The Person and Work of The Holy SpiritTorrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer)
Religion
The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit
Torrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer)
Holy Spirit
all speak with tongues?_ Do all interpret?” So I saw it was clearly taught
in the Scriptures that one might be baptized with the Holy Spirit and
still not have the gift of tongues. I saw furthermore that the gift of
tongues, according to the Scripture, was the last and the least important
of all the gifts, and that we were urged to desire earnestly the greater
gifts (1 Cor. xiii. 31; 1 Cor. xiv. 5, 12, 14, 18, 19, 27, 28). A little
later I was tempted to fall into another error, more specious but in
reality just as unscriptural as this, namely, that if one were baptized
with the Holy Spirit, he would receive the gift of an evangelist. I had
read the story of D. L. Moody, of Charles G. Finney and of others who were
baptized with the Holy Spirit, and of the power that came to them as
evangelists, and the thought was suggested that if any one is baptized
with the Holy Spirit will not he also obtain power as an evangelist? But
this was also unscriptural. If God has called a man to be an evangelist
and he is baptized with the Holy Spirit, he will receive power as an
evangelist, but if God has called him to be something else, he will
receive power to become something else. Three great evils come from the
error of thinking that every one who is baptized with the Holy Spirit will
receive power as an evangelist.
(1) The evil of disappointment. There are many who seek the baptism with
the Holy Spirit expecting power as an evangelist, but God has not called
them to that work, and though they really meet the conditions of receiving
the baptism with the Spirit, and do receive the baptism with the Spirit,
power as an evangelist does not come. In many cases this results in bitter
disappointment and sometimes even in despair. The one who has expected the
power of an evangelist and has not received it sometimes even questions
whether he is a child of God. But if he had properly understood the
matter, he would have known that the fact that he had not received power
as an evangelist is no proof that he has not received the baptism with the
Spirit, and much less is it a proof that he is not a child of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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