Beginner's Guide to Receiving the Holy Spirit , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Quin Sherrer

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86 pages

English

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Who is the Holy Spirit? How can believers experience God's presence? How does God work in, with, and through His followers? Many Christians have very basic questions about the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. In The Beginner's Guide to Receiving the Holy Spirit, they will find answers to their questions and learn how to access the power and presence of God promised to all His children. Readers will discover who the Holy Spirit is and find out how He will enable them to live the abundant life Jesus promised. Plus, once they receive the Spirit, they'll learn how to maintain a relationship with Him through a lifetime of spiritual vitality!

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Christian theology

Christianity

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	06 octobre 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441268693
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0403€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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2011 Quin Sherrer and Ruthanne Garlock
Published by Chosen Books 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438 chosenbooks.com
Chosen Books is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan. www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Chosen edition published 2014
ISBN 978-1-4412-6869-3
Previously published by Regal Books in 2011
First edition published by Servant Publications in 2002.
Ebook edition originally created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® . Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Other versions used are:
KJV—King James Version. Authorized King James Version.
NKJV— Scripture taken from the New King James Version . Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
NASB— Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
NLT— Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation , copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
The personal stories that appear in this book are true, but names of some individuals have been changed to protect their privacy.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One
Who Is the Holy Spirit?
Chapter Two
Does the Holy Spirit Make a Difference?
Chapter Three
How Do I Receive the Holy Spirit?
Chapter Four
Why Speak in Tongues?
Chapter Five
Are Hang-Ups Holding You Back?
Chapter Six
How Can I Walk in the Spirit?
Chapter Seven
Renewal That Endures
Chapter Eight
The Holy Spirit in History
Epilogue
Endnotes
Recommended Reading
About the Authors
I (Quin) thank the Lord Jesus for sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in His believers after He returned to heaven.
I will be forever grateful to the Reverend Forrest Mobley, an Episcopal priest in Destin, Florida, who lovingly encouraged me to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit back in the early 1970s. In obedience to the Lord, Forrest had allowed the late Reverend Dennis Bennett to pray for him and his wife, Nancy, to receive the Holy Spirit three years earlier—a “risky” action for a mainline minister in those days. Today, almost four decades later, he remains my “spiritual advisor,” and our families live a few miles apart.
I am also grateful for John Sherrill, whose book They Speak with Other Tongues helped me understand the gift of the Holy Spirit, and for John and Elizabeth’s role in my writing career as I studied under them the year following my encounter with the Holy Spirit.
I (Ruthanne) give thanks to God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, His comforting presence and all the ways this amazing gift enriches my life.
I acknowledge the late Reverends John and Lydia Stubblefield, my childhood pastors in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who mentored me in the ways of the Holy Spirit and inspired me with a determination to serve the Lord with my whole heart and never to turn back.
I also express appreciation for Jeri Livingston, the now-retired evangelist’s wife who prayed with me the night I received the Holy Spirit some 60 years ago.
Both of us honor the memory of our late husbands, LeRoy Sherrer and John Garlock, our best friends and faithful prayer supporters. They always encouraged us in the writing and ministry endeavors we worked on before they went to heaven, where they now “see everything with perfect clarity” (1 Cor. 13:12, NLT ).
We are grateful for our special friends at Servant and Regal publishers who have helped and encouraged us over the many years we have been writing. Their vision and commitment to Christian publishing have brought enlightenment and blessing to multitudes.
Thanks also to the men and women who were willing to share their stories with you, our readers, in the hope that your lives may also be touched by the Holy Spirit.
I was thrilled to be attending the wedding of Nan and Joe in a stone chapel overlooking the breathtaking snow-capped Colorado mountains near Vail. The ceremony was an answer to the prayers our family had prayed for Nan, now in her late thirties, who had waited many years for a Christian husband.
As they exchanged vows, my thoughts drifted back to a night eight years earlier when Nan had been a guest in our home. One Wednesday night she went with us to a service at our small interdenominational church. Since she’d been raised in a strict denominational setting, our style of worship seemed a bit strange to her, then our pastor taught about receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Later, as we sat around our dining table that night, snacking, she plied us with questions:
Wasn’t I filled with the Holy Spirit when I accepted Christ as a child?
Why do I need another experience?
What will the Holy Spirit do for me—will I know God better?
Do I have to speak in tongues?
On and on the questions went. I answered as best I could while encouraging her to continue the seeking process she had begun. Nan began attending our church regularly, no longer considering our services “strange.” Many times, I saw her face light up with the joy of the Lord as we sang praises to Him. I don’t know whether she ever prayed to receive the Holy Spirit, but she did become comfortable worshipping with Spirit-filled people. At her wedding, at the request of the bride and groom, the minister invited anyone present who did not know Jesus personally to accept Him right then and there.
In the years that followed, as I tried to explain to many other Nans the benefits of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I dreamed of writing a book for beginners on this topic. I even wrote out a two-page handout to give to those who asked me similar questions.
When our friends at Servant asked Ruthanne and me to write The Beginner’s Guide to Receiving the Holy Spirit, we jumped at the opportunity. I remembered my own experience, many years before, when I’d had a multitude of doubts and questions, just like Nan’s.
We were in the middle of writing this book when, on September 11, 2001, terrorist suicide pilots destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and struck the U.S. Pentagon. The horror of the attack and the huge loss of life left Americans numb with shock. In the following days and weeks, our nation turned to God, led by our president. The Holy Spirit was present, even in the midst of the tragedy, ministering to people in all walks of life. We heard many stories of God’s protection, direction and comfort, both during the crisis and beyond.
For instance, AnneMarie, my friend who lives in New York, had spent 20 years trying to get her neighbor to accept the Lord. She showered her with kindness, holiday gifts and backyard fence talks. On the night of September 11, with AnneMarie present, not only did this neighbor accept the Lord, but she also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit—all in the same evening!
Just a few weeks after the attack, I was scheduled to teach a seminar on prayer at a large church on the West Coast. “Before September 11, I wouldn’t have said that we were a praying church,” the leader told me plainly. “But now we’re open for the Holy Spirit to teach us how to pray.” On a Friday night—an evening when church members usually attended sports events—the place was packed with people who had come for a two-hour session on how to pray.
Afterward, a pastor’s wife from another church asked me to pray for her to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, though she said her husband and church would not approve. “I’m so hungry for more of the Lord—for the Holy Spirit to minister to me so that I will be better equipped to minister to our congregation,” she said.
Two months after my friend Hilda gave me her story for this book (see chapter 3), she lost her husband to heart disease. She is feeling the Holy Spirit’s comfort today, just as she felt His joy and love the night she knelt in her den more than 30 years ago to welcome the Holy Spirit into her life.
In these pages, you will meet many people who have received this gift and discovered the empowerment, guidance and comfort of the Holy Spirit in their everyday lives. It is our hope that you, as a seeker, will find here the biblical answers to your questions, and that you will receive the precious gift the Lord has for you.
We pray you will develop an intimate relationship with the Third Person of the Trinity, so that as you arise each morning, you can pray, “ Holy Spirit, You are welcome in my life today. Speak to me. Love through me. Come and direct my every step, my every conversation, my every decision .”
You will find that no matter what the future holds, you can rely upon the Holy Spirit to sustain and guide you in every situation.
—Quin Sherrer
Who Is the Holy Spirit?
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.… All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
A CTS 1:8; 2:4
Power? Holy Spirit? Tongues? Does this all sound “far out” to you?
Many people shy away from these topics connected to having an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit because they feel they’re too controversial, or because they think they’re too hard to understand. Some tend to think of the Holy