The greatest threat to the power of God that will change society is not society. It’s backslidden, mossy-back, pharisaic, religion that stands in the way of God and what He wants to do in this last hour. Statements like the recent ones made the Southern Baptist Convention underscore a greater problem in the church that is pushing us closer to all out apostasy and delusion and the advent of the rapture of the Church. The Spirit of Antichrist is IN the church right now preparing both the world AND the apostate church for the advent of the man of sin.

Acts 4:1-2
And as they spoke unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, [2] Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

 Most of the church is like this council in Acts 4. They couldn’t argue over the miracle that had taken place - the man lame from birth stood healed in front of them. Yet, instead of praising God, they had to “confer among themselves” about it and then threaten Peter and John to stop preaching in the name of Jesus.

Acts 4:3-10
And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. [4] Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand. [5] And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, [6] And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. [7] And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? [8] Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, [9] If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; [10] Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

 Peter and John says, “whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more unto God, you be the judge.” Then they say something that is very key to that I hope rings in your heart reader – “WE CANNOT BUT SPEAK THE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE SEEN AND HEARD.” The church has a hard time arguing away that millions and millions and millions of people who love Jesus and been born again have received this glorious experience being baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. Preacher, preach all your unbelief you want but this writer knows the Holy Ghost is real and His ministry is for today.

Despite the scriptural experience of millions, the church world, both the denominational and a growing number in the Pentecostal denominational world,  claims speaking in other tongues is not scriptural or a valid experience today, and in some extreme cases come close to blaspheming the Holy Spirit by attributing the experience to Satan. I was at a church not too long ago in Central Tennessee whose doctrinal pamphlets stated “we cannot believe this (the baptism in the Holy Spirit) is real just because so many people have experienced it. We don’t believe in experience, we believe in the Bible.”

Well, I ask you a question that my 13 year old can understand even though preachers with degrees from Georgia to Texas cannot understand.  Is not the Bible full of stories of "EXPERIENCES" with men and women of faith from Abel to the Apostles???????????????? Was Paul being struck by blindness on the Road to Damascus an experience? Was what happened on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4 an "experience?"  Was not Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead an experience?? Was not people getting healed by Peter's shadow an "experience?"

If we don’t believe in experience, then we don’t believe in salvation. Salvation is an experience. If we don’t believe in experience, then we don’t believe in people rededicating their lives to the Lord. When people come down and rededicate their lives to the Lord weeping, repenting and crying out for mercy that's an experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. If we don’t believe in experience, then we don’t believe in healing (many don’t). What would many evangelicals told the lame man that got healed in Acts 3 if he were here today? “You’re experience is not valid because we believe we don't believe in experiences and we believe these tings went away 2,000 years ago with the apostles.” Do you think he would really care what you believed? HE WAS HEALED!  Reject and resist His power if you will to your own peril preacher,  but as Paul said "if you want to be ignorant of these things then be ignorant."  If your "bible" has become the Purpose Driven Life instead of the simple reading and study of the Word of God - you need an enduement of power from on HIGH!

Sad to say, a person who drinks, smokes and cusses can usually be a member in good standing in most churches in America. If that same person receives the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues and STOPS drinking, cussing and smoking, they are thrown out in disgrace. I am here to tell you without blinking – the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a real experience and speaking in tongues is not of the Devil – it’s for today and IT’S FOR YOU!

February 4, 1987 - 20 Years Ago This February 2007

Without the indwelling presence of God's Holy Spirit to augment our poor worldly powers, we are going to be ineffectual at best, and perhaps soundly defeated at worst. The life of the Christian - even those who ARE Spirit-filled - is not easy. I've been baptized in the Holy Ghost for nearly 20 years now and can tell you from first hand experience that NO experience zaps us into Christian perfection - even the Baptism in the Holy Ghost. Because we are but earthen vessels through which this glory resides and operates the Holy Spirit many times is hindered. But just because we are still subject to failure - HE IS NEVER SUBJECT TO FAILURE and if there is any defeat in our lives it's because of US, not Him. That is the purpose of this writer literally screaming through the words of this journal that the reader needs the baptism in the Holy Ghost that as hard as this Christian walk can be at times WITH the Baptism of the Holy Ghost it is almost impossible without the Baptism in the Holy Ghost!

I know some would disagree and say "well you're saying that those who are baptized in the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues are better than those Christians who are not."  That is NOT what this writer is even remotely hinting at. What I AM saying that without the believer wanting and embracing the FULLNESS of the power of the Holy Ghost that believer is going to have tremendous difficulties.

This coming February marks a 20-year landmark in the life of this writer's spiritual life that seems like yesterday now but set the course for where we are today. I remember calling late Aunt Florence in the fall of 1986 right after I got truly born again that summer wanting to know more about the Holy Ghost. I had met a young lady who belonged to a Pentecostal church and in pursuing her (yes, I was young) I found myself sitting every Sunday night in an atmosphere of people who were doing things I’d never experienced before in my life in the Southern Baptist churches I had attended and my dad had pastored. Some of the things I saw I had been exposed to in a degree during times I visited my mother’s family. Mom's sisters were all Pentecostal, spoke in tongues, laid hands on people to be healed, shouted and were not ashamed of who they were in Christ.  I remember the first time I ever heard anyone speak in tongues I thought I would run like a rabbit out of the church - it scared me to death to be frank. But even as a young child not understanding what he was witnessing and hearing, I was fascinated with the experiences of those who spoke in tongues because despite what I was being told by Baptist preachers I knew in my heart that it was supernatural in scope and beyond my own understanding.

I remember the first time I heard my Aunt Florence speak in tongues was when she kept us as children and would put us down for our naps in the early afternoon before she'd go downstairs to her prayer closet and call our names to God. My brother Todd and I would listen to her call and cry our names out before the Lord in English pleading the blood of the Lord Jesus over us and asking God to touch our lives, protect us, call us into the ministry and FILL us with the HOLY GHOST. My brother and I would then all of sudden feel the hairs on our arms began to tingle as the power of God began to fall on our Aunt as she started to pray not just in English but pray in other tongues as the Spirit of God would give her the utterances neither her nor us knew but HEAVEN knew. My Lord, I'm having a hard time writing this right now for the tears.

This went on daily and it left an eternal impression upon this writer. When I got saved and the Lord gave me the hunger to know more about the Holy Ghost there was no other person in the world that I knew would have the answer but her. I had started attending a small Pentecostal church and had went down a couple times to receive the baptism in the Holy Ghost but to be frank was scared and had tons of fear and doubt that would not be easily overcome with hundreds of eyes looking and staring at you seeking to receive the Holy Spirit. The Lord knew I have always been a private person and He opened the door for me to visit my Aunt on a cold, rainy and stormy night in February  As I sat in my aunt’s kitchen I shot question after question at her about the experience of speaking with other tongues. I told her my fears, my opinions, my concerns, my “doctrinal stance,” and my curiosity. But above all, I told her the Lord had dealt with me that the Baptism in the Holy Ghost was real and I needed to receive the experience for my Christian walk.

I also told Aunt Florence that I had felt a tug at my heart at times in 1985 and 1986 that I felt a tug on my heart the Lord was calling me to preach and I wanted to obey that call but didn't know how or where to start.  After all the talk, my aunt just smiled and say "Chris we can talk all weekend but the Lord didn't send you up here to Atlanta to just talk, He sent you up here to be filled with the Spirit."  I felt tears well up in my eyes and my heart enlarge as I asked her if she'd pray for me to receive the Holy Ghost. That friend is VERY scriptural - just ask the Apostle Paul when he was told by Ananias that the Lord had commanded him to lay his hands on Paul "that he might receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost."

As she began to pray at first in English I heard her  all of a sudden begin to pray in another language. It was the same beautiful language I remembered her praying in as a child laying upstairs in my bed during the years she kept me and my brother Todd as she wept and moaned in utterances known only God and the angels perhaps. Those moments when we heard Aunt Florence pray she was touching another world and the power of God from another world was touching her.

I had this same feeling this night in the kitchen in February 1987, a time that while yet older than when she kept my brother and I, I had become so “churched” to believe the Southern Baptist line that speaking in tongues were not of God and even demonic as some extreme viewpoints took.  As I sat there in her kitchen, I didn’t have the same innocent heart I did when she had kept me years earlier. It’s a fact that children tend to accept this experience quicker than adults many times because as children our hearts are still tender to God and the Holy Spirit. I believe that is why Jesus taught His disciples that only those who accepted the Kingdom of God "as a little child," would receive true salvation and eternal life.

We adults tend to be hardened by religious tradition, pride and arrogance and set ourselves in agreement with our traditions instead of setting our hearts, minds and souls in agreement with the Word of God. Some of us are so set in our ways that even if someone came back from the grave itself and told us something other than our own religious traditions, we would not believe them. How tragic that much of what God wants to do in our lives is not stopped by Satan, but it is stopped by our own ignorance and arrogant religious attitudes.

As my aunt laid her hands on me that night I began to weep and pray with her and before I knew what had happened the power of God hit me and I was on the floor with both my hands raised in the air. As my aunt knelt down on the floor with me she just continually interceded for me in tongues. She wept and wept and wept as she began to prophesy over me things only the Holy Spirit knew - for He was the one doing the speaking - in another language - through my Aunt.

One would say, "well how did you know what she was saying was from God?" Very simply put, I knew because whenever she prophesied in another language she would interpret in English the utterances which were tings that, even though I was close to my aunt, she was saying things that even she would not have known in the natural!  She warned me that the enemy had planned a hurtful end to my life revealing to me that Satan had decreed suicide over hidden hurt in my heart towards my parents for their divorce that had taken place in 1983.

She encouraged me to ask the Lord to remove all unforgiveness in my heart that if not dealt with would hinder the flow of the Holy Ghost.  All I remember from that point on was speaking the words, “Lord, forgive me,” and when I did, I felt a rush of power go through my soul and as John writes in his gospel, the words of my mouth became “rivers of living water” from within my “belly.”

John 7:37-39
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. [38] He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [39] (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

The words I began to speak were no longer English but another language. I spoke in tongues nearly all night long. I remember it was at least 4 a.m. before we even got off the floor. My aunt just laid beside me and wept and prayed in tongues with me. I have never felt so clean in my innermost being as I did that night. I was doing more than just speaking gibberish. The Lord Jesus had baptized me with the Holy Spirit and the tongues were just the evidence that this had happened. As we drove home the following day, I couldn’t stop crying. Every song I heard was more powerful. Every message I heard became more clear. Every thing that was of God became more powerful. I felt so "clean" in my spirit man I cannot describe it to you by written words in this journal. I could literally "hear" the river John spoke of flowing through my heart - that is how real this experience was to me. What Jesus promised  - what the prophets declared would come - what the 120 at the Day of Pentecost experienced - what the disciples at Ephesus experienced in Acts 19  - what the Samaritan believers experienced after Philip's revival in Acts 8 - what Paul experienced in Act 9 - what Cornelius experienced in Acts 10  - what millions of believers with open hearts and minds have received since Pentecost have experienced - Chris McDonald experienced for himself and his life has never been the same since.

As I drove home the following day, I could not stop crying  - part tears of joy - part tears of just a cleansing of my heart and soul of all the unbelief that had kept me from this glorious experience for most of my teen life while in the church. The first person I told when I got home when I got back was my pastor - the late Rev. Joseph and Ruby Price. They had been praying for me for over 2 months for me to receive the baptism in the Holy Ghost. When I told them what happened Joe and Ruby, who were in their 80s, rejoiced with me as if they were in their 30s.

That was the easy part. The hard part was facing my dad who I knew would not be as excited as Rev. and Mrs. Price were but face him I did. While not being negative he was not that positive either. It was at that moment in my life, February 1987, that I had to choose whether to pursue what the Lord had just done in my life the night before and push on into the call He had on my life or go back into an atmosphere that would kill everything the Lord had just done; I chose to move on with God.

Hunger and thirst for more of God and the infilling of the Holy Ghost is not something one can teach. Thirst and hunger for what I speak of must start in our innermost being. This writer believes that God is going to hold America so accountable for our lack of hunger and desire for Him. In a country where we’ve been given so much and God is reverenced so little and blasphemed daily by godless politicians, performers, entertainers, and sadly even so-called preachers of the gospel.

Neighbor, hear this writer;  It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorra than for America in the Day of Judgment. As I write this I think about the events that took place at the house of Cornelius in Acts 10 prior to his house being saved and filled with the Holy Ghost almost simultaneously.

When Peter arrived at his house, Cornelius was not even saved, yet he was seeing visions, doing alms before God and was so sensitive to God that he asked the Lord what was he supposed to do when he saw the vision.

Acts 10:1-5
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, [2] A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always. [3] He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. [4] And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. [5] And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: [6] He lodges with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou ought to do.

That’s hunger for God!! He was so dedicated to serving God without even knowing the real truth about God, yet that rebukes this modern church atmosphere of today where millions know the truth about God but have very little desire to truly serve God and receive all God has for them.  We are going to be held SO accountable for the unbelief of our hearts and churches. God is a rewarder of those who DILIGENTLY seek him and the type hunger seen in Cornelius' actions is the only hunger and thirst God honors and blesses. The casual seeker of God will not find much.  The faithless will not find God. Doubt and do without - believe and receive - as my good friend Neal Baggett in Cairo, Ga. used to always tell me.

It’s when we seek Him with ALL our heart and all our soul that He is so willingly and excited to REVEAL HIMSELF TO US.

Heb 11:6 - But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Jer 29:13-14 - And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

It is impossible for a child of God to receive anything from God unless the Holy Spirit be a co-participant in that which is received. While one receives the Holy Spirit at conversion (that is theologically and scripturally correct for those who argue that point) there is a very real and definite difference in being BORN of the Spirit and being baptized in the Spirit. A person is NOT baptized in the Holy Spirit at the moment he is saved. The believer is baptized into the Body of Christ when he is saved. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is an experience completely separate from salvation; it can only come AFTER salvation; it must be consciously sought by the thirsty and hungry believer for more of God.

Luke 11:13
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

As we close the first part of this two part journal let me ask you a tough question. Why is the modern church in America so lethargic, weary and steeped in so much dead and lifeless religious exercise? This writer believes it is in part because a majority of Christians have been taught (and many of those have bought into this) that conversion is an experience complete within itself and, once experienced, leaves nothing further to be received or sought after. Unfortunately, this doctrine, if accepted, produces seriously hobbled Christians and, all too often, churches made up in their entirety of ineffectual, do-nothing, accomplishing-nothing congregations. And let this writer make it clear when it say "accomplishing-nothing" I'm not talking about all the humanistic activity and programs we call "accomplishment" in the church world today. I'm talking about accomplishments for the KINGDOM OF GOD - souls being saved, bodies being healed, believers being baptized in the Holy Ghost, bondages being broken, marriages being restored, lives being changed for eternity by the power of almighty God.

Notice as you read your Bible, how many times the words "fire," and "power," are used in conjunction with the Holy Spirit! That's because God's Holy Spirit is the FIREPOWER factor in the life of a Christian. Without the Holy Spirit dwelling within us we are shells with little substance, cannons with no ammunition, engines with no fuel and CHURCHES with no presence of God! We may go through the MOTIONS of Christianity and have all the machinery fine tuned and wrapped up in a nice religious wrapper for the world - but the RESULTS of Christianity without the Holy Ghost will be DEATH.

Those who are baptized in the Holy Ghost may be lampooned, laughed at, snickered at, rejected, shunned and mocked - but these same people are the ones who stand in the breach and defy the powers of Satan that come against God's church. Tongue-talking Christians may be labeled as "unlearned," and "ignorant," but they have been with Jesus and have the power to set captives free and see things happen in the Spirit realm for the Kingdom of God. They may not be called to be interviewed on CBN, TBN, Fox News, or be asked to preach at 99% of most churches in America - but they ARE known in the halls of heaven. What is rejected on earth is always embraced by heaven and what is loved by most of the world and church today is loathed by heaven. It is through FAITH one receives the baptism in the Holy Ghost, not doubt and unbelief. It's the same faith that the Holy Ghost wrote about through Paul which He says "quenched the violence of fire," "stopped the mouths of lions," "obtained promises," "wrought righteousness," "escaped the edge of the sword," and "out of weakness were made strong!"

THAT IS WHAT THE HOLY GHOST CAN DO FOR YOU CHILD OF GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is what the power of Almighty God can do for you man of God, pastor, teacher, prophet, apostle, evangelist. You say your ministry is drying up and dying - GET FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST with the evidence of speaking with other tongues and you'll be surprised just how much life flows in and through your ministry!

Hebrews 11:33 - 38 -  Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, [34] Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. [35] Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: [36] And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: [37] They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; [38] (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. [39] And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: [40] God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

We must come forward in FAITH and ask our Heavenly Father to GIVE us the Holy Spirit! Yes when we are saved we receive Him in measure - no argument on that - but just as salvation is the greatest thing that takes place in the life of the sinner, the baptism in the Holy Ghost is the greatest thing that takes place in the life of the believer AFTER one gets saved. In part two of this journal we are going to take a look at the method of faith by which one can be baptized in the Holy Ghost.

Are you saved today? If you say "no," to that, let this writer declare to you the Love of the Father for you today through the sacrifice of His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who died for your sins 2,000 years ago. He can set you free today from the bondage, the hurt, the loneliness, the pain, the feeling of worthlessness, the drugs, the alcohol, the hell, the darkness, the lust, the pornography, the adultery, the fornication, the sin. If you are saved today,  have you been baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues? That is a tougher question for most because in most cases fear and doubt as well as things we've been "told" by well meaning but ignorant preachers and teachers has kept us from one of the greatest experiences one can embrace as a Christian. The world cannot receive that which this writer speaks of - only the believer! I pray you are saved today. I pray you are filled today. I pray you speak in tongues as the Spirit of god gives the utterance every day. I am not ashamed to tell you- I've been born again and gloriously baptized in the Holy Ghost. I speak in tongues every day in prayer and hope that in 2007 the Spirit of God takes this writer into a greater intimacy with Jesus than I've ever known before. His work in me is not temporal but eternal and for that reason I cannot get discouraged when failure comes. Failure is never final with the Holy Ghost! Failure just makes the Holy Ghost come in stronger and "like a flood," raise up a standard against the enemy. Praise God. Be filled with the Holy Ghost today in Jesus name we pray. God bless.

cmc4jesus@aol.com