The power of God now has this city agitated as never before. Pentecost has surely come and with it the Bible evidences are following, many being converted and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues as they did on the day of Pentecost. The scenes that are daily enacted in the building on Azusa street and at Missions and Churches in other parts of the city are beyond description, and the real revival has only started, as God has been working with His children mostly, getting them through to Pentecost, and laying the foundation for a mighty wave of salvation among the unconverted.
The meetings are held in an old Methodist church that had been converted in part into a tenement house, leaving a larger unplastered, barn-like room on the ground floor. Here about a dozen congregated each day, holding meetings on Bonnie Brae in the evening. The writer attended a few of these meetings and being so different from anything he had seen and not hearing any speaking in tongues, he branded the teaching as third-blessing heresy, and thought that settled it. It is needless to say the writer was compelled to do a great deal of apologizing and humbling himself to get right with God.
In a short time God began to manifest His power and soon the building could not contain the people. Now the meetings continue all day and into the night and the fire is kindling all over the city and surrounding towns. Proud, well dressed preachers come into "investigate." Soon their high looks are replaced with wonder, then conviction came, and very often you will find them in a short time wallowing on the dirty floor, asking God to forgive them and make them as little children.
It would be impossible to state how many have been converted, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost. They have been and are daily going out to all points of the compass to spread this wonderful gospel.
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BRO. SEYMORE'S CALL.
Bro. W. J. Seymour has the following to say in regard to his call to this city:
"It was the divine call that brought me from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles. The Lord put it in the heart of some of the saints in Los Angeles to write to me that she felt the Lord would have me come over here and do a work,and l came, for I felt it was the leading of the Lord. The Lord sent the means,and I came to take charge of a mission on Santa Fe Street, and one night they locked the door against me, and afterwards got Bro. Roberts, the president of the Holiness Association, to come down and settle the doctrine of the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, that it was simply sanctification. He came down and a good many holiness preachers with him, and they stated that sanctification was the baptism with the Holy Ghost. But yet they did not have the evidence at the second chapter of Acts, for when the disciples were all filled with the Holy Ghost, they spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. After the president heard me speak of what the true baptism of the Holy Ghost was, he said he wanted it too, and told me that when I had received it to let him know. So I received it and let him know. The beginning of the Pentecost started in a cottage prayer meeting at 214 Bonnie Brae."
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LETTER FROM BRO. PARHAM.
Bro. Charles Parham, who is God's leader in the Apostolic Faith Movement, writes from Tonganoxio, Kansas, that he expects (D.V.) to be in Los Angeles Sept. 15. Hearing that Pentecost had come to Los Angeles, he writes,
"I rejoice in God over you all, my children, though I have never seen you; but since you know the Holy Spirit's power, we are baptized by one Spirit into one body. Keep together in unity till I come, then in a grand meeting let all prepare for the outside fields. I desire, unless God directs to the contrary, to meet and to see all who have the full gospel when I come."
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THE OLD-TIME PENTECOST.
This work began about five years ago last January, when a company of people under the leadership of Chas. Parham, who were studying God's word tarried for Pentecost, in Topeka, Kan. After searching through the country everywhere, they had been unable to find any Christians that had the true Pentecostal power. So they laid aside all commentaries and notes and waited on the Lord, studying His word, and what they did not understand they got down before the bench and asked God to have wrought out in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. They had a prayer tower in which prayers were ascending night and day to God. After three months, a sister who had been teaching sanctification for the baptism with the Holy Ghost, one who had a sweet, loving experience and all the carnality taken out of her heart, felt the Lord lead her to have hands laid on her to receive the Pentecost. So when they prayed, the Holy Ghost came in great power and she commenced speaking in an unknown tongue. This made all the Bible school hungry,and three nights afterward, twelve students received the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, and cloven tongues could be seen upon their heads. They then had an experience that measured up with the second chapter of Acts, and could understand the first chapter of Ephesians.
Now after five years something like 13,000 people have received this gospel. It is spreading everywhere, until churches who do not believe backslide and lose the experience they have. Those who are old in this movement are stronger, and greater signs and wonders are following them.
The meetings in Los Angeles started in a cottage meeting, and the Pentecost fell there three nights. The people had nothing to do but wait on the Lord and praise Him, and they commenced speaking in tongues, as they did at Pentecost,and the Spirit sang songs through them.
The meeting was then transferred to Azusa Street, and since then multitudes have been coming. The meetings begin about ten o'clock in the morning and can hardly stop before ten or twelve at night, and sometimes two or three in the morning, because so many are seeking, and some are slain under the power of God. People are seeking three times a day at the altar and row after row of seats have to be emptied and filled with seekers. We cannot tell how many people have been saved, and sanctified, and baptized with the Holy Ghost, and healed of all manner of sicknesses. Many are speaking in new tongues, and some are on their way to the foreign fields, with the gift of the language. We are going on to getmore of the power of God.
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Many have laid aside their glasses and had their eye sight perfectly restored. The deaf have had their hearing restored.
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A man was healed of asthma of twenty years standing. Many have been healed of heart trouble and lung trouble.
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Many are saying that God has given the message that He is going to shake Los Angeles with an earthquake. First, there will be a revival to give all an opportunity to be saved. The revival is now in progress.
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The Lord has given the gift of writing in unknown languages, also the gift of playing on instruments.
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A little girl who walked with crutches and had tuberculosis of the bones, as the doctors declared, was healed and dropped her crutches and began to skip about the yard.
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All over this city, God has been setting homes on fire and coming down and melting and saving and sanctifying and baptizing with the Holy Ghost.
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Many churches have been praying for Pentecost, and Pentecost has come. The question is now, will they accept it? God has answered in away they did not look for. He came in a humble way as of old, born in a manger.
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The secular papers have been stirred and published reports against the movement, but it has only resulted in drawing hungry souls who understand that the devil would not fight a thing unless God was in it. So they have come and found it was indeed the power of God.
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Jesus was too large for the synagogue. He preached outside because there was not room for him inside. This Pentecostal movement is too large to be confined in any denomination or sect. It works outside, drawing all together in one bond of love, one church, one body ofChrist.
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A Mohammedan, a Soudanese by birth, a man who is an interpreter and speaks sixteen languages, came into the meetings at Azusa Street andthe Lord gave him messages which none but himself could understand. He identified, interpreted and wrote a number of the languages.
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A brother who had been a spiritualist medium and who was so possessed with demons that he had no rest, and was on the point of committing suicide, was instantly delivered of demon power. He then sought God for the pardon of his sins and sanctification, and is now filled with a different spirit.
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A little girl about twelve years of age was sanctified in a Sunday afternoon children's meeting, and in the evening meeting she was baptized with the Holy Ghost. When she was filled those standing near remarked, "Who can doubt such a clear case of God's power."
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In about an hour and a half, a young man was converted, sanctified,and baptized with the Holy Ghost, and spoke with tongues. He was also healed from consumption, so that when he visited the doctor he pronounced his lungs sound. He has received many tongues, also the gift of prophecy, and writing in a number of foreign languages, and has a call to a foreign field.
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Many are the prophesies spoken in unknown tongues and many the visions that God is giving concerning His soon coming. The heathen must first receive the gospel. One prophecy given in an unknown tongue was interpreted, "The time is short, and I am going to send out alarge number in the Spirit of God to preach the full gospel in the power of the Spirit."
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About 160 people in Los Angeles, more than on the day of Pentecost, have received the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Bible evidence, the gift of tongues, and many have been saved and sanctified, nobody knows how many. People are seeking at the altar three times a day and it is hard to close at night on account of seekers and those who are under the power of God.
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When Pentecostal lines are struck, Pentecostal giving commences. Hundreds of dollars have been laid down for the sending of missionaries and thousands will be laid down. No collections are taken for rent, no begging for money. No man's silver or gold is coveted. The silver and the gold are His own to carry on his own work. He can also publish his own papers without asking for money or subscription price.
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In the meetings, it is noticeable that while some in the rear are opposing and arguing, others are at the alter falling down under the power of God and feasting on the good things of God. The two spirits are always manifest, but no opposition can kill, no power in earth or hell can stop God's work, while He has consecrated instruments through which to work.
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Many have received the gift of singing as well as speaking in the inspiration of the Spirit. The Lord is giving new voices, he translates old songs into new tongues, he gives the music that are being sung by the angels and has a heavenly choir all singing the same heavenly song in harmony. It is beautiful music, no instruments are needed in the meetings.
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A Nazarene brother who received the baptism with the Holy Ghost in him own home in family worship, in trying to tell about it, said, "It was a baptism of love. Such abounding love! Such compassion seemed to almost kill me with its sweetness! People do not know what they are doing when they stand out against it. The devil never gave me a sweet thing, he was always trying to get me to censuring people. This baptism fills me with divine love"
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The gift of languages is given with the commission, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." The Lord has given languages to the unlearned Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Zulu and languages of Africa, Hindu and Bengali and dialects of India, Chippewa and other languages of the Indians, Esquimaux, the deaf mute language and, in fact the Holy Ghost speaks all the languages of the world through His children.
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A minister says that God showed him twenty years ago that the divine plan for missionaries was that they might receive the gift of tongues either before going to the foreign field or on the way. It should be a sign to the heathen that the message is of God. The gift of languages can only be viewed as the Spirit gives utterance. It cannot be learned like the native tongues, but the Lord takes control of the organs of speech at will. It is emphatically, God's message.
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During a meeting at Monrovia, a preacher who at one time had been used of God in the Pentecost Bands under Vivian Dake, but had cooled off, was reclaimed, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. When the power of God came on him his eight-year-old son was kneeling behind him. The boy had previously sought and obtained a clear heart,and when the Holy Ghost fell on him father, He also fell on him and his hands began to shake and he sang in tongues.
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Bro. Campbell, a Nazarene brother, 83 years of age, who had been for 53 years serving the Lord, received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and gift of tongues in his own home. His son, who was a physician, was called and came to see if he was sick, but found him only happy in the Lord. Not only old men and old women, but, boys and girls, are receiving their Pentecost. Viola Price, a little orphan colored girl eight years of age, has received the gift of tongues.
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Mrs. Lucy F. Farrow, God's anointed handmaid, who came some four months ago from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles, bringing the full Gospel, and whom God has greatly used as she laid her hands on many who have received the Pentecost and the gift of tongues, has now returned to Houston, en route to Norfolk, Va. This is her old home which she left as a girl, being sold into slavery in the south. the Lord she feels, is now calling her back. Sister farrow, Bro. W.J. Seymour and Bro. J.A. Warren were the three that the Lord sent from Houston as messengers of the full gospel.
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THE APOSTOLIC FAITH
312 Azusa Street
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Published by THE APOSTOLIC FAITH MOVEMENT of Los Angeles.
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Address all communications to the Apostolic Faith, 312 Azusa street.
As we have no paid subscription list we are not entitled to second-class postage rates. Papers will be sent to any address in quantities needed, as the Lord furnishes the means.
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THE APOSTOLIC FAITH MOVEMENT.
Stands for the restoration of the faith once delivered unto the saints-the old time religion, camp meetings, revivals, missions, street and prison work and Christian Unity everywhere.
Teaching on Repentance-Mark 1:14, 15.
Godly Sorrow for Sin, Example-9.13" class="scriptRef">Matt. 9:13. 2 Cor. 7, 9, 11. Acts 3:19. Acts 17:30, 31.
Of Confession of Sins-Luke 13:21 and Luke 18:13.
Forsaking Sinful Ways-Isa. 55:7. Jonah 3:8. Prov. 28:13.
Restitution-Ezek. 33:15. Luke 19:8.
And faith in Jesus Christ.
First Work.-Justification is that act of God's free grace by which we receive remission of sins. Acts 10:42, 43. Rom. 3:25.
Second Work.-Sanctification is the second work of grace and the last work of grace. Sanctification is that act of God's free grace by which He makes us holy. 17.15" class="scriptRef">John 17:15, 17.-"Sanctify them through Thy Truth; Thy word is truth." 1 Thess. 4:3; 1 Thess 5:23: Heb. 13:12; Heb. 2:11; Heb. 12:14.
Sanctification is cleansing to make holy. The Disciples were sanctified before the Day of Pentecost. By a careful study of Scripture you will find it is so now. "Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you" (John 15:3; 13:10); and Jesus had breathed on them the Holy Ghost (John 20:21, 22). You know, that they could not receive the Spirit if they were not clean. Jesus cleansed and got all doubt out of His Church before He went back to glory.
The Baptism with the Holy Ghost is a gift of power upon the sanctified life; so when we get it we have the same evidence as the Disciples received on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:3,4), in speaking in new tongues. See also Acts 10:45, 46; Acts 19:6; 1 Cor. 14:21. **** days which ye will not believe though it be told you."-Heb. 1:5.
Seeking Healing.-He must believe that God is able to heal.-Ex. 15:26: "I am the Lord that healeth thee." James 5:14; Psa. 103:3; 2 Kings 20:5; 16-Matt.8.17" class="scriptRef">Matt. 8:16, 17; Mark 16; 16, 17, 18.
He must believe God is able to heal. "Behold I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there any thing too hard for Me!"-Jer. 32:27.
Too many have confused the grace of Sanctification with the endowment of Power, or the Baptism with the Holy Ghost; others have taken "the anointing that abideth" for the Baptism, and failed to reach the glory and power of a true Pentecost.
The blood of Jesus will never blot out any sin between man and man they can make right; but if we can't make wrongs right the Blood graciously covers. (Matt. 5:23, 24).
We are not fighting men or churches, but seeking to displace dead forms and creeds and wild fanaticisms with living, practical Christianity. "Love, Faith, Unity" are our watchwords, and "Victory through the Atoning Blood" our battle cry. God's promises are true. He said: "Be thou faithful over a few things, and I will make thee ruler over many." From the little handful of Christians who stood by the cross when the testings and discouragements came, God has raised a mighty host.
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An editor is Salem, Ore., Rev. M.L. Ryan, writes: "When I finished reading in your letter of what God was doing in Los Angeles, I fell on my knees and agonized Godward a bursting soul of appreciation; a great and blessed conviction seized me, and I rushed out of the office shouting and praising God. The fire had struck my soul. I then read the wonderful works of God in Los Angeles to others and a little crowd gathered around me; they too caught the fire of the spirit in the letter and some shouted and some wept.
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The disciples were looking for Jesus to set up His millennial kingdom at His first coming, and they expected to reign with Him there in Jerusalem. They asked Him when they went out to the Mount of Olives, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said, "It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father bath in his own power; but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." When they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, He would teach them things to come. Dear ones, do not puzzle yourselves by theorizing, but tarry in Jerusalem, and the Spirit will throw light upon God's word and you will see it just as it is. He will reveal the whole word from Genesis to Revelations.
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THE PRECIOUS ATONEMENT.
Children of God, partakers of the precious atonement, let us study and see what there is in it for us.
First. Through the atonement we receive forgiveness of sins.
Second. We receive sanctification through the blood of Jesus. "Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." Sanctified from all original sin, we become sons of God. "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Heb. 2:11. (It seems that Jesus would be ashamed to call them brethren, if they were not sanctified.) Then you will not be ashamed to tell men and demons that you are sanctified, and are living a pure and holy life free from sin, a life that gives you power over the world, the flesh, and the devil. The devil does not like that kind of testimony. Through this precious atonement, we have freedom from all sin, though we are living in this old world, we are permitted to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Third. Healing of our bodies. Sickness and disease are destroyed through the precious atonement of Jesus. O how we ought to honor the stripes of Jesus, for "with his stripes we are healed." How we ought to honor that precious body which the Father sanctified and sent into the world, not simply set apart, but really sanctified, soul, body and spirit, free from sickness, disease and everything of the devil. A body that knew no sin and disease was given for these imperfect bodies of ours. Not only is the atonement for the sanctification of our souls, but for the sanctification of our bodies from inherited disease. It matters not what has been in the blood. Every drop of blood we received from our mother is impure. Sickness is born in a child just as original sin is born in the child. He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Every sickness is of the devil.
Man in the garden of Eden was pure and happy and knew no sickness till that unholy visitor came into the garden, then his whole system was poisoned and it has been flowing in the blood of all the human family down the * till God spoke to his people and said, "I am the Lord that healeth thee." The children of Israel practiced divine healing. David, after being healed of rheumatism, (perhaps contracted in the caves where he hid himself from his pursuers,) testified saying, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." David knew what it was to be healed. Healing continued with God's people till Solomon's heart was turned away by strange wives, and he brought in the black arts and mediums, and they went whoring after familiar spirits. God had been their healer, but after they lost the Spirit, they turned to the arm of flesh to find something to heal their diseases.
Thank God, we have a living Christ among us to heal our diseases. He will heal every case. The prophet had said, "With his stripes we are healed," and it was fulfilled when Jesus came. Also "He hath borne our griefs," (which means sickness, as translators tell us.) Now if Jesus bore our sicknesses, why should we bear them? So we get full salvation through the atonement of Jesus.
Fourth. And we get the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire upon the sanctified life. We get Christ enthroned and crowned in our hearts. Let us lift up Christ to the world in all His fullness, not only in healing and salvation from all sin, but in His power to speak all the languages of the world. We need the triune God to enable us to do this.
We that are the messengers of this precious atonement ought to preach all of it, justification, sanctification, healing, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and signs following. "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" God is now confirming His word by granting signs and wonders to follow the preaching of the full gospel in Los Angeles.
W.J. Seymour.
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GOOD NEWS SPREADS.
People from all over the country are sending in letters of inquiry, having heard that Pentecost has come to Los Angeles. Some have come long distances and report that the half had not been told them. Through this paper we answer inquiries, as it would be impossible to write to each. Souls are hungry all over the land.
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TONGUES AS A SIGN.
Man is a fallen creature, and as such cannot receive the things of the kingdom of heaven, because they are spiritual and "foolishness unto him." He must be born again to understand God and His word. God recognizes this, and all through the ages has granted signs and wonders to awaken man from his spiritual death and turn him to seeking after God.
If you will turn to Mark 16:14, you will read as follows: "Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen." You see that after these men had been personally with Jesus for something like three years, and had witnessed His mighty power in raising the dead and performing all manner of miracles, in a few hours after His crucification, had allowed Satan to harden their hearts and fill them with unbelief. They were also sanctified, as we read in John 17:17, Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." This prayer was undoubtedly answered, as Jesus never prayed in vain. In John 15:3, we read, "Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." In John 20:22, we read, "And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost." By comparing the gospel of Mark referred to above with this message from John just quoted, we believe both utterances of Jesus were made at the same meeting of the disciples and after He had upbraided them for their hardness of heart, He breathed on them the Holy Ghost to sustain them until Pentecost. They were anointed, as many sanctified souls are today while seeking a real, personal Pentecost.
Jesus at this time also said to them (Mark 16:16, 17), "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues." Here a belief and baptism are spoken of, and the sign or evidence given to prove that you possess that belief and baptism. This scripture plainly declares that these signs SHALL follow them that believe.
We also read in Paul's epistles to the Corinthians that he speaks of nine specific gifts in the Holy Ghost. We also find in searching the word that eight of these gifts were in the church before the Day of Pentecost, the gift of tongues on this day being the power that startled the multitude.
"Now, when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, (marginal reading, troubled in mind) because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled saying one to another, behold are not all these which speak Gallileans? And how hear we every man in his own tongue, wherein we were born? And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are filled with new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and harken to my words: for these are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams."-Acts 2:6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
In Luke 24:49, Jesus told His disciples to "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."
"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. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. 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 Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."-Acts 1:4-8.
They obeyed this command, and Acts 2:4 states, "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." We see here that they ALL spoke in other tongues.
If you will now turn to Acts 10 and read the story of Peter and Cornelius, you will see that the speaking in tongues was the sign or evidence to Peter that the Gentiles had received the Holy Ghost. Peter preached the Word, and they were cleansed through the Word, as the disciples before the Day of Pentecost. This was a hard dose for Peter to take, he being a Jew and having been taught that the Gentiles were dogs and unclean. God had previously given Peter a vision of a great sheet let down from heaven, filled with all manner of unclean animals, with the command, "Rise, Peter, slay and eat." The preaching of Jesus to the Gentiles was part of the eating, but Peter obeyed, and Pentecostal signs followed (Acts 10:46): "For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God."
If you will now turn to Acts 19:1-6, you will find that about twenty-nine years after Pentecost, Paul found some disciples at Ephesus that had not received their Pentecost. He preached the Word and explained to them their great privileges in the gospel, "And when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them: and they spoke with tongues and prophecised."-Acts 19:6.
How foolish so many of us have been in the clear light of God's Word. We have been running off with blessings and anointings with God's power, instead of tarrying until Bible evidence of Pentecost came.
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