18/ "If you love me ..."
In John 14:15, Jesus said, "If you love me you will obey my commandments."
My heart grieves when I hear people, including ministers of all denominations, calling themselves Christians, but point blank refusing to obey the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said to those who believed in him, "If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32.
Sadly people, "love the approval of men, rather than the approval of God", and follow the traditions of men, instead of the commandments of God. Matthew 15:8,9
Infant baptism
Jesus blessed the little children, he didn't baptise them. (Matthew 19:13) As for the teaching of the Presbyterian church, on infant covenant baptism, that doctrine is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. No doubt a Presbyterian reading this comment will become indignant and reach for the nearest Bible commentary, when they should humble themselves and seek God on the matter.
Having said that, I am ashamed to have to admit that all my three children were baptised. This was in the days when I didn't read the Bible and had no knowledge of what God required. What I should have done was dedicate the children to God by simply having a minister pray for them.
From the doctrine of infant baptism arises the erroneous belief that because a person was baptised as an infant they are saved. Jesus at the age of 30 demonstrated how we are to be baptised.
Mark l:9-11 9/ Not long afterwards Jesus came from Nazareth in the province of Galilee, and was baptised by John in the Jordan.
10/ As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw heaven opening and the Spirit coming down on him like a dove.
11/ And a voice came from heaven, "You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you."
God is pleased with us when we follow his commandments. Romans 6:4 clearly explains why we need to be totally immersed.
By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.
A baby doesn't have a sinful life. Nor can a baby speak for itself, making a conscious decision to follow Jesus through the waters of baptism. The godparents have to speak for the child and very often the promise they make of bringing up the child in a godly way is never kept. When a marriage takes place, and the preacher asks the bride and groom if they will accept the other as their wedded partner, nobody else can answer for them. Likewise only the person being baptised can say whether or not they want to follow Jesus through the waters of baptism.
There is more to baptism than just rising to a new life. Often after reading Mark 5:1-22, I would wonder why Jesus allowed the evil spirits to go into the pigs, which rushed down the hill into the lake and were killed. What a waste of pigs, because as far as I know you can kill flesh and blood, but you can't kill a spirit. God explained the matter to me.
By being, "buried in baptism with Jesus", the old life is symbolically buried and locked under the water. In the same way the lake became a prison for the spirits in the pigs. They were symbolically trapped, even if the lake dried up. That revelation was absolutely fantastic because I couldn't imagine God wasting 2,000 pigs, for no good reason.
I decided to put that revelation into practice. While baptising a woman and her older daughter the nine year old son also wanted to be baptised. I don't like baptising children, unless the child has an understanding of what is going on, besides a sincere wish to follow Jesus through the waters of baptism. The boy fitted both criteria. As the child was suffering from asthma, I commanded the asthma to stay under the water. I also explained to the boy that, should the symptoms come back at a later date he was to say, "Asthma you have been locked under the water and can't affect me anymore." Four weeks later his faith was tested as he felt an attack coming on. Immediately he repeated the words I had told him and he felt better instantly. Praise God!
Disease, sin and sickness, evil spirits and in the case of Theresha, blindness and partial deafness have been left under the water. Take the case of Rhea.
Minor spirits had left without any trouble, the ruling demon however, refused to leave. God instructed me to baptise the person. Before she went under the water I was to pray and command the demon to be locked under the water. As the water would ultimately end up in the sewers I commanded the demon to be trapped in the sewers until its time came up. As Rhea came up out of the water she felt as if something peeled from her. At the same time she heard the demon screaming, "not the sewers, not the sewers."
We limit God and make our life miserable by not obeying the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Stubbornness, pride and rebellion are powerful forces which keep us from God's saving grace.
Why is it so hard to obey the commands of Jesus Christ if we say that we love him? Jesus said to his disciples:
Matthew 28:18-20: Jesus drew near and said to them, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, then to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the earth.
If you are doing you own thing not baptising an adult, or baptising them only in the name of Jesus, you are not obeying Jesus' commands and therefore are not of Him. I don't care that Peter baptised people in the name of Jesus (Acts 2:38). I follow the instructions of Jesus not Peter. Peter denied Jesus three times, maybe it was out of a sense of guilt that Peter baptised in the name of Jesus. However, Peter is clearly disobeying Jesus Christ when he baptises in the name of Jesus, because according to Matthew 28:19 the disciples had been instructed by the Lord to baptise in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The name of the Father is Jehovah and the name of the Son is Jesus Christ. The reason Jesus Christ gave those instructions was because he would never lift himself above the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit
Jesus gave the following order:
Acts 1:4 When they came together, he gave them this order: Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised.
5/ John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.
Yes, there is one water baptism - as an adult, but Jesus also speaks of baptism by the Holy Spirit. Why?
Acts 1:8 But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled power and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
If we are to live the kind of life God wants us to live we need the power of the Holy Spirit.
Zechariah 4:6: Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.
Where is the power of Jesus Christ, through his Holy Spirit, in the majority of the churches today? Instead of healing, deliverance and miracles, dead works seem to be the order of the day. There are those churches which teach that you don't need to ask for the infilling or baptism of the Holy Spirit. The belief is that when you ask Jesus Christ into your life, the Holy Spirit, being part of the Trinity, will automatically come into your life too. Wrong! The Holy Spirit is a gentleman and will not go anywhere unless invited. Satan might gate-crash your life, but not God. If you carry food in a lunch box, it won't give you strength until you actually eat it. Once the food is inside your stomach you will feel refreshed. Horror movies portray people as filled with evil spirits, how much more should we ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit!
Luke 11:13 "Bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
So if you do not ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit, your life will lead nowhere, except a religious merry-go-round.
I am speaking from experience having grown up in traditional churches. I was always taught that the Pentecostals and Charismatics are a bunch of loonies. Yes, I do believe there are those who go overboard. I do not believe it is of God for people to be rolling around the floor, laughing uncontrollably. Nor do I believe you have to go to Toronto to receive God's Holy Spirit. God can be found in the stillness of your bedroom, or while driving the car to work. I do know however that my life changed dramatically once I submitted to God's will. If you have never been baptised by full immersion, as an adult, or have prayed according to Luke 11:13, then you need to analyse your walk with God. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ if you cannot obey his simple commandments.
Speaking in Other Tongues
Five years of faithful attendance, first in the Baptist church, then the Church of Christ, caused me to be indoctrinated with wrong doctrine, namely that speaking in tongues was considered to be of the Devil. A person sleeping does not know how long they have slept until they wake up. Likewise, a corpse no longer has life and therefore can no longer participate in life. I was spiritually dead, until I came to a rude awakening when a friend asked me to go an Apostolic church service. After two months of finding excuses why I shouldn't go I finally gave in - it pays to be persistent!
Shock, horror, people welcomed me with open arms. Worse was to come. The music was louder than at a Rock concert. The people were almost dancing in the aisles - incredibly they seemed to be having a good time. When somebody prayed in a language I didn't understand I felt really spooked, only my upbringing prevented me from running out of there. What weird cult had I been dragged into? All this was against my prim and proper, conservative, traditional church upbringing. The good old Methodists had never behaved like this. Come to think of it, neither had the Baptists. I was most indignant!
As we left I vowed never to set foot in the place again. The sincerity of the people however, did touch my heart, so I decided one more visit wouldn't hurt, four years later I was still attending. One annoying thing was the fact the people were always asking me if I was 'born again' . My reply was always, "of course I'm born again", yet I didn't have the faintest idea what they were talking about. The next question was , "Do you speak in tongues then?"
"Certainly not, I don't need to. Thank you very much." With sadness I now look back at my arrogance, ignorance and refusal to learn. Sometimes God has to take us by the scruff of the neck, in order to pull us into line.
I woke up one morning with excruciating pain at the base of the neck. Of course I immediately asked God to heal me; nothing happened. Right, I thought the Devil must be attacking me so I prayed accordingly: nothing happened. The third option was to go to my minister for prayer. My minister and his wife prayed for me, but again the pain didn't go away. The next day the whole church prayed for me, but again the pain didn't leave.
While driving home from church my stiff neck became unbearable. As I waited to turn into my street the following thoughts came to me.
"My people were a stiff necked people."
"Oh no Lord, are you trying to tell me that my physical condition is representative of my spiritual condition?"
To be stiff necked is to be stubborn. Was I being stubborn in my walk with God?
The minute I walked into the flat the phone rang. Elizabeth, a good friend from the Apostolic church was on the other end. "Hi, how are you?"
"I'm in great pain," came my response.
"Do you speak in tongues yet?"
I couldn't believe my ears, no words of sympathy.
"No!" I responded rather annoyed.
After twenty minutes of her trying to teach me to speak in tongues, I said goodbye. I have since learnt that speaking in tongues is a gift and cannot be learnt. Nor can speaking in tongues save you, only the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ can do that.
By this time, frustration was really getting the better of me. So I went into the bedroom, sank onto my knees and said to God: "Lord if you want me to speak in tongues, I ask for that gift under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Nothing happened, so I started to sing a few songs to God. All of a sudden a strange language came out of my mouth. Overawed, I thought to myself I better not stop in case the language goes away and doesn't come back again. Half an hour later I was still at it.
When my daughter Sonja walked in the door, the anointing of the Holy Spirit was so strong that she also started to speak in tongues. The same thing happened when a friend arrived a few moments later. How amazing to have three people speaking in another language.
Remembering only too well how people pushed the issue of tongues with me, I am careful not to do it to anybody else. Tongues is a gift and to be treated as such, not to be demanded and pushed onto somebody.
I go so far as to say those cults who deny the Trinity, but push tongues are in fact speaking in satanic tongues. Therefore I prefer people to seek God personally for the gift, rather than being prayed over by somebody they don't know. There are too many cults around who speak in "tongues", but these tongues are not the gift of the Holy Spirit, but an imitator of the Holy Spirit.
1 John 4:1 "My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere."
There are also those people who say that you are not baptised, or filled with God's Holy Spirit unless you speak in tongues. That issue has bothered me because I know sincere people who are truly walking with God, but don't speak in tongues. I really cried out to God to explain the matter to me, especially since people are always quoting Acts 2:4.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
As I studied the Word of God I began to realise that The pouring out of God's Holy Spirit was associated more with an emphasis on proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ and the salvation he gives.
Joel 2:28-32 Yes, even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will proclaim my message.
See also Acts 1:8, Acts 10:9, Acts 11:24,
As a matter of fact 1Corinthians 12:29-30 says:
They are not all apostles or prophets or teachers. Not everyone has the power to work miracles or to heal diseases or to speak in strange tongues or to explain what is said.
I agree with the apostle Paul when he says:
I would like all of you to speak in strange tongues; but I would rather that you had the gift of proclaiming God's message. 1Corinthians 14:5
Yes, I strongly agree that when God has given the gift of speaking in tongues to a person there is added power in their life. However, it is wrong to put condemnation on a person who doesn't speak in tongues and tell them that their must be something wrong with them because they having been filled with the Holy Spirit, as there is no evidence of tongues. I know that when I went forward in the Apostolic Church to be prayed for to receive the Holy Spirit I received instantly, but I did not speak in tongues until much later. Many times before I spoke in tongues God's presence was evident in my life in a mighty way. That could have only been through the power of the Holy Spirit. My recommendation is that people ask to receive the gift of tongues, but if it doesn't happen immediately then don't get stressed about it. God has created us as individuals and he treats us differently, so what might be fine for one person is not necessarily the case for somebody else. There must be a balance in our walk with God.
I appreciate the gift God has given me, for it has helped me in my prayer life. Now when I am praising God, and run out of things to say, I just change to tongues and keep on praising Jesus. There is definitely a closer relationship between God and myself, now that I'm no longer stiff necked. I recommend that people ask God for the gift of tongues, but I will never say that they are not filled with God's Holy Spirit if they don't speak in that heavenly language.
Do you love Jesus enough to obey his commandments?
1/ Fiji
2/ Egypt
3/ Israel
4/ Papua New Guinea
5/ Forgive or I cannot forgive you
6/ Jesus still heals today
7/ Suicide
8/ Long Bay Gaol
9/ Attempted murder
10/ Bathurst Gaol
11/ Angels
12/ How to pray
13/ Cords
14/ Counting the cost
15/ The heart condition
16/ Lorraine
17/ Dracula - fact or fiction
18/ If you love me
19/ Being gay
20/ Faith
21/ Roots
22/ Malaysia
23/ Fiji revisited - 1997
24/ What Jesus means to me
25/ My diary entries
26/ Conclusion