We need a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost. God has called us to receive the gifts of the Spirit and do exploits! This Fire is a revolution in our lives; we must be changed, transformed by the Power of God. I remember as a child saying, “I want the fire!” I began to seek God. I prayed, “You’ve said it in Your Word, now come and do it.” I remember that moment when the Fire came. I remember it like yesterday. The whole of heaven opened. The roof came off the building where we were meeting. All the angels of God came down. All the Fire and the Glory of God came down and began to fill me, and burn and burn, and I began to speak with other tongues. I was filled with the Fire and the Glory, and the Power. It was a miracle! Hallelujah! The Fire hasn’t gone out! It is getting stronger every day. That is the Power of God. I’m not looking back to the past, I’m looking forward. God is going to do more in these next years of ministry than He has done in all my life. Young pastors, church leaders, now is the time to get the Fire. Get a vision of what God can do in and through you.
And when [the Spirit] comes, He will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. (John 16:8, NLT)
The reason I first received the Holy Spirit was because I knew I had to preach the Gospel - with lives changed, souls saved into the Kingdom! I found Christ when I was 8, was baptised in water aged 12. The first time I spoke in my church I was only 13. I advertised, the people came; I preached, but nobody repented! I was shocked because I had grown up with some of the greatest evangelists. I went home and asked my father who was a great preacher, one of the founders of the Pentecostal movement in Great Britain, what was wrong? I had preached the same Gospel - from the Bible like my father - but nobody repented. My father said, “Because you have not yet received the Holy Spirit!” That night he laid his hands on me and prayed that I would receive the Holy Spirit - but I did not receive - no Fire, no Power! But from that moment I had only one desire, to meet with God and to receive His Power in my life.
I will send the Holy Spirit, just as My Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with Power from heaven. (Luke 24:49, NLT)
For 3 months I prayed without receiving. But I knew that without the Power, the Fire, the anointing of God, I could never see men’s lives converted. At Easter we used to have three Pentecostal Conventions in London. I determined to go and not leave until I had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit! the preaching was so long in the morning, there was no time to pray for people to receive the Holy Spirit! As a 13-year old I went up to those great men of God on the platform and said, “I only came to receive the Fire, pray for me!” They took me to a small room, laid their hands on me, but their minds were on their lunch! I did not receive the Spirit.
I was searching for something which does not come from men, the real Power of God. One of those pastors saw my heart, opened the Scriptures to me, then when he prayed and laid hands on me, it was as if the roof came off the building, I saw the Glory of God and felt the Fire! The Fire of the Holy Ghost, the Power of God and the Glory of God came into my life! Now I had to become an evangelist! I had to preach Christ and see the Power! That baptism was only the beginning!
Ye shall receive Power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8, KJV)
If you want to be effective in ministry, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit! There is a danger today that we do not understand the reality of what the baptism in the Holy Spirit means.
The revolution when you are baptised in the Holy Spirit, has to be life-transforming! In the Acts of the Apostles the disciples received the Holy Spirit, instantly they were no longer frightened and ineffective, but filled with boldness and fire! That’s what we need today in the church - a new boldness, a new authority, a new power - which is the result of a baptism in the Holy Spirit!
From the moment I was baptised in the Holy Spirit, my whole life was transformed - not just by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but absolute change! Saved, baptised in water, now almost 14, that baptism in the Holy Spirit was the greatest change of all, a revolution in my life! It changed my living, my thinking, my preaching - a physical and spiritual manifestation that was obvious wherever I went. I was preaching in the school: now my classmates changed, two went on to become preachers; the cynical Scripture teacher, who spent his time criticising the Bible, also changed and started a Bible study group and prayer meeting in the school! Baptism in the Holy Spirit is not just an anointing or a feeling or an emotional experience - it has to be an absolute life-changing miracle, a spiritual revolution in your life. If it has not changed you, you need to be immersed and baptised in the Holy Spirit again!
The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out. (Leviticus 6:13, KJV)
I was so excited when I read in Leviticus 6:13 that when the priests lit the fire they were told it must never go out! I received the Fire of God when I was 13 and it has never gone out! I’ve seen too many people who allow the fire to fade, but if the fire is from God, the command is that you must not let it go out! The Apostle Paul told his protegee Timothy: you must fan into flame the gift of God (2 Timothy 1:6). It’s your responsibility. You can only keep the fire going by adding more sacrifice, literally fulfilling the command of Romans 12:1, ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.’ Then get out there and preach the Gospel. - That is where the Fire is.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14, KJV)
God is always a God of miracles! Yes, I have experienced the Power of God in my life! Not some emotional experience in a conference, but step by step walking close to God - my teenage cry for Fire, the cancers, the prison - and through many other problems and miracles. What will it be next time, what will happen this year? I still don’t have enough Power, still not satisfied that God has answered me fully, what will it be next? All I know is that it is step by step, and I have not reached the end of the road yet!
That’s why Peter said we have a living hope, an inheritance which is incorruptible that cannot be defiled, that does not fade away but goes on increasing and increasing until that moment when we see Jesus in all Power and all Glory (1 Peter 1:4). Every step is another miracle towards experiencing the Power of God in our lives! As for me, I will seek a fresh baptism in the Holy Spirit every day until I am in the Kingdom of God.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. (Philippians 3:13, KJV)
I’m not looking back to the past, I’m looking forward. God is going to do more in these next years of ministry than He has done in all my life. Young pastors, church leaders, now is the time to get the Fire. Get a vision of what God can do in and through you.
‘Fire of Revival’ used by kind permission of www.vinesong.com