Prelude to The Hell I Went Through to get Baptized in the Holy Spirit
Neville Goddard often recounted his spiritual experiences: found entombed in his skull, he pushed his way out at its base; betrayed by a Judas, a man marched into the room and crucified him -- "pure ecstasy!"; embraced by God, a man, he became fused with pure love; he picked up the laughing baby he had given birth to; and of course David, the Christ, greeted him as "Father," and memory returned. Please do not discount these fantasies. To the person having these visions, they are more real than anything experienced on earth. Neville simply began as a Christian and through kabbalah became even more of a Christian, a better Christian, a Christian of a different sort.
I have lamented that after Day One of being a Christian there is not much of a modern Christian church that one can stand. Day One may last forty years or a lifetime, but eventually you get past it and into experiences like Neville's, and the church just appears nuts. I think that is why Neville did not want to leave an ism. He has a following, to be sure, but he did not want a church, a cult. The Promise is working, he said, so do not worry about it; it is an inevitable and inescapable experience which MUST become in you. Well, I disagree. Worry about it. Seek it. I would not want an eternity of the Law, especially if I knew God is here in me. I would want an eternity of the Promise, and the sooner the better. The problem is: how do individual believers get the Promise without an institutional church/cult to guide them?
First off, you need to be involved in what Suzanne described in my last post as the work of belief (The Bible is a Success Manual Unto What? A Venting, comment). With manifesting, you have every reason in the world to believe in God. And you will always find new realms in which to believe God. One reason people cannot stand the modern Western church any more is they say they believe in God, but they do not really believe Him -- i.e., what he means by what he says. You will find that God speaks in illustrations. It is symbolism and personification. The church has taken the illustrations as literal history one is to put his faith in, that it is the veracity of history we are supposed to believe in. A real believer looks at the illustrations and puts his or her faith in what they are illustrations OF. You don't just believe "in" God, you believe God.
Then you need the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which is given exclusively to believers (and this is the main thrust in this post). My experience with the baptism has been in the Pentecostal cult. There people open to receiving then Holy Spirit have hands laid on them and are led in prayer and reception of the power of the Spirit. That is not going to work online with individuals who haven't an available or desirable church cult (cult is not a bad word: it just means an organized religion, like the church, which is indeed a cult). The thing is, receiving the Holy Spirit is always between the individual and God. No cult is necessary, though the church offers guidance from people who have already received the Holy Spirit. God knows his part and can guide the believer himself. He has done this before. By the way, my favorite text on the matter is The GIFT of the HOLY SPIRIT by J. E. Stiles. I am certain there are others.
Stiles makes the point that the Holy Spirit HAS ALREADY BEEN GIVEN TO BELIEVERS. The word 'receive' means TAKE. It is the believer's action to receive it, to take it. You do not beg for it; you do not wait. By faith you praise God, thank him and ACCEPT what has been GIVEN, and EMPLOY it. The Holy Spirit, the very consciousness of God, WHO IS ALREADY WITHIN YOU, will well up from the bowels as power and prompt the believer to speak in an unknown language. Your mouth will know. All you have to do is provide vocalization to the words formed. Neville pooh-poohed the idea of tongues, but this is something in which I do not speculate.
Many, many people have received the Holy Spirit solo. My Theology/Christian Doctrine professor at Melodyland School of Theology, Dr. J. Rodman Williams, was alone in his study. My sister was sitting in her tub. They, like many others, simply found that the secret to receiving the baptism was believe God and accept it. I myself, however, struck out the first two times I was candidate for the baptism. I was not a biblically defined believer, AND AT THE TIME I DIDN'T KNOW THAT! So let me share with you the hell I went through to get baptized in the Holy Spirit . . .
I have lamented that after Day One of being a Christian there is not much of a modern Christian church that one can stand. Day One may last forty years or a lifetime, but eventually you get past it and into experiences like Neville's, and the church just appears nuts. I think that is why Neville did not want to leave an ism. He has a following, to be sure, but he did not want a church, a cult. The Promise is working, he said, so do not worry about it; it is an inevitable and inescapable experience which MUST become in you. Well, I disagree. Worry about it. Seek it. I would not want an eternity of the Law, especially if I knew God is here in me. I would want an eternity of the Promise, and the sooner the better. The problem is: how do individual believers get the Promise without an institutional church/cult to guide them?
First off, you need to be involved in what Suzanne described in my last post as the work of belief (The Bible is a Success Manual Unto What? A Venting, comment). With manifesting, you have every reason in the world to believe in God. And you will always find new realms in which to believe God. One reason people cannot stand the modern Western church any more is they say they believe in God, but they do not really believe Him -- i.e., what he means by what he says. You will find that God speaks in illustrations. It is symbolism and personification. The church has taken the illustrations as literal history one is to put his faith in, that it is the veracity of history we are supposed to believe in. A real believer looks at the illustrations and puts his or her faith in what they are illustrations OF. You don't just believe "in" God, you believe God.
Then you need the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which is given exclusively to believers (and this is the main thrust in this post). My experience with the baptism has been in the Pentecostal cult. There people open to receiving then Holy Spirit have hands laid on them and are led in prayer and reception of the power of the Spirit. That is not going to work online with individuals who haven't an available or desirable church cult (cult is not a bad word: it just means an organized religion, like the church, which is indeed a cult). The thing is, receiving the Holy Spirit is always between the individual and God. No cult is necessary, though the church offers guidance from people who have already received the Holy Spirit. God knows his part and can guide the believer himself. He has done this before. By the way, my favorite text on the matter is The GIFT of the HOLY SPIRIT by J. E. Stiles. I am certain there are others.
Stiles makes the point that the Holy Spirit HAS ALREADY BEEN GIVEN TO BELIEVERS. The word 'receive' means TAKE. It is the believer's action to receive it, to take it. You do not beg for it; you do not wait. By faith you praise God, thank him and ACCEPT what has been GIVEN, and EMPLOY it. The Holy Spirit, the very consciousness of God, WHO IS ALREADY WITHIN YOU, will well up from the bowels as power and prompt the believer to speak in an unknown language. Your mouth will know. All you have to do is provide vocalization to the words formed. Neville pooh-poohed the idea of tongues, but this is something in which I do not speculate.
Many, many people have received the Holy Spirit solo. My Theology/Christian Doctrine professor at Melodyland School of Theology, Dr. J. Rodman Williams, was alone in his study. My sister was sitting in her tub. They, like many others, simply found that the secret to receiving the baptism was believe God and accept it. I myself, however, struck out the first two times I was candidate for the baptism. I was not a biblically defined believer, AND AT THE TIME I DIDN'T KNOW THAT! So let me share with you the hell I went through to get baptized in the Holy Spirit . . .
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
4:01 AM
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