Although Jason had some experience in healing the sick, this was his first time to lead a healing service by himself, and so he came to Vincent for advice. Vincent replied, “The most important thing is to teach the people. Tell them that healing comes to us by faith in Jesus Christ. We are aware that you have a gift or ministry in healing the sick, so I would not be surprised if a number of sicknesses in the audience would be wiped out even before you finish speaking. This might happen even if you were not gifted in healing, because the sovereignty of God and the faith of the people could account for a number of miracles right from the start. After that, you can call the people up and have them describe their conditions, and put your hands on them and pray as you have done before. At the end of this, it is possible that all of the people might be healed and there would be nothing left to do, but if not, the remaining ones might require additional attention. You might not have time to speak to all of them on the same day. Schedule appointments to meet with them individually and resolve their issues. You can do this yourself, or better yet, train some people in the congregation to do it, but leave the difficult cases to you. Even a brief conversation would often expose the things that have been hindering the people from receiving healing. Just repeating the same things that you said from the pulpit is often sufficient to bring a person to a position to receive from God, because for some reason he might not catch what you said at first, but he might take hold of it right away when you say it to him in person, or when you apply the same teachings to him specifically. In some cases, the person might understand and believe, but it takes additional time for the healing process to complete. There is nothing wrong with this.”
Then Vincent added, “Remember to let the people testify to what God has done for them publicly and without exaggeration, preferably accompanied by witnesses and documentations, such as video recordings, x-rays, test reports, and affidavits from medical professionals. God is able to testify for himself by his words and miracles, and his testimony is true and sure. However, until certain people learn to respect the testimony of God, confirmation from outsiders might give critics some pause. As in the days when they murdered Jesus, most of the critics against the work of God will be those who pretend to be the most faithful and educated believers. They flaunt their skepticism and boast that they are not deceived. However, we are the ones not deceived – we discern that they are agents of Satan and that many of them have even blasphemed the Holy Spirit, sealing their damnation. Speaking in the context of his ministry of healing and about blasphemy against the Spirit, Jesus said, ‘Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters’ (Matthew 12:30). You cannot even pretend to be neutral. Everyone must choose a side. Anyone who does not support his ministry of healing today is against Jesus. Such a person is anti-Christ. This is undeniable. So no matter how much they taunt and brag, we are not deceived. We know what kind of people they are. Do not fear them or respect them. Regard them with suspicion and contempt. Persist in the work of God, in the ministry of faith.”
He urged Jason to remain in New Haven until every sick person in the church has been healed, and after he has trained a team of people to continue the healing ministry and to visit the sick that are outside the church. Then Vincent traveled down the east coast and came to New York City. As he was setting up to preach at Times Square, a group of people saw what he was doing and came up to him. “Preacher, need some help? We are believers too.” Vincent rejoiced in his heart. He assumed that they were followers of Jesus, and it would be convenient to have people help him distribute literature and to heal the sick. So naturally he asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “We…what? What are you talking about? We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
Vincent exclaimed, “How is that possible? Wait a minute, whose disciples are you? Perhaps I made the wrong assumption about you. Who are you following? Whose name did you come under when you were baptized in water, if you were at all?” They rolled their eyes at him and said, “John the BAPTIST, of course.” Vincent said, “Ah, now I understand. You see, John the Baptist was legit, but John himself talked about someone who would come after him, and he said that people should follow this person instead. Well, this man has arrived, and his name is Jesus. He is the Son of God, the Messiah who was to come. He suffered humiliation and judgment, even death, in the place of his people, and then he rose from the dead as the head of his people for their justification.” Hearing this, they were in deep thought for a while, and then one of them slapped another one on the shoulder and said, “Remember? John said that he was not worthy to even handle the shoes of this man who was to come.” The other man answered, “No wonder! The Messiah who would come was the Son of God himself.” So they believed in Jesus and were baptized.
Vincent muttered to himself, “I think some of you were not paying attention when John was preaching, or you did not hear him firsthand and were not taught everything that he said, because John did say that Jesus would baptize his people, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.” Then he said to the group, “Now that you are followers of Jesus and have come under his name, you are saved. Saved from the power of darkness. Saved from the wrath of God. You are righteous in him, and you are accepted by God just as Jesus is accepted by God. The Father accepts Jesus and calls him righteous, and therefore he accepts his followers and calls them righteous. There is nothing you need to do to gain God’s favor, because he has already decided to favor you. And you will remain in this grace by the faith that he sustains in you.” They cheered, “This is indeed good news!” Vincent laughs, “That’s what we call it.”
Then Vincent said, “There is more, and John also talked about this. This same Jesus promised that, as his followers, you can now receive the Holy Spirit. From the Master’s own words, and from the testimony of all the Scriptures, this can mean only one thing — superhuman powers and supernatural experiences. The Holy Spirit will give you power to live as followers of Jesus. He will give you power to speak for him, power to heal the sick, power to cast out demons, power to work signs and wonders, power to receive visions and dreams and prophecies, power to speak in tongues and interpret these languages. You will have power from heaven like the prophets and the apostles, and like the Son of God himself when he walked the earth. When John admitted that he could not compare to Jesus, it was this very thing that he emphasized. John baptized only with water, but Jesus would baptize with this Spirit, this Spirit that could transform you into another kind of human, an ambassador from another world – that is, if you will walk in this power by faith.”
And he continued to explain, “Of course, your faith is evidence that you have been recreated in Christ, or born again, and that is indeed a work of the Spirit. Do not allow this to confuse you. I am referring to something different, something that happens after you have become followers of Jesus, and after the Spirit has recreated you. Both John and Jesus described this second thing as a work of Christ, and not a work of the Spirit. And the apostle Peter also referred to it as something that Christ bestows, not something that the Spirit does (Acts 2:33). When I baptized you with water just now, the water did not baptize you with Vincent, but Vincent baptized you with water. It was a work of Vincent using the element of water. So I am referring to a work of Christ baptizing you WITH the element of Spirit. The work of the Spirit regenerating you, or to say it another way, baptizing you INTO Christ, is a separate procedure. Do not confuse or conflate the two. You do not receive the Holy Spirit in order to become his followers, but you become his followers in order to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). So even though receiving the Messiah entails a work of the Spirit, we refer to receiving the Messiah and receiving the Spirit as two different things. When I refer to receiving the Spirit, I mean this second thing, without denying the work of the Spirit in the first thing, because when I talk about the first thing, I could just refer to Jesus without mentioning the Spirit.”
Vincent was pleased with his explanation and looked at the group expectantly. To his surprise, they were annoyed: “Look, preacher. We appreciate you bringing us the good news. We did not know that the man John predicted had already arrived, so we are thankful that we met you today. But even though we are new followers of Jesus, we are not children. We are not brain damaged. We are intelligent. We are educated. It was clear that receiving the Holy Spirit was something very different to you than receiving Jesus Christ, or else if you were trying to confirm our discipleship you would have directly asked us about Jesus Christ. Obviously, when we told you that we were believers, you assumed that we were believers of Jesus like you, so you asked us if we had also received something that believers of Jesus were entitled to receive. Anyone would instantly perceive this. This is intuitive to anyone who has any grasp of language. It is inconceivable to us that something like this could be misunderstood. Perhaps we are noobs and you know more than we do, but do not look down on us. Don’t talk to us like we are sick in the head. The way you explained this baptism with the Holy Spirit was somewhat condescending, as if you assumed that we would misconstrue it. We take offense at that. Perhaps you should give us the benefit of the doubt before you assume that we are stupid?”
Vincent held up his hands and said, “Sorry, sorry, I apologize. This is my fault. You are my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I have insulted you. Please forgive me. If I have an excuse, it would be that this comes from habit. I realize that I have explained something simple and obvious in such a tedious manner that it was perceived as condescension. But you would be surprised by how many religious people among us, even those claiming to be teachers and scholars, who are either unable to perceive this distinction or unwilling to acknowledge it. Now I see that I am indeed talking to normal and intelligent people. You are not like some of the religious people or theological scholars, whose minds have been warped by self-serving agendas and demonic influences. John himself said that he must decrease and Jesus must increase, and I have preached Jesus for years, so when you told me you were believers, I assumed that you were believers of Jesus. When I asked you about the Holy Spirit, it was not a trick or a test, and it was not an indirect way of asking about Jesus. You understood me the first time, that I was really asking about the Holy Spirit. Had I wanted to ask if you were followers of Jesus, I would have asked if you were followers of Jesus. I assumed that you were already followers of Jesus, and so I asked you if you had the next thing — so I asked if you had received the Holy Spirit. Peter, John, Phillip, Paul, Luke…well, I will tell you about them later…anyway, they all know this and talk the same way.”
He continued, “So I learned from Jesus and his original disciples to ask about this: ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ Paul once asked another group this same question, but even some of our scholars insisted that it was just a roundabout way of asking if someone had believed in Jesus. We reacted like you did: ‘If that’s what he meant, then why didn’t he ask about Jesus? Of course he was asking about the Holy Spirit INSTEAD of asking about Jesus.’ If there are other weird theories, they will not work, because Paul immediately confirmed his meaning. After these people became followers of Jesus, Paul did not walk way, as if his original intention was satisfied, but instead he laid his hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Thus he was asking about this second thing, the Holy Spirit, and not the first thing, Jesus Christ. We thought even illiterate children with severe brain damage, if they could understand some words here and there, would still possibly grasp this. In fact, perhaps even a dog or a parrot could be taught to discern the difference, but these scholars could not. They were like the people who refused to acknowledge the truth during the ministry of Jesus, and then they hardened their hearts and conspired to murder him. He said something they did not like and so they decided to get rid of him. See, the baptism of the Spirit represents something that many of our religious people resent, and something that they do not have. Although they consider themselves the elite of the faith, this deficiency exposes them as, in this essential aspect, inferior to hundreds of thousands of believers who have eagerly received the Holy Spirit on the first days or weeks of their discipleship. God has long abandoned them in their unbelief and tradition. The admiration of men is all that they have, and all that they dare hope to obtain in life. Thus they cannot tolerate the shame, and so they conspire against the Spirit of God, to suppress and to murder him, just as their forefathers did to the Son of God. Of course, they can never physically attack him, and so they persecute those who believe in this baptism of the Spirit, and they twist the Scriptures to silence this doctrine about him.”
They cried, “That’s horrible! They…they are criminals! Even before we became the disciples of John the Baptist, we would have been too afraid of God’s punishment to do something like that.” Vincent nodded, “I know. They are awful people. Very selfish and disobedient. And they are not afraid of God because they have never believed what he said in the first place. They do not like him or respect him very much. Because I am accustomed to dealing with such human garbage, I treated you the same way out of habit. I am sorry.” They replied, “We understand now. Knowing now what you have to endure, we can overlook your insult. But is this what it means to follow Jesus? Are all disciples of Jesus like these people? Wouldn’t it be better to be damned, than to become faithless and disgusting people like them? Certainly we never wish to lose what intelligence we have and become like these imbeciles! And after all of this, we will still have to face opposition from the world? Is it worth the misery?” Vincent said, “People like them often have very little to do with Jesus, even though they may be leaders of churches and teachers in seminaries. They hold high the banner of Christ in order to smuggle their own views and agendas under it, and in the process they usually end up opposing Jesus himself. Follow Jesus, my brothers and sisters. He is worth it. Just do not follow men and their unbelief, their tradition, and their hate against the teachings of Jesus. Cast them aside. Jesus said that he will place a light and easy burden on you. If you follow him, you will be happy. But if you follow men who claim to represent him but in fact usurp him to make disciples for their own traditions, then you will have a rough time. You will come to resent God in your hearts. Many people hate religion, hate Jesus, and hate God because of this, because of scum like them. Never give up your life, your faith, and your happiness to some creed or opinion that’s worth less than that slice of New York pizza I just had across the street.”
“We hear you, brother, they make delicious pizzas over there,” they agreed. And Vincent continued, “Right, if someone does not teach faith and hope, or love and happiness, or power and joy, or miracles and prophecies like Jesus did, then don’t buy their books, don’t pay their churches. Take that money and get yourself a stack of pizzas over there. Have a great lunch, and share the rest to some people in need. While they are eating, count on the power of the Holy Spirit to convince them about Jesus, to heal their diseases, and to cast out their demons. That is incomparably more holy and pious than swimming around in all that religious excrement that they call scholarship.”
They laughed, “Seems like you’re done warming up, preacher! Now let us set up your things. We will start with the audio system.” Vincent looked at them and held up a finger, “Not yet. Remember what made us talk about this in the first place?” Then he laid his hands on each of them, and they received the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues and prophecies. They were infused with boldness and excitement. Some of them looked at their hands and felt empowered to heal the sick. Others narrowed their eyes and felt prepared to cast out demons, to set people free from satanic oppression and sickness. Vincent nodded and said, “Now then, let’s do this!” They shouted, “Huzzah!”