You Shall Receive Power

Hey, this is Dr. Ray Self again; thank you for listening to Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self. The baptism of the Holy Spirit: do you get it when you're saved or is it something that comes later? Or maybe something a little bit different? I think it's different. I think salvation is incredible but I think the baptism of the Holy Spirit is also incredible, it

changed my life and it did not happen for me at the moment of salvation. This is a very controversial topic however, it should not be that way but all of you, if you're listening to me, you need to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you. The power of God comes through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, let's talk about it, see what scripture has to say about it. Again, please visit my website for this podcast, it's icmcollege.org/selftalk. There, please, you can subscribe, give me a review, that really helps us with our ratings, it helps us get listeners, it helps us get the message across. There's a store there and if you purchase any item from the store, it goes to our scholarship fund where we help Christian leaders who have financial struggles trying to get a seminary education. I love you, thank you so much for listening and here we go.

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Hey, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. I want to talk to you about the Holy Spirit. I want to talk to you about the baptism of the Holy Spirit because to me, the baptism of the Holy Spirit changed my life forever. At one of the darkest moments, or maybe the most darkest moment, um, I think some people call it the uh, the pit. It's just a time in my life, this was back in the late 80s when I was going through a lot of extremely difficult things. I'm not going to go into all the stuff I was going through, but I was depressed, I was discouraged, I was stressed, I was on the verge of losing everything, it was a very awful time. And during that time, I knew I needed something. I was a Christian, and… I was a Christian. I was saved when I was 10 years old, I've been walking with the Lord for over 20 years. Not a perfect walk, you know, I was, I had some times when I did some things, especially in college, that I should not have done and um, you know, some of the traditional people say well you were backslidden. Well, I don't know, I just got into my flesh in college. I had way too much fun in college doing things I should not have been doing, living a sinful lifestyle. But I don't want to belabor the story. But later in life, things began to crash and burn for me. Horrible things began to happen to me in my life and it was a series of events. It wasn't just one thing, it was financial struggles, marital struggles, personal struggles, business troubles, uh, troubles with my kids… more, more horrible things that I can’t even mention. I don't, I don't even want to go through the whole story because it was it was bad, it was really bad. But something happened to me. Something happened in the midst of this and I want to talk to you about.

So, one day my mother told me that she knew a guy. She knew a guy that prayed for people in his home and she had seen some miraculous things happen when he prayed for people at his home. His name was John and she said I want you to, I want you to meet John. So I said okay, okay. You know, I mean, just anything, I need something, whatever, yeah, I'm open for anything at this point. So she took me to, to John's house and John welcomed me in the door and it, it feels like I'd only taken three steps into his home and he said hey Ray, have you ever heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? And I really wasn't sure, you know, how to, how to answer that. I mean, I, I've been a Christian and I knew that the Bible said you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you, which I thought was talking about salvation. But he began to show me things in scripture that changed my life forever. And I want to share this with you because I think it may change your life.

I want to tell you something. I'm just going to be very blunt here. When you're saved, that's, it's an incredible work of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is you’re regenerated, you're justified, you, you are adopted, you, you, you become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus; you are given eternal life, okay? You become adopted into the, the family of God. It's an incredible gift. It comes by grace, not by works, that's called salvation. But there is more, it's called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And some say well, you get it automatically when you're saved and I'll say no, that's not exactly what scripture says and I'll show this to you because the baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that changed my life forever and scripture is very clear about this and how we miss this, I have no idea. So back to John.

So I walked into- I was stressed, I was burnt out, I was, I was a, I was a wreck; and John put his hands on me after he showed me some things in scripture. I'm going to show you what he, what he showed me, uh, but I'll tell you this: he put his hands on me, he sat me in a chair, and first off, he had me repent of any- he gave me a list of things and asked me if I had ever done this or that. And the list- you know, you guys if you're a Spirit-filled Christian, know, you know the list- have you ever done ouija boards? Have you ever done tarot cards? Have you ever been to a psychic? Have you ever been involved in this? You ever done that? Blah, blah, blah. And a lot of it I had and so I asked God to forgive me. I repented, asked God to forgive me, I confessed my belief in Jesus Christ, and he put his hands on me and he said something like this: he said, I, Lord, I baptized my brother Ray with the Holy Spirit. And when he said that, I felt like somebody was pouring- all of a sudden it was like somebody was pouring oil on me. There's- this warm feeling began to flow all over my body. Now I'm here, I'm tense, I'm nervous, I'm a wreck, and this warm sensation began to flow all over my body and all of a sudden, I felt this peace. It was peace I've never felt before, it was perfect peace. Of course the Bible would call that peace that passes all understanding. I felt peace and then I felt this incredible sense of love, like I was loved and it was okay to be Ray and I was perfectly loved and accepted. And in the midst of all of it, it felt incredibly powerful like something powerful was happening to me and I, I don't know how long I sat there but I felt like I could not move. But it felt incredible. The peace, the love, the warmth, the power. 

At one point I remember my mother speaking. It felt like she was in the background going Ray, Ray, are you okay? Ray are you okay? And I'm thinking it's okay, Mom. I mean, I couldn't say anything to her because I was so caught up in what was happening but I wanted her to know that it was okay. This is- I don't know what's going on here but this is great and so I finally, kind of opened up my eyes and John looked at me and he said Ray, I want you to know things are going to be different for you now. Things are going to change for you and I said well what do you mean? He said well, don't be surprised if you start hearing funny words come out of your mouth. I said, funny words? He said yeah, it'll sound like gibberish but it's not gibberish, it's called tongues. And I said well, okay. I don't feel any funny words coming out of my mouth but uh, if I do, I'll try not to consider it to be gibberish. And he said also you're going to start seeing things in scripture that you've never seen before. The Bible is going to come alive to you. I said okay, that sounds cool. And he said also, when you pray for people, do not be surprised if they get healed and I said okay, that's cool; and also, you may cast out demons. And I kind of went: do what? Say what? No, you may cast out demons. I said okay John, okay. Well, well, thank you for all that and uh, that was just, that was what he was warning me.

He said now, there's this church I really think you ought to go to. At that time, I was a part of a very traditional Baptist church and nothing wrong with that, but he recommended this other Spirit-filled church, it was called a Vineyard Fellowship, and he said I want you to go to this church and- which was a real experience for me. But I want to tell you something folks, everything John said to me happened. I began to lay hands on people and they got well right in front of my eyes when. I'm driving home in my car, I began to speak in tongues- oh, you, oh, you're one of those tongue speakers- yeah, I speak in tongues it just came out of me, it just started coming out of my, coming out of my mouth. Can you control it? Yeah, I can control it. I also started casting out demons. I, I did. I had many of an opportunity. And the Bible became alive; I started seeing things in scripture I'd never seen before, I started understanding things about the Bible I had never understood before. 

Let me, let me show you what I'm talking about in scripture, okay, because this was a change in my life. After this one prayer to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, my Christianity went from a scale of 3 to a scale of 12. I mean, all of a sudden I was excited to be a Christian, I was excited to worship the Lord, I was excited to go to church, I was- was my life fixed? No, my life wasn't fixed but I was much better. I was- I felt alive. I could, I had an understanding of scripture that I never understood before and I, at that time I had been in the word for almost 20 years, I had a- everything became enjoyable and exciting and um, I remember praying for my friend Bill who had diabetes and uh, I said I said Bill, I want to pray for you for your diabetes. “Yeah, go ahead Ray, whatever.” So I laid hands and something in my spirit knew if I prayed for Bill he was going to be okay so I walked up to my friend Bill, this was at church, I put my hand on him and I prayed for Bill and I said okay Bill, I believe God's healed you. He said “okay, right, sure, whatever you say.” So Bill went home, started thinking about it, decided to test his diabetes to see if God had healed him. Bill ate a big piece of chocolate cake. His wife told me he ate like a quarter of a cake after eating the cake, he tested his blood sugar and it was normal. It was normal!

Then it was maybe a few months after that and this story, this story changed my life of my family forever. My sister, my older sister Elaine had been involved in some- a lot of new age stuff and she was raised in a Christian home but she drifted away and she was not a part of church or involved in church, you know, at all. Um, but Elaine had a abscessed tooth with an exposed nerve and she was in horrible pain, horrible pain and she couldn't sleep for like three days. The pain was so bad she could not sleep. My mother told me about her so I called Elaine and I said Elaine, I hear that you're having this horrible problem with your tooth and she goes yeah. And I said well, you mind if I pray for you and she says “No; you can pray for me but I'm watching TV,” if, you know “I'm watching TV right now but go ahead and pray, I'm watching television.” I said well, this is not really spiritual but anyway I prayed for her and then when I finished praying for her- remember “these signs shall follow those that believe: they shall lay hands on the sick and the shall recover,” Mark chapter 16. This happened after I was baptized with the Holy Spirit. So I prayed for Elaine and Elaine, uh… I said Elaine, how you doing? She goes “Well, well I don't know. It's not hurting but I gotta go.” So she hung up the phone. So Elaine decided that she was going to test the Lord why it’s everybody when I pray for them they want to do a test. So Elaine goes and grabs a toothbrush and starts brushing the tooth that had the exposed nerve. There was no pain and she slept all night long peacefully. The next day Elaine called me she said “Hey Ray, tell me where you go to church. I think I want to come to church with you.”

This happened after I was baptized with the Holy Spirit, folks. “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Let me share something with you. I'm, you know, I could go on and on and on about this but I don't want just to go on and on about this, I want to share something with you. So we're going to Acts 1:8, Jesus talking. “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit’s come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and all Judea, Samaria, even to the remotest parts of the earth.” So He's telling his disciples when the Holy Spirit comes you shall receive power. He also told them to wait in Jerusalem. Now here's where the controversy comes. Every- a lot of traditional Christians say well, he's talking about Pentecost. Well, yeah, the Holy Spirit did come at Pentecost but there's a false teaching that says that's- it- when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He was here on earth from now on so whenever you're saved, you automatically are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Well, that's not exactly what scripture says. Yes, the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and yes, he fell on the 120, that's a fantastic moment. That's the first time the Holy Spirit fell but then we go on with the rest of the story. You know me, I'm really big about the rest of the story.

So we go into Acts 8. Um, and Acts 8:4 says “Therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.” Now, you know there was a great persecution in the church and the people got scattered. The, the evangelists got scattered and so Philip, it says Acts 8, verse 5: “...Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. Crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing.” So here's Philip the Evangelist, he's preaching Jesus, and he's doing stuff. He's healing the sick, okay? He's probably casting out demons. It actually did, Acts 8 verse 7: “for the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them, shouting with a loud voice, and many who had been paralyzed and the lame were healed. So there was much rejoicing in that city.” It goes on to talk about Simon the Sorcerer who wanted to to get that, get that same power, okay.

So going down to verse 12, talking about the people in Samaria: “but when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.” Stop right here, hold the presses. They believed the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ and they were baptized. Folks, that is salvation. They believed the preaching of Jesus, they believed in Jesus and they were baptized. These people, these people were saved. They were saved. Now, go down to verse 14, two verses later. It says when the apostles in Jerusalem. “When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria,” that's where you know, where Philip was, “had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For he had not yet fallen upon any of them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they began laying their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” 

So here we go… the apostles heard about these people who were saved in Samaria and went up and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit and they laid hands on them, okay, and they began receiving the Holy Spirit. And then of course, then Simon gets jealous and he wants this, wants this as well. So we go, so here's a case of people being saved- you know, remember the, the apostles were in Jerusalem, Philip was in Samaria, the people who were saved were in Samaria, the apostles in Jerusalem had to walk to Samaria, so it took them a while to get there; so there was a filling of the Holy Spirit after salvation. Very, very, very clear. Then the other example is we go to Acts 19 verse 1 “And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to. Ephesus he found some disciples and he said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’” This is me: did you receive the baptism the Holy Spirit when you believed? “And they said, ‘No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.’ And he said, ‘unto what, then, were you baptized?’ They said, “Unto John's baptism.’ Paul said, ‘John baptized the baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in him who is coming after him, that is, Jesus.’ So when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul laid his hands on them, then the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.”

So you see again believers who had hands laid on them and began speaking in tongues and prophesying. In other words, there's something else that God has for you. The Holy Spirit does save you, the Holy Spirit is God, He does a number of things. This is the way I look at it, I like to look at things very logically. The incredible work of the Holy Spirit is salvation. Salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit but there's something else that God wants to give you through the Holy Spirit and that is power. Salvation is your righteousness, your justification, your redemption, your salvation, okay? That's, it, that's your, that's a work of the Holy Spirit. You're regenerated, you're made into a new creation. That's powerful but then there's- Jesus was talking to believers when He said you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you. There's something else that God wants to do, is that He wants to baptize you with the Holy Spirit. He wants you to be saved and he wants to baptize you with the Holy Spirit. 

And folks, millions of Christians have experienced this, I'm not the only one and they know what I'm talking, I know what I'm talking about because I've experienced this. Sadly, there's a lot of people out there, traditional Christians, who say, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You see, those people in Samaria, they actually really weren't saved until the apostles laid hands on them. Uh, and the believers at Ephesus, they really weren't saved until, until Paul laid hands on them because when you're saved, you get the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” That's not, not what it's saying here. And then it talks in Acts 10, you see Paul preaching, I mean, Peter preaching, the Holy Spirit falling on people. And then you see, Jude talks about being continually filled with the Holy Spirit. So what you see is you see the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost but He keeps coming, and He keeps coming, and He keeps coming, and He keeps coming, and he keeps on filling people and He keeps on coming inside of people and He keeps on empowering people and He keeps on baptism- baptizing people. It's not just one baptism at Pentecost that's passed down through generations. How do you, how do you do that anyway? How do you pass down the baptism Holy Spirit through generations? It's not automatic, it's something we need to ask for, to be baptized, to be filled with the Spirit of God. 

I can tell you in my life, I was saved when I was 10 years old and my life changed, it was a true salvation. But when I was, let’s see… 35, 16 and 20, yeah, 35 years old. I was baptized with the Holy Spirit and I went to another level. And it is clear in scripture and millions of Christians have experienced what I have experienced. The baptism of the Holy Spirit gives you power, folks. I'm not claiming to be anything but Ray, Self, just a plain old guy from Memphis, Tennessee, living in Winter Park, Florida right now. I have prayed for people, I've seen broken legs healed, I've seen cancer healed, I've seen blind eyes healed, I've seen a dead woman raised from the dead after a car wreck. I've seen some stuff folks; I've seen demons cast out, I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it. Um, folks, I my, I myself, you know my story. I was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, they told me I would never walk again, I'm healed. Folks, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the power of God. We need power. This is why Jesus told His disciples wait in Jerusalem until you receive the power of God, wait in Jerusalem. In other words, don't minister until you receive the power of God. Jesus wants us to be filled with the power of God to be a more effective witness.

You see, when they talk, when you go back to Philip in Acts 8, one thing that kind of leaps off the page at me was that Philip um, when he was proclaiming Christ to them it says the crowds with one accord, Acts 8:6, “crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said.” That's his preaching. “As they heard and saw.” Here is show and tell. “As they heard and saw the signs he was performing.” You see, Philip was filled with the Spirit of God and he was performing signs and miracles. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is essential for you. Right now we're living in a world that's gone crazy. I don't know if it's just the media is going crazy and I know the media likes to report negative stuff, but there's so much negative stuff out there it's just unbelievable. We need power, you need the authority. If you have not been baptized with the Holy Spirit, read it for yourself; don't let people tell you if you're saved you're automatically baptized with the Holy Spirit. 

Now I'm going to say this, I have seen people saved and baptized with the Holy Spirit simultaneously, I've seen that happen but for me and millions of other Christians, it happened at another time. To me it was 25 years after my initial salvation. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and my life changed. Everything John told me happened. The Bible became alive, my understanding of the word of God became unbelievable to a whole other level. I began to lay hands on people who were sick and I saw them recover. I begin operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gift of prophecy and y'all that know me know that I operate in that gift quite, quite often. And the baptism of the Holy Spirit is so important and if you're listening to me, I want to pray for you. I want to pray for you that you will not- don't let people tell you it's, you, you've automatically got it. You've got everything to win, everything to gain, everything to win nothing to lose and so I want to pray for you. I want to pray for you that you'll be filled with the Holy Spirit, baptized with the Holy Spirit right now. 

And so if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, maybe let's do a prayer like this. Lord, forgive me and my sins. I know I've fallen short of the mark, Father. Lord, I ask you to forgive me but Lord, your word says that we shall receive power when the Holy Spirit come upon us and Father, we saw where the apostles laid hands on the believers and they began receiving the Holy Spirit. Father, I ask now to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. I ask to be refilled, filled fresh. Holy Spirit, come upon me. Lord, I just speak and proclaim and believe the baptism of the Holy Spirit. For everyone listening to the show who has a heart to receive, who wants to receive this, who needs to receive this, Holy Spirit, fall on them now. Let them feel your presence. Empower them now. I baptize my brothers and my sisters with the Holy Spirit, Father. Father, you said we shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon us, Father. Father, in the book of, in the book of Acts, Father, I praise you, Father, I praise you, Father, you said in Acts 1, thank you, Father, Acts 1, verse 5, John baptized with water but you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So Lord, baptize us with the Holy Spirit and Lord, as the 120 was baptized, baptize us fresh again, Father. Lord, I thank you, Father, for the power of the Holy Spirit, for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit for everyone listening to this show. Come upon them now, come upon them now in Jesus' name. Lord, manifest however you want to manifest in them. And Lord, give them friends and preachers and teachers who understand the filling of the Holy Spirit, Father. Lord, I thank you, Father, for the show. I thank you for everyone listening, everyone that's a part of this and we give you praise and honor, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen, amen.

And if you've felt this prayer or you prayed this prayer with me, I encourage you

Um, find a church or a church, what I call a Spirit-filled church that understands the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They can explain it to you even more. I will tell you now there's, in the body of Christ your traditional folks like the Southern Baptist, uh, the Methodist, the Presbyterians, they're not going to go along with it but most the Pentecostal churches will, the Charismatic churches, most independent churches will- do believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but you need to find people who understand what you just experienced and don't be surprised when you look at the word of God you'll see things you've never seen before. Don't be surprised when you lay your hands and pray for somebody to be healed in the name of Jesus Christ, they're healed; don't be surprised if you run across a demon, you tell that demon to go, and they go; and don't be surprised if you begin speaking in tongues. Don't let the devil tell you it's gibberish.

Thank you so much for listening to Self Talk. Been kind of a heavy show but an important show. I appreciate you very, very much. God bless you.

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Hey, thanks again for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self; I'm your host. Today was a heavy show but I believe as we pray at the end if you were sincere in that prayer you may have just gotten filled or baptized with the Holy Spirit, how about that? Hey, please check out in the show description: we've got links for multiple things that would really help us and I think bless you so check out these things. Check out the uh, the Self Talk, our podcast, our website, icmcollege.org/selftalk. Again, give me a review, please give me a review, subscribe and share this show, that really helps us. Uh, if you'd like to partner with me to help me do the show, the show costs money to produce. It doesn't make money, it costs money and you can do that at icmcollege.org/donate. If you want to email me with ideas, suggestions, topics, help, drayself@gmail.com. If you'd like to enroll in the International College of Ministry, a Holy Spirit-filled seminary, accredited, online, work on your own schedule, icmcollege.org/enroll. You want to take some free courses? Free. Free courses, all right, there's a link in the show description called free courses. Also, we have a store and everything from our store goes to our scholarship fund helping pastors in need, pastors with financial hardships trying to get education. icmcollege.org/merch, m-e-r-c-h. God bless you, thank you so much for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. This is him himself, myself, I'm very self-aware, just took a selfie. God bless you.