Prerequisites for receiving the Holy Spirit.

Continuing the Vision

<p>Prerequisites for receiving the Holy Spirit.</p>

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Uchee Pines Institute

Mark Finley

Every Wind of Doctrine Part 2

Father in heaven, thank you for the opportunity again tonight to share your word.

Thank you for these wonderful treatments that bring health and healing to our bodies.

We know that these treatments are simply a vehicle that the Holy Spirit uses, that it's not water that cures us or a vegan diet or herbs, it's not exercise or rest.

These are modalities that God uses, that God is the great healer, but we cooperate with Him when we enter into these natural modalities of healing.

And so we thank you that you can use these simple remedies.

Now tonight, bless our meeting in Jesus' name.

You'll remember this week that we are discussing restoration in the image of God.

We've been pointing out all week that sin leads us to have a broken relationship with God and that separation from God leads to sickness, suffering, heartache, and disease.

We noted last night that God has raised up the Seventh-day Adventist Church to proclaim His last day message to the world, and that message is found in Revelation 14, 6 to 12.

Although we will not delve deeply into the second angel's message tonight, we'll be mentioning that as we go along.

But tonight we're going to look at the power that the first angel's message will be carried with by to the world.

We're going to study particularly tonight the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the latter rain in loud cry.

We want to look at the prerequisites that it takes for the latter rain to be poured out, how each 1 of us can receive the abundance of the Spirit.

We want to look at also some false ideas about the Holy Spirit.

I'll talk much more about that on Sabbath morning.

But I do want to look at the contrast between genuine revival and false revival.

So we're gonna begin by taking a look at the promised revival.

I read a fascinating story a number of years ago.

A lady called her insurance agent and she seemed rather agitated on the phone.

And she said, I need to talk immediately to my insurance agent.

The secretary passed the phone to the insurance agent and the lady said, I need to increase the insurance on my house immediately.

The insurance agent said, well, look, I have a mountain of things to do, but I will be there tomorrow, and we can discuss what you need.

We'll take a look at the square footage of your house.

We'll take a look at the needs that you have, and I'm happy to do it.

We have, I have to increase the insurance in my house today.

He said, well look lady, I will come tomorrow.

She continued to be quite insistent and he became more frustrated on the phone.

And then she said, mister, you don't understand.

And there are many people that say, well, when I hear certain events take place, at that point I'll get serious about my faith, I'll get serious about prayer, I'll get serious about Bible study, and at that moment I will prepare for the coming of Christ.

But the coming of Christ, the best way to be ready is to get ready and to stay ready for the coming of Christ.

The latter rain does not fall upon the church until the early rain has already fallen.

And if we fail to receive the early rain and don't understand the prerequisites for being filled with the spirit today, we'll not be participants in the reception of the latter rain.

So let's go back and take a look at the promise of the Spirit in the first century, try to discover what criteria took place then for the early disciples.

You recall that in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, Jesus said, and let's read it together, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Now notice, the power of the Holy Spirit would enable the disciples to be mighty witnesses in Jerusalem, their neighboring area, Samaria, the next province, Judea, the northern part of Israel, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

Without the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples would have been powerless to reach the world.

A hundred and 20 disciples met that day in the upper room and they sought God.

There are approximately 60 million people living in the Roman Empire at the time.

So if you take a hundred and 20 disciples and there's 60 million people living in the Roman Empire, that's a ratio of 1 to 500, 000.

Now today, there is 1 seventh-day Adventist in the world for every 292 people.

But in the days of the Apostles, there was 1 Christian approximately, there could have been more beside the disciples that met in the upper room, but just for a perspective, there was about 1 to 50 to 500, 000.

The Holy Spirit was poured out in dramatic fashion.

They began with 120 in the upper room and by the end of that day, on the end of the day of Pentecost, there were over 3, 000 that were baptized in Acts chapter 2.

By Acts chapter 4, there were another 5, 000 men that were baptized.

When you begin to look throughout the book of Acts, Cornelius comes to Christ and is baptized, a Roman centurion of the Italian band.

The Ethiopian eunuch is baptized, takes the gospel to Africa, churches are planted, there are tens of thousands baptized.

By the end of the first century, there are 1000000 Christians in the empire, according to most sociologists of Christianity, so the ratio now is 1 to 60, not 1 to 500, 000.

When the Holy Spirit is poured out, what the church would take, what would be impossible for the Church to do.

The Holy Spirit is poured out and God does something remarkable.

As the disciples prayed, as they confess their sins, as they sought God for power to proclaim His grace, the floodgates of heaven opened and the rain of the Spirit poured down upon them.

This was not 1 or 2 people that were filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says they were, what's the next word?

Today we see some gentle showers of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

But there will come a time when God's faithful believers will all be filled with the Holy Spirit.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now don't let that expression, other tongues, confuse you.

The Greek word there is glossolalia, other languages.

So The gift of tongues in the New Testament was the gift of real languages that allowed the disciples to proclaim the gospel.

They had never understood those languages before.

Now, incidentally, in the book Acts of the Apostles, Ellen White says that the gift of real languages that was given to these disciples was not a gift that was taken away, so that any place they went, they were able to proclaim the gospel in the language of the people where they went.

So the gift of real languages that was given.

Why was that gift of real languages necessary?

I want to show you something interesting.

Take your Bible and turn to Acts chapter 2.

Here in Acts chapter 2, you understand the significance.

There were 3 feasts that every Jewish male had to attend when they were held in Jerusalem.

And so they came from Europe, they came from Asia, they came from Africa.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

Now that could trouble you a little bit because when you look at the number of the nations, there are only about a dozen listed there and there was nobody from China So the skeptics of the Bible begin to argue about, oh, there wasn't people from every nation under heaven here, but from every known nation that the disciples knew about, every nation under heaven within the realm of their understanding, they were there.

And the people who came there had the capacity to take the gospel to every nation.

And when this sound occurred, the Maltu came together.

And we're confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language.

How many of you here today speak more than 1 language?

How many here today, your mother tongue is not English?

I would guess your mother tongue is Romanian.

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Every Wind of Doctrine Part 2

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