Wednesday, May 17, 2000
2:10 AM, on the computer
Okay, I've got a beef here... bear with me, I'm sure that this is from God. Read on with an open heart, cause I'm gonna blow away someone's views on Christianity.
First of all, there's so much more to Christianity than what people think these days. Too many churches these days treat God like a genie! Robin Williams said it best: "PHENOMINAL COSMIC POWER!!! iiiiiiiiiitty bity living space...." They put Him in an itty bitty box, dress up in fancy robes, and let Him out on Sundays and sing old rusty 100-yr old hymns. My mentor/Bible teacher said it best when he said: "listening to some of these people singing about joy made me want to cry... it was sad." Keep in mind this man is 70-something... I have another friend that says this about her church: "You couldn't get these people to move if you had a blowtorch under their seats." I really, really, really think that's sad. Yes these people may be Christians, and yes they're going to Heaven, but they're missing out on so much... there's another world out there, another different part of Christianity out there.
Someone's reading this and saying "okay, you've got my attention, what are you trying to tell me?" The answer's simple, but too many people overlook it.
The Holy Spirit.
Yeah that's right, the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised it at then end of John, and Luke wrote about it in the entire book of Acts. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (see Acts 2) changed the face of Christanity forever. No longer was a temple needed to worship God. WE became the temple for the Holy Spirit to reside in (1 Corinthians 6:19). We could now perform miracles like Jesus did (see Acts 3:6-9, 5:1-10, (9:17-18, 9:33-35, 9:36-41, 13:8-11, 14:8-10, 16:16-18, 20:9-10, 28:3-5 and 28:7-9). We could now heal the sick, cleanse lepers, cast out demons, and even raise the dead! In short, God gave us the ability to change the world...
So what happened? Why don't we see this today? This answer will shock a lot of people... religion happened. People got together and said "this should be done this way, that should be done that way, and so forth" and made up a bunch of rules that they thought was a good idea, yet had no scriptural basis whatsoever. The result of this is most churches today. The biggest problem is there's a belief out there that healings and casting out demons and stuff like that ended with the death of the last apostle. However, do keep in mind that most ALL denominations started with a bunch of spirit-filled (the term for a Christian endowed with the Holy Spirit) people getting in a group, then the average man moves in and tells people how to worship God instead of letting God handle it. God may be the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow, but the church is still stuck somewhere in the 1700's and it stopped keeping up with God. Somewhere along the line the Holy Spirit said "okay, that's it... I'm outta here..." and the church becomes dead.
You might be reading this and saying "man, my church is just like that! What can I do to change it?" My answer to that is this: you need to be Baptized by the Holy Spirit. It's really easy, it just takes an act of faith.
Steps to receiving the Holy Spirit:
1) Accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. If you've done this, go to step two. If not and you'd like to, do continue.
First, you need to confess your sins... y'know, stealing, premarital sex, swearing, drug use, things like that. Second, Believe on Jesus (John 3:16 -- "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begoten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."). Step three, confess Jesus as Lord and pray this prayer* ALOUD -- "God in Heaven, I come to You in the name of Your Son, Jesus. I confess that I haven't lived my life for You. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that He died on the cross and rose again from the dead so I might have a better life now and eternal life in heaven. Jesus, come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. From this day forward, I'll live my life for You to the best of my ability. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen." Now thank God for saving you and enjoy your new life, you're only a few seconds old now... and by the way, welcome home!
2) "I've never been taught about this 'Holy Spirit', how do I find out more?" It helps to know a bit more about it, I can talk about it all day, but the best idea is to go straight to the source. Here's a TON of scriptures pertaining to Baptism/Being Filled with the Holy Spirit:
Exodus 31:1-6; Numbers 27:18; Judges 3:9-10, 6:34, 11:29, 15:14-15; 1 Samuel 11:6-7, 16:13; 1 Chronicles 12:18; 2 Chronicles 24:20-21; Psalm 51:10-12; Isaiah 11:1-3, 32:15, 42:1, 44:3, 59:21; Ezekiel 2:1-2, 11:19-20, 36:26-27, 37:14 39:29; Joel 2:28-29; Micah 3:8; Zechariah 4:6; Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:7-8; Luke 1:15, 1:41, 1:67, 3:16, 4:1, 24:49; John 1:32-33, 7:38-39; Acts 1:4-5, 2:4-13, 2:38-39, 4:8, 4:31, 6:3, 7:55, 8:14-17, 9:17, 10:4-47, 9:17, 10:44-47, 11:15-17, 13:9, 15:8, 19:1-7 (y'know, it talks about it so much, just read the whole book of Acts) aaaand last but not least, Ephesians 5:18.
Okay, so now that you've read all that (or at least wrote it down to read later) here's
3) Go find a spirit-filled church (preferably nondenominational, but there's some good denominational churches out there that are spirit filled, but do try to avoid any churche that tell you you're going to Hell if you don't get the Holy Spirit... you're fine if you don't, but MAN does it make living a lot better/ more fun/ more God-driven). You'll know a church is spirit filled when you see people really praising the Lord (jumping around, dancing, bowing to God, raising their hands in the air) and/or speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues is easily identifiable, just listen for some language you couldn't understand if you tried. Now that you've found a spirit-filled church,
4) Tell them you want the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and just do what they say. I wish it could be done by yourself at home, or on the internet, but it's something that has to be done by having a spirit-filled person lay hands on you.
But once you get it done, you'll see things differently... you'll see the world as God see it. You have a sharper sense of reality, and you'll start to exhibit "spiritual gifts" (see 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 for a few, but there's many more) and display these attributes of God:
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-control
That's just the tip of the iceberg though... being a spirit filled Christian is an entirely different experience, it's an entirely different WORLD (for lack of a better term). I recommend it to anyone that's a Christian and that's seeking more than a "dead" experience (singing Grandma's hymns and falling asleep in church). It's not mandatory, but MAN is it so much more helpful in living a victorious Christian life. If anyone has any more questions, feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to answer them to the best of the abilities that God grants me. God Bless, and may His Spirit guide you!
* Prayer taken from Water Wind and Fire, by Mac Hammond, used with the knowledge that he won't really care since I'm using his prayer to hopefully lead souls to the Lord... if he does care though... whoops.