The Role of the Holy Spirit in True Believers' Lives

I would like to continue our discussion of the work of the Holy Spirit, because this, of course, is a key to revival. Every true believer is regenerated by the Spirit of God. We are born of the Spirit. Now notice I said every true believer. Sometimes I'm asked about the security of the believer. I'm more inclined to believe in the security of the regenerate, because the Lord Jesus said, these are those who believe for a while, but have no root in them. There are people who profess to believe, but do not seem to be truly born again. Every true believer is regenerated by the Spirit of God. Every true believer is indwelled by the Spirit of God. The Apostle Paul said, know you not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, that God's Spirit dwells within you.

The Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of every true believer, whether he is a novice of three weeks' experience or a veteran missionary with glorious laurels of pioneer work on the field. Some people think that the dwelling of the Holy Spirit is something that is conditioned upon their spirituality. I would say no. The Apostle Paul wrote that word to the Corinthians. What kind of Christians were they? There was drunkenness at the Lord's table, there was fanaticism in their meetings, there was immorality in their congregation. They were not all guilty of this. Alas, they were too tolerant of it.

I was chaplain of the Hollywood Christian group, which Dr. Henrietta Mears and I started in 1949, and I found that that Hollywood Christian group was a remarkable body of Christians, yet it had a Corinthian touch. Some of these movie stars converted from a life where alcohol and sex permissiveness and other vices were prevalent. Yet they were some of the finest Christians I ever met in my life. But this Corinthian Church was far from being perfect. In fact, the Apostle Paul said you are carnal and not spiritual. Yet he told them that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and God's Spirit dwells within you.

We do sing a hymn, Holy Ghost with light divine dwell within this heart of mine. We don't need to pray that. If you are truly born again, the Holy Spirit dwells in your heart. Every true believer is assured by the Spirit of God. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. In the King James Version, it says the Spirit itself, but that's a mistranslation. We find that the gist of the verse is that the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. It is the Holy Spirit who tells us.

If my son David, who is a jet pilot, were here, I wouldn't dare tell you this story, but when he was a tiny little boy at Oxford, he came running home one day in tears. He said, Mama, those naughty boys are teasing me again. So my wife said, Don't take any notice of them. They'll soon stop teasing you. It's because you're taking notice of them. She said, Why do they say things like that? So my wife said, Well, what did they say? With great indignation, David said, They say that I'm not your little boy. That you and Daddy found me in a garbage pail. My wife said, Such nonsense. So David said, Are you sure I'm your little boy? Of course you're my little boy. Then he said, How do you know, Mama? I stopped typing. I wanted to hear this one. Well, said my wife, for that motherly wisdom, I was there when you were born. And she said, Your Daddy saw you very shortly afterwards. That seemed to satisfy him.

How does the Holy Spirit know that we belong to him? The Spirit knows, because we're born of the Spirit. There may be doubt in our minds. There's no doubt in his mind. Every true believer is assured by the Spirit of God. Every true believer is baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. Now, I know the word baptism of the Spirit is used in a different sense by many Christians, but speaking of 1 Corinthians 12:13, For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. The Holy Spirit baptizes us into the body of Christ, just as a bricklayer takes a brick, surrounds it with mortar, and makes it part of a wall. It is still a brick. It still has its individuality, but it's now part of a wall. In the same way, the moment you are born of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit baptizes you into the body of Christ. And you're now part of the body of Christ, although you're still an individual.

I should really draw a line here under the word baptized, because the next category is quite different. A true believer may or may not be filled with the Holy Spirit. This you can get quite clearly from the verse of Scripture, Ephesians 5:18, which says, Be not drunk with wine where it is in excess, but be filled with the Spirit. If every true believer were already filled with the Spirit, that commandment would not be given. But the fact that the commandment is given is a sure sign that we need it. So I would say that this is an option. Every true believer is regenerated, indwelled, assured, and baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. But he may or may not be filled.

Before we leave this, what about the term baptism of the Spirit regarding the endowment of power from on high? Well, I have preferred to use this term filling for a very good reason. First of all, nowhere in Scripture does it say, but be baptized with the Spirit. Second, where the Holy Spirit, by the pen of Dr. Luke, describes this event, he uses the term filled or full. The disciples were filled with the Spirit, Peter filled with the Spirit, Stephen full of the Holy Ghost. That's the term that's used. It never once says Peter baptized by the Spirit. Third, because the term is controversial and liable to misunderstanding, I prefer to use a term that both sides of the argument will accept.

This is not only a term used by Pentecostals and the Charismatic movement. You'll find that Reuben Torrey, the founder of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, has a book called The Baptism of the Spirit in which he is speaking of the endowment of power from on high. You'll find the Salvation Army uses the term The Baptism of the Spirit for the endowment of power. You'll find the Christian Missionary Alliance does the same. In fact, until the rise of the present Pentecostal denominations, when glossolalia became an issue, the term baptism was generally used. But I prefer to use the word filling, because if I were speaking at an Assembly of God college, which I'll be doing this fall, and I speak of the initial filling, they know exactly what I mean. So I prefer to use this term filling.

What can we say about the filling of the Holy Spirit? Here's the promise of the Lord Jesus. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Most pastors, when they read this, make a quick change because of the use of an obsolete word. And they say out of his inmost being shall flow rivers of living water, or as Philip says, out of his heart. I studied Greek under Professor Julius Manti. There are some here perhaps who know the Dana and Manti Greek grammar. Professor Manti is still alive. He's in Florida. My wife and I saw him in December. He's 86 years of age, still very alert, and probably the greatest living expert on Greek today. I said to him, Dr. Manti, what is this word that's translated belly, heart, or inmost being? Well, he said it's a Greek collective singular. A man may lose an eye and survive, he may lose a leg and survive, he may lose a thumb and survive, but there are some vital organs that he can't live without. Perhaps we could call them today the transplant organs, the ones that are absolutely a necessity to life. The Greeks had one word for the whole cluster of them, and that's the word that's used here. I said, then could you translate it, out of his vitals shall flow rivers of living water? He said, yes. I said, could you say, out of his vitality, is that better still? Because it's a figure of speech. You know, when you say, that man has guts, that's a figure of speech. Every man has bowels, hasn't he? We don't say, so-and-so has bowels. We all know that. But when we say, that man has guts, we use the word guts for courage, don't we? Well, now, this word here is vitality. Out of his vitality shall flow rivers of living water. There's the promise of the Lord Jesus.

Now, you might say, he who believes in me, then every believer has this. Oh, no. If you look around the best of churches, you'll have to admit that not a majority of any congregation has rivers of living water flowing. It seems to be an option. Oh, I could give you so many illustrations of people who have found this secret. I remember a rather elderly lady used to work with me. She worked with me in our evangelistic team in New Zealand, and in Australia for two years, South Africa, and Ireland. Her name wasn't known, I used to have to introduce her. Everywhere she went, she was a blessing to someone. In fact, I've never met anyone that met her that didn't get some blessing from her. That was Corrie Ten Boom.

It seems rather ridiculous for me to mention Corrie in this way tonight because she's quite famous now through this film, The Hiding Place. But Corrie had rivers of living water flowing from her. There are some people like that. Here's the word of the Apostle Paul: be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. It's in the Greek continuous tense: be being filled, be filled and be filled again with the Spirit. I used to wonder why the comparison was made with drunkenness. I didn't like it myself, but then I began to understand. When a man is drunk, he's a man possessed. When a man is filled with the Holy Spirit, he's possessed with the Holy Spirit, not alcohol.

What does alcohol do to a man? It suppresses his higher nature, brings out his lower nature; he acts like an animal. What does the Holy Spirit do? He suppresses his lower nature, brings out the very best in the man. He becomes a Christ-like man because Christ was the perfect man. I remember Billy Graham told me that when he was a student at Trinity College in Florida, that's where I met him in 1940, he had his first campaign in the Piedmont district of North Carolina for a little Southern Baptist church. He arrived very cheerfully at the weekend, and the pastor said to him, we've got a rather painful duty tomorrow, we're going to read a deacon out of his office. Billy said, what do you mean? He said, one of our deacons got drunk at a wedding. He said, we can't have that, so we're going to put him out. Billy said, are you going to excommunicate him? No, no, no, he said he would still be in the loving care of the church, but he cannot be a deacon anymore. Billy said, well, could you not do it some other Sunday than the one I'm preaching? He didn't like to start like that. But the pastor said, well, that's what the deacons have decided.

Billy was sitting in the pulpit behind the pastor, and he noticed the row of deacons sitting there. He noticed a man over here with his eyes red as if he had been crying. Sure enough, the pastor got up and mentioned the whole circumstance and said, terribly sorry about it all, but they felt they had to dismiss this good brother from the office. Billy told me he threw away his notes, and he preached on this verse: be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. He said he had to concur in the judgment of the church that a deacon should not be drunk with wine. Then he turned to the row in front, he said, but the same verse says, but be filled with the Spirit. And I would like to ask you, are you filled with the Spirit? Billy saw a movement of the Spirit of God in the meeting that morning. A lot of getting right with God. There's the comparison and the contrast.

Now, what's the purpose of the filling of the Holy Spirit? You'll find it's for witness, for preaching, for suffering, for service. You'll learn a lot by studying those who were filled. Peter was filled with the Spirit. Three thousand were added to the church. There's the secret of church growth. Peter was filled again. Five thousand heads of families were added to the church, not counting the women and young people. Did Peter backslide between those two experiences? There's no evidence of it. I don't think he did. Well then, why did he pray to be filled again? Why was he filled again? Because the filling of the Holy Spirit is something that needs to be renewed and renewed again. Just as the Lord Jesus himself said he felt virtue go out of him. So we sometimes feel spiritually drained.

I remember asking Billy Graham up at Montreat, what do you do between campaigns? Well, as you know how you feel, Edwin, he says, if the kids are at home, if it's a Saturday when I get home, we go romping together. But if they're not at home, I may go up the mountain with the dogs, or I may go down to Montreat and play a game of golf. I try to relax. Why does Billy Graham not come home from a campaign and lock himself up in a room and pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Because that's not his immediate need.

I was once staying in the home of Dwight Lyman Moody. Now, don't look at me like that. Not in his time. I never met Moody personally. But his granddaughter, Emma Moody Powell, was a good friend to my wife and me. I was base chaplain at Westover Field, and we used to drive up the Connecticut River Valley and visit Northfield. In those days, Emma Moody Powell's father was alive, an Irishman called A.P. Fitt, who married Moody's daughter. So of course I would pump him dry about D.L. Moody. I said, which of the best biographies of Moody? Well, he said, I think the best one is one by his son, Will Moody, W.R. Moody. He said there's another good one by Gamaliel Bradford. He mentioned seven. I said, what do you think of one? I mentioned a rather popular one, rather fictionalized. He said, I didn't like that. I said, neither did I. I said, as a historian, I don't like people inventing things. He said, why do you say that?

Well, I was talking to him, and I said, I wondered, for instance, he described Mr. Moody and his great Chicago exposition campaign, the greatest campaign in the life of Moody, during the Chicago World Exhibition. The last meeting had ended, he had dealt with the last inquirer, it was midnight and he was going to bed tired out, and this biographer described how he knelt by the bedside and prayed a magnificent prayer, worthy to be in a prayer book, thanking the Lord God of heaven and earth for all that happened. I said to Mr. Fitt, where did he get that? After Moody prayed that prayer, did he say, boy, that was a wonderful prayer, I better write it down. Where did he get that prayer? And Fitt laughed. He said, I asked him the same question. He wobbled a little bit, and then he said, well, I tried to put into words what Mr. Moody must have felt at the time. Well, said A.P. Fitt, you were quite mistaken. He said, my father-in-law was an old-fashioned man and he wore an old-fashioned nightshirt. He took off his shirt, he pulled on his nightshirt, then he pulled off his trousers, and then he jumped from the middle of the floor into the middle of the bed and he said, good night, Lord, I'm tired. When I heard that, my appreciation of Moody went up by leaps and bounds.

Why didn't Moody kneel and pray, Lord, fill me with the Spirit? That wasn't the prayer he needed to pray. He needed to say, Lord, you've promised you will give your beloved sleep. The filling of the Holy Spirit is not given as a restorative from backsliding. But the filling of the Holy Spirit is given to equip us with power. Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit, became the first martyr. Philip the Evangelist was filled with the Holy Spirit. You say, yes, now you've mentioned these great apostles, maybe it was meant only for them. Oh, no. How about John Wesley? He was a Spirit-filled man. And Charles Finney, whom I mentioned, was undoubtedly a Spirit-filled man. And William Booth, D.L. Moody, Hudson Taylor, you read all about it in their biographies. Yes, and Billy Graham. Because what happened to him at Forrest's home was the turning point in his ministry. If you want to read it for yourself, I think it's in the first issue of Christianity Today.

You say, you've mentioned the apostles and these great evangelists, maybe the filling of the Holy Spirit is meant for the great servants of God. No, no. How many were there in the upper room on the day of Pentecost? It says about 120. How many names do we know? Well, there were the eleven disciples, so we could soon supply their names. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there. That's twelve. The two candidates for Judas' place were there. That's fourteen. Mary and Martha were there. That's sixteen. The half-brothers of Jesus were there. We could speculate on others like Susanna, but I think we could say about twenty names we know. Subtract from about 120 and you get a hundred anonymous people. You never learn their names, you never read about them again, yet they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And the filling of the Holy Spirit is for every believer.

I mentioned Corrie ten Boom, but I still remember preaching in a great state church in a college town in Norway, and at the end of the meeting, the Lutheran rector called upon a lady who was visiting the congregation. She had left that place at four years of age and was visiting it for the last time. She was eighty-seven years of age. She got up and spoke so powerfully. I can follow Norwegian pretty well, but it was in the West Norwegian dialect. I followed it pretty well, but she spoke powerfully. The people were deeply moved. There was a woman filled with the Holy Spirit, and yet she was just a housewife. That was my wife's mother. Most men make fun of their mothers-in-law, but my wife's mother was a saint. She went through a lot of sorrow. Her youngest son was killed in North Africa and was missing in action for over a year. They never knew what happened to him. But there was a woman filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now, what's the evidence? Ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. I already talked about that.

But is there any abiding evidence? That's what we could deal with. It's a little controversial, but we're not afraid of controversy. Let's just round it out. The gifts of the Spirit are wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, power, prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpretation. Nine gifts. That's plural. There are two subjunct gifts mentioned in the same chapter—the gift of helps and the gift of government. I haven't time to go into all this.

I would say the gift of government—do you happen to know George Wilson in Minneapolis? He's the kingpin of the Billy Graham Organization. He's got a gift of government, there's no doubt about it. It's a gift to the Church. The gift of helps—my wife has never spoken in public in her life. If she were here in the meeting, I'd probably tell the pastor, don't recognize Mrs. Orr in any way. She doesn't like even to stand up. You say, what a strange wife for an evangelist. It doesn't mean she isn't any use. She's the most helpful person I've ever met. You know the sort. Just as soon as she gets to heaven, she'll be measuring Peter for a pullover. That's a gift, too.

Then, of course, the gift of apostle, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. These are not talents. George Beverly Shea has a wonderful singing voice, but if he had never been converted, he'd be quite a singer in nightclubs or somewhere. That's a dedicated talent. It's not the same as a spiritual gift. But these are supernatural gifts. Wisdom—the man who had most of that in my experience, C.S. Lewis. I knew him at Oxford. Knowledge—Campbell Morgan, the great congregational divine in Westminster. Faith—Hudson Taylor.

Healing—there's a controversial gift. I believe healing exists at least four levels in the Church. First of all, God does bless means. There are some people so fanatical about healing they won't take medicine. But I think if God has put minerals in the soil and vegetables in the field, herbs in the field that have curative powers, why shouldn't we use them judiciously? Second, God does bless Christian doctors and nurses. During the war, I was in the hospital in the Philippines. I could not tell a Christian nurse without her telling me she was a Christian. I would say a Christian doctor has a greater opportunity to serve God than a pastor, very often. When Dr. Luke was introduced, he was introduced as the beloved physician, not the beloved ex-physician. He didn't have to give it up. The most sympathetic account of the confinement of the Blessed Virgin Mary was written by Dr. Luke. He was a practicing doctor.

Then there's healing in the Church. Let them send for the elders of the Church if there will be any sick among you. Let them anoint him with oil. The prayer of faith will raise the sick. I've known this to happen. The denomination that practices it most is the Episcopal. And then there are gifts of healing. In Pretoria in South Africa, I generally stay with Dr. Paul Bramer, a very good friend of mine, a very godly Dutch Reformed elder. He's the leading gynecologist in South Africa. He told me on one occasion, Mrs. Elsie Salmon, wife of a Methodist minister in South Africa, visited the Pretoria General Hospital. She prayed for some of the sick, especially where she was led to pray. One woman announced she was healed. Dr. Bramer's patient. She had a terminal cancer. The woman wanted to go home, but Dr. Bramer found the doctors were upset. They said, this poor soul is going to lose her religious faith as well as her life. I said to Dr. Bramer, what do you do in a circumstance like that? He said, well, we take a snippet of the tumor, and if it's malignant, nothing we can do. We just sew her up and send her home. If it's non-malignant, we remove it, keep her for a little while for observation. He said she was malignant all right. But the doctor said, she'll not only need morphine, she'll need religious faith to pull her through. And now we allow a fanatic to come in and upset her. Dr. Bramer said, let's examine her again. He said, I couldn't find the tumor.