Holy Spirit Baptism and Filling: What is the Difference?

(The following is important to understand, but in order to be sensitive to time on Sunday, this part of the sermon will be "preached" here!)

So... What IS the Difference Between Being BAPTIZED by the Holy Spirit and Being FILLED with the Holy Spirit? Some people use these terms interchangeably, but there is a difference!
Being BAPTIZED by the Holy Spirit is the work of Christ on a new believer. Upon belief in Him, He puts the Holy Spirit in you and puts you in the body of Christ. (See Romans 6:3-6, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:27). This is what Jesus does to you when you get saved, become born again, become an adopted child of God – He baptizes you in the Holy Spirit. This is a one time event, as the Holy Spirit does NOT leave a believer, return, leave, return, etc. No amount or kind of sin makes the Holy Spirit leave a true believer! 
Being FILLED with the Holy Spirit is a continual experience that we are commanded to allow to happen as we participate with His work in us. Ephesians 5:18 says “be filled with the Spirit”. He does the filling, but this is presented in a way that obviously indicates we have a responsibility to cooperate with Him – allow this to happen to you. The literal translation of the verbiage is “be being filled with the Holy Spirit.” This happens as we keep our mind and heart focused on the Word of God and, as one preacher put it, “practice the presence of God”.
Being baptized in the Holy Spirit grants the power that Jesus promised in Acts 1:8, being filled with the Holy Spirit unleashes that power of God through you.
See you Sunday!

p.s. - Witness His power, then let His power make you a witness!

Is it Ever Okay to Pray Against a Relationship?

When is it okay to pray that God would prevent something from happening?

God is our Heavenly Father. We are His children. And He invites us to share every burden with Him (1 Peter 5:7). He already knows what is on our hearts. He knows what prayers we have before we say them. There is no need to come trying to hide anything.

So my point is simply: be honest when you pray. Makes no sense to try otherwise. If there is a relationship that looks like it may be toxic, just take that to God.

“Father, You know everything. I don’t. But this relationship looks like trouble, and I don’t want to see someone get hurt in the longterm...”

But remember: everything you pray for, you should ask according to God’s Will. 1 John 5:14 says “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” (emphasis mine)

Every single prayer should end there. “...but God, you know what is right and best. So may your will be done, and give me the faith to trust you during this time.” That is yielding to His sovereignty and wisdom.

We pray in reverence and faith. But as far as I can see, no subjects are off limits. No concerns too small. God loves you and wants to commune with you in prayer.

p.s. - God already knows...

What about Israel?

How does God view Jews now? If they don’t believe Jesus was the Messiah & follow Him, can they get in to heaven? They were God’s chosen people in the Old Testament.

No one gets to heaven without Jesus. The Bible is clear about that. Jews, Gentiles, Republicans, Vegans, Grandmothers, Businessmen, Good neighbors... Nobody gets to heaven apart from Jesus Christ.See Acts 4:12, Romans 10:9-10, and John 14:6.

If you turn to Romans 9, 10, 11, you’ll see God’s Word all about the state of Israel. To answer these questions, focus on Romans 11. It says so much, but here’s the summary: There’s always a “remnant”, a population of the Jews with authentic saving faith. Romans 11:1 – there’s a remnant presently (including Paul – all the way up to Jews today who believe Jesus is the Messiah.) In 11:2-5, Paul reminds us that there always has been a remnant in v2-5. And Paul reminds us here, as is prophesied in the OT, there always will be a remnant (v25-27).

And if you read Revelation, you’ll see one of the biggest players in the end times: the nation of Israel. While many Jews do not believe today, the day is coming when there will be mass revival in Israel.

So past, present, future – God is at work in and through Israel. Yet they, too, must come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, their Messiah.

Romania Trip Recap

About

This post is a journal of the mission work that my son Jack and I participated in, along with five other people from Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North. This trip took place during the last week of August, 2015 in Arad, Romania.

Where is Arad, Romania?

When the discussions about missions in Romania began at our church, I knew little about the country. I knew it was in Eastern Europe but probably could not correctly identify it on a map.  Romania is to the east of Hungary, south of Ukraine, west of Moldova and the Black Sea. To the south are the countries of Bulgaria and Serbia. The historic city of Arad is in the Western part of the country, about a half-hours drive from the Hungarian border.

Our Mission

When God calls someone to a task, He gives them the means to do it.

Our church is part of Harvest Bible Fellowship, which plants churches all over the world. Harvest Metanoia in Arad, Romania is also part of this fellowship. In order to expand the influence of the gospel in Eastern Europe, Harvest Metanoia is building a training center outside the city, which will be a ‘home base’ for pastors who will be trained to plant new churches all over Eastern Europe.

We started our week worshiping the Lord on Sunday with Romanian Christians who take their faith seriously. It was a most beautiful service as we sang songs that were familiar to us, but were being sung in a language that we did not know. It gave me a preview of how every tribe and tongue will sing around the throne in heaven. It was an amazing sound that brought tears to my eyes.

Our job on this missions trip was to assist in the building of office space and storage areas within the structure, specifically drywall and insulation.  The expectations for our team of volunteers was to put up two layers of drywall on three to four rooms.  By the end of the week, we were able to exceed the expectations by putting up two layers of drywall on six rooms (with insulation), framing another area for an additional three rooms of storage and partially dry walling those framed areas and part of a hallway.

On the initial tour of the construction site, the director of the project pointed out the new neighborhood across the street where many new houses were built in the last year. He said that the new neighborhood asked the church if they would make enough room in the building to conduct kindergarten classes for their children.

This was especially exciting for me as I envision the church growing in the years to come, simply because they reached out to their neighbors to help educate their children. My mind raced ahead five, ten, twenty years from now and I saw those kindergarten children coming to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I saw parents attending church and hearing the message of forgiveness. And across the other side of the construction site I looked down into the empty concrete box that would soon be the baptismal pool where many of these new believers would declare their allegiance to Christ, going down into and coming up out of the water: a symbol of new life!

We spent a busy five days putting two layers of drywall in what would soon be the training center offices and storage areas.  Our team worked well together.  Some of us had construction experience and some of us did not, but after screwing a few sheets into the metal framing, we fell into a groove.  We were able to cover the walls in 6 rooms with double layers and also single layers on an additional 3 storage rooms and a partial hallway.

In the grand scheme of the project, spending a week drywalling in a few rooms is not a huge deal on the surface. But as the week wore on, I started to see that more than just a building was being built. New relationships were being built. Our new Romanian friends were greatly encouraged by our church standing with them in this project. The missions team however, received much more encouragement than we were able to give. Someone on the trip adequately summed up this thought by saying, “when you do missions, you take home much more than you brought”.

when you do missions, you take home much more than you brought

Beautiful People. Beautiful Country.

In the evenings we spent some time with our hosts and the members of the church in Arad on various tours of the vibrant city and beautiful countryside. Romania is a country with many stories to tell.  It is said that the Apostle Andrew and his followers from Jerusalem settled there. We saw Corvin’s Castle in Transylvania, where Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) was held prisoner, which dates back to 1446.

We visited the Densus Church which dates back to the 7th century. The paintings on the walls of early church figures had their eyes gouged out by  enemies of Christianity.

We toured Timisoara where the 1989 Romanian revolution against communism was born. You can still see bullet holes in the facades of many of the buildings there. Several of the nights we spent in downtown Arad where an annual street festival was being held. As great as the sightseeing was for us after a hard days work, what I enjoyed most was riding in our minibus, listening to Romanian Christian music and getting to know our hosts. They rolled out the red carpet for us and treated us like royalty.

Our team and our sending church was also profoundly changed.  We grew in our respective faiths as we faced challenging questions like: How are we going to get the funding to go?  How are we going to do construction jobs with no experience?  How are we going to maintain the stamina that we need for such physically exhausting work? How are we going to overcome the language barrier?

We saw God do amazing things: He provided exactly enough funding for each of the participants through generous people who saw this as a worthy missions project. He provided us with expert builders who trained us quickly on what to do all week long. And he provided the energy and strength necessary to do the job with excellence and enthusiasm.  The driver who took us back to Budapest for our flight home said it very well, as I mentioned to him about getting home very late after dropping us off: he said, ‘God called me to this task.  When God calls someone to a task, He gives them the means to do it’.  He is right. That statement speaks about God’s involvement in the whole trip from its conception. He called seven of us to a task, and despite our insecurity and fears, He gave us the means to do it.

Our Mission is not Over

Even though we’re home now, the mission is not over. There will be a “Phase Two” in the summer of 2016 as Harvest Metanoia is planning to move their church services to the new facility. Our church will be in prayer and in discussions on how we want to proceed to help them in this effort.

Check out this 9 minute video which summarizes our fantastic week in Romania: