By Pastor Brian Larson

The Apostle Paul wrote much about how we are saved by the grace of God and not by our own works. Once saved, Paul often exhorted believers to live this Christian life by His grace as well, day by day. But how is a believer to do that?

Truly, there is only one way. Our fellowship with God, our personal relationship with Jesus Christ—that saving and sustaining relationship—comes in and through the Holy Spirit and our relationship with Him. When Paul talks about living in and by the grace of God, he repeatedly emphasizes this relationship through the Holy Spirit.

When John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness about the soon coming of Christ, he made this statement in Matthew 3:11:

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

In John 1:33, John the Baptist said:

“I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

After Jesus was crucified and risen from the dead, for 40 days he appeared at various times and places to His disciples and to more than 500 people. Moments before He was to ascend bodily into heaven, He had some parting words in Acts chapter 1. Look at what Jesus said in verse 5:

“… for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

In verse 8 He said:

“… but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

So He’s describing something here, given by Jesus Christ that is for every single believer, for the Body of Christ. There is a promise given here of the Holy Spirit coming on believers in power through the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus emphasized that John baptized with water. That is virtually all any pastor can really do; in symbol of your faith in Christ, he can baptize you with water as the symbol and example of the death of your old life and the beginning of your new life in Jesus. But, it is Jesus Christ Himself who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

I believe Paul knew the people in Galatia well enough, having founded the church in that region, that he assumed they would understand what he meant about the coming upon of the Holy Spirit in power in their lives. Indeed, he could say in Galatians 3:2:

This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

This wonderful empowering of the Holy Spirit, this baptism with the Holy Spirit, is freely given by faith in Him. Do you know why? Because Jesus Christ Himself removed every obstacle that could ever prevent you from being filled with the fullness of God Himself, even right now. He freely gives us that fullness of His Holy Spirit.

I would like to look more closely with you now at this thing we call the baptism with the Holy Spirit. What is it? When and how does it happen in a believer’s life?

What Is It?

There are two basic camps in Christendom regarding the baptism with the Holy Spirit. There are some who say when a person first believes in Jesus, at that moment he puts his faith in Jesus for salvation, the Holy Spirit comes in, baptizes him, and he’s got it all right then and right there.

There are others, myself included, who say that the baptism with the Spirit is a separate coming upon a believer in transforming power. This can happen either simultaneously with being born again, or days or even years later.

Having said that, let me ask you not to get hung up on terms here. Don’t let terminology prevent you from having the fullness of what Jesus Christ would have in your life. The issue isn’t whether you want to call it the baptism with the Holy Spirit, or if you want to call it being filled with the Holy Spirit. The point about it is: let Him do it to you!

Three Prepositions

I see three prepositions in the New Testament regarding individuals and the Holy Spirit. You see a couple of them in John chapter 14 where Jesus is telling His disciples that the Holy Spirit is going to come within them. Making that promise, He says in verses 16 and 17:

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever [this is the night before He was crucified, so He was telling them what was going to happen]; that is the Spirit of truth [the Holy Spirit], whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

So He’s talked about the Holy Spirit being with a person and about the Holy Spirit being in a person.

After His resurrection and just moments before He ascended into heaven, Jesus said you will not many days from now be baptized with the Holy Spirit. In verse 8 He said:

“… but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

The Greek word translated as upon is epi, which literally means coming upon.

Working WITH the Non-Believer

Here’s how I see it. The first relationship anybody has with the Holy Spirit is with the Holy Spirit. I believe in that interim of time with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit isn’t dwelling within you yet. You’re not born again yet, but the Holy Spirit is working in your life. He’s doing a convicting work. He’s convicting you of your need for Jesus Christ. He’s convicting you that this Word of God is the truth. He’s convicting you that this is the way. He’s convicting you of sin. He is drawing you to faith in Jesus Christ. Do you realize that none of that can happen apart from the active working of the Holy Spirit? You may be reading this right now because the Holy Spirit is working with you to draw you to Jesus Christ.

Living IN the Believer

The Holy Spirit comes into a person the moment that he believes and receives Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and personal Savior. At that instant the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in that person’s life and he has become born again. The Holy Spirit is now in him. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:3:

… no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, ’Jesus is accursed’; and no one can say, ’Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.

Paul is not talking there about mouthing words off. He’s talking about having a conviction in your heart that you express with your mouth when you say, “Jesus is Lord.” Like Paul says in Romans 10:9:

… if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

The Holy Spirit has come in the believer.

Coming UPON the Believer in Power

At that point in your life, once indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit can potentially come upon you in power. This is described as the filling of the Holy Spirit. He’s over-flowing in your life. It’s one thing to say that you have the Holy Spirit. Very good. But the question is: does the Holy Spirit have you? Who’s in control there? When the Holy Spirit has you, brethren, that is when you have been baptized with the Spirit.

There is Biblical support for looking at it in this way. A very interesting thing happens in the Gospel of John after Jesus has risen from the dead. He’s just begun appearing to His disciples on a few occasions when, in John 20:22, Jesus does something that’s very puzzling to many people:

And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ’Receive the Holy Spirit.’

Take note that this happened before the day of Pentecost in Acts. Some people look at that and say, He was just doing a symbolic thing in preparation for Pentecost.

I have a little difficulty believing that Jesus could stand over His disciples, breathe upon them, say “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and not have that very thing happen! In Genesis chapter 1 He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Jesus said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and I have a hunch that is exactly what happened.

Approximately 40 days later, in Acts 1:7-8, Jesus was with His disciples on the Mount of Olives when He said:

“John baptizes you with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

So there was a dynamic experience with the Holy Spirit that came later which equipped them for life and for service in the Lord.

When and How Does It Happen?

This thing we call the baptism with the Holy Spirit, when and how does it happen? There are five accounts in the Book of Acts about this event in people’s lives. I think it is helpful to take a brief look at them when looking for answers to that question.

1. The Day of Pentecost

The first one happened on the day of Pentecost. It is recounted in Acts 2:1-4:

And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place [these are those disciples who got breathed on a while back] and suddenly there came from heaven the noise of a violent rushing wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, and there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

These same people had, by all appearances, received the Holy Spirit at one point. Then later on, in God’s timing, the Holy Spirit came upon them in power.

2. The Baptism of the Samaritans

The second instance I want to look at is in chapter 8 of Acts. At this point, the gospel is going out well beyond Jerusalem. Philip is going up into Samaria where, suddenly, many Samaritans start coming to faith in Christ. That’s the context in which we pick it up at verses 14 and 15:

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria 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.

Luke, the writer of Acts, explains what he means by that in verses 16 and 17:

For He had not yet fallen upon [there’s the word epi again] any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.

Here you have a situation where they obviously believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; yet, there was no epi at this point, no coming upon these believers in power. Peter and John came down, began laying hands upon them, and the Samaritans began receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit. That’s all it says.

There’s no indication of what happened when they did that, but it is clear that it happened. Nobody had to guess about it. We know that by what happens next. A magician named Simon sees what’s going on and approaches Peter with a proposition. It says in Acts 8:18:

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, ’Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’

Of course Peter refuses, but, brethren, something happened after they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit came upon them with great transforming power in their lives.

3. The Baptism of Paul

The third instance has to do with the Apostle Paul himself, when he was Saul of Tarsus. As Saul is traveling along the road to Damascus, intent on persecuting Christians, Jesus Christ makes an appearance in His glory. Paul falls over and Jesus introduces Himself. There’s no doubt in my mind that Paul believed in Jesus Christ at that very moment. In fact, Paul immediately calls him Lord. Remember what 1 Corinthians 12:3 says?

No one can say, ’Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.

Now blind, Paul is led into Damascus where he can only wait. The Lord comes to a believer in Damascus named Ananias and commissions him to go to Saul and lay hands on him. We read about that in Acts 9:17-18:

So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, ’Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized.

You can safely assume that, as he regained his sight, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit. Once again, we don’t know what went on around that filling, but it is abundantly clear that it happened! The Holy Spirit brought a life-changing dynamic into Paul’s life.

4. The Baptism of Cornelius

The fourth account takes place when Peter is summoned to the Roman Centurion Cornelius’ house. The Lord had to set Peter up for that one because Jews had strong feelings about Gentiles. To the average Jewish mind, every Gentile was fuel for hell. So the Lord had to really wake Peter up and let him know that He had plans for Gentiles, too. He says in Acts 10:15:

What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.

After Peter is told this three times, a couple of soldiers come to Peter and lead him to Cornelius’ house. Only because God prepared him for this, Peter went with these Gentiles and walked into the Gentile home of Cornelius. Once there, Cornelius and all these others Gentiles were obviously hungry to hear the gospel. So Peter proclaimed the message of Jesus Christ.

Let’s pick it up in Acts 10:44:

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon [there is “epi” again] all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter [those were the Jews] were amazed [now you can understand why they were amazed — hell-fodder just got baptized with the Holy Spirit], because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter [who was great at saying the obvious sometimes] answered, ’Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?’

What I love about this little incident is that it happens while Peter is in the middle of his message— he hasn’t even had a chance to come to the invitation yet! He gets to the crucifixion and resurrection and these guys instantly believe on Jesus Christ, receive the Holy Spirit within themselves, and experience the coming upon of the Holy Spirit in power—and it all happens simultaneously.

5. The Baptism at Ephesus

The fifth account of the Holy Spirit coming upon believers is found in Acts chapter 19. This is the last such incident mentioned in Acts. It’s interesting that prior to this occasion, everywhere Paul went the gospel was brand new. He had always been the first one to share Christ with people. Something new happened at Ephesus; Paul found people there who already believed! Finally! The message was getting a little ahead of him.

A man named Apollos had heard a little bit about Jesus from what he had heard about John the Baptist’s preaching. He got all fired up about it! Apollos then laid out the message about Jesus that he had heard to that point and a group of people believed. But when Paul came to Ephesus and got together with these believers, he realized that something was missing there.

There are many people who want to convince me that they are Christians. In their minds they must be thinking, I was baptized as a baby in the church, so I must be a Christian. Or, I’m an American citizen, I must be a Christian. However, talk to them a little while and you realize, boy, there’s something really, really missing there. I’m sure that’s what Paul experienced with these guys. Because he is puzzled by this, Paul asks in Acts 19:2:

He said to them, ’Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’

Notice that he goes right to the issue of the Holy Spirit within them.

And they said to him, ’No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.’

In other words, What Holy Spirit? What are you talking about?

The light comes on for Paul in verses 3 through 6; And he said, ’Into what then were you baptized?’ And they said, ’Into John’s baptism.’ Paul said, ’John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.’ When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.

Do you see what’s happening here? The first thing is they are believing about Jesus. A lot of people have beliefs about Jesus, many different ideas about Jesus. Maybe some are pretty right on, but that’s as far as they’ve gotten—believing about Jesus.

Then these people, convicted by the Holy Spirit, come to the point where they believe and receive Him. They believe in Him and are born again by the Holy Spirit.

Afterward, they are then baptized with the Holy Spirit. The power of God comes upon their lives and they are dynamically equipped for life and to be servants of His.

Three Observations

I would like to draw three simple observations from what we’ve just read in Acts about the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

1. This Baptism Is for Every Believer

The first one is this: when Jesus Christ talked about this baptism with the Holy Spirit, I believe He was talking about a special coming upon in power after a person’s initial faith in Jesus Christ. It could happen immediately after believing and being indwelt with the Holy Spirit, or it could happen sometime later. Whether or not there is a delay between believing and receiving the Holy Spirit, and being baptized with the Holy Spirit, the baptism is available to every single believer.

When Peter gave his very first gospel message in the power of the Holy Spirit, recorded in Acts chapter 2, those listening said, What shall we do? His reply was this:

“Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

In other words, the gifting and empowering of the Holy Spirit is for anyone and everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. This Baptism Is the Key to the Power of God in Your Life

The second observation that I’d like to make is that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the key ingredient to the manifestation of the power of God in the body of Christ and through the body of Christ.

Jesus said:

“… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

So the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the key to the life of the church, to the ministry of the Body of Christ, and to the ministry and service of believers. In Acts 4:8 it says:

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them (the Sanhedrin) ...

In Acts 4:31, with the real threat of persecution on the church, the body got together and prayed for strength and for boldness. It then says:

and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit ...

Do you realize that the Book of Acts is the only book in your Bible that doesn’t actually come to a conclusion, doesn’t end? It just sort of quits. The Book of Acts is called the Acts of the Apostles. But I think, more correctly, it ought to be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit because you read there about what happens when the Holy Spirit gets hold of a life. Read the gospels and you’ll realize that the disciples Jesus picked were bona fide dufuses. Read the Book of Acts, and suddenly, after the Holy Spirit came upon them in power, those dufuses became apostles serving the Lord in the power of God.

3. There Is No Formula for How to Be Baptized with the Spirit

The third observation I’ll make is this: there is no particular way or formula by which this spiritual baptism has to happen. In some cases it happened when the apostles themselves came to people and laid hands on them for that purpose. In another case, the Lord’s instrument was a guy named Ananias. Who in the world was Ananias? In other cases, such as with Peter and Cornelius, no hands were laid at all! They were just sitting there and whamo-bango, the Holy Spirit came upon them! In some cases there was that manifestation of the gift of tongues; yet, in other cases, there is no indication whatsoever of that particular gift of the Holy Spirit being given.

You see, Jesus Christ can baptize with the Holy Spirit any believer, any time, any where, under any circumstances, because it is under His sovereign control. That’s one thing I see so clearly in Acts.

At the end of a Sunday service once, after speaking about the baptism with the Holy Spirit, I invited people to come forward for prayer for that purpose. Quite a large group responded and went into a back room for prayer to have that baptism. As I continued to lead the service, I noticed people looking behind me to where they knew people were praying, obviously wondering what in the world was happening back there.

You, too, may wonder, What will happen to me if I am baptized with the Spirit?

This is all I can say: whatever the Holy Spirit wants to happen is what will happen to you, because it is His work and His doing. For example, you may or may not speak in tongues. When that initial event took place in my own life, what happened immediately was … nothing! However, that day wasn’t over before there was a zeal in my heart, and a brand new desire for the Word of God. That book came alive to me! The Bible has never been the same for me since. That same day, for the first time in my life—and I wasn’t even trying—I led a guy to Christ. So whatever the Holy Spirit wants to happen is exactly what will happen.

May I point something out to you? There was no human prompting in any one of these cases. Nobody stood nearby telling the baptize-ees, Now do this. Now say that. It was purely a sovereign manifestation of the Holy Spirit upon people and in people’s lives. It is always a sovereign work of the Spirit.

The power and the life of the Living Church of Jesus Christ is in the Holy Spirit, and only therein. As I mentioned earlier, Acts is the only book in your Bible that doesn’t end, and now we know why! It doesn’t end, brethren, because like that ’60s song says, “the beat goes on.” The baptism with the Holy Spirit was the transforming event of my life. And, you know what? It will be the transforming event of your life as well.

How To Receive the Baptism

So, how do you receive that baptism? There are some very simple principles to be found in the Book of Acts that are amply supported elsewhere in the New Testament. I would like to condense them into three simple points.

1. Genuine Repentance

In your turning to Jesus Christ, let it be in genuine repentance. At Pentecost, the people had been so convicted by the Holy Spirit when Peter spoke that they asked him, “What shall we do?” The Holy Spirit had been with them and had been convicting them. What did Peter say in Acts 2:38?

“Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Repentance, brethren, is just like making an about-face turn to Jesus Christ and away from the world. It is—and this is what the word “repentance” very literally means—a changing of your mind. You’ve changed your mind. You are now in agreement with God about the sin in your life. Also, you’re in agreement with God about your desperate need for Jesus Christ. That is what constitutes genuine repentance.

Those people in Acts were convicted and pierced by the Word of God, and in their hearts, they made a definite turn to Him. Repentance is a willingness to turn away from sin, whatever those sins may be.

Genuine repentance will always show. Remember that New Testament story about little Zaccheus? Zaccheus was a very wealthy tax collector who, in addition to most likely being very unpopular, was also very un-tall. Yet this short man, Zaccheus, badly wanted to see Jesus when He came into Jericho. Crowds of other people who also wanted to see Jesus were amassing, to the point that little Zacchaeus could not see over them.

You know the story. He climbed up into a tree and was looking for Him when Jesus came along, looked up and made eye contact with Zaccheus. They’re looking right at each other when Jesus says, “Zaccheus!” You can imagine the shivers that must have gone down Zaccheus’ body! Jesus said in Luke 19:5:

“Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”

Right on, Lord! He came down that tree, the crowd made way for him, he went right up in front of Jesus and what did he do? His life had been genuinely touched, so in verse 8, Zaccheus said,

“Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”

The guy wasn’t just talking. He was sincere. He was putting feet to what was on his heart.

Genuine repentance will show. Now, granted, there may be some stubborn sins in your life that may make you question your ability to repent. However, we’re not talking here about turning away from sin in your own power—we’re talking about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. We’re talking about adding a dynamic into your life that is going to make a whale of a difference in the sincerity and success of your repentance. Maybe that dynamic has never been there for you before as you struggle with your own walk.

2. A Complete Surrender

With genuine repentance, there needs to be a complete surrender of your life and future into the hands of the Lord. Romans 12:1 puts it this way:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

That is giving everything in your life over to the Lord. Let Him do with your life whatever He desires to do with it. Your “body,” your life, is no longer yours; it’s now His—lock, stock, and barrel. It’s a committed “His will be done, not mine.”

3. An Open Heart

Thirdly, in addition to having a repentant heart and surrendered life, you need to have an open heart before God. In some cases, the apostles laid hands on people specifically for that filling of the Spirit. In other cases, people just sat there and were filled. I’m here to tell you the key, in both cases, was their heart before God. The key was the receptiveness in their heart to the Word of the Lord.

As I preach the Word, it amazes me how different people can be listening to the very same words with completely different results. One heart can be pierced by the Word because that heart is open to the things of the Lord. Another person’s heart is totally closed to the Lord, so the Word falls away like water off a duck’s back.

So there was an open heart before the Lord in every case. It wasn’t what happened. It wasn’t how it happened. It was the openness of the heart before God that was the key.

4. Faith

Finally, always—in every case—this wonderful coming upon of the Holy Spirit came through faith. They were hearing the message, bottom line, turning to Him open-heartedly, receiving the message … and believing it. Paul summarized his ministry when he said that, wherever he went, he solemnly declared “repentance toward God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Read what Paul said in Ephesians 1:13:

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.

In Galatians 3:2 he said:

This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

I like what St. Augustine said long ago, “Do not seek to see so that you can believe. Rather believe so that you might see.”

My Own Baptism

In my case, I was reading a little tract one Saturday morning on my knees, open-heartedly desiring this baptism before the Lord. I wanted this filling more than anything else in my life. It was a simple little tract, purely from Scripture, that told me that the Holy Spirit could fill and control my life. I soaked in every word. A little prayer was included in the tract. You don’t have to use these words, it said, just pray from your heart something like this. I prayed. I asked for the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

When I got through praying, I looked around. There were no angels, the sky did not open, the Hallelujah Chorus did not resound around me. In fact, I felt a little foolish kneeling there in front of my couch on a Saturday morning with this little tract in my hands.

But the next page talked about having the faith to receive the baptism. There was a little illustration of a choo-choo train printed on the tract. The train had an engine, a coal car and a little caboose. The tract said that the engine is the fact. The coal car is your faith that feeds the fact and gets that train going. The caboose is your feelings. Feelings always follow after faith in the fact. You don’t need a caboose for that train to go. It will go fine without the caboose. It asked, “Are you willing to believe the Word of God to you?”

I said, “Yes, I believe. I believe. Thank you, Lord.” That’s faith, because the evidence didn’t come until later that day. Before the day was over, though, I knew my life had been transformed by the presence of the Living God and His Spirit in my heart.

Your Baptism Is His Will

I would like to end our study with the words of Jesus and the Apostle John. In Luke 11:11-13, Jesus posed these questions to His disciples:

“Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, 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?”

In 1 John 5:14-15, the Apostle John said:

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

The fact that it is His will for you to be baptized with the Holy Spirit couldn’t be any more settled. One commandment in relationship to the Holy Spirit that you will find in your New Testament is this one in Ephesians 5:18:

Be filled with the Spirit.

It’s His will, and it’s the life and the dynamic of the Living Church of Jesus Christ—just as much in these last days as it was in the first century church, in that first generation of believers. His will, and His command, has not changed one little bit. Be filled with the Spirit, believer. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank You that You have offered and given very special equipping for life and for service in and with Jesus Himself. We pray now that we will not bypass this baptism. We know it is You who will make the difference, who will lead and empower according to Your sovereign will and that wonderful plan that You have for each of our lives. Being baptized with the Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of Jesus’ words when He said, “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” May we be filled with the Holy Spirit even now. In Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

FULL TEACHING: The Baptism With the Holy Spirit

Listen to Pastor Brian’s 2005 teaching on this important topic.

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints… (Ephesians 6:18)

Think about it for a minute: prayer. Prayer is entering into the spiritual realm. It is communicating with the one true living God of all creation Himself. Prayer is the very highest form of spiritual activity given to a human being, and it is the most powerful spiritual resource that we have.

In Paul’s admonition to all believers to pray, I’d like to point out five qualities I see in Ephesians 6:18 that are inherent in effective praying.

1. Pray Generally & Specifically

First of all, Paul tells us what the scope of our praying ought to be: we ought to be praying generally as well as praying specifically.

When I think about praying generally, there are the things that I just lift up consistently before the Lord. I pray for my family daily, holding it up before the Lord. I pray for the workers and the leaders and the people involved in the ministry of our church. I pray for our missionaries. I lift these people up as a memorial, you might say, before the Lord, asking God to bless them, use them, help them, and be with them.

Praying generally is being conscious that God is with us, and we are with Him. It’s just consciously being in His presence and it’s loving Him. When he says, “With all prayer…” Paul is talking there about the full concept of praying, of coming into the presence of God consciously, coming before Him worshipfully, and coming before Him reverently. You don’t have to have a specific request to pray to God, did you know that? Maybe all you want to do is just go into His presence to be with Him in your mind and in your heart. Oh, Lord, I just want to be with you for awhile. Perhaps your prayer is just going to be adoration, going into His presence and just adoring Him, enjoying Him. Taking time just to be alone with the Lord. Just you and Jesus.

Jesus did that. He would slip away from His disciples and go on a mountain somewhere at night to be alone with His heavenly Father in prayer.

And pray specifically: “prayer and petition,” Paul says. Be bold about making specific requests to the Lord. Don’t be shy on that account. God never says to you, Back off! Back off! He’s always saying, Come on! Come on! Come on!

When you pray specifically, I think it’s important to pray in the spirit of, I’m going to make this request before the Lord because I want to see what God might want to do here!

That was the spirit of Jonathan in 1 Samuel chapter 14. The Philistines had attacked Israel and they were overrunning that tiny nation. Saul’s army was getting smaller and smaller, being pushed back into a little corner of Israel. It was dwindling away because the Philistines were putting great big forts up all over the land. The Philistines appeared to be an insurmountable force coming against them. Jonathan, Saul’s son, told his armor bearer, I know something about God. God doesn’t need a whole lot of people to win a victory. God can win a victory with a few people as easily as he can with a whole bunch of people. So what say you and I go over to the Philistine garrison on yonder hill and see if maybe God wants to win a great victory today?

So, Jonathan and his armor bearer snuck out of camp and moseyed over to the Philistine garrison, filled with hundreds of guys. When the Philistines saw these two Israelis coming up, they said, Ho, ho, ho! What have we here? Come on in boys! When Jonathan and his armor bearer entered that garrison, what did they do? What was the big plan? Pull your sword out and start killing Philistines! That was the plan. As they started fighting men in the courtyard, the other Philistines immediately noticed this hubbub in the courtyard. They wondered, What’s going on? There is a battle going on inside the garrison! Then God stepped in with a well-timed little earthquake.

When the Philistines heard it, they thought the entire Israelite army had gotten into their fort, and they panicked! They started fighting for their lives! It was the Philistines against the Philistines, and the Philistines were getting wiped out! You can imagine, they’re fighting for their lives and every guy on the ground, wounded or dead, is a Philistine. We’re getting beat! God won a great victory that day with just two of His children.

You know that’s the spirit we should pray in when we petition God. Don’t be afraid! Be bold about making specific requests to the Lord. See if God doesn’t want to do something awesome. You know what James says? “You have not because you ask not.” And I tell you, a lot of times we ask not because we’re afraid. Oh, He won’t! Or, If He doesn’t, how am I going to feel?

Now I want to tell you something. When you’re praying in that spirit, with petition before the Lord, you’ve got to be willing and ready to take a no from your Lord, and receive it as His answer. A good father, when it’s not the right request, will say no.

When Paul says, “...with all prayer and petition,” that word all is a rich word. You know what it means? It means there is no formula out there for getting God’s arm twisted to get what you want. There’s just not a particular formula on how you have to pray. There are no limits to the way that you have to go about praying.

You can pray all different ways to the Lord. “All prayer.”

That means pray publicly and pray privately. Pray out loud. Pray softly to yourself. Pray in your mind. Pray with others. Pray alone. Pray on your knees. Pray standing up. Pray sitting in a chair. Pray on your face on the floor. Pray while you’re driving along. Pray with your head bowed and your eyes closed. Pray with your arms lifted up and your eyes wide open.

Just pray—all different ways.

2. Pray At All Times

Paul tells us what the best time to pray is. Did you notice that? He said there, “With all prayer and petition, pray at all times.” What is the best time to pray? At all times.

Now this doesn’t mean that you’ve somehow got to check out of life and become some sort of a praying monk. He doesn’t mean that. But what he’s saying, brethren, is that we should be in a spirit of communion with our Lord and fellowship with our Lord at all times. This is what Paul is saying in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when he says, “pray without ceasing.” You know what that means? Practice His presence with you. Practice His presence! Oh, that’s right! You are here, aren’t you Father!

Be in that attitude of fellowship with Him and that communication with Him all the time. Grab this now! You, as a believer in Jesus Christ, have been given open access to the throne of heaven. Open access, 24 sevens, to the throne of heaven with God’s invitation, Just stay here. Don’t come and go. Just be here. And talk to me about everything. That is the place of ultimate and final power and authority in all creation. God is saying to you, Take advantage of it, my son, my daughter. Take advantage of it!

When I was teaching through Daniel, I noticed that three times a day, he would pray and go be with the Lord. To help me, I like to take three times each day—in the morning, sometime midday, and in the evening—to take a few moments just to be with the Lord without being involved with something else at the same time. If I’m alone in my study, I’ll get up from my desk, walk away and go somewhere else because there are too many distractions right at my desk—the telephone’s there. Sometimes that can turn into a lengthy time, but so often, it lasts just a few moments. But it helps me! It brings me back to Who I’m with and Who is with me, and the access and the privilege that I have in prayer. That helps me keep the communication lines going all through the day, because I’ve just re-established that I have an open invitation to the most powerful spiritual resource humans have. It helps me in going through the day just by turning to Him.

How often we get so busy and all of a sudden, hours—if not days—later, realize, Oh, yeah! The Lord! So, when’s the best time to pray? Now. Always. Now.

3. Pray In the Spirit

Then Paul tells us here, thirdly, how to pray. Look what he says, “...pray at all times in the Spirit...” In 1 Corinthians chapter 14 Paul talks about praying in the Spirit and how our understanding is unfruitful at that time. In that context, he’s talking about praying in tongues. If you’ve been blessed with that gift in the Holy Spirit, that’s a wonderful way to pray.

In Romans 8:26, Paul says:

In the same way the Spirit [the Holy Spirit] also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should [isn’t that the truth?], but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

There are some times that we don’t know how to pray. Even some times we think we know how to pray, we don’t know how to pray. Maybe somebody is very old and very sick, so we pray, Oh, Lord, heal them! Heal Grandpa. Heal Grandma. Maybe the Lord would say, It’s time for her to come home and be with Me. So we would be praying against what God wants to do.

We all want goodness and peace and joy and happiness for everybody. And maybe struggle and trial and tribulation comes into someone’s life. So we say, Lord, deliver them! Oh, Lord, deliver them! Maybe what that person needs more than anything else is to have the carpet ripped right out from under them because God wants to show them something, wants to wake them up spiritually! God may be saying, I’ve got such an important thing I want to do in their life and I’m going to use this to do it. And you’re saying, Lord, take it away. Get it out of there! Yet it’s His instrument to do something in their life, and maybe even to minister to people around them. I don’t know that, so I’m going to pray, Lord, deliver them! Lord, get that out of here! But when you pray in the Spirit, the Spirit is praying according to the will of God.

If you don’t have that gift, I like what Paul says in that Romans verse, “...with groanings too deep for words.” Hey, brethren, groan! Oh, Lord, I don’t know what to pray! The Lord can interpret your groan according to the will of God. Isn’t that awesome?

But when Paul says “...pray in the Spirit,” it’s more than that. It means consciously seeking the help of the Holy Spirit in your prayer, leaning on Him even in the very praying itself! Lord, I am such a weakling spiritually that I’m just going to lean on you as I pray.

Praying in the Spirit is praying confidently, Your will be done here, Lord! Your will, in all its power, Your will in all its glory, Your will and its ultimate purpose be done in this situation. That’s what I’m praying, more than anything else here, I’m asking for that.

You ought to check out the prayers recorded in the Bible. Inevitably the purpose in prayer was that God would be magnified and God would be glorified in this situation. In Daniel 9:19, Daniel prayed that Jerusalem, which had been destroyed, would be restored. He said, “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action for your own sake. O my God, do not delay; because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” In other words, Lord, do this for your glory.

In Matthew 4:13, when Jesus said: “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do,” He was showing us how to pray in Jesus’ name. It means to pray as a representative of His purpose, His plan and His cause in this world.

4. Pray With Perseverance

And then, fourthly, Paul has three key ideas about what the manner of our praying ought to be when he says, “with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition.” You know what being on the alert means? Be eyes open, consciously aware of things that you can be praying for. Watch for opportunities for prayer—and take them! Use them! Develop the habit of being instant in prayer. That’s being on the alert.

Paul also says, “...with all perseverance.” I love that! There are two parables in Luke in which Jesus describes praying with all perseverance. One is the parable of the persistent neighbor in Luke chapter 11. Remember that one? Some of Jesus’ parables are a crack up! Here is this guy at bedtime, it’s dark and everyone in his family has gone to bed. His neighbor has an unexpected visitor who’s been traveling. The visitor is hungry, and the neighbor doesn’t have any food to give him. So the neighbor runs over to this guy’s house, after hours and comes hammering on his door. His master bedroom must have been upstairs right on the front street, because he throws open his window, and probably from his bed, leans out and shouts, Who’s down there?

It’s your neighbor. We have some visitors and we need some bread. Have you got some bread?

Listen, dummy, we’re all in bed! Forget it! No! No! (Slam!) 

The neighbor downstairs (wham, wham, wham!) hasn’t got anywhere else to go. (Wham, wham, wham)! I’m going to get some bread while I’m here, he thinks.

I told you. Go home! I’ll give you some in the morning!

I need some now! Please!

“No!” (Slam!)

Jesus says that the guy—probably out of sheer frustration—gets out of bed, grabs some bread, opens the door and thrusts the bread into his neighbor’s hands, Here! (Slam!) He goes back to bed and the neighbor leaves with the bread.

That was the parable! You can see people just cracking up as Jesus is sharing a parable like that! Jesus had a sense of humor!

But, here’s Jesus lesson as He tells it in Luke 11:9:

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.”

Paul says to pray with all perseverance. I like the whole concept of praying through things, just holding them up before the Lord persistently and never being shy about doing that. In fact, be bold about doing that until either the answer has come — and I mean the answer, I don’t mean necessarily getting what you want—but you’ve been blessed with this incredible peace in your heart about it. There, it’s the Lord’s now. I’ve got peace that God’s going to do what God’s going to do here and it’s going to be His will.

Again Paul mentions petition, taking those specific requests to God. The spirit of petition, in this context, is praying incessantly, praying fervently, throwing yourself into that prayer knowing that it is the most powerful thing that you can do for this situation.

5. Pray for the Saints

And then, fifthly, Paul tells us whom we ought to be praying for in particular. Do you notice what he said there at the end? “…all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” In other words, we should be praying especially for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not that you can’t pray for others and other things, but this ought to be the heart and the most important aspect of our praying. Why that? Because we all, in one way or another, have been called by God and are involved in His great work to this world in this generation. Brethren, we need to be praying for each other along that line. Pray for one another. Pray for their walk with Jesus. Pray for their usefulness to Him in the context of their own lives. Pray for each other.

The point is, be involved in God’s cause and God’s work in this world. Be involved in it in an intricate way. Pray! Pray especially for His people. You know, in essence, what Paul said? You pray for me and the fruit that I get is your fruit. That’s an investment that you’ve made in eternity, by just praying for me.

Pray more for others than you do yourself. If every Christian focused on praying for himself, you know how many people would be praying for you at any given time? One! And those would be pretty weak prayers because we can never pray for ourselves with the same faith that we can pray for others. But if we’re all praying for others, at any particular time you’ve got many people beseeching the throne of God on your behalf! So, brethren, pray for others.

Your praying is called by God to be a central aspect of your Christian life and your walk with Him.

Listen to Pastor Brian’s full teaching on Ephesians 6:18, “Praying At All Times,” here:

I don’t think it will shock believers when I say that Christians are not exempt from the hardships of life. It certainly doesn’t put us on some sort of an Easy Street.

Paul encourages me along that line. Here was a man who, as a believer, went through some incredible trials and hardships. By his own testimony, he was beaten and whipped on several occasions. When he was in the city of Lystra, he was drug out of town by an angry mob that stoned him, they thought, to death. The man was imprisoned numerous times. He was chased out of numerous cities. The ship he was sailing in literally sunk underneath him on three different journeys. It’s safe to say the man had difficulties.

I believe Paul’s greatest personal trial is recorded in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Let’s look at what precipitated that trial. In verse 2 Paul says:

I know a man in Christ [he’s talking about himself in the third person], who 14 years ago, whether in the body, I do not know, or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. Such a man was caught up to the third heaven.

Many believe he had this experience when stoned at Lystra and left for dead.

Paul continues in verse 3:

I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak.

Notice the trial that hit him, largely because of that heavenly experience, in verses 7 and 8:

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me — to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.

Paul goes on and makes the point, as we’re going to see, that thorn did not leave him. God did not respond in the affirmative to that request.

Now, the question comes up, what in the world was that thorn in the flesh? Paul does not tell us and I am so glad he didn’t. You know the way we are! If he had told us exactly what that thorn was, then people would say, That’s the only thing that qualifies as a thorn in the flesh. You do not have a thorn in the flesh unless you have that! Because he didn’t tell us, anything that comes along — whether it’s a physical, mental or spiritual attack — can qualify as a thorn in the flesh.

I’ll tell you a couple of things that we do know about that thorn. When you see the word “thorn,” don’t think of a little thorn off a rosebush. The word can also be translated in the Greek as “stake.” The idea is just being ripped by this stake. It’s the type of thing that virtually incapacitates you.

Secondly Paul calls it “a messenger of Satan.” Whatever it was, it was Satan’s attempt to arouse that old nature that we all have in us to distrust our God.

The thorn is Satan’s effort to discourage you. It’s his effort to defeat you. It’s his effort to make you disbelieve Romans 8:28 for your life:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God ...

Paul says he prayed three times that the Lord would remove the thorn. That may literally mean three specific times he prayed for healing, for deliverance for restoration in that area of his life. However, it is also a Greek idiom that was used in Ancient Greece pretty much the same way we would say, Man, I must have done it a thousand times. The interesting thing is that God allowed that thorn to stay. But wait! The thorn was of Satan and God allowed it to stay. Why?

There’s only one answer to that: because of the reverse effect of that thorn to Paul’s benefit. God used that thorn to minister to Paul in ways he could not be ministered to without it.

We all get thorns. Nobody is exempt from the thorns in the flesh, thorns that God is unwilling to remove at the present time. But, the point is, there is always a reason for that. Always. God is never being mean or uncaring!

In 2 Corinthians 12, we have Paul’s testimony regarding that thorn. I want to point out to you four things, generally speaking, that God desires to accomplish in us, through what I call the ministry of the thorn.

1. Thorns Teach Us Genuine Humility

You know what a thorn does? It teaches us genuine humility. Remember in verse 7, Paul said that God allowed his thorn to remain to prevent him from exalting himself. God has a plan for your life, believer. His plan is to use you to glorify His name, to use you as an instrument of His love in this crazy, mixed-up, weird world that we live in. To accomplish that, it’s going to mean making us more usable. God can only use a humble person. 

In chapter 4 of James, he says:

God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. ... Humble yourself in the presence of God that He may exalt you.

The trouble with us is we’re so busy, one way or another, subtly or not so subtly, trying to exalt ourselves. The world calls that self-esteem. We don’t want low self-esteem!

When we exalt ourselves, God’s working on our behalf. How? He’s working to humble us. But when we humble ourselves, God is still working! How? He’s working to exalt us.

I don’t think there’s anything quite like a thorn in the flesh to develop genuine humility. Paul says, I needed it!

If you read the Love Chapter (1 Corinthians 13), where Paul tells us that love is kind, never boastful and never seeks its own, and think to yourself, Yeah ... I’m kind of that way!

Enter the thorn!

Perhaps your thorn is an associate at work who drives you up the wall. Maybe it’s somebody in the church, (God forbid, but…). Perhaps it’s a sickness that lays you out and doesn’t let you get back up, constantly knocking you down. Maybe it’s a marriage problem that’s ripping you to shreds, taking your guts out, stomping on them, throwing them back in there, and saying, There, how does that feel?!

It is in those times that you discover just how spiritually bankrupt you really are.

It’s like Paul says in Romans 7:18:

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh;

That’s a good place to come to. The thorns in our lives — and only the thorns in our lives — can truly bring us to that place. Andrew Murray says, “As water ever seeks to fill the very lowest places, so God will fill with His Spirit those He finds humbled and abased before Him.”

Paul’s point is that God will use that thorn to get you where He can more powerfully use you, and more abundantly bless you.

2. Thorns Teach Us That God Operates By Grace

Look at what Paul says in verse 8 of 2 Corinthians:

Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me and He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.’

So the second lesson of the thorn is to teach us that God operates by grace. The issue is not your strength, your power, your ability. It is always His grace. God has something to say about that grace — it is sufficient.

I’m glad He used that word, “sufficient.” I don’t know what that word speaks to you, but think of it for a minute! If He had said, My grace is the most, you might say, Yeah, but it’s not enough. Or if He had said, My grace is the best I’m going to give you, it might not be good enough! But He says, it’s “sufficient.” It is always sufficient to meet the need — all the time, every time.

You may ask, How sufficient? Is it just enough to get by? 

Remember in Matthew when 5,000 men were listening to the Lord in the countryside, not to mention the women and children? Jesus, as He was ministering the Word to these people, realized they were getting hungry. Jesus said, We ought to feed these people. The disciples must have thought, Oh, yeah, right! Give me a break! How in the world are we ever going to feed all these people?

Then one of the disciples — and this had to be an act of faith — said, Hey, there’s a little kid here. His mom fixed him a little lunch with a couple of little fish and a couple of little pieces of bread. Here it is!

You know the story. Jesus gave thanks and the disciples distributed food amongst the people — just enough for everyone to be satisfied, and it was gone.

Wrong! That’s not the story! When they were through, the disciples went around and gathered 12 baskets full of fish and bread. Over-abundant. That kind of sufficiency is what God is promising.

David, in that beautiful Psalm 23, talked about that over-abundant sufficiency when he talked about going through the valley of the shadow of death. What does he say shortly thereafter? “My cup overflows.” It’s not like, Yep, there’s still something in that cup, if my tongue can reach it or if I get a big powerful straw to suck it out. It’s overflowing all the time.

It’s the thorn in the flesh that brings us to receive that grace from him. God explains how He can take a thorn from Satan and turn it into an advantage, in 2 Corinthians 2:9:

“For my power is perfected in weakness.”

There are two contrasting words there. The first word is power. That’s dunamis, the Greek word from which we get our words dynamic and dynamite. It refers to the limitless, infinite power of God.

The word that stands opposite it is that word weakness. That literally means the inability to do or the inability to be. The connecting link between them is the verb perfected, which is a derivative of teleos, the same word Jesus uttered on the cross when Jesus said in John 19:30:

“It is finished.” 

The word means the job is completed.

God is saying that His power is perfected, it’s made complete, and the job is accomplished in us in our weakness. That’s where and the context in which it happens. This has always been God’s pattern. Read what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29:

“God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”

I love the story of Gideon in the Old Testament because it’s such an example of that. Some 135,000 Midianite soldiers came into Israel intent on massacring it. God went to Gideon and said, Blow the trumpet and get an army together. He blew the trumpet and 32,000 guys assembled — farmers and shepherds, dads and sons — against 135,000 marauders. God immediately began to whittle that 32,000 down to a measly 300 guys before saying, Now we’re going to fight them!

Watch Pastor Brian teach about Gideon’s Army at Gideon’s Spring in Israel.

His power cannot be perfected, cannot be completed, cannot truly be manifested except in our weakness. Otherwise we take the credit and everybody credits us.

So, here’s how it works, brethren. The thorn comes and wipes you out. You suddenly discover how utterly weak and helpless you are. You turn to God, totally dependent on Him, because there is nothing left in you. And God says, Finally! You’re right where I want you, where you can receive My grace.

3. Thorns Teach Us to Be Totally Dependent on God’s Power

Paul goes on in verse 9 of 2 Corinthians:

Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Thirdly, thorns are there to teach us to be totally dependent on His power, to the point that if we’re going to boast about anything, we’re going to boast about our weaknesses. It’s all about His power. It’s all about His grace. It has nothing to do with us! I like that phrase, “... so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” That word “dwell” is a rich word. It means to be continually abiding within, to be at home in, to be at rest in.

Being a pastor, I often have the opportunity to go into peoples’ homes. Some people are relaxed when I come over, some people are not so relaxed when I come by — whether invited or whether I just happen to show up. There have been times when I’ll go to someone’s door and I’ll hear all this rustling going on inside. When I come in the house, they’ll say, Oh, pastor, so nice to see you!

Right! They’re sweating bullets — I don’t know what’s been going on!

Please, have a seat!, they’ll often say as they give me the hardest chair in the room while they sit down nervously on the last half-inch of their little seat. Then we have this stilted conversation.

There are times when I’ve been in a situation like that where I’ve wanted to talk to them a bit— I’ve never done it — then yell, Boo! I think they’d fall right off of their seat! They’d hurt themselves!

But then I come to my own home and there’s no place more comfortable, more relaxing to me then my own home. I go in there and sigh, Oh, this is great! This is where I like to live! Even when I had six munchkins running around that house like Grand Central Station, it was still that place of peace and rest and I just loved being there. That’s at home! Paul is saying, I’ll tell you why God gave me this thorn: "…that the power of Jesus Christ might be at home in me.”

When you’re feeling boxed in, like you’re on the precipice of the cliff, and the only place you have left to turn is to the grace and the power of God Himself, you can be like those people sitting on the edge of their seats when I visited — right on the edge, ready to collapse, instead of just being at home in complete dependence upon His grace and power.

You know what Paul’s heart is here? Lord, lay it upon me that your grace and the power of Christ may be at home in me. That I may learn to rest in, and to be at home with complete dependence on Your grace and Your power. Each thorn that comes along, and each prick of that thorn, is a work by God to get us to that place of rest and contentment in deeper and richer ways than we were before the thorn appeared. 

When my wife Joyce and I were starting out in this whole thing, I felt called of God to go to seminary and learn the Word. One day, I received my monthly bill for tuition. Unfortunately, we had no money left. There was no way that I was ever going to be able to pay that bill.

I experienced a moment of panic, I’ll admit. But deep down, I believed what Pastor Chuck Smith was so fond of saying, “Where God guides, God provides.” I finally calmed down to the point that I said, “Joyce, come into our living room.” I set that bill on the coffee table in front of us and, as Joyce and I sat there together, this is what I prayed: “Lord, it was Your idea for me to go to school. It was not mine. There is no possible way on earth that I can ever pay that bill. So, if You want me in school, You will have to pay this one for me.”

God gave me such a peace about that! My Dad called that night and said, “Son, I’ll loan you the money if you need it.” I didn’t need a loan. I needed a gift! I told him, “No thanks, Dad. The Lord will take care of it.” I was that confident.

That happened on a Friday afternoon. On the following Monday, I got a letter from some people in Ohio; it was a little thank you note for helping their college-age daughter the summer before. We had helped her out at a time when she was in need and in our area. As a token of their gratitude, they also enclosed a check — for the exact amount of my bill.

I was pastor in Truckee, CA, for 44 years. During that time, God showed me two things over and over again. First, that He would sustain His work. It was never my job to make everything happen. That’s the way pastors get burned out. Secondly, He showed me that He would sustain His children, despite us. It has taken the ministry of the thorn in my own life to teach me that I can lean on the infinite power of Christ.

4. Thorns Teach Us To Be Content With His Provision

The fourth lesson of the ministry of the thorn is contained in verse 10 of 2 Corinthians:

Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

The thorn teaches us to be content with His provision. David says in Psalm 23:1:

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.

I saw one of the most extreme examples of that in the 1960s when, as a young guy, I was watching the national news on TV. One evening they were showing the Detroit riots. It looked like the city was in flames! It was crazy! They interviewed a middle-aged black man who a year before had lost one of his sons in Vietnam. A few weeks earlier, he lost his only remaining son in Vietnam. The week before the interview, he lost his job at General Motors. That night his house and all his belongings had been burned to the ground. The commentator asked, “What now?” His response amazed me, “God has helped us and sustained us all the way through. And He will help us in this also.”

You see His grace is sufficient for the need. It is sufficient right here and it’s sufficient right now — it’s sufficient today. It’s the thorn in the flesh that drives into our hearts the fact that we can be content with His provision right now.

Let me paraphrase what Paul says in verse 10 when it finally sinks in what this thorn is really all about: When I am rendered unable to do or unable to be, right then, I AM strong, because Christ is strong in me. I know it! 

So, brethren, accept the ministry of the thorn. You can even thank God for it because God would not allow that thorn to be there if it would not minister to you. He would take it away. I guarantee that the thorn will cause you to experience the grace and the power of Christ in deeper ways then you ever could have without it. Then, very likely, God will very quietly remove it. But even if He doesn’t, like Paul, it won’t make a bit of difference anyway.

Listen to Pastor Brian teach on “The Ministry of the Thorn”

I was never a surfer but growing up in southern California, I did do some bodysurfing, and I remember one thing: if you’re riding the crest of the wave, watch out! You’re going to get slammed!

Chapter 18 of 1 Kings ends with the prophet Elijah on his greatest spiritual high, short of when he would eventually be taken by God to heaven without dying. Elijah had just stood alone against 450 prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel in a contest designed to prove the futility of idolatry and the deity of the God of Israel. In the end, it was no contest; God sent down literal fire from heaven to prove Elijah’s point.

Watch Pastor Brian teach about Elijah at Mt. Carmel in Israel.

Immediately, the people of Israel killed the prophets of Baal and shouted, The Lord, He is God! Elijah then went to the top of Mt. Horeb and prayed for God to end a three-year drought in the land of Israel. The Lord obliged him with a true gully-washer.

It’s always exciting to see God work, to witness a miracle of the Lord. But, after every great spiritual experience, watch out! Satan is just waiting to cut God’s people down to size. Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 10:12:

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

It is amazing. This same Elijah, who had been riding the crest of a spiritual wave, in 1 Kings chapter 19, becomes discouraged, depressed, defeated and runs for his life at the threat of one woman, the infamous Jezebel, queen and wife of Israel’s King Ahab. She was a wicked person, even instigating a wholesale massacre of the prophets of the Lord. Outraged by the killing of the 450 prophets of Baal at the hands of the people of Israel, in 1 Kings 19:2, Jezebel sends a messenger to Elijah, saying:

“So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”

There’s the threat: Within 24 hours, Elijah, you’re dead. And it was a threat! Yet, that’s probably all it really was—a threat. If the queen had really wanted Elijah dead, there was no reason that she couldn’t have sent someone to kill him right then.

Almost all of our fears are the product of threats, not reality. We have an idea of what we think is going to happen. When we feel threatened by circumstances, the enemy often creates mirages of doom. However, because of the promises of God to the children of God, that’s all they are — mirages.

So, how did Elijah, this mighty man of God, react to the queen’s threat? It says in verse 3:

And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba...

The distance between Jezreel (where Elijah had been) and Beersheba was between 120 and 140 miles. When he got to Beersheba, he still didn’t feel safe:

But he went himself a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.’”

Elijah had just reached rock bottom, spiritually. He was obviously physically exhausted, discouraged and depressed. Spiritually he was defeated. This great prophet Elijah, the one who would someday stand with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, one of only two men in the history of this world who God took into heaven without dying, was hiding in the desert, wanting nothing more than to die.

It’s easy to see why Elijah would have been depressed. After that contest on Mt. Carmel, Elijah probably thought revival was going to sweep Israel. Instead of that, he got a death threat! Things didn’t happen the way he expected them to happen. How often our own expectations can derail us spiritually! We get an idea in our mind of what we expect God to do, but those expectations of ours can cause so much discouragement and so much pain! That very likely is what happened to Elijah.

So how does God deal with his discouraged and defeated prophet? It’s important for us to answer that question because every one of us is susceptible to discouragement. Every one of us is susceptible to depression. Every one of us is susceptible to feeling spiritually defeated. In studying how God dealt with Elijah in chapter 19 of 1 Kings, I believe God shows us how to deal with discouragement. I would like to point out five things that can help us, based upon how God ministered to Elijah.

1. Take Care of Yourself Physically

Before God had a thing to say to Elijah, He ministered to his physical needs. Elijah was absolutely, totally exhausted. In verses 5 through 8, God sent an angel to minister to Elijah by allowing him to sleep and by feeding him nourishing food.

One of the first things to do when it comes to feeling discouraged or depressed is to take care of yourself physically. Get proper rest. Get proper food. That’s probably one of the best ways you can help yourself spiritually. We’re all like children. You know how kids are when it gets late at night? They get tired and what do they become? Cranky! I remember my folks telling me, “You’re tired. You need to go to bed.” I sat there complaining, “What are you talking about? This has nothing to do with being tired! I’m not tired! I don’t need to go to bed! He took my pencil, that’s what this is about!” Five minutes later I was conked out, sleeping like a log.

Adults are the same way! When we get physically exhausted we start fretting, Oh, where did God go? Why am I not walking victoriously? What’s going on here? Have you deserted me, God?

God’s reply may be, Oh, just go to sleep!

Take care of yourself physically. That’s more important than I think we realize.

2. Recognize God’s Presence

Secondly, although God’s presence is not always obvious, He is always there for you. Even though He doesn’t always send down fire from heaven, He is always working on your behalf, often in ways you’ll never recognize. As it shows in verses 9 to 18, God had not forsaken Elijah, even while he was hiding out in a cave on Mt. Sinai (another name for Mt. Horeb). Elijah was about as far away from civilization as a he could possibly get. But God met him there.

“…and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

How bad could things get? Elijah’s saying, I’m the only one left! And I’m hiding out in the desert because they want to kill me! It couldn’t be any worse than this!

Our attitude is often tied directly to the way we perceive things. You know why everything looks lousy sometimes? Because mentally we have put on manure-colored glasses, that’s why! We’re going around saying, Oh, this stinks. That stinks. Everything stinks! Those roses over there, they stink!

God is trying to impress upon us that we are not to act according to the way we perceive things to be. Instead, we must stand upon His Word. As you look at your circumstances, simply say, Well, I don’t know about that! I’ve got to admit, that doesn’t look good, but one thing I do know … and stand on a promise of God.

So, God says to Elijah, Elijah, what are you doing here? Notice that Elijah doesn’t answer the question. God didn’t ask him why he was there. He asked him what he was doing there.

The point is, Elijah was allowing fear and panic to dictate his actions, that’s what he was doing there. God illuminated the truth of Elijah’s circumstances, causing Jezebel’s mirage of doom to flee in the light and truth of His presence. Allow Him to do the same for you.

3. Spend Time With The Lord

Thirdly, it’s always important to just spend a little time with the Lord, especially when you feel like you’ve just been run over by the enemy’s bulldozer. In verses 11 and 12, God ministers directly to His discouraged child:

I love the way the King James Version translates that little phrase a “sound of gentle blowing” as “a still small voice.”

The wind, the earthquake and the fire represent those circumstances in life that are attention-grabbing, that have a tendency to cause fear, anxiety and nervousness, that are always demanding your time and your attention. It’s also the busyness and activity with which we fill our schedules and our lives.

We’ve almost always got to be doing something. We’ve always got to have some noise blaring. Yet, when the big wind came, God wasn’t there. The earthquake came, and God wasn’t there. The fire came, and God wasn’t there. Finally there was a still small voice and Elijah went to listen to God.

God is telling you that a hurry-up, noisy lifestyle is not conducive to hearing the voice of the Lord. You won’t find the Lord in all that busyness. Take that time just to listen to the Lord. Turn the noise off! Just commune with Him for a while. Let Him talk to you.

My favorite time of the day is first thing in the morning. I’ll get up between 5 and 5:30, go down to our living room and open up the Bible just for myself. I’ll sit there in the quietness of the morning, before it’s even light outside, before there’s any activity in the house, and I’ll read the Word a little bit, and pray a little bit. It just starts my day off right!

I think this is one thing that God was trying to get across to Elijah. Elijah, you’re very worried. You’re very afraid. What are you doing in this cave in the middle of the desert? All you’ve been concentrating on is the wind and the earthquake and the fire. Come to me and listen to me.

Regardless of how you’re feeling or how badly things are looking, there is value in just saying, God, I’ll settle on this. You’re here. You have not left me and you have not forsaken me. I don’t understand anything else, but thanks for that. You can do that.

Instead of over-analyzing all the circumstances, go take a walk with God. Ask Him for His direction and guidance, for His battle plan for the moment. What do I do now, Lord? Look for that unique provision and care of His, instead of telling God what He’s got to do, how He’s got to do it, and when it’s got to happen. Look for what He’s going to do in His timing, His way, His faithfulness.

God has ways that we know nothing about. Look at Elijah in the pages preceding chapter 19. First of all, ravens fed the guy. Who would have thought? Ravens! Then he stayed with a widow who had this little cruse of oil and a little jar of flour — just enough for one little cake. Yet it lasted for three and a half years and fed her family, plus Elijah.

That says to me that you should take that need, take that life of yours, and just lay it down before the Lord. Look to Him and say, Lord, let’s see what you’re going to do here. God has ways of operating, meeting needs, using us, glorifying His name, being faithful to us, and fulfilling His promises to us that we know nothing about. Believe me, He’s got a repertoire of tricks that you cannot even imagine. So quit trying to figure it out. Do yourself a favor and just be like a little child and trust Him. He delights in surprising you with His faithfulness, especially when you feel like, That’s it! It’s over!

4. Just Get Busy

Then, fourthly, when discouraged, just go about doing what God has given you to do at that moment. In verses 15 and 16, God has specific tasks laid out for Elijah to do.

And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.”

The Lord is saying here, Elijah, here is My word to you now, in your condition, in the place that you’re in right now. Just get back to work. Go about doing today what I have given you to do today, and don’t worry about everything that is happening, or what it looks like may happen!

I think one of the greatest anecdotes to discouragement is to one day, one hour, one minute at a time, go about doing that which God has laid before you to do. Just get busy with those simple little tasks, and make them an offering, a sacrifice, a work given to Him. Maybe it’s washing the dishes. Maybe it’s doing the laundry. Maybe it’s taking a nap. Maybe it’s making that phone call. Ask God for the help and the strength to do it—then just do it.

There have been times when I have been so incredibly discouraged and depressed that my stomach was in knots! Yet, I would have things I would need to do that day. So often it has been like the Lord is saying to me, Well, Brian, the first thing I want you to do is get out of bed, take your shower and get dressed. Can you do that?

Yes, Lord, I think I can handle that.

Now, I want you to get in your car and drive downtown. Can you handle that one?

Yes, Lord, I can handle that one.

Then, just one thing at a time, I’ll go through the day with the Lord.

Just go about doing what he has set before you to do, and let Him take care of all the other stuff that’s going on. Say, Lord, I’m just going to serve you today, with what you’ve given me to do. I don’t know what’s going to happen and I don’t know what it all means, but I’ll just do what you’ve given me today to do and I’ll let you take care of tomorrow.

That’s what He’s telling Elijah here: Elijah, here’s my word to you. I’ve given you something to do. Do it.

It’s interesting to me that God wanted Elijah to go to Damascus. Damascus is 180 degrees in the opposite direction from Jezreel, just as Mt. Sinai is in the other direction. So, when Elijah took off in a panic, he went in exactly the opposite direction of the direction the Holy Spirit would have led him. Isn’t that the way it is? If we let fear and panic control our actions, we’ll end up doing exactly the opposite of what God would have us to do.

In verse 17, God says, “It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death.”

You know what He’s saying here? Elijah, I am going to judge. I will vindicate. I am going to do what I’m going to do no matter how discouraging and impossible this situation might look to you.

What a message to us, brethren. God will do His work, He will keep His promises, and accomplish His purposes—and it does not depend on how it looks to you. What God is saying here is, Elijah, I’m going to do it.

5. You’re Not Alone–So, Don’t BE Alone

Finally, remember, you are not alone. When I say you are not alone, I don’t just mean that the Lord is with you, as real and true as that is. I also mean, there will always be people who love Jesus there with you.

In verse 18, God tells Elijah, “Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

In other words, God is saying to Elijah, There’s one other thing I want you to know. You’re not alone. You just told me you were the last one. Well, guess what? You’re not.

God has always had and He always will have what the Bible often calls His faithful remnant. You are not alone if you’re going to follow Him. So my counsel to you is, because you are not alone, don’t be alone. When we’re feeling like we’ve been massacred by the enemy, and we just want to find a little hole somewhere, a little cave somewhere on Mt. Sinai to privately lick our wounds, that is probably when we most need to be amongst the 7,000, enjoying the encouragement of our mutual faith in Jesus Christ.

There will always be a mass and a multitude of people who will fall away. There will always be those in the church who are big hypocrites. There will always be those who will come on strong and then just fade away. There will always be those who will just go right back into the world. There will be those who look like they’re the strongest, most dynamic, most spirit-filled, most mature Christians who absolutely flake out, leaving you to wonder, What is going on? You’ll see mighty men of God fall to sin and fall to immorality. All of that will go on, but God says, I still have my faithful remnant.

You know what our prayer ought to be?

Lord, let me be one of those. In this world, let me be one of Your faithful remnant. Let me be Yours.