Category: Hank’s Place

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Luke 7 is quite interesting, for it begins with a fascinating comparison. First is the story of the Centurion who had a beloved slave. The slave was at the point of death. The Centurion heard about Jesus and sent some Jewish elders to ask Jesus to come and help. Jesus started off with them, but soon the Centurion sent friends to ask him not to come, for he did not consider himself worthy to come in person, or have Jesus come to him, but to just say the word and his servant would be healed. He explained  he was a man under authority, like Jesus, and he knew how authority worked.

Jesus marveled, saying not in all of Israel had He found such great faith. And of course the young slave was totally healed. Certainly we are encouraged in this to have faith in God! God our Healer! Faith in Jesus who bore our sins and diseases to Calvary.

But there is more, for Jesus went on to the city of Nain, with His disciples and accompanied by a large crowd. And as they approached the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, a widow; and a large crowd from the city accompanied her. Visualize the scene, friend. On the one hand, LIFE, in the form of the Living God, with a large crowd. On the other hand, DEATH, sorrow, pain, separation, tragedy—with a large crowd.

Custom required, much like with a funeral procession today, that Jesus and company STOP in respect as DEATH which always has the final word, passed by.

But wait! It says, “When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”” Then He touched the coffin, and said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.

There is no mention of faith here. No with the widow, not with the crowd, not with Jesus’ disciples. And certainly the dead man had no faith. He did not even have a heartbeat! Our point is this: you may have faith and see your sin, your sickness on the Calvary’s Cross. Believe, and receive. It only takes a word, a touch, from Jesus and it is DONE.

Worried you don’t have enough faith? No worries! Have a little faith that Jesus is the God of Compassion. And He yearns to show compassion toward you. It’s true. Be at peace, don’t try to measure your faith level. His compassion is there—to help you— COME ALIVE!

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Acts 10:38 tells us Jesus, anointed of the Holy Spirit went about doing good, healing all those bound by the devil. Awesome! He healed multitudes of those who came to Him. But listen to this instance of one person being healed.

In John 5, we find Jesus in Jerusalem for a feast. At the pool of Bethesda there’s a lame man, lying there, along with multitudes of sick people, waiting for an angel to stir the waters that they could jump in and be healed.

Now, the man had been in that condition 38 years. And Jesus saw, out of all the multitudes, THAT MAN. And knew he’d been in that condition a long time. Jesus asked him, “Do you wish to get well?”

Friend? Perhaps you are in a hospital surrounded by multitudes of sick people. Or ill in bed at home, alone. Jesus sees you. Jesus sees YOU. Do you wish to get well?

Back to the lame man. 38 agonizing years to curse God. 38 years to resent those who got into the pool first. 38 years to give up all hope, to make peace with his condition, to live with his affliction. 38 years to curse his loneliness, lack of friends to help him, to get depressed. Really depressed.

“Do YOU wish to get well?” The words stirred the hope in that lame man. And perhaps in YOU my friend. The lame man’s response indicated he was trying still to get well.

“Get up, pick up your pallet, and walk.” Miracle words from Jesus. Immediately the man became well. A commotion then erupted for it was a Sabbath day, but Jesus had melted away into the crowd.

There’s more to this, but listen: the lame man DID NOT LET HIS CIRCUMSTANCES OR SITUATION DEFINE him. He, out of the multitudes there, had a living HOPE in the LIVING GOD, and GOD redefined him as one who was made whole!

Friend, don’t let your situation define you. Whatever it is. You don’t have to accept it; make friends with it. Hope in God, the LIVING GOD. Let HIM define you as one who has COME ALIVE!

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So many times I’ve heard Christians warn other believers to expect bad things to happen if they do something for Jesus, because doing something for Jesus makes the devil mad and he will go after them. What a load of —— fear and doubt from the dark side!

Consider Acts 10:38, “You all know of Jesus of Nazareth, and how God anointed Him, with the Holy Spirit and with POWER. He went about performing good, healing all those bound by the devil because God was with Him.”

This verse can be applied to you to, my Christian friend, for your name tells me you are a “little anointed one;” and, you’ve been given spiritual authority through the right to use the name of Jesus. The truth is, the devil is no match for you, nor all of his demons.

The name of Jesus is the name of all authority. Phil 2:9-10 say God has exalted Jesus and given Him “… the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

Concerning your spiritual authority, consider Lu 10:17-19 which says, “The seventy (hey! I see you in that group) returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.” AND, Heb 2:14 tells us Jesus has rendered the devil powerless at Calvary.

Sure, the devil may try fear tactics and doubt challenges on you, just like he did with Jesus—but YOU are the one with God’s anointing and with God’s authority.

My friend, don’t limit your Christian experience to Sunday church, a life group and some bible reading. Go about performing good, healing all those bound by the devil. God IS with you. Fear not the fears! Doubt those doubts! Nothing will injure you. Be bold in these challenging days: 
COME ALIVE!

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We’ve been answering the question, “How do I get this baptism of the Holy Spirit?”

We’ve seen the promise of the Holy Spirit fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. For Jewish believers. Then, in Acts 10 the Spirit fell, in the same way, reports Peter, upon Gentiles: Cornelius, his family and close friends. The people with an inside track to God, ie, the Jews, and the heathens, the pagans. Eternal life in the power of the Holy Spirit is for everyone, my dear friend.

Luke 11 tells us to ASK for the Holy Spirit. Jesus promises us that our heavenly Father will NOT DISAPPOINT us – hallelujah! There’s another way you may receive this Holy Spirit, this power from on high as Jesus called Him.
We find it in Acts 8. In Samaria people were believing in Jesus! The early church leaders knew the importance of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and sent Peter and John to them, to these mixed race, mixed religion, halfbreed people! Verse 17 says they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Through the laying on of hands. Did you get that? Laying on of hands.

We find the laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit again in Acts 19 when Paul encounters a dozen disciples in Ephesus. Verse 2 says, “And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” First Paul brings them up to date about the Lord Jesus Christ, and verse 5 says when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

That is true today, friends. While many may know something about the Holy Spirit, kind of, sort of, not many have experienced Him! This baptism, this promise of the Father is for you!

Receive and grow in the gifts of the Spirit, the charisma, the grace of our Lord. Yes, receive ALL God has to give you my friend! You won’t just barely make it through this life; you will thrive. I dare say, you will— COME ALIVE!

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Is the baptism in the Holy Spirit for you? Of course! “So, how do I get this baptism?” you may ask. Well, listen to this–

Lu 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.” What promises! From the one in whom ALL of God’s promise are YES and AMEN—so be it! Jesus goes on to give the example of earthly fathers giving good things to their children when asked and says in vs 13, “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?” Have faith in God; God, your Heavenly Father, who does NOT disappoint. ASK HIM!

A pastor friend told me his testimony. He was a student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, center for Reformed Presbyterian theology. He loved Jesus and wanted more of Him. He kept asking for more, and as he worshiped at his bedside, songs of praise rose effortlessly from his lips – in other languages. He spoke and sang in tongues without realizing what had happened. In fact, he went with great expectation with his classmates when a professor led them on a field trip to a Charismatic meeting, to experience first hand these theologically ignorant, emotion led, dumb bunnies of Christians as they supposedly experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in their midst.

Yes, they were more than ready to mock, laugh, and destroy their silly arguments for the Holy Spirit. In the meeting, can you imagine the devastating shock when my friend realized that he was one of them! He added the rest of his time in the seminary was a battleground of attacks against him and the Holy Spirit.

Dear friend, the Holy Spirit has been poured out since Pentecost. Take advantage of the PROMISE of the Father. Desire, as my pastor friend did. Desire more of God. Take some time to worship and receive all He has to give you.

Why bother? My friend! My friend! When the Holy Spirit is moving through you, you will speak and act with the boldness of the early disciples, the world will be turned upside-down, and multitudes will— COME ALIVE!

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Is the baptism in the Holy Spirit for you? Of course! Trying to make it as a Christian in this life without the supernatural help of God, is well, not only a struggle, but unnecessary.

What might that supernatural help look like? Let me share with you a little recollection from the 1970’s. The Charismatic Movement was ongoing. My wife and I were born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit in a little Baptist church in Oakmont PA near Pittsburgh. You heard me, a Baptist church!

Inside were Baptists – baptized in the Holy Spirit. Roman Catholics who wanted more of the Spirit. Protestants who wanted life in the Spirit. All sorts of folk!

A Scripture come to mind about that time: Ro 14:17 “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” God’s kingdom is not rule keeping; it’s being right with God through His gift of righteousness, it’s peace with God and one another through the blood of Jesus. It’s joy in rejoicing in the love of God toward us.

People in that little church were joyous! They were looking to Jesus! Smiles everywhere! Hugs! Love! Acceptance! Forgiveness. Each one encouraging another. Sharing the love of God. Folks testifying of God’s working in their lives—each week. A person, or several, might give a prophecy. There was singing in the spirit with perhaps angelic choruses were joining in. Who cared about the time? There was such a sense of the presence of the Living God in our midst that it was difficult to leave!

Salvations? Baptisms? All-the-time! Healings and miraculous healings everywhere. And demons were being cast out as the oppressed were delivered. There was freedom in Christ!

You had no doubt God was alive and well when He spoke to you personally. When He gave you spiritual gifts to help others, like a word of knowledge or wisdom or prophecy. Or gifts of healing, or miracles. Those who resisted and ridiculed the Spirit’s working publicly one week might be found worshiping God next to you the following Sunday. Incredible! Such a sense of the Holy Spirit about to do something GOOD.

And I share this with you because I truly believe we are entering such a time once again; a time when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, multitudes will— COME ALIVE!

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I’ve been sharing that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was a real, distinct event in Scripture, and that it is current and valid for every believer—like YOU. Jesus told the disciples to wait, until they were clothed with power from on high. Lu 24:49. Wait—because there was more in store than God’s promised Spirit of Adoption and being grafted into His family as a son of Abraham. Yes! God wanted His Church equipped in POWER – Dunamis – explosive POWER!

This ‘power from on high’ fell on the day of Pentecost. He, the Holy Spirit, is here; we do not need to tarry as they did. In Acts 8 we see half-breeds, mongrels, semi-Jews included as Peter and John went to Samaria to ensure that the new believers there got the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That’s how important it is, dear friends!

But God’s plan for His family includes even more Spirit empowered people! Those totally outside the Covenant! That revelation begins in Acts 10, with the Roman Centurion Cornelius, his family and close friends. There’s tons of material in Acts 10, but keeping on our point, Cornelius is told by an angel in a vision to call for Peter who is in Joppa. Peter was staying with a Jewish tanner. Tanners were unclean due to the tanning process. Yet there was Peter…. While there, Peter has a vision of a sheet filled with all sorts of unclean beasts, and Peter hears the words, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”

Peter goes with Cornelius’ servants to Cornelius’ home, begins sharing the gospel, and BOOM! the Holy Spirit falls and those GENTILES – those unclean beasts – the unholy – the common – the non-covenant people—begin speaking in tongues and glorifying God. It was astonishing! Magnificent! It was GOD, declaring heaven’s doors are open wide to WHOSOEVER—in an undeniable fashion! Ha! Peter gets called on the carpet back in Jerusalem. His defense: who can deny inclusion to “those who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did.” This issue is a big one however.

In Acts 15 a council is convened in Jerusalem because the devout Jewish Christians had trouble grasping this incredible truth: God is not a respecter of persons—but ANYONE, anywhere, who believes in Him is welcome. Peter settles things by referring to the Cornelius incident.

Dear friend, if you have been on the fence: believe, receive Jesus as Savior. If you have been on the fence regarding the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I invite you to come off that fence and be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Don’t you see, GOD is inviting YOU today – to Come Alive!

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Did you know John the Baptist is recorded in each Gospel as saying there was One coming after him who would baptize in the Holy Spirit? 4 times! 4 times! Must be important, don’t you think? Just listen….

In Acts 8:15-17, Peter and John were sent by the church leaders down to the new believers in Samaria, to pray for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for He had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. It says they laid their hands on them and the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit. A professional magician named Simon was so impressed that he offered them $$ to have the same authority; think about how impressive that must have been!

On Pentecost a few years earlier, only Jews and proselytes were baptized in the Holy Spirit. But now the Good News was being shared even with Samaritans.

So who were the Samaritans? Samaria was capitol of the Northern Kingdom, begun by Jeroboam following Solomon’s death. 1 Ki 11-12. It was capital of the 10 tribes. Jeroboam made 2 golden calves for the people to include in their worship. Ahab built a temple to Baal there. Genuine worship became a memory. In 721BC Sargon of the Assyrians conquered them and carried off 27,290 inhabitants, replacing them with conquered foreigners – who brought along their gods. So Samaria was a mixed race of people, mongrels, with a heathen core. You might say they were very low on the Jewish totem pole, try: at the bottom. Racist? Yes indeed.

But these ‘inferior people’ as far as the Judaean Jews were concerned, were hearing the Gospel and believing it! And truly amazing: the leadership in Jerusalem, upon hearing this, actually SENT Peter and John down to them to get the Holy Spirit baptism! It was so important that the Jewish church leaders sent apostles to them, overcoming all the centuries of antagonism, to be sure they were filled with the HS. Today I invite you to grasp this truth: God does not care about your breeding or background: He wants you born again, part of His family, and filled with power from on high. So why delay – be filled today – and COME ALIVE!

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Hey Christian! Remember how Jesus was encouraging us in John 14? He was going away, but He would send us a Helper – our Enabler – the Holy Spirit. With us. In us. Teaching/leading/guiding us into GOD stuff!

After His resurrection, Jesus said something mysterious. It’s in Luke 24:49, “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” 2 things. “The Promise of my Father,” the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham—sending the Spirit of Adoption, that we would become sons of Abraham, and sons of God, heirs of God Himself.

But then there is this “power from on high stuff.” Things can get confusing: but let’s keep it simple. Two feasts, Passover and Pentecost. Passover foreshadowing our being born again as righteous children of God, separated from the world, transferred into God’s kingdom. Pentecost: foreshadowing our Holy Spirit baptism, when the power of God comes upon us. And we are clothed with power from on high, as Jesus promised!

In John 20:22, Jesus breaths upon the disciples, saying, “receive the Holy Spirit!”  They were born again. So when did they get the power from on high? Pentecost. Ah, Pentecost—see Acts 2. Tongues of FIRE appeared upon the believers in the Upper Room. They spoke in known and unknown tongues, glorifying God. “This is that” declares Peter – the fulfilling of the words not of God to Abraham, but of the prophet Joel – the Spirit of the Living God outpoured upon the earth for whosoever would believe and receive! The power from on high: to witness of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit in many ways, before the coming Day of the Lord.

Passover, and Pentecost! Having trouble with your witness in these dark tumultuous times? Maybe you need to experience your Pentecost. With the Holy Spirit within and the Holy Spirit upon you, my friend, there is no doubt that others will say: you—have COME ALIVE!

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I’ve great news for you today if you are a Christian. Perhaps you have been told, “Now that you have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, now you need to live for Him, live the Christian life, have a Christian lifestyle.”

Well, the Good News is: YOU CAN’T! Try it and you WILL fail—guaranteed. The only One who can live the Christian life is Christ Jesus! But weren’t the early believers at Antioch the first to be called “Christians?” TRUE – it is found in Acts 11:26.

“Christians” means ‘little anointed ones’ – did you get that? Keyword: anointed. They were anointed of the Holy Spirit. They had the Spirit of God within them and the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon them. Like Paul says to us in Romans (Ro 6:11), they were counting themselves dead to sin and alive to God. Alive in the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s anointing.

YOU don’t live the Christian life: The Anointed One lives His life through you! Receive new life in the Spirit – it’s what God has intended. Why else would Jesus call the Holy Spirit our “Helper” and “Enabler” in John 14:16 & 26? Why else would He tell His followers not to attempt any ministry until the coming of the Holy Spirit – Acts 1:4-8?

Our part? BELIEVE Jesus’ words. Many folk believe they got all the Holy Spirit they’ll ever get when they were born again. Hmmm. Then explain to me why there is the Jewish feast of Passover – a shadow of Jesus rescuing us from our sins, and Pentecost – a shadow of when the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon the earth for all to receive?

This fact speaks strongly to me that there is something more than being born again; something to help you— COME ALIVE!

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