The-Person-and-Work-of-the-Holy-Spirit-by-R.A.-Torrey
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit
there must be that for which baptism stands, namely, an open confession of our renunciation of sin and our acceptance of Jesus Christ. The baptism with the Spirit is not for the secret disciple, but for the open confessed disciple. There are many doubtless to-day who are trying to be Christians in their hearts, many who really believe that they have accepted Jesus as their Saviour and their Lord and have renounced sin, but they are not willing to make an open confession of their renunciation of sin and their acceptance of Christ. Such an one cannot have the baptism with the Holy cc Do not the Friends
Spirit. Some one may ask, cc Quakers"), who do not believe in water baptism, give evidence of being baptized with the Holy Spirit ? "
Doubtless many of them do, but this does not alter the teaching of God's Word. God doubtless condescends in many instances where people are misled as to the teaching of His Word to their ignorance, if they are sincere, but that fact does not alter His Word, and even with a member of the congregation of Friends, who sincerely does not believe in water baptism, there must be before the blessing is received that for which baptism stands, namely, the open confession of our acceptance of Christ and of our renunciation of sin.
4. The fourth step is absolute surrender to God. This comes out in what has been already said, namely, that we must accept Jesus as Lord as well as Saviour.
It Is stated explicitly in Acts v. 32, cc And we are His witnesses of these things , and so is also the Holy
Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him" That is the fourth step, " obey Him/^obedience. But
what does obedience mean ? Some one will say, doing as we are told. Right, but doing how much that we are told ? Not merely one thing or two things or three things or four things, but all things. The heart of obedience is in the will, the essence of obedience is the surrender of the will to God. It is going to God our heavenly Father and saying, " Heavenly Father, here I am. I am Thy property. Thou hast bought me with a price. I acknowledge Thine ownership, and surrender myself and all that I am absolutely to Thee.
Send me where Thou wilt; do with me what Thou wilt; use me as Thou wilt." This is inmost instances the decisive step in receiving the baptism with the Holy
Spirit. In the Old Testament types it was when the whole burnt offering was laid upon the altar, nothing kept back within or without the sacrificial animal, that the fire came forth from the Holy Place where God dwelt and accepted and consumed the gift upon the altar. And so it is to-day, in the fulfillment of the type, when we lay ourselves, a whole burnt offering, upon the altar, keeping nothing within or without back, that the fire of God, the Holy Spirit, descends from the real
Holy Place, heaven (of which the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle was simply a type), and accepts the gift upon the altar. When we can truly say, u My all is on the altar," then we shall not have long to wait for the fire. The lack of this absolute surrender is shutting many out of the blessing to-day. People turn the keys of almost every closet in their heart over to God, but there is some small closet of which they wish to keep the key themselves, and the blessing does not come.
At a convention in Washington, D. C., on the last night, I had spoken on How to Receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit Himself was present in mighty power that night. The chaplain of one of the houses had said to me at the close of the meeting, " It almost seemed as if I could see the Holy Spirit in this place to-night." There were many to be dealt with. About two hours after the meeting closed, about eleven o'clock, a worker came to me and said, " Do you see that young woman over to the right with whom Miss W is speaking ? " " Yes." " Well, she has been dealing with her for two hours and she is in awful agony. Won't you come and see if you can help ? " I went into the seat back of this woman in distress and asked her her trouble. " Oh," she said, " I came from Baltimore to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and I cannot go back to Baltimore until I have received Him." " Is your will laid down? " I asked, " I am afraid not." u Will you lay it down now ? " u I cannot." " Are you willing that God should lay it down for you ? " Yes." Ask Him to do it." She bowed her head in prayer and asked God to empty her of her will, to lay it down for her, to bring it into conformity to His will, in absolute surrender to His own. When the prayer was finished, I said, " Is it laid down ? "
She said, " It must be. I have asked something according to His will. Yes, it is done." I said, u Ask Him for the baptism with the Holy Spirit." She bowed her head again in brief prayer and asked God to baptize her with the Holy Spirit and in a few moments looked up with peace in her heart and in her face.
Why ? Because she had surrendered her will. She had met the conditions and God had given the blessing.
5. The fifth step is an intense desire for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in John vii. 37-39, u If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink; He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive." Here again we have belief on Jesus as the condition of receiving the Holy Spirit but we have also this, " If any man thirst." Doubtless when Jesus spake these words He had in mind the Old Testament promise in Isa. xliv. 3, " For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground
I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring." In both these passages thirst is the condition of receiving the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to thirst ? Wheti a man really thirsts, it seems as if every pore in his body had just one cry, "Water! Water! Water!" Apply this to the matter in question ; when a man thirsts spiritually, his whole being has but one cry, " The Holy Spirit
! " As long as one
! The Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit fancies he can get along somehow without the baptism with the Holy Spirit, he is not going to receive that baptism, f As long as one is casting about for some new kind of church, machinery, or new style of preaching, or anything else, by which he hopes to accomplish what the Holy Spirit only can accomplish, he will not receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit.,) As long as one tries to find some subtle system of exegesis to read out of
the New Testament what God has put Into it, namely, the absolute necessity that each believer receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit as a definite experience, he is not going to receive the baptism with the Holy
Spirit. As long as a man tries to persuade himself that he has received the baptism with the Holy Spirit when he really has not, he is not going to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit*, But when one gets to the place where he sees the absolute necessity that he be baptized with the Holy Spirit as a definite experience and desires this blessing at any cost, he is far on the way towards receiving it. At a state Young Men's Christian Association Convention, where I had spoken on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, two ministers went out of the meeting side by side. One said to the other, " That kind of teaching leads either to fanaticism or despair." He did not attempt to show that it was unscripturaL He felt condemned and was not willing to admit his lack and seek to have it supplied, and so he tried to avoid the condemnation that came from the Word by this bright remark, "that kind of teaching leads either to fanaticism or despair/* Such a man will not receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit until he is brought to himself and acknowledges honestly his need and intensely desires to have it supplied. How different another minister of the same denomination who came to me one Sunday morning at Northfield, I was to speak that morning on How to Receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. He said to me, cc I have come to Northfield from for just one purpose, to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and I would rather die than go