Building up believers and the New Testament church

This is That

Commonly Asked Questions

Do I have to "tarry" for the Holy Ghost?

This question comes only out of wrong teaching. Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find, after the day of Pentecost, that the believer has to "tarry" to receive the Holy Ghost. The command Jesus gave his disciples to go tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high, was given only because the Holy Ghost had not yet been given. The Scripture reveals that when the day of Pentecost was fully come, the Holy Ghost was given. We do not wait any longer for Him to come; He is here. Our part is to receive Him by faith.

I will say that each believer needs to wait until he or she is endued with the power--the indwelling of the Holy Spirit--but you are not waiting for the Spirit to be given. If there is a time of waiting, it is for one reason: you are allowing your heart to be prepared to receive the promise of God, that you might be a witness unto Him. No believer has the right to try to be a witness or co-laborer with God until he or she has been filled--been baptized with the Holy Ghost.

God's pattern is for each member of the body of Christ to be filled. This is normal, not the exception. If the early disciples needed His power to do God's work, things have not changed today. We must receive power if we are to labor in God, and not in our own strength. The epistles of Paul, John, James, Jude, and Peter were written to Spirit-baptized (filled) believers. The Spirit-filled life was expected, not questioned. Today we need more believers and fewer doubters.

Does the baptism of the Holy Ghost solve all my problems?

Will I be filled with joy all the time? Will my temper be done away with?

All these and many more questions are asked by the seeker. Scripture never tells us that the Holy Ghost is a cure-all. We are never told that when we receive the Holy Ghost we no longer have a will, or that we do not have to live by faith. We are told, "When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth." Jesus said, "I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever" (John 14:16).

The Holy Ghost is God come to inhabit His temple, that our ability might be of God and not of man. John said, "The anointing which you have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him" (I John 2:27).

The Spirit-filled life is always a walk of faith. The Spirit does not do away with our trials, but leads us through each one victorious. God has only one design, and that is that you be conformed to the image of His Son, not by imitation, but by being a partaker of His Word by faith. We are being built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). The Spirit does not do away with our wills, passions or trials; but He does give us the ability to put our wills into God's will. Remember, God's design brings God's evidence and God's end results, "that they might be one" in God.

Justification is on the basis of what God has done for us. By faith we partake of what God has done, and this brings us to the ground of sonship. Now our standing is as sons. God has made every provision for our sonship. To be a son, one must be living in the life of God. Sonship is not separate from God, but in union with Him by the Spirit. Proof of sonship is that one is being moved or led by the Spirit.

Next: Two Promises