The Presence of the Holy
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THE GHOST
THE GHOST
THE GHOST
THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY
PART 1
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
INTRODUCTION
Good morning Southpointe, we are starting this brand new series called The Ghost. We are not going to be talking about Casper the friendly ghost, or anything relating to that subject. But we are going to dealing with the Holy Ghost. What a time we are going to have thru this series. Let’s get started!!
He descends like a dove, He baptizes with fire, He comforts, guides and corrects; He is the Spirit of life, that sense of truth, the voice of God. When you are alone, lost and afraid, He will carry you home.
Over and over again, the Bible mentions the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost. In fact, the Spirit of God is mentioned over 800 times in scripture.
The Spirit of God is mentioned in the very second verse of the entire Bible.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
This word that is translated as Spirit‚ in the Old Testament is the word ‚Äòruwach‚Äô (roo‚Äô-akh); very literally, it means a wind or a breath, but not a normal breath, it means a violent exhalation, a blast of breath.
This word that is translated as ‘Spirit’ in the Old Testament is the word ‘ruwach’ (roo’-akh); very literally, it means a wind or a breath, but not a normal breath, it means a violent exhalation, a blast of breath. The Holy Spirit comes with power.In the New Testament, the Greek word that is translated as ‘Spirit’ is the word ‘pneuma’ (pnyoo’-mah); it means a wind, a current of air, a blast of breath. In the Old Testament times, the Spirit of God would actually descend upon people and then it would often depart. You can read very clearly that the Spirit of God was with Saul and it would leave Saul. The same with David; when David sinned against God with Bathsheba, he cried out to God; “Please don’t take your Spirit from me.” In the New Testament though, once Jesus left, He sent us His Holy Spirit. For those who are believers in Christ,the Holy Spirit will never, ever leave us, nor forsake us.
The Holy Spirit comes with power.
In the New Testament, the Greek word that is translated as Spirit is the word ‘pneuma’ (pnyoo’-mah); it means a wind, a current of air, a blast of breath.
The Holy Spirit comes with power.In the New Testament, the Greek word that is translated as ‘Spirit’ is the word ‘pneuma’ (pnyoo’-mah); it means a wind, a current of air, a blast of breath. In the Old Testament times, the Spirit of God would actually descend upon people and then it would often depart. You can read very clearly that the Spirit of God was with Saul and it would leave Saul. The same with David; when David sinned against God with Bathsheba, he cried out to God; “Please don’t take your Spirit from me.” In the New Testament though, once Jesus left, He sent us His Holy Spirit. For those who are believers in Christ,the Holy Spirit will never, ever leave us, nor forsake us.
In the Old Testament times, the Spirit of God would actually descend upon people and then it would often depart. You can read very clearly that the Spirit of God was with Saul and it would leave Saul.
The same with David; when David sinned against God with Bathsheba, he cried out to God;
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
In the New Testament, you can see the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus in the form of a dove.
ÄúPlease don‚Äôt take your Spirit from me.‚Äù In the New Testament though, once Jesus left, He sent us His Holy Spirit. For those who are believers in Christ,the Holy Spirit will never, ever leave us, nor forsake us.
In the New Testament, you can see the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus in the form of a dove. You can see the Holy Spirit falling on the people of God at the Pentecost, empowering them to speak in other tongues, and do all sorts of miraculous works. You see the Holy Spirit empowering people with spiritual gifts to live a supernatural life in a very natural world, and you see the Holy Spirit giving people the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. So many people live a Spirit-less life when God wants you to live a Spirit-filled and Spirit-powered life. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.Well, if you have your Bibles today, let’s open them up to John in the New Testament; John Chapter 14 today. We are starting the new series called; ‘The Ghost’, as we look at the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit. Now, I don’t know about you all, but when I was growing up, whenever I heard about the Holy Ghost, that kind of weirded me out! Yeah, I understood God the Father, makes sense. I have a Father, God the Son Jesus; I’ve seen pictures of Jesus, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus picture. Then, there was the Holy Ghost, orthe Holy Spirit and that just seemed really weird to me; I couldn’t understand it, I didn’t know what that was about. In fact, whenever I heard about a church that was way into the Holy Ghost, they were usually weird according to my opinion. They would be people with buns, you know, with their hair up and tambourines everywhere and people speaking in weird languages; that just seemed very foreign, something that I didn’t understand. So, if they had the Holy Ghost that seemed very, very unusual and weird to me, which I think a lot of people have possibly had similar experiences, which really has really led in my opinion, to a pendulum swing when it comes to the Holy Spirit. In all sorts of ministries, there would be some, where the pendulum swings tookwhat I would call an over-emphasis. In other places, there would be what I would call a gross under-emphasis. When it comes to the Holy Ghost, there are some that would actually over-emphasize the Holy Ghost; everything is, Holy Ghost, come, Holy Ghost, Holy Ghost, Holy Ghost! And, if something odd happens, like maybe just a Bible would just fall off a ledge, they might say; “I bind you, demon of Bible falling Holy Ghost, get those demons out of here!” And there is just an over-emphasis, everything, everything, everything Holy Ghost. But, what is probably a far more common problem is an under-emphasis. We understand God the Father, and then there is God the Son; and then there is that other guy, the one we don’t talk about, kind of like a weird cousinEddy, that nobody brings up at family meals. It’s, I don’t understand, I know there is the Trinity and all and I know there is a Holy Spirit. But, when you think about Holy Spirit, it is usually for those weird people over there, and not us; over-emphasis, or under-emphasis. What we would like to do in the next few weeks is to get a Biblical understanding on who exactly is the Holy Spirit, and what role does He play in the life of believers. So, we are going to start in John, Chapter 14; and we aregoing to look at some of the words of Jesus today to build a foundational understanding and I pray within the next few weeks, that we would all grow to know, even more intimately the presence of God and His Power, through His Holy Spirit.John, Chapter 14, we will start in verse 16; the words of Jesus as He was comforting His disciples, explaining that He was going to go away, build mansions for them in Heaven, but He was going to send someone that would be even better than Him and He said this; “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you,” (not for a little while) “He will be with you forever.” (Who is this Counselor?) Verse 17 shows us the Counselor is the Holy Spirit; he calls the Counselor the Spirit of Truth.Then, Scripture says, and this really relates to me as a child; “The world cannot accept him,” (the Holy Spirit) “Because it neither sees him nor knows him.” Which is kind of where I was, I was skeptical, I didn’t understand that whole Spirit thing, the Holy Ghost thing, I didn’t know him, couldn’t see him, and therefore did not accept him. But, Jesus goes on to say, “But you know him, for he lives with you,” (and then here is his promise, and his promise is...) “He will be in you.” The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, you know him and he will be in you and with you. Now, what is interesting to me is first of all, the Holy Spirit is not an ‘it’. Sometimes people will say, “Well, ‘it’s’ leading me to do something.” Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as Him, it is the third person of God in the Trinity; it is very literally God in Spirit form. So, when you read about the Holy Spirit in Scripture, you find that you can actually grieve the Holy Spirit. You see, the Spirit as God inSpirit form has emotions. The Bible says the Holy Spirit loves you and Jesus is gonna say, “I’m going to go away and send the Spirit to be within you and he calls him a Counselor; which comes from the Greek word, ‘parakletos’ (par-ak-lay-tos); or the root word is the word, ‘paraklete’. It comes from two words; para, which means along side of, like paralegal to come along side, or para church, not a church, but to come along side the church. And, kletos comes from the Greek word kaleo, which we’ve studied before; it means ‘called’. Very literally, the paraklete, the Holy Spirit, is the one who is called alongside of, or to be inside of the believer in Jesus. Who is the parakletos? If you are looking in your notes, very literally this word can be translated as an ‘intercessor’. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the one who intercedes, or prays for you. He is also your Counselor. The Holy Spirit is your advocate before God. He is your Comforter, He is your helper; the parakletos. God in Spirit form, who is called along side of you, or inside of you to be your Comforter, to be your Counselor, to be your Intercessor, to be your Helper; very literally, to be your friend. Now, when I think about a choice between Jesus in the flesh, or the Holy Spirit; my first thought is, I’m going to take Jesus with me. Now, imagine this; imagine if Jesus were walking along in physical form on the earth today, how cool would that be? Think about it, you get a head ache, you’re like, “Jesus, my head hurts”....poof! Your head doesn’t hurt anymore, I mean that is cool, he could do that! Your dog gets run over by a car and is killed. You’re like, “Jesus, Fido’s dead.” And Jesus goes, “Fido live!” And, Fido lives and barks and runs off! That’sawesome! Your cat gets run over by a car, and Jesus, on the spot can do the funeral right there! Bury that cat! Just joking! Let’s say, all you have is a bag full of Cheetos, and a half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and you have got all these people to feed. Jesus looks at them and goes...poof! You’ve got Cheetos for everybody; you’ve got peanut butter and jelly for everybody. Jesus in the flesh, that seems like the best thing ever. But, Jesus is going to show us that there is actually something that is better for us than Him in the flesh. It’s an amazing promise and he says it this way in ; he says, “It’s actually best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the (parakletos, the Helper, the Intercessor, the Counselor, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit) Counselor won’t come. If I do go away, he will come because I will send him to you.” “It’s actually best for you,” Jesus says, “if I am not here, but instead, the Holy Spirit comes, who will dwell within you and will never leave you or forsake you.” God’s presence, amazing! What does the Holy Spirit do? Well, this week we will look at what the Holy Spirit does within the believer. Next week, I want to show you the power of the Holy Spirit to equip you to live a supernatural life, in a very natural world. The Holy Spirit, He gives you Spiritual gifts, the gift of faith, the gift of healing, the gift of prophecy, the gift of wisdom, the gift of speaking in other tongues, the Holy Spirit gives you Spiritual fruit. Whenever the world is going crazy, you can still have the fruits of the spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. But, when you look today at Christians around the world, what you sooften see is believers in Jesus, but people who look no different from the rest of the world. They are still bound in prison to the same sins as other people. You see Christians whose prayer lives are basically flat. You see people who are afraid and struggling and gripped by fear and worried and anxiety. We believe in Jesus, yet our lives have no real Power. Why is that? Because so many people today are living what I call a Spirit-less life; when God wants his children to live a Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered, Spirit-led and Spirit-equipped life of victory to please God the Father. Why is it that so many people today are living a Spirit-less life? There are many reasons, but we want to just look at two briefly. The first one, if you are taking notes, is this: Some people aren’t even aware of the Holy Spirit. Many of you, you may say, “I’ve heard of the Holy Spirit, but I don’t really know what He does. You know, it’s kind of like I was a kid, that’s kind of weird; yeah, I know there is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but I just know that is about it, the extent of it. Acts, Chapter 19, verses 1-3; really interesting story that relates. Scripture says, “While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There, he found some disciples, (these were believers in Jesus) and he asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’” Obviously, these people were not at Pentecost when the Spirit came, they were baptized by John the Baptist if you read on. He asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit?” And they answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” We heard about Jesus, we knew John the Baptist, but who is the Holy Spirit? We don’t know anything about him. And, there are many of you who would be in a very similar place; We have heard about him, but that is about it. Or, who is the Holy Spirit? I don’t understand anything about him. There is a whole other world of power that is available to the believers through God, the Holy Spirit. A lot of people just don’t know about it. It is a little bit about like, my traveling. I have traveled for years, but, I have never purchased a first-class ticket, it is just not my style. But, I have traveled so much this year; I have got status on a couple of airlines. But, I am getting bumped up to first class almost every time. When I fly internationally, this year, a couple of conferences I went to, they purchase for me a business-class ticket so I can rest better and I can get off the plane after 20 hours and preach 9 times in a matter of a few days; they did that to be a blessing to me. I have got to be honest with you, although I’ve never done that before this year, I have got to tell you, there are 2 types of people; there’s me the common type, that always gets on those big planes and turns right, you know, you go to the back of the plane where the cheap seats are. There are some people, who they for years have been turning left; there is a little curtain, a little drape they pull. I’ve never known what is on the other side of the curtain. But, they turn left and they go into this upper class area and then they pull the curtain to keep us common folks out. For 40 years, I’ve sat in the cheap seats, you sit back there like this (crunched), there is like someone right in front of you and for 20 hours you are on this plane. Well, because someone else paid, I got to go on the other side of the drapes. I have got to tell you, it’s not bad up there, it’s not. Back here, they are not as nice to you! Up here they call you, “Sir”; back here, they call you “Shut up and get back to your seat!” Up here, honest to goodness, some of you, you’ve never done this, like I haven’t before this year, they have seats, they turn into beds. They lay out, you can stretch out. They bring you your drinks in a glass, like a real glass. You can have anything you want any time. They bring them to you. In the cheap seats, they give you pretzels in a little bag, up in the expensive seats they give you warm nuts! Warm nuts! My whole life, I have never wanted warm nuts! And I stand by that comment until I die. I promise you I stand by that comment, I’ve never thought about microwaving nuts! I feel like I’m in an awkward moment right now! Who ever thought of that? They give you warm wash cloths too, so you can towel off your forehead. On the other side of the drapes, on one flight, I got pajamas! Honest to goodness, they gave me little booties for my feet. Booties! Little booties for my feet, so that I would be comfortable while I’m lying down on this bed. You get off and they have got these little lounges, I never knew that! I would walk right by these lounges, they have been there forever, I never knew it. I went in, I was in one and honest to goodness, I was in this lounge and they give you free haircuts and massages. I am not lying! A little person did this to my shoulders for 10 minutes for free! On the other side of the curtain, there is a life I knew nothing of!
You can see the Holy Spirit falling on the people of God at the Pentecost, empowering them to speak in other tongues, and do all sorts of miraculous works.
You see the Holy Spirit empowering people with spiritual gifts to live a supernatural life in a very natural world, and you see the Holy Spirit giving people the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control.
So many people live a Spirit-less life when God wants you to live a Spirit-filled and Spirit-powered life.
Now listen to me and please don’t take me wrong, I wasn’t really brought up in church but the church that we attended when we attended was Freewill Baptist church, and It was not high on the Holy Ghost.
In fact, When I was first introduce to the Assembly of God, it was thru an experience that my brother Joey had at an old fashion campmeeting in Poteau,Oklahoma. And all I knew was that they scared my brother and he was in tears and I was ready to kill.
So whenever I heard about a church that was that way into the Holy Ghost, they were usually weird according to my opinion. They would be people with buns, you know, with their hair up and tambourines everywhere and people speaking in weird languages; that just seemed very foreign, something that I didn’t understand.
So, if they had the Holy Ghost that seemed very, very unusual and weird to me, which I think a lot of people have possibly that same experiences, which really has really led in my opinion, basically turn people away from the Holy Spirit.
When it comes to the Holy Ghost, there are some that would actually over-emphasize the Holy Ghost; everything is, Holy Ghost, come, Holy Ghost, Holy Ghost, Holy Ghost!
But, what is probably a far more common problem is an under-emphasis. We understand God the Father, and then there is God the Son; and then there is that other guy, the one we don’t talk about, kind of like a weird cousin Eddy, that nobody brings up at family meals.
I know there is the Trinity and all and I know there is a Holy Spirit. But, when you think about Holy Spirit, it is usually for those weird people over there, and not us; over-emphasis, or under-emphasis.
What we would like to do in the next few weeks is to get a Biblical understanding on who exactly is the Holy Spirit, and what role does He play in the life of believers.
But, what is probably a far more common problem is an under-emphasis. We understand God the Father, and then there is God the Son; and then there is that other guy, the one we don’t talk about, kind of like a weird cousinEddy, that nobody brings up at family meals. It’s, I don’t understand, I know there is the Trinity and all and I know there is a Holy Spirit. But, when you think about Holy Spirit, it is usually for those weird people over there, and not us; over-emphasis, or under-emphasis. What we would like to do in the next few weeks is to get a Biblical understanding on who exactly is the Holy Spirit, and what role does He play in the life of believers. So, we are going to start in John, Chapter 14; and we aregoing to look at some of the words of Jesus today to build a foundational understanding and I pray within the next few weeks, that we would all grow to know, even more intimately the presence of God and His Power, through His Holy Spirit.John, Chapter 14, we will start in verse 16; the words of Jesus as He was comforting His disciples, explaining that He was going to go away, build mansions for them in Heaven, but He was going to send someone that would be even better than Him and He said this; “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you,” (not for a little while) “He will be with you forever.” (Who is this Counselor?) Verse 17 shows us the Counselor is the Holy Spirit; he calls the Counselor the Spirit of Truth.Then, Scripture says, and this really relates to me as a child; “The world cannot accept him,” (the Holy Spirit) “Because it neither sees him nor knows him.” Which is kind of where I was, I was skeptical, I didn’t understand that whole Spirit thing, the Holy Ghost thing, I didn’t know him, couldn’t see him, and therefore did not accept him. But, Jesus goes on to say, “But you know him, for he lives with you,” (and then here is his promise, and his promise is...) “He will be in you.” The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, you know him and he will be in you and with you. Now, what is interesting to me is first of all, the Holy Spirit is not an ‘it’. Sometimes people will say, “Well, ‘it’s’ leading me to do something.” Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as Him, it is the third person of God in the Trinity; it is very literally God in Spirit form. So, when you read about the Holy Spirit in Scripture, you find that you can actually grieve the Holy Spirit. You see, the Spirit as God inSpirit form has emotions. The Bible says the Holy Spirit loves you and Jesus is gonna say, “I’m going to go away and send the Spirit to be within you and he calls him a Counselor; which comes from the Greek word, ‘parakletos’ (par-ak-lay-tos); or the root word is the word, ‘paraklete’. It comes from two words; para, which means along side of, like paralegal to come along side, or para church, not a church, but to come along side the church. And, kletos comes from the Greek word kaleo, which we’ve studied before; it means ‘called’. Very literally, the paraklete, the Holy Spirit, is the one who is called alongside of, or to be inside of the believer in Jesus. Who is the parakletos? If you are looking in your notes, very literally this word can be translated as an ‘intercessor’. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the one who intercedes, or prays for you. He is also your Counselor. The Holy Spirit is your advocate before God. He is your Comforter, He is your helper; the parakletos. God in Spirit form, who is called along side of you, or inside of you to be your Comforter, to be your Counselor, to be your Intercessor, to be your Helper; very literally, to be your friend. Now, when I think about a choice between Jesus in the flesh, or the Holy Spirit; my first thought is, I’m going to take Jesus with me. Now, imagine this; imagine if Jesus were walking along in physical form on the earth today, how cool would that be? Think about it, you get a head ache, you’re like, “Jesus, my head hurts”....poof! Your head doesn’t hurt anymore, I mean that is cool, he could do that! Your dog gets run over by a car and is killed. You’re like, “Jesus, Fido’s dead.” And Jesus goes, “Fido live!” And, Fido lives and barks and runs off! That’sawesome! Your cat gets run over by a car, and Jesus, on the spot can do the funeral right there! Bury that cat! Just joking! Let’s say, all you have is a bag full of Cheetos, and a half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and you have got all these people to feed. Jesus looks at them and goes...poof! You’ve got Cheetos for everybody; you’ve got peanut butter and jelly for everybody. Jesus in the flesh, that seems like the best thing ever. But, Jesus is going to show us that there is actually something that is better for us than Him in the flesh. It’s an amazing promise and he says it this way in ; he says, “It’s actually best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the (parakletos, the Helper, the Intercessor, the Counselor, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit) Counselor won’t come. If I do go away, he will come because I will send him to you.” “It’s actually best for you,” Jesus says, “if I am not here, but instead, the Holy Spirit comes, who will dwell within you and will never leave you or forsake you.” God’s presence, amazing! What does the Holy Spirit do? Well, this week we will look at what the Holy Spirit does within the believer. Next week, I want to show you the power of the Holy Spirit to equip you to live a supernatural life, in a very natural world. The Holy Spirit, He gives you Spiritual gifts, the gift of faith, the gift of healing, the gift of prophecy, the gift of wisdom, the gift of speaking in other tongues, the Holy Spirit gives you Spiritual fruit. Whenever the world is going crazy, you can still have the fruits of the spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. But, when you look today at Christians around the world, what you sooften see is believers in Jesus, but people who look no different from the rest of the world. They are still bound in prison to the same sins as other people. You see Christians whose prayer lives are basically flat. You see people who are afraid and struggling and gripped by fear and worried and anxiety. We believe in Jesus, yet our lives have no real Power. Why is that? Because so many people today are living what I call a Spirit-less life; when God wants his children to live a Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered, Spirit-led and Spirit-equipped life of victory to please God the Father. Why is it that so many people today are living a Spirit-less life? There are many reasons, but we want to just look at two briefly. The first one, if you are taking notes, is this: Some people aren’t even aware of the Holy Spirit. Many of you, you may say, “I’ve heard of the Holy Spirit, but I don’t really know what He does. You know, it’s kind of like I was a kid, that’s kind of weird; yeah, I know there is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but I just know that is about it, the extent of it. Acts, Chapter 19, verses 1-3; really interesting story that relates. Scripture says, “While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There, he found some disciples, (these were believers in Jesus) and he asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’” Obviously, these people were not at Pentecost when the Spirit came, they were baptized by John the Baptist if you read on. He asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit?” And they answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” We heard about Jesus, we knew John the Baptist, but who is the Holy Spirit? We don’t know anything about him. And, there are many of you who would be in a very similar place; We have heard about him, but that is about it. Or, who is the Holy Spirit? I don’t understand anything about him. There is a whole other world of power that is available to the believers through God, the Holy Spirit. A lot of people just don’t know about it. It is a little bit about like, my traveling. I have traveled for years, but, I have never purchased a first-class ticket, it is just not my style. But, I have traveled so much this year; I have got status on a couple of airlines. But, I am getting bumped up to first class almost every time. When I fly internationally, this year, a couple of conferences I went to, they purchase for me a business-class ticket so I can rest better and I can get off the plane after 20 hours and preach 9 times in a matter of a few days; they did that to be a blessing to me. I have got to be honest with you, although I’ve never done that before this year, I have got to tell you, there are 2 types of people; there’s me the common type, that always gets on those big planes and turns right, you know, you go to the back of the plane where the cheap seats are. There are some people, who they for years have been turning left; there is a little curtain, a little drape they pull. I’ve never known what is on the other side of the curtain. But, they turn left and they go into this upper class area and then they pull the curtain to keep us common folks out. For 40 years, I’ve sat in the cheap seats, you sit back there like this (crunched), there is like someone right in front of you and for 20 hours you are on this plane. Well, because someone else paid, I got to go on the other side of the drapes. I have got to tell you, it’s not bad up there, it’s not. Back here, they are not as nice to you! Up here they call you, “Sir”; back here, they call you “Shut up and get back to your seat!” Up here, honest to goodness, some of you, you’ve never done this, like I haven’t before this year, they have seats, they turn into beds. They lay out, you can stretch out. They bring you your drinks in a glass, like a real glass. You can have anything you want any time. They bring them to you. In the cheap seats, they give you pretzels in a little bag, up in the expensive seats they give you warm nuts! Warm nuts! My whole life, I have never wanted warm nuts! And I stand by that comment until I die. I promise you I stand by that comment, I’ve never thought about microwaving nuts! I feel like I’m in an awkward moment right now! Who ever thought of that? They give you warm wash cloths too, so you can towel off your forehead. On the other side of the drapes, on one flight, I got pajamas! Honest to goodness, they gave me little booties for my feet. Booties! Little booties for my feet, so that I would be comfortable while I’m lying down on this bed. You get off and they have got these little lounges, I never knew that! I would walk right by these lounges, they have been there forever, I never knew it. I went in, I was in one and honest to goodness, I was in this lounge and they give you free haircuts and massages. I am not lying! A little person did this to my shoulders for 10 minutes for free! On the other side of the curtain, there is a life I knew nothing of!
So, we are going to start in John, Chapter 14; and we aregoing to look at some of the words of Jesus today to build a foundational understanding and I pray within the next few weeks, that we would all grow to know, even more intimately the presence of God and His Power, through His Holy Spirit.John, Chapter 14, we will start in verse 16; the words of Jesus as He was comforting His disciples, explaining that He was going to go away, build mansions for them in Heaven, but He was going to send someone that would be even better than Him and He said this; “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you,” (not for a little while) “He will be with you forever.” (Who is this Counselor?) Verse 17 shows us the Counselor is the Holy Spirit; he calls the Counselor the Spirit of Truth.Then, Scripture says, and this really relates to me as a child; “The world cannot accept him,” (the Holy Spirit) “Because it neither sees him nor knows him.” Which is kind of where I was, I was skeptical, I didn’t understand that whole Spirit thing, the Holy Ghost thing, I didn’t know him, couldn’t see him, and therefore did not accept him. But, Jesus goes on to say, “But you know him, for he lives with you,” (and then here is his promise, and his promise is...) “He will be in you.” The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, you know him and he will be in you and with you. Now, what is interesting to me is first of all, the Holy Spirit is not an ‘it’. Sometimes people will say, “Well, ‘it’s’ leading me to do something.” Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as Him, it is the third person of God in the Trinity; it is very literally God in Spirit form. So, when you read about the Holy Spirit in Scripture, you find that you can actually grieve the Holy Spirit. You see, the Spirit as God inSpirit form has emotions. The Bible says the Holy Spirit loves you and Jesus is gonna say, “I’m going to go away and send the Spirit to be within you and he calls him a Counselor; which comes from the Greek word, ‘parakletos’ (par-ak-lay-tos); or the root word is the word, ‘paraklete’. It comes from two words; para, which means along side of, like paralegal to come along side, or para church, not a church, but to come along side the church. And, kletos comes from the Greek word kaleo, which we’ve studied before; it means ‘called’. Very literally, the paraklete, the Holy Spirit, is the one who is called alongside of, or to be inside of the believer in Jesus. Who is the parakletos? If you are looking in your notes, very literally this word can be translated as an ‘intercessor’. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the one who intercedes, or prays for you. He is also your Counselor. The Holy Spirit is your advocate before God. He is your Comforter, He is your helper; the parakletos. God in Spirit form, who is called along side of you, or inside of you to be your Comforter, to be your Counselor, to be your Intercessor, to be your Helper; very literally, to be your friend. Now, when I think about a choice between Jesus in the flesh, or the Holy Spirit; my first thought is, I’m going to take Jesus with me. Now, imagine this; imagine if Jesus were walking along in physical form on the earth today, how cool would that be? Think about it, you get a head ache, you’re like, “Jesus, my head hurts”....poof! Your head doesn’t hurt anymore, I mean that is cool, he could do that! Your dog gets run over by a car and is killed. You’re like, “Jesus, Fido’s dead.” And Jesus goes, “Fido live!” And, Fido lives and barks and runs off! That’sawesome! Your cat gets run over by a car, and Jesus, on the spot can do the funeral right there! Bury that cat! Just joking! Let’s say, all you have is a bag full of Cheetos, and a half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and you have got all these people to feed. Jesus looks at them and goes...poof! You’ve got Cheetos for everybody; you’ve got peanut butter and jelly for everybody. Jesus in the flesh, that seems like the best thing ever. But, Jesus is going to show us that there is actually something that is better for us than Him in the flesh. It’s an amazing promise and he says it this way in ; he says, “It’s actually best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the (parakletos, the Helper, the Intercessor, the Counselor, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit) Counselor won’t come. If I do go away, he will come because I will send him to you.” “It’s actually best for you,” Jesus says, “if I am not here, but instead, the Holy Spirit comes, who will dwell within you and will never leave you or forsake you.” God’s presence, amazing! What does the Holy Spirit do? Well, this week we will look at what the Holy Spirit does within the believer. Next week, I want to show you the power of the Holy Spirit to equip you to live a supernatural life, in a very natural world. The Holy Spirit, He gives you Spiritual gifts, the gift of faith, the gift of healing, the gift of prophecy, the gift of wisdom, the gift of speaking in other tongues, the Holy Spirit gives you Spiritual fruit. Whenever the world is going crazy, you can still have the fruits of the spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. But, when you look today at Christians around the world, what you sooften see is believers in Jesus, but people who look no different from the rest of the world. They are still bound in prison to the same sins as other people. You see Christians whose prayer lives are basically flat. You see people who are afraid and struggling and gripped by fear and worried and anxiety. We believe in Jesus, yet our lives have no real Power. Why is that? Because so many people today are living what I call a Spirit-less life; when God wants his children to live a Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered, Spirit-led and Spirit-equipped life of victory to please God the Father. Why is it that so many people today are living a Spirit-less life? There are many reasons, but we want to just look at two briefly. The first one, if you are taking notes, is this: Some people aren’t even aware of the Holy Spirit. Many of you, you may say, “I’ve heard of the Holy Spirit, but I don’t really know what He does. You know, it’s kind of like I was a kid, that’s kind of weird; yeah, I know there is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but I just know that is about it, the extent of it. Acts, Chapter 19, verses 1-3; really interesting story that relates. Scripture says, “While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There, he found some disciples, (these were believers in Jesus) and he asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’” Obviously, these people were not at Pentecost when the Spirit came, they were baptized by John the Baptist if you read on. He asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit?” And they answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” We heard about Jesus, we knew John the Baptist, but who is the Holy Spirit? We don’t know anything about him. And, there are many of you who would be in a very similar place; We have heard about him, but that is about it. Or, who is the Holy Spirit? I don’t understand anything about him. There is a whole other world of power that is available to the believers through God, the Holy Spirit. A lot of people just don’t know about it. It is a little bit about like, my traveling. I have traveled for years, but, I have never purchased a first-class ticket, it is just not my style. But, I have traveled so much this year; I have got status on a couple of airlines. But, I am getting bumped up to first class almost every time. When I fly internationally, this year, a couple of conferences I went to, they purchase for me a business-class ticket so I can rest better and I can get off the plane after 20 hours and preach 9 times in a matter of a few days; they did that to be a blessing to me. I have got to be honest with you, although I’ve never done that before this year, I have got to tell you, there are 2 types of people; there’s me the common type, that always gets on those big planes and turns right, you know, you go to the back of the plane where the cheap seats are. There are some people, who they for years have been turning left; there is a little curtain, a little drape they pull. I’ve never known what is on the other side of the curtain. But, they turn left and they go into this upper class area and then they pull the curtain to keep us common folks out. For 40 years, I’ve sat in the cheap seats, you sit back there like this (crunched), there is like someone right in front of you and for 20 hours you are on this plane. Well, because someone else paid, I got to go on the other side of the drapes. I have got to tell you, it’s not bad up there, it’s not. Back here, they are not as nice to you! Up here they call you, “Sir”; back here, they call you “Shut up and get back to your seat!” Up here, honest to goodness, some of you, you’ve never done this, like I haven’t before this year, they have seats, they turn into beds. They lay out, you can stretch out. They bring you your drinks in a glass, like a real glass. You can have anything you want any time. They bring them to you. In the cheap seats, they give you pretzels in a little bag, up in the expensive seats they give you warm nuts! Warm nuts! My whole life, I have never wanted warm nuts! And I stand by that comment until I die. I promise you I stand by that comment, I’ve never thought about microwaving nuts! I feel like I’m in an awkward moment right now! Who ever thought of that? They give you warm wash cloths too, so you can towel off your forehead. On the other side of the drapes, on one flight, I got pajamas! Honest to goodness, they gave me little booties for my feet. Booties! Little booties for my feet, so that I would be comfortable while I’m lying down on this bed. You get off and they have got these little lounges, I never knew that! I would walk right by these lounges, they have been there forever, I never knew it. I went in, I was in one and honest to goodness, I was in this lounge and they give you free haircuts and massages. I am not lying! A little person did this to my shoulders for 10 minutes for free! On the other side of the curtain, there is a life I knew nothing of!
Christians all over the world are going through life without this power, without this victory, without the strength. And, on the other side, there is a Spiritual power from God in Heaven that is greater than you could ever imagine. The very same (check this out!) Spirit, that raised Christ from the dead is available to every believer. He will fill you, direct you, comfort you, guide you, counsel you, convict you, empower you; and it is available. So many people are living a Spirit-less life, because they are unaware of the power and the presence of God, the Holy Spirit. Why are so many people living a Spirit-less life? Many are just simply unaware. Second, if you are taking notes, some people are simply resisting the Holy Spirit. That would be many of you, the Holy Spirit has prompted you, if you are a believer, has led you to do something, and you have kind of said, “Oh, I don’t want to do that!” Many of you, you’ve been going about and you are about to do something that is not right and the Holy Spirit convicts you; “Don’t do that, that is the wrong thing!” But, you say, “I want to!” So, you push the Holy Spirit away. Sometimes the Holy Spirit prompts you to do something good; give something to bless someone else, and you push that away and say, “I don’t want to do that!” You’ve resisted the Holy Spirit for so long, that your heart has become hardened to the gentle promptings of the Spirit of God. Stephen, in the New Testament, very young and courageous and bold believer was given the Sanhedrin, the religious people, a good chewing right before they stoned him to death. This is what he said to them; he said this in , he said, “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears!” (That is a big cut down) Then he says, “You are just like your fathers,” you always do what? Say it aloud, “You always resist the Holy Spirit.” Some of you may say, “Well, I am not sure the Holy Spirit really prompts me, or moves me, or speaks to me.” It could be that you have resisted the Holy Spirit so often your hearts have become hard. I have learned through failures, to try very hard not to resist when I feel like the Holy Spirit is prompting me. Sometimes people will say, “Craig, how do you know if it’s the Holy Spirit prompting you verses your own thoughts?” Well, because I’m selfish in nature, if there is something benefitting me, I tend to think that is probably me, my own thoughts. If there is something that doesn’t benefit me, it benefits others and mightbring glory to God, I just make an assumption, that is the Holy Spirit. If I am being convicting not to do something that I really know is wrong, I assume that is the Holy Spirit. If I am feeling led to do something that is going to be a blessing to others, I just assume that is the Holy Spirit. If it’s not, I do something good, then the worst thing that happened was, I did something good. And so, if it’s a blessing to others, I just tend to assume, or come to the assumption that it is the Holy Spirit ministering me to do something unto others. A good example is that recently I have a friend who lost his job and his wife was leaving him. I was in another time zone and hadn’t spoken for a few weeks, and all of a sudden I had an incredible burden, a Spiritual burden, that I needed to call my friend. I looked at the time and I did the calculations, okay, where he is now, it’s 15 minutes to midnight. I felt this burden to call him and I said, I can’t call him, it’s too late, I will wake him up, I can’t do this. The burden just continued, and I started to resist what I thought was the Holy Spirit and finally I said, no, I have learned through failures, that I just need to call this guy. So, I dialed the phone, and at a quarter to midnight, he picked up the phone and he said, “Is this Pastor Craig?” I was like, “How did you know?” He said, “I’ve got caller ID.” I said, “Oh!” He said, “Why are you calling me this late at night?” All of a sudden I thought, “Man, I shouldn’t of done this” and I said, “I am so sorry, I just felt like I should call you.” And he said, “Why are you calling me now?” And I was just honest with him, I said, “I was overwhelmed with this feeling that God wanted me to call you.” And he asked me again, he said, “But, why now? Why at this moment?” And suddenly, his voice started to break and I could hear him crying and he just said, “Why now?” I can’t believe that you are calling me now.” Well, a week later, he told me the truth, thathe was sitting there, right when his phone rang, with a loaded gun, thinking of taking his own life. That my friends, is the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s not something that I can manufacture, that is not something that is human, that is the Spirit of God, speaking into me, and I am so thankful that I did not resist the Holy Spirit. That is what far too many people do, the Holy Spirit leads you not to do something and you are all, “Oh, I want to do that!” The Holy Spirit prompts you to do something, “I don’t want to do that!” And you resist the Holy Spirit. Well, you can actually grieve the Holy Spirit, and your heart can become hardened. It is a little bit like my wife, Amy, she wants to make out all the time, all the time, all the time, allthe time! She always wants to make out with me and stuff and I resist her for a few days, and eventually I wear down, I give into her, you know, and minister to her needs and such. It’s just something I do cuz I’m a good husband! Okay, I’m joking! But imagine if you would, that she is always doing that, and I always, always resisted her. After a while, she is not going to push herself on me and the Holy Spirit is a gentleman; he will not push himself on you. If you resist him long enough, your heart might grow so hard that you don’t recognize the promptings of the Spirit of God. Why are so many people today living a Spirit-less life? Some are not aware. Others have become so skilled at resisting the Holy Spirit. So, for the next few minutes, whatI want to talk about is the internal working of how the Holy Spirit can minister to us and we will briefly look at 3 different ways the Spirit will minister to us. The first way, if you are taking notes, is this: The Holy Spirit, he will comfort you. The Holy Spirit is called a Comforter, and he will comfort you when you are hurting. Here is what Scripture says in John, Chapter 14, verse 16; the King James Version translates parakletos this way: “And I” Jesus says, “Will pray to the Father, and hewill give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.” This is the presence of God, the Holy Spirit. And what is amazing to me, is there are those of you now at all of our campuses, in groups this size, there will be those of you going through something very difficult right now. I can promise you, that many of you at this moment, you will sense because he is here, you will sense the presence of the Holy Spirit. Even though you are hurting, you can sense his Comfort. He can Comfort you withthe peace that goes beyond all human understanding. It is the Comforting presence of God the Holy Spirit. I watched my assistant I’ve served with, a gal named Sarah, who is married to Steve; she’s served with me for probably 7 or 8 years. She was justa kid when she started out. She was 25ish, Steve was 26 or so. When she was 26 years of age, Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer. I watched, as this young couple with their whole life ahead of them, went into this very traumatic, life-threatening battle. She went through the whole double mastectomy thing and I watched. They were not shaken at all. Couldn’t believe it, they weren’t shaken at all! When it was all over, I asked them, “Tell me, how did you go through this without showing any visible signs of struggling?” And they said, “Well, we actually never really did struggle, it was weird. Basically, we just put scripture up all over our house and we just listened to worship music.” They said, “The Holy Spirit just comforted us every single day.” That is an other worldly peace in the middle of a trial and God can do that for you through his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can comfort you.The second thing, if you are taking notes is the Holy Spirit can also counsel you. He is your counselor, or he is your guide. You don’t know what to do and he can direct you. Scripture says it this way in ; Jesus said, “But he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you in all truth.” You do not know what to do, and so you just start praying and the Holy Spirit can give you direction, he can give you wisdom, he can give you discernment. It is a little bit like, one time I did an interview in with a national morning show thing and instead of flying up there, they agreed to let me stay and go into a studio. So, they hooked me up in front of a camera and they put an ear piece into my ear and I could hear the producer talking the whole time. The producer said, “Okay, we have got 30 seconds till a commercial, keep your answers short.” So, I kept my answers short. They go, “Five seconds to a commercial,” and the announcer guy would take over and it would go to a commercial. Then, I would sit there, and they said, “Thirty seconds before we are live again. Okay, okay, were ready, sit up straight. Okay, then smile....5,4..” And the whole time, this voice was leading me through the process, which is very similar to the way God can work in our lives through the constant presence of the Spirit. Those who are aware of the Spirit’s presence and voice, you can go through a day knowing that the Spirit is with you. “Oh, reach out to that person, pray for that person right now, make this decision, don’t say what you are about to say, that would not please God, say this.” It’s a constant awareness of the Spirit of God guiding you; it’s the Spirit-filled life. It’s not walking by sight, but it’s walking by faith, that the Holy Spirit is with you and guiding you. He is your Counselor.I love this picture in Isaiah, Chapter 30:21, where it says this; “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” The voice of the Spirit, he will comfort you, he will counsel you.The third thing is, he will convict you; , When the Spirit comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. In fact, even today there are those of you, you are being convicted by the Spirit of God. There may be something in your life that’snot as it should be and all of a sudden you are feeling this sense of I shouldn’t do that. I haven’t even mentioned what it is, but you are convicted, why? That is the presence of the Holy Spirit convicting you. There are others of you that you are being drawn to God right now and you don’t know why. Maybe you are not even a church person, or a Bible guy, but you are just drawn to God right now, that is the Holy Spirit convicting you of your need for God. Sometimes people will say, “Craig, who was the person that God used the most to draw you towards God.” And I say every time, “The person that God used the most is unquestionably the person of the Holy Spirit, because there was no physical person witnessing to me. There was no physical person opening up Scripture, but there was the person of the Holy Spirit convicting me of my sin. I mean, I felt guilty and I needed, I felt this sincere need of cleansing and I felt drawn supernaturally to open up the Bible, which I have never felt drawn to and I read it and the Holy Spirit interpreted it for me and I was drawn to the point of surrendering my life to God and the beautiful thing is, there are those of you here today and you are under that conviction; you are being drawn to God and you don’t know why.
It’s because the Holy Spirit is here and you don’t have a choice. You can surrender to him, or you can fight him off. But, let me warn you, don’t fight him for long, because your heart, you don’t want it to grow hard to the gentle voice and love and wooing of the Spirit of God that would draw you to Himself. God the Father loves you so much he sent God the Son, Jesus, who lived a sinless life, died and rose again so you could know him, be empowered by him through his Holy Spirit, to live a life that would honor and please and glorify God.Father, I ask that your Holy Spirit would do a work that goes beyond any words of explanation that I have, that your Holy Spirit would be present. He is present, we acknowledge him and we ask him to do a work in our hearts that only he could do. As you are praying today at all of our campuses, some of you, you are gonna recognize right now, that you are doing life pretty much apart from the Spirit of God. You may be a believer in Jesus, you go to church, youknow the Spiritual stuff, but you look at your life and say, I don’t see Spiritual power, I don’t see victory, I don’t see all the fruits of the Spirit. Really, I believe in the stuff, but I don’t see it. I want a more Spirit-filled life. Would you raise your hands right now, at all of our campuses, just be bold. Lift up your hands high. Fantastic! Hands going up everywhere! There are more of you, just get over your pride, just lift up your hands and say, “Yeah, me too! Count me in, I want more! If there is more of God, I want it!” God, I thank you for the Spiritual hunger of this church and I pray, God; that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit. I pray that in the weeks to come as we seek you, as we get to know you, that we would be totally filled with your Spirit, that we would know your presence God. That we would be aware of your guidance and your comfort; that we would experience your promptings God that you are helping us and you are praying for us. I pray that we would not go throughthis life by our own power and struggling God, that we would know the supernatural power and the presence of your Spirit. Fill us oh God, with your Holy Spirit, that we could live a life that would bring glory and honor to you. We believe God you are doing that and we thank you for how it will impact our lives for your glory.As we keep praying today, nobody looking around, here is the beautiful thing right now is the Holy Spirit is moving and drawing some of you toward God right now. Many of you, you are like I was; you grew up knowing the story of Jesus and thought you were a believer because you believed that story. But, you look at your life and really there is no evidence you’ve ever surrendered to Christ and you know it right now, you know it. What’s happening? You are being convicted by the Holy Spirit. You believe in God, but you live as if he does not exist. He is not impacting your life daily. He is not truly the Lord of your life. You see it, you are here because of it. The Holy Spirit is working in you. Others of you, you are not a church person and strangely you are drawn to God. Strangely, you are aware of your need for him. Strangely, you feel under the burden of your guilt for your sins and what do you do for that? Well, God is drawing you and you have a choice, you can resist it, or you can surrender to it. I pray to God that you surrender to the promptings of the Holy Spirit today drawing you to God, and revealing to you the truth. You cannot save yourself; your good works will neverbe good enough. Only by the grace of God, through his Son Jesus, his life, his death and his resurrection, you can be made right with God and you are convicted. You are under conviction today, that you need God.
God the Father through his Son Jesus, drawnby the Holy Spirit, call on his name today, I need you Jesus, save me from my sins, I need your Spirit, empower me to live a life, I need you Father, reveal who you are to me through your Son and by your Spirit. At all of our campuses, there are those of you who are under the conviction of the Spirit of God right now, you know that you need him, you need all of him, you need more of him and you are calling on him now; “Jesus save me and transform me.” If that is your prayer today, just lift your hands high right now, just lift them up now. All over the place, lift them up, leave them up and I just want to acknowledge you here and here. I want to look at you in your eyes. Back in the middle section, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 of you, hands up high! Right back over here, both of you together; others of you today, right over here, praise God for you, right over here as well. You are under the conviction of the Holy Spirit lifted up, right here, here in the back section, and right up here as well, right over there. Others of you today, right up here close to me, there are more of you, you are resisting. Surrender to the Spirit now, say yes Jesus! I want to know you! Back there, right back there in the back, Holy Spirit keep speaking to us. Right back over here, Jesus I surrender, right back here and right up here as well. Holy Spirit move freely, 2 hands up here, right back there, right here as well. Others of you today, all right over here, others of you today, convict us oh God, of our need for you. Everybody pray together in this Holy moment, pray. Heavenly Father, save me from all of my sins. I call on Jesus to be the Lord of my life. Holy Spirit, fill me so I can live a life that would honor God. Thank you for new life, now you take all of mine, I belong to you, I am yours. Thank you for new life, now you have mine. In Jesus name I pray. If you don’t crazy, you don’t belong here! Thank God for who he is and what he has done!