The Holy Ghost Said!
Let Us Go Forth
I continued teaching Sunday school and preaching as I had the opportunity over the next two years. The Holy Spirit was teaching and leading me and his witness became clearer as I followed his leadership. Then a Baptist church called me as their pastor. I was greatly blessed to have the opportunity to pastor a church that had harmony and joy like it did. Even though things had already begun to change with a younger generation, it was obvious that God had powerfully moved in that church. It seems that I got a taste of what church was and could be when I was young and have been greatly disappointed to see it go downhill the rest of my life. No matter how hard that I worked to see things restored, it just doesn't seem possible until God sends the next great revival.
Even though I loved the members of that first church, and was loved by them, we had different visions for what God wanted to do in the church. I gave it up after one year, feeling that I wasn't adequately getting the message across to them. A church much closer to home that was without a pastor called me as soon as they found out that I had given up the first church. This church too had seen God move greatly in their past, but had been through some problems that hindered the church. I had been there about six months when the Lord started creating a hunger to see his power in manifestation today.
Before being called to preach, I had heard of only three miracles in my life. I marveled at them and pondered over them, wondering why we didn't see more. I also wondered what was the key to miracles, not realizing that God wanted to soon reveal the answer to me. I had heard of a former Miss America who had a short leg due to a car accident that grew out one night in answer to prayer. I had heard about my wife's grandmother who laid her hand on the radio one day as Oral Roberts prayed and was healed. I had heard the testimony of a Baptist minister who was healed one night in the hospital as he awaited goiter surgery the next day. There was nothing to remove the next morning because God took care of it that night. During those six months as I ministered to two people that died of sickness, I cried out to God, "Why can't we see your power in manifestation today as it was in Bible times? You don't change, so what's wrong?"
God sent a couple of books across my path that began to answer my questions. The first was "The History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church", which described the revival that gave birth to that church. It described the power of the early ministers and of God in that revival. It also described D. L. Moody's testimony of how two little old ladies shared with him that he needed the power. Even though Moody's church was destroyed by the Chicago fire, it didn't phase him because of his hunger to see God's power in his life. The other book was "Growing Up Spiritually" by Kenneth Hagin. He was a former Baptist pastor who likewise was led to the realization that the power of God was lacking in his life. It shared how that he went on to find the power of God through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. As I began to search God's word for the truth of these testimonies, the Holy Spirit opened up the truth to me. It wasn't long until I clearly saw that I too needed the power of the Holy Ghost, which only came through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. He was the miracle worker in the life of Jesus and he was what was missing in most of the church today that we saw so few miracles.
Some people will say, "Well preacher, we don't need that today. It was just for the early church." Well I've never tasted caviar and think that I can live my life just fine without it. And that's true to an extent, but until I taste caviar I will never know what I'm missing. If I say that I don't need something that I don't understand and I've never tasted then I am speaking without knowledge. A liberal theologian once spoke to a group of ministers in an open-air assembly and tore the truth of the Bible to shreds in his speech. Afterward, when he opened the meeting for questions, an elderly preacher eating an apple stood with a question. He only ask the theologian if he could tell him whether the apple that he was eating was sweet or sour. The theologian said that obviously he couldn't because he hadn't tasted it. The old preacher replied, "That's right, and you haven't tasted my Jesus either." No one that has truly tasted Jesus in his fullness will do any harm to the scripture that testifies of him. You may be born again and confident in your salvation, but don't deny those things of which you haven't tasted when the scripture bears witness of them.
I saw the baptism of the Holy Ghost in the word, and the same spirit who called me to repentance and salvation, called me to preach, and had led and blessed me for years bore witness of it. I saw the lack of power in my life, and even though I was more dedicated and zealous than most of my peers, I couldn't deny what was lacking. How could I go on preaching and ministering to others without the power that Jesus told his disciples to wait for in Jerusalem. I had never attended a Pentecostal church service before, but had the opportunity to visit one at which the Rex Nelon Family was singing. After experiencing the presence of the Holy Spirit and joy at the service that night, I came home determined to receive what God had for me.
My wife went to bed but I stayed up alone that night desiring to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I prayed and ask God for what I wanted and then opened my Bible to read where Jesus prayed for the church in the seventeenth chapter of St. John. As I turned to that place, my eyes fell upon the fourteenth chapter of St. John and I began to read where Jesus promised to send his disciples another comforter who would abide with them. The chapter described exactly what I had just ask God for, and as I read, the presence of God filled the room. As I finished the chapter where Jesus said, "Arise, let us go hence", the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Arise, let us go forth." I knew immediately that I had received what I had asked of God. It would no longer be me ministering in my power, but it would be "us" ministering in his power. The Holy Ghost had come to abide with my spirit inside of my body. He would no longer be on the outside, looking in, but would be dwelling in my body with me where he could manifest his power and commune with me in a greater way.