1 Sam 10:6, Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man. 
We are looking at the reality of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Many, many times, it is witnessed unto by the gift of speaking in tongues. This is something which has even brought forth new dominations of Christian churches. It is something considered wonderful by those unto whom this gift is manifested. At the same time, there are those who view it as foolishness and an embarrassment in the manner in which it has been promoted and demeaned and abused. 
As with any spiritual reality, when man gets his hand on it, when humanity tries to manipulate and to use any of God’s gifts as tools to bring forth some distinction and some elevation of one over another, it becomes something other than what God intended it to be. Mankind is so adept at corrupting and demeaning and violating the wonderful and the perfect and the splendid course of the expression of the Love of God to His creation. 
There have been such displays of dishonor and embarrassment as churches have gone to extremes, becoming objects of ridicule and defamation. There have been those who make a mockery of the sanctity and the awesomeness of God’s gift, often offering the antics of the congregation as entertainment to the masses. This is rather than being a testimony of the reverence with which all the ways of the Lord are to be honored and cherished.
I remember one time when my dad was counseling with a most devout woman about the reality and the necessity of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. She was extremely concerned with respect to the dignity and the honor that is to be afforded to all the aspects of the Lord. She was afraid of making a spectacle of herself before others. She was concerned that she would no longer consider the things of the Lord with the same reverence in her demeanor after the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, if she were to then be babbling with her mouth and swinging from the chandeliers as were some of the congregations in her vicinity. They were participating in a mockery which was being espoused at that time. My dad assured her that the reverence she so desired would only become more so with the power of God through His Spirit. God was not part of the spectacle that was being performed. 
Accordingly, she prayed that the Lord would deal with her kindly in her desire after all that would please Him in her life. She did receive the gift of the Holy Spirit evidenced in speaking with other tongues, and realized that her soft voice after the Lord was just as soft as ever before. However the power of her praise and the force of her prayerful honoring of the Lord was magnified within those soft, even whispers of the indiscernible vocalizations of the Holy Spirit emanating from her heart.  
God will never force anyone to do anything. He desires those people who long for Him and all that He provides with all their hearts and with all their minds and with all their beings. He never forces the point. He always guides and directs and causes us to realize just how much we need and cherish Him. When we seek Him, when we call out to Him, when we expend every effort to come to know Him in all His fullness, He meets that need! He makes Himself known in all His Majesty and Omnipotence and Omnipresence! He will not cause us to demean or devalue or ridicule this relationship which is the very plan and purpose of His Eternal Heart unto us. 
As we cherish and offer Him our reverent and fervent veneration, He will meet our desires and He will provide the every expression of His heart of love unto us. He will not make us objects of ridicule and entertainment to the masses. He will develop in us the same respect and long-suffering and reverent consideration that honors and cherishes Him. His Holiness and His glory and His Righteousness and His Love for us will not make us ill at ease with our Christianity. Ours will be that increasing depth of relationship as His Family. We will know the enveloping love and grace and mercy and protection and provision as those who are the apple of His eye. 
This is proclaimed to us by the Psalmist as in Ps 17:6-9. Please turn to that wonderful encouragement that God only desires the very best for those who belong to Him, upon those whom He lavishes His everything!
Ps 17:6-9, I have called upon Thee, for Thou wilt answer me, O God; Incline Thine ear to me, hear my speech. Wondrously show Thy lovingkindness, O Savior of those who take refuge at Thy right hand From those who rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Thy wings, From the wicked who despoil me, My deadly enemies, who surround me. 
This is not the course of embarrassment and ill conceived manipulations of the hearts and the minds of those who belong to Him. He holds us close to His heart as His children. He comforts and protects and empowers us in order that we will always and forever know the certainty that we belong to Him and that He will never forsake us! 
That is one of the great blessings that is ours once we are baptized by the Holy Spirit. Never again will we be without that conscious and sure and eternal knowledge and seal of our salvation. The Holy Spirit manifests, within the essence of our hearts and minds, the truth that we are always Children of the Most High and Holy Lord God Almighty! He continually evidences that confident encouragement, even in the darkest hours of our time on this earth. 
The next facet that will be put before us is the fact of how this Baptism in the Holy Spirit is working within the man who stands before you this day. My heart’s desire after the Baptism of the Holy Spirit was honored by the Lord when, as a young boy, I was at a Monday Night prayer session at the church we were then attending. It was a time that was set aside for all those who wanted to be so baptized by the Holy Spirit where we could meet together and call out to Him. The pastor and the deacons of the church would lay hands upon those so desirous. This was much like when Peter and John were sent to Samaria to lay hands on the new converts that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. 
After a number of those Monday night prayer meetings, the Lord made His grace to abound to me in that Baptism with the speaking of tongues. It was an amazing experience of something absolutely new and wonderful becoming the power of my life. 
And, much like water baptism, the reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit has been tested in my life. Many times I have failed in the witness that I desire to be. I have those intense and deadly struggles with my selfishness and my pride and my temper and my haughtiness. Even now, there are some in this room from whom I beg forgiveness for my failure as both pastor and as a brother in Christ.
Through it all, however, there is that renewed rest and complete assurance that God is with me and in me through the Omnipresence that fills my soul. He makes known His displeasure when I o those things which cause the Spirit to deeply grieve within my being. There is that absolute sense of horror at the manner of my behavior and I am brought to my knees over and over again to that point at which I need to completely surrender. It is the Holy Spirit’s active ministry to impact and to change my thoughts and my desires. 
As well, there is that refreshing in Him Who directs my voice to speak those praises of God which emanate, not from my mind, but from the very depths of my being. I find that I cannot stop the rising worship of the Most Holy and Awesome and Wonderful Lord God Almighty - Father, Son and Holy Spirit! 
From that time forward, I have known the increasing joy of being able to call forth unto God with the depth of essence in the a language of both praise and supplication. I find myself worshipping God in other tongues when I am by myself, with my wife, and with this fellowship. It does not have to be loud and boisterous to be the effective depth of worship that only the Holy Spirit can vocalize. 
In another vein, when I am in the pits of despair over situations and circumstances, especially for others, I find myself giving voice through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, calling out to Him with every essence of my being on behalf of those who are in such need of the grace and the comfort and the power and the mercy and the love of God. I cannot but speak forth unto Him through that gift of the Holy Spirit! He is all wisdom and His is the manifested work of being the One Who gives every request of our essence the means of expression before the throne of Our Heavenly Father. 
Additionally, when I am in crisis, when I am in danger, when I am in misery and pain and illness and distress, those vocalized entreaties call out to The Lord after the divine promises of God to keep and protect and strengthen and minister to every need. It is in these times that I find that all goes forth in the Spirit’s voice through those words which only God knows and He hears and to which He gives His every response. As I learn to obey His guidance, that power of God covers and controls more and more the avenues of my imperfect walk on this earth. 
This puts before us another of the aspects of the Holy Spirit in operation in the lives of His people. He guides the steps of those in whom He is so very active. There are divine reasons that He works to show His people the ways in which even their footsteps are ordered. He guides us to minister to those who are in dire need. This may be through any element He so deems necessary. I know that in my heart it is through the lack of peace with Him until I obey no matter what the cost and no matter what the means!
This was evidenced with Ananias, as recorded in Acts 9:10-22, in the account of the Lord telling him to go to visit Saul of Tarsus. According to the human understanding of Ananias, this would be a death wish. This Saul was known for the destructive persecution of the Christians. He had come to that city with the same purpose of destroying the church in Damascus. Ananias was placing his very life in jeopardy, and yet the Holy Spirit made it very evident in his heart and mind, through the ongoing internal dialogue, what Ananias needed to do and when and why. This is the presence of the Holy Spirit operating so vibrantly within the being of a Christian who knows and honors and obeys. The result is always the manifested glory of God as the very life of Saul was changed through the prayer of Ananias for Saul to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 9:10-22, Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." And he said, "Behold, here am I, Lord." And the Lord said to him, "Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight. " But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Thy name." But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake. " And Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he arose and was baptized; and he took food and was strengthened. Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God." And all those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, "Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?" But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ. 
	Consider the difference as the Baptism in the Holy Spirit was received by this new believer. This Saul, the determined destroyer of the very name of Jesus of Nazareth and all those who believed upon Him met Jesus face to face. He was taught about Jesus and the truth of Who He is and all that He desires in a living relationship with those whom He has chosen unto Himself, whom the Father has given Him. 
All of this utterly crushed the core essence of this dedicated follower of the Jewish rituals and rites. He needed something to literally remove those blinders over his eyes, both the scales of his physical blindness and the scales of those customs and human practices and rituals which were entangling his mind and his heart.
	The Holy Spirit directed Ananias to go to Saul and to pray with him and to lay hands upon him so that he would receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This whole reality of Christ alive, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so transformed this called Apostle of Christ that he would become one of the greatest proponents and advocates and teachers within the whole of Christianity. God used that man to bring to the forefront the many truths upon which we live our lives. It was the Holy Spirit within him, prompting him to write those beloved encouragements in the reality and the manifested operation of the Love of God which we so cherish. 
	That required much suffering on Paul’s behalf, as we know. There were countless atrocities that this man would endure in the horrible events and treatment by this age. This was all because he was such an empowered testimony of the Lordship and the Sovereignty of Jesus Christ! That is what this world hates and despises and seeks to abolish, just as was the course that Saul, in his self-righteousness, took to Damascus. 
	We need to know the power of God in our lives, manifested through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. We will continue this vital necessity of our Christianity next time, Lord willing. Please hold this in our hearts and in our minds and in our prayers for the Lord to have the expressed freedom and joy of doing all in us that will bring forth the reality of this relationship that He has opened for us through His great gift of the Holy Spirit. So be it and Amen!

	
This morning’s benediction is 1 Kings 8:35+36. "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against Thee, and they pray toward this place and confess Thy name and turn from their sin when Thou dost afflict them, then hear Thou in heaven and forgive the sin of Thy servants and of Thy people Israel, indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Thy land, which Thou hast given Thy people for an inheritance. Amen.