We are the product of our past but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.9
— RICK WARREN
He was twenty-three years old when it happened. After a night of heavy drinking and partying, Justin Maslanka was driving home. Not only was he driving while drunk, he was moving at a very high rate of speed. The car careened out of control, bounced across the road, and came to a halt when it hit a large tree.
To say the car was totaled is an understatement. The bumper was mangled, the entire frame twisted, and every window shattered. But somehow, Justin survived the crash. The car bent in a shape that allowed just enough space for his head and body to survive. It was a miracle and he knew it.
While recovering from his injuries, Justin’s mom provided the needed statement to accompany this dose of reality. “God saved your life, Justin! You should be dead right now. I have been praying for you all along, and I believe that God has spared you for a purpose. It’s time you get right with God.”
It’s not that Justin didn’t know the truth about Jesus. He had been to church. He attended the youth ministry at Allison Park Church off and on. He believed there is a God. He understood who Jesus is and that He died on the cross for us. He had no issue with the concept of God or His purpose for us. He just didn’t feel the need to surrender his life to Jesus. “Maybe later when I’m older and I’ve had my fun, then I’ll surrender my life to God.”
But after that near death experience, Justin was ready to get his life right with God. The very next day he gave his life to Jesus Christ. He started to attend Allison Park Church on a regular basis, but knew that he needed to do more, so he got involved in the youth ministry. This gave him an opportunity to be mentored by Cullen Allen, who was serving as the youth pastor at the time.
Cullen told Justin about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He sat down with him and explained what Jesus had explained to His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Cullen explained that the Holy Spirit came to give us power for life, “It’s not that we get the Holy Spirit at the moment we are baptized in the Holy Spirit; we get the Holy Spirit when we get saved. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit gets us!”
So Cullen prayed for Justin to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God came upon Justin in a powerful way. Not only could he sense the presence of God, but Justin began to pray out in tongues. It was like an explosion of praise came out of his lips as he threw his head back and was swept away in the flow of God’s power.
I saw Justin just a few days after this experience. “Pastor Jeff,” he said excitedly, “you won’t believe what has happened to me! On Tuesday, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and since then, I have already led two people to Christ. Today, I was just hanging out at Borders Bookstore, getting a cup of coffee, and all of the sudden I felt this urging on the inside that I needed to go over and tell this guy sitting at the table next to me about Jesus. So I told him my story, about how God saved my life in the car crash, and I told him how I surrendered my life to Jesus. He said that was what he needed to do as well. So I prayed for him right there in Borders!”
Can you see this change?
One moment, Justin was partying, drinking, and running from God. Then God intervened and protected him from death in a horrific collision. So Justin surrendered his life to Jesus, which was what he needed to do to become right with God. He started living for God. He wanted God to use him. Then after he was baptized in the Holy Spirit, Justin stepped into a dimension of purpose that energized his every moment. He knew he was alive for a purpose, and his purpose was to lead people to be saved through Jesus Christ, in the same way that Jesus had saved him.
Today, Justin Maslanka serves as the pastor of the CityReach Church in Cleveland, Ohio. His church has a Men’s Hope Home and is being used powerfully to help addicts and alcoholics get free from life-controlling substances and find hope in a relationship with Christ. Justin is a powerful preacher and is being used all over northern Ohio to lead people to Christ. He would tell you that this capacity to win people to Christ started with the experience the Bible calls the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Let’s examine what Jesus promised:
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Remember that Jesus had given His disciples the Great Commission to go into all the world and make disciples of everyone everywhere and teach them to obey the way that Jesus had taught them to live. This was the purpose given to the disciples at that moment, and it is still His purpose for every one of His followers today. So He instructed His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the gift that His Father promised (Acts 1:4).
THE GIFT THAT BRINGS POWER
Jesus said that the gift He was giving, being baptized in the Holy Spirit, would bring power. The word in the Greek that Jesus used is the word dunamis, which is a root word from which we get the word “dynamite.” It implies an explosive release of power that proves the testimony of those witnessing to the resurrection.
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses.” (Acts 1:8, emphasis added)
These disciples had seen and heard something that had the capacity to change the world!
Sometimes we forget the context of these statements. What were the disciples to be witnesses about? What had they seen and heard? If someone put them on the stand in a court room, what would they testify that they had experienced? These disciples had seen and heard something that had the capacity to change the world!
They had been witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus!
Yes, they had walked with Him during three years of ministry on earth. Yes, they had watched Him put on trial, be falsely accused, beaten, and crucified. But what was extremely remarkable was the fact that they had seen Jesus alive after He was in the grave for three days! “After his suffering, he [Jesus] presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive” (Acts 1:3).
Jesus is alive! He wants to prove it to the world! He is looking for people who will represent Him on earth and work with Him to prove it to those who need someone to testify to them about His resurrection and His ongoing activity on earth today. So the Holy Spirit was imparted to the disciples to give them power to prove the resurrection.
Simon Peter provided proof of the resurrection in Acts 3. He released physical healing to a crippled beggar at the Temple and the man began walking and jumping and declaring the healing power of a risen Jesus.
“Fellow Israelites,” Peter said, “why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed… . You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witnesses of this” (Acts 3:12–15).
The baptism in the Holy Spirit allowed Peter to step into the power of God in such a way as to see miracles released in the world. The baptism in the Holy Spirit was the gateway to the supernatural in Peter’s life, and it can be the gateway to the supernatural release of God’s power in your life.
In 2006, I had the opportunity to be part of a huge outreach (we call them festivals) in Harar, Ethiopia. Harar is one of the holiest cities in all Islam: it’s population is 98 percent Muslim. We went to declare to the people of Harar that Jesus is the Son of God. We went to share the love of God with these Muslims and to offer them proof that Jesus is risen from the dead.
But you can’t really prove the resurrection with just words.
There was a man in the city of Harar who was born both deaf and mute. He was forty-two years old. He was well known in the city because he pumped gas at one of the local gas stations in a prominent place in the city. This man attended the second night of the outdoor Festival. One of our team prayed over him in the name of Jesus and as he was prayed for, Jesus demonstrated Himself to that city. The man’s ears opened up and he could hear. We brought him up onto the stage, and asked him to prove his healing by repeating what he heard. Into the microphone, this man did his best to repeat the syllables that he was now hearing for the very first time.
As you can imagine, this was an incredibly impressive moment. The crowd began to whisper to one another in disbelief, and then they began to laugh, and shout, and dance. Muslims were dancing in the streets at the healing of a deaf man who was cured by being prayed over in the name of Jesus! The next night, 17,000 Muslims stood in the field to hear the message of the risen Jesus. Thousands of them prayed to give their lives to Christ.
THE GIFT THAT BRINGS PASSION
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Act 1:8).
As soon as Justin Maslanka received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, he had a burden and desire to tell people about Jesus. He carried a burning sensation in his chest. The Holy Spirit was activated within him, and he saw people through the passion of a loving God who wants everyone to be rescued. No one had to tell Justin to share his story with people. The Holy Spirit prompted Justin everywhere he went. No one had to build a program for Justin to share his story; Justin felt compelled to do that everywhere he went.
After I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I also had an undeniable passion to see my friends come to know Jesus. I was a sophomore in a public high school and had many good friends who didn’t have a relationship with Jesus. Every day on my way to school, I felt a burning inside of me compelling me to do something to reach my friends at school. So a few of us students got together and started a prayer meeting before the homeroom bell rang to start the day. Slowly, that early morning prayer meeting grew until there were eighty students standing in a circle and praying together in the name of Jesus.
When you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, you’ll become part of God’s strategic plan to reach the world with the hope of Jesus Christ.
When you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, you’ll become part of God’s strategic plan to reach the world with the hope of Jesus Christ. The words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 are strategic. They were to start in Jerusalem, the place where they all lived. It was their hometown, their culture, their comfort zone. But they weren’t to stop there. Jesus instructed them to go beyond their comfort zone into all of Judea and Samaria, different locations with different racial groups and cultures. He wanted them to love beyond their comfort zone and to reach past themselves into places they would never have chosen to go on their own.
As we know, many of these disciples didn’t stop with Samaria. They traveled to Europe, India, Africa, China, and beyond. They were driven by a sense of passion for something beyond themselves. No longer were they simply surviving or living boring, passionless lives. They were set on fire to do something with their lives that would last for all eternity.
THE GIFT THAT BRINGS PRODUCTIVITY
The 120 people who gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was first poured out went on to change the world! Think about it, 120 people. Jesus had ministered for three years and had done countless miracles. He had appeared in resurrected form to over 500 people. But only 120 were present in the upper room. Have you ever wondered where all the others were? Three hundred and eighty people saw Jesus after the resurrection, physically alive, and they weren’t present to wait for the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Where were the 5,000 who were fed the loaves and the fishes? Where were the multitudes who had cheered Jesus on Palm Sunday? Where were all those who had been healed or touched in some way? There were only 120 people in the upper room, but after being baptized in the Holy Spirit, those 120 were so empowered they started a revolution that has changed the history of the world.
Today there are two billion people who call themselves Christians. Millions upon millions have been impacted by the gospel over the centuries. Thousands upon thousands became a part of the church in the early stages of its history—all because 120 people were filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered as witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We have to admit that it’s possible to live out your life as a Christian and yet live an unproductive spiritual life. Some believers live for years and years and …
•Never personally lead anyone to faith in Christ.
•Never see anything supernatural happen in answer to their prayers.
•Never experience freedom from lingering habits and addictive patterns.
•Never sense the explosive release of the Holy Spirit’s passion for the broken.
•Never feel the rush of the peace, joy, and strength that comes from His presence.
Gods’ purpose for you involves so much more. He wants you to be part of a revolution to take over the world, not politically or economically but spiritually. He wants to rescue those trapped by sin and selfishness. He wants to protect people like Justin from certain death. He wants to heal and restore and reconnect people to a God who loves them. He wants to offer the world proof that He is alive through you.
Waiting for you is the adventure of following a living Jesus in what He is doing on planet earth today. This is the opportunity to be infused with, overwhelmed by, and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Waiting for you is the chance to see lives changed and miracles released into the world. Would you like to say that you …
•Personally led hundreds of people to faith in Christ?
•Prayed and saw the power of God released to heal someone who was sick?
•Experienced freedom from habits and addictions that held you in the past?
•Have known the explosive release of the Holy Spirit’s joy and power in your life as you have worshipped Him?
Are you hungry for something more? Are you ready to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER NINE
1.What place on earth do you feel closest to God and the most in awe of His creation? What is the feeling you have when you are there?
2.Have you ever experienced a significant answer to prayer in your life that you would consider a miracle?
3.When God demonstrates His power in the world, what does that prove to people?
4.The Holy Spirit births in us passion for needs or people we previously may have cared little about. What burden has God birthed in your heart through the work of the Holy Spirit?
5.In what way could you let the Holy Spirit use you in this upcoming week?