From: Justin
To: Victor Hafichuk
Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2016 2:23 PM
Subject: Baptism in the Holy Spirit
Hello Mr Hafichuk! My name is Justin and i have been walking with the Lord for 16 years now and i just discovered your website today. My testimony is very similar to your story in that i repented with my whole heart 16 years ago and have held fast to that repentance and walked with the Spirit for all of these years and have been shown many of the same fallacies of the modern day Christian church as well as the antichrist spirit which leads them.
I would love to write you another email soon and share/fellowship with you in regard to my walk/sufferings with the Lord all of these many years. I wrote you today specifically to see if you would mind answering a question for me about the Baptism in the Holy Ghost. I was shown through revelation of the Promise of the Father many years ago, probably about 9 years ago. I have been seeking this infilling and experience ever since. Carrying my cross and dying to self in the process.
My question is, when you received the Spirit and later spoke in tongues, did the tongues come forth as the Spirit gave utterance? Or was it something that you had to do yourself in order to speak in tongues? I ask because in my younger years in the Lord i was around American churches and people tried to instruct me on how to speak in tongues, they would say repeat the sounds i am making…gibberish, Or say these syllables and now you are speaking in tongues.
Even though i didnt know much back then, the Spirit in me was showing me that this was not of the Lord. I have this hope in me that when I am filled with the Spirit, He will speak through me in the unknown language-baptizing me into the One Body! Fullfilling perhaps what was lost at Babel. But i dont believe that i am suppossed to conjure up some emotion and pretend to be speaking in tongues in my own carnal mind. I am hoping that when the Lord takes residence He speaks and takes control of the tongue, the hardest member of mans body to tame. I am wondering if i am correct in this Hope.
I have not been in attendance of American churches for many many years as the Lord called me out to hear his voice and to follow Him. I do have fellowship with a few people. One of which received the Holy Spirit in a very Biblical way. She was raised Catholic but had been repenting for about 4 years and the Lord was showing her that there was no good thing in her and that she needed to repent.
After reading a tract and finally coming to the knowledge of repentance and grace, she received Jesus as Lord and was full of joy, the world looked totally different to her.
Later that evening without even knowing there was a baptism in the Holy Spirit, she was asleep in her room when she encountered a ball of fire, and what she describes as the most amazing Love she has ever encountered. She said it remained and came over her and filled her and she began to speak in tongues and then immediately interpretted. It was magnifying the Lord.
This happened for what she believed to be 45min-the tongues. She was filled with Joy and was running through her house a changed woman. The 4 years of repentance was a very difficult time in her life so this did not come without a huge price. She knew nothing of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit when this happened. She later read about it in the book of Acts at a Life in the Spirit Seminar. This was in 1975.
She told the attendants that she had had that experience already and they all but kicked her out of the meeting. This woman is the most God fearing, humble, honest, and seeking woman i have ever met. Even all of these years later she is still carrying her cross and seeking more of His fruit and gifts.
This all happened during the Charasmatic movement of the 1970s and she assures me that in its beginnings the Spirit was being poured out however man tried to control the Spirit and the movement quickly became soulish and the Spirit would not be controlled by man.
Sorry for the long story… I shared all of this to ask you the question, do you believe that when the Spirit fills a person it is the Spirit who speaks(as the Spirit gives utterance)? Or is there something i have to do in the whole process??? I believe in my heart that when the Spirit falls on me, or enters His temple then i will just be a bystander in the whole process similar to how my friend was, she just received it, not even knowing there was more than just repentance(she was very thirsty obviously).
I have just been seeking this for a very long time and i do not believe that the current “gifts of the spirit” are actually God at all. I believe that they are fake and are conjured up by peoples carnal minds. However i do believe the true gifts are still available and do still flow to earnest and honest seekers. Thank you greatly for taking the time to read this long email and I appreciate and feedback you could share concerning your experience with speaking in tongues! Many thanks, Justin
From: Victor Hafichuk
To: Justin
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 7:08 AM
Subject: Re: Baptism in the Holy Spirit
Hi Justin,
Good to hear of what the Lord is doing with you. May He grant you the grace to believe, obey, and wait patiently for Him.
If you read The Baptism in the Holy Spirit, you should find your questions answered. For example, tongues is a gift of God, not something manufactured or imagined by men, or seized from God’s hand; gifts are received, not taken because they are freely given. Do you strive to have any of His spiritual gifts, like visions and dreams? Yes, we can ask for gifts, and believing, we receive, but to “make it happen” is something rather repugnant to God – it is unbelief; it’s an insult to Him.
In none of the examples in the Scriptures did people try to make things happen, including speaking in tongues. God will give to whomever He will, when He will, how He will.
“I shared all of this to ask you the question, do you believe that when the Spirit fills a person it is the Spirit who speaks (as the Spirit gives utterance)?”
Yes.
“Or is there something i have to do in the whole process???”
If you speak of asking for tongues, the answer is “no.” If you speak of asking for the Holy Spirit or the gift of prophecy, yes. Throughout, you simply obey the Lord in the things He requires of you day to day; that’s it; the rest He takes care of. Honor Him and He will withhold no good thing from you.
“I believe in my heart that when the Spirit falls on me, or enters His temple then i will just be a bystander in the whole process similar to how my friend was, she just received it, not even knowing there was more than just repentance(she was very thirsty obviously).”
You’ve got that right. It’s not something you do but what happens to you or what God does with you.
“I have just been seeking this for a very long time and i do not believe that the current ‘gifts of the spirit’ are actually God at all.”
Seeking is one thing; believing, quite another. Faith is the key. But faith comes with obedience. If you believe, you’ll obey.
“I believe that they are fake and are conjured up by peoples carnal minds.”
Almost everything one can witness of the manifestation of the Spirit of God and the gifts, whether in “worship services” or anywhere else, is false, counterfeit, product of men and of devils. “Try the spirits,” says John. Many are the false, but few the true.
“However i do believe the true gifts are still available and do still flow to earnest and honest seekers.”
The true gifts are available because the Spirit of God is available. Gifts of the Spirit come with the Spirit of God. “The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10).
As for my personal experience, Justin, you can read wHaT tHe LoRd HaS dOnE wItH mE.
God grant you grace to believe and obey Him. He’s Faithful and True, all the way. He never fails or despises anyone who comes to Him for the right reasons in the right spirit.
Let us know more about yourself, how things go, and feel free to communicate with us. Check out our Forum, too, where you can enter into conversations with others in our fellowship. Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask them, no matter how silly you may think them to be, so long as you’re sincere about walking with the Lord and doing His will.
Victor Hafichuk