This session starts off with clear instructions on how to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the Gift of Tongues. Mike then describes the functions of our spirit - our life source, able to energise and illuminate our whole body, illuminate our mind, release creativity, bring insights, commune with God, and flow out to others. Learn how to cultivate and strengthen your spirit dimensions, including meditating on scripture to encounter God.
How many have been challenged in your thinking during the morning, just starting to think - that's great, wonderful. It takes a little time for these concepts to get in, because they shift how you view your life, and your responsibilities, and how you interact with them. I had some very good feedback in between times, very good. Okay, so before we go any further, I just want to, just for the sake of several who are not baptised in the spirit, or not released in tongues, I want to just speak about being filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, so I want to speak about it a little bit, just so faith lifts up. I want to show you how you can receive, and then what we'll do is get those who don't speak in tongues, we'll get you to come towards the front. We'll get everyone else to gather around, one big crowd, and then we'll just pray all together, and that takes it away from being sort of self-conscious, that maybe you just haven't got the breakthrough yet.
So let me just give several scriptures related to being filled with the Holy Ghost. Firstly, very clear Jesus' ministry, He began His ministry with an encounter with the Holy Spirit. The Bible says the spirit of God came on Him, and the heavens opened up, and He heard the voice of God. From that point on in His life, He encountered an open heaven, an open spirit world. He encountered His Father's voice, and the leading of the spirit of God, so before He left, in Luke 24 He says this, in Verse 49: He says behold, I send the Promise of My Father on you; wait in the city of Jerusalem until you be clothed with power from on high. Now He's not talking here about being born again. He's talking about an empowerment, or a clothing.
In John, Chapter 20, He talks about sending them, so in John 20 He says this, Verse 21: As the Father sent Me, so I send you. So He's commissioning them again, and He said when He had done this, He breathed on them, and said: receive the Holy Spirit. So what happened was, He imparted to them the Holy Spirit. They were born again at that point in time. The parallel of course, when God created man, He breathed into him the breath of life, and man become a living soul. Now Jesus the last Adam, breathes into His followers, and they are born again, and He imparted through breathing the flow of the spirit of God. But He did say again, Acts 1 and Verse 4, He said being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the Promise of the Father, for He said: John baptised you in water, but you will be baptised in the Holy Spirit.
So now He's saying, even though they're born again, before they begin their ministry assignment, He wants them one, to be clothed with power - He uses different language to describe the same thing. He calls it the Promise of the Father; He calls it being clothed, or being endued from on high with power. He also calls it being baptised, or immersed into the spirit realm, and so what He's referring to when He uses the word baptised in the spirit, He's referring to us being immersed into the realm of the spirit. So the baptism in the spirit, being baptised in the spirit, is an entry experience into engaging the spiritual world, but it's only an entry experience. It's a great entry experience, it's a powerful entry experience, but the expectation is there'd be other things happen once we'd had that experience.
Then we read of course in Acts, Chapter 2, how the Holy Ghost came upon them, and suddenly the sound came from heaven like a rushing mighty wind. It filled the whole house were they were sitting. There appeared to them divided tongues like fire, set on every one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost - and they began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So we see here in Acts 2, the first experience of being baptised in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost came on them. The power of God literally broke out of heaven upon them, and the first consequence of being filled was to overflow vocally. It says they spoke as the Holy Spirit gave them, so you have to speak. It's the Holy Spirit who gives the language, so the language of tongues is not a language that we learn. It's an imparted flow of the Holy Spirit into our spirit, so the spirit of God clothes our spirit and we choose to speak, so you can't expect God to open your mouth and talk. You've actually got to speak, you've got to actually do the speaking.