The Journey

By Nik Howarth

The Journey was written after I had written The Promise of the Father. The latter examines the phrase “the baptism in the Spirit”, which is a theme that introduces all of the four Gospels. During my research and writing of this book many Christian folk kept asking me “What is happening to me in this process?” In response to this I started to write The Journey.
The Journey quickly took on a life of its own and I found that I was interfacing with many other issues as well. Chief amongst those was the concept of secularism.
By secularism I mean that system of belief that attempts to divide what we know and believe into two areas: that which, can be objectively proved, and is thus trustworthy; and that which cannot be objectively proved and is therefore not trustworthy. My problem with this system is that it is not possible, from my view point, to decide whether something can be proved, empirically, and forever. There is no such thing as knowledge, only belief. From my viewpoint, secularism is a faith, a religion, it has no more claim to objectivity than any other belief.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nik Howarth
• Release date: Nov 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301301355

Nik Howarth

Nik Howarth qualified in medicine in the UK in 1974. From that time he worked as a doctor whilst being part of church leadership, overseas work and church planting. In 1990s he became the minister of Nuneaton Christian Fellowship whilst continuing to work in medicine. He completed an MA in theology in 2000 and was ordained by Elim Churches Incorporated in 2003. Now his time is spent mainly speaking and writing. He is married to Margaret with whom he has three adult children and grandchildren. Together they enjoy many activities ranging from music to family holidays in the mountains to in the sea.

Book preview

The Journey

The Baptism in the Spirit

Dr Nikolas Howarth

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Books written by Dr Howarth can be obtained either through

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The Journey is a companion book to The Promise of the Father. Both books examine the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Journey is a metaphysical approach whereas The Promise of the Father is an exegetical approach. They are originally published as one book Spirit Baptism: The Promise of the Father.

All spelling is in UK English.

I hope that you may discover as much in this book as I did in writing it

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The Journey

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Contemplation

Chapter 2 Religion

Chapter 3 Explanation

Chapter 4 Common Senses

Chapter 5 The Lost Traveller

Chapter 6 Divine Fellowship

Chapter 7 Assurance

Chapter 8 The Old and The New

Chapter 9 I Can Climb a Wall

Chapter 10 Spiritual Gifts

Chapter 11 New Creation

Footnotes

Abbreviations

About the Author

Contact the Author

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Chapter 1

Contemplation

•We can never know all that is around us -to assume that we can is based upon assumption and if we trust that assumption we turn it into a religion.

•It follows that we may assume we are surrounded and influenced by forces and events of which we have no knowledge and of which we can never acquire knowledge.

Looking out of a small window at a cloudless blue sky whilst drinking coffee it seems hard to conceive that I am actually sitting in an aeroplane, at 30,000 feet, travelling at 500mph. Outside, the air supporting this giant flying container, which is bigger than my house, in fact bigger than some streets, is minus 40, cold and thin. I can see the riveted silver wing tip, still and unmoving. Only the quiet constant drone of the engines hints at my situation. Nevertheless, I am used to it and the wonder of it has long since been lost to me. Just today though I am left thinking about what I feel and what is real. My senses tell me everything I know, but do they tell me all I need to know?

When I arrive, standing on the tarmac, I am greeted by the night’s cloudless sky. I can look up and see stars without number surrounding the shining moon; I am next to the vastness of space. It is all so quiet and still. Yet, in reality, I am standing on a rocky sphere, hurtling though space at a speed that I cannot comprehend, spinning around and dancing in some sort of pair with the hidden sun, locked with, the moon as partner. All that is between me, the engulfing x-rays of space, the colliding atomic particles and the unknown, is the thin vapour of atmosphere. My mind and my senses fail to meet.

We depend upon our senses. One day, a very highly trained professional said to me, If I cannot see it or touch it, I am not interested. Is that wise? As you read this, the chances are that you are sitting down. If you look up you will see an object of some sort. Look at it, see its colours, and imagine its texture. To you it is real, an independent object existing on its own. Think a little further. The only information you really have is that your sight tells you that it is there. You do not see the object; you sense the object through the medium of your sight. You assume that the real object is what you see, but all that you see are reflected light waves, which your sight interprets. Suppose that there is much more to this object. Suppose there are parts of it that your sight does not pick up. Are the parts that you cannot see any less real because you cannot see them? It will be radiating infrared heat. You cannot see it, but it is there. What else is there?

Consider your sense of touch. You are probably sitting in a chair. It supports you; you can feel it. What you know is that it is made of some hard material. But this hard material is only hard to you. Some things, like X-rays, can pass right through it. The chair is, in fact, an organisation of forces. There is a lot of nothing amongst those forces. You are no different. So your sitting in the chair is really one lot of forces repelling another (those which are you and those which are the chair) whilst some forces such as x-rays and radio waves, travel through both you and the chair. The chair is only hard to you because of the nature of your sense of touch and the nature of what makes you.

You may only see part of what there is and only be touching part of what there is. So what is there?

Let us consider ourselves and try to see ourselves as we are. Consider a small space ship travelling through space. This space ship represents your body. Space is what is all around you. This ship has no windows at all; it is sealed up. Inside is a consciousness. Although this is in the sealed craft, it has various ways of knowing what is outside. This consciousness represents the conscious you. The craft is equipped with five sensors; each sensor produces an effect in the craft. The consciousness can appreciate these effects. Inside the craft, one effect, called sight, shows an image to the consciousness of what the sight sensor picks up. One screen, called touch, gives an impression to the consciousness of what the touch sense picks up. The consciousness’s reality is totally governed by the efficiency of the five senses. Now we have many more than five senses; for example, we may be considered to have a sense of rhythm, time, balance and others, but for the sake of this example, five is enough. (Three dimensions, though, may not be enough.)

What I am asking you to imagine is this: I am asking you to consider that a person can be considered to have two constituent parts, a body and a consciousness. The consciousness is within the body and can only know what is going on outside of its body by means of its senses. FN1.1 This Traveller is constituted with two parts, the body and the consciousness. The consciousness is not a little person in a craft. It is our consciousness within our bodies: our consciousness is not another body. You are represented by the spacecraft (body) and the consciousness inside (your awareness).

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