I came to God in 1961, after three weeks of weighty conviction, I dropped to my knees and gave my life to Jesus at his command. I did not see him but his voice was unmistakable. My decision was personal and private. No one knew about it until I informed them during the next few days.
I did not “find” Jesus — he found me! I was baptized in water and then in the Holy Spirit when David Kennedy Snr. a godly pastor, laid his hands on my head and I spoke in a language I hadn’t learned. I knew nothing of the experience of those who had gathered in the “upper room” (Acts 2:1-4).
Soon after, while viewing a Billy Graham film of his ministry in Australia, I heard the voices of angels above me calling me to the ministry (though I didn’t realize it was a ministry call until much later). I remind myself often of how the privilege I’ve had in the Lord working through me to heal the sick at home and abroad. (Seeing an elderly gentleman revived by the Spirit of God after he was dead for ten minutes is unforgettable.)
In Acts 11:17 the apostle Peter authenticates the experience of Cornelius and his household (recorded in Acts 10) by linking it to that of those who received the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It was the reality of their experience, rather than its relationship to the Jewish Feast, that convinced the apostles at Jerusalem that God had granted non-Jews the same life-changing experience received by them at the Feast of Pentecost.
I can back the above with many scriptures; however, the authenticity of a personal experience ought not to be dismissed. I have no idea what my friends on Facebook have experienced in Pentecostal meetings, but for the greater part I have seen scriptural integrity placed first and foremost, backed by a desire to see “all things done decently and in order”. That said, the Pentecost experience was an unexpected experience to the apostles (though not to God, of course).
This is the ‘Pentecost’ I love and respect today as much as I did in my first encounter with Pastors Thomas Foster and other godly leaders in the old Kelvin Hall in Russell Place, Melbourne, back in the early 1960s.
There is a missing dimension in the lives of those Christians who do not believe that Jesus heals today, just as he did 2000 years ago. The only difference is that he does so now through those who believe, through the power of the Spirit of God.
Jesus said to the leaders of his people: “You search the scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life — but they speak of me.” (John 5:39) They pointed to Jesus, who said “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). “Whosoever has the Son has life…” (John 3:39)
The “powers of the coming age” (Hebrews 6:5) are experienced already by those who believe in the Lord Jesus. There’s nothing wrong with searching the scriptures to see whether this is true. Any such search for truth will lead to the person of Jesus Christ and the experience of being “born again” — “from above” — by the Spirit of God.
We are saved when the Holy Spirit reveals to us that Jesus is the Son of God. The lack of this experience of Christ’s saving power drives many to fill their spiritual vacuum with a ‘head’ knowledge of the Bible..
Saul of Tarsus (later known as Paul the Apostle) began his personal experience of Jesus on his face in the dirt of the road to Damascus. Absolute surrender is a good start to a life that will end well. Until it does, we need to walk closely with Jesus in the power of the same Spirit of God that worked so wonderfully through him.
The mind has its place but until renewed by being “washed” in God’s Word it is programmed by what it has learned in the Old Life rather than what it is beginning to learn in the New One. The unrenewed mind simply cannot ‘compute’ (not to mention ‘process’) the things of God: things spiritual. It is with the heart that we believe and in believing are saved — the old ways of thinking, the learned programs and processes get in the way and can obstruct the spiritual thoughts which convey to us the Lord’s directives.
Don’t allow lingering Old Life thinking to deny your New Life experiences!