God's

Grace and Power for Today

The practical experience of being filled with the Holy
Ghost

by

Donald Gee

Pentecostal Pioneers Series

No. 44

Published by The Revival Library

www.revival-library.org

email: librarian@revival-library.org
 Copyright
In the US books that were published before 1923 are in the public domain.

Books that were published from 1923 to 1963 were required to have a copyright
notice or symbol in the book to be granted copyright protection for a term of 28
years. This renewal could be extended for a further 47 years by registering with
the Library of Congress Copyright Office. Failure to comply with this required
formality automatically placed the book in the public domain.

For a book published from 1964 to 1977 the rules above still apply - the book
was copyrighted for 28 years for the first term except that automatic extension
was increased to 67 years for second term if registered with the Library of
Congress Copyright Office. Similarly, failure to comply with this statutory
requirement placed the book in the public domain.

This book was published in 1936 by Gospel Publishing House

Springfield, Mo. but its copyright was never renewed by
registration with the Library of Congress Copyright Office.
Therefore it is in the public domain due to copyright expiration.

These copyright terms can be viewed online here

http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm and here
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

For books registered or re-registered before 1978, scanned copies of the Catalog
of Copyright Entries can be searched at this web address
http://books.google.com/googlebooks/copyrightsearch.html
 Contents
Introduction

Chapter 1. Acts I—Looking Backward

Chapter 2. Acts I—Looking Outward

Chapter 3. Acts I—Looking Upward

Chapter 4. Acts II—It Happened!

Chapter 5. Acts X—It Happened Again

Chapter 6. Acts XIX—And On, and On

Chapter 7. Hebrews XIII, 8—“And Today”

 Table of Contents
God's Grace and Power for Today
Copyright
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. Acts I—Looking Backward
Chapter 2. Acts I—Looking Outward
Chapter 3. Acts I—Looking Upward
Chapter 4. Acts 2—It Happened!
Chapter 5. Acts X—It Happened Again!
Chapter 6. Acts XIX—And On, And On
Chapter 7. Hebrews XIII, 8—“And Today”
The Revival Library
 Introduction
The emphasis in this little book is upon the Baptism with the Holy Spirit as an
experience. We have always been impressed by the fact, and we herein try to
prove it from the Scriptures, that the New Testament makes this very clear. The
danger and shortcoming today is that we shall become far more interested or
satisfied with doctrines concerning the Holy Spirit than with what we are
actually experiencing of His grace and power. Doctrines about the Spirit are
necessary and inevitable, but the all-important question is not what we mentally
believe, but what we experimentally enjoy. The New Testament makes the happy
truth clear that it is our Father’s will that His children should enjoy the gift of the
Holy Ghost as an ever present reality in their hearts and lives.

Now that so much has been written upon the subject of the Baptism with the
Holy Spirit it seems almost impossible to write anything new. Perhaps it is not
very desirable that we should. Truth is old, yet ever new. The succession of titles
for the chapters may perhaps suggest a slightly new progression of thought
concerning this subject. Thank God that the “promise” extends to “today.”

Donald Gee Louth, Lincolnshire, England Christmas Eve, 1935

 Chapter 1. Acts I—Looking
Backward
Before He finally ascended to begin His High-Priestly work in heaven, the risen
Christ was having a last talk with the apostles whom He had chosen.

The Great Commission, to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
creature, had been given, and now He was telling them to wait for an enduement
of necessary power. How essential! Who can fight without weapons or work
without tools?

The conversation looks backward, and many a talk by the Jordan or at evening
time in Peter’s home or at Bethany is recalled. “Which, saith He, ye have heard
of Me” (verse 4). They had only dimly understood nearly all that He had spoken
to them about, but it was not forgotten. The seed of truth in their memories was
only waiting rain from heaven to make it blossom almost immediately into an
amazing grasp of sublime mysteries.

The immediate subject of recalled conversations was “the promise of the

Father.”

And Jesus connects that promise with another popular topic of former wayside
talks — the short, Elijah-like ministry of John the Baptist. What a stir John had
created! Not only who he was, and what he said, but what he had done. For he
had baptized in Jordan, and the multitudes, probably including all this little
earnest company of apostles, and even the Master Himself, had submitted to
John's immersing baptism. That had provided, at any rate, a never-to-be-
forgotten experience.

Now Jesus recalls the repeated statement made by John and clothes it with
renewed authority by making it His own— “John truly baptized with water, but
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost." Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16;
John 1:33. (Note the significant fact that all four Gospels record this plainly
important statement.) They knew that baptism in water had been a very real
experience; they had felt the waters of Jordan surging around them; they knew
when and where John had baptized them; and even their friends on the bank,
whether sympathetic or disdainful, had marked their immersion.

This greater spiritual “baptism” was something still in the future when they were
having this last talk with Jesus on earth, but it was obviously going to be a
somewhat similar experience, only on a transcendently higher plane. They
realized that it would be felt and seen and would mark a quite definite crisis. A
voyage on a great ocean liner is a vastly different thing to a little trip in a rowing
boat, but anyone who has been on the water in a tiny boat has at least the
rudiments of an idea of what the bigger experience will be.

Those recalled conversations had taken the matter further back still, for the
“baptism with the Holy Ghost” was to be the fulfillment of “the promise of the
Father.” In His long talk the same night in which He was betrayed, the Master
had told them that the Father would send the Comforter, “even the Spirit of
truth,” in answer to His own prayer. John 14:16, 17, 26. What, then, had been the
Father’s Promise about the Spirit?

Away back, eight hundred years before, Joel had written the inspired promise of
a time when God would pour out His Spirit upon all. Joel 2:28, 29. Not only
upon chosen prophets, priests, and kings, but upon “all,” even servants and
handmaids. That time, Jesus was explaining to them, was now very near. “Not
many days hence” must have sounded thrilling after waiting for eight hundred
years!

Over two hundred years after Joel, a young prophet-priest had added a further
inspired touch to the glorious Promise. Ezekiel brought a lovely gospel message
that the Lord God would not only cleanse men's hearts, and give them an entire
inward renewal of spirit, but would also crown the work of grace by putting His
own Spirit within them. Ezekiel 36:26, 27. Not only a clothing upon from
without, like Gideon (Judges 6:34), but an indwelling Presence. It was probably
to this particular part of the great Promise that Christ referred when He
personally told them that “He dwelleth with you, but shall be in you.” John
14:17. How grand to know that an ever welcome visitor was soon to become a
permanent guest—and even more—He was coming to take control within and
without, to sanctify and to empower, and to be “Captain of the Lord’s host.”

Those talks that Jesus now recalled must have been full of many a wonderful
word of comfort and thrilling vision of power, even though but dimly
Understood at the time. The main features of the Pentecostal experience were
grasped, however, even before the Comforter came.
Chapter 2. Acts I—Looking Outward
What a great vision the Master put before that little group of men on their last
walk together out to Olivet. They were to have a ministry extending “to the
uttermost part.”

It seems clear that they did not grasp it. Even if their minds had understood, their
spirits would have probably revolted. The first half of the book of Acts contains
plenty of evidence that it was only through a severe struggle with tradition that
the apostles at last came willingly to accept the world-wide implications of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Even then it really took persecution to “scatter them
abroad.” Acts 11:19. The poker had to be used to spread the fire.

The Church has always had to overcome this same inertia. There is something
humiliating in the historic fact that the “Era of Missions” only began less than
150 years ago. With some honored exceptions the Church since the apostolic era,
had made no serious attempt to discharge her missionary obligations until then.
Now Modernism is again cramping the vision and instilling the poisonous idea
that foreign missions are not really necessary for the eternal salvation of the
heathen. There is a practical denial of the fundamental statement that “Neither is
there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. Even among spiritual
believers there is sometimes found a deadening tendency towards spiritual
selfishness and exclusiveness that shows little or no interest in evangelism and
foreign missionary enterprise.

The call remains unaltered; it is still “to the uttermost part.” Yet the Master’s
vision was something a little different, and dare we even say, a little fuller, than
world-wide evangelization, if by “evangelization” we mean only preaching. The
word He used was, “ye shall be witnesses. An evangelical preacher should
always be a “witness” as well as a preacher, otherwise he will have little power.
But a “witness” need not always be a preacher. The Greek word for “witness,”
martyr, means “one who testifies, or can testify to the truth of what he has seen,
heard, or knows” (Robinson Lex.). The popular conception of the function of a
witness in a court of law is exactly the same.
The world-wide vision was to be accomplished by means of “witnesses”—those
who would “see, hear, and know” the truth as it is in Jesus. They might be
merchants, craftsmen, slaves, simple travellers, family folk, just ordinary people
—but all of them “witnesses.” They might, or might not, be preachers; that is a
matter of some special gift and calling if we regard it in any official sense. They
would, of necessity, be speakers, for only under abnormal conditions can a
witness be effective when silent.

But they were to be conversational speakers rather than public speakers, and
conversational “witnessing” is often the most effective of all. Here is ample
scope for the indigenous principle to be realized in missions; and here is the
simple, we might almost add inexpensive, plan of the Master for taking His
gospel “to the uttermost part.” Witnessing does not supplant preaching, for the
ministry of preaching has its vital, ordained place in spreading the gospel, but
witnessing provides the only effective background upon which preaching can
make a lasting impression.

An experience is necessary to create “witnesses.” No man can bear witness to

what he has not seen, not heard, and does not know. He may speak about it, even
in public, but he is quite unconvincing because it is so obviously second-hand,
theoretical, and powerless. As evidence in a court of law it would be useless.

Christ declared very emphatically the method He would employ to provide

“witnesses” for carrying out His world-wide program. “Ye shall receive power
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me.”
The coming of the Spirit upon the believer would result in “power, ability,
strength, efficacy, force” (Lex.). This is something quite additional to, and
distinct from the Spirit’s work in regeneration or sanctification. This is to impart
neither life nor holiness, for both these are already assumed, but it is to give
power. This is like setting the match to the carefully laid fire or like switching
into throbbing activity the engine of an automobile that has been all cleaned and
prepared for the journey but lacked the vital spark.

The “power” may find expression on supernatural lines through divers gifts and
operations of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:8-10), and in this way others are compelled to
“see, hear, and know” of this great salvation. 1 Cor. 14:25; Heb. 2:4. Thus a
witness is given which will either convert or condemn.

Yet the mighty experience of the “Power” coming into the life of a believer will
constitute him a “witness” quite apart from special supernatural operations of the
indwelling Spirit. That touch directly from the glorified Christ which is always
experienced in the Baptism with the Holy Spirit enables generations of
Christians who never saw Christ's earthly day to testify nevertheless that they
know. They have an experience, and that experience makes them “witnesses”
“unto the uttermost part.”
 Chapter 3. Acts I—Looking Upward
The last thing that the Lord Jesus ever uttered upon earth was the promise that
power would be given to His disciples after that the Holy Ghost had come upon
them.

Scarcely had the words been spoken, before He was taken majestically up, and
up, and up before their wondering gaze. We need not be surprised that they
continued steadfastly to look up towards heaven, even after a cloud had received
Him out of their sight.

Two heavenly messengers corrected their fruitless stare, however, though with
the sweet promise that the same Jesus would come again in like manner as they
had seen Him go.

Now fully alert as to their position, grasping at last the task which lay
immediately before them, and with that last great promise of an experience of
“power from on High” ringing in their hearts and their ears, they returned to the
now familiar meeting place of the upper room in the city where they had been
abiding for some time. Acts 1:9-13.

Still they are looking upward, as they give themselves a whole-hearted and
united prayer and supplication, but now they are expecting “another Comforter"
to descend and be not only with them but in them, before the Lord Jesus would
Himself ever return in person.

Those ten days of waiting must have been precious days, full of a variety of
emotions. Many have shared them since as they have tarried for a personal
Pentecost, even though in the dispensational sense none have since been
compelled to tarry exactly as they were compelled to tarry.

1. They continued in prayer and supplication. The fact that the Comforter was
promised did not relieve them of the necessity, nor take away the urge, to pray.
They did not wait idly nor indefinitely. The Promise had simply crystallized their
prayer and made the path perfectly plain. They knew exactly what they were
desiring, even though they could hardly have known the exact form in which the
answer would be given. They were actively and intelligently asking, seeking,
and knocking for the good gift which the Father had promised—the Baptism
with the Holy Ghost. The instruction of Christ Himself had preceded their
prayer, and instruction in the word of promise should still precede prayer.

2. They were with “one accord." There is no need in their case to emphasize any
putting away of hindrances to unity; they probably had none in that primitive
hour of Church history. A unity of a common hunger and desire fused them into
one solid praying band. They felt the blessing of waiting and praying with scores
of others all intent on the same thing. There is a special helpfulness in being
surrounded by others who are all sincerely engaged in the same holy business
when we are tarrying for our personal “Pentecost.” Faith strengthens faith. On
the opposite line, nothing makes it harder than half-hearted company, with little
faith and small desire. Better alone than that! Get into the Fire to catch fire Is a
good rule, however.

3. They were supremely happy while tarrying. “Great joy” filled their hearts, and
in between the waiting times in the upper room they were “continually in the
temple, praising and blessing God.” Luke 24:52-53. Songs of praises mingled
with fervent prayers. They were “standing on the promises” and found them
joyful ground, as God's saints have in every age. True faith always fills the
waiting times with praise and worship to the Lamb. It does not look as if there
was much groaning and moaning in the original Upper Room. Tarrying for
“Pentecost,” if rightly understood is a happy business.

4. They stuck right at it. They were steadfast in prayer. When the Comforter did
fall upon them, they were all there (chap. 2:4). It is noteworthy, seeing that it was
apparently about 9 a. m. (verse 13). The suggestion has often been made that
they had been praying all night, and it is probably correct. Perhaps it had been
quite a bit “dry” just before the Spirit descended, and some might have been
tempted to quit. How glad they were that they were still there with the tarrying
band when the Glory fell!

Spasmodic seeking is often unsuccessful seeking. The Lord loves to reward

those who by faithfulness prove deep sincerity of desire.

The upward look is always the proper attitude for seekers after the Pentecostal
experience. The sound of a mighty rushing wind came “from heaven.” The Holy
Spirit falls upon us from above. There is nothing worked up in a genuine
Pentecost— it comes down.

The spiritual eye of faith should remain fixed upon our glorified Redeemer.
There was a time when “the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus
was not yet glorified.” John 7:39. That time has now passed forever. He who is
the mighty Baptizer in the Holy Ghost and fire now sits at the right hand of the
Majesty on High. Exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ is always a fitting and
helpful note to strike at all times of tarrying for Pentecostal blessing.

Accompanying the heavenward gaze at a glorified Lord will come an inevitable

and most sanctifying sense of our own utter unworthiness. This is most
desirable, both then, and at all times; but it should never degenerate into a
morbid introspection. The heart must not be filled with thoughts of self, but only
with thoughts of His blood and righteousness. We are accepted in the Beloved,
and it is for His sake and through His mediation that we receive heaven’s
greatest gift for the Christian—the Holy Spirit.
 Chapter 4. Acts 2—It Happened!
Yes, it really happened. The Promise was fulfilled suddenly. They were all
“sitting,” perhaps a little physically tired after prolonged prayer, when the
Comforter came. A rushing wind was heard, and tongues like as of fire were
seen, for this special occasion evidently justified some special manifestations of
the divine Presence and Power. It was a dispensational coming of the Holy Spirit
to inaugurate a new era in God’s dealing with men.

Note how exactly the Promise was fulfilled. Joel had said “all,” and “they were
all filled.” Not one was left out inside that upper room; Mary and the women
received just the same Baptism as Peter or John. Ezekiel had said the Spirit
would come to dwell within, and “they were all filled.” This was more than a
“coming upon” that clothed them with power while it remained. Their entire
being became possessed by the blessed Spirit. A cup totally immersed in water
becomes filled with the water, and they were filled with the Spirit as a result of
being baptized in the Spirit.

Note, also, how literally it was a true baptism. A baptism is an overwhelming

thing (compare Christ’s use of the word in connection with His sufferings in
Matt. 20: 22), and they were so truly overwhelmed with the “power from on
High” that their physical behaviour carried the resemblance of intoxication (see
ver. 13). Actually speaking, they were intoxicated, but it was with spiritual
ecstasy. Baptism is something one can feel, and they obviously felt the Spirit’s
power. The effects of immersion are apparent to onlookers, and the effects of
their immersion in the Spirit were immediately obvious to the crowd. It was so
truly and literally what both John and Jesus had said it would be— a “baptism
with the Holy Ghost”—that we marvel at those who cavil at the word. It is
blessedly true that they were filled, but the filling was the direct result of the
baptism.

The most immediately amazing result of their being suddenly overwhelmed by

the Spirit's power was that they “began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit
gave them utterance” (ver. 4). It seems clear that this was the outcome of an
ecstatic condition of spirit that found itself swept beyond all ordinary
expressions of speech. Their utterances were those of praise and worship; they
were speaking “the wonderful works of God” (ver. 11). The Holy Spirit Himself
had taken full control of their ransomed and yielded beings, and they were
speaking, under genuine and mighty inspiration words that He gave them to
utter. A flood-tide of personal spiritual experience was surging through their
souls, and some such effect need give us little cause for wonder if we remember
the adequacy of the cause.

The interesting fact that these inspired and ecstatic utterances proved to be in
languages understood by the large crowd that came running together, would
appear to have been incidental rather than essential. It never happened again on
subsequent occasions. The “tongues” at Corinth required an equally supernatural
“interpretation.” 1 Cor. 12:10; 14:28. The old theory that they preached to the
people in these miraculously acquired “other tongues” completely breaks down
when compared with the record of what actually happened. For “they began to
speak with other tongues” while still gathered in the upper room, and as a matter
of fact it was the noising abroad of the phenomenon that brought the multitude
together (v. 6). They were speaking in “tongues” before the crowd came. Their
ecstatic utterances of praise caused all those who overheard to be filled with
amazement, especially when they found themselves able to recognize the
languages being used, but the 120 were probably still too spiritually intoxicated
to be very conscious of the surging multitude without.

Ultimately, when the waiting people were definitely addressed, there was only
one spokesman. Peter stood up, with the eleven, and quite plainly spoke to them
in his, and their, ordinary language. It seems as if this divinely ordained
recognition of the languages spoken on the Day of Pentecost was part of the
special manifestations accompanying a special occasion.

The Promise that they should “receive power" was immediately and
conspicuously fulfilled. The clarity and force with which Peter explained what
had happened, and quoted scripture after scripture from the Old Testament to
prove it, is truly wonderful when we recall that only a short time before this the
risen Christ had chided with them all for lack of understanding of the Scriptures
concerning Himself. That the new “power" was of a spiritual nature is revealed
by its convicting results upon the conscience of the multitude" (ver. 37). The
Promise that when the Holy Spirit had come He would convict the world of sin
(John 16:8) was literally fulfilled on the spot.

There is also something quite thrilling in the change that the power of the Spirit
made in the courage of Peter. To hear him roundly charging the Council with the
crucifixion of Christ (Acts 4:10), and uncompromisingly refusing to cease to
speak or teach in the Name of Jesus (verses 19, 20), seems almost incredible in
view of his recent denial before a servant girl. Mark 14:69.

And the promise that they should become “witnesses” was literally fulfilled also.
So truly was the Pentecostal experience something to “see, hear and know” that
Peter could even throw the incontrovertible weight of the evidence over upon the
crowd—“He hath shed forth this, which ye both see and hear.” Acts 2:33. The
words of a “witness” ring out triumphantly before the Council— “We cannot but
speak the things which we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:20. The very word is
used again later—“With great power gave the apostles witness” (ver. 33).

Doctrines concerning the work of the Holy Spirit, and even concerning what
Jesus called the “baptism” with the Holy Spirit, have grown up since then, but no
doctrine can alter the fact that in the beginning it was a personal experience of an
exceedingly definite and even revolutionary nature. The final question for every
Christian since Pentecost has not been a doctrinal one, but an experimental one.
Not “What do ye believe?” but “Have ye received”
 Chapter 5. Acts X—It Happened
Again!
If the great essentials of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of
Pentecost had never been repeated, it would have remained a momentous
landmark in history, but could provide no logical incentive for subsequent
converts to Christianity to expect a similar experience.

The Caesarean “Pentecost,” recorded in Acts 10, occurred about eight years after
the initial outpouring in Jerusalem. A legitimate significance is attached by Bible
teachers to the fact that this was the first Gentile “Pentecost”; and its importance
as marking another onward step in the purposes of God, especially in the new
and equal spiritual relationships of both Jew and Gentile in the Church of Jesus
Christ, ought never to be disputed. We make no question of this sound principle
of exposition, but we do protest strongly against putting the story contained in
the tenth chapter of the book of Acts on the historical shelf for these reasons, and
regarding the personal experience therein recorded as having no significance for
Gentile believers today.

The astonishment of the Jewish believers, recorded in verse 45, was not because
the company who had gathered in the house of Cornelius were granted an
exceptional experience, but because they were, in their estimation, exceptional
people to receive it. The emphasis of their surprise was not on the fact that they
spoke with tongues, but on the fact that they were Gentiles who were doing it.
The first may safely be regarded as normal at that time; it was the second which
they regarded as abnormal. Acts 10 simply records the story of how Gentile
believers first came into the river of blessing in which for eight years first Jewish
believers, and later the Samaritans (Acts 8), had been rejoicing.

The details of the story present some instructive features. The introductory
picture is that always beautiful one of a soul hungry after God. It is quite
mistaken to suppose that Cornelius was ignorant of the gospel until this
occasion, for Peter says plainly that he knew the word (ver. 37). What he needed
was something more than head knowledge, and he was deeply conscious of his
lack. Hence his prayers and alms. God is always ready to answer such prayers.

The next part of the story reveals where the delay can often take place. It is only
after a severe inward struggle that Peter obeyed the command of the Spirit and
went to visit Cornelius. Peter’s personal difficulties were principally tradition
and fear of men.

The waiting company consisted not only of Cornelius, but also his kinsmen and
near friends, and the charmingly courteous introduction which the centurion
gave to the apostle is a delightful model for all similar occasions (ver. 33). One
can sense the atmosphere of respectful, yet eager, readiness to "devour”
whatever word Peter had to give them.

The apostle began with a brief, packed outline of all the main points concerning
the testimony of Jesus Christ, and apparently intended to enlarge considerably
upon them, because later on he rather naively admits that it happened “as I began
to speak.” Acts 11:15.

These hearts were so prepared and receptive that they became “purified by faith”
(Acts 15:9), even while listening to the word, and God crowned the work of
grace by causing the Holy Spirit to fall upon them then and there. Any longer
discourse on Peter's part was unnecessary. In any case he would have been
wasting his time preaching at that moment, for the Holy Spirit had personally
taken control and was repeating the manifestation of Pentecost.

What should be carefully noted is that the pouring out of the gift of the Holy
Ghost upon these people was a definite experience. They did not simply believe
a doctrine about the Spirit; neither did they “take it by faith” and hope for some
future grace and gift; they received right on the spot something of a perfectly
positive nature. And everybody knew it.

The “Pentecost” at Caesarea was so actual an experience that it cut short Peter’s
discourse, and it was accompanied by such conclusive immediate evidence that
even the six Jewish believers who had gone along with Peter (Acts 11:12), but
who had not had Peter’s housetop revelation, were entirely satisfied as to its
reality. They recognized it as being identical with their own experience “at the
beginning,” and had no answer to Peter's challenge as to whether these Gentiles
were not now fit candidates for Christian baptism, seeing that they were already
sealed by God with the Holy Spirit of promise.
That apparently small detail, which clinched the whole matter, even though Peter
was later attacked, was the fact that they “heard them speak with tongues.”

The value of this simple yet conclusive supernatural initial evidence of the
Baptism with the Holy Spirit is here revealed in a most convincing manner.
Those who today deny this evidence altogether, those who wish to substitute
other evidences which can only appear later, and even those who only admit
“tongues” as one initial evidence among possible others, have yet to produce a
substitute for this sign, that can just as perfectly meet all the requirements of an
outward token, immediately proving to one and all the inward work that the
Comforter has been personally received in all His Pentecostal fullness, and is
now in entire possession of the redeemed “temple” of the body of the believer.

A perfect substitute cannot be found, for the simple reason that speaking with
tongues remains God’s choice in this matter, whatever men may think or say.
Our place is to reverently accept His loving wisdom in making speaking with
tongues the initial evidence of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and to stand
unflinchingly for the divine pattern, rather than propose substitutes of our own
choosing and preference.

One day this last summer I was showing some Belgian friends around London
for a few hours. Approaching Buckingham Palace from Hyde Park, I was
anxious to see whether King George was in residence. As a British subject I
knew what sign to look for, and was glad to be able to point out to my friends
that the Royal Standard was flying from the topmost flagstaff. That was enough,
and we were soon rewarded by seeing some of that old-world pageantry for
which England is famous. The use of this personal flag of the King is strictly
guarded by the authorities, and, during Coronation festivities recently, the police
reprimanded some who were displaying it without permission and ordered it to
be withdrawn. It can be properly flown over the place only where the King is in
residence.

I often think of speaking with tongues as the “royal standard” of the Lord, the
Spirit. When He takes up His full residence in the palace of our purified hearts
He causes the standard to be displayed on the outermost battlements, and by
causing believers to speak with other tongues, He gives a royal banner for
display that proves to all that He is in residence. How good it is to quite often see
that banner displayed because of the truth!
 Chapter 6. Acts XIX—And On, And
On
About twenty-three years after the Day of Pentecost had happened in Jerusalem,
and about fifteen years after that first Gentile “Pentecost” in Caesarea, the
apostle Paul came, in the plan of God, to the capital city of Ephesus, there to
inaugurate a mighty revival that lasted for two years and touched the whole
province of Asia. Acts 19.

He found a group of about a dozen disciples soon after his arrival, and had no
sooner got into their company than he detected a noticeable spiritual lack. Swift
as an arrow, the experienced discernment of the apostle sensed where the trouble
lay. “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” The directness of the
question is noteworthy. He asks nothing about their repentance nor their faith nor
their works. He wants to know only one thing—Have they had an experience of
the Holy Spirit?

Such a downright question would have been unreasonable if the Holy Spirit were
simply a matter of doctrine or creed. Once again, as in a previous chapter, we
draw attention to the form of the question. It was not "What do you believe?” but
“Have ye received?” It was a challenge to experience. Their bewildered answer
left no doubt about the fact that they had not received.

Perhaps the compulsory honesty of their position was helpful, for they had not
even heard. Believers today can all say that they have heard about the Holy
Ghost and the amount that has been “heard” often clouds the vital fact that
nothing has been experimentally “received.” Yet it is still the all-important
question for disciples.

The spiritual condition of these Ephesians was apparently owing to their having
been taught by Apollos during his recent ministry in Ephesus, before that
eloquent preacher had himself been instructed more perfectly by Aquila and
Priscilla. Acts 18: 24-26. No preacher, however “mighty in the Scriptures” and
“fervent in the spirit,” can lead his congregations further in spiritual experience
than he has gone himself. This is the explanation of why so many Christians
today fail to enjoy a Pentecostal experience, and it is also the reason why some
really fine preachers sometimes find themselves losing some of the most
spiritual members of their flock. The sheep have pressed on beyond the
shepherd, and when an experience like the Baptism with the Holy Spirit has been
received, there is a logical need and desire for a ministry that shares it.

Paul at Ephesus quickly gave the needed instruction, and it was as willingly
received and acted upon. Then, when he had “laid his hands upon them, the Holy
Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied.”

The variety of method is interesting. On the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem they

were all “sitting” after ten days of continued prayer and supplication; at Caesarea
the Spirit fell upon them while listening to a preacher; while at Ephesus there
was a solemn service for the laying on of hands. It is always a fallacy to
stereotype any method by which we may expect the Lord to baptize in the Holy
Spirit. The main essentials of the experience are always the same, but the
personal pathway into it may vary considerably. Many elements enter into this
diversity; such as, personal temperament, previous spiritual experience, social
and religious background, etc. The grace of God can triumphantly meet and
overcome all.

Prophesying accompanied speaking with tongues at Ephesus but did not supplant
it as the initial evidence of the Baptism with the Spirit. The significance of the
fact that this same sign of “tongues” recurred “as at the beginning” in a city as
remote from Jerusalem as Ephesus, and after a space of twenty-three years,
completely shatters any idea that “tongues” were something distinctively special
for the Church’s primitive Pentecostal experience only. This incident in Asia
proves that they still remained the normal initial evidence of the Baptism with
the Holy Spirit for believers in every place.

Another valuable lesson to learn from Acts 19 is that incompleteness in the

personal experience of disciples where the Holy Ghost is concerned has to be
corrected before we can expect a sweeping revival among the unconverted. Paul
was moving under a mighty constraint of the love of Christ to preach the gospel
to every creature, but in his ministry he put first things first; and in this case it
meant bringing the disciples into their normal birthright of a clear experience of
the Holy Spirit, before the word of God could mightily grow and prevail. This
principle still remains unaltered.
A Baptist minister friend once said to me, “You Pentecostal people live in the
book of Acts, whereas we ought now to be living in the Epistles.” I answered,
“No, we seek to live in them all.”

The argument suggested was that the Epistles represent the final standard for
Christian experience, and that as they do not seem to refer to a Baptism with the
Holy Spirit as a definite crisis in the spiritual life of the believer, we may assume
that the book of Acts was only a temporary picture of what our experience
should be, and we are mistaken in taking it as our standard.

The answer to this argument is at least threefold:

(a) The Epistles rightly assume the indwelling Holy Spirit to be the normal
experience of all believers, and it is therefore unnecessary to keep on
emphasizing entrance to the normal. There is no ground, however, for supposing
that the experience of receiving the Spirit by the “Epistle” believers was any
different to His reception by the “Acts” believers. There is every logical ground
for believing it to have been identical.

(b) In certain places the Epistles do, as a matter of fact, look backward to a
personal reception of the Spirit which had evidently been a clearly marked and
well remembered crisis in the experience of the readers. Note especially Gal.
3:2-5; Eph. 1:13; 4:30.

(c) That view of the New Testament which regards the Epistles as representing a
stage of spiritual progress beyond the Book of Acts should be treated with great
care. As a matter of historical fact, several of the Epistles were contemporary
with the latter part of the history recorded in Acts. Paul’s letters to the
Thessalonians were already written before the events recorded in Acts 19; that to
the Galatians was probably written about the same time; and those to the
Corinthians not so very long after. All of

Paul’s letters were written well within ten years from his coming to Ephesus,
recorded in Acts 19:1. At that time he evidently regarded a personal Pentecostal
experience for all Christians “as at the beginning” to be both a normal and a
necessary thing. It seems a strange perversion of the evidence of history to infer
that within such a very short space of time it had become normal for Christians
to regard their possession of the full blessing of Pentecost as something to be
assumed upon conversion, without any very definite experience to confirm it.
Yet this is what we are asked to believe, and it is upon this astounding
assumption that many doctrines of the Spirit are built today.

Our personal attitude is that the book of Acts and the Epistles should the rather
be regarded as exterior and interior views of normal Christian experience. The
first tells us of the outward details of the Spirit’s coming and power in the
experience of believers, and the second reveals the inward effects of His
sanctifying work in the churches. They are not successive pictures of different
stages of growth, but contemporary and complementary pictures of the
permanent Scriptural standard for the Church.
 Chapter 7. Hebrews XIII, 8—“And
Today”
Of the things which we have written, this is the sum: that there is a “great
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs
and wonders and divers miracles of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will.”
Heb. 2:3, 4.

There was, as an integral part of that “so great salvation,” a promised Baptism
with the Holy Ghost and fire, which was actually received by the early
Christians and proved to be in very deed an intensely real experience. This
experience continued to be enjoyed “as at the beginning” long after the Day of
Pentecost had passed into history.

The remaining question—and it is vitally important for us—is whether we may

still find ground to expect that the same God will still give believers in the same
Lord Jesus Christ the same gift of the Holy Ghost in the same type of
experience.

The temptation is to shelve the question by quoting the general lack of such an
answer experience among Christians today as a proof that the answer is in the
negative. To excuse this gratuitous assumption it is affirmed that the entire space
of time covered by the New Testament was abnormal, but that we have now
reached the normal, and that general experience proves that there is no Baptism
with the Holy Ghost for today comparable to those early “Pentecost.” This easy-
going method of getting away from the issue is very popular. But it very plainly
substitutes a human standard of our own assumption for the divine standard of
revelation in the Holy Scriptures; so we rightly reject it.

There are those who seek a compromise by quoting as their Standards, not
“ordinary" Christians, but certain outstanding Christian leaders, who, they assert,
have never received any such experience as that we have seen to be Scriptural.
We have no right, it is therefore argued, to teach that a New Testament
Pentecostal experience should be regarded as normal for today, because it
reflects upon these admittedly choice saints of God, and if it were normal, they
would certainly have enjoyed it.

To this objection there are various replies:

(a) We do not know all the deeper experiences of these men and women, and in
several cases there are indications that they actually have received some kind of
definite spiritual experience very like the New Testament Baptism with the Holy
Spirit, even including ecstatic utterances which might have been “tongues.”

(b) Mighty as have been the accomplishments in the gospel of some of these
great leaders whose names we rightly hold in respect, it should be remembered
that the disciples of Christ cast out demons and healed the sick and performed
many wondrous works before they had received a personal Pentecostal
experience. Luke 10:17; Mark 6:13. We are happily convinced that the Lord is
always ready to work with faithful preachers of His Word, and to reward
consecration and faith by many glorious harvests for the Kingdom of God.
Moreover, the Spirit of Christ, received in regenerating grace, may yield much
blessed fruit unto holiness, apart from that Baptism of “Power from on high”
which was the special topic of our Lord's very last talk on earth.

(c) These famous Christians would probably be the last to allow themselves to
be put forward as models and thus to set the limit of attainment of spiritual
experience by that which they enjoyed. They would undoubtedly be the first to
point us all to the New Testament as the only true standard by which to judge
spiritual experience, and as setting forth the ideal from God at which we should
all aim.

For let it be clearly understood that this is the issue: We have to choose as our
pattern between accepting the New Testament or accepting the experience of
famous Christians. The latter may be studied with deep profit and to our own
humiliation, but that is quite a different thing from setting them up as a standard
by which we formulate our doctrines of the Spirit and measure our experiences.
Actually, we shall never rise above our ideal, and unless we keep our eyes
steadfastly upon the Scriptural pattern for “Pentecost,” we can never hope to
conform to it.

The burden of proof ultimately rests with those who contend that a completely
Scriptural experience of the Baptism with the Spirit is not for today; or, at best,
is only for a very few. We may be truly thankful that there is nothing in the New
Testament to support this unattractive theory.

Our Lord suggested no time limit whatsoever when He graciously quoted and
confirmed the “Promise of the Father.” Peter was magnificently sweeping in the
concluding statement of his Pentecostal sermon— “For the promise is unto you,
and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our
God shall call.” Acts 2:39. Paul regarded the experience as still normal and
essential twenty-three years afterwards. Acts 19:1-6.

Neither is there any time limit suggested in the Scriptures for the related and
resultant supernatural gifts of the Spirit, which it can be truthfully claimed that
we have now passed. The passage in 1 Cor. 13:8 is sometimes quoted, but this is
definitely timed for its fulfilment by the words, “when that which is perfect is
come.” Some actually try to squeeze a meaning into the word “perfect” that
makes it apply to the present day!

God’s Word has precisely defined the meaning of the passage, however, for it
reveals that the “perfect” time in view is when we shall see “face to face” and
know even as also we are known. None have the hardihood to assert that that
time has come yet!

Finally we have the glorious statement, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and
today, and forever” Heb. 13:8. It is supremely His work to baptize in the Holy
Ghost and fire, and we have this comforting and inspiring assurance that what
He did “yesterday” in this matter He will surely do “today.”

Is He doing it? The glad, triumphant answer from hundreds of thousands of

Christians all over the world today is in the affirmative. Upon every continent
believers are receiving a Pentecostal experience similar to that recorded on the
pages of the New Testament, and the universal character of this outpouring of
the Spirit “upon all flesh" makes them believe that surely “this is that" which
was spoken by the prophet Joel.

Have you received? What is your experience of the Holy Spirit? Is it like that of
the early Christians? “The Promise is to you." Seek the face of your heavenly
Father for this supremely good gift, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and when the
Holy Spirit has filled you with His presence and His power, you will join with
the rest of us in one glad
HALLELUJAH!
 The Revival Library
The Revival Library is a British-based collection of revival and Pentecostal
source materials. Tony Cauchi, the Librarian, says ‘Our intention is to promote
passion and prayer for authentic revival by making accessible, at affordable
prices, biographies, histories and teachings about great moves of the Spirit
across the centuries.’

The Revival Library has produced over twenty CD’s and DVD’s which which
hold collections of original books, periodicals and related teaching materials for
worldwide distribution. They include materials on Evangelical Revivals and
more recent Pentecostal and Healing outpourings.

Many of these books can be found on Amazon and many more will be added in
due course. Any of the materials we publish on Amazon or elsewhere can be
easily found by searching for "Revival Library" (exclude inverted commas) in
your ebook providers website.

Alternatively, we have lots of other materials which are in other formats such as
Word.doc and .pdf, as well as collections of books and magazines on CD's or
DVD's at shop.revival-library.org or via the main website at www.revival-
library.org
The Pentecostal Pioneers Series
This series includes materials by or about Maria Woodworth-Etter, John
Alexander Dowie, Frank Bartleman, The Azusa Street Revival, Aimee Semple
McPherson, John G. Lake, Smith Wigglesworth, Alexander Boddy, Thomas
Ball Barratt, George and Stephen Jeffreys, and a host of other lesser-known, but
equally courageous and effective pioneers of this great worldwide movement of
God. We plan to include biographies and teachings that will educate and inspire
a new generation of pioneers in our day.
The Evangelical Revival Series
This Revival which occurred in the 1940-50's was the most powerful and fruitful
move of God in the entire history of Christendom. Despite extreme criticism and
controversy Pentecostalism was revitalised, new evangelistic initiatives circled
the globe and the multifaceted charismatic movement was brought to birth.

Today the world-wide Pentecostal/charismatic community numbers over 550

million members and is the fastest growing branch of the Christian church across
the nations.

We pay tribute to the pioneers who paid such a great price to return the church to
its New Testament foundations and who presented Jesus Christ as the same
yesterday, today and forever!

We have included biographies and teachings by William Branham, Jack Coe, A.

A. Allen, W. V. Grant, Gordon Lindsay and others.
Healing Classics Series
This latest series gathers together many of the key texts on Divine Healing that
have been produced over the last century, with the sincere prayer that the truth
they proclaim will kindle a fresh passion and faith-filled prayer for a dynamic
healing revival across the world.