Showing posts with label baptism in the Holy Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baptism in the Holy Spirit. Show all posts

Friday, May 22, 2020

“Holy Spirit. Ruach HaKodesh.” – Now Think On This by Steve Martin

“Holy Spirit. Ruach HaKodesh.” – Now Think On This by Steve Martin

All Nations Church, Watch of the Lord, 1995. Blow the shofars!
Mahesh Chavda on the left. Ed Brigham holding the mic in the middle.
May 22, 2020 Love For His People ministry in Charlotte, NC USA
“…when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:6-8, NKJV
When the small group of about five of us from Columbus High School (Catholic) met for a time of study, led by my friend Terri Smith, they ended the meeting by praying for me. It was 1973, my senior year in Waterloo, Iowa, and they had told me prior that they would seek the Lord on my behalf, to receive something more, way beyond what I could have already learned in 12 years of religious education. Having grown up in the Midwest state of Iowa*, in one of the finest school systems in the USA, I knew I needed and thus desired more in my life.
Columbus Catholic High School in Waterloo, Iowa
And I was not disappointed. After they circled around me, laid hands on my head and shoulders, I began to know the Holy Spirit in a very real, very tangible way. I was 18. He had been around for all eternity.
This One was no longer in my mind, my heart, my soul as just the “Third Person of the Trinity”. Nor was He just “Holy Ghost” – like Casper the friendly ghost who I grew up watching on TV. He was no longer some foreign concept that somehow, I was supposed to have believed in without ever seeing. Of course, I was taught to believe that in the Apostles Creed from my youth up.
No, Holy Spirit, without the “The”, became my Guide, my Comforter, the One Who gave me the ability to pray in a language which I didn’t know, for things I wasn’t sure I was praying for, Who had just come into my life. He had also endowed me with gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are listed in Scripture, found in Romans and Corinthians, written by Paul the apostle, the believing Jew in the Messiah, the One Who had fulfilled His promise in sending Holy Spirit.
Instrumental as part of the foundational stone in my Christian life, was the first gift of speaking in tongues. From that point on I knew, really knew in my heart that I was praying the right prayers. It was not just for the Pentecostals down the street, which previously I had considered somewhat weird. Nor the Protestant and Catholic Charismatic people, which were being blessed all around the world with that current move of the Holy Spirit in the 1960s and 70s.
Holy Spirit symbol in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit had come to me. That moment in time forever changed my life. Forever changed my life.
Yeshua (Jesus) had fulfilled His promise to His followers, the Jews in 33 AD, that after His death, burial, and resurrection He would send His Holy Spirit to them, for the power they would need to obey His commission to take the Good News, the Gospel, to the nations. They too were not disappointed.
As historically and factually recorded in Acts 2:1-13 (I am quoting here from the Complete Jewish Bible), we know what happened to these first disciples, all Jewish believers in Yeshua.
“The festival of Shavu‘ot (Pentecost as known in English) arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to talk in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
Now there were staying in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) religious Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered; they were confused, because each one heard the believers speaking in his own language. Totally amazed, they asked, “How is this possible? Aren’t all these people who are speaking from the Galil (Galilee)? How is it that we hear them speaking in our native languages? We are Parthians, Medes, Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Y’hudah (Judah), Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome; Jews by birth and proselytes; Jews from Crete and from Arabia. . . ! How is it that we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things God has done?” Amazed and confused, they all went on asking each other, “What can this mean?” But others made fun of them and said, “They’ve just had too much wine!”
I am not much of a wine drinker (just have not gotten a liking to the taste) but obviously these Jewish believers had quite a reaction when the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them that day. The lives they then lived from that point on proved to the world that indeed they were empowered by Someone outside of just a fleshly commitment to obey the Lord. Holy Spirit had given them the courage, the boldness, the empowerment they would need to take that which Yeshua (Jesus) had taught them, to a dying world which too needed what they had been given.
Lord knows we each need the Holy Spirt today in our lives.
I have been to the Upper Room in the Old City of Jerusalem several times. Though we cannot always know the “exact” location where anything ever happened in mankind’s history, this surely is close enough for me. And when I have gathered with many, many Christians, and Jews, believers in the One God, in that place, I can tangibly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Greg Partipilo – one of the four men on our Love For His People 1st annual fall men’s trip – Ahava Adventures. In the Upper Room, Jerusalem. Oct. 2019 Photo by Steve Martin
From that initial day in 1973 with my high school friends, the 3rd person of the Trinity, God Himself, has led me in the ways of the Lord. He has spoken words of guidance, hope, direction, and encouragement into my spirit. He has taught me the ways of God the Father, and the impacting knowledge of the Only Begotten Son, Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus Christ.
During the late 1990s, here in Charlotte, North Carolina, dozens of us would gather each Friday night at All Nations Church, in an actual converted horse barn which, along with my Dad, Louis Martin, had first taken out the horse stalls to begin transformation of the place!
The gathering was called the “Watch of the Lord” by Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda, to have 8 hours of praise and worship of the Lord, prayer for Israel, the USA, and the nations, prophetic words, and healing for the sick. Each Friday night from 10 pm to 6 am. To this day it continues, though with a few less hours. (You can read, and see photos, of those years in my book, “The Promise. One Man’s Journey To See God’s Word Revealed, 2013).
One amazing facet of the evening/early morning hours were the lengthy times of praying in tongues together. In fact, on one special night, we had a minister present who spoke of how the Lord had instructed him to pray for hours in tongues, unknowing what he was praying for. Years later, at a critical time in his ministry, the Holy Spirit told him that those previous hours of praying in tongues had prepared him and those around him for the great plan God had brought him to, in which he needed the faith and courage to build a Christian radio station in the Northeast corner of the USA. The ground had been prepared through his obedience, and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment, to then build.
To this day I regularly pray in tongues.
We not only look to the annual special season of Pentecost, celebrated for centuries by the Church, but all the way back to the very first time of Holy Spirit’s coming during the Lord’s Feast of Shavuot, occurring in the Jewish city of Jerusalem, Yerushalayim.
The Holy Spirit came then, to empower and send out the believers. His ongoing desire is to do the same for us, for those who continue to seek the Living God of Israel and His plans and purposes to be fulfilled in their lives.
Come Holy Spirit. (Or as in Hebrew, Bo Ruach HaKodesh). Fill our hearts and souls with Your presence, O Lord.
Now think on this.
Ahava and shalom,
Steve Martin, Founder/President  Love For His People, Inc.
*The Iowa educational school system, in the 1970s, had the final testing for students that was used in the nation at that time, based on its high standards of teaching high school students. It was called the Iowa Basic Skills. And the Catholic school system was known for having an even higher standard than what the state, and nation, had set.
Come on!
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Now Think On This #511 – in the year of our Lord 05.22.2020 – “Holy Spirit” – Friday, 5:25 am in Charlotte, NC USA
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Monday, August 19, 2019

"Holy Spirit" - Now Think On This by Steve Martin


Holy Spirit


“Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." Acts 2:38-39, NKJV


Some know Him as the third Person of the Godhead, for He is. Others may know Him better as the Comforter, for He is that too. In fact, Jesus said that once He had ascended into heaven, He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. He did.
In some circles, He is known as Ruach HaKodesh, as so in the Hebrew language. (“Ruach” – Spirit, “Ha”- the, “Kodesh” – Holy.)
In the New American Standard version of the Bible, the Holy Spirit is spoken of 1,127 times. That may be surprising to many. Some think He quit His work on this planet after the first century. How sad is that? Especially if it was true.
We first read of Him in Genesis 1:2, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water.” (Complete Jewish Bible) 
Then a few verses later we read this in Gen 1:26-28, “Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (NKJV) The Trinity in action, in the very beginning. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
King David knew of the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Psalm 51:10-12, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” (NKJV)

Yeshua (Jesus) promised this in John 14:25-26, “I have told you these things while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Ruach HaKodesh, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything; that is, he will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (Complete Jewish Bible)
Throughout the Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles (Messengers) and the Epistles, written primarily by Jews, the Holy Spirit continued to interact with mankind. He never would leave nor forsake.
Paul, formerly known as Saul, a Jew, both before and after he became a believer, was among the first to persecute the new believers in Yeshua. He was fully committed to doing so, and did quite extensively until he literally saw the light. Later he wrote this in his writings, speaking of the Holy Spirit’s continuing action in his life, and that of Timothy’s, his disciple, many years after Pentecost (Shavuot in Hebrew).
In 2 Timothy 1:13-14, Paul wrote to his spiritual son, “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.” (NKJV)
The dwelling of God’s Spirit continued throughout their lives.
Even Jude, in his short book, wrote in verses 20-21, “But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!” (THE MESSAGE)
Praying in the Holy Spirit was, and still is, a gift of the Holy Spirit. Some have long dismissed this to their own hurt, and thus lack spiritual power in their Christian walk today.
When Ruach HaKodesh fulfilled the promise of Yeshua (Jesus), in coming after Jesus’ ascension 50 days later on Pentecost (“Pente” - 50 in Greek) on the Lord’s Feast of Shavuot, He indeed empowered the previously fearful, carefully hidden away in the Upper Room. Those same 120 disciples (come with me to Israel and I will show you that location) were the ones who then changed the world through the mighty outworking of the Spirit in them.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a real thing. It is a much-needed experience in the life of the Church, the One New Man, to encounter the lies and deceit of the enemy we battle, and which the world glorifies. While satan the deceiver advances his agenda, it will be those walking, moving, and believing in the Almighty God, through the power of the Holy Spirit in them, who will be the ones putting up the fight to bring about the deliverance of souls, humans, for the Savior Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

By grace, I received the Holy Spirit’s baptism in my high school senior year, in 1973, even as a Roman Catholic. Since then, 46 years ago as of this writing, I have been praying in tongues, receiving prophetic words, seeing actual miracles of supernatural healing in “real” time, and knowing all the gifts of the Holy Spirit exist today. Because He does live and move daily in lives around the world, we are thus able to show what the world needs to know about and experience too.
If you walk with the Spirit of the Living God of Israel, Who energizes daily (for we all need Him), then great!
If not, then what are you waiting for? Ask. Seek. Knock. He will come. To you.
Now think on this and see what good things the Lord has in store for you and those around you.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin
Founder/President
Love For His People, Inc.

Please sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter: Now Think On This. The sign-up form is on our ministry website: www.loveforhispeople.blogspot.com

You are welcome to help support the families in Israel that we do. Give now. Givelify.

Love For His People ministry
P.O. Box 414
Pineville, NC 28134


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Now Think On This #449 - in the year of our Lord 08.19.19 – “Holy Spirit” – Monday, 7:10 pm


Tuesday, May 14, 2019

8 Ways to Encourage the Flow of the Holy Spirit by Lee Grady Identity Network

8 Ways to Encourage the Flow of the Holy Spirit by Lee Grady

8 Ways to Encourage the Flow of the Holy Spirit by Lee Grady

Identity Network May 14, 2019
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By Greg Mohr
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I'm grateful for my friend Quentin Beard, who pastors one of the fastest growing churches in South Dakota, Sioux Falls First Assembly. Because Quentin wants his congregation to experience the Holy Spirit, he scheduled a special weekend of meetings so that people could be baptized in the Holy Spirit, get healing prayer and receive personal prophetic ministry.

The day before the event, I asked Quentin if we could have a larger-than-normal bottle of oil on the altar near the stage. Most churches just have a small cruet or vial of oil; I wanted more, so one of the church's pastors filled a half-gallon bottle. The quantity of oil was prophetic in itself, because the Lord visited us in power. Many people were filled with the Spirit during those three days.

Are you hungry for more of the Holy Spirit in your church? It's time to stop limiting His power.

Everywhere I go, I hear pastors asking how they can we encourage the freedom of the Holy Spirit in a church culture that has become increasingly scripted, scheduled and controlled right down to the nanosecond. The essence of Pentecost, which came "suddenly," was its unpredictability. But there seems to be no room for God's sudden surprises when we already have our sermons planned out for the next six months.

Here are eight practical things we can do to encourage the freedom of Pentecost in our churches:

Teach about the Holy Spirit often. The Holy Spirit was rarely mentioned in the church I grew up in, so we never expected Him to do anything. Yet He is described in the second verse of the Bible as "moving" upon the surface of the newly created world (Gen. 1:2), and He has one of the last messages in the Bible (see Rev. 22:17). He moves and He speaks throughout the Scriptures! But we must invite Him to move and speak by giving Him the place He deserves.

Leave room for personal prayer ministry. A church without altar ministry is like a hospital without a maternity ward. New life begins at the altar—whether it is salvation, healing, prophetic ministry or the impartation of a fresh anointing. Today many churches that offer multiple services often skimp on ministry time because they are focused on herding the 10 a.m. group out of the sanctuary to get ready for the 11:30 a.m. crowd. Multiple services are fine, but we are crowding the Spirit out of the church if we don't schedule time for people to respond to the message.

Have small groups where people can use the Holy Spirit's gifts. It's not practical for everyone to prophesy or exercise other spiritual gifts in a large congregation. But if people are plugged into small groups, there will be opportunities for believers to encourage one another in supernatural ways. And people are more comfortable stepping out in faith in front of 10 people than they are in front of 3,000.

Train people in prophecy, healing and Spirit-led ministry.Many pastors clamp down on the operation of spiritual gifts because a few fanatics with inflated egos like to pull the church into weirdness. But in our effort to protect the sheep from deception, let's not pull the pendulum to the other extreme by forbidding the gifts of the Spirit. The genuine power of God will flow if we teach people the difference between authentic anointing and strange fire.

Offer "teaching moments" to explain the gifts of the Spirit. I've been in churches where Brother Herschel or Sister Agnes prophesied in such a harsh, condemning tone that everyone in the church let out a collective groan. Their "words from God" had the same effect on the congregation as fingernails on a chalkboard. We cannot just ignore these moments and move on. When the Corinthians mishandled speaking in tongues and prophecy in the first century, the apostle Paul used their mistakes as an opportunity to teach about how to use gifts properly.

Expose your church to healthy ministries that flow in the anointing. God has raised up thousands of prophets who have not bowed their knees to the Baals of exploitation, greed and gimmicks. We need life-giving traveling ministries because God sends them to win new converts, heal the sick, unleash prophetic power, train leaders and impart new vision in congregations. We should not be afraid to expose our churches to men and women of character who are called to minister in the supernatural.

Give time for testimonies of God's supernatural power. Nothing raises the faith level of a congregation like someone's raw experience with God. If a man was healed this week in your church, let him shout it from the housetops. If an infertile couple got pregnant, let them tell about the goodness of God. Stories of supernatural intervention trigger a holy expectation in everyone—and God gets the glory for His miracles.

Preach about holiness. Let's never forget that the Holy Spirit is holy. Many churches today have stopped warning God's people about the dangers of sin, so we don't confront anymore. We've figured out that people will pack the house if we give them sugary-sweet motivational pep talks that never step on toes. By avoiding the tough topics, we've essentially told the Holy Ghost to take a hike.

We will be celebrating Pentecost in a few weeks. Let's fling open the doors and allow the Spirit to have His way. Instead of being afraid of what He might disrupt or whom He might offend, let's rather fear what our churches would be like without Him.

Lee Grady

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

The Head of the Church of England Reveals: 'I Pray in Tongues Every Day' - CBN News Christian Ellis

Archbishop Justin Welby (AP Photo)

The Head of the Church of England Reveals: 'I Pray in Tongues Every Day'

01-21-2019
CBN News Christian Ellis
The Archbishop of Canterbury, known as the leader of the Church of England, has revealed he prays in tongues every day. 
Archbishop Justin Welby, who has served in the position since November 2012, stated he speaks in tongues during his daily 5am prayer time. The bishop shared the news during an interview with a Christian radio station, Premier. 
"In my own prayer life, and as part of my daily discipline, I pray in tongues every day – not as an occasional thing, but as part of daily prayer," Welby said. "It's not something to make a great song and dance about. Given it's usually extremely early in the morning it's not usually an immensely ecstatic moment."
The bishop also is open to other gifts of the Holy Spirit operating in our modern day world, saying he receives words of knowledge from others and he expects to "hear from God through other people with words of knowledge or prophecies – some of which I am unsure about, others I can sense there being something of the Spirit of God."
Speaking in tongues and words of knowledge are common within more charismatic churches such as Pentecostals. However, Welby believes the gifts are not just for charismatic churches. The Guardian reports he was 19 when he was filled with the Holy Spirit while being an Anglican. 
"It was from that moment and in the days that followed I realised that the Holy Spirit of God had touched me in a very powerful way," he shared with the Anglican Communion News Service in 2015. "I began to speak in tongues and began to learn of the intimacy that Christ brings to us."
Welby is connected to the evangelical wing of the Church of England. He was brought up in Holy Trinity Brompton, an evangelical Anglican church known for speaking in tongues. 
Some denominations believe "speaking in tongues" and "words of knowledge" ended with the early church. Others point to scriptures like Mark 16 where Jesus spoke to the disciples about speaking in tongues right before he ascended into Heaven.
Mark 16:16-17 states, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues." 
Numerous Bible verses correlate "speaking in tongues" and "words of knowledge" with being filled with the Holy Spirit. 
After being filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, Peter shared a passage from Joel 2:28, stating, "'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." 
In the Premier interview, Welby warned of "the danger of putting 'charismatic' as a tribal category within the church", emphasizing "all Christians are filled with the Spirit, so every Christian is a charismatic in that sense".