THE MINISTRY OF LAYING ON OF HANDS (DAILY DIET E-BOOK SERIES 02 DAY 46)

 The Ministry of the Laying On of Hands

 In a meeting I preached in Texas many years ago, we held day services for a number of months, as well as the night services. People came daily, some from more than one hundred miles away. After I taught on the baptism in the Holy Ghost for about seven weeks, no one came to the meetings without receiving the Holy Spirit. Folks received the Holy Ghost in every service. We spent a week talking about the laying on of hands as a fundamental doctrine of the Bible (Heb. 6:2). As I've said, in the days of the Early Church the laying on of hands was widely practiced in receiving the Holy Ghost. ACTS 8:18-20 18 ... when Simon saw that THROUGH LAYING ON OF THE APOSTLES' HANDS the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, 19 Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. 20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.Some have thought Simon was trying to buy the gift of the Holy Ghost, but he wasn't. He was trying to buy the gift or the ability to impart the Holy Spirit to people through the laying on of hands. 

The Lord Jesus appeared to me in a vision years ago in which He told me to lay hands on believers to receive the Holy Ghost. When I hesitated because that was not widely practiced in that day, the Lord led me to Acts chapter 8. He called my attention to the fact that the apostles who abode in Jerusalem sent Peter and John to Samaria to lay hands on people to receive the Holy Ghost. Philip had a wonderful ministry in Samaria. He got people saved by the hundreds and healed by the scores. But he didn't get anyone filled with the Holy Ghost. The Early Church believed in special ministries just as the Bible teaches. Therefore, the disciples sent Peter and John to Samaria because they had a special ministry of getting folks filled with the Holy Ghost. They had a ministry of laying on of hands. In fact, Peter called being able to lay hands on people to receive the Holy Ghost a "gift of God" (Acts 8:20). 

When I lay hands on folks who have already received the Holy Spirit, I often know immediately by the Holy Spirit that they are Spirit filled without their telling me. But, remember, any revelation would have to be a manifestation of one of the revelation gifts in operation. Helping Others Believe They Have Received In this meeting in Texas that I mentioned, we were praying and laying hands on people to receive the infilling of the Holy Ghost. I had laid hands on several people and they all received. Then I laid hands on a certain man and the minute I did, I knew by the manifestation of the Holy Spirit that this man had received the Holy Spirit some time in the past. I stopped praying and said, "You have received the Holy Spirit sometime in your life. You have already been filled." He said, "No, no, I haven't." "Perhaps I am wrong then," I said. "After all, I am human." But if I do miss it, it wouldn't be because God has missed it. It would be because I somehow failed to listen or respond to Him as I ought. 

No human is ever going to get to the place of perfection. Even the great Apostle Paul said, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. . ."(Phil. 3:12). Ministers can miss it, but that doesn't mean God misses it or that the ministers don't have the right gift operating in their lives. Sometimes we may just fail to receive accurately what God is saying to us. For example, when talking on the telephone we sometimes fail to pick up everything that someone on the other end of the line has said. In the same way, I don't always get everything God is saying to me. But that doesn't mean that these gifts of the Spirit are not genuine. I laid hands on this brother again and began to pray. I had the same manifestation again and knew that he had already been filled with the Holy Ghost. 

I stopped praying, took my hands off of his head, and with more assurance this time, said, "Now, Brother, you have received the Holy Ghost at some time or another." Again he stated very emphatically that he had not, so I began to pray for the third time. When I had that manifestation again, I could no longer question it. I said, "Brother, I am not wrong. Open your eyes and look at me. I didn't miss it. You have been filled with the Holy Ghost at some time in your life. Has anyone ever told you that you have received the Spirit?" "Well," he replied, "about eighteen months ago at a Full Gospel church, the pastor and two or three of the men praying with me at the altar told me I received the Holy Ghost." "Then what makes you so sure you didn't receive Him?" I asked. "Because my wife said. . . * and about that time his wife who was standing nearby spoke up and began to tell me what she had said. "Wait a minute, Sister," I said. "It is not you who is wanting the Holy Ghost. It's your husband. Let him explain." This man then explained that his wife had said that receiving the Holy Spirit was a far greater experience than being born again. 

He said, "I doubted I had received the Holy Spirit because to me being born again was the greater experience of the two. Therefore, I was sure I had not received the Holy Spirit." I said, "Then according to your wife, I am not filled with the Holy Spirit either, for becoming a child of God is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me too. "You see," I explained, "you can go to heaven without being filled with the Holy Spirit, but you can't go to heaven without being born again. God did not promise to give you the Holy Spirit according to your wife. He promised to give you the Holy Spirit according to the Word." I continued, "You have no right to expect to be filled with the Holy Spirit according to your wife's experiences or ideas or according to anyone else's. But you do have a right to expect to be filled with the Holy Spirit according to the Word of God." "I guess I did receive the Holy Spirit back then," he answered, "because I did speak something that wasn't English. But I have never talked in tongues since then." I said, "You didn't because you were doubting what you had received from God.

 Doubt will paralyze the power of God in your life. You don't need to receive the Holy Spirit again now. You just need to claim what you received eighteen months ago. You just need to reactivate the Holy Ghost within you." I once heard a minister on the radio say, "You will not need anyone to tell you when you receive the Holy Ghost. If you are in doubt, then you've not received Him." I can't agree with that statement entirely, however. We just discussed the example of a man who actually received the Holy Spirit with the accompanying evidence of speaking in tongues, but allowed another person's opinion to cause him to doubt. That is why I cannot agree that people don't occasionally need someone to tell them whether or not they have received the Holy Spirit. 

This man was in doubt about it and needed someone's encouragement, even though he had actually received. He had listened to his wife instead of listening to the Word of God. The devil, of course, will try to get believers to doubt any biblical experience they may have. But just because a believer is tempted to doubt doesn't mean that he didn't receive whatever it was he asked for according to God's Word. People are often taught to believe that their receiving certain petitions from God depends upon experiencing some evidence the Bible does not teach us to expect. But we receive God's promises by faith in His Word. Yet in regard to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God does give us physical evidence — speaking in tongues — to confirm to us that we have received the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

FFT: Doubt will paralyze the power of God in your life.

ACTION POINT: Have faith in God!!