by Steven Lambert | Jan 23, 2023
The entrance of God’s Word gives light, or illumination of the Truth (Psa. 119:130). By and by, throughout the ages, God has been dispelling spiritual darkness in the Church by gradually revealing more and more Truth and by gradually giving us greater illumination of the Truth. As a result, the Church’s understanding of the Truth is becoming more and more complete and perfected. This is what the Holy Spirit means in His allusion to being “established in present Truth.” Certainly, it is not that the Truth of God changes or needs up-dating, but rather this refers to the Church’s understanding of the Truth. This process seems to be especially accelerated in these last days in which much fresh Truth is being revealed to the Church through a “new breed” of Fivefold Ministers.
by Steven Lambert | Dec 3, 2014
To properly understand this whole matter of “various kinds of tongues,” as the New American Standard Bible renders it, requires to first understand the matter of tongues is not a humanly-invented phenomenon, but as the above passage brings out, it was God’s idea and doing to appoint or set in the ekklesia or Church Jesus is building different “kinds of tongues.” The terms “set” and “appointed” both connote permanence. Everyone who has ever worked with cement knows well what the word “set” means, and that once the mixture is set it is permanent and immutable. So, this use by the Holy Spirit of these terms in this passage establishes that fact that God has ordained that various kinds of tongues should be operating in the assemblies of the Church for as long as the Church exists. Nowhere does Scripture inform us that God has rescinded the appointment of the gift of various forms of tongues in the Church, though many have sought to have them “impeached” or “abrogated” from the Church without any Biblical justification for doing so. Cessationists must resort to extra-biblical theorization to support their unproven assertions, which are based virtually exclusively and entirely upon past Church history, which is the record of what the Church did vis-à-vis what God ordained and prescribed in His Word for the Church to do. The chasm between the two is vast!
by Steven Lambert | Sep 25, 2014
From the preponderance of Scriptural record, it is extremely, and in fact, unimpeachably safe, to conclude that the Biblical pattern of the initial sign or indicator that a person has received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. Certainly, it’s safer to say it is, than that it’s not.
by Steven Lambert | Nov 24, 2012
This is second part of two-part series aimed at demonstrating that there are distinct and vital differences between the nine Manifestation Gifts, aka, the Charismata or Gifts of the Spirit, enumerated in Scripture and the five Ministry Gifts also delineated in...
by Steven Lambert | Jan 3, 2012
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit, evidenced by the gift of tongues, is a separate and distinct experience to salvation that God offers to all believers. Both salvation and the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, however, are a work of the Holy Spirit. In salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live within the believer — this is the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit. In the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, the believer is enveloped by and immersed in the Holy Spirit; that is to say, the Holy Spirit comes UPON the believer in contrast to INTO the believer. These facts are clearly supported by Scripture and are exemplified by the experience of Jesus Himself, who is our supreme Model.
