To understand the Holy Spirit thoroughly, we need to start
at the beginning, literally. We have to lay some grass roots understanding of
how the Holy Spirit fit into things.
Genesis 1:1-3
“In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The
earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and
the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was
light.”
Let’s break it down a bit:
“In the beginning, God…”
1)
In Hebrew the word for God, used here, is
Elohim. Elohim is a plural form of God. The root name in this form is Eloah, a derivative of the Aramaic Elah, or God in the singular. The ‘im’
at the end in Hebrew, is the same as our ‘s’ in English – it designates
plurality. So, in the very first line of all of scripture, God very
intentionally establishes Himself as a plural being, what we come to learn and
know through the rest of scripture as the Trinity. If anyone or any religion doubts
the concept of the Trinity, they only need look at the Hebrew writing in the
opening line of the Bible.
“…created the
heavens…”
2)
The Hebrew word for “created” here is ‘Barah’ , which literally means ‘to create out of nothing’. It’s not
improving upon something or correcting something, but rather is starting with
nothing and ending with something.
-
Barah
is singular, so right off the bat, God is defined as a plural being, but acting
(creating) as one.
“…the Spirit of God was moving…”
3)
This is the first reference to the Holy Spirit
in scripture.
“Then God said, “Let there be light; and there was light.”
Question,
when you ‘say’ something what are these things called that spill out of your
mouth? Words, right?
4)
Cross reference with John 1:1 “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He
was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through Him, and
apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”
This verse tells us that it was the Word that created everything.
This verse tells us that it was the Word that created everything.
Now look at John 1:14: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Who in the Trinity became flesh? Jesus. So, if the Word is who created everythingand Jesus is the Word, A+B=C Jesus was the creator in Genesis 1!
Paul tells us in Colossians 1:15-17, “He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
Psalm 33:6 says “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His
mouth all their host.”
-
Again reiterating that
it was Jesus that created.
-
Not only is Jesus the
word who created ALL things, but all things are for Him and are held together
by Him. Jesus is a living part of everything
that exists. (Recount the atom story…)
NOTE: This is the first time we get
a look at the ‘mystery’ of the Trinity – in the first three verses of
scripture. Notice that that although one, each “person” acts independently, but
in conjunction with the others.
The creative power of God is
channeled through His word (the Son, Jesus) and His Spirit (the Holy Spirit).
Here, the Spirit was moving and when Christ said, “Let there be light”, light
came into existence.
According to these scriptures, the
first person of the Godhead mentioned individually, is the Holy Spirit. Even
though in verse 1 it says “God”, this is referring to the plural God, Elohim, the
Trinity, all three acting as one. This is significant because it is also the
Holy Spirit that we first come into contact with at salvation – not the Father
or the Son but it is the Holy Spirit that convicts us and leads us into
salvation. In turn, once convicted and surrendered, the Holy Spirit immediately
introduces us to the Son, Jesus.
NOTE: In every aspect of
redemption or blessing, the three persons of the Trinity are working together,
just as they were during creation, for our good – that’s how much God loves us!
(See Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:34; Acts 10:38; Hebrews
9:14 and Romans 1:4)
·
In every case it is 1) From God, the
Father (2) By the Spirit and (3) Through the Son.
·
In Hebrews
9:14, Christ the Son offers Himself to God the Father by way of the
Holy Spirit.
o
“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God?”
(NOTE: Hebrew for Holy
Spirit is ‘Ruach Hakodesh’, which literally translates to “spirit of holiness”)
·
In Romans
1:4 God the Father raised the Son by the Holy Spirit:
“And declared to
be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the
resurrection from the dead”
NOTE: Acts 10:38 defines the ministry of Christ in one verse. After being
anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, Jesus sets out ‘doing good’ (loving the
people), healing the sick and casting out demons.
Matthew 10:1 confirms that this is the ministry that Christ gave to
His disciples:
“Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over
unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every
kind of sickness.”
Notice that the disciples had not
yet experienced the “baptism in the Holy Spirit” when they were casting out
demons and healing the sick. What does this tell you? That this was and is the norm for all
followers of Christ! Who is a follower of Christ, you ask? Well, when Jesus
walked up to Matthew (Levi) and said “Follow
me”, in the original Koine Greek the word used for ‘follow’ there is ‘akoloutheo’ which literally means ‘to walk the same road’. That description doesn't apply to ‘pew
potatoes’ but true disciples of Christ.
When Christ sent out the 12 He
didn’t tell them to go make church members, He told them to make disciples, or
ones that were willing to walk in akoloutheo
with Him.
In Acts 2:32 says “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore
having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the
Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He (Jesus) has poured forth this (the
Holy Spirit) which you both see and hear.”
On Pentecost, the Son receives from the Father the Holy Spirit and pours
it out on His disciples. Jesus bestowed the Spirit on His disciples – this also
proves His statement in Matthew 28:20 when He told the disciples that He would
be with them until the end of the age.
ESTABLISHED PATTERN:
In every major stage in the plan of redemption, it’s Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, the triune Godhead, working together in one accord for the good of
man. God is totally on our side!! This pattern repeats itself many, many times
in scripture. Do you know how much God loves you?!?
The Holy Spirit, the Church and Accessing the Father
Ephesians 2:18 tells us that we access the Father, through the Son,
by way of the Holy Spirit.
“…for through Him (Jesus) we both have access
by one Spirit to the Father.”
It isn’t doctrine that gives us
access to the Father, it’s the Holy Spirit. This is why churches without the
Holy Spirit don’t see miracles – they don’t have access to the Father!
One of my favorite Derek Prince
quotes says “We can say all the right words but if the Holy Spirit isn’t there,
our prayers go no further than the ceiling of the church. Jesus is Lord over
the church, but the Holy Spirit is Lord in the church”
Ephesians 2:22 says “you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the
Spirit.”
Our Access To God
Notice the vertical relationship
and chain of command, so to speak, in accessing God the Father; from us through
Jesus (the Son), by the Holy Spirit, to the Father. The returned blessings come
from the Father, by the Spirit to the Son and to us. This displays, in graphic
form, what Jesus was saying in John 14:6,
“I am the way, and the
truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
As you can see, the
entire process is dependent upon the Holy Spirit. This has nothing to do with
‘religion’ or doctrine – we must have a personal relationship with the Holy
Spirit. This is one of the most major issues with the condition of the church
today – no relationship with the Holy Spirit. And, if the church has no
relationship with the Holy Spirit, their prayers aren’t heard by the Father;
God isn’t personally a living reality to them because the Holy Spirit is shut
down.
The Holy Spirit is a Person!
John 16:6-8 Here, Jesus is saying
farewell to His disciples and they were very upset at the news. He goes on to
explain to them that it is better for them if He goes, so that the Holy Spirit
could come. He goes as far as to say that as long as He was on earth, the Holy
Spirit could not come.
“But
because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 But I
tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not
go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And He,
when He comes, will convict
the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment”
NOTE: Notice that Jesus didn’t say
‘I will send it to you’. We
don’t ever refer to a person as an ‘it’ or an it as a ‘him’ do we? Of course not. The word ‘He’ then is in reference to a person and not an ‘it’. Just as Jesus is a person, so too is the Holy Spirit.
(Helper in the
Greek is ‘Parakletos’, which means ‘someone called in alongside’, an
advocate)
Further, this
scripture defines an exchange of persons – Jesus for the Holy Spirit. Notice
that Jesus instructs His disciples that is was to their advantage that He leave
them so that the Holy Spirit would come. This is because Jesus’ mission on
earth was done. On the cross He stated this, “It is finished”. Further, Jesus
knew that without the Holy Spirit alive and activated in the disciples, they would
not be endowed with power and therefore not prepared to complete their ministry
missions on earth.
NOTE: This
scripture also tells us that the power that Jesus had (to heal, cast out
demons, etc) did not come from Him
but from the Holy Spirit. This was depicted as the dove that descended from
heaven when Jesus was baptized and it also marked the beginning of His ministry.
In turn, Jesus knew that the disciples absolutely must have the Holy Spirit in
order to enter into their own ministries.
QUESTION:
Who are we to second guess the very process that Christ set forth as the model
for entering ministry? If it applied to the first century disciples it applies
to us as well.
This scripture also
tells us that we all can know the Father better and have a closer relationship
with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, than having Jesus sitting in the room with
us! Jesus Himself said this in so many words. The Holy Spirit is the personal
representative of God on earth and He is the only authorized representative of
God on earth. No one can take His place.
In 2 Corinthians 3:17 it tells us “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty (freedom).”
Here where it says “the Lord” it
refers to Jehovah or Yahweh, the same as
the OT but in NT terms. It means the ‘divine person’, the triune God. So, not
only is the Father Lord, the Son is also Lord and the Holy Spirit is also Lord.
Jesus is Lord over the church but the Holy Spirit is Lord in the church! The Lordship of Jesus is dependent on the Lordship
of the Holy Spirit! If we want to have Jesus as Lord, we must also have the
Holy Spirit as Lord!
In the church today, we will
confess Jesus as Lord, but until we make the Holy Spirit Lord in our lives, in
our meetings and in the church all we have is a label. Without the Holy Spirit
we do not have the seal of God’s approval – the very same approval that He gave
to the disciples on Pentecost.
The Blessing of the Holy Sprit
We have to relate to the Holy Spirit
as a person, not a set of rules or a theology or a doctrine. The Holy Spirit,
as a person, He is sensitive and He wants us to be sensitive about Him. Like the dove that came down when Jesus was
baptized, the Holy Spirit is looking for the person that is of the same nature
as He is. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he called Him the Lamb of God.
The biblical lamb speaks to us of
sacrifice – a laid down life. It speaks of purity and meekness and gentleness.
This is what the dove is looking for. Meekness is not weakness; being
meek means to be confident in your weakness. Paul says that in your weakness
God’s strength will be revealed in a way that will never be revealed in the
lives of selfish, self indulgent people.
LESSON: We won’t be blessed if the
Holy Spirit is looking for a lamb and we’re acting like a tiger or a donkey or
an elephant! Listen to the Holy Spirit, become the lamb! Lay yourself down for
Jesus and the Holy Spirit will bless you!
The Mission of the Holy Spirit
The primary mission of the Holy
Spirit is to complete the ministry of Christ through us. When Christ left the
earth, His disciples were in no shape to carry on His ministry. They were not
in accord with the heart of Christ or His mission. They were argumentative and
full of ego, even fighting amongst themselves over who was the greatest, etc.
But Jesus says, not to worry, I’m sending you the Holy Spirit to help you get your
act together in order to complete the mission I started.
In John 14:16-18, Jesus tells His disciples “ I will ask the Father, and He will give you
another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.18 “I
will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
If we try to live
the Christian life without the Holy Spirit, we are like orphans. Jesus provided
the Holy Spirit so that we would not be alone in walking the Christian
existence – but it is up to us to welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives.
Further, we must listen to Him when He speaks.
Jesus goes on to
say in John 14:25-26, “These things I have spoken to you while
abiding with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all that I said to you.”
Now get this. Jesus
never wrote a word down a record of His ministry, not one word. He left it to
His disciples to do for Him. This could never have been done without the help
from the Holy Spirit. The accuracy of
the NT doesn’t depend on the memories of the disciples, but on the supernatural
memory of the Holy Spirit. In addition, the Holy Spirit is our teacher. The
Holy Spirit completes our education and maturity as Christians.
In John 16:12-13, Jesus is still speaking
with His disciples when He instructs them “I
have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But
when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not
speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He
will disclose to you what is to come”
The Holy Spirit
isn’t just a teacher He is our guide into truth. It is He that “discloses what
is to come”. He reveals hidden truths to us through revelation. He shares
knowledge that we cannot come by any other way – words of knowledge and wisdom
and prophecy. He shares things that are spoken in heaven. Noah was warned about
things unseen that were coming his way and Jesus said ‘As it was in the days of
Noah, so it will be in the days when I come back’. We are currently living in a
most prolific time of prophecy. The prophetic word is coming from all
directions.
This is also why it
is important to pray about everything! I used to think my parents were nuts,
praying about mundane things like which car to buy, etc. but they were seeking
the voice of the Lord in absolutely every phase of their lives and that is how
we must approach it as well. God loves us and wants the very best for us, but
we have to learn to listen to His voice of guidance spoken through the Holy
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit in Relation to the Father
and the Son
John 16:14-15 goes on to say, “He (the Holy Spirit) will glorify Me, for He
will take of Mine and will disclose it
to you. 15 All
things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine
and will disclose it to you.”
Supernatural
revelation isn’t a luxury, it is something that is vital and needed in the
church today. Jesus said ‘as it was in the time of Noah, so shall it be when I
return’. Noah was given a supernatural revelation about what was coming his way
and was told by God to prepare an ark in order to survive it. In these end
times we need the same kind of supernatural revelation in order to prepare the
way of the Lord.
Another thing is
this, the Holy Spirit will always
glorify the Son. If you’re ever in doubt as to whether something is from the
Holy Spirit or not, you need simply to ask yourself one question, ‘does it
glorify Jesus’. The very first test of faith that I ever had happened when I
was driving down the road and the voice of the Lord told me to go back and talk
with a homeless man named Karl…(recount the four rules to tell if it is the Lord’s
voice)
1)
Is it something Jesus
would do?
2)
Does it glorify God?
3)
Does it go against
anything in scripture? – is it scripturally sound
4)
Does it put you in sever
danger?
If you can answer
in the negative sense to any of these, then it is not the voice of the Lord. If
anything you’re thinking about doing
glorifies a person, a doctrine, a movement or a denomination, it is not from
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will always
glorify the Son.
By the same token,
if you want to attract the Holy Spirit in your life, start glorifying Jesus and
He will show up. If you want the
anointing in your life, in your meetings and in your services, glorify Jesus.
Lift Him up, proclaim Him King and shout of His greatness and you will be
blessed.
This scripture
states that everything the Father has Jesus has also. But everything is under
the Holy Spirit, He is the administrator over it all. The Holy Spirit is the
key to all the treasures in heaven. In Ephesians
3:14-19 Paul prays that ‘of all the riches of His glory, that we
be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit’. He goes on to say that
the only way that we can experience the fullness of God is by way of the Holy
Spirit.
We can have
everything in theory, but if we don’t have the Holy Spirit in practice (read
experience) then all is for naught.
Five Assignments of the Holy Spirit
In the church, the
Holy Spirit functions in two phases:
Phase One
1)
To teach
2)
To remind
3)
To guide
4)
To reveal
5)
To administrator the
Kingdom
For these functions we need a
working relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Phase Two: To empower the body of Christ
In Acts 1:8 Jesus tells us that we will
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us. It is this power that enables
us to witness to the world and to do the work of the Kingdom on earth. It is
also the power of the Holy Spirit that will enable us to withstand the upcoming
persecution that is surely coming. Without the power of God, how could we stand
up to torture or the threat of death without giving in and renouncing Jesus?
The physical body can only withstand so much before it breaks; the Holy Spirit
can withstand anything. If we have the Holy Spirit activated in us, we can go
to the cross singing and skipping joyfully as Andrew did. Andrew hung on an
‘X-shaped’ cross for two days, preaching the Gospel to everyone within earshot.
Andrew is actually a Greek name which means “manly” or “of valor” –
valiant. Using Andrew as an example, the
Holy Spirit makes us ‘cheerfully valiant’ in the face of death.
In Acts we have the
perfect illustration of how the Holy Spirit works. When the disciples were in
wait in the upper room nobody in Jerusalem knew what was going on. But within
hours of them receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, everyone knew. There
were 3,000 that came to Christ within hours of the Holy Spirit being activated
in the disciples! Amen? The Holy Spirit stirs things up, He stirs people up. He
makes things happen!
One of the issues
facing the church today is that there are a lot of folks riding the fence when
it comes to the Holy Spirit. They’re trying to please the world and please God
at the same time, without making a full commitment to the ways of the Father.
Jesus said in Matthew 12:30 “You’re either for me or against me”
or in the Message Bible version “This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my
side, you’re the enemy”. There is no riding the fence, no grey area and
no middle ground when it comes to God. You’re either all in or you’re folding
your hand. When the Holy Spirit comes into full activation in your life He
electrifies the fence! You have to get off it and go to one side or the other!
This is why some churches reject the Holy Spirit all together. They are very
comfortable in their neutrality, their grey area. As a ministry partner says
‘They’re comfortable in their squishy diapers’.
In Hebrews 2:4 it says, “God also testifying with them, both by
signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit
according to His own will.”
Through the Holy
Spirit, God bears testimony to the truth of the Gospel. Mark tells us in Mark 16:17 “These signs will accompany those who have
believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new
tongues;”
We have no right to
preach a Gospel that isn’t witnessed supernaturally! Christ set the example and
who are we to change it?
Supernatural Quality of the Holy Spirit
If you take away
the supernatural aspect from the book of Acts the entire book would not exist.
The book used to be called The Acts of the Apostles, now just Acts. It really
should be called The Acts of the Holy Spirit because the supernatural aspect of
the Holy Spirit runs throughout.
There are four
areas where we specifically need this supernatural power:
1)
Prayer
2)
Ministry of the Gospel
3)
Victory over sin
4)
Building Christian
character
Apart from the Holy Spirit
none of these can be accomplished.
In Closing
As we have seen, according to the word of God throughout
the Gospel, when God sends someone
with a message there is always supernatural
testimony to that message. We in ministry are totally dependent on the
Holy Spirit. Without Him we cannot get the job done, plain and simple.
Hebrews 6:4 says “Therefore we have been buried
with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the
dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
It was the Glory of
the Father, the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus didn’t raise
Himself but instead trusted in the Father to raise Him by the Spirit. Just as
Jesus was raised from the dead so shall we walk in newness of life – by the Holy Spirit. We need to be
as dependent on the Holy Spirit as Jesus was for His own resurrection. We
cannot do it ourselves.
Having the Holy Spirit active in our lives is the only way we can fully live the
Christian walk. Anything less and we are deceiving ourselves.
God bless you.
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