08 Baptism in The Holy Spirit

Welcome back. We've talked about salvation. We've talked about baptism. We've talked about forgiveness. And now we want to talk about, how do we get filled with the Holy Spirit. So in the following session, we're going to be talking about the Holy Spirit. How He walks alongside us, and what are some of the objections that we might have to receiving the Holy Spirit.

He is really the one that we need in order to live that fruitful Christian life. He's the one that convicts us, guides us, leads us, teaches us. He's the one that Jesus says, it's better that I go away, because when I go away, I will send Him to you.

The Paracletos, the one that's going to walk alongside you. The one that's going to encourage us and help us to finish this race. And so let's listen to this teaching about the Holy Spirit so that we can receive Him and be filled in our lives with Him and His power.

The Holy Spirit as Living Water

Hi, so in this session we're going to be speaking about the Holy Spirit. And I love this topic because everything that we've done up until this point has prepared our hearts so that the river of life can flow strongly within us. And I love that scripture in John 7.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and He cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive. For as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. And I think, for us as Christians we can all identify with the dryness of a sinful life.

And when Jesus comes into our lives, how that river of water starts flowing. And we taste the goodness of the Lord. Often the Bible uses picture language or metaphor language. And so for instance, what the Bible would do is when it speaks about the Holy Spirit, it would speak about a river.

It wouldn't necessarily call out the characteristics of what the Holy Spirit is or what He does for us. For instance, I'll give you an example, you know. In our Western mindset, we will say that God is strong, that God takes care of us.

That God makes sure that we are provided for, and that God is there with us. But the Hebrew mindset would say, God is my shepherd. And that actually describes exactly what God is. The Western mindset is actually a little bit more difficult to remember.

And so to remember these picture languages is an easy way to remember what and who God is and what the Bible is trying to say to us. And so this picture language of the river representing the Holy Spirit is actually throughout the New and the Old Testament.

Who Can Receive the Holy Spirit?

And so I just read that scripture about the Holy Spirit and about Jesus said that He would be the one that flows inside of us. Who can receive the Holy Spirit? Well, everyone that is saved. Jesus says there, to those that believe in Him, can receive the Holy Spirit.

And so if we believe in Jesus, we can receive the flowing of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And I would like to use a picture of a river that we see in Ezekiel 47:3-12. And it's quite a long portion of scripture so I'll probably just summarize it for us.

The Purpose of the Holy Spirit in Ezekiel 47

But out of that I want to get two things. What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives? And what are the barriers that we have to receiving the full flowing of the Holy Spirit in our lives? We see in this picture of Ezekiel that the water is flowing out of the temple and it's flowing towards the eastern region.

Now, if you know the geography of Israel, what is on the eastern side of Israel? It's the desert. And so the river is flowing out of this temple, it's flowing to the eastern side, and in the eastern side there's the desert, and in the desert you've got the Jordan River Valley, and the Jordan River Valley ends in the Dead Sea.

And so you've got this picture of the river flowing out of the temple into this area of the Dead Sea. And the Dead Sea's called the Dead Sea because it's dead. There's this man that gets led into different stages in the river. First he is on the bank, then he is ankle deep.

Then he is knee deep. Then he's hip deep. Then he's shoulder deep. And then the water flows and the water becomes fresh. And there are swarms of living creatures in the river. There are fishermen that stand on the edge of the river. There are trees on the edge of the river that produce fruit and food.

And then there are also the leaves of the trees are used for the healing of the nations. And so from this we can see that the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our life is that He is the one that gives us life.

He is the one that brings us refreshing. He is the one that moves us along. Because when you get into a river, you move very rapidly along with a river. Maybe I can tell you a little story. A couple years back, me and Andrew and a couple of guys decided we were going to go paddle a river in Lesotho.

The Senqunyane River. The Senqunyane River and the Senqu River come together and they form the Orange River in South Africa. And so we drove all the way there. We were going to paddle seven days through the mountains. We had to take all our food and we slept on the riverbank.

It was an amazing adventure. But when we got there, the river wasn't flowing. And so we had to drag all our stuff. And it was real hard just to move along. We could always hear rain, but it never rained in our valley. And when we finally got to the next river valley, that valley was in flood.

And we got into that and we covered so much ground. We covered all the ground that we lost in those four days trying to get to that valley. We basically covered in like a day and a half. Rivers are powerful. And when you, in a shallow river, when you're on the side, you sometimes be struggling to move along.

But if you get into the deep water, that's where you move along quickly. And that is what life with the Holy Spirit is like. We've got to really get into the life of the Spirit. We've got to immerse ourselves in the life of the Spirit, so that the Holy Spirit can move us along.

He will give us power, because rivers are powerful. He will produce evangelism within us. There were fishermen on the side of the river. So where the Holy Spirit is, there will be evangelism. And not just local fish, but it says fish of the Great Sea.

Jesus wants all men to be saved. All nations and evangelism will spring out from us where the Holy Spirit is. And that Spirit will produce fruit. The fruit from the trees are therefore feeding us. And so the fruit of the Spirit will manifest peace and patience, goodness and goodwill will spring up from within us.

If we remain in the Holy Spirit, He will feed us. And also then Ezekiel, it says, and I'll read this portion for us: And wherever the river goes, every living creature will swarm and will live. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh for they are left for salt.

And so the Holy Spirit will feed us the Word of God. It's like manna. What happened to manna? Each and every day, the Israelites had to fetch manna, and then they would eat the manna, and that would sustain them. But if they kept the manna for more than a day, what happened to the manna?

It became rotten. And they couldn't eat it. And so, this is a similar picture here. The Holy Spirit needs to flow in our life, feeding us the Word of God. That alive Word of God, on a daily basis. And if we let too much time go by from not spending enough time with Him, then that living water that was inside of us turns into a marsh.

If you leave water long enough, what happens to it? Mosquitoes start growing in it and algae. And then when you drink the water, what happens to you? You get sick. This is a picture of the Holy Spirit flowing within us. And He's the one that continuously feeds us the Word of God.

He's the one that makes the Word alive to us. And He will heal us. The leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations. And so He will heal us physically, emotionally, relationally. That is what the purpose of the Holy Spirit is in our lives.

Barriers to Receiving the Holy Spirit

So now I'd like to speak about what keeps us from receiving the Holy Spirit. So who can receive the Holy Spirit? The first thing is, if you are on the side of the river, and you're not in the river, you can't receive the Holy Spirit.

And so in order to receive the Holy Spirit, we have to be saved. We have to believe that Jesus came and died for our sins. We have to believe that He gives us the Spirit to help us on this journey. He's the Paracletos.

He's the one that comes alongside us. He's the one that helps us. And so we have to believe that. And it says that in John 7:39, I said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive. For yet the Spirit had not yet been given, but the Spirit has been given to us now.

Testimony and the "Ankle Deep" Stage

And then there are those that are ankle deep. Ankle deep is symbolic of one just testing the water. I'm going to use a lot of testimony now, all right? A testimony is my story of my experience as a Christian. Some will say you shouldn't use testimony.

I disagree with that. Because the Bible says that they overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the power of the word of their testimony. And so I'm going to be sharing a lot of my own personal experiences of how the Holy Spirit has refreshed me.

And how I grew in my understanding of the Holy Spirit. Because when I became a Christian, I was quite resistant to the things of the Spirit. I thought they were a little bit strange. So let me tell you a quick story. So one of my first experiences is, I came out of a quite a conservative church.

I'd never seen the move of the Spirit. I'd never seen people getting refreshed in the Spirit. I'd never seen the Spirit move on people. I never heard people speak in tongues. I came from a church where teaching was the main focus. I then visited JoshGen.

I'd heard that Andrew had planted a church here in Tableview. I went with a friend of mine. We actually just wanted to say hello to Andrew because we knew him from Port Elizabeth. And we walked into a meeting the one Tuesday night. It was still at the house in Raven Crescent.

And there were probably about 20 people there. And there was a guy. What was his name? Anyway, doesn't matter. He was a guy from North Natal. And Andrew introduced him, and he stood up. And as he started speaking, he just said, "Hey guys, the Holy Spirit's here."

And we were all standing because we were about to worship. And as he said, "the Holy Spirit's here," Julie fell over. Melanie fell over. And a whole bunch of other people fell over and just started laughing in the joy of the Lord. Just being slain in the Spirit.

How many of you guys have seen that? Okay. So it's not a new concept to you guys, but I was standing there, and coming from a more conservative background. I was standing there and next to me was a friend who was also from a conservative church.

I remember that meeting. For me was just like, oh my hat, what's going on here? And afterwards we went out and we were talking and said, "We're never coming back to this church." Then Andrew came over and talked to us about it. And we went back.

But you see, we were ignorant about the things of the Spirit. We didn't know that these things actually existed. And that they are there for our refreshing. And that they are there for building up. 1 Corinthians 12:1, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I don't want you to be ignorant."

I must say, we were ignorant. And so for me, over a period of time, even though I didn't understand what was going on, I was drawn to it. And I spent a lot of time with Julie and Melanie in the early years. They had a house where they were living and we often would have suppers there.

And they were always experiencing the Holy Spirit. And I never experienced Him physically. It just wasn't something that happened to me. And over time this desire in my heart grew. Because I saw the fruit of it in their lives. But one of the things that kept me back was fear.

Fear of Laying on Hands and Misreading 1 Timothy 5:22

You know, I'd heard some of these things like, you don't let people lay their hands on you. Because if they lay their hands on you, then you're going to get like—if they're in sin and they're struggling with stuff, then their demons are going to transfer on to you.

Have you guys heard that? And there are some doctrines like that. This is what the "knee deep" is referring to. Because when you walk into a river and you're knee deep, the river can start pulling you off balance. And you start to feel fearful.

I remember, someone had mentioned that to me, and I was fearful for people laying their hands on me. That scripture there is taken out of context. It is written in 1 Timothy 5:22, and the King James says this, "Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be a partaker of other men's sin. Keep thyself pure."

The interpretation that I got was, don't let people lay their hands on you because otherwise their sin is going to jump onto you. But that is not what it means, because that scripture is talking about the laying on of hands on elders and putting them into office.

So the ISV says this, "Do not ordain anyone hastily. Do not participate in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure." So what that means is if you're putting an elder into office, an elder is a leader in the church. What do leaders do?

They lead people. And so if I put an elder into place too quickly by laying my hands on them and saying to the congregation, "Follow this man," if that man has got sin in his life and he walks away from Christ and people follow him...

Then I will also be held responsible for putting that person in office too quickly. And that's actually what that scripture means. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't let people lay their hands on you, because we see that the Spirit is transferred by the laying on of hands.

We see it all over the New Testament. All over Acts. I think that is a fear that the devil puts in the church so that the Spirit can't propagate. And move on, and people can't get baptized in the Holy Spirit. Another fear that we might have is in Luke 11:9, it says this.

Asking the Father for the Holy Spirit

"And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and anyone who seek finds, and to the one who knocks it will be open. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? You then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Heavenly Father give you the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him?"

And so I was always fearful that if I asked for the Holy Spirit, what if I get another spirit? What if at that point there's a demonic spirit that enters into me? It's not God. But that scripture clearly says that if you ask your Father who gives good gifts. If you ask for the Holy Spirit... When we get saved our spirit is quickened and we do have the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us.

But the Bible in Ephesians 5 says, that we must be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. And so we have a—we have the Holy Spirit in us and then we have continuous fillings. We have to top ourselves up all the time because we leak Holy Spirit.

And we go deep. For me, this points to the principle of faith. You have to receive the Holy Spirit. You have to desire to want the Holy Spirit in your life. And you have to progress deeper and deeper into the life of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, Prophecy, and Being Under His Power

There was a man in the church who came out of a conservative background. And this is now after I already started receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And the refreshings in the Holy Spirit. And I remember he always used to say, "You guys, you're just pretending. This isn't real."

One day at the Sunningdale Church there was a prophetess that came. And she called me and my wife forward to prophesy over us. And so we walked to the front by the aisle. And this man was sitting there. Right on the edge. As she prophesied over us. As she said, "God said," the power of God hit Erina and she fell forward and she knocked her head on the stage. I thought, "Oh my hat, my wife's dead."

And the power of God hit me and I flew backwards. And I fell on the floor and I was under the power of God. There was a peace. He was doing something in my heart. I didn't know what He was doing. But I knew that God was on me and it wasn't like He was forcing me to stay in that place.

I could choose to come out. But I could also choose to stay and to remain. This is a big key, because when the Holy Spirit comes on us, as Westerners we always want to figure things out with our heads. We always want to rationalize things. And Jesus says in John, "The wind blows where it pleases." You know, maybe sometimes God's doing something in your body. Maybe He's doing something with your physical mind. Something that you're not aware of. This is something that I've learned, being under the power of the Spirit.

The Bible says in Ephesians 5:18, "And do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery. Be filled with the Spirit." Be continuously filled with the Spirit. The first point, interestingly, Paul links being drunk with wine with being drunk in the Spirit. Why would he do that?

Pentecost and the Analogy of Being Filled with the Spirit

And the other place where we see the Spirit being poured out is in Acts. And in Acts, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit is poured out. And the people walking past the disciples, who has tongues of fire on their head and speaking in tongues. The people think they are drunk. Peter says, "No, we are not drunk. It's only like 10 in the morning."

So there is a component of when the Spirit falls on us that it might seem like we're drunk. But it's not a drunkenness that leads to debauchery. It's God working something in us. And sometimes it might be out of our frames of reference. We've seen the Old Testament, Saul fell over and lay on his face for a couple of days. We see all over the Bible that there are these things that the Holy Spirit works within us.

Laughter, crying, and when the Spirit comes on you, you have to remain in the Spirit. You have to draw from Him. It's like drinking. So here's the analogy, or here's the question. How many of you have been drunk? One. Do you get drunk from one drink?

Well, some people maybe. But generally in order to get drunk, I mean it takes some work. You gotta drink to get drunk. You know, one beer, two beers, three beers, four beers, a bush dive. Until it gets totally out of control. And I think there's an analogy there.

I'm not saying that the Holy Spirit should lead to debauchery. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that when I was lying in that aisle under the power of the Spirit, I could draw from the Spirit. And I knew that the Spirit was doing something in my spirit that I wasn't aware of.

But because I knew that He was my Father and I could trust Him, I knew that He was doing a good thing in me. So I didn't just get up. I remained there and I carried on drinking until I felt almost like I had a perception.

I had a discernment that the Spirit had done what He wanted to do and it was finished. And so that's just an encouragement. As for the man that was sitting here next to me, he said to me afterwards—you know, he was always very skeptical—but he said that as that prophet spoke over me, he saw my cheeks move like this.

And then I flew backwards. It's like the wind of the Spirit hit me. Have you ever been on the back of a bakkie, of a pickup truck? Or you stick your head out the window of a car and you're like, "ah." I believe it was the wind of the Spirit that hit me.

And that man that was there, he saw that and he was convinced. That I didn't just jump backwards, but that it was actually the power of the Spirit. And so I just wanna encourage us in the things of the Holy Spirit. Because without the power and the operation of the Holy Spirit, we can live a very dry Christian life.

And there are seasons within the church where we need a great space where we can drink from Him and be refreshed in Him. That's what I wanted to share with you guys with regards to the flowing of the Holy Spirit. We would love to share this very impactful testimony with you about Karmien on how she was a Holy Spirit skeptic.

And how the Holy Spirit infilled her. And the wonderful experiences that she had with the Holy Spirit. And how it impacted her life and really made her more like Christ. And so why don't we listen to this testimony with open hearts, being encouraged by her faith and the great stride and the overcoming that she took.

To overcome the fear and the skepticism that she had towards the workings and the person of the Holy Spirit. Let us watch that now.

Karmien’s Testimony: From Skepticism to Receiving the Holy Spirit

My husband and I got saved out of a very conservative background—church history. We got saved into an NCMI church. I know we used to call them the "happy clappies." But we weren't ever really introduced to the Holy Spirit or the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So this was a very weird concept to us. But also very intriguing.

I remember my husband and I, one night, we were talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and just about talking in tongues and how weird this is. Wondering if it is dodgy or not. My husband, then, who is very introverted, said, "By the way, the other night I was standing in the back of church and I got my tongues while worshiping." And I asked, "What? You got your tongues?" And he replied, "Yes, it just happened."

He was praying and the next moment he was speaking in a different tongue. And I must say that really made me hungry for the gifts of the Spirit and for speaking in tongues. So I went on a Pulse camp in Bloemfontein in my second year and the TMT guys were leading that camp.

And they were weird to me, but wonderful. Like, they were so hungry for God. And just seeing them move in the gifts of the Spirit just made me even more hungry to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So one night we were in worship and I was just asking God.

"God, I really want to speak in tongues." And I remember walking up to one of the leaders and I said, "Listen, I really want to speak in tongues. Will you please pray for me?" And she prayed for me and the next moment I was flat on the floor.

Just speaking in a tongue that I didn't know. It was very weird for me because I was speaking something, but my mind was totally somewhere else. I remember, in my prayers and in my mind, I was just crying out for the lost and I was crying out for people who didn't know God.

Yes, it was an amazing experience receiving my tongues. That night, one of the leaders came to me and he said he saw angels touching my tongue with a coal, and that God has purified my tongue and I will come into God's throne room and receive words for people.

And receive messages from God directly from His throne room. Everything was very new to me, but I remember from that moment on it was exactly like that. I would be at church and either God would just lay something on my heart and I would share it with someone, or I would ask Him, "What does He want to say to the church?" And He would speak it. And it was almost like someone whispering in your ear. It was amazing. You could encourage people and you could tell them how much God loves them.

And something that they didn't know that someone knew about them, they realized that God knew this about them. So it was really encouraging. There my relationship with the Holy Spirit was like someone whispering into my ear. But then it also changed into a bit more intense experience with the Holy Spirit.

A Deeper Encounter with the Holy Spirit in Cape Town

We moved to Cape Town, and one morning I went to pick up some girls in Mbekweni Township that I was going to take to church. But they were late, so I drove past the township. And there next to the road was a tree and a dog was tied to the tree.

And as I stopped, I noticed that the dog's back leg was hacked off. And in that moment—this sounds random, but it's all part of the story—but in that moment, my heart just broke. I can't remember if I literally fell to my knees next to the road.

It felt in my heart like something just broke for people and for humanity that was suffering without God and not knowing Him. I put the dog in the car, I drove to the SPCA, crying all the way there. Dropped the dog off and I went to church and I couldn't compose myself.

I was crying so much in the bathroom. A lady, Stella, came to me and said she felt like God wants to give me a gift. I composed myself. I went out and I felt God laid a specific word on my heart. Like always, just went to share a prophetic word.

God Speaks Through Her in Prophecy and Shaking

But the next moment it was like God took over my body and He just spoke a word through me that was like Him speaking. My whole body just started to shake. It was like I couldn't contain this—the Holy Spirit in me. There I encountered the Holy Spirit again in a different way.

He could speak directly through me. And a long period of shaking in the Holy Spirit. It was very weird for me. And I think I also learned a lesson because I used to judge things that I didn't understand. And there it was happening to me.

Like even while I was working, sometimes my body would start shaking. Or I would sit on the beach enjoying the sun going down and the next moment I would just experience the Holy Spirit. And people would think you're having a seizure on the beach.

It was very humbling, but also an amazing experience getting to know the Holy Spirit like that, and just realizing that God can speak through us. He can speak a word through us. And now recently I must say, my relationship with the Holy Spirit has changed again.

And how He works through me is different. I'm studying counseling. I'm in my final year and I just realized the Holy Spirit has really become a Helper to me, and a Comforter. One that comes alongside. He would give a word of wisdom while I'm busy talking with someone, and a light will just go on for them. It's amazing just to see the scriptures become real where it says the Holy Spirit is a Comforter, He's a Helper, He's the Counselor. And I really experienced Him like that. I think I would just like to share some lessons that I've just learned through working with the Holy Spirit and receiving some of the gifts that God loves to give us.

Desiring the Gifts of the Holy Spirit for the Right Reasons

The first thing I realized is God loves it when we desire the gifts, but when we desire it for the right reasons. Not to make the gifts our focus, but to focus on directing people to Him so that they can get to know Him.

I also realized that we should not despise or judge what we do not understand. I remember the story of Andrew Murray, where he actually almost stopped a meeting because a great revival broke out and it was not delivered in the package that he thought it should look like.

I've realized that in my life, that especially in the time to come as well, that we will not judge someone on how we perceive it should be or how God uses someone or who He uses, but rather look at the fruit of what's coming from it.

I always think we should ask ourselves, where our hearts are. Why do we want the gifts? Is it to look good, to look religious? Or is it actually to point people to Jesus? To show them how much He loves them and how much He wants to know them.

I think we can't go wrong if we desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit to point people to Christ. If our heart is to show people how much He loves them, and how much He cares for them, and how much He actually wants to know them.

Sharing Testimony and Praying for Baptism in the Holy Spirit

I don't think we can go wrong with it. We've just watched this faith-filled testimony about how Karmien got filled with the Holy Spirit and about how He impacted her life. We are going to break into small groups now. So why don't you talk about what you experienced?

What you saw. Maybe some new thoughts that you had about the Holy Spirit. And maybe even the facilitators could facilitate a time, if there are some of you that would like to get baptized in the Holy Spirit, they could lay their hands on you.

Pray for you, and trust that the Holy Spirit will fill your lives. And that you would receive the power of the Holy Spirit right now, tonight.