Azusa Street Testimonies! (Part 2)

 

Arrested For Jesus Name

A brother who has been baptized with the Holy Spirit was arrested on account of the disturbance which the preaching of the Gospel created among the people who crowded about the tent in Pasadena. As he stood to answer the accusation of disturbing the peace, another brother says he saw an angel standing by his side. He was released. The Lord has been doing great things in that place and we expect greater things.

Some workers were preaching on the street corner in Los Angeles and a poor drunkard had just been saved, when a policeman came up and ordered them to stop, and took two of them off to jail. The sister sang all the way to the jail and shouted and prayed while they were there. They soon were anxious to get rid of them and let them go. Meantime the other workers returned to the mission and told how the workers had been arrested and they all went to the altar and prayed and arose praising God; and soon in walked the ones who had been arrested. We are ready not only to go to prison, but to give our lives for Jesus.

Missionaries To Jerusalem

A band of three missionaries, Bro. Andrew Johnson and Sisters Louisa Condit and Lucy M. Leatherman, who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and received the gift of languages, have left for Jerusalem, going by way of Oakland, leaving there Aug. 10th. Reports came of meetings on the way that four souls received the Pentecost in Colorado Springs and three in Denver. Bro. Johnson has received seven different languages, one of which is the Arabic. Sister Leatherman speaks the Turkish language, and while in Oakland, some were talking on the street about the gift of tongues; Sister Leatherman began to speak just as a man wearing the Turkish fez came by. He listened in wonder and asked what college she had attended, saying she spoke the most perfect Turkish tongue he had heard spoken by a foreigner. He was an educated man from a Turkish college in Constantinople. She told him the Holy Spirit gave her the language which she did not understand herself and he was the first person that had interpreted for her.

God Still Heals

God laid His hand on a little crippled boy seven years of age and healed him of disease and made him whole except his ankles. He walked on the sides of his ankles. Then, when he was fourteen years of age, he had been sent to college and God had called him to preach. One day as he was sitting reading his Bible, a man came for him to go and hold a meeting. He began to say to the Lord: "Father, if I go to that place, it will be necessary for me to walk here and yonder, just put strength into these ankle joints of mine." And immediately he was made whole and leaped and praised God, like the man at the beautiful gate. He has since been in evangelistic work over the United States, seeing multitudes saved, sanctified and healed.

The Shekinah Glory Cloud

"Five years ago, God put it into this man's heart (Bro. Charles Parham) to go over to Topeka, Kansas, to educate missionaries to carry the Gospel. It was a faith school and the Bible was the only textbook. The students had gathered there without tuition or board, God sending in the means to carry on the work. Most of the students had been religious workers and said they had received the baptism with the Holy Spirit a number of years ago. Bro. Parham became convinced that there was no religious school that tallied up with the second chapter of Acts. Just before the first of January 1901, the Bible School began to study the word on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit to discover the Bible evidence of this baptism that they might obtain it.

The students kept up continual prayer in the praying tower. A company would go up and stay three hours, and then another company would go up and wait on God, praying that all the promises of the Word might be wrought out in their lives.

On New Year's night, Miss Agnes N. Ozman, one who had had for years "the anointing that abideth," which she mistook for the baptism, was convinced of the need of a personal Pentecost. A few minutes before midnight, she desired hands laid on her that she might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. During prayer and invocation of hands, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance.

This made all hungry. Scarcely eating or sleeping, the school with one accord waited on God. On the 3rd of January, 1901, Bro. Parham being absent holding a meeting at the time, while they all waited on God to send the baptism of the Spirit, suddenly twelve students were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, and when Bro. Parham returned and opened the door of the room where they were gathered; a wonderful sight met his eyes. The whole room was filled with a white sheen of light that could not be described, and twelve of the students were on their feet talking in different languages.

He said they seemed to pay no attention at all to him, and he knelt in one corner and said: "O, God, what does this mean?" The Lord said: "Are you able to stand for the experience in the face of persecution and howling mobs?" He said: "Yes, Lord, if you will give me the experience, for the laborer must first be partaker of the fruits." Instantly the Lord took his vocal organs, and he was preaching the Word in another language.

This man has preached in different languages over the United States, and men and women of that nationality have come to the altar and sought God. He was surely raised up of God to be an apostle of the doctrine of Pentecost.

In Christ Jesus,

Tyrone

Testimonies On The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit (Smith Wigglesworth)

Smith Wigglesworth (8 June 1859 – 12 March 1947), Was a British evangelist and faith healer who was important in the early history of Pentecostalism.

"You know, beloved, it had to be something on the line of solid facts to move me. I was as certain as possible that I had received the Holy Ghost, and was absolutely rigid in this conviction. When this Pentecostal outpouring began in England I went to Sunderland and met with the people who had assembled for the purpose of receiving the Holy Ghost. I was continually in those meetings causing disturbances until the people wished I had never come. They said that I was disturbing the whole conditions. But I was hungry and thirsty for God, and had gone to Sunderland because I heard that God was pouring out His Spirit in a new way. I heard that God had now visited His people, had manifested His power and that people were speaking in tongues as on the day of Pentecost.

When I got to this place I said, “I cannot understand this meeting. I have left a meeting in Bradford all on fire for God. The fire fell last night and we were all laid out under the power of God. I have come here for tongues, and I don’t hear them-I don’t hear anything.”

“Oh!” they said, “when you get baptized with the Holy Ghost you will speak in tongues.” “Oh, is that it?” said I, “when the presence of God came upon me, my tongue was loosened, and really I felt as I went in the open air to preach that I had a new tongue.” “Ah no,” they said, “that is not it.” “What is it, then?” I asked. They said, “When you get baptized in the Holy Ghost-” “I am baptized,” I interjected, “and there is no one here who can persuade me that I am not baptized.” So I was up against them and they were up against me.

I remember a man getting up and saying, “You know, brothers and sisters, I was here three weeks and then the Lord baptized me with the Holy Ghost and I began to speak with other tongues.” I said, “Let us hear it. That’s what I’m here for.” But he would not talk in tongues. I was doing what others are doing today, confusing the 12th of I Corinthians with the 2nd of Acts. These two chapters deal with different things, one with the gifts of the Spirit, and the other with the Baptism of the Spirit with the accompanying sign. I did not understand this and so I said to the man, “Let’s hear you speak in tongues.” But he could not. He had not received the “gift” of tongues, but the Baptism.

As the days passed I became more and more hungry. I had opposed the meetings so much, but the Lord was gracious, and I shall ever remember that last day-the day I was to leave. God was with me so much that last night. They were to have a meeting and I went, but I could not rest. I went to the Vicarage, and there in the library I said to Mrs. Boddy, “I cannot rest any longer, I must have these tongues.” She replied, “Brother Wigglesworth, it is not the tongues you need but the Baptism. If you will allow God to baptize you, the other will be all right.” “My dear sister, I know I am baptized,” I said. “You know that I have to leave here at 4 o’clock. Please lay hands on me that I may receive the tongues.”

She rose up and laid her hands on me and the fire fell. I said, “The fire’s falling.” Then came a persistent knock at the door, and she had to go out. That was the best thing that could have happened, for I was ALONE WITH GOD. Then He gave me a revelation. Oh, it was wonderful! He showed me an empty cross and Jesus glorified. I do thank God that the cross is empty, that Christ is no more on the cross. It was there that He bore the curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.” He became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, and now, there He is in the glory. Then I saw that God had purified me. It seemed that God gave me a new vision, and I saw a perfect being within me with mouth open, saying, “Clean! Clean! Clean!” When I began to repeat it I found myself speaking in other tongues. The joy was so great that when I came to utter it my tongue failed, and I began to worship God in other tongues as the Spirit gave me utterance.

What had I received? I had received the Bible evidence. This Bible evidence is wonderful to me. I knew I had received the very evidence of the Spirit’s incoming that the Apostles received on the day of Pentecost. I knew that everything I had had up to that time was in the nature of an anointing bringing me in line with God in preparation, but now I knew I had the Biblical Baptism in the Spirit. It had the backing of the Scriptures. You are always right when you have the backing of the Scriptures and you are never right if you have not a foundation for your testimony in the Word of God.

For many years I have thrown out a challenge to any person who can prove to me that he has the Baptism without speaking in tongues as the Spirit gives utterance-to prove it by the Word that he has been baptized in the Holy Ghost without the Bible evidence, but so far no one has accepted the challenge. I only say this because so many were as I was; they have a rigid idea that they have received the Baptism without the Bible evidence. The Lord Jesus wants those who preach the Word to have the Word in evidence. Don’t be misled by anything else. Have a Bible proof for all you have, and then you will be in a place where no man can move you.

I was so full of joy that I wired home to say that I had received the Holy Ghost. As soon as I got home, my boy came running up to me and said, “Father, have you received the Holy Ghost?” I said, “Yes, my boy.” He said, “Let’s hear you speak in tongues.” But I could not. Why? I had received the Baptism in the Spirit with the speaking in tongues as the Bible evidence according to Acts 2:4, and had not received the gift of Tongues according to 1 Corinthians 12. I had received the Giver of all gifts. At some time later when I was helping some souls to seek and receive the Baptism of the Spirit, God gave me the gift of Tongues so that I could speak at any time. I could speak, but will not - no never! I must allow the Holy Ghost to use the gift. It should be so, so that we shall have divine utterances only by the Spirit. I would be very sorry to use a gift, but the Giver has all power to use the whole nine gifts."

Testimonies On The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit (R.A. Torrey)

Reuben Archer Torrey (28 January 1856 – 26 October 1928), Was an American evangelist, pastor, educator, writer, and first Superintendent of Moody Bible Institute In Chicago.

"While a great deal is said in these days concerning the baptism with the Holy Spirit, it is to be feared that there are many who talk about it and pray for it who have no clear and definite idea of what it is. But the Bible, if carefully studied, will give us a view of this wondrous blessing that is perfectly clear and remarkably definite.

1. We find first of all that there are a number of designations in the Bible for this one experience. In Acts 1:5 Jesus said: “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” In Acts 2:4, when this promise was fulfilled, we read, “They were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” In Acts 1:4 the same experience is spoken of as “the promise of the Father,” and in Luke 24:49 as “the promise of my Father” and “endued with power from on high.’ By a comparison of Acts 10:44, 45, and 47 with Acts 11:15, and 16, we find that the expressions “the Holy Ghost fell on them” and “the gift of the Holy Ghost” and “received the Holy Ghost” are all equivalent to “baptized with the Holy Ghost.”

2. We find in the next place that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience which one may know whether he has received or not. This is evident from our Saviour’s command to the apostles: “Tarry ye in the city…until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). If this enduement with power, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, were not an experience so definite that one could know whether he had received it or not, how could they tell when those commanded days of tarrying were at an end?

The same thing is clear from Paul’s very definite question to the disciples at Ephesus. “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” (Acts 19:2, ASV). Paul evidently expected a definite “yes” or a definite “no” for an answer. Unless the experience were definite and of such a character that one could know whether he had received it or not, how could these disciples answer Paul’s question! In fact, they know they had not received or been baptized with the Holy Spirit, and a short time afterward they knew they had received and been baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:6).

The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is for every child of God in every age of the Church's history. If it is not ours in experimental possession, it is because we have not taken (the exact force of the word "receive" in verse 38 is take) what God has provided for us in our exalted Saviour.

A minister of the Gospel once came to me after a lecture on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and said: "The church to which I belong, teaches that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit was for the Apostolic age alone." "It matters not, " was replied, "what the church to which you belong or the church to which I belong teaches.

What says the Word of God?" Acts ii: 39 was read: "To you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him." "Has he called you?" I asked. "Yes, he certainly has." "Is the promise for you?" "Yes, it is." And it was. And it is for every child of God who reads these pages. What a thrilling thought it is that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, the endue-ment with power from on high is for us, is for me individually."