The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

by R. A. Torrey

Our Lord in speaking of this baptism which they were so soon to receive in Luke xxiv. 49 said, “And [pg 180] 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.” And again He said in Acts i. 5, 8, “For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.... But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” In the record of the fulfillment of this promise of our Lord in Acts ii. 4, we read, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Then follows the detailed account of what Peter said and of the result. The result was that Peter and the other Apostles spoke with such power that three thousand persons that day were convicted of sin, renounced their sin and confessed their acceptance of Jesus Christ in baptism and continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayers ever afterwards. In the fourth chapter of Acts, the thirty-first to the thirty-third verses, we read that when the Apostles on another occasion were filled with the Holy Spirit, the result was that they “spake the word of God with boldness” and that “with great power gave the Apostles their witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” And in the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we have a description of Paul's being baptized with the Holy Spirit. We read in the seventeenth to the twentieth verses, “And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; [pg 181] and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened.... And straightway, he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God,” and in the twenty-second verse we read that he “confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ” (R. V.). In 1 Cor. xii. we have the fullest discussion of the baptism with the Holy Spirit found in any passage in the Bible. This is the classical passage on the whole subject. And the results there recorded are gifts for service. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not primarily intended to make believers happy, but to make them useful. It is not intended merely for the ecstasy of the individual believer, it is intended primarily for his efficiency in service. I do not say that the baptism with the Holy Spirit will not make the believer happy; for as part of the fruit of the Spirit is “joy,” if one is baptized with the Holy Spirit, joy must inevitably result. I have never known one to be baptized with the Holy Spirit into whose life there did not come, sooner or later, a new joy, a higher and purer and fuller joy than he had ever known before. But this is not the prime purpose of the baptism nor the most important and prominent result. Great emphasis needs to be laid upon this point, for there are many Christians who in seeking the [pg 182] baptism with the Spirit are seeking personal ecstasy and rapture. They go to conventions and conferences for the deepening of the Christian life and come back and tell what a wonderful blessing they have received, referring to some new ecstasy that has come into their heart, but when you watch them, it is difficult to see that they are any more useful to their pastors or their churches than they were before, and one is compelled to think that whatever they have received, they have not received the real baptism with the Holy Spirit. Ecstasies and raptures are all right in their places. When they come, thank God for them—the writer knows something about them—but in a world such as we live in to-day where sin and self-righteousness and unbelief are so triumphant, where there is such an awful tide of men, women and young people sweeping on towards eternal perdition, I would rather go through my whole life and never have one touch of ecstasy but have power to witness for Christ and win others for Christ and thus to save them, than to have raptures 365 days in the year but no power to stem the awful tide of sin and bring men, women and children to a saving knowledge of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The purpose of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is not primarily to make believers individually holy. I do not say that it is not the work of the Holy Spirit to make believers holy, for as we have already seen, He is “the Spirit of Holiness,” and the only way we shall ever attain unto holiness is by His power. I do not even say that the baptism with the Holy Spirit will not result in a great spiritual transformation and uplift and [pg 183] cleansing, for the promise is, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (and the thought of fire as used in this connection is the thought of searching, refining, cleansing, consuming). A wonderful transformation took place in the Apostles at Pentecost, and a wonderful transformation has taken place in thousands who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit since Pentecost, but the primary purpose of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is efficiency in testimony and service. It has to do rather with gifts for service than with graces of character. It is the impartation of spiritual power or gifts in service and sometimes one may have rare gifts by the Spirit's power and yet manifest few of the graces of the Spirit. (See 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3; Matt. vii. 22, 23.) In every passage in the Bible in which the baptism with the Holy Spirit is mentioned, it is connected with testimony or service.

We shall perhaps get a clearer idea of just what the baptism with the Holy Spirit is, if we stop to consider what are the results of the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

What are the results of the baptism with the Holy Spirit?

1. The specific manifestations of the baptism with the Holy Spirit are not precisely the same in all persons. This appears very clearly from 1 Cor. xii. 4-13, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit [pg 184] withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kind of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” Here we see one baptism but a great variety of manifestations of the power of that baptism. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. The gifts vary with the different lines of service to which God calls different persons. The church is a body, and different members of the body have different functions and the Spirit imparts to the one who is baptized with the Spirit those gifts which fit him for the service to which God has called him. It is very important to bear this in mind. Through the failure to see this, many have gone entirely astray on the whole subject. In my early study of the subject, I noticed the fact that in many instances those who were baptized with the Holy Spirit spake with tongues (e. g., Acts ii. 4; x. 46; xix. 6) and I wondered if every one who was baptized with the Holy Spirit would not speak with tongues. I did not know of any one who was speaking with [pg 185] tongues to-day and so I wondered still further whether the baptism with the Holy Spirit were for the present age. But one day I was studying 1 Cor. xii. and noticed how Paul said to the believers in that wonderfully gifted church in Corinth, all of whom had been pronounced in the thirteenth verse to be baptized with the Spirit, “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gift of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” So I saw it was clearly taught in the Scriptures that one might be baptized with the Holy Spirit and still not have the gift of tongues. I saw furthermore that the gift of tongues, according to the Scripture, was the last and the least important of all the gifts, and that we were urged to desire earnestly the greater gifts (1 Cor. xiii. 31; 1 Cor. xiv. 5, 12, 14, 18, 19, 27, 28). A little later I was tempted to fall into another error, more specious but in reality just as unscriptural as this, namely, that if one were baptized with the Holy Spirit, he would receive the gift of an evangelist. I had read the story of D. L. Moody, of Charles G. Finney and of others who were baptized with the Holy Spirit, and of the power that came to them as evangelists, and the thought was suggested that if any one is baptized with the Holy Spirit will not he also obtain power as an evangelist? But this was also unscriptural. If God has called a man to be an evangelist and he is baptized [pg 186] with the Holy Spirit, he will receive power as an evangelist, but if God has called him to be something else, he will receive power to become something else. Three great evils come from the error of thinking that every one who is baptized with the Holy Spirit will receive power as an evangelist.

(1) The evil of disappointment. There are many who seek the baptism with the Holy Spirit expecting power as an evangelist, but God has not called them to that work, and though they really meet the conditions of receiving the baptism with the Spirit, and do receive the baptism with the Spirit, power as an evangelist does not come. In many cases this results in bitter disappointment and sometimes even in despair. The one who has expected the power of an evangelist and has not received it sometimes even questions whether he is a child of God. But if he had properly understood the matter, he would have known that the fact that he had not received power as an evangelist is no proof that he has not received the baptism with the Spirit, and much less is it a proof that he is not a child of God.

(2) The second evil is graver still, namely, the evil of presumption. A man whom God has not called to the work of an evangelist or a minister oftentimes rushes into it because he has received, or imagines he has received, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. He thinks all a man needs to become a preacher is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. This is not true. In order to succeed as a minister a man needs a call to that specific work, and furthermore, he needs that knowledge [pg 187] of God's Word that will prepare him for the work. If a man is called to the ministry and studies the Word until he has something to preach, if then he is baptized with the Holy Spirit, he will have success as a preacher, but if he is not called to that work, or if he has not the knowledge of the Word of God that is necessary, he will not succeed in the work, even though he receives the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

(3) The third evil is greater still, namely, the evil of indifference. There are many who know that they are not called to the work of preaching. If then they think that the baptism with the Holy Spirit simply imparts power as an evangelist, or power to preach, the matter of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is one of no personal concern to them. For example, here is a mother with a large family of children. She knows perfectly well, or at least it is hoped that she knows, that she is not called to do the work of an evangelist. She knows that her duty lies with her children and her home. If she reads or hears about the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and gets the impression that the baptism with the Holy Spirit simply imparts power to do the work of an evangelist, or to preach, she will think “The evangelist needs this blessing, my minister needs this blessing, but it is not for me”; but if she understands the matter as it is taught in the Bible, that while the baptism with the Spirit imparts power, the way in which the power will be manifested depends entirely upon the line of work to which God calls us, and that no efficient work can be done without it, and sees still further that there [pg 188] is no function in the church of Jesus Christ to-day more holy and sacred than that of sanctified motherhood, she will say, “The evangelist may need this baptism, my minister may need this baptism; but I must have it to bring up my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

2. While there are diversities of gifts and manifestations of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, there will be some gift to every one thus baptized. We read in 1 Cor. xii. 7, R. V., “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal.” Every most insignificant member of the body of Christ has some function to perform in that body. The body grows by that “which every joint supplieth” (Eph. iv. 16), and to each least significant joint, the Holy Spirit imparts power to perform the function that belongs to him.

3. It is the Holy Spirit who decides how the baptism with the Spirit shall manifest itself in any given case. As we read in 1 Cor. xii. 11, “But all these worketh the one and the selfsame Spirit dividing to each one severally, even as He will.” The Holy Spirit is absolutely sovereign in deciding how, that is, in what special gift, operation, or power, the baptism with the Holy Spirit shall manifest itself. It is not for us to pick out some field of service and then ask the Holy Spirit to qualify us for that service. It is not for us to select some gift and then ask the Holy Spirit to impart to us this self-chosen gift. It is for us to simply put ourselves entirely at the disposal of the Holy Spirit to send us where He will, to select for us what kind of [pg 189] service He will and to impart to us what gift He will. He is absolute sovereign and our position is that of unconditional surrender to Him. I am glad that this is so. I rejoice that He, in His infinite wisdom and love, is to select the field of service and the gifts, and that this is not to be left to me in my short-sightedness and folly. It is because of the failure to recognize this absolute sovereignty of the Spirit that many fail of the blessing and meet with disappointment. They are trying to select their own gift and so get none. I once knew an earnest child of God in Scotland, who hearing of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the power that resulted from it, gave up at a great sacrifice his work as a ship plater, for which he was receiving large wages. He heard that there was a great need of ministers in the northwest in America. He came to the northwest. He met the conditions of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and I believe was really baptized with the Holy Spirit, but God had not chosen him for the work of an evangelist, and the power as an evangelist did not come to him. No field seemed to open, and he was in great despondency. He even questioned his acceptance before God. One morning he came into our church in Minneapolis and heard me speak upon the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and as I pointed out that the baptism with the Holy Spirit manifested itself in many different ways, and the fact that one had not power as an evangelist was no proof that he had not received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, light came into his heart. He put himself unreservedly into God's hands for Him to choose the field of labour and the [pg 190] gifts. An opening soon came to him as a Sunday-school missionary, and then, when he had given up choosing for himself and left it with the Holy Spirit to divide to him as He would, a strange thing happened; he did receive power as an evangelist and went through the country districts in one of our northwestern states with mighty power as an evangelist.