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The Baptism in the Holy Spirit

09 Dec Hold On To Your Socks!

Posted at 18:00h in The Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Walk of the Spirit by Billy Burns 0 Comments

I don't know whether or not this happens to you, but at times, I can read a book and within hours, most of what I've read has escaped my memory. So, some time ago, I took steps to keep this from robbing me of what I've read. First of all, I began to highlight the thoughts and add annotations in the side margins. And then I went one step further. I created an Excel spreadsheet file on my computer and began to enter those quotations for future reference. For those of you who follow my Billy Burns Ministries page on Facebook, you see these quotations each Monday. (www.facebook.com/billyburnsministries) Some four or five months ago, I read a small pamphlet written by Jimmy Swaggart titled The Baptism in the Holy Ghost. Though the booklet was only 29 pages in length, it contained so many powerful nuggets that I couldn't afford to forget, thoughts that I had to enter into my quotations file. This week, I want to share a few of these quotations with you. To use my southern vernacular, I believe that these truths will bless the socks off of you! "Sending a Christian into the world without the Holy Spirit is tantamount to sending a soldier into battle without a weapon. Admittedly, at the moment a person is saved, he becomes a Christian just as a person becomes a soldier the moment he is sworn into the Army. But the inductee is not ready for battle until he has basic training and has been issued his weapons. And the Christian is in the same condition at the time of salvation. If he isn't encouraged to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, preparing him for the ever continuing battle against Satan, he is being sent out onto a battlefield woefully unprepared." *********************************** "Salvation is God's greatest gift to the world. The Holy Ghost is God's greatest gift to His children, the Church." *********************************** "For the person planning to die within the next few days, there probably aren't any great advantages to receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. But for those who don't plan to leave this vale of problems soon, there are tremendous advantages." *********************************** "Salvation equips us to enter into the presence of God after mortal life is over. The Baptism in the Holy Ghost equips us to live fruitfully (and happily) during those years before we go to be with God." *********************************** "At salvation, life is imparted to someone who is heretofore dead. In the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, power is imparted to the Christian who was previously weak and ineffectual. He is henceforth fitted for service to God." *********************************** "We need power if we are to work effectively against the perverting, destructive conspiracy promoted by the enemy. Anyone hindering the Christian in any way as he enters this battle is tacitly working for Satan, even though he might be appalled at the thought of doing so." ...

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02 Dec The Demystified Holy Spirit

Posted at 04:08h in The Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Walk of the Spirit by Billy Burns 0 Comments

I'm going to try something totally new in this blog post. For the first time in the 12+ year history of writing this blog, I am simply going to give the title, a brief explanation of the subject, the scripture reference, a set of four questions drawn from the scripture reference, and then leave it to the Holy Spirit to use these questions to make Himself known in your life in a fresh, new way. TITLE: The Demystified Holy Spirit BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE SUBJECT: The 19:2 Déjà vu Epidemic has invaded much of today's Church. The 19:2 refers to a situation found in Acts 19:2 that showed a group of Ephesian believers that were clueless about the Holy Spirit. Some 2,000 years later, it has happened again. Once again, believers all around the world are mystified about the Holy Spirit. Consequently, this lack of understanding is keeping Him from having a relationship with many of today's believers. SCRIPTURE REFERENCE: John 14 - 16 FOUR QUESTIONS: 1. The Holy Spirit showing up on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) wasn't His idea. From your reading of John 14-16, what/who brought about the Holy Spirit being sent to the Church? 2. In our scripture reference, we read over and over again that Jesus showed that the Holy Spirit is not a mystical, unknowable force or entity. You will notice that Jesus constantly referred to the Holy Spirit using personal pronouns. Count how many times that He used these pronouns. Why would knowing that the Holy Spirit is a Person be important to your relationship with Him? 3. In reading through the passage, I am confident that you noticed that Jesus told us that having a relationship with the Holy Spirit would be to our advantage. The "He  shall ...

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14 Oct Praying in the Spirit Illustrations – Part 18

Posted at 04:18h in Praying in Other Tongues, The Baptism in the Holy Spirit by Billy Burns 0 Comments

Of all of the types of blog posts that I write, without question, the Praying in the Spirit Illustrations posts are among my favorites. Why? Because I believe that each and every illustration is providing a much-needed, simple, understandable, visible help to communicate the importance of praying in the Spirit. This brings us to illustration number eighteen. Once again, I will give a brief, skeletal overview of the illustration. Then, with the Holy Spirit’s help, you can personalize and modify the illustration to become a powerful teaching tool. The Importance of Praying in Other Tongues Part 18 –We Have an Outward Expression of an Inward Work "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:4 For this illustration, you will need a Bible and either a slide or video clip obtainable from Google of an outdoor water meter. Before I go any further, I need to forewarn you that I am about to show you a slide/video of something so ordinary, so everydayish (is that even a word?) that will cause you to be totally unimpressed. (Show slide/video of the outdoor water meter.) See? I told you so! I knew that this would happen. Immediately, your mind looked at the picture of the outdoor water meter and did a ho-hum. Am I right? We all know what a water meter does. It is a utility used to enable us to see and monitor an activity that is happening elsewhere at the given moment. The numbers spinning on the meter is reminding that water is passing through the pipes and is being used inside of your home. You are being informed that something is happening in places that you don't immediately see. So, why in the world would I be talking about an outdoor water meter today? Let's read today's scripture. (Read the scripture.) This verse tells us of an activity from heaven that took place in a room occupied by 120 people. That activity was the Holy Spirit being sent by God to move inside and work inside of the Jesus-loving people. It was definitely an "inside", unseen action. In other words, the Holy Spirit didn't appear in a physical form, announce who He was, and then move to the inside (spirit) of these believers. Here is the exciting part of this scripture. Let me go back to mentioning the outdoor water meter. The meter was an outward way to know or evidence that an unseen activity was happening. From standing at the meter, you can't physically see with your eyes water moving. But, the gauge or numbers spinning gives you knowledge of what is going on. When our heavenly Father poured out His Holy Spirit, He provided an outside witness or evidence that showed that He was working on the inside of these individuals. "They began to speak with other tongues ...

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09 Sep The Benefits of Praying in Other Tongues – The List

Posted at 20:50h in Praying in Other Tongues, The Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Walk of the Spirit by Billy Burns 0 Comments

In last week's blog post, I shared what I called Holy Spirit Realities Nuggets. This was actually a compilation of a few of the Holy Spirit Realities posts that I have previously shared on Tuesdays on my Billy Burns Ministries Facebook page. I felt compelled to share these because of Facebook's crazy algorithm which dictates who sees what. I am fairly confident that many of you hadn't seen these nuggets before. This week, I want to share another compilation of posts. Every Thursday, I share what I consider to be one of, if not the most important series of posts that I publish on Facebook ...

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29 Jul Praying in the Spirit Illustrations – Part 17

Posted at 04:11h in Praying in Other Tongues, The Baptism in the Holy Spirit by Billy Burns 0 Comments

For the new followers of this blog, let me share the importance of this blog post. Over the years, I have observed that many pastors, teachers, and parents struggle when trying to teach about the importance of praying in the Spirit. Perhaps you are one of these leaders or parents that know that praying in other tongues is scriptural but just feel uncomfortable or unable to teach on this subject. Because this subject is far too important to ignore, I occasionally share blog posts to provide simple-to-use, simple-to-understand helps to enable you to confidently share the numerous benefits associated with praying in other tongues. This brings us to illustration number seventeen. Once again, I will give a brief, skeletal overview of the illustration. Then, with the Holy Spirit’s help, you can personalize and modify the illustration to become a powerful teaching tool. The Importance of Praying in Other TonguesPart 17 –We Pray in Obedience to God's Word "...

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