The Holy Spirit In The Second Great Awakening

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Luke tells us in Acts 1:4 that before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He commanded the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.” Verse 14 reports that when they returned to Jerusalem, they and other believers joined together constantly in prayer. Being filled with the Holy Spirit follows an earnest seeking of Him and desire to receive. The disciples waited with expectation; they had a faith-filled determination to see what Jesus foretold come to pass. I think that this applies to us today as well. One who desires to be filled with the Holy Spirit must pursue it with a kind of relentless …show more content…

Finney, who would later become a leader in the second Great Awakening, relates how he “received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost... The Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy… " Dwight L. Moody as well experienced immeasurable joy to the extent that he thought he would die from being so overcome.

Sister Ann Shields, a Charismatic Catholic, recounts in her book More of the Holy Spirit, how she desperately sought more of God, though initially skeptical of the “Holy Spirit fad,” and was filled with the Spirit.

I experienced something like a pitcher of water being poured over my head- only instead of water, it was joy! “Lord,” I said, “What is this?” “It is my Holy Spirit given to you to lead you safely home to me.” In my usual pragmatic way, I thought this joy would not last. But… let me say, unequivocally, that it has never left me! Oh, it ebbs and flows, depending on the circumstances of daily life. But it has never left- not for forty-two years! This testimony is beautifully evocative of the “anointing with the oil of joy,” of Psalm 45:7, and reflects the nature of the experience. Spirit baptism is not a transitory spiritual high, but an enduring change in desire and attitude.

Evidence of Spirit

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