Just as I'm surprised to find myself reconsidering the question of divine healing, and am now praying for it and continuing to follow the writers on that subject, I'm also surprised to find myself reconsidering the question of the baptism of thed Holy Spirit. This is another of those controversial issues that has the church split into factions, some saying that was only for the apostolic era, a time when presumably they needed more miracles than we do, or simply the time when Jesus was being established as the Messiah through such miracles, and\\\, between that and the view that , as with divine healing, the baptism of rht eHoly PSPirit is also for us today.
Andrew Murray, but particularly R. A. Torrey, have done a good job of convincing me that thebaptism is indeed for today, just as Murray convinced me that so is divine healing for today, and infact part of redembption, Christ forgivng our sins nin pratically the same breath as he heals our diseases in scripture after scripture. The case for the baptism in the Spirit is made most particularly from Acts two where Peter tells the doubting Jews that the gift is for not only themselves but for their children and for those who are afar off whom the Lord will yet call. That is so clear it is a wonder anyone can claim that the gift is meant only for the apostonlic age and not for us as well.
The main thing that has made me open to these arguments is the simple observation that the Church today is weak, that we have nothing remotely like the spiritual power of the early Church, and that individually we don't have anyone who exhibits such power either. I'm aware that there are many vexed questions about these things still of course, and I'm still convinced that the charismatic movement for the most part is folowing a false idea of the spiritual gifts, but nevertheless I am now entertaining the idea that there is a true version of the gifts that God has not withdrawn from today's shcurch weven if we haven't known how to appropriate them and make use of them. This is an issue because it was at Pentecost that the earlie church received the baptism o the Holy Spirit and it bestowed all the gifts on them that are now claimed by the charismatics though what they actually seem to have are something else than those gifts.
But oh how we need the power for the Holy Spirit today. I'm praying for both the supernatural healing which I'm now convinced is for us today, and for the baptism in the Holy spirit.
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