Studies on the Holy Spirit - Adventist Prayer Ministry

116 Pages·2012·0.55 MB·English

by  Kevin Wilfley

Studies on the Holy Spirit
By
Kevin Wilfley
Studies on the Holy Spirit
By
Kevin E. Wilfley
Copyright © 2011, Kevin E. Wilfley
All Bible texts quoted are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise indicated.
ii
Table of Contents
The Changed Life 1
Who is the Holy Spirit 7
The Witness of the Holy Spirit 12
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit 24
How to Overcome Sin 34
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit 40
How to Receive the Holy Spirit 50
Praying in the Spirit 63
The Disciplined Life 76
The Symbols of the Holy Spirit 79
The Holy Spirit in the Life of Ellen White 84
Biblical References to the Holy Spirit 89
Index to Ellen White Quotations 95
iii
If You Ask for the Holy Spirit
If you ask for the Holy Spirit
He will make you be so good.
God will fill you with His Spirit,
He promised that He would.
If you ask for the Holy Spirit
He’ll be with you all the day.
Though you may not even hear it,
He’ll be with you all the way.
If you ask for the Spirit Holy
He’ll be with you all the day.
He will give you all His glory
In His own special way.
--Kari Wilfley, Age 9
iv
The Past
In the spring of 1979, my senior year of Theology training, I sat on the steps of my
apartment and read from the book, They Found the Secret, by V. Raymond Edman
concerning Oswald Chambers:
"God used me during those years for the conversion of souls, but I had no conscious
communion with Him. The Bible was the dullest, most uninteresting book in existence, and the
sense of depravity, the vileness and bad-motiveness of my nature, was terrific. I see now that
God was taking me by the light of the Holy Spirit and His Word through every ramification of my
being.
"The last three months of those years things reached a climax, I was getting very desperate. I
knew no one who had what I wanted; in fact I did not know what I did want. But I knew that if what
I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud. Then Luke 11:13 got hold of me -- 'If
ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? . . . .'
"If the four previous years had been hell on earth, these five years have truly been heaven on
earth. Glory be to God, the last aching abyss of the human heart is filled to overflowing with the
love of God. Love is the beginning, love is the middle and love is the end. After He comes in, all
you see is "Jesus only, Jesus ever."1
On the bottom of that page I had written, "I need to pray for the Spirit too!” for I felt
his testimony applied to my own condition, and I longed for the same outcome. However,
I did not give too much thought to the Holy Spirit at that time because of two factors.
First, from the time I was a child my parents had warned me about strange beliefs and
experiences happening in Christian churches that were supposedly the result of seeking
the Holy Spirit. Thus, I had some fear about the work of the Holy Spirit.
Secondly, I had believed that since the Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of truth" then I must
have the Holy Spirit if I had the truth. Elwood Boyd, the Seventh-day Adventist pastor of
the church I attended, invited me to accompany him to visit a Pentecostal pastor who had
requested Bible studies. At one point during that Bible study the Pentecostal preacher
leaned forward and pointed straight at Pastor Boyd saying: "You Adventists have the truth,
but you need the Holy Spirit." Afterwards Pastor Boyd asked me what I thought about that.
I said, “He has to be wrong.” “Why?” my pastor queried. “Well, if we do have the truth
we must have the Spirit, because the Spirit leads us into all truth.” But my inner emptiness
and spiritual lack testified otherwise. I didn’t stop to think at that time that there is a very
powerful being who knows the truth better than anyone, but he is not filled with the Holy
Spirit. He, the devil, or Satan, is evil incarnate. Knowing the truth and being transformed
by the truth are two entirely different things.
These two factors made it very difficult for me to be open to the moving of the Holy
Spirit. Fear of the unknown and prejudice, or pride effectively stifled any inclination I had
to look deeper into this important aspect of Christian living for many years. So, I laid aside
Edman’s book, and my inner longings for the security of my familiar fear and pride.
Nevertheless, God was not finished with me on the subject of the indwelling of the His
Holy Spirit.
1 V. Raymond Edman, They Found the Secret, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, pg. 46.
Page 1
My mother was raised in the Assembly of God faith, and my father came from the First
Christian Church. In fact, my grandfather was a lay preacher in the First Christian Church
in the little town of Aurora, Missouri. When my mother and father married neither of them
were very committed to their churches, so it was easy for them to get caught up in raising
a family and making a living after World War II. However, though my parents did not
practice much religion in our home as I grew up, they still raised all of us to believe in
God. They taught us to respect the Bible and all things religious. Occasionally we would
pray as a family, and I can remember how moving those rare experiences were. I felt
something during those moments that was distinctly not of this world.
My mother told me her brother, my uncle, married a Seventh-day Adventist and soon
afterward announced to her that he was going to prove to her from the Bible that the
seventh-day Sabbath was no longer obligatory for Christians living under the new
covenant. Several months later he was baptized and became a Seventh-day Adventist.
Being honest in heart he could not deny the truth the Bible taught regarding the Sabbath.
Of course he began to share his newfound faith, but it was not welcomed in our home – at
least not by my father or we children. Nevertheless, from time to time, he was allowed to
have a Bible study in our home. On those occasions the word of God, in spite of my
resistance, had a special allure to me, and I never forgot the lessons I heard. The one that
troubled me the most was the Sabbath. As far as I was concerned keeping the Sabbath
was going to ruin my whole life.
Hard as I would try I could not find arguments to disprove the Sabbath. I studied
everything I could find and asked people for help, but to no avail. The more I studied the
more convinced and convicted I became that God expected all mankind to keep His
commandments, including the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. I hardened my heart
against it, and gave my mother a lot of grief whenever she would suggest that we ought to
keep the Sabbath.
Not long after my 13th birthday my mother, unbeknown to my father had arranged for
a Bible study with the Seventh-day Adventist pastor from the Palmdale, California church
where we were living at the time farming 2,000 acres of alfalfa. I was not pleased to find
the pastor and his wife in our home that evening, and my father was visibly angry. My
mother won the battle that evening and the minster stayed to give us a Bible study on the
origin of evil. In spite of my desire to resist the Bible I was drawn to truth. The Bible was
extremely interesting to me and I was intrigued by the Bible study. At one point, just to be
obnoxious, I raised my hand to ask a question. “Yes,” the ministered offered. “God knows
everything, right?” I asked. “Yes,” he does, the minister agreed. “Then, if God knows
everything why did He create Lucifer for He must have known that he would become the
devil?” I challenged. I was sure I had cornered the pastor with a question he could not
possibly answer. However, to my amazement he did answer the question with the Bible
and common sense so persuasively that anyone would have to admit it made sense.
At that very instance I heard the voice of God speak to my soul with these words:
“Kevin, someday I want you to become a minister and do what this pastor is doing.”
“No!” I replied in my heart. “I do not ever want to become a pastor!” Thus began another
battle in my heart. The first battle was over the Sabbath, and the second was over the call
of God to become a pastor. Neither the Sabbath nor a career as a pastor was attractive to
me, and I fought those convictions with all my heart.
Page 2
When I was 17, after four long years of inner struggle, I sat at the kitchen table
listening as my mother read a letter from her brother, uncle Harold, in which he gave a
short Bible study on heaven. As I listened to that letter a powerful conviction grew in my
heart that I was following a terrible path that would end in the destruction of my soul
without hope of ever reaching the wonderful place being described. At that time I was
heavily involved in high school sports, in particular football. For the first time in my life I
had found something I was good at that earned me the respect and admiration of others.
Previously my school experience had been very painful. My parents moved a lot in search
of prosperity, thus I went to 16 different schools in 12 years. I was always the new kid. In
addition to that, for most of my young life I was very overweight, thus I was often the brunt
of cruel comments, jokes, and even physical attacks. Therefore, the popularity I was
receiving at my high school through sports was highly prized in my heart. But that night,
listening to the Bible as presented through the letter of my uncle, the Holy Spirit, whom I
did not know by name, but whose influence I had so fiercely resisted, spoke clearly and
distinctly to my heart showing me the foolishness of pursuing perceived earthly gain at the
expense of eternal life and heaven. Then I heard His voice in my heart as clearly as if
someone sitting next to me had spoken to me saying, “Kevin, either you will give your life
to me tonight or you never will.” A terror gripped my heart. I knew this was the turning
point of my life.
As I sat there in stunned silence I saw my condition clearly. I got up from my chair
and went into my room. Closing the door I knelt down to pray, but what should I say? I
wasn’t sure how to give my life to God. Then the two convictions I had fought for so long
came to my mind. I knew what I had to do. “Dear Jesus,” I prayed, “I want to be what You
want me to be, I want to do what You want me to do, and I want to go where You want me
to go.” I would become the pastor Jesus wanted me to be. I would keep the Sabbath He
had created, and I would cheerfully go wherever He would send me. A peace and joy I
had never known came flooding into my heart. It warmed my whole body. Jesus had
come into my heart just as I would later learn He had promised to do. He put a song in
my heart and a smile on my face that has never left me to this day.
The very next Saturday I began to attend the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Junction
City, Oregon. I was baptized on February 24, 1973, in the Eugene Seventh-day Adventist
Church during an afternoon program because the little church I attended had no baptistry.
That was the happiest day of my life. The people of that church were so friendly and
supportive of me that I was completely taken by surprise when a stranger spoke to me in
the foyer of that little church saying, "You're pretty excited about all this aren't you."
Thinking this person was happy for me I quickly responded, "Yes, I am!" His reply shocked
me, "Well, just wait a couple of years and you'll be like the rest of us." I didn’t know what
“the rest of us” meant but it sounded bad.
Over the years I have found that many Christians, including Seventh-day Adventists
are not happy. They are often frustrated with their Christian experience, and find the
world’s entertainments much more appealing. Of course, in such circumstances, they are
not sharing their faith. Unfortunately, the words of the stranger came true in a few short
years. I too had become frustrated with my Christian experience. At times I struggled with
the assurance of my salvation, and found it difficult to obey what I knew to be the will of
God. And so it was that I wrote on the bottom of Oswald Chamber's testimony, "I need
to pray for the Spirit too!" In short, I felt ineffective, powerless, and trapped.
Page 3
After college I wanted to be a successful minister, as I believe every young minister
does. I did not want to just keep the status quo going. I wanted to do great things for
God, not for any selfish gain, but to advance the kingdom of the Christ I loved. But as I
began to work in the ministry questions began to form as I compared the lives of the
apostles, and the lives of other great Christians with my experience and the church of
today. More specifically, as I read the testimonies of the early Seventh-day Adventists and
saw the great power that attended the beginnings of my church I was driven to ask,
“Where is the power of the Holy Spirit today?” Matthew 10:8 says, "Heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."
It seemed as if we were trying to accomplish by learning, methods, and the programs of
the church what the apostles and others did without them. I read about other Christians
such as Charles Finney, and Dwight L. Moody, and found that the change in their lives
and service had been the result of seeking a closer relationship with Jesus and being filled
with the power of the Holy Spirit.
In my ministerial experience I encountered tremendous family troubles I could not
counsel away. There seemed to be little response to my preaching. Sometimes terrible
attitudes and conflicts would arise in meetings. I was not seeing many people commit
their lives to Jesus.
I seriously considered quitting one night after a particularly bad board meeting. As I
walked alone that summer night I prayed, "Lord, why did you call me into the ministry. I
don't seem to be doing much good for you." As I poured out my heart an impression
came to me over and over again saying, "Read Testimonies to Ministers,” a book written by
Ellen White, one of the early founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I don't trust
impressions and feelings because they can come from anywhere including the devil, but I
didn't think the devil would tell me to read "Testimonies to Ministers"! As I read that book
the constant solution offered was, "You need the Holy Spirit."
About that time I was reassigned to another church. For me a new church is an
opportunity to put past failures behind and do better. I longed to get off to a good start
and really see God do great things, but one day I had an experience as a result of my own
ignorance that cast me into the depths of despair. This experience was the last straw
physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I entered into depression. I couldn't
sleep, nor eat. I did not want to see anyone, and if I went out I had to have my wife with
me. I couldn't make my mind process thoughts as it should. I seemed to be in a
daze, and fear gripped my heart as I had never felt it.
For the first time in my life I felt what David wrote in the Psalms. However, at times
he would say something like, "For no fault of my own has this trouble come upon me."
But I couldn't say that. It was because of something I had done, even though it was an
accident, that my trouble had come upon me, so even the comfort of the Scriptures
seemed to be taken away from me.
Then it was as I was pleading with God for help, and searching in trusted books, that I
came upon this statement:
"If in our ignorance we make missteps, the Saviour does not forsake us. We need never feel
that we are alone. Angels are our companions. The Comforter that Christ promised to send in His
name abides with us. In the way that leads to the City of God there are no difficulties which those
who trust in Him may not overcome. There are no dangers which they may not escape. There is not
Page 4
a sorrow, not a grievance, not a human weakness, for which He has not provided a remedy."
Ministry of Healing, pg. 249.
As I read those words that so aptly fit my case I literally felt a tall, divine presence that
standing over my right shoulder. It felt as though he placed a hand on my shoulder as I
read, and I felt a change go through my body. I held that book to my chest in great joy and
began to memorize the above passage. From that moment I began to heal.
The words, "The Comforter that Christ promised to send in His name abides with us,"
went deep into my heart and brought back to my mind all the previous wonderings and
longings. It was as if a flame was ignited in my heart. Once and for all I had to know for
myself what the Bible taught about the Holy Spirit. And for me, a Seventh-day Adventist
pastor, I also had to know what Ellen White had to say about this subject.
I laid aside every other duty possible and poured myself into a study of the Scriptures.
What I found changed my life, and it is my hope that as you study your life will be
changed too until the words of John will be true for you, "But we know that when He is
revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 1 John 3:2.
It was the Holy Spirit, moving on my heart from the outside, that drew me to prayer
and the study of the Bible. It was the Holy Spirit who spoke to my heart that night the
pastor studied with us about the origin of evil who was calling me to become a pastor. It
was the Holy Spirit who drew me to the importance of the Sabbath of the Ten
Commandments. It was the presence of Jesus in my heart through the Holy Spirit that gave
me such peace and joy when I surrendered my heart to God. And it was the Holy Spirit
living within me that drove me to the point of desperation to know and understand Him
and His work in my life more thoroughly. I believe the Holy Spirit is moving in your life
right this moment as well. May you not rest until you are completely filled with His
presence.
Page 5
The Change
In 1 Samuel 10:6 it says, "Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will
prophesy with them and be turned into another man." That's what I have needed. To be
turned into another man--to be changed, and that is exactly what the Holy Spirit has been
sent to do.
As I studied the truth about the Holy Spirit I discovered that what I needed was to be
baptized, or filled with the Holy Spirit. Biblically there is no difference between the
baptism of the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. In Acts 1:5 Jesus said, ". . . you
shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." He was, of course,
referring to Pentecost. Now notice how Acts 2:4 records that event. "And they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit. . ." The words "baptized” or "filled" are both used to explain the
same experience.
What do you think--is it possible for a person to appear spiritual and yet be empty
inside? I came to the conclusion that Luke 11:24-26 was true for me--I was well garnished
but empty. I was adhering to church doctrine and standards, but inwardly I was struggling.
How happy I was to learn that Jesus had sent me a Helper!
In John 16:7 we are assured that the Holy Spirit would be our Helper. I discovered the
Holy Spirit would strengthen my assurance in Jesus, give me victory over sin, transform my
devotional life, and empower me for service. But, as good as all this seemed to me I was
concerned. After all, I had never heard anyone in the church speak about the Holy Spirit.
Was I getting into some kind of heresy? This troubled me greatly, for not only did I not
want to embrace error myself, but I did not want to lead others astray.
"I saw that the shepherds should consult those in whom they have reason to have confidence,
those who have been in all the messages, and are firm in all the present truth, before they
advocate new points of importance, which they may think the Bible sustains. Then the shepherds
will be perfectly united and the union of the shepherds will be felt by the church. Such a course I
saw would prevent unhappy divisions, and then there would be no danger of the precious flock
being divided and the sheep scattered without a shepherd." Early Writings, pg. 61-62.
In keeping with the above counsel I requested time with my ministerial director to
have him review the things I had studied. I was pleasantly surprised when he not only
agreed to give me some time but gave me a whole afternoon! When we got together I
carefully covered the conclusions I had come to. At the end I asked him what he thought,
and he replied, "It's all true." In great relief and mounting joy I said to him, "If this is true,
then my whole life will be changed." And that's just the reason the Holy Spirit has come--
to change my life, and yours into a beautiful reflection of the character of Jesus. 2
Corinthians 3:18 says, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory
of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the
Spirit of the Lord."
1. Rom. 8:16 - The Holy Spirit will convict us of the assurance of salvation, just as
Jesus was assured that He was the Son of God.
Page 6