Sunday 13 June – the unknown third…

The unknown third…

The purpose for our time together during this holiday is to have great fellowship with each other, to start and to build multi cultural friendships, as well as to connect with the Holy Spirit…

People in general have a fear of the unknown! We see it in the way they act when they’re greeted by a stranger we see it in how people stick to their own friends and don’t make new ones. We see it when new people come to church…we see them fearing what it’ll be like to come into our environment and we see the established folk fearing who are these new people and what do they want from us…

Fear of the unknown is a big thing and probably evident best in cross cultural dynamics…

As we’ve seen last week it is not impossible to overcome that fear and if we are obedient to God, we will make all effort to lead others in overcoming that fear.

Tonight I want to share about a different culture all together…and that is the culture of the Holy Spirit!

The theme this year is to really get us focussed on a world bigger than our own! The world I’m referring to is so much bigger than our own, it doesn’t fit in our reality and so God had to put it in and amongst us surrounding en penetrating us in such a way that we would be able to engage with it without it blowing our IB’s Our lack of knowledge about this world and the main person in this world causes us to fear it and shy away from it.

Our lack of knowledge f the Holy Spirit causes us to fear him, where in actual fact He is the actual person of the Trinity that you and I have been experiencing up until now. When Jesus left earth, he sent his spirit to abide by us lead us and keep us. Therefore the person you have been experiencing up until now is in fact the Holy Spirit and not Jesus per se. It’s a matter of fearing the same person you love and appreciate not knowing that it is the same person.

John 14:1 – Believe in God and believe also in ME – Christ is calling them to believe in Him. I’m sure that is what the holy spirit is saying to all of us as well… believe in me also!

1Cor2:10, 13 teaching us that it is the holy spirit that knows the heart of God. Connecting with the h.sp aligns us into that position whereby we could learn and understand what’s in the heart of God.

The Holy Spirit is holy and holiness is his culture…and the holy spirit is also a person but He is very unknown to us and so tonight as we endeavor to connect with him and encounter him I want to introduce him to you more so you’ll know more about him as you engage him

Heb 11:6 – without faith it is impossible to please God, for anyone who wants to come to God must first believe that He is and second that he is a rewarder of those who seek him!

The Holy Spirit lives in the faith realm! He lives in the present unseen. That means he is present, like you and I are present yet he remains unseen. Everything of our faith originates from the faith world. The unseen is not non existent because it is unseen. We know by knowledge and experience that there are beings existing behind the curtain of our physical reality and some of them are evil and some are holy

Some work for us and others against us, I’m referring to angels and demons…

The Holy Spirit also lives in this realm of the angles and demons! But were He is present, and were He reigns, no will of the Devil can reign. The bible teaches that God the father and the son and the throne of heaven exists in dimensions outside of our reality and realm. one person said it like this…God created the small realm called eternity and hold’s it in his hand. He is out of this world, but he sent the Holy Spirit into this world after Christ departed, to be with us. Now the Holy Spirit still isn’t subject to the laws of this realm and is not visible but he is very much inside our existence so he can assist us inside our time space and matter universe! He is not from far far away he is close close by…

The Spirit of Immanuel is here and he is on my side! SIDE…

Thus living with him encountering him and being strengthened by him is all a matter of faith! Some equates the Holy Spirit with weirdness, I equate him with reality! Because he is real and denying that is to live in a fantasy!

We all know that sometimes physical manifestations take place and that’s fine and all but what I disagree with is that Sometimes people pursue him just for those physical manifestations in an attempt to become closer and more intimately involved with him but that is not what we should be doing as a people who live and function and breathe by faith. He is here and he is able through us to do anything he desires if we let him use us!

If we will respond by faith – that means act as if you have received the gift of healing and you’ll find that you did! Act as if you can prophecy…

Before we error tonight and digress into just sharing information we would like to demonstrate the Spirit and his power… we will have some now and then afterwards again!

Time for gifts to function…

Lets read what the bible says about the Holy Spirit so we can clear up misunderstanding and gain understanding so we can freely encounter him without fear of the unknown!

(Italics from Spirit Filled Life Bible)
The Bible reveals that the person of the Holy Spirit has been the primary agent in all of the ministry of the word throughout the centuries. The Scripture states clearly that the triune Godhead operates coequally, coeternally, coexistantly as one units but it also has been suggested with validity that we might view this unity of activity with an eye toward the special function of each member of the Trinity.

The executive is the father
The architect is the son
The contractor is the Holy Spirit – Acts…

Thus the Scriptures show the Holy Spirit uniquely and distinctly at work in these roles

Author of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
II Samuel 23:2: The spirit of the Lord had voice through me, his word was on my tongue.

Isaiah 59:21: And as for me, this is my agreement with them, says the Lord: my spirit which is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, will not go away from your mouth, or from the mouth of your seed, or from the mouth of your seed’s seed, says the Lord, from now and for ever.

John 14:26: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will be your teacher in all things and will put you in mind of everything I have said to you.

I Corinthians 2:13: And these are the things which we say, not in the language of man’s wisdom, but in words given to us by the Spirit, judging the things of the spirit by the help of the Spirit.

He’s the old testament anointer

The Scriptures name no less than 16 Old Testament leaders in Israel who received this anointing: Joseph Moses, Joshua, Othniel, Gideon, Jephtha, Samsung, Saul, David, Elijah, Elisha, Azariah, Zechariah Ezekiel, Daniel and Micah.

David – I Samuel 16:13: Then Samuel took the bottle of oil, and put the oil on him there among his brothers: and from that day the spirit of the Lord came on David with power. So Samuel went back to Ramah.

Thus the Holy Spirit as contractor anointed the Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Joel to prophecy off the day when he would be outpoured and when His gifts would be exercised in the church throughout the whole church age.

Joel 2:28: And after that, it will come about, says the Lord, that I will send my spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will be prophets, your old men will have dreams, your young men will see visions:
Joel 2:29: And on the servants and the servant-girls in those days I will send my spirit.

In Isaiah 28, God used Isiaih to tell Judah that he would teach them in a manner they did not like and that he would give them knowledge through the language off foreigners as a sign off their unbelief.
Isaiah 28:11: No, but with broken talk, and with a strange tongue, he will give his word to this people:
Isaiah 28:12: To whom he said, This is the rest, give rest to him who is tired; and by this you may get new strength; but they would not give ear.

Centuries later the apostle Paul explains the contents of this passage referring it to the gift of speaking in tongues in the church as a manifestation or sign to unbelievers.
Acts 2:17: And it will come about, in the last days, says God, that I will send out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will be prophets, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams:
Acts 2:18: And on my men-servants and my women-servants I will send my Spirit, and they will be prophets.This sign could be in languages even known or unknown to human beings

In all these respects we see the Holy Spirit as one who operates in the church as a definite personality or person given as a gift to the church to ensure that the continued ministry off the resurrected Christ is expressed and verified.

The Holy Spirit has all the characteristics of a person:

He possesses attributes of mind (Rom8:27), will (1Cor12:11) and feeling (Eph4:30)
He engages in such activities as revealing(2Pet1:21) teaching(John14:26) witnesssing (Hebr10:15),interceding (Rom8:26) speaking (Rev2:7) commanding(Acts16:6-7) and testifying (John15:26)
He has relationship with human persons he can be grieved, (Eph4:30) lied to (Acts5:3)and blasphemed (Matt12:31-32)
The Holy Spirit possesses the divine attributes off the Godhead:
He is eternal(Heb9:14), omnipresent(Ps139:7-10), omnipotent(Luk1:35), and omniscienct (1Cor2:10-11)
he’s referred to by such names as the Spirit of God, spirit of Christ the comforter the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of promise, the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of life, the Spirit of adoption, the spirit of holiness and the Spirit of truth.

He is illustrated with such symbols as fire(Acts2:1-2), water(John7:37-39), wind(Acts2:1-2), oil(Acts10:38), a seal(Eph1:13) and a dove(John1:32)

All this unfolds something off the vast realm or sphere of the operation off the Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testament and in todays’ church!

The Purpose for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

God’s work of restoration is a work of the holy spirit in and through the lives of those who have believed in Jesus and have been born from above!
The prophet Joel foretold a day when God would pour out his spirit on all flesh. Thus his power would be shared with all his people and not limited to one chosen individual.(bold mine)

This explains why Christ told his disciples (John16:7) it was to their advantage for him to leave them and go to the father because then the spirit could be sent to indwell each of them to fill them and to enable the supernatural works of God to be done through them!

In other words God needed to ensure that the disciples and all those who came to believe on account of the disciples’ testimony would continue the work of Christ! The church had to continue to spread the good news of the kingdom like Jesus was doing and to continue freeing people from bondage and slavery sickness and eternal death! They had to be able to do what Jesus had been doing up to that point save be the saviour! The church needed power!!! They needed boldness and they needed a love for the lost like Jesus had!!!

For this reason God sent his Holy Spirit on all those who were His! like he sent his spirit on his Son at his baptism in the Jordan, he now sends the spirit to come over all those who are his!

Now if you were God, and your vision was to save the whole world through people carrying your message of salvation to other people with the Holy Spirit empowering them to be effective witnesses, WHO WOULD YOU GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO? If I was God, I surely would have given it to anybody and everybody who asked without exception, anybody who had faith to receive it, so that the message could spread faster and more and more people could be saved!!!

Because the bible teaches that Jesus, the “ONE” who came after John would baptize in the the Spirit and fire we talk about this as the Baptism in the Holy Spirit done by Jesus!

Acts 1:8- witness (martureo – giving evidence representing what one has experienced!) the power of which lies in the fact that you are willing to die for what you are giving account of!

John 15:26 – Helper Paralketos – intercessor comforter, advocate counselor – non biblical term has the technical meaning of an attorney who appears in court in another’s behalf

HOLY SPIRIT leads a person to greater understanding of spiritual concepts – Joh15:26 spirit of truth guide us into all truth….

A lot has been said of the Holy Spirit and stuff but here’s my question to you?

Do you trust Jesus?
Do you have power when you witness or does it feel all to much as if you are going by your own strength? Prophetic evangelism… testimony – Madele…

See how that is so much more effective that trying it all by your lonesome!
Do you have a love for lost people because that is what the baptism in the Holy Spirit brings…
Are you willing to die for the gospel message?

Then I would like to ask you, are you a candidate to be filled and continuously filled by the Holy Spirit? Are you a candidate to receive it on Jesus’ terms or on your own? You will be my witnesses! You will be sent by the Holy Spirit to tell people about Jesus!

If you are willing to submit your life to the Holy Spirit tonight he will fill you with power to continue the work of the kingdom wherever you go! He will put the super on your natural and you will see the miracle working power of God flow through you as you receive it by faith and start acting on it!
The kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking but in power!

Let’s pray that Jesus will baptize us with His Holy Spirit. Luke 11 says we need only have a desire and ask and God will give!

Jesus please baptize me with your Holy Spirit and with fire like you did they disciples after you left earth! I accept him on your terms and conditions and release authority of my life to his leadership and guidance!