Baptism with the Holy Spirit and Prophecies in the Last Days
The same questions are often asked about prophecies in the last days, especially whether President Donald Trump was going to be re-elected as the President of America. Many false prophets have rode on the popularithy of the American presidential race to build a name for themselves.
The questions about Joel's prophecies that in the last days, our sons and daughters will prophesy, old men will dream dreams, young men will see visions (Joel 2:28) and of course, the evergreen question of baptism of the Holy Spirit will always resurface whenever the story of Pentecost is recounted.
Having studied this subject and being an inter-denominational person for over 40 years, allow me to elaborate:
1. In the last day, God reveals Himself through the Son, no longer through the prophets or any angels. (Heb 1:1-3).
2. The Holy Spirit through the Written Word of God points us to the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Himself.
There is no more guessing game as in a 'manifestation' experience, whether this is Christ or Satan masquerading as an angel of light. In my early years, there was a 'manifestation' which the deacon of the church, one Dr. Stephen Lu Kee Siang, claimed to be a 'visitation of God.' As a result, a whole church was led astray.
On that Sunday morning, May 22, 1983, one lady claimed to be "Jesus Christ." When she was in a trance, two other sisters came to the front, and they were the "angels" whom the first lady instructed to give the preacher (another elderly deacon) a slap on the face.
This is the false Christ. There is no doubt about it.
The Christ in the Bible is the One True God who came in the form of flesh, lived among us, died and was raised from the dead. We cannot make any mistake about His identity if we read the Bible.
Some of us consulted two senior pastors. We represented the conservative and the Charismatic Baptists. But we were together to listen to their explanation of what happened. One was Pastor Prince Gunaratnam (Calvary Church); the other was Pastor Patrick Tang (Kuala Lumpur Baptist). I remember the words of Prince: “This is not of God.” Patrick Tang without a doubt said the same thing.
After that, the conservatives and the charismatics left this small church, and things became more chaotic, with prophecies asking on-going courting couples to break up and marry someone else. Many more such nonsense being prophesied!
Shocking, but true!
Putting in Perspective
Now, the question is: What did the Old Testament talk about prophecies specifically?
3. The Old Testament comprises mainly the Law and the Prophets and the Historical Books where we see the hands of God at work throughout the history of Israel. Besides highlighting all the affairs of the nation of Israel, we can confirm that all the scriptures pointed to the coming of the Messiah.
4. However, it must be noted that the prophets in the Old Testament were mainly forthtelling, not foretelling. They mainly spoke against the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, rebuking the kings for their sins. The prophets also spoke against the sins of the Gentile world.
It must be made clear at this point the 80:20 rule: that 80% was forthtelling, only 20% foretelling. In other words, God sent the prophets to speak His word, not to be like the fortune tellers and sorcerers who were pre-occupied with what was to come. This preoccupation is still in the world today. God is, however, more concerned about the now, than the future.
Even Jesus taught His disciples, "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:34
5. The less God speaks about something, the more people are likely to speculate. This is where they are easily led astray.
6. This is why I have often said that the book of Revelation was never written to allow us to speculate what is to come.
Instead, like Mary, we are exhorted to keep its content in our heart and mind so that when things happen, we know this was what was spoken of in Revelations. Mary did not ask the angel what was meant by 'A sword shall pierce through your heart' but after mulling over the meaning of the words of the angel, finally after 33 years, Mary understood it when Christ was crucified!
7. The problem with a lot of these so-called modern self-appointed apostles, senior apostles, generals, prophets and senior prophets is they are into foretelling, and people by nature, are led by their own curiosity and they fall for it.
8. While Joel talks about dreams and visions, we cannot dismiss the faking of what is given by the Holy Spirit. Just like in the church where the deacon claimed to be a visitation of God, it was nothing but a manifestation of some other spirits.
By the way, the 'last days' referred to in Joel 2:28-29 is often mistaken as the finale of world history.
Instead, the `last days' had already begun since the first Pentecost; thus, Peter quoted Joel to refer to his time and era, not about the 20th or 21st century.
9. To date, no denomination that I am aware of ever say that the Holy Spirit (whether baptism, anointing, etc) has ceased.
Even the Brethren in Malaysia believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the emotional outburst of "revivalism" and the unbridled use of the tongues that they are most, and rightfully, wary of. Study 1 Corinthians 12-14 carefully. Even seasoned believers are easily deceived when they are at the heights of their emotional experience.
What is now known as 'baptism of the Holy Spirit' is really the outpouring of the Holy Spirt when people start to confess their sins to each other. The Europeans have seen a number of revivals that took the church out of its comfort zone to go to the Far East to share the gospel.
10. By saying this, do I mean that I do not believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit? On the contrary, my contention has always been the fact that we are already baptised with the Holy Spirit the moment we acknowledge Christ as our Saviour by faith. Didn't John the Baptist say,
"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Matthew 3: 11
This is a longer study which can be done on a separate occasion, but suffice to say that no one can call God 'Abba' unless he has the Holy Spirit in him. (John 1:12; Rom 8:15).
If we believe that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three Persons in One Godhead, it means we cannot split the Trinity into three separate Persons. Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit.
10. Finally, the so-called "outpouring of the Holy Spirit" as a fulfilment of Joel's prophecy has to be seen in the context of Acts 2, 8, 10, 19.
Prior to this, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was never given to ordinary people. Only certain individuals were bestowed with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2: Jewish Pentecost. For the first, the Holy Spirit was poured out on all mankind. Before this, the disciples did not have the Holy Spirit. They had Jesus in the presence. It was only after Jesus left that He would send the Holy Spirit. Hence, the disciples were asked to "tarry in Jerusalem."
Acts 8: After Jerusalem, now the Holy Spirit moved to the Samaritans with the help of Philip the evangelist.
Acts 10: Peter's mind had to be dealt with first before the Holy Spiirt would also be poured out on the Gentiles. It happened at the home of Cornelius, the Roman centurion.
Act 19: these were the disciples of John the Baptist who were probably living in other parts of the Roman world that they were only exposed to John the Baptist. They did not know Jesus. For that reason, they also received the Holy Spirit after they were baptised in the name of Jesus. It all happened simultaneously.
For this reason, the Apostle John summed it up handsomely by saying, "As many as recieived Him (condition) to them gave He the powers (of the Holy Spirit) to become the children of God..."
And Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians wrote:
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14
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