“The Lord is inviting you. He's calling on you
now. He wants you to come forward and be baptized. Why don't you accept him?”
the preacher pleaded as the choir sang melodiously in the background.
Should I go forward and be baptized at this
time? I was sitting toward the back of the congregation during my first visit
to this particular church. The sanctuary was full, with around 150 people
present.
The pastor had preached boldly as he repeatedly
warned the congregation of the consequences of sin. At the end of the sermon, a
lively instrumental band began to play. When the preacher sang along with the
band, exhorting the listeners toward greater righteousness, most of the
congregation began to stand up.
The preacher then made his plea for the unsaved
to step forward and have their sins washed away in baptism. The choir modulated
to a higher key to increase the tension.
On most Sunday mornings I attended a Christian
church service prior to engaging in my ministry at the Venice Beach boardwalk.
I usually attended a different denomination each week in order to educate
myself regarding their various worship styles and beliefs. In my morning
meditation I sometimes received specific instructions telling me to attend a
certain congregation.
On this particular morning, I was directed to
go to the Peace Apostolic Christian Church, located in the Los Angeles suburb
of Inglewood. Not expecting anything special to happen to me at this church, I
was destined for a big surprise.
I had originally been invited to this church by
Dan, one of its members. Dan and I met one evening the previous week during
witnessing work for the Lord in a
local shopping mall. At the end of our interesting conversation, Dan invited me
to his church.
Invitation to Repent
of My Sins
The preacher continued his rousing baptismal
invitation. “Jesus is speaking to your heart right now”, he declared. “He is
beckoning you to commit yourself to him”.
I wondered whether I should step forward and be
baptized. I recalled Muriel stating that at some point in the future she would
conduct a baptismal service for the members of the New Lighted Way. I
rationalized that it would be best to wait until I met up with Muriel again and
was personally baptized by her.
“There is someone else here who has not
publicly confessed his faith”, the minister exhorted. “The Lord is calling on
you to wash your sins away. Come forward and accept his forgiveness”. The choir
sang even more intensely.
“Perhaps I should do it now”, I said to myself.
“No, not yet; this isn't the right place”, I countered.
Deciding to meditate on the matter, I closed my
eyes and tuned inward. Immediately I had a flash vision of a being like Jesus
Christ standing in front of me. He was dressed in a long white robe and held
out his arms. “Come unto me”, he beckoned.
I heard my mind confirm, “The time is now. Get
baptized!”
My stomach turned queasy. The palms of my hands
began to perspire.
But without further hesitation, I jumped to my
feet and walked nervously to the front.
The entire congregation cheered and shouted. “Hallelujah!”
“Praise the Lord!” “Hallelujah!”
As I was led into a changing room, my guts sank
into a nervous quiver. A deacon handed me a white baptismal robe. My initial
anxiety seemed to melt away as I put on the garment. In its place, excitement
blossomed at the prospect of being baptized.
The deacon led me to the baptistry at the very
front of the sanctuary. Stepping down a ladder, I eased into the icy water.
“Will Baron, do you repent of your sins and
accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal saviour?” the pastor asked.
“I do”, I replied, nodding my head.
It was not easy for me to listen to the words
of the preacher standing next to me in the water. Ever since I had left the
changing room, the inner voice of Jesus had been talking to me with power.
“There is a change of plan”, the voice
announced. “Do not go to Venice Beach this afternoon. Instead, witness to the
people at Carson Mall”.
The pastor raised his arm in the air.
“I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of your sins”.
“You have to do my work”, Jesus scolded.
I felt myself being pulled backward. Cascading
water flushed over my head.
The voice of Jesus was relentless. “By being baptized, you are now totally
committing yourself to do my work”, it emphasized sternly. “There is to be no
more hesitating, complaining, or procrastinating”.
I stumbled up the ladder out of the baptismal
tank.
“Go forth and minister with greater zeal”, Jesus commanded.
As I walked from the baptistry, members of the
church staff approached me.
“Praise the Lord, Brother Will”, they
congratulated as they shook my hand. “Hallelujah!” “Praise the Lord”.
Jesus continued his strict instructions: “You
are now to spend all of your spare time working for me”, he commanded. “Go down
to the mall and witness to those poor lost souls. Tell them about my soon
return and the glorious kingdom I will set up on this planet”.
In dripping attire, I was escorted back to the
changing room. After toweling and putting on my clothes, I left the room and
began walking down the corridor. An elderly, heavyset woman approached me.
“Now that you have been baptized, would you
like to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit?” she asked in a gentle voice.
I sensed that she must be some kind of church
elder. “Holy Spirit?” I responded, with a questioning frown.
“Yes. Now that you have been baptized of water,
you can be baptized of the Holy Ghost, if you ask for it”, she declared. “But
you must want to receive it”.
“You mean I can receive the Holy Spirit right
now? Here?” I inquired doubtfully.
“Yes, this is what the Bible promises. Everyone
at Peace Apostolic who has been baptized and who then asks for the gift of the
Holy Ghost has received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, as evidenced by the
speaking in tongues.
After a pause to catch her breath, the woman
repeated her question. “Do you want to receive the Holy Ghost?”
I focused inward to listen to my higher self. “Do
it”, I clearly heard.
“Yes, I'd like to receive the Holy Ghost”, I
told the woman.
She led me into what appeared to be the church
committee room, where I took a seat at a large polished wooden table. Telling
me she would return shortly, the woman walked out of the room.
My mind drifted back to when I first met Dan in
the mall a few days before. At the time, I was doing my mall witnessing
activity in the evening after work. When I first approached Dan, he was sitting
alone on a bench. I initially asked him if he were a Christian.
“Oh yes, I am a Christian. I am a born-again
believer, and I have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit”.
“Baptism of the Holy Spirit? What is that?” I
asked in surprise. “Do you mind if I talk to you about it?”
“No, I don't mind at all. I will be glad to
tell you about it. Sit down”, he invited.
“My name is Dan”, he said, introducing himself.
He proceeded to tell me how he accepted the Lord and how he later received the
baptism the Holy Spirit. He carefully explained that receiving the gift of
tongues was not the same thing as receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He
stressed that the gift of tongues was only an outward manifestation of the
gifts of the Spirit.
“Speaking in tongues is not the thing to desire”,
Dan emphasized. “The thing to desire is the baptism of the Holy Spirit”.
Finding the topic interesting, I bombarded him
with questions.
“You know, Will, when you have been baptized by
the Holy Spirit, unusual things can happen as the spirit works through you. For
example, it is not by accident that we have met one another. The Holy Spirit
brought us together”.
“Oh yes, I can appreciate that”, I responded.
Dan continued, “Five minutes ago I was walking
out of this mall, right out of that exit”. He pointed to a nearby exit. “All of
a sudden an inner voice told me to turn around and sit on one of the benches”.
I thought, Inner voice, hmm, that's interesting.
“I couldn't understand why I should go back and
sit down”, Dan commented. “But I could sense the Spirit prompting me. So I came
over to sit on this very bench. Just a few seconds after I sat down, you walked
up to me”.
I was fascinated. I hadn't realized that
regular Christians received instructions from inner voices just as I did.
“It was the Holy Spirit”, Dan affirmed. “He was
telling me to sit on this bench, because the Holy Spirit wanted us to meet. We
did not meet by chance; it was by divine intention. The Holy Spirit works in
mysterious ways”.
Deeply intrigued by Dan's claim to have been
baptized by the Holy Spirit, I asked, “Dan, tell me. How can I receive the
baptism of the Holy Spirit?”
He looked me straight in the eye and said
seriously, “You need to attend a church that has the Holy Spirit and believes
in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You won't receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit while among people who don't believe in it”.
Dan invited me to his church and left me with
directions on how to get there.
My attention suddenly returned to the committee
room at Peace Apostolic. The church elder had reentered the room, accompanied
by a younger woman, who proceeded to sit down at the opposite side of the
table. Apparently, this younger woman had just been baptized, and the two of us
appeared to be the candidates for receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The church elder seated herself at the head of
the table and handed each of us a King James Version Bible. Picking up her own
Bible, she started to leaf through its pages.
I thought to myself, I have had so many
mystical experiences as a devoted New Age Christian that I am sure God will
consider me a suitable candidate to receive the special gift of his Holy
Spirit.
The church elder began to speak.
“The Bible tells us that if we repent and are
baptized, we will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is promised in Acts
chapter two, verses thirty-eight and thirty-nine”.
She looked down at her Bible, adjusted the
positioning of her round-lensed spectacles, and read the two verses aloud. “Peter
said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are
afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (KJV).
She looked up at the young woman and me. “The
Bible promises the gift of the Holy Ghost to those who repent and have been
baptized. You have repented and are baptized. Shortly you will receive the gift
of the Holy Spirit. Everyone at Peace Apostolic who has been baptized and who
wants the gift of the Holy Ghost has received it. We have never had anyone who
has not received the gift”.
With that kind of guarantee, I started to
anticipate something marvelous happening.
The elderly lady continued to explain, “The
Bible tells us clearly that the evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost is the
ability to speak in tongues”. She then read Acts 2:4 and Acts 10:44-46.
My thoughts wandered back to the conversation
with Dan in the mall. I recalled his telling me that few Christians had
received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and that the gift was important.
The church elder quoted a couple more texts
related to the Holy Ghost and the speaking of tongues before asking us whether
we believed what we had just read. When we replied Yes, she stood up and asked
us to follow her into the sanctuary. It was deserted except for a small group
of young women standing near the front, who were identified as assisting
ministers.
The two of us were asked to kneel at the altar
rail. The young women surrounded us.
“In order to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”,
the elder instructed, “you have to thank Jesus for saving you. Say out loud,
'Thank you, Jesus.' Keep saying it until the Holy Ghost comes upon you.
Closing my eyes, I folded my hands and quietly
said, “Thank you, Jesus, for saving me”.
“Louder. And keep saying it”, the elder
encouraged.
“Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. Thank you,
Jesus, for saving me”, I repeated.
“Don't stop”, interjected one of the young
assisting ministers. “Keep repeating, 'Thank-you-Jesus.' 'Thank-you-Jesus.'”
“Thank-you-Jesus. Thank-you-Jesus”, I cried
out.
“Thank-you-Jesus, Thank-you-Jesus”.
“Thank-you-Jesus. Thank-you-Jesus”.
“Thank-you-Jesus. Thank-you-Jesus”.
I stalled to catch my breath.
“Don't stop!” another minister shouted. “Keep
saying it. Aren't you glad Jesus has saved you? Keep thanking him for it”.
I continued to repeat “Thank-you-Jesus” several
times over.
“Louder!” bellowed another assistant. “Shout at
the top of your voice. Tell Jesus how thankful you are. Come on, keep saying
it, 'Thank-you-Jesus.' 'Thank-you-Jesus.'”
The other candidate and I continued to repeat
the phrases we were instructed to shout.
The young assistants began to act like
cheerleaders, shouting encouragement and exhorting us to keep repeating “Thank-you-Jesus”.
Suddenly the crash of something falling
interrupted us. My eyes glanced open.
In the excitement, one of the assisting ministers
had accidentally fallen back against the pulpit, almost knocking it over. In
the commotion, the large wooden cross in front of the pulpit was knocked off
and crashed down upon the floor.
Quickly closing my eyes, I resumed thanking
Jesus for my deliverance from damnation. The cheerleaders continued their
exhortations as the sanctuary echoed with the din of our plea.
After what seemed like ages, my voice became
hoarse with fatigue. How can this be a “gift” from God if I must work so hard
for it? I wondered.
Immediately I countered this negative thought
with a positive one: While I am here, I should do everything I can to obey the
instructions; I should give it everything I've got.
“Thank you, Jesus”, I immediately shouted in earnest,
repeating it several times.
I recalled the statement made by the church
elder that every candidate at Peace Apostolic had received the baptism of the
Holy Spirit. I clung to the belief that if I kept doing as I was told, I would
eventually receive the gift.
After several more minutes of chanting, I had
difficulty speaking, as if my jaw were ready to go into some kind of spasm.
The elder and assistants became excited and
implored, “Let the words come. Don't resist; just let them out”.
I tried to speak, “Thank you, Jesus”, but
couldn't. My lips were quivering in an involuntary spasm.
The candidate next to me emitted a shrieking,
babbling sound, a bit like Swiss yodeling.
“Keep going. Don't stop”, an assistant blurted
as I momentarily lost concentration listening to the other candidate.
Disciplining myself to continue until I
received the gift, I noticed that the quivering of my throat soon changed into
an utterance in a language I couldn't identify. Soon it became easy for me to
speak out in this peculiar tongue. I felt as if I were channeling, just the way
I used to do in the Lighted Way channeling groups - but this time I was
channeling in an unknown language. I did not know what the words meant; the tongue
sounded something like I imagined Russian to sound.
I was relieved when it was over, for I felt
exhausted.
The sanctuary was silent. I opened my eyes. The
assisting ministers were picking up the wooden cross and securing it back in
place in front of the pulpit.
The elder was quietly kneeling beside me. I
asked her whether she understood the language of the Holy Spirit.
“No”, she calmly replied. Then she asked me
gently, “What are you going to do now?”
Without hesitation, I boldly replied, “I am
going to do the Lord's work. What
else is there to do?”
I was referring to the mall witnessing task
that the voice of Jesus had commanded me to carry out that afternoon. I got up
and left.
As I write this book, I can't help but compare
the experience at Peace Apostolic with a later baptism I received. This
water-immersion ceremony occurred a few months after the real Holy Spirit had
rescued me from the bondage of Satan and his evil web of deceit. On this latter
occasion, I was baptized into a relationship with the authentic Jesus Christ,
God and Son of the Father Most High.
As I entered the water, no voices hounded me to
do their work. I spent the entire day filled with the simple joy of peace in
the Lord. I was experiencing salvation by grace - salvation by faith in what
Jesus had done for me.
Commentary on Satan
and Gifts of the Spirit
When I spoke in tongues at Peace Apostolic
Church, it was obvious that the manifestation could not have been the work of
the Holy Spirit because I was a disciple of Satan. It also seems to me that the
methodology used by the Peace Apostolic Church to precipitate the “gift” of the
Holy Spirit is also non-scriptural. The repetitive shouting of “Thank you,
Jesus” is contrary to the admonition of Jesus in Matthew 6:7: “When you pray,
do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because
of their many words”.
You may be wondering whether Satan has the
power to counterfeit the gifts of the Holy Spirit - such as healing and
speaking in tongues - in our day.
Jesus stated that “false prophets will appear
and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect” (Mark 13:22).
Think back to the days of the prophet Elijah.
During the reign of King Ahab, God's prophet challenged 450 prophets of Baal to
a contest on Mount Carmel to prove who was the true God, Baal or the Lord. Each
contestant built a stone altar with wood and a sacrificial bull placed on it.
The prophets were then to take turns calling upon their God to bring fire down
from heaven to ignite their offering. The God who answered with fire would be
declared the true God.
The Baal prophets pleaded from morning till
evening. They even lacerated themselves with swords to make blood flow. But
Baal did not respond.
Elijah then had four large containers of water
poured on his offering. This was repeated twice. After his call to God, fire
came down and consumed not only the offering, but also the altar stones and all
the water.
Apparently in the Old Testament times, Satanic
power was restricted and could not match the power of God to bring fire down
from heaven.
Contrast this situation with the prophecies of
Revelation concerning the end times and the era of the Antichrist, symbolized
by the beast out of the earth.
John describes the beast:
“He performed great and miraculous signs, even
causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. Because of
the signs... he deceived the in habitants of the earth” (Revelation 13:13, 14).
The Bible seems to reveal that in the last
days, Satan will be allowed to duplicate powers that were once the special
prerogative of the Holy Spirit.
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Chapter 13
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Chapter 13
