Author: Billy Conrad

September 19

I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. — Matthew 11:25

Scripture reading: Matthew 19:13–30

I wonder how many people today are prepared to be baptized. Oh, you say you couldn‘t be baptized? Then you have been an adult too long. You need to become childlike again. Do you know that there is a difference between being a baby and anything else in the world?

Many people have been waiting for years for the baptism, and what has been the problem? What is the wise man‘s difficulty? A wise man is too careful. And while he is in the operation of the Spirit, he wants to know what he is saying. No man can know what he is saying when the Spirit is upon him. His own mind is inactive. If you get into that place in which you are near God, the mind of Christ comes by the power of the Spirit. Under these conditions, Christ prays and speaks in the Spirit through you as the Spirit gives utterance. It is the mind and plan of God for us to receive the Holy Spirit.

The natural man cannot receive the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). But when you get into a supernatural place, then you receive the mind of God. Again, what is the difference between a “wise and prudent” man and a baby? The man drinks cautiously, but the baby swallows it all, and the mother has to hold the bottle, or some of that will go down, too. This is how God wants it to be in the Spirit. The spiritually-minded baby cannot walk. However, God walks in him. The spiritually-minded baby cannot talk, but God talks through him. The spiritually-minded baby cannot dress himself, but God dresses him and clothes him with His righteousness.

Oh, beloved, if we can only be infants in this way today, great things will take place along the lines and thought of the Spirit of God. The Lord wants us all to be so like-minded with Him that He can put His seal upon us.

Does the baby ever lose his intelligence? Does he ever lose his common sense? Does the baby who comes into the will of God lose his reason or his credentials in any way? No, God will increase your abilities and help you in everything. I am not talking here about just being a baby. I am talking about being a baby in the Spirit. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:20, “In malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.” And I believe the Spirit desires to breathe through all the attributes of the Spirit so that we may understand what the mind of the Lord is concerning us in the Holy Spirit.

Thought for today: If you will become childlike enough, if you will yield to God and let the Spirit have His way, God will fill you with the Holy Spirit.

September 18

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. — 2 Corinthians 4:7

Scripture reading: 2 Corinthians 4

One day, in England, a lady wrote to ask if I would come and help her. She said she was blind, having two blood clots behind her eyes. I had been in London recently, and I didn‘t feel I wanted to go. However, I sent a letter, not knowing who she was, saying that if she was willing to go into a room with me and shut the door and never come out until she had perfect sight, I would come. She sent word, “Oh, come!”

The moment I reached the house, they brought in this blind woman. After we shook hands, she made her way to a room, opened the door, allowed me to go in, and then came in and shut the door. “Now,” she said, “we are with God.”

Have you ever been there? It is a lovely place.

In an hour and a half, the power of God fell upon us. Rushing to the window, she exclaimed, “I can see! Oh, I can see! The blood is gone; I can see!” Sitting down in a chair, she asked, “Could I receive the Holy Spirit?”

“Yes,” I replied, “if all is right with God.”

“You don‘t know me,” she continued, “but for ten years I have been fighting your position. I couldn‘t bear these tongues, but God settled it today. I want the baptism of the Holy Spirit.”

After she had prayed and repented of what she had said about tongues, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues.

When you put your hands upon people to pray, you can tell when the Holy Spirit is present. And if you will only yield to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to move, my word, what will happen!

Thought for today: The Lord Jesus wants those who preach the Word to have the Word in evidence in their lives.

September 17

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. — James 5:7–8

Scripture reading: James 5:1–12

What is the “precious fruit of the earth”? It is the church, the body of Christ. And God has no thought for other things. He causes the vegetation of the earth to grow and creates the glory of the flower. He gives attention to the beauty of flowers because He knows it will please us. But when speaking about the “precious fruit of the earth,” our Lord has His mind upon you today.

If you desire the coming of the Lord, you must certainly advocate having every believer filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit cannot come until the church is ready. And you say, “When will the church be ready?” If believers were in an attitude of yieldedness and were in unity with God and each other, God could send the breath right now to make the church ready in ten minutes, even less than that.

So we can clearly say that the coming of the Lord is near to us, but it will be even closer to us as we are ready to receive a fuller and greater manifestation. What will be the manifestation of the coming of the Lord? If we were ready, and if the power of God were stressing that truth today, we would be rushing up to one another, saying, “He is coming; I know He is coming.” Every person around
would be saying, “He is coming,” and you would know it to be true.

This is the only hope of the future, and nothing except the Holy Spirit can prepare the hearts of the people for His coming. Praise God, He will come! He is coming!

Thought for today: The more a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, the more he will be ready to forecast the return of the Lord and send forth this glorious truth.

September 16

I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You. — Hebrews 2:12

Scripture reading: Hebrews 2:1–13

The Spirit of the Lord must have His way in everything. Oh, what would happen if we would all loosen up! Sometimes I think it is almost necessary to give an address to those who are already baptized in the Holy Spirit. I feel that, just like the Corinthian church, we may have, as it were, gifts and graces, and we may use them all, but we sit in them and do not go on beyond where we are.

I maintain that all gifts and graces are only for one thing: to make you desire gifts and graces. Don‘t miss what I say. Every touch of the divine life by the Spirit is only for one purpose: to make your life go on to a higher height than where you are. Beloved, if anybody has to rise up in the meeting to tell me how they were baptized with the Holy Spirit in order for me to know they are baptized, I say, “You have fallen from grace. You ought to have such a baptism that everybody can tell you are baptized without your telling how you were baptized.” That would make a new day. That would be a sermon in itself to everybody, not only in here but also outside. Then people would follow you to get to know where you have come from and where you are going. (See John 3:8.) You say, “I want that. I won‘t settle until I get that.” God will surely give it to you.

The Holy Spirit can only come into us (His temples) when we are fully yielded to Him, for the Spirit “does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 7:48) but in “tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3). So it doesn‘t matter what kind of a building you get; you cannot count on the building being a substitute for the Holy Spirit. You will all have to be temples of the Holy Spirit for the building to be anything like Holy Spirit order.

Thought for today: The Holy Spirit never comes until there is a place ready for Him.

September 15

Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. — Isaiah 43:19

Scripture reading: Revelation 21

See to it that today you press on with a new order of the Spirit so that you can never be where you were before. This is a new day for us all. You say, “What about the people who are already baptized in the Spirit?” Oh, this is a new day also for those who have been baptized, for the Spirit is an unlimited source of power. He is in no way stationary. God has no place for a person who is stationary. The man who is going to catch the fire, hold forth the truth, and always be on the watchtower is the one who is going to be a beacon for all saints, having a light greater than he would have naturally. He must see that God‘s grace, God‘s life, and God‘s Spirit are a million times mightier than he.

The man who is baptized in the Holy Spirit is baptized into a new order altogether. You cannot ever be ordinary after that. You are on an extraordinary plane; you are brought into line with the mind of God. You have come into touch with ideals in every way.

If you want oratory, it is in the baptism of the Spirit. If you want the touch of quickened sense that moves your body until you know that you are completely renewed, it is by the Holy Spirit. And while I say so much about the Holy Spirit, I withdraw everything that doesn‘t put Jesus in the place He belongs. For when I speak about the Holy Spirit, it is always with reference to revelations of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the Revealer of the mighty Christ who possesses everything for us so that we may never know any weakness. All limitations are gone. And you are now in a place where God has taken the ideal and moved you on with His own velocity, which has a speed beyond all human mind and thought. Glory to God!

Thought for today: Nothing in God is stationary.

September 14

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. — Philippians 3:10

Scripture reading: Philippians 3

The power of the Holy Spirit creates new men and new women. The Holy Spirit takes away stony hearts and gives hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26–27). And when God gets His way like that, there is a tremendous shaking among the dry bones. (See Ezekiel 37:4–10.)

We must see that we are no good unless God takes charge of us. But when He has real control of us, our future takes on a new outlook. What a wonderful open door of opportunities for God to use us!

Beloved, we must seek this ideal by the Spirit. What should we do? We do not dare to do anything but go through and receive the baptism. Submit to the power of God. If you yield, other people are saved. You will die unless you have a power of resurrection, a touch for others. But if you live only for God, then other people will be raised out of death and all kinds of evil into a blessed life through the Spirit.

We must see that this baptism of the Spirit is greater than everything. You can say what you like, do as you like, but until you have the Holy Spirit, you won‘t know what the resurrection touch is. Resurrection is by the power of the Spirit. And remember, when I talk about resurrection, I am talking about one of the greatest things in the Scriptures. Resurrection is evidence that we have awakened with a new line of truth that cannot cease to be, but will always go on with a greater force and increasing power with God.

Remember that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is resurrection. If you can touch this ideal of God with its resurrection power, you will see that nothing earthly can remain; you will see that all disease will clear out. If you get filled with the Holy Spirit, all satanic forces that cause fits, all these lame legs, all these foot afflictions, all these kidney troubles, and all these nervous, fearful things will
go. Resurrection is the word for it. Resurrection shakes away death and breathes life in you; it lets you know that you are quickened from the dead by the Spirit and that you are made like Jesus. Glory to God!

Oh, the word resurrection! I wish I could say it on the same level as the word Jesus. They very harmoniously go together.

Thought for today: Jesus is resurrection, and to know Jesus in this resurrection power is to see that you no longer have to be dead; you are alive unto God by the Spirit.

September 13

He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. — 1 John 5:10

Scripture reading: 1 John 5

If you are a businessman, you need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. For any kind of business, you need to know the power of the Holy Spirit, because if you are not baptized with the Holy Spirit, Satan has a tremendous power to interfere with the progress of your life. If you come into the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there is a new realm for your business.

I remember one day being in London at a meeting. About eleven o‘clock, they said to me, “We will have to close the meeting. We are not allowed to have this place any later than eleven o‘clock.” There were several who were under the power of the Spirit. A man rose up and looked at me, saying, “Oh, don‘t leave me, please. I feel that I do not dare be left. I must receive the Holy Spirit. Will you go home with us?” “Yes,” I said, “I will go.” His wife was there as well. They were two hungry people just being awakened by the power of the Spirit to know that they were lacking in their lives and that they needed the power of God.

In about an hour‘s time, we arrived at their big, beautiful house in the country. It was wintertime. He began stirring the fire up and putting coal on, and he said, “We will soon have a tremendous fire, so we will get warmed. Then we will have a big supper.” And I suppose the next thing would have been going to bed.

“No, thank you,” I said.

“I have not come here for your supper or for your bed. I thought you wanted me to come with you so that you might receive the Holy Spirit.”

“Oh,” he replied. “Will you pray with us?” “I have come for nothing else.” I knew I could keep myself warm in a prayer meeting without a fire.

About half past three in the morning, his wife was as full as could be, speaking in tongues. God was doing wonderful things that night. I went to the end of the table. There he was, groaning terribly. So I said, “Your wife has received the Holy Spirit.” “Oh,” he said, “this is going to be a big night for me.” I tell you, you also will have big nights like this man had, whether you receive the baptism or not, if you will seek God with all your heart.

I often say there is more done in the seeking than in any other way. We have to get to a place where we know that unless we meet face-to-face with God and get all the crooked places out of our lives, there will be no room for the Holy Spirit, for the indwelling presence of God. But when God gets a chance at us, and by the vision of the blood of Jesus we see ourselves as God sees us, then we have a revelation. Without this, we are undone and helpless.

At five o‘clock in the morning, this man stood up and said, “I am through.” He was not baptized. “I am settled,” he continued. “God has settled me. Now I must have a few hours‘ rest before I go to my business at eight o‘clock.”

My word! That was quite a day at his business. In many years, he had never lived a day like that. He went about his business among all his men, and they said, “What is up with the man? What is up with the boss? What has taken place? Oh, what a change!”

The whole place was electrified. Formerly he had been like a great big lion prowling about, but God had touched him. The touch of Omnipotence had broken this man down until right there in his business the men were broken up in his presence. Oh, I tell you, there is something in pursuing; there is something in waiting. What is it? It is this: God slays a man so that he may begin on a new plane in his life.

That night, at about ten o‘clock, he was baptized in the Holy Spirit in a meeting. A short time afterward, when I was passing through the grounds toward this man‘s house, his two sons rushed out to where I was, threw their arms around me, and kissed me, saying, “You have sent us a new father.”

Thought for today: God turns lions into lambs.

September 12

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. — John 7:38

Scripture reading: John 4:1–14

God wants to help us to see that every child of God ought to receive the Holy Spirit. Beloved, God wants us to understand that this is not difficult when we are in the right order. I want you to see what it means to seek the Holy Spirit.

If we were to examine John‘s gospel, we would see that Jesus predicted all that we are getting today with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord said that the Holy Spirit would take of the things of His Word and reveal them to us. (See John 14:26; 16:14.) He would live out in us all of the life of Jesus.

If we could only think of what this really means! It is one of the ideals. Talk about graduation! Come into the graduation of the Holy Spirit, and you will simply outstrip everything they have in any college there ever was. You will leave them all behind, just as I have seen the sun leave the mist behind in San Francisco. You will leave what is as cold as ice and go into the sunshine.

God the Holy Spirit wants us to know the reality of this fullness of the Spirit so that we will neither be ignorant nor have mystic conceptions but will have a clear, unmistakable revelation of the entire mind of God for these days.

I implore you, beloved, in the name of Jesus, that you should see that you come right into all the mind of God. Jesus truly said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8).

Thought for today: Jesus is all the time unfolding to every one of us the power of resurrection.

September 11

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. — Acts 1:8

Scripture reading: Acts 1:1–11

I believe God wants us to know more about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I believe that God wants us to know the truth in such a way that we may all have a clear understanding of what He means when He desires all His people to receive the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, our Mediator and Advocate, was filled with the Holy Spirit. He commanded His followers concerning these days we are in and gave instructions about the time through the Holy Spirit. I can see that if we are going to accomplish anything, we are going to accomplish it because we are under the power of the Holy Spirit.

During my lifetime, I have seen lots of satanic forces, Spiritualists, and all other “ists.” I tell you that there is a power that is satanic, and there is a power that is the Holy Spirit. I remember that after we received the Holy Spirit and when people were speaking in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance—we don‘t know the Holy Spirit in any other way—the Spiritualists heard about it and came to the meeting in good time to fill two rows of seats.

When the power of God fell upon us, these imitators began their shaking and moving, with utterances from the satanic forces. The Spirit of the Lord was mighty upon me. I went to them and said, “Now, you demons, clear out of here!” And out they went. I followed them right out into the street, and then they turned around and cursed me. It made no difference; they were out.

I implore you to hear that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is to possess us so that we are, and may be continually, so full of the Holy Spirit that utterances and revelations and eyesight and everything else may be so remarkably controlled by the Spirit of God that we live and move in this glorious sphere of usefulness for the glory of God.

Thought for today: There is a fullness of God where all other powers must cease to be.

September 10

He received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. — Acts 9:18

Scripture reading: Acts 16:16–34

Notice that when Ananias came into that house, he called the onetime enemy of the Gospel “Brother Saul” (Acts 9:17). He recognized that, in those three days, a blessed work had been accomplished and that Saul had been brought into relationship with the Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ. Was this not enough? No, there was something further, and for this purpose the Lord had sent Ananias to that house to put his hands upon this newly saved brother so that Saul might receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

You say, “But it does not say that he spoke in tongues.” We know that Paul did speak in tongues, that he spoke in tongues more than all the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 14:18). In those early days, it was so soon after the time of that first Pentecostal outpouring that they would never have been satisfied with anyone receiving the baptism unless he received it according to the original pattern given on the Day of Pentecost.

When Peter was relating what had taken place in the house of Cornelius at Caesarea, he said, “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning” (Acts 11:15). Later, speaking of this incident, he said, “God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:8–9). We know from the account of what took place at Cornelius‘s household that when the Holy Spirit fell, “they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God” (Acts 10:46).

Many people think that God makes a distinction between us and those who lived at the beginning of the church. But they have no Scripture for this. When anyone receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, there will assuredly be no difference between his experience today and what was given on the Day of Pentecost. And I cannot believe that, when Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit, the Lord made any difference in the experience that He gave him than the experience that He had given to Peter and the rest a short while before.

And so Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit, and in the later chapters of the Acts of the Apostles we see the result of this infilling. Oh, what a difference it makes!

The grace of God that was given to the persecuting Saul is available for you. The same infilling of the Holy Spirit that he received is likewise available. Move on to a life of continuous receiving of more and more of the blessed Spirit of God.

Thought for today: Do not rest satisfied with any lesser experience than the baptism that the disciples received on the Day of Pentecost.