What Do You Know About The Spirit?

Dear Christian, here is a question for you: What do you know about the Holy Spirit? Most of us know he is part of the Godhead and that we receive him when we receive Jesus but few of us understand the baptism of the Spirit. Few of us have been taught how vital it is. For some reason we stick the testimonies of Acts in a little box and hide it high on the shelf and we struggle because of it.

We need the Spirit to know God. We need the Spirit to understand the Word. We need the Spirit to hear from Jesus. We need the Spirit to witness with power. We need the Spirit for the power of God in us. We need the Spirit to live a victorious walk with Christ. Just one small snippet from the Word:

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul took a route through the interior and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. He asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you came to believe?” (Acts 19:1-2)

Paul went on to pray with them and to lay his hands on them. They received the Spirit in power. Paul knew that no Christian can function properly in the Body without the Spirit. Sure, we can try in our flesh and we may convince ourselves we are doing well but we are accomplishing nothing outside of the anointing of Yahweh which comes by the Spirit in us.

Just before leaving Jesus told his disciples:

“It isn’t for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. Rather, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)

Most of us have not received that power because we have not understood the place or importance of the Baptism of the Spirit. It is not a design of man but the design of Yahweh. It happened to me with no teaching, no instruction, with no one around. I received that baptism by the hand of Jesus but did not know what it was until years later. It is the power of Jesus in us, his authority to do what he commanded us to do. Certainly we can ignore it, but we will not be able to serve properly without it.

Even if you don't fully understand it, examine the Scriptures for yourself. Read what Jesus said about the Spirit. Read what he did by the Spirit. Understand he came to set us the example of how to live by the Spirit. Read Acts and see what was accomplished when people lived by the Spirit. Understand that nothing has changed and this was the model set for us.

Hearts do not change because we have good ideas. Hearts do not change by our intellectual arguments. Hearts do not change because of our good deeds. Hearts change by the presence of Yahweh and this happens through us; this happens by the Spirit in us when we understand we carry his presence. We need to understand and experience the Baptism of the Spirit. We need the power of Yahweh to return to the people of God.

What Are You Without The Spirit?

We are crazy you know. Imagine trying to follow Jesus Christ while ignoring the Spirit. Are we kidding? We can't do anything of any eternal worth without the Spirit. We can't hear from God. We can't have kingdom eyes. We can't serve with anointing. There is no power. No sustainability. No conviction. No direction. No communion. No wisdom. And there is no need for us to try it without the Spirit.

Honestly, do you feel you are where you are meant to be with Jesus; in the relationship I mean? Are you always aware of his presence? Are you receiving direction throughout your day? Do you sense God's power to do anything you are asked to do? Do you feel you are living in obedience? Do you know him as you should, in the deep personal places of your life? Do you love him with all your passion, your very being? Be frightfully honest because you aren't fooling him.

Do you know that Jesus did nothing without the Spirit? At the moment he had John baptize him, Jesus also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This was a foreshadowing of what was to come for his followers. Jesus did not need either baptism but he told John that everything had to be done correctly. He was following a script that had been written in the ancient of days. In the letter to the Philippians, Paul wrote that Jesus did not consider equally with God something to be grasped but, found in the appearance of a man, he became a servant. A servant baptized by the Holy Spirit to carry out the Father's will as an example of how we would serve.

Have we forgotten Pentecost? Have we forgotten the need for the baptism of the Spirit. The baptism by water is a "John's" baptism, a thing of repentance. It is the baptism of fire, that of the Spirit, that brings life and power. Power to live our life to the glory of the Father. Power to obey. Power to overcome. Power to be victorious in all things. Power to love. Power for compassion. Power to forgive. Power to heal the sick. The power to stand in his presence, to serve him all our days, to breathe our last breath to his glory.

You cannot see God, the Kingdom, nor understand his will for you and your days without the Spirit:

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

In fact, if you do not have the Spirit of God you do not belong to Jesus. We live by the rules of the Kingdom even though we live in a fallen world. We are not governed by the rules here because the rules we follow are much higher. The Word puts it clearly that we do not belong to this realm:

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. (Romans 8:9)

Again, if you do not have the Spirit of God you do not belong to Jesus.

The Spirit is not dormant in you. If you cannot sense him, if you do not hear him, if he is not speaking to you, directing you, then you have no part with him. The Holy Spirit is active in us, reminding us daily who we belong to, what his promises are, providing the power we live by and telling us what we are to do. The Word is very clear on the Spirit and yet we ignore him at our peril.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. (Romans 8:14)

Notice the word "led". A very important word. Can you say you are led by the Spirit?

Are you living by the Spirit or by your flesh? It is a question I am asking myself every day now because it is easy to give in to this flesh and let it lead for a while. It is easy to live by my own wisdom and experience. It is easy, but it is without Christ. It is without power. It is without conviction. It is without hope. It is without peace. It is without joy.

I don't want that!

I want Jesus. I want to be in him and I want him in me. I don't know anything and he knows everything. Rise up in me Spirit of God and lead me in the path of righteousness, the path of my King, the path of my Saviour. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us!

Getting In Step With The Spirit

You possess and are possessed by a great blessing of God. Unfortunately this is a blessing that many in the Church acknowledge and deny all in the same breath. It is a blessing that requires our constant surrender and a blessing we must allow to control us. After the blessing of salvation this is the greatest blessing we have ever received :

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

Every believer receives the Holy Spirit when we accept Jesus Christ and this is fantastic news. It is by the Spirit of God that we are able to know the mind and will of God. But there is a difference between having the Holy Spirit and being possessed by the Spirit. There is a difference between being marked by a seal and being baptised in the Spirit.

Water baptism is great and important as our testimony to the world of the inner transformation that has and is taking place. It is our testimony that we have died to our old life and no longer live for ourselves, having been raised again to life in Jesus Christ. But Jesus came to do more than just save us, he came to give us abundant Kingdom living. After this act of salvation he sent to us the Holy Spirit, that we would be baptised by fire, fully possessed by the power of God.

In Acts 19 we find Apostle Paul coming into the city of Ephesus where he came across a group of men who said they were believers. Paul challenged them on where they were spiritually and after baptising them in the name of Jesus he laid hands on them and they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Church is receiving the first baptism but is choosing to ignore the second. No wonder we are so weak.

How do we expect to live in this dark world and survive spiritually without the power of God realized in us? Jesus said we are not orphans, he would not leave us alone, that he would send the Holy Spirit so we would be empowered to live just like Jesus did.

Few people understand that Jesus did nothing on this earth according to his divine nature. Everything that made him equal to the Father he set aside to walk fully as man. He faced hunger as a man. He required rest as a man. He needed to eat and drink as a man. He faced temptation as a man. He did all the supernatural stuff, including overcoming temptation by the power of the Holy Spirit who possessed him. What John the Baptist saw at Jesus' baptism was more than just a symbolic act of the Spirit. It was the power of God coming on Jesus just as Jesus has made that power available to us, to do even greater things than Jesus has done. This is according to the Word of God not the opinion of a man.

It's time that the Church wake up and receive the second baptism so we can escape this self effort we are doing to live. Those who have not received the baptism of fire need to ask Jesus for it. That's what he told us to do. We need to see that fire fall upon the Church again so we can get back to the supernatural work of the Church.

It is great that we show love to the world by running daycares and feeding the homeless. This is very much what we need to do but there is more. We also have the supernatural work to do. We need to heal the sick, cast out demons, quiet the storms, feed the masses so that we are also given the opportunity to present salvation. When is the last time you introduced Jesus to someone? Why do you think we are even here? For these things we need the baptism of fire.

Come on people, let's get in step with the Spirit!

How Are You Doing With Your Plastic Jesus?

Why do so many Christians want to worship a plastic Jesus? They limit God to what they consider to be acceptable and, in turn, they limit their relationship with him. They have created this mold and then pour in what they think God to be, with defined limits and they come up with this plastic version of Jesus they can carry around in their back pocket to bring out at their convenience. A god that fits into their expectation. I wish I could sit down with each of these plastic Christians and explain to them who they are in Jesus but I know that even explaining it to them it would not sink into their plastic hearts. They need a greater revelation from the Holy Spirit.

Most of these plastic people are those who cannot get past repentance. They journey no further than the cross of Jesus. They have no idea that the cross was not the end of it but simply the beginning; the entrance point; the start of an incredible, personal journey with Jesus. Far too many Christians stop at the baptism of repentance; John's baptism. They fail to understand when John explains:

I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Matthew 3:11)

These are John the Baptist's own words. Later, when Jesus was explaining to his followers the significance of John the Baptist, he told us this:

I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (Matthew 11:11)

What is the difference between John and us that the least in the Kingdom is greater than John? John ministered before the outpouring of God's Spirit. Without a doubt the Spirit of God was on John as he was on the prophets of old, but we have the Spirit of God in us. We are possessed and empowered by the Spirit of God to be just like Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the great enabler and comes after repentance.

Far too many Christians and even leaders of Christians fail to understand this and give very little significance to the Spirit. They claim that the time of the manifestations of the Spirit has come and gone. They say that the actions in Acts were for a fixed period of time and has nothing to do with today. Yest, the Word of God says no such thing. These people are fooled by their own flesh, giving excuses of why they cannot do greater things than Jesus, as Jesus told us we would do. We can only do these greater things through the Holy Spirit.

We are so much more than we allow ourselves to believe. We have not been saved by man or some mysterious god. We have been saved by Jesus Christ and after salvation he promised us the Holy Spirit. Is Jesus a man that he should lie? Through the Holy Spirit we are empowered to glorify Jesus to the nations. It has very little to do with us and everything to do with what God wants to do through us. But we have to get past the limits we have put on God and ourselves. We have to throw away our plastic Jesus and worship the living God, empowered by him to do great works. We have to take those plastic things out of our back pocket and really discover who we are in Jesus and what authority he has given to us to "speak to the mountains" we encounter in our lives and in the lives of others.

Even as you read this you can feel the burning in your spirit; that burning desire for more of Jesus; to be more for his glory. You know by the Spirit in you that there is more. There is the baptism of the Spirit you need to experience so the power of God may come on you. Jesus said:

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:13)

So ask already. In the book of Acts we see that the giving of the Spirit often happened through the laying on of hands, so ask your pastor or youth pastor about this. Tell them that you want the baptism of the Spirit and you want them to lay hands on you. If they are also fooled into worshiping a plastic Jesus then find a pastor who would be willing. We put such a huge emphasis on water baptism which is nothing more than the baptism of repentance but we totally ignore the greater baptism of the Holy Spirit. We must be born both of water and fire.

Come on my friends, this world needs Jesus Christ but Jesus needs people who know how to work outside of the limits of their flesh. Jesus needs followers who are set ablaze by the power of the Spirit in them. And for those who would argue against this I will simply leave you with this prophecy which is the Word of God, greater than any opinion you may have:

And afterward, 
   I will pour out my Spirit on all people. 
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, 
   your old men will dream dreams, 
   your young men will see visions. 
Even on my servants, both men and women,    I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-29) 

Seek The Baptism Of The Spirit Of God

Sometimes I get a bit frustrated from the lack of complete teaching we find in the Church today. We are so busy wanting to build our churches by fitting in to society that we are compromising on the powerful mission of the Church. Some people will point to the growing population of the mega churches and say that we are doing a good job. Sure, we are doing a good job at growing churches but not of increasing the Kingdom of God. It is not our responsibility to grow churches but to grow followers of Jesus. There is a difference.

Most churches today do not or cannot operate in the Spirit because most of them do not go beyond the baptism of repentance. We have forgotten there is more to it than John's baptism of repentance. There is Jesus' baptism of fire, of the Spirit of God. It is necessary for us to have this in order for us to operate in a way that pleases God. I want to give you three simple examples. There are more but I want to give you only three so you can be equipped to expect more from your relationship with Jesus.

When Peter was sent by the Spirit to the gentile home of Cornelius, he didn't know what to expect. According to the Law Peter wasn't even allowed to enter his home but he had a vision from God that told him not to refuse to minister to Cornelius. Meanwhile, having been told by the Spirit to expect Peter, Cornelius had assembled his entire family. Read what astounded Peter and convinced him that God was calling the gentiles too:

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. (Acts 10:44-46)

Now previous to this, apostle Philip was travelling about by the direction of the Spirit and ended up in Samaria. There he started stirring up quite the fuss and many people became disciples of Jesus. The Church Council in Jerusalem heard about this and sent Peter and John to investigate. When they got there they found people professing Jesus but they were lacking one thing:

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:14-17)

Now let's skip to a much later time, when Paul was about to hit the height of his ministry. He had already traveled through Ephesus but it was a rather rushed visit because the Spirit would not yet allow him to visit Asia Minor. I guess things were not quite ready for Paul to visit but when the Spirit finally released him to come into the area we read this:

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

   They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”

   “John’s baptism,” they replied.

Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. (Acts 19:1-6)

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an optional thing, it is required as a disciple of Jesus. The Word clearly shows that we need the Spirit in order to serve God in a manner that pleases him. Now many Christians have received the Spirit without understanding it and have never been trained in how to operate in the Spirit. Along with the baptism of the Spirit we need to bring this training back into the Church.

John the Baptist said that he baptized with water but the one to follow him would baptize with fire. Jesus said plainly that he had to go so that he could send the Spirit. The Church was given birth when the Holy Spirit fell on the 120 disciples who were gathered together. The entire book of Acts explains what the Spirit enabled the believers to do. Yet today, we are satisfied with the baptism of repentance because we want to "fit in" to society. We claim what we read in Acts was just for a "season". We deny the offices of the Apostle and Prophet because we do not want spiritual accountability as pastors. We are handcuffing God and sinning against him because we refuse to live the full gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is my prayer that the Lord will send a fresh wind and fresh fire through the Church; that we will stop trying to please him with our flesh offerings and begin to serve in earnest through the Spirit of God. It is my prayer that this generation will rise up in the power of God, to operate in the Spiritual Gifts we have received and turn this world upside down as we did in Jerusalem and the rest of the world as the disciples of Jesus operated in the Spirit of God. The baptism of repentance is a good thing but it is only a beginning step. The real life begins with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If you don't know anything about it start asking questions. If you have received this baptism but have received no training in the Spirit start asking questions. The time for the new revolution is now.