May 24, 2025 • 67 mins
Today's episode of Sunday Service by Pray.com features Kenny Luck.
Our God is relational. He has rescued us from sin, that He might bring us into…a relationship. We now embark upon a life long adventure with God, of becoming like his Son Jesus. This journey of “Christ-formation” is achieved by the very same power through which we are saved. The Empowering Presence….of The Holy Spirit! What saves us sustains us! Join Pastor Kenny Luck as he leads us into The Empowering Presence of our God
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For
he that cometh to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him Hebrews eleven six. My good works are not
enough to please you Lord. My belief in your reality
(00:20):
is what you are looking for in me. You created
me for an intimate love relationship with you. You desire
to fellowship with me and have honest communion with me.
As I diligently seek you in your word and through prayer,
you will reveal yourself to me. Out of the overflow
(00:41):
of my love for you, good works will naturally spring forth.
They will be borne from my faith in you, and
not the pride of my flesh. What is born of
the spirit of love has eternal value.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Thank you for listening to today's Daily Prayer for more
inspiration and an incredible message from our feature pastor, stay
tuned to pray dot COM's Sunday service.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Hi, if you have a Bible, I want you to
hold two spots, one in John chapter seven and then
another one in John chapter fourteen. Welcome to this Everyman's
special feature entitled The Empowering Presence. Now when we talk
about God. If I asked you, tell me a word
that you might associate with God, just just throw it
(01:44):
out there. Words are coming to your mind right now.
He's holy, he's loving, he's merciful, he's generous, he's sovereign.
He's omnipotent, he's omnipresent. You know, there are certain words
that we think of automatically that come to mind when
you think about God. But one word that we don't
(02:05):
often think about is this word. Are you ready? Relational?
God is Relational relationship is at the center of who
God is. When we hear Jesus pray in the garden,
I in them, you and me, them in us. When
(02:26):
we see the relationship between Father Son and Holy Spirit
at creation, at Jesus's baptism, when we think about the
Gospel being God wanting relationship with us and going to
great lengths to have relationship with us. So I share
(02:48):
that because if God is relational, then he has relational intentions, right,
And two relational intentions that God has which describe the
entire Christian life are these two intentions. His first intention
is salvation, that is, to have a relationship with you
(03:12):
through belief in the person and work of Jesus. And
many of you that are listening to me right now,
you have believed in the person of Jesus, that he
is the Son of God and the work of Jesus
right his death on the cross. For you, that is
the most amazing moment of your life. And the Bible
(03:34):
says that over thirty things happen to us with respect
to our identity at the moment of salvation. It just
happens upon you. You believe in Jesus, You're in Christ.
You become a child of God. You become salt, you
become light. You inherit every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
(03:58):
You are sheep right, you are sons. I mean, there
are over thirty things the Bible says transfer over to
you automatically when you believe in Jesus Christ. That's God's
first relation to intention is salvation. That's how the relationship starts. Okay,
(04:18):
but that's certainly not the whole of the gospel. The
gospel is about belief and salvation, but it's also about transformation.
More specifically, it is about christ formation. We believe in
Jesus for salvation, and then when Jesus says, follow me.
(04:41):
That's the rest of the journey. That means we spend
time with and become like the person that we're following.
So we believe we be with Jesus and we become
like Jesus. That's what's offered when you talk about the God.
It's a relationship with God that comes through belief and
(05:04):
then being with Jesus to become like Jesus. That's the
transformation process, or what we're going to call in this
session christ formation. And so the best picture in the
Bible to give you when it comes to that process
of transformation from the inside out in the Bible for
(05:25):
me is baptism. Okay, baptism. The original use of the
word in the Greek language is a pickling term. Okay,
You take a cucumber, you put it in a jar
with lots of vinegar and spices and stuff, and you
leave it in there in the jar, and when you
pull it out, it's no longer a cucumber, it's a
(05:47):
pickle because the cucumber has fully identified with the sauce
that it has been soaking in. It's gone all the
way through it. So then when the Bible says you
are baptized into Christ Jesus. The reference at that time
when that word is used is textiles or making clothes.
(06:10):
You take a white T shirt, you dip it and
soak it into purple dye. You leave it there, you
pull it out, it's no longer a white T shirt.
It is a purple shirt. The cloth has fully identified
with the color. So when the Bible says, as believers,
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we have been baptized into Christ Jesus, so upon belief
we are baptized into Jesus's life on Earth, his death,
his resurrection, and his current seating. We are fully identified
(06:54):
with Christ. And so we begin this process of becoming
like Christ in character, becoming like Christ in the quality
of the life that he lived, and becoming like Christ
in experience. Okay, that's one aspect of Christ's formation. But listen,
and this is the exciting thing, is that we also
(07:17):
live like Christ on earth where he lived two dimensionally.
He came from Heaven, but he lived on earth. And
while he was living on Earth, he was connected to Heaven,
and he was bringing Heaven or the Kingdom of God,
into the spaces and places where he was walking on earth.
(07:38):
That's why I like to say that every Christian lives
two dimensionally. Right, And Jesus talked about this. He says,
when you pray, pray your kingdom come, your will be done.
What's the next line on earth as it is in heaven? Right.
Jesus says to the disciples that I'm giving you the
(08:00):
keys to the kingdom, and whatever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven. And whenever you loose on earth,
will be loose in heaven. He talks about opening how
we are going to live two dimensionally. So I shared
these things in context that the Christian life is salvation
and transformation mean that looks like Christ's formation, and that
(08:24):
we live two dimensionally where we are actually bringing the
Kingdom of God through His presence in us into the
spaces and places that you and I occupy. Okay, now
here is why we're talking about the empowering presence. If
I were to give you a key that was gonna
(08:46):
unlock salvation and transformation, all that that being a Christian promises,
all that God promises, all the power, all the presence,
all the purpose, all the Kingdom coming in you and
going through you. If I was to give you a
(09:06):
key that unlocked all of that would you be interested. Well,
the key that unlocks all of what I just said
is the person and presence of the Holy Spirit. Listen,
in you, my man of God or my sister of God,
(09:29):
because when we become a Christian, the Bible says that
he pours the spirit of his Son into our hearts.
When you first believed, the indwelling presence of the Living
God came to be inside of you. That's why Jesus said,
I will be in you. I'm not going to leave
you as orphans. Read John fourteen fifteen sixteen, and then
(09:51):
you read about him talking about how he's leaving physically
but he's coming spiritually. And listen to what he says.
It's better or that I go like, my leadership is
going to be in you. That's the empowering presence. Without
the Holy Spirit, none of the promises of the Bible
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can come true in or through your life. In fact,
your life in God hinges on the presence and your
active partnership with the Holy Spirit the empowering presence. But
now here's the reality. The reality is is that Jesus
(10:33):
promises the abundant life on one hand, and then there's
the life that I'm living. And when you survey and
you talk with Christians and you ask them, do you
believe in the abundant life? They'll go, oh, yes, I
totally believe in the abundant life. I believe all the
promises of the Bible. But then when you ask them
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some questions about you know, are they experiencing the joy
of the Christian life? Do they feel that that they're
living the abundant Christian life? There is a huge gap
between what they believe and what they're experiencing. You ever
felt like that where you would say to yourself or
say to somebody who asks you, Hey, do you believe
(11:14):
the Bible is true? You believe Jesus is God, you
believe the Holy Spirit is in you. Do you believe
in the promise of God. You'd go yes, yes, yes,
and yes. But then there would be this other little
voice that would say, you know what, I believe all
those things. They're just not for me at the moment.
I'm not experiencing those promises. Listen to me. That shouldn't
(11:39):
be the life that you're experiencing. Because Jesus said I
came that they might have life, and they might have
it to the full or that they might have it abundantly.
The question is do we have the key that unlocks
that life? And if we do possess the key, which
we're saying, is the Holy Spirit, Right, what is my
(12:01):
life in the spirit, Like, how is my partnership with
the Holy Spirit? If my whole entire Christian life hinges
on my partnership with the Holy Spirit, how is that going?
So we felt like we needed to do a special
feature called the Empowering Presence because we want you to
(12:23):
experience the abundant life. We want you to become like Jesus.
We want you to live the supernatural life to the
point where it becomes super natural. The Bible says in
Galatians chapter five, verse twenty five, it says, since we
live by the spirit, let us keep in step with
(12:46):
the Spirit. You see, the Bible assumes that Christians are
partnering with the person of the Holy Spirit, that Christians
are keeping in step with the spirit, listening to the Spirit,
seeking the Spirit, checking in with the Holy Spirit, activating
the presence of the Holy Spirit that's already there, right,
(13:07):
And that's what the Bible calls, you know, the anointed
Christian life. Jesus said in Luke four, the spirit of
the Lord is upon me and he's anointed me, and
then he outlines this life that he's going to live.
If that's Jesus, and Jesus is in you, then this
(13:28):
is you on an increasing basis. You should be living
a spirit filled, spirit controlled, abundant life. The question is
how do we get there. Well, here's some good news,
and this is where we go to the downloaded notes.
If you have those, we're going to be looking at
the Bible because God's people for centuries right have been
(13:48):
struggling with this tension of there's the life that God
promises and then there's the life that I'm living. There
seems to be this big gap between what I'm experiencing
and then what the Bible promises. Well, you know, you've
heard that old phrase, welcome to the club. This is
an issue that God has been working on with his
people for a long time. The good news, though, is
(14:09):
that in scripture we see the solution and we also
identify the problem. In Isaiah chapter forty, one of the
most famous passages of scripture. We're gonna see sort of
this gap thinking in God's people, and then we're gonna
see God speak into it, and then we're gonna unpack
(14:31):
some dynamics that go to sometimes how we feel versus
the life that God offers. Isaiah chapter forty, verse twenty
seven through thirty one says this, why do you complain,
oh Jacob, Why do you say, Israel, My way is
hidden from the Lord, My cause is disregarded by my God.
(14:53):
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord
is the everlasting God, the creator of the end of
the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and
his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strengths to
the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even
youth grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.
(15:16):
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run
and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.
So you have, in Isaiah chapter forty, a picture of
(15:36):
people who are kind of stuck. Well, actually they are
historically stuck in a captive circumstance, and what they feel
and what they see is at odds with what their
circumstances are and the life that they're living. There disappointed
(15:58):
and then God speaks into it. Let's make some simple
observations from the text. The first observation that I want
us to see is the dissonance, okay, between what they
know about God and what they're experiencing. When you think
of the word dissonance, the definition of it is there's
just a lack of harmony. It's like God in their
(16:20):
lives is off key. Okay, God's being inconsistent, right, that's
kind of what we see happening. That's how they feel. Okay,
it may not be the fact, but that's certainly how
they feel. The second thing that we see is the
ignorance that's going on. We have some forgetfulness in play
(16:44):
where God says, don't you know, have you not heard?
So he's he's recognizing, Uh, oh, they're thinking that somehow
I've moved, or I'm not thinking about them, or they
can't live an intimate life with me in the midst
of their circumstance. So he says, don't you know, have
(17:06):
you not heard? So he's addressing their forgetfulness or ignorance
of what he promises. So we see dissonance. We see ignorance. Third,
we see there's a need for some endurance. Some of
you are listening to me, and that's what you need.
God is speaking into what's going on. And it's very
(17:26):
clear that people on earth are tested, and the test
is endurance. It's continuing to believe that God is with us.
It's enduring in our belief that God has a purpose
in all things, in every space, in every relationship. Right
in the passage, we see the need for endurance because
(17:48):
we see that God's people are reverences. They're tired, they're weary.
Even though you stumble and fall, it's an endurance journey.
Right when you're walking on earth with God, will we
endure to the end. So that's the third thing that
we see. The fourth thing that we see, and this
is when there's like a there's like a pivot. Is
(18:11):
we see in the middle of dissonance and ignorance and
this exhausting endurance season that they're in, then we see transcendence. Right,
can we say that together? Transcendence? That's right. That's when
God starts talking about for those who hope in the Lord,
they will renew their strength, they will soar on wings
(18:35):
like eagles. Right, And that's where we have the beyond
the norm experience. Yes, are we on earth, but we're moving,
we're transcending, we're rising above. Our experience of Earth doesn't
mean that our circumstances change. It just means that we
(18:56):
are now experiencing power and God's prayer in our circumstances.
And because He's there and his power is there through
our hope in Him, all of a sudden we start
to rise above our circumstances while we're still in the
midst of them. We start to soar on wings like eagles. Okay,
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and then lastly we see the experience. The Bible says
that God gives strength to the weary, and he increases power.
It's like thrusters up. You know, there is this two
dimensional experience where the Kingdom of God comes into my
(19:42):
experience on Earth, and now we begin to soar and
rise above. Is that you right now? Wherever you are?
I know that Earth can just look the same, feel
the same. There's obstacles, there's things that are unscripted, are
things that are unwelcome in your life, and those can
(20:03):
become God and we can forget, just like God's people
who are in the Babylonian captivity, who Isaiah's writing to
how they're like, yeah, I believe those things, but they're
just not for me. Right now, we can see ignorance
like we just forgot forgetfulness is in play, and our
(20:23):
faith is being stretched to the limit. If that's you,
I got good news. If you just stay with us
through this session, you're gonna start to soar. You're gonna
start to experience some transcendence through your hope and belief
in the person of Jesus Christ. You know, there's there's
my friend Dan and he he loves birds of prey, eagles, hawks,
(20:49):
you know, birds of prey, the high flyers, right, So
he visits like places both in nature and in captivity
where he can see them. And so he was visiting
this bird of prey exhibit one time and he saw
the director of the exhibit who was right there buy it.
And he said, hey, can I ask you a question.
(21:11):
You see that that eagle over there, And the Director's like, yeah,
I see it, the one over there, Like that's on
that limb of that tree that's about fifteen feet off
the ground like that, Yeah, I got it. And so
my friend Dan says, what would happen if even though
this thing is so big and expansive. If you lift
the net off the top of you know, the exhibit,
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what would happen? And the director looked at him right
in the eye, and he said that eagle would stay
right on that branch. And my friend Dan was like,
oh wait a minute, hold on a second, are you
talking about the same bird of prey. This is an
animal that can fly at altitudes above ten thousand feet.
It can descend to eat a lunch at eighty miles
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an hour. Its eyesight is impeccable, right, it has territories
that it manages that are over three hundred miles in radius.
I mean, this is an egle that we're talking about.
And he goes. Why he goes because it has now
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imprinted the mindset of a pigeon, meaning it's a prisoner
now to its own thinking. Its circumstances have soaked its
brain so much that it is forgotten that it is
a majestically created egle, and it's thinking more like a
common loaflying pigeon. You know so many men that I know,
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so many women that I know that believe in Jesus Christ.
They're the pinnacle of creation. They are given promises by God,
they're at the top of the creative master works. They're masterworks.
They're majestic. They're created to have dominion, created to experience God.
They're given a new identity in Christ. There's all these promises,
(23:08):
there's the presence of the Holy Spirit. It's like they're eagles,
but because of circumstances, because of bad thinking, they're prisoners
to their own bad thinking, and they forget the word
of God. They forget the promises of God, which means
they forget to apply the promises of God, which means
(23:30):
that they're going to be like that majestic egle that
thinks like a pigeon. I'm just going to say to
everybody who's watching this right now, if you're a believer
in Jesus Christ, you're an eagle. I live by a school.
It's mascot is the Eagles. I was driving past it
one day. There's a stop light where the school that's
out and I come to the stop and I see
(23:52):
on the kiosk it says it's a great day to
be an egle. And it just so happens that the
theme verse inside the student quad they have is Isaiah
forty thirty one, and they have this big eagle, and
I stop right at the stop sign, and I'm just
thinking about, Oh my gosh, Lord, you're right, it is
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a great day to be an egle. Right, Just remember
that you're an egle, You're not a pitch, and you're
made to soar through your faith in Jesus Christ, rise
above the circumstances and into the purpose and power of
the supernatural life that God has promised us. Okay, so
God's Man rises above through the empowering presence of the
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Holy Spirit. What makes this all happen in the middle
of a circumstance where you look like you're stuck knowing
you're not? Why because of the empowering presence of the
Holy Spirit. You might be in a place where you
can't leave, are you stuck knowing you're not? Because of
the empowering presence of the Holy sp Spirit Heaven invading
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the space of earth that you occupied in you through
the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and through you,
that is what is possible and that is reality for
every believer. So what we want to do now is
we want to turn the page and we want to
see Jesus give the empowering promises we have to see
(25:25):
in the read letters of Scripture, this promised life, this
supernatural life promised by Jesus himself, so that we can
take him at his word, pray his word, and pray
into this power that lives within us. So we're going
to read some passages from John chapter seven and John
(25:45):
chapter fourteen, and then we're going to unpack the benefits
that Jesus offers us through the indwelling, active presence of
the Holy Spirit. John chapter seven, Verses thirty eight and
thirty nine. Jesus is described vibe as like this. It says,
on the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus
(26:06):
stood and said, in a loud voice, quote, let anyone
who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes
in me. As Scripture has said, rivers of living water
will flow from within them. By this, he meant the
spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
(26:31):
Up to that time, the spirit had not been given,
since Jesus had not yet been glorified. So this is
Jesus speaking prophetically about what was going to happen to
every believer that would eventually believe in him. His spirit
would come to live inside of them, and it's described
(26:54):
as rivers of living water will flow from within them. Okay,
not creek, not spring. We're talking about a river. And
it's important to ask the question where does the Holy
Spirit flow from the text says will flow from within them. Okay.
(27:20):
Remember that next passage John chapter fourteen, verses fourteen or
verses sixteen to eighteen. Jesus speaking, he says, and I
will ask the Father and he will give you another
advocate who will never leave you. He is the Holy
Spirit who leads into all truths. The world can't receive
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him because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him.
But you know him because he lives with you now
and will later be in you. No, I will not
abandon you as orphans. I will come to you. And
so there is a second reference to the Holy Spirit.
(28:09):
Jesus lives with them now, but then he says it
will later be in you. Right, and he's affirming what
God's gonna do. God, as soon as Jesus resurrects and
ascends upon belief in his person and his work, that
we confess Christ as Lord with our mouth, and we
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believe in our heart that God raised them from the dead,
were saved. Bam, right, anyone who believes, whoever believes in
comes the Holy Spirit. Okay, here's a third passage and
then we'll do some unpacking Acts Chapter one, verses six
through eight. Then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord,
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are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom
of Israel? He said to them, it is not for
you to know. The times are dates the Father has
set by his own authority. But you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will
be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So in
(29:17):
this passage you've got followers of Jesus asking him, is
the kingdom coming? Know? Are you gonna kick the Romans out?
Are you gonna take over? And instead of satisfying their curiosity,
he goes right to God's plan, which wasn't that for
that time? The coming king is coming and he's coming soon,
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but it wasn't. In that moment. He doesn't even satisfy
their curiosity. It's like he doesn't even acknowledge the question.
He's like, Hey, that's not for you to know. But
here's what you need to know. You're gonna receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you' unpack the empowering
promises of Jesus and just raise the level of importance
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on this Holy Spirit presence within us and making sure
that we're properly partnering. Here are the benefits Jesus says
in the John seven passage John seven thirty and thirty nine,
he says that we're gonna be satisfied from within. Okay,
satisfied versus what dissatisfied. And again that goes to the
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surveys that we read about Christians, the life that's promised
versus the life they feel like they're living, and the
huge gap of dissatisfaction. Well, is it because God moved?
Is it because God didn't do his job, or that
the Holy Spirit didn't come. No, because the empowering promise
is that rivers plural of living water will start flowing
(30:58):
from within. I think of a river, Think of a
fast moving river, Think of a forceful river. Okay, that's
game changing. You get into that thing and stuff's going on.
You're moving forward. Second, Jesus promises experiences from within, so
our thirst is quenched. Right, whoever's thirsty, let him come
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to me and drink our thirsties quench, and then we'll
have experiences. And that's the rivers that he's talking about.
Rivers plural, rivers of living water are gonna start doing things.
They're gonna start changing your attitude, They're gonna start changing
your perspective. You know, a river of thought is gonna
take you down another path, a good path, a holy path,
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a righteous path, a good path. Right, another river is
gonna flow, and it's gonna flow towards your marriage, and
that's gonna get better. Right, And then there's another river
that's gonna flow, that's gonna just message you and tell
you you aren't worthless. No, you're a child of the
Most High God, and he has a plan for you
right where you are. See what I mean, Rivers of
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living water are gonna start flowing. We're gonna start having
forceful experiences. In the John fourteen passage, Jesus says that
we're going to be encouraged from within. Right, we're not
gonna feel rejected, We're not gonna feel abandoned. Those are
both feelings of rejection, feeling of loneliness, feeling of abandonment.
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Those are all negative. Jesus is like, Nope, I'm gonna
be in you. I'm not gonna abandon you as orphans.
You received me, you receive my spirit. I'm gonna lead
you from within. I'm gonna encourage you from within. You
know some of that. Some of you are listening right now.
You need that, you need some encouragement. Well, just can
(32:48):
I tell you there is encouragement already dormant in you
that we're going to be accessing through the person and
work of the Holy Spirit in you. You just hang on,
you stay tuned, keep listening. And then the last Jesus
tells the disciples and the Acts passage that they're gonna
be empowered from within. It's really interesting. Does he satisfy
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their curiosity or does he want them to have power?
It's really interesting. Christians are so curious and ask the
most curious questions that have no relevance to the promised
supernatural power and life that they should be living. Doesn't
mean that we shouldn't be curious, but like these first
century Christians, we can be so focused on one thing
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that we're missing it. With Jesus, it's like he doesn't
even want us focused on that. He's like, you're not
supposed to know when I'm coming back and when I'm
going to establish my kingdom, But you're gonna receive power.
I'll talk to you about that right now, because you're
gonna need power to live your life on earth between
this second and when I come back, or when you
(33:54):
come to me, my brother, my sister. That's what you
need right now. I know there's a lot of things
on your mind. I know that you're concerned about many things.
You might even be concerned about biblical things. But Jesus
is more interested in you having power now to love
Him and love others the right way and experience the
abundant life and supernatural living than he is about satisfying
(34:17):
some peripheral curiosity about the future that you might have.
So I see myself in the Disciples. You see all
of this, the satisfaction, the experiences, the encouragement, the empowerment
that's not promised in the absence of change and challenge
(34:37):
on earth, that's promised to happen in the midst of earth.
Right remember the words of Isaiah. Even though you stumble
badly and you grow weary, those who hope in the Lord.
They're gonna renew their strength. They're gonna mount up with
wings like eagles. They're gonna be walking on earth, but
(34:57):
they're gonna be living two dimensionally. They're going to transcend
their circumstances. They're going to rise above whatever circumstances they're in.
Some of you are listening to my voice, and you're
in a federal prison right now. You're in a local
state or state prison right now. And guess what. You're
bigger than your circumstances. Your God's bigger than your circumstances.
Your God wants to come down. He wants to satisfy you,
(35:19):
he wants to give you experiences, he wants to encourage you,
he wants to empower you. Right where you are, you
have the empowering presence, and you can mount up with
wings like eagles, and you can transcend your circumstances and
step into this supernatural thing called the Kingdom of God,
where whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
(35:40):
Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.
You can live connected to the Kingdom of God while
you're walking the spaces in places on Earth, and there's
nothing more satisfying than being a son of the Most
High right where you live. So there's the content Biblically,
(36:01):
I want you to see that it's normal to allow
some thoughts to get into your head, like, yes, I
believe in Jesus, Yes I believe in God, but it
seems like God's forgotten about me. And I know there's
an abundant life. I know there's a supernatural life, but
it's just not for me. Right now. That's a lie
and I reject that lie. And you should too, all right,
(36:24):
because those who hope in the Lord, the promise of
the Bible is they renew their strength, all right. They
have been given a promise by God that they're gonna
mount up with wings like eagles. And the promise is
the supernatural activation and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Now in any partnership, because that's how the Bible communicates,
(36:47):
this presence within you of Christ's Spirit and you working
with Christ's Spirit in partnership, listening, conversing, checking in in
any partnership, one person could choose not to partner, okay.
And the Bible is is crystal clear that every believer
(37:09):
possesses the Holy Spirit, but not every believer is actively
partnering with the Holy Spirit. In fact, most believers, and
that's that's not an exaggeration. Most believers are missing out
on this partnership, even though scripture assumes that you are partnering.
That's why it says in Galatians five twenty five, since
we live by the spirit, let us keep in step
(37:31):
with the Spirit, like it's the assumption of life. Well,
of course you're partnering with the Holy Spirit. You know Jesus,
you're connected to his spirit. His spirit lives within you,
and you're constantly in this rhythm of working with the
Holy Spirit as he communicates to your mind and heart
and soul to do that next thing that shows love
(37:52):
for God and people. So there's always a threat right
to a fracture in this partnership. There's things that can
you know, how like you break a bone or something,
you know, there's fracture. Doesn't mean that the bone is
not in your body. It just means it's fractured. It
means that you've kind of lost the function of whatever
(38:14):
limb that bone is broken in. All right, same is
true in your relationship with God. The Bible says that
you can grieve the Holy Spirit. You can lie to
the Holy Spirit, you can quench the Spirit's fire. There
can be Holy Spirit fracture where you don't lose the
indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, but there's certainly fractures.
(38:34):
So that's why we need to talk about the endangering
problem to the empowering presence. There's things, the choices that
we could make that can I mean, it's just like
pulling a plug out of the wall like that can
cut off the power of the Holy Spirit and a believer. Fortunately,
there's a remedy. We're going to talk about that as well.
But let's look and just define the word danger. Okay.
(38:56):
So there's the promise, and there's the reality of the
presence of God in us and our ability to partner
with the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is saying we could
be satisfied, we can be encouraged, we can be empowered.
But there's a threat to that. There's a danger something
that may cause injury to those promises or a loss
(39:19):
of that promises, or even pain connected to fracturing your
relationship with the Holy Spirit. So let's look at four
commissions to all believers. Okay, just for truths, I'm calling
them commissions, and I use strong language. I use the
word we cannot, but I think you'll get it once
(39:40):
we look at each theme. All right. Number one, we
cannot experience discipleship without dependence on the spirit. Okay, used
the big word there, discipleship. What does that mean? Discipleship?
It means being with Jesus, to be like Jesus. You
(40:01):
become a disciple. You spend time with Jesus, and as
we watch Jesus do his thing, then we want to
do that thing that he does it with us, and
then we do it. Okay, that's discipleship. When Jesus follow me,
it just means be with me, to become like me.
That's discipleship. But there is no becoming like Jesus. There
(40:21):
is no christ formation in you, which is God's plan
after salvation, without dependence on the spirit. First Corinthians, chapter two,
verse twelve says this, we believers have not received the
spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God,
(40:42):
that we may understand what God has freely given to us.
In other words, there's cultural messaging. There's messaging of your
family formation, there's messaging about you that is without God.
And we have taken that in, or we take that
(41:03):
in in the absence of God's presence in our life,
but not anymore. We're saved. We believed in the person
and work of Jesus Christ, and now we're in this
process of Christ's formation because his spirit lives within us.
And the Bible says, but we've received the spirit who
is from God, that we may understand what God has
(41:25):
given us. What's God saying here in his word to believers.
He's saying, don't try to use listen to me, worldly
or cultural feeling or thinking to try to live a
godly life. I don't use worldly thinking to live a
(41:49):
godly life. In other words, I don't draw from places
that exist and live without God to try to live
a godly life. Right. That can be your peer group,
that can be what you see on TV. That can
be the messaging of the world, which says, hey, indulge yourself,
you know, increase all right, impress people, you know, puff
(42:14):
be that guy. All right. That kind of thinking doesn't
make you like Jesus. In fact, you don't grow in character,
and you get less mature and you become more fearful. Right,
so we cannot experience discipleship without keyword dependence on the spirit.
If we did by the spirit, then let us keep
in step with spirit. That picture is of a dependent relationship.
(42:36):
You can't understand who you are in Christ unless you're
depending on the Spirit. Number two, we cannot exchange spirit
dependence for self reliance. Now, I know there's probably ninety
percent of the dudes listening out there. You got to
where you are because you feel like, you know, I
pull my boost up, I worked bootstraps up, I worked hard,
(42:58):
I performed or whatever that might work in the world. Okay,
it doesn't work in God. You can't become like Jesus
performing your way there, doing the right things, reading the
right things, even reading your Bible. Those are spaces that
the Holy Spirit can use to make you like Christ.
(43:19):
But the effort that the earning of that, the self
reliance versus the dependence on the Spirit, that's not gonna
get you there. But I see with a lot of guys,
they just bring their whole work ethic into the spiritual
life and they don't become like Jesus at all because
(43:40):
they get all the credit. Yes, because I do this
and do that, and do this and do that, and
they push all their chips to the middle of the
table on their performance or on their works, versus on
the spirit, which the Bible says, the spirit makes us holy.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience.
Claim the spirit is conforming us to the image of
(44:04):
Christ and setting us free. Number three, Well.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Let me go back.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
That's kind of an important point. We don't want to
miss a passage of scripture, so under the fill in
of we cannot exchange spirit to penance for self reliance.
Listen to Paul's warning. Okay wrote most of the New
Testament pastoral epistles. He is the spiritual coach for Christians
during his time. He says, this, are you so foolish
(44:30):
after beginning with the spirit? Are you now trying to
attain your goal by human effort? You see, I was
raised in a military family. In a military family, it's
authority and accountability. Perform under the authority and accountability, and
then you get acceptance and affirmation. You got to perform
(44:53):
your way into intimacy. Wow. Really, well, if you have
to perform your way into any you can lose it
for lack of performance. Okay, so Paul's just going, Hey,
this isn't a human effort thing you began by the spirit.
What saves you, sustained you. The Holy Spirit saves a Christian,
(45:16):
and a holy spirit, the Holy Spirit sustains the next
part of the process, which is christ Formation number three.
We cannot blend spirit, our spirit lead nature with our
old nature. This is just you know, oil and water,
flesh and spirit. You know, there's your old life, there's
(45:38):
your new life in Christ. But you got more muscle
memory and your old life. But He's calling you to
a new life. And then somewhere along the line you're
just like, can't I just blend the too? Can I
be a spirit filled Christian who sometimes does this stuff?
You know what I'm talking about. You guys know what
you're stepping. You're smelling what I'm stepping in, right. We
(46:01):
all have this like, gosh, this is Can I just
like go backwards a little bit? You know, then I'll
go forward right, and then it'll be a longer time between.
But if you do that, that's not that's not only
not biblical, but it it presumes that well, yeah, God
saved me and his grace save me, and I can
just take a vacation from my identity every now and
(46:24):
then and then live this way. That's not what the
Bible teaches. Look at what the Bible teaches in Galatians
five seventeen says this, For the sinful nature desires what
is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is
contrary to the sinful nature or old you. They are
in conflict with each other, so that you do not
(46:44):
do what you want, all right. The Christian life is
not the best of Jesus and the best of the
old me. No, it's just the best of Jesus. If
any man's in Christ, he's a new creation. Behold, the
old things pass away, and all things are new. God
completely shook the board clean. It's like, nope, I'm gonna
(47:09):
build you in the image of my son. It's gonna
be a process, but that is the goal, all right.
The reason why you don't feel the same freedom to
be your old self is because you have the spirit
of God in you. You have a force that is
(47:29):
in you that is now fighting against the forces of
the old self. And only one's gonna win. And the
one who wins is the one you partner with. You
can partner with the flesh and be a Christian but
you're not gonna have the power of the Holy Spirit
if you're doing that. So, we can't experience discipleship without
(47:52):
dependence on the Spirit. Where we cannot exchange spirit dependence
for self reliance. We can't blend our spirit lead in
nature with our old nager number four. We cannot win
Christ's formation without Holy Spirit submission. And this is where
the rubber hits the road. Remember this, if you're taking notes,
(48:13):
write this down. The issue is control. Who is in
control of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your
strength at any given moment. Listen to what the Bible says.
The Bible says, but those who are controlled circle that
by the Holy Spirit. Think about things that please the Spirit. Now,
(48:39):
why is that verse so important? Why is Romans eight
five so important? Because it begs the question who's in control?
Is it the Holy Spirit? Is it your flesh? Is
it another spirit? Little s right? Who are you turning to?
(48:59):
Who we are you checking in with as you make
decisions today? Right now in your circumstances, right now, are
you checking in with the Holy Spirit? Holy Spirit? What
is it that God wants me to do? Holy Spirit?
Show me what shows love for you? Show me what
shows love for others, Holy Spirit, or you're checking in
(49:22):
with Yeah, I hear what you're saying, Holy Spirit, but
I got this one in pride. Or I hear you,
Holy Spirit. I know what you're calling me to do
because I'm a child of Son of the Most High.
I'm a child of God. But I'm going to press
the mute button on you, and then I'm going to
do what I want to do, because if I do
what you want me to do that I see maybe
(49:45):
in your word or that I sense is consistent with Jesus,
then I'm not going to get what I want. And
right now I want what I want when I want it,
in the forum that I wanted it. Wow. Okay, So
all of us have experienced that where in pride we
say thank but no thanks, or if I do it
your way, I might lose some experience or lose something.
(50:06):
If I'm still gonna choose to do it my way,
listen to what the Bible says. You know, those are
controlled by the spirit. Think about the things of the
Spirit Romans eight five. Now, how does that relate to
christ formation in becoming like Jesus. Well, look at what
it says in John eight twenty nine. Right, this Jesus talking,
he says, and the one who sent me is with me. Okay,
(50:28):
see that abiding presence. Right, he has not deserted me,
for I always do what pleases him. So Jesus anointed
by the Spirit, connected with Father and Holy Spirit, the
Son connected with them, he pleases God. He's connected. Okay,
(50:48):
he's submitted. Right. Not mine will be done, but your
will be done. Same is true for us. Are we
submitted to God? The Holy Spirit will tell us things
to do, things that give us an opportunity to submit
to a loving God who has our best interest in mind,
who is wiser, and who always loves us in telling
(51:12):
us what to do. So in the end, we cannot
win christ'formation without Holy Spirit submission. Okay. So those are
the endangering problems. These are subtle battles that come into
your partnership with the Holy Spirit that can threaten it.
They're a danger to it. So now let's look at
the empowering practice. What do we do, Okay, what is
(51:34):
the exact one, two three of this partnership of the
Holy Spirit. Well, if you're taking notes, write down this
number one. Surrender control to the Holy Spirit. Surrender control
to the Holy Spirit. So if the issue is control
those who are controlled by the spirit, then we have
to have a real practical surrender to the control of
(51:58):
the Holy Spirit. Okay, look at what it says in
Ephesians five. It says, don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what
the Lord wants you to do. Don't be drunk with
wine because that will ruin your life. Instead, say it
with me. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. What's great
in the Bible is when you see the Bible say,
(52:21):
understand what the Lord's will is. Pay really close attention
to what happened. What is said next, this is the
Lord's will. If you want to do the Lord's will,
what is the Lord's will, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
What that means is that the word filled is is
be being filled. It's a it's an ongoing, continuous filling.
(52:42):
It's not like a one time poor. The one time
poor happened at salvation. Holy Spirit is always in us.
But then filling of the Holy Spirit. There's many fillings
of the Holy Spirit. Because sometimes we can fracture our
relationship with the Holy Spirit. So the Bible says, surrender
control to the Holy Spirit. Like when I wake up
(53:03):
in the morning, I say, Holy Spirit, film me, take over,
overtake me, Holy Spirit, lead me, Holy Spirit, control me.
I'm borrowing the words of scripture that are encouraged or
commanded film me, control me, lead me. Those are all
(53:30):
verbs assigned to the Holy Spirit and me. So I'm
going to pray those words. You can even say in
with me right now, Holy Spirit, film me, Holy Spirit,
control me, Holy Spirit, film me, or lead me. So
(53:51):
you can do that every day. That's partnering with the
Holy Spirit. Second, seek to guard the ongoing connection. So
I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. Now I have to
Now I have to guard it. Look at what it
says here on the screen Galatians five twenty five. It says,
since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow
(54:12):
the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. So
the Holy Spirit will lead you in your relationships, your friendships,
all right. The Holy Spirit will lead you and how
you treat other people. The Holy Spirit will lead you
to do things that show love for God and not
do things that don't show love for God. So what
(54:36):
you want to do is you want to guard that connection.
And every time you obey the voice of the Spirit,
you're guarding that connection. It's like guarding a relationship. Let's
just say a man and a woman are married and
the relationship is threatened by a third party, whether it's
the woman or the man. Okay, we have to guard
that covenant relationship with our spouse, just like we guard
(54:59):
our relationship with the Holy spirits, the most important relationship
we have. We're gonna guard it all right. Now, here
is the next step, because in any relationships, have you
ever blown it in a relationship? Have you ever done
something that like now, you guys are not getting along
all right? You blow it? Okay? Well, God always loves us.
(55:21):
It's not like God of Harbor's feelings. But God will
always wait for us to take ownership of what we've
done wrong. So that's the third step. Just say, quote,
I blew it when you blow it?
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
Isn't that how we reconcile human relationships. It's like you
know what I own an apology?
Speaker 2 (55:38):
I blew it.
Speaker 3 (55:40):
You know back there, when I did that, I was wrong,
was wrong, shouldn't have done it? Please forgive me. Now,
if only we did that quicker and sooner rather than later,
and if only we had the courage and humility to
admit when we've done something wrong. Well, in your relationship
with God, it's kind of essential because it is the
(56:02):
relationship that we say we blew it when we blow it.
So look at what the Bible says in first John
one nine. It says, if we admit our sins, simply
come clean about them, he won't let us down. He'll
be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purgase
of all wrong doing. Even on a human level. We
know this is true when we just go, you know,
(56:24):
somebody we love loves us, and we just go, you
know what, back there right there, that was wrong. Should
have never done that. I'm so sorry. Would you please
forgive me? Of course, it's all about the sincerity of heart. Right,
It's like you meant that. You know there are other
people who don't mean it, but God knows when you
mean it. Okay, so say you blew it when you
(56:46):
blow it? All right, here's the last simple practice of
those who partner with the Holy Spirit. Well, and it's this, sincerely,
desire and activate his presence. Activate and desire his presence.
Look at what Jesus says in John seven. We read
(57:07):
this earlier. But he says, Jesus said stood and said
in a loud voice, let anyone. Okay, so who does
that about? Anyone who's thirsty, come to me and drink.
And here's the key keywords, whoever believes in me. As
Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from
(57:29):
within them. So if we want to activate this supernatural, powerful, encouraging,
satisfying life, we need to surrender control. We need to
guard our relationship with the Holy Spirit. If we blow it,
we say we blew it. When we've blown it, and
then guess what, Because it's our desire. We desire to
(57:49):
activate His presence ongoing every day, be filled with the
Holy Spirit. Right, but you know what that requires. That's
what Jesus says. Whoever believes in me? Okay, so belief desire.
I want to live the spirit led life. As Scripture
(58:10):
has said, Look at Jesus referencing scripture, rivers of living
water will flow from within them. Okay. So as we
partner with His empowering presence. Okay, what happens we soar
into Christ's likeness, We start becoming like Jesus, we believe,
(58:36):
and we're saved. What is the gospel, though, it's believing,
being with and becoming like Jesus. That's the gospel. That's
what the gospel offers. It's not just fire insurance. It's
radical transformation. Okay. Now, the best verse in all of
(58:57):
scripture that summarizes everything we're talking about is in Second
Corinthians three, sixteen to eighteen. We're gonna put that on
the screen. It says this, but whenever anyone turns to
the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord
is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled
(59:21):
faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image,
with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord. Say
it with me, who is the Spirit? In other words,
my Christ's formation and life in God hinges on my
(59:44):
connection with and partnership with the Holy Spirit. I love
this passage of scripture because it tells us what God's
endgame is. When you read in Philippians, he who began
a good work in you is faithful to complete it
and bring it to a flo flourishing finish on the
very day of Christ Jesus. In Philippians one to six.
(01:00:04):
This is the end name. To believe in Jesus, to
be with Jesus, to become like Jesus. And what is
the key. The key is partnering with the Holy Spirit
in everyday life. Every day you wake up, every place
where you find yourself keeping in step with the Spirit.
(01:00:25):
So I've created a little acrostic because we started talking
about eagles, right, those who hope in the Lord will
bound up with wings like eagles. And the offer of
this transcendent supernatural life. Well, eagle sore, let's unpack soar.
The essen sore is say yes, say yes to the
(01:00:49):
Holy Spirit. Okay, I accept, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Fill me,
Holy Spirit, control me, Holy Spirit, leave me according to
the command promise of God. The oh in sore is
open doors to the Holy Spirit. Open doors of your life.
(01:01:10):
You know, the Bible says that our lives are like
houses that are built on foundations. Our lives. Jesus said,
he stands at the door, knocks, We let him in.
We open the door. He comes in, right. But when
Jesus comes in initially through the front door of your belief,
then he wants to spend some time in your house.
(01:01:31):
He kind of looking around can I go in that room?
And can I go in that room? All right? There
are some of you that are listening to me right now.
There are there are rooms in your house. It's like
they have that yellow police tape across It's like, you
can go in that room, you can go out, but
you can't go in that room. But guess what Right now,
Jesus is knocking on that door. He wants to go
(01:01:53):
in the room that you've never let anybody in. Maybe
it's a room of your past that you just don't
like talking about. Maybe it's an experience that you've had.
Maybe maybe it's something that you did, or maybe it's
something that somebody else did to you. But Jesus wants
to go in there with you and you come out free.
So say yes to the Holy Spirit, open doors, a
(01:02:15):
actively partner with the Holy Spirit. Okay, check in, check in.
You ever went to make a decision and he's like, Hey,
I gotta check in with the boss, or I gotta
check in with my wife, or I gotta check with
my buddy. All right, how about check in with the
Holy Spirit, Like before you make any decision that impacts
(01:02:35):
your relationship with God or with people. How about you.
Check in with the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, lead me
in this situation. Holy Spirit, Remind me of your word,
Holy Spirit, Show me, Holy Spirit, take me to scripture
and show me God's will, and don't make that decision
until you get thumbs up from the Holy Spirit. They
(01:02:58):
are in sore is. Release the power once you have
the Holy Spirit in you. Jesus said you're gonna receive
power and then the Holy Spirit's gonna come out of you.
How do we know that's true? Three years, twelve dudes,
twenty centuries of power. I went from twelve when Jesus
(01:03:22):
was walking with them to today two point eight billion
followers of Jesus, and you're one of them. Release the power.
The power is just like this ongoing thing. People believe
they get the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit fills them,
and then they start releasing that power in the spaces
and places that they occupied. See, I can't be where
(01:03:45):
you are and you can't be where I am. But
we both have the Holy Spirit, and our job is
to release the power of the Holy Spirit and advance
the Kingdom of God. Now what I've done just to
make this super practical, as I've scripted literally a prayer
that calls into account the truth of scripture and what
(01:04:09):
you have just learned. And so I'm going to read
this with you. I want to pray this with you,
and then we'll conclude our time. So let's let's just
kind of take a look at the screen and we're
going to put the prayer up there, and let's pray together,
(01:04:29):
and let's have that empowering presence in us activated for
us so that we can live with power and mount
up with wings like egos. Ready, let's pray together, Holy Spirit,
Thank you for dwelling in me. Thank you for sealing
my identity. Thank you for conforming me to the image
(01:04:55):
of Christ. Thank You for filling me and controlling me.
Thank You for manifesting the fruit of the Spirit and
the gifts of the Spirit in me. Thank You for
being the fire of God in me, transforming me in
(01:05:15):
my inner man, giving me the character of Christ. Thank
you for securing my spirit through God's love and acceptance,
setting me free from condemnation and comparison. Holy Spirit, in
the name of Jesus, I surrender to your overflow from
(01:05:39):
me and into the spaces, places, and people you have
assigned to my life. I want the greater works of
Christ manifested in me and through me. Right now, according
to your word and promise, align my spirit, my energy,
(01:06:03):
and my body with your kingdom superstory, Holy Spirit. Use
me today open my eyes to the Kingdom of God
and the exact part I am playing in it. Open
new doors and help me to step through them in Jesus'
name and for your pleasure.
Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
Amen, God bless you.
Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
You will be like God.
Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
Human unity with God was severed, and through it all
God's promise remain true.
Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Follow me, April, and I will make you grad This
is the Chosen People.
Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Listen to the Chosen People at the Chosen People dot com.
That's the Chosen People dot com.
But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For
he that cometh to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him Hebrews eleven six. My good works are not
enough to please you Lord. My belief in your reality
(00:20):
is what you are looking for in me. You created
me for an intimate love relationship with you. You desire
to fellowship with me and have honest communion with me.
As I diligently seek you in your word and through prayer,
you will reveal yourself to me. Out of the overflow
(00:41):
of my love for you, good works will naturally spring forth.
They will be borne from my faith in you, and
not the pride of my flesh. What is born of
the spirit of love has eternal value.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Thank you for listening to today's Daily Prayer for more
inspiration and an incredible message from our feature pastor, stay
tuned to pray dot COM's Sunday service.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Hi, if you have a Bible, I want you to
hold two spots, one in John chapter seven and then
another one in John chapter fourteen. Welcome to this Everyman's
special feature entitled The Empowering Presence. Now when we talk
about God. If I asked you, tell me a word
that you might associate with God, just just throw it
(01:44):
out there. Words are coming to your mind right now.
He's holy, he's loving, he's merciful, he's generous, he's sovereign.
He's omnipotent, he's omnipresent. You know, there are certain words
that we think of automatically that come to mind when
you think about God. But one word that we don't
(02:05):
often think about is this word. Are you ready? Relational?
God is Relational relationship is at the center of who
God is. When we hear Jesus pray in the garden,
I in them, you and me, them in us. When
(02:26):
we see the relationship between Father Son and Holy Spirit
at creation, at Jesus's baptism, when we think about the
Gospel being God wanting relationship with us and going to
great lengths to have relationship with us. So I share
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that because if God is relational, then he has relational intentions, right,
And two relational intentions that God has which describe the
entire Christian life are these two intentions. His first intention
is salvation, that is, to have a relationship with you
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through belief in the person and work of Jesus. And
many of you that are listening to me right now,
you have believed in the person of Jesus, that he
is the Son of God and the work of Jesus
right his death on the cross. For you, that is
the most amazing moment of your life. And the Bible
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says that over thirty things happen to us with respect
to our identity at the moment of salvation. It just
happens upon you. You believe in Jesus, You're in Christ.
You become a child of God. You become salt, you
become light. You inherit every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
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You are sheep right, you are sons. I mean, there
are over thirty things the Bible says transfer over to
you automatically when you believe in Jesus Christ. That's God's
first relation to intention is salvation. That's how the relationship starts. Okay,
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but that's certainly not the whole of the gospel. The
gospel is about belief and salvation, but it's also about transformation.
More specifically, it is about christ formation. We believe in
Jesus for salvation, and then when Jesus says, follow me.
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That's the rest of the journey. That means we spend
time with and become like the person that we're following.
So we believe we be with Jesus and we become
like Jesus. That's what's offered when you talk about the God.
It's a relationship with God that comes through belief and
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then being with Jesus to become like Jesus. That's the
transformation process, or what we're going to call in this
session christ formation. And so the best picture in the
Bible to give you when it comes to that process
of transformation from the inside out in the Bible for
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me is baptism. Okay, baptism. The original use of the
word in the Greek language is a pickling term. Okay,
You take a cucumber, you put it in a jar
with lots of vinegar and spices and stuff, and you
leave it in there in the jar, and when you
pull it out, it's no longer a cucumber, it's a
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pickle because the cucumber has fully identified with the sauce
that it has been soaking in. It's gone all the
way through it. So then when the Bible says you
are baptized into Christ Jesus. The reference at that time
when that word is used is textiles or making clothes.
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You take a white T shirt, you dip it and
soak it into purple dye. You leave it there, you
pull it out, it's no longer a white T shirt.
It is a purple shirt. The cloth has fully identified
with the color. So when the Bible says, as believers,
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we have been baptized into Christ Jesus, so upon belief
we are baptized into Jesus's life on Earth, his death,
his resurrection, and his current seating. We are fully identified
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with Christ. And so we begin this process of becoming
like Christ in character, becoming like Christ in the quality
of the life that he lived, and becoming like Christ
in experience. Okay, that's one aspect of Christ's formation. But listen,
and this is the exciting thing, is that we also
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live like Christ on earth where he lived two dimensionally.
He came from Heaven, but he lived on earth. And
while he was living on Earth, he was connected to Heaven,
and he was bringing Heaven or the Kingdom of God,
into the spaces and places where he was walking on earth.
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That's why I like to say that every Christian lives
two dimensionally. Right, And Jesus talked about this. He says,
when you pray, pray your kingdom come, your will be done.
What's the next line on earth as it is in heaven? Right.
Jesus says to the disciples that I'm giving you the
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keys to the kingdom, and whatever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven. And whenever you loose on earth,
will be loose in heaven. He talks about opening how
we are going to live two dimensionally. So I shared
these things in context that the Christian life is salvation
and transformation mean that looks like Christ's formation, and that
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we live two dimensionally where we are actually bringing the
Kingdom of God through His presence in us into the
spaces and places that you and I occupy. Okay, now
here is why we're talking about the empowering presence. If
I were to give you a key that was gonna
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unlock salvation and transformation, all that that being a Christian promises,
all that God promises, all the power, all the presence,
all the purpose, all the Kingdom coming in you and
going through you. If I was to give you a
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key that unlocked all of that would you be interested. Well,
the key that unlocks all of what I just said
is the person and presence of the Holy Spirit. Listen,
in you, my man of God or my sister of God,
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because when we become a Christian, the Bible says that
he pours the spirit of his Son into our hearts.
When you first believed, the indwelling presence of the Living
God came to be inside of you. That's why Jesus said,
I will be in you. I'm not going to leave
you as orphans. Read John fourteen fifteen sixteen, and then
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you read about him talking about how he's leaving physically
but he's coming spiritually. And listen to what he says.
It's better or that I go like, my leadership is
going to be in you. That's the empowering presence. Without
the Holy Spirit, none of the promises of the Bible
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can come true in or through your life. In fact,
your life in God hinges on the presence and your
active partnership with the Holy Spirit the empowering presence. But
now here's the reality. The reality is is that Jesus
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promises the abundant life on one hand, and then there's
the life that I'm living. And when you survey and
you talk with Christians and you ask them, do you
believe in the abundant life? They'll go, oh, yes, I
totally believe in the abundant life. I believe all the
promises of the Bible. But then when you ask them
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some questions about you know, are they experiencing the joy
of the Christian life? Do they feel that that they're
living the abundant Christian life? There is a huge gap
between what they believe and what they're experiencing. You ever
felt like that where you would say to yourself or
say to somebody who asks you, Hey, do you believe
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the Bible is true? You believe Jesus is God, you
believe the Holy Spirit is in you. Do you believe
in the promise of God. You'd go yes, yes, yes,
and yes. But then there would be this other little
voice that would say, you know what, I believe all
those things. They're just not for me at the moment.
I'm not experiencing those promises. Listen to me. That shouldn't
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be the life that you're experiencing. Because Jesus said I
came that they might have life, and they might have
it to the full or that they might have it abundantly.
The question is do we have the key that unlocks
that life? And if we do possess the key, which
we're saying, is the Holy Spirit, Right, what is my
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life in the spirit, Like, how is my partnership with
the Holy Spirit? If my whole entire Christian life hinges
on my partnership with the Holy Spirit, how is that going?
So we felt like we needed to do a special
feature called the Empowering Presence because we want you to
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experience the abundant life. We want you to become like Jesus.
We want you to live the supernatural life to the
point where it becomes super natural. The Bible says in
Galatians chapter five, verse twenty five, it says, since we
live by the spirit, let us keep in step with
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the Spirit. You see, the Bible assumes that Christians are
partnering with the person of the Holy Spirit, that Christians
are keeping in step with the spirit, listening to the Spirit,
seeking the Spirit, checking in with the Holy Spirit, activating
the presence of the Holy Spirit that's already there, right,
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And that's what the Bible calls, you know, the anointed
Christian life. Jesus said in Luke four, the spirit of
the Lord is upon me and he's anointed me, and
then he outlines this life that he's going to live.
If that's Jesus, and Jesus is in you, then this
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is you on an increasing basis. You should be living
a spirit filled, spirit controlled, abundant life. The question is
how do we get there. Well, here's some good news,
and this is where we go to the downloaded notes.
If you have those, we're going to be looking at
the Bible because God's people for centuries right have been
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struggling with this tension of there's the life that God
promises and then there's the life that I'm living. There
seems to be this big gap between what I'm experiencing
and then what the Bible promises. Well, you know, you've
heard that old phrase, welcome to the club. This is
an issue that God has been working on with his
people for a long time. The good news, though, is
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that in scripture we see the solution and we also
identify the problem. In Isaiah chapter forty, one of the
most famous passages of scripture. We're gonna see sort of
this gap thinking in God's people, and then we're gonna
see God speak into it, and then we're gonna unpack
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some dynamics that go to sometimes how we feel versus
the life that God offers. Isaiah chapter forty, verse twenty
seven through thirty one says this, why do you complain,
oh Jacob, Why do you say, Israel, My way is
hidden from the Lord, My cause is disregarded by my God.
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Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord
is the everlasting God, the creator of the end of
the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and
his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strengths to
the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even
youth grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.
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But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run
and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.
So you have, in Isaiah chapter forty, a picture of
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people who are kind of stuck. Well, actually they are
historically stuck in a captive circumstance, and what they feel
and what they see is at odds with what their
circumstances are and the life that they're living. There disappointed
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and then God speaks into it. Let's make some simple
observations from the text. The first observation that I want
us to see is the dissonance, okay, between what they
know about God and what they're experiencing. When you think
of the word dissonance, the definition of it is there's
just a lack of harmony. It's like God in their
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lives is off key. Okay, God's being inconsistent, right, that's
kind of what we see happening. That's how they feel. Okay,
it may not be the fact, but that's certainly how
they feel. The second thing that we see is the
ignorance that's going on. We have some forgetfulness in play
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where God says, don't you know, have you not heard?
So he's he's recognizing, Uh, oh, they're thinking that somehow
I've moved, or I'm not thinking about them, or they
can't live an intimate life with me in the midst
of their circumstance. So he says, don't you know, have
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you not heard? So he's addressing their forgetfulness or ignorance
of what he promises. So we see dissonance. We see ignorance. Third,
we see there's a need for some endurance. Some of
you are listening to me, and that's what you need.
God is speaking into what's going on. And it's very
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clear that people on earth are tested, and the test
is endurance. It's continuing to believe that God is with us.
It's enduring in our belief that God has a purpose
in all things, in every space, in every relationship. Right
in the passage, we see the need for endurance because
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we see that God's people are reverences. They're tired, they're weary.
Even though you stumble and fall, it's an endurance journey.
Right when you're walking on earth with God, will we
endure to the end. So that's the third thing that
we see. The fourth thing that we see, and this
is when there's like a there's like a pivot. Is
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we see in the middle of dissonance and ignorance and
this exhausting endurance season that they're in, then we see transcendence. Right,
can we say that together? Transcendence? That's right. That's when
God starts talking about for those who hope in the Lord,
they will renew their strength, they will soar on wings
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like eagles. Right, And that's where we have the beyond
the norm experience. Yes, are we on earth, but we're moving,
we're transcending, we're rising above. Our experience of Earth doesn't
mean that our circumstances change. It just means that we
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are now experiencing power and God's prayer in our circumstances.
And because He's there and his power is there through
our hope in Him, all of a sudden we start
to rise above our circumstances while we're still in the
midst of them. We start to soar on wings like eagles. Okay,
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and then lastly we see the experience. The Bible says
that God gives strength to the weary, and he increases power.
It's like thrusters up. You know, there is this two
dimensional experience where the Kingdom of God comes into my
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experience on Earth, and now we begin to soar and
rise above. Is that you right now? Wherever you are?
I know that Earth can just look the same, feel
the same. There's obstacles, there's things that are unscripted, are
things that are unwelcome in your life, and those can
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become God and we can forget, just like God's people
who are in the Babylonian captivity, who Isaiah's writing to
how they're like, yeah, I believe those things, but they're
just not for me. Right now, we can see ignorance
like we just forgot forgetfulness is in play, and our
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faith is being stretched to the limit. If that's you,
I got good news. If you just stay with us
through this session, you're gonna start to soar. You're gonna
start to experience some transcendence through your hope and belief
in the person of Jesus Christ. You know, there's there's
my friend Dan and he he loves birds of prey, eagles, hawks,
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you know, birds of prey, the high flyers, right, So
he visits like places both in nature and in captivity
where he can see them. And so he was visiting
this bird of prey exhibit one time and he saw
the director of the exhibit who was right there buy it.
And he said, hey, can I ask you a question.
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You see that that eagle over there, And the Director's like, yeah,
I see it, the one over there, Like that's on
that limb of that tree that's about fifteen feet off
the ground like that, Yeah, I got it. And so
my friend Dan says, what would happen if even though
this thing is so big and expansive. If you lift
the net off the top of you know, the exhibit,
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what would happen? And the director looked at him right
in the eye, and he said that eagle would stay
right on that branch. And my friend Dan was like,
oh wait a minute, hold on a second, are you
talking about the same bird of prey. This is an
animal that can fly at altitudes above ten thousand feet.
It can descend to eat a lunch at eighty miles
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an hour. Its eyesight is impeccable, right, it has territories
that it manages that are over three hundred miles in radius.
I mean, this is an egle that we're talking about.
And he goes. Why he goes because it has now
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imprinted the mindset of a pigeon, meaning it's a prisoner
now to its own thinking. Its circumstances have soaked its
brain so much that it is forgotten that it is
a majestically created egle, and it's thinking more like a
common loaflying pigeon. You know so many men that I know,
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so many women that I know that believe in Jesus Christ.
They're the pinnacle of creation. They are given promises by God,
they're at the top of the creative master works. They're masterworks.
They're majestic. They're created to have dominion, created to experience God.
They're given a new identity in Christ. There's all these promises,
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there's the presence of the Holy Spirit. It's like they're eagles,
but because of circumstances, because of bad thinking, they're prisoners
to their own bad thinking, and they forget the word
of God. They forget the promises of God, which means
they forget to apply the promises of God, which means
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that they're going to be like that majestic egle that
thinks like a pigeon. I'm just going to say to
everybody who's watching this right now, if you're a believer
in Jesus Christ, you're an eagle. I live by a school.
It's mascot is the Eagles. I was driving past it
one day. There's a stop light where the school that's
out and I come to the stop and I see
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on the kiosk it says it's a great day to
be an egle. And it just so happens that the
theme verse inside the student quad they have is Isaiah
forty thirty one, and they have this big eagle, and
I stop right at the stop sign, and I'm just
thinking about, Oh my gosh, Lord, you're right, it is
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a great day to be an egle. Right, Just remember
that you're an egle, You're not a pitch, and you're
made to soar through your faith in Jesus Christ, rise
above the circumstances and into the purpose and power of
the supernatural life that God has promised us. Okay, so
God's Man rises above through the empowering presence of the
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Holy Spirit. What makes this all happen in the middle
of a circumstance where you look like you're stuck knowing
you're not? Why because of the empowering presence of the
Holy Spirit. You might be in a place where you
can't leave, are you stuck knowing you're not? Because of
the empowering presence of the Holy sp Spirit Heaven invading
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the space of earth that you occupied in you through
the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and through you,
that is what is possible and that is reality for
every believer. So what we want to do now is
we want to turn the page and we want to
see Jesus give the empowering promises we have to see
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in the read letters of Scripture, this promised life, this
supernatural life promised by Jesus himself, so that we can
take him at his word, pray his word, and pray
into this power that lives within us. So we're going
to read some passages from John chapter seven and John
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chapter fourteen, and then we're going to unpack the benefits
that Jesus offers us through the indwelling, active presence of
the Holy Spirit. John chapter seven, Verses thirty eight and
thirty nine. Jesus is described vibe as like this. It says,
on the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus
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stood and said, in a loud voice, quote, let anyone
who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes
in me. As Scripture has said, rivers of living water
will flow from within them. By this, he meant the
spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
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Up to that time, the spirit had not been given,
since Jesus had not yet been glorified. So this is
Jesus speaking prophetically about what was going to happen to
every believer that would eventually believe in him. His spirit
would come to live inside of them, and it's described
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as rivers of living water will flow from within them. Okay,
not creek, not spring. We're talking about a river. And
it's important to ask the question where does the Holy
Spirit flow from the text says will flow from within them. Okay.
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Remember that next passage John chapter fourteen, verses fourteen or
verses sixteen to eighteen. Jesus speaking, he says, and I
will ask the Father and he will give you another
advocate who will never leave you. He is the Holy
Spirit who leads into all truths. The world can't receive
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him because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him.
But you know him because he lives with you now
and will later be in you. No, I will not
abandon you as orphans. I will come to you. And
so there is a second reference to the Holy Spirit.
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Jesus lives with them now, but then he says it
will later be in you. Right, and he's affirming what
God's gonna do. God, as soon as Jesus resurrects and
ascends upon belief in his person and his work, that
we confess Christ as Lord with our mouth, and we
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believe in our heart that God raised them from the dead,
were saved. Bam, right, anyone who believes, whoever believes in
comes the Holy Spirit. Okay, here's a third passage and
then we'll do some unpacking Acts Chapter one, verses six
through eight. Then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord,
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are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom
of Israel? He said to them, it is not for
you to know. The times are dates the Father has
set by his own authority. But you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will
be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So in
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this passage you've got followers of Jesus asking him, is
the kingdom coming? Know? Are you gonna kick the Romans out?
Are you gonna take over? And instead of satisfying their curiosity,
he goes right to God's plan, which wasn't that for
that time? The coming king is coming and he's coming soon,
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but it wasn't. In that moment. He doesn't even satisfy
their curiosity. It's like he doesn't even acknowledge the question.
He's like, Hey, that's not for you to know. But
here's what you need to know. You're gonna receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you' unpack the empowering
promises of Jesus and just raise the level of importance
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on this Holy Spirit presence within us and making sure
that we're properly partnering. Here are the benefits Jesus says
in the John seven passage John seven thirty and thirty nine,
he says that we're gonna be satisfied from within. Okay,
satisfied versus what dissatisfied. And again that goes to the
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surveys that we read about Christians, the life that's promised
versus the life they feel like they're living, and the
huge gap of dissatisfaction. Well, is it because God moved?
Is it because God didn't do his job, or that
the Holy Spirit didn't come. No, because the empowering promise
is that rivers plural of living water will start flowing
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from within. I think of a river, Think of a
fast moving river, Think of a forceful river. Okay, that's
game changing. You get into that thing and stuff's going on.
You're moving forward. Second, Jesus promises experiences from within, so
our thirst is quenched. Right, whoever's thirsty, let him come
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to me and drink our thirsties quench, and then we'll
have experiences. And that's the rivers that he's talking about.
Rivers plural, rivers of living water are gonna start doing things.
They're gonna start changing your attitude, They're gonna start changing
your perspective. You know, a river of thought is gonna
take you down another path, a good path, a holy path,
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a righteous path, a good path. Right, another river is
gonna flow, and it's gonna flow towards your marriage, and
that's gonna get better. Right, And then there's another river
that's gonna flow, that's gonna just message you and tell
you you aren't worthless. No, you're a child of the
Most High God, and he has a plan for you
right where you are. See what I mean, Rivers of
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living water are gonna start flowing. We're gonna start having
forceful experiences. In the John fourteen passage, Jesus says that
we're going to be encouraged from within. Right, we're not
gonna feel rejected, We're not gonna feel abandoned. Those are
both feelings of rejection, feeling of loneliness, feeling of abandonment.
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Those are all negative. Jesus is like, Nope, I'm gonna
be in you. I'm not gonna abandon you as orphans.
You received me, you receive my spirit. I'm gonna lead
you from within. I'm gonna encourage you from within. You
know some of that. Some of you are listening right now.
You need that, you need some encouragement. Well, just can
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I tell you there is encouragement already dormant in you
that we're going to be accessing through the person and
work of the Holy Spirit in you. You just hang on,
you stay tuned, keep listening. And then the last Jesus
tells the disciples and the Acts passage that they're gonna
be empowered from within. It's really interesting. Does he satisfy
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their curiosity or does he want them to have power?
It's really interesting. Christians are so curious and ask the
most curious questions that have no relevance to the promised
supernatural power and life that they should be living. Doesn't
mean that we shouldn't be curious, but like these first
century Christians, we can be so focused on one thing
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that we're missing it. With Jesus, it's like he doesn't
even want us focused on that. He's like, you're not
supposed to know when I'm coming back and when I'm
going to establish my kingdom, But you're gonna receive power.
I'll talk to you about that right now, because you're
gonna need power to live your life on earth between
this second and when I come back, or when you
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come to me, my brother, my sister. That's what you
need right now. I know there's a lot of things
on your mind. I know that you're concerned about many things.
You might even be concerned about biblical things. But Jesus
is more interested in you having power now to love
Him and love others the right way and experience the
abundant life and supernatural living than he is about satisfying
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some peripheral curiosity about the future that you might have.
So I see myself in the Disciples. You see all
of this, the satisfaction, the experiences, the encouragement, the empowerment
that's not promised in the absence of change and challenge
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on earth, that's promised to happen in the midst of earth.
Right remember the words of Isaiah. Even though you stumble
badly and you grow weary, those who hope in the Lord.
They're gonna renew their strength. They're gonna mount up with
wings like eagles. They're gonna be walking on earth, but
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they're gonna be living two dimensionally. They're going to transcend
their circumstances. They're going to rise above whatever circumstances they're in.
Some of you are listening to my voice, and you're
in a federal prison right now. You're in a local
state or state prison right now. And guess what. You're
bigger than your circumstances. Your God's bigger than your circumstances.
Your God wants to come down. He wants to satisfy you,
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he wants to give you experiences, he wants to encourage you,
he wants to empower you. Right where you are, you
have the empowering presence, and you can mount up with
wings like eagles, and you can transcend your circumstances and
step into this supernatural thing called the Kingdom of God,
where whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
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Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.
You can live connected to the Kingdom of God while
you're walking the spaces in places on Earth, and there's
nothing more satisfying than being a son of the Most
High right where you live. So there's the content Biblically,
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I want you to see that it's normal to allow
some thoughts to get into your head, like, yes, I
believe in Jesus, Yes I believe in God, but it
seems like God's forgotten about me. And I know there's
an abundant life. I know there's a supernatural life, but
it's just not for me. Right now. That's a lie
and I reject that lie. And you should too, all right,
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because those who hope in the Lord, the promise of
the Bible is they renew their strength, all right. They
have been given a promise by God that they're gonna
mount up with wings like eagles. And the promise is
the supernatural activation and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Now in any partnership, because that's how the Bible communicates,
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this presence within you of Christ's Spirit and you working
with Christ's Spirit in partnership, listening, conversing, checking in in
any partnership, one person could choose not to partner, okay.
And the Bible is is crystal clear that every believer
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possesses the Holy Spirit, but not every believer is actively
partnering with the Holy Spirit. In fact, most believers, and
that's that's not an exaggeration. Most believers are missing out
on this partnership, even though scripture assumes that you are partnering.
That's why it says in Galatians five twenty five, since
we live by the spirit, let us keep in step
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with the Spirit, like it's the assumption of life. Well,
of course you're partnering with the Holy Spirit. You know Jesus,
you're connected to his spirit. His spirit lives within you,
and you're constantly in this rhythm of working with the
Holy Spirit as he communicates to your mind and heart
and soul to do that next thing that shows love
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for God and people. So there's always a threat right
to a fracture in this partnership. There's things that can
you know, how like you break a bone or something,
you know, there's fracture. Doesn't mean that the bone is
not in your body. It just means it's fractured. It
means that you've kind of lost the function of whatever
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limb that bone is broken in. All right, same is
true in your relationship with God. The Bible says that
you can grieve the Holy Spirit. You can lie to
the Holy Spirit, you can quench the Spirit's fire. There
can be Holy Spirit fracture where you don't lose the
indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, but there's certainly fractures.
(38:34):
So that's why we need to talk about the endangering
problem to the empowering presence. There's things, the choices that
we could make that can I mean, it's just like
pulling a plug out of the wall like that can
cut off the power of the Holy Spirit and a believer. Fortunately,
there's a remedy. We're going to talk about that as well.
But let's look and just define the word danger. Okay.
(38:56):
So there's the promise, and there's the reality of the
presence of God in us and our ability to partner
with the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is saying we could
be satisfied, we can be encouraged, we can be empowered.
But there's a threat to that. There's a danger something
that may cause injury to those promises or a loss
(39:19):
of that promises, or even pain connected to fracturing your
relationship with the Holy Spirit. So let's look at four
commissions to all believers. Okay, just for truths, I'm calling
them commissions, and I use strong language. I use the
word we cannot, but I think you'll get it once
(39:40):
we look at each theme. All right. Number one, we
cannot experience discipleship without dependence on the spirit. Okay, used
the big word there, discipleship. What does that mean? Discipleship?
It means being with Jesus, to be like Jesus. You
(40:01):
become a disciple. You spend time with Jesus, and as
we watch Jesus do his thing, then we want to
do that thing that he does it with us, and
then we do it. Okay, that's discipleship. When Jesus follow me,
it just means be with me, to become like me.
That's discipleship. But there is no becoming like Jesus. There
(40:21):
is no christ formation in you, which is God's plan
after salvation, without dependence on the spirit. First Corinthians, chapter two,
verse twelve says this, we believers have not received the
spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God,
(40:42):
that we may understand what God has freely given to us.
In other words, there's cultural messaging. There's messaging of your
family formation, there's messaging about you that is without God.
And we have taken that in, or we take that
(41:03):
in in the absence of God's presence in our life,
but not anymore. We're saved. We believed in the person
and work of Jesus Christ, and now we're in this
process of Christ's formation because his spirit lives within us.
And the Bible says, but we've received the spirit who
is from God, that we may understand what God has
(41:25):
given us. What's God saying here in his word to believers.
He's saying, don't try to use listen to me, worldly
or cultural feeling or thinking to try to live a
godly life. I don't use worldly thinking to live a
(41:49):
godly life. In other words, I don't draw from places
that exist and live without God to try to live
a godly life. Right. That can be your peer group,
that can be what you see on TV. That can
be the messaging of the world, which says, hey, indulge yourself,
you know, increase all right, impress people, you know, puff
(42:14):
be that guy. All right. That kind of thinking doesn't
make you like Jesus. In fact, you don't grow in character,
and you get less mature and you become more fearful. Right,
so we cannot experience discipleship without keyword dependence on the spirit.
If we did by the spirit, then let us keep
in step with spirit. That picture is of a dependent relationship.
(42:36):
You can't understand who you are in Christ unless you're
depending on the Spirit. Number two, we cannot exchange spirit
dependence for self reliance. Now, I know there's probably ninety
percent of the dudes listening out there. You got to
where you are because you feel like, you know, I
pull my boost up, I worked bootstraps up, I worked hard,
(42:58):
I performed or whatever that might work in the world. Okay,
it doesn't work in God. You can't become like Jesus
performing your way there, doing the right things, reading the
right things, even reading your Bible. Those are spaces that
the Holy Spirit can use to make you like Christ.
(43:19):
But the effort that the earning of that, the self
reliance versus the dependence on the Spirit, that's not gonna
get you there. But I see with a lot of guys,
they just bring their whole work ethic into the spiritual
life and they don't become like Jesus at all because
(43:40):
they get all the credit. Yes, because I do this
and do that, and do this and do that, and
they push all their chips to the middle of the
table on their performance or on their works, versus on
the spirit, which the Bible says, the spirit makes us holy.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience.
Claim the spirit is conforming us to the image of
(44:04):
Christ and setting us free. Number three, Well.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Let me go back.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
That's kind of an important point. We don't want to
miss a passage of scripture, so under the fill in
of we cannot exchange spirit to penance for self reliance.
Listen to Paul's warning. Okay wrote most of the New
Testament pastoral epistles. He is the spiritual coach for Christians
during his time. He says, this, are you so foolish
(44:30):
after beginning with the spirit? Are you now trying to
attain your goal by human effort? You see, I was
raised in a military family. In a military family, it's
authority and accountability. Perform under the authority and accountability, and
then you get acceptance and affirmation. You got to perform
(44:53):
your way into intimacy. Wow. Really, well, if you have
to perform your way into any you can lose it
for lack of performance. Okay, so Paul's just going, Hey,
this isn't a human effort thing you began by the spirit.
What saves you, sustained you. The Holy Spirit saves a Christian,
(45:16):
and a holy spirit, the Holy Spirit sustains the next
part of the process, which is christ Formation number three.
We cannot blend spirit, our spirit lead nature with our
old nature. This is just you know, oil and water,
flesh and spirit. You know, there's your old life, there's
(45:38):
your new life in Christ. But you got more muscle
memory and your old life. But He's calling you to
a new life. And then somewhere along the line you're
just like, can't I just blend the too? Can I
be a spirit filled Christian who sometimes does this stuff?
You know what I'm talking about. You guys know what
you're stepping. You're smelling what I'm stepping in, right. We
(46:01):
all have this like, gosh, this is Can I just
like go backwards a little bit? You know, then I'll
go forward right, and then it'll be a longer time between.
But if you do that, that's not that's not only
not biblical, but it it presumes that well, yeah, God
saved me and his grace save me, and I can
just take a vacation from my identity every now and
(46:24):
then and then live this way. That's not what the
Bible teaches. Look at what the Bible teaches in Galatians
five seventeen says this, For the sinful nature desires what
is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is
contrary to the sinful nature or old you. They are
in conflict with each other, so that you do not
(46:44):
do what you want, all right. The Christian life is
not the best of Jesus and the best of the
old me. No, it's just the best of Jesus. If
any man's in Christ, he's a new creation. Behold, the
old things pass away, and all things are new. God
completely shook the board clean. It's like, nope, I'm gonna
(47:09):
build you in the image of my son. It's gonna
be a process, but that is the goal, all right.
The reason why you don't feel the same freedom to
be your old self is because you have the spirit
of God in you. You have a force that is
(47:29):
in you that is now fighting against the forces of
the old self. And only one's gonna win. And the
one who wins is the one you partner with. You
can partner with the flesh and be a Christian but
you're not gonna have the power of the Holy Spirit
if you're doing that. So, we can't experience discipleship without
(47:52):
dependence on the Spirit. Where we cannot exchange spirit dependence
for self reliance. We can't blend our spirit lead in
nature with our old nager number four. We cannot win
Christ's formation without Holy Spirit submission. And this is where
the rubber hits the road. Remember this, if you're taking notes,
(48:13):
write this down. The issue is control. Who is in
control of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your
strength at any given moment. Listen to what the Bible says.
The Bible says, but those who are controlled circle that
by the Holy Spirit. Think about things that please the Spirit. Now,
(48:39):
why is that verse so important? Why is Romans eight
five so important? Because it begs the question who's in control?
Is it the Holy Spirit? Is it your flesh? Is
it another spirit? Little s right? Who are you turning to?
(48:59):
Who we are you checking in with as you make
decisions today? Right now in your circumstances, right now, are
you checking in with the Holy Spirit? Holy Spirit? What
is it that God wants me to do? Holy Spirit?
Show me what shows love for you? Show me what
shows love for others, Holy Spirit, or you're checking in
(49:22):
with Yeah, I hear what you're saying, Holy Spirit, but
I got this one in pride. Or I hear you,
Holy Spirit. I know what you're calling me to do
because I'm a child of Son of the Most High.
I'm a child of God. But I'm going to press
the mute button on you, and then I'm going to
do what I want to do, because if I do
what you want me to do that I see maybe
(49:45):
in your word or that I sense is consistent with Jesus,
then I'm not going to get what I want. And
right now I want what I want when I want it,
in the forum that I wanted it. Wow. Okay, So
all of us have experienced that where in pride we
say thank but no thanks, or if I do it
your way, I might lose some experience or lose something.
(50:06):
If I'm still gonna choose to do it my way,
listen to what the Bible says. You know, those are
controlled by the spirit. Think about the things of the
Spirit Romans eight five. Now, how does that relate to
christ formation in becoming like Jesus. Well, look at what
it says in John eight twenty nine. Right, this Jesus talking,
he says, and the one who sent me is with me. Okay,
(50:28):
see that abiding presence. Right, he has not deserted me,
for I always do what pleases him. So Jesus anointed
by the Spirit, connected with Father and Holy Spirit, the
Son connected with them, he pleases God. He's connected. Okay,
(50:48):
he's submitted. Right. Not mine will be done, but your
will be done. Same is true for us. Are we
submitted to God? The Holy Spirit will tell us things
to do, things that give us an opportunity to submit
to a loving God who has our best interest in mind,
who is wiser, and who always loves us in telling
(51:12):
us what to do. So in the end, we cannot
win christ'formation without Holy Spirit submission. Okay. So those are
the endangering problems. These are subtle battles that come into
your partnership with the Holy Spirit that can threaten it.
They're a danger to it. So now let's look at
the empowering practice. What do we do, Okay, what is
(51:34):
the exact one, two three of this partnership of the
Holy Spirit. Well, if you're taking notes, write down this
number one. Surrender control to the Holy Spirit. Surrender control
to the Holy Spirit. So if the issue is control
those who are controlled by the spirit, then we have
to have a real practical surrender to the control of
(51:58):
the Holy Spirit. Okay, look at what it says in
Ephesians five. It says, don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what
the Lord wants you to do. Don't be drunk with
wine because that will ruin your life. Instead, say it
with me. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. What's great
in the Bible is when you see the Bible say,
(52:21):
understand what the Lord's will is. Pay really close attention
to what happened. What is said next, this is the
Lord's will. If you want to do the Lord's will,
what is the Lord's will, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
What that means is that the word filled is is
be being filled. It's a it's an ongoing, continuous filling.
(52:42):
It's not like a one time poor. The one time
poor happened at salvation. Holy Spirit is always in us.
But then filling of the Holy Spirit. There's many fillings
of the Holy Spirit. Because sometimes we can fracture our
relationship with the Holy Spirit. So the Bible says, surrender
control to the Holy Spirit. Like when I wake up
(53:03):
in the morning, I say, Holy Spirit, film me, take over,
overtake me, Holy Spirit, lead me, Holy Spirit, control me.
I'm borrowing the words of scripture that are encouraged or
commanded film me, control me, lead me. Those are all
(53:30):
verbs assigned to the Holy Spirit and me. So I'm
going to pray those words. You can even say in
with me right now, Holy Spirit, film me, Holy Spirit,
control me, Holy Spirit, film me, or lead me. So
(53:51):
you can do that every day. That's partnering with the
Holy Spirit. Second, seek to guard the ongoing connection. So
I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. Now I have to
Now I have to guard it. Look at what it
says here on the screen Galatians five twenty five. It says,
since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow
(54:12):
the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. So
the Holy Spirit will lead you in your relationships, your friendships,
all right. The Holy Spirit will lead you and how
you treat other people. The Holy Spirit will lead you
to do things that show love for God and not
do things that don't show love for God. So what
(54:36):
you want to do is you want to guard that connection.
And every time you obey the voice of the Spirit,
you're guarding that connection. It's like guarding a relationship. Let's
just say a man and a woman are married and
the relationship is threatened by a third party, whether it's
the woman or the man. Okay, we have to guard
that covenant relationship with our spouse, just like we guard
(54:59):
our relationship with the Holy spirits, the most important relationship
we have. We're gonna guard it all right. Now, here
is the next step, because in any relationships, have you
ever blown it in a relationship? Have you ever done
something that like now, you guys are not getting along
all right? You blow it? Okay? Well, God always loves us.
(55:21):
It's not like God of Harbor's feelings. But God will
always wait for us to take ownership of what we've
done wrong. So that's the third step. Just say, quote,
I blew it when you blow it?
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
Isn't that how we reconcile human relationships. It's like you
know what I own an apology?
Speaker 2 (55:38):
I blew it.
Speaker 3 (55:40):
You know back there, when I did that, I was wrong,
was wrong, shouldn't have done it? Please forgive me. Now,
if only we did that quicker and sooner rather than later,
and if only we had the courage and humility to
admit when we've done something wrong. Well, in your relationship
with God, it's kind of essential because it is the
(56:02):
relationship that we say we blew it when we blow it.
So look at what the Bible says in first John
one nine. It says, if we admit our sins, simply
come clean about them, he won't let us down. He'll
be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purgase
of all wrong doing. Even on a human level. We
know this is true when we just go, you know,
(56:24):
somebody we love loves us, and we just go, you
know what, back there right there, that was wrong. Should
have never done that. I'm so sorry. Would you please
forgive me? Of course, it's all about the sincerity of heart. Right,
It's like you meant that. You know there are other
people who don't mean it, but God knows when you
mean it. Okay, so say you blew it when you
(56:46):
blow it? All right, here's the last simple practice of
those who partner with the Holy Spirit. Well, and it's this, sincerely,
desire and activate his presence. Activate and desire his presence.
Look at what Jesus says in John seven. We read
(57:07):
this earlier. But he says, Jesus said stood and said
in a loud voice, let anyone. Okay, so who does
that about? Anyone who's thirsty, come to me and drink.
And here's the key keywords, whoever believes in me. As
Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from
(57:29):
within them. So if we want to activate this supernatural, powerful, encouraging,
satisfying life, we need to surrender control. We need to
guard our relationship with the Holy Spirit. If we blow it,
we say we blew it. When we've blown it, and
then guess what, Because it's our desire. We desire to
(57:49):
activate His presence ongoing every day, be filled with the
Holy Spirit. Right, but you know what that requires. That's
what Jesus says. Whoever believes in me? Okay, so belief desire.
I want to live the spirit led life. As Scripture
(58:10):
has said, Look at Jesus referencing scripture, rivers of living
water will flow from within them. Okay. So as we
partner with His empowering presence. Okay, what happens we soar
into Christ's likeness, We start becoming like Jesus, we believe,
(58:36):
and we're saved. What is the gospel, though, it's believing,
being with and becoming like Jesus. That's the gospel. That's
what the gospel offers. It's not just fire insurance. It's
radical transformation. Okay. Now, the best verse in all of
(58:57):
scripture that summarizes everything we're talking about is in Second
Corinthians three, sixteen to eighteen. We're gonna put that on
the screen. It says this, but whenever anyone turns to
the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord
is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled
(59:21):
faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image,
with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord. Say
it with me, who is the Spirit? In other words,
my Christ's formation and life in God hinges on my
(59:44):
connection with and partnership with the Holy Spirit. I love
this passage of scripture because it tells us what God's
endgame is. When you read in Philippians, he who began
a good work in you is faithful to complete it
and bring it to a flo flourishing finish on the
very day of Christ Jesus. In Philippians one to six.
(01:00:04):
This is the end name. To believe in Jesus, to
be with Jesus, to become like Jesus. And what is
the key. The key is partnering with the Holy Spirit
in everyday life. Every day you wake up, every place
where you find yourself keeping in step with the Spirit.
(01:00:25):
So I've created a little acrostic because we started talking
about eagles, right, those who hope in the Lord will
bound up with wings like eagles. And the offer of
this transcendent supernatural life. Well, eagle sore, let's unpack soar.
The essen sore is say yes, say yes to the
(01:00:49):
Holy Spirit. Okay, I accept, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Fill me,
Holy Spirit, control me, Holy Spirit, leave me according to
the command promise of God. The oh in sore is
open doors to the Holy Spirit. Open doors of your life.
(01:01:10):
You know, the Bible says that our lives are like
houses that are built on foundations. Our lives. Jesus said,
he stands at the door, knocks, We let him in.
We open the door. He comes in, right. But when
Jesus comes in initially through the front door of your belief,
then he wants to spend some time in your house.
(01:01:31):
He kind of looking around can I go in that room?
And can I go in that room? All right? There
are some of you that are listening to me right now.
There are there are rooms in your house. It's like
they have that yellow police tape across It's like, you
can go in that room, you can go out, but
you can't go in that room. But guess what Right now,
Jesus is knocking on that door. He wants to go
(01:01:53):
in the room that you've never let anybody in. Maybe
it's a room of your past that you just don't
like talking about. Maybe it's an experience that you've had.
Maybe maybe it's something that you did, or maybe it's
something that somebody else did to you. But Jesus wants
to go in there with you and you come out free.
So say yes to the Holy Spirit, open doors, a
(01:02:15):
actively partner with the Holy Spirit. Okay, check in, check in.
You ever went to make a decision and he's like, Hey,
I gotta check in with the boss, or I gotta
check in with my wife, or I gotta check with
my buddy. All right, how about check in with the
Holy Spirit, Like before you make any decision that impacts
(01:02:35):
your relationship with God or with people. How about you.
Check in with the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, lead me
in this situation. Holy Spirit, Remind me of your word,
Holy Spirit, Show me, Holy Spirit, take me to scripture
and show me God's will, and don't make that decision
until you get thumbs up from the Holy Spirit. They
(01:02:58):
are in sore is. Release the power once you have
the Holy Spirit in you. Jesus said you're gonna receive
power and then the Holy Spirit's gonna come out of you.
How do we know that's true? Three years, twelve dudes,
twenty centuries of power. I went from twelve when Jesus
(01:03:22):
was walking with them to today two point eight billion
followers of Jesus, and you're one of them. Release the power.
The power is just like this ongoing thing. People believe
they get the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit fills them,
and then they start releasing that power in the spaces
and places that they occupied. See, I can't be where
(01:03:45):
you are and you can't be where I am. But
we both have the Holy Spirit, and our job is
to release the power of the Holy Spirit and advance
the Kingdom of God. Now what I've done just to
make this super practical, as I've scripted literally a prayer
that calls into account the truth of scripture and what
(01:04:09):
you have just learned. And so I'm going to read
this with you. I want to pray this with you,
and then we'll conclude our time. So let's let's just
kind of take a look at the screen and we're
going to put the prayer up there, and let's pray together,
(01:04:29):
and let's have that empowering presence in us activated for
us so that we can live with power and mount
up with wings like egos. Ready, let's pray together, Holy Spirit,
Thank you for dwelling in me. Thank you for sealing
my identity. Thank you for conforming me to the image
(01:04:55):
of Christ. Thank You for filling me and controlling me.
Thank You for manifesting the fruit of the Spirit and
the gifts of the Spirit in me. Thank You for
being the fire of God in me, transforming me in
(01:05:15):
my inner man, giving me the character of Christ. Thank
you for securing my spirit through God's love and acceptance,
setting me free from condemnation and comparison. Holy Spirit, in
the name of Jesus, I surrender to your overflow from
(01:05:39):
me and into the spaces, places, and people you have
assigned to my life. I want the greater works of
Christ manifested in me and through me. Right now, according
to your word and promise, align my spirit, my energy,
(01:06:03):
and my body with your kingdom superstory, Holy Spirit. Use
me today open my eyes to the Kingdom of God
and the exact part I am playing in it. Open
new doors and help me to step through them in Jesus'
name and for your pleasure.
Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
Amen, God bless you.
Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
You will be like God.
Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
Human unity with God was severed, and through it all
God's promise remain true.
Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Follow me, April, and I will make you grad This
is the Chosen People.
Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Listen to the Chosen People at the Chosen People dot com.
That's the Chosen People dot com.
Host
Matthew Potter
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