THE RENEWING OF THE HOLY GHOST
BY MARK HANBY & V. ARLEN GUIDROZ
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).
The lightning speed with which this tormented, tragically deceived generation is plunging toward eternity wrenches from the heart of every concerned Christian any desire for gospel ‘games’ or spiritual
amusement The burdened soul of the saint is left with only a lonely crying out to really know ‘where went the power’ of Pentecost and the profundity of its gospel witness.
Somewhere far away from our narrow prisons, surrounded by the dark, damp tunnels of Pentecostal tradition, beckon the fresh, sweet paths of spiritual insight leading to the vast treasures of power and success.
Two of these lovely paths are outlined for us in our above scriptural text First is: Regeneration. Next Renewing of the Holy Ghost It is our intention in these chapters to show the difference between the two
and the virtue and value of both. Regeneration is what God does for us spiritually and supernaturally, while renewing is what we do for ourselves through seeking and pressing for deeper and closer experiences with our Lord.
The following references show us the distinction between regeneration and renewing.
Regeneration:
Acts 2:38- New Birth
Isaiah 28:12 – The Rest
Titus 3:5 -Washing of Regeneration
Renewing:
Acts 2:40- Save Yourselves
Isaiah 28:12 – The Refreshing
Titus 3:5- And the Renewing of the Holy Ghost
A man who claims only an initial Experience of the Holy Ghost will soon become a stagnant pool, covered with the green slime of bitterness and restless with the larvae of materialism, thus becoming a breeding place for discontent while, by contrast those being consistently renewed are a refreshing fountain for thirsty souls.
I. REGENERATION
Regeneration is the accomplishment of Diety, stooping to salvage and rescue utterly doomed humanity. Oh what blessed relief. Old things are taken away and all things are made new! We have become new
creatures in Christ Jesus. Without regeneration a man cannot be saved from pronounced judgment against all mankind.
This act is comprised of the birth of the water and the Spirit (John 3:5). Regeneration was preached on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38), introduced to the Gentiles (Acts 10:44-48), and ministered by Paul to
the Ephesians (Acts 19).
Our churches proudly stand on the Apostolic platform and contend that for a sinner to be saved from the error of his way he must die to sin (through repentance), be buried in a watery grave (baptized in Jesus’
name), and be resurrected with Christ (filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with tongues).
We do not flinch nor back away from those who claim we are dogmatic, hardheaded, or narrow-minded on scriptural doctrine.
IL THE FIRST LOVE
Isn’t it strange that the determined love of an uninformed newcomer to this Gospel truth has produced more for the cause of Christ and evangelism than the professional-type attitude of well-settled saints’?
We have successfully managed to train out of our new converts the power and excitement that comes to them with the baptism of the Holy Ghost
There is a basic instinct in an unspoiled, newborn saint that makes him love men, women, boys and girls, no matter what their station in life. When these newly baptized souls stagger up from a Holy Ghost altar they are often seen joyfully embracing those nearest them, crying, “Oh, I’ve got to go tell my family!” Now, give them one month in our services and we will begin to see the waning of this great innate desire as we pull them farther and farther away into the tracks of routine effort that our wheels have traveled for so many years. The enthusiasm and excitement of this first love in a newborn child of God once overlooked the facts and impossibilities of soulwinning and said, “I must I have to; they’re lost”‘
The Life Source
What is in the heart of a babe that seeks a mother’s breast or the instinct in the tiny songbird that opens its bill wide at the sound of a fluttering at the edge of the nest? Nature willingly bequeaths to these helpless little creatures an inborn ability to pursue and obtain the life-source.
What is in a newborn saint that cries through the night for lost relatives, prays through the day for unsaved companions, and sends an endless caravan of faith-packed prayer requests to the pastor’s desk for wayward sons and daughters?
Are these the spastic motions or infantile responses of a spiritually unfocused mind? No! These spiritual babes are naturally obtaining and redistributing the life-source. They are born with the gospel principle ” . . . freely ye have received, freely give.” These fresh ones whose eyes are not accustomed to our established procedures, look beyond the walls of our impossibilities and with reckless faith envision what we are ‘confident’ could never come to pass.
Many of these sucklings are thought to be suffering from a childhood disease. The symptoms are carefully observed by the healthy ‘spiritual specialists’: … running eyes, dripping noses, unearthly groanings, frequent stammerings and repeated seizures. After a thorough examination, the diagnosis is blushingly reported in these words, “Well, he’s new here. Please don’t be alarmed. The affliction at this
stage is not contagious and with ‘proper Pentecostal treatment’ this zealous young’un will be completely cured in a few days.”
Love Can Say, “I’ve Been There”
I submit that this sweet young child of God is not afflicted at all but is still tender enough to let his heart be broken with the things that broke the heart of his Lord. “And when he saw the multitudes he was
moved with COMPASSION. (Matthew 9:36).
The new one is still able to put himself in the position of a sinner with empathy for his situation. Compassion is simply being able to say, “I know how you feel; you see, it’s been just a few hours, a few
days, or a few weeks since I was there. I remember the pit from whence I was digged and the sucking mire clinging to my ankles and knees, dragging me ever downward toward a pit from which I could not extricate myself. I remember the lonely nights and the agonizing years of endless searching for hopes and joys that could not be found. I remember emptiness and waste, the lonely harbingers of death that
knocked endlessly at my door with no comforting advocate to put an arm around my shoulder.”
The love and compassion in the heart of this newborn sensitively feels and remembers every pang of sin and reaches out do what a long-time professional saint ‘knows’ cannot be done because time and security has erased the painful memory of his wretched past. The comfortable saint has been drinking a long time at the fountain and cannot remember the desperate longing for one drop of cool water. He has long nibbled from tables ladened with rich messages and the fresh fruit of constant encouragement. He’s satisfied!
III. GOD’S MESSAGE TO THE FORGETFUL
God prophetically sets Isaiah’s warning alongside the foundation text foretelling the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. “Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of E’-phra-im, whose glorious beauty a fading
flower, which are on the head the fat valleys of them that are over me with wine.!” (Isaiah 28:1).
The meek man of the Bible, Moses, enduring the type and shadow for our ensample (I Corinthians 10:1-12), fervently warned these fat souls:
“Hear, 0 Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not
And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantest not when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
THEN BEWARE LEST THOU FORGET THE LORD, WHICH BROUGHT THEE FORTH OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, FROM THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE” (Deuteronomy 6:4-12).
Another Message
After a book full of messages and a heart laden with responsibility, Moses finally penned these words in sad consummation:
” Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
As an eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Ba’-shan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
BUT JESH’-U-RUN WAXED FAT, AND KICKED: THOU ART WAXEN FAT, THOU ART GROWN THICK, THOU ART COVERED WITH FATNESS: THEN HE FORSOOK GOD WHICH MADE HIM, AND LIGHTLY ESTEEMED THE ROCK OF HIS SALVATION.
They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abomination provoked they him to anger.
They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they know not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. (Tradition)
OF THE ROCK THAT BEGAT THEE THOU ART UNMINDFUL, AND HAST FORGOTTEN GOD THAT FORMED THEE.”
“AND HE SAID, I WILL HIDE MY FACE FROM THEM, I WILL SEE WHAT THEIR END SHALL BE: FOR THEY ARE AVERY FROWARD GENERATION, CHILDREN IN WHOM IS N0 FAITH” (Deuteronomy 32:7-18, 20).
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THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS TAKEN FROM THE POWER WITNESS AND WAS PUBLISHED BY THE GENERAL HOME MISSIONS DEPARTMENT UNITED PENTECOSTAL CHURCH, HAZELWOOD, MISSOURI, PAGES 11-14.
THIS MATERIAL MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.
