Life on Wings - A Tribute to Dr Ern Baxter

Terry Virgo, Dr Lloyd-Jones and the Baptism of the Spirit.

In maintaining a healthy diet of Dr Lloyd-Jones these last few weeks, I have been impressed at how the Doctor's view of the Baptism of the Spirit was far more to do with the "seal of attestation" (as Spurgeon called it) or assurance than it was to do with gifts (as the Third Wave emphasis tries to suggest). I am utterly persuaded that this emphasis is right and that the coming of gifts is a subsequent and somewhat secondary event. The key thing as the Doctor put it, is that we KNOW we are His, and He is ours - that we hear and feel the Spirit crying with us; "Abba Father".

How thrilled I was then, to read Terry Virgo's latest article in the Newfrontiers magazine which followed an exact line on this issue with Dr Lloyd-Jones. He wrote:

‘ABBA FATHER!’
Our privileges do not end here. We are not only reconciled in one new man. Paul introduces another amazing fact, ‘for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father’ (Eph. 2:18). We former strangers and aliens who were so far off from God are not only included within the nation of Israel but in the very household of God (Eph. 2:19). The blood of Christ provides our legal standing and forgiveness, but the Holy Spirit witnesses profoundly with our spirit that we are actually included in God’s family as we cry ‘Abba Father’. It is the coming of the Holy Spirit into our experience that makes these truths manifest and experiential.

As I'm sure the Doctor would say; "That is it!". I am so eager that this seemingly forgotten reason as to why the risen and enthroned Lord Jesus baptises believers in His Holy Spirit, be remembered and retaught and that new converts should receive the inheritance that is due them because of Christ's finished work.

The magazine articles can be found online at:

http://www.newfrontiers.xtn.org/magazine