We Got What We Wanted…

We are in a small Alabama town named Beauregard, Alabama this week at Beauregard Full Gospel Revival Center. These are some great people we have known and been able to be a part of for many years. They were the very first Church to begin supporting us financially on a regular basis.

The presence of the Lord continues to amaze me! I know it's getting old me saying that, but God is doing a deep work in people's hearts and lives. Last night we prayed for approximately 25-30 young people, many of them receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, others being re-filled!

I preached a message entitled "We Got What We Wanted, But We Lost What We Had!"

I have noticed in the last several years there has come increasing pressure to compromise and and tone down the use of the Gifts of the Spirit. There is even a move on in some of the major Pentecostal denominations (I hate that word) to move away from the initial physical evidence that tongues is the first sign of the Holy Spirit Baptism.

I realize this is going to offend and separate me from a lot of people. But I do not apologize. I can discuss this without falling out of fellowship with folks. I yes, I know people who have been used in the gift of prophesy and interpretation that have never spoken in tongues.

My only question is: are we going to move away from what the Bible says, just because tongues makes a few people uncomfortable? It was God Who caused those early believers to speak in tongues, not the manipulation of a preacher.

I received the Baptism in my bathroom, with NO ONE (sorry I yelled:) laying hands on me.

What do we do with Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 10, acts 19:1-6?

In the words of the Paul to Galatians, why is it we have begun in the Spirit and now want to do it by the flesh?

I'm all for change. Good change. Godly change.

But if people don't believe in the gifts operating in a normal church service structure, there are plenty of other fellowships to be a part of that don't allow the moving of the Spirit nor the operation of the gifts of the Spirit in their services.

We must not allow the misuse of the gifts by a few charlatans to stop us from allowing God to move through us in the right way.

Islam is not going to change their message to appease the masses; Osama has already sent us word, "turn or burn"; hinduism will not change their message to keep the crowds;

why should we?

Have we gained so much notoriety from the press, Congress, the President, even from the cessationists, that now we would rather compromise what got us here to begin with than make anyone feel uncomfortable and think we are about to pass around the kool-aid jug?

I'm not writing this in a contentious spirit; I just need someone to tell me with the Bible and not just I Corinthians 12-14 that it's over!

Did We Get What We Wanted….but Did We Lose What We Had?