Receiving the Holy Spirit

Announcer:

This is Today With Derek Prince. The internationally recognized Bible teacher and author presents to you Keys To Successful Living.

Yesterday Derek Prince shared with us further reasons for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. Today as he speaks at a conference in New Zealand he concludes his topic ‘Immersion in the Spirit.’ Listen as he outlines seven basic requirements for receiving the Holy Spirit baptism and gives some examples of emotional and physical reactions that may result Stay tuned at the end of today’s program for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

I like to read Jeremiah because, after all, he was a respectable prophet. He wrote a long lot of the Bible, I mean, almost more than anybody else. Jeremiah 23:9 says this:

“My heart within me is broken because of the prophets [the false prophets]. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man and, like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord and because of His holy words.”

That was Jeremiah’s reaction to the holiness of the Lord. He said, ‘All my bones shake.’ You can’t have your bones shake without your body shaking, that’s impossible. He said, ‘I’m like a drunken man because of the holiness of the Lord.’ Have you ever sensed the holiness of the Lord in such a way that impacts your physical body? See, we’re living on very low rations, most of us.

The apostles on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came and they were all very dignified. No. Just the opposite, they behaved in a very strange, undignified way. They were all speaking together in languages they hadn’t heard and do you know what the unbelievers said? They’re drunk. Have they ever said that about you when you walked out of church?

John the apostle encountered Jesus in a vision and he fell at His feet as one dead. There was a power that overwhelmed him.

I won’t go on to the others because I want to come to the vital part now, of this. Time is running out on me, as it usually does. Seven requirements for receiving, and I’m going to give them very briefly. Number one, repent. Acts 2:38, ‘Repent, be baptized.’

“Number two, be baptized. Be baptized and you’ll receive the Holy Spirit.”

Number three, be thirsty. Jesus said, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.’ Number four, you’ve got to come to Jesus. There’s only one baptizer in the Holy Spirit. If you want the baptism you have to come to the baptizer.

Number five, you have to ask. Jesus said, ‘If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?’ A lot of Christians say, ‘Well, if God wants me to have the Holy Spirit I guess He’ll give it to me. I don’t need to ask.’ Well, Jesus said you do need to ask. He said your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.

“And then you have to receive. Receiving is compared to drinking.”

And finally, and this is the difficult thing for some people, you have to yield the unruly member of your body, the member which you cannot control, the tongue. The control of the tongue by the Holy Spirit is God’s evidence that He’s come in to take control. You know in the Bible the tongue is called ‘my glory.’ This doesn’t come out in all translations but in Psalm 16 the psalmist said, ‘I will praise God with my glory.’ Peter quoted that in Acts 2:26 and he said, ‘I will praise God with my tongue.’

Your tongue is your glory, did you know that? Do you know why you’ve been given a tongue? For one supreme purpose: to glorify God. Any use of the tongue that doesn’t glorify God is a misuse. But when the Holy Spirit comes and takes control of your tongue, everything you say and do will glorify God. That’s the first time you’ll really be using your tongue for the purpose for which God gave you a tongue in your mouth. All right. Now, we’ve come to the end of my little explanation but there are some of you here, undoubtedly, who are thirsty. At least, I hope there are. I want to tell you very simply how you can receive this experience here tonight. I want to read the words of Jesus in John chapter 7. He said:

“‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart [out of his belly, the Scripture says] will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spake concerning the Spirit who those believing on Him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

It could not be given until Jesus was glorified. But when He was at the Father’s right hand, He poured out the Holy Spirit.

Now, these are the simple conditions. There are some conditions you should have met but you may not. You may not have been baptized, you may not have asked. I wasn’t baptized, I didn’t even know about being baptized. I didn’t ask but God filled me with the Holy Spirit. I had this strange sensation in my belly and I knew it was my belly. I thought, ‘What is this?’ The phrase came to my mind ‘speaking with other tongues.’ I thought, ‘What’s this got to do with speaking with other tongues?’ Then I said out loud to God in an empty room, ‘God, if you want me to speak with tongues, I’m ready to do it.’ And this thing moved up through my chest and into my throat and my tongue started to move. I wasn’t controlling it and the next thing I discovered, I was speaking a language like Chinese. I hadn’t asked and I hadn’t been baptized. Later, believe me, I was baptized in water.

But there are certain basic conditions. ‘If anyone thirsts,’ Jesus said, ‘let him come to me and drink.’ And then ‘out of his belly will flow the rivers.’ A marvelous transformation! You come as a thirsty person and you become a channel of rivers of water. What does that? The baptism in the Holy Spirit. What do you have to do? It’s very simple. You have to come to Jesus. There’s only one baptizer, come to the baptizer to receive the baptism. You have to drink.

Now this is where religious people have a problem, it’s too simple. No one ever drank with their mouth closed. No one ever received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with their mouth closed. You drink by opening your mouth and taking in something. You’re not taking in water, you’re taking in the supernatural power of God. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody do that and not receive. I can’t recall. I’ve seen as many as three thousand people receive in one experience but they drank. And after the drinking there’s the overflow. You remember, ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’ This is where you have to have faith because the Holy Spirit is not going to do the speaking for you. You have to speak as the Holy Spirit gives you words. This is a step of faith but without faith it’s impossible to please God.

I’m prepared to lead anybody here or any people here in a simple prayer here tonight if you want to receive this wonderful, supernatural experience. Remember we’re not asking you to leave a church or join a church, this is not what we’re after. We’re just suggesting to you that you need what the apostles needed, what the early church needed. So, if you would like to come forward and me to lead you in a prayer, I will do it. Without further delay, if you say, ‘Brother Prince, I’m really thirsty here tonight and I would like this experience,’ just stand up where you are and walk down to the front and I will lead you in a prayer.

That is wonderful isn’t it? Amen. I’m just waiting because there’s more people coming. This is exciting, Now, listen, you’ve come not to Brother Prince. I’m not the baptizer. You’ve come to Jesus. But I will give you a very simple prayer that you can pray by which you present yourself to Jesus as a candidate for the baptism. You come to Him, you ask and then you drink. This is the point where religion makes it difficult because you’ve got to do something simple and practical that looks silly. You’ve got to open your mouth and begin to drink in the Holy Spirit. It’s not water but it’s the Spirit of God that you’re drinking in. After a little while, and for some people it’s very quickly, that little mouthful that you take turns into a river and it starts to flow out through you, through your mouth. How does it come out? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. When your mouth speaks from your heart, do you know what? Your heart is overflowing. You can’t see inside your heart. You don’t know when it’s filled, but when you hear the overflow you know it must be full because it wouldn’t overflow.

So now let me say this and I’ll lead you in this prayer. And remember this crucial step: you drink and then at a certain point you begin to speak, in faith. But remember, if you’re a child of God, and I want to emphasize that, if you ask for bread He’ll never give you a stone. If you ask for the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is what you’ll get.

I’m going to lead you in a prayer by which you come to Jesus. I’m going to lead you to confess your faith in Jesus as your Savior because if you’ve never been saved you can be saved right now as you do that. And then you qualify to receive the Holy Spirit. When you say amen at the end of this prayer, don’t pray any more. You don’t receive the Holy Spirit by praying, you receive the Holy Spirit by drinking. A lot of people have prayed themselves right out of it because while you’re speaking in your own language you cannot speak another language. You have to stop speaking English and begin to speak the new language.

So, I’ll lead you in this very simple prayer. Please remember you’re not praying to me. I’m just giving you the words with which you can come to Jesus. When you’ve said amen, what do you do next? You begin to drink. Okay? So, this is it now, I want you to say these words after me:

“‘Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you are the Son of God and the only way to God, that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead. I confess any sins I’ve committed and I trust you to forgive me and to cleanse me in your precious blood. I thank you for doing this. Now, Lord Jesus, I come to you as my baptizer in the Holy Spirit. I open myself up to you and I begin to drink of your Spirit that you are already pouring out on me. And I trust you Lord to give me the overflow. In faith I thank you for this now, in the name of Jesus. Amen.’”

Now begin to drink and just yield your tongue, begin to speak. You don’t have to shout but you need to speak just clearly enough to know you’ve said it. That’s right, several of you are already speaking. Give it just a little voice. Most of the people around me I think are already speaking. Just take time to enjoy the Lord. Forget your problems, forget your questions and just let yourself go. Release yourself to the Lord through this experience.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. That’s right. If you get a little excited, we’ll understand. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.

Announcer:

Today’s program concluded Derek Prince’s teaching on ‘Immersion in the Spirit.’ Join us again next week when Derek will continue his series Laying the Foundation with his next theme ‘Transmitting God’s Power.’

This week’s message is available on audiocassette No. RC4165, and also on video. Our special offer this week is Derek’s book Baptism in the Holy Spirit, in which he shares from Scripture and personal experience about this divine gift available to every believer. To receive your copy of ‘Immersion in the Spirit’ write to us today and include a contribution of $5.00 or more for the audiocassette RC4165 or $14.95 for the video teaching. Include a gift of any amount for the book Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Derek Prince also welcomes your letters and your prayer requests. Our mailing address is Derek Prince Ministries, Box 19501, Charlotte, North Carolina 28219. In Canada write to Derek Prince Ministries, Box 8354, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 5M1, and please give us the call letters of this station when you write.

This radio ministry is supported by your prayers and financial contributions. Remember that contributions in excess of the value of the material are tax deductible and we rely on them to keep this ministry on the air.