Tongues and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit Kathryn Kuhlman 42 Questions Part 3

What if no one else is enjoying answering the questions that a very marvelous evangelical magazine sent to me and asked me to answer? No one else is enjoying them. I certainly am. I just love it. And they have presented me with 40... 42 questions. Now, that's an awful lot of questions. How would you, now you put yourself in my place. How would you like for someone to submit to you 42 questions and those questions involve every part of your life? How would you like to say okay? I'll answer them. Not just to one person, but the whole world. You know, kind of like that. Uh -huh. If you're going to be used of God, your whole life has to be open for inspection. You know, it's like that. And so, I've been having an awful good time. I hope that, uh... You've been enjoying it. Remember, we're only down to our ninth question. And they submitted 42 questions. You may say, oh, I've got some questions I would ask. Well, you just hold steady. Your question is more than likely in the 42 that I am going to be answering. We come now to the ninth question. How effective has your television ministry been? What has been the response in numbers of letters? Now, let me answer the second part of this question before the first part. When you come to the number of letters that I receive, it's sort of like the number of folk who come forward when we give an altar call. You have never heard Catherine Kuhlman say there were 500 who were converted in the Great Service Sunday. I can say to you that there were 500 who came forward. But when it comes to those who were really born again, only God knows that. When it comes to the response in the number of letters received, of course, great is the response. Because there are those who will respond to anything that's on television. I don't care what it is. No matter why it is. And yet the thing that impresses me most, are those letters that come in saying, I have never in my life ever written a letter like this. I want to be born again. I'm hungry for that spiritual experience. I want that more than anything else in the whole world. You see, people write in only because they're hungry for the Lord. They need spiritual help, supported entirely by the freewill contributions of those who've been so blessed, who've been so helped, those who see the great results. After all, If you're a child of God, we're in this thing together. It's an investment in the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. How effective has been your TV ministry? I can only tell you that the most unlikely people will stop me on the street. and say I wouldn't miss one good telecast for anything in the world. I'd just returned from one of the most remote parts of the United States. I was shocked to find that everyone, everywhere I went, said, Oh, you're Catherine Kuhlman. We watch your telecast. And I responded at first by saying, but we're not on television from such and such a place. How do you get it? Through the means of cable. I'm thrilled when I get into a cab. And seldom do I ever get into a cab, but what? In hearing my voice, the cab driver will say, Uh -oh, I know that voice. You're Catherine Kuhlman. My wife and I watch you on television all the time. There's seldom a time that I go into a restaurant to eat, but what the waitress or the waiter, when I give my order, will say, that voice. You'll never know. but my family has gotten from your telecasts. Financially, the telecasts do not pay for themselves. If you'd like that question answered, I'll just throw that in for good measure. And sometimes we have to pray like a house of fire, as we used to say in Missouri. But I'm still depending on the Lord. They come through, and he's never failed us yet. But the greatest combination is television and radio. Through means of the radio, we teach. The combination of both, the television and the radio, and you have a ministry that's unbeatable. The tenth question, what is the role and place of speaking in tongues? And what is its relationship to justification and sanctification? Is it a sign or the sign of the Spirit's control? Right now, somebody is stopping everything that they're doing. To be sure to hear the answer to that question. Well, let's just lay it on the line and that's the way I like it. And that's the kind of person I am. What you want to know is whether or not I believe in speaking in tongues. And the answer is yes. I have to believe. that there is such a thing as speaking in an unknown tongue, because I believe the Bible. And one cannot just take the Word of God and take out whatever is not agreeable with them. If you did that, if you cut out everything that you wished was not there, it wouldn't be long before you would no longer have a Bible. Oh, maybe you'd have the 23rd Psalm left. That's wonderful. You'd keep everything in that the Word says regarding heaven. That's glorious. But either we accept the whole Word of God or don't accept anything. And I'm a firm believer that one needs to stay with the Word of God. isn't in the word of God, don't do it. We're in an hour of great deception. And the Lord himself warned us regarding the day in which we're living. An hour of great deception. If it were possible, the very elect would be deceived. I repeat, if it isn't in the Bible, don't Do it. If it is in the Word of God, accept it. I believe that's one reason why this ministry, through the years, has stood the test of time and the test of the critics. We have no fanaticism. None whatsoever. No one can... ever accuse me of being fanatical or can speak the word of truth and say this ministry is a fanatical ministry. You attend the services. Nothing is unseemly. It is done according to God's word, His scripture. And it should be so because the foundation of this ministry is God's Word. Therefore, when we come to the speaking in an unknown tongue, remember, it's in the Word of God. The Bible teaches it. And the speaking without the tongues is the supernatural experience which characterizes the Pentecostal movement of today all over the world. Not just here in the United States, but all over the world. You can say, but I don't believe it. I can't accept it. That's all right. Whatever you think or believe will not stop the Holy Spirit. He just continues baptizing believers. filling believers, and thousands will continue to speak in an unknown tongue. Because it's something that's supernatural. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. For so long, we were afraid of that word Pentecostal. Oh, it was easy to accept anything that was done on the day of Pentecost. And millions observe the day of Pentecost. But what millions have not accepted is the fact that we are still living in the day of Pentecost. Everything that happened on the day of Pentecost should be happening in every church in the world at this very hour. The coldness, the... The lack of power in many of our churches today is the unnatural and not the natural. For wherever you find the Holy Spirit, you'll find action. You'll find the supernatural manifestation of the mighty third person of the Trinity. And now the word... Pentecostal is not a word that one whispers, but very boldly. You'll find Catholic priests saying, I am a Pentecostal Catholic priest. You'll find a Baptist minister saying, I am a Pentecostal Baptist minister. Oh, those wonderful Pentecostal Lutheran ministers, you know? It's glorious. And thousands around the world are enjoying the Pentecostal experience. Speaking in an unknown tongue. But remember something. Speaking in an unknown tongue has nothing to do whatsoever with one's experience of justification. It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. I want to repeat it. It is the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. That makes us an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ Jesus. If your sins are covered with the blood, if you have accepted the Christ in the forgiveness of your sins, accepting him as absolute deity and divinity, whether you've ever spoken in an unknown tongue or not, when the old heart takes its last beat, and your soul goes all the way from earth to glory, you will stand in the wonderful presence of the great high priest, your Christ, your Redeemer. No. The Holy Spirit. That wonderful experience, call it the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I think that is the most scriptural. term to use. The experience that they received on the day of Pentecost, when they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, immersed in the Spirit. Remember, the Holy Spirit was not given for our justification. Jesus is the one who perfected our justification. But this wonderful experience that we call The baptism of the Holy Spirit is given for one purpose and one purpose only, and that's for power for service. And just before Jesus went away, he did not leave this message for someone else to give. He gave it himself. When he said, and ye shall receive power, However, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and the greatest evidence of having been filled with the Holy Spirit, the greatest evidence there is as to whether or not one has been immersed with the Holy Spirit, the greatest scriptural evidence that there is regarding the filling of the Holy Spirit power in an individual's life after this experience. You may speak in tongues every hour on the hour, but my friend, if your life isn't measuring up with the power of the Holy Ghost, then I wouldn't give you much for your experience. of speaking in an unknown tongue. And it's just like that. The eleventh question. Do you feel that you have the gift of healing? What gift do you have? No one has ever heard Catherine Kuhlman. say that she had one or more than one of the gifts of the spirit. I'm always afraid of the folk who boast of having received the gift of the spirit. I've come in contact with those who very boldly stood before me and say, you know, I have all of the gifts of the spirit. And they say it as though they felt they had arrived. And there was nothing more for them. I'm always a little leery, a little skeptical of those folk. Because... The greatest of all Christian graces is humility. And when one has been filled with the Holy Spirit, when one is controlled by the Holy Spirit, and if one has received a gift or more than one gift of the Holy Spirit, that one will never be boastful. Never. And I'm always afraid of a boastful... I would not say that I have received a gift or that I have anything special. All that I know is that I have yielded my body to Him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I have surrendered myself to Him. My life is no longer my own. He possesses me, body, soul, and spirit. And anything that the Holy Spirit has given me, anything, anything that He does through me, any results that there might be through this life of mine, It's not Catherine Coleman. It's the Holy Spirit. If he has given me something very special, it is still not Catherine Coleman. It's still what the Holy Spirit does through a yielded vessel. That's the reason we must be so very careful to give Him the praise and the glory for everything the Holy Spirit does. That is one thing I am so afraid of. I'm afraid lest I grieve the Holy Spirit, for when the Holy Spirit is lifted from me, I am the most ordinary person that ever lived. There's no woman living today more ordinary. than Catherine Coleman. I know that better than anyone else. I would not boast of something special. I would not boast of a gift. But I can tell you what the Holy Spirit does. And I vow to be careful to give God all the praise and all the glory. everything he does.