Hugh's News & Commentary

I remember well taking a course in Bible under the teaching of Dr. Howard A. Hanke at Asbury College, 1956-57. He was a brillant scholar and he believed “There is ample evidence in Scripture to show that the Church of the Living God has been in existence from the days of Eden, when righteous Abel became its first member. This institution, the Church, made up of ‘God Believers’ is referred to by many different names and designations, but in substance the Church has always been the same.” 

Dr. Hanke would often quote the following verse to prove his thesis: Acts 7:37-38, "This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is He, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us" (KJV).

We believe that the New Testament Church was birthed or inaugurated on the Day of Pentecost.

Dr. Garnet E. Pike has written a powerful book entitled, Receiving the Promise of the Father, How to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit. It is a scholarly book based on Biblical theology and it is sound in explaining the glorious experience. Hundreds of people have received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit through the ministry of Garnet and Frances Pike and by reading this book.

I have read the book from cover to cover, made notes, and underlined sentences that touched my spirit. It is a book I wish I had read as a child or youth. For you see, I was born in the Pentecostal Holiness Church, and reared in its teaching. I was a chronic seeker for this experience, but I never seemed to "pray through" as the old-timers used to say. I went through college and seminary without being baptized with or in the Holy Spirit. I desperately wanted to receive, but I did not understand the process. I did not want to be a phony or a copycat, or to speak in tongues like so many people I knew who did. I wanted my experience to be authentic and genuine.

I staked my life and ministerial career on believing in a what the Scriptures tell us about Jesus being the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit. If fact, I wrote a research paper on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit in a Biblical theology class taught by Dr. Delbert Rose, one of my theology professors at Asbury Theological Seminary.

I could quote the Scriptures from memory, but I failed to understand what happens when one is baptized with the Holy Spirit and speaks in tongues. You may think I am a slow learner, and I guess I am. I thought that when a person was genuinely baptized with or in the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit would take your tongue, jaw and vocal chords and do the speaking, and that all one had to do was to listen to hear that speech.

I prayed daily that I would experience what my parents and my older sister had all experienced. I would daily hear my mother praying in tongues in her prayer time. I was not aware that what she was experiencing was her prayer language. I knew that it was real if my mother did that.

When I was the pastor of the Brownville Pentecostal Holiness Church in Brownville, AL, near Evergreen, I went to a ministerial breakfast hosted by Oral Roberts in Pensacola, FL. I purchased one of his books entitled, Baptism with the Holy Spirit. Up until that time, I had never read a more detailed and thorough book of this promise of the Father and the Son. He explained that when Jesus baptizes a person with the Holy Spirit that the Spirit comes in the inmost belly and comes up the body and word formations are given and the recipient of this baptism will have to choose to speak the words, foreign to the disciple, and when that happens the obedience to speaking that language a person can know for certain that he or she has received the promise that the Father and Son had made to the early disciples. That same promise is for us today.

Peter preached this message on the Day of Pentecost in the streets of Jerusalem:

Acts 2:38-39
Then Peter said to them,"Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."
(NKJV )

Well, it happened to me one Wednesday night as we prayed, as a small congregation, around the wooden altar at the church. I was given three words in a language I have never heard or learned. I had to make the decision to speak them or not. I chose to speak the words. They were strange sounding words, but when I finished the third word other words followed in a continuous flow of a beautiful language unlike anything I had ever heard in a Pentecostal church. In fact, I spoke spoke in tongues over the next three days as well as in English, and Melvine thought I was going crazy. But I wasn't. The Scriptures took on new meaning for me, and things that I had not understood before became clear. Most of all, I had power to witness boldly to my faith in Jesus Christ. It was what I needed to prepare me for the rest of my ministry, especially as an Air Force chaplain.

Sometime later, as I was praying for my congregation, and I divided the list up over several days, I was praying for the Charter Member of our church, Mrs. Bama Alexander, who was about 97 or 98 years of age. She was the mother of Ruth Franklin, wife of Sam Franklin. Ruth Franklin was a fantastic organist, and her husband Sam helped Oral Roberts with those big tents--he along with Collins Steel, and Bob Barr. All of a sudden when I was praying for Bama Alexander, I began to speak in tongues similar to what had happened when I initially received the baptism with or in the Holy Spirit. When the tongues ceased as the Spirit gave me the utterance, I waited in the presence of God. I knew enough about the Bible to ask God for the interpretation. And God gave the interpretation immediately. The Holy Spirit said, "At the moment you were praying in the Spirit, in tongues, God dispatched two angels to escort her soul and spirit from her body into the presence of God."

About thirty minutes later, Ruth called me and told me that her mother had died. I asked if she had died at 3 p. m. She said, "Yes. How did you know?" I told her what I have told you and that was the exact time that she breathed her last breath.  I was able to give that testimony at the funeral service. You must remember this was my first pastorate out of seminary. I gave testimony about the reality of the prayer language that had been given to me, and gave the family assurance that Mrs. Alexander was now with Jesus in heaven..

I only wish I had developed my prayer language like Garnet and Frances Pike have done. You will thrill to Garnet's book, Receivimg the Promise of the Father--How to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit.  I know this is the book you have been looking for. It was published by LifeSprings Resources, P. O. Box 9, Franklin Springs, GA 30639-0009.

You are a candidate for this experience and you can receive this promise. This experience is real and it is Scriptural. It is my prayer that God will use this book to assist you in understanding this promised gift of the Father and the Son.