I received the Holy Spirit when I was saved. He became my best friend and guide. Then, I went to charismatic/Pentecostal churches for the next 15 years. It took me that long to realize exciting experiences and speaking in tongues was NOT the central message of the Bible. I read my Bible faithfully, and what was being preached in those churches, and what was happening, was not in my Bible. I even took a Bible study with PAOC, (affliated with AoG) and it was just as shallow as the churches I was attending.
Eventually we moved to an Evangelical Free church, at my insistance, and not only was the preaching 10X better, so was the worship (music) and the fellowship. When RA took over, they sent me meals all the time. The youth pastor was awesome in that church, and an incredible influence on my teenage boys.
When we moved to Alberta, the only EvFree was miles away. Tried an Alliance church, but it was fluff, and a great rock show. Never met one person in the 2 years I was there. I tried to go to the women’s Bible study, but it was upstairs, with no elevato and I couldn’t do stairs at that time≥ I tried to get involved in the music program and no one even would answer me just to say, “No, sorry we don’t need you.” Five years after we left that church, we got a letter from them saying we should get together in our area and watch the Gray Cup together. I laughed pretty hard at that one.
Then Baptist churches, where I agree with the doctrines, which have excellent, well trained, and studied pastors. With degrees, because they have actually learned something. And they exegete the Bible correctly. The church I am in now, we have many retired pastors, and they are all incredible pastors. We have a Pentecostal pastor who often preaches, he just stays away from tongues. (He is married to an elder, but PAOC will yank his ordination if he becomes a member of our church!)
Anyway, making some “baptism of the Holy Spirit” your focus, totally limits the Bible, and more important, it limits God. So much more to the Christian walk. And that is what I missed my first 15 years in Pentecostal/charismatic churches. Well, we won’t even get into Armininian soteriology, which in some churches, means people get drunk on Saturday, and born again on Sunday, over and over. The pastor of that church knew it was wrong, but wasn’t willing to embrace “eternal security.”’ Or, maybe he wasn’t allowed to, since the articles of faith for PAOC are “lose your salvation.”
As Nehemiah says above, there is NO mention of a baptism OF the Holy Spirit. All we need to do is seek God in his word, and walk with him. And hopefully attend a decent church without weird manifestations which take the eyes off Jesus, and put them on phenomena.
Today's "tongues" doesn't remotely resemble what happened at pentecost. There's a good reason for that. It isn't miraculous biblical tongues as occurred during the apostolic era. And quite frankly, I don't concern myself with how many line up to tell me otherwise.
