A Multitude of Purposes

Anytime God does anything, it is usually for a multitude of purposes and reasons. This is why the wisdom of God is referred to as manifold wisdom.

"His intent is that now through the church, the manifold wisdom of God be made known to rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." Ephesians 3:10,11

The Greek word used for "manifold" is polupoikilos. It means something that has many and diverse characteristics. Now Remember, wisdom itself in simple terms is clear direction (James 1 and Proverbs 2,3,4). And in that clear direction their is a lot going in the Lord. In other words....he is doing a lot of things all at once. When God gives us a simple direction, he accomplishes a lot of things through our simple act of obedience.

When the Lord moved me to Albuquerque in 1997 he was doing many things in my life:

• Furthering my doctrinal foundation and continuing to teach my how to hear his voice.
• Cleansing my soul through further discipline.
• Preparing me to be married.
• Leading others to the Lord through my ministry and then discipling them.
• Giving me a greater heart of servitude at my job.
• Preparing me for management and showing me how servant-leadership really worked within his Kingdom.

When the Lord led me back to Texas with my wife and two kids he was doing many things in our lives:

• Furthering our character in him.
• Using us in a body of believers to establish, strengthen and settle them in the foundational aspects of Christ.
• Raising our boys in the Lord.
• Drawing me close to my natural family before my mother's death.
• Continuing to teach me how to manage a business according to his leading.  

When the Lord moved us to Merida, MX he did so for a multitude of reasons:

• He showed us that the American model of church, when exported, doesn't always bring forth life in those who God is calling.
• He furthered our character in him.
• He showed us what socialism really does to nations of men and how it affects the Body of Christ.
• He used us to plant a church.
• He removed the stench and familiarity of American sins from our spiritual nostrils for a time so that when we returned it stood out to us more clearly, therefore enabling us to more readily speak and preach against sin and the selfish ambitions of men.

When he moved us back to Texas he did so for many reasons:

• To look after my grandmother who is in her twilight years and set her estate in order.
• To get a look at the American church from a new perspective.
• To start our ministries.
• To fulfill various prophetic words that we had received in previous years.
• To walk both of my sons through key stages in their development with the proper resources at our disposal.

One of the positions that Cessationist Theology takes is that once Jew and Gentile were reconciled during the time of the first generation of apostles, the need for a subsequent baptism of the Spirit with the evidence of signs and wonders was no longer needed by God. Their argument is simply that this was to kick-start the flow of reconciliation between Jew and the entire Gentile world and that once this was accomplished, things reverted to a new order and flow in the Spirit. Cessationists now argue that God would no longer do things the same way as he did in the book of Acts. 

Let's take a look at that position.

Just as their is a multitude of purposes for everything God does in our lives at the giving of wisdom, so their was a multitude of purposes in the book of Acts for the baptism of water and subsequent baptism of the Spirit with signs following.

• Power for each individual believer to endure the process of circumcision that we might each overcome the world, the flesh and the devil and, in the process, be fully reconciled to God.
• Power to be reconciled to our fellow man. Jew and Gentile reconciliation as an example.
• Continuing with the process of subsequent baptism of both Water and Spirit. This set the doctrine of subsequence as a pattern for churches to follow in the order of baptisms. This was first displayed in the lives of the Israelites as they emerged from Egyptian Bondage (See 1 Cor 10), Elisha the prophet in 2 Kings 2, and Jesus in all four gospels.

When signs, wonders and miracles are displayed in the life of an individual, it overpowers the natural senses of man to judge falsely and gives outward evidence of the internal workings of the Spirit. The Jew needed to witness such events in Acts 8 and Acts 10 to begin destroying their long standing prejudices against everything and everyone that was Non-Jew.

However, this same tendency towards prejudice exists in the heart of every man.

"Man is born to sin as surely as sparks fly upward." Job 5:7

While we were in Yucatan, Mexico doing missions work the one thing that we took notice of the most within the Body of Christ was the deep prejudice that often existed between Spaniards and Mayans in the city of Merida. They simply didn't intermingle in the secular culture and this always carried over into the Body of Christ. I had a pastor at a church we attended tell me on more than one occasion that he simply could not get the Body to break through into reconciliation with regards to these two groups of Mexican nationals. They refused to eat together, sit together, socialize.......It was really bad.

It reminded me of the deep root prejudices we have long seen in our nation between those of African-American descent and Anglo Saxon descent. When God really began to address this issue of reconciliation in our nation and specifically within the Body of Christ was at the outpouring of the Spirit at the Azusa Street revival in 1906. The Power of God was present in signs, wonders, miracles and tongues to reconcile men to one another. The same power that was made manifest at Pentecost and later in Acts 8 and 10 was also being made known in Southern California during the early part of the last century.

God's approach was no different between Azusa St. and Jerusalem. Only the outpouring of Power was able to help in the breakthrough. The problem my pastor friend had in his church was rooted primarily in his theology. He simply didn't believe in a subsequent outpouring of the Spirit with signs and wonders. This power is given that we might be first be reconciled to God and, in the process, be reconciled to on another.

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.. And he has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation." 2 Corinthians 5:18,19

My friend doesn't believe in the Power that is made manifest at a subsequent outpouring of the Spirit. He believes that when you put your faith in Christ and are water baptized that Jesus automatically baptizes every believer in the Spirit. Yet some of the fruit of his ministry says otherwise. Why?

"Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him." 1 John 1:9-11

He doesn't consistently minister in the level of Power that breaks the everyday prejudices that every man holds towards someone or some group of people. My friends wants it to happen but he refuses to subscribe to the spiritual remedy that would cause the reconciliation to occur.

And not only is it Spanish Yucatecos and Mayan Yucatecos that hate each other. Both of those groups only get along when they are opposing a greater threat.....Mexicans from outside the state of Yucatan.

"The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day Herod and Pilate became friends - before this they had been enemies." Luke 23:10-12

Spanish and Mayan Yucatecos have discovered a common enemy: Mexican nationals that are non-Yucatecos. So in the Body of Christ in the Yucatan you have three groups of people primarily. Most of our friends within the Body of Christ were composed of this third group of people. Many of them are from Mexico City. These outsiders are mostly of Aztec descent and comprise the majority of Mexican citizens from Mexico City all the way up through the northern part of their country.

Mexico is a nation of roughly 100 million people. Over 20% of their total population lives in that one city so it is not uncommon to know someone from that area when you live in Mexico.

My wife and I had many Non-Yucateco Christians friends in Merida that would tell us that the Yucatecos refused to eat with them or have them over for dinner. Most Yucatecos refused to socialize with Mexicans of Aztec descent. Now what does this all sound like? And why does their seem to be little to no breakthrough on an ongoing basis?

"When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, 'You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?" Acts 2:11-14

Even if you have a dispensation of power such as recorded in Acts, people retrace from time to time. The dross of sin that God burns from our hearts comes out in layers and different measures over the course of time. Peter was no different than any of us. He was a man just like us. And he needed what we need: Faith, Grace, Forgiveness and an ongoing dispensation of Power.

Do we really think it was just a Jew to Gentile issue? Isn't it a male to female, slave to free, black to white, American to Mexican, Spaniard to Mayan, Yucateco to Non-Yucateco issue?

JEB

The Book of Acts: Doctrine or History Book?

The Lord spoke to me a great deal about two men in the early days of my walk with the Lord. One was Joseph son of Jacob and the other was David son of Jesse. I spent a lot of time reading Genesis and 1st and 2nd Samuel. Both men's lives helped to form the basis of the doctrine of discipline in Christ where Spirit-led discipline eventually leads to holiness. I noticed correlations in their lives from reading these books, specifically with regards to how they were both caught up in the same process of Declaration, Distress, Development and Demonstration.

To explain this process more specifically......

God declared to both men what they were destined for.

• Joseph to have rule over his brothers and his father's entire household.
• David to have rule as king over all Israel.

God plunged both men into unexpected distress and rerouted them onto a narrow path in ways that were unimaginable.

• Joseph was sold into slavery.
• The King who David had served faithfully rejected him and tried to kill him.

Both men found themselves in long seasons of spiritual development.

• Joseph in Potiphar's house and in prison.
• David on the run for his life for many years with a limited measure of rule over discontented men.

Both men found themselves in the perfect place with God demonstrating his original intent in their lives.

• Joseph as ruler over all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.
• David first over Judah and eventually over all Israel.

The books that contain the history of these men's lives form the basis for understanding God's 4 fold process: Declaration, Distress, Development and Demonstration. Many others see what I have seen. Many through history, many today. These things are easy to comprehend when one applies themselves to spiritual truth in Christ. Yet it is the books of historical record that teach us the doctrine.

Jesus himself drew on David's experience at Nob as recorded in a historical text to establish the supremacy of law of the Spirit in mercy, justice and faithfulness:

"He answered, 'Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread- which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and year are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ' I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.'" Matthew 12:3-8

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices - mint, dull and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness." Matthew 23:23

 
The Bible is very clear that all scripture is God-inspired and God-breathed. And they are all profitable for the establishment of doctrine in the appropriate context in the Spirit of God.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, correction, reproof and for instruction in righteousness - that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Timothy 3:16,17

This applies to all Scripture, including the book of Acts. Acts is profitable for doctrine!!!

I do understand that the Levitical worship is not in play in Christ Jesus. Things such as the meaning of what the Sabbath is has now changed. All types and shadows of the Old Covenant are now fulfilled in Christ. The Sabbath, as an example, is about entering into his rest and walking by faith into his work (Hebrews 3 and 4, James 2:14-24). We now serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. I understand that.

"But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." Romans 7:6

But within the context of the law of the Spirit of life we draw upon testimony of biblical characters which by it's very nature is historical and in written form. Their lives can and do serve as a basis for constructing the manifold-wisdom of God that creates an ever unfolding essence of who we are in Christ.
 
What some teachers are saying is that because the process of subsequently receiving the baptism of the Spirit as witnessed in Jesus' own baptism, and further in the books of Acts is not later outlined with clear grammar between Romans and Jude, it is no longer a valid process for believers today. They say this process of subsequent baptisms with the evidence of power, prophecy and tongues is no longer in play even though we see subsequent baptisms in the life of Christ himself at the Jordan river along with all of the believers throughout the book of Acts.

O.K. If that is true then why do those 21 books (Romans to Jude) not set other rules, expectations and traditions for believers to follow with regards to the workings of the Spirit? Not once to my knowledge does it evidence any other distinct procession of the order of the three baptisms of water, spirit, fire. If this is not the order of God then where is it spelled out in the apostolic epistles? Where is the replacement theology for the doctrine of subsequence as we witness it in Acts 2, 8, 10, 18 and 19? Where is it at?

Jesus himself was not baptized with the Spirit until after his water baptism by John. Was he full of wisdom and pure of heart with the grace of God on him? Yes.

"And the child grew and became strong. He was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him." Acts 2:40

"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with man." Luke 2:52

Jesus set a pattern for all things. He was baptized in water by John son of Zechariah and then the Spirit came down upon him in the form of a dove. See Matthew 1:15-17 and John 1:33.

What about the Israelites coming out of Egyptian bondage? They were baptized by passing through the sea (Water) and into the cloud (Spirit).

"For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.....Now these things occurred as examples (types).."1 Corinthians 10:1,2,6

What do these events symbolize? Were they random occurrences with regards to historical events or were they carefully orchestrated by the Lord God of Israel who was Christ Jesus himself.

"They drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them and that rock was Christ." 1 Corinthians 10:4

Even Elisha was baptized in water by passing through the Jordan.

"...Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground." 2 Kings 3:7,8

Yet he did not stop there. As Elisha persisted by not taking his eyes off of his master Elijah, he was later endued with a double portion of Elijah's anointing.

"When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, 'Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?' 'Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,' Elisha replied. 'You have asked a difficult thing,' Elijah said, 'yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours- otherwise not.'   As they were talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind........He (Elisha) picked up  the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. 'Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?' he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, 'The spirit of Elijah is now resting on Elisha.' 2 Kings 2:9-15 

Both of these events were a foreshadowing of the coming subsequent baptisms of both water and Spirit. Elijah was a type of Christ to his servant Elisha. Elijah was not the Christ. He was only a type of Christ, just as Joseph son of Jacob was a type of Christ to his brothers in Egypt.

Let everything be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. The historical foreshadowing of this subsequent baptism of both water and Spirit can be seen in the examples above. So why not believe? 

Now is the time of God's favor brethren. Now is the day of salvation and deliverance.

JEB

Greater Light or Lesser Light

After I finished my 15 month stint of valet parking cars the Lord moved me to Midland, TX in February of 1997. When I drove into the city for the first time in my Uhaul moving truck the Lord spoke to me as I was turning northbound on 349 off of BL Hwy 20. I was told to not get to comfortable as I would not live in Midland for very long.

This turned out to be quite true as I found the Lord leading me to move to Albuquerque, NM in August of the same year, just 6 short months later. My pastor lived outside of Albuquerque in the area of Sandia Park and this was the area where I ended up renting a home.

I have been an avid runner since my soccer days came to an end so consequently I like to take most of my runs in the early morning or evening. One of the things I noticed while living in Sandia was that there is not a lot of fluorescent light coming from street lamps. It is more of rural living in the foothills east of the Sangria de Cristos Mountains. Because of this, at night, if there are clouds in the sky that block the moonlight and the stars, you almost can't see the ground you are walking on. It gets that dark. I found this to be true on a recent camping trip to Colorado in the mountains near the South Platte river. Clouds at night mean no light.

Several years ago I asked the Lord to explain to me in basic terms what is the difference between our walks before we are filled with the Spirit and after we receive what I testified to receiving in the last post on March 9th, 1996. In response, I believe that the Lord has explained it to me this way.

In the beginning the Lord created two kinds of light. He created the lesser light to govern the night and the greater light to govern the day.

"And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights - the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning - the fourth day." Genesis 1:14-19

The lesser lights that come from the moon and the stars governs the night while the greater light of the Sun governs the day. Both have a measure of rule over darkness, but one has a greater measure than the other. When thick clouds cover the sky at night in undeveloped areas, apart from man-made light, you can hardly see per my experience. But when you have cloud cover in the day you can still see and operate. One light has limitations. The other, not so much. At night in Sandia Park, NM you can only run if/when there are no clouds out. In the day, there are no limitations regardless of most forms of weather. You can still see, walk, drive and do just about whatever without artificial means.

I believe that in Christ there are two stages of our lives in Christ. One is when the Spirit is with us and attending us. Jesus said the following:

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him or knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." John 14:15-17

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified." John 7:38-40

There is a time and stage in the beginning when the Spirit of Christ is most assuredly with us according to our needs in him. He is with us no differently than he was with the disciples before Christ's ascension, resurrection, and subsequent waiting prior to Pentecost. He is "with" us and speaks to our hearts which are in us.

"For the Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.....For wisdom will enter your hearts and knowledge will be pleasant to your souls." Proverbs 2:6,10.

We hear him from day one of our relationship with him.

"What does it say? 'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." Romans 10:8-10

And truthfully, even before then as there is a depth of God's guidance and conviction in our lives even before we are fully conscience of him. Before we were born he knew us. And before we were born he set us apart for himself. And as we are born again, He is with us, he talks with us, he provides for us, he protects us.

And even as we are known unto him from the foundations of the earth, we are still not fully immersed into his Spirit until he so chooses for each one of us. Their is a time of walking in lesser light in Christ even before the greater light comes into us. In lesser light we can't really function in the full measure of the Spirit as he will give to us Baptism of the Spirit. We go from him being "with" us to him being "in" us.

Jesus told Nicodemus that there was a time when man would be born again and "see" the kingdom. However, there would also come a moment when the water of the Word would combine with the empowerment of the Spirit and cause us to enter into that very same kingdom.

"Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.' 'How can a man be born when he is old?' Nicodemus asked. 'Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!'

'Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to the spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.'" John 3:3-8

What I believe he is saying is that we see the kingdom once born again. We see it. When we are born again we are born of the water of the word of God within our hearts. We are born again. But we don't enter into it's full-on power until we enter into it via Baptism of the Spirit. We go from standing under the front porch, hearing the sounds and smelling the aromas from within it to actually crossing a threshold of the fullness of light where we come to know the Kingdom of God in all of it's power and glory for us in this life.

Paul said to the church in Rome:

"You however are not controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." Romans 8:9-11

Paul had a view of the Romans that they were mature in Christ, full of the Holy Spirit. Paul was a spiritual man who had made judgements about them as Christ was speaking through him. He judged them as a mature body of believers. After writing all that he did in his epistle to them he said the following:

"I am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another." Romans 15:14,15. 

He knew of their obedience in the Lord.

"Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you." Romans 16:19.

He knew they were filled with the Spirit (Romans 8:9-11). He knew a powerful church when he saw one. Paul understood the vitality of power in the Spirit. He knew the Romans were a miraculously powerful church. The only reason he re-hashed all of the doctrinal basis of the church with them again was that he was reminding them of all it's realities in actual written form. They already knew about all of the issues he covered with them in the sixteen chapters of Romans. He was just giving them a friendly reminder.

"I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, ...." Romans 15:15

There is a time of going from being in Christ where the Spirit is 'with' us to "in" us. Their is a time of beginnings in the lesser light to transitioning into greater light in Christ. I think we can see this in the book of Acts very clearly. And this brings us to our next point. Is Acts there to give us a doctrinal basis like Romans and Galatians. Or is it just a historical book unlike the other apostolic epistles? Should we look at Acts 2, 8, 10,18,19 as an example of how we transition from lesser light to greater light? Let's get into that next.

JEB




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My story

I first learned about the Lord at the age of 8. My parents sent me to a private Christian school for the second grade and it was there that I asked the Lord into my heart. Neither of my parents were believers. I was really the only Christian in my family. My grandparents, my dad's parents, went to a Baptist church but they never ever spoke to me about Christ.

As I grew into a young man I succumbed to all of the temptations of the world: alcohol, premarital-sex, profanity, lying and a little cheating here and there. I was insecure, vain and proud beyond words. As I grew into a young man I found myself without a career and purpose. I forwent a career in professional soccer after college and instead found myself living in Dallas chasing after the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

The odd thing about all of this was that I was still holding onto something from my time in that private school as an 8 year old boy. I had a spiritual seed inside of me that stayed with me throughout my years of adolescence and into my early 20's. Growing up I prayed every night before I went to bed and I always held the name of the Lord Jesus in high regard. I refused to take his name in vain even though I obviously had a problem with swearing.

At the age of 23 I began dating a young woman from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was a back-sliden Christian herself. She however went to church every weekend as a matter of ritual even though the fruit in her life did not show anything different than it did in mine.  As I began attending church with her, when I would listen to the preachers, I would feel a sense of conviction and prompting within my consciences on a deeper level than anything I had ever experienced.

After that relationship ended I found myself attending Willow Bend Church in Plano, TX through the invitation of a co-worker. This particular church was affiliated with the Southern Baptist Union. All of their core doctrines aligned with the SBU even though outwardly they postured themselves as a "Seeker" church. They were also affiliated with the Willow Creek Community of Churches started by Bill Hybels.

The Lord definitely led me to this church. It was there that I really began to enter into relationship with the Lord. In the fall of 1994, at the age of 24, I began giving my life totally over to Christ. I started to have some dreams on occasion. I even had an open-eyed vision one day where I saw the room physically disappear around me when I shut my eyes while in prayer one afternoon. I began to feel a sense of conviction about my sins over the course of about 6 months. I was water-baptized on April 9th, 1995 as a sign of my inward repentance and heart change.

The Lord then led me to change jobs. I went from working for CTX mortgage company to a company that did extremely large, high-end landscaping operations for wealthy people in Dallas, TX. It was during this time in the summer of 1995 that the Fear of the Lord descended on me like a ton of bricks. It wasn't one particular event or occurrence that caused this to happen. It was simply like feeling the weather progressively change over a period of weeks. It settled on me in a very tangible way so that I began to look to the Lord more and more with a sense of reverence, fear and awe.

After another six months at that job and being persecuted for my faith by my superiors, the Lord had me change jobs again. I started valet parking cars for a living. This was very humbling to me. I had a college degree and yet the Lord put me into a deeper measure of his fire and discipline. For 15 months he had a slow, steady flame burning underneath me at that job to burn out a measure of dross from my soul.

"For who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver." Malachi 3:2,3

It was as if I was expelling spiritual toxins from my system. If you have ever done a detox program with a physical change in your diet you know what that feels like in your glands. It can make your skin smell and give you bad breath. I was being detoxed and cleaned up to a certain measure by the Lord.

As this whole process was occurring, the Lord began to show me a particular passage of scripture over a period of several weeks in early 1996.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8

Now remember, I was still going to the seeker church in Plano. "I" was making plans to go to seminary in Ft. Worth because I felt God's call into the ministry. Willow Bend was going to sponsor me and pay for my tuition so I could get a masters in Theology. I thought I had some direction, some clear wisdom for my life. Yet I was about to find out that the Lord had another path for me to take.

My best friend in the Christ was having a prayer meeting at his house on March 9th, 1996. At that time I had been valeting for 3 months. At this particular prayer meeting, when I walked in at about 11:30 PM, everything had already been well underway. I noticed that others were praying in tongues. I really felt that I was supposed to be there and one of the men at the meeting walked over to me and opened up his Bible and read the following verse to me:

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8

I knew the Lord was speaking to me in typical echoing fashion as this verse had been in my heart for a few months by that point. No one was teaching it to me. It was simply the Lord continually putting it in front of me....again and again.

I walked over and sat down at the dining room table. I group of people gathered around me, placed their hands on me and began praying for me. I began to feel a heat all over my body. My forearms and thighs felt a squeezing pressure. It wasn't painful. I wasn't uncomfortable. But I could definitely feel something tangible in my physical body. Suddenly I looked up to heaven and tongues began coming out of my mouth. It wasn't me talking. The only way I could get it to stop was to shut my mouth. I stood up from my chair and when I would try to speak to others standing around me I couldn't speak English. Only tongues would come out of my mouth.

From that time forward, something was different about my life. It wasn't just the tongues. It was a sense of something that was very much the Lord. It was peaceful. I just didn't know how to express it doctrinally apart from the one verse that the Lord had given to me.

With great joy I returned to my church and testified about what had happened to me. Two of the families that I spoke with about my experience later received the same impartation of the Holy Spirit that I did with the evidence of tongues. The rest of the church, the pastoral staff specifically, began to reject me and later I found the Lord leading me in a new direction. It was at that point that I heard the Lord telling me that whatever he had called me to, he would prepare me for it. I didn't feel the need to go to seminary at that point and never really thought much about it again.

Roughly a month later, while praying in the Holy Spirit one morning with my prayer language (tongues), the language that I was speaking in changed dramatically. The only way I know how to explain it was that it sounded like I went from praying in tongues to praying in, what seemed to me, was a tongue of men, a human language. It sounded as if it may have been Russian or some language from Eastern Europe. I wasn't really sure. Praying in this form lasted for about 2 minutes and then it completely stopped. Again, I had no control over the way it sounded. It started and then when I stopped yielding the parts of my body (my mouth and tongue) to it, it simply  stopped as if the Lord was the one controlling this moment.

As soon as it stopped, when I went to pray in tongues, I went back to praying in the spiritual language that I had originally been given on March 9th. As I stood up and got dressed to go to work I found myself feeling very tired. While working that day I began to feel very drained and very, very ill. I didn't know what was happening to me. As I prayed about it the Lord reminded me of a testimony that I had seen a minister give on T.V. about a similar incident occurring with him. He said that the Lord had shown him that while he was praying in a new tongue one morning that he was in fact interceding for someone in another place who had been injured physically.

Whether his testimony was accurate or not I cannot personally validate. What was happening to me however was very real. I went home that afternoon and collapsed in bed. For 10 days I could hardly get up for more than 10 minutes at a time and then I would have to lay back down. What I did notice however was a change in my heart that has stayed with me since. I started to have an insatiable hunger to read scripture over those 10 days.

Up to that time I read my bible on occasion. But this was a major heart change I was experiencing  while lying on my back. So much so that it was as if I was being cleansed of a measure of spiritual dullness and apathy.

"Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires but rather for the will of God." 1 Peter 4:1,2

From that time forward I could not get enough of Bible reading and praying. Here I was at 25 years of age and I had no interest in dating or socializing at some of the local youth groups that were nothing more than Christian dating clubs. All I wanted to do was read, pray and drink my favorite coffee. So much so that for almost a year I prayed and read my Bible about 5 hours a day. I started journaling and eventually, as I began to flow in doctrinal revelation, the Lord would snap together sequences of scripture for me. I was still fellowshipping with others but it was in very select environments and with very specific purposes.

In was in this season that I began to witness and experience healings along with witnessing people being delivered from demonic spirits. I began to be exposed to prophetic ministries and began to hear the voice of he Lord in a way and that I had not experienced prior to March, 1996. Everything was changing for me. Things had gone from 1st gear to Overdrive with one shift of the clutch. Their was no 2nd, 3rd or 4th gear in the transition. The bursting forth of the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit was exponential.

"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power." 1 Cor 4:20 

"And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:17

My testimony of the baptism of the Spirit is not solely about the gift of tongues. It is about the flow of power.

"Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard." Galatians 3:5

Before March 9th, 1996 I did have discernment and conviction about things. I saw God provide for me financially. I had the fruit of repentance in my life in an increasing sense. God was with me. He was speaking into my heart, which is within me. I heard his voice on numerous occasions. But I had never felt his presence in my entire 25 years until that one night. From that point going forward things were completely and totally different.

I transitioned from the lesser light that governs the night to the greater light that governs the day. I will explain what I am talking about in the next post.

JEB

Experience, Scripture, or Both. Which is Supreme?

What you are about to read relates to the subject of the Baptism of the Spirit. Just hang with me.

Casting demons out of Christians is not laid out doctrinally in scripture. But I testify publicly that I have seen it happen on numerous occasions with numerous Christians. What this tells me is that not all revelation can be so literally spelled out in rules and decrees in the apostolic epistles. Some doctrines, decrees and rules that the Spirit lays out are actually understood in the context of experiences that we have as the Spirit of Christ leads us by his wisdom.

Most church doctrine which we find recorded in scripture was hashed out through experiences that were initiated by the Spirit of Christ. These same experiences gave a platform for revelation that in the course of time, when adhered to, bred purity and peace. We know when we are speaking and experiencing truth because the Spirit of God bears witness with both our human spirits and our consciences by way of peace.

"The Spirit himself testifies with our spirits that we are God's children." Romans 8:16.

"Those who obey his commands live in him and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." 1 John 3:24

The Spirit, most often in the context of physical experiences, gives us revelation within the heart that is accompanied by the peace that transcends all understanding. God initiates experience through the giving of wisdom.

"Wisdom is supreme, therefore get wisdom." Proverbs 4:7

A lot of Christians struggle with the supremacy of wisdom. Wisdom is clear direction within the heart. It is a clear way or path to be taken by the believer.

"If any man lacks wisdom (clarity), he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given unto him." James 1

"For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding...........for Wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." Proverbs 2:6,10

Proverbs chapters 2,3,4, and 8 all refer to wisdom as a way or a path. In a roundabout way it is a general sense of direction. James uses the word Sophia for wisdom in the first chapter of his epistle. Sophia comes form the Greek word Saphes which means clarity. So when we combine both bits of understanding from Proverbs and James' writings, what we see is that the Lord, when giving wisdom to his people, is actually giving clear direction. It's a clear path or a clear way in him. The Spirit is telling us which way to go with clarity within the heart.

And this direction leads to experiences that are accompanied by peace.

"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving..." James 3:17

"Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace." Proverbs 3:17

This peaceable wisdom leads to holiness within the soul. The reason we can say it leads to holiness is that, on the narrow path that we find ourselves on through the Lord's wisdom, is also the place where we find the discipline of the Lord to bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness (See Hebrews 12).

The wisdom of God that leads us into his work is supreme. It is in the midst of these Spirit-led experiences that we hear more of his voice which often comes in the form of scripture. He will show us what and how to interpret and understand the scriptures as we are having an experience that is led of him.

"Those that are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Romans 8:14

Remember, the apostles largely had just their testimony based on physical experiences that occurred over a period of 40 days to verify that Jesus was in fact alive after the crucifixion. And the scriptures that they had to draw upon were, to the logical mind, somewhat vague. Consider the following  verses:

"You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay." Psalm 16:10

"The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone." Psalm 118:22

"I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David." Isaiah 55:3

"I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever." 1 Chronicles 17:11-14

These were the only scriptures employed by the apostles as proof texts that Jesus the Messiah was in fact destined to rise from the dead. And when I look at them from the mind of a skeptical Pharisee or teacher of the Law I see nothing that convinces me, apart from God's Spirit revealing them to me, that they are in fact true. Yet this was the only scriptural basis that God gave them to bear witness to the most important event in recorded history.

The Wisdom of God is supreme in all matters. It is through this leading of the Spirit that we in fact keep the law and stay within the moral boundaries of holiness as God outlines them for us in scripture.

"...we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code." Romans 7:6

People who don't allow God to reveal the understanding found in the scriptures while having a Spirit-led experience.......those that rely only on interpretation of scripture while only ever sitting at a desk at home....those people are setting themselves up for a life spent knowing about the Lord but never really knowing the Lord. Again, it's the difference between knowing about the Lord versus Knowing the Lord.

I love reading my Bible and have had seasons where I did a lot of studying. But there comes a point where God says, "Here is what I want you to do. Now get out and live it...in power." I am not saying that we shouldn't know scripture. We should. I am saying we should understand it in context of the experiences we are given by the wisdom and understanding of the Lord. And lest you say I am downplaying the revelation that comes in scripture, I just quoted you almost twenty scriptures in a span of about 2 pages of writing.

The scriptures alone do not breed righteousness in our souls.

"You diligently study the Scripture because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." John 5:39,40

Scripture, when combined with the power of God, keeps us from error.

"You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power (Dunamis) of God." Matthew 22:29

All scripture is profitable.

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16,17

But it must be understood in the context of a life lived in wisdom and power.

"But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and wisdom of God." 1 Corinthians 1:23,24 

In the next post I am going to share with you my baptism in the Holy Spirit and how the Lord formed the doctrine that I hold to with regards to it.

JEB

My Understanding on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

I have noticed a bit of traffic on our blog due to the correspondence I have had with the author of another blog regarding the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues.

Let me start by saying that I do not despise anyone nor am I seeking to be contentious with him or anyone else for that matter in any way that would be displeasing to the Lord. I have prayed to the Lord and asked for forgiveness if any pride may have been in my heart in any of my words without me seeing it.

In the past I have read this person's blog off and on. I admire his God-given gifts and much of the fruit that it is in his heart. I believe he loves the Lord and I have even supported him financially in the past because I think his ministry warrants that support. I love his personal testimony and I have also provided links in some of my writings to certain posts he has written. I love the way his gift of interpretation dispenses grace into the Body and I will continue to read his Blog as I feel the Lord leading me to do so.

However, I believe some of his teaching lacks a measure of clarity on the Baptism of the Spirit. The doctrine of baptisms is a foundational issue (See Hebrews 6). That, along with the vitality of the flow of gifts in the Body to dispense grace (1 Peter 4:6) makes clear understanding very necessary on both issues if we are going to truly fulfill the purpose for which God has made each one of us (Ephesians 2:10).

I do not believe that the person I am referencing is a false teacher. I due however think that he is teaching falls short in a couple of areas. (See here for the difference) . I will seek to address the issues without personalizing things to much if at all possible. To me this is about equipping the saints for the work of the ministry that they might be overcomers (Ephesians 4, Revelation 2:7).

The Lord has had me and my family busy with resettling back in the U.S. and rooting into the work he has had for us over the past year. I put writing on hold because I have, like Ezekiel, been laid to the side for over a year witnessing the fallen state of not just the U.S. culture but much of the church as well. With that said, I am going to dust off the blog and do some clarifying teaching on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and explain in a little more detail some of the points I made in the comments section of those two recent posts at his site.

I sent him a response on his first comment where he posed many questions towards me but he chose not to publish the answers that I sent him in the Comments section to clarify the position I was taking. Again, I do not perceive this individual as a false brother or teacher. I just believe some things can be understood more adequately that is what is being presented.

I am going to put out more than a few posts that answer some of his questions and challenges that he put before me personally in the comments section as well as touch on his points in his teachings while bringing up a few more of my own that I believe will help bring a greater definition of the understanding of the Lord with regards to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with signs following.

Sincerely,
J.E.
jayblackshear@yahoo.com