David J

Ø helping those who have believed through grace (Acts 18:27) in the matter of receiving the enduement of power from on high by the baptism in the Holy Spirit as promised by the risen Christ.

For half a century this particular testimony has been almost exc1usively restricted to what has been known as the Pentecostal Movement.

Ø Therein millions have received a personal Pentecostal experience.

Ø Now it is cause for great joy that many more within the older denominations of the Church are also pressing into this blessing.

They are not sharing in a movement but in a revival.

David du Plessis has won hearts everywhere by his frank demeanor and his gifted opening of the Scriptures.

Ø He has mixed freely in circles formerly doubtful of nominally Pentecostal preachers. He has won their confidence without compromising in any way his own personal testimony of what the Lord has done for him in the things of the Spirit. He ful1y merits the confidence shown to him.

Ø He is not the official agent of any movement or denomination but acts only as a servant of the living God.

Some of his messages have been especially blessed to hearts hungry for the Promise of the Father; and whether we agree with every detail of exposition or not, we wish them a wide ministry through the printed page.

In 1952, in a tribute to my friend, I wrote these words:

Such work "requires God's man,

with God's gifts and God's burden

for God's work for God's glory."

Now, nearly ten years later, I find no reason to change these words.

Donald Gee

Editor of Pentecost

Kenley,

Surrey England

TESTIMONY OF A REFORMED CHURCH MINISTER

I am deeply concerned over the statements in recent publications regarding the ministry of the Rev. David J. du Plessis.

Ø I am particularly disturbed by the accusation that he has claimed or attempted to speak for the Pentecostals. I am completely at a loss to understand how anyone who has heard him could get such an impression.

Ø I have heard him a great many times. I heard him speak to a group of ministers and professors in my own church. I heard him address the students at Yale Divinity School. I have listened to him explaining the Pentecostal experience and its Scriptural foundations to ordinary church members.

I have also been present in small group discussions in which I participated. At no time have I heard him say that he was speaking for any movement or that he was representing any movement.

Ø In fact, he leaned over backward to give the opposite impression. I le seemed rather anxious to make it clear that he was giving his own testimony, and that he was ministering on those occasions and in those circumstances because "the Spirit bade him go."

I always felt that he represented an experience rather than a movement.

Then with great ability and loyalty I heard him defend the Movement when he was questioned about some of its practices and teachings.

è Only when he was asked whether he was actually a minister of the Movement did he say that he held papers with the Assemblies of God, for which he expressed a profound regard.

Ø When questioned about the World Conference, he would point out that this was not an organization, and that he was honorary secretary with no authority, only with more knowledge about the Movement than most other leaders may have because

è it was his privilege to serve almost all the Pentecostal movement in the world.

Ø I think he made it very clear that he was not seeking recognition of the Pentecostal Movement, but rather of the work of the Holy Spirit in and through this movement in the world.

To those of us who have been blessed with the baptism in the Holy Spirit and who are still ministering in the pulpits of the historic churches, his ministry has been a rich blessing.

Ø He has encouraged us to be true to our testimony and yet serve the Church faithfully by graciously and wisely bringing the truth of a Pentecostal experience to them.

I, together with many of my colleagues and ministers in the Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, and other confessions, have come to look upon David du Plessis as the dauntless champion of the truth of the doctrine and experience of the Pentecostal Blessing.

Ø In our churches he has been able to testify before those at levels which we never contact.

Ø His ministry has eliminated the opposition of our leaders to the Pentecostal experience with the confirmation of "speaking with tongues,"

Only those of us who serve and fellowship in churches that are members of the National Council and The World Council of Churches can appreciate this man's ministry when we see and feel the strong "wind of the Spirit" which is bringing a change of spiritual climate into the councils of the historic churches.

We know of no other Pentecostal minister who has shown such keen and capable leadership in bringing, without compromise,

è the message and experience of the Holy Spirit into circles and at levels where many thought it impossible.

It must be clear that he has wasted no time and effort in attacking the churches but has faithfully, humbly, and effectively presented and preached a positive and powerful Gospel. For this we love him and respect him highly.

I know of no one of whom I can more definitely say,

"Here is a man raised up by God for a specific mission,"

Harald Bredesen, Pastor

Reformed Church

Mount Vernon, N.Y.

TESTIMONY OF A BAPTIST CHURCH MINISTER

In November of 1959 I first met Brother David at Princeton Seminary where he had been invited to be the missions speaker that year.

Ø Subsequently I have been in several interdenominational meetings with him, Each meeting has but served to increase my Christian love for the man and to deepen my appreciation for his ministry among denominational ministers and their churches.

Ø Never have l heard him, even by implication, profess to represent anything or anyone other than the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Ø Unflinchingly and forthrightly he has faced the most searching questions relating to the practices and teachings of the Pentecostal movements. Kindly yet forthrightly he has wholeheartedly championed the Pentecostal Movement.

Ø His attitude towards his Pentecostal brethren has always been, in my presence, affectionately loyal to them. His witness to the reality of the baptism in. the Holy Spirit is always gracious but uncompromising. In my humble opinion, he merits not the censure but the wholehearted confidence and support of every Spirit-filled believer in these last days.

Perhaps you will better appreciate my interest in this matter when I say that Brother David's ministry to me has been most graciously blessed of God, culminating in my own experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and I thank God for David's part in helping to lead me into it.

Ø I know of no other man who is being used so effectively of God to reach the denominational people and ministers with this precious truth. I know by personal experience.

Ø Brother du Plessis' teaching and example have taught me a new appreciation and respect for my own denominational heritage, while maintaining my allegiance to the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

I pray that when you read Brother du Plessis' testimony, you will arrive at the same conclusion as the Jerusalem presbytery that examined Peter concerning his ministry to the Gentile centurion, Cornelius:

"When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God" (Acts 11: 18).

Howard Erwin, Pastor

Emmanuel Baptist Church

Atlantic Highlands, N.J.

INTRODUCTION

This book really "just happened." Most of the material came from talks and lectures given without script or notes as the Holy Spirit gave or manifested the Word.

Ø These messages were tape-recorded and afterwards transcribed. In a sense, then, it was my privilege to edit and prepare for publication in this form those revelations that I received from Him while ministering in conferences, councils, institutions, and churches.

I have tried to collect material that would supply the most Information and teaching. If the reader should find any repetition, it is because the same thoughts were given in several different gatherings. I sought to keep everything true to fact, and report "just as it happened."

On numerous occasions – in conferences, retreats, advances, and regular church services – friends have pleaded with me to put into print the things I have said, or rather those things that the Holy Spirit has said through me.

Ø To attempt to write about those things would not be quite the same as quoting more directly the utterances made under the unction of the Spirit.

I realize that the message might have been for a certain group, or class, or council, but I am sure we can all learn from what the Spirit has had to say to others.

Ø I trust, therefore, that my friends will not expect a story that is chronologically arranged, nor messages that are homiletically developed.

Ø At all times I am far more concerned about the power of the Gospel than the mechanics of preaching. Like Paul, I ministered "in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstrat10n of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand In the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (I Cor. 2: 3-5) .

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