HomeARC ML 1733
THE HOLY SPIRIT & BOB VALENTI!--Sequel to 1967! DO 1733 1/84
1. I'M TELLING YOU, THOSE PENTECOSTAL "TARRY" MEETINGS WHERE THEY PRAY FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, I'd get into one of those things down there at the altar on my prayer bones, & my knees hurt like mad & my athlete's foot itching like the Devil & hungry as I could be, & I'd think to myself, "How the Hell can anybody ever expect to get the Holy Spirit in this condition?" I mean, I was so uncomfortable & so mindful of my physical body I couldn't think of anything else! And yet they believe in these long "tarrying" sessions--what they call "tarrying for the Spirit"--just because the Lord told the disciples to "go to Jerusalem & tarry ye there till ye be endued with power from on high." (Lk. 24:49) So they think they've always got to tarry at least ten days like the first disciples did. (Acts 1)
2. WELL, THE ONLY REASON THE DISCIPLES HAD TO TARRY WAS BECAUSE THE HOLY SPIRIT HADN'T BEEN GIVEN YET!--BUT THE MINUTE THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS GIVEN THEY ALL RECEIVED IT--AND HAVE EVER SINCE! You don't have to tarry for the Holy Spirit. Maybe some of you Pentecostals can remember some of those meetings.--All night long! Sometimes they'd tarry for a week, fasting & praying, waiting for the Holy Spirit as though She was reluctant to give Herself, when actually She was waiting on them! That was the only tarrying, waiting on them to get in a frame of mind & a receptive spirit. She even wanted to come in, but couldn't because some of their motives were entirely misconstrued.
3. MOST OF THE PENTECOSTALS I EVER SAW, ALL THEY WANTED WAS TONGUES, BECAUSE TO THEM, THAT WAS THE PROOF YOU HAD THE HOLY SPIRIT. As long as they could rattle off in tongues, that's all they cared about. They didn't care about power for witnessing, they didn't witness; they didn't care about any of the other eight gifts, nothing, as long as they could speak in tongues. That proved they had the Holy Spirit & satisfied their spiritual pride, made them able to brag to their other cohorts that they were also now filled with the Spirit, & to lord it over the poor dumb idiots who hadn't yet been filled with the Spirit & couldn't yet speak in tongues. It was all a pride trip with a lot of them. Isn't that right?--Those of you who mingled with some of those circles, right?
4. HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE HAD ANY EXPERIENCE WITH PENTECOST AT ALL--PENTECOSTALS, PENTECOSTAL CHURCHES OR PENTECOSTAL MEETINGS? Come on!--All of you! You've been here in our Family for years! They would brand us as Pentecostals except for one fact: The Pentecostals would have received us with open arms in the early days, the very early days of our Soul Clinic School & all the rest, except that Fred took the same position as I did & as the Alliance did, that not everybody receives the gift of tongues when they're filled with the Spirit, & you didn't have to have the gift of tongues to prove that you were filled with the Spirit! I can just about prove it from the Scripture & one of these days I'll give you my lesson on that, that quite obviously not everybody receives the gift of tongues. There are eight other gifts, why should you always have to receive the gift of tongues?
5. IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT FAMILY DOCTRINE BY THIS TIME, you know that we do not believe--as the Pentecostals state so emphatically & which is in their doctrinal laws--that the gift of tongues is the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit! They call it "The Evidence"! It's in the Assembly of God doctrinal book, their Articles of War or whatever they call them!--That tongues is the evidence! In other words, if you haven't got tongues, you don't have the Holy Spirit, so they say.
6. I'VE KNOWN LOTS OF PEOPLE TO RECEIVE THE BAPTISM WITHOUT NECESSARILY SPEAKING IN TONGUES--although I'm inclined to believe along with the Pentecostals that eventually, most people who have the Holy Spirit are apt to speak in tongues too, because it's a wonderful way of praying. It's one of the commonest gifts, actually the least useful as far as witnessing or being a leader or anything else. It's mostly just for your own benefit & your own edification in the Spirit to be able to pray in tongues.
7. NOT EVERYBODY WHO SPEAKS IN TONGUES GETS MESSAGES--SOME PEOPLE ONLY PRAY & PRAISE IN TONGUES. I would say most people who have the gift of tongues merely pray or praise the Lord in tongues, which is wonderfully edifying for your spirit.--Thrilling, exciting, a miracle, the most obvious of all the gifts of the Spirit & the commonest, but the least useful for anybody but yourself! They were also supposed to be a sign to the unbeliever, but on the other hand, sometimes they're worse than no sign at all. Because as Paul says, the stranger comes in & thinks you're a barbarian & they can't understand what you're saying if you don't interpret. (1Cor.14:11,22,23)
8. SOME PEOPLE HAVE THE GIFT OF TONGUES IN MESSAGES, WHICH IS A LITTLE MORE RARE, THEY GET MESSAGES IN TONGUES. That's what we discovered that Maria was getting in the early days when she & I would be praying. I didn't even have the gift of tongues, & the Pentecostals would have all said I didn't even have the Holy Spirit! Of course now they say something different, that I do have the spirit, an evil spirit! Well, they can call Abrahim that if they want to, but he's a pretty good guy, thank the Lord! He's my guardian angel the Lord sent me & there wouldn't be a Family & there wouldn't be anything if it hadn't been for him, & first of all her--Maria!
9. I'LL NEVER FORGET THAT FIRST TIME MARIA & I WERE LYING IN THE SAME BED TOGETHER--Mama Eve was gone of course--& we were alone & really getting in the spirit together, & I mean in the spirit, praying & talking about things & problems, & she started praying in tongues.--And all of a sudden I began to get the message!
10. NOW BEFORE, WHEN MY MOTHER SPOKE IN TONGUES, THERE WERE A FEW TIMES I HAD A KIND OF AN INKLING OF THE MEANING because I would sort of get the gist of what she was saying. I guess the Lord was trying to get through to me & give me the gift of interpretation, because I did get it later. I had it on several occasions, both with my Mother & others, long before I ever had the gift of tongues.
11. I CAN REMEMBER A PRAYER MEETING WITH THAT GUY (BOB VALENTI) THAT WENT TO NASSAU WITH US. He had come to Huntington Beach, started up his own little work & didn't want to have anything to do with us anymore, he was now strictly Pentecostal. But I went to his prayer meeting & everybody was chattering away in tongues & nobody interpreting. Finally he got a real anointing, he was filled with the Spirit & really anointed, & as their leader & shepherd they needed to know what he was saying! They were having this wonderful praise & prayer meeting in tongues--& I was the only one that wasn't praying in tongues because I didn't have the gift! In those days sometimes I wasn't even too sure I had the Holy Spirit because the Pentecostals said I didn't. But I knew I did, thank the Lord, by faith.
12. I HAD TO TRUST THE LORD ALL THOSE YEARS WITH NO OBVIOUS SIGN, NO OBVIOUS GIFTS, NO PHYSICAL GIFT WHATSOEVER. I went about 30 years with nothing but the gift of faith, the gift of knowledge, the gift of wisdom & the gift of discernment. You say, "Nothing but?!" Well, that's all a leader really needs! But I learned eventually that I had those gifts, gradually as they manifested themselves, but they don't manifest themselves visibly, audibly, hardly even discernably! You just have it & you know.
13. HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE SEEN WISDOM? HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE HEARD DISCERNMENT? HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE FELT KNOWLEDGE? See? They're not the kind of gifts that you can usually detect by your five senses. But tongues was such a supernatural, miraculous, obvious, audible gift, even almost visible because you could watch their mouth going, talking a language that they never learned & never studied!--Marvellous!--Sometimes which other people could understand, as they did on the day of Pentecost. I remember hearing how a Jewish Rabbi got saved in a church in Sacramento, California hearing this old lady praying in beautiful, perfect Hebrew, an ignorant old lady he knew had never studied Hebrew! But he was hungry, he heard about these Pentecostals & he went & he just wanted to hear.
14. LET ME TELL YOU, RABBIS KNOW SO MANY LANGUAGES! They know medicine, they know law, they're the most educated religious leaders on the face of the Earth! There's no Catholic or Protestant clergyman who ever receives as much training as a Rabbi! They get doctorates in law, in medicine, in philosophy, in religion--nearly every Rabbi has a whole string of degrees. They're the smartest men you'd ever bump into, & yet they hate Christ!--Smart as the Devil, & like the Devil too often! But this one was hungry & he came & heard.
15. WELL, I DIDN'T MEAN TO GIVE YOU A LECTURE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT, I don't even know how I even got onto it, but anyway, that's how it happened. I didn't even have the gift of tongues. What was that guy's name?--(Bob Valenti!) It's in one of the Old Goldies. (See Old Goldie #39, Pgs.88-89 of "Dad's Own Story of the Revolution for Jesus!") He went to Nassau with Grandmother & us, & then he split up afterward & left that sweet girl with those damn church people! And he finally turned up out in Huntington Beach where we were, of all things, & started working in competition to us.
16. WELL I LIKED THE GUY, I ALWAYS DID, & FELT LIKE HE WAS A FRIEND. He'd come & visit once or twice & try to act a little friendly & say, "Well, we're all in the same work, the Lord's work." I figured, "Well, if we're all so much in the same work, why don't you come over & work with us?"--But he wouldn't, so I went to his meeting. And here it was strictly Pentecostal, everybody praying & praising in tongues & nobody interpreting. Then he got this tremendous, powerful message, I can't even remember what it was all about now, but...Hallelujah! TYL! Amen! PYL! TYJ! Amen! How about that? The Lord brought that back to me & I haven't remembered that all this time! TYJ!
17. HE GAVE A POWERFUL MESSAGE & IT WAS LIKE THAT SCRIPTURE ABOUT, "YE SPEAK OF MOSES & THIS ONE & THAT ONE OF OLD, & YET THERE IS ONE HERE AMONGST YOU GREATER THAN MOSES!"--And they were stunned! I mean, I didn't realise even then that the Lord was talking about me, because I had no such ideas. I thought the Lord was talking about Himself, really, trying to make them honour His presence, or the Holy Spirit, & that they should be more conscious of these realities, that He was in their midst, because they were all chattering & praising & praying & everything & sort of ignoring the Lord, that's what I thought it meant.
18. NOW I REALISE THAT THE LORD WAS SAYING THAT "THERE IS A PROPHET AMONGST YOU HERE!"--AND HERE I CAME THUNDERING OUT WITH THIS INTERPRETATION. I think that's the first time I ever really interpreted publicly, & they were just stunned! You know me, when the Spirit is on me it's pretty forceful, & they were just hushed like that, a hush fell over'm. The Spirit spoke with authority & it was a wonderful message! Isn't that funny? All these years I've wondered what I said & I couldn't remember, but when I just started to tell you, I remembered, because the Lord wanted you to know! PTL!
19. SO THERE WAS A STUNNED SILENCE, & BECAUSE HE KNEW I DIDN'T HAVE THE GIFT OF TONGUES, THEREFORE ACCORDING TO HIM I DIDN'T HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT AT ALL, HE FIGURED I WAS A FALSE PROPHET & that was a false interpretation & he began to get up & preach & rant & rave about false prophets & hypocrites who pretend to have this & that & the other when they don't have anything, & I knew he was talking right straight to me. But I just sat there & agreed with him & praised the Lord. After all, he was preaching Scripture, how could I deny it?--Except I knew he meant me!
20. HERE THE LORD WAS TRYING TO TELL HIM SOMETHING SO WONDERFUL, BUT HE GOT UP & OUTRIGHT DEFIED THE PROPHET & CALLED HIM A FALSE PROPHET! Well, I didn't even know I was a prophet then. But he came to nought & went down the drain & the last I heard of him he was back on black magic & dope! (Fam: He died of drugs, didn't he?) Yes, something like that, something terrible happened to him, poor guy! What was his name? All I can think of is a "V". Isn't that funny? I'll forget a name but I'll remember the first letter of either the first or last name. Sometimes it turns out to be a letter in the name.--Valenti! How about that! I haven't thought of his name since I saw that old article & put it in one of the Books. What was his first name? (Family: Bob.) Listen to these gals, they've got better memories then I've got! Well, it must have been the Lord because I haven't remembered his name for years, although I did put it in one of those Old Goldies as one of our early prayer letters. It had his picture & hers together. (Old Goldie #39)
21. THEY WOULD HAVE MADE THE MOST MARVELLOUS TEAM! IN THOSE EARLY DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY, THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN TREMENDOUS! They had such terrific testimonies, both of them converted from drugs & the dregs of society, the depths of crime & vice in New York City! After he got marvellously converted & was out preaching in the park, she got saved & he got her off of drugs & all these other things, a marvellous healing, wonderful testimonies. They were a sensation everywhere we took'm! We took them to the Bahamas & they were a sensation in the biggest Pentecostal Church in the Bahamas, the huge Assembly of God there! They were our biggest attraction at that time, these two New York ex-drug addicts, & they made the newspaper headlines! That's what the article was.
22. WE KIND OF RODE ALONG ON THEIR COAT TAILS, PREACHING, WITNESSING & USING THEM AS AN EXAMPLE: "If this guy hadn't gotten out in the park & preached the Gospel, she never would have gotten saved. And if he hadn't heard some guy preaching the Gospel in the park, he never would have gotten saved!" And we preached witnessing then to the church people, "How about you coming to the park with us today & let's preach the Gospel & get some more folks saved!"--And of course they hardly ever did. Maybe one or two or three would show up, sometimes nobody. But Bob Valenti, how about that! TYL! (Looks up toward Heaven:)
23. BOB, YOU KNOW THAT'S THE TRUTH! TYJ! YOU'RE THERE! HALLELUJAH! PYL! TYJ! HE'S SMILING NOW! PTL! TYL! He's happy now, he knows now. I don't get those very often, but once in awhile I'll see a face that's gone on. Usually they're up in here somewhere, right about this angle like this. That one fellow, that old Russian, he was down like he was sinking through the pavement, sad to say, probably because he wasn't saved, but he did smile. (See No.680.) And when I saw Al Capone, the funny thing was, his head was hanging right over the waste basket! But he was there & I believe he was saved. I believe that's why the Lord was merciful to him & gave him freedom the last years of his life with his family before he died. (See No.1421.) TYL! Thank you, Bob! Thank You Jesus! PTL!
24. WELL, HOW DID I GET INTO ALL THAT, OF ALL THINGS? I'm apt to go wandering off any side path picking daisies! When I'm trying to tell you about something else, I wind up telling you what the Lord wants you to hear! Amen! Do you have the Holy Spirit? Do you have Her beautiful gifts?--God the Father's wonderful gifts for His Children to enjoy!--And tools for your ministry!--You can have'm right now! Just ask Him! "Ask, & it shall be given you; seek, & ye shall find; knock, & it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; & he that seeketh findeth; & to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" (Mt.7:7-11)
25. --AMEN? DO YOU BELIEVE IT?--THEN ASK HIM RIGHT NOW!--Why wait? He's more willing to give than we are to receive! (Jam.4:2b; Jn.16:23-24) GBAKY in the Spirit!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
