The Main Source of Megaton Power And How You Can Tap Into It Now

 Chapter One

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The Dark Mystery Finally Removed
From The Baptism in The Holy Ghost: Part One

When the people wondered about the man healed at the gate Beautiful, Peter replied, "...why marvel ye at this?  Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?"

 Two things we must note here.  First, the man was not healed by any power that Peter possessed in and of himself.  Second, we must note that Peter's own holiness had nothing to do with the man's healing either.  What then, was the power and the holiness utilized by Peter to cause this man to be healed.  We answer these two questions in this book.  And when we answer these two things, we are going to find that the same power and holiness that Peter drew upon are the same power and holiness that are at our disposal just like they were for Peter.  In this section we examine God's main source of Megaton Power for both Peter and us.  Later, we look at the holiness that Peter drew from.  We will see in both cases that they are available to us as well as they were to Peter.

 The Baptism in The Holy Ghost is the main source of Megaton Power.  The next few chapters contain the most important things I've ever shared about the Baptism in The Holy Ghost.  As a matter of fact, this is one of the most important things you'll ever read because I'm going to take some mystery out of what is considered to be a mysterious subject, and I'm going to simplify it for you.  A lot of the mystery has to do with the fact that the Greek language, that language in which the New Testament was originally written, just doesn't translate plainly in a lot of areas.  It's not a problem with the translation or the translators, it's just that when you take something from one language to another you're going to lose some of it.

 In this chapter I am going to deal with two things which are very, very important in bringing full understanding to receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  First, I want to bring an understanding of the Greek word "lambano"; and secondly, on the expression "the Greek active voice".  I'm praying this teaching will come alive in you as you study intently this chapter.  Both of these expressions are vital to your understanding of receiving the Holy Ghost.  I'm going to start by showing you the different ways in which this word "lambano" is translated in the Greek New Testament.  It's translated more ways than this but they can all be reduced to these four.  Let's look first at Matthew 21:33-44:

 33 Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:

34 And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.

35 And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.

36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.

37 But last of all he sent unto them hisson, saying, They will reverence my son.

38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.

39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

40 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?

41 They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

 This is the parable of the householder where the son and the servants were sent, and they were run out of the vineyard, and killed.  In verse 39 the Bible says that when the son was sent, "They caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him."  Look at the word "caught" - they caught him.  The word "caught" is the translation of the Greek word "lambano".  So then the Greek word "lambano" means to physically grab hold of something or somebody like you'd catch them.

 The "active voice" means that the subject of the sentence does the acting.  Here the subject of the sentence is "they" - that is the people that God had placed over His vineyard - and they actively did something.  The active voice demonstrates that the subject was the one doing the acting.  They caught him.  He did not catch them.  So the active voice means that the subject did the acting.  In this case they caught the son, cast him out of the vineyard and slew him.  But they caught him; Greek word "lambano" in the "active voice".  Do you see that the word "lambano" in the "active voice" means that those people actually did something?  They actually caught the son and killed him.

 In Matthew 26 Jesus is giving instructions for the Lord's supper.

 26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

 Now look at the expression in verse 26, "Jesus took bread and then he gave it to them and said Take, eat."  And then in verse 27, "Then he took the cup".  "Take" and "took" is the translation for the Greek word "lambano".  It's also in the active voice.  So then, "lambano" means not only to actively catch where the subject of the sentence did something by catching the son and slaying him, but here Jesus is the subject of the sentence and He took the cup, He gave it to them and said, "Now you take it," and thenHe took the bread - Greek word "lambano".  So the word "lambano" means to catch or to take, and in the active voice in each sense it means that the subject of the sentence actually had to do a physical act.  Jesus was the subject, and He acted by taking and giving it to them and said, now you act by taking it, and when that was over He acted again by taking back the cup.  So we find that the Greek word "lambano" means to take and to catch.  And we find in the "active voice" that it's the subject of the sentence that is actually doing something.

 So here we find in the first two instances that there was a deliberate act of the will that went in to a physical activity.  Before Jesus took the bread and the cup, there had to be an act of His will to do so, and then He followed with a physical activity.  Before they caught the son there was a deliberate act of the will before that physical activity.

 Look at Galatians 2.  We are going to see the same word again, still in the active voice.

1 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.

2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.

3 But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:

4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:

5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

6 But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:

7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;

8 (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)

9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

 Here Paul is talking to the church at Galatia about a bunch of stuffed shirts, a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals who were presenting themselves to know more than Paul about the things of Christ, and Paul is sort of writing to ruffle their feathers a little bit and put them back in their place.  He said in verse 6, "But of these who seem to be somewhat...", whatever they were - in other words, they went around seeming to be more than they were - "it maketh no matter to me.  God accepteth no man's person: for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me."

 Look at the word accepteth.  God accepteth no man's person.  Here the word accepteth is the same translation of the Greek word "lambano".  In this phrase God is the subject and it's in the active voice.  So it says, God accepts - or in this case it's in the negative - God does not accept any man's person.  In other words, if you're a big shot or the littlest guy in the church, it doesn't matter.  God won't accept you because you're a big shot.

 God does not "lambano" anybody's person based on whether or not they're a big shot.  In other words, "accept" means to accept with your mind, with your heart, with your spirit.  It's the same in the mental realm that taking is in the physical.  "Accept" is the Greek word "lambano".  I take something, I catch something, I accept something.  It all means the same thing.  That's the third case of the word "lambano".

 I want you to notice something in all three cases.  It's in the active voice, which means that the subject acted.  Jesus acted by taking the cup and the bread.  Those people in the vineyard acted by taking the son and killing him.  In the last verse God acted by accepting negatively no man's person.

 But they did something.  The subject always did something.  Active means the subject in the sentence did something.  Now let me show you something else in Matthew 13.

 Matthew 13:18-23

 18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. 22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

 This is the parable of the sower.  Various kinds of seeds are planted on various kinds of ground.  Now in verse 20 we have the same word translated in a way that is most deceptive.  It says, "He that received the seed in stony ground places, the same is he that heareth the word and immediately with joy receiveth it."  Do you see the words "receiveth if"?  This is a different Greek word from the one translated "received" at the beginning of the verse.  It's the same English word but two different Greek words.

 The one we're interested in is the last one.  It talks about the one that has the seed sown on the stony ground and with joy receives it.  That word is the same Greek word "lambano".  I want you to notice something that is deadly if you don't know what to look for.  The word "receive" is a word that has a built in feeling about it that puts it, not in the active voice, but in the passive.  For it looks as though you get it without doing anything. You're just sitting there and suddenly God will zap you.  I had seed planted in me so I just sit there and take it.  But that is not the case at all.  It's the same Greek word "lambano" in the active voice.

 So what it really means is, that the person who had the seed sown on the stony ground has to actively take the seed that was sown.  That's the full meaning of this scripture.  He actually accepted the seed that was sown.  He actually did something.  He actually received the seed.  He actually caught the seed.  He actually took the seed.  He actually reached out and grabbed hold of the seed.  The same word that's translated receive in the active voice means to literally reach out, grab hold on it, and take it!

 Now you see how that it looks like "receive" is passive, where I just sit there and do nothing and let God zap me with seed?  Do you see how that looks?  That's not at all what it means.  Not when you take it apart from the Greek.  Brother Jay, where are you headed with this?  You've shown us four times, four different ways the same word is translated from the Greek New Testament in the active voice.  One time they had to catch them, one time Jesus had to take them, another time God had to accept them, now here it is that this person has to actually actively receive the seed.

 My point is this.  I've shown you two physical actions and two mental actions.  But they're both actions on the part of the subject.  They're actions.  It's not something we sit there and get dumped on us.  But it's something we actually have to actively do.  Two of them are mental accept and receive.  The other two are catch and take physically.  But it all presupposes an act of your will.

 Now what I want to do is apply this to the Holy Ghost.  Because the same word in the same active sense applies to what you and I as Christians do with the Holy Ghost.  Now, let's get into the heart of this.  I want you to look at John 1:12.  When we get through with this chapter you are going to have the equipment to overcome some bad misunderstandings about the Holy Ghost, the baptism in the Holy Ghost, and receiving the power from that baptism in the Holy Ghost, because I'm going to unravel this, and we're going to distinguish very clearly between the active and the passive voice not only in Greek but in English.  For these two voices, both Greek and English, distinguish the identically same thing.  Now I want you to see some things here.

 John 1:10-12

 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

 Look at the word "received" in verse 12 - to as many as received Jesus.  Now here's the same Greek word "lambano".  And again, it's in the active voice.  When a person receives something in the active voice, they actually do something.  Remember, I showed you two physical actions with this word "lambano", and I showed you two mental or emotional or spiritual actions both of which require volition or an act of your will or a deliberate thing on your part.  If I accept something or if I receive something in the active voice - "lambano" - it means I actually do something.

 If you were standing up here and I was marrying you to the girl you had chosen to be your wife, I would say, "Do you take this woman to be your lawful and wedded wife before God?"  And you would say, "I do, brother." That's the Greek word "lambano" in the active sense.  You are taking somebody, you are receiving somebody, you are accepting somebody, but you are the one that's doing it.  You're not just sitting there getting passively zapped.  You do it!

 Everybody here knows the meaning of John 1:12 - as many as received Him.  The question is, "Have you received Christ as your personal Savior." Everybody that names the name of Jesus knows the meaning of the Greek word "lambano" in the active voice when I put it in that context.  "Yes, I have accepted or received Christ as my personal Savior; therefore, I have been born again."  We understand "lambano" in the active voice because that’s the word used in John 1:12.  If I say, "Have you received Jesus as your personal Savior?", I mean have you actually done something?  And that something that you are to actually have done is to have "lambanoed" Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.  It's an action on your part!  It looks passive, the word "receive" looks passive, but it's not in these verses that I'm showing you.  This word is very definitely an action on your part.

 Having said that, now look at Acts 19:2.  I've shown you these things before, but now we're taking it and nailing it down from the Greek text.  We are seeing the difference between the active voice and the passive voice, and I'm showing you here that this business of "receive", in these passages at least, is not passive, it's active.  Which means that it's something you do.  Now in Acts 19 the Apostle Paul goes to Ephesus, and he finds some disciples there.

 Acts 19:1-7

 1 And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

3 And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism.

4 Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

7 And all the men were about twelve.

 In verse 2, he asks this question, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" The very fact that he asks that question logically DEMANDS the phenomenon of a person being able to believe in Jesus Christ and still not receive the Holy Ghost.  Now this word "received" in verse 2 is "lambano"; the same word as in John 1:12 - As many as "received" Jesus as their personal Savior, to that bunch God gave the power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his Name - same word "lambano", same voice - active.  Here Paul is saying, "Have you actually actively reached out there and grabbed hold of the Holy Ghost, have you made Him your own, have you received Him, have you accepted Him, have you caught Him, have you taken Him?"  This is not something we just sit back and passively get zapped with.  This is a great mistake in Christian ranks.

 There are two ways to receive the baptism in the Holy Ghost.  One, somebody can lay hands on you and you can just be passive and the Holy Ghost can zap you.  But there is another way, and I believe this is the predominate way, for it is the way of actively receiving Him.  That way is when you, by faith, understand that the Holy Ghost was given on the day of Pentecost, and He's still here, He's never left.  You must come to the place of understanding that you can receive by faith the third person of the Godhead, His power and His baptism, just exactly the same as you received by faith the second person of the Godhead, Jesus.  Paul was using the Greek word "lambano", and he put it in the active voice.

 Sometimes when we pray for people to receive the Holy Ghost we lay hands on them and pray and they get passive.  Then all of a sudden they feel something hit them like a ton of bricks and they'll start speaking in tongues right then and there - that is the passive way.  That way is valid, it's Bible, it's Scripture, it works.  But with some people, God doesn't operate like that.  He did not operate with me like that.  He dealt with me through faith, and it was not passive at all, but it was something I did.  I actually figured out that receiving the Holy Ghost was a different experience from the indwelling of the Spirit that occurred to me when I got saved.  It's two different things.  When I understood that, I actively took Him.  I actively caught the Holy Ghost.  I actively accepted Him.  I actively received Him.  I actively did something.

 Now we've seen a radical departure here from the impression of what that little word "receive" in English leaves.  It leaves the impression of being a passive thing; you just stand here and wait until the Holy Ghost comes on you and zaps you.  That is not at all what it says.  This is not something that God does to me by the Holy Ghost.  This is something that I do to the Holy Ghost that God has already sent.

 What I am doing is unraveling one of the greatest areas of confusion between denominations.  Some denominations say that there is no such thing as getting the Holy Ghost after salvation.  They are dead wrong.  Other denominations, most of whom want to put it in the passive gear so that the Holy Ghost zaps you, are wrong also.  That is part, but it is wrong to say that it is all.  Otherwise Paul would not have said in the active voice, "Did you actively receive the Holy Ghost after you believed?"  If it was just something that you were going to be zapped with it would have been put in the passive voice, and Paul would have said, "Have you been zapped by the Holy Ghost yet?"

 All of the translations mean the same thing.  If I say that I'm going to take something or catch something or accept something or actively receive something I'm basically saying the same thing.  All of it presupposes an action of my will.  We have to understand that the receiving of the Holy Ghost is active not passive.  It's something you do. God may not choose to zap you.

 This is also a reason why many people are never healed.  There are eight ways to receive healing in Scripture.  One of them requires no faith at all on anybody's part.  That's the sovereign move of God where He just zaps a person and they're automatically healed.  We see that at Benny Hinn's meetings; people healed all over the great auditoriums because they are in the presence of God.  The Holy Spirit fills the place with God's healing and miracle power.  That's the sovereign move of God.  That takes no faith on anybody's part, God just does it.  Sometimes God even heals lost people in these meetings.

 But the other seven require faith.  They require you to do something.  And when you don't do what you're supposed to do, you will never be zapped by the Holy Ghost in healing.  A lot of people come to get prayed for and sit back and wait to get zapped.  I feel that I have let people down because I haven't taken the time to explain the difference.  Consequently some die prematurely because they simply don't know what to do.

 It's a fact that God sometimes zaps a person with the Holy Ghost.  But it's also a fact that most of the time He does not chose to operate that way.  The reception, the receiving, the taking, the catching of the Holy Ghost is something we do.  And that is an act of faith.  We just haul off and do it.  So here's what we do.  We recognize that the Holy Ghost is here, He came in this way at Pentecost, He's never left yet, and He's going to stay here.

 Now I have the choice to either accept Him as the third person of the Godhead or not.  If I don't, I don't have his power.  But if I do, I have His power and everything He brings with Himself.

 The question is, "How do you receive the Holy Ghost?"  You talk to Him just like you do to any other person.  When you got saved you talked to the Son of God as the second person of the Godhead, and you said, "Dear Jesus, forgive me of my sins and save my soul from hell."  You talked to Him, you talked to the second person of the Godhead.  You talked, before you got saved, to God the Father as the first person of the Godhead, because you recognized the fact that He was your creator.  So you accepted Him, you received Him as your creator and the first person of the Godhead.  When you became aware of Jesus you accepted Him, you received Him as the second person of the Godhead, the Savior. You talked to Him, you said, "Dear Jesus, come into my heart, fill my life, forgive me of my sins, and save my soul."

 Well, you receive the Holy Ghost the same identical way.  You talk to the Spirit of God as a person like you do to God the Father and God the Son.  And you address the Holy Ghost as the third person of the Godhead and say, "Dear Holy Ghost, I receive You now into my entire life.  I'm asking You to come in and bring Your power and Your blessings and take me over."  When you do that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is yours by faith, because you acted on what God said.  Jay, will I feel anything?  You may, or you may not.  Will I speak in tongues at that point?  You may, or you may not.

 If you don't at that point in time, it does not mean that you can't.  You can.  You may need some instructions, but you can, right then and there.  And sooner or later you will if you're in the right church and they'll instruct you.  You may feel something, you may feel nothing.

 A lot of times when I start ministering in the Holy Ghost I don't feel one thing.  I have learned that I cannot go by feelings.  A lot of people want to go by feelings.  Brother, the Holy Ghost may make you feel one way this Sunday and another way next Sunday and another way the following Sunday and not anything the Sunday after that.  I don't go by feelings because I know I received the Holy Ghost, and when I received the Holy Ghost I know I got His power and everything else that goes with it.

 Therefore, I get up and start.  And before I'm through things are happening.  Sometimes I feel it; sometimes I feel as hot as a firecracker; sometimes I feel like it's on my skin; sometimes I feel it in my mind; sometimes I feel it inside; sometimes I don't feel anything at all, but that doesn't matter.  I know the Holy Ghost is there.  And if I've invited Him to take over, He has taken over, and things begin to happen in the lives of people sitting out there listening to me.  That's the final criteria.

 So, I come to the place that I talk to the Holy Ghost.  I say, "I receive You, I accept You, I take You now, I TAKE You, Holy Ghost.  Come in and get on the throne of my life.  You've been in my heart ever since I got saved, but you've been in the foyer.  Now I'm receiving you into the rest of my house."

 It's an act.  It's active voice.  It's something you do, and when you do it the Holy Ghost takes over.  You may talk in tongues at that point or you may not.  If you don't, don't despair, you can.  You may not know that you can, but you can.  There's always action involved.

 The first time it ever happened to me was in the early 1970's.  I was a Southern Baptist evangelist preaching a meeting in the Houston area.  I got up early one morning and left my home because we were having morning services.  I was so tired, I'd been on the road, I was never with my family, my little girls were growing up without their daddy; I could come home and they would barely know who I was.  Other men in the church were closer to my girls than me.  They were almost afraid of me. You think that won't break your heart?  I did more meetings than any Southern Baptist evangelist in history.  I did 50 meetings a year; I'm talking about 50 back to back meetings, not just Sundays.  I'm talking about 50 solid weeks a year all across the United States.  So, I had one in the Houston area, and I was so tired I couldn't see.  I needed a touch from God.

 As I was driving I began to pray.  I had one hand on the wheel and I held the other up; first time I'd ever done that.  As I started to pray, all of a sudden I started to speak in tongues.  Man, I pulled my hand down and thought what in the world is going on here?  My lips tingled like somebody had a wire with a slight electric current running through it and had stuck it on them.  They just tingled.  I said, "What in the world is this?  I'm a Baptist, I don't believe in this mess."  I drove a few more miles thinking about it.  I said, "I think I'm going to try that again."  I raised my hand up and out it came again.

 You see, you may speak in tongues, and you may not.  But you can.  A lot of people never will until they have somebody to instruct them and help them and show them what's theirs.

 This receiving of the Holy Ghost is an action that you do.  YOU receive it.  How?  Talk to Him.  The same way you received Jesus.  You accept Him.  You came to the knowledge that Jesus was the Son of God, you received Him.  You talked to Him.  You said, "Jesus, I believe that You're the Savior.  Forgive me of my sins, come in, and save me."  You did that.  And when you talked to Him, He responded as a person.

 People, the Holy Ghost is also a person.  When you talk to Him, He'll respond as a person.  "Holy Ghost, I believe that You're the third person of the Godhead and since Jesus sent You back when He left in order to take up this business where He left off and now You're His representative, I receive you as such, Holy Ghost.  Take me over." And that's it.

This is the power that Peter had.  And this is the same power that's available to you.  But, there's more.  Read on.

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