The Baptism With the Holy Spirit (part 3 of 3)

The man was himself a Cumberland Presbyterian. He went to the church and when the meeting was opened he arose in his place and asked the minister if he could speak. Permission was granted, and with the power of the Holy Spirit upon him, he so spoke that fifty-eight or fifty-nine persons professed to accept Christ on the spot. A young man went out of the meeting in the early morning hours and took a train for a city in Wisconsin, and I soon received word from that city that thirtyeight young men and boys had been converted while he spoke. Another young man, one of our students in the Institute, went to another part of Wisconsin, and soon I began to receive letters from ministers in that neighborhood inquiring about him and telling how he had gone into the school-houses and churches and Soldiers' Home and how there were conversions wherever he spoke. In the days that followed men and women from that meeting went out over the earth and I doubt if there was any country that I visited in my tour around the world, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, India, etc., in which I did not find some one who had gone out from that meeting with the power of God upon them. For me to doubt that God fills men with the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer would be thoroughly unscientific and irrational. I know He does. And in a matter like this, I would rather have one ounce of believing experience than ten tons of unbelieving exegesis.

7. The seventh and last step is faith. We read in Mark xi. 24, "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them." No matter how definite God's promises are, we only realize these promises experimentally when we believe. For example we read in James i. 5, R. V., "But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Now that promise is as positive as a promise can be but we read in the following verses, "But let him ask in faith nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; a doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways." The baptism with the Spirit, as we have already seen, is for those believers in Christ, who have put away all sin and surrendered absolutely to God, who ask for it, but even though we ask there will be no receiving if we do not believe. There are many who have met the other conditions of receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit and yet do not receive, simply because they do not believe. They do not expect to receive and they do not receive. But there is a faith that goes beyond expectation, a faith that puts out its hand and takes what it asks on the spot. This comes out in the Revised Version of Mark xi. 24, "Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them and ye shall have them." When we pray for the baptism with the Holy Spirit we should believe that we have received (that is that God has granted our prayer and therefore it is ours) and then we shall have the actual experience of that which we have asked. When the Revised Version came out, I was greatly puzzled about the rendering of Mark xi. 24. I had begun at the beginning of the New Testament and gone right through comparing the Authorized Version with the Revised and comparing both with the best Greek text, but when I reached this passage, I was greatly puzzled. I read the Authorized Version, "What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them," and that seemed plain enough. Then I turned to the Revised Version and read, "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for believe that ye have received them and ye shall have them." And I said to myself, "What a confusion of the tenses. Believe that ye have already received (past), and ye shall have afterwards (future). What nonsense." Then I turned to my Greek Testament and I found whether sense or nonsense, the Revised Version was the correct rendering of the Greek, but what it meant I did not know for years. But one time I was studying and expounding to my church the First Epistle of John. I came to the fifth chapter, the fourteenth and fifteenth verses (R. V.) and I read, "And this is the boldness which we have towards Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him " Then I understood Mark xi. 24. Do you see it? If not, let me explain it a little further. When we come to God in prayer, the first question to ask is, Is that which I have asked of God according to His will? If it is promised in His Word, of course, we know it is according to His will. Then we can say with 1 John v. 14, I have asked something according to His will and I know He hears me. Then we can go further and say with the fifteenth verse, Because I know He hears what I ask, I know I have the petition which I asked of Him. I may not have it in actual possession but I know it is mine because I have asked something according to His will and He has heard me and granted that which I have asked, and what I thus believe I have received because the Word of God says so, I shall afterwards have in actual experience. Now apply this to the matter before us. When I ask for the baptism with the Holy Spirit, I have asked something according to His will, for Luke xi. 13 and Acts ii. 39 say so, therefore I know my prayer is heard, and still further I know because the prayer is heard that I have the petition which I have asked of Him, i. e., I know I have the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I may not feel it yet but I have received, and what I thus count mine resting upon the naked word of God, I shall afterwards have in actual experience. Some years ago I went to the students' conference at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, with Mr. F. B. Meyer, of London. Mr. Meyer spoke that night on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. At the conclusion of his address, he said, "If any of you wish to speak with Mr. Torrey or myself after the meeting is over, we will stay and speak with you." A young man came to me who had just graduated from one of the Illinois colleges. He said, "I heard of this blessing thirty days ago and have been praying for it ever since but do not receive. What is the trouble?" "Is your will laid down?" I asked. "No," he said, "I am afraid it is not." "Then," I said, "there is no use praying until your will is laid down. Will you lay down your will?" He said, "I cannot." "Are you willing that God should lay it down for you?" "I am."

"Let us kneel and ask Him to do it." We knelt side by side and I placed my Bible open at 1 John v. 14, 15 on the chair before him. He asked God to lay down his will for him and empty him of his self-will and to bring his will into conformity with the will of God. When he had finished the prayer, I said, "Is it done?" He said, "It must be. I have asked something according to His will and I know He hears me and I know I have the petition I have asked. Yes, my will is laid down." "What is it you desire?" "The baptism with the Holy Spirit." "Ask for it." Looking up to God he said, "Heavenly Father, baptize me with the Holy Spirit now." "Did you get what you asked?" I asked. "I don't feel it," he replied. "That is not what I asked you," I said. "Read the verse before you," and he read, "This is the boldness which we have towards Him that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us." "What do you know?" I asked. He said, "I know if I ask anything according to His will He hears me." "What did you ask?" "I asked for the baptism with the Holy Spirit." "Is that according to His will?" "Yes, Acts ii. 39 says so." "What do you know then?" "I know He has heard me." "Read on." "And if we know that if He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him." "What do you know?" I asked. "I know I have the petition I asked of Him." "What was the petition you asked of Him?" "The baptism with the Holy Spirit." "What do you know?" "I know I have the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I don't feel it, but God says so." We arose from our knees and after a short conversation separated. I left Lake Geneva the next morning, but returned in a few days. I met the young man and asked if he had really received the baptism with the Holy Spirit. He did not need to answer. His face told the story, but he did answer. He went into a theological seminary the following autumn, was given a church his junior year in the seminary, had conversions from the outset, and the next year on the Day of Prayer for Colleges, largely through his influence there came a mighty outpouring of the Spirit upon the seminary of which the president of the seminary wrote to a denominational paper, that it was a veritable Pentecost, and it all came through this young man who received the baptism with the Holy Spirit through simple faith in the Word of God. Any one who will accept Jesus as their Saviour and their Lord, put away all sin out of their life, publicly confess their renunciation of sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ, surrender absolutely to God, and ask God for the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and take it by simple faith in the naked Word of God, can receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit right now. There are some who so emphasize the matter of absolute surrender that they ignore, or even deny, the necessity of prayer. It is always unfortunate when one so emphasizes one side of truth that he loses sight of another side which may be equally important. In this way, many lose the blessing which God has provided for them.

The seven steps given above lead with absolute certainty into the blessing. But several questions arise:

1. Must we not wait until we know we have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit before we take up Christian work? Yes, but how shall we know? There are two ways of knowing anything in the Christian life. First, by the Word of God; second, by experience or feeling. God's order is to know things first of all by the Word of God. How one may know by the Word of God that they have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit has just been told. We have a right when we have met the conditions and have definitely asked for the baptism with the Holy Spirit to say, "It is mine," and to get up and go on in our work leaving the matter of experience to God's time and place. We get assurance that we have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit in precisely the same way that we get assurance of our salvation. When an inquirer comes to you, whom you have reason to believe really has received Jesus but who lacks assurance, what do you do with him' Do you tell him to kneel down and pray until he gets assurance? Not if you know how to deal with a soul. You know that true assurance comes through the Word of God, that it is through what is "written" that we are to know that we have eternal life (1 John v. 13). So you take the inquirer to the written Word. For example, you take him to John iii. 36. You tell him to read it. He reads, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." You ask him, "Who has everlasting life?" He replies from the passage before him, "He that believeth on the Son." "How many who believe on the Son have everlasting life?" "Every one that believes on the Son." "Do you know this to be true?" "Yes." "Why?" "Because God says so." "What does God say?" "God says, 'He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." "Do you believe on the Son?" "Yes." "What have you then?" He ought to say, "Everlasting life," but quite likely he will not. He may say, "I wish I had everlasting life." You point him again to the verse and by questions bring out what it says, and you hold him to it until he sees that he has everlasting life; sees that he has everlasting life simply because God says so. After he has assurance on the ground of the Word, he will have assurance by personal experience, by the testimony of the Spirit in his heart. Now you should deal with yourself in precisely the same way about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Hold yourself to the word found in 1 John v. 14, 15, and know that you have the baptism with the Spirit simply because God says so in His Word, whether you feel it or not. Afterwards you will know it by experience. God's order is always: first, His Word; second, belief in His Word; third, experience, or feeling. We desire to change God's order, and have first, His Word, then feeling, then we will believe. But God demands that we believe on His naked Word. "Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness" (Gal. iii. 6; cf. Gen. xv. 6). Abraham had as yet no feeling in his body of new life and power. He just believed God and feeling came afterwards. God demands of us today, as He did Abraham of old, that we simply take Him at His Word and count the thing ours which He has promised, simply because He has promised it. Afterwards we get the feeling and the realization of that which He has promised.

2. The second question that some will ask is, "Will there be no manifestation of the baptism with the Spirit which we receive? Will everything be just as it was before, and if it will, where is the reality and use of the baptism?" Yes, there will be manifestation, very definite manifestation, but bear in mind what the character of the manifestation will be, and when the manifestation is to be expected. When is the manifestation to be expected? After we believe. After we have received on simple faith in the naked Word of God. And what will be the character of the manifestation? Here many go astray. They have read the wonderful experiences of Charles G. Finney, John Wesley, D. L. Moody and others. These men tell us that when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit they had wonderful sensations. Finney, for example, describes it as like great waves of electricity sweeping over him, so that he was compelled to ask God to withhold His hand, lest he die on the spot. Mr. Moody, on rare occasions, described a similar experience. That these men had such experiences, I do not for a moment question. The word of such men as Charles G. Finney, D. L. Moody and others is to be believed, and there is another reason why I cannot question the reality of these experiences, but while these men doubtless had these experiences, there is not a passage in the Bible that describes such an experience. I am inclined to think the Apostles had them, but if they had, they kept them to themselves and it is well that they did, for if they had put them on record, that is what we would be looking for today. But what are the manifestations that actually occurred in the case of the Apostles and the early disciples? New power in the Lord's work. We read at Pentecost that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts ii. 4). Similar accounts are given of what occurred in the household of Cornelius and what occurred in Ephesus. All we read in the case of the Apostle Paul is that Ananias came in and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." Then Ananias baptized him, and the next thing we read is that Paul went straight down to the synagogue and preached Christ so mightily in the power of the Spirit that he "confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ" (Acts ix. 17-22). So right through the New Testament, the manifestation that we are taught to expect, and the manifestation that actually occurred was new power in Christian work, and that is the manifestation that we may expect today and we need not look too carefully for that. The thing for us to do is to claim God's promise and let God take care of the mode of manifestation.

3. The third question that will arise with some is, May we not have to wait for the baptism with the Holy Spirit? Did not the Apostles have to wait ten days, and may we not have to wait ten days or even more? No, there is no necessity that we wait. We are told distinctly in the Bible why the Apostles had to wait ten days. In Acts ii. 1, we read, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come" (literally "When the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled," R. V., margin). Way back in the Old Testament types, and back of that in the eternal counsels of God, the day of Pentecost was set for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the gathering of the church, and the Holy Spirit could not be given until the day of Pentecost was fully come, therefore the Apostles had to wait until the day of Pentecost was fulfilled, but there was no waiting after Pentecost. There was no waiting for example in Acts iv. 31; scarcely had they finished the prayer when the place where they were gathered together was shaken and "they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." There was no waiting in the household of Cornelius. They were listening to their first Gospel sermon and Peter said as the climax of his argument "to Him (that is Jesus) bear all the prophets witness that through His name every one that believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins" (R. V.), and no sooner had Peter spoken these words than they believed and "the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word." There was no waiting in Samaria after Peter and John came down and told them about the baptism with the Holy Spirit and prayed with them. There was no waiting in Ephesus after Paul came and told them that there was not only the baptism of John unto repentance, but the baptism of Jesus in the Holy Spirit. It is true that they had been waiting some time until then, but it was simply because they did not know that there was such a baptism for them. And many may wait today because they do not know that there is the baptism with the Spirit for them, or they may have to wait because they are not resting in the finished work of Christ, or because they have not put away sin, or because they have not surrendered fully to God, or because they will not definitely ask and believe and take; but the reason for the waiting is not in God, it is in ourselves. Any one who will, can lay this book down at this point, take the steps which have been stated and immediately receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I would not say a word to dissuade men from spending much time in waiting upon God in prayer for "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isa. xl. 31). There are few of us indeed in these days who spend as many hours as we should in waiting upon God. The writer can bear joyful testimony to the manifest outpourings of the Spirit that have come time and again as he has waited upon God through the hours of the night with believing brethren, but the point I would emphasize is that the baptism with the Holy Spirit may be had at once. The Bible proves this; experience proves it. There are many waiting for feeling who ought to be claiming by faith. In these days we hear of many who say they are "waiting for their Pentecost"; some have been waiting weeks, some have been waiting months, some have been waiting years. This is not Scriptural and it is dishonoring to God. These brethren have an unscriptural view of what constitutes Pentecost. They have fixed it in their minds that certain manifestations are to occur and as these particular manifestations, which they themselves have prescribed, do not come, they think they have not received the Holy Spirit. There are many who have been led into the error, already confuted in this book, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit always manifests itself in the gift of tongues. They have not received the gift of tongues and therefore they conclude that they have not received the baptism with the Holy Spirit. But as already seen, one may receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit and not receive the gift of tongues. Others still are waiting for some ecstatic feeling. We do not need to wait at all. We may meet the conditions, we may claim the blessing at once on the ground of God's sure Word. There was a time in the writer's ministry when he was led to say that he would never enter his pulpit again until he had been definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit and knew it, or until God in some way told him to go. I shut myself up in my study and day by day waited upon God for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It was a time of struggle. The thought would arise, "Suppose you do not receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit before Sunday. How it will look for you to refuse to go into your pulpit," but I held fast to my resolution. I had a more or less definite thought in my mind of what might happen when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit, but it did not come that way at all. One morning as I waited upon God, one of the quietest and calmest moments of my life, it was just as if God said to me, "The blessing is yours. Now go and preach." If I had known my Bible then as I know it now, I might have heard that voice the very first day speaking to me through the Word, but I did not know it and God in His infinite condescension, looking upon my weakness, spoke it directly to my heart. There was no particular ecstasy or emotion, simply the calm assurance that the blessing was mine. I went into my work and God manifested His power in that work. Some time passed, I do not remember just how long, and I was sitting in that same study. I do not remember that I was thinking about this subject at all, but suddenly it was just as if I had been knocked out of my chair on to the floor, and I lay upon my face crying, "Glory to God! Glory to God!" I could not stop. Some power, not my own, had taken possession of my lips and my whole person. The writer is not of an excitable, hysterical or even emotional temperament, but I lost control of myself absolutely. I had never shouted before in my life, but I could not stop. When after a while I got control of myself, I went to my wife and told her what had happened. I tell this experience, not to magnify it, but to say that the time when this wonderful experience (which I cannot really fully describe) came was not the moment when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit. The moment when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit was in that calm hour when God said, "It is yours. Now go and preach."

There is an afternoon that I shall never forget. It was the eighth day of July, 1894. It was at the Northfield Students' Convention. I had spoken that morning in the church on How to Receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. As I drew to a close, I took out my watch and noticed that it was exactly twelve o'clock. Mr. Moody had invited us to go up on the mountain that afternoon at three o'clock to wait upon God for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. As I looked at my watch, I said, "Gentlemen, it is exactly twelve o'clock. Mr. Moody has invited us to go up on the mountain at three o'clock to wait upon God for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It is three hours until three o'clock. Some of you cannot wait three hours, nor do you need to wait. Go to your tent, go to your room in the hotel or in the buildings, go out into the woods, go anywhere, where you can get alone with God, meet the conditions of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and claim it at once." At three o'clock we gathered in front of Mr. Moody's mother's house; four hundred and fifty-six of us in all, all men from the eastern colleges. (I know the number because Mr. Paul Moody counted us as we passed through the gates down into the lots.) We commenced to climb the mountainside. After we had gone some distance, Mr. Moody said, "I do not think we need to go further. Let us stop here." We sat down and Mr. Moody said, "Have any of you anything to say?" One after another, perhaps seventyfive men, arose and said words to this effect, "I could not wait until three o'clock. I have been alone with God and I have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit." Then Mr. Moody said, "I can see no reason why we should not kneel right down here now and ask God that the Holy Spirit may fall on us as definitely as He fell on the Apostles at Pentecost. Let us pray." We knelt down on the ground; some of us lay on our faces on the pine-needles. As we had gone up the mountainside, a cloud had been gathering over the mountain, and as we began to pray the cloud broke and the rain-drops began to come down upon us through the overhanging pine trees, but another cloud, big with mercy, had been gathering over Northfield for ten days and our prayers seemed to pierce that cloud and the Holy Ghost fell upon us. It was a wonderful hour. There are many who will never forget it. But any one who reads this book may have a similar hour alone by himself now. He can take the seven steps one by one and the Holy Spirit will fall upon him.