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The Holy Spirit 2: Ignorance in the Church

The Holy Spirit 2: Ignorance in The Church from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

  This is part 2 of our series on the Holy Spirit 

The Lord told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:7–10:

“the LORD said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD. Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,
To root out and
to pull down,
To destroy and
to throw down,
To build and to plant.”
(Jeremiah 1:7–10 NKJV)

Before the Holy Spirit plants new seed in kingdom of God, He roots out, pulls down, destroys, and throws down the old misconceptions, and traditions. Then He builds and plants on good ground. That is what this message is all about.

Isaiah said: “Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.” For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, To whom He said, “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,” And, “This is the refreshing”; Yet they would not hear.” (Isaiah 28:9–12 NKJV)

After the bad is rooted out, the Holy Spirit then builds line upon line, precept upon precept.

This will be a controversial message that many will reject, but I am going to tell you the truth as I understand it and then you can choose to do with it as you please.

James said: (James 3:1 NKJV) “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.”

Paul said: (Acts 20:26–27 NKJV) “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.”

That is what my goal is, to enlighten you, to help you understand this for yourself, and make your own decision.

Read this text and comprehend it. It is key to this message:

(Acts 19:1–7 NKJV) “And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were about twelve in all.”

The definition of ignorance:

Ignorance: ig·no·rance
ˈiɡnərəns/ noun
lack of knowledge or information.
"he acted in ignorance of basic procedures"

Synonyms: incomprehension of, unawareness of, unconsciousness of, unfamiliarity with, inexperience with, lack of knowledge about, lack of information about; informal cluelessness about,  lack of knowledge, lack of education, unenlightenment, illiteracy; lack of intelligence, stupidity, foolishness, idiocy” As in: ”a statement that shows a complete ignorance of the regulations”.

The disciples that Paul spoke to were “Ignorant” concerning the Holy Spirit. They did not even know there was a Holy Spirit. When Paul asked how they were baptized, they said unto “John’s baptism” meaning water.

Luke wrote: (Luke 3:16 NKJV) “John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

When Paul explained the Holy Spirit to them, they wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit as well. He laid hands on them and prayed, and they received the Holy Spirit and the gift of speaking in tongues. These disciples meant well, they were good people, but they were ignorant concerning the Holy Spirit. They thought they had everything, but yet, something was lacking and they did not even know it.

When I first got saved and started attending church, I went to a Baptist church that was just up the road from my house. It was convenient and at the time, I did not know there was a difference in churches. Well, there are.

I was baptized in the Waccamaw river, saved and sanctified on a Sunday. The church would faithfully wet you, set you, and then forget you. As I listened to the sermons, they taught me that I got everything when I was baptized in that river. There was nothing left to do but to wait on Jesus to return and get us. The rapture should happen any day now, so there was no need to make any long term plans here. I noticed that though they preached this, they continued to build bigger houses, and plan for bigger churches like they didn’t really believe it.

At the time, I was on fire for the Lord and read the Bible from cover to cover. Soon I had questions, and the church had answers. Looking back, I am sure that I was a great annoyance to them because I did not passively submit like the other sheep. Eventually the “deacons” began avoiding me.

When I asked them about the “Gifts of the Spirit”, they explained that the miracle gifts died off with the last apostle and that is why we didn’t see them today. Also now that we had our very own printed Bible, that we did not need the gifts anymore like the Apostles did. We have His word! They believed that the Bible had replaced the need for the Holy Spirit in our lives.

When I asked them about “Tongues”, they explained that was given only for building the first church and that we didn’t need it anymore. Some would even tell me that speaking in the tongues was from the devil, which is a very dangerous thing to do. When Jesus was casting out demons, the scribes attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to beelzebub, and Jesus told them:

“Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”— because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.” (Mark 3:28–30 NKJV).

This was because they called the Holy Spirit, an evil spirit. Be very cautious about labeling people, gifts, and movements that you don’t understand as evil. Let God be their judge.

When I asked about hearing Jesus speak to us like in John 10:27, they explained that we had the Bible now. That is the only way that He spoke anymore, through His word. They never mentioned the Holy Spirit at all.

The church had an excuse to write off every single gift and move of God. In reality, they had just learned to have church without Him. They had limited God to their own experience level and wrote Him out of His own book.

All this time I had a hunger inside, and I knew there was more than waiting on Jesus to come back. I was sincerely trying to do my best and I prayed every day to be ready for the soon to come rapture. Then one day He spoke to me, it was an “impression”, and He let me know that if the rapture did happen that week, that I wouldn’t be going for I was going to stay here and teach His people. Hearing that for myself started to give me a different outlook. From that day on, when my brothers would get excited about the “rapture of the church” I would tell them that I wouldn’t be going. I was going to stay behind and teach. This blew them away, but I knew through and through that it was the truth. Thirty years later, I am still here teaching. Turns out that it was a good thing that I prepared myself for it.

I had a crazy friend that attended a Charismatic church about 40 miles away and he would stop by and try to get me to go with him some evenings. Charismatic means “gifted” and they believe in the gifts of the spirit. Now I am not condoning any denomination, Refreshing Hope is non-denominational. I was fiercely loyal to my church and attended every time the doors were open. It was considered “taboo” to attend another church then, like cheating.

Then one time his church was having a week long event and I reluctantly agreed to go with him. The pastor was preaching and suddenly stopped, turned to me and said “God has a calling on your life into the ministry. You are going to be a prophet and teacher.” At the time, I didn’t know why he said to me or if he was just calling attention to himself, but I put it on the back burner.

I had been studying end time events, Revelation, Daniel, Matthew 24. Jesus was supposed to return soon and I wanted to be ready. I had charts, graphs, and timelines all over my walls. My friend came by another time and invited me to go with him, he said they had a special guest coming in from Texas. Me and another friend agreed to go him.

This man from Texas carried an anointing that was amazing and that I had never seen before. He called my friends and I up in front of the church and prophesied over us. Though none of us had ever saw him before and two of us were just visiting the church, he told us detailed things about our lives. My other friend that came with us had been in three bad automobile accidents. He told him “I have saved your life three times so that you could be here today” and then went on to tell him many other things about his life.

He looked at me and it was as if his eyes could see straight through you and there was this intense heat coming off of him. Fortunately the service was recorded, so I got the tape and I was able to go over it again later. It was around five minutes long but there were several parts of it that only God and me knew about. He spoke in rhymes and told me:

You’re one that desires to know the end from the beginning. Son, don’t be so concerned about the retirement plan. It is even now a time for re-firement, for that is where I stand. And don’t be so concerned about the end of the Book, go back to the beginning, take another look. And oh son you don’t need all the things to fit, just allow your purpose and Mine to knit. And yea son, responsibility, seemingly more than what you can bear. Thats coming down the pike. Im telling you today “This load with you I will share.”

This became a turning point for me and I could no longer pretend that prophecy was not real. I had to face the fact that I was “ignorant” about the Holy Spirit, the baptism, and the gifts. Though I thought that I had all of the answers, they were all wrong answers. The Bible was right and I had been lied to by good people that just limited God to their own experience level, making up stories to cover the things they didn’t understand. They built their doctrine to support their experience.

I began visiting the church more often and was soon baptized in the Holy Spirit myself and I received the gift of speaking tongues. Soon after I went on a thirty day road trip with the pastor, preaching forty times in thirty days in different churches from South Carolina up to Wisconsin.

Every night we were in a church somewhere state after state. We would have an anointing service, he would prophesy to them, touch them, and they would crumple to floor. I was the catcher and stacked them all in a neat line. Often, at the end of the service the pastor and I would be the only two standing in the building. It was an amazing time on the road. We visited about 14 states that trip.

Once we were having breakfast at a diner in one of those states and the waitress who we had never seen before that day came by to bring us coffee. The pastor stopped eating and looked up, took her by the hand and told her: “Your brother is in the hospital and the doctors and saying that he is not going to make it. The Lord says for you to not to worry for he is going to be fine.” The waitress just broke down into tears and told us all about her brother who was in the hospital with congestive heart failure.

I saw this time after time, where he would prophesy to complete strangers and they would break down in tears, be healed, and crumple to the floor when the Holy Spirit came on them. Houses, restaurants, churches, parking lots, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, anywhere and anytime. It was like traveling with Paul in the book of Acts.

A wise man once said:
“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

That sums it up for me, and there was no going back. The things that I had read about in the book of Acts were real and still happened today to those that wanted it. Jesus is alive and well and the Holy Spirit wants to move through us here on the earth, today. I had tried to be a faithful servant, but I had been completely ignorant of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  After that I began to press in, to dig deeper, and to know the Holy Spirit for myself. He began to speak through me just as He did with my pastor. Now the pastor has passed on, and I am here teaching.

(Matthew 14:26–29 NKJV) “And when the disciples saw Him (Jesus) walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.”

Peter left the other disciples in the boat, got out, and walked on the water with Jesus. Peter and Jesus walked on the water together. Those that didn’t see it would say that this was impossible, but you will never convince Peter. There is no going back after you have experienced the truth.

I could give you so much scripture on this that you would want me to stop talking but suffice it to say that there can be no counterfeit unless there is a genuine article. The Holy Spirit is real and wants to be a part of your life today. I will cover more in the next message.