Two young men stood in the back of a meeting, their seminary degrees fresh in hand, dressed in sharp suits like professional ministers ready to change the world.
They had earned their theological credentials, studied Greek and Hebrew, mastered systematic theology, and felt prepared for ministry.
But when the preacher approached them about receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, their scholarly training kicked in immediately. We don’t believe in it the same way you do they said with academic confidence we don’t believe in receiving the Holy Spirit as those people do they gestured toward the crowd of believers praying earnestly at the altar and you could see the mixture of superiority and skepticism in their eyes after all they had the education the degrees the proper theological understanding but the preacher looked at them and said something that would change everything.
You’re dressed up as if you would like to have it. You’re dressed like preachers, and seeing that you are dressed like preachers, it’s a pity for you to have the clothing without the presence.
Little did these young scholars know that their intellectual resistance was about to crumble before the power of God.
The conversation continued, and these young men maintained their theological position with scholarly precision.
But then, the preacher asked them a question that cut through all their academic training.
The apostles believed it that way. Wouldn’t you like to be an apostle? Wouldn’t you like to go along the same lines as they did? They believed it that way.
Something shifted in that moment. These educated men realized that all their seminary training meant nothing if they didn’t have what Peter and John had.
They understood that there’s an ordination by men, But there’s a greater ordination, the ordination with the king.
Here’s what you won’t believe happened next. Those two scholarly young men, so proper and dignified, came forward to receive what they had intellectually rejected.
Within thirty minutes, they were rolling on the floor, under the power of God, their nice suits wrinkled, their hair all messed up, but their faces absolutely radiant with the glory of heaven.
They had received it just as the first Christians had at the beginning. What changed them from critics to believers rolling under God’s power? They discovered what Jesus meant when he said in John 14:12, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father.
But here’s where it gets even more incredible. This same power that transformed those seminary graduates was about to manifest in Switzerland in a way that would shock everyone.
There was a timid woman who had just experienced healing from a terrible struggle that had bound her for years. Her mind was clear for the first time in so long, and she felt genuinely free. But there was something else stirring in her heart: a longing for more of God.
She approached me after a service with both hope and fear in her eyes. I believe I would like to receive the Holy Spirit, she whispered, but when I hear these people screaming, I feel like running away. She was desperate for God’s power, but terrified of losing control.
The very next morning, the power of God fell in that Swiss meeting. And I mean it felt like nothing anyone had ever experienced. This same timid woman, who couldn’t bear to hear anybody make a sound, suddenly found herself screaming so loud that every waiter in the massive hotel next door came running out with their aprons still on and serving trays in their hands, wondering what catastrophe had struck.
But nothing was up. Something had come down. The Holy Spirit had descended on her with such force that every ounce of fear dissolved in an instant.
You see, what both the seminary graduates and the Swiss woman discovered connects to something Jesus said that will amaze you.
When Jesus stood at the Feast of Tabernacles and saw the crowds returning home dissatisfied and hungry, despite all the religious ceremonies they had witnessed, he couldn’t stand it. My Lord can never be satisfied when anybody is dissatisfied, John 7:37-39 records.
His response: On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Jesus was looking at people who had attended every religious service, performed every ritual, followed every tradition. And they were still empty, still hungry, still ordinary.
And that broke his heart because he knew what they could become. He wasn’t offering them just a little spiritual refreshment. He was promising rivers, not a trickle, not a stream. but rivers of living water flowing out of their innermost being.
But wait until you understand what Jesus knew about his Father’s plan. He knew that he was going away and that another was coming. the Holy Spirit, who would take up residence inside his followers and transform them from ordinary people into extraordinary vessels of God’s power.
You in me and I in you, he said. There was a divine order at work. Little did I know at the time what God was showing me through these encounters.
You see, there’s something the Holy Spirit does that will transform your entire existence.
Jesus called him the Comforter, and I want you to understand what that means for your life today.
I learned this in the most personal way possible. My dear wife lay dying, and the doctors had given up. She is done. We cannot help you, they told me. My heart was breaking, and I cried out, Oh God, I can’t spare her. I went to her bedside and pleaded, Oh, come back, come back and speak to me. Come back, come back. the Spirit of the Lord moved, and she came back and smiled at me one last time.
But then, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart with words that only he could give. She is mine. Her work is done. She is mine. In that moment of deepest grief, the Comforter came with exactly the word I needed.
No one else could have done it, but he brought comfort that transcended my pain. But here’s where it gets even more incredible. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just comfort he empowers.
1 John 2 20 declares something that will change how you see yourself but you have an anointing from the Holy Spirit and you know all things not you will have or you might receive. You have an anointing.
Acts 10 38 reveals what this anointing is how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
The same anointing that was upon Jesus is available to you. This isn’t just a nice spiritual thought. This is the reality of what happens when the Holy Spirit baptizes you with fire.
When John the Baptist spoke of being baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, he was describing total immersion. being covered, flooded, and filled until your whole body becomes a vessel for God’s supernatural power.
Jesus elaborated on this in John 16:14 when he said, He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that belongs to Christ, his power, his authority, his ability to heal, to deliver, to transform lives, becomes accessible to you through the Holy Spirit.
Paul understood this when he wrote in Romans 8:11, But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. The Holy Spirit comes as the Comforter, taking the words of Jesus and making them life to you.
John 14:16-18 shows us his nature. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
Brethren, here’s what most Christians will never do. They will never move beyond ordinary Christianity into the extraordinary life God has prepared.
They will settle for head knowledge when God wants to give them heart power. They will be content with going to church when God wants to make them the church in action.
Listen to me carefully. The person who says, I am ready for anything, will never get it. You must be specific in what you ask God for.
Psalm 27:4 declares, One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
When God reveals to you that you must be filled with the Holy Spirit, seek only that one thing, and God will give you that one thing.
Most believers are afraid of losing control, like that woman in Switzerland. They want God’s power, but they want to manage how it comes.
But here’s what God is saying to you today: put up with any disorder you need to when you’re receiving from heaven.
God starts with the things that are most difficult. He starts with your fear. He starts with your human nature.
The challenge I’m issuing to every person here is this: Stop settling for ordinary when God has made you to be extraordinary. Stop making excuses about why you can’t have what the early church had. Stop letting your feelings rob you of your greatest place of anointing.
You have an anointing. The anointing has come. The anointing remains. The anointing is with you.
Most Christians will never dare to believe they can walk in the same power that Jesus walked in.
Most believers will never risk looking foolish for the sake of receiving what God wants to give them. Most church members will settle for religion when God is offering relationship and power. But you don’t have to be most Christians.
You serve an extraordinary God who makes extraordinary people. When we speak this way, we’re at the root of everything that can bring forth anything supernatural in your life.
Abraham believed God and became extraordinary, and every person is blessed today through faithful Abraham.
Here’s my challenge to you. If you are prayed for today and you see no change at all, but you believe it is done, you can become extraordinary in that way.
If you’ve been longing for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and waiting and tarrying every day, and you come to a place of believing, you have come to a place where you become extraordinary.
Most believers will never abandon themselves completely to God. Most Christians will never let go of their earthly fellowship until they are absolutely bound to God. Most church members will never give God complete right-of-way to the throne of their hearts.
But this is exactly what’s required for the fullness of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is here today to crown the King in your heart. He comes to unveil Jesus, to assure you of His presence, to transform you from glory to glory.
But you must abandon yourself completely. Abandon any earthly fellowship until you are absolutely bound to God, until God has the right of way to the throne of your heart.
The Spirit of Truth is waiting to take the words of Jesus and make them life to you. He wants to flood your mortal body with the same power that raised Christ from the dead. He desires to flow through you like rivers of living water, touching everyone around you with the supernatural power of heaven.
But you must choose. Will you remain ordinary or step into the extraordinary? Will you settle for head knowledge or receive heart power? Will you be content with church attendance or become a vessel through which God demonstrates his mighty works?
The baptism of the Holy Spirit hasn’t changed since the beginning. As it was in the beginning, so it will be forever. The same anointing that was upon Jesus is available to you today, but you must seek it with your whole heart, believe it with unwavering faith, and receive it with childlike expectation.
Those seminary graduates discovered that all their education meant nothing without the presence. The Swiss woman learned that God’s power dissolves every fear.
My wife’s homegoing taught me that the Comforter brings exactly the word we need in our darkest hour.
Now it’s your turn to discover what extraordinary looks like in your life.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before you hungry and thirsty for all you have promised. We refuse to leave this place ordinary when you’ve called us to be extraordinary.
Holy Spirit, we invite you to baptize us with fire, to cover us and flood us with your power until every fear is dissolved and every limitation is broken.
Take away everything that hinders us from receiving your fullness. Crown Jesus as King in our hearts, and let your anointing flow through us like rivers of living water.
We declare that we have an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and we choose to walk in the supernatural power you’ve given us.
Transform us from glory to glory until Christ is manifested in our flesh. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.
I believe with all my heart that as you’ve learned about walking in supernatural power today, you’ve been activated to step into the extraordinary life God has prepared for you. The understanding you’ve gained about the Holy Spirit’s anointing is already working in your spirit, creating a holy dissatisfaction with ordinary Christianity and stirring a hunger for God’s fullness.
You have an anointing from the Holy Spirit. Share one area where you’re ready to stop being ordinary and start walking in God’s supernatural power.
Start each day this week by declaring, I have an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and spend time in prayer, seeking specific areas where God wants to manifest His power through you.
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you’ve been settling for ordinary when he’s calling you to extraordinary.
But here’s what I’m curious about. Once you’ve been baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, how do you maintain that fullness and keep growing in spiritual gifts?
How do you move from just receiving power to actually operating in the supernatural on a daily basis?
You need to discover how to live in the continuous fullness of the Spirit and never lose that holy fire.
By Smith Wigglesworth