John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Born of water, out of the womb, and then born of the Spirit. Jesus doesn’t mention baptism here, just being born of the spirit. We will get into that later. Let us continue with the Word of Jesus.

John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

There is a sense of insecurity in this comparison of the spirit and the wind. It comes and goes without us knowing with any certainty. When the wind blows you know it only by the intensity by which you sense it. A light breeze or a hurricane force wind and if the spirit were to move upon you strong, you would know it of a certainty that would be different than a light breeze.

My first experience was the gentle light breeze. Is that common? Probably but I will not discount the possibility that of another’s experience being stronger. I can only speak for myself and He was so gentle so as not to do any damage. The only consistent example here is that the spirit comes and goes where He wants without our influence. We cannot and do not dictate direction or intensity of any move by the Holy Spirit. We can only gather this by inference in Jesus’ Word comparing the spirit to the wind.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

It is the Father that sends the Holy Ghost with purpose.

Charismatic is defined as a member of a religious group or movement that stresses the seeking of direct divine inspiration and charisms.

If you are wondering what a charism is then allow me to clarify it in this way. It is a demonstration of the divine gifts which Paul assigned to faithful believers in 1 Corinthians 12:28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

Note please in the definition the words “that stresses the seeking”. Couple that with just part of line 31, “covet earnestly the best gifts:” Great error occurs in that seeking due to the coveting of gifts. Suddenly you will find a class of believers who feel the best gifts are the ones they have. The danger is in creating clicks which will cause a schism within a church.

I left a charismatic church because God called me out, and this may well have been why. Along with the dislike for clicks, I carried out of that time many of their teachings which still influence me today.

My latest error was insinuating that a laying on of hands must accompany a baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God does not say that specifically but the laying on of hands is accompanied by other acts upon which a more sure foundation of faith should stand out.

We can only rely on what the Word of God says about any spiritual matter and rely on the whole truth and nothing else. The charismatic teaching was wrong on the matter and I am sorry I let that creep into my devotional.

Let us see what Jesus had to say about this matter.