Healing and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Mistakes We Make Kathryn Kuhlman Holy Spirit Series #2 Conclusion

Well, for a few minutes, we're going to have one of those good heart -to -heart talks again. I don't think that you will consider this a sermon. Every once in a while, I just bring you a bit of teaching. And this shall be one of those times. Just as together, you and I study the Word of God. I want to make a very definite statement before I begin our little heart -to -heart talk together today. And I pray that after I will have left your home and you will have forgotten everything else that I may have said, remember this one statement. Any truth, no matter how good, Regardless of how good that truth, if emphasized to the exclusion of other truths of equal importance, is practical error. Know that. You will remember that over and over again in my teaching. I have told you that one cannot take a verse of Scripture out of its setting. and make a doctrine out of it. You can't do it. That is why we have false doctrine today. It's because somebody has come along and has just taken out one verse of Scripture. Do you want to know something? Do you know that I can talk with you five minutes? You and I can have a conversation together, say, for just five minutes. You can take... one sentence that I may have spoken in our conversation, just one. You may repeat just the one statement that I make, and somebody else will pick it up and it'll sound awful. It can be so misconstrued that it would put me in the wrong light entirely. It wasn't what I meant at all. Yet, in quoting me, In that one statement, it has only been a partial truth. If you're going to quote me, then take my entire conversation. Don't take just the one statement that I make out of its setting and quote me in that one statement. So it is with the Word of God when you study the Bible. You cannot take just one statement. You cannot take just one verse of Scripture out of its setting and make a doctrine out of it. You must take the entire truth, that which precedes and that which follows. You must keep it in its setting. Therefore, remember, any truth, no matter how good, if it's emphasized to the exclusion of other truth of equal importance, is practical error. I'm going to give an example. what I'm talking about. Take the incident that happened during the ministry of Jesus. It's recorded over there in the ninth chapter of John. Here's a blind man, a man who was born blind, and he's standing there in the presence of Jesus. And what did Jesus do? The scripture says, when he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the... eyes of the blind man with the clay. Now, get a better picture of it. Here's Jesus. Before him stands the blind man. And Jesus stooped down, spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, and then he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said to him, now you go wash in the pool of Siloam. Now, there's another instance. When blind Bartimaeus, a beggar on the dusty highway, he too blind, calling unto Jesus, Jesus turned to him, did not make spittle or betlay, did not, methinks, even touch his blinded eyes, but just spoke. and said, Bartimaeus, receive thy sight. And he received perfect vision. Now, knowing human nature the way I do, I am quite sure that there were those in the crowd, even after the man had received his sight, said, did the master spit on the ground? Did he make clay of the spittle? Did he anoint your eyes with the clay? No, the man said he didn't. He didn't even touch me. They said you couldn't possibly be healed. Why you can't possibly see? We don't believe it. We don't believe that you can see because you couldn't possibly have received your healing if Jesus had not made clay of spittle and anointed your eyes. And there they were. Sure. Now watch something. In one instance, Jesus anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay. In another instance, he did not. Perhaps he did not even touch the second man. And yet in both instances, Both men received perfect sight. Now follow me. We find that God gave the gift of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost and again at the household of Cornelius without any human agency whatsoever of the laying on of hands. You read in the second chapter of Acts that marvelous time when the Holy Ghost came upon the believers in the upper room. Oh, sure you know. But watch something. It does not say that there was the laying on of hands and they received the Holy Ghost. No, ma 'am. Go to the household of Cornelius. Read it carefully. And you'll find that they received the Holy Ghost. They were filled with the Holy Spirit without any human agency of the laying on of hands whatsoever. None. But at the Great Samaritan Revival, as recorded over there in the 8th chapter of Acts, and again at the... Ephesus revival, as recorded in the 19th chapter of Acts, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit, was given by the laying on of hands. Sure, it's there. Read it. In the 8th chapter of Acts, the 17th verse, Then laid they their hands on them, and they received, the Holy Ghost. Knowing human nature, as I know human nature today, I dare say there were some who turned to others who had been filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost and said, did anybody lay hands on you when you were filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost? And they said, no, nobody laid hands on me. The Holy Ghost just came upon us. Then you didn't receive the Holy Ghost. You were never filled with the Holy Spirit. You go right back and you have hands laid on you. Hands were laid on me and I received the fullness of the Holy Ghost. And you can't receive the fullness of the Holy Ghost unless hands were laid upon you. Watch, I repeat. Any truth, no matter how good, if it's emphasized to the exclusion of other truth of equal importance, is practical error. Watch something now. Both blind men received their sight with and without clay. The believers were filled with the Holy Spirit with and without the laying on of hands. Therefore, we find that 50 % of the scripture speaks of laying on of hands in the receiving of the Holy Ghost and 50 % without human agency. For anyone to press either way or be dogmatic either way or make it an issue is guilty of error before God and man. Are you following me? All right. Here we go now. Stay with me a little longer. Acts 2 -4. What did they do? Oh, beloved in that upper room, that marvelous experience. There was no laying on of hands. But you and I cannot doubt the fact that those believers were wonderfully filled with the Holy Spirit. And the scripture clearly states that they spoke in an unknown tongue. The Bible says so. And they did. Go to the household of Cornelius in the 10th chapter of Acts. Read it. It's there. The 44th verse, what happened? Again, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost came upon them and they did speak in an unknown tongue. But watch something. Go to Acts 4, the 31st verse. The believers were filled with the Holy Spirit and you can find... No scriptures saying that they spoke in an unknown tongue. Go to the 8th chapter back. There it is. Read it. Read that account. It speaks of the believers again being filled with the Holy Spirit. But you can find nothing that says that they spoke in an unknown tongue. Go further. Go to the 9th chapter back. What do you find in the 9th chapter back? Paul being filled with the Spirit, that marvelous spiritual giant. Oh, who can doubt the fact that Paul was not filled with the Holy Spirit? He was. But what does the Scripture say? Let me read it. 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 comest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And no theologian in the whole world can prove that at that time time when Paul was filled with the Holy Ghost that he spoke in an unknown tongue. But beloved, watch it. On the day of Pentecost they were filled with the Holy Ghost with tongues. In the household of Cornelius they were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues. At that great Samaritan Revival. They were filled with the Holy Ghost. But there's no record that they spoke in an unknown tongue. Oh, look at Ephesus. Read it. Read it when the power of the Holy Ghost came upon them. No tongues. But they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember. For anyone to press either way or make it an issue is guilty of error before God and man. And I repeat, and I pray that you shall never forget it, that any truth, no matter how good that truth, if that truth is emphasized to the exclusion of other truth of equal importance. It's error. And it's just like that. Let me just give you a little illustration and I'll show you how it's very easy to become confused and get off into error. I was tempted to fall into another error of similar character. Oh, I was so hungry to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I read the testimony of John Wesley. I read the life of Charles Finney. I've read books on Dwight Lyman Moody and others. And I noted that after they were filled with the Spirit, they obtained the gift of an evangelist. Do you want to know something? I was tempted to think that anyone filled... with the Spirit would receive the gift of an evangelist. But I thought in error. I was wrong. It is just as unscriptural to say that everyone will speak in an unknown tongue when he receives the fullness of the Holy Spirit as to say that Everyone receives the gift of an evangelist when he is filled with the Spirit. Know that. Be careful about being dogmatic about some things that are not the complete truth. I appreciate something very much. Aletheia wrote a very beautiful letter the other day. And these are her closing words. She's a very intelligent, a very marvelous woman. I quote from her letter. With or without speaking in tongues. With or without the laying on of hands. The church surely needs the mighty Holy Ghost today. And it's just like that. What you and I need today, what the church needs today, is the power and the person of the Holy Spirit. Power for service, and ye shall receive power. With or without speaking in the non -tongue, with or without the laying on of hands, ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses. Make the word real to hearts, I pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.