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

Presbyterian Continuist

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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?
 
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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.
 
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ZephBonkerer

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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.
 
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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)
 
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