The Baptism in the Holy Ghost,

 The Baptism in the Holy Ghost, May-June 1926 I want to read to you a few verses from the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, verses 1 to 11. I have been perplexed this afternoon as to what the message should be. I have had distinctly three messages on my mind, but none of them has come forth. It appears God has a plan for this afternoon’s meeting, and I believe the plan for you and for me is to know more about the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And I believe that God wants us so to know the truth that we may all go away from this meeting with a clear knowledge of what God means for all His people to receive the Holy Ghost. When Jesus, our Mediator and Advocate, was so filled with the Holy Ghost, He gave commandment concerning these days we are in, and gave commandment of the time through the Holy Ghost. I can see that if we are going to accomplish anything we are going to have it because we are under the power of the Holy Ghost. During my life I have seen lots of satanic forces, spiritists, and all other “ists.” And I tell you that there is a power which is satanic, and there is a power which is the Holy Ghost. I remember after we received the Holy Ghost, and when people were speaking in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance — we don’t know the Holy Ghost any other way — the spiritists heard about it, and came to the meeting in good time to fill two rows of seats. When the power of God fell upon us, these imitators began their shaking, and moving with utterances of the satanic forces. The Spirit of the Lord was mighty upon me. I went to them and said, “Now you demons, clear out of this!” And out they went. I followed themright out in the street, and then they turned round and cursed me. It made no difference, they were out. Beloved, God would have us to know in these days that there is a fulness of God where all other powers must cease to be. And I beseech you this afternoon to hear that the baptism in the Holy Ghost is to possess us so that we are, and may be continually, so full of the Holy Ghost that utterances, and revelations, and eyesight and everything, may be so remarkably controlled by the Spirit of God that we live and move in this glorious sphere of usefulness for the glory of God. And I believe that God wants to help us to see that every child in the meeting ought to receive the Holy Ghost. Beloved, God wants us to understand that there is no difficulty when we are in the right order. And I want you to see what there is in seeking the Holy Ghost. The Purpose Of The Baptism If we go into John’s gospel we could see that Jesus predicted all that we are getting today when the Holy Ghost came. He said He should take of the things of His Word and reveal them unto us when the Holy Ghost came. He should just live out in us all the life of Jesus. And if we could only think what it really means! It is one of the ideals. Talk about graduation! My word! Come into the graduation of the Holy Ghost by the Spirit, and you will simply strip out everything they have in any college there ever was. You would leave them all behind just as I see the sun leave the mist behind in San Francisco. You would leave that which is as cold as ice, and go into the sunshine. God the Holy Ghost wants us to have such an ideal of this fulness of the Spirit that we would neither be ignorant, neither would we have mystic conceptions, but we would have a clear, unmistakable revelation of all the mind of God for these days. TONGUES AND INTERPRETATION: “The Spirit of the living God comes with such divine revelation, such unveiling about Him, such a clearness of what He was to the people, and brings within us the breath of that eternal power that makes us know we are right here this very hour to carry out His plan for now, and what God shall have for the future, for there is no limitation but rather an enforcement of character, of clearness of vision, of an openness of countenance till we behold Himin every divine light.” Glory! Oh, it is grand! Thank God for that interpretation. I beseech you, beloved, in the Name of Jesus, that you should see that you come right into all the mind of God. Jesus verily said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” And I want you to know that “He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days.” He is all the time unfolding to everyone of us the power of resurrection. Remember the baptism of the Holy Ghost is resurrection. If you can touch this ideal of God with its resurrection power, you will see that nothing earthly can remain; you will see that all disease will clear out. If you get so full of the Holy Ghost, all satanic forces of fit-taking, all these lame legs, all these corn afflictions, and all these nervous, fearful things, all these kidney troubles will go. Resurrection is the word for it. Resurrection is to shake away death to breathe in you life, to let you know that you are from the dead quickened by the Spirit, made like unto Jesus. Glory to God! Oh, the word resurrection! I wish I could say it just on parallel lines with the word Jesus. They very harmoniously go together. Jesus is resurrection, and to know Jesus in this resurrection power is simply to see that you have no more to be dead but alive unto God by the Spirit. The Necessity Of The Baptism There is a necessity of being baptized in the Holy Ghost for a businessman. For any kind of business we need to know the power of the Holy Ghost, because if you are not baptized with the Holy Ghost Satan has a tremendous power to interfere with the power of your life. If you come into the baptism of the Holy Ghost there is a new plane for your business. I remember one day being in London at a meeting. About eleven o’clock they said to me, “We shall have to close down, we are not allowed to have this place any longer than eleven o’clock.” There were several under the power of the Spirit. A man rose up, looked at me, saying, “Oh, don’t leave me, please. I feel I dare not be left. I must come through. Will you go home with us?” “Yes,” I said, “I will go.” His wife was there as well. They were two hungry people just being wakened up by the power of the Spirit to know they were lacking in their life, and they needed the power of God. In about an hour’s time we arrived at their big, beautiful house in the country. It was winter time. He began stirring the fire up, and putting coal on, and said, “We will soon have a tremendous fire, so we will get warmed. Then we will have a big supper.” And I suppose the next thing would have been going to bed. “No, thank you,” I said. “I have not come here for your supper, nor for your bed. I thought you wanted me to come with you that you might receive the Holy Ghost.” “Oh,” he replied. “Will you stop with us and pray?” “I have come for nothing else.” I knew I could keep myself warm in a prayer meeting without a fire. About half-past three in the morning his wife was as full as could be, speaking in tongues. It was a lovely day. I went to the end of the table. There he was having a terrible groan. So I said, “Your wife is through.” “Oh,” he said, “this is going to be a big night for me.” Yes, I tell you, they are big nights for you whether you come through or not, if you seek with all your heart. I often say there is more done in the seeking than any other way. If we knew the Scriptures there is no such thing as seeking for the Holy Ghost, but a place where we need to know that without we meet face to face with God, and get all crooked places out of our lives, there would be no room for the Holy Ghost, for the indwelling presence of God. But when God gets a chance at us, and by the vision of the blood we see ourselves as God sees us, then we have a revelation. Without its accomplishment we are undone and helpless. At five o’clock in the morning, this man stood up and said, “I am through.” He was not baptized. “I am settled,” he continued. “God has settled me. Now I must have a few hours’ rest before I go to business at eight o’clock.” My word! That was a day at his business. In many years he never lived a day like that. He was going around about his business amongst all his men. They said, “What is up with the man? What is up with the governor? What has taken place? Oh, what a change!” The whole place was electrified. God had turned the lion into the lamb. Oh, he was like a great big lion prowling about under the old conditions, but God had touched him. The touch of omnipotence had broken down this man till right there in the business the men were broken up in his presence. Oh, I tell you, there is something in pursuit, there is something in waiting. What is it? Oh, it is this, God slays a man that he may begin on a new plane in his life. We shall have to be slain utterly if we want to know that resurrection power of Jesus. A short time afterwards when I was passing through the grounds towards this man’s house, his two sons rushed out to where I was, threw their arms round me and kissed me, saying, “You have sent us a new father.” The same night in which he went to work, he had been baptized about ten o’clock in a meeting. Oh, the power of the Holy Ghost is to create new men and new women. It is to take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh by the Spirit. And when God gets a way like that there is a tremendous shaking amongst the dry bones, for God gets His way with the people. We must see that we are no good without God takes charge of us. But when He gets real charge of us what a plan for the future! What a wonderful open door for God! Oh, brethren, we must see this ideal by the Spirit! What shall we do? Do? You dare not do anything but go through. Submit to the power of God. If you yield other people are saved. You will die without you have a power of resurrection, a touch for others. But if you live only for God, then other people will be raised out of death, and all kinds of evil into a blessed life through the Spirit. The Baptism Is Essential Beloved, we must see that this baptism of the Spirit is greater than all. You can talk as you like, say what you like, do as you like, but until you have the Holy Ghost, you won’t know what the resurrection touch is. Resurrection is by the power of the Spirit. And remember, when I talk about resurrection I talk about one of the greatest things in the Scriptures, because resurrection is an evidence that we have woken up with a new line of truth that cannot cease to be but will always go on with a greater force of an increasing power with God. TONGUES AND INTERPRETATION: “Hallelujah! The Spirit breathes, the Spirit lifts, the Spirit renews, the Spirit quickens.” The man that is baptized in the Holy Ghost is baptized in a new order altogether. It cannot be that you shall ever be ordinary after that. You are on an extraordinary plane, you are brought into line with the mind of God. You have come into touch with ideals on every line. If you want oratory, there it is in the baptism of the Spirit. If you want the touch of quickened sense that moves your body till you know that you are all renewed, it is the Holy Ghost. And while I say so much about the Holy Ghost today, I withdraw everything that doesn’t put Jesus in the ordered place He belongs, for when I speak about the Holy Ghost it is always with reference to revelations of Jesus. The Holy Ghost is only the revealer of the mighty Christ who has all for us that we may never know any weakness but all limitations are gone. And you are now in a place where God has taken the ideal, and moved you on with His own velocity which has a speed beyond all human mind and thought. Glory to God! TONGUES AND INTERPRETATION: “Wake thou that sleepest, and allow the Lord to wake thee into righteousness. The liberty wherewith God has set thee free — God hath made thee free to enlarge others which are bound.” So the Spirit of the Lord must have His way on every line today. What will happen if we all loosen ourselves up! Sometimes I think it is necessary almost to give an address to baptized souls, because I feel just like the Corinthian Church, we may have, as it were, gifts and graces, and use them all, but sit in themand not go on beyond. I maintain that all gifts and graces are only for one thing, to make you go in for gifts and graces. Don’t miss what I say. Every touch of the divine life by the Spirit is only for one purpose, to make your life go on to a higher height than where you are. Beloved, if anybody has to rise up in the meeting to tell me how they were baptized with the Holy Ghost in order for me to know they are baptized, I say, “You have fallen from grace. You ought to have such a baptism that everybody can tell you are baptized without your telling how you were baptized. That would make a new day. That would be a sermon of itself to everybody not only in here but outside. Then people would follow you to get to know where you have come from, and where you are going. You say, “I want that, I won’t settle till I get that.” God willsurely give it to you. The Holy Ghost can only come when bodies are ready, for the Holy Ghost dwells in temples not made with hands, but in the fleshy tables of the heart. So it doesn’t matter what kind of a building you get, you cannot count on the building being a substitute for the Holy Ghost. You will all have to be temples of the Holy Ghost to have the building anything like Holy Ghost order. The Baptism And The Coming Of The Lord The Holy Ghost could not come till the apostles and those that were in the upper room, were all of one mind and heart, all with one accord with themselves and with God. Suppose I read one verse to help you, because I am on this definite principle of what it means, the fulness of the latter rain, and the taking away of the Church. James 5:7, is a beautiful verse on that line: Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth.... What is precious fruit of the earth? Is it cabbages? Is it grapes? The precious fruit of the earth is the Church, it is the Body of Christ. And God has no thought for other things. He causes the others to grow, and the glory of the flower. He looks into the beauty of it because He knows it will please us. But when speaking about the precious fruit of the earth our Lord has His mind upon you today, and He says: ...Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. James 5:7,8 So if you want the coming of the Lord you must certainly advocate every believer being filled with the Holy Ghost. The more a man is filled with the Holy Ghost, the more he will be ready to forecast and send forth this glorious truth. Some people have an idea, I don’t know how they get it... but the Holy Ghost cannot come till the church is ready. And you say, “When will the church be ready?” If the believers were in the attitude God could send the breath this afternoon to make the church ready in ten minutes, and less than that. So we can clearly say the coming of the Lord is nigh unto us but it will be more high unto us as we are ready for receiving a fuller and greater manifestation. What will be the manifestation of the coming of the Lord? If we were ready, and if the power of God was pressing that truth today we should be rushing up against one another saying, “He is coming, I know He is coming.” “He is coming!” “Yes, I know He is.” Every person roundabout would be saying, “He is coming,” and you would know He is coming. That is the only hope of the looking forward, and there is nothing but the Holy Ghost can prepare the hearts of the people to rush up and down and say, “He is coming,” and will come soon. Praise God, He will come as surely as we are in this place, He is coming! How To Receive There are things I have had to learn about the baptism. One day in England a lady wrote to ask if I would go down and help her. She said she was blind, having two blood clots behind the eye. And I sent a letter like this, not knowing who it was. I had only been in London lately and I didn’t feel I wanted to go, but I said if she was willing to go into a room with me, and shut the door, and never come out till she had perfect sight, I would come. “Oh,” she sent word, “Come!” And the moment I reached the house, they brought in this blind woman. After shaking hands this blind woman made the way to the room, opened the door, allowed me to go in, then she came in and shut the door. “Now,” she said, “we are with God.” Have you ever been there? It is a lovely place. In a hour and a half the power of God fell upon us, and rushing to the window she exclaimed, “I can see! Oh, I can see! The blood is gone, I can see!” Sitting down in a chair she asked, “Could I receive the Holy Ghost?” “Yes,” I replied, “if all is square.” “You don’t know me,” she continued, “but for ten years I have been fighting your position. These tongues I couldn’t bear but God settled it today. I want the baptism of the Holy Ghost.” After she had prayed and repented of what she had said about “tongues” she was filled with the Holy Ghost, and was speaking in tongues. When you put your hands upon people, you can tell when the Holy Ghost is in. And if you will only let go, my word! What would happen. And I wonder how many people there are today who are prepared to be baptized? Oh, you couldn’t be baptized? You have been a man too long. Do you know there is a difference between being a baby and anything else in the world. Many people have been waiting for years for the baptism, and what has been up? We are told in the Scriptures, At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealedthem unto babes. Matthew11:25 What is there up with the wise man? A wise man is too careful. And while he is in the operation of the Spirit, he wants to know what he is saying. No man can know what he is saying when the Spirit is upon him. His own mind is inactive. If you get into that near place your mind is entirely obliterated and the mind of Christ comes by the power of the Spirit, and in that condition He prays and speaks in the Spirit as the Spirit gives utterance. This is the mind and plan of God for us to receive the Holy Ghost. What is the difference between the wise and prudent man, and a baby? If you get baby-enough this afternoon we shall have at least fifty people baptized in the Holy Ghost. If you will only yield to God and let the Spirit have His way God will fill you with the Holy Ghost. At Sweden, the power of God was upon us, and in a quarter of an hour I believe more than a hundred received the Holy Ghost. May God grant it this afternoon. Beloved, it shall be so for God is with us. The natural man cannot receive the Spirit of God, but when you get into a supernatural place, then you receive the mind of God. The difference between a wise and prudent man and a baby, what is it? The baby swallows it all, and the mother has to hold the bottle or some of that will go down. The baby cannot walk. That is how God wants it to be in the Spirit. But God walks in the baby. The baby cannot talk, but God talks through the baby. The baby cannot dress himself, but God dresses it and clothes it with His righteousness. Oh, beloved, if we can only be babes today great things will take place in the line and thought of the Spirit of God. The Lord wants us all to be so in like-mindedness with Him that He puts His seal upon us. There are some in the meeting who have no doubt never been saved. Where the saints are seeking, and leaving themselves to the operation of the Spirit there are newborn children in the midst. God will save in our midst. God will use this means of blessing if we only let ourselves go. You say, What can I do? The fiddler will drop his fiddle, the drummer his drum. If there is anybody here who has anything hanging round about him it will drop off. If you get babyenough today everything else will drop off and you will be free. You will be able to run and skip in the street, and you will be happy. Does the baby ever lose its brilliancy? Does he ever lose his common sense position? Does the baby that comes in the will of God lose its reason, or its credentials on any line? No, God will increase your abilities and help you on all lines. It isn’t what I am speaking about, to be a baby. It is a baby in the Spirit. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:20, “...in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.” And I believe the Spirit would breathe through all these attributes of the Spirit that we may understand what the mind of the Lord is concerning us in the Holy Ghost. Oh, this blessed thought. I want to help all that are being baptized to help others. If ever you have spoken in tongues in your life, this afternoon let yourself go and God will speak through you. You must have a day you have never had before. This must be an ideal day in the Spirit, a day with the unction of the Spirit, a day with the mind of God in the Spirit. Published in Redemption Tidings