Early Life
Growing up I was raised Church of Christ because on my mothers side of the family you couldn't find anything else, they were all Church of Christ. Because of this the family and I would wake up every morning and get in our Sunday best (which I couldn't understand why I couldn't wear my NWO wrestling t-shirt) and head over to the church there in Rockwood. Needless to say I was very young at the time and didn't understand much of what was happening in service.
Communion and the Church of Christ
When I turned 8 years old I started to take notice of the church and how things were ran. The services were very reverent and quiet most of the time, except for the times we are singing hymns (no music at all) and the preacher was preaching. What I noticed as a kid was that the church had several deacons (mostly younger guys) and elders (older men who ran the church) who would always do their specific part in the service. Every service the church would partake in communion and I had never done this. My mother told me one day that I could not partake in communion because of my age. However, I was very curious about communion and what it was like, which then led me to ask questions about baptism. Communion may have been every Sunday, but baptism (though essential for salvation) was very rare, and when it would happen I would stand in the pew just to try to see what was happening. These traditions of the church not only had me asking questions, but also seeking answers. If I was too young to participate (according only to my mother) then exactly who could?
Baptism and the Apostles Club
I remember also being 8 years old when I asked my mother if I could be baptized. She was unsure so she asked the preacher if it was alright, in which he replied and said "if Hank is this anxious and understands why we baptize then yes he should be." By this point I understood that baptism was necessary for me to be saved and that's why God sent his Son Jesus to die. Why shouldn't I be baptized if it was in fact my ticket to heaven? My hunger for God really took off at this time in my life, and honestly it was weird because all I really cared about was watching the Chicago Bulls play basketball. However, at night after I couldn't play basketball anymore, I would dress up as the Apostle Peter, and I would write "letters/epistles" to my Mormon buddy Johnny. Johnny and I had so much fun doing this that we created the "Apostles Club." In the this club I named my closest friends after several after certain apostles in the Bible. We would write letters back and forth trying to encourage each other in our faith at ages 8-10. Johnny was John, Dustin was Andrew, Victor was James (Johnny's brother), Danny was Simon the Zealot, Steven was Thomas, Zach was Matthew, and Joe was Barnabas (even though I called him Moses for fun). The "Apostles Club" kept growing and we named others to it, though I don't remember all the one's that joined at the moment.
I was 10 years old when my mother finally agreed that I could be baptized, but it didn't happen. That year in November my grandma (Hester Hickey) passed away. She was the anchor that held my family in the Church of Christ. After her death my family soon stopped attending church including myself. The only one that still attended church was my sister who attended a Pentecostal church in Spring City, Tennessee.
Pentecostal Church and Speaking in Tongues
After my grandma passed away it took me a little while before I started going back to church. When I did I went with my sister, and later a few other of my family members that started attending the Pentecostal church. This was a different kind of church that didn't resembled the Church of Christ in any way. I started to notice a difference in the people and the way they worshiped, the joy that they showed, and a funny noise that they were making when they prayed. I was hungry for God and they had something I didn't. They would clap, sing while playing instruments, amen the preacher, dance before the Lord, and when it was time for the alter call people would come. Some praised God in English, while others praised God in that funny language that I would come to know as tongues. These were big differences and I noticed them. I also noticed that new converts were being added to the church almost every service, and they would be baptized, but also started speaking in tongues. This happened a lot!
My Personal Experience
On Aug. 19, 2000 I received the Holy Ghost in evidence of speaking in tongues and was baptized in the name of Jesus. My hunger for God had lead me to this place in my life and I was filled. God filled me with His Holy Spirit and it completely changed my life. I knew I had been filled with the Holy Ghost because not only did I have a boldness and incredible feeling, but I also heard myself speak in tongues like they did in the book of Acts.
I'm a Pentecostal minister now and over the years I have studied a lot of the early church history. The book of Acts is where the birth of the church happened. In this book we see examples of how people are saved, and it happens to be the only book. We see a model for it in Acts 2:38 by the Apostle Peter (many examples). We also see that God performed miracles through his people. Many churches today reject the move of the Holy Spirit. They reject speaking in tongues, and they reject the Gifts of the Spirit. However, it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I'm a living example of someone that has seen and been apart of many great things that are denied today.
Church History and the Death of Spiritual Gifts:
After the death of the apostles the young expanding Christian church struggled to define and defend itself amidst the surrounding confusion of mystery cults and competing philosophies coming from the Grego-Roman world, so the church became even more increasingly organized to defend itself against heresies and would appoint leaders who would speak in authority over doctrinal matters. They would appoint bishops over cities and regions (Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople). Of course the same is true today when it came to the church fighting over the nature of Christ as both God and man. This would and many other things would later create the Great Schism/splite between the Greek speaking Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. The church would go through a down turn at this time and would entirely end up leaving out the importance of the Holy Ghost and fire in order to create more organization in the church and to define who Jesus Christ was. This became the case in the Western Church after St. Augustine. Spirtual gifts would fade from practice in the west and become rare, though sporadic manifestations would be recorded by early Saints. The inactivity of spiritual gifts in everyday church practice would grow in the west and fostered the notion of cessationism that became popular with one of the Reformation leaders John Calvin.
On the eastern side though spiritual gifts were welcomed because of their mystical approach to life. Contrary to John Calvin's teachings spiritual gifts never ceased, and neither did the infilling of the Holy Ghost by evidence of speaking in tongues. Throughout the second and third centuries church leaders such as Justin Martyr, Cyprian, Tertuallian, and other church fathers would write about divine healings and tell of demonic deliverance. Sadly though the preoccupation with structure and political power contributed to the decline of the Holy Ghost being taught.
In a nutshell this is how John Calvin picked up his belief that the gifts of the Spirit no longer exist and can be found in the book "The Charismatic Century" by Jack W. Hayford and S. David Moore. Though it continues to show that after the apostles died gifts of the Spirit, tongues, and the move of the Holy Ghost continued.
Examples in Scripture of the Infilling of the Holy Spirit
Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you."
Acts 2:4 "And everyone present was filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them the ability."
Acts 2:37-39 "Peter's words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?"
38 Peter replied, "Repend and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39 This promise is for you, to your children, and to all who afar off, as many as our Lord God shall call."
Acts 19:2 & 5-6 "Did you receive the Holy Ghost since you believed? "No" they replied, "we haven't heard that there is a Holy Ghost".
5 they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 When Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they began to speak in tongues and prophesied."
What's Important
It's important that we follow the Bible's teaching of how to be saved and not man's.
Growing up I was raised Church of Christ because on my mothers side of the family you couldn't find anything else, they were all Church of Christ. Because of this the family and I would wake up every morning and get in our Sunday best (which I couldn't understand why I couldn't wear my NWO wrestling t-shirt) and head over to the church there in Rockwood. Needless to say I was very young at the time and didn't understand much of what was happening in service.
Communion and the Church of Christ
When I turned 8 years old I started to take notice of the church and how things were ran. The services were very reverent and quiet most of the time, except for the times we are singing hymns (no music at all) and the preacher was preaching. What I noticed as a kid was that the church had several deacons (mostly younger guys) and elders (older men who ran the church) who would always do their specific part in the service. Every service the church would partake in communion and I had never done this. My mother told me one day that I could not partake in communion because of my age. However, I was very curious about communion and what it was like, which then led me to ask questions about baptism. Communion may have been every Sunday, but baptism (though essential for salvation) was very rare, and when it would happen I would stand in the pew just to try to see what was happening. These traditions of the church not only had me asking questions, but also seeking answers. If I was too young to participate (according only to my mother) then exactly who could?
Baptism and the Apostles Club
I remember also being 8 years old when I asked my mother if I could be baptized. She was unsure so she asked the preacher if it was alright, in which he replied and said "if Hank is this anxious and understands why we baptize then yes he should be." By this point I understood that baptism was necessary for me to be saved and that's why God sent his Son Jesus to die. Why shouldn't I be baptized if it was in fact my ticket to heaven? My hunger for God really took off at this time in my life, and honestly it was weird because all I really cared about was watching the Chicago Bulls play basketball. However, at night after I couldn't play basketball anymore, I would dress up as the Apostle Peter, and I would write "letters/epistles" to my Mormon buddy Johnny. Johnny and I had so much fun doing this that we created the "Apostles Club." In the this club I named my closest friends after several after certain apostles in the Bible. We would write letters back and forth trying to encourage each other in our faith at ages 8-10. Johnny was John, Dustin was Andrew, Victor was James (Johnny's brother), Danny was Simon the Zealot, Steven was Thomas, Zach was Matthew, and Joe was Barnabas (even though I called him Moses for fun). The "Apostles Club" kept growing and we named others to it, though I don't remember all the one's that joined at the moment.
I was 10 years old when my mother finally agreed that I could be baptized, but it didn't happen. That year in November my grandma (Hester Hickey) passed away. She was the anchor that held my family in the Church of Christ. After her death my family soon stopped attending church including myself. The only one that still attended church was my sister who attended a Pentecostal church in Spring City, Tennessee.
Pentecostal Church and Speaking in Tongues
After my grandma passed away it took me a little while before I started going back to church. When I did I went with my sister, and later a few other of my family members that started attending the Pentecostal church. This was a different kind of church that didn't resembled the Church of Christ in any way. I started to notice a difference in the people and the way they worshiped, the joy that they showed, and a funny noise that they were making when they prayed. I was hungry for God and they had something I didn't. They would clap, sing while playing instruments, amen the preacher, dance before the Lord, and when it was time for the alter call people would come. Some praised God in English, while others praised God in that funny language that I would come to know as tongues. These were big differences and I noticed them. I also noticed that new converts were being added to the church almost every service, and they would be baptized, but also started speaking in tongues. This happened a lot!
My Personal Experience
On Aug. 19, 2000 I received the Holy Ghost in evidence of speaking in tongues and was baptized in the name of Jesus. My hunger for God had lead me to this place in my life and I was filled. God filled me with His Holy Spirit and it completely changed my life. I knew I had been filled with the Holy Ghost because not only did I have a boldness and incredible feeling, but I also heard myself speak in tongues like they did in the book of Acts.
I'm a Pentecostal minister now and over the years I have studied a lot of the early church history. The book of Acts is where the birth of the church happened. In this book we see examples of how people are saved, and it happens to be the only book. We see a model for it in Acts 2:38 by the Apostle Peter (many examples). We also see that God performed miracles through his people. Many churches today reject the move of the Holy Spirit. They reject speaking in tongues, and they reject the Gifts of the Spirit. However, it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I'm a living example of someone that has seen and been apart of many great things that are denied today.
Church History and the Death of Spiritual Gifts:
After the death of the apostles the young expanding Christian church struggled to define and defend itself amidst the surrounding confusion of mystery cults and competing philosophies coming from the Grego-Roman world, so the church became even more increasingly organized to defend itself against heresies and would appoint leaders who would speak in authority over doctrinal matters. They would appoint bishops over cities and regions (Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople). Of course the same is true today when it came to the church fighting over the nature of Christ as both God and man. This would and many other things would later create the Great Schism/splite between the Greek speaking Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. The church would go through a down turn at this time and would entirely end up leaving out the importance of the Holy Ghost and fire in order to create more organization in the church and to define who Jesus Christ was. This became the case in the Western Church after St. Augustine. Spirtual gifts would fade from practice in the west and become rare, though sporadic manifestations would be recorded by early Saints. The inactivity of spiritual gifts in everyday church practice would grow in the west and fostered the notion of cessationism that became popular with one of the Reformation leaders John Calvin.
On the eastern side though spiritual gifts were welcomed because of their mystical approach to life. Contrary to John Calvin's teachings spiritual gifts never ceased, and neither did the infilling of the Holy Ghost by evidence of speaking in tongues. Throughout the second and third centuries church leaders such as Justin Martyr, Cyprian, Tertuallian, and other church fathers would write about divine healings and tell of demonic deliverance. Sadly though the preoccupation with structure and political power contributed to the decline of the Holy Ghost being taught.
In a nutshell this is how John Calvin picked up his belief that the gifts of the Spirit no longer exist and can be found in the book "The Charismatic Century" by Jack W. Hayford and S. David Moore. Though it continues to show that after the apostles died gifts of the Spirit, tongues, and the move of the Holy Ghost continued.
Examples in Scripture of the Infilling of the Holy Spirit
Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you."
Acts 2:4 "And everyone present was filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them the ability."
Acts 2:37-39 "Peter's words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?"
38 Peter replied, "Repend and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39 This promise is for you, to your children, and to all who afar off, as many as our Lord God shall call."
Acts 19:2 & 5-6 "Did you receive the Holy Ghost since you believed? "No" they replied, "we haven't heard that there is a Holy Ghost".
5 they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 When Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they began to speak in tongues and prophesied."
What's Important
It's important that we follow the Bible's teaching of how to be saved and not man's.
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