88) * THE PRAYERS & SERMONS OF OUR STANDING MINISTERS FOR PEOPLE TO READ - 41

Sally S. Richter

Receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the Evidence of Speaking in Tongues?

Sermon Message for Monday August 20, 2012


Brothers and sisters, I greet you in the wonderful name of Jesus and am most grateful to once again minister to you the word of God through this sermon. I pray that the Spirit of the LORD will rest upon each of you as you read and receive, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD…

The Holy Spirit is the inner power that God gives us to help us to live in this world. None of us is worthy to have the Spirit of God living in us in this manner, but we must understand that it is by the righteousness of Christ that we are accepted by God. Our focus must always be who He is in us, and not who we are in our own strength, ability and intellect.

Because God is Supernatural Being, transcending the natural realm, we cannot truly come to know Him and understand Him unless we move into the realm of the spirit…Only then can we truly worship God in the spirit because He is a spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

Our intimate relationship with the Lord is directly proportional to the amount of time we spend in His presence and the power of His Spirit that will flow through us. But the door that we must all go through to step into the invisible, supernatural realm of God’s kingdom is the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

I will first start off by explaining exactly what this gift is, and then I will show you how to properly prepare yourself to receive it. Once those two things have been done, I will then show you exactly how to receive it once you are ready for it.

What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?

The first thing that you will need to know is exactly what this gift is. This is a topic that causes much confusion and contention in the body of Christ. The Bible tells us that we will all receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of our salvation with the Lord. So if we have already received the Holy Spirit at the moment of our salvation with the Lord, then what is this “second” baptism of the Holy Spirit that the charismatics are talking about?

Many have tried to receive this gift of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues at an altar call at their local churches, but they have failed to receive it. They then walk away, thinking that maybe there was something wrong with them, or they were not worthy enough to receive this gift from the Lord. I will reiterate, no one has ever had to do anything to earn it, for it is a gift, given by His grace through your faith.

The doctrine of the church to which I belonged, believed that if a believer did not speak in tongues, he had not received the Holy Spirit, and therefore had not been born again. It took me several years of God dealing with me, revealing His word to me to be able to understand how wrong they were. Every one that has been born again has the Holy Spirit dwelling insid.

I thank the Lord that He allowed me to have the glorious experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit when I was baptized in water in a Pentecostal Church so many years ago. However, I noticed through the years that not all believers had that same experience. I saw many that although they had repented and been baptized in water, had not been able to speak with tongues. These believers had a genuine conversion, loved the Lord, lived godly lives, yet in spite of their tears, fasts and continuous repentance, they were not able to speak with tongues.I believe Jesus gives us a clue as to where our human spirits may be located in our beings.

The following verse. The New King James Version uses the word “heart”, but the Original King King JamesVersion uses the word “belly.” “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his (BELLY) will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:38)

Your spirit has already been baptized with the Holy Spirit at the moment of your salvation with the Lord, but now God wants to take it one step further. He now wants to baptize your soul with his Holy Spirit. Another word that can be used for the “baptism” of the Holy Spirit where He will now enter your soul area is the “release” of the Holy Spirit into your soul.

I believe this is what Paul was referring to when he commands us to be “filled with the Spirit. When you have received the second gift of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, you are now considered “Spirit-filled.” Both your spirit and your soul are now filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is like the “telephone wire” that enables us to connect to and make contact with both God and Jesus in heaven. We can talk directly to God and Jesus as a result of having the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us, and both God and Jesus can also talk directly to us through the Holy Spirit as well. This is why this gift is so important and so vital for all Christians to have.

Releasing Holy Spirit into your Soul

If you have not been able to receive this gift at an altar call at your church, here is a very simple 5 step process that you can take that will help you to be able to properly receive this gift from the Lord. However, before I go into each of these five steps and exactly what they will entail, I would like to state one more thing before leading you into this gift.

In my opinion, this gift is the second greatest gift that you can receive this side of heaven. The first greatest gift is the gift of eternal salvation through faith in Jesus. There is no greater gift than this one. With this gift you are truly born again into the kingdom of God and you will go straight to heaven when you die and cross over. This gift now gives you permanent, eternal life with the Lord.

However, I believe that receiving the baptism or release of the Holy Spirit to come into your soul is the second greatest gift that anyone can receive while living down here on this earth and all you have to do is ask. You have to really want this gift because you want to be able to enter into a much deeper, personal relationship with God, and that you will now need His power and anointing to be able to flow through you so that you can fully accomplish whatever His divine destiny is going to be for your life.

The word says in Luke 11:10-13 "For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he asks for a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

Once you realize what this gift entails and that you will have to be willing to fully surrender to whatever God’s perfect plan and destiny is going to be for your life, then the next step is to take that big leap of faith and fully surrender everything over to God the Father. He wants all three parts to your being – body, soul and spirit. Give your entire life over to the Lord

1 Thessalonians 5:23, God wants to sanctify you completely in all three parts of your being, spirit, soul and body.

Just stop and think for a minute what is really happening when you do receive this gift. This gift will now take you one step further. This gift will now allow the Holy Spirit to release from your spirit to come up and enter into your soul. Your soul is who you really are. The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead. He is God and Lord Himself.

Once the Holy Spirit releases to come up into your soul, you are going to be as close to Him,. This gift is just going to bring you that much closer to the Three of Them due to the fact that He will now be residing with you up in your soul area. You will be truly Spirit-filled when this happens.

Now the process of receiving the gift of Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in Tongues..

Here is a simple, basic way that you can word your prayer to God the Father to receive this most glorious gift of His Holy Spirit. Notice in the prayer that you are agreeing to make a full and complete surrender of your entire life over to Him. What completes this prayer request for the Gift, is your faith and belief that God has heard your prayer and will grant it

Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, I believe that I am truly saved and born again. I believe that all of my sins have now been fully forgiven and washed clean under the Blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Father, I now, by an act of my free will, turn my entire life over to You. I now place my body, my soul, my spirit and my entire life into Your hands. I now ask that You place and enter me into Your perfect will for my life. I now ask that You set me up on the perfect plan and destiny that you have set up for my life.

Father, I now want to go one step further. I now want to receive the Baptism of Your Holy Spirit, the release of Your Holy Spirit to come up and enter into my soul from my spirit.

Father, in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, I now ask that you allow Holy Spirit to enter into my soul. Father, from this moment on, by an act of strong faith and belief, I am going to believe that the Holy Spirit has now entered into my soul, regardless of whether or not I feel anything....It is with thanksgiving that I pray in Jesus name, Amen!

What will really kick this gift into full operation is for you to start to establish a direct, one-on-one, personal relationship with the Holy Spirit Himself. Simply start talking to Him like you would a best friend. He is right there on the inside of you.

You will need to start to establish a direct, personal, one-on-one relationship with the Holy Spirit Himself just like you have with God and Jesus. Seek to establish a Father-child relationship with God the Father and a best friend relationship with both Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

The apostle Paul tells us that we can enter into a personal relationship direct with the Holy Spirit Himself. Here are two good verses giving us this revelation:

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”(2 Corinthians 13:14)

“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit” (Philippians 2:1)

The word “communion” means to have a direct partnership with someone, to share with someone, to have fellowship with someone. These two words spell one thing – personal relationship!

What is the Evidence of Having Received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?

When you first receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, one of three things may happen: Some of you may receive the gift of tongues right off the bat. If you do, that is great. You have just been given a powerful prayer gift from God and you can now start to use this powerful gift in your prayer life with Him.

However, I want to state one thing about the gift of tongues in reference to the gift of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There are many charismatic churches that teach that the gift of tongues is the only evidence of having received this gift. In other words, if you have not received the gift of tongues, then you have not received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

I personally believe that this teaching is really wrong. The Bible specifically says that the gift of tongues is one of the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit and that each of these gifts, including the gift of tongues, are manifestations as God wills, not as we will! In other words, some people get the gift of tongues and others do not!

Here is what the Bible says about the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit which includes the gift of tongues. 1 Corinthians 12:4 goes into each of the nine gifts. At the end of this verse, it then reads as follows: “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”

I have read many stories of how some people thought that they had not received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, all because they had not received the gift of tongues, when in fact they had already received it. This kind of false teaching can really mess with your mind if you are seeking after the Baptism of the Holy Spirit expecting to receive the gift of tongues as the initial evidence of having received this gift.

Some may receive an actual inner manifestation from the Lord when first receiving this gift. Some will actually feel the presence of the Holy Spirit on the inside of them. He will actually manifest His presence on the inside of their souls when He first comes up.

If this should happen to you, what you will literally feel is God’s love for you. Depending on how strong the Holy Spirit wants to manifest Himself to you, you may actually start to cry when this manifestation starts to occur.

If this should happen to you, do not be afraid of it. This is an incredible experience to be able to feel the manifest presence of God on the inside of you. The Holy Spirit will control the manifestation so as not to scare or overwhelm you. You may literally feel His presence manifest all the way up into your chest and face area.

If the gift of tongues does not manifest in you or you do not receive any type of inner manifestation from the Holy Spirit when He first enters into your soul, then the next thing that may happen is absolutely nothing! And this is what actually happens most of the time. There are no manifestations, either of His presence or with the gift of tongues. It may not happen overnight. However, just be patient with Him. Over the course of time the Holy Spirit will start to miraculously show Himself to you in a wide variety of ways.

With that I will conclude today’s message.

Do your part to seek to establish a close, intimate, personal relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And you will also have to spend some kind of good, quality time getting to know more about Them and all of Their ways by studying the Bible.

The Bible says that God will give back to us with the measure that we use. In other words, if you want God to give you 100% from His direction. You have to be willing to give Him 100% from your direction. Seek and then you will find. Ask and then you will receive.

If you do not seek, then the reverse is also true, then you will not find. I believe there are spiritual laws that are in operation in God’s realm, and God simply will not put forth any effort to show Himself to you in a wide variety of miraculous ways unless you are willing to do your part by pressing in and start to seek after Him. Do your part, and watch what God will do in your life.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for Holy Spirit’s guide in helping me deliver this message to the brethren. May those who read it be enlightened and edified to further their understanding of Your word and deepen their relationship with You in order to further the cause of the Kingdom. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen and so be it.