JESUS CHRIST AND THE

GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

by Peter Hocken

Pentecostals have always recognized a close link between baptism

in the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. Only when a Christian is baptized
in the Holy Spirit does he ordinarily begin to exercise any of the
charismata listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. Certainly it is only among
assemblies and fellowships that preach and experience the baptism in
the Spirit that the full range of the spiritual gifts is exercised. These
facts were particularly evident to the first generation of Pentecostals,
for whom these gifts were new realities discovered through and
subsequent to the Baptism.1 This Pentecostal conviction is manifested

1 Apartial exception is found in the case of healing.Many early Pentecostals, e.g. those
who were previously in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, believed in divine healing
prior to being baptized in the Spirit. However, the evidence is that healing became more
prominent in their awareness after baptism in the Spirit, and it then took its place more
clearly among the full range of charismata pneumatika.

Peter Hocken (S.T.L., Accademia Alfonsiana , Rome), is on the staff of the Mother of God
Community, Washington, D.C. He is a prolific writer, doing research from within the
Catholic charismatic tradition. Father Hocken serves as Catholic Book Editor for
PNEUMA.
in the declaration of faith of the Assemblies of God (USA) stating: "With
it (the Baptism) comes the enduement of power for life and service, the
'
bestowment of the gifts and their uses in the work of the ministry"
(para. 7).
It is appropriate then in a conference on the theme of charisms to
look more closely at this link between the spiritual gifts and baptism in
the Spirit. In particular, I want to examine how these spiritual realities,
the gifts and the baptism, were understood in relation to the three
Divine Persons, especially the Son and the Spirit.

Pentecostal Definitions of Baptism in the Spirit

The characteristic Pentecostal definitions of baptism in the Holy

Spirit speak of it as enduement of power for ministry and service. They
did not suggest any change in the believer's relationship with Jesus
Christ through the baptism in the Spirit. Where Jesus is mentioned in
these definitions, it is simply as the Baptizer.2 There is a direct
connection between views of the baptism which present Jesus simply as
He who effects and brings it about and views of the gifts which present
Jesus simply as their effecter and bestower. This presentation of
baptism in the Spirit taken separately from the witness of Pentecostal
experience easily lends itself to the vew fiercely contested by most
evangelicals that at conversion, one receives Jesus and at baptism in the
Spirit, one receives the Holy Spirit, as though the word "receive" means
exactly the same in the two stages. A variation on this is found early on,
when The Apostolic Faith of Azusa Street taught: "You are partaker of
the Holy Ghost in the Pentecostal baptism, just as you were partaker of
the Lord Jesus Christ in sanctification."3 3

1The A/G definition does speak of "life and service" but the dominant interpretation
is power for ministry. There is no significant difference here between those holding a
two-stage and those holding a three-stage view of conversion, sanctification and baptism
in the Spirit. The Apostolic Faith of Azusa Street which taught a three-stage doctrine
stated in a profession of faith "The Baptism with the Holy Ghost is a gift of power for the
sanctified life." Issues of September 1906, p. 2; November 1906, p. 2; September,
1907, p. 2; May 1908, p. 2.
2 Ase.g. in the Declaration of Faith of the Elim Pentecostal Churches of Great Britain
and Ireland, quoted in W.J. Hollenweger The Pentecostals, p. 519.

3The Apostolic Faith, Vol. 1, No. 6, Feb-March 1907, p. 6.

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 Accounts of baptism in the Spirit which focus on power without
specifying any relationship with the person of Jesus lead readily to
presentations of the spiritual gifts simply in terms of power and without
specific reference to Jesus Christ. Many inadequate views of the
charisms stem from failing to see their relationship to Jesus. Separated
from Jesus, spiritual power is no longer power of the Holy Spirit of God.
We can recall the words of Jesus, "many will say to me 'Lord, Lord, did
we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and
do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them `I
never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers'" (Mt. 7:22-23).
Separated from Jesus the holiness of the gifts is obscured.
These remarks concern Pentecostal definitions of baptism in the
Spirit, that is to say the teaching that has found its way into formal
professions of faith of Pentecostal denominations. However, these
formal declarations of faith represent a third level which followed upon
two preceding levels (1) the reality experienced which was described
in Pentecostal withnesses and testimonies and (2) the ordinary teaching
being given by Pentecostal preachers prior to the formulation of any
declarations of faith. This process is not unusual in Christian history. I
want now to show that the early Pentecostal witnesses and teaching
present a richer understanding of baptism in the Spirit than found
expression in formal professions of faith.

Early Pentecostal Experience of Baptism in the Spirit

Extracts from a number of early Pentecostal witnesses to the

Baptism contain one or more of three distinct elements:

a. description of physical sensations and occurrences

b. description of the spiritual content of the experience
c. description of consequences of the experience

Aspects of element (c) together with the teaching on tongues as

initial evidence particularly characterize the Pentecostal declarations of
faith. Power for service and ministry is in many ways a consequence of
something God has done in that Christian. But what I am now interested
in is element (b) that did not find its way into the Pentecostal definitions
of faith, namely the meaning or spiritual content of baptism in the Spirit.
All the witnesses cited in the Appendix contain clear evidence of this
element. These witnesses show clearly what the New Testament also

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teaches, though not in the account of Pentecost in Acts 2, that the Holy
Spirit reveals the person and work of Jesus Christ.1 More of the Spirit
means more of Jesus Christ. Besides witnessing to this "more," several
of these accounts testify to a deeper understanding of the Cross (e.g. A.
Moomau, C.H. Schoonmaker) or of the Blood (e.g. Mrs. Mead) or to
some vision of Jesus on the Cross (e.g. J. Jeter, Mrs. Price). Many other
similar examples can be found.2

Early Pentecostal Teaching

In fact, this awareness of the spiritual content and meaning of the

Baptism is also found in early Pentecostal teaching. One of the clearest
statements is made by Stanley Frodsham in the first issue of his first
magazine, where he states: -

The Pentecostal Baptism of the Holy Spirit brings a deeper

and clearer revelation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.3

In Frodsham's statement, the word "revelation" is particularly

significant, for divine revelation to the believer is central to God's
restoring work in the Pentecostal movement through baptism in the
Spirit. People naturally talk of baptism in the Spirit being a marvelous
experience and it is often said that Pentecostalism is restoring the
experiential dimension to Christian life. But within the experience is the
revelation. The experience is the outer shell, but the revelation is the
core or heart, that God is now restoring to His people as their rightful
inheritance. It is very important to recognize with Frodsham that what is
first of all revealed to the Christian in the Spirit are neither future
events, nor a personal vocation. Revelation is first of the Person of Jesus
and his place in God's plan. In fact, we may take Ephesians 1:17-19 as
expressing what God reveals through the Baptism. Paul's prayer is "that

1 CEin particular John 16, vv 13-15; Eph. 1, 17, Rev. 19:10. The one verse in Acts 2
that refers to the co-working of the Son and the Spirit is verse 33: "Being therefore
exalted at the right hand God and having received from the Father the promise of the
Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear."

2E.g. the much longer witness of Carrie Judd Montgomery in Confidence,November

15, 1908, pp. 5-6, that of the Swiss leader Anton Reuss, Confidence,July 1909, p. 159.

3 Victory,April 1909, p. 1.

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the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a
spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the
eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know

what is the hope to which he has called you

what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and
what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe.

First, the hope, secondly the riches and thirdly the power. The power
depends on the knowledge, a point that will be important when we come
to examine the gifts.
In fact, there are countless references in early Pentecostal teaching
to show that baptism in the Spirit brings a fuller knowledge of God and
of his Son. The Apostolic Faith of Azusa Street teaches, for example:

The baptism with the Holy Ghost is more of God. It is God

glorified in our hearts.

When a man or woman gets the baptism with the Holy Ghost,
they are filled with continual light. It is a great light than
when you were sanctified. It is the full blessing of Christ.

When you were converted, you got rid of sin; when you were
sanctified, you were cleansed of carnality; but the baptism is
the third Person of the Trinity upon your soul, that reveals
Christ and takes the things of the Father and shows them
unto you.1

. When He (the Holy Ghost) comes into a believer, He comes

to tell them all about Jesus' salvation. He reveals Christ. He
paints Him as the wonderful Son of God, the brightest gem
the Father had in heaven--our only hope of salvation and
reconciliation with the Father.2

. lAll three quotations from Vol. 1, No. 10, September 1907, p. 3.

2 Vol.IT, No. 13, May 1908, p. 2.

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 Many other references could be given.1 In the first issue of The
Apostolic Faith produced in Portland, Oregon, it is taught: "When the
Holy Ghost comes in He reveals Christ in you."2
A fascinating document in this respect is the "London Declaration"
concerning "The Baptism in the Holy Ghost" of November, 1909. The
London Declaration was signed by virtually all the leaders of
Pentecostal meetings in Britain at that time. Under the heading "What
we teach concerning the Evidence and the Results" it states:

The Sign THE "PROMISE OF THE FATHER" (Acts i., 4) was,

of and is, evidenced by the Speaking in "Tongues" as the
Tongues Spirit gives to utter (see Acts ii., 4, Greek; also Acts x., 46,
and xix., 6). ,

But it also includes:

lst - The Consciousness of the Deity of our Lord Jesus

Christ (John xiv., 20).

Seven 2nd - The Consciousness of our "Dwelling in Him"

Results (1 John iii., 23, 24) and He in us (Eph. iii., 17).

3rd - Divine Illumination concerning His Word and Will

(John xiv., 16, 17)

4th - "The Testimony of Jesus" Rev. xix., 10; John xv.,

26, 27). The Lord Jesus said that, after receiving
this Promise, "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me"
(Acts 1., 8).

5th - The Three-fold Conviction of the World by the Spirit

in us. ("I will send the Comforter to you, and when
He is come He will reprove the World of Sin, of
Righteousness, and of Judgement" - John xvi., 8-11)

1. - The great Sin of fallen man (his unbelief).

2. - The need of the Righteousness of Christ (now
with His Father).

'In The ApostolicFaith, October 1906, p. 3, col. 2; November 1906, p. 2, col. 4; p. 4,

col. 3; May 1908, p. 2, col. 4.

2July and August 1908, p. 2.

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 3. - The Judgment of the Devil (Heb. ii., 14, 15).
[The Prince of the World is already condemned.]

6th - Our continual guidance into the deep things of God.

'
(John xvi., 13; 1 Cor. ii., 9, 10)

7th - The continual glorification of Christ (to the exclusion

of self). John xvi., 14; Eph. i.,17-23; Col. ii., 15, iii., 3) 1

It is remarkable that all these seven points concern the relationship

of the Spirit-baptized believer to the persons of the Trinity. Power for
ministry is not singled out in this Declaration.
This common teaching that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit reveals
more fully the person of Jesus is also supported by the regular element
in witnesses to the Baptism of fuller surrender, a fuller yielding and a
deeper obedience to the Lord. This is found for example in the
witnesses of Levi Lupton of Alliance, Ohio2 and of C.H. Mason, the
founder of the Church of God in Christ.3 It has also been common
Pentecostal teaching.4 This necessarily follows from the recognition
that tongues are primarily an expression of praise. If the gift of tongues
is fuller praise of God, the reception of this gift necessarily means a
deeper knowledge of God. Growth in praise in God and growth in
knowledge of God necessarily go together. Since tongues have been
seen from the inception of the movement as so closely connected with
baptism in the Spirit, it is itself a witness to the fact that the baptism
brings a deeper revelation and knowledge of God.

'Confidence, December 1909, p. 287. The whole declaration plus list of signatories
takes up pp. 287-8.

2The ApostolicFaith, February-March 1907, p. 5.

3The ApostolicFaith, February-March 1907, p. 7.

4"Jesus is the minister who officiates at this baptism in the Holy Spirit. We present
our whole being to Him. Body, soul, and spirit must be yielded." (Ralph M. Riggs, The
Spirit Himself,p. 67). Yielding to Jesus means fuller measure of Jesus through His Spirit.

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Towards a fuller definition of baptism in the Spirit

One of the conclusions from this survey is that the Pentecostal

movement needs a fuller definition of baptism in the Spirit than that
found in the various Pentecostal declarations of faith adopted by
Pentecostal Churches. This is based on the evidence of the Pentecostals,
in their witnesses and teaching, particularly from the early days of the
movement. The evidence suggests that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is
an outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God which results in:

(a) an inner knowledge of Jesus through revelation to the human

spirit which enables the recipient to act in the power of the Spirit
'
(b) first, Godward, in praise

(c) secondly, manward, in bold proclamation including evangelism

and in the exercise of the spiritual gifts.

Such a definition has the advantage of describing both the inner

spiritual content and the primary effects of the Baptism.1 All the most
adequate definitions of Christian truth are based upon an accumulated
wisdom and result from prolonged reflection on the central mystery of
our Christian faith. It is worth remarking that the fullest statements in
the New Testament concerning the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the
person of Jesus come in the later writings of Paul and the gospel of John,
and reflect this accumulated wisdom of faithful apostles and
communities.

Excursus on Conversion and Baptism in Spirit

Receiving this knowledge of Jesus Christ through revelation at

baptism in the Spirit is something significantly more than what is
ordinarily meant by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. How
then is it that at conversion one accepts Jesus and that baptism in

1A.A. Boddy, the Pentecostal pioneer in England, who always remained within the
Church of England, described "seven hall-marks of heaven upon the Pentecostal baptism
with the Sign of Tongues," namely 1., Jesus is Glorified. 2. Calvary is ever honoured.
3. The Bible is Loved. 4. Souls are Saved. 5. Missions to Heathen. 6. Love for Prayer
Gatherings. 7. Readiness for His coming. (Confidence, August 1909, pp. 180-183).

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the Spirit one receives the Spirit in an obvious way? It is not because the
Spirit was not received in conversion, nor is it that Jesus was not
received in being baptized in the Spirit. The important theological point
is that the word "receive" does not mean the same in these two
instances. At conversion, one is responding to the preached word and
accepting the gospel message. This is the beginning of faith, the opening
of the door to Jesus Christ. At baptism in the Spirit, there is a fuller
yielding to Jesus, the surrender of one's faculties of speech, thought and
decision to the same Lord. This fuller yielding, itself a fruit of the Spirit,
opens the human spirit to God, revealing the majesty of Jesus Christ
and making evident the reality and activity of the Holy Spirit. In
conversion, the Spirit is present but the person isn't aware of the Spirit;
in the baptism, the Spirit and Jesus are more fully present in a way that
the distinctive person of the Spirit is known and recognized. It is easy to
see how this has been described as "receiving the Spirit."
We are dealing with successive openings of the human mind and
heart to the Triune God, not with dealings with separate persons of the
Trinity.1 It is then impossible for there to be a change in our capacities
with regard to other people without there being a change in our relation-
ship to God. The new power is function of a changed relationship - the
power of the Spirit reflecting a changed relationship to Jesus Christ.
The second half of the paper examines the consequences of the position
adopted for our understanding of the spiritual gifts.

'
Consequences for the Spiritual Gifts

This inconceivably close relationship between the Son and the Spirit
in baptism in the Spirit also applies to the spiritual gifts to which the
believer is opened at Spirit-baptism. If the Spirit glorifies Jesus, and
makes Jesus known, then the spiritual gifts as works of the Spirit are
equally closely linked to the person of Jesus Christ. The gifts are not, so
to speak, just external tools, however powerful, that the Spirit works to
demonstrate the power of God. They are works of the Divine Spirit, yes,
but the Spirit never acts separately from the Father and the Son, and

1 Itis for this reason that the accounts by some Pentecostals of the sovereign action of
the Spirit are theologicallyunsatisfactory, e.g. Ralph Riggs, when he writes: "As the Holy
Spirit is the agent of God and of Christ, and also operates in His own right, so prophecy is
an agent for other gifts and is also a gift itself' (The Spirit Himself, p. 115). It is the first
"also" and the "His own right" which must be disputed.

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never acts without revealing something of Jesus Christ. This is
classically expressed in John 16:15 "All that the Father has is mine;
therefore I said that he (the Spirit) will take what is mine and declare it
to you." The Holy Spirit is not independent!
The Spirit's relationship to Jesus Christ cannot be separated from
the Spirit's role in the Body of Christ. All the spiritual gifts are for the
building up of the Church, the Body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12: 11-12). The
Spirit and the body go together (the conjunctions in Eph. 4:4-5 are
particularly significant).
The spiritual gifts as distinctive works of the Spirit of God manifest
the saving purpose of the Father as realized in the Son through the
Spirit. Each of the gifts tells us something about the wonderful purpose
of God in forming the Body of Christ. Since the restoration of these gifts
to God's people characterizes the Pentecostal movement, the spiritual
gifts individually and corporately tell us something about the significance
and distinctiveness of the Pentecostal movement in God's purpose.
It will be easiest to explain this further by taking a closer look at
particular gifts. In each case, we should notice the link between seeing
the particular gift in relation to Jesus Christ and seeing how it tells us
something about God's restoring purpose in the Pentecostal movement.
For God's purpose is in no way separable from Jesus Christ, "by whom
and for whom all things have been created" (cf. Col. 1:16).

Prophecy

Prophecy is a revelation-gift. By it, God imparts His word to a

believer so that the believer can speak to men in the name of the Lord.
This revelation is a direct action of God's Spirit upon the spirit of the
recipient. Direct does not necessarily mean sudden or dramatic.
All prophecy is given for the building up of the body of Christ (cf. 1
Cor. 14:4). There is a distinction between the calling of particular
Christians to the specific ministry of a prophet (more the teaching of 1
Cor. 12, where the presumption is that not all will possess each gift) and
the endowment of each Christian with prophetic power through baptism
in the Spirit (some aspects of this are evident in 1 Cor. 14, e.g. vv. 1-5).1

This same principle applies to tongues and healing. For example not every Spirit-
baptized believer receives a specific ministry of healing, but all are called to pray for the
sick in times of need.

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 As I see this distinction working out in the life of a large charismatic
community, the people being given a specific call to be prophets are
those God is training to speak to the whole body to provide its vision and
direction. In such people God looks for a maturity in holiness of life. God
seeks men whom He can trust, as He could trust Jeremiah and John the
Baptist, to speak His word in all situations, come what may. It is in this
fulness of the gift of prophecy that we see most clearly its essential
nature, namely revelation. It reveals the full counsel of God, and it is
given for God's People as a whole.
The kind of prophecy that God gives to each Spirit-baptized believer
is parallel to the love He gives each for other members of the body. It will
be operative in day-to-day living and worship, in situations of mutual
encouragement and consolation. Its horizon will generally be narrower
than that of the recognized prophet, being concerned more with this
day, this group of people, whereas the full prophet will be trained by
God to have horizons as wide as the heart of Christ.
The revelation-gift of prophecy typifies an essential element of the
Christian life being restored to the life of God's People through the
Pentecostal movement. Revelation to the human spirit is being given
back to God's People through this move of the Spirit.
However, God's revelation to the Christian is not restricted to
prophecy. The revelations and illuminations of the Divine Spirit in the
human spirit are not all intended to lead to public utterance. Indeed, at
the heart of them is God's revelation of Himself to the believer, so that
God is more deeply known and more fully worshipped and adored. So
the restoration of prophecy accompanies a restoration of wider aspects
of God's revelation to the Christian.1
This brings us to the role of Jesus in prophecy. God's revelation is
Jesus Christ. As Paul tells the Ephesians:
'
For he (the Father) has made known to us in all wisdom and
insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which
he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite
all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph.
1:9-10).

1 Insome ways,we can say the restoration of prophecy has followedthe restoration of
revelation of the things of God to the believer taught within the Keswickand other "higher
life" movements. Cf. section below on "The Significanceof the Pentecostal Movement."

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 God's revelation is not Jesus plus other thing. It is Jesus and how
He brings all things into subjection to Himself in the Body of Christ.
Prophecy then is not just any message from God. It is always in some
way a declaration of God's purpose in His Son. Jesus is not just the
speaker in prophecy. He is also the message.2 He is the truth as well as
the way (cf. John 14:6). This is why the fulness of the gift of prophecy is
found in those commissioned Christians, to whom the Lord has given a
deeper vision of Himself and His Plan so that they can speak God's
Word to the nations and to the whole People of God.
The importance of seeing revelation as characteristic of the Pente-
costal movement and as wider than prophecy is that God's word is not
solely for ministry. It is first to establish the believer in his relationship
to God in Christ, and on that foundation to be a spokesman for God to
others. If Spirit-baptized Christians are not receiving revelation regular-
ly from God in their prayer-times concerning who Jesus is and the place
of Jesus in God's plan, then the chances are that messages received and
uttered as from the Holy Spirit are slight indeed. The person who is not
hearing from the Lord about the Lord himself is not going to be hearing
from him about anything else.

'
Tongues

Tongues is an uttering of "mysteries in the Spirit" (1 Cor. 14:2).

Just as prophecy involves a directness in reception of God's word to
man, so tongues enables in return a directness in man's expression to
God. When we speak in tongues, we pray to God with the human spirit,

The renowned Catholic theologian, Karl Rahner, says: "that this (Jesus') word as
God's final word can be understood to be definitive not because God now ceases arbitrarily
to say anything further, although he could have said more, and not just wanted to. It is
the final word of God that is present in Jesus because there is nothing to say beyond it,
because God has really and in a strict sense offered himself in Jesus" (Foundations of
Christian Faith, p. 280).
2The Norwegian leader, Thomas Ball Barratt, quotes with approval a M. Godet who
says: "Assuredly it is not for nothing that the Apostle has begun this whole discussion
on the spiritual gifts by indicating the precise character which distinguishes true and
false inspirations, by recalling that the one have as their common character and essence
this cry of adoration - Jesus, Lord! whilst the others tend to the humiliation and rejection
of Jesus. It was sufficient then to place every prophecy in relation with this centre of
the entire Christian revelation, the Person of Christ, and to see what result the prophecy
which had been heard tended to make little of Him or to glorifyHim" (The Giftof Prophecy,
Peniel Press edn. London 1974, p. 20) Barratt's booklet on prophecy was also included
as a chapter in In the Days of the Latter Rain.

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 by-passing the ordinary human process of mental conception and
linguistic formulation.
Here again, the gift of tongues tells us more about God's restoring
purpose in the Pentecostal movement. Tongues is a prayer of praise.
The gift manifests the natural incapacity of man to praise God. It shows
that praise is first a gift, an activity of the Holy Spirit in the Christian.
In tongues, the Christian makes a quantum leap beyond the
stammering limping character of ordinary human language to declare
what is beyond declaration and to express the inexpressible. In this way,
tongues helps to restore awareness of supernatural mystery to Christian
worship. This gift reminds us of the gift-character, the empowered
character of all Christian worship, not just the exercise of tongues.
Praise of God is both the center and high-point of all Christian worship
and the greatest activity to which the Holy Spirit raises the Christian.
Praise is essentially the declaration of who God is and what He has
done for His people. At Pentecost the disciples who received the Spirit
speak "the mighty works of God" (Acts 2:11). But for the Christian, who
God is revealed in and by Jesus, and what God has done is supremely
the incarnation of His Son. Tongues as an expression of praise is a
declaration of the glory of Jesus Christ. This is why we were created and
yet nothing more transcends our natural capacity.
It is the conscious awareness of the relationship of tongues to Jesus
Christ that safeguards this gift from degenerating into something sub-
Christian. When Jesus is not the center of a person's life, it is still
possible to utter glossolalic sounds, but it will no longer be an
expression of praise. It may well become an instrument for evil spirits, a
point made early in the Pentecostal movement by T.B. Barratt.1 This
symbolic character of tongues as showing what God is restoring through
the Pentecostal movement, namely praise, follows on from what is
indicated by prophecy, namely the restoration of revelation. The two go
together: revelation to the human spirit leads to praise from the human
spirit. As revelation received goes deeper, so the praise and tongues
become richer.

1 Cf.report on Hamburg Conference of December 1909 in E. Giese Jonathan Paul - ein

Knecht Jesu Chrisi p. 152.

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Healing

The gifts of healing being restored to God's People make plain God's
total opposition to all evil, and the victory won by Jesus Christ over all
the works of the enemy. Physical disease and affliction, mental illness
and disturbance, are equally consequences of the fall and are a
manifestation of man's alienation from God. While there is not a direct
equation between human disease and a person's sin (cf. Jn. 9:2-3),
disease nonetheless manifests man's fallen state and would not have
been without the fall. Each healing by Jesus is not simply a kind action
done out of love for a suffering individual, but is a declaration of God's
saving purpose for all mankind. The restoration of healing to God's
People particularly through the Pentecostal movement signifies God's
purpose to restore man fully to the image and likeness of God, and
shows that this restoration is an unmerited supernatural action of God.
The full range of God's healing scope, physical, mental and spiritual,
shows clearly that God's saving work extends to the whole man, body,
soul and spirit.
However, here too the spiritual gift is directly concerned with the
person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is not just the healer, but he is the
prototype of whole, human life in union with God. God does not heal sick
man just to relieve pain and discomfort. He heals man so that man can
be what God created him to be, to be incorporated as a living member of
the Body of Christ glorifying Jesus the Head.
This perspective reminds us that sin is the major obstacle to man's
calling, and that Jesus saw all other forms of healing in relation to
repentance and forgiveness of sin (cf. Mark 2:9-10). In other words,
seeing healing in relation to Jesus Christ is an important safeguard
against the tendency to become so engrossed in more visibly sensational
forms of physical and mental healing that the less visibly dramatic
conquering of sin through the Blood and the Cross recedes into the
background. We have all had experience of healing ministries where
Jesus is seen simply as the one who does it, and not at all in terms of the
result produced. This is a distortion which can begin with a separation of
Son and Spirit. Spiritual power can be glorified rather than Jesus
Christ, faith in healing more than faith in Jesus Christ, and one can find
healing ministries where the name of Jesus is rarely used.
Prophecy, tongues and healing have been selected because each
manifest a particular aspect of God's restoring purpose in the
Pentecostal movement. The other charisms listed in 1 Cor. 12:8-10 have
a close affinity with one of the three examined. Words of wisdom and of

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 knowledge, and interpretation of tongues are revelation-gifts, like
prophecy. Working miracles is a power-gift, like healing. Both revelation
and power flow from and point to Jesus Christ.

The of the Pentecostal Movement .

Significance

Gathering together the ways in which the gifts of prophecy, tongues

and healing manifest God's wider purpose in the Pentecostal movement,
we can say that by this outpouring of His Spirit, God is restoring to His
People as part of normal Christian life
a. revelation to the spirit of the believer
b. spontaneous praise of God
c. visible salvation of body, mind and spirit.1 1

All these are direct consequences of the basic Pentecostal distinctive,

the baptism in the Holy Spirit. This baptism opens the channel of
communication between the Divine Spirit and the human spirit.
Revelation is the downward aspect: what God speaks to man. Praise is
the upward aspect: what man speaks to God.2 Healing manifests the
visible consequences and the extent of God's saving word.
Here it is necessary to be more precise about the sense in which the
Pentecostal movement is restoring revelation, praise and the full range
of the work of salvation. This is not saying that these realities were
unknown to Christians before the twentieth century. Instances can be
adduced from many traditions, of which I am most familiar with the
Catholic.3 But these realities were not the stuff of every-day life.
They were generally regarded as the preserve of the exceptionally holy
Christian, and in more recent centuries were seen as belonging to the
sphere of personal private piety impinging only indirectly on the public

11 have not treated here two other characteristics of the Pentecostal movement,
namely effective evangelismand awakened expectation of the Second Coming.These are
less new and were more in evidence prior to the Pentecostal outpouring. Both represent
aspects of Christian life not so much restored as heightened in this movement of the Spirit.
ZIt is interesting to note various "down-and-up" couplets in the Scriptures, e.g.
"Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the
sky" (Ps. 85:11).
30ne of the marvelous records of revelation to a Catholic saint is The Dialogue of
Catherine of Siena. It is interesting that a life of Catherine was written in 1898 by Arthur T.
Pierson, a prominent support of the Keswick "higher life" teaching.

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and corporate life of the Church. Since the Enlightenment, belief in the
very possibility of divine revelation has been seriously eroded.
With the Holiness movement came an increased awareness of the
power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. It was only among a
minority within the Keswick movement that a clear teaching was
developed as to the revealing work of the Holy Spirit. This can be seen
most clearly in Andrew Murray's classic The Spirit of Christ, first
published in 1888.2 The idea of the Spirit revealing the glory of Jesus is
far from new with the Pentecostal movement.
However, the Pentecostal movement did add something decisively
new to what had been taught and lived for many centuries. The
restoration of prophecy brought the fact of revelation through the Spirit
into the public and corporate life of Christians. This itself reduced its
elitist connotations and caused prophecy and revelation to be seen as
accessible to every Christian.
The individual Christians who already knew divine revelation of the
mystery of Christ were however limited in their response, as long as
there was not accessible to them a form of praise as immediate and
direct as the revelation they had received. This need was met in the gift
of tongues.3
This presentation is anchored on the essential relationship between
Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is central to the meaning of
baptism in the Spirit and He is central to the meaning of the spiritual
gifts. These convictions make the Pentecostal movement more
important and basic for Christianity today even than many accounts of
Pentecostals themselves. The Pentecostal movement where it is being
wholly faithful to its origins is not adding anything to Jesus and
knowledge of Him. In God's purpose, it is restoring a fuller knowledge of
Jesus, of His purpose and of His power.

IThe main emphasis was on what man has to do to receive holiness from God. The
Holy Spirit was primarily presented as he who empowers man to act.
2See in particular the chapters entitled "The Spirit Glorifying Christ" (Ch. 11) and
"The Revelation of the Spirit" (Ch. 22).

3This position throws an interesting light on the question of tongues as initial evidence
of the baptism in the Spirit.

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