Supplement 10 — For Lessons 19 & 20

Supplement Ten

For Lessons Nineteen and Twenty

In the first two lessons of PART III, God's Present Dealings With Man , we have seen that the fullness of grace and power was brought to man through Jesus Christ and that God freely bestows both upon all who believe. We have studied the many fallacies as well as truths about the grace and the plan of God for this age in which we live. We have also studied the New Testament program for the modern church and have seen that there are no limitations to believers in getting and using the power of God in this life short of how Jesus Christ and the apostles used it. In this supplement we want to show you how you can get the power of God in your life and what to do when you get it.

Commands to Get the Power of God

It is a definite command for all believers to get the power of God in their lives in order to be equipped to witness for Christ. In Acts 1:4-5 the disciples, not only the apostles, were commanded not to depart from Jerusalem until they had received the baptism in the Spirit: “And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” Being baptized with the Holy Ghost and receiving power are the same; that is, when one is baptized in the Spirit in all fullness he receives power: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me . . . unto the uttermost part of the earth” Acts 1:8. In Lk. 24:49 Christ commanded them saying, “Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.”

That all believers throughout this age are commanded also to tarry until they are endued with power from on High is clear from the following passage: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” Matthew 28:19-20. Jesus further taught that men should ask the Holy Spirit from God: “If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him” Luke 11:11-13.

How to Get the Power of God

Men have to thirst, drink, and believe to get the Holy Spirit baptism: “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.)” This passage John 7:37-39 could refer only to the fullness of the Holy Spirit as received on the day of Pentecost, for in Acts 2:33 we read of Jesus being glorified and of Him shedding forth the Holy Spirit upon the Church in baptismal measure. Up to this time men had received the Spirit in a measure, as proven in Lesson Nineteen, I, 3. Men must “hunger and thirst after righteousness” to be filled Matthew 5:6.

Thus it is clear that the enduement of power is for people who are already children of God. It is not for sinners John 14:17. Believers or children of God who are born-again and in the family must tarry, wait, hunger, thirst, drink, believe, and receive the Spirit.

Men Must Still Tarry for the Spirit Baptism

The theory that men do not have to wait for the Holy Spirit today because He has already come and that all one has to do is to receive Him is only part truth. One must receive Him, but anyone knows that until He is given to the individual, that one does not have Him, and until He is received and fills the innermost being, one has to wait until it is done. It is not something that one can accept merely by faith. This is necessary all right, but to be satisfied without Him after one accepts by faith is to have an empty life without Him. It is impossible to receive such a mighty enduement of power and have rivers of living water flowing out of one without his knowing it.

All the terms used above as hunger, thirst, tarry, and wait prove a time element of at least a few moments. If one was given before he hungered or thirsted he could not have these passions. If one were given before he received there would be no faith to hope for that we see not and therefore there would be no expectancy at all.

Of the disciples, 120 were in the temple continually praising and blessing God for ten days, and then the Spirit came Acts 1:3, 12Acts 2:1Luke 24:49-53. Now since the Spirit has come into the world to bless men in all fullness there is no need to wait for Him to come into the world, but there is need to go through any period of preparation necessary before He personally takes control of your life. So one should consider that the Spirit is already here and wants personal control of the life and it takes yieldedness and asking God and hungering and thirsting until one is literally filled with the fullness of God. In other words, as soon as the individual learns to yield to the Spirit and receives Him into the life, that soon the Spirit manifests Himself.

How to Work the Works of God

The Christian must learn that he always remains a free moral agent and that he can help or hinder the work of God in various ways. Certainly no one would knowingly want to hinder God’s work, but many times people do things ignorantly and yet in all sincerity. The study of the Bible is one of the best ways to help God’s work. Then a person will know what to do under all circumstances. One will not have to be doing things wrong when he acts. One should use any and every measure of the Spirit of God that he receives to the glory of God. It may be asked, “What is the work of God?” Jesus answered this question when He said, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” John 6:28-29.

To believe on Christ as the Scripture has said is the greatest work of God men can do. Jesus said if a person would do this and do it right he would have rivers of living water flowing out of the innermost being, and he would be able to do greater works than what He had done John 7:37-39John 14:12-15.

What Does it Mean to Fully Believe?

1. To believe that all the promises of God are yea and amen to all 2 Corinthians 1:20.

2. To believe that all things are possible to the believer Mark 9:23.

3. To believe that all things we ask in prayer we receive Matthew 7:7-11Matthew 21:22.

4. To believe that even all of our desires will be granted Mark 11:22-24.

5. To believe that we can ask what we will, and it will be given John 15:7.

6. To believe in those things that be not as though they were Romans 4:17.

7. To believe that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him Hebrews 11:6.

8. To believe that God gives liberally and that he does not upbraid or rebuke when we come to him for anything James 1:5-8.

9. To believe without ever a question or a waver that what is asked is done (Jas. 1:5-8

10. To believe that it is the will of God to give what He has promised 1 John 3:22.

11. To believe that Christ took all sickness and sin in His own body on the cross and that we do not have to bear them one minute after we accept His vicarious work Matthew 8:16-171 Peter 2:24Isaiah 53:4-5.

12. To believe that every believer can do the same works of God that Christ did and that God’s power in the baptism of the Spirit is the same today as when Christ and the early believers received it John 14:12-15Luke 24:49Acts 1:8Acts 2:38-39Acts 5:32.

To believe all this and any other and every other part of the Bible doctrines and practices means something. Lest one should say that to believe all this is not work, let one believe it and fully experience it without putting forth any effort whatsoever. The very fact we are having to spend so much time and write so much about these things from every angle and that we have to answer every unbelieving argument of men who try to deny these truths is sufficient proof that believing is work on the part of all. To be simple about this question, if a person can truly and wholeheartedly believe these truths, he will be abundantly met by God, and the Holy Spirit will work through him without limitations.

We cannot overemphasize the fact that we must believe these things before we can see the results we desire to see. This is why we are going into repeated detail so that this fact can finally dawn upon us all that God means what He says and says what He means with respect to power from God, just as He does concerning forgiveness of sins, which we have all been taught more or less to believe.

Let the student study the lessons and supplements over and over again, especially the Scriptures that will naturally build up faith in these things. Let him never doubt and waver concerning the possibility of having all things possible. It matters not what church or pastor or religious zealot says concerning any theory to the contrary; if God has said these things, His Word is all-sufficient. Men may argue with you that these powers are not for us today, or that we are not seeing them, or that it is impossible to see them, but you know better by now than to believe such arguments.

We can all get into the New Testament program if we will follow the example of the early Church. We know what they did, for the record is clear. We know that we do not have this program in full operation today in our churches. We also know that we are not getting this program because we are not putting into practice the things that made the early Church such a dynamic force. Therefore, why not change our methods and do what the early Church did and see what can be done? If we want what they got, let us go to God to get what they got. Let us be honest and quit claiming that we have what they got until we do get it. Let us use plain common sense and realize that anything short of what they got is not exactly what they got, and if we desire what they got, then let us go to God for it in all fullness as they got it and not be satisfied without it. If we don’t want what they got, then let us not complain when we don’t get it. If we ever get what they got, it will produce the same works as it did with them, and we shall know it just as much as they knew it. We will have the same power and manifestation of God that we read about in the New Testament, and then we will know that we have received the same power and that the New Testament program is again in full operation.

Ten Questions For Supplement Ten. Do You Know:

• That the Antichrist will never bring universal peace and prosperity so that the world will worship him and take his mark? All Scriptures teach contrary to this common theory. He will make a seven-years covenant of peace with Israel and by peace destroy many of them Daniel 8:25Daniel 9:27Matthew 24:15-26. But among other nations he goes forth conquering and to conquer and is at war from his rise to power over the nations to the day he is defeated by Christ at Armageddon Daniel 7:8, 24Daniel 8:20-25Daniel 9:27Daniel 11:40-45Revelation 13:4-7Revelation 17:9-17Revelation 19:11-21Zechariah 14:1-21. He will cause craft (cunning, or deceit) to prosper in his hand, but he cannot bring universal material prosperity, for he does not rule the world, as we have seen in Supplement Nine, Question 8. He personally prospers through war as any other conqueror, but even that is in the part of the world he rules as it is in any other war Daniel 8:24Daniel 11:35-45.

• That multitudes of people will not know that Jesus Christ has come to the Earth until after His second advent and the resurrected saints begin to take over the governments of this world in the Millennium? This is clear from the same facts we have given in Supplement Nine, Question 8, and because Scriptures definitely say that many people will not see His glory or His person the day He comes to Earth Isaiah 66:19. It is only when Christ is reigning and missionaries and rulers will go from Jerusalem to tell of Christ reigning in Zion that many nations will say, “Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord” Isaiah 2:2-4Isaiah 52:7Zechariah 8:23. It is only in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem that every eye will see Him at the second advent, which is pictured “as lightning” shining under only one part under Heaven Matthew 24:27-31Revelation 1:7.

• That the Bible does not teach a general judgment for both the righteous and the wicked? The Bible teaches that the righteous will be resurrected and will reign 1,000 years before the wicked are resurrected and judged Revelation 20:1-15. The righteous will be judged and rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ in Heaven before they come back with Christ to reign 2 Corinthians 10:9-11Romans 14:10-11. Saints will already know their rewards and positions in the eternal kingdom before they come back to the Earth with Christ to reign, for when they come they will be given such positions Matthew 16:27. Anyone can see that there is a 1,000 years between the end of this age when Christ comes (as in Mt. 16:27; 24:29-31; 25:31-46) and the end of the next age, the Millennium (Rev. 20); so there is at least this much time between the two judgments.

• That saints will be judged for sins committed in this life? “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” 2 Corinthians 5:10-11Romans 14:10-11Matthew 12:36Matthew 16:27.

• That there will be degrees of punishment in Hell and rewards in Heaven? That there will be degrees of punishment in Hell is clear from Mt. 10:15; 11:22; 12:41; 23:14; Mk. 6:11; 12:40; Lk. 10:14; 11:31-32; 20:47. That there will be degrees of reward in Heaven is clear from Mt. 16:27; 1 Cor. 3:11-15; Rom. 2:6; 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:9-11; 2 Tim. 4:14; Rev. 2:23; 22:12.

• That there are five horsemen of the first four seals of Revelation instead of four as generally taught? There are four, a white, a red, a black, and a pale (green) horse mentioned, and then the account says that “Hell followed with him,” that is, followed the green horse. If there are four with Hell following the fourth, then there must be five. Both Death and Hell are referred to here as being two separate entities, so must be symbolized by two separate horsemen Revelation 6:8.

• That the ten virgins do not represent any class of Christians of today? That they were ten young ladies who lived in the days of Christ is clear from the parable itself. Christ used this actual happening at a particular wedding in His day to illustrate “watchfulness” in the kingdom of Heaven at His second advent after the Tribulation. This is the point He was illustrating, as is clear from Mt. 25:13, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” In other words, you people in the kingdom of Heaven or realm of profession, as taught in Mt. 13, where tares and wheat and good and bad were in the same realm, should take a lesson from those ten virgins and not be slumbering and sleeping as they were. Every Christian living today will be either dead or alive at the time of the rapture, and at that time every Christian will go to Heaven before the Tribulation. They will not be on Earth after the Tribulation, but will come back with Christ to set up a kingdom in the world forever Zechariah 14:5. The first word in the parable of the ten virgins is “Then,” which proves the connection to be at the second coming of Christ after the Tribulation and not to the rapture before the Tribulation; hence if it refers in particular to that time, this parable of the virgins could not refer to any class of Christians today who will go before the Tribulation.

• That the seals, trumpets, and vials of Revelation are yet future? This is clear from the fact that all the events of Rev. 4-22 must be fulfilled after the rapture of the Church, as proven in Supplement Six, Question 6. If this be true then none of the seals, trumpets, vials, or any of the other events of Rev. 4-22 will happen before the rapture of the Church. Because the rapture is yet future and if these events must take place after the rapture then, they are also future.

• That the sun-clothed woman of Rev. 12 does not represent the Church? This is very clear, as proven from the fact that every event of Rev. 4:1 throughout the Revelation must be after the churches. This we have proven above in Point 8 and in Lesson Six, Question 6. Because the woman symbolizes something left on the Earth after the rapture. She could not symbolize the Church because the Church is gone at this time. She symbolizes national Israel, as we shall see in Lesson Forty-five.

• That the manchild of Rev. 12:5 does not symbolize Christ or the Church? The simple reason is that every thing from Rev. 4:1 on must be fulfilled after the rapture of the Church. Rev. 1:1 says that the whole book concerns things yet to come to pass from the time John saw them, hence to bring the historical ascension of Christ among these prophetic events that are yet future is unscriptural. See Lesson Forty-five for further proof.