THE HOLY SPIRIT
As I sit in Bristol awaiting the start of ACMC, with the theme The Edge focusing on “leadership empowered by the Holy Spirit,” I cannot think of a more timely contributor than friend, spiritual father and apostle Samuel McKibben, who will be 90 this month.
For any who consider me to be ‘cheating’ by effectively giving this article to Samuel, be encouraged that it now comes from one with greater authority than I on these matters.
A couple of years back, Samuel shared with me these words about his early encounters with the Holy Spirit …
“I remember the Monday night when I was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues instantly. There were other people kneeling along the front and they also got baptised in the Spirit …”
Samuel continued with great hilarity, “… One night on the train down to Greenock, the lady came for my fare - I held out the money and spoke to her in tongues!”
The baptism in the Spirit, as we know, is about so much more than speaking in tongues. It’s an empowerment to spread the Gospel in power, and with other accompanying phenomena.
Samuel shared of the time a man was raised from the dead in Aberdeen Apostolic Church … “… Two senior nurses in the congregation were in the meeting and observed the man collapse and die while worshipping God. I left the platform and went down the aisle to where he was. I prayed in the name of Jesus and he got up and continued praising the Lord, exactly as he’d been doing before he died. That’s a reality that remains clearly in my mind.
“I honestly believe that when we have a real experience with the Lord, the longing to be full of the Holy Spirit is not a Pentecostal ‘thing’; it comes from the longing of the individual’s heart. When that happens and people simply cry, ‘God, I want to be filled with You,’ I’ve seen people sitting in services, no one praying for them, and they get filled with the Holy Spirit. That, to me, is the continuation of being born again. Does that make sense?
“When we’re full of the Holy Spirit, we’re not manufacturing any sense of ‘religion.’ We’re just full of Him and enjoy that, wherever we go and whatever we’re doing.
Samuel concluded with laughter, “It’s not about an ‘occasion from the past’ we keep returning to and then go ‘back to normal’ … God save us from that!”
“It’s about being filled with the Holy Spirit! Being led by the Spirit! Enjoying His presence and His power!”
Alistair Matheson