Principle 21

Hungering After the True Holy Spirit Baptism

IT WAS asked of one brother that travels amongst the house Churches in the Chinese Church and speaks with the underground leaders, “How do the Chinese choose the leaders?” The answer was simple; the brother responded: “Whoever is the hungriest after God, they are the leaders.” Such a need is present in our time for more leaders who are hungry for the Lord and baptized in His Holy Spirit. There is a vast difference between one that seeks the Baptism of the Spirit simply for power³⁷⁷ and one that seeks to know the Lord intimately and desires to be His vessel, fully surrendered.³⁷⁸ One seeks God for what he can get, the other seeks Him for what he can give. There is a crying need to see believers seeking God for God Himself and nothing else. Jesus Christ spoke of these whom God the Father seeks³⁷⁹ who will worship Him in Spirit and truth. One who worships God only out of obligation and reward is not a true worshipper. God is making a separation in the end times of those who are serving Him for their own selfish desires from those that have the true bridal love for Jesus Christ. This Bride will be endued with power from on high having her vessels full of oil when the Bridegroom comes.³⁸⁰

One of the greatest reasons that God hesitates to pour out His Spirit on His Church is that we will not cherish the blessing. When someone has gone without food for many days a simple piece of bread is enjoyed immensely and cherished. In the same way God requires us to have a hunger for the things of God, and to pray and wait on Him. Such waiting and hungering after God produces in us a respect and value for the gift He is giving. The Holy Spirit is given by the grace of God, it is not earned by righteous deeds. Yet, God does require an obedient heart³⁸¹ which desires God’s will and not its own. Some are just looking to get the power of the Spirit for their own purposes, their own kingdoms, their own ministries.

So may we be renewed in our hunger and desire to wait before the Lord for this precious infilling of the Spirit of Christ. The true Baptism of the Spirit is given through personal abiding relationship with God. It is not something apart from this. We need to be like a child before a Father and have that simple dependence and faith. God is always more willing to bless us than we can imagine. The qualifying evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a life of unselfish love and exaltation of the person of Jesus Christ.

“Many millions of Christians around the world, after being baptized in the Holy Spirit, have experienced a new dimension of power, particularly when witnessing to the unsaved. They found that their words were more convicting, and that they sometimes quoted Scriptures they didn’t realize they knew. Some found themselves called and specifically gifted for a certain ministry, such as evangelism. Others discovered that God used them as He willed in various supernatural gifts of the Spirit. Their experience is thoroughly Biblical. Those who oppose their experience have no Biblical basis for their opposition. They are, in fact, fighting against God.”³⁸²