We're talking about the Holy Spirit today and specifically this morning, I want to talk about the Holy Spirit, God's answer for your every need, God's answer for your every need, and how many know that God knows exactly what we need and God knows how to answer. And the Bible says, my God will supply all of our needs according to his riches and glory. And I think the greatest riches of God is the spirit of God. The greatest riches of God is his presence. The presence of God is the greatest riches of God. I'll get into that in a couple of moments. But I want to take you to John Chapter 20. Let's start there, John. Chapter 20, verse 19. And let's pick up where we left off over the last several weeks, John. Chapter 20, verse 19. As we talk about the Holy Spirit and as we talk about the Holy Spirit, God's answer for our every need. I want you to think about this as we celebrate the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came and baptized the believers in his power. And we all around the world, people are celebrating that today. We get to celebrate Pentecost every day. You don't have to live one day without the Holy Spirit ever again. You don't have to live one day without his power. You don't have to live one day without his anointing. But what we want to do today is bridge the gap between just singing about the Holy Spirit and actually experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. We want to bridge the gap between having a theology about the Holy Spirit and actually encountering the power of the Holy Spirit, because I believe when you have encountered the power of God, the Holy Spirit, you'll never be the same again. Once you taste and see how powerful and how enriching and how fulfilling the Holy Spirit is, how satisfying it is to not just have God near you, but to have God in you through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Your life will never be the same. And what we see here in John Chapter 20 is we see that after Jesus rose from the dead, as much as he didn't really need to give us anything more than what he had just given us, he gave us his life so that we could be saved, so that we could be forgiven. He has just shed his blood. And now he says to his disciples, after his resurrection, before his ascension into heaven, he meets us, meets up with his disciples and says to them, peace be with you. So he leaves them with three parting gifts before he goes. And remember, we've been talking about this for several weeks. He leaves them with three parting gifts. The first gift he leaves them with after his resurrection is peace. He says peace to you. And then in verse twenty one, he says it again, peace be with you. That's the first gift that God that Jesus gives to his disciples after his resurrection. Peace. We talked about that and we'll keep talking about that. The peace of God that surpasses all understanding. How many know that this world is full of stress. This world is full of anxiety. This world. World is full of depression. And God gives us what we need for whatever emotion or whatever stress or whatever conflict that is going to exist in this world. How many know you can have peace in the midst of the storms of life? Jesus at peace in the storm, and he slept in the midst of it. The disciples were freaking out, but Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat. Why? Because he had the Holy Spirit living in him. He had the peace, the living in him. He had the assurance that God was with him. He had the assurance that his presence was more powerful than the problem. Do you know that the storm was not the problem? The real problem was their fear. The storm was not the problem. The problem was they were afraid and they were ignorant of God's presence here. Jesus was in the back of their boat and they're freaking out. How many know? Sometimes you don't even realize what we have. We don't even realize who's with us. We don't even realize what we've got. We don't even realize that we've got Jesus at our side. We've got the Holy Spirit living inside of us. We got the word of God, the promises of God, the power of God. And there's nothing to be afraid of. No matter what storm you're going through, you have peace in the midst of the storm. Then he says, as the father has sent me, I send you the second gift he gives them is purpose. You know, every one of us is going to go through times where we feel like we feel low about ourselves. We feel discouraged about life. We feel like we haven't accomplished much. You get to thirty and twenty and thirty. You still dream in big dreams. You get to forty and you're like, what? Why haven't I accomplished much? By the time you get to fifty, maybe you're in a mid-life crisis. Maybe you're wondering what am I really, you know, have I really accomplished anything in this life and and and is there more? And you get discouraged and you make bad decisions when you're discouraged. But what I'm trying to tell you here is Jesus prepares us for whatever we're going to face by giving us this beautiful gift called purpose. He said, as the father has sent me, I also said. You he gave these disciples purpose, he gave them a reason to live. Everyone here has a reason to live. Everyone here has a purpose. Everyone is here by God's God's design. You were God's idea. You were God's idea. You were God's idea. You were God's idea. You were God's idea. You were God's idea. You were God's idea. You were God's idea. Hey, everyone say I was God's idea. No, you're supposed to say I'm God's idea. I mean, no, just kidding. You're everyone here is God's idea. I want you to look at somebody. I know this is uncomfortable sometimes, but just don't even look at him if you don't want to, but just kind of act like you're looking at him and say you were God's idea. I know, because that's awkward when you have to look at something but pretend you're looking at him, look through them. You were God's idea. You were God's idea. You were God's idea. You were Gazidis and you were God's idea. You know what? Every idea God has is a good idea. God never came up with a bad idea. He always has a good idea. And you're one of his ideas. So you're good. And everything's going to end up good because God's ideas never fail. Name one thing that God ever created that ever failed. Say man, man failed. But Jesus was there to be the second Adam to make sure that whatever man did, Jesus did. And he fixed what man did wrong because God never makes man or anything. That is a bad idea. It's a good idea. It has some bumps along the way. It has some bruises along the way. But everything God makes is a good idea. And you were his idea, your God's design. You created by him, created in his image, created like him, and when you start believing that about yourself, you're going to live on purpose. You're going to live with goals. You're going to live with dreams. You're going to live with vision. You're going to live with joy. You're going to live with confidence. You're going to get through anything. You're going you're going to power through any pain you're experiencing. You're going to power through your past. You're going to power through your problems. You're going to power through your pain because you have a purpose. We don't have a purpose. You're going to be bored when you don't have a purpose. When you're not aware of your purpose, you're going to be bored in life. When you're not aware of your purpose, you're going to be depressed in life. When you're not aware of your purpose, you're going to be discouraged in life. But when you're aware of your purpose, you will power through anything to see that purpose come to pass. So the first thing Jesus gives in is parting gifts as he leaves to be ascended to the father, he gives peace. The second thing he gives is purpose. And the third thing he gives you got it. It's power, he says. And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the power of God. The Holy Spirit is the motor of God, the engine of God, the muscle of God. The Holy Spirit is the part of God that gets stuff done. He's the part of God that lives inside of you. The father is in heaven and Jesus is seated at his right hand. But the Holy Spirit is the God part inside of you. And he doesn't live next to you. He doesn't live above you are beneath you. He lives in you. Now, people have said to me for years and, you know, people have been saying this for years is that wouldn't it be great if Jesus was next to me? What if I went if I would have been there? I wish I would have been there when Jesus walked the Earth or I wish Jesus was here today. But I want you to know something. And wouldn't that be great? So if Jesus is linked to your arm today, just think about what that would be like for you to walk around in. Jesus is linked to your arm. I mean, if you ever got sick, he would just lay hands on you and you'd be healed. If you ever got discouraged, he would look at you and smile and encourage you. If you're ever out of breath, he'd breathe into you breath. If you're ever afraid, he'll give you peace. If you're ever worried or anxious, he'll calm your nerves. He's right there next to you. If you ever if life is ever throws you a curve, he'll catch it and intercept it and intercede for you and make sure that he turns that situation around. I mean, Jesus being with you, if you ever hungry, he knows how to find fish. He knows how to man to say, let's go fishing over here and then you drop your net in there, drop your your fishing line in there and you'll have a fish before you know it with some money on the side. Come on. Who's with me? Jesus is so powerful. So you go you're one of your family members is suffering. So you just walk up there and Jesus is there and he heals them of their suffering. He walk into the hospital and you heal everyone you're with because Jesus is with you. I mean, think about how awesome that would be. And yet Jesus said when his disciples who had been with him for three years, Jesus said in John Chapter 14, I watch this John Chapter 14 verse. Let's first go to John. Chapter 16, verse seven, John, chapter 16, verse seven. And look at what Jesus said in the new American standard Bible. He says, But I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. We think it would be to our advantage if Jesus was at our link to our right arm, our left arm. But Jesus said its to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come. But if I go, I will send him to you. Talking about the Holy Spirit, of course. And you know, I like the the good news translation of this verse. And there are several others that say it this way. But the good news translation verse seven says he said, Jesus said it is better for you. The new American standard says its to your advantage. But the the good news Bible says it is better for you that I go away. Who what could be better than Jesus? What could be better than Jesus linked to your harm? Well, here's one thing that is better than Jesus linked to your arm, the Holy Spirit living inside of you, the Holy Spirit living inside of you. And in John Chapter 14, look at what he says the Holy Spirit will do in verse sixteen. He says this is what the Holy Spirit will do. John, chapter fourteen now verse sixteen. He says, I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper and he will be with you forever. Not just with you, but look at what he goes on to say. That is the spirit of truth, whom to whom the world cannot receive because it does not know. It does not see him or know he knows him. But you know him because he abides with you. Everybody say with you and he will be in you say in you. So not only is he with us, he is with us. God with us. That's Emmanuel. That's what Jesus came to do to be with us. But the Holy Spirit came to be in. Listen, we've got to get Holy Spirit conscious, we've got to get Holy Spirit conscious, we got to get God inside. Conscious, in other words, is not God up there in heaven and you down here suffering and trying to obey his commands. It's the Holy Spirit inside of you working in you to bring about God's purpose in your life, no matter how bad it looks right now, no matter how far you feel from God's purpose in your life, you have the power inside of you now for God to bring it to pass. And he is at working you to bring it to look at what it says in Philippians. Is anybody with me on this today? OK, listen, you got to zero in with me on here. Pay close attention because you know in in thirty five minutes or so or thirty minutes or so you're going to be leaving. But man, we could pack so much in this next 30 minutes if we'll concentrate sometimes I repeat myself because you're not listening. It's not because I don't have
anything more to say. All right, watch this. Now look at Philippians, chapter two, verse twelve. Look at Philippians, chapter two verse. Do you have a Bible? Look in your Bible, look on your phone or look on the screen? And he says, So then, my beloved, just as you've obeyed. Excuse me. Wrong Scripture Ephesians. Chapter two, verse ten. Ephesians Chapter two. Verse ten for it is God. You are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand for those to walk in back up to go to verse eleven now. And he says for it is God. Who is it working you. If wants to go back to verse nine excuse me, say by his grace and verse eight then in verse nine, not as a result of work, since any man should boast verse ten four, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God is verse twelve. Go in, go, go the verse twelve. Keep going. We're going to find this verse. It is Philippians, chapter two, I'm sorry, it's not a Ephesians. I'm just going to tell you what the Bible says. You look it up later, you look it up later, for it is God who is at work in you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure. It is God who is at work in. You say that it is God. Who is it working me to Will and to work for his good pleasure. Look at that. We were just off by one verse so that Philippians to verse 13. Never forget that now. Now you know don't come here ignorant of the Bible anymore. You should have known that just playing with you. How is it and what force is in you when he says God is in you, the father is in heaven, so is the son. So what is what, what part of God is in you, the Holy Spirit and what is he doing? He is at work in you to work and to will for his good pleasure or for his purpose or to bring him pleasure. You know what? It's not even you that can work to bring God's pleasure. It's the Holy Spirit in you working that brings God pleasure. What brings God pleasure is you letting the Holy Spirit work in you, you trusting God. Look at what it says in Second Corinthians. Chapter three, verse sixteen Second Corinthians, chapter three, verse sixteen or First Corinthians. Excuse me. First Corinthians. Chapter three. Verse sixteen. Watch this. Watch this. He says, do you not know, look at what he says, do you not know that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you? Spirit of God dwells in you. The spirit of God dwells in you. You know, it says you're the temple in the Old Testament, whenever they would build a temple to the Lord and dedicated fire would come from heaven and consume the sacrifice and the building would be dedicated with fire. So that's why in Acts chapter two, verse three, they were all gathered together at the day Pentecost. If you go in fact, if you go to chapter two, verse one, look at what it says, let's just start there or go there and start at the beginning of that chapter acts. Chapter two, verse one. When the day of Pentecost come, they were all together in one place where there's something about being together, there's something about gathering. I know that people have philosophies about church. They've been burned. And I've seen people and heard of people's stories that they got heard at a church. So they don't go to church anymore. They are the church at home and they are the church wherever they go. And and while that's there's an element of truth to that, there wasn't going to be any power flowing if they weren't together. There's something that happens when we come together. There's something about being connected. There's something about gathering with other believers, because God believes in community and God believes in family and God believes in togetherness and God believes in unity. There the Lord commands the blessing. And they were all gathered together on the day of Pentecost in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven, a noise like a violent rushing wind. And it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And what does it say? And there appear to them tongues as a fire, distributing on each one, each resting on one of them, or they rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, watch this in verse four excuse me, in verse three, it says, The Holy Spirit came and there were tongues of fire on every one of them. And we all are like, wow. Oh, oh. Like, we look at that and we believe that verse. Man, can you imagine tongues of fire resting on every person? Can you imagine a tongue of fire coming out of heaven and resting on a person's head? That's what they witnessed. That's what they experienced. And we all believe that. But you know what the problem is with religion that picks and chooses some some verses and some beliefs and then leaves the rest out. Verse four says, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. And you know what we're like, oh, a lot of Christians are like, oh, I don't believe everybody should speak. I don't know if tongues is from God. I don't know. That's hard to believe that if you're speaking in tongues, that it even makes sense to God. That's so weird. Speaking in tongues, praying in tongues. Who is praying tongues. You just got done believing in verse three that a tongue of fire rested on somebody's head and you had a hard time believing in speaking in tongues. That's that shows you what religion has done to the church and what religion has done to Christians, where we could believe that God could part the Red Sea. But then we question you really believe in speaking in tongues, that we believe Jesus could part the Red Sea, that God could part the Red Sea, but that he can't heal your body? Well, you know, God doesn't always heal people. You know, you sometimes you just God's trying to God sends that sickness to teach you a lesson. You know, I think that God sent the Bible to teach us a lesson. I think we have the word of God. Sickness and disease never taught me anything except this. Don't eat that again, am I in the right place here? How many think sickness was sent from God? And when sickness comes, you nobody's like. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, this is so great. It's amazing. I'm going to do that again. I'm going to eat food poisoning again. I can't wait back poison everything. Poison meat poisoned me until I die and let me really give God some glory. Nobody does that. You know why? Because, you know, in your heart of hearts, healing is God's gift, not sickness. Nowhere, nowhere in the Bible does Jesus make someone's condition worse. He always makes their condition better. Everyone who's blind was healed. He didn't blind the seeing person, he healed the blind person. He didn't make deaf those that heard he made those that were deaf to be able to hear. He didn't make plans. People leper's. He made lepers cleansed. He didn't dead the already living. He raised the dead. He didn't take. Food to make people hungry. He gave. Food and fed the multitudes, we got to get our perspective right on what God's like, because religion has painted this dark, mysterious picture about God. Well, you never know. Sometimes God says yes and sometimes God says no. Where where is that? Where is that in the Bible? Well, we just know it in life. Well, you got to have to decide what you're going to believe is the basis of your life. If the Bible is the basis or if people's experiences are the basis of your life, you have to choose what is going to be the foundation of your life. For me, the foundation of my life is the word of God. Man, if the Bible says, speak to the mountain, I'm not going to let the mountain speak to me. I'm going to speak to the mountain. If the Bible says here, I want to give you this beautiful gift called Praying in tongues, I'm going to Shalab Belmondo. Come on, man. I'm I'm going to pray yabba dabba doo. I'm going to pray in tongues. I'll get this thing started. However, I got to man, because that's a beautiful gift that God gives and there must be a reason for it. So I'm going to take it and I'm going to use it no matter how silly I sound. And no matter what religious preachers out there say, oh, you don't need to speak in tongues. Well, you know, there's a reason why Jesus said these signs will follow. Those who believe in my name, they will speak in tongues because there is a gift for everything your life comes up against that God has provided for you. But I want you to see something, man. There's just so much beauty in this in the scriptures about the Holy Spirit, because one of the things that we see here is the Holy Spirit breaks the barriers. There's so much I want to say about this, but I want you to see that the Holy Spirit is the barrier breaker. In other words, there's so much division in the Earth at that time. And yet they all came together and there were men from every men, women. When he uses men, he's talking about mankind, people from every nation under heaven. They were from every nation. What was the one place you know, I was thinking about it the other day and I thought, you know, I think President Trump showed up at a church last Sunday and they prayed for him and and people got mad and, you know, but but but you know what? If Barack Obama wanted to come to church here when he was president, I would have welcomed him and prayed for him. And if Trump wanted to come, I'd welcome him and pray for him. We got to stop having division. The church is not a place for political division. The church is not a place. The church is not a place for political division. I pray for Trump is the way I'd pray for Obama. God bless him. God anointed to lead this nation, God anointed to break barriers in order to make this country a place where the gospel is be preached. And I pray that way for the next president to whoever that is where we got it. We got to realize that the world without the Holy Spirit is divided. But the one place and you know what I would say to President Obama or President Trump or whoever is the president at that time, you know what I would say to them if they came here to pray? I would say, behold a church of people that are from every walk of life, a church of people that are from every political party, a church of people that are from every socio economic background. And what brought us together, Mr. President, was the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what will bring our nation together. And that's what will heal our land. Because without God, without God, a nation is doomed. Without God, a person's life is doomed. Without God, the world is doomed. They came together under every nation and every tongue and every tribe. And if you would look, I got to stop for a second, because some people find that hard to accept. And you gotta put God before politics. You got to put the Bible before politics. You've got to put unity before division. You got to put you got to put the Holy Spirit's presence and the love of God in your church above above your opinion about politics. Because you got one. I got one. We all got that opinion that we think is the best way of looking at things. But we have to take God's word about how to live and how to come together. And that's the only thing that'll bring us together. If this church was all one color, if this church was all one color, I would leave. If this church was all one political party, I would leave. If this church was all one age, I would leave. You know why? Because God's presence is proven by diversity with unity. Not. Not by not by one group, and that's the only group that is accepted, tolerated and allowed. May we tear down the barriers? And the Holy Spirit did that. He tore down the walls and he tore down the barriers. And guess what happened? The power got hit them and all these people from all these other nations. And they started they started speaking in tongues and everyone that heard them heard their own language. These guys weren't speaking those languages. They were speaking in tongues. But the people heard them in their language. And when the sound occurred in verse six, the crowd came together and it says and they were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. How is that possible? The disciples were speaking in tongues, but everyone that was hearing it heard them in their own language. Now, there's no way that one guy could hear French and one guy could hear Spanish and one guy could hear Hebrew and one guy could hear this other language. When it's all coming out of the same people's mouths, the only way that they could all hear their own language is if they were speaking in tongues and their ears. God was interpreting them for their ears. They were hearing them in their own language because they were speaking. They weren't speaking these languages. They were speaking in tongues. It doesn't say they were speaking in French and Polynesian and English. They were speaking in tongues and everyone heard them in their own language. Verse seven, look at what happens. And they were amazed and astonished and said, aren't these all Galileans that are speaking? In other words, they only know they only know Greek, they only know Galilean. They don't know all these other. How can they be speaking verse eight? And it says, how is it that each of us hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Meades and Islamists in Mesopotamia, Judea, Chiapas, South Asia, Nigeria paraphilia Egypt, districts of Liberia, Cairene, Rome, Jews, proselyte Cretans Arabs. We hear them in our own tongues. Speaking of the mighty deeds of God, this is what happened. The day of the Holy Spirit came. He brought people together and there was unity and everyone was hearing about the mighty deeds of God. And the thing that brought everybody together was the Holy Spirit. Verse twelve. Look at what happens in verse twelve. Let's keep going. And they were all continue to be in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, What does this mean? And but others were mocking and saying they are full of wine. They've been drinking. But Peter, taking a stand with the eleven, raised his voice. This is my one of my favorite scriptures. It's the funniest verse. He's raised his voice and said, Menaged and all, you live in Jerusalem. Let this be known and give heed to my words. Let he said, for these men are not drunk, as you suppose. Notice what he says. These men aren't drunk, as you suppose, because it's only the third hour of the day. He said, guys, if it was nine o'clock, they would be drunk. Just some comic relief in the Bible. He said this is what was spoken by the Prophet Joel, who said in the last days, I will pour out my spirit upon all mankind and notice what the Holy Spirit does when he comes upon all mankind. That means this is that this the Holy Spirit heals all the inequality. The Holy Spirit heals all the racism, the Holy Spirit heals all the divisions. The Holy Spirit heals all the gender inequality. Look at what he says. I will pour out my spirit on all mankind, your sons and your daughter shall prophesy there's equality between boys and girls, he said, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. There's equality among ages, even on my bond servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit. There's equality among male and female, and they shall prophesy keep going. And I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below. Blood and fire and and vapors of smoke. And he says, and before the great and glorious day of the Lord. But I want you to go back and see sons and daughters, young and old, male and female, all the nations. All people. Who possibly could bring all these people together and heal a broken world divided by gender, divided by race, divided by color, divided by age, divided by socioeconomic status, divided by nation, divided by language, who could bring all of them together and bring power into their lives? That leaves them change forever and gives them the power to change the world forever. Only the Holy Spirit, beloved the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is so important that we have overlooked him. We have put him in the corner. We have relegated him to crazy Pentecostals and, you know, crazy people that are, you know, that are that are just out of their minds and out of control. And we've made it to be where you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, makes you some sort of weirdo when really baptism in the Holy Spirit breaks the barriers, brings equality, releases the power and gives you the ability to prophesy and to speak to the mountain and speak to the dry bones, come back to life, dry bones. That's what happens when you get a hold of what the Holy Spirits presence means in your life. The Holy Spirit is God's presence in your life. It's God's presence everywhere you go. It's God's presence to fill and to heal the central problems that every human soul experiences. The Holy Spirit heals loneliness. He heals sadness and he heals powerlessness. Do you know that every one of our problems, every one of our circumstances and situations that happen in life put us in a condition where we're either where we either have sadness, loneliness, or we have a sense of powerlessness. And, you know, the Holy Spirit is the solution to all three of those things. The Holy Spirit delivers us from sadness by bringing us his joy. The Holy Spirit delivers us from from unhappiness, I should say, unhappiness or sadness. By bringing us joy, he delivers us from powerlessness, by bringing us his power. And he delivers us from loneliness by bringing his presence where he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Where else can you go and find that kind of quality, that kind of that kind of equality, that kind of power, that kind of freedom, that kind of deliverance? You know, they did a survey and found in America. Fifty percent of the people in this country actually would say they are lonely. You know why? Because sometimes, even though we have people in our lives, nobody can unzip you and come and live inside of you. Fact is, is if they could, then you'd have twice as many problems as you have now because you'd have your problems and now you'd have their problems, too. But what the Holy Spirit does is he comes to live inside of you and he's the problem solver. He's the comforter, the teacher, the encourager, the coach, the helper, the pair, Cledus, the power of God, the living and and the the breathing spirit of the living God. And he comes alive inside of you to equip you and to empower you to live victorious in this life. I'm telling you right now, there is no life. There is no victorious life without the Holy Spirits presence in our lives. And when you're born again, the Holy Spirit is present. But most Christians just don't know it. They're not aware of his presence. What what it is, is we have to learn how to activate the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let me show you what I mean by that in Acts. Chapter 10, verse forty five in Acts, Chapter 10, verse forty five. You can look there in your Bibles in Shepparton, verse forty five, it says, and all the believers came together. They were amazed that Peter will go back to verse forty four. Let's start, let's start one verse. Earlier Peter was preaching and while he was speaking verse forty four while he was still speaking these words. So he was preaching about Joel and he was preaching from the Old Testament and he was preaching the scriptures as it relates to the New Testament. And as he was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message and all the circumciser believers came. Peter was amazed and everybody was amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon people that weren't the Jewish people. And verse forty six. How do they know the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out? Says for they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. You know, I believe that with the one of the manifest, one of the great manifestations of the Holy Spirit in your life is speaking in tongues and exalting God. In other words, it's not just speaking in tongues, but it's also exalting God and exalting God isn't just saying. In a song exalting God is being in the worst time of your life and still being able to glorify God because you got peace on the inside of you, you've got peace flowing like a river because God lives inside you, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. And, you know, listen to hell in its ultimate fulfillment and in its fullest manifestation is is the absence of God. It's not the fire only it's not the worms that never stop eating. It's not the fire that's never quenched. It's the absence of God. The the the full manifestation of the absence of God is hell. And the full manifestation of the presence of God is heaven. Because it would matter to you if you were in fire, if God is with you, Shadrack Michigan Abednego, an example of that, they were in a fiery furnace, but the fourth man was in the fire with them so they could go through any fire and not be burned because of who was with them. You see, it's the presence of God, it's the presence of God that makes all the difference. And let me be very clear about something that has made so many Christians stumble because preachers are so ignorant in their preaching to Christians about God's presence. God's presence does not leave you because you sinned. God's presence does not leave you because you failed. God's presence does not leave you because you smoked. God's presence does not leave you because you had to drink. God's presence does not leave you because you blew it. I'm not saying to keep blowing it. I'm not saying to be addicted to something. I'm not saying that you should go ahead and continue that lifestyle. What I'm saying is you need to be aware of God's presence in you, even in your worst moment, knowing that he will never leave you or forsake you, because it is that knowledge. It is that assurance. It's that it's that assurance that gives you the power to handle your pressures, your addictions, your struggles, your circumstances. But when you think because you've stumbled or because you fell back or because you struggled, when you buy into the false doctrine that God will leave you, then you just get discouraged and you give up and you go further into your addiction and you go further into your sin and you go further into the problems. Why not? Because you're so addicted, not because you're such a bad person, but because you're so discouraged, because you you not because of anything you've done, but because of the religion that's been shoved down your throat to tell you that God left you and God forsook you, or that God's standing back waiting until you get your little act together. You stupid Christian, go get the help you need to get it figured out and now come back and live inside you. Let me tell you something that's not my God. That's not my lord. He comes in there and he stays and he never leaves. He'll never leave you and you never forsake you. And he will be with you in the dark times. He'd be. Oh, man, if we just believe this today that when we're at the top of the mountain, it was him that got us there. When we're in the bottom of the valley, it is him that is with us there. When you realize that that nothing will stop you, nothing will keep you in bondage, you've got God living inside of you. You have the advantage. You have the best being in the universe dwelling inside of you. You get through anything. Yeah. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for thou art with me. But let me tell you something. He's not just with you. He's in you. He's in you. And what's he doing all the while? We're you know, we still struggle to get to that verse and we struggle to find it. But what's he doing in there? He's at work to Will and to work for his good pleasure to bring his purpose to pass. Let me tell you something. While Peter was speaking these words, verse forty four, while Peter was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on them. While he was speaking. While he was speaking. What words? God's words, God's word. When you speak God's words, the Holy Spirit manifests in your situation. He's always there. But when you speak God's words, you give him something to work with, even God. Shows us that in Genesis one, verse one, anybody ever heard of that verse in the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth and the earth was formless and dark and empty, and darkness was over the face of the deep. So what was the earth like? Formless, empty. And darkness was over the surface of the deep noticed, though, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. There's still darkness, still empty, still void, still formless, but the spirit of God was there, what was he doing hovering? What was he doing hovering? What are you doing when you're on an airplane? And the control tower says to the pilot, we'd like you to land, but not yet. So circle around. And now to do another 10 minute, 15 minute circle. And you're like, what is happening here? Why don't we just land? Why can't we just land? Well, because you didn't get the direction from the control tower because the plane is under the power and authority of the control tower, the control tower, the air traffic control controls, whether that plane and when that plane is going to land and in the same way the Holy Spirit is hovering. And he he can land in your life, but he's got to hear from the control tower and you know what? The control tower is your mouth, because when you speak God's word, that is like the traffic control operator saying Flight five eight six four, you are cleared to land. And when you speak the word, you giving the Holy Spirit clearance to land because the Holy Spirit is hovering over the water, circling the waters, only when God said let there be light. There was light when the light show up, when God said it, what brought the light, the Holy Spirit and what will happen in your life is whatever is dark in your life, whatever is without form, whatever is void, whatever is empty, whenever darkness covers any air of your life. Let me tell you how to activate the power of the Holy Spirit. Speak God's word and you are giving the Holy Spirit permission to land. You say, well, the Holy Spirit doesn't need my permission, isn't he God? He is God. But he will never go where he's not invited. He will never go what is not permitted. That's why Jesus said whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And that word loosed is actually the word permit. Whatever you permit, heaven will permit. See, heaven doesn't overtake you. You give it permission and and heaven comes. You give the Holy Spirit permission speaking God's word and the Holy Spirit shows up. So when you lay hands on the sick, what are you doing? You give him the Holy Spirit permission to awaken the healing inside of them. When you speak God's word, you give him the Holy Spirit permission to bring that word to pass. When you pray in tongues, you give him the Holy Spirit permission to pray through you the perfect will of God. You want to stay in the wilderness. Go ahead and give up those gifts of speaking in the gift of declaring, in the gift of prophecy and the gift of speaking to you. Lay those gifts aside and you are giving up your rights to be able to walk in the power of God and you're giving up your rights to release and activate the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. And I'm telling you, man, don't let religion rob you of your power will stand up today and speak God's word. Stand up today and say, Lord, fill me, baptize me with the Holy Spirit and give me the power to speak in new tongues. Don't be ashamed, you say. Well, but over the last church I went to, they didn't. They told people to just hush up and not kind of not praying. Well, that's why you're not there anymore. The last church you came from, last church you came from didn't do much. That's why you're here. We're not going to leave you the same powerless life that they left you. And I'm not trying to criticize anybody. But what I'm trying to say is, if you're not here for the power of God, I don't know what you're here for, because when you come here, there is power available to you. And the Bible says you will receive power. You know, every negative emotion you have in this in your life is a result of feeling powerless. If you feel if you feel depressed, it's because you feel powerless about your current situation. If you feel guilty, it's because you feel powerless about your past. If you feel afraid, it's because you feel powerless about your future. And but the Holy Spirit, he gives you the power to do something about your past. You know what it is to be forgiven. He gives you something powerful to do about your present. You know what it is. Speak the word. He gives you something powerful to do about your future. You know what it is. Plant the right seeds. You have power over these things because the Holy Spirit is giving you that power. But if you keep your mouth close and if you don't open up and speak God's word, if you don't let the Holy Spirit pray through you, you are limiting God's activity in your life. And God wants you to live in an unlimited flow of his activity and his involvement and his landing in the dark areas of your life and in and in the void areas of your life and in the lonely areas of your life. You he will swallow up your loneliness. When you let the Holy Spirit have his way. He will swallow up your sadness. When you let the Holy Spirit have his way, he will swallow up your powerlessness when he let the Holy Spirit have his way. Yield to the Holy Spirit, believe in the Holy Spirit, honor the Holy Spirit. Let's not put him in the corner of the church somewhere for the crazy Wild Bunch. Let us be the people that say, come Holy Spirit, we welcome you here, live in me, operate through me, pray through me, activate through me as I speak your word and pray in the Holy Ghost. Well, I wish I had more time to get into this today. We got so much more deeper to go. But we are just scratching the surface of how good and how powerful and how prevalent and how how relevant the Holy Spirit really is in the everyday believer. Let us not forsake the power of God for the cleverness of man. The great oratory skills of great preachers, the great structure and systems of church gathering experts, no, let's not forsake the raw power of God for man's wisdom. And man skills and man's abilities, let's look to him, let's welcome him, let's activate him and watch his joy fill our lives, his presence, fill our lives, his power, fill our lives.
