Dr Paul Allen

For some saints, in some seasons, the spiritual darkness can rest so thick and last so long that standard patterns of obedience begin to feel futile. We’ve read and prayed and fought temptation for weeks or months or maybe years. But now, perhaps, we wonder what’s the point. Why read when little changes? Why pray when God seems silent? Why obey in the lonely dark when no one seems to see or care? The days have been sunless for so long; why live as if the sky will soon turn bright? Not all of God’s people have known such seasons. But for those who have, or will, God has not left us friendless. Here in the dark, a brother walks before us, his day far blacker than ours, his obedience a torch on the road ahead. His story occurs on Good Friday, dark Friday, and dead Friday. For some time, he had let his hope take flight, daring to believe he had seen, in Jesus, his own Messiah’s face. But then Friday came, and he watched that face drain into grey; he saw his Lord hang limp upon the cross. A

I was startled when I read in Mark 16:8 that the disciples, before Jesus ascended to heaven, did not believe. The same unbelief is found in Mark 16:11. Then, two verses later, in verse 13, the same four words– they did not believe. Again, in verse 14, the same four words–they did not believe. But what amazes me most is the fact that in the next verse, verse 15, Jesus said to these unbelieving and fearful believers, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”  If I had been there, please allow me to say this, I would have approached Jesus from behind and whispered into His ear, “Master, Lord, don’t You know that the disciples You just gave the Supreme Commission to are a bunch of unbelievers? They will never be able to do it.” I think Jesus would have turned around, put His finger over His lips and said quietly to me, “Bonnke, you don’t know that I have a secret.”  What was the secret? In verse 20, we read, “They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working wi

When we focus all of our attention on the flesh of Jesus either by a statue etc, then the real significance of Jesus is missed, and the kinds of objections raised both by ‘the Jews’ and by ostensible disciples quickly surface - namely eat my body and drink my blood when misunderstood becomes a misdirection. But if flesh does not give life, what does? One of the clearest characteristics of the Spirit in the Old Testament is the giving of life (e.g. Gn. 1:2; Ezk. 37:1ff.; cf. Barrett, HSGT, pp. 18–23).  The Spirit gives life.  Jesus says in John 6:63 - the words I have spoken to you are spirit (i.e. they are the product of the life-giving Spirit ) and they are life (i.e. Jesus’ words, rightly understood and absorbed, generate life —5:24). To feed on Christ is to feed on Christ’s words, enabled by the Holy Spirit.  Before I was unregenerate unable to hear or understand jesus words and the Spirit gave me life now I can understand and consume Jesus word giving me life Carson, D. A. (1991)

P aul made sure those who had only believed on the Messiah also received the gift of the Holy Spirit. When he met twelve Baptist believers (followers of John the Baptist), he asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit since they believed. They said that they had not heard about a Holy Spirit baptism. They explained they had only received the John-the-Baptist baptism, but they wanted all God had for them. Paul baptized them in water in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he laid his hands on them they received the gift of the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues and even prophesied. Being baptized with the Spirit is a separate experience from being born of the Spirit or water baptism. There are three different baptisms or works of the Holy Spirit. We who have the gift of the Holy Spirit need to enlighten all the Christians who have not received and pray for them to receive the gift with speaking in tongues. It is not proselyting or imposing ourselves on others, but

Apostle Paul received the gift of the Holy Spirit when Ananias laid hands on him and prayed for His healing. Ananias said, “The Lord Jesus has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:17). Paul received the Holy Spirit’s gift at the same time the scales fell from his eyes. Paul greatly appreciated receiving his spirit language. During the following years as he discovered all the purposes and spiritual benefits of praying in tongues, he became so thankful that he spoke in tongues. It motivated him to emphatically declare to the Corinthian church, “I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all” (1 Cor. 14:18). Paul wrote more about speaking in tongues than all the other authors of the books of the Bible. Paul’s abundance of speaking in tongues is what helped activate the spirit of wisdom and revelation within him, which empowered him to work miracles and be inspired to write fourteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testame

Have you ever been in a prayer meeting and heard someone pray something like this: “Father, we ask you to send the Holy Spirit,” or, “Let the Spirit fall in our gathering this morning”? Have you ever wondered what that means, what they are actually asking God to do in those moments? What would it look like if the Holy Spirit showed up in worship this weekend? Would we recognize a manifestation of the Spirit if it happened? If we have wrong ideas about what it means for the Spirit to move, God may have answered our prayers “Yes!” a thousand times, but we’ve missed it because we were looking for the wrong things or in the wrong places. Strive to Excel in Building Up Paul says some significant things about manifestations of the Holy Spirit. For instance, the churches in Corinth, like many of us, were very eager to see the Spirit move in their gatherings in demonstrable ways. But Paul guides their understanding of what the Spirit’s presence in their midst would look like. So with you

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire - Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist often spoke about the baptism of the Spirit. He continually emphasized that once the Messiah arrived, He would baptize His followers with the Holy Spirit. In all probability, the people of that day had no idea what it meant to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. They may have had ideas, but nobody knew exactly what John meant. Jesus did not speak about the baptism of the Holy Spirit until He prepared to ascend into heaven: “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’ ” (Acts 1:4—5). In these verses, Jesus equates the baptism of th

The New Testament often describes the Holy Spirit as having attributes that are clearly divine. For instance, the Holy Spirit is eternal (Heb. 9:14) and omniscient (1 Cor. 2:10–11). These are both attributes of God. Moreover, they are incommunicable attributes, attributes of God that cannot be shared by man. We see in Scripture that the Spirit shares in the Trinitarian works of creation and redemption. Genesis 1 shows that the Father commanded the world to come into being. The New Testament tells us that the agent through whom the Father brought the universe into being was the Logos, the second person of the Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ: “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). However, the Spirit also was involved in creation:  “The Spirit of G od was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). Out of this energizing work of the Spirit, life was brought forth. Most importantly, redemption is a Trinitarian work

St. Peter Preaching at Pentecost by Benjamin West (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Before Pentecost , the [apostles] are clueless… and after Pentecost they are proclaiming, not only Christ ’s death and resurrection for our salvation, but they are proclaiming, as Peter does in his sermon, the fulfillment of Joel ’s prophecy of the Spirit being poured out on all flesh. Suddenly, they not only get what Jesus has done, they get how the Prophets prophesied it. The Holy Spirit made them more intimate fellows of Jesus, then they had been before his ascension. Acts 2 presents Pentecost as the giving of the Spirit to the church after the ascension of Christ to the Father. Just as the Spirit’s presence in Christ’s ministry was identified with his proclamation of the gospel (Isa 61:1 – 2; Lk 4:18 – 21), the consequence of the Spirit’s descent at Pentecost was the public proclamation of the gospel by Peter with the other apostles standing at his side (Ac 2: 14 – 36). And yet, it is vital to und