Dear Doves:
 
    "his wife has made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7).
 
    I agree with the letters of David Robinson and Jan Mikael of April 27 that stress the necessity of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
 
    The only requirements for the infilling are:-  first, to be born again; second, to ask the Father for the gift of the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13); and third, to receive in your spirit the oil to light your lamp."  "The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehova" (Prov. 20:27).
 
    The infilling of the Holy Spirit, just as it was experienced by the early disciples on the day of Pentecost, is evidenced by the phenomenon called "speaking in tongues."  The Book of Acts is our witness.
 
    The infilling of the Holy Spirit is the door to the operation of the spiritual gifts in our lives.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit are the weapons of our warfare against the enemy.  "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover"  (Mark 16:16-18).
 
    Just as Isaac's father Abraham sent gifts and raiment by his servant to adorn his bride Rebekah (Gen. 24:53), so has God the Father sent gifts and raiment by the Holy Spirit to adorn the bride of Christ - she is clothed in white raiment (Rev. 3:5).
 
    The gifts of the Holy Spirit are discussed in 1 Corinthians, chapters 12-14.
 
Historical Notes:-
 
1.  In the HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, vol. 1, Dr. Phillip
     Schaff  writes: "The speaking with tongues, however, was not
     confined to the Day of Pentecost.  Together with the other
     extraordinary spiritual gifts...We find traces of it still in the second
     and third centuries."
 
2.  Ireanaeus, a pupil of Polycarp, in AGAINST HERESIES, Book V,
     wrote:-  "In like manner do we also hear many brethren in the
     Church who possess prophetic gifts and who through the Spirit
     speak all kinds of languages, and bring mysteries of God, whom
     also the apostles term spiritual."
 
3.  "The history of the Waldenses in the 12th and 13th centuries
     reveals not only a devotion of the Bible reading and a desire to
     follow the primitive purity of the New Testament Church, but also
     that both healing and speaking in unknown languages were
     experienced from time to time in their midst" (GIFT OF
     TONGUES, Alexandria Mockie, p. 27).
 
4.  John Calvin (1509-64) wrote about his fellowship being honored
     with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues in his
     COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL THE APOSTLE
     TO THE CORINTHIANS, vol. 1, p. 437.
 
5.  SOUER'S HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, vol. 3, p.206
     states: "Dr. Martin Luther was a prophet, evangelist, speaker in
     tongues and interpreter, in one person, endowed with all the gifts
     of the Holy Spirit."
 
6.  In TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF FAITH, 1875 edition, p. 402, Rev.
     R. Boyd, D.D., a close Baptist friend of Dwight L. Moody, wrote:
     "When I got to the rooms of the Young Men's Christian
     Association (Victoria Hall, London), I found the meeting on fire.
     The young men were speaking with tongues, prophesying...
     Moody had been addressing them that afternoon!"
 
7.  In 1906 the Holy Spirit was poured out in the metropolis of Los
     Angeles.  It became known as the "Azuza Street Revival" and
     soon spread around the world.
 
8.   In the decade of the 1960s multitudes within the traditional
      churches - Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists,
      Catholics, and others - started receiving the infilling of the Holy
      Spirit accompanied by "speaking in other tongues."  This
      movement was called the "Charismatic Renewal."
 
 
In Jesus,
Susie Parker