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HOW TO
RECEIVE
THE BAPTISM OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT
by: Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
"He
was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are
healed." (Isaiah 53:5)
THE
HOLY SPIRIT - The Holy Ghost & Fire
The
importance of the Holy Spirit and how to receive the Holy Spirit, the
Holy Ghost and Fire
"And
now ye know what withholdeth that he (Antichrist) might be revealed in
his time; And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the breadth of His mouth and shall destroy with the
brightness of His coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8)
PREFACE
The
purpose of this book is to announce to the Church and the world at large,
that the person of the Holy Spirit is very much alive and in control.
Some
time ago, in a weekly religion column I was writing for the
"Edmonton Sun", I wrote: Pope John Paul II calls himself
the "Vicar of Jesus Christ." This is impossible because
Jesus Christ - the head of the Church - appointed the Holy Spirit as His
representative here, nearly 2000 years ago. I'm sorry John Paul, I
didn't know the Holy Spirit has taken early retirement."
THE
ANTICHRIST HAS NOT YET BEEN REVEALED
St.
Paul stated that the Antichrist has not yet been revealed because:
 The
antichrist has not yet been revealed because the stage is still being set
for the appearance of the antichrist.
The
Holy Spirit - Christ's representative - automatically bars the antichrist
from assuming power; so long as the church age lasts.
And
the Church, which is the 'Body of Christ' is too powerful for Satan or
the Antichrist to defeat, because we are blood washed and baptized in
God's Almighty Holy Spirit and have been given power of Satan.
The
word 'let' in the King James Version is old English and means 'restrain'.
The Holy Spirit, who now restrains the Antichrist, will continue to
restrain the Antichrist, until He (the Holy Spirit) is taken out of the
way.
When
He resurrects the 'dead in Christ', even as He raised Jesus from the dead
(Romans 8:11), we shall be 'taken up' and depart this earth together with
Him.
THE
HOLY SPIRIT - being omnipresent - cannot leave this world, since He is
God and everywhere present. But the Holy Spirit will not function
as He now does, since the Church will then be in Heaven. After the
parousia (Christ's return), the Holy Spirit will do as He did prior to
the Day of Pentecost, and COME UPON people whom He desires to work
through.
SALT
IS A PRESERVATIVE
Jesus
Christ stated, "Ye are the salt of the earth...' (Matthew 5:14)
What did the Lord mean? The Church is preserving the earth from
corruption, because of our godly lives. We are holding back evil,
thus keeping the world from going totally insane. We are also
holding back God's holy judgment from falling upon a wicked and corrupt
world.
In
a like manner, God pledged to 'hold back judgment' upon Sodom and
Gomorrah, if there were a mere 10 righteous people there. Another
classic example is God 'postponing His judgment' upon Ninevah for 490
yeas, because they repented at the preaching of Prophet Jonah.
WHAT
DOES THE WORD RELIGION MEAN?
Religion
is taken from the words 're' and 'ligio', 'again hold back' something.
True religion holds back evil, wickedness, sin, error, perversion,
immorality, abortion and violence. True religion keeps the devil
'at bay'. Religion can also mean to 'bind to' something.
As
Christians, we are bound to the cross of Jesus Christ. We are love
slaves (greek doulos) of Jesus Christ, bound to Him eternally by the
cords of love and devotion.
We
desperately need to make a re-commitment to serve the Lord Jesus Christ
with our whole being.
Rather
than assail the Church and 'men of God' who proclaim the truth,
'homosexual and abortion groups' should be thanking God for the prayers
and godly lives of born again Christians.
Gamblers,
drug addicts, drunks, adulterers and pornographers, should be thanking
God and Evangelical Churches for their faithfulness, instead of 'dumping
on us' their diatribes of hatred and derision.'
Modernist,
compromising preachers and corrupt politicians should repent and humble
themselves, and give glory to God for His saving and protecting grace,
despite their sinful living. And the pagan should receive Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior.
Salt
is a preservative, and we, the Church - all those who are born again by
the Word of God and the Holy Spirit - are holding back 'The Man of Sin',
the Antichrist.
Jesus
declared, "I
am the light of the world". (John 8: 1) Without contradiction,
Jesus is the Light of the world, yet He said: "Ye
are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5: 14,
16)'=
Satan
is darkness personified, and cannot function in the light!
All that is necessary to drive away the darkness is to turn on the
light! That is why Satan - wise as he is - WILL
NOT COME DOWN to
this earth to reside in one man (the
Antichrist),
jeopardizing his entire end-time program, until the Blessed Holy Spirit
and the Church of the Living God are
gone.
WHY
IS THE HOLY SPIRIT & CHURCH OF LIVING, GOING TO BE GONE?
Jesus
Christ gave His power and authority to His 12 apostles, 70 disciples, 120
in the Upper Room, and to His Church which consists of all believers: "And
the seventy returned again with joy saying, Lord, even the devils are
subject unto us through Thy name."
He
answered: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Behold I give unto you power (authority)
to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and
nothing shall by any means hurt you." (Luke 10:17-19)
If
Jesus told the truth - and we know He did - here is the scenario which
could easily happen if the Church were still here, when Satan makes his
last big move to rule the entire world: The fact is that God has given us
the power to cast out devils, therefore Spirit filled believers could
bind the devil's ability, rendering him powerless to perform his evil
acts, since he would be encapsulated within the body of a
political leader 'the Antichrist'.
SATAN
WOULD NOT TAKE A CHANCE UNTIL THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GONE
SATAN
WOULD NOT CHANCE
such a move, until the Holy Spirit is out of the way! The 'parousia'
opens the door for Satan, the false prophet - who will miss the rapture -
and the Antichrist to make their move.
Satan,
who is the prince of the power of
the air, will then come from his sanctuary in
the air -
the atmosphere, stratosphere
and space - to make his temporary headquarters on the earth! He is
now called the 'prince of the power of the air.' (Ephesians 2: 2)
WHAT
WILL SATAN - who is the Prince of the Power of the Air Do?
For
seven years Satan will terrorize, brutalize, brainwash and deceive those
who remain here after the 'harpazo' - the catching away of His
blood-washed, Spirit-filled Church. Satan will permanently possess
a political ruler who is called the Antichrist in imitation of the
infilling of Jesus the Son of God, by the Holy Spirit.
GIFTS
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ARE NECESSARY
The
'Gifts of the Holy Spirit' are necessary for evangelism and spiritual
warfare, in the life of a vibrant and healthy Church.
There
is no substitute for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, in His
Body. The 'Gifts of the Holy Spirit' should be 'mandatory issue'
for all 'soldiers of the cross'.
Without
the Holy Spirit's anointing, leading and supernatural wisdom, the Church
is adrift in a sea of uncertainty and prone to bareness and
discouragement. And even worse, the Church is adrift with error and
false teaching without the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
It
must offend our Lord, when Christians in general, and Ministers in
particular, show such disrespect that they ignore and marginalize the
Holy Spirit, and minimize his empowering spiritual gift. It must
offend our Lord as the Holy Spirit was given to the Church by Christ
himself.
The
Free Methodist 'Course of Study' states: "The Church cannot
accomplish its spiritual mission without the Gifts of the Spirit".
Dr. A.B. Simpson, founder of the 'Christian and Missionary Alliance'
wrote: "First Corinthians the twelfth chapter is a pattern of for
our present day churches."
Billy
Graham wrote in his 'Bethelgram', 1981: "We have learnt much about
the power of the 'Holy Spirit'. You know, we have looked a bit
askance of our Pentecostal brethren because of their emphasis on the
doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
I
wonder if one of the secrets of 'Pentecostalists' and the Assemblies of
God, cannot be learned by our mainstream churches with the great emphasis
on the Holy Spirit.
I
want to tell you that I believe that the time is come to give the Holy
Spirit His rightful place in our preaching, in our teaching and in our
churches: We need to go back and study what the Apostle Paul meant when
he said, 'Be filled with the Spirit'."
Dr.
A.W. Tozer stated: "It is a sad fact, but nevertheless true, that
were the Holy Spirit to be absent from our church services, most of us
would never recognize anything different."
Dr.
R.A. Torrey, in 'What the Bible Teaches', wrote: "The Baptism with
the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit that is distinct from
and subsequent and additional to His regenerating work: An
impartation of power, and the one who receives it is fitted for service,
not merely for the apostles, not merely for those of the 'Apostolic Age',
but for all that are afar off, every believer, in every age of the
Church's history.
One
of America's greatest soul sinners was D.L. Moody, who founded Moody
Tabernacle and won hundreds of thousands for Jesus Christ in the USA
and Great Britain.
D.L.
Moody stated: "I firmly believe that the moment our hearts are
emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and self-seeking and
everything that is contrary to God's law,
the Holy Ghost will come and fill every corner of our hearts; but if
we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and self-seeking and
pleasure and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God.
Moody
continued: "If God were to fill us as we are we would become vain as
peacocks. The secret of the Holy
Spirit coming in power to the believer is in the individual's complete
surrender to the Savior."
R.A.
Torrey,
a close associate of D.L Moody,
was stopped by a friend on his way to a convention, who said: "I
see you are to speak on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Tell the people
not to pray for the Holy Spirit."
Torrey replied: "I
shall certainly not tell them that, for Jesus said":
"How much more shall
your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him."
(Luke 11: 13)
G.H.C.
MacGregor writes: "God will fill us with His Spirit. Upon the
contrite, penitent, waiting, obedient soul there will fall 'as there fell
at Pentecost' the gift of the Holy Ghost. Victory over sin,
impossible before, will become possible. Sin shall not have
dominion over us, because He has cured it, and in Him we are more than
conquerors.
TO
RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT YOU NEED TO HAVE A STRONG HUNGER FOR GOD
Our
greatest need is a deep longing and intense hunger and thirst after God
and His spiritual graces and gifts! Catherine Booth, wife of the
famous General of the Salvation Army, shares her understanding of this
crucial fact 'God never gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to any human
soul who has not come to that point where he would sell all he had to
obtain it."
Jonathan
Goforth,
one of the world's great missionaries, declared: "Nothing
can clothe with victorious might but the baptism of the Holy Ghost and
with fire, and no one can possess such a baptism, without knowing it."
F.B.
Meyer wrote:
"The
Pentecostal
fullness, the enduement of power, the baptism of fire, are all within our
reach. Let us be inspired with a holy ambition to get all that our God is
willing to bestow."
England's
renowned Baptist preacher, C.H.
Spurgeon admonished his thousands
of parishioners: "Let us not be satisfied with the sip that saves,
but let us go onto the baptism which buries the flesh and raises us in
the likeness of the risen Lord:
Even the baptism into the Holy Ghost and into fire which makes us
spiritual and sets us all on flame with zeal for the glory of God."
Dutch
Reformed Theologian Andrew Murray
exhorted: "Brother,
what we need is to pray in the name of Christ, to ask that we may receive
that our joy may be full for the BAPTISM
OF THE HOLY GHOST."
Noted
Bible scholar A.J. Gordon,
insisted that the 'Baptism of the Holy Spirit' is a definite experience,
subsequent to conversion: "It
seems clear from the Scriptures that it is still the duty and privilege
of believers to receive the Holy Spirit by a conscious, definite act of
appropriating faith, just as they received Jesus Christ."
Scottish
Evangelist John MacNeil, once
remarked: "Full
salvation consists in receiving the promise of the Spirit in addition to
being justified."
The
renowned Baptist preacher, Vance
Havner noted: "There is something lacking among Bible Christians
today. If you are aware of it, I need not describe it: if you are not
aware of it, you would not understand it if I did describe it. You
may call it the 'filling of the Spirit', full surrender, consecration,
the victorious life, revival. Whatever it is, most of us haven't
it."
WHY
THE LACK OF SPIRITUAL POWER? IT WAS AS IF SATAN HAD BLINDED THE
EYES OF 'CHURCH LEADERS' TO RENDER THE CHURCH INEFFECTIVE
I
was well aware of God's healing power - because of my mother's dramatic
healing in Norway
, even though I was raised
in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
I was unaware, however, of the Pentecostal experience of Martin Luther,
the great reformer and founder of our church.
That
I learned later, as I discerned 'the lack of spiritual power' in most
churches and the almost non - existence of the Holy Spirit's presence in
divine worship services! It was as though Satan had blinded the eyes of
'Church leaders' through an invisible, yet real, unholy conspiracy to
render the Church ineffective.
And
Satan was doing a good job, as our nation was plunging into modernism,
materialism and the post Christian era.
Churches were emptying through wholesale backsliding and apostasy,
due to a dearth in the area of prayer, witnessing, soul winning and
missions.
The
very heart of the Church was becoming terminally ill, and the greatest
battles being fought were not against Satan, sin, and evil, but against
the very Word of God - the Holy Bible and the doctrines of the Church.
And
the bulk of this diabolical evil was coming from within the Church.
Schools of Theology were on a campaign to brainwash thousands of
impressionable and earnest young men and women with Satan's
poison, against the veracity of the Bible and the authority of Jesus
Christ! A fifth column, if you
please, was hijacking through so-called higher criticism - Christian
Seminaries, Bible Colleges and Churches,
for their own sinister, sensual and humanistic purposes.
I
came to the conclusion, that two wrong things had been committed: First,
Church leaders had usurped the power and authority that belonged to the
HOLY SPIRIT. Church leaders had taken this power and authority that
belonged to the Holy Spirit and placed it into human hands.
They
had rejected the authority of the Holy Spirit as the ONLY
true representative of Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church (Ephesians 5:
23; Colossians 1:18)
Secondly,
The Church leaders had rejected the Word of God, which the Holy Spirit
Himself had anointed.
Jesus
Christ, Who is the head of the Church, (Ephesians 4:15) sent the Blessed
Holy Spirit to teach, lead, guide, correct, encourage and work with the
very Word of God and through His Church (John 14,15,16; 1 Corinthians 12:
1,7,28,31; 14: 1) And unfortunately, there has been deep
disloyalty to and infraction
against Him by a large segment of Church leadership, world-wide.
PROBING
THE HISTORICAL RECORD
In
his Pentecostal message, St. Peter stated unequivocally: "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.
For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are
far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts
2:38,39)
THEOPHILUS,
writing circa 170
A.D. states that the word 'Christian'
comes from the Greek word for oil (chrism)
which means 'anointed
one'. The
reason for that, was because Christ's followers were anointed with
the Holy Spirit, he declared.
TERTULLIAN,
who lived in the second century, wrote: "The
Baptized, when they came up out of the bath,
are anointed with the holy oil, and then the hand is laid upon them with
the invocation of the Holy Spirit." Again he notes:
"In baptism we do not receive the Holy Ghost, but being cleansed we
are disposed for the Holy Spirit under the hand of the minister."
This
chain-of-events is similar to that practiced by the Early
Church. After the
great revival conducted by Phillip in Samaria - where multitudes were
saved and baptized in water - and many were miraculously healed and
delivered from demon powers, Peter and John were sent to lay their hands
on them so that they might receive the Holy Ghost.
Peter
and John prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost (for as
yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus.) "Then
laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost."
(Acts 8:4)
URBAN
the First, one of the earliest bishops of Rome,
circa 225 A.D. stated: "All
faithful people ought to receive the Holy Spirit by imposition of the
bishop's hands after baptism."
CYPRIAN,
writing at about the same
time, reported on how Church officials prayed for new converts after
their baptism in water, to be filled with the Holy Spirit: "The
faithful in Samaria had already obtained baptism;
only that which was wanting, Peter and John supplied, by prayer and
imposition of hands, to the end the Holy Ghost might be outpoured upon
them.
He
notes: "Which (the Holy Spirit) also is amongst ourselves, when they
which be already baptized are brought to the rulers of the church to
obtain by our prayer and imposition of hands the Holy Ghost."
EUSUBIOUS,
an Early Church historian from the third
century records an incident of one NOVATIUS,
who was baptized while he was ill,
but did not receive prayer to receive the Holy Ghost. On this account
writes Eusebius, Novatius was censured by the Bishop
of Rome.
HOLY
GHOST BAPTISM: GOD'S SEAL ON BELIEVERS
PACIANUS,
who died in 390 A.D.
recorded these words:
"In baptism our sins are
cleansed, in confirmation the Spirit is poured upon us."
GREGORY,
in circa 370 A.D. wrote thusly concerning the 'laying
on of hands': "We
therefore call it a seal or signature, as being a guard and custody to
us, and a sign of the Lord's dominion over us."
RAVANUS
MAURUS, as late as 800 A.D. wrote
about the anointing service to receive the Holy Spirit: "In baptism
the baptized was anointed on the top of the head,
in confirmation on the forehead; by that was signified that the Holy
Ghost was preparing a habitation for Himself."
ST.
PAUL wrote: "In Whom (Christ) ye also trusted, after that ye heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in
Whom also after that ye believed, ye WERE
SEALED with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest
of our inheritance UNTIL
the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of His glory." (Ephesians 1:
13, 14)
The
Bible teaches three things: First,
when a sinner receives the 'word of truth' and believes the gospel
message of God's great salvation, the blood of Jesus Christ immediately
cleanses that soul and makes him ready for Heaven! He is born again and a
new creation in Christ Jesus! (John 3: 3, 7; 1 Corinthians 5:17)
Second,
when that new convert in Christ reaches out by faith and has hands laid
upon him or is anointed with oil in Jesus' name, our Lord Himself
will baptize that person in the Holy Ghost and fire! (Luke 3: 16)
Third,
every believer that is filled with the Blessed Holy Spirit is SEALED by
God, UNTIL
the day He calls us Home to Himself. The Blessed Holy Spirit guarantees
our salvation! He personally is the guarantor of our salvation! The
Baptism of the Holy Ghost is the earnest
(DOWN PAYMENT) of
our inheritance in
Glory, paid for by Christ Jesus! It is just a taste of what Heaven
will be like; a little bit of Heaven to go to Heaven in.
St.
Paul declares: "ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise until
the redemption of the purchased possession." What is he talking
about? What or who is the purchased possession? Hang on to your seatbelts
WE ARE THE PURCHASED POSSESSION.
"What
know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own For
ye are bought with a price."(1 Corinthians 6: 19, 20);
"Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of
men."(1 Corinthains 7: 23);
"Take
heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He
hath purchased with His own blood. "(Acts 20:28)
SATAN
STEALS THE WORD
Jesus
said: "Hearken; Behold a sower went out to sow: And it came to
pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air
came and devoured it up. And some
fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it
sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:
But
when the sun was up, it was scorched: and because it had no root, it
withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up,
and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground,
and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some
thirty, and some sixty,
and some an hundred."
(Mark 4: 3-8).
In
this parable, Jesus made it plain that when the Word of God is sown,
immediately the devil comes to steal the Word. (verse 15) Our Lord stated
that Satan came to 'steal, kill and destroy'. (John 10:10)
The
seed that was sown on STONY GROUND
speaks of those "who have heard the Word, immediately receive it
with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a
time: afterward when affliction or persecution ariseth for the Word's
sake, immediately they are offended." (verse 18,19)
The
seed sown AMONG THORNS
refers to: "such
as hear the Word, and the cares of this world, And the deceitfulness of
riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the Word, and it
becometh unfruitful." (verse 18,19)
And
finally, the seed that fell on GOOD GROUND
are: "such as hear the Word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit,
some thirty fold, some sixty, and some an hundred." (verse 20)
JESUS
DOESN'T RECOGNIZE those who receive the Word with gladness, but fall away
or those who hear the Word and become unfruitful because
of the cares, pleasures and lusts of this world, as GENUINE
BELIEVER.
Interestingly,
our Lord also separates believers such
as hear the Word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit - into
three groups: some thirty fold, some sixty and some an hundred.
Jesus
is adamant that we bring forth fruit. There is no excuse why we should
not do so! JESUS DESIRES FRUIT in His
followers! He stated: "I am the true vine, and My Father is the
husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and
every branch that beareth fruit, He PURGETH
it, that it
may bring forth more fruit."
"Abide
in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it
abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I
am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. If
a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and
men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
(John 15: 1-6)
JESUS
PLACES BELIEVERS IN THREE CATEGORIES: 30% - 60% & 100%
Jesus
places believers in three categories: thirty percent, sixty percent and
one hundred percent! The famous American Evangelist, D.L. Moody said:
"The FIRST CLASS, are those who got to Calvary and there got life.
They believed on the Son and were saved, and there they rested satisfied.
They did not seek anything higher.
You might safely say, I
think, without exaggeration, that 19 out of 20 Christians' have just got
life and have settled down, and have
not sought for power."
The
SECOND CLASS,
Moody calls, a better class of Christian ' asserting' the secret of
the Holy Spirit's coming in power to the believer is the individual's
complete surrender to the Saviour. And we do not need to wait upon God to
do something for us. He is waiting for us to yield ourselves to Him.
Moody points to John 7: 37,38, where we read: "out
of whose belly (innermost being) shall flow rivers of living water."
He says: "This is
the BEST CLASS; this
is the kind of Christian we ought to be."
A
number of years ago, Rev.
Ray Brubaker of
'Good News Behind The News', wrote the article, 'God's
Message to This Generation', in which he gave his personal
testimony of being miraculously healed and filled with the Holy Spirit!
He quotes great preachers- many of whom I have referred to in this book -
who have been used of God, because they were empowered through the
infilling of the Blessed Holy Spirit.
PENTECOST:
ONLY A SPECIMEN DAY
He
says: "As Moody stated, 'Pentecost was only a specimen day'.
Moody calls attention to the fact that for thirty years our Lord lived in
obscurity in Nazareth. Then, there came a day when we read where
Jesus was 'full of the Holy Ghost'." Coming back to Nazareth
after His victorious encounter over Satan, in the wilderness we read
where He entered the temple and read from Isaiah "the Spirit of the
Lord is upon Me." From thence, 'for three years we find Him
preaching the kingdom of God, casting out devils and raising the dead'.
MOODY
concludes: "If the Son of God has got to be anointed, do not His
disciples need it, and shall we not seek it, and shall we barely rest
with conversion".
When
there were those who took exception to Moody's reference to receiving the
Holy Spirit, or his messages on the Baptism of the Spirit, TORREY relates
how Moody would reply: "Why will they split hairs? Why don't
they see that this is just the one thing that they themselves need?"
GOOD
POINT MOODY! We
will follow your advice, as well as that of other great leaders of the
Church! In a German Church history, Sauer's 'History of the Christian
Church', vol. 3, page 406 we read: "Doctor Martin Luther was a
prophet, evangelist, speaker in tongues, interpreter, and in one person,
endowed with all the gifts of the Spirit."
In
Luther's Works, concerning prophecy, he says, "If you wish to
prophesy, do it in such a way that it does not go beyond faith so that
your prophesying can be in harmony with the peculiar quality of
faith". He goes on to write that "one may prophesy new
things but not things that go beyond the bounds of faith". (Oswald
nd. 25: 444-451)
Martin
Luther was a great man of faith and used greatly in the healing ministry
of our Lord! In 'Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel', we read the
personal letter of Martin Luther.
Luther's
detractors asked the great reformer: "Where will you be when the
whole world is against you, the Pope, the Emperor, the Nobles, the
Bishops, the people? Where will you be then, Martin Luther?"
The
Reformer smiled and answered: "Then, as now, I will be in the hands
of God!" He was a great power for God during the dark days of
the Middle Ages! I never fully understood how one man - standing
alone - could change the course of the world by standing up to a corrupt,
evil and perverted religion system that was pretending to be the Body of
Christ on earth.
One
day I read where Luther stated: "I live as though Jesus Christ died
yesterday, arose today and is coming again tomorrow!" Then, I
understood his heart. He was sold out to God and loved only to do
His will. He feared neither the 'Bloody old Vatican Wolf' or the
Emperor of Rome! He was radical in his prayers to God and in his
declaration of the Gospel, and spoke directly from his heart.
I
learned what Luther's Philosophy of Ministry' really was when he said:
"I live as though Jesus Christ died yesterday, rose today and is
coming again tomorrow!"
The
Gospel of Christ was a reality in his life! He believed in and
communicated with the RISEN CHRIST, instead of groveling around in the
dust of history, with higher critics who were stuck on 'The Historical
Jesus' aspect of theology! He didn't suffer fools gladly and he
didn't play Church. He lived the Gospel every day, like St. Paul
who stated: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
(Philippians 1:21)
"Come
unto ME, all ye who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest." (Matthew 11:28)
- Powerful AUDIO Bible
sermons/messages by: Pastor Max Solbrekken
- click on message to listen -
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