I am Baptized in the Holy Ghost and with Fire!

Samson with the jawbone of an ass

Dreams from the LORD 2003-2006

24 March 2005

John 4: 23-24: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship. God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

The true worshippers. The full Gospel. The Holy Ghost and Scripture. Shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. There is a powerful balance when you have the power of the Holy Ghost and the knowledge of Scripture engrafted into your Spirit man. The Holy Ghost and Scripture is a two-edged sword that Satan hates. Satan can find ways to inflict damage on someone who is only in the Holy Ghost or who is only into Scripture. I think it is interesting to note that the word “spirit” precedes the word “truth”. We can’t get the cart before the horse. We need the Holy Ghost to teach us the Scripture. How can you understand Scripture if you are not born again? Then when you get baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues, the Bible becomes an even more living, breathing document.

When Adam was in the Garden of Eden (before he sinned), he did not have the Law, the Prophets or the New Testament, but he did have the unbroken Presence of God (the Holy Ghost) to guide him and sustain him. The Lord did not have to give him a written book to tell Adam what to do, the Lord spoke to Adam in his spirit: Spirit to spirit: perfect communion.

And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. It doesn’t say you must worship Him in a building. If a building has a pastor in it that is submitted to the Holy Ghost, then the congregation is in good hands. The congregation is in the building not because of the building, but because of the Holy Ghost.

When I meet people on the road, I don’t care if they are Pentecostal, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Baptist or non-churchgoers. I tell them about Jesus, the Word of God and the Holy Ghost. Let’s get the horse before the cart. Without a horse, the cart is dead in its tracks; without the cart, you can still ride the horse. John Wesley rode on horseback all over England: he didn’t need a cart. Wouldn’t it be beautiful if the Lord told some Holy Ghost believer to buy a horse and go on horseback and preach the Gospel in England? Or maybe it would be easier to hitchhike. America owes so much to England and the rest of Great Britain—a lot of powerful saints came out of Scotland and Wales. Get on your horse and ride in the power of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost Riders.

I Kings 18: 46: “And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.” In the back of my Bible I have a map of Israel and the distance between Mt. Carmel and Jezreel is about 25 miles. This old man named Elijah outran the king’s chariots in the power of the Holy Ghost. Some people hitchhike in the Holy Ghost, some people ride horses in the Holy Ghost and some people run in the Holy Ghost.

Sans teeth, sans taste, sans horse, sans everything.

I was working for Pike Construction back in Ames, Iowa and I was doing demolition work: I would use a sledgehammer and break down these brick and mortar walls, shovel it up into a garbage can and haul it out to this dump truck. One morning we got this new guy and he worked with me his first day. He was built like a brick house: he was around 5’ 9”, 235 pounds, had 19-inch biceps (that’s what he told me—maybe he only had 18-inch biceps)—he was a body builder. The second day he came to the job site, he said that he couldn’t keep up with me, so he would do carpenter work. That was okay with me because he had more experience than me in carpenter work. After about a week, this guy said to me, “Tim, how do you do it? You’re swinging that sledgehammer all day long and you don’t let up. Look at me; look at the size of my arms. Now look at you; look at the size of your arms (at the time I was 5’11” and 175 pounds). How do you do it? You never get tired.”

I looked at him and exclaimed, “Because I am baptized in the Holy Ghost and with Fire!”

The guy about had a heart attack. He didn’t know what to think. From that time on he would ask me questions about the Bible and spiritual things. So the moral of the story is: if you swing your sledgehammer in a responsible, Holy Ghost manner, someone eventually may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Elijah . . . ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel in a responsible, Holy Ghost manner.

I came, I saw, I swung my sledgehammer in the power of the Holy Ghost. With the sledge of a hammer, heaps upon heaps, with the sledge of a hammer, have I slain a thousand men. And he cast the sledgehammer out of his hand and called that place Ramath-sledgehammer.

Judges 13: 25: “And the spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.”

One thing about Samson: at least he slew the Philistines in a responsible, Holy Ghost manner.

Samson:  A One-Man Wrecking Crew

Meeting a Former Editor from Warner Brothers

This story is a conversation between a hitchhiker and a former editor from Warner Brothers. The editor did some work on the film High Plains Drifter.

It was probably the spring of 1997. I hitchhiked north on U.S. 395 from southern California and got dropped off in Bishop. Bishop is a very beautiful place.

The mountains to the east were dry and brown, the mountains to the west (Sierra Nevadas) were rugged and snow-covered. There are a lot of irrigated ranches in that valley. I walked through Bishop for a couple of miles and then stopped north of town on U.S. 395. I waited for a short while and this vehicle pulled over to pick me up.

The guy who gave me a ride was probably in his late fifties or early sixties. He told me that he was coming from a ranch that he owned in Mexico; he was heading to Mammoth Lakes where he owned a grocery store. I told him that I was hitchhiking around the country for a short while; I had just quit my job at Harold Pike Construction Company in Ames, Iowa (Pike Construction hired me ten times in four years, I was grateful that they let me work for them so many times).

"So what did you do before you bought your ranch?" I asked.

"I worked for Warner Brothers as an editor," he replied. "I worked at Warner Bothers for a number of years and got tired of being in the studio."

"So what films did you work on?" I asked.

"One film I worked on was High Plains Drifter," he said.

I looked at him and exclaimed, "No way! High Plains Drifter? That is one of my favorite westerns. You are not going to believe this, but in 1995 I had a short story published by Ethos magazine. The title of my short story is 'High Plains Drifter.'"

"Really?"

"Yeah."

At the time, I had a few copies of my short story in a folder in my backpack. I would pass out my story to people if they were interested in reading it.

"When you drop me off, I will give you a copy of my short story," I said.

"Sounds good."

We drove north on U.S. 395. At Lake Crowley he turned off the road and dropped me off at this intersection. I dug out my folder that was in my backpack and gave him a copy of "High Plains Drifter."

"Thanks," he said.

"Thanks for the ride."

He drove off and I started walking up U.S. 395. I walked for a short while. The sun was down and I needed to find a place to sleep. I jumped over this fence and walked out into this sagebrush maybe a quarter of a mile from Lake Crowley. I rolled out my sleeping bag and slept there. I think it got down in the upper 20s F that night.

About my meeting the guy who gave me a ride from Bishop to Lake Crowley: there are no accidents in the Kingdom of Heaven. Things happen for a reason.

The next day I hitchhiked north to Reno.

[The film High Plains Drifter, starring Clint Eastwood, was made at Mono Lake near Lee Vining, California in 1973. Lee Vining is on U.S. 395 between June Lake and Bridgeport.]

[Originally published by Digihitch.com]

High Plains Drifter (short story) 

High Plains Drifter (1973)
Clint Eastwood's film High Plains Drifter (1973)