The Sensitivity Of The Holy Spirit | R.T. Kendall

i'm so excited today that a friend of our ministry dr rt kendall is with us again we've been blessed each month to hear from dr rt kendall who served at westminster chapel in london england for the last 25 years today i want you to especially begin to open up your heart as dr rt begins to share insensitivity of the spirit of all the messages that dr rt kendall has preached this probably as has the top three of influences on my life as he begins to dig into acts chapter three even begin to relate about pigeon religion i want you to begin to allow the holy spirit begin to touch you as dr rt kendall speaks about the sensitivity of the spirit i want to talk to you today about a spectacular miracle in the earliest church performed by peter and john what's interesting is that jesus could have healed him in fact jesus went right by this man 40 years old crippled never walked jesus could have healed him but walked right by him and suddenly we read in acts chapter 3 now peter and john were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer the ninth hour and a man lame from birth was being carried whom they had daily laid at the gate of the temple that is called beautiful to ask him of those of the of ask arms of those entering the temple seeing peter and john about to go to the temple he asked to receive alms or peter directed his attention to them and said look at us and the man thought he was going to get something and then peter said silver and gold i don't have but what i do have i give you in the name of jesus christ rise up and walk and the man was instantly healed a brief word of prayer heavenly father i ask now for the sprinkling of the blood of jesus by your spirit to be upon every person watching and hearing that their perception of what i say will be received as you intend cleanse my tongue but i will be a transparent instrument to say everything that needs to be said nothing that doesn't need to be said may this be a life-changing word a word that brings great honor and glory to your name i ask you in jesus name amen well the question is why didn't jesus heal this man some have the idea of jesus comes into your house everybody will be healed well the truth is jesus went by him many times over previous years walked right by him didn't heal him and then one day peter and john heal him what's going on what i want to talk to you about today aspects of the holy spirit i want to talk about the sovereignty of the spirit you see the sovereignty of the spirit mirrors the sovereignty of god god said to moses repeated in romans 9 15 i will have mercy on whom i will have mercy i will be gracious to whom i will be gracious well so with the holy spirit in fact the holy spirit is referred to in john chapter 3 verse 8 where having said to nicodemus you must be born again said the spirit blows where it wills like the wind you can't tell where it's coming from where it's going because every person born of the spirit is a sovereign act of god we must never forget that well now sovereignty of the spirit the point being why didn't jesus heal this man here's what we know jesus was not his own man that may surprise you but he said so himself john 5 19 the son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the father do and so jesus does what the father says and i sometimes think that as he walks by this crippled man he looks to the father and says we're going to heal him but the father said maybe i i fantasize that he might have said to jesus i'm saving him for peter and john i can't prove that but what i know is jesus didn't heal him and then one day peter and john they're on their way to a prayer meeting and suddenly they stop and they know that god wants to heal this man because in the sovereign purpose of god this man's time had come and god waited on peter and john to do that well the sovereignty of the spirit what that means is that the holy spirit is like jesus in this way jesus could do nothing except what the father told him to do likewise the holy spirit there's a verse in john 16 when the holy spirit comes he will not speak on his own what that means is that the holy spirit doesn't have one will the father has another will and they argue back with each other no they're together jesus did what the father wanted him to do the holy spirit did what the father wanted him to do and now the man's healing the time has come maybe you're waiting for healing you need to know you cannot twist god's arm all we can do when it comes to any request it's like the leper the leper he knew his place he knew that he was not going to be welcome wherever he goes but he knew if he came to jesus jesus would accept him except for one thing the leper doesn't come and snap his finger and say jesus you've got to do something oh no don't ever do that god doesn't have to do anything but here's what the leper said lord if you will you can make me clean and jesus said i will and i would suggest that to anyone don't ever think that you can demand things uh don't go there ever but you say lord if you will all right the sovereignty of the spirit the man's time had come and i pray that your time will come and i pray that time will come when god will pour out his spirit in great measure and we see healings and miracles i'm looking forward to that and it can come any time but the question is how did peter and john know to do this you see they were on their way to a prayer meeting they had a prayer meeting in the early church at three o'clock in the afternoon peter and john on their way to the prayer meeting and suddenly they stop how did they know that the time for this man's healing had come i want now to introduce what i think is very very important subject the sensitivity of the spirit now i've written a book called sensitivity of the spirit some people refer to that book as being sensitivity to the spirit that's not the title it may come to that and that's important but here's the thing we need to know something about the third person of the trinity he's a very very sensitive person that means he gets his feelings hurt that means that it's easy to offend him and you may say well he ought not be like that but that's the way he is and he's not going to adjust to us we must adjust to him in fact in ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 paul said grieve not the holy spirit of god with whom you are sealed for the day of redemption the word grieve comes from a greek word that means get your feelings hurt that list lets us know that the third person of the godhead this may surprise you but this is the way he is you know when i first came in touch with this teaching which was pretty much new to me if i'm telling you the truth i had not discovered it and then when i saw it i thought my i don't know where we could have missed it but here's what we know the third person of the godhead is hypersensitive and i wanted to call the book the hypersensitivity of the spirit my publisher talked me out of it said nobody will know what you mean by that but the truth is it is easy to grieve the spirit now what that means he gets his feelings hurt now we don't lose our salvation in fact paul could not be clearer grieve not the holy spirit of god with him you are sealed for the day of redemption nothing could be clearer than that but what it does mean is that when we grieve the spirit the sense of his presence just goes away uh there's an interesting verse in john chapter 1 where john the baptist said the reason i knew that this jesus was the messiah i was told that when you see the dove come down and remain when the holy spirit comes down like a dove and remain you know that's the one and then the verse after that says the holy spirit will come down and remain many of us are aware that the holy spirit is depicted in the new testament as a dove by the way that's not the only way he's depicted as fire wind other ways but why the dove well the dove is a very sensitive shy bird and this is the way he's depicted and what john says the devil would come down and remain one day i saw that word remain in a way i'd never seen it before you see here's what sadly i've discovered about myself that the holy spirit will come down but it doesn't remain uh there have been times i'm sure many of you watching you know exactly what i'm talking about when the holy spirit comes down there's such peace there's such joy and you think lord oh this is wonderful please please stay don't don't leave don't go but life goes on and before the day's over you think what happened he was so real maybe it happened when you were going down the interstate and car in front of you going so slow and you roll down your wind and you shout what's the matter with you or you're in a supermarket and and you're in a hurry and you're at the cash register to pay do you want to get out but there's a little old lady in front of you she's in no hurry and she's counting her change and you think oh [Music] you wanted her to hear you she did but so did the holy spirit and it's just like the dove flew away but you know that never happened with jesus the holy spirit came down and remained jesus never ever grieved the holy spirit and if you and i could learn the secret of not grieving him well you may say arty what grieves the spirit i can tell you as soon as paul said grieve not the holy spirit of god with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption he added these words let all bitterness anger strife clamor be put away from you speaking evil of one another and then he added forgiving one another as god in christ forgave you the chief way it's not the only way but the chief way we grieve the holy spirit is when we are bitter when we're angry and the scary thing about being angry is at the time we don't feel anything we don't think there's anything wrong about it you know a person's going in front of you they're slowing down and you honk your horn what's wrong with that well maybe not the worst sin in the world but the holy spirit just leaves for for the moment well you're trying to get someplace and somebody's in front of you and you say get out of my way you say well what's wrong with that not it's not the greatest sin in the world but i'm saying it is so easy to grieve the holy spirit and the dub just flies away uh perhaps you know this that pigeons and doves are in the same family uh uh anatomically a pigeon in a dove the very same no difference except intemperament for example you can train a pigeon but you cannot train a dove pigeons are boisterous doves are gentle i've written a book called pigeon religion you know there are those of us who can't tell the difference between a pigeon and a dove and i see the pigeon is a symbol of counterfeit religion people will say you should have been in church sunday the holy ghost came down and you get to the bottom of it it was possibly pigeon religion there are those who can't tell the difference there's they just think there's a lot of noise and shouting everybody happy uh the dove is gentle and so when it comes to understanding the holy spirit just remember he won't bend the rules for any of us there was a couple from britain that went to israel as missionaries and um they noticed that they'd been given a home to live in near jerusalem and a dove had come to live in the eve of the roof of their house they were so excited it was kind of like a a seal of god on there being in israel but they noticed that every time they would slam a door the dove would fly away every time they would get into an argument with each other and start shouting the dove would fly away and one day sandy said to bernice have you noticed the dove oh she said it's like a seal of god in our being in israel but every time we slam a door we start shouting at each other the dub just flies away and she said yes and i'm so afraid but the dove will fly away and never come back he looked at her and these words he told all over england years ago he said to her either the dove adjusts to us or we adjust to the dove would you believe it changed their lives just to keep a dove an animal in the eve of the roof of their house they were never the same again but i must tell you something the holy spirit is a hundred times more sensitive than that and it is so easy to grieve him and i never will forget many years ago when i came to understand something of this i thought you know it's not fair it's so easy to grieve the spirit we're all human well true but this is the way the holy spirit is and i'll tell you something it's i would have thought this insight is one of the most life-changing words that i've ever come across and when you begin to practice and realize how easy it is to grieve the spirit some years ago just as i was going into the pulpit of a church in florence alabama pastor said to me just as we were walking in he said by the way what's a veteran like you got to say to a young whipper snapper like me i thought well what do i say i said i've got it find out what grieves the holy spirit and don't do that and you've got your work cut out for you here's the thing anger bitterness holding any kind of grudge you don't lose your salvation that's the good news but here's something you need to face if you're wanting the conscious presence of god the sense of his anointing he won't bend the rules for any of us and when we find out what grieves the spirit whether it's slamming a door or shouting i can tell you it will make a difference i've come up with this word i don't know if i've coined a word or not ungrieved keep the holy spirit in you ungrieved that's like when jesus came down or the spirit on jesus the dove the dove just remained jesus never grieved the spirit and if we could learn to realize that the holy spirit when it comes down it's the most wonderful thing it's a treasured moment and i know what it is to say lord this is so good just stay just stay and i would define spirituality as closing the time gap between sin and repentance for example how long does it take you to admit you sinned how long does it take you to admit you were wrong you know some of us uh we say i will never admit i was wrong those time got years 25 years and then one day they wake up and say you know i've been thinking maybe i was wrong all those years some narrow the time gap to months and then they say sorry i shouldn't have said that some narrow the time gap to weeks some to a few days that's better but some narrow the time gap to a few hours and some to a few minutes and would you believe it some to a few seconds if we could learn to narrow the time gap to a few seconds we begin to know his ways god said of ancient israel hebrews chapter 3 they have not known my ways well god wants you to know his ways and one of the ways of the holy spirit is it's easy to grieve him you know i have friends who say what we need is for the fire to come down i couldn't agree more but remember this when the fire came down on the day of pentecost there were 10 days when they prayed and when they were all one accord with one accord they were in agreement when they were together then the spirit came down it's true i want the fire to come down but maybe we need to learn how to bring the dove down when he's ungrieved unquenched and it just is himself well here's the thing how did peter and john know that this time had come for the man's healing how did they know because they're on their way to a prayer meeting well suddenly they both instantly they were sensitive to the holy spirit because they honored the sensitivity of the spirit i reckon that if peter and his wife had had a big fight that morning and they now were on the way to the prayer meeting they would have made it to the prayer meeting or just at the moment when peter says to the crippled man look at us and john stops wait a minute peter why is it always you saying look at us why can't i say it once in a while you know what the dove would have just flown away but they were together and they were in union there was no rivalry and they said look at us and i think if the church could come to the place where all of us there's no rival spirit we're not trying to outdo one another or get attention what a difference it would make and because the holy spirit in peter and john ungrieved god the father can direct the spirit and instantly because peter and john enjoyed the ungraved spirit no rival spirit no argument they never made it to that prayer meeting they stopped and they looked at this crippled man and said look at us you see they were sensitive to the holy spirit some people could criticize them well they should have gone to the prayer meeting well all i know is they never made it to that prayer meeting and god came in unexpectedly well we're talking about the holy spirit the sovereignty of the spirit the sensitivity of the spirit but there's a third thing i want you to see the surprise of the spirit here's what happened crowds gathered and they came from everyone hundreds coming up what's going on they see this crippled man instantly healed and you know what peter says to them why does this surprise you that's interesting why does it surprise us well here's the thing i want to get over if i could if the holy spirit is in us ungrieved nothing should surprise us if he's grieved and we're angry the big surprise if god stepped in he could he could overrule but it's more likely when we are together let's say i've got a friend and he and i are enjoying fellowship and we enjoy the fellowship because the ungrieved spirit is in him and the ungrieved spirit is in me and we just enjoy one another i might say if i may that's the kind of fellowship i have with tim dalina it's just wonderful and my son tr is with us the three of us we enjoy the fellowship because in common each of us has the holy spirit ungrieved but then sometimes this happens and by the way it hasn't happened lately so i'm just imagining something but here's let's say a fourth person comes in and uh he is not aware of our fellowship and he starts running down people and said what's wrong with this place and you can sense immediately the fellowship is broken and the dove just flies away you see if any church could enjoy the holy spirit ungrieved not just two or three but if it doesn't what if a hundred imagine a church with a hundred people and all of them enjoying the ungrieved spirit i can tell you who knows what would happen nothing should surprise us that means that god just can break in with ease and that's the way we should live in such a way that if god shows up nothing surprises us it's a wonderful thing when we honor him uh just before we went on this program we were talking about my name my name is robert tillman i go by rt my father named me after his favorite preacher r t williams he had a saying and i grew up hearing this here was his saying honor the blood and honor the holy ghost yeah i i heard that as i grew up that means honor the blood of jesus and you honor the holy spirit and you honor him by living in such a way that you don't quench the spirit you don't grieve the holy spirit and when we live like this then nothing should surprise us nothing and so peter said why does this surprise you it shouldn't and then we come to the fourth point i want to make today i call it the strategy of the spirit why that word i can tell you there was a divine strategy it was at work why didn't jesus heal that man jesus went by him several times he just passed him up and i reckon i reckon that god was waiting for the right time because he knew the day would come that jerusalem would need a platform you say well they had a platform day of pentecost uh 3 000 converted true but most of those that were converted were not from jerusalem they came from all over the mediterranean and they went back to their homes when they all left were just a handful of people part of the jerusalem church and they needed a platform and god had a strategy and i can tell you he has a strategy with all of us we may wonder lord why don't you work why do you take so long i think of psalm 84 verse 11. i think of this verse almost every day no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly and you would think why couldn't that man be healed wouldn't it be a good thing if jesus had healed him well remember the divine strategy when you see what god is up to what he has in mind you won't complain and so the day came when peter and john suddenly see this man healed and hundreds and hundreds come running up because they knew about that man they knew that crippled man 40 years old never walked he was a household name in jerusalem he was a fixture everybody knew about him and now he's not only walking but he's leaping he's sleeping and they said what's going on what is this what does peter do this is very important he says why does this surprise you and why are you looking at us you know i don't mean to be unfair i'm afraid that some of us if we saw a miracle like that we'd call in the new york times and want an interview and say look what happened in our church not peter not john they said why are you looking at us as though we did something that caused this man to walk and what did they do they are given a platform and how did they use the platform they use the platform to preach the gospel this is what jerusalem needed you may say well they needed some kind of affirmation they needed encouragement they needed everybody to see uh that that they were not just uh ordinary people but now they're gonna be superstars you know that didn't cross their minds it made it they just said why look at us as though we have done something and here's what they said i can tell you that the god of abraham raised up jesus son of god who died on the cross and shed his blood and now he is alive and he is wanting your repentance and what peter and john did was to take advantage of the platform and not call attention to themselves or even so much to the miracle but to the fact that jesus came he died and i want you to know the most important thing i can say to you the most important thing anybody can say to you i would put it by way of a question let me ask you a question do you know for sure that if you were to die today would you go to heaven do you know that has anybody ever asked you that it's the most important question anybody can put to you now it may annoy you a bit uh when i was at westminster chapel we were out on the streets and we would put this to passes by and it made a lot of them angry but not everybody once in a while somebody would stop and then they would listen to us and i would urge you not to be angry when i put this question to you it's the kindest most loving question anybody can put to you do you know for sure that if you were to die today would you go to heaven and then i would ask you a second question if you were to stand before god you will and if he were to ask you he might [Music] why should i let you into my heaven what would you say to him what would you say to him suppose it's for real and you're standing before god and you're at the judgment and after judgment it's heaven or hell and dear friend eternity lasts a long time what would you say to god let's suppose you'll be all by yourself because you will you won't have your best friend your parent a loved one to whisper the answer and you're going to have to come up with the answer and you give the wrong answer you have to go someplace else where you don't want to go so what would you say would you say well i've tried to do this i've tried to be a good person i would just have to say loving late to you that's not enough what if you said i've done my best well i'm sorry but even your best isn't good enough well rit that's not fair if you've done your best what more can you do you see doing our best will still come short of the glory of god romans 3 23 all have sinned and come short of the glory of god anything short of the glory of god is sin you don't need to rob a bank to be a sinner you don't need to kill somebody to be a sinner sin is in our thoughts our words our deeds jealousy is sin getting angry with another person that sin if it does not come to your mind when the question is put to you what you would say to god if you're standing before him why you should go to heaven if it doesn't come to your mind to say because jesus died for me on the cross if that doesn't come to your mind i wouldn't want to be in your shoes for anything in the world but that can all change it's no accident that you tuned in there's no accident you've heard this question i would ask you now if you did not say in your heart because jesus died but you're trusting your good works your baptism confirmation church membership but you didn't say because of jesus because of his blood you need to pray this prayer say this wherever you are you can say it out loud that's better say it in your heart god will see you repeat these words lord jesus i need you i want you i know i'm a sinner i'm sorry for my sins wash my sins away by your blood i welcome your holy spirit into my heart and as best as i know how i give you my life [Music] did you pray that prayer just then did you i can tell you if you prayed that prayer from your heart i can tell you something the bible says you've just been born again yeah congratulations happy birthday best thing that will ever happen to you you now have the holy spirit and you have the promise of jesus who said i am with you always even to the end of the age you have the promise of god i will never leave you i will never forsake you he's with you forever thank god that he sent jesus thank god for the most important question and that you heard it today and you responded god bless you let me just pray this heavenly father apply this word by your holy spirit in jesus name i pray amen sensitivity to the holy spirit wow thank you so much rt i have to tell you of all the messages that rt has preached over the years that i've heard him this has probably been the one that i've carried with me more than any other message it has so affected me especially that part when he talks about maturity it's it's it's making the time frame between the grieving of the spirit that may be that act of the flesh that sin and repentance and shortening that time gap those are things of of this message that have so challenged me i want to ask you to do me a favor in fact this is the message we all need to hear and it's something that i i want you to share with with friends and with and with people in your church that literally god would begin to do that work of the holy spirit in our churches but the thing that i'm most excited about are those that made that decision that rt talked about being born again the most important question anyone could ever ask you rt asked you and you made the right decision what you did was you decided today to be born again you decided today i want to follow jesus i want to ask you to do me one favor you're going to see a number come on the screen i'm going to ask you wherever you are to text the word decided to 5100 that's 51 000.5100 we are right now doing something brand new and i don't want you to miss it through this is the reason why we want you to text 5100 the word decided as soon as you send this we want to help you on this brand new journey that you've decided to follow jesus on what you're going to get in the first week you're going to get four different links that are going to take you to five to seven minute videos really to start helping you on this journey everything from communion and water baptism to bible reading and prayer and these are going to be just simple guides on this brand new journey over the next six weeks we want to begin to help you walk on this journey you're going to have people contact you and begin to help you as you have made the greatest decision of your life you decided to be born again please text the word decided to 5100 we celebrate with you and as rt kendall said happy birthday happy second birthday god bless you

Channel: Times Square Church

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Id: ne9rRWvHAWk

Length: 37min 54sec (2274 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 02 2021