Is The Modern Filling Of The Spirit The Same As On The Day Of Pentecost?

[Presbyterian Continuist]

"Is The Modern Filling Of The Spirit The Same As On The Day Of Pentecost?"

Lets just make this simple yes. Oh I remember still see the man of God a known man telling people what happened back then (spirit field) does not happen any more. Here I am...seems its till does. They asked me if wanted the holy Spirit like the those in the bible I could say who? Do you want Him? Sure. So sat in this chair they all gathered around he read only what the bible said added nothing else. Then asked me again so I said yes. Then prayed one of the shortest prayers then just stopped and said and I quote "that's it you got it". See they believed if GOD said it He has to do it.

So that meant if I asked according to Luke 11:13 GOD would give me the holy Spirit. Odd how we oh just LOVE John 3:16 duh that's true but Luke 11:13 said by the same GOD..anyway. So I got up went to sit down and tongues just came out. Yeah no one said a word about tongues it just came out. OH PRAIES PRIAISE PRAISE GOD. It was exactly as Christ said. You shall receive power. I was saved going to heaven the day before but wow it was like NIGHT and DAY! You never ever ever ever get enough of Him. All you want is HIM. To do anything everything for Him. The love the joy.. oh man praise GOD GLORY TO JESUS!

So sure those that get saved have a taste but they do not have the sweet sweet holy Spirit. He told us to ask its only for believers. Christ prayed to the Father for this. He told them 120 not all men but told them to wait. And we hear all these stories about those PEOPLE acting strange yet the 120 looked drunk haha if your filled with the holy Spirt you know exactly what happened and still happens to us today.

So for me you should take all these posts and toss them. Well all you are getting is what some personally believe. So you ask Him Christ to open your eyes your read Luke 11:13 and if GOD said it maybe just do what He said. Just do what He said don't think about it. Its like one time He said to me "RUN" I thought run? Why run I am not scared. He came right back with "when GOD tells you do to something you don't question it you just do it". You read Luke 11:13 Christ is not the one that said it. He told us everything He said was the Fathers words.

This is a promise only to believers. The book of ACTS is Christianity. Everything that happened then has only grown today. Everything still is happening today. Those that doubt? No offense but you never have to worry you will never see any of this. He can not go against our will. So read listen for WHO is really doing the talking. Is it MAN telling you what GODS word is really saying? Is it MAN telling you "no that does not happen any more".

So me? I read His word I stand on what He said.. deaf still hear bind see lame walk dumb speak dead still come back to life. Happens every day. Don't believe me. How many say just that? Yeah I have no inside information about GOD. You can ask HIM...me? I WANT ALL OF HIM! I always believe. I have not to boast seen so many wonders why? I read His word and just BELIEVE! He always does what He said.

So blindly believe that means you put all your faith into onto HIM! That ALWAYS pleases HIM. With out FIATH we can never please Him.

When Charles Finney got baptised with the Spirit when he went out into the woods to seek God, when he came out of the woods he met a man on the road, spoke to him about Christ and the man was converted on the spot! Later, he went into a textile factory, and all the female employees started getting right with God to the point where the management shut the factory down and they had a prayer meeting when they all got converted to Christ. What is what being filled with the Spirit is all about. I think it was George Whitefield, who won multitudes to Christ with his preaching, said that he never felt the presence of God in himself, but when he preached, people got right with God. It seemed that as a result of him being filled with the Spirit, the listeners to his preaching certainly felt the presence of God and became convicted of their sinfulness as a result.

What I don't see with the modern idea of being filled with the Spirit is professing Christians getting the jollies and goosebumps up their spines within the four walls of a church or meeting place, but no one on the outside getting converted to Christ.

I think I should continue to seek God for the true filling of the Spirit, even though I was supposedly baptised with the Spirit 55 years ago, because when I speak to unconverted people they don't sense the presence of God with me, and are not convicted of their sinfulness. Therefore, I don't think that I am filled with the Spirit in the same way that Charles Finney or George Whitefield were. Or Smith Wigglesworth, when he prayed with other ministers in preparation for his meetings, the presence of God was so intense that the other ministers could stay in the prayer room with him. So I guess that he was filled with the Spirit in a way that I am not.

Perhaps if I had been taught right about the filling of the Spirit in the late 1960s when I was converted in a Pentecostal church, and followed the example of Finney, Whitefield, and Wigglesworth, I might not have wasted 55 years of my Christian life thinking I was filled with the Spirit when I might have been just pretending. Who knows?

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Christ's true church is invisible. Its members are scattered across the world. Most of them are recluses and their faith is a private affair. They are at odds with the society around them because God's Holy Spirit rests on them. You will never find a single Sheep who enjoys being around large groups, which is Satan. This obsession and hunger people have with being part of a "Church" is not biblical and signifies a fallen person who does not rely on Christ for sustenance. Whoring yourself with Satan is not fellowship, its debauchery and unfaithfulness.

How about Jesus' instruction to "go out into all the world and make disciples for Christ"? And "not neglecting fellowship with one another as the practice of some is"? Is being part of a visible church in order to hear God's Word preached and to fellowship with other believers "whoring yourself with Satan"? I don't think so.

 

[ZephBonkerer]

I heard a story about a pastor who questioned why in the previous five years, in spite of scores of people coming forward to receive Christ in its regular evangelical campaigns that the church not grown at all. He said that he would expected significant growth from the large numbers of first-time converts, so he asked, "Where did all these converts go?" It seems that the only answer is that the conversions in most cases were just mental, after saying short sinners prayer, and no heart-conversions to Christ resulted. The so called converts walked away just to continue their sinful lives with the mistaken notion that "now I am saved". The result is that either the new converts never joined the church, or if they did, they came for a couple of weeks, then dropped out. This showed that all they got was religion for a little while, but were not genuinely born again by the Holy Spirit. It also shows that most evangelical campaigns are a waste of time and promote just easy believerism instead of genuine repentance from sin.

It is interesting that the last thing that Jesus said to His Apostles was "go into all the world and make disciples". Yet, the last thing that Jesus said to the Church (in Revelation), was "Repent!" So, the elephant in the room is that churches who have not fully repented of lukewarmness, worldliness, and works of the flesh, are trying to make disciples for Christ, and are either making children of hell like themselves, or failing to make disciples at all. I think the Scripture is very relevant to our modern churches: "Judgment must begin at the house of God" because the problem is not with the White House or the state of our societies, it is the state of the Church.

This is consistent with my experience when I would go to Bethel as a visitor. I'm originally from Redding CA and I have a lot of family there, so I've seen it a lot.

In the parking lot, you'll see a lot of out-of-state license plates - though many of them could be students at the nearby Simpson University. People there seemed to have this idea that if you have enough faith, you can pray enough, have good health, live long and prosper, and all that spiritual snake oil. The messages don't really instruct on righteousness, avoiding sin, etc. I also didn't get much of a sense these people are really in tune with the Spirit.

I actually didn't like going there - my then-wife loved visiting there for whatever reason whenever we were up that way.

 

[Lifeseeker]

I believe it was a onetime fulfillment. But the Holy Spirit remains with the church/believers until the church is complete and presented to our Lord Jesus at His coming. Just as Jesus completed His work and set down on the right hand of God. The Holy will finish His work here through the church. But until that is complete, He still baptizes us ...Holy Spirit baptism.
The promise of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit was for them, their children and all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call (Acts 2:39)