The Porch - Permanent Pentecost - Understanding The Holy Spirit

To fully understand Pentecost, we need a complete grasp of the Holy Spirit and His role in this ongoing event. The Porch initiates an in-depth exploration of the Church's seminal event through an examination of the Holy Spirit.

Firefall Talk Radio is archived, and you can download the episodes to listen to again or share with others. Feel free to share them with others as the Lord leads. Please help us get The Word out. 

If our teachings bless you, please let us know by using the contact button on the website. 

If you would like to support what we do, there are ways to do so on the main page for Firefall Talk Radio.  We appreciate your support and encouragement.

Follow us on YouTube at The Firefall Network.   

Links for all social media and streaming platforms can be found on the main page at firefalltalkradio.com.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Ah, Welcome to the Porch on Firefall Talk Radio. I'm

(00:27):
Richard Grund. This is where you find the uncompromised red
letter basics of the Word of God, where we focus
on the Book of Act Church to see how they
serve the Lord. In doing so, we find the Church
the Lord intended, not the one Man created. The Porch
is a non denominational, full gospel approach to the Bible

(00:47):
based on the examples from the Book of Actor Church,
which aims to restore the priesthood of the believer while
regaining the world shaking influence the early Church had. Church
Age isn't over. The Upper Room experience is as much
for today as it was on the day of Pentecost.
It's yours if you want it. We offer you the

(01:08):
Word as the Apostles would have to the Jewish and
Gentile believers of their day, using both the Yeshua and Jesus.
When speaking of the Lord. We often use Messiah instead
of Christ, as it speaks more clearly to what they
called him, and we offer definitions in Hebrew, Greek and
Aramaic when needed. Getting back to basics isn't just a motto,

(01:33):
it's our mandate from the Lord. Links to all of
our social media and streaming sites are on the main
page at Firefall talk radio dot com. Sorry about that.
Firefall talk radio dot com. Subscribe to us wherever you
listen to know when a new podcast is posted, and

(01:53):
if you don't have any specific place, the podcast from
the week before is always embedded on that main page
towards the top. If you'd like to support us, and
we sincerely hope that you will, as Firefall Talk Radio
and Firefall Media Group is squeezed a little bit this
month financially, a lot going on out there, a lot

(02:16):
of people being attacked in their finances. For ways to
do so, go to the bottom of that main page
and if you need any more information, just write to us.
There's also a po box there if you want to
mail something. We appreciate your support and encouragement. We appreciate
your prayers and covering. Thank you for being a part

(02:39):
of the porch community. Contact us if you need prayer
you'd like to pray for others, Remember we care about you.
Newsletter went out. If you didn't get it, check your
spam folder. If you can't find it, just let me know.
I will send you a link to where you can
see it and read it. You know, we start out

(03:01):
in praise reports and prairiequests, and I've got one. Last night,
we had a torrential thunderstorm here and it was bad,
and when I took the dogs out, I noticed that
the far side of the yard was a little darker
than normal. Well, that's because the light over there was
being blocked by a humongous branch that got ripped off

(03:22):
of one of the trees that need to go that
we're unable to do anything about at the moment. Praise Lord.
Didn't touch our home, didn't do any damage that I
can see, missed the power line, so we didn't lose
our power. The only line that's down is the Spectrum
Internet line, but we're not with Spectrum anymore, so that's

(03:45):
a praise report. The prairie request I have is the
ability to get that tree limit some of the others
on the ground taken away, as well as these other
trees that need to go. But that means a financial
blessing that we're not able to cover right now. But
your prayers can help us in that regard. Praise the Lord,

(04:07):
Praise him for my salvation, Praise him for my home,
my family, our furry kids, our possessions, everything we have.
Praise him. Today is my grandson's seventh birthday. What a
blessing that he is. I praise him that I can
praise him. He is my Abbah, he is my papa,
He's my daddy. I have been redeemed. I am able

(04:31):
to go home. I have access to the throne rooms.
I can go in to the Holy of Holies because
of the blood of the Lamb that is upon me
and the spirit that is within me. So can you.
I praise him for that. I praise him for protecting us,
for being a shield about us, the glory and the

(04:51):
lifter of our head. I praise him for my family,
my wife, my son's daughter in laws. I am last.
Family is so important to me, and it's the thing
the enemy always wants to attack. So I thank him
for protecting them from the enemy. I thank him for

(05:14):
you for the ability to do this, to be edified
in heart and mind and spirit. I hope you are too.
I pray for protection over each and every one of us.
That's Psalm ninety one covering to be in effect. I
pray for the Lord's return. I know it's not time,

(05:36):
still too much to do. But it looks really bad
out there. It's really dark, it's really crazy. And I
pray that the Church would rise up and shine the light,
not get caught up in politics or or anything other
than the gospel of doing what He told us to do,
setting the captives free, telling the people about him. The

(05:58):
only freedom comes from Him. The only hope comes from
the Lord. The only prince there is is the Prince
of Peace. Pray for Jerusalem that they would be blessed,
that they would come to know Messiah and be complete
in him. I pray for America for as long as
it will stand, that we would remember who we are

(06:21):
and why we were created. I pray for you that
this word would bless you, it would encourage you, it
would inspire you and edify you, and we would live
up to the mandate of firefall, talk radio and everything
that He has called us to do. So be blessed

(06:42):
in the name of Yashuah. If you agree with me
in all these things, simply say amen.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
These lessons are proprietary information, except where not of the
information comes from outside sources. The combination of that information
the manner presented is exclusive cannot be repeated or used
without permission. The date of this broadcast serves as the
registered date of the following information.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
I do love the sound of that show far and
I look forward to the day when it fills the
sky and he takes the church out of here. March sixteen, fifteen,
Lloyd told his disciples just before he left, go into
all the world and preach the good news to everyone.

(07:52):
We're going to be talking about the Holy Spirit. We're
going to come to understand the Holy Spirit as we
begin this series permanent Pentecost. I don't know how long
it'll go. It'll go as long as he wants it to.
I believe we're still living in Pentecost. You know that
because I've talked about it before. But I believe we
need to get to know the person of the Holy Spirit.

(08:15):
So when he told them go into all the world
and preach the good news to everyone, he knew that
there was an enemy out there. He knew that there
was something that was going to try to stop them.
So he needed to empower them. He needed to give
them something and someone to help them. See Paul talks
about this and sewod Corinthians four verses three and four.

(08:38):
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled
to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of
this age small g has blinded who do not believe,
lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Messiah,
who is the image of God, should shine on them.
Satan is the god of this world. The Lord took

(08:59):
back spiritual authority on Cavary. When he comes back again,
he will take back complete authority. But for now, Satan
still rules this world and millions are under his sway.
So he's blocking what they see, blocking what they hear.
He'd love to shut us up. He's using the legal system,

(09:19):
the corrupt justice system, the international political machine to stop
the gospel while letting other things spread. But this good
news that we preach it may be hidden behind a veil,
but it's only hidden to people who are perishing. We
know we see Satan has blinded the minds of those

(09:42):
who do not believe. They are unable to see the
glorious light of the good news. They need their eyes
open because they don't understand the message of the glory
of Messiah, who is the exact likeness of God. That's
why we do we do. Satan, the rule of this
world rules in the hearts of unregenerate people, and he

(10:06):
blinds them. He blinds their minds, he dulls their heart.
But you know what, he cannot defeat the power and
the presence of the Holy Spirit in opening their eyes
and minds. That's why we need to understand the Holy Spirit.
Charles by Charles Riery says, tell you what, folks, this

(10:32):
is kind of amazing. I only got five hours sleep
last night. It seems like every night before a Bible study,
I don't get very much sleep, and I was wondering
the boy, am I going to have enough energy? But
it has hit me and I can feel the spirit.
I can feel the resistance as well. We need to
press on. We need to push through. If the enemy

(10:54):
tries to bow us down, we need to push back
and stand up. We need to pray for one another.
We need to stand with one another against this darkness,
against the squeezing, against the attacks on our families, our finances,
on everything we have. We live in a fallen world
and the enemy controls it. But we are greater, because

(11:16):
greater is he that is in us than he that
is against us. Charles Ririy wrote about the Holy Spirit,
and he says, an understanding of the ministry of the
Holy Spirit is basic to Christian living. But one cannot
fully comprehend the work of a person without also knowing

(11:37):
something about that person. Likewise, it is necessary to know
something about the person of the Holy Spirit in order
to fully appreciate his work. So many ministries of the
Spirit that the body of Messiah has begin on the
day of Pentecost. For example, the permanent indwelling of every

(11:59):
believer by the Holy Spirit was not experienced before that day.
His work of joining believers to the risen Christ, he says,
I'll say Messiah was impossible before the resurrection of Messiah
and the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost. His teaching ministry,
his comfort, and his intercession are benefits that all believers,

(12:24):
all Christians, may experience without restriction or limitation.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Today.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Let me say that again, these are benefits that all
believers may experience without restriction or limitation today. This is
truly the Age of the Spirit. A. W. Pink also
wrote a book on the Holy Spirit. Both of these
books are pretty pretty large, lot of chapters, a lot

(12:51):
of information says about the Holy Spirit. Unless we have
a right conception of his glorious being, it is impossible
that we should enter right thoughts about him, and therefore
impossible for us to render to him the homage, the love,
the confidence, and submission which are his due to the

(13:12):
Christian who is given to realize that he owes to
the personal operations of the Spirit every divine influence exercised
upon him from the first moment of regeneration until the
final consummation in gloy. It cannot be a matter of
little importance for him to aspire, after the fullest apprehension

(13:33):
of him capitalate receiving the Holy Spirit that his finite
faculties are capable of. Yes, he will consider no effort
too great to obtain spiritual views of him, to whose
divine grace and power the effectual means of his salvation
through Messiah are to be ascribed. We have to understand

(13:57):
who this person of the Holy Spirit is. And the
one thing I've noticed, we're going to be talking a
lot in John today, and I've heard people say, oh,
the Book of John is the book of Love. Well,
I also think it's a book of the Holy Spirit,
because he talks more about the Holy Spirit than anybody else.
In John fourteen, verses sixteen and seventeen, he quotes the

(14:21):
Lord where he says, and I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another helper, comforter, advocate, intercessor, counselor, strengthener,
and standby to be with you forever. The Spirit of Truth,
whom the world cannot receive and take to its heart
because it does not see him or know him. But

(14:44):
you know him because he, the Holy Spirit, remains with
you continually and will be in you. And John fourteen,
starting verse twenty four, he goes on, one who does
not really love me, does not keep mind words and
the word the teaching which you hear is not mine,
but the Father who sent me. So what he says

(15:06):
and what he teaches is coming from the Father, because
he and the Father are one. Goes on in verse
twenty five. I have told you these things while I
am still with you. But the helper again paracleitos, comforter, advocate, intercessor, counselors,
strengthen and stand by the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name in my place to represent

(15:29):
me and act on my behalf. He will teach you
all things, and he will remember everything that I have
told you. First of all, this is the first place
you see the Father and the Son and the Spirit mentioned.
Anybody who says, world he'd never talked about the trinity, well,
he may not have called it a trinity, but he
talked about all three. And he said, he and the

(15:52):
Father are one, and the Spirit and the Father are one,
because the Father is the one sending the Spirit. And
he goes to sit next to the Father. And when
the Spirit comes, will guess what Three and one. I
know that's difficult to comprehend, and it takes the Holy
Spirit to show it to you. The believer study Bible says,
in order to summarize the Biblical teaching on the Holy Spirit,

(16:15):
three indispensable truths must be affirmed, namely, one, he is
a person, Two he is God, and three he has
specific functions in the economic trinity of God because he
is represented by the symbols of fire, a dove, oil,

(16:36):
and water. Because the Greek word numa, meaning breath or spirit,
is neuter, the Holy Spirit is sometimes misconstrued to be
a power or an influence and not a person, but
the references to him capital age attest to the one
capital O, who has intellect, emotion, and will, and he

(16:58):
is designated by personal pronouns he and him. Pretty basic.
It's all there. The proof is there. All you got
to do is read it. A. W. Pink says again
in his book on the Holy Spirit. Let us begin
by pointing out that a quote person is an intelligent,
involuntary entity of whom personal properties may be truly predicted.

(17:22):
A person is a living entity endowed with understanding and will,
being an intelligent and willing agent, such is the Holy Spirit.
All the elements which constitute personality are ascribed to and
found in him. I belabor that point to get you
to understand that he has feelings, he has joy, he

(17:47):
has emotion, He can't be grieved. Do not ignore him.
So to overcome the lives of the enemy. In doing
what we are called to do, we need supernatural truth.
We need the Spirit of truth, because he communicates the
truth about God and the things of God. John Ate

(18:09):
forty four, and speaking to the Pharisees, she have said,
you are of your father, the devil, and the desires
of your father you want to do. He was a
murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the
truth because there is no truth in him. When he
speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for

(18:30):
he is a liar and the father of it. There's
no truth in him. There can be no truth. Even
when he gives you a partial truth, he's telling you
a complete lie because his intention is always to deceive,
to defeat, to drag you down, and to destroy you.

(18:50):
He doesn't stand in the truth because there is no
truth in him. The Lord's statement John d forty four
is what we must remember. When he lies, it's natural
to him. He's a pathological, compulsive liar. Gee, we've had
some of those in politics. He's the father of lies

(19:12):
and half truths. Nah Satan's the father of politicians. The
Holy Spirit continues the Lord's work by advising, defending, and
protecting believers. Look at John sixteen seven, the amplified version.
But I tell you the truth. It's to your advantage
that I go away. For if I do not go away,
the help or the comforter, the advocate, the intercessor, counselor

(19:36):
strengthen or standby will not come to you. But if
I go, I will send him The Holy Spirit to
be in close fellowship with you, so that advocate, the
counselor encourager comforter. It's the Greek word par clayton one
call to walk to the side of another for help

(19:58):
or counsels, a gift from the Lord which could only
come after his departure and glorification. And interestingly enough, the
Lord calls him another helper because we have in him
an advocate at the right hand of God. But he

(20:20):
sent back the Holy Spirit to be his advocate. Here
look at first John two to one, my little children,
and the things I write to you so that you
may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus, the Messiah, the Righteous. So
you sure Jesus, our helper in heaven, and the Holy Spirit,

(20:42):
our helper on earth, are both connected, which I guess
fulfills his promise to never leave us or forsake us. See,
if you have the Holy Spirit in you, he's always
with you. Is it simple enough? Do you get it?
If you're not getting that, just reach out to me
and write to me and ask me a specific question,

(21:05):
because it's pretty basic. She was there Holy spirits here,
We're all connected. The NLC Study Bible says the same
term carla. The same term occurs in Greek literature. I
told you I love talking about the Holy Spirit. I
love talking about the Lord. I love talking about my

(21:27):
heavenly Father. But when the spirit hits me when I'm talking,
who knows what's going to come out of my mouth?
Could be gibberish, could be my heavenly language. You just
never know. Baric Clay Toss. The advocate is a term
that occurs in Greek literature. It means legal advocate, someone
who speaks in a person's defense, provides legal counsel, counselor

(21:49):
That word is a popular translation of the term, but
it's therapeutic connotations of this word in contemporary English armist leading.
The older legal meaning of a lawyer providing advice or
counsel is closer to the mark. Comforter is another popular translation,
but this also is misleading. The older English meaning of

(22:12):
someone who strengthens an encourager is more accurate to the
New Testament concept of paraclectos. So the Holy Spirit is
your advocate, he's my advocate. He intercedes on our behalf,
just as the Lord does with the Father. That's why
Paul says in Romans eight twenty six. Likewise, the Spirit

(22:33):
also helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not
know what we should pray for as we ought, but
the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which
cannot be uttered. If you've ever done this, you know
exactly what that scripture means. You get to the place
of intercession that's coming from your heart, coming from brokenness,

(22:57):
either for you or for someone else, and you don't
know how to pray, you don't know what to say,
and all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit takes over,
and you know it's not gibberish because you can feel
it coming from your heart. You know it has meaning.
They've actually done medical studies about tongues. I've talked about
this in the past. There's actually a video out there

(23:19):
that people who speak in tongues it's coming from a
different part of their brain, not from the part of
the brain for natural communication. It's coming from a completely
different area. So every task of the Spirit in John
chapters fourteen through sixteen is a task that the Lord
himself y Sua undertook elsewhere in the gospels. That's the

(23:42):
other thing. As you study him and pay attention to him,
you realize he is mirroring the exact things that the
Lord did. And Yeshua promised that the Holy Spirit would
come to encourage us, to instruct us and to strengthen
his followers. In fact, the Spirit would do the same
for your shoe and sustain his presence among the disciples.

(24:04):
So you have these promises, and they indicate a different
work of the Spirit, and I'm not going to go
into them because it's going to take us in a
completely different direction, and I have a lot to cover
to get us ready to talk about Pentecost. But he
did say that he would abide with us, and in
us he would remain, he would lodge, he would dwell,
he would continue and endure, abide permanent residence. He's not

(24:28):
going anywhere. One John two twenty four. Therefore, let that
truth abide in you, which you've heard from the beginning.
If what you heard from the beginning abides in you,
you will also abide in the Son and in the Father.
First John three twenty four. Now, he who keeps his

(24:48):
commandments abides in him capital h and he in him.
And by this we know that he abides in us.
By the spirit whom he has given us see even
in First John, one holy Spirit's the focus of what
he's talking about. The Holy Spirit, the Rua kak Kadesh
functions as the abiding presence of the Lord, the abiding

(25:12):
presence of Yashi among those who believe in him and
serve him. We can't do this without him, and the
helper could not come as long as the Lord was here.
Greater things shall we do because he goes to the Father,
and we know that's talking about the infalling of the

(25:32):
Holy Spirit everything that came with it. Again, my argument is,
where are those greater things. I don't believe we're letting
the Holy Spirit loose. I don't believe we're letting him
do what he wants to do. We're hampering him. We're
tying him up with shutting him down. We're listening to
false teachers saying, oh, the Holy Spirit's colony left with
John when John died. Churches all, we're all natural. Now,

(25:53):
we're not supernatural. Now you're super wrong as what you are.
John sixteen, verses eight through eleven. And when he comes,
he being the Holy Spirit, he will convict the world
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin,
because they do not believe in me of righteousness because
I go to my Father and you see me know

(26:15):
more of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judge.
That's why the enemy hates it. The presence of the
Holy Spirit in us is a constant reminder. You've been judged,
you've lost, you are overpowered. And it's the Father's design
that believers should live in union with his son and

(26:39):
become fruitful, bear fruit that has expressed the effect of
their union with the Lord. You're sure Jesus in their
everyday lives, fine fruit zap of the Holy Spirit. He's
the vine where the branches. Without him, we produce nothing.
We don't produce any fruit. Him we produce much fruit,

(27:02):
and it glorifies the Father, a changed heart and a
changed life. I don't know how to bang this drum
any louder than I'm banging it. You can't do this
without the Holy Spirit. You cannot do this to walk
this walk in this fallen world. Let alone get people saved, healed,
and delivered. You just can't live without him. The NLC

(27:26):
Study Bible says one of the Spirit's roles is to
convict the world. Convict is a legal term. The world
conducted its trial of Jesus, examining the evidence for his case,
his signs and claims, and now the world would stand
trial before the Spirit, and its guilt would be proven.
It has been proven the Holy Spirit convicts of sins committed,

(27:52):
of righteousness forfeited and the coming judgment. The Spirit reveals
to the world the true nature of sin and its
effects on their lives, and that righteousness can only be
found in God through his son. Yes, sure see, the
judgment of sinners has already begun. It's not gonna wait

(28:13):
until he comes back, and it's not gonna wait until
after they die. For the ruler of this world, Satan,
has already been judged. So the world thought it was
judging Jesus, and the exact opposite occurred. Satan thought he
was stopping and destroying Jesus of Nazareth. Instead he was

(28:34):
doing it to himself. In John chapter twelve, starting verse
thirty one, Lord says, now is the judgment of this world.
Now the ruler of this world will be cast out,
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all people to myself. Well, we know lifted
up always refers to the cross. If I'm lifted up,

(28:58):
They're gonna look at me. And if they recognize what
I just did, and if they accept what I just did,
the rule of this world has lost. He's been judged.
In John three point fourteen, he tells Nicodemus, and as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
the son of Man must be lifted up for healing,

(29:20):
for safety. John A twenty eight Lord said, when you
lift up the son of Man, then you will know
that I am he and that I do nothing of myself.
But as my father taught me, I speak these things.
The Messiah was the one who, according to prophecy, would
be crucified, something that when Isaiah wrote that had not

(29:42):
become popular yet. Oh yes, the Babylonians did it, and
the Egyptians did it, but the Romans perfected it. Said
all peoples, if I am lifted up, I would draw
all people to myself. That's the universal term. It's in
its application everyone. God's sacrificial love appeals not only to

(30:03):
the Jews but also to the Gentiles. And your shoe
is death for the lost, breaks down all the barriers.
He's done this for everyone who will receive it. If
you want it, it's yours. Here it is, Come and
get it, as the song says, which you better hurry
because it may not last. But when he, the Spirit

(30:25):
of Truth comes, I'm speaking to you, listen up. He
will guide you into all the truth, full and complete truth,
not partial truth, not man made truth, but godly truth.
For he will not speak on his own initiative, but
he will speak whatever he hears from the Father, which

(30:45):
is the message regarding the Son, and he will disclose
to you what is to come in the future. He
will glorify and honor me, says the Lord, because he,
the Holy Spirit, will take from what is mine and
will disclose it to you. While he is a separate entity,
he's not working for himself. He's working for the Father

(31:07):
and the Son, for them to be glorified and for
you to know them through him. So the Spirit of
Truth conveys truth from who from God, which does what
leads the world to judgment. Either accept him or be judged.
I'm sorry, that's just the way it is. I know
a lot of people don't agree with that. They don't
want to hear that. Take it up with him when

(31:29):
you're standing before him. Let me know how that works
out for you. The disciples could expect that the Spirit
would reveal things that they had not heard before. That's
the other great thing about revelation and the Holy Spirit.
You'll look at it scripture that you may have looked
at a hundred times, maybe even a thousand times, and
all of a sudden, because of the timing being right,

(31:49):
you'll see something you've never seen before that you need
to know at that moment. That's what he does. The
disciples knew, and they expected the Spirit to reveal things
to them about both the present and the future. And
that revelation it comes through the word, whether written or spoken.
It can come through dreams and visions, which does what

(32:11):
fulfills the prophecy in Joel chapter two, verses twenty eight
twenty nine, what Peter quotes on the day of Pentecost,
And it shall come to pass afterward that I will
bore out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions. And also are
my men servants, and are my maid servants. I will

(32:34):
pour out my spirit on those days, which days after
what after the arrival of the Messiah and his death
on the cross. So dreams, I have them, A lot
of people do. I'm talking spiritual dreams, not pizza dreams
or chili dreams. Pizza and chili dreams, boy, those are
really bad. But spiritual dreams involve inactive participation. You are

(32:57):
shown things, whereas visions can involve active participation. He's giving
you a vision to show you something to go do something,
and the Holy Spirit inspires and participates in both. In
the Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit offered selective dwelling
inside a person momentarily, not for very long, and it

(33:18):
wasn't universally experienced among God's people until the New Testament times,
after the Cross, after the empty Tomb, after the Upper Room,
it became for everyone John fourteen twenty six. When the
Father sends the Advocate as my representative new living translation,
that is the Holy Spirit. He will teach you everything

(33:41):
and will remind you of everything I have told you.
So the Spirit reminds and teaches. If you're not understanding
the word, maybe you're not understanding me. Maybe I go
a little too fast, maybe I go a little too deep.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you before you start listening,
Holy Spirit, help me to understand and receive what you

(34:02):
want me to understand today. Don't take this casually. Just
don't blunder into it. Take time, clear your mind, take
your thoughts captive to the obedience of Messiah. Get everything
out of the way that would hinder you from receiving it.
Shut the enemy up, lock your ears to the enemy,
turn off whatever is distracting you. For Corinthians two thirteen,

(34:24):
these things we also speak not in words which man's
wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches. Comparing spiritual
things with spiritual I've seen a lot of writers out there,
and a lot of people want to talk about spiritual things.
They want to talk about supernatural things. Yet they have
no knowledge of them, they have no experience of them.

(34:45):
They're actually teaching you what somebody else knows, or what
somebody else says. And while that's good, you know, you
go to school, they teach you from a book. You
know they may not have an exact personal experience with
what they're teaching. And I get that, but when it
comes to this kind of stuff, I want somebody who's
got experiential knowledge. I want somebody who's done what they're

(35:07):
talking to me about. The Spirit brings inspiration and speaks
to the church and conviction to the world. How through
the Word, unless you can hear the Holy Spirit, which
many of us can, you'll hear him through the Word.
You'll hear the Lord through the Word. That's why you

(35:30):
got to get into the Word. Home and Bible Dictionary says,
as you show a help disciples during his earthly ministry,
so the Spirit helps them after the ascension as they
face a hostile world. So meanwhile, Jesus is the paraclet,
the the advocate in the heavenly court. The Holy Spirit

(35:50):
is the advocate here in a fallen world, a world
ruled by Satan and the fallen, a world rule by
men and women under his sway. So we have spent
the last almost forty minutes talking about the Holy Spirit,
getting to know him, getting to know him, getting to
know everything all about. Now we need to get into

(36:13):
the Book of Acts. We're going to begin, We're we're
going to dip our toe in the Book of Acts.
Because the Book of Acts is the account of the
continuing story of God's saving purposes written by Luke in
sixty three AD. It has a theme and a purpose
of history and theology. Luke is always steeped in history.

(36:35):
If you read his book, he gives you times and
places so that you can verify what he's saying. So
Acts is both history and theology, and it narrates the
birth and the growth of the early Church from Jerusalem
to Rome. It spans a period of about thirty years.
It is theology and that Luke's purpose is to show

(36:55):
God's plan of salvation through Eshua and the establishment and
growth of the Kingdom of God. Luke uses the word
kingdom in Acts. Acts cannot be understood apart from the
Gospel of Luke in matter of theme and purpose. So
if you don't know the Gospel of Luke, you may
want to read it first. As you enter into Acts,

(37:17):
they should probably be all one book. To be honest
with you. The hook together the prologus that each book
revealed that Luke intended them as a two volume work.
From a comparison of the prologues, a third and practical
purpose merges from Luke slash Acts. He mentioned them somebody
in the beginning. Theophilis, who obviously need to be encouraged

(37:41):
and challenged in his faith so he's writing to him,
doesn't matter who he is. We can talk about that,
or you can look it up Biblegateway dot com, look
it up, Theophilis, and any of the places we can
get access to a commentary or a Bible dictionary. Look
them up. Other purposes suggest to I demonstrat universality of

(38:02):
Christianity of being a believer in Messiah. Another purpose is
to provide an apologetic for Paul's apostleship, because he's the
one who tells us the most about Paul, and to
provide an apologetic I'm not sure why I'm stumbling over
that word apologetic, apologetic, apologetic for Christianity to establish its

(38:24):
character as non threatening to the Roman Empire. I'm not
sure I agree with that. I probably should have read
that first. That's out of one of the dictionaries. No,
it's threatening to the Roman Empire. It's threatening to every empire.
But there's a key verse that starts it all off
in Acts one eight to the Ends of the Earth.
I'll read it to you when we get there, giving

(38:44):
you a prologue here, but it's basically telling us how
far this word should go. And actually, even though it's
called the acts of the Apostles. They probably should be
called the acts of the Holy Spirit, because that's whose
acts we're reading about. Acts serves as a bridge between
the God Gospel and the epistles. It narrates the continuing
work of the resurrected Yeshiah through the church. It provides

(39:07):
present day churches with a pattern of church growth, principles
and evangelism, missions and discipleship, which most of them ignore.
The speeches and acts presents the clear indication of every
Christian doctrine regarding to the person and the work of Messiah,
as well as the nature of Salvation, as well as

(39:28):
the person and work of the Holy Spirit. So many
times you see and hear how he works what he does.
It's from Luke's eyewitness experience. It's from written documents that
Luke had available to him. It's from the meetings in
Jerusalem and other places. It's from Mary the count for
Paul's account, Philip the Evangelist, and James the Lord's brother.

(39:51):
And Luke, because he is such a historian in his writing,
has carefully researched and studied the material. I'm about to
go off here in my heavenly language. I'm trying to
hold it together speak in English before writing his two
volume work Acts one, verse four, and being assembled together
with them. This is the Lord being assembled with the disciples,

(40:15):
of which now there are eleven, not twelve. He commanded
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for
the promise of the Father, which he said, you have
heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, But
you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many
days from now. Powerful, and what do the disciples ask him? Therefore,

(40:39):
when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord,
will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Speaker 2 (40:47):
And in his grace and his mercy.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
He simply says, it's not for you to know times
or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority.
But you shall receive power from the Holy Spirit. You
shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in
an old Judea and Samaria, and to the end of

(41:12):
the earth. So he's having a meeting with his disciples
before he leaves for Heaven, and the point he wants
to make you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit
not many days from now. This connects us back to
the end of Luke twenty four, verses forty nine through
fifty three, when he says to them, behold, I send
the promise of my Father upon you. Remember it before

(41:34):
he said in John the promise which proceeds from the
Father literally emanates from the Father. I send the promise
of the Father upon you. But tarry in the city
of Jerusalem till you are endued with power from on high.
Stay where you are until you have been soaked in
with power from on high. So he leads them out

(41:56):
as far as Bethany, and he had lifted up his
hands and blessed them. Now came to pass, while he
blessed them, that he was parted from them and carried
into Heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem
with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising
and blessing God. He was lifted up on the cross,

(42:17):
he was lifted up to the throne room, and he's
still drawing people to himself. We see another version of
this Mark sixteen and remember Mark as written by John
Mark and is reported to be Peter's account of things.
Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at
the table, and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of
heart because they did not believe those who had seen him.

(42:40):
After he had risen, and he said to them, go
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved. He
who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs
will follow those who believe in my name. They will
cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues. They

(43:02):
will take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly,
by no means hurt them, they will lay hands on
the sick and they will recover. Again. I always point
out this is not about snake handling. This is about
serving Him and being out there doing what they're doing

(43:25):
for the Lord. So then after the Lord had spoken
to them, he was received up into heaven and sat
down at the right hand of God. So this gospel,
this good news, this Euanngelian from which we get the
word evangelism, is a good message. It's the gospel. That's
what they're there to do. And you're going to need

(43:47):
some supernatural power to get that done, yes, John in
Matthew three. Indeed he said, I baptize you with water
into repentance. But he was coming after me mightier than I,
whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. John's baptism

(44:10):
with water was a sign of repentance. The Lord's baptism
of fire refers to the Upper Room. It's about empowerment,
it's about in sanctification. It's about the refiner's fire mentioned
in Malachi three two. When the Holy Spirit was sent

(44:31):
by Ishia in the form of the tongues of fire
in the Upper room. He was empowering the followers to
preach the Gospel, and all believers who would come later
on would come into salvation and receive the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, and the fire of purification would be

(44:54):
purified and refined so that they could do the same.
You can't do it in your old, fleshly nature. You
can't do it as you were. You need to be
a new creation, sanctified and filled, the entire person, transformed
inside out by the Spirit's power. And if you, Sue

(45:18):
had stayed on the earth, his physical presence would have
limited the spread of the Gospel because he can only
be in one place at a time. But when he's
taken up into heaven, he is spiritually present everywhere through
the Holy Spirit. And what do the disciples ask, Lord

(45:41):
at this time when you restore the kingdom to Israel.
I'm sure that they were sincere, but this is a
natural question. You're missing the point. Yes, there will be
a restoration at some point, but that's not your priority
right now. The priority is to do what I've told

(46:03):
you to do. I get it. You want deliverance from Rome.
You want to establish a Messianic kingdom. Well, if you'd
spend time reading the prophets, you'd find out that comes
later on. The disciples were thinking naturally, as we all do,
and the Lord wanted them to think supernaturally. The average

(46:24):
jew of you, see, as day was looking forward with
great anticipations to the literal coming of the Messiah's earthly kingdom,
to the restoration of their fortunes and the military might
that they had enjoyed under King David. Not the point,

(46:46):
that was what they wanted. He was pointing towards what
he wanted. They wanted. What was he was pointing towards
what would be the life application. Bible commentary says, in
the traditional view, the Messiah would be an earthly conqueror
who would free Israel from Rome. But the kingdom about

(47:10):
which Jesus spoke was the first of all, was first
of all, a spiritual kingdom established in the hearts and
lives of believers. Behind it was the earthly kingdom that
Messiah promised the institute as his return. So Yeshua's answer,

(47:31):
disappointing to the disciples was partially a rebuke and a
gentle reminder of what the apostle's role would be to
desire to be in God's presence and prayer and worship,
and faithfully follow the Father's sovereign lead, just as Yeshua

(47:52):
had modeled on earth. It's not for you to know
times or seasons which the Father has put in his
own authority. Don't we all do that. We have a
difficult time conceiving the depth of what he's really doing.
We think of it in political ways. People that are
caught up in politics, or economic ways or natural ways.

(48:16):
A Messiah is looking, hey, guys, I have a kingdom.
We're establishing it first spiritually and then naturally, and that's
why the Holy Spirit is here to teach us, to
walk with us, to encourage us, to get us to
understand that. So times, which is chronos, that's chronology and

(48:38):
dates or circumstances of what's going on in the era.
That's not our concern. Don't get caught up in the
things of this world. It's going to distract you from
the things of God. Those are determined by the Father's authority.
So as far as we're concerned, it's beyond our jurisdiction.
That's what the Lord's saying. This isn't what you should

(49:01):
be worrying about. Paul helps clarify that much later on.
Many times what we should be concerned and consumed with
was what the Lord said next. But you shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and
you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in

(49:23):
all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
There it is the last recorded words of the Lord
while on earth, the final authoritative order of utmost importance.
This is what it's all about. You will receive power

(49:45):
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you to be witnesses
to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria to the
end of the earth. So the mean theme of luke
and acts the Holy Spirit serves as the the primary
point of continuity between the life of Yeshiah and the
ministry of the Church. John Calvin says, there is no

(50:08):
believer whom the Son of God does not require to
be his witness in what place, at what time, and
with what degree of frequency, in what matter, and to
what extents we ought, extent we ought to profess. Our
faith cannot easily be determined by a fixed rule, but

(50:29):
we must consider the occasion that not one of us
may fail to discharge his duty at the proper time.
Here's your agenda. Be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
and the end of the earth. Spread the Gospel from
Jerusalem to Rome. Take it everywhere. Let it go like

(50:54):
pollen on a flower. Believe your study. Bible says all
believers are commissioned to do until Jesus comes again. During
the dawning of the Christian era, God poured out the
Holy Spirit upon the Church collectively, there by giving formal
confirmation that the Church was the entity chosen by the

(51:15):
Lord to spread the good news. Throughout the world. This
gave formal recognition that the Holy Spirit was the guide
and teacher who would help the Church implement the Great Commission,
and that is why He sent the Holy Spirit. When
the Spirit comes, you will receive power to do what

(51:41):
to be my witnesses. You will receive dunamus power inherit ability,
significant force, the ability to perform anything. And you will
be given exusia, the right to exercise power, the freedom

(52:03):
of action, the right to act, to be used by
God absolutely without restriction. What a gift, the power and
the freedom to use it. Power from the Holy Spirit
is not limited to strength or our abilities. It involves

(52:26):
so many other things that can only be done through him. Courage, boldness, confidence, insight,
authority and the disciples and the Church would need all
of these gifts to fulfill the mission. Soone believers are
spirit filled. They are empowered to be witnesses with a

(52:46):
power from on high, because the power here on earth
is going to try to stop you, but it can't.
Greater is he that is in you than he that
is against you. The record of their world wide witnessing
comprises the contents of the Book of Acts, and Luke
showed that the disciples filled with the spirit, reached the

(53:10):
end of the thin civilized world, and we were called
to carry it on. As a witness. We are have
been given insight, and through that insight we give testimony
on what we as witnesses know, what he or she

(53:34):
has seen, not hearsay, not rumor not something someone else saw,
but what he or she has experienced seeing or hear.
That's what they did, That's what we do. Acts two
thirty two. And you're sure God has raised up of
which we are all witnesses. They made a point of

(53:56):
making making sure everyone knew they were witnesses. This wasn't
something they heard about. Who's something they saw. Acts three
fourteen fifteen. You denied the Holy One and the Just
and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from
the dead, of which we are witnesses. Acts five thirty
through thirty two. The God of our fathers raised up

(54:19):
you show whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.
Him God has exalted to his right hand to be
prince and Savior, to give repentance Israel and forgiveness of sins.
And we are his witnesses to these things. So also
is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those
who obey him. Acts ten, verse thirty eight. Have God

(54:43):
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit with power,
who went about doing good and healing all who were
oppressed by the devil. For God was with him. And
we are witnesses of all things which he did in
the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they
killed by hanging on a t him. God raced up
on the third day and showed him openly, not to

(55:05):
all people, but the witness has chosen before God, even
to us who ate and drank with him. After he
arose from the dead, and he commanded us to preach
to the people and to testify it, as he was
ordained by God to be judge of the living and
the dead. To him, all the prophets witness that through
his name, whoever believes in Him will receive the remission

(55:28):
of sins. Over and over and over they will witnesses.
What are you a witness to? My life is a
witness to the reality of Him. So you, sue have
said to his followers, And I believe him saying it
to us too. There's going to be a period of
witnessing by you about me. Between my two visits. Go

(55:49):
out and tell people what you know, what you've seen,
experienced and learned. Start right here in Jerusalem, then go
to Judea, then go to Samaria nearby, and when you're
done there, keep going to the ends of the earth.
I'll be back the Holy Spirit. The next great event

(56:10):
in the life of the Church here on the day
of Pentecost, the birth of the Church that would destroy
the work of the devil and plung to the Kingdom
of darkness was imminent. The world would never be the
same then it never was. Father, Thank you for the Word,
Thank you for the hope, thank you for the fire,

(56:31):
thank you for the Spirit. Thank you for everything that
it took to get us to this point where we
have this so that we can destroy the work of
the enemy. We can set the captives free, we can
heal the sick, we can touch the broken hearted, we
can set free the captives. We can undo the work
of the fallen and everything Satan and the Kingdom of

(56:53):
Darkness has done, and we can make straight the highway
for the return of the King Lord. We know you're
coming back in the fullness of time, when you're ready.
It doesn't matter if we're ready, it's when you're ready.
And we know that, and we want to be about
your business. We need the help of your Holy Spirit.
We need the power that comes from within. We need

(57:16):
the strength that we need, the knowledge, we need, the inspiration,
the edification, all that comes in this fallen world. As
we're oppressed and we're squeezed, but we know we're not forsaken.
We know we're not crushed. We know we're not broken.
That we rise up with wings as eagles. We run
and we're not weary. We walk and we're not faint.

(57:36):
We keep going because of the fire that's in us.
It's not natural to us, it's Holy Spirit. I ask
you right now and each and every one of us,
let your fire heal, Let your fire purge us, Let
your fire break off anything in the enemy has done
and attached to us to slow us down, the fuel,

(58:01):
give us what we need to get the job done. Lord,
I pray right now. I pray against this enemy. It's
been defeated. He's a terrorist who refuses to submit. He
has stolen what doesn't belong to him. And I declare
and decree he must return at sevenfold. You came in
one way, Satan, and you're falling in your demons. You're

(58:23):
going to flee seven ways, not because of us, because
of him, because of his name, because of the King
of Kings and the Lord of lords. Touch my brothers
and sisters as you touch me, and let's do it.
Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's shake this world
one last time before we see the return of the King.

(58:46):
I pray all these things, and you see his name.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord,
may I don't I make his face to shine upon you,
be gracious to you. Lord. I don't know how you
Suhamashia licked up his countenance upon you, and give you peace,
Give you shalom. I'm Richard grind This has been the
Porch on Firefall Talk Radio.