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A Return to Pentecostal Power

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 20, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 3.

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A Return to Pentecostal Power

By R. D. Quinn

R. D. QUINN
At the recent General Conference the word came to study the first and second chapters of Acts. “Light has been given me that our work must be carried forward in a higher and broader way than it has ever yet been carried. . . . We need to come to God with faith in all that is promised in the Word, and then walk in all the light and power God gives.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in General Conference Bulletin, 1909, No. 7, page 105.
We gather from the instruction to study these chapters in Acts, that pentecost was simply meant to be an object-lesson, or type, of all the days of all the years of the present age. In other words, God did not give at pentecost an experience which he either would not, or could not, maintain. The fact that our times have fallen far below the blessed standard of those early days, is not because of any failure upon God’s part, but because the church in a large degree has lost sight of this holy doctrine. We never can regain or hold our true position in this world until we see that the filling of the Holy Ghost is equally for us as well as for the first Christians. We can not dispense with the definite anointing and infilling of the Holy Ghost for service.
No doubt the Holy Ghost is in us if we are Christians, for “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” But we must never lose sight of the fact that it is one thing to receive and yield to the Holy Spirit in regeneration, and another thing to be baptized with the Holy Ghost for the conversion of men. In Acts 2:4 we read that the company gathered in the upper room were all filled with the Holy Spirit. But these disciples had received the Spirit before this at their conversion, and when they were sent forth to preach the word. After the resurrection, but before his ascension, Christ breathed upon them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” But until pentecost it was never said of them that they were filled, for the simple reason that until then it could not be said of them that they were entirely empty, emptied of self and of self-seeking, and of one accord.
If we have complied with the conditions set forth in Peter’s great sermon on the day of pentecost (Acts 2:38, 39), we may be sure that God has faithfully done his part, and we are at this time in possession of his Spirit. Then our attitude should not be that of waiting and longing for the gift which we already possess; but rather to ask God to search our hearts, and to reveal unto us why his Spirit has not come more mightily upon us. It may not be so much a question of receiving the Spirit, as it is of surrendering and yielding to the Holy Spirit already received. The Holy Ghost makes man the uncompromising friend of God. If we obey every intimation of his will, we may be sure that he will witness through us in power. “My brethren and sisters, plead for the Holy Spirit. God stands back of every promise he has made. With your Bibles in your hands, say: ‘I have done as thou hast said. I present thy promise, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”’”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VIII, page 23.
“We should pray as earnestly for the descent of the Holy Spirit as the disciples prayed on the day of pentecost. . . . I counsel you to tarry at Jerusalem, as did the early disciples, until, like them, you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” “If they needed it at that time, we need it more to-day. Moral darkness, like a funeral pall, covers the earth. All manner of false doctrines, heresies, and satanic deceptions, are misleading the minds of men. Without the Spirit and power of God, it will be in vain that we labor to present the truth.”—Id., Vol. V, pages 158, 159.
“Why do we not hunger and thirst for the gift of the Spirit, since this is the means by which we are to receive power? Why do we not talk of it, pray for it, preach concerning it? The Lord is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to us than parents are to give good gifts to their children. For the baptism of the Spirit every worker should be pleading with God.” “To us to-day, as verily as to the first disciples, the promise of the Spirit belongs. God will to-day endow men and women with power from above, as he endowed those who on the day of pentecost heard the word of salvation. At this very hour his Spirit and his grace are for all who need them, and will take him at his word. . . .”
“The disciples did not ask for a blessing for themselves. They were weighted with the burden of souls. The gospel was to be carried to the ends of the earth, and they claimed the endowment of power that Christ had promised. Then it was that the Holy Spirit was poured out, and thousands were converted in a day.
“So it may be now. Let Christians put away all dissension, and give themselves to God for the saving of the lost. Let them ask in faith for the promised blessing, and it will come. The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the ‘former rain,’ and glorious was the result. But the latter rain will be more abundant.”
“He [God] himself has put into our lips that most wonderful of pleas, ‘Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory; remember, break not thy covenant with us.’ Jer. 14:21. He has pledged himself to give heed to our cry, when we come to him confessing our unworthiness and sin. The honor of his throne is staked for the fulfilment of his word to us.”—Id., Vol. VIII, pages 20-23.
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