Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
ing cast out. And churches and small groups were catching
fire!
As a proud, evangelical Baptist pastor, the very thought that
I needed the baptism of fire sent shock waves through my
nervous system. The New Testament experience available
now? Becoming Pentecostal? Actually speaking in tongues?
Feeling drunk? Being taken over by God? But early in 1969 it
happened. It was devastating, powerful, releasing and full of
worship. It was, and has continued to be, a Baptism of love,
faith, vision and courage.
Way back in 1951 I had bought, in my search for an effective
walk with God, a second-hand book by Samuel Chadwick
(the Methodist leader who died in 1932) called The Way to
Pentecost (Hodder & Stoughton, 1935). When I at last reached
my personal Pentecost eighteen somewhat unfruitful years
later, I was able to testify with Chadwick, as he describes the
result of his baptism in the Spirit:
There was a new sense of spring and vitality, a new power of
endurance, and a strong man’s exhilaration in big things. Things
began to happen. What we had failed to do by strenuous endeavour
came to pass without labour. The experience gave me
the key to all my thinking, all my service, and all my life.
‘Things began to happen.’ For the Jesus Fellowship, this
book records some of those things. The Holy Spirit led us
into them. We did not always walk with him. His directives
were perfect, our obedience was not. But with caring love
and many chastisings, he caused a people to arise, pledged
together to be a kingdom brotherhood and a force for mis-
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