THE HOLY SPIRIT & BOB VALENTI!
DO 1733
1/84
--Sequel to 1967!
1. THOSE PENTECOSTALS, WHEN THEY PRAY FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, they think they've always got to "tarry" at least ten days like the first disciples did. (Acts 1)
2. WELL, THE ONLY REASON THE DISCIPLES HAD TO TARRY WAS BECAUSE THE HOLY SPIRIT HADN'T BEEN GIVEN YET!--But the minute the Holy Spirit was given they all received it--and have ever since! You don't have to tarry for the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Pentecostals would tarry, waiting for the Holy Spirit as though She was reluctant to give Herself, when actually She was waiting on them! That was the only tarrying, waiting on them to get in a frame of mind & a receptive spirit. She even wanted to come in, but couldn't because some of their motives were entirely misconstrued.
3. ALL THEY WANTED WAS TONGUES, BECAUSE TO THEM, THAT WAS THE PROOF YOU HAD THE HOLY SPIRIT. They didn't care about power for witnessing, as long as they had tongues, that proved they had the Holy Spirit & satisfied their spiritual pride, & made them able to brag to their other cohorts. It was all a pride trip with a lot of them.
4. NOT EVERYBODY RECEIVES THE GIFT OF TONGUES WHEN THEY'RE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, & you don't have to have the gift of tongues to prove that you are filled with the Spirit! There are eight other gifts, why should you always have to receive the gift of tongues?
5. IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT FAMILY DOCTRINE BY THIS TIME, you know that we do not believe that the gift of tongues is the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit! I've known lots of people to receive the baptism without necessarily speaking in tongues--although I'm inclined to believe that eventually, most people who have the Holy Spirit are apt to speak in tongues too, because it's a wonderful way of praying. It's one of the commonest gifts, actually the least useful as far as witnessing or being a leader or anything else. It's mostly just for your own benefit & your own edification in the Spirit to be able to pray in tongues.
6. NOT EVERYBODY WHO SPEAKS IN TONGUES GETS MESSAGES--SOME PEOPLE ONLY PRAY & PRAISE IN TONGUES. I would say most people who have the gift of tongues merely pray or praise the Lord in tongues, which is wonderfully edifying for your spirit.--Thrilling, exciting, a miracle, the most obvious of all the gifts of the Spirit & the commonest. The gift of messages in tongues is a little more rare.
7. I HAD TO TRUST THE LORD ALL THOSE YEARS WITH NO OBVIOUS SIGN, NO OBVIOUS GIFTS, NO PHYSICAL GIFT WHATSOEVER. I went about 30 years with nothing but the gift of faith, the gift of knowledge, the gift of wisdom & the gift of discernment. Well, that's all a leader really needs! But I learned eventually that I had those gifts, gradually as they manifested themselves, but they don't manifest themselves visibly, audibly, hardly even discernibly! You just have it & you know. They're not the kind of gifts that you can usually detect by your five senses.
8. I CAN REMEMBER A PRAYER MEETING WITH THAT GUY (BOB VALENTI) THAT WENT TO NASSAU WITH US. He & his wife had been marvellously converted from drugs & the depths of crime in New York City. They were a sensation everywhere we took'm! We took them to the Bahamas & they were a sensation in the biggest Pentecostal Church in the Bahamas! They were our biggest attraction at the time. But then he came to Huntington Beach, started up his own little work & didn't want to have anything to do with us anymore, he was now strictly Pentecostal.
9. SO I WENT TO HIS PRAYER MEETING & everybody was chattering away in tongues but nobody was interpreting. They were having this wonderful praise & prayer meeting in tongues--& I was the only one that wasn't praying in tongues because I didn't have the gift! In those days sometimes I wasn't even too sure I had the Holy Spirit because the Pentecostals said I didn't. But I knew I did, thank the Lord, by faith. Everybody was praying & praising in tongues but nobody was interpreting.
10. THEN HE GOT THIS TREMENDOUS, POWERFUL MESSAGE & it was like that Scripture about, "Ye speak of Moses & this one & that one of old, & yet there is one here amongst you greater than Moses!" And I came thundering out with this interpretation. I think that's the first time I ever really interpreted publicly, & they were just stunned! The Spirit spoke with authority & it was a wonderful message!
11. SO THERE WAS A STUNNED SILENCE, & because he knew I didn't have the gift of tongues, therefore according to him I didn't have the Holy Spirit at all, he figured I was a false prophet & that was a false interpretation & he began to get up & preach & rant & rave about false prophets.
12. HERE THE LORD WAS TRYING TO TELL HIM SOMETHING SO WONDERFUL, but he got up & outright defied the prophet & called him a false prophet! Well, I didn't even know I was a prophet then. But he came to nought & went down the drain & the last I heard of him he was back on black magic & dope, & later died of drugs.
13. (LOOKS UP TOWARD HEAVEN:) BOB, NOW YOU KNOW THE TRUTH! TYJ! YOU'RE THERE! HALLELUJAH! PYL! TYJ! HE'S SMILING NOW! PTL! TYL! He's happy now, he knows now.
14. DO YOU HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT? Do you have Her beautiful gifts?--God the Father's wonderful gifts for His Children to enjoy!--And tools for your ministry!--You can have'm right now! Just ask Him! "Ask, & it shall be given you; seek, & ye shall find; knock, & it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; & he that seeketh findeth; & to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" (Mt.7:7-11)
15. AMEN? DO YOU BELIEVE IT?--THEN ASK HIM RIGHT NOW!--Why wait? He's more willing to give than we are to receive! (Jam.4:2b; Jn.16:23-24) GBAKY in the Spirit!