Hi all,
There is an ancient Indian parable from 1500-1200BC of a group of blind men who had heard about a strange animal called an elephant, that had been brought into their village.
The blind men decided to feel this new animal to learn what it looked like. One man felt the trunk, and said it is like a thick snake. Another felt an ear, and said it was flat and wide like a large fan. Another felt a leg and said it was tall and straight like a tree trunk. Another felt its side and said it is tall and flat like a wall. Another felt the tail and said it was long and skinny like a rope. The last felt a tusk and said it was long like a spear.
They each concluded with confidence what an elephant looked like, but were totally wrong. They had some elements correct, but could not put all the parts together to gain an accurate understanding of what an elephant looks like because they were blind. Imagine being a sighted person very familiar with elephants observing the blind men and listening to their confident statements. That person with sight and experience had a fuller understanding of an elephant and could tell where each blind man was incorrect or only partially right.
When Christian pastors and teachers who do not have the Holy Spirit teach about the Holy Spirit, they are like the blind men in the parable. People seeking the truth get understandably confused due to all the conflicting teachings. But to those who have the Holy Spirit their teachings are obviously in error, like that sighted person listening to the blind men draw their incorrect conclusions about the elephant.
The blind teachers…
…have taught when a person is born again they also have the Holy Spirit. But that’s not what Jesus taught and it is not what the apostles who wrote the New Testament believed, and it’s not what Acts teaches.
When a person is born again, they receive the Holy Spirit’s creative action that makes their old human spirit alive by God. The wineskin is made new. That person can now walk with God have some understanding of scripture, but they don’t have the power that the Person of the Holy Spirit on them and in them brings. As Jesus said to the born again disciples: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” Their wineskins were new, but the new wine hadn’t been added to their wineskin yet. This is why the question Paul asked some 20 years after Pentecost: Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? Acts 19: 1-6
And I will add this on a personal note.
Paul understood there is often a gap between being born again and receiving the Holy Spirit, which is why he asked if they had received the Holy Spirit since they believed. By the question we see Paul believed a born again Christian does not yet actually have the Holy Spirit. Consider that – the author of most of the NT taught a person’s spirit is recreated by the Holy Spirit when we believe in Jesus, but he didn’t believe such a person HAD the Holy Spirit. Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?
Now the challenge is to adjust what you believe to align with Paul, or stay in error. It really is that simple.
For me, it was several months between me being born again and receiving the Holy Spirit. After I was born again a few weeks I thought there had to be more, for I wasn’t seeing the intimacy with the Lord nor power they had in Acts and NT letters. I asked the Father; “I don’t want to be ungrateful, but is this all there is? I thought there would be more power, more of your presence in my life.”
Within a day or two of asking the Father if there was more, my own mother told me about receiving the Holy Spirit. Then the girl Janny, who led me to the Lord, told me about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I began studying about it, reading books about it, learning all I could. Janny’s boyfriend and future husband had led her to the Lord and to receiving the Holy Spirit, and she led me, and I led my girlfriend and future wife, Barb.
2 ways to receive the Holy Spirit
Barb received the Holy Spirit all by herself as she worshipped. I received with some difficulty, by the laying on of hands. These are the 2 ways presented in scripture to receive. In Acts 2:4 and 10:44 the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began speaking in tongues.
I want to encourage everyone who is seeking the Holy Spirit not to be pressured by group babbling, imitating someone’s tongues, or other group think or peer pressure. The Lord will meet you according to your personality, for He created you. For instance, Barb is more introverted than I am. She is private, so it was no surprise when we were teenagers dating that she felt she needed to be by herself, in her room, worshipping the Lord. That is how she received. Perhaps you too are a private person, and would receive better if you were alone, worshipping the Lord, pouring the deepest part of your heart out to the Lord in worship and love, and letting Him work through you.
In Acts 8: 14-17 and 19: 1-6 the Holy Spirit was received by the laying on of hands. Receiving without anyone touching you and by the laying on of hands are the only 2 ways of receiving the Holy Spirit seen in scripture. I am more outgoing so I didn’t mind when Barb, and our friends Janny and Vic who had brought us along in the Lord, laid hands on me to receive the Holy Spirit.
We were teens out for a drive in the country in Vic’s Ford Mustang Mach II, fastback (if you’re old enough to remember that model). We found a place out in the country to park, and we sat on the grass in a circle, holding hands as they prayed for me.
I had filled my head with every teaching on the subject available in 1975. I read people who were the equivalent of one of those blind men feeling part of an elephant which brought confusion. I also read good books like ‘They Speak with Other Tongues’ by John Sherrill, which answered some questions, and others.
I also did something that was beyond my 16 year old maturity level, so it had to be the Lord: I read books by people I knew were not ‘tongue-talkers’, and others by people I knew WERE ‘tongue-talkers’, and compared the life in each. I concluded the tongue talker’s books were far deeper and resonated with my heart, whereas the others only touched my mind and were shallow.
As I quietly worshipped the Lord, telling Him from my own thoughts how much I loved Him, Janny said I would see or sense floating across my mind suggestions of syllables, letters, letter combinations, and she said just by faith speak them out as I felt or saw them. For me, it was visual, when my eyes were closed it was like letters and syllables moving from right to left one after another, and I just spoke them out.
I became so focused on that that I became unaware of Barb, Janny, Vic, or anything around me. I was completely unaware any longer of sitting in a circle holding hands. I was for the first time in my life ‘In the Spirit’ as John calls it in The Revelation 1:10 and 4:2. All had disappeared except those words and my worship of the Father and Lord.
Breaking into my ‘condition’ out of my left ear I heard Janny say: “You’ve got it Johnny, you’ve got it”, and I was back in the natural. I then listened to what I was saying, for I thought I was praying a beautiful language full of syllables and rolling like a river with sounds delighting the ear. But all I was saying was: “abba abba abba abba abba abba.” I realized since my dad had left our family about 4 1/2 years earlier, my heart’s cry was for a father – my spirit could only speak ‘abba’ for the next day, such was the longing within me for a father.
How my prayer language changed and why tongues isn’t something you wait on God for, next week. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
