONFUSION: IT IS A RESULT OF MEN NEGLECTING THE WORD OF GOD; THEREFORE, THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY OUT OF SPIRITUAL CONFUSION, AND THAT IS TO GO BACK AND GET EVERYTHING IN LINE WITH THE SCRIPTURES. THAT IS WHAT WE WILL ENDEAVOR TO DO AS WE PRESENT THIS MESSAGE, SHOW WHERE EVERYTHING STANDS IN THE LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD.

TEXT: ST. JOHN 7:37-39

THIRSTING AND DRINKING

Let us open our Bibles to the 7th chapter of John, where he records something that Jesus spoke as He began to open up the subject, or idea of an individual receiving the Holy Ghost. Notice verse 37, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” Saints, that word cry, does not mean that Jesus was standing there crying tears, it simply means that He screamed out,  “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, AS THE SCRIPTURE HATH SAID, (the Old Testament) out of his belly (or innermost being) shall flow rivers of living water.” We find verse 39, in parenthesis, explaining what Jesus meant in verses 37-38. “But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that BELIEVE ON HIM should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” From those three verses we see two very important things. First Jesus give the Holy Ghost a water identity. Did you know that water is the most vital to your physical health and strength of the elements that make up our human body? You can live longer without food than you can without water, so this water identity of the Holy Ghost really stresses the absolute necessity of the Spirit of God in us in order for us to be spiritually alive. Then there comes the question, How do we receive the Spirit of God? (The Holy Ghost) That is the other main point in the statement Jesus made. We must believe on Him according to the scriptures; not according to man’s traditions. In the days that Jesus spoke those words, those that heard Him only had the Old Testament scrolls that spoke of a Messiah to come, a Savior, a Prince of Peace, and so forth, but by the scriptures they had at that time, those who were spiritually inclined were able to recognize Him, and know assuredly that John the Baptist was not just trying to put something over on them when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Only those who were awaiting their Messiah according to expectations aroused by the scriptures were able to recognize and accept Him, and that speaks of the hunger and thirst after righteousness, that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5:6. Let me explain what I mean. Water itself has no nutritional food value, but it is the vehicle that carries the nutrients, and also keeps the body cool and stable. The lack of it sets up a thirst in your system, a craving for a drink, and only a drink of fresh water will completely satisfy that thirst. Other liquids are sometimes taken in place of it, and they help, but usually you will still crave a good drink of water even after drinking something else. Now, let us look at the Spirit of God from this water standpoint. Just the Spirit alone does not furnish us with the spiritual nutrients that are required for a new birth, and for a healthy spiritual being. The word of God is our spiritual food, and His Spirit is the vehicle that carries, distributes, and stabilizes. Therefore, just as your natural body requires food and water for its continued existence, so does your soul require the completeness that comes only from a Holy Ghost birth, and a regular Holy Ghost feeding from the word of God. Some want God’s word, but care little about His Spirit, Others want His Spirit, but care little about His word. Then there are those foreknown-of-God souls, that hunger and thirst after righteousness, and they must have both, and they will have both. Some of them have been taught wrong, like the young man who is trying to receive the Holy Ghost according to U.P.C. requirements; therefore, it takes them longer than some others who just simply open up to God, and receive whatever He has for them, without instructing Him how to give them what they need. Does not the scripture say that God already knows what we have need of, even before we pray? Would that not pertain to anything we have a right to expect from God? After all, who instructed Him on how to speak this old world out of chaos, out of its without form and void condition of Genesis1:1? Should such a God need to be told how and when to give a hungry soul the Holy Ghost? I think not.

SEEK THE GIVER OF GIFTS

The reason some people never get what they are praying for, is because they are praying for someone else’s experience. They want it just exactly like Bro. So and So got it, and never stop to realize that God cannot be obligated to give them someone else’s experience. That would be just like a Ford car (if it could speak) demanding Chevrolet parts be installed on it. You must always seek the Giver of the gifts, and not necessarily the gifts themselves. Once you have the GIFT GIVER inside you, you have the potential for any and every gift of the Spirit that is mentioned in the scriptures. In I Corinthians 12:11, Paul says that He (the Holy Ghost) divides to every man severally as He will, and tongues is one of those gifts that he mentions, so anyone who demands to speak in tongues as the evidence that he has the Holy Ghost, is just simply opening himself up to the possibility of receiving the devil’s counterfeit experience. When we look at the 11th chapter of Hebrews, we find a long list of people that obtained a good report, or we might say, that established a good witness. How did they do it? By faith. Faith is what? The word of God. Notice verse 6, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, (In other words, they cannot doubt the existence of the holy and sovereign God.)and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Brothers and Sisters: that is why many times, only a half dozen or so, out of a congregation of 900 people will actually hear the word of God with their spiritual ear, and follow Him all the way, the others were not hungry for God, and thereby could not exercise faith to lay hold upon His promises. That three thousand Jews that became pricked in their hearts on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached a little short sermon to them, were hungry and thirsty. When they asked Peter and the other apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Peter simply answered, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” What does it say about them? Did any of them say, I will have to speak in tongues before I will believe I have received? No, they did not. Notice verse 41, “Then they that GLADLY RECEIVED his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”

YOUR OWN PERSONAL FOUNTAIN

Some people sit in church for years never have any hunger nor thirst for the things of God. Yet right in the midst of them, there will be a soul that is getting so hungry and thirsty that they actually begin to crave something to satisfy. That is how God gets His people out of denominational systems. When a person gets hungry and thirsty for natural food and drink, what do they do? They begin to look around and ask questions. They don’t just sit down somewhere and say, I sure am hungry and thirsty, I hope someone will come by and give me something to eat and drink. That would be very foolish; would it not: I know what I do at such times. I begin to inquire, Where can I get a cold drink of water? Where can I get a hot dog, or a hamburger? Are you listening to me? If you are truly hungry for the things of God, will you not do the same thing. Most of your inquiry may be of the Lord, in prayer, but you will at least be searching for that true spiritual food. You will not just sit somewhere wishing for it. That is the reason Jesus said, if any man is thirsty, let him come unto me, and drink. You must come to the source. Alright then, so you seek that living water that can quench the thirsting of your soul. When you find the true supplier of that which you seek, and you drink of Him according to what the scriptures have authorized, from that time on, you will have that bubbling fountain springing up from within you. “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” You will not have to go looking for that source any more, for it will remain with you always. What did He say in another place? “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” There are people speaking in tongues in every nation around this old globe, that do not have that thirst quenching Spirit of Jesus Christ within their soul. How do I know that? Simply because Jesus said that the Comforter, (the Holy Ghost) when He comes will teach you all things. He does not come into you just to enable you to shout and dance and have a good time. That is part of it, but there is a lot more. Two of the gospel writers, Matthew and Luke, quoted John the Baptist like this. “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me (Jesus Christ) is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.”

HOLY GHOST AND FIRE

Now, hear me, the Holy Ghost baptism, and the first baptism are not two separate experiences. When you get one, you get both. God is Spirit, and the Holy Ghost is God, and God is light, and in Jeremiah 23:29, we find that God’s word is like a fire. Of course, some people only think of fire from the standpoint of its consuming affect, yet as well as giving light, fire is also a cleansing, purifying agent. Therefore, to receive the true baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, is to receive a thirst quenching, light giving, purifying Spirit within your soul, that will take the things of Christ and make them a living reality to you. The Spirit of God and the word of God are inseparable. In reality you cannot have one without the other, for it is the Spirit that sheds light upon the word in order that we may receive it as a revelation. God’s word is spoken of, in the sense that it is bread, the bread of eternal life, that which satisfies your hungry soul. Then when you compare these things with what you know from the standpoint of the natural man, any time we eat to satisfy our hungry pains, we immediately become thirsty; we need something to quench your thirst. That is the reason it absolutely takes both the Spirit and the word to make a soul healthy and complete. In the days when Jesus Christ walked among men upon earth, He spoke words to them, and they heard them with their natural ears, but they did not receive a spiritual revelation, except on rare occasions, until after the Holy Ghost was given on the day of Pentecost.

THIRST QUENCHER – COMFORTER – TEACHER

Let us read John 14:25-26, Jesus speaking says, (25) “These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. (26) But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall TEACH YOU ALL THINGS, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Before He ended His earthly ministry, Jesus impressed upon His disciples the absolute importance and necessity for them to receive the Holy Ghost. He calls Him the Comforter, and that is exactly what He is. He does not come in, to disturb and confuse you; He comes in to comfort and teach you, and if He is truly in you, HE WILL TEACH YOU. Now, Brothers and Sisters: Are we to believe that Jesus was talking about two separate experiences in chapter 7 and chapter 14? Absolutely not. He is speaking of different functions of that one and self-same Spirit that all true believers was to receive. (Was to be baptized with) God is like a fire in the sense that He gives light, consumes foreign matter, and purifies. He is like water, in the sense that He quenches our thirst and bubbles up from our innermost being like a fountain. But He is also a teacher and Comforter. Jesus knew those disciples loved, and leaned upon His physical flesh. It took His physical contact to encourage and keep those disciples going. (Man is much like that today. As long as he has a leader, some personality to hold on to: Brother! He will go around the world. But you let him lose sight of that person and he will go to pieces.) Jesus knew the hour was coming when they would have to have something other than His physical flesh to hold on to; therefore, He was leading them to the place where they could recognize His spiritual presence that would be inside them, not just in their midst. At the time of His speaking these things, it was just like a foreign language to them. They did not understand it at all, but He spoke it to them just the same, knowing that once the Comforter had come, all these words would come alive to them. He did not have to worry about them stumbling over His statements, for the Comforter would pick up right where He left off, and quicken them to their understanding. Now some may ask, Just how does the word Comforter mean the same thing as the word teacher? Let us just think of it like this, Many times, the reason we need a comforter in the first place, is because we just simply do not understand. You all know how that works. There are times when our burden seems so heavy that we may wonder, How will I ever make it through this? But along comes someone who truly understands our situation, someone who can feel our very emotions, and with a heart of compassion they can speak a few words that will just lift all that pressure off of us. That person is a comforter. Not THE COMFORTER, but A comforter. The very presence of such a person brings a calmness to our emotions, and helps us stabilize our course. When we sing that little chorus, “Jesus is all I need,” we are not thinking of his physical presence with us; we are thinking of His Spiritual presence, and the fact that He is the supplier of our every need. He is not in us just to comfort us, if He were we would never learn anything that would help us mature spiritually. Those who desire the Holy Ghost just for the sake of speaking in tongues, and for the good time they can have, never grow one inch in the stature of Christ. You can listen to them testify year after year, and almost know word for word what they are going to say, when they get up. They have no hunger, nor thirst for anything else. They will speak of the Holy Ghost as their Comforter, but you never hear of Him teaching them anything. Some of them may tell something that they say He taught them, but they would fight you if you told them that God was not three persons, or that the holy trinity is Catholic doctrine, so you tell me, Based upon true revelation of the scriptures, does such a person have the Holy Ghost? If so, then why has He not taught them who He is? Jesus said, When He comes He will teach you all things. Brother and Sister: a true revelation of the Godhead is a beginners lesson. That is part of the foundation what we build upon, the most vital part of our foundation.

WHERE LIFE BEGINS

Let me explain at this time why, even though the Holy Ghost is a thirst quencher, we still get thirsty again. We must understand though, that getting thirsty again does not mean that we must keep coming back to get baptized with the Holy Ghost all over again. No. There is one baptism that puts a person into the body of Christ. That is the baptism of the Holy Ghost, according to I Corinthians 12:13, and even though He is a thirst quencher according to the words of Jesus in your text, He still makes sure you retain your spiritual ability to thirst. He keeps that activated. It is through your spiritual thirsting and hunger, that He is able to lead you into ALL TRUTH. Those who are satisfied just to speak in tongues, cannot be led very far by the Holy Ghost, if you know what I mean. If you don’t know what I mean, I will tell you. If the Holy Ghost is truly in you, He will cause you to hunger and thirst for more of God. When you receive the Holy Ghost, you have not reached a climax in your spiritual life; that is where your spiritual life actually begins, a life of growth and progress. As you begin to hunger and thirst for more of God, the Holy Ghost in you, sheds more light upon the word, and that encompasses one phase of the fire aspect of the Holy Ghost. Anyone who allows their mind to get hung up on one thing, will go no further with God. They are just like an old cow tied to a stake with a short chain. That old cow will just keep going around and around the stake until all the grass is either eaten or stomped into the ground; then all there is left is just bare ground to roam over. The devil has an awful lot of people staked out with a short chain in this hour of time. They do not have a sprig of anything fresh to chew on, spiritually speaking. I could start naming those that claim to have the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and if you could get them all together, you would have one big fight on your hands, doctrinally. Literally, evidence is proof, so why do those who claim to have the proof that they have been baptized with the Holy Ghost, not agree on the basic doctrine of Christ?

UNDERSTANDING BRINGS SPIRITUAL GROWTH

I have heard some Trinitarians from time to time, as they would be confronted with Acts 2:38, say, I would rather take the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:19, anytime, than to take the words of Peter who actually denied knowing Jesus when He was arrested. To that I will just say, If they are so eager to take the words of Jesus, then why do they not have what Jesus said the Holy Ghost would be, to those who receive Him? Why do they not have a teacher within them? Brothers and sisters: you know, and I know that something is wrong. They want the Holy Ghost for certain specified benefits, but they will not let Him come in and take over their lives. They will not let Him tear down their old sectarian interpretations and creeds and establish them in the revelated word of God. I want you to be sure and catch the importance of what Jesus said here in John 14:25, so I am going to read it again. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, HE SHALL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS, and bring ALL THINGS to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Not only will He teach you all things that shall come up in the future, but anything that has been said in the past and not understood will be re-called to your remembrance, and understanding given. Why? Because that is His primary function in a believer’s daily life. God does not want His people to be ignorant of His word, His will, and His purpose. We are not admonished in the scriptures to grow in theology; we are admonished to grow in grace, and in the knowledge and stature of Jesus Christ. Out here in spiritual Babylon (confusion) they will wrestle you down to the altar, practically force you to repeat after them what they refer to as the sinner’s prayer. Then they will beat you on the back, shake you chin, speak in tongues, and have you repeat it, and then tell you that you have just received the Holy Ghost. Then they wonder why such a person is so often found back out in the world practicing his same old sinful habits. Need I explain it to you? What did such a person receive? I grant you this, that now and then a truly hungry soul will come that route in their search for reality, but such a person will not stop there forever. As the Holy Ghost begins to put a hunger in their soul, they will first begin to ask questions of their pastor, their Sunday school teacher, or anyone else that they respect, and finally, when they have failed to receive an answer that will satisfy their hunger, they begin to search outside of the denominational structure, and that is when the Holy Ghost will lead them to truth. One thing is sure though, Such a person will not receive the Holy Ghost just because someone beats them on the back and shakes their chin. If they do truly receive, it will be because of their hunger for righteousness.

DARKNESS CANNOT PRODUCE LIGHT

I heard a news commentator interviewing a man that had been occupied with some job in your nation’s capital, a man that was supposed to have been recently converted, according to his own testimony. As he was questioned about his present outlook on life, and his present plans, he said he was getting ready to enter, I believe it was some Baptist seminary, to study theology. The Bible is so unlimited, he said. Brothers and Sisters: that is the truth. The Bible is unlimited, but I hope you will believe me when I tell you this, The Bible is not meant to be a religious text book, so you can study religion, and then use it in politics, or for some worldly gain. God is not saving souls just to turn them loose out here in Babylon for some preacher or politician to use them. If you think He is, then you are in worse shape than those we are talking about. Of course there are people who will jump up and say, You do not have a vision for souls, or you would not talk like that. I will just turn that remark right around and say, Your vision for souls will never amount to anything more than a lot of confusion, until you get your own life in line with the word of God. You will never get one soul into the kingdom of God until God begins to deal with that soul to draw him. Did Jesus say, in John 6:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day?” What good is your vision for lost souls, if you yourself do not know the truth of the gospel of Christ? Can your traditions save him? The early church had a vision. They had a commission, an objective, and they had the qualifications, and materials, to present a true witness of Jesus Christ. They weren’t giving out Satan’s perverted hand-me-down religion; they were preaching, and testifying according to a true revelation of who Jesus Christ is, and what He accomplished at Calvary for lost mankind. Isn’t it strange that they did not have any Bible schools in that first age of Christianity, if God only works through such places now? You who are spiritual already know the answer to that questions, so let us move along to our next scripture.

SPIRIT OF TRUTH

Let us turn to St. John 15:26, where we will find another term applied to the Holy Ghost, by Jesus, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, (not another person of the Godhead, but the sovereign Spirit which is God,) even the Spirit of TRUTH, (I want you to notice this term, SPIRIT OF TRUTH,) which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me.” What would He tell them? That Jesus was the second person of a triune Godhead? I dare you to find such a thing in the Bible. Alright then, let us see just what Jesus has said about the Holy Ghost up to this point. We have FIRE, WATER, COMFORTER, TEACHER and now, TRUTH. Why did He keep referring to Him in a different way, by a different term? It lets me know that those who do truly receive the genuine baptism of the Holy Ghost, have something within them that will do a complete job. He will be to you everything you need to mold you into the image of Jesus Christ, and present you spotless, and without a wrinkle or blemish on that blessed day that we are longing for. In John 6:35, Jesus said, “I am the BREAD of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” You will never hunger and thirst for soul salvation again, but your hunger and thirst will be for a closer walk with God, and to be more like Jesus Christ. Well, how do we eat of this bread of life? What is it? It is the revealed word of God. A person could go to a Bible school for 10 years, and still never eat one bit of that bread of life. Why? Because this bread is only for those who are born again, and to be born again is to be baptized with the Holy Ghost, and most of those who feel such a need for theology have never had this experience, or they would not be where they are. He would lead them into truth, and out of their Bible school. They would throw their cigarettes away and dress right, and be concerned about what kind of image they portray. I remember years ago, when the Spirit of God was still among the Methodist people, God would get hold of a lost soul; that person would go to church and get saved, and the Holy Spirit would lead them into that sanctified experience according to the light they had then, and they would not need anyone to tell them to throw away their cigarettes, and chewing tobacco and alcoholic beverages. The Holy Ghost would tell them. But what do you see, passing those places in this day and hour? You can see them flip their cigarettes as they go up the steps to the church house door. You can see their women going in dressed in their lib-suits, slacks, blue jeans and you name it. They go into those places to learn the doctrines of John Wesley, and to pacify themselves, because they feel that a person ought to go to church at least on Sunday morning, but the FIRE, THE LIGHT, has moved off and left their system dead, and they still do not know it.

NO HOLY GHOST FILLED CATHOLICS

Brothers and Sisters: Going to church ought not be just to fulfill a ritual once or twice a week. The Bible teaches us to assemble ourselves together, and it is important that we do so as often as we can, for this is where the Holy Ghost works among the body of believers in various ways. This is also where we are taught the things of God. We would not even suggest that a person could not be a born again Christian if they did not assemble with other Christians, for we know that there are precious souls that are denied that privilege for various reasons, but if you are where you can, and you just simply do not feel the need to, you had better check up on your spiritual experience with God. Furthermore, I want to put some emphasis on this 26th verse, in John 15, for the sake of those who read it so lightly. When Jesus referred to the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of truth, brother, that ought to tell us something. He will not tell one person that God is ONE, and then tell someone else that God is three persons, a holy trinity. I will not tell you that you could not receive the Holy Ghost until you understand the Godhead, but if the spirit you received lets you go through life believing that God is three persons, you did not receive the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth. I will go one step further if you can receive it. There are not Holy Ghost filled Catholics, no Holy Ghost filled Baptists, Methodist, Lutherans, nor any such like. Jesus said the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of truth, and I know, and am fully persuaded that He will not be in a person and allow them to keep on being Catholics, Baptists and such like. There was a day, when God overlooked all those denominational titles, and just dealt with the hungry souls that carried them, while He was preparing them for more light that was still to be restored. But we are living in an hour when the light of God’s word has led His true children out of those systems and the systems are without life. Those hungry souls that came to the Azusa Street mission came as Baptists, Methodist, Nazarenes, and all such life, but when God gave them the holy Ghost, slain many of they , and laid them on the floor speaking in tongues for hours, they did not leave there with their denominational titles; they left as new creatures in Christ Jesus, even some of those that just came in to find fault and criticize. Many of those people, up until the Azusa Street hour, thought they had everything God had to offer, yet Christianity at that hour spent more time fussing over doctrines than they did worshiping God. But when it was time for more light to be revealed, God began to put a hunger, and a thirst in many of them. Well, if there is a thirst there, we know that God will always have what it takes to quench that thirst, so as these began to seek Him, they would wind up speaking in tongues. What was it? They were receiving the Spirit of Truth in a measure. Now, Bro. Jackson, in the light of Acts 2:4, how can you make a statement like that? Just be still until we get to Acts 2:4, and we will see. There are a lot of Pentecostals that believe in Acts 2:4, but when they get over to Acts 2:38, they don’t believe any more. Does that help answer your questions? Acts 2:38 is actually the door to Acts 2:4, and a lot more. I remember years ago, the Canada brothers would sing a little song, “If you believe in Acts 2:4, and you don’t read any more, There’s an eye watching you. You’ll have trouble at the gate, about Acts 2:38, So, if I were you, I’d make a change.” It has been a long time since I heard anyone sing that little song, but it is the absolute truth. I sometimes wonder how many of you, when you speak of the Holy Ghost, are you speaking of Him just from the supernatural standpoint? I believe in the supernatural power of God as much as any of you, but I also realize that there is a lot more than that involved in a dedicated, Spirit filled walk with God. He can knock you down, pick you up, spin you around, heal your sick body, show you visions and dreams, cause you to speak in tongues, prophesy, and a lot more, but He also wants to lead you into all truth, and into a life of true holiness where He can order your footsteps moment by moment. Carnal man is always trying to pull God down to his carnal level, run everything through a traditional pipeline, and make a doctrine out of everything God does. I never worry too much about what the Holy Ghost leads a person to do, just as long as that person does not try to make a doctrine out of what they do.

SPIRITUAL HOUSE CLEANING

Many times I have listened to Pentecostal folks as they would deal with other people and hear them say, Oh, when the Holy Ghost comes, He speaks for Himself. Of course, I know what they mean, but in reality, Jesus said the Holy Ghost would not speak of Himself but would magnify the things of Jesus Christ. In other words, the Spirit would not be magnifying the Spirit, but rather, the word of God. Furthermore, the Holy Ghost being the Spirit of truth, He is quite capable of correcting error wherever it may be, for one thing is sure, if there is a mistake, it did not originate with Him; He does not make mistakes. Any mistake, either originated from the human spirit of man, or from the devil, the adversary of God and all His true people. The Holy Ghost will definitely correct error though, for He remains to be our Comforter, and there is little comfort to be realized, when we are out of step with God. Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” He also said, “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.” Brother, and Sister: when I see people sad, confused, bewildered, one thing I know, they need a Comforter, and they have not yet found Him. He is never far away; It is just that many people have never opened the door of their mind enough to allow Him to take over. He does not like to come into your life with restrictions hanging on the wall; He wants you to throw the door wide open and say, Lord, you come in and take control. Do anything you want to do. That is the only way He can be your Comforter. He must have the privilege of rearranging your spiritual house to suit His taste. You do not have to worry though, for He is a good interior decorator. He will not throw out anything you need, and neither will He leave your house a wreck. He will get everything in perfect order.

SPIRIT OF CONVICTION – REPROOF – JUDGMENT

Alright now, as we move into the 16th chapter of John’s gospel, beginning with verse 7, and reading down through verse 11, we find Jesus saying something else about this Comforter that is to come. Listen, “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.” Jesus continues to use the term, Comforter, even as He tells of what He will do among all mankind, and I believe what He says here in these verses is to back up what He said in John 6:44, “No man can come unto me, except the Father (the great eternal Spirit) which hath sent me draw him.” Therefore, notice what the office work of the Holy Spirit is, as pertaining to lost mankind. He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away.” That word, expedient, means necessary. In order for the Holy Spirit to come on the scene and fulfill His office work, the flesh man (Jesus) would have to be off the scene, for the work described in these next verses is a universal work, not to be limited to what Jesus would do as He walked upon earth in those days. Verse 8, “And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, (To reprove, is to convict. He is convicting the world of their sin of unbelief. Not everyone; just those who were foreknown of God from before the foundation of the world.) And of righteousness, and of judgment: (9) Of sin, because they believe not of me: (10) Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more: (11) Of Judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” What causes a man of the world to just merely go his own carefree way through life? Unbelief toward God, of course. What causes a person that has live like that to suddenly become God conscious? The convicting power of the Holy Spirit, as He begins to convict and woo that person. Before the Holy Spirit moves upon the scene and does His work, you could talk your head off to such a person, and they would still not have any time for God. You can ask them, Don’t you think it is about time for you to get right with God? But their reply will be something like this, I don’t have time for anything like that right now. Besides, I have done too many bad things in life; God don’t want me. He wouldn’t have any pity of a person like me. These are just excuses. It doesn’t matter how rotten and ornery a person has been in their past life, when they repent God will receive them. But the truth is, they cannot repent until the Holy Spirit begins to convict and draw them. Genuine soul salvation is not something you can sell to people like apples and oranges; it is a free gift, and only God Himself knows who will receive His gift of eternal life. Now the Holy Spirit does not get hold of a lost man and just begin to convict him that it is wrong to drink, smoke, gamble, and such as that. What He works on, is that person’s unbelief. When their unbelief goes out, so do all their ungodly habits begin to go also. That person will begin to have different desires, different cravings. Those old habits will cease to satisfy. That hungering in their soul can only be satisfied by a good spiritual meal from the table of God’s word.

RIGHTEOUSNESS

The next phase of this convicting process deals with righteousness. The Jews of that hour thought they had the inside track on righteousness. They felt so holy, and from the outward appearance they did look holy, but inwardly they were as mean as snakes. Underneath all their holy paraphernalia stood men crying, Crucify him! Who does he think he is, calling us children of the devil? There stood the Righteousness of God in their very midst, and they were only interested in seeing Him put to death, so they would no longer have an accusing finger pointed toward them. Only the Holy Ghost can convict individuals, and show them what true righteousness really is. Most of us have lived to see people put on their righteous front, wear their Sunday school pins, and go to church for a few minutes at least once a week. Some of them will have their whole chest decorated with these Sunday school attendance pins, look and talk so holy, and try to make you feel so worthless, if you are not one of them. Yet God is not interested in any of that. He couldn’t care less if you have your chest decorated like a soldier that has just returned from the war. People who delight themselves with such as this, do not know the first thing about true righteousness, therefore when the Holy Ghost comes, He does not bother that fellow. He started to Sunday school as a very small boy, and he has had this man-made standard of righteousness drilled into him all his life. Now he is an old gray headed man, walking up the steps of the church house with a cane, wearing his pins, and thinking about all of his achievement awards through the years. He is completely dedicated to all that is meaningful to him, but somehow the Holy Ghost has never seemed to tell that old fellow that he is going the wrong way. If you try to talk to him, he will stand there quivering, leaning on that old cane, and say, Listen son, I have been in Sunday school all my life; I have done this and that, and so on, so don’t try to tell me that I am wrong. I have memorized almost half of the Bible, and I have spent hours and hours discussing the scriptures with Dr. So and So, and we agree upon everything, and besides, Where did you go to school? You try to talk to him about some of the deeper truths of the Bible, and he will say, I don’t think we have to know all of that in order to be saved, and go to heaven. Why does he talk like that? Simply because the Holy Spirit has never convicted him, or shown him what true righteousness is. Now to you who may think I am making fun of such people, let me assure you, I am not! Except for the grace and mercy of God I could be just exactly like that. Nevertheless truth is truth, regardless of who it hits. Some of you may have relatives that are just exactly like that; I cannot help that, but I can tell you the truth about it.

I will never forget, when I was a little boy, going to the Church of Christ church, at Borden, Indiana. They always had the Lord’s supper following the morning service, and one of the deacons that would get up there explaining how to prepare yourself and get ready to receive it, had all the tell tale signs of a tobacco chewer. He would go through all of his ritual just the way he had been taught. But as soon as the service was over, and he got out the church house door, out would come his plug of tobacco, and his knife to whack off a chew. Cars, in those days, did not have windows that rolled up and down, so he could just spit tobacco juice all the way home, and never have to worry about rolling down a window. Who will the Holy Ghost convict of righteousness? Those that He is drawing. If He convicted the whole world, then the whole world would throw away their tobacco, beer, wine, whiskey and all such like. He will convict people from every nation in the world, but certainly not all of the people of the world.

JUDGMENT

Let us look at the judgment aspect now, for a few minutes. “Of judgment, because the prince of this world if judged.” What a trial. What a judgment. The real judge of the world was judged by the world. That, in itself, shows just how much or how little, those religious people of that hour knew about truth. They had very little concept about what true faith in God was, and what true righteousness was, or what true judgment was. All of their programs were run by natural minded men; the Spirit of God had no part in it. Their judgment was not even according to the law of Moses; it was according to their traditions. Therefore, this Comforter that Jesus spoke of, was not only going to reprove the world for their unjust judgment; He also, would teach some folks how true judgment should operate. With Him dwelling in believers, Paul said that the saints, (true believers) would judge the world, even angels, and therefore should be able now, to judge matters among ourselves, without having to go outside the body of believers. Jesus is saying these things to His disciples, preparing them for His departure, and for the coming of His Spirit that would lead their lives into all truth and understanding. Then notice what He said to them in verse 12, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” What did He mean? Simply this, He had many spiritual things to impart to them, deeper things. But He knew, that without the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, they did not have anything in them to understand with, so let us notice verse 13. “Howbeit (nevertheless) when He, the SPIRIT OF TRUTH, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; but whosoever He shall bear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. (14) He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” As I said before, I like this term, SPIRIT OF TRUTH. When you go back to John 14:6, Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” That lets us know that the SPIRIT OF TRUTH is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and when He is in us, we are one with Him, and with each other; just like He prayed in John 17:21. Therefore from within a believer, He can guide that person into ALL TRUTH. That does not mean that He will force you into truth. That is not what a guide does. In the natural, a guide is someone to lead you, or assist you in what you desire to do. So as it also in the spiritual realm; when you reach a point of hunger, or desire. He is right there, to lead and assist you. One big difference, compared to a guide in natural things, is that He knows our limitations and abilities, and will never try to take you beyond your limits. (That is the reason you have 30, 60, and 100 fold Christians, in the parable of Matthew 13:3-8.) Collectively, He guides the church as a group, but personally, He guides every individual believer according to their own abilities. Brothers and Sisters, we need that calm, careful, loving presence, as we journey through this life, for we are traveling on a pathway of life that we have never traveled before. I readily confess that I do not know a thing about it, and I am so thankful to have a guide that I can depend upon, one that is well qualified.

WHERE IS GOD’S HOUSE?

When you go on a tour, and land over there in Israel, and the tour guide meets you, and takes you to your bus, he will always introduce himself, or in some cases, herself, and from that point on, you are looking to that guide to assist you, and to teach you. They do not necessarily have a revelation of all that they know about the various places they will take you, but one thing is sure, they can tell you WHAT took place at those points of interest. It seems like Ben Meyerstein, just goes out of his way trying to make each tour as meaningful to us as possible, and that is exactly what the Holy Ghost does for every believer that has purposed to follow Him. He goes out of His way in order to guide you into all truth, and also to sit you down and teach you, so to speak. In other words, we need a guide when we are on a journey, and we are on a journey, but from the standpoint of also being our teacher, sometimes it is necessary for us to sit down, settle down, and be taught of Him. You can draw another parallel of spiritual and natural right here. A guide will lead you to a certain point, then when he has everyone’s attention, he will take time to explain, or teach what he knows about that place. Now that takes my mind back to the UPC people. They followed the guide to the truth that God is ONE instead of trinity, like the Assemblies of God teach. But they have never stopped long enough to be taught anything else by Him. They are busily passing right by God’s storehouse of revelation. They spend so much time rejoicing over their initial evidence, (speaking in tongues) they do not even realize that they have actually stopped right in the doorway of the kingdom of God. They have no idea whatsoever about what is inside. They talk about their mansion in heaven, and have never come to the knowledge that every true believer is a mansion where God dwells. “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” That is the absolute truth. God’s true people are the house of God, and He lives in every one of them. There are your mansions; believers that are filled with the Holy Ghost. “I go to prepare a place for you.” Where did He go? Did He go into heaven with a load of bricks and stones to build mansions for us? Is that what you think He meant? Let me tell you where He went. He went to Calvary, wore a crown of thorns, and shed His precious blood. For what? To prepare a place for us in His Father’s house. If He had not prepared a place for us, we could not be where we are today, in the house of God. (In His great body of believers.) Now to you UPC people who think you have all that God has to offer, I will say this, If you live to be a hundred and twenty years old, you will still not have all that God has to offer, for His word is a storehouse of spiritual nutrients, and there never comes a time in this natural life, that we have received all that it is possible to receive from the Lord. There is always something else that the Holy Spirit can teach you. But Bro. Jackson, I thought you said, He would lead us into all truth. That is absolutely correct. In every age He has led true believers into all the truth that pertained to their age, but those that are privileged to live until Jesus comes to catch His bride away, will know things that no other believer has ever known before.

WHO SHOULD BE GLORIFIED?

Jesus said that the Holy Ghost would not speak of Himself when He came, so where does that leave some of you who are forever glorifying the Holy Spirit that you claim to have received? If He is in you, then why is He not doing what He is supposed to do? “He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” In other words, He will point the believer to Jesus Christ and the redemptive work of God, and anything in the future that would be beneficial to believers, He will show also. But every believer ought to be persuaded in his heart that the Holy Ghost is not in them to go contrary to what Jesus said He would come to do. Certainly we are not publishing this message to diminish anything from the true work of the Holy Ghost, but rather, in an effort to help you better understand just exactly who He is, what He is doing in the world today, and what the true evidence of His presence is. Therefore, if you will bear with me, we will just allow the scriptures themselves to answer your questions on this subject, for we want to give every attribute of the Holy Ghost full recognition, but in its proper place, and at the proper time. Thousands upon thousands are walking away from the real truth of the scriptures, and just using a little text, of a verse or two here and there in an effort to give their man-made programs a scriptural identify, but genuine Bible believers are getting wise to them. I am becoming more and more convinced every day, that Pentecost of today, even though it is still less than 80 years old, is far from being in the will of God. Their own systems and programs are proof that the light and fire of the Holy Ghost is leaving their camps. He is leaving every system of religion, and leading every predestined soul out with Him. Naturally I do not want anyone just to take my word for anything that is said in this message, so that is why I feel it is so important not to leave out any verse of scripture that will be beneficial to our understanding as we deal with this subject. So let us go to the 20th chapter of John, where we will begin reading with verse 19.

PREPARATORY COMMAND

I do not know if you have ever noticed this or not, but it was John that actually put the emphasis upon these various statements made by Jesus. It seems that he just picked up every one of them, the very minute Jesus began to speak of a Comforter to come. He picked up every term that Jesus attributed to this Comforter, and wrote it for believers to read later. When Jesus spoke of a Comforter, the water of eternal life, fire, light, a guide, a teacher: it seems that John’s heart was picking up every word of it, and it was really speaking to him. What we are going to read now was one of the last statements Jesus made before His departure from the earth, so let us notice what He said, and what He did, and try to understand the significance of it. (19) “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst of them, and said, Peace be unto you. (This was the evening of the same day He arose from the grave.) (20) And when He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. (21) Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: (Now right here, comes the commission for going out to preach the gospel, but we also see here, the preparation and condition that would put that commission into effect.) As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. (22) And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Brothers and Sisters, I want to be sure you realize that there was no experience of receiving anything at that particular time. No one received anything other than a preparatory command, that was given to condition their thinking, and to alert them to what was to come later. Up to this point He has only told them to receive something. He has not told them what to listen for, nor what to look for, nor how they would feel when they received; He only told them to receive it. No man had ever had the chance to doctrinalize the experience, therefore their minds were completely clear and void of man’s contamination. That is the true beauty of it all. There was no possible way they could maneuver each other in order to speed up the process, all they could possibly do, was just obey what Jesus told them, wait until.

PROMISE OF THE FATHER

We must read Luke 24:29, and Acts 1:8, more or less together now, in order to catch a complete picture of what has been said to these disciples. Luke wrote both the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, but at different intervals of time, therefore even though both of these statements were made at the same time, they were not recorded together, so let us read Acts 1:8, first. Beginning with verse 4, Jesus has instructed those disciples to wait at Jerusalem until they receive the promise of the Father, and told them what the promise of the Father was, and when you get down to verse 8, you read, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Verse 9, lets us know when these words were spoken, just before He ascended into heaven, so let us now read Luke 24:49, to get the rest of the picture together. He has just been reminding them of how the law and the prophets are being fulfilled by what is taking place, and telling them that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name, and we learn from Acts 1, that they are not to begin this work until after they have received power from on high, or the power of the Holy Ghost. He told them that they were witnesses of those things, and then said, verse 49, “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” Then verse 51, lets us know when those words were spoken. He told them all those things standing right there on the mount of Olives, just before He was parted from them, and received up into the clouds. But this promise of the Father is what He had actually been talking to them about for 3½ years, so it was not something new that He sprang upon them right at the last minute. Back over in John 7:37, where we started this message, He was speaking of the promise of the Father when He said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” The only thing is, this outpouring of the Holy Ghost, recorded in Acts 2:4 could not take place just anywhere, and at any time; it had to coincide exactly with a certain feast spoken of in Leviticus, the feast of Pentecost. That is why Jesus told those disciples to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they received power from on high. He did not tell them just exactly how long they would have to wait, He just put their faith to the test by letting them have only those promises and instructions. Yet He, Himself, knew it could not take place until the feast days which typed and shadowed this event were fully come. Naturally the place where this festivity always took place, was Jerusalem, so that is why they were told not to depart from Jerusalem until they had received this power from on high.

POWER FROM ON HIGH

This word POWER, that Jesus has now used for the first time, gives us another term that He has applied to the Holy Ghost. This speaks of the supernatural side of the workings of the Spirit they are to receive. There are other scriptures where this word, power, simply means authority, but in this particular setting it literally means, power, for when you take it to Mark 16:20 and Hebrew 2:4, you find that wherever these first age believers witnessed of the things they had seen and heard, the Lord worked with them, confirming their word with signs, and miracles, and wonders, but according to His own will. How did the Lord work with them? By the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost. Brother, I will guarantee you one thing; they were not preaching an evidence of speaking in tongues. That was just one of the spiritual manifestations that followed when people believed and obeyed their testimony. But my point is, the power side of the Holy Ghost was manifested wherever those first age Christians witnessed of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were not going around bearing witness of the power of the Holy Ghost though; they were truly giving testimony and witness of what they had seen and heard, and how it fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies, and the Holy Ghost was on hand to back up their testimonies. In that first age, those disciples could bear witness, and give testimony of what they had seen and heard with their natural eyes and ears, as well as with their spiritual eyes and ears. That is what it means, to bear witness, or to bear testimony. You tell what you have seen and heard. Well, what about Gentiles that have never had any visual contact with the Lord Jesus Christ in the natural? Can they bear testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ? After they have been baptized with the Holy Ghost they can, for He, inside your vessel of clay, is the illuminator, the revelator, the teacher. Anyone who has the Holy Ghost can say, I know who Jesus is, He is the Christ, the Jewish Messiah that was to come. Within Him dwelleth all the fulness of the eternal Godhead. That is why the scripture says that no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. It takes the Holy Ghost to give that revelation to us spiritually. Therefore, we can know beyond any shadow of doubt that when some believe God is three persons, and others believe He is only one, one group has to be wrong. Someone is trying to bear witness of something they know nothing about. Do you believe the Holy Ghost would tell one group that God is ONE; and tell another group that God is three persons? An awful lot of those that believe He is three persons are speaking in tongues and claiming to have the Holy Ghost, so what is wrong? Most of them have followed signs instead of the word of God until God has given them over to strong delusion. I don’t know who is who along that line, but I do know this, There will not be one person in the rapture of the bride of Christ, that still believes God is three persons. You can mark that down. That little bride is to be perfected before she is caught up to be with the Bridegroom, and God is not perfecting those that reject the revelation of His word for this last age. That is why you have heard me say so many times, You simply cannot make it in on grandma’s faith; you have to have a personal revelation of your own, and that will correspond with what God is doing on the earth in your age.

NO SALVATION WITHOUT HOLY GHOST

Now let me say a word to some of you who may still think a few are going to make in into the portals of glory without ever receiving the Holy Ghost. Why would Jesus and the apostles stress the importance, and put so much emphasis upon the necessity of believers receiving the Holy Ghost if God was going to accept some without it? I would like to ask you also, Why do you think the apostle Paul would write to the Roman believers and say, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His,” if it isn’t essential? You will find that in Romans 8:9. Then, in verse 14, he said, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” From inside them, of course. In verse 11, he said, “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (make alive) your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Need I remind you what your lot will be, if the Spirit of Christ does not dwell in you in this life? I think you know already. This is not just some little game God is playing, trying to see just how many He can get over on His side. I assure you, He already knows who will believe and obey His word. He knew that before He ever even created a star or anything. By the same token, if He already knew who would believe and obey Him, He also knew who would not; therefore, just as believers are predestined to eternal life, unbelievers are foreordained, or predestinated to condemnation and destruction. But I do believe; I just don’t believe we all have to believe the same thing, in order to be saved. Mister: You are living in the wrong age to be talking like that. God has restored the truth to His true church; therefore, end-time believers absolutely must believe the same thing, and they will. There is no doubt about it, Revelated people are not going to believe you have the Holy Ghost, just on the mere fact that you can speak in tongues. Demons can speak in tongues also. I want to call your attention to a couple of verse in II Corinthians 11, where Paul is writing of false apostles, deceitful workers who transform themselves into the apostles of Christ, and he continues on, in verse 14, saying, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (15) Therefore it is no thing if his (Satan’s) ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” The end for evil workers is destruction. Jesus was asked, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Do you know what His answer was? (John 6:28-29) “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

I am reminded of another statement Jesus made, and how carnal minded people have applied it, so let us read John 13:35, at this time, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Jesus, speaking of the kind of love God has for His children, opened up an idea that carnal mankind has used to its limits. When you take that verse of scripture out of its context, you can put it into any denomination of religion, or even in a lodge, and they will build something that looks real, for it is within your human nature to love something. But, listen to me Saints: When Jesus spoke of this love one toward another it was not even to be applied in the category of humanity, aside from the recreated spirit within. The kind of love must first be exercised toward God, before it can be exercised among each other, and to love God is to love His word. If you do not have a love for the whole word of God, your love is as counterfeit as a plastic horn. True love will first put you in tune with God, and outside of that, there is no divine love, all you have is human love, and that can be very deceiving. Catholic priests and nuns have gone out, all over the world to work among poverty stricken humanity, and on the surface one might think this is exactly what Jesus was talking about, but I can assure you, that it is not. Just a few months ago, I noticed where they were giving praise and recognition to a certain nun, because she had spent so many years of her life in India, working among poverty stricken people. They heaped a great amount of praise upon her, for her love and dedication in all of this, and the world of religion looked upon her with great admiration. What a sacrifice that woman has made, was upon their lips. Now, Brothers and Sisters, you may get sore at me, and some of you may say, Bro. Jackson, you are just too hard hearted, but I must tell you this anyhow, That was not a love deed motivated from the fountain of love from above. Jesus was none other than the love of God, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever (WHAT? is hungry, might have a good hot meal fixed for them? Oh, NO.) BELIEVETH ON HIM should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That means, that anyone who recognizes that he is a lost sinner, whether rich or poor, and believes and obeys the gospel of Jesus Christ, will not perish in hell, but will have everlasting life. The man, Jesus, who was the Christ, was the living example of the love of God, yet there were many poor people around Him constantly, that He never lifted a hand to help. Then when some criticized a certain little woman that had anointed His feet with a little box of ointment they said should have been sold, and the money given to the poor, Jesus said, “Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.” Saints: I am not against helping the poor, but I am saying these things trying to show you that this is not what Jesus was speaking of, in that scripture verse we read. God will change the poverty situation in the Millennium, but in the meanwhile the church has the responsibility of reflecting the light of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. If man’s problems are ever to be taken away, he must first step into that light. If God could get into the hearts of all of mankind, you would not have multi-millionaires on one hand, and poverty stricken ones on the other. The Bible says that in the Millennium, every man shall sit under his own vine, and under his own fig tree, and shall eat the fruit thereof. They shall build houses, and inhabit them. They will not be disposessed by some mortgage holder. The Psalmist said, “I have seen the wicked in his great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.” God is getting ready to cut those old wicked trees down, and shortly thereafter, “The meek shall inherit the earth,” but meanwhile the love that causes one to know that we are disciples of Jesus Christ, must be a love that radiates from the inward presence of the One that would not be there, if we did not first have a genuine love for His word. No wonder the scripture says, “thy word O Lord is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my pathway.” When the Holy Ghost dwells within, and has control of our lives, we will not be running here and there, seeking the praise of other men. We will first seek to please God in all that we do. Then, our prayers will be something more than, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” We will learn to talk to God in an informal way, right from the depths of our soul. Shame on the person who claims to be filled with the Holy Ghost, and still prays those little memorized prayers, or is so formal and stiff collared the he cannot express his true feelings to God from the depths of his soul.

WHO WILL FOLLOW THE SHEPHERD?

It doesn’t matter what color our skin is, nor where we came from, nor what language we speak; when the Holy Ghost comes in and takes over our life, we then, and then only, are capable of exercising the kind of love one to another that Jesus was speaking of. The true people of God are many people, but they are not to be a people of many minds, for the apostle Paul said, “Be ye all of the same mind.” That simply means that God’s true people will all believe the same thing; they will not have different doctrines to fight over, as we have seen so much of, in denominational churches. Furthermore, you will not hear a person that is truly filled with the Holy Ghost say, I love God; but that serpent seen doctrine is out of the pit, or I would rather be baptized like Jesus said, than like Peter said. You cannot pronounce their eternal destiny, for God can always get hold of them, but you can know that such a person does not have the Holy Ghost fountain within to draw their words from. These are the kind that like to stand up and testify, I am saved, sanctified, and on my way to heaven, but they are like an old terrapin that has pulled his head inside his shell, and is afraid to stick it out again; they have closed their minds to the voice of God. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” He also said that sheep know the voice of their shepherd, and a stranger they will not follow, so will you please tell me how a person could have the Holy Ghost in their life, and still be afraid to hear the voice of God, as He speaks through His servants in these last days? Regardless of what some of you may think, the real sheep are those that are filled with the genuine Holy Ghost, and you will find that every one of them love the word of God, and they are not afraid of the truth. Those who are afraid to hear anything different than what they have always believed, could not possibly ever be ready to meet the Lord in the air, for those who will arise to meet Him, will have heard some things that they did not know before, from those 7 thunders of Revelation 10:3-4, things that the bride will need to know. Speaking in tongues won’t help you then, for only a pure revelation will be acceptable to Him. That is the only thing that the gates of hell cannot prevail against.

RECEIVING THE HOLY GHOST

We want to get back to the 2nd chapter of Acts now, and try to finish what we were saying about those that received the Holy Ghost there, on the day of Pentecost. All of the various phases of this feast of Pentecost pointed to the time when God would send the fire of the Holy Ghost to consume those that had offered themselves to him. As we said already, those that waited for the promise of the Father, there, in that upper room, did not have the slightest idea of what to expect, and neither did that group that was gathered in the house of Cornelius. The angel of the Lord God appeared to Cornelius in a vision, and said to him, Send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. Now Cornelius sent for Peter, but he did not have the faintest idea of what he was going to hear, and even Peter as he went with those men, did not know what he was going to say, but the Holy Ghost inside him did the talking, once he entered into the presence of those Gentiles that were gathered there. What happened? They had what we call, a Pentecostal experience. Yes! They did speak in tongues, but Pentecost does not refer to speaking; it refers to feasting. That is what Pentecost was, to the Jews, a feast in the natural. But to that 120 believers that had waited there, in that upper room, it was more than a natural feast. To them, it was a spiritual feast. They had been hungering for righteousness, and now, they were being filled. Therefore, at this point let me ask you, Why did not the rest of the great multitude that followed Jesus receive this experience also? You say, Because they did not obey the instructions Jesus gave, “Tarry in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from high.” Alright then, What right do any of you today have to expect to receive the Holy Ghost, aside from the instructions given in Acts 2:38? I hope you are getting my point. Jesus did not tell them where, in Jerusalem, they were to wait; that was their option. Neither did He tell them what day the promise would come; that was His option. But they were all in one accord, and in one place, when the time arrived. They all remembered the words of Jesus, and they believed Him. They believed He would send the promise of the Father, but there is no record, that any of them had any preconceived notions about what the experience, would be like, so what happened? Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting (S-I-T-T-I-N-G). I just wanted to be sure you all caught that, for there are a lot of peculiar ideas around, about what position one must be in, in order to receive the Holy Ghost. The sitting position was their option also. Did they all hear the sound as of a rushing mighty wind blowing? Yes! Does that mean that everyone who receives the Holy Ghost will hear it? No! But some do, and that is God’s option. I read an article not long ago, where one fellow was completely convinced that a person could not receive the Holy Ghost unless they were lying on the floor, under the pews. He said, It takes that, to get the pride out of you. Maybe it took that to get the pride out of him, but there is no reason to make a doctrine of his own experience. My point is, There is no certain physical posture for receiving the Holy Ghost. God is looking only at your heart. There is no certain manifestation that we have any right to demand as proof, for every promise of God is conditioned upon our faith. We must believe that God will do what He said He would do when we do what we are instructed by His word to do. Furthermore, if you are going to require the same manifestations that those first 120 disciples had, then you cannot stop just with speaking in tongues. You will also have to hear the wind sound, and have the cloven tongues, as of fire, sit upon you. Now I hope you still remember the other scriptures we have already covered, for to the spiritual minded person, they prove beyond any shadow of doubt that to receive the Holy Ghost is to receive the fire also. It is not two separate experiences. But as we get back to what so many refer to as the initial evidence, let me remind you that when those disciples spoke in tongues, they were speaking in understandable languages, as many as 16 different ones. For all of those Jews that had gathered from these various places each heard someone speaking in the language of his home country. They were not just jabbering, like you might hear around the charismatic circles of today.

TEACHER AT WORK

Another thing we want to point out, is that, even though this experience was taking place for the first time, Peter did not have to go get a Rabbi to tell him what had happened to them. No! That teacher went right to work, doing just exactly what Jesus said He would do. Peter stood right up, and said, This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, and he went right ahead and quoted those scriptures from Joel, that were being fulfilled. How did he know that? The teacher that he had just received was calling things to his remembrance, and teaching him. Those disciples had walked with Jesus for 3½ years, and they had already witnessed the fact that He arose from the grave, but during those first 40 days after the resurrection, their very actions proved that they still had need of something more than just what they had learned from Jesus by their own natural understanding. Why do I say that? Simply because one time when they had not seen Jesus for a few days, Simon Peter, tired of waiting around, said, I am going fishing, and the others immediately said, we will go too. They just simply needed something to lean on. Jesus had been their crutch for 3½ years, and all they had to do was just follow along, but when He left them alone for a few days, they started to go back to what He had called them away from. They, like so many in our day, just simply did not have anything to hold them. They went back to their fishing, and fished all night long, but they did not catch anything, for they were fishing out of the will of God. Jesus knew where they were though, and came to them the next morning, saying, Children, have ye any meat? They answered, No. You know the story there, but I just used this in order to emphasize the fact that even though they had heard Jesus teach for 3½ years, and even though they believed Him, without the Holy Ghost, none of it meant very much to them. On the other hand, after what happened there in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, they never again found themselves so bored that they had to go fishing, just to have something to do. When you read the book of Acts, you get the idea that they were all very busy from then on. Brother and Sister, the loving reality of having the living Christ within us is a blessed thing. That is why I have always enjoyed that very special song, “He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me, and talks with me, along life’s narrow way. He lives, He lives, Salvation to impart, You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.” Now just speaking in tongues will not put that joy, hope, and confidence in your soul that gives you this living reality. That is why we can say today, that the evidence of the Holy Ghosts in a person’s life, is what He does to bring that life in line with the word of God.

OUR REST

The Holy Ghost is our spiritual Sabbath. When He comes in, we can rest from all our worries. We never have to worry any more about whether we are a child of God or not. We never have to work any more, trying to get save. Instead, our testimony is, I am saved. I am resting in God’s promise. Hallelujah! Praise His name. It is not the tongues that give the rest; it is His indwelling presence, and the revelation of the word of God that He imparts. I thank God for the tongues part, but I thank Him even more for the revelational benefit. The devil can take your tongues experience right away from you, and in some cases, people that have spoken in tongues in times past, don’t even want to hear any mention of it today. Do you know why? They had the tongues without the reality of the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost. They never could find complete rest in the promise, and promises of God. Those who do, can say with the apostle John, Now are we the sons of God. We do not know exactly what we will be like, but we do know that when Christ comes for us we will be like Him. Praise God! We no longer have to hope that someday we will be saved. The Holy Ghost makes that a reality to us. This is the rest Isaiah spoke of in Chapter 28, when he said, “For with stammering lips and another tongue will I speak to this people. (What people? Jews, of course.) To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.” Those local Jews could not hear, but 3000 Jews from other areas of the world, that had come to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, certainly heard, believed, and obeyed. But tell me, Do you think God was establishing an evidence of speaking in tongues, just because those early disciples did? Furthermore, if what happened then, is to be looked upon as the initial evidence, and no one has the Holy Ghost unless they have that evidence, then you automatically eliminate thousands and thousands of people that you do not want to eliminate, for they have not spoken in an understandable language, as that 120 disciples did, there at Jerusalem. You just simply cannot listen to a lot of jabbering, and say, This is that which took place at the beginning. On the other hand, when you get it settled in your mind, that speaking in tongues, in any matter, does not prove the presence of the Holy Ghost, you can then appreciate the gift of tongues, without giving it pre-eminence over the other gifts of the Spirit. Prophesy is the same way. Some over zealous people will prophesy right out of their own human spirit, without the Holy Ghost having anything to do with it. Then you will hear some prophesy, by the unction and anointing of the Holy Ghost, that have never spoken in tongues. What does that do to your initial evidence? Saints: I hope more of you are beginning to realize that there are other gifts of the Spirit, other than speaking in tongues, and that they are divided to every believer according to the will of God, just like Paul said in 1st Corinthians 12:11.

SIGNS BUT NOT EVIDENCE

When reading Acts 2:4, you should pay particular attention to the way it is written. They were ALL filled with the Holy Ghost, AND (conjunction) began to speak with other tongues, AS THE SPIRIT GAVE THEM UTTERANCE. In Acts 4:31, you see another manifestation of the Holy Ghost, THEY SPAKE THE WORD OF GOD WITH BOLDNESS. Then in Acts 19:6, still another, THEY PROPHESIED. Brothers and Sisters: We are not saying anything, trying to rule out tongues as a gift of the Holy Ghost; we just want to help you get them in their right perspective. Baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was a doctrine taught by those early disciples, but you can find no place where tongues was ever taught as a doctrine; they were only mentioned as a gift of the Holy Ghost along with the other gifts. Naturally, anyone who receives the Holy Ghost could speak in tongues, but so could they also interpret tongues, prophesy, speak a word of wisdom, or anything else that the Holy Ghost in them purposed for them to do. In dealing with the gifts of the Spirit, Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 12:7, saying, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to EVERY MAN (or woman) to profit withal.” Sooner or later the Holy Ghost will manifest His presence in a believer’s life, but we have no scriptural authority to demand any certain manifestation. Furthermore, if you yourself have to have some sign given to you, in order for you to know whether you have received this promise of God, then you are putting the cart before the horse. Does not the scriptures teach us that our faith must be the substance of that which we expect to receive from God? Why do you suppose Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, laid so much emphasis upon faith, if God was going to prove everything to us with signs and evidence? Turn over to the 11th chapter of Hebrews for just a few verses. “Now (when? Now.) Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the evidence (You want evidence; a positive faith based upon the word of God is all the evidence we should need) of things not seen.” (When we are able to see or hear something with our natural eyes and ears, we do not need any faith to believe it.) (3) “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” Your evolutionists do not have faith in God; therefore, they cannot possibly understand anything about creation. We hear a lot of remarks about how Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice, and Cain did not, but have you noticed that Hebrews 11:4 says, “By FAITH Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which (By what? His faith) he obtained witness that he was righteousness.” Notice verse 6 now, “But without faith (Faith in what? The word of God.) it is IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” I hope you caught all of that. Not only must one believe that there truly is a sovereign God, but they must also believe that He is a rewarder of those that seek after Him. A clearer understanding of that particular verse might come forth, if it had been translated, you must believe that He will keep His word. Some people cannot believe that they will receive what they prayed for, because they are not sure that God really will do what the Bible says He will. That is the same thing as not having faith. Others will read a promise from the Bible, but they are not sure whether it applies to them or not, therefore they can never exercise faith to lay hold upon that promise. How do we know whether it was written for the nation of Israel, and so forth. If you are wondering about Acts 2:38, it was spoken, and written to individuals that would believe the gospel, repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Of course it was spoken to Jewish individuals, because they were the ones that asked the question, “Men and brethren, What shall we do?” But later, when the gospel began to be preached to the Gentiles also, that same provision was right there for them. As a matter of fact, what Peter said in verse 39, included every Gentile that would ever believe and obey the gospel. Notice now, 38-39, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of SINS, (plural) and ye shall (What?) Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (39) FOR THE PROMISE IS UNTO YOU, AND TO YOUR CHILDREN, AND TO ALL THAT ARE AFAR OFF, (That was we Gentiles.) Even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Brother, that opened it up to every hungry soul that would ever be convicted by the Spirit of God. Trinity Pentecost will only read Acts 2:4, claim tongues as the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and take their unmovable stand right there. The oneness element of Pentecost will include Acts 2:38-39, in their articles of faith along with Acts 2:4, but they, like the trinitarians, will read the rest of the chapter without ever seeing anything else in it. What about verse 42? How can they miss that? “And they (all those that believed and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.) continued steadfastly in the apostles’ DOCTRINE, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Verse 44 tells us that all that believed were together, and had all things common, and verse 46 tells us that they were all in one accord. There were no doctrinal differences. They all believed the same way. When one of the apostles stood up to present a revelated understanding from the word of God, he did not have to worry about half of the congregation getting up and stomping out of the assembly. Do you know why? They all had the Holy Ghost. He was in this one over here, doing the teaching, and he was in all those who were listening, saying, Amen. That is what John was referring to, over in 1st John 2:20, when he said, “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” We started out on John 3:16, that is the milk of the word, but the Holy Ghost will not allow a true believer to go through life sucking on a spiritual milk bottle. There comes a time when He says, Now, I am going to take your bottle away, and fix you a plate. I hope you understand my little illustration. When Peter began to quote Joel there, that day, those orthodox Jews knew they had read those words many times, but they never before knew what they meant. Yet here stood a man speaking with authority telling them what they meant, and the Spirit of conviction came upon them, and they were pricked in their hearts, and immediately they wanted to know what they could do about their condition. This was Peter’s first opportunity to use the keys to the kingdom, that had been committed to him. (Matthew 16:19) So after he had swung that sword of the Spirit for awhile, he was ready to unlock the gate and let those hungry souls in. On the other hand, those local big shots did learn a thing from all that they heard, for the Holy Ghost was not convicting them. From them, was taken away that which they seemed to have had. Up until then, they had sat in the seat of Moses, with, Thou shalt not, Thou shalt not, and every orthodox Jew was subject to those laws, but from this day and onward, those that believed and obeyed the gospel will no longer need to hear, Thou shalt not, for they now have something in them that causes them to say, I don’t want to, I don’t want to, instead. God’s laws are written in the hearts of true believers, and that is why the scriptures say, that we become a law unto ourselves. When we do wrong, the Holy Ghost within us, will let us know right away, that we have done wrong. No! We don’t have to go somewhere, and get saved, all over again; it is just a matter of being repentant, and asking the Father’s forgiveness.

ETERNAL LIFE

Contrary to what an awful lot of people believe, once a person has been truly sealed by the Holy Ghost, they could never be lost again. That is where the reality of eternal security of the believer comes in. You cannot be spiritually unborn any more than you can be unborn in the natural. In the natural, a person can die at any time after birth, but in the spiritual, one who is born again by a spiritual birth can never die spiritually, for their new birth has given them eternal life. But, Bro. Jackson: Can a person that is truly born again still commit sin? Brothers & Sisters: The new birth experience is not an automatic exemption from all wrong deeds in the flesh. If it was, Paul would not have spent so much time admonishing the various assemblies on proper Christian conduct. What you must remember, is that all of these instructions in the New Testament epistles were written to born again believers. They were the only ones that needed to know how to bring their flesh under subjection to the recreated spirit within; and live a life of holiness unto the Lord. Read the 5th chapter of 1st Corinthians, and you will hear Paul say, Deliver that man into the hands of Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. That tells me that he is a son of God, standing in need of chastening for his wrong doing. You do not have to be afraid to face the truth, if your heart is right with God, and if your heart is not right with God, just covering up the truth will not help you any, for God is only looking at your heart. He knows what you are saying and doing, but your final destiny is determined by what is within you.

WHY RESTORATION WAS NECESSARY

Now in order to clear up, and shed light upon some of our remarks in this message, I want to give a little summary of what happened in between Acts 2:4 in that first age, and Azusa Street in this age. The church did not lose the Holy Ghost all at once, and neither was the Holy Ghost restored back to the church in its fulness all at once. What those hungry saints at Azusa Street mission received was the same Spirit that was received in Acts 2:4, but not in the same measure. In that first age, believers received the Holy Ghost, in its fulness of all the attributes; therefore, their revelation was pure, and there was no cause for disagreement about doctrine, and the manifestations of the Spirit, and it remained so, as long as those first generation watch dogs of the faith were still alive. They had no tares among them, for Satan could not get in to sow the seed. All of those men that were in that upper room on the day of Pentecost were ever watchful over God’s heritage, but they did not live forever. Somewhere in between about 66 A.D., and 90 A.D., Satan got his foot in the door and began to sow some seed of discord among believers. I was just reading in the antinicean father’s commentary where it was speaking of a certain person rising up to speak against water baptism, even as early as the 2nd century, and the writer of the article, called that person a scorpion. Do you know why? Because such people as this are afraid of water. Scorpions, centipedes, and that type of creatures are dry land creatures. He said that anyone that could get such a revelation would have to be a scorpion. But the first goal of Satan was to get rid of the primary doctrine of the Christian church, which was their one God revelation. Gentiles had always believed in pagan gods by the dozens, a god for everything, instead of One God for all things, so this is where Satan began his campaign. He just began to send out certain men that very gradually sowed seed of false teaching among believers, a little here, a little there, and a little somewhere else. Then as people began to open up their minds to some of these different ideas, the revelational attribute of the Holy Ghost began to be weakened in the church. Therefore, the Holy Ghost did not just leave them all at once. Actually it took place over a period of about 500 years, going into the Dark Ages. That is just about the same length of time that God has used in restoring the Holy Ghost attributes back into the church. But even though the Holy Ghost with all of His potential is being restored back into the church, there is still one great difference. After those tares were allowed to get in, they will remain in the assembly of the believers right up to the very end. We know that from the parable of Matthew 13. Also, I want to say this, the Holy Ghost never did completely leave the church, for He was always present to preserve life, to keep the church in existence. He just withheld His attributes, and allowed the people as a whole to have what they were looking for. But for the most part, what was called, the church, was not the church at all. It was mostly tares. A tare is not necessarily a bad person; they are just imitators of genuine Christians. They have another spirit, but some of them, as far as outward appearances, live just as clean as any Christian. Nevertheless, this is what took control of Christianity, or we will say, of the universal church, and led her into the Dark Ages. But praise God, we are living in the age of restoration, and have been privileged to witness many of the last phases of God’s restoration back to the church, what that 2nd generation of Christianity began to let slip away from them. She will eventually be restored completely to her spiritual heritage, and the Holy Ghost will again manifest all the fulness of His many attributes. We already have all of the major doctrines restored, and we are standing right on the threshold of seeing His power restored also. The Pentecostal systems, including the Assemblies of God, Pilgrim Holiness, Pentecostal Church of God, UPC and whatever else there is out there, are the last bunch of harlots God has to deal with. He left those other systems years ago, after they carried the torch of restoration light for their period, and then went to seed on the revelation God gave their founder.

Brothers and Sisters: We are a privileged people, to be allowed to witness what we have in these past decades. We have seen the rise and fall of many men that at one time had a genuine anointing of the Spirit of God upon their ministry. We have seen the great crusaders of men like Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, T. L. Osborne, and many others. We have heard the pros and cons of many doctrines of the scriptures, and many of us were privileged to witness God’s vindication of a certain little man called of God to set those doctrines back in their proper order in the church. Yet even among those who supposedly have been restored to the apostolic faith of our spiritual forefathers, we still find a lot of people following the signs, and searching for the evidence of the presence of the Holy Ghost. Many of those that seemed to uphold the truth that we stand for, and that spoke in tongues, and prophesied, have now turned aside to follow something else, so I ask you plainly, Are you still searching for some kind of evidence, or will you just simply believe the word of God, cast your care upon Him, and allow Him to manifest the Holy Ghost in your life according to His own sovereign will? This is a subject that could be stretched out for many, many services, for the scriptures that could be used are almost unlimited, but how much scriptural proof do believers require? Then how could any amount of scriptural proof help a person that has no confidence in the word of God? I believe we have sufficiently shown, by the scriptures, that the only evidence of the presence of the Holy Ghost that can be trusted is the kind of life that is projected by those that He truly resides within. If He is in you, He will set a standard for you to measure up to, and it will put your life right in line with the word of God. It may take a long time for Him to get us free from all our former teaching we received out there in spiritual Babylon, but with Him, time is not the important factor. He is after a pure product that can be presented to the Lord Jesus Christ spotless, and without wrinkle or blemish of any kind. He knows what He is doing, so trust Him. May God bless you all. Amen!