First: the tragedy of fundamentalism is that we're fighting over the doctrine of Pentecost. The devil is laughing, while souls are perishing. The heart of Christ is broken; the Spirit is grieved; and the Church is powerless. We don't want to argue with any believers concerning the precious Spirit, for they either know Him or don't know Him (John 14:7, II Cor. 13:14). Many who have the correct terminology have no experience; and many who have the wrong phraseology have the right experience.

Whatever your exposition of this great Natal Day of the Church, one fact is incontestable: Pentecost is always associated with power. The greatest marvel of the Spirit's outpouring is the transformation of the disciples themselves. Those commonplace fishermen and tax gatherers were turned into prophets, teachers and flaming heralds. Their fearlessness and timidity were burnt up in the blaze of the Pentecostal baptism. In vain would we have looked for the Peter of the Judgment Hall on that day! He is become a new man. The Peter at the fire and the Peter baptized with fire have nothing akin. The Pentecostal robe was a mantle of power. They were robed "with power from on high." This was the authentic touch of God upon their lives.

The Acts of the Apostles is the subsequent history of Pentecost. In this book, we find a pageantry of power. You can write this word power over every chapter, every verse, and every incident. The apostles now had power to come out from behind closed doors. They had power to testify, power to suffer and power to die. While in the home of the Rev. Sidney Evans, brother-in-law and co-worker of the late Evan Roberts of revival memory, we listened in awe to the first-hand account of the mighty movement of the Spirit in 1904. This work of grace has been rightly called: Something Wonderful Happened.

Yes, something always happens when the Holy Ghost is given His rightful place in the Church. As my dear friend "La Marechale" (eldest child of General William Booth) has so beautifully stated, "We don't have a book of the resolutions of the apostles, but, because of spiritual power and gospel triumphs, we have the Acts of the Apostles." In this book are the mighty exploits of the primitive apostolic Church. "The people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits." It's a great book, for therein, we find great power and great grace (4:33), great fear (5:11), great wonders and great miracles (6:8), great persecution (8:1), great joy (8:8) and great suffering (9:16).

We're living in a wonderful age, the latter days of the dispensation of the Spirit. Says the seraphic Scotsman, Samuel Rutherford, "If you would be a deep divine, I recommend to you the anointing." Let us stop our caviling and seek earnestly the Spirit's anointing.

The second great sin is the denial of the personality of the Holy Ghost. Even in evangelical circles, education is sometimes placed before the blessed Spirit.

We're not against culture and learning for the saints of God, but when they usurp the place of the Spirit, we cry out in protest. Well we remember visiting a well-known fundamental university to speak at the chapel service. The first question the chairman asked us evangelists was, "Have you any doctor's degrees?" He was greatly disheartened to discover that one of us had not but was soon cheered when told that another of the party held a doctorate. I was astounded! Here was a school emphasizing the mighty work of the Holy Ghost in the Church and yet leaning so heavily on education.

We thank God for all the cultured, learned men in the Church of God, like the Apostle Paul, but the first essential of any Christian worker is the mighty anointing of the Spirit. Those who lean on degrees will "die by degrees," without the power of the Spirit. If any man could have spread the gospel by native ability and human learning, surely it was Paul. Yet, we discover that the fullness of the Spirit was the supreme qualification for his ministry. "He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel; for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias went his way and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him, said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost' " (Acts 9:15-17).

Fletcher of Madeley was for a while principal of Lady Huntingdon's Training College for ministers at Trevecca in Wales. One who sat under his instruction, speaking of his sessions in the classroom, says, "Such seasons generally terminated thus: being convinced that to be filled with the Holy Ghost was a better qualification for the ministry than any classical learning, after speaking for a while in the schoolroom, he used to say, 'As many of you as are athirst for the fullness of the Spirit, follow me into my room.' On this, many of us would instantly follow him, and there continue for two or three hours seeking the face of the Lord."

The third great sin is compromise with the world. There is no difference between Hollywood and modernism. Hollywood is the world's pleasure, while modernism is the world's religion. Both belong to this present evil age (Gal. 1:4). Both are controlled by the "prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). There seems to be a diabolical plot to wed evangelicals to the world system in these last days of a dying dispensation of grace. It's sheer cant for a pastor to cry out for revival, and yet to compromise with the enemies of the cross. It's mere hypocrisy to plead for evangelism while compromising with those who deny the Evangel! A revival which isn't based solely on the fundamentals of the faith is like a blaze of pine shavings which ends in smoke. The apostate system of the Protestant Church will in a coming day pave the way for the anti-Christ.

I will not knowingly have fellowship in the gospel with any man who denies any of the fundamentals of the faith: the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures; man's guilty condition before a holy God; the necessity of regeneration; the miraculous Christ in His virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious atoning sacrifice, physical resurrection; His glorious ascension and coming again and the eternal damnation of the unsaved.

Christ has died in vain if we're not delivered from the pleasures of this world. We've heard of sincere believers seeking the Lord's face for revival in a church where half its members were engaged in worldly amusements far on into the night. We should as soon have thought of hearing that the apostles sang profane songs at the time of Pentecost.

May God raise up a mighty band of "Gospelers" to strike a mighty blow at this spiritual adultery. May God give us grace to stand true with our garments unspotted, with the silver trumpets of redemption pressed to our lips sounding out the glorious gospel.

"They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush; therefore, they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therin, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jer. 6:14-16).

Oh, for an utter abandonment to the Holy Spirit! Oh, for faith to abandon utterly these devices of carnality and to throw the Church without reserve upon the power of the supernatural. The Acts of the Apostles is the fountainhead of all evangelical, revival literature. We're fully persuaded that if pastors, elders, evangelists, Bible teachers and missionaries would go on their knees before God to study this glorious text book, they would be led into the mighty experience of the first principles. Whenever, in any period of the Church's history, a little company has sprung up, then a new Pentecost has dawned.

Let us go forth in the might of the Spirit to the ends of the earth, proclaiming the old-fashioned gospel, sharing in our own experience its crucified message.

This is copyrighted material from James Stewart's book Come O Breath, available from Revival Literature, PO Box 6068, Asheville, NC 28816.