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What is a Pentecostal Christian?


What is a Pentecostal Christian?

Have you ever heard of a “Holy Roller”?  You know one of those people who go to a church where they swing from chandlers, jump pews, and shout in church.  Oh and they “speak in tongues”.  Well, indeed I have!  I am one of those “Pentecostal Christians”. I want to give you an opportunity to know about Pentecostals from a Pentecostal perspective.  My purpose is not to be defensive about my beliefs or offensive towards anyone with opposing beliefs.  So here goes!

The word “Pentecost” was associated with a feast that was associated with the harvest time in ancient Israel.  The word actually means ‘fifty” and it was a feast that happened fifty days after the Passover.  The Priests would wave the first sheaves of wheat in celebration of the anticipated harvest. The observance of this feast gave the Jews an opportunity to declare their faith and trust in God to give them the strength to bring the full harvest in and to give them abundant yields.

This feast was a picture that foreshadowed a different kind of harvest, the harvest of souls for the Kingdom of God.  God’s highest priority is that all people have the opportunity to have a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. People who haven’t received Christ’s gift of salvation are the anticipated harvest.  Just as the harvesters in Israel needed strength and confidence to harvest their crops Christians today need the same to reap the spiritual harvest.

Jesus is the Lord of the Harvest and he told his disciples to wait in an upper room in Jerusalem for power from the Holy Sprit that would be sent to them as a promise from the Father.  Fifty days after his crucifixion the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples and they began to speak in languages that they hadn’t learned before.  The main harvest tool for harvesting in the Kingdom of God is in the spoken word.  Jesus gave power and confidence to His disciples by immersing them with the Holy Spirit.  He enabled them to speak in languages that were unknown to them so that they could speak the wonderful works of God to the people who hadn’t heard so that they would receive Christ as their Savior.

The most important purpose for me as a Pentecostal Christian is that I be immersed in the power of the Holy Spirit so that I can have the ability to live a life of consistent Christian character.  True Christian character is a true witness to Christ and sets up a platform of credibility for me to speak.  This power is supernatural and the word “awesome” doesn’t’ really do it justice.  The work of harvesting is not a work that can be done as a result of natural talent or human ingenuity.  It absolutely requires the power of the Holy Spirit.

To sum this up Pentecostals are people who have waited for and received power from God to do the work of harvesting souls. May we continue to receive power so that we can testify to the wonderful works of God in our lives!  If being a “Holy Roller” is indicative of receiving Christ’s holiness through his blood and getting my name written in the Lamb’s book of life…then count me in!

There is a lot more to say on this subject and I will take it up more in articles to come.  Next, I will talk about how the modern day Pentecostal church began and why we put such a great emphasis on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So stay tuned.

Comments

  1. ologyi42ps22March 5, 2015 at 1:10 PM

    The picture you have is very close to mine, adding a few years. A little further back, the pentecostals did not know what to do with this great power, other than to let 'er rip! And so they did. It was wonderful! But the more intimate they became with the person of the Holy Spirit the more they began to understand how to relate to Him. In 1983 as I discussed many subjects with fellow classmates on the UNLV campus, heard a great deal about the discovery of some genetic identification. The more I thought about this, the more I began to wonder if we had a gene for our Spirit. I discussed it with some of my more erudite Christian friends like discussing it with me. From my own experience, I knew
    fiber of my being and still does. So how could He just visit in my belly or loins or mind or heart. He was everywhere and part of me. It is probably more like me being a part of Him. My genes are in every DNA strand and one of those Genes is the Holy Spirit. Also, in the 2000's my students brought me internet pictures of laminin cells, all shaped like the cross. Fascinating. So I roughly sketched out how I see it and this Pamology helps me to see how God works in me. His Spirit in me connects me to Him everywhere now.
    Heroes the mind bender: We all have the God gene. It was here when the world was created and it will be when it no longer exists, because it is God. God had a plan. When He created this planet, He and Jesus and the Holy Spirit as one, collaborated and created everything together. All carbon- based. Everything in existence outside of God is created by God and is carbon-based.
    Fifty days after Jesus ascended into heaven, He sent The Holy Spirit to live in us. And at salvation, that happens. The gene is already there, but He wakes it up at our belief in and acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah and Lord of all. Here is where Christians begin to to be taught by the Holy Spirit. As it is says in Hebrews 8:10 “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.” Even as Christians read the Bible, truths are revealed to them that no man has taught them. They are given wisdom and understanding “supernaturally”.
    But maybe not. Maybe the direct line to that wisdom was always there in that God gene. So supernatural may be natural. A physical presence in one of our genes that is God’s Spirit. This gene was designed to hold His Spirit and work within us. Thus we are eternally connected. If we do not accept His Son as Lord of all, then He just doesn’t wake His gene.
    There is one more step to this question. It’s what is called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. So if this gene exists in our physical DNA strand, and if it is God, then as He taught his disciples, he gave them truly supernatural power to overcome demons, and death, and sickness, and all the negative emotions and sins. Sporadically as needed, and in abundance after the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This experience, God revealed step by step in the Book of Acts. The bottom line is this:
    If one is baptized in the Holy Spirit, the God gene works in power through those baptized. There are steps, there are gifts to be manifested, there are miracles to be experienced, there is evil to overcome.

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