May 31, 2023
When we think about the Feast of Pentecost and how to celebrate it, we tend to focus our attention on the beginning of the Church. But I want to focus on our personal relationship with the Holy Spirit, on understanding the full potential of being filled with the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, let us celebrate Christ baptizing us in the Holy Spirit and refresh ourselves in all the enabling and power that we receive when we allow ourselves to be truly filled with the Spirit.
Show Notes: The Holy Spirit coming on the Day of Pentecost exploded the Church into existence. But when we see that event as a group experience, we miss the fact that what was created in these individuals was a personal, ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit. What transpired with them was not an experience that came and went. What happened on the Day of Pentecost was something that happened as it did with Christ, where the Spirit descended on them, filled them, and remained in them.
Whatever your experience has been up to today, reach for something greater and deeper than what you have ever had before. If you have been filled, then be filled to overflowing. If you have had some partial experience, then reach in for the fullness of the Spirit, as it was said about the Day of Pentecost. Let us believe that the Spirit can descend upon us and remain, that He will remain in us and surround us, and He will become the very center point of our walk with the Lord, our relationship with Christ.
Key Verses:
• Acts 2:1–4. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”
• John 1:32. “The Spirit … remained upon Him.”
• Romans 8:13–17. “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
• Galatians 5:18. “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.”
• 1 Corinthians 12:4–14. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.”
• Galatians 5:22–25. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
• John 14:25–26. “The Holy Spirit … will teach you all things.”
• 1 John 2:27–28. “The anointing which you received from Him abides in you.”
• 1 Corinthians 2:12–13. “Now we have received … the Spirit who is from God.”
• Luke 4:18. “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME.”
• John 14:16–17. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, … the Spirit of truth.”
• John 15:26. “The Spirit of truth … will testify about Me.”
• John 16:6–15. “The Spirit of truth … will guide you into all the truth.”
• 2 Peter 1:20–21. “Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
• Ephesians 6:17. “Take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit.”
• Acts 1:16. “The Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold.”
• 2 Samuel 23:2. “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue.”
• Acts 4:31. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”
• 1 Thessalonians 1:5–6. “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but … in the Holy Spirit.”
• 1 Corinthians 12:3. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.”
• Ephesians 6:18. “Pray at all times in the Spirit.”
• 1 Corinthians 14:18–19. “I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all.”
• Romans 8:26–28. “The Spirit Himself intercedes for us.”
• Philippians 3:3. “We are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God.”
• 1 Corinthians 14:15. “I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind.”
• Ephesians 1:11–14. “You were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
• 2 Corinthians 1:21–22. “Now He … also sealed us and gave us the Spirit.”
• 2 Corinthians 5:4–5. “God … gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.”
• Matthew 4:1. “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.”
• Luke 4:1. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, … was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness.”
• Galatians 5:14–25. “But I say, walk by the Spirit.”
• John 6:27. “For on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”
• Revelation 7:2–3. “… until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God.”
• Revelation 9:4. “… but only the men who do not have the seal of God.”
Quotes:
• “There's no limit on how many of these gifts and ministries can be imparted to one person. Certainly, if we look at Christ who was filled with the fullness of God by the Holy Spirit, we see that He moved in all of these things.”
• “In this day and age, we really are believing to see, as in no other time before, that the Body of Christ come forth and walk in this earth through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
• “I believe that we can reach into the fullness of the Spirit and have the Spirit allow us to walk by the Spirit and fulfill the whole will of God and be free from the down fallings of our flesh. We believe God for it, and we believe that He is in us to do it and to accomplish it.”
Takeaways:
1. We learn by the Holy Spirit to mature and come into sonship. The Holy Spirit imparts to us the gifts and the ministries that we are to walk in. The Holy Spirit imparts to us what we need to be the Body of Christ and to walk in the fullness of that. The Holy Spirit also imparts to us the fruit of the Spirit, which is the personality of Christ in God.
2. The Holy Spirit is given to us as our Teacher. He teaches us and through that teaching we abide in the Spirit. He has freely given to us all things, but we do not understand those things except by the teaching and training of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and He will lead us into all truth.
3. The Holy Spirit gives us the written Word of God. As we read the written Word of God, the Spirit Himself teaches us and brings the revelation to our hearts. Not only is the written Word something that comes forth from the Holy Spirit, but also the spoken and prophetic Word.
4. We learn to pray by the Holy Spirit. We do not know what the Lord wants. We do not necessarily know the perfect will of the Lord; but the Spirit does. If we want our prayer life to be that which is powerful and in the will of God, then we should pray in tongues by the Holy Spirit.
5. We worship by the Spirit, and we should learn to worship in the Spirit. When we worship in tongues, we can glorify Him in a way that our carnal mind and our limitation of human language is not able to.
6. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee that the promises of God and our resurrection life will be fulfilled. In all things, even the difficult things that we face, the Holy Spirit is there to lead us, to drive us into the whole will of God for our lives.
7. The Holy Spirit seals us to God. This becomes important in the days we are walking in. There is nothing that will happen on this earth or in the sea that precedes the fact that you will be sealed to God.