The baptism of the Holy Spirit

The Bible specifically speaks of the filling, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Word speaks to us in the Book of Acts of that transforming experience that the first disciples, the Apostles, had, and the Lord Jesus Christ told them: Do not leave Jerusalem to fulfill the great commission until you have received what? power from on high

And many believers I am absolutely sure right here, right now, that many of you, and that is not your fault, have not had an experience with the Holy Spirit like that in that way and you need to get into that, and we are going to be doing everything as possible in the coming months and weeks to facilitate this, today after the service I would like to have a moment of being before the Presence of the Lord and ask for a refreshment of the Holy Spirit on our lives.

But there are many passages in Scripture that remind us about the dynamic of the Holy Spirit and the different things that accompany this experience of the Spirit. One of them tells us about what happened when the Samaritans had an encounter with the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 8. Let's go there, Acts chapter 8, and here we are going to see some things, possibly next Sunday I will continue with this, about what it is to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and what God wants each of us as a Pentecostal Church.

Know what? we are a Pentecostal Church. People ask us: what denomination are you affiliated with? and I say: look, in reality we are affiliated with a denomination or two but in reality we are neither one thing nor the other, we are Baptists and we are Pentecostals, we are "baptistals" because we believe in the primacy of the Word but we also believe in the experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

What distinguishes a Congregation, a Pentecostal body, is not the denomination to which it belongs because you can be a Baptist, you can be a Methodist, you can even be a Presbyterian and a Catholic; there are many Catholics filled with the Holy Spirit. I hope that doesn't hurt anyone here, you know? because I believe that God visits His people, as He visited Cornelius and Paul said: no, these are impure. God said: I am going to baptize them myself so that you do not say later that you were wrong and that you baptized them. God baptizes whoever He wants and all you need is hunger and thirst. It is not tied to a particular Congregation or denomination.

What's more, it's not even tied to whether you speak in tongues or not, although I believe we can all speak in tongues. The apostle Paul says likewise: I would like everyone to speak in tongues and God wants you to speak in tongues, and I believe that you can speak in tongues if you want.

But you know what? speaking in tongues as many have said before but who have already been abandoning that doctrine little by little, is not the inevitable condition for one to receive the Holy Spirit.

My mother was a woman filled with the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders and all the manifestations of the Spirit, I never heard her speak in tongues but she had other things that clearly qualified her and identified her as a powerful woman in the Holy Spirit, because she was open to all gifts and all manifestations, she had dreams, she received illumination from God, she understood the Word powerfully, she believed in miracles, God used her in Evangelism, she was a spiritual mother but I never heard her speak in tongues. Sometimes she would get howls that could be heard three blocks from the house because God touched her but I never heard her speak in tongues.

Because I believe that the qualifier of being filled with the Spirit is yes, that when the Spirit moves in you you dance like David. You can dance, you will raise your hands, you will prophesy, you will howl, you will scream, you will kick your feet, there are many ways to manifest the Spirit. What is true is that when the Spirit manifests itself there is an expression of it. It can be raising hands, tears, crying, laughing, jumping, dancing, saying glory to God, prophesying.

Do you know that prophesying is not only saying: my son, so says the Lord Jehovah: "I call you to the ends of the Earth so that"? no, prophesying sometimes means simply declaring the great things of God in a powerful way. The fact is that God wants us to live that fullness of the Spirit and here you have a passage that speaks to us precisely about an experience and that illuminates many things that we must learn.

In chapter 8 it says, let's see in verse 14, it says that: "When the apostles who were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John there." What is he referring to here?

If you read the previous verses you will see that at the beginning of the Gospel in the primitive Church, Samaria, which was a semi-pagan village, had mixed customs; they were part Jews, part other groups that had been sent centuries ago by the conquerors of Israel, had mixed ethnically and also had a mixed religion. They were part Jews, part pagans, a terrible sancocho there that they had theological.

The case was that that group that had a very serious controversy with the Jews received the Word of the Lord and there was a great revival in Samaria, many people converted to Jesus Christ, and it became known that God was moving in that village, in that city of Samaria.

And it says here that those people: "had received the Word of God." It says that when the apostles were in Jerusalem, who were those apostles who were in Jerusalem? they were the men who had walked with Jesus during His time here on Earth: Peter, John, James, Philip, these men who had walked with the Lord and who had now been constituted as the government of the nascent Church, was the seat, the seat of doctrine and teaching for that Church that was beginning to be born, were those who were responsible for the theological and governmental order of that nascent Church and were in Jerusalem, they were recognized as the seat, the seat of Christian government.

So when these men who are there in apostolic authority over other believers and who are directing the birth of the Church delegated by Jesus Christ hear that there is a revival in this city, look what they do: "They sent Peter and John."

Now, they heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, it is important that we understand this. These Samaritans had received the Word of God, which means that they were trustworthy Christians, they had received Christ, there is no doubt about it. Because there are many people out there who do not believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit who say that this was only for other times, it is not for now, for us, and that these were not believers but were still pagans etc. and that Peter and John were sent to truly believe in Jesus, no. They already believe in Jesus but they need something more and that is something very important, brothers.

There are two experiences in the Christian life that are of great importance, one perhaps more than the other. The first experience is to receive what? to Christ as Lord and Savior because that is what the dial tone puts on the phone, that is what connects you with the Kingdom of God, to receive Christ as Lord and Savior, and without that you obviously cannot be saved.

But there is a second experience that does not have to be given, there are many people who have received Christ as Lord and Savior, they are saved, they even have the Holy Spirit in their lives but they lack an additional dimension and that is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. .

Pentecostal theology is distinguished by the belief that after you receive Christ as Lord and Savior there is another experience that is like a sealed being, a being submerged and immersed fully in the infinite sea of God and the Holy Spirit, it is a activation of the move of the Spirit of God in your life.

And I think it's important to make that separation because I think many Christians come into the Gospel, receive Christ, and are never told that they need to go one step further and receive an impartation of God's Power into their lives, how many know what am I referring to? because perhaps you are a person who is now getting used to the idea that you need that.

But the interesting thing is that at the dawn, at the beginning of the Gospel the first disciples, the apostles made sure that when a person received Christ they also received that other part of the filling of the Holy Spirit.

That is why when John and Peter arrive, note that they sent the two main apostles, Peter and John, "who" he says "when they came, they prayed for them" for what? "so that they might receive the Holy Spirit." That idea is important, isn't it? that even though they had received the Word, they still lacked that other experience. I want to tell you that, I want to mark your heart and mind: you have to be sure in your life that in addition to having received Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have also been filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now let me tell you something, this is very important, this differentiation, I want to mark this. Now I want to ask this question: when does a man or a woman receive the Holy Spirit? when you receive Christ. So why does it say here "that they might receive the Holy Spirit"?

I submit to your consideration that this is simply a matter of linguistic complexity because, let me clear this up for you. The Word says very clearly, the Lord says that He will send the comforter, it says that He will make His Spirit dwell in us, it says that if you open your heart He enters and dines with you, and what spirit is it that enters? it is the Holy Spirit.

I believe that every person who believes in Jesus Christ and receives Christ receives the Holy Spirit, comes into his life, is saved, goes to heaven if he keeps his confession firm, I understand that. But I believe that what the Bible means by "the baptism of the Holy Spirit" and by "receiving the Holy Spirit" refers to receiving in a way that is dynamic, active, powerful, electric, violent, definitive, it is like a activation of the Power of God. Of what is inside you and God makes it buzz and move.

It's like the idea of, say, a car, I used another illustration this morning, but imagine a car. You go to the car sales place, they give you the keys, you have a full tank of gasoline, it's clean, all the electrical components are in the car, everything is ready, that car is there prepared, you have everything you need to move but it requires you to put the key in and something inside the car is activated, it's like a combustion that occurs. I have to be careful because there are some mechanics here and I can say nonsense (laughs).

But the fact is that something happens, there are some sparks that occur in the bowels of the car and when the key is touched a contact is made and there is combustion, and there is fire even inside the engine chambers, and there is pressure, and moment you hear that car "broom" and start, and then that car goes from being something potential to being something active. And I think that happens. Every believer has the Holy Spirit but I believe that God wants you to take that power that is within you and throw a match into it so that it catches fire and activates within you, and then there is like a flood of the system. .

It's like again, the fire-resistant sprinklers here, there is a giant pipe that is where the main water enters, and then there are some very long and thick tubes that run through the corners of the entire building that reach from the first to the fourth floor, and then they split into little pipes all the way through. Here right now there are heads that if there is a fire, say glory to God, it catches fire right away and we are going to be baptized whether we want it or not with water that will put out the fire, we want to light the fire.

But the fact is that when the plumber comes and the company lays all the pipes, establishes everything and connects the water, the firefighters do a test before certifying, and that is that they take the large pipes and flood them with water to the top and they put them under pressure, they park a fire truck out front and they fill that main line completely with water to test to see if it has the necessary pressure. And only when a system that is there in potential is filled with water is it truly capable. And so I see in those images that of "receiving" the Holy Spirit.

There are different expressions in the Bible. It talks about receiving the Holy Spirit, it talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit, it talks about being baptized in the Holy Spirit, it talks about receiving power from on high, it talks about the Holy Spirit descending and falling on us, all of them. They are different expressions trying to grasp something that is very difficult to explain, that a person who has the Spirit also needs that spirit to be activated and turned on, and set to work, for the engine to start and start moving with power.

One last illustration that I used this morning, the pool of Bethesda that this morning I had a little hesitation there if it was from Siloam or from Bethesda, the pool to which the Lord refers in a passage. The Bible says that there was a pond that, when an angel came from time to time to that pond and moved the water, what happened? that the waters became healing waters, he was healthy. Meanwhile, the pool was placid, calm, and there was the possibility of healing in those waters, but until an angel came and stirred them up, there was no healing.

And you remember the story, because the second part is not so important for our purposes, when the Lord approached the paralytic and said: Hey, what's wrong? I have been here, Lord, for a long time, but there are some smart ones out there, some quick-witted ones who see that the water is moving and they jump in first and I, since I am paralyzed, have no one to throw me into the water, the Lord tells him: No Don't worry that you got to the mere mere here, I heal you, and it healed it. I would rather be healed by Jesus than by any pool of water at any time, amen?

But the important thing is that, until the water was removed, there was no power, right? And I believe that the filling of the Holy Spirit is always identified with effervescence, vitality, dynamism, explosiveness, the words used are dunamis, energeia, which mean: power, energy, where the word dynamite comes from, the electrical power of the Presence. of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ said: "Those who believe in me, truly I tell you that rivers of living water will flow from their interior."

Wherever you see the filling of the Spirit, wherever you see passion for the things of the Spirit you see exaltation, praise, prophecy. Another day I am going to talk about the experience of other characters and you see that wherever the Spirit is there is joy, there are many instruments, there are thanksgiving, there are dances, there is effervescence because the Spirit is life, the Spirit is power.

So God wants brothers and sisters that we live our lives with that power, and God wants our experience with Him to be more than simply coming to Church and leaving as we arrived. When you have the move, the Power of God within you that gives you a different component.

I have always believed and up to now I have repressed seeking opportunities to pray with the brothers for the filling of the Holy Spirit, and I already said: no, I already have, in this time when God is giving us a little more freedom of construction and all that I feel that we have to go in order, and one of the things that I want is to make sure that all of us are empowered with that anointing of the Holy Spirit in our lives, everyone, and the time that it takes I don't know how we are going to do it, but I need to be with you and be your main spiritual father to accompany you in this birth of the Holy Spirit, brothers. If you do your part, I am going to do mine and I bless the brothers who are helping me in this process, and I believe that God is going to do something very, very powerful with us.

I remember brothers, I am going to skip here and I am going to make a mixture, I am going to take the rice and the beans and I am going to mix them together, years ago I went to San Francisco with an organization called Prisoner Fellowship, Prison Fellowship to a workshop, I worked with them in prisons giving workshops and all this, and they sent me with a group of people to training in San Francisco, on the weekend.

On Sunday they took us to a very prosperous African American Church, filled with the Spirit in fact so that we could visit that Church, so that we would understand the ecclesiastical experience from which many African Americans come, unfortunately many are in jail like others too, but they wanted us to have as a little more in-depth experience of.

The case was that I went to that Church with the group of brothers and there the Lord did something, because what is happening? that when you connect with environments where the Holy Spirit is, things happen as the chorus says. I already knew the Holy Spirit, I had had my experience with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but I had left it there, I was already beginning to enter as Pastor of the Church, before that it had been founded for a couple of years by Pastor Juan Vergara and God led me to enter, and I was still green in ministerial matters, and God seemed to want to seal me for the task that lay ahead.

So I went to that Congregation, I was there in the service, a beautiful service, vital, full of energy and everything else, and something happened there, something happened in my spirit, I put it as God touched me, the mantle of God it brushed past me and something woke up in me, and I saw what a Congregation is where the Spirit is filled; I didn't speak in tongues, I didn't fall to the ground, nothing, although it can happen to you, by the way, I'm not saying no, but I know that God did something there in me, and I saw what a Congregation is blessed by the Holy Spirit. That was in the morning.

At night a Pastor friend of mine who lived here in Boston, a general missionary of the Congregation to which we belonged, had invited me to a home group that was starting a Church, planting a Church. I went to that group from that Church, and when we sat there as the home service began, the Pastor began to talk about how depressed he was, how a failure he felt, and that the church was not moving forward and that he wanted to deliver the church, which he could not follow, and it was a practically defeatist service. Now, I feel sorry for him and admire his openness and transparency.

But while I was listening to him, it was as if God told me: Choose which of these two ministerial models you want, Roberto, My blessing and the fullness, and the energy of the Spirit with the prosperity and blessing that this brings, or ministerial defeat and ministerial sterility. , and I said: of course, Lord, I want Your life, I want Your Grace.

I returned from San Francisco on Monday or Sunday night, I don't remember, it was Monday probably here in Boston, at that time it was Cambridge, but God had spoken to me and I began an active search with the Congregation for the move of the Holy Spirit. in our Church.

Some of you, how many of you here remember that time? admit it because many years ago, some are around. They were all kids at the time I'm sure but about 23 years ago or more right? I think that was about 80, 91, I was about 10 years old, I don't remember right now, 9, 8 (laughs). I told them that I am a person of faith, I declare things that are not as they are.

The brother case is that when I returned I came committed to share what God had told me and I began to speak to the Congregation, and I began to encourage them to go into a search as a Congregation.

I began to activate what was already in me. I jumped into the water, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know if I was going to crash on the pavement, if something was going to happen or if God was going to respond to my Pentecostal statement, I really didn't want the models I had seen in other churches, I tell you frankly, especially Hispanics with legalism and so many other things that did not interest me and the excessive simplicity of certain Pentecostals, and I asked the Lord to enlighten us, open the way for us.

And there we awkwardly began the journey of our Church in the move of the Holy Spirit. And the first thing we did was change the gloomy organ that we had, a huge organ that was a very valuable dinosaur. It had been designed by an illustrious organist from New England and when it played it was like Dracula as well as: drrraaamm (laughs) no, it's not like that, it wasn't that much, I'm exaggerating a bit (laughs).

The fact is that when we began to put other instruments there, a keyboard, we brought a battery that horrified half the world, a battery in the sanctuary of God if the only thing that God had ordered when he created the world was the organ, that's all, drums, we started there with a rickety guitarist that we found there, I hope he's not here right now (laughs) but we said: we're going to play this Pentecostal game and the first thing we need is a little group here from, we started to bring songs by Marcos Witt and of all that

And we begin to take baby steps in the Spirit. This Congregation that, wanting to say: amen, did not say amen or glory to God, they did so (sign) because that is how they had taught us, that we should do so when, that is as far as our Pentecostalism came from. And we began to open up in the Holy Spirit and I began to preach the best I could about the Spirit, and make me believe that I was a Pentecostal, I did not know what I was doing but I dared in the Name of the Lord. And I said: Father, if I perish, let me perish (laughs) but I am not going to stay like this, rickety, I am going to do everything I can to enter this Congregation.

And the case was brothers that we started like this the first weeks. The first thing that happened was that the Congregation was divided, the best 20% of the Church left, the conflicts began because God began to bring sovereignly without me looking for it or asking for it, people I knew from the Holy Spirit to help us. It was like this pass Macedonia and help us.

When we dared to activate the move of God publicly and declare the primacy of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit said, Wow, that's what I was waiting for, and it began to move and grow, and widen, and fill the place, and people began to come. come from abroad, some of them are still here. That's where Delmi came from, who was a little girl at that time and Carolina León, and others who are still around, I don't know, some of you who had experience in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began to help me and to accept that move of God. .

I tell you, the Congregation was divided because some did not like what was happening, they felt threatened, they were in control of things, I hope you understand what I am saying, I am saying it out of fear of God because another one came people and then they began to displace others because life and spirit were already different from the Congregation, and the atmosphere turned sour. Because it is what happens many times, that when God begins to move in your life, the structures begin to move and the beams of the temple begin to creak.

But you know what? that in that process, well. One of the things that happened when I left, the whole music group left; All the singers left me, the pianist, everyone left us, we were left at zero. One day I cornered July, the daughter of our sister Janet Morales, who knew how to play a few tones on the piano, and I told her: July, you have to help me. Take it there, even if it's playing Mary had a little lamb, play something there (laughs), July began to play timidly, but we paid the price, brothers, you know? People began to come to the Church, more people.

One day he appeared to us. That's what I was going to say brothers, people began to emerge. Our brother Gonzalo started playing there with his Chilean guitar, we had drummer Juan Carlos, Juan Carlos who recently told me he was in Boston, part of it. And one day a pianist from the Berkeley school, David Mora, appeared, and he arrived just like an owl, standing there mysteriously, I remember him in the corner watching the choir rehearsal, and he told me: Pastor, I play the piano, if you He wants to use me, I'm here available.

And you know what? One of the things that happened at that time was that since I was willing to pay the price, leaving the Church without music, I prayed to the Lord and said: Father, send us musicians. Did you know that God uncovered Ana's womb and musicians began to come? and since then our Church has never lacked for good musicians and good worship.

The worship began to grow, the move of God began to move, God gave me a dream of the Lion of Judah over the city of Boston. You are here today because we started that race there in Cambridge Port, and God spoke to me in a dream that He wanted us to come to Boston to make a Church of Judah, Lion of Judah, a Head Church, a Church of worship, of spiritual warfare. , aggressive, fierce, at enmity with the powers of the devil in the city, and other things that spoke to me through that dream. He downloaded, He put a lot of things, information and programming in that dream that I had.

And I announced to the Church God's call to come to the city, I told them: God has also told me that we have to change its name. We changed that name there a little bit from Iglesia Bautista Central to Congregación León de Judá, hallelujah.

You know that the things of God are strange because I said: Congregation Lion of Judah, Pastor that sounds like an animal, Lion what do I know what and what is that, and I said: no, that is the name that God gave us and I think it is a glorious and beautiful name, although from time to time the people: Lion of "Juda", and I say: no, we are neither Judas nor Juda, it is Lion of Judah! Hallelujah!

The case was that God began to move when we gave him freedom, when we dared, when we became fragile, when we activated because that's what happens brothers. Often it is not so much what you have inside as what you do with what you have inside, write me that quickly there too (applause and laughter). Because when the Spirit is within you, it was within me, but I decided to make it flow and move, and that is the difference between a person filled with the Spirit who moves in the Power of the Spirit and a person who has the oil but the oil that does not move is made completely solid, nor fried, it is completely dry, it is more like petrified, but I do understand what you are saying, Isabel.

But the case was that God began to move brothers because we dared to put ourselves into action. I believe that the problem with many Christians is not that they do not have the Holy Spirit, it is that they have not made it flow in their lives. They have not claimed it, they have not received it saying: this is mine! They have not actively appropriated it and have said: now I am going to move with the certainty that God is with me and then they dare to take steps of faith, and they start with small things but then God widens them and expands them, because gifts develop to the extent that you use them.

What does Paul say to Timothy? says: "I advise you to fan the fire of the gift of God that is in you through the imposition of my hands, because God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and self-control."

Paul tells Timothy: you already have the Spirit, now don't be a manganson: start using it and move in it, fan it as you fan the embers of a coal so that they catch on fire. How many of you have barbeques here at your house in the summers? admit it. I hope they are not on Sundays at 9 or 12 in the morning, by the way. What's going on? when you put the coal in, you light it, you put it in and then you have to wait for a little wind to come or something, if there is no oxygen the flames don't catch fire, and Pablo says: fan it so that the flames come out of the embers, many of them we have embers but we don't have flames and God wants flames, so we have to start moving in faith. The difference is in: are you willing with what God has given you and with what you are going to receive to live then a life of activating the Spirit by faith?

Many times I throw myself into things and tell him: Lord, by Your Grace, because if I don't, I'm going to break my head into fifty pieces. Each building that I have undertaken in this journey of the Holy Spirit, so many things that I do, I go trembling and fearing, and I say: Father, but You have never failed me and you will not fail me in this one either. I have never been defeated in anything I have undertaken in the Name of the Lord, ever.

And sometimes I declare things brother and after I declare them I am terrified of what I said and I say: Lord, I think that today I made a fool of myself, but I say: no, I believe that You are going to support everything that I have declared because up to here You have not failed me once. And God has told me things in my heart, and I have spoken of things that God is going to do, and until now God has been brothers.

Just today this morning I was looking for some notes from years ago in the closet that I think even dinosaurs come out of there when I open it, there are so many things in there that it's piled up, don't tell Meche or anything but. The fact is that I was looking for and I grabbed a sheet that I don't know how many years ago I wrote it, I know that for at least 10, 12 years where I wrote a specific vision of various things that I felt that God wanted to do in León de Judah.

And among them I said: that there are 1000 people attending our service on Sundays every Sunday, brothers: that has already been fulfilled. Between the services here, the courses, the things that are given there every Sunday, in our Church there are about 1,500 or 2,000 people who consider themselves part of this Congregation; Unfortunately, not all of them come every Sunday, but I hope that as the Spirit fills up they come, and that they stay, and that they come every Sunday instead of being flattened at home lamenting the hard week they had, that they come to the house of the Lord.

This morning I spoke of circumstantial Christians who are at the mercy of circumstances. When you are filled with the Spirit, circumstances are under your feet and they are not above you, I thought that here jumping from one side to the other.

But you know what? In the United States, do you know which is the Sunday with the least attendance in the whole year? And that has already been proven statistically, don't you know which is the Sunday with the lowest attendance of the year? the Sunday after Easter Sunday. It's like there's some mass psychology that seems like, after Easter Sunday, there's so much, so much energy is invested and people come and dress nice, and go to a restaurant after the service or have a meal at home. , and it's like that causes a contrast in the emotional-neurological system of people, and then next Sunday, like they invested so much energy on Sunday that they want a little rest, and then they find different reasons.

They are not going to say that this is why, but in the long run it coincides that many do not come to Church next Sunday and I say that this is proof that there are many Christians who are rather circumstantial. Do you know that I long for the day when more people come after Easter Sunday than on Easter itself? because you are not depending on how you feel.

You come because, the Bible says: "Not failing to meet together." You come because you are a soldier and you report to the general and pay your respects, you say: Father, here I am. I bring you my body, my emotions, my mind, here it is, I salute Your greatness and Your Lordship over my life. Whether you like it or not, bring your shoes and come here to Church and worship the Lord, no matter how you feel. If you are depressed, all the more reason for you to come, if you are sick, all the more reason to be healed. Do not be moved by circumstances or emotions, come because God has said so and it is important. I already forgot what I was saying but that's something extra there.

So, brothers, I believe that, once again: when God began to do so many things, God did so many things at that time, he baptized people with the Holy Spirit. One of the precious things that it also did was that people had never before, in fact, some were contrary to the experience of. God began to move sovereignly and unexpectedly.

One day, again, I summoned, I summoned the brothers, all scared, so that after the service they would meet for a little while to pray together in front and with this I end, one Sunday Sister Minelli began, although she must be traveling, she has About thirty years in the Church and it was a harvest, raw wine from the world and God touched it and sealed it, and that woman you see the difference when a person has the experience with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

One day in a service like this we were praying in a time of intercession, I had not had experiences like that, I had seen that Yiye Ávila dropped people and that this and that but I was afraid that it would not happen that, and you know what? Minelli was there and he started walking and boom! he collapsed on the floor, and God began to move like that in sovereign ways because we had no experience in that.

Fanny Rodríguez, seeing her fall at the end of the service, came and scolded me because I allowed these things in the Church and how I, a Catholic who was regenerating at that time, Colombian imagine, Colombian Catholic, that's how I don't know, it's a double mix there from. And he complained bitterly that this was not from God and that.

Know what? One or two weeks later we are praying holding hands and we pray, I have my eyes closed and I hear a body collapse to the floor and when I look it was Fanny Rodríguez lying on the floor as well (applause). And since then Fanny has been one of the most fiery and militant people of the Holy Spirit that the León de Judá Congregation has, she was touched, she was impacted, her life was changed.

And God did so many things in that time, brothers, that we are still eating that bread today, and God has visited, he has visited us in different ways through the years and we have had moments, and I know that God has something. The late wine is going to be better than the first, I declare it in the Name of the Lord and God is calling us to fall in love with Him again and to search again, I am committed and I encourage you to accompany us on this journey of search for fullness . I want us to be a Church known as a place where the firefighters have to come here every Sunday to put out the fire, brothers, hallelujah.

A Church of holiness, of integrity, of love, of sincerity, of submission to authority, of generosity, of adoration, of living the Word, of good works, of good testimony, of health, of prosperity, I could speak of each one of the things that I have just pointed out here as distinctive for this Congregation. Let's renounce religion brothers, let's renounce being evangelicals and embrace the life of being disciples of Christ Jesus.

I want to call you right now, let's stand up. God is calling you, God is calling us. In the Name of Jesus, my brother, my sister, even though today is the first day that you come to Church or to a Church, today can be a transforming day in your life and today God can do something in your life, I invite you now himself to let the Spirit.

We're going to try something, if you can turn off a couple of the lights just so there's a little less of, Bruce or someone if you can help me with that, these lights here (points), we're going to dim a little bit because I want us to have a such a moment of intimacy. As I tell you, I'm going to be working on this and I'm going to see how God helps us provide spaces with small groups for. Rather, that one can be turned on, but you are here, the ones from the platform, and these can be turned off here, if possible, don't worry.

But brothers, I want to invite you in the Name of the Lord so that as a body, as a group, we fall in love again with the Spirit. And this very afternoon I invite you right now to forget about what's out there for a moment, forget about being the first out of the parking lot or whatever and just focus. If you seek first the Kingdom of God, other things will come in addition. Focus on one thing and that is to walk out of here with a fresh impartation of the Holy Spirit into your life.

In the Name of Jesus, in the Name of Jesus, receive a call from God on your life right now. I ask that we have the greatest order here, silence. If you can raise your hands to the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit in a way, as if it were the first time. Tell him: Holy Spirit fill me, flood me as if I were that pipe that Pastor Miranda spoke of. Park your fire truck out there and attach your giant hose to my pipes and flood me with the water of the Holy Spirit.

Visualize the Spirit of God coming in, descending on your life right now. Focus on one thing, make yourself an empty and open vessel so that the oil of God fills you and that oil serves for all the things that God wants to do through you. Say: I receive the Holy Spirit within me. Invite the Spirit: fill me Lord, fill me, flood me with Your strength, with Your Power and with Your life.

If you have not received Christ as Lord and Savior, I invite you right now, invite the one who baptizes with fire and with the Holy Spirit to enter your heart, because that is the first thing you need to do, and say: Spirit of Christ I receive you, Jesus I receive you as my Lord and my Savior, and I give you my life, and now invite the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit to dwell within you and to be intimate with you.

Tell him: Lord I want intimacy with Your Spirit. Ask Him for forgiveness for your sins if you need to, if there is a thought that is bothering you, take it and put it aside, and give it to the Lord and simply concentrate. The Lord says that if we ask His Spirit He will give it. Many don't receive it because they believe like, I don't know, like there's an invisible clause that you have to fill out first. Look, it's as easy as asking and wishing and yearning, and if you understand the importance of that experience and you ask the Lord to give it to you, He will give it to you, receive it, and then we're going to have other moments, but in this moment I want to provoke in you an experience of crisis.

I myself ask the Lord right now: Holy Spirit, renew me first and give me bread to give it to my people, and baptize me fresh with a sufficient portion of you for this people and for this journey that we are undertaking. Baptize me first and baptize my brother Pastors and the leaders of this Congregation, and reach the most remote Father. The person who is sitting there at home right now may be touched by a touch from the Holy Spirit, the Father.

Ask the Lord yourself, yourself. I am only here to be your coach and your facilitator but the one who has to give birth is you. I can be the midwife, let's say, but you have the womb and the life of the Spirit is in you, let it sprout through you, receive it. Receive it now and ask the Lord with me: Father, baptize my Congregation, baptize my people, intoxicate us with Your Spirit Lord, intoxicate us with Your Spirit Lord, intoxicate us with Your Spirit Father, intoxicate us with Your Spirit, take us out of here knowing that we have had a encounter with the Holy Spirit and forgive us for being careless with Your anointing.

Forgive us for lightly taking the importance of this experience, Lord, and for relegating it to a second, third place, and today we say: no, we want the filling of the Holy Spirit. I cannot live without that strength of Yours, Spirit of God, and I receive it, and I move in it. Father I declare in the Name of Jesus because You have given Power to impart and to anoint, and I anoint my people with the oil of the Spirit of God, fresh anointing.

Repent of your sins and repent if there is still worldliness in you, and there is still love for the world, and there are things that you have not given to the Lord, why don't you die today before you leave here, ah? Why don't you let yourself be crucified by the Lord this afternoon and truly repent, and tell Him: Lord, today I commit myself to You, I promise to live the Christian life authentically. Forgive me for playing with you.

People of God: consecrate yourself. God is willing that the Lion of Judah consecrate himself to the Lord. God says: Lion of Judah, you have a destiny, a great calling. Live at the level of the call that I have issued to you. I want a loyal people, a noble people, a people that reflect My Excellency, a people that walk disciplinedly, a people that submit to My Word and My principles, a people that I dress in priestly garments, a people that walk with oil running from their head down their jaw, down their knees, down to their feet, leaving oil everywhere they go in this city. In the Name of Jesus, receive a fresh anointing from the Lord, a fresh anointing.