South Shore Pentecostal Church

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Apostolic Truth Radio program with Pastor Craig Ouellette, a radio ministry of South Shore Pentecostal Church located in Whitman, Massachusetts. At a time when many Christians do not know what to believe, South Shore Pentecostal is honored to bring you clear biblical teaching on which you can confidently build your faith. Thank you for joining us.

J. Craig Ouellette: Amen. Open your Bibles here this morning. We’ve got a couple of long passages to read: 2 Corinthians 11:22, and then we're going to go to Acts 9:1-6. A lot of times I try to read the scriptures going forward in the Bible, but in this case, we’re going to have to back up a little bit.

2 Corinthians 11:22 says: “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?”

Then in Acts 9:1-6, I'm sure that once you get there you'll recognize the story of the conversion of Saul. “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' And he said, 'Who art thou, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.' And he trembling and astonished said, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' And the Lord said unto him, 'Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.'”

Amen. We're talking about an encounter with God here this morning. I think everybody in here, just about everybody at least, has had an encounter with God. Let’s talk about motivation just for a little bit. Motivation is the driving force behind a person's action. We know that when a police officer investigates a crime, one of the things they're trying to understand is the motivation behind the crime. Sometimes it's clear—if they're robbing a bank, you pretty much know the motivation—but sometimes it's not so clear. In court, the prosecutor is going to attempt to prove the defendant's motive for committing the crime.

Motivation is what makes a person endure. Any sports person that accomplishes great things in sports is motivated to achieve beyond the pain of training. They're motivated to achieve beyond a loss here and a loss there. They're motivated to get beyond what others think to get to that goal. Motivation is what causes us to do something. Motivation makes a person keep their focus on the goal. Sometimes people don't have a motivation because they really don't have a goal.

Christians should have a goal. Our goal should be to live for the Lord. As we learn more about the Bible, our goal should become focused on living for the Lord, channeling that into what pleases the Lord. What has God called us to do? When we start out, we're just glad we're saved. You're just glad you're saved, but as you realize you've been saved, you start to realize there's somebody else that needs to be saved. You realize that there's somebody else that needs the same thing that you've got.

That should start to become a motivating factor in our lives that causes us to adapt our thinking to figure out how I can please the Lord and how I can be a vessel to be a witness for God. It should cause me to adapt my lifestyle to try to learn how to be a Christian. Just because we got the Holy Ghost doesn't make us automatic Christians the way God wants us to be. Just like a born baby isn't automatically an adult, a human baby has to grow and go through training and learn to reach phases in life. A Christian born again must grow and learn and train.

Motivation is what makes a person keep their focus on a goal. Motivation will help you find a goal. Motivation is what causes a person to stretch themselves beyond typical ability and what they have done in the past. We were listening to a book called *The Boys in the Boat*. It's about the 1936 crew race at the Olympics. Talk about people that had to overcome and motivate. When you're rowing four miles, usually at the two or three-mile mark, all the lactic acid is in your muscles and you're burning. You've got to row that last mile on determination and will and ignore the pain to win the race. They're motivated to go beyond the pain.

The question that I want to ask here this morning is when we look at the apostle Paul and we read some of his sufferings and different things that he did—when we look at the life of Paul and all of his accomplishments and sufferings—a natural question is: what motivated Paul? What motivates a man to allow himself to be whipped five times and keep going? What motivates a man to be beaten by rods by people that are his own people and keep on going? What motivates a man to be kicked out of town after town for preaching the truth and keep on going?

What motivates a man who says, "You're offended, I'm offended too," but to get beyond his offense and keep going? "You burn with anger, I burn too," but he gets beyond his anger and keeps on going. Paul answers the question in Philippians 3:10: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." As Christians, we understand "Him" means Jesus.

Paul was saying that his experience on the Damascus Road where he got knocked off his horse and blinded and told he was doing the wrong thing and going the wrong way has changed his life so much that he is motivated. He's willing to be whipped. He's willing to be beaten. He's willing to be rejected. He's willing to lose friends. He's willing to go to prison. He's willing to be wrongfully accused. He says it's all because I want to know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings and be made conformable unto His death.

He says, "I don't want to just know the power of the resurrection." When you get the Holy Ghost, you get a taste of the power of the resurrection of God. He said, "I don't want to just know that power. I don't want just a good feeling. I don't want just a buzz from the Spirit. I want to know Him. I don't want to just be lifted up. Yes, I want to be lifted up, but that's not all of it. I want to know Him in the power of that resurrection. I want to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings." He's saying that if I can get my mind on the right thing, sometimes when I'm suffering, I learn the heart of the Savior hanging on the cross.

The sufferings are not just for pain. If I can get my mind on Him and look to Him and understand why He hung on the cross, I can get in the fellowship of suffering. Suffering is something that we are always trying to escape, but oftentimes in suffering is a learning—is something that you cannot get out of a book and you can't necessarily get it out of a blessing that God gives. You get an understanding of the God that loves you. If you're suffering and you go, "I can't take it," and you think about how He took it—and you're going, "I can't take it," but He took it for me—why did He take it? Because He loved me. My God, how much He loved me.

The motivation was so strong for Paul that he was willing to suffer physically. He was willing to be rejected by those that had been his former colleagues—Pharisee among Pharisees, Jew among Jews. He was willing to be misunderstood, willing to be labeled as a heretic and crazy. "Paul, much learning has made you mad." He lost his standing as a rabbi in Israel and was willing to throw that away.

That's like somebody here who worked all your life up through school, getting straight A's, has a 4.0 average, went to college, got a four-year degree, put a doctorate on top of that and a master's and all kinds of stuff. All of a sudden, you reach a point in your life where you change your goals, throw that all away, and go for something else. That's what Paul did. He threw it all away. He was willing to suffer wherever there's problems. We have a problem with a problem every day. Motivation to know Jesus caused Paul to change from a persecutor, an enemy of Christianity and of Jesus Christ, to become a great defender and apostle. Why did Paul change? He had an encounter with God.

There are many people going to church that believe the Bible and believe in God, but they're having a hard time living for God because they've never had an encounter with God. Paul had an encounter with God. That Damascus Road experience revealed a number of important points. It tells us you can be religious, dedicated, believe in God, know the Bible, and yet not know God and actually be against Him. Paul was religious. His life was devoted to being a Pharisee, following the laws. Paul was dedicated. Paul believed in God; that's why he was doing it. Paul knew the Bible. They didn't have a New Testament yet at that point; they just had the Old Testament. That was their Bible. Paul knew that Bible.

As I've said before, my understanding is the teachers he studied under would start a passage in the Bible and then point or give a direction toward one of the students, and the student had to be able to pick it up out of memory and go on. That means he could pull it out of Genesis, Deuteronomy, Numbers, or Leviticus. That teacher would start that passage, and that student—Paul was one of those—had to know the Bible that well. He knew the Bible, but Paul was astonished when he got knocked off his horse because he realized even though I'm religious, I've been wrong. Even though I'm dedicated, I've been wrong. Even though I believe in God, I've been wrong. Even though I know the Bible, I didn't understand it.

Paul was 100 percent sincere. He was putting his whole being into doing what he thought was right and he was wrong. He thought he was defending God, but he was offending God. He was actually against God. Paul's encounter with God changed Paul's motivation and direction of life. Notice the encounter wasn't the end of it. The encounter was there to set him going in the right direction. Sometimes God will show up in our lives, and God doesn't always show up as a miracle. Sometimes God shows up as a roadblock or an event. We were going in a direction, and God makes an event in our lives that causes us to have to change direction because the direction we're going is not the right direction.

God will work in our lives to motivate us to get us going in the right direction. Paul had an encounter with God, but that encounter doesn't mean he's all set now. Sometimes that's a mistake people make. They think because I've heard from God, I'm all set. You heard from God, that's great and it's awesome, but what did He say? Are you doing what He said? Have you changed your life to align with what He said?

Paul realized this is not the end of it. Jesus said to Paul, "Arise, go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." Jesus told Paul he would be instructed on what he must do. Sometimes God shows up in our lives and we have an event that we don't like, but God allows it not because He doesn't like us, but because we are on the wrong track and He does care about us and wants to get us on the right track. God will let something happen to us or something we don't like, and we can be upset or angry with God.

We're like Balaam on the donkey. God says to Balaam, "Don't go with them unless I tell you." Balaam says, "That's all I need." He saddles up and the next morning he's on his way. God does not tell him to go, but he's on his way. God sends an angel to smite Balaam, but Balaam can't see the angel; the angel's invisible. His donkey sees the angel, so the donkey turns off to the side. Now Balaam's hitting his donkey. "What's wrong with you? You're not doing what I'm asking you to do." The donkey keeps giving him a hard time. Eventually, the donkey crushes his foot up against a stone wall that separates a vineyard, and he starts to talk to the donkey. I don't know how you can talk to the donkey and listen to the donkey talk back and not realize something's going on, but he does somehow. Maybe in his prophetic role, he talked to animals and they talked back.

Then God opens his eyes and he sees there's an angel. What the donkey was doing—the donkey had more sense than Balaam. That's God's point. That animal knew better than Balaam as a human being knew what to do because Balaam wasn't listening to the Spirit; he was doing what he wanted to do. That donkey saved Balaam's life by moving him off to the side and not doing what Balaam wanted him to do. There's a big lesson there. Sometimes when things go wrong, maybe we need to step back and say maybe God is trying to tell us something rather than looking at other people and pointing at other things.

Jesus told Paul, "Go into the city; it's going to be told you what you must do." Not what I'd like you to do. Not what would be a good idea for you to do. Not if you think you understand it or it measures up to what you want to do. You're going to be told what you must do, not if you go back and talk with the other rabbis and see if they agree with what I'm telling you. This is what you must do. I looked at a whole bunch of different versions of it: the King James, New King James, NIV, New American Standard, New Century Version, New Living Testament—they all say "what you must do." That means you've got to. It's not a choice; it's a requirement.

Paul's encounter with God included the revelation that Jesus is the God of his fathers. That's why he was shocked. He heard a voice from heaven. "Who is it?" Expecting Yahweh, expecting God that spoke to Moses. "What's your name, God?" "Jesus." You're going to get baptized in a name. What name are you going to use? Jesus. It's the name of God. Paul needed further instruction to become born again. An encounter with God does not mean you're saved. An encounter with God does not mean that God agrees with your life. An encounter with God does not mean that everything's okay. It's good that God showed up because that's a good sign—you've got hope—but an encounter with God can often mean that there's some things that God wants to put into our life.

In Acts 9:17, God has spoken to a man named Ananias who is also a believer that's in Damascus. He's told him to go to Saul. Saul is on the street called Straight; he's blind. He's been waiting. He's seen you in a vision coming to pray for him. Go to this man. Of course, Ananias says, "I know that he's here to round us up and put us in prison and do bad things to us," but God says he's a chosen vessel.

When Ananias shows up in verse 17: "And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.' And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized." Ananias is saying, "There's some things—this is why I've been sent. Here's the instructions God wanted you to have. Paul, I'm here to pray for you that your eyes can be healed. Paul, I'm also here to pray that you can get the Holy Ghost."

Again, you can have an encounter with God and have God speak personally to you audibly—Paul's not dreaming, he's not getting it in a vision, he's getting an audible voice from God—and the passages that are parallel tell us those around him heard the voice. They didn't understand it, but they heard it. You can have an encounter with God, have God speak to you, give you direction, and still not have the Holy Ghost. Now we've got a man that believes and is dedicated and believes the Bible and believes God and is religious and trying to do what God wants him to do, has had an encounter with God, has had God speak to him, but he's still not born again. He's still not saved.

He said, "You also need to get baptized." Acts chapter 9 doesn't tell the whole story. Sometimes you've got to understand this: when you're reading your Bible, it doesn't always tell the whole story in one place. Sometimes people will read a passage and say, "Well, it didn't say he spoke in tongues there." You're right, but it doesn't mean he didn't speak in tongues. You've got to search your Bible. God does things just like the parables; God puts things in ways that you've got to be hungry enough to be willing to search for the truth.

Sometimes God doesn't put it all—it's nice when you've got a Hebrews chapter 11 and God lines it all up, or 1 Corinthians 15, resurrection—it's all there. But a lot of times, God puts some over here and God puts some over there and God puts some in the middle and God puts some in types and shadows and examples, and you've got to look at it all and pull it together to get the understanding.

Paul did speak in tongues. Yes, he did. But Paul was told, "You need to get the Holy Ghost and you need to get baptized." So Paul was filled with the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues. 1 Corinthians 14:18, when Paul is dealing with the Corinthian church and talking about spiritual gifts, he makes this statement: "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all." Paul spoke in tongues. That means he got the Holy Ghost because tongues come by the Holy Ghost—tongues from God.

Paul had the Holy Ghost. He got baptized in that thing, so he got baptized, he got healed, and he got the Holy Ghost. Remember Ananias said, "Jesus has sent me here that you might receive the Holy Ghost." Ananias is not going to leave until God has done what God has asked him to do. He got the Holy Ghost there; it just doesn't tell you about that. But when you look at Paul's life and what he does after he's received the Holy Ghost, in the book of Acts chapter 19, we see that Paul is preaching that everyone should get the Holy Ghost. Not some—everyone.

Acts 19:1: "And it came to pass, that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, 'Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?'" That means you can believe and not have the Holy Ghost; otherwise, he's asking them a question that doesn't make any sense. I don't think Paul wasted much time. If you're motivated after you've been beat and whipped and shipwrecked and rejected, you reach the point where you start to not waste much time, but you focus on what you are called to do.

Paul says, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" The question also implies there's a way to know when you've got it and when you don't; otherwise, the question again doesn't mean anything. There's a sign that we're looking for that lets us know that you have received the Holy Ghost. Otherwise, there's no way they you can tell. They didn't get an encounter with God like Paul had, and so we know it's not just the fact that God shows up and you have an encounter with God. It's got to be more than a feeling. Did Paul feel something when Jesus spoke to him? I guarantee you he did. It doesn't mean you got the Holy Ghost because you felt something. It doesn't mean you got the Holy Ghost because you felt the presence of God.

Paul indicates you can believe and not have the Holy Ghost, and Paul believed that receiving the Holy Ghost was a different experience than water baptism. You've got churches out there: "Well, when you get water baptized in Jesus' name, you get the Holy Ghost." Not so. Verse 4 and 5, he says, "How were you baptized?" They said, "John's baptism." Paul said, "You need to be baptized in the name of Jesus; this is what John taught." When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them. They already were baptized; why is he taking time to lay hands on them if you get the Holy Ghost when you're water baptized? Because it's a different experience. You need to be water baptized, but you also need the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

There's a lot of people who got the Holy Ghost but haven't been baptized the right way. You need them both. Paul's question was, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" When he found out they didn't have the Holy Ghost, he didn't say, "Let's just pray for the Holy Ghost." His next question is, "How were you baptized?" Meaning it makes a difference how you're baptized. So Paul laid hands on them, they got the Holy Ghost, it says in verse 6: "And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them; and they spake with tongues." That's the sign you got the Holy Ghost—speaking in tongues. The tongues are the result of the Holy Ghost speaking through you.

The Bible says "receive the Holy Ghost," right? "Have you received the Holy Ghost?" Even to them that would believe on His name, they receive the Holy Ghost. Jesus said to His disciples, "Receive the Holy Ghost." Open yourself up to get it. Quit resisting. God's not going to break every wall down in your body and in your mind. God will try to convince you that it's worth it. God will draw you and woo you, but God is not going to force a person to get the Holy Ghost. You've got to open up the gates of your heart and your spirit and let God come in.

The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of God; you've got to let Him come in. Even after you've got the Holy Ghost, you need to continue to yield to God day by day. Day by day. Again, the illustration of Israel in the wilderness: when the cloud moved, they moved; when the cloud stayed, they stayed. Day by day they were led by the Holy Ghost. Day by day we need to be led by the Holy Ghost. We have to make room in our lives for God to talk to us. We have to allow God to have a voice in our life—not give God the leftovers. "If I get everything done I want, then I'll pray. If I get all the things done and it's all the way I want, then I'll pray and I'll read my Bible." No, you've got to make room for God in your life. You've got to make room because the devil has set this world up in a way that he will create circumstances to push God right out of your life. He'll bring family into it, he'll bring situations, he'll bring good things in that God's given you. The devil will bring things to use your time up and use my time up so that I don't get a follow-in with God, I don't get in touch with God.

So we're talking about an encounter with God. Let's look at some other examples. Moses. Let's look at Moses. Moses is religious, isn't he? He believes in God, doesn't he? Yet he needed an encounter with God to fulfill his purpose. Moses, in Acts 7:24-25, the Bible says he kills an Egyptian. Notice, this is Stephen preaching to the people: "And seeing one of them suffer wrong," one of his Hebrew brothers, "he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not."

Moses is acting on what he thinks God wants him to do, which means he believes in God, doesn't it? He understands that God is going to come to deliver Israel out of Egypt. Somehow, we don't know exactly how—if he got it from his parents, God spoke to him, or somehow he just had that intuitive feeling that God was going to use him. He knew that he was God's vessel, but he had the wrong time and the wrong method. It fails, and Moses has got to run. Moses runs off and he's in the wilderness for 40 years being a shepherd of the priest of Midian. One day, the man who believes in God, the man who tried to be used of God, whose family lineage is of Levi, sees a burning bush and he turns aside. He's about to have an encounter with God.

An encounter with God will get you going in the right direction if you listen. "Moses, take your shoes off; it's holy ground." "Who are you, Lord?" "I am that I am." Moses, I'm here because of the prayers of your people. I've come to deliver you. Even though Moses is having an encounter with God, he doesn't get it yet. He fights with God about doing what God wants him to do. God sends somebody else. "They won't believe me. I don't know how to speak." Argument after argument. God gets upset with Moses, but Moses eventually accepts to do it. He goes back. But even Moses doesn't really know how to serve God yet. An encounter with God will change your direction in life, but it doesn't mean that you know how to serve God yet. Moses has to listen to God, follow God's timing in the plagues, direct Israel step by step as God gives him the information, bring them to the Red Sea, bring them through the Red Sea, bring them to Mount Sinai, where all of a sudden they hear God's voice again and now Moses receives a law from God that tells him: this is how you serve Me.

I'm trying to say you need an encounter with God to get your life going in the right direction, but you need to listen to God. Why did He lead them there? Israel needed a personal encounter. They needed to hear the voice of God. The Bible says all of them at the base of that mountain heard God speak the Ten Commandments. Not just Moses, not just Moses and the priest or the elders, but all of them—men, women, and children—they heard God speak. They needed an encounter. When you get an encounter, you've got to mix it with faith. What did that encounter do? Well, that encounter at least got a Joshua and Caleb to say, "We believe. We're going all the way through."

Let's look at Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 6, another encounter with God. "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.' And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, 'Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, 'Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.' Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then said I, 'Here am I; send me.'"

Notice in all of these encounters—Paul, Moses, Isaiah—what happens is they're willing to listen to God. Paul was astonished, but he listened. He went into the city into the street called Straight and waited until the man came. Moses was amazed too, but he listened. Here's Isaiah. Isaiah's religious. He's in the temple; this is where this happens. That means he goes to church. He goes to church. That means he believes in God. He's a religious person. He believes. But on this day, he's going to have an encounter with God.

That encounter is going to help him to realize God is more than what I thought. God is more than rules. God is more than being religious and believing. I believed, but now that I've seen Him and I seen the angels, I'm afraid because I see I'm not right with God. An encounter with God will let you understand: I need to repent. Every one of us—I don't care how long you've been in church—when you get an encounter with God, you're going to want to repent. You're going to be convicted that some things in my life must get out of my life if I'm going to make it to heaven. Not an option—they must. Some things are going to have to change; they must change if I'm going to go to heaven. These stories are showing us just believing doesn't get you right with God. Just knowing the word of God does not get you right with God. Just being dedicated does not get you right with God. You and I need an experience and encounter with God.

Notice first thing is Isaiah repents: "I'm a man of unclean lips." When he sees the holiness of God, he's convicted of his sin. A lot of us in here have never been in a service where the holiness of God came in. You can have God come in in different ways. He'll come in to lift you up. He'll come in to supply a need. He'll come in to do different things in your life. But when the holiness of God comes in, you end up on your face. It's just like Jesus. Jesus is God in the flesh. Sometimes He's feeding them bread. Sometimes He's calming the storm. Sometimes He's healing people. But when He gets in the Mount of Transfiguration and the holiness comes out, Peter, James, and John are on their faces; they're afraid to be there.

Notice the thing that God sent to cleanse. He took a coal from off the altar. That represents a coal that's from the sacrifice, from atonement and commitment, burnt offering, peace offerings, sin offerings. Where does he put the coal? He didn't put it on his head. Doesn't put it on his hands. Doesn't put it on his feet or on his heart. He puts it on his lips. When you get the Holy Ghost, God puts something on your lips. When you get the Holy Ghost, God's going to put something on your lips and tongue. Hallelujah.

Look at the Apostles. I don't think any of us could be convinced except for maybe Judas that they didn't believe. "Who do men say that I am?" Peter: "Thou art the Christ." He believes. John chapter 6: "Will you go from me?" "You're the Christ. Where can we go? You've got the words of life." They believe. They don't really understand, but they believe. But when Jesus is crucified, John chapter 20, verse 19 says they're in a room with the doors closed and the windows locked because they're afraid.

These are the same apostles that have seen Jesus walk on water, raise the dead, multiply bread, cast out legions of demons. They've gone out and prayed and healed people and demons have been cast out—the same disciples, including Peter that walked on water for at least a few steps, Peter, James, and John that saw the glory of God in the Mount of Transfiguration. But now they're afraid that Jesus has been crucified. When Jesus resurrects, even then they're not still ready to go out. You don't see them out there preaching. You don't see them out there testifying after the resurrection. They do not start testifying and witnessing until they get the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They don't. They're hidden away. They might be talking among each other in the group, but Jesus said, "Wait in the upper room; ye shall be endued with power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."

Jesus told them to wait. Acts 1:8, go there so that you can see it. We say it all the time, but you can see it yourself. Remember the book of Acts in chronology, in time, follows all the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all happen at the same time; they're just giving different viewpoints of the same events or the same person, Jesus. But following Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in time comes the book of Acts. So Jesus is saying to them in Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power, after—after what?—after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me." What's He saying to them? He's telling them: wait for the Holy Ghost, which means they don't have the Holy Ghost.

What does that tell you? Go back and read the Gospels. It tells you you can believe and not have the Holy Ghost. You can work miracles and not have the Holy Ghost. You can cast out demons and not have the Holy Ghost. That's what it's telling us. We're talking about an encounter with God. Is everybody supposed to get the Holy Ghost or just some? Yes, everybody's supposed to get it. Again, why did Paul say, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" But Jesus Himself said, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (This spake he of the spirit, which they had not received because the Holy Ghost wasn't given because Jesus was not yet glorified.)" Jesus is saying if you believe on Me the way the scriptures say, you're supposed to get the Holy Ghost.

Are you with me? We're getting there. We're almost done. After they get the Holy Ghost, the same Peter that's hiding in the upper room stands up in verse 14. They're saying, "What's going on, Peter?" Peter standing up with the eleven—they're all standing up. A little while before that, they're hiding in a room. They're afraid. Now they got the Holy Ghost, they stand up. They're willing to stand up in the middle of Jerusalem. They're not worried about what the Pharisees and Pilate and the other ones—they may be coming for us, but we got to say something. They may be coming for us, but I got something I got to talk about. They may not like it, but that's okay. This is so good I got to tell somebody. What is it? "This is that which the prophet Joel said: In the last days I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." This is what he said.

The apostles were no longer fearful. What happened? They had received an encounter with—now what am I getting around to? I'm getting around to: God wants every human being to have an encounter with Him. But the New Testament encounter that God wants us to have is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. An encounter with God will cause you to be like Paul if you keep the fire burning. Just like in the old times when you had a fireplace in the house, you had to keep the fire burning if you wanted to keep warm in the winter. Got to put more wood on it. You got to stoke the coals sometimes to get them going. You've got to get the bellows out sometimes to blow on it to get the fire going. Same thing with your Holy Ghost experience. You got the Holy Ghost, you got to throw some more wood on the fire. You got to get the wind sometimes to blow on the coals. That means you go to church when you don't feel like going to church and the spirit of God moves in the sanctuary and blows on those coals that are dead. God throws some more wood on that, and that fire becomes alive in your life.

Now you got the fire going, you got to make sure that you don't go where they got a fire hose to put your fire out. I'll leave that to you. In the Old Testament, only certain people had experiences with God. Check about it. The average person did not have an experience with God. But in the New Testament, every human being is ordained—is supposed to have an experience, an encounter with God—and that encounter is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Again, it's called "born again" by some people, or sometimes it's called the "new birth." There's elements.

Again, just like Paul was told, "It's going to be told you what you must do." Guess what? When Jesus talked to him and knocked him off his horse and he said, "Who art thou?" he said, "I am Jesus," Paul repented. Nobody needed to say, "Paul, you need to repent." He realized, "I'm wrong. How could I be so wrong? But I'm wrong." He repented. How do you know? Go into Damascus, go to that street called Straight, get in that house and wait. He didn't say, "Boys, take me back to Jerusalem. Get me in the temple." He goes to that place and he waits. He's repented. He's willing to do what God wants him to do. And again, when the man of God comes to him, he says, "I've come so that you can get the Holy Ghost, that you can be healed, and that you're going to get baptized in Jesus' name." And he gets baptized in Jesus' name and he gets the Holy Ghost.

So my question this morning is: have you had an encounter with God? Have you had an encounter with God? Do you have the Holy Ghost? That's the will of God for you. Now again, we're supposed to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, the Bible says in multiple places. The New Testament temple went 365 days a year. The temple wasn't just open on Saturday or Sunday and holy days. Would you just stand here this morning? If you haven't had an encounter with God, God wants you to have an encounter. If you've had an encounter but your encounter needs to be recharged, God wants to recharge it today. It's the will of God to have the Holy Ghost. You can wonder, you can say, "How did these men do this?" They did it because they had a Holy Ghost encounter with God. None of us can live for God the way God wants us to live without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And the way you know you get the baptism of the Holy Ghost—the Holy Ghost will speak through you in another language you do not understand.

But guess what? If God's going to speak through me, I've got to let Him have my lips. I've got to let Him have my tongue. I've got to let Him have my breath and voice. I've got to let Him have my heart. I've got to let God be God. Listen, God does not want to come into a temple where you're going to put restrictions on Him in the temple. God wants to come into a temple that He can adorn it the way He wants it adorned. Amen. And when I'm saying that, I'm not just talking about clothes and stuff; I'm talking about our attitude and the grace and spirit of God in our lives. Amen. That's what I'm talking about.

God is not going to come and bang on the door. He'll come and knock on the door, but He's not going to smash the door down. Book of Revelations, Jesus said, "I stand at the door and knock. If you open the door, I'll come in and sup with you." He's speaking to the church. He's talking to people that already got the Holy Ghost. So even after you got the Holy Ghost, you still got to open the door: "Come on in, Jesus."

Have you had an encounter with God? Do you have the Holy Ghost? Have you been baptized in Jesus' name? If you don't have the Holy Ghost and you've been seeking it, a good step is get baptized in Jesus' name because baptism is not just a ceremony. It's not you just making a proclamation before people; there's people that say that, but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says we're saved by baptism. Bible says it's for remission of sins. Water baptism will give you freedom from your sinful life. They will be buried with Christ. You can be forgiven of sin but not free from sin, and there's a lot of people that have been forgiven but they're not free from it; that's why they fall back into their sinful life. You've got to get free from sin to stay free. Lord God, we praise You here today. Lord, we thank You, Lord God. Help us understand we need an encounter with You. Lord, even if we've got Your Spirit, every day we need an encounter with You. Lord, we need to come to Your altar, Lord God. We need You to be in us, Lord God.

Help us understand this encounter changes our life, gives us direction, Lord God—this encounter of Your Spirit into our lives where we become born again, we become Your children. Hallelujah. we need this encounter in our lives, Lord God, so that we can burn in the night season, so that we've got the motivation—not by the flesh, not by the will of man or our blood, Lord God, but we've got a motivation by Your Spirit and word, Lord God. There's a motivation in us. Lord, I've got to know You. Lord, I've got to know You in the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of Your suffering. Lord, I need to be conformable to Your image, Lord God. Lord, I need You, Lord God. I need an experience with You. I need a fresh encounter with You, Lord, that my mind sees things Your way. Lord, that I quit seeing things from my perspective, but lift me up above the shadows. Hallelujah. Set me, Lord, in a place where I see things Your way, Lord God.

Give me a heavenly vision that helps me to see how things are really from Your perspective, Lord God. Help me to quit looking at things my way with my understanding, quit playing God, quit trying to be God, quit trying to dictate to You what I want and not letting You be God. Hallelujah. Lord, give me an encounter, Lord, that I can understand You are able to do above exceeding above all that I ask or think. Listen, an encounter with God will let you understand He's able to deliver you. He's able to keep you. He's able to bring you through. He's able to give you joy in the darkness. He's able to give you resurrection power and lift you above sadness, grief, loss, pain—anything that can come in this life. God is able to do that. But you've got to let Him be God. You've got to admit, "I can't handle it, but You can, God. I can't take it, but I can with You, God. I don't know what to do, but You know the road, God." Hallelujah. Lord, I yield. I yield. I yield. I'm going to quit trying to just give You a part of my life. I'm going to lay it all on the altar, Lord God. I'm going to be what You want me to be. I'm going to let You have Your way with me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on, He's here right now. Come on, He's here right now. You can receive all you need; He's here. Hallelujah. Come on, reach out, reach out. You can have a fresh encounter with God today. Hallelujah. You can leave out of this place knowing that God has spoken to you, that God is in your life, that you got new direction, you got new hope, you got new strength, and you see things differently.

Tina Ouellette: Thank you for joining us today as we have studied the word on Apostolic Truth Radio. My name is Tina Ouellette, wife of Pastor Craig Ouellette of South Shore Pentecostal Church, located at 58 West Street in Whitman, Massachusetts. If you love praise and worship, you will love services at South Shore Pentecostal Church, and we invite you to come and worship with us. Sunday school for all ages begins at 10:00 AM, and our Sunday evening service begins at 6:00 PM. Adult Bible study and children's church is held on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. You can learn more about our church on our website at southshorepentecostal.com, or you may call us at 781-447-1668. If you have been blessed by this radio ministry, you can help support Apostolic Truth Radio via online giving through Venmo @SSPCWhitman. Write us today and request a free copy of today's message and join us for another broadcast of Apostolic Truth.