June 18, 2025 • 80 mins
What does it truly mean to receive God's witness? This profound teaching delves into the mysterious relationship between the believer and the indwelling Holy Spirit, revealing how God's presence transforms us from within.
The journey begins with an exploration of Jesus as our Advocate (Parakletos) and Comforter—terms used exclusively by John the Apostle. Through careful examination of John's Gospel, we discover that Jesus himself promised to return to his disciples through the Holy Spirit: "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you." This revelation challenges common trinitarian understandings and unveils a deeper truth: when we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive Jesus himself.
At the heart of this message lies a powerful covenant principle—God's promises are conditional. "If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter." This pattern is evident throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. God requires something of us before fulfilling His promise to pour out His Spirit, specifically a broken and contrite heart that sincerely wants transformation.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit serves as God's divine witness and confirmation. When controversy arose in Acts 15 about Gentile believers, Peter settled the matter by pointing to God's witness: "God, who knows the heart, bore them witness by giving them the Holy Spirit." This indwelling presence empowers believers to be true witnesses of Christ, speaking not from human knowledge but by the Spirit of prophecy.
Ultimately, receiving God's witness transforms us from merely talking about Jesus to manifesting His power. It shifts our focus from seeking human validation to resting in God's approval. It also fulfills God's eternal desire to tabernacle with His people, not in temples made with hands, but in human hearts wholly surrendered to Him.
Are you seeking the witness that only comes from above? God promises to be found by those who seek Him with their whole heart. Start by surrendering completely to His will, and watch as He pours out His Spirit to transform you from within.
"Message Our Father's Heart a Question or Response"
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (00:03):
The vision received was that of blood cells
traveling throughout the body,supplying the much-needed oxygen
and other nutrients to thediffering members of the body to
fulfill their purpose.
Once the blood cells are spent,they must return back to the
heart to be refilled beforebeing sent out again and fulfill
their purpose and fulfill theirpurpose.
(00:28):
Good morning.
It's good to have aHmm, one new face.
Welcome, Adrian.
Right, it's good to have youhere.
I think I want to try to covera topic that we may have covered
before, but I don't think I'veever covered it and I just, you
(00:51):
know, sort of like when everyonehas said everything about a
topic and you haven't, you feellike everything hasn't been said
because you haven't been ableto speak about it.
And as I looked upon some ofthe notes that I did previously,
I started realizing thatthere's probably a good reason
why that came up and why Ishould cover it.
(01:14):
I want to begin by having you goto 1 John 2, verse 1.
I want to talk today aboutreceiving the witness, receiving
the witness and, as many of youwell know, John the apostle,
(01:35):
the disciple, the beloved, wasthe writer of 1 John by the Holy
Spirit, and he says my littlechildren, these things write I
unto you that ye sin not, and ifany man sin, we have an
(01:55):
advocate with the Father, JesusChrist the Righteous, and, as I
said before, John wrote thisscripture speaking about an
advocate, and that's the wordthat I'm focusing on advocate.
It comes from the Greek wordparakletos or parakletos, and it
(02:21):
is only occurs five times inthe New Testament this word
parakletos, and the interestingthing that the only author that
ever used that word was John theapostle.
Now it was translated in 1 Johnas advocate, but we have read
of this word and it didn't usethe word advocate.
(02:43):
When the King James translatorstranslated, they used another
word, also comforter, and thereason why I'm bringing this up
to you is because John did notdifferentiate between that word.
In 1 John he used the wordparacletos.
When he wrote the Gospel ofJohn, he used the word
paracletos, but for some reasonthe King James translators
(03:04):
wanted to use comforter overthere and advocate over here.
And all I'm doing is pointingout to you that if you do a
small little word study, you'drealize well, that's the very
same word.
He's not talking aboutsomething different here.
So John is identifying thatJesus Christ the righteous is
our advocate or our comforter,our parakletos.
(03:25):
And it is translated four othertimes all in the gospel of John
In John 14, in John 15, it'sused twice and in John 16.
And John is the only apostlethat used this word or this term
for Jesus Christ.
(03:45):
So I'm just going to point outto you that Jesus Christ is our
comforter, he is our advocate,he is our paraclete.
And now I want to focus on thatword.
In John, chapter 14, we'regoing to read 12 through 26.
(04:06):
I need someone who's confidentin his reading abilities to just
stand up and read it.
John 14 verses 12 through 26.
Whenever you're ready, you goright on ahead.
Allen Cook (04:21):
Christ, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
believeth on me the works that Ido Keep going.
12 to 26.
Shall ask in my name that willI do that the Father may be
(04:44):
glorified in the Son.
16 to 7.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (04:48):
Keep going 12 to 26.
Allen Cook (04:50):
26.
Oh, cool, again, he shall askanything in my name.
I will do it.
If you love me, keep mycommandments and I will pray the
Father and he shall give youanother comforter that he abide
with you forever, even theSpirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive because it seethhim not, neither knoweth it.
(05:11):
But ye know him, for hedwelleth with you and shall be
in you.
I will not leave youcomfortless.
I will come to you Yet a littlewhile and the world seeth me no
more.
But ye see me because I live.
Ye shall live also At that day.
(05:32):
Ye shall know that I am in myFather and he in me and I in you
.
He that hath my commandments andkeepeth them, he it is that
loveth me, and he that loveth meshall be loved of my Father,
(05:57):
and I will love him and willmanifest myself to him.
Judas said unto him, not asscaring Lord, how is it that
thou wilt manifest thyself untous and not unto the world?
Jesus answered and said untohim If a man love me, he will
keep my words and my Father willlove him, and we will come unto
(06:18):
him and make our abode with him.
He that loveth me not keepethnot my sayings, and the word
which he heareth is not mine,but the Father's which sent me
these things.
Have I spoken unto you, beingyet present with you, whom the
(06:38):
Father will send in my name?
He shall teach you all thingsand bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I havesaid unto you.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (06:51):
Thank you, brother Allen.
In this passage, Jesus isspeaking prophetically that
whoever trusts in Him is goingto do the works that He did, and
greater.
Why?
Because He's going to go to theFather, and something's going
to happen when he goes back tothe Father.
He goes on to say that he willgive us another comforter, known
(07:15):
as the Spirit of Truth and alsoknown as the Holy Ghost.
I'm basically highlighting foryou right now everything you
just read to just point out andhighlight to you that John is
recording what Jesus said.
And Jesus said He's going tosend another comforter that is
known as the Spirit of Truth,that is also known as the Holy
(07:38):
Ghost, and Jesus said that thecomforter, as he spoke.
He said the comforter abideswith you, just like me saying
now, the comforter abides withyou right now.
But He was referring to Himselfin the present.
What they didn't understand wasthat Jesus was the comforter
(08:00):
and He was at present with thedisciples.
But it says when he goes away,he's going to send another
comforter and that comfortershall be in you.
It says, if you look carefullyat the word, he shall be in you,
referring to the futureindwelling Holy Spirit, which we
know now as the Holy Ghost thatwas poured out on the day of
(08:25):
Pentecost.
Now did you know what verse 18says?
Quote I come to you.
Jesus said I'm going to sendyou another comforter and then,
in verse 18, says I come to you.
This statement is now linkedwith the previous statement that
(08:46):
the Father was going to sendanother comforter and that the
Holy Spirit is sent in theFather's name, signifying that
it would be Jesus.
These scriptures reveal thatJesus sent Himself as the Holy
Spirit to abide with us, to bein us forever.
(09:08):
Notice what it says in verse 20and 21.
What at that day?
Ye shall know At what day?
What, what day is he referringto?
The day that he sends thecomforter.
What am I supposed to know onthat day that the comforter is
(09:30):
sent, the day that He pours outhis spirit, you will know that
Jesus and the Father are one andthat God is now in you.
That is the revelation.
The baptism in His Spiritbrings us into oneness with the
(09:52):
Almighty, by His Spirit.
The condition, the condition.
I say again, there is acondition being that Jesus will
only manifest, will only revealhimself, will only make Himself
known to those who love Him.
And how do you love him?
You keep his commandments.
(10:14):
Those that are keeping hiscommandments, that have not
received the Holy Spirit, have apromise that God is going to
pour out his Spirit and indwellyou because you love him.
But that's the condition.
But everybody reads over thatand overlooks that.
It just wants to promise, topromise, to promise, but they
just forgot the condition.
If you love me, if you'rekeeping my commandments, I
(10:37):
promise I'm gonna pour out mySpirit in you.
That's the condition.
It doesn't just come to anyone.
Cornelius in Acts, chapter 10,was a man that loved God and,
based upon what limitedknowledge he had of God, he was
keeping his commandment and soGod blessed him and poured out
his Spirit on him and he was theGentile representative.
(10:58):
So to let everyone know thatall the Gentiles are now
included in the kingdom of God,know that all the Gentiles are
now included in the kingdom ofGod.
The manifestation or therevealing of Jesus to an
individual is directlyconnected, it is directly
(11:22):
intertwined with the receivingof the comforter.
There's a lot of people thathave a knowledge of God and they
go so far as to say, well, I'vealready received his spirit.
Well, you can have a knowledgeof God and not have received his
Spirit, but there's a specificrevelation of Jesus that you
will have when you receive thecomforter that will be by far
and greater than any otherknowledge of God that you've had
(11:44):
prior to that moment.
Now, to have His commandments isto just know them.
Well, yeah, I know those areHis commandments.
I know he tells that me to dothat right.
He says that, no, that's wrong.
I know that.
But to keep them is to do them,and it is those that do the
(12:05):
will that have this conditionalpromise.
So once you know His will, youmust determine within yourself
to do it His way and no other.
It says in Jeremiah 1:12, He isever watching over His word to
perform it.
And if His word gave acondition that I will pour out
(12:29):
my spirit on them that love me,that they are keeping my
commandments, then he is everwatching over all the earth for
finding that man, that womanthat is loving Him, that is
keeping His commandments andHe's going to come rushing in
with His Spirit and pour Himselfinto them.
That's His promise.
That's His word, and He'swatching ever to perform it.
(12:50):
So when we do it His way, thisis part of the covenant.
This is why we talk aboutcovenant so much in this
fellowship, because covenant isabout an agreement.
It's about a contractualagreement.
You do this, I will do this, Iwill do this, you will do that.
Well, your responsibility is toguard and keep his commandments
(13:11):
, and his response is I'm goingto pour out my spirit in you and
cause you to do that.
I'm going to give you the powerto fulfill them, because just
knowing the law is not going tocause you to walk in His
commandments.
It did not work for all thesaints of the Old Testament.
(13:33):
They all knew 616 or 19?
, 14?
Of the pieces of the law thatneeded to be fulfilled, and yet
they could not do it.
They had not the power to do it.
And so, in the same way thatJesus only said what the Father
(13:56):
said, he only did what he sawthe Father do the Holy Ghost
will do the same in us andthrough us.
The indwelling Spirit of God isgoing to teach us some things.
Is that what it says?
No, it says He's going to teachus all things.
(14:18):
So it doesn't matter what Iexperienced prior to me being
born of God.
It doesn't matter that I didn'thave a father or I didn't have
a mother, there is no excuse,for He said His words, said that
I will teach you all things inspite of everything else you
missed in your life.
And He will relay whateverJesus says and He will have us
(14:43):
do whatever Jesus does.
Why?
That's easy, because the HolyGhost is none other than the
Spirit of Jesus himself.
If I'm the one teaching you,the only thing I can teach you
is about me.
Because I'm me, amen, becauseI'm me.
(15:05):
In John 15, verse 26, Johncontinues to record what Jesus
says.
And Jesus says this when theComforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father,even the Spirit of truth.
So now, well, he said it before, the Comforter is the Spirit of
(15:29):
truth, is the Holy Spirit, isthe Holy Ghost whom the Father
will send.
And now Jesus says whom I willsend unto you from the Father,
which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.
Now, I don't know if you caughtit, but there seems to be a
(15:50):
contradiction.
Jesus said in John, chapter 14,the Father will send, but Jesus
says I will send unto you.
Well, if Jesus said the Fathersends the Holy Spirit and now
Jesus says I will send, well, ifyou take the notion that God is
(16:14):
three distinct persons, thenyou got a problem.
Who's doing the sending?
Is it the Father or is it Jesussending the Holy Spirit?
Cause in this day and ageeveryone is believing in a
trinity a God, the Father, godthe Son, god, the Holy Ghost.
Well, jesus just said theFather will send, and then Jesus
just said I will send.
(16:34):
Well, who's he sending andwho's doing the sending?
But that's if you take thenotion that there's a trinity.
But you see, if you rememberDeuteronomy 6: 4, the Shema,
that was highly revered by allof the Jews and all of the
Israelites, for they weremonotheistic, they believed in
(16:55):
only one God and their God toldthem Hear, o Israel, the Lord,
our God is one Lord.
So the answer for me is quitesimple.
Jesus was God manifested in theflesh.
He's not another God, he's notsecond person in the Godhead.
(17:17):
So whether he sends, I willsend, or the Father sends, he is
referring to whom?
Himself!The disciples didn't have that
revelation.
But when they received Him bythe Spirit, then they understood
.
Because up until that point,when He walked in the days of
(17:41):
His flesh, the highestrevelation that the disciples
had was that you are the son ofthe living God, you are the
Christ.
No one ever said He was God.
Not even the disciples said Hewas God.
But after he was resurrected,what did Thomas say?
My Lord and my God.
(18:03):
You see the demarcation if youstudy it yourself.
No one ever declared He was God.
They didn't have it.
They couldn't hold on to it.
Even the Pharisees, when Jesusspoke, would not receive what He
continued to allude to.
But He was.
He was God.
(18:24):
He said he that has seen me hasseen the Father.
He said I and my Father are one.
And we see Jesus coming rightout and saying to the Pharisees
who he really was before Abrahamwas, I am.
And what did the Pharisees wantto do?
Stone him.
(18:46):
Why?
Blasphemy! Who are you to saythat you make yourself God?
Who are you?
They knew what He was saying.
They just wouldn't receive it.
They would not receive it.
In the Jews' perspective, nomere mortal man could have done
what Jesus did when he walked inthe days of his flesh.
None.
They knew that.
(19:06):
They knew that it had to be God.
They knew that it made no sensefor Beelzebub to cast out his
own legion out of people.
Only the power of God couldhave done that.
And so John 1 (19:20):
1 begins with In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and theWord was God.
So God was the Word.
And it says later, in that verysame chapter in John, in verse
14, and the Word became flesh.
(19:40):
Well, if God was the Word, thenGod became flesh Because God
was the Word.
So, in other words, theinfinite, invisible God, who is
a Spirit, revealed andmanifested and became flesh.
He manifested Himself in theflesh in the body of the man,
(20:01):
Jesus Christ.
He enrobed Himself, he clothedhimself in flesh.
And this is the mystery ofgodliness that Paul spoke of in
1 Timothy 3:16.
And great it is that theinfinite, invisible God became
flesh, revealed himself in theflesh, and without a revelation
(20:24):
of Jesus this is notcomprehended, because you have
35,000 different denominationssaying Jesus is not who He said
He was, but He's somebodydifferent or somebody second, or
distinct or apart.
So the actual body of Christ,it says, was conceived of by the
(20:48):
Holy Spirit, who overshadowedMary and the human vessel that
God used to manifest or revealhimself to humanity was brought
forth from the womb of Mary.
Let's read John 16.
7 through 15.
Someone will stand up and readthat.
(21:09):
John 16, verse 7 through 15.
Katy Leyva (21:18):
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that Igo away, for if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come untoyou, but if I depart, I will
send him unto you, and when heis come, he will be proved the
world of sin and ofrighteousness, and of judgment.
Of sin because they believe notof me.
Of righteousness because I goto my Father and you see me.
(21:39):
No more Of judgment, becausethe prince of this world is
judged.
I have yet many things to sayof you, and you cannot bear them
now.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit oftruth, is come, he will guide
you into all truth, for he shallnot speak of himself, but
whatsoever he shall hear, thatshall he speak and he will show
(22:01):
you things to come.
He shall glorify me, for heshall receive of mine and shall
show it unto you.
All things that the Father hathare mine.
Therefore said I that he shalltake of mine and shall show it
unto you.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (22:17):
It's very important here to point out that
unless Jesus, who was in theflesh in that moment, were to go
away, the Comforter would notcome, he would not be sent to
indwell the people of God.
He had to go.
It's a conditional statement.
He needed to leave so that hewould release His Spirit to be
(22:45):
within us.
Just as he spoke in theprevious chapters of John, the
Spirit would guide us into sometruth, all truth.
He will teach you all things,and up to that point it says
that they could not bear anymore truth.
They couldn't bear it, theycouldn't understand it, they
couldn't go any farther than youare the Son of the living God,
(23:06):
the Messiah, the promised one,that's it.
But to say that you're God,uh-huh.
Now notice that the exact sameanointing that Jesus had being
in the flesh.
So does the Holy Spirit.
So does the Holy Spirit.
It says His Spirit, theanointing for reproving what?
(23:30):
Sin, righteousness and judgment.
Is that not what Jesus wasdoing in the days of His flesh?
Reproving sin, righteousnessand judgment.
Whenever Jesus said or didsomething, it was because he
said what he saw and heard theFather do.
Jesus was using these words todescribe that it was the Father
in Him that said and did thethings He did or said, because
(23:57):
the man was completely yieldedto the Spirit of Jesus within
him, the Spirit of God withinHim.
Remember.
It says in John 3 (24:06):
34, I haven't even gone out of John, I
keep going to John.
John has revelation here forth.
He says in John 3 (24:12):
34, that in the man, Christ Jesus, the
Spirit of God was withoutmeasure.
It was an unlimited Spirit ofGod that was found in him.
And it says elsewhere by Paulin him dwelt all the fullness of
(24:39):
the Godhead in a body In him,meaning Jesus.
So Jesus, the Comforter, isalso known as the Spirit of
Truth in John, but he's alsoknown as the Spirit of Prophecy
in Revelation 19.10.
It says there that I fell athis feet to worship him and he
(25:02):
said unto me See, thou do it not.
I am thy fellow servant and ofthy brethren that have the
testimony of Jesus.
Worship God, for the testimonyof Jesus is the spirit of
prophecy.
Now, some say that because wehave a court system, some say
that being a witness is that yougive testimony of Jesus and all
(25:26):
that he's done for you in yourlife.
And in a sense, yeah, that'skind of true.
But as I look at the scriptures, it clearly defines that a
witness is so much than what Ijust said, because it defines
the witness to be the spirit ofprophecy, and that the spirit of
(25:52):
prophecy was not only in Johnthe Apostle, but the spirit of
prophecy was also on John theBaptist, for they both witnessed
concerning him, but they didn'twitness in and of themselves.
They witnessed of him, basedupon the revelation they
received of the Spirit of God.
(26:12):
That is why they're witnesses.
There's people going intoseminaries speaking about Jesus.
They are not witnesses of him,for they're not speaking forth
as the Spirit of prophecy inthem.
(26:34):
If that is so, then we who havereceived the pouring out of his
spirit, the spirit of truth, theHoly Ghost, which is the spirit
of prophecy, which is thecomforter that Jesus spoke of in
John, can also be witnesses.
It says in John 15 (26:50):
26 and 27, when the comforter is come, whom
I will send unto you from theFather, even the spirit of truth
which proceedeth from theFather, he shall testify of me
and ye also shall bear witness,because you've been with me from
(27:13):
the beginning.
You see, with thatunderstanding, now I really,
really understand Acts, chapter1, verse 8.
Why is it that Jesus was soemphatic to the disciples Go to
Jerusalem, go to Jerusalem.
Wait for theatic to thedisciples Go to Jerusalem, go to
Jerusalem.
Wait for the promise of myfather.
Go to Jerusalem.
He says in Acts 1.8,.
But ye shall receive powerafter the Holy Ghost is coming
(27:35):
upon you.
And then what Is he there andye shall be witnesses.
Why didn't you just tell themto go out and preach the gospel
in that moment?
No-transcript, they had notreceived the witness to become
witnesses.
You see, we become witnessesonly after we receive his
(28:00):
anointing, his power, and thatonly comes by receiving his
spirit.
Then, and only then, is when webecome witnesses of Jesus
Christ having been born again,which is also known as being
born of the water and of theSpirit in John 3, 3 through 6.
(28:22):
There's a revelation in John,and if you just read and you'll
see and make the connections,it's all there how important it
is to receive the witness.
We are witnesses only by theSpirit, for without Him we
cannot witness concerning Him.
How can I witness about Jesus?
I didn't see Him.
(28:43):
I didn't see Him die.
I didn't see Him do themiracles.
I didn't see Him resurrect.
I didn't see Him for 40 daysafter His resurrection.
I wasn't there, but I canwitness of him because I have
the spirit of resurrection.
That's how I can witness of him, because I was dead in my sins,
(29:04):
we were dead in our sins, butsomehow I've been made alive by
the spirit of Jesus Christ.
The righteous, and now I canwitness, and now I can testify
of him without reservation.
The righteous, and now I canwitness.
And now I can testify of himwithout reservation, without
hesitation.
Anyone who has not received theSpirit can only talk about him.
(29:25):
But when you start givingtestimony of the Spirit of Jesus
Christ and you are a witness,you have power backing up the
words that you're speaking.
You have him following you withsigns and wonders.
It says he followed theapostles as they preached the
gospel with signs and wonders.
(29:46):
You read through Acts.
They follow, with signs andwonders, the shadow of Peter,
the healing of the lame man, thereceiving of the Spirit of God
in so many people, in the Jews,in the Samaritans and the
Gentiles, and the parentdisciples.
You see power.
And you see Stephen, see him inhis glory in the midst of his
(30:07):
martyrdom.
That's power, power.
That's power.
Jesus did not take the witnessfrom any man, including John the
Baptist.
Maybe you overlooked it, solet's read it in John 5 again.
(30:31):
John 5, verse 30 through 41.
Clarence B. Harris (30:55):
If someone stand and read John 5
through 41.
I can't, of my own self donothing as I hear.
I judge.
My judgment is justice becauseI seek not my own will but will
the Father which hath sent me.
If I bear witness of myself, mywitness is not true.
There is another there who bearwitness of me and I know that
the witness which he witnessedof me not true.
There is another there who bearwitness of me and I know that
the witness which he witnessedof me is true.
(31:19):
He sent unto John.
He bear witness unto the truth,but I receive not testimony
from man, but these things.
I say that he might be saved.
He was a burning and shininglight and ye were willing for a
season to rejoice in his light.
(31:41):
But I have greater witness thanthat of John for the works
which the Father has given me tofinish, the same works that I
do bear witness of me that theFather has sent me and the
Father himself which has sent me.
He bore witness of me that theFather has sent me and the
Father himself which has sent me.
He bore witness of me.
(32:01):
Ye have neither heard his voiceat any time nor seen his shape,
for ye have not his wordabiding in you For him.
He has sent him.
He believe not.
Ye believe not Certainscriptures for them.
(32:22):
Ye think ye have eternal life,but then they will testify of me
and ye will not come to me thatye might have life.
I received not honor from men,but I know you that ye have not
the love of the Father in you.
I have come in my Father's nameand ye receive me not.
If another shall come in hisown name, him ye will receive.
(32:43):
How can you believe whichreceive honor one of another and
seek not the honor which comesfrom God only?
Do you think that I will accuseyou to the Father?
There is one that accuses you,even Moses, whom you trust.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (33:06):
In this particular passage we read that
Jesus is saying the Fatherwitnessed, testified, vouched
for me the Son by the workswhich I accomplished, because it
was the Father in the Son thatdid them.
It wasn't of any concern forJesus to take the witness from
(33:31):
any man, even from his cousin,cousin John the Baptist.
Jesus emphatically states, notonce but twice I receive not the
testimony from man, I receivenot honor from men.
Even though John witnessed tothe truth, Jesus would only take
(33:53):
the witness of the Father.
He only sought the witness thatcame of the father.
And some of us have not grownup in our walk as a Christian.
Some of us have not grownstrong in the witness that God
himself have given us, and wetry to confirm ourselves in the
(34:15):
opinions of men around us.
Yet what my brother or sisteror friend or relative says about
me should not concern me.
Who are they to tell me whetherI'm really a Christian or not?
My witness of whether I'm aChristian or not should come
(34:37):
from the Father himself, andthat witness is by his spirit.
Who cares if another man saidthat Jesus was the Son of God?
Aren't they arguing that?
Now?
They've been arguing that for2,000 years.
Was he really the Son of God orwas he just some man, or what
(35:00):
does the Son of God even mean?
But you can't argue with theworks that he accomplished.
The witness was the works thatJesus was given to complete.
You can't argue about anythingwhen you've seen and experienced
the awesome power of God, whichis why it's so important that
(35:22):
you receive the witness thatwill convince you that, as Jesus
was in the Father and theFather was in Him, now Jesus is
in you and now you are in Jesus.
Jesus was in the Father and theFather was in him.
Now Jesus is in you and now youare in Jesus.
It is supposed to give you thewitness.
It is supposed to give you thatconfirmation that you need it
(35:43):
because if you experience thepower and taste, taste the power
of heaven itself, you not needany convincing of any man,
because you experienced andtasted of heaven himself.
How was he able to do the works?
That witness concerning himthat the Father sent him, it
(36:06):
says in the early chapters ofJohn, the witness being the
Spirit descended upon him as adove and when he was baptized by
John the Baptist in the RiverJordan, not because he needed to
repent for his sins, for he hadnone, but he had to set an
example for those who wouldfollow in his footsteps.
It was necessary to fill allrighteousness.
(36:30):
Baptism in water wasn'tnecessary for him like it's
necessary for us.
Baptism in the spirit wasn'tnecessary for him like it's
necessary for us, but he had toshow us the way.
He couldn't exclude himselffrom what we are required to
(36:51):
walk in, even the cross.
Jesus partook in these two actsto be an example to us of the
necessity for us to follow suitin order that we would be saved,
in order that we would be ableto witness, and for further
ministry, further ministry.
(37:20):
I could read the parallelpassages of Matthew, Mark and
Luke, and John speaking of whenJesus was baptized, of John in
the River Jordan.
If you're taking notes, I'mjust going to give you the
scripture.
You can read them on your ownJohn 1: 33 and 34.
Matthew 3 (37:34):
15 through 17.
Mark 1 (37:41):
10 and 11.
And Luke 3 (37:45):
21 and 22.
These passages all describewhen Jesus was baptized by John.
The witness, this spirit thatcame as a dove was not seen by
everyone.
It was only seen by John theBaptist, because John the
(38:11):
Baptist was told by his Fatherthat upon whom you see the
Spirit descending upon the dove.
That's the Messiah.
John is the one that saw theSpirit.
That was a witness to John thatthis is the Messiah.
This is the one that I've beentelling you about.
This is the one that I've beentelling you to preach about
who's going to baptize with theHoly Ghost and fire.
Nobody else saw that witness.
(38:31):
It was for John, it was for him.
Fire Nobody else saw thatwitness.
It was for John, it was for him.
But then it says that there wasa voice heard and that was God
witnessing to the multitude thatJesus was his son.
It says this is my beloved son,in whom I am well pleased.
But before this point, the onlypieces of his account of his
(38:55):
life that we know of was hisbirth and when he was in the
priestal, priestly speaking tothe Pharisees and questioning
them.
That's all that we know aboutJesus up until that point.
But notice what happens afterthe record of his baptism.
Notice what happens after therecord of his baptism In Mark 3:
21, 22, Mark 4 (39:19):
1 and 14,.
He is now described as beingfull of the Spirit, led of the
Spirit and in the power of theSpirit.
The anointing of God wasstimulated in a sense, and Jesus
began to actively fulfill hiscalling.
He began to actively fulfillhis ministry, his purpose.
(39:42):
It was the spirit of God andthe power of God.
That cannot be separated,because the spirit is the
kingdom of God, manifest throughthe Son of man, in whomever he
is in.
The kingdom of God alwaysmanifests in power.
(40:07):
Jesus had been witnessed that heis the Son of God, and at the
same time he was empowered tolead a spirit-filled and a
spirit-led life, and so he isour example.
It was necessary for him to bebaptized, not only in water but
in the spirit, to be an exampleto us of our requirements to go
(40:30):
out and fill our ministry andour calling, and so we need to
follow suit.
It was after this baptism thathe then entered into the
synagogue and said the Spirit ofthe Lord is upon me, because he
has anointed me to preach thegospel to the poor.
(40:52):
He has sent me to heal thebrokenhearted, to preach the
deliverance to the captives andrecover the sight to the blind,
and set at liberty them that arebruised, to preach the
acceptable year of our Lord.
We don't have any account thathe did this before his baptism.
So Jesus in a sense receivedthe witness and he actively
(41:25):
began to pursue fulfilling hiscalling and his destiny for
three and a half years.
Hidden within the spirit of theman, Jesus Christ was the spirit
of God without measure, frombirth, From birth, from birth.
He was called what Emmanuel Godwith us From birth.
(41:46):
So what happens when we receivethe witness?
Turn to Romans 8, 9 through 11.
Brother John, could you readRomans 8,?
John H. S. Leyva (41:58):
verse 9 through 11?
You are not in the flesh but inthe Spirit.
If so, be that the Spirit ofGod dwell in you Now.
If any man have not the Spiritof Christ, he is not of his, and
if Christ be in you, the bodyis dead because of sin, but the
Spirit is life because ofrighteousness.
Some people read this passageand they think that there are
(42:22):
now three different spirits.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (42:24):
There are now three different spirits in this
passage and they think thatthere are now three different
spirits.
There are not three differentspirits in this passage.
This is Paul using thedifferent titles of the same one
spirit.
He's not differentiating thespirit of God from the spirit of
(42:45):
Christ, from Christ in you orjust the spirit.
On the contrary, he's usingthis particular passage to
explain to them that the spiritof the living God now indwells
them.
The Spirit of God is also knownas the Spirit of Christ, because
(43:06):
he now says now, if any manhave not the Spirit of Christ
before he referred to it as theSpirit of God.
So Paul is affirming that theSpirit of God and the Spirit of
Christ are before he referred toit as the Spirit of God.
So Paul is affirming that theSpirit of God and the Spirit of
Christ are one and the sameSpirit.
Then Paul says it in adifferent way Christ in you.
How is Christ in you?
By the Spirit.
(43:27):
He's not separating, he's notdifferentiating.
He's affirming that Christ isin you by the indwelling Spirit
of God or the indwelling Spiritof Christ.
And he concludes the passage byreferring to the indwelling
Christ as his Spirit.
It says by his Spirit thatdwelleth in you.
(43:50):
Now.
Jesus said apart from me, youcan do nothing.
I think it's safe to say thatwithout Jesus, the spirit within
you can't do anything as well.
The spirit of God in you is howyou become witnesses.
If you search the scriptures,you will see that the heart of
(44:13):
man has been evil from its youthand it has been the focus of
God's attention when dealingwith man.
He sees the heart it says in 1Samuel 16, and he disregards the
outward appearance.
He's not interested in what youlook like or what you smell
like or how you dress or any ofthat stuff.
(44:33):
He's looking at where's yourheart.
I look at beyond the eyes ofman and I see into the inner man
.
In answer to David's prayer, hepromises to create in us a pure
heart, renew a steadfast,faithful spirit within us in
Psalm 51.10.
And this is what he prophesiedin Ezekiel in regards to making
(44:57):
a new covenant.
He says in Ezekiel 36 (44:58):
24.
Ezekiel 36 (45:01):
24.
He says I will take from you orexcuse me, I will take you from
among the heathen and gatheryou out of all the countries and
I will bring you into your ownland and I will sprinkle clean
water upon you and you shall beclean from all your filthiness,
from all your idols, will Icleanse you a new heart.
(45:24):
Also, will I give you a newspirit, will I put within you,
and will take away the stonyheart of your flesh and will
give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit withinyou and cause you to walk in my
(45:45):
statutes and ye shall keep myjudgments and ye shall do them A
new heart, a new spirit.
But the big thing is, I willput my spirit within you.
Why?
(46:06):
So that we will walk in Hisstatutes, so that we will guard
His judgments.
So that we will walk in hisstatutes, so that we will guard
his judgments, so that we willfulfill his word.
It is only by the Spirit thatyou can walk in the newness of
life, fulfilling the law of theSpirit of life in Christ Jesus,
(46:27):
as spoken of in Romans 8.
The new law liberates us fromthe previous law of sin and
death and being cut off,divorced from the previous law,
I now can walk in a new law ofthe spirit of life and fulfill
his word, walking after thespirit.
(46:49):
When did God start fulfillingthis promise?
He started fulfilling hispromise to the Jews on the day
of Pentecost.
He started fulfilling hispromise a couple years later
because he brought in theGentiles sorry, the Samaritans,
who were half Jews in the verysame way in Acts, chapter 8.
About 10 years down the lineyou can correct me if I'm wrong
(47:11):
after Pentecost he then broughtin the Gentiles through
Cornelius, and that created aquite a stir.
Now Jesus said in John 3, heblows his spirit on whomever he
wills, and although you hear him, you do not know when he comes
(47:32):
or where he goes.
And thus are those born of theSpirit.
Jesus alone has ultimatesovereignty on who he's going to
pour out his Spirit into.
No man, no man, no man hascontrol over that.
(47:56):
If we can't control theoutpouring of his spirit, then
what are we supposed to do?
Are we supposed to just wait,twiddle our thumbs, whistle,
sing praise songs?
Somehow we need to communicateto the Almighty our earnest
desire for him, becausereceiving the witness which is
his spirit is receiving him,because receiving the witness
which is his spirit Is receivinghim.
And somehow you've got to makeAn effort On your part To cry
(48:20):
out to God To tell him that thisis what you want, that you want
him and none other.
And that communication, verily,verily, verily, that
communication can only come fromthe heart.
That's why it doesn't matterwhat man does.
Do we lay hands for you toreceive the gift of the Holy
Ghost?
Of course we do.
We do it by faith.
(48:41):
But in the end, the reason youreceived it is because God saw
something in your heart that heneeded to see, to pour out his
spirit within you.
It's no one else's fault, ever.
It's something to do with you.
He's not looking at the hundredpeople around you that are
praying for you.
He's looking at you to receivethe spirit and he's looking for
(49:02):
something in particular.
True repentance comes from thespiritual conviction in your
heart, not in the hundred peoplearound you that are praying for
you to receive the spirit inyour heart, not in the hundred
people around you that arepraying for you to receive the
Spirit.
And for different people, themanifestation of that true
(49:22):
repentance is just differently.
It's expressed outwardly indifferent ways Some cry, some
remain silent, they can't sayanything, they look like a
statue, and some are shaking andsome are quaking and some are
trembling and some are just inan honest, upright fear of God.
And you see all of theseoutward manifestations.
But I tell you that God is noteven looking for that.
We look for that becausesometimes we go by sight and God
(49:48):
is looking past what we seeinto the heart.
I'm looking to wait and I'mwaiting upon the heart of that
individual.
He says it very clearly I knowthe heart, I know all the heart
In 1 Chronicles 28.9.
In Psalm 44.21.
(50:08):
In Jeremiah 17.10.
I am all heart knowing.
It is my focus, your heart, itis what I want, it is what I
desire.
Psalm 51, david said Thoudesirest not sacrifice, else I
(50:32):
would give it.
Thou delightest not in burntoffering.
But the sacrifices of God are abroken spirit, a broken and
contrite heart.
O God, thou will not despisethe word says, a broken and
(50:54):
contrite heart.
God will not reject, he willnot turn away from that.
If he's watching over his wordto perform it, then he's looking
for people with broken andcontrite hearts that are not
putting on a show of worldlysorrow, where they're crying and
(51:15):
crying and weeping and wailingand tearing for hours and hours
on end and they wake up the nextmorning and they're not changed
.
He's not looking for all thatnonsense, not to say that there
are some sincere people outthere that just manifest that
and that's really what was intheir heart.
But if God is going to pour outHis Spirit in you, he's looking
(51:38):
for a broken and contrite heartthat wants Him to fix it,
because you can't fix yourself.
All your life you tried to dothat.
You need to now surrender, stoprunning and stop hiding, and
surrender to his will, to hisways.
There's got to come a point.
(52:02):
Even if you're a preacher's kid, even if you're one of those
that were living in the faithsince you were born, because my
father and my great grandfatherand my great great grandfather
were pastors and preachers no,there's gotta come a point in
time in your life where yourealize I can do nothing to
(52:24):
please him.
And it doesn't matter what mydad did, it doesn't matter what
my grandfather did, it doesn'tmatter that my great-grandfather
walked in the truth.
I've got to walk in the truth.
I have nothing to offer him.
I have nothing to appease mysin that has trespassed against
God and the Lord.
(52:47):
God says in Jeremiah 29, verse12, then shall ye call upon me
and ye shall go and pray unto meand I will hearken unto you.
If he's watching over his wordto perform it and you want to
receive the gift of the HolyGhost, then start doing what the
word said to you.
If he's watching over his wordto perform it and you want to
receive the gift of the HolyGhost, then start doing what the
word said to do, because hewill not despise you, he will
(53:11):
not reject you, he will not turnaway from you if you do what he
requires.
And what he requires is to goand pray to him and seek his
face.
And when it says, and ye shallseek me, you will find me.
How many of you are waiting tosee the Lord?
(53:31):
I've heard it from some here.
Came from my own house.
I haven't seen him yet and Isay to you have you sought him
with all of your heart, becausehe will not disappoint you?
Don't complain to me how Ihaven't heard the Lord.
I haven't seen the Lord whenyou haven't done your part,
(53:53):
because I highlighted to youfrom the very beginning there's
a condition he's waiting on you,you're waiting on him and he's
waiting on you.
He wants to fulfill hiscovenant to you, but anytime
he's made a promise to anyone inthe scriptures, he's always
required something of them.
Abraham, leave your father andyour mother and your birthplace,
(54:16):
then I will make your seed asthe number of the stars in the
heaven.
But he didn't say, abraham, I'mgoing to make your seed as the
number of the stars in theheaven.
But he didn't say, abraham, I'mgoing to make your seed as the
number of the stars in theheaven.
First, he didn't say that healways requires something of
people he wants to now make acovenant with, and when you
(54:36):
search for me with all yourheart, I will be found, sayeth
the Lord.
This is the description ofbeing broken and crushed before
Almighty God and asking Him tomercy us, to forgive us our sins
(54:59):
and to do something about us,our sins, and to do something
about us In Joel 2.12,.
Joel prophecies Therefore, alsonow, sayeth the Lord Turn ye
even to me with all your heart,with fasting, with weeping, with
(55:22):
mourning, and rend your heart,not your garments.
God says I'm looking at yourheart, not your garments.
Turn unto the Lord, your God.
He says in verse 23,.
Be glad, then, ye, children ofZion, and rejoice in the Lord,
(55:45):
your God, for he has given youthe former rain moderately, and
he will cause to come down foryou the rain, the former rain
and the latter rain in the firstmonth, and he's starting to
prophesy of something that isabout to happen.
He said it to Ezekiel, he saidit to Jeremiah, he's saying it
to Joel.
He said it to Ezekiel, he saidit to Jeremiah, he's saying it
to Joel, he said it to Amos.
(56:07):
He's prophesying of anoutpouring.
He says in verse 28, and itshall come to pass afterward,
after you've done your part,that I will pour out my spirit
upon all flesh.
Your sons and daughters shallprophesy.
Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see
(56:31):
visions, and also upon theservants and upon handmaids.
In those days will I pour outmy spirit.
So here we see.
There's a call to repent, andrepenting is more than just
being oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
It's regretting sincerely whatyou did wrong and willing to
(56:59):
change your ways.
That's what he's looking for.
Does he know the end from thebeginning?
Does he know what you're goingto choose in the end?
Yes, but he's looking at you inthe present moment, which is
why sometimes you've seen peopleactually receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost, and then you seethem start walking in the flesh
(57:20):
again, because God was notjudging them by their end result
.
He was looking at them in themoment, and that's what all he's
looking for.
He's not going to condemn you,even though he knows what your
decisions are before.
He's going to give you everypossible chance.
And if it means giving you hisspirit and you later on
(57:40):
trampling underfoot the blood ofthe son, then he'll do it
because that's what he died for,because while you were yet
sinners he died.
So ain't no thing for him togive you his spirit, knowing
that maybe later on you're goingto turn away anyway and reject
(58:00):
the spirit of grace and rejectthe spirit of grace.
And if you do what he says, ifyou repent with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, withchopping, as it says, even in
that sorrowful state, he tellsyou later on, there's hope,
(58:22):
there's an anticipation of apour, an outpouring of my spirit
, a rain that is going to come,a former and a latter rain, he
says afterward, after thisrepentance and obedience born
out of your newfound trust inHim, he's going to pour out His
(58:44):
Spirit upon all flesh.
And with that outpouring of HisSpirit comes many different
manifestations of prophesyingdreams and visions, but only
after, if my people, which arecalled by my name, will humble
themselves and pray and seek myface and turn from their wicked
(59:05):
ways, then I will hear.
Did you see the if?
Then it's all over the place inthe scriptures.
If, then, promises of God areconditional, don't be afraid to
admit that they are.
They require something of youThen I will hear from heaven.
(59:26):
I will forgive their sin, Iwill hear the land.
So if I had to simplify this, Isay one obedience to the word
is necessary according to all ofthese scriptures that we've
come and read.
Doing it his way, because he'swatching over His Word to
perform it.
You do it His way, he's goingto do it what he said he would
(59:48):
do.
When you do it His way,repentance is essential.
Two and three it never hurts toask Him.
Ask Him for the promise, pray,petition Him to fulfill the
promise in you.
He said how much more shallyour heavenly father give the
(01:00:11):
holy spirit to them that ask him?
But we're raised in all ofthese churches that say the holy
ghost is not for today, it's2000 years old.
We don't need that.
My wife has actually comeacross people that don't believe
(01:00:31):
that we need it here in theStates, but when it happens in
Africa, oh, that's because theyneed the power.
I only thought he said thosestories.
I only thought he heard thosethings.
I only thought he heard thosethings.
Now my wife ran into somebodythat said something like that
what do we see the disciples do?
What do we see the women dowhen they're waiting in the
(01:00:54):
upper loft?
Well, we just name three things.
Obedience to his word why werethey in Jerusalem in the upper
loft?
Because they told him to.
Jesus, told them to.
There's obedience.
A sign of obedience excuse me,a sign of repentance is
(01:01:15):
obedience.
I'm not going to do it my wayanymore, I'm going to do it your
way.
You said to wait in Jerusalem,I'm going to wait in Jerusalem.
And so what were they doingwhen they were waiting in
Jerusalem?
It says these all continued withone accord, in prayer and
supplication, with the women andMary, the mother of Jesus, and
with his brethren, and if youread any further, it's about 120
(01:01:37):
people all together.
Acts 1, verse 14.
And you know they didn't fullyrealize what was about to take
place.
I'm sure by their works, bytheir actions, they're repentant
(01:02:00):
.
I'm more sure that they'rerepentant because I saw in Acts,
chapter 2, that they receivedthe gift of the Holy Ghost.
God is not going to give thegift of the Holy Ghost to
someone who, in his heart, isnot repentant.
He's not, he's not, he's notgoing to do that.
So we see in Acts that thereceiving of the Spirit is a
prophetic fulfillment ofprophecy through Joel.
(01:02:22):
This is that, and it shall cometo days.
It shall come to pass.
In the last days, say of God, Iwill pour out my Spirit upon
all flesh and your sons and yourdaughters shall prophesy, and
young men shall see visions andold men shall dream dreams.
And on my servants and on myhandmaidens I will pour out on
those days of my spirit and theyshall prophesy.
(01:02:44):
Peter referred to Joel that whatyou now see and hear is a
prophecy fulfilled.
And when they heard this, whenthey heard this prophecy being
fulfilled, when they heard howJesus had done these many
miracles and was anointed of Godand was crucified by them, when
(01:03:07):
they heard that he was bothLord and Christ, they said what
shall we do?
Peter Repent Be baptized in thename of Jesus, every one of you
, every one of you, in the nameof Jesus Christ, for the
forgiveness of your sins, and yeshall receive the Holy Ghost.
(01:03:29):
Now, that's what they said.
That's what Peter said whenthey asked what shall we do
about what we did?
Paul said in 2 Thessalonians weare bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethrenbeloved of the Lord, because God
(01:03:50):
has from the beginning chosenyou to salvation.
Through what Sanctification ofthe Spirit and belief of the
truth.
The belief of the truth isexpressed in your obedience to
His Word.
It says in John 1, verse 12,.
But as many as received Him, asmany as received the witness,
(01:04:18):
to them he gave power to becomethe sons of God.
It is only after you receivethe witness that you are now
eligible to be a child of God,because it is by the Spirit of
God that a spiritual adoptiontakes place.
Without the Spirit of God,there is no adoption by the
(01:04:43):
Spirit, even to them thatbelieve on His name, which were
born not of the blood, not ofthe will of flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God.
To those that receive thewitness, they have authority to
become children of God, as itsays in Romans 8, 16 and 17.
(01:05:04):
Why?
Because they are now born ofGod.
You want to be a child of God.
You need to be born of God.
You want to be a child of thatperson, then you need to be born
of that person.
Lydia can't be a child of anyother woman in this room.
But my wife, she was born ofher room.
(01:05:27):
But my wife, she was born ofher.
The glory that John the Baptistsaw descending at Jesus' baptism
was the glory also seen whenthree of his disciples were at
the Mount of Transfiguration.
And both times that the glorywas seen by John the Baptist and
those three, both times it wassaid this is my beloved Son.
The second time it said Hear yeHim, listen to Him.
(01:05:50):
First time it's just this is mybeloved Son, whom I am well
pleased.
And the reason why I point thatout?
Because that is a nice imageand picture of the sanctifying
and culminating work of theSpirit of God in the life of a
believer.
He comes upon you, he indwellsyou and when he's finished with
(01:06:13):
His work, how is Jesus at theMount of Transfiguration, like
the Son glorified?
That is the work of the Spiritof God in your life.
It's not something that can beneglected.
It's not something you couldjust bypass and say oh well,
I'll get there.
You need the Spirit of God, youneed the witness.
(01:06:35):
Paul said he is a Jew, which isone inwardly, and circumcision
is that of the heart in thespirit, not in the letter.
Circumcision is that of theheart, in the spirit, not in the
letter, whose praise is not ofmen but of God.
A Jew is not worried about whatman says about him.
It's not concerned that thisbrother or sister over here said
(01:06:55):
I was a Christian, or thisdenomination said I'm a
Christian because I got baptizedin their church.
The only thing that a Jewworries about is is he pleasing
God?
Does he have the witness of God?
Is he being vouched for?
Is he being backed up by Godhimself?
(01:07:16):
He's not concerned with thethoughts, he's not concerned
with the attention of man, butonly the witness and the fruits
of God in his life.
He is circumcised in the heart,not in the flesh, because the
circumcision of the fleshdoesn't benefit anything, not
spiritually anyway.
(01:07:36):
God is concerned with the heart, with the heart of his people.
Look at what the apostles andthe elders of the church had to
say about the witness In Acts,chapter 15, verse 7.
You had some Jews born again ofthe spirit having a problem
(01:07:58):
that the Gentiles are in thekingdom.
No, no, no, no.
They need to be circumcised inthe flesh.
They need to keep the law ofMoses.
They were arguing with who thewitness?
And you're going to see that theanswer in this account was the
witness Acts, chapter 15, verse7, and when there had been much
(01:08:23):
disputing there was a lot ofargument over this, peter rose
up and said unto them, men andbrethren, ye know how, that, a
good while ago, god made choiceamong us, that the Gentiles, by
my mouth, should hear the wordof the gospel and believe, and
God, which knoweth what thehearts bear them, witness Giving
(01:08:47):
them the Holy Ghost.
Bam, bam, bam.
All in one place.
The Lord pours out his spirit,he gives the witness, he gives
the Holy Ghost when he sees theheart of the individual ready.
Even as he did unto us, he didit to the Gentiles, just like he
(01:09:07):
did it to us, and put nodifference between us and them,
purifying their hearts by faith.
Now, therefore, why tempt yeGod?
What are we doing here, arguingwith the witness?
Why are we trying to put a yokeon our brethren that our
(01:09:28):
fathers couldn't even bear towalk in?
But we believe that through thegrace of the Lord, jesus Christ
, the Spirit of God, the divineempowerment of God, that we
shall be saved, even just likethem.
So, in reviewing thisparticular case of the Gentiles,
(01:09:49):
jesus decided I'm not going towait on Peter to finish
preaching the gospel, becauseI'm going to make this
emphatically clear witness thatI have accepted the Gentile even
before you lay hands on them,peter, I'm going to do it myself
.
There should be no question.
There should be no dispute.
I bathed the Gentiles in myspirit.
It was my divine choice.
(01:10:10):
God says God witnesses that hehas established his covenant by
pouring out his spirit, just ashe did on the day of Pentecost.
And you know what Paul andPeter, as they write in the
letters.
There is no disagreement onthis matter.
The witness does not change.
The witness is the spirit andit is God's stamp of approval on
(01:10:34):
you making a covenant with you.
If we read and we continue inActs 15, we see that Paul stands
up and he begins to speakconcerning the witness.
He doesn't disagree, he doesn'targue with Peter, but he
emphatically declares about thesigns and the omens that God did
(01:10:54):
, because Paul can't argue withwhat God did.
It's irrefutable.
He did it among all the nations.
So there's no disagreement withthe apostles on the issue.
It is the witness that settlesthe case.
Paul writing in the letters tothe churches he doesn't change
(01:11:18):
his mind, he agrees, he confirmswhat happened in Acts, chapter
15.
Paul says in Romans 15,nevertheless, brethren, I have
written more boldly unto you, insome sort as putting you in
mind.
In other words, I'm going toremind you, because of the grace
(01:11:40):
that is given to me, of God,that I should be a minister of
Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,ministering the gospel of God,
that the offering of theGentiles might be acceptable,
being what he's not there, yetSanctified by the Holy Ghost.
I can't argue against thewitness, for I will not dare to
(01:12:01):
speak of any of those thingswhich Christ hath not wrought by
me.
Verse 18.
To make the Gentiles obedient,the Gentiles were required to be
obedient, just as the Jews were, just as the Samaritans were,
just as all men everywherearound the world are called to
(01:12:21):
what Repent, obedient in wordand in deed, through mighty
signs and wonders, by the powerof the Spirit of God, the
witness, so that from Jerusalemround about to Illarism, I have
fully preached the gospel ofChrist.
(01:12:42):
The end result of both Peterand Paul's preaching was that
those who trusted and obeyedreceived the witness.
They received the Spirit of God.
They consistently saw Jesusconfirming the word which they
spoke by baptizing the believerin the Spirit Mark 16, 20.
(01:13:03):
And how did they know?
How did they know that a personreceived the Spirit?
The evidence of speaking.
In tongues, it is very, very,very clearly laid out in
Cornelius' example, the onlyreason the Gentiles were known
(01:13:23):
to have received the Spiritbecause they spoke in tongues,
just as we did way back then.
Paraphrased After Paul speaksduring this Acts 15 dispute,
james stands up and speaks, andhe doesn't disagree with him
either, but he says that whatGod did with the Gentiles was a
(01:13:44):
fulfillment of prophecy back inAmos 9, 11, and 12.
For he says In that day will Iraise up the tabernacle of David
that is fallen and close up thebreaches thereof, and I will
raise up his ruins, and of Davidthat is fallen and close up the
breaches thereof, and I willraise up his ruins and will
build it, as in the days of old,that they may possess the
remnant of Edom and of all theheathen which are called by my
(01:14:06):
name.
Say the Lord that doeth this.
This work was prophesiedthrough Joel, it was prophesied
through Ezekiel, it wasprophesied through Jeremiah, it
was prophesied through Ezekiel,it was prophesied through
Jeremiah, it was prophesiedright now through Amos, and it
is describing the same work ofGod.
In the beginning, god walkedwith Adam.
(01:14:28):
They abided together.
Adam was in the light and theglory of God, and when Adam
sinned, he was banished, notonly from the garden, but he was
banished from that relationshipof walking in the light and the
glory of God.
All the while after, god haswanted to reestablish that walk.
(01:14:49):
He started by resigning in thepresence of the ark.
He then went from the presenceof the ark he resided in the
tabernacle where the ark was,where the holy of holy was, and
for a time this is how we walkedwith the people of God.
But there came a point whereGod said I'm no longer dwelling
(01:15:14):
in temples built by men, I'mgoing to make the temple myself.
So he made his own tabernaclein the hearts of his people.
His holy nation, his royalpriesthood, the baptism of the
Spirit rebuilds the tabernacleof David in the hearts of his
people.
Three witnesses in one heartsof his people, three witnesses
(01:15:36):
in one chapter answering thequestion Peter, paul and James.
And they all agree.
The matter is settled with theapostles and the elders in the
church in agreement thatreceiving of the Spirit is the
witness.
And so, to conclude, we endwith Colossians 1.26.
Even the mystery which has beenhid from the ages and from
generations is now made manifestto the saints, to whom God
(01:16:03):
would make known what is theriches of the glory, of this
mystery among the Gentiles whichis Christ in you, the hope of
glory, the great mysterythroughout all generations is
that God has been planning thisrestoration from the very
beginning to tabernacle with hispeople.
Again Jesus Christ is in you ifyou have received the witness
(01:16:30):
In 1 John.
John again the apostle says andhe that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him and he in him,and hereby we know that he
abideth in us by the Spiritwhich he gave us, because the
Spirit will abide in you as longas you're walking and keeping
(01:16:51):
his commandments.
The same requirement before hecame to indwell you is the same
requirement he continues to holdyou to afterward.
The covenant doesn't changebecause God met His requirement.
If he required you to walk inHis commandments and then gave
you a spirit to say yeah, I'mwith you, then he continues to
require you to walk in Hiscommandments.
(01:17:12):
Otherwise you just brokecovenant.
To require you to walk in Hiscommandments, otherwise you just
broke covenant.
The Spirit of God will indwellus to the eons as long as we
keep His commandments, as longas we continue to walk according
to the law of the Spirit oflife in Christ Jesus, as long as
we no longer walk according tothe flesh but according to the
(01:17:33):
what, the Spirit, then we abidein Him, then he remains in us
and we know that we abide in Himbecause His Spirit indwelling
us assures us of that.
There's a peace that willsurpass all understanding, for
as many as are led by the Spiritof God, they are the, the
(01:17:53):
spirit itself.
Bear us witness with our spiritthat we are the children of God
.
And if the children, then heirsand heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ, and if so, bethat we suffer with him, that
we may also be glorifiedtogether.
For we know that the wholecreation groaneth and travaileth
(01:18:14):
in pain together until now.
And not only they but ourselvesalso, which have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, evenwe ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for theadoption, to wit the redemption
of our body.
So here we clearly see that theSpirit of God is the same Spirit
of Christ, which is finallyreferred as Christ Jesus Himself
(01:18:39):
.
Different references to thesame one God, different
descriptive names referring tothe only true God.
But when we receive the Spirit,we receive the Spirit of
Sonship which gives us authorityto become children of God.
And until that work is complete.
At the resurrection of the body, the Spirit continues to
(01:19:00):
witness to us.
You are my child, you are myson.
Walk with me, walk with me,talk with me.
I love you, love me, love me.
When we are glorified which isthe completed work of the Spirit
in every believer's life, ourbody will be redeemed, our body
will be glorified, our body willbe changed from corruptible to
(01:19:23):
incorruptible, from mortality toimmortality.
Then the promise is complete,then it's fulfilled, and then I
don't need to hope anymore,because all of us are hoping
that we get out of this.
I don't know about you, but Iwant to be perfected in Him.
I want to be just like Him,just like my Father who is in
(01:19:46):
Heaven.
But before that happens, weneed a witness, and that witness
is the Spirit of God in ourlife.
When we are perfect in theimage of Jesus, we are
considered brothers and childrenof God, amen.
(01:20:07):
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(01:20:29):
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May God bless you and make youprosperous in Him as you listen
and obey His voice.
The vision received was that of blood cells
traveling throughout the body,supplying the much-needed oxygen
and other nutrients to thediffering members of the body to
fulfill their purpose.
Once the blood cells are spent,they must return back to the
heart to be refilled beforebeing sent out again and fulfill
their purpose and fulfill theirpurpose.
(00:28):
Good morning.
It's good to have aHmm, one new face.
Welcome, Adrian.
Right, it's good to have youhere.
I think I want to try to covera topic that we may have covered
before, but I don't think I'veever covered it and I just, you
(00:51):
know, sort of like when everyonehas said everything about a
topic and you haven't, you feellike everything hasn't been said
because you haven't been ableto speak about it.
And as I looked upon some ofthe notes that I did previously,
I started realizing thatthere's probably a good reason
why that came up and why Ishould cover it.
(01:14):
I want to begin by having you goto 1 John 2, verse 1.
I want to talk today aboutreceiving the witness, receiving
the witness and, as many of youwell know, John the apostle,
(01:35):
the disciple, the beloved, wasthe writer of 1 John by the Holy
Spirit, and he says my littlechildren, these things write I
unto you that ye sin not, and ifany man sin, we have an
(01:55):
advocate with the Father, JesusChrist the Righteous, and, as I
said before, John wrote thisscripture speaking about an
advocate, and that's the wordthat I'm focusing on advocate.
It comes from the Greek wordparakletos or parakletos, and it
(02:21):
is only occurs five times inthe New Testament this word
parakletos, and the interestingthing that the only author that
ever used that word was John theapostle.
Now it was translated in 1 Johnas advocate, but we have read
of this word and it didn't usethe word advocate.
(02:43):
When the King James translatorstranslated, they used another
word, also comforter, and thereason why I'm bringing this up
to you is because John did notdifferentiate between that word.
In 1 John he used the wordparacletos.
When he wrote the Gospel ofJohn, he used the word
paracletos, but for some reasonthe King James translators
(03:04):
wanted to use comforter overthere and advocate over here.
And all I'm doing is pointingout to you that if you do a
small little word study, you'drealize well, that's the very
same word.
He's not talking aboutsomething different here.
So John is identifying thatJesus Christ the righteous is
our advocate or our comforter,our parakletos.
(03:25):
And it is translated four othertimes all in the gospel of John
In John 14, in John 15, it'sused twice and in John 16.
And John is the only apostlethat used this word or this term
for Jesus Christ.
(03:45):
So I'm just going to point outto you that Jesus Christ is our
comforter, he is our advocate,he is our paraclete.
And now I want to focus on thatword.
In John, chapter 14, we'regoing to read 12 through 26.
(04:06):
I need someone who's confidentin his reading abilities to just
stand up and read it.
John 14 verses 12 through 26.
Whenever you're ready, you goright on ahead.
Allen Cook (04:21):
Christ, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
believeth on me the works that Ido Keep going.
12 to 26.
Shall ask in my name that willI do that the Father may be
(04:44):
glorified in the Son.
16 to 7.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (04:48):
Keep going 12 to 26.
Allen Cook (04:50):
26.
Oh, cool, again, he shall askanything in my name.
I will do it.
If you love me, keep mycommandments and I will pray the
Father and he shall give youanother comforter that he abide
with you forever, even theSpirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive because it seethhim not, neither knoweth it.
(05:11):
But ye know him, for hedwelleth with you and shall be
in you.
I will not leave youcomfortless.
I will come to you Yet a littlewhile and the world seeth me no
more.
But ye see me because I live.
Ye shall live also At that day.
(05:32):
Ye shall know that I am in myFather and he in me and I in you
.
He that hath my commandments andkeepeth them, he it is that
loveth me, and he that loveth meshall be loved of my Father,
(05:57):
and I will love him and willmanifest myself to him.
Judas said unto him, not asscaring Lord, how is it that
thou wilt manifest thyself untous and not unto the world?
Jesus answered and said untohim If a man love me, he will
keep my words and my Father willlove him, and we will come unto
(06:18):
him and make our abode with him.
He that loveth me not keepethnot my sayings, and the word
which he heareth is not mine,but the Father's which sent me
these things.
Have I spoken unto you, beingyet present with you, whom the
(06:38):
Father will send in my name?
He shall teach you all thingsand bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I havesaid unto you.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (06:51):
Thank you, brother Allen.
In this passage, Jesus isspeaking prophetically that
whoever trusts in Him is goingto do the works that He did, and
greater.
Why?
Because He's going to go to theFather, and something's going
to happen when he goes back tothe Father.
He goes on to say that he willgive us another comforter, known
(07:15):
as the Spirit of Truth and alsoknown as the Holy Ghost.
I'm basically highlighting foryou right now everything you
just read to just point out andhighlight to you that John is
recording what Jesus said.
And Jesus said He's going tosend another comforter that is
known as the Spirit of Truth,that is also known as the Holy
(07:38):
Ghost, and Jesus said that thecomforter, as he spoke.
He said the comforter abideswith you, just like me saying
now, the comforter abides withyou right now.
But He was referring to Himselfin the present.
What they didn't understand wasthat Jesus was the comforter
(08:00):
and He was at present with thedisciples.
But it says when he goes away,he's going to send another
comforter and that comfortershall be in you.
It says, if you look carefullyat the word, he shall be in you,
referring to the futureindwelling Holy Spirit, which we
know now as the Holy Ghost thatwas poured out on the day of
(08:25):
Pentecost.
Now did you know what verse 18says?
Quote I come to you.
Jesus said I'm going to sendyou another comforter and then,
in verse 18, says I come to you.
This statement is now linkedwith the previous statement that
(08:46):
the Father was going to sendanother comforter and that the
Holy Spirit is sent in theFather's name, signifying that
it would be Jesus.
These scriptures reveal thatJesus sent Himself as the Holy
Spirit to abide with us, to bein us forever.
(09:08):
Notice what it says in verse 20and 21.
What at that day?
Ye shall know At what day?
What, what day is he referringto?
The day that he sends thecomforter.
What am I supposed to know onthat day that the comforter is
(09:30):
sent, the day that He pours outhis spirit, you will know that
Jesus and the Father are one andthat God is now in you.
That is the revelation.
The baptism in His Spiritbrings us into oneness with the
(09:52):
Almighty, by His Spirit.
The condition, the condition.
I say again, there is acondition being that Jesus will
only manifest, will only revealhimself, will only make Himself
known to those who love Him.
And how do you love him?
You keep his commandments.
(10:14):
Those that are keeping hiscommandments, that have not
received the Holy Spirit, have apromise that God is going to
pour out his Spirit and indwellyou because you love him.
But that's the condition.
But everybody reads over thatand overlooks that.
It just wants to promise, topromise, to promise, but they
just forgot the condition.
If you love me, if you'rekeeping my commandments, I
(10:37):
promise I'm gonna pour out mySpirit in you.
That's the condition.
It doesn't just come to anyone.
Cornelius in Acts, chapter 10,was a man that loved God and,
based upon what limitedknowledge he had of God, he was
keeping his commandment and soGod blessed him and poured out
his Spirit on him and he was theGentile representative.
(10:58):
So to let everyone know thatall the Gentiles are now
included in the kingdom of God,know that all the Gentiles are
now included in the kingdom ofGod.
The manifestation or therevealing of Jesus to an
individual is directlyconnected, it is directly
(11:22):
intertwined with the receivingof the comforter.
There's a lot of people thathave a knowledge of God and they
go so far as to say, well, I'vealready received his spirit.
Well, you can have a knowledgeof God and not have received his
Spirit, but there's a specificrevelation of Jesus that you
will have when you receive thecomforter that will be by far
and greater than any otherknowledge of God that you've had
(11:44):
prior to that moment.
Now, to have His commandments isto just know them.
Well, yeah, I know those areHis commandments.
I know he tells that me to dothat right.
He says that, no, that's wrong.
I know that.
But to keep them is to do them,and it is those that do the
(12:05):
will that have this conditionalpromise.
So once you know His will, youmust determine within yourself
to do it His way and no other.
It says in Jeremiah 1:12, He isever watching over His word to
perform it.
And if His word gave acondition that I will pour out
(12:29):
my spirit on them that love me,that they are keeping my
commandments, then he is everwatching over all the earth for
finding that man, that womanthat is loving Him, that is
keeping His commandments andHe's going to come rushing in
with His Spirit and pour Himselfinto them.
That's His promise.
That's His word, and He'swatching ever to perform it.
(12:50):
So when we do it His way, thisis part of the covenant.
This is why we talk aboutcovenant so much in this
fellowship, because covenant isabout an agreement.
It's about a contractualagreement.
You do this, I will do this, Iwill do this, you will do that.
Well, your responsibility is toguard and keep his commandments
(13:11):
, and his response is I'm goingto pour out my spirit in you and
cause you to do that.
I'm going to give you the powerto fulfill them, because just
knowing the law is not going tocause you to walk in His
commandments.
It did not work for all thesaints of the Old Testament.
(13:33):
They all knew 616 or 19?
, 14?
Of the pieces of the law thatneeded to be fulfilled, and yet
they could not do it.
They had not the power to do it.
And so, in the same way thatJesus only said what the Father
(13:56):
said, he only did what he sawthe Father do the Holy Ghost
will do the same in us andthrough us.
The indwelling Spirit of God isgoing to teach us some things.
Is that what it says?
No, it says He's going to teachus all things.
(14:18):
So it doesn't matter what Iexperienced prior to me being
born of God.
It doesn't matter that I didn'thave a father or I didn't have
a mother, there is no excuse,for He said His words, said that
I will teach you all things inspite of everything else you
missed in your life.
And He will relay whateverJesus says and He will have us
(14:43):
do whatever Jesus does.
Why?
That's easy, because the HolyGhost is none other than the
Spirit of Jesus himself.
If I'm the one teaching you,the only thing I can teach you
is about me.
Because I'm me, amen, becauseI'm me.
(15:05):
In John 15, verse 26, Johncontinues to record what Jesus
says.
And Jesus says this when theComforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father,even the Spirit of truth.
So now, well, he said it before, the Comforter is the Spirit of
(15:29):
truth, is the Holy Spirit, isthe Holy Ghost whom the Father
will send.
And now Jesus says whom I willsend unto you from the Father,
which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.
Now, I don't know if you caughtit, but there seems to be a
(15:50):
contradiction.
Jesus said in John, chapter 14,the Father will send, but Jesus
says I will send unto you.
Well, if Jesus said the Fathersends the Holy Spirit and now
Jesus says I will send, well, ifyou take the notion that God is
(16:14):
three distinct persons, thenyou got a problem.
Who's doing the sending?
Is it the Father or is it Jesussending the Holy Spirit?
Cause in this day and ageeveryone is believing in a
trinity a God, the Father, godthe Son, god, the Holy Ghost.
Well, jesus just said theFather will send, and then Jesus
just said I will send.
(16:34):
Well, who's he sending andwho's doing the sending?
But that's if you take thenotion that there's a trinity.
But you see, if you rememberDeuteronomy 6: 4, the Shema,
that was highly revered by allof the Jews and all of the
Israelites, for they weremonotheistic, they believed in
(16:55):
only one God and their God toldthem Hear, o Israel, the Lord,
our God is one Lord.
So the answer for me is quitesimple.
Jesus was God manifested in theflesh.
He's not another God, he's notsecond person in the Godhead.
(17:17):
So whether he sends, I willsend, or the Father sends, he is
referring to whom?
Himself!The disciples didn't have that
revelation.
But when they received Him bythe Spirit, then they understood
.
Because up until that point,when He walked in the days of
(17:41):
His flesh, the highestrevelation that the disciples
had was that you are the son ofthe living God, you are the
Christ.
No one ever said He was God.
Not even the disciples said Hewas God.
But after he was resurrected,what did Thomas say?
My Lord and my God.
(18:03):
You see the demarcation if youstudy it yourself.
No one ever declared He was God.
They didn't have it.
They couldn't hold on to it.
Even the Pharisees, when Jesusspoke, would not receive what He
continued to allude to.
But He was.
He was God.
(18:24):
He said he that has seen me hasseen the Father.
He said I and my Father are one.
And we see Jesus coming rightout and saying to the Pharisees
who he really was before Abrahamwas, I am.
And what did the Pharisees wantto do?
Stone him.
(18:46):
Why?
Blasphemy! Who are you to saythat you make yourself God?
Who are you?
They knew what He was saying.
They just wouldn't receive it.
They would not receive it.
In the Jews' perspective, nomere mortal man could have done
what Jesus did when he walked inthe days of his flesh.
None.
They knew that.
(19:06):
They knew that it had to be God.
They knew that it made no sensefor Beelzebub to cast out his
own legion out of people.
Only the power of God couldhave done that.
And so John 1 (19:20):
1 begins with In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and theWord was God.
So God was the Word.
And it says later, in that verysame chapter in John, in verse
14, and the Word became flesh.
(19:40):
Well, if God was the Word, thenGod became flesh Because God
was the Word.
So, in other words, theinfinite, invisible God, who is
a Spirit, revealed andmanifested and became flesh.
He manifested Himself in theflesh in the body of the man,
(20:01):
Jesus Christ.
He enrobed Himself, he clothedhimself in flesh.
And this is the mystery ofgodliness that Paul spoke of in
1 Timothy 3:16.
And great it is that theinfinite, invisible God became
flesh, revealed himself in theflesh, and without a revelation
(20:24):
of Jesus this is notcomprehended, because you have
35,000 different denominationssaying Jesus is not who He said
He was, but He's somebodydifferent or somebody second, or
distinct or apart.
So the actual body of Christ,it says, was conceived of by the
(20:48):
Holy Spirit, who overshadowedMary and the human vessel that
God used to manifest or revealhimself to humanity was brought
forth from the womb of Mary.
Let's read John 16.
7 through 15.
Someone will stand up and readthat.
(21:09):
John 16, verse 7 through 15.
Katy Leyva (21:18):
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that Igo away, for if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come untoyou, but if I depart, I will
send him unto you, and when heis come, he will be proved the
world of sin and ofrighteousness, and of judgment.
Of sin because they believe notof me.
Of righteousness because I goto my Father and you see me.
(21:39):
No more Of judgment, becausethe prince of this world is
judged.
I have yet many things to sayof you, and you cannot bear them
now.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit oftruth, is come, he will guide
you into all truth, for he shallnot speak of himself, but
whatsoever he shall hear, thatshall he speak and he will show
(22:01):
you things to come.
He shall glorify me, for heshall receive of mine and shall
show it unto you.
All things that the Father hathare mine.
Therefore said I that he shalltake of mine and shall show it
unto you.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (22:17):
It's very important here to point out that
unless Jesus, who was in theflesh in that moment, were to go
away, the Comforter would notcome, he would not be sent to
indwell the people of God.
He had to go.
It's a conditional statement.
He needed to leave so that hewould release His Spirit to be
(22:45):
within us.
Just as he spoke in theprevious chapters of John, the
Spirit would guide us into sometruth, all truth.
He will teach you all things,and up to that point it says
that they could not bear anymore truth.
They couldn't bear it, theycouldn't understand it, they
couldn't go any farther than youare the Son of the living God,
(23:06):
the Messiah, the promised one,that's it.
But to say that you're God,uh-huh.
Now notice that the exact sameanointing that Jesus had being
in the flesh.
So does the Holy Spirit.
So does the Holy Spirit.
It says His Spirit, theanointing for reproving what?
(23:30):
Sin, righteousness and judgment.
Is that not what Jesus wasdoing in the days of His flesh?
Reproving sin, righteousnessand judgment.
Whenever Jesus said or didsomething, it was because he
said what he saw and heard theFather do.
Jesus was using these words todescribe that it was the Father
in Him that said and did thethings He did or said, because
(23:57):
the man was completely yieldedto the Spirit of Jesus within
him, the Spirit of God withinHim.
Remember.
It says in John 3 (24:06):
34, I haven't even gone out of John, I
keep going to John.
John has revelation here forth.
He says in John 3 (24:12):
34, that in the man, Christ Jesus, the
Spirit of God was withoutmeasure.
It was an unlimited Spirit ofGod that was found in him.
And it says elsewhere by Paulin him dwelt all the fullness of
(24:39):
the Godhead in a body In him,meaning Jesus.
So Jesus, the Comforter, isalso known as the Spirit of
Truth in John, but he's alsoknown as the Spirit of Prophecy
in Revelation 19.10.
It says there that I fell athis feet to worship him and he
(25:02):
said unto me See, thou do it not.
I am thy fellow servant and ofthy brethren that have the
testimony of Jesus.
Worship God, for the testimonyof Jesus is the spirit of
prophecy.
Now, some say that because wehave a court system, some say
that being a witness is that yougive testimony of Jesus and all
(25:26):
that he's done for you in yourlife.
And in a sense, yeah, that'skind of true.
But as I look at the scriptures, it clearly defines that a
witness is so much than what Ijust said, because it defines
the witness to be the spirit ofprophecy, and that the spirit of
(25:52):
prophecy was not only in Johnthe Apostle, but the spirit of
prophecy was also on John theBaptist, for they both witnessed
concerning him, but they didn'twitness in and of themselves.
They witnessed of him, basedupon the revelation they
received of the Spirit of God.
(26:12):
That is why they're witnesses.
There's people going intoseminaries speaking about Jesus.
They are not witnesses of him,for they're not speaking forth
as the Spirit of prophecy inthem.
(26:34):
If that is so, then we who havereceived the pouring out of his
spirit, the spirit of truth, theHoly Ghost, which is the spirit
of prophecy, which is thecomforter that Jesus spoke of in
John, can also be witnesses.
It says in John 15 (26:50):
26 and 27, when the comforter is come, whom
I will send unto you from theFather, even the spirit of truth
which proceedeth from theFather, he shall testify of me
and ye also shall bear witness,because you've been with me from
(27:13):
the beginning.
You see, with thatunderstanding, now I really,
really understand Acts, chapter1, verse 8.
Why is it that Jesus was soemphatic to the disciples Go to
Jerusalem, go to Jerusalem.
Wait for theatic to thedisciples Go to Jerusalem, go to
Jerusalem.
Wait for the promise of myfather.
Go to Jerusalem.
He says in Acts 1.8,.
But ye shall receive powerafter the Holy Ghost is coming
(27:35):
upon you.
And then what Is he there andye shall be witnesses.
Why didn't you just tell themto go out and preach the gospel
in that moment?
No-transcript, they had notreceived the witness to become
witnesses.
You see, we become witnessesonly after we receive his
(28:00):
anointing, his power, and thatonly comes by receiving his
spirit.
Then, and only then, is when webecome witnesses of Jesus
Christ having been born again,which is also known as being
born of the water and of theSpirit in John 3, 3 through 6.
(28:22):
There's a revelation in John,and if you just read and you'll
see and make the connections,it's all there how important it
is to receive the witness.
We are witnesses only by theSpirit, for without Him we
cannot witness concerning Him.
How can I witness about Jesus?
I didn't see Him.
(28:43):
I didn't see Him die.
I didn't see Him do themiracles.
I didn't see Him resurrect.
I didn't see Him for 40 daysafter His resurrection.
I wasn't there, but I canwitness of him because I have
the spirit of resurrection.
That's how I can witness of him, because I was dead in my sins,
(29:04):
we were dead in our sins, butsomehow I've been made alive by
the spirit of Jesus Christ.
The righteous, and now I canwitness, and now I can testify
of him without reservation.
The righteous, and now I canwitness.
And now I can testify of himwithout reservation, without
hesitation.
Anyone who has not received theSpirit can only talk about him.
(29:25):
But when you start givingtestimony of the Spirit of Jesus
Christ and you are a witness,you have power backing up the
words that you're speaking.
You have him following you withsigns and wonders.
It says he followed theapostles as they preached the
gospel with signs and wonders.
(29:46):
You read through Acts.
They follow, with signs andwonders, the shadow of Peter,
the healing of the lame man, thereceiving of the Spirit of God
in so many people, in the Jews,in the Samaritans and the
Gentiles, and the parentdisciples.
You see power.
And you see Stephen, see him inhis glory in the midst of his
(30:07):
martyrdom.
That's power, power.
That's power.
Jesus did not take the witnessfrom any man, including John the
Baptist.
Maybe you overlooked it, solet's read it in John 5 again.
(30:31):
John 5, verse 30 through 41.
Clarence B. Harris (30:55):
If someone stand and read John 5
through 41.
I can't, of my own self donothing as I hear.
I judge.
My judgment is justice becauseI seek not my own will but will
the Father which hath sent me.
If I bear witness of myself, mywitness is not true.
There is another there who bearwitness of me and I know that
the witness which he witnessedof me not true.
There is another there who bearwitness of me and I know that
the witness which he witnessedof me is true.
(31:19):
He sent unto John.
He bear witness unto the truth,but I receive not testimony
from man, but these things.
I say that he might be saved.
He was a burning and shininglight and ye were willing for a
season to rejoice in his light.
(31:41):
But I have greater witness thanthat of John for the works
which the Father has given me tofinish, the same works that I
do bear witness of me that theFather has sent me and the
Father himself which has sent me.
He bore witness of me that theFather has sent me and the
Father himself which has sent me.
He bore witness of me.
(32:01):
Ye have neither heard his voiceat any time nor seen his shape,
for ye have not his wordabiding in you For him.
He has sent him.
He believe not.
Ye believe not Certainscriptures for them.
(32:22):
Ye think ye have eternal life,but then they will testify of me
and ye will not come to me thatye might have life.
I received not honor from men,but I know you that ye have not
the love of the Father in you.
I have come in my Father's nameand ye receive me not.
If another shall come in hisown name, him ye will receive.
(32:43):
How can you believe whichreceive honor one of another and
seek not the honor which comesfrom God only?
Do you think that I will accuseyou to the Father?
There is one that accuses you,even Moses, whom you trust.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (33:06):
In this particular passage we read that
Jesus is saying the Fatherwitnessed, testified, vouched
for me the Son by the workswhich I accomplished, because it
was the Father in the Son thatdid them.
It wasn't of any concern forJesus to take the witness from
(33:31):
any man, even from his cousin,cousin John the Baptist.
Jesus emphatically states, notonce but twice I receive not the
testimony from man, I receivenot honor from men.
Even though John witnessed tothe truth, Jesus would only take
(33:53):
the witness of the Father.
He only sought the witness thatcame of the father.
And some of us have not grownup in our walk as a Christian.
Some of us have not grownstrong in the witness that God
himself have given us, and wetry to confirm ourselves in the
(34:15):
opinions of men around us.
Yet what my brother or sisteror friend or relative says about
me should not concern me.
Who are they to tell me whetherI'm really a Christian or not?
My witness of whether I'm aChristian or not should come
(34:37):
from the Father himself, andthat witness is by his spirit.
Who cares if another man saidthat Jesus was the Son of God?
Aren't they arguing that?
Now?
They've been arguing that for2,000 years.
Was he really the Son of God orwas he just some man, or what
(35:00):
does the Son of God even mean?
But you can't argue with theworks that he accomplished.
The witness was the works thatJesus was given to complete.
You can't argue about anythingwhen you've seen and experienced
the awesome power of God, whichis why it's so important that
(35:22):
you receive the witness thatwill convince you that, as Jesus
was in the Father and theFather was in Him, now Jesus is
in you and now you are in Jesus.
Jesus was in the Father and theFather was in him.
Now Jesus is in you and now youare in Jesus.
It is supposed to give you thewitness.
It is supposed to give you thatconfirmation that you need it
(35:43):
because if you experience thepower and taste, taste the power
of heaven itself, you not needany convincing of any man,
because you experienced andtasted of heaven himself.
How was he able to do the works?
That witness concerning himthat the Father sent him, it
(36:06):
says in the early chapters ofJohn, the witness being the
Spirit descended upon him as adove and when he was baptized by
John the Baptist in the RiverJordan, not because he needed to
repent for his sins, for he hadnone, but he had to set an
example for those who wouldfollow in his footsteps.
It was necessary to fill allrighteousness.
(36:30):
Baptism in water wasn'tnecessary for him like it's
necessary for us.
Baptism in the spirit wasn'tnecessary for him like it's
necessary for us, but he had toshow us the way.
He couldn't exclude himselffrom what we are required to
(36:51):
walk in, even the cross.
Jesus partook in these two actsto be an example to us of the
necessity for us to follow suitin order that we would be saved,
in order that we would be ableto witness, and for further
ministry, further ministry.
(37:20):
I could read the parallelpassages of Matthew, Mark and
Luke, and John speaking of whenJesus was baptized, of John in
the River Jordan.
If you're taking notes, I'mjust going to give you the
scripture.
You can read them on your ownJohn 1: 33 and 34.
Matthew 3 (37:34):
15 through 17.
Mark 1 (37:41):
10 and 11.
And Luke 3 (37:45):
21 and 22.
These passages all describewhen Jesus was baptized by John.
The witness, this spirit thatcame as a dove was not seen by
everyone.
It was only seen by John theBaptist, because John the
(38:11):
Baptist was told by his Fatherthat upon whom you see the
Spirit descending upon the dove.
That's the Messiah.
John is the one that saw theSpirit.
That was a witness to John thatthis is the Messiah.
This is the one that I've beentelling you about.
This is the one that I've beentelling you to preach about
who's going to baptize with theHoly Ghost and fire.
Nobody else saw that witness.
(38:31):
It was for John, it was for him.
Fire Nobody else saw thatwitness.
It was for John, it was for him.
But then it says that there wasa voice heard and that was God
witnessing to the multitude thatJesus was his son.
It says this is my beloved son,in whom I am well pleased.
But before this point, the onlypieces of his account of his
(38:55):
life that we know of was hisbirth and when he was in the
priestal, priestly speaking tothe Pharisees and questioning
them.
That's all that we know aboutJesus up until that point.
But notice what happens afterthe record of his baptism.
Notice what happens after therecord of his baptism In Mark 3:
21, 22, Mark 4 (39:19):
1 and 14,.
He is now described as beingfull of the Spirit, led of the
Spirit and in the power of theSpirit.
The anointing of God wasstimulated in a sense, and Jesus
began to actively fulfill hiscalling.
He began to actively fulfillhis ministry, his purpose.
(39:42):
It was the spirit of God andthe power of God.
That cannot be separated,because the spirit is the
kingdom of God, manifest throughthe Son of man, in whomever he
is in.
The kingdom of God alwaysmanifests in power.
(40:07):
Jesus had been witnessed that heis the Son of God, and at the
same time he was empowered tolead a spirit-filled and a
spirit-led life, and so he isour example.
It was necessary for him to bebaptized, not only in water but
in the spirit, to be an exampleto us of our requirements to go
(40:30):
out and fill our ministry andour calling, and so we need to
follow suit.
It was after this baptism thathe then entered into the
synagogue and said the Spirit ofthe Lord is upon me, because he
has anointed me to preach thegospel to the poor.
(40:52):
He has sent me to heal thebrokenhearted, to preach the
deliverance to the captives andrecover the sight to the blind,
and set at liberty them that arebruised, to preach the
acceptable year of our Lord.
We don't have any account thathe did this before his baptism.
So Jesus in a sense receivedthe witness and he actively
(41:25):
began to pursue fulfilling hiscalling and his destiny for
three and a half years.
Hidden within the spirit of theman, Jesus Christ was the spirit
of God without measure, frombirth, From birth, from birth.
He was called what Emmanuel Godwith us From birth.
(41:46):
So what happens when we receivethe witness?
Turn to Romans 8, 9 through 11.
Brother John, could you readRomans 8,?
John H. S. Leyva (41:58):
verse 9 through 11?
You are not in the flesh but inthe Spirit.
If so, be that the Spirit ofGod dwell in you Now.
If any man have not the Spiritof Christ, he is not of his, and
if Christ be in you, the bodyis dead because of sin, but the
Spirit is life because ofrighteousness.
Some people read this passageand they think that there are
(42:22):
now three different spirits.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (42:24):
There are now three different spirits in this
passage and they think thatthere are now three different
spirits.
There are not three differentspirits in this passage.
This is Paul using thedifferent titles of the same one
spirit.
He's not differentiating thespirit of God from the spirit of
(42:45):
Christ, from Christ in you orjust the spirit.
On the contrary, he's usingthis particular passage to
explain to them that the spiritof the living God now indwells
them.
The Spirit of God is also knownas the Spirit of Christ, because
(43:06):
he now says now, if any manhave not the Spirit of Christ
before he referred to it as theSpirit of God.
So Paul is affirming that theSpirit of God and the Spirit of
Christ are before he referred toit as the Spirit of God.
So Paul is affirming that theSpirit of God and the Spirit of
Christ are one and the sameSpirit.
Then Paul says it in adifferent way Christ in you.
How is Christ in you?
By the Spirit.
(43:27):
He's not separating, he's notdifferentiating.
He's affirming that Christ isin you by the indwelling Spirit
of God or the indwelling Spiritof Christ.
And he concludes the passage byreferring to the indwelling
Christ as his Spirit.
It says by his Spirit thatdwelleth in you.
(43:50):
Now.
Jesus said apart from me, youcan do nothing.
I think it's safe to say thatwithout Jesus, the spirit within
you can't do anything as well.
The spirit of God in you is howyou become witnesses.
If you search the scriptures,you will see that the heart of
(44:13):
man has been evil from its youthand it has been the focus of
God's attention when dealingwith man.
He sees the heart it says in 1Samuel 16, and he disregards the
outward appearance.
He's not interested in what youlook like or what you smell
like or how you dress or any ofthat stuff.
(44:33):
He's looking at where's yourheart.
I look at beyond the eyes ofman and I see into the inner man
.
In answer to David's prayer, hepromises to create in us a pure
heart, renew a steadfast,faithful spirit within us in
Psalm 51.10.
And this is what he prophesiedin Ezekiel in regards to making
(44:57):
a new covenant.
He says in Ezekiel 36 (44:58):
24.
Ezekiel 36 (45:01):
24.
He says I will take from you orexcuse me, I will take you from
among the heathen and gatheryou out of all the countries and
I will bring you into your ownland and I will sprinkle clean
water upon you and you shall beclean from all your filthiness,
from all your idols, will Icleanse you a new heart.
(45:24):
Also, will I give you a newspirit, will I put within you,
and will take away the stonyheart of your flesh and will
give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit withinyou and cause you to walk in my
(45:45):
statutes and ye shall keep myjudgments and ye shall do them A
new heart, a new spirit.
But the big thing is, I willput my spirit within you.
Why?
(46:06):
So that we will walk in Hisstatutes, so that we will guard
His judgments.
So that we will walk in hisstatutes, so that we will guard
his judgments, so that we willfulfill his word.
It is only by the Spirit thatyou can walk in the newness of
life, fulfilling the law of theSpirit of life in Christ Jesus,
(46:27):
as spoken of in Romans 8.
The new law liberates us fromthe previous law of sin and
death and being cut off,divorced from the previous law,
I now can walk in a new law ofthe spirit of life and fulfill
his word, walking after thespirit.
(46:49):
When did God start fulfillingthis promise?
He started fulfilling hispromise to the Jews on the day
of Pentecost.
He started fulfilling hispromise a couple years later
because he brought in theGentiles sorry, the Samaritans,
who were half Jews in the verysame way in Acts, chapter 8.
About 10 years down the lineyou can correct me if I'm wrong
(47:11):
after Pentecost he then broughtin the Gentiles through
Cornelius, and that created aquite a stir.
Now Jesus said in John 3, heblows his spirit on whomever he
wills, and although you hear him, you do not know when he comes
(47:32):
or where he goes.
And thus are those born of theSpirit.
Jesus alone has ultimatesovereignty on who he's going to
pour out his Spirit into.
No man, no man, no man hascontrol over that.
(47:56):
If we can't control theoutpouring of his spirit, then
what are we supposed to do?
Are we supposed to just wait,twiddle our thumbs, whistle,
sing praise songs?
Somehow we need to communicateto the Almighty our earnest
desire for him, becausereceiving the witness which is
his spirit is receiving him,because receiving the witness
which is his spirit Is receivinghim.
And somehow you've got to makeAn effort On your part To cry
(48:20):
out to God To tell him that thisis what you want, that you want
him and none other.
And that communication, verily,verily, verily, that
communication can only come fromthe heart.
That's why it doesn't matterwhat man does.
Do we lay hands for you toreceive the gift of the Holy
Ghost?
Of course we do.
We do it by faith.
(48:41):
But in the end, the reason youreceived it is because God saw
something in your heart that heneeded to see, to pour out his
spirit within you.
It's no one else's fault, ever.
It's something to do with you.
He's not looking at the hundredpeople around you that are
praying for you.
He's looking at you to receivethe spirit and he's looking for
(49:02):
something in particular.
True repentance comes from thespiritual conviction in your
heart, not in the hundred peoplearound you that are praying for
you to receive the spirit inyour heart, not in the hundred
people around you that arepraying for you to receive the
Spirit.
And for different people, themanifestation of that true
(49:22):
repentance is just differently.
It's expressed outwardly indifferent ways Some cry, some
remain silent, they can't sayanything, they look like a
statue, and some are shaking andsome are quaking and some are
trembling and some are just inan honest, upright fear of God.
And you see all of theseoutward manifestations.
But I tell you that God is noteven looking for that.
We look for that becausesometimes we go by sight and God
(49:48):
is looking past what we seeinto the heart.
I'm looking to wait and I'mwaiting upon the heart of that
individual.
He says it very clearly I knowthe heart, I know all the heart
In 1 Chronicles 28.9.
In Psalm 44.21.
(50:08):
In Jeremiah 17.10.
I am all heart knowing.
It is my focus, your heart, itis what I want, it is what I
desire.
Psalm 51, david said Thoudesirest not sacrifice, else I
(50:32):
would give it.
Thou delightest not in burntoffering.
But the sacrifices of God are abroken spirit, a broken and
contrite heart.
O God, thou will not despisethe word says, a broken and
(50:54):
contrite heart.
God will not reject, he willnot turn away from that.
If he's watching over his wordto perform it, then he's looking
for people with broken andcontrite hearts that are not
putting on a show of worldlysorrow, where they're crying and
(51:15):
crying and weeping and wailingand tearing for hours and hours
on end and they wake up the nextmorning and they're not changed
.
He's not looking for all thatnonsense, not to say that there
are some sincere people outthere that just manifest that
and that's really what was intheir heart.
But if God is going to pour outHis Spirit in you, he's looking
(51:38):
for a broken and contrite heartthat wants Him to fix it,
because you can't fix yourself.
All your life you tried to dothat.
You need to now surrender, stoprunning and stop hiding, and
surrender to his will, to hisways.
There's got to come a point.
(52:02):
Even if you're a preacher's kid, even if you're one of those
that were living in the faithsince you were born, because my
father and my great grandfatherand my great great grandfather
were pastors and preachers no,there's gotta come a point in
time in your life where yourealize I can do nothing to
(52:24):
please him.
And it doesn't matter what mydad did, it doesn't matter what
my grandfather did, it doesn'tmatter that my great-grandfather
walked in the truth.
I've got to walk in the truth.
I have nothing to offer him.
I have nothing to appease mysin that has trespassed against
God and the Lord.
(52:47):
God says in Jeremiah 29, verse12, then shall ye call upon me
and ye shall go and pray unto meand I will hearken unto you.
If he's watching over his wordto perform it and you want to
receive the gift of the HolyGhost, then start doing what the
word said to you.
If he's watching over his wordto perform it and you want to
receive the gift of the HolyGhost, then start doing what the
word said to do, because hewill not despise you, he will
(53:11):
not reject you, he will not turnaway from you if you do what he
requires.
And what he requires is to goand pray to him and seek his
face.
And when it says, and ye shallseek me, you will find me.
How many of you are waiting tosee the Lord?
(53:31):
I've heard it from some here.
Came from my own house.
I haven't seen him yet and Isay to you have you sought him
with all of your heart, becausehe will not disappoint you?
Don't complain to me how Ihaven't heard the Lord.
I haven't seen the Lord whenyou haven't done your part,
(53:53):
because I highlighted to youfrom the very beginning there's
a condition he's waiting on you,you're waiting on him and he's
waiting on you.
He wants to fulfill hiscovenant to you, but anytime
he's made a promise to anyone inthe scriptures, he's always
required something of them.
Abraham, leave your father andyour mother and your birthplace,
(54:16):
then I will make your seed asthe number of the stars in the
heaven.
But he didn't say, abraham, I'mgoing to make your seed as the
number of the stars in theheaven.
But he didn't say, abraham, I'mgoing to make your seed as the
number of the stars in theheaven.
First, he didn't say that healways requires something of
people he wants to now make acovenant with, and when you
(54:36):
search for me with all yourheart, I will be found, sayeth
the Lord.
This is the description ofbeing broken and crushed before
Almighty God and asking Him tomercy us, to forgive us our sins
(54:59):
and to do something about us,our sins, and to do something
about us In Joel 2.12,.
Joel prophecies Therefore, alsonow, sayeth the Lord Turn ye
even to me with all your heart,with fasting, with weeping, with
(55:22):
mourning, and rend your heart,not your garments.
God says I'm looking at yourheart, not your garments.
Turn unto the Lord, your God.
He says in verse 23,.
Be glad, then, ye, children ofZion, and rejoice in the Lord,
(55:45):
your God, for he has given youthe former rain moderately, and
he will cause to come down foryou the rain, the former rain
and the latter rain in the firstmonth, and he's starting to
prophesy of something that isabout to happen.
He said it to Ezekiel, he saidit to Jeremiah, he's saying it
to Joel.
He said it to Ezekiel, he saidit to Jeremiah, he's saying it
to Joel, he said it to Amos.
(56:07):
He's prophesying of anoutpouring.
He says in verse 28, and itshall come to pass afterward,
after you've done your part,that I will pour out my spirit
upon all flesh.
Your sons and daughters shallprophesy.
Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see
(56:31):
visions, and also upon theservants and upon handmaids.
In those days will I pour outmy spirit.
So here we see.
There's a call to repent, andrepenting is more than just
being oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
It's regretting sincerely whatyou did wrong and willing to
(56:59):
change your ways.
That's what he's looking for.
Does he know the end from thebeginning?
Does he know what you're goingto choose in the end?
Yes, but he's looking at you inthe present moment, which is
why sometimes you've seen peopleactually receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost, and then you seethem start walking in the flesh
(57:20):
again, because God was notjudging them by their end result
.
He was looking at them in themoment, and that's what all he's
looking for.
He's not going to condemn you,even though he knows what your
decisions are before.
He's going to give you everypossible chance.
And if it means giving you hisspirit and you later on
(57:40):
trampling underfoot the blood ofthe son, then he'll do it
because that's what he died for,because while you were yet
sinners he died.
So ain't no thing for him togive you his spirit, knowing
that maybe later on you're goingto turn away anyway and reject
(58:00):
the spirit of grace and rejectthe spirit of grace.
And if you do what he says, ifyou repent with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, withchopping, as it says, even in
that sorrowful state, he tellsyou later on, there's hope,
(58:22):
there's an anticipation of apour, an outpouring of my spirit
, a rain that is going to come,a former and a latter rain, he
says afterward, after thisrepentance and obedience born
out of your newfound trust inHim, he's going to pour out His
(58:44):
Spirit upon all flesh.
And with that outpouring of HisSpirit comes many different
manifestations of prophesyingdreams and visions, but only
after, if my people, which arecalled by my name, will humble
themselves and pray and seek myface and turn from their wicked
(59:05):
ways, then I will hear.
Did you see the if?
Then it's all over the place inthe scriptures.
If, then, promises of God areconditional, don't be afraid to
admit that they are.
They require something of youThen I will hear from heaven.
(59:26):
I will forgive their sin, Iwill hear the land.
So if I had to simplify this, Isay one obedience to the word
is necessary according to all ofthese scriptures that we've
come and read.
Doing it his way, because he'swatching over His Word to
perform it.
You do it His way, he's goingto do it what he said he would
(59:48):
do.
When you do it His way,repentance is essential.
Two and three it never hurts toask Him.
Ask Him for the promise, pray,petition Him to fulfill the
promise in you.
He said how much more shallyour heavenly father give the
(01:00:11):
holy spirit to them that ask him?
But we're raised in all ofthese churches that say the holy
ghost is not for today, it's2000 years old.
We don't need that.
My wife has actually comeacross people that don't believe
(01:00:31):
that we need it here in theStates, but when it happens in
Africa, oh, that's because theyneed the power.
I only thought he said thosestories.
I only thought he heard thosethings.
I only thought he heard thosethings.
Now my wife ran into somebodythat said something like that
what do we see the disciples do?
What do we see the women dowhen they're waiting in the
(01:00:54):
upper loft?
Well, we just name three things.
Obedience to his word why werethey in Jerusalem in the upper
loft?
Because they told him to.
Jesus, told them to.
There's obedience.
A sign of obedience excuse me,a sign of repentance is
(01:01:15):
obedience.
I'm not going to do it my wayanymore, I'm going to do it your
way.
You said to wait in Jerusalem,I'm going to wait in Jerusalem.
And so what were they doingwhen they were waiting in
Jerusalem?
It says these all continued withone accord, in prayer and
supplication, with the women andMary, the mother of Jesus, and
with his brethren, and if youread any further, it's about 120
(01:01:37):
people all together.
Acts 1, verse 14.
And you know they didn't fullyrealize what was about to take
place.
I'm sure by their works, bytheir actions, they're repentant
(01:02:00):
.
I'm more sure that they'rerepentant because I saw in Acts,
chapter 2, that they receivedthe gift of the Holy Ghost.
God is not going to give thegift of the Holy Ghost to
someone who, in his heart, isnot repentant.
He's not, he's not, he's notgoing to do that.
So we see in Acts that thereceiving of the Spirit is a
prophetic fulfillment ofprophecy through Joel.
(01:02:22):
This is that, and it shall cometo days.
It shall come to pass.
In the last days, say of God, Iwill pour out my Spirit upon
all flesh and your sons and yourdaughters shall prophesy, and
young men shall see visions andold men shall dream dreams.
And on my servants and on myhandmaidens I will pour out on
those days of my spirit and theyshall prophesy.
(01:02:44):
Peter referred to Joel that whatyou now see and hear is a
prophecy fulfilled.
And when they heard this, whenthey heard this prophecy being
fulfilled, when they heard howJesus had done these many
miracles and was anointed of Godand was crucified by them, when
(01:03:07):
they heard that he was bothLord and Christ, they said what
shall we do?
Peter Repent Be baptized in thename of Jesus, every one of you
, every one of you, in the nameof Jesus Christ, for the
forgiveness of your sins, and yeshall receive the Holy Ghost.
(01:03:29):
Now, that's what they said.
That's what Peter said whenthey asked what shall we do
about what we did?
Paul said in 2 Thessalonians weare bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethrenbeloved of the Lord, because God
(01:03:50):
has from the beginning chosenyou to salvation.
Through what Sanctification ofthe Spirit and belief of the
truth.
The belief of the truth isexpressed in your obedience to
His Word.
It says in John 1, verse 12,.
But as many as received Him, asmany as received the witness,
(01:04:18):
to them he gave power to becomethe sons of God.
It is only after you receivethe witness that you are now
eligible to be a child of God,because it is by the Spirit of
God that a spiritual adoptiontakes place.
Without the Spirit of God,there is no adoption by the
(01:04:43):
Spirit, even to them thatbelieve on His name, which were
born not of the blood, not ofthe will of flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God.
To those that receive thewitness, they have authority to
become children of God, as itsays in Romans 8, 16 and 17.
(01:05:04):
Why?
Because they are now born ofGod.
You want to be a child of God.
You need to be born of God.
You want to be a child of thatperson, then you need to be born
of that person.
Lydia can't be a child of anyother woman in this room.
But my wife, she was born ofher room.
(01:05:27):
But my wife, she was born ofher.
The glory that John the Baptistsaw descending at Jesus' baptism
was the glory also seen whenthree of his disciples were at
the Mount of Transfiguration.
And both times that the glorywas seen by John the Baptist and
those three, both times it wassaid this is my beloved Son.
The second time it said Hear yeHim, listen to Him.
(01:05:50):
First time it's just this is mybeloved Son, whom I am well
pleased.
And the reason why I point thatout?
Because that is a nice imageand picture of the sanctifying
and culminating work of theSpirit of God in the life of a
believer.
He comes upon you, he indwellsyou and when he's finished with
(01:06:13):
His work, how is Jesus at theMount of Transfiguration, like
the Son glorified?
That is the work of the Spiritof God in your life.
It's not something that can beneglected.
It's not something you couldjust bypass and say oh well,
I'll get there.
You need the Spirit of God, youneed the witness.
(01:06:35):
Paul said he is a Jew, which isone inwardly, and circumcision
is that of the heart in thespirit, not in the letter.
Circumcision is that of theheart, in the spirit, not in the
letter, whose praise is not ofmen but of God.
A Jew is not worried about whatman says about him.
It's not concerned that thisbrother or sister over here said
(01:06:55):
I was a Christian, or thisdenomination said I'm a
Christian because I got baptizedin their church.
The only thing that a Jewworries about is is he pleasing
God?
Does he have the witness of God?
Is he being vouched for?
Is he being backed up by Godhimself?
(01:07:16):
He's not concerned with thethoughts, he's not concerned
with the attention of man, butonly the witness and the fruits
of God in his life.
He is circumcised in the heart,not in the flesh, because the
circumcision of the fleshdoesn't benefit anything, not
spiritually anyway.
(01:07:36):
God is concerned with the heart, with the heart of his people.
Look at what the apostles andthe elders of the church had to
say about the witness In Acts,chapter 15, verse 7.
You had some Jews born again ofthe spirit having a problem
(01:07:58):
that the Gentiles are in thekingdom.
No, no, no, no.
They need to be circumcised inthe flesh.
They need to keep the law ofMoses.
They were arguing with who thewitness?
And you're going to see that theanswer in this account was the
witness Acts, chapter 15, verse7, and when there had been much
(01:08:23):
disputing there was a lot ofargument over this, peter rose
up and said unto them, men andbrethren, ye know how, that, a
good while ago, god made choiceamong us, that the Gentiles, by
my mouth, should hear the wordof the gospel and believe, and
God, which knoweth what thehearts bear them, witness Giving
(01:08:47):
them the Holy Ghost.
Bam, bam, bam.
All in one place.
The Lord pours out his spirit,he gives the witness, he gives
the Holy Ghost when he sees theheart of the individual ready.
Even as he did unto us, he didit to the Gentiles, just like he
(01:09:07):
did it to us, and put nodifference between us and them,
purifying their hearts by faith.
Now, therefore, why tempt yeGod?
What are we doing here, arguingwith the witness?
Why are we trying to put a yokeon our brethren that our
(01:09:28):
fathers couldn't even bear towalk in?
But we believe that through thegrace of the Lord, jesus Christ
, the Spirit of God, the divineempowerment of God, that we
shall be saved, even just likethem.
So, in reviewing thisparticular case of the Gentiles,
(01:09:49):
jesus decided I'm not going towait on Peter to finish
preaching the gospel, becauseI'm going to make this
emphatically clear witness thatI have accepted the Gentile even
before you lay hands on them,peter, I'm going to do it myself
.
There should be no question.
There should be no dispute.
I bathed the Gentiles in myspirit.
It was my divine choice.
(01:10:10):
God says God witnesses that hehas established his covenant by
pouring out his spirit, just ashe did on the day of Pentecost.
And you know what Paul andPeter, as they write in the
letters.
There is no disagreement onthis matter.
The witness does not change.
The witness is the spirit andit is God's stamp of approval on
(01:10:34):
you making a covenant with you.
If we read and we continue inActs 15, we see that Paul stands
up and he begins to speakconcerning the witness.
He doesn't disagree, he doesn'targue with Peter, but he
emphatically declares about thesigns and the omens that God did
(01:10:54):
, because Paul can't argue withwhat God did.
It's irrefutable.
He did it among all the nations.
So there's no disagreement withthe apostles on the issue.
It is the witness that settlesthe case.
Paul writing in the letters tothe churches he doesn't change
(01:11:18):
his mind, he agrees, he confirmswhat happened in Acts, chapter
15.
Paul says in Romans 15,nevertheless, brethren, I have
written more boldly unto you, insome sort as putting you in
mind.
In other words, I'm going toremind you, because of the grace
(01:11:40):
that is given to me, of God,that I should be a minister of
Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,ministering the gospel of God,
that the offering of theGentiles might be acceptable,
being what he's not there, yetSanctified by the Holy Ghost.
I can't argue against thewitness, for I will not dare to
(01:12:01):
speak of any of those thingswhich Christ hath not wrought by
me.
Verse 18.
To make the Gentiles obedient,the Gentiles were required to be
obedient, just as the Jews were, just as the Samaritans were,
just as all men everywherearound the world are called to
(01:12:21):
what Repent, obedient in wordand in deed, through mighty
signs and wonders, by the powerof the Spirit of God, the
witness, so that from Jerusalemround about to Illarism, I have
fully preached the gospel ofChrist.
(01:12:42):
The end result of both Peterand Paul's preaching was that
those who trusted and obeyedreceived the witness.
They received the Spirit of God.
They consistently saw Jesusconfirming the word which they
spoke by baptizing the believerin the Spirit Mark 16, 20.
(01:13:03):
And how did they know?
How did they know that a personreceived the Spirit?
The evidence of speaking.
In tongues, it is very, very,very clearly laid out in
Cornelius' example, the onlyreason the Gentiles were known
(01:13:23):
to have received the Spiritbecause they spoke in tongues,
just as we did way back then.
Paraphrased After Paul speaksduring this Acts 15 dispute,
james stands up and speaks, andhe doesn't disagree with him
either, but he says that whatGod did with the Gentiles was a
(01:13:44):
fulfillment of prophecy back inAmos 9, 11, and 12.
For he says In that day will Iraise up the tabernacle of David
that is fallen and close up thebreaches thereof, and I will
raise up his ruins, and of Davidthat is fallen and close up the
breaches thereof, and I willraise up his ruins and will
build it, as in the days of old,that they may possess the
remnant of Edom and of all theheathen which are called by my
(01:14:06):
name.
Say the Lord that doeth this.
This work was prophesiedthrough Joel, it was prophesied
through Ezekiel, it wasprophesied through Jeremiah, it
was prophesied through Ezekiel,it was prophesied through
Jeremiah, it was prophesiedright now through Amos, and it
is describing the same work ofGod.
In the beginning, god walkedwith Adam.
(01:14:28):
They abided together.
Adam was in the light and theglory of God, and when Adam
sinned, he was banished, notonly from the garden, but he was
banished from that relationshipof walking in the light and the
glory of God.
All the while after, god haswanted to reestablish that walk.
(01:14:49):
He started by resigning in thepresence of the ark.
He then went from the presenceof the ark he resided in the
tabernacle where the ark was,where the holy of holy was, and
for a time this is how we walkedwith the people of God.
But there came a point whereGod said I'm no longer dwelling
(01:15:14):
in temples built by men, I'mgoing to make the temple myself.
So he made his own tabernaclein the hearts of his people.
His holy nation, his royalpriesthood, the baptism of the
Spirit rebuilds the tabernacleof David in the hearts of his
people.
Three witnesses in one heartsof his people, three witnesses
(01:15:36):
in one chapter answering thequestion Peter, paul and James.
And they all agree.
The matter is settled with theapostles and the elders in the
church in agreement thatreceiving of the Spirit is the
witness.
And so, to conclude, we endwith Colossians 1.26.
Even the mystery which has beenhid from the ages and from
generations is now made manifestto the saints, to whom God
(01:16:03):
would make known what is theriches of the glory, of this
mystery among the Gentiles whichis Christ in you, the hope of
glory, the great mysterythroughout all generations is
that God has been planning thisrestoration from the very
beginning to tabernacle with hispeople.
Again Jesus Christ is in you ifyou have received the witness
(01:16:30):
In 1 John.
John again the apostle says andhe that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him and he in him,and hereby we know that he
abideth in us by the Spiritwhich he gave us, because the
Spirit will abide in you as longas you're walking and keeping
(01:16:51):
his commandments.
The same requirement before hecame to indwell you is the same
requirement he continues to holdyou to afterward.
The covenant doesn't changebecause God met His requirement.
If he required you to walk inHis commandments and then gave
you a spirit to say yeah, I'mwith you, then he continues to
require you to walk in Hiscommandments.
(01:17:12):
Otherwise you just brokecovenant.
To require you to walk in Hiscommandments, otherwise you just
broke covenant.
The Spirit of God will indwellus to the eons as long as we
keep His commandments, as longas we continue to walk according
to the law of the Spirit oflife in Christ Jesus, as long as
we no longer walk according tothe flesh but according to the
(01:17:33):
what, the Spirit, then we abidein Him, then he remains in us
and we know that we abide in Himbecause His Spirit indwelling
us assures us of that.
There's a peace that willsurpass all understanding, for
as many as are led by the Spiritof God, they are the, the
(01:17:53):
spirit itself.
Bear us witness with our spiritthat we are the children of God
.
And if the children, then heirsand heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ, and if so, bethat we suffer with him, that
we may also be glorifiedtogether.
For we know that the wholecreation groaneth and travaileth
(01:18:14):
in pain together until now.
And not only they but ourselvesalso, which have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, evenwe ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for theadoption, to wit the redemption
of our body.
So here we clearly see that theSpirit of God is the same Spirit
of Christ, which is finallyreferred as Christ Jesus Himself
(01:18:39):
.
Different references to thesame one God, different
descriptive names referring tothe only true God.
But when we receive the Spirit,we receive the Spirit of
Sonship which gives us authorityto become children of God.
And until that work is complete.
At the resurrection of the body, the Spirit continues to
(01:19:00):
witness to us.
You are my child, you are myson.
Walk with me, walk with me,talk with me.
I love you, love me, love me.
When we are glorified which isthe completed work of the Spirit
in every believer's life, ourbody will be redeemed, our body
will be glorified, our body willbe changed from corruptible to
(01:19:23):
incorruptible, from mortality toimmortality.
Then the promise is complete,then it's fulfilled, and then I
don't need to hope anymore,because all of us are hoping
that we get out of this.
I don't know about you, but Iwant to be perfected in Him.
I want to be just like Him,just like my Father who is in
(01:19:46):
Heaven.
But before that happens, weneed a witness, and that witness
is the Spirit of God in ourlife.
When we are perfect in theimage of Jesus, we are
considered brothers and childrenof God, amen.
(01:20:07):
If you were blessed andappreciate listening to this
podcast and you would like tosupport us in our efforts,
consider lifting us up in prayerfirst.
Then remember these four socialmedia buzzwords share, like,
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Share this podcast link withsomeone else by text, email or
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(01:20:29):
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May God bless you and make youprosperous in Him as you listen
and obey His voice.
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