Oswald Chambers – Where Are We?

Oswald Chambers – Where Are We?

Where Are We?

“Where are we in regard to the personal experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost? If Jesus Christ had said to us, “All you need to do is to be as holy as you can, overcome sin as far as you can and I will overlook the rest,” no intelligent man under heaven would accept such a salvation. But He says– “Be ye perfect”; “Love your enemies”; “Be so pure that lust is an impossibility.” Instantly every heart calls back, “My God, who is sufficient for these things?” Oceans of penitential tears, mountains of good works, all powers and energy sink down till they are under the feet of the Lord Jesus; and incarnate in John the Baptist, they all point to Him– “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!” If Jesus Christ cannot deliver from sin, if He cannot adjust us perfectly to God as He says He can, if He cannot fill us with the Holy Ghost until there is nothing that can ever appeal again in sin or the world or the flesh, then He has misled us. But blessed be the Name of God, He can! He can so purify, so indwell, so merge with Himself, that only the things that appeal to Him appeal to you; to all other appeals there is the sentence of death, you have nothing to answer. When you come amongst those whose morality and uprightness crown them the lord of their own lives, there is no affinity with you, and they leave you.”
– Oswald Chambers

Related Article: Weep Not

The Truth of the Holy Spirit

“But ye shall receive power,
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:
and ye shall be witnesses unto me…”
Acts 1:8

Many today declare that by “believing” in Christ we have received all that God has to offer. This concept is easily negated by the simple question Paul asked of some of the new believers in Corinth. This narrative is near the end of the Book of Acts, many years past the initial Day of Pentecost. It is clear that the outpouring of this wondrous power was an ongoing reality unto all who believed, as it is today.

“He said unto them,
Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”
Acts 19:2

How clear the Word is, and how sad it is that His people rob themselves of His rich provisions because of teachings rooted in unbelief.  What was Paul’s response?

“And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on* him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in(into*) the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.”
Acts 19:3-6

Our access to His power is bound up in our receiving the Holy Spirit. It is a sad and tragic day when many believers regard the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as optional or not relevant for today. Rather than it being an essential element of living a testimony that is more than mere words. It is our receiving the person of the Holy Spirit that enables us to be “witnesses unto Him”!

The question remains:

“Have ye received the Holy Ghost
since ye believed?”
Acts 19:2

There is a vast difference between “believing on Him” and being “baptized INTO Him”. The language of the inspired word of God is crystal clear to those who honor His Word.

*NOTE: εἰς; “eis; prep. governing the acc. with the primary idea of motion into any place or thing” New Testament Greek Dictionary

Brian Troxel