Who Is the Holy Spirit? | Lesson 1 of the Holy Spirit | Study with John Bevere

hey friends you're getting ready to go through the M series on the Holy Spirit I want to encourage you please get a hold of the guide the guide of course is the writing that goes along with this message as well as the devotional and the workbook and let me tell you why this is important I find that meditation strengthens us in faith and in the word of God and as you go through the devotional as you go through the workbook we have things worked in there so intricately to really stir your faith and Propel your faith and get you to go even deeper on this most important subject you know the Holy Spirit he is the only one of the godhead that is actually here on this Earth he is the one that reveals glorifies and magnifies our Lord Jesus Christ the better we get to know him the better we get to know Jesus so getting the guide will solidify the word of God that you hear in these classes in your heart so that you can begin the wonderful wonderful walk-in Journey with life living in relationship with the Holy Spirit hope you enjoy the M series God bless you foreign we are here in our offices in Palmer Lake Colorado and I am so delighted to have some of our closest partners and friends and staff here so I can sense the hunger I mean I feel like this section coming out of me right now it's kind of amazing you guys are beautiful I like looking at you I think because you are full of the Holy Spirit that's why you're so handsome and beautiful amen but what we're talking about is the Holy Spirit and I'm going to tell you something this past month of my life has just been really really amazing it started about a month ago I was on a fast and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said read the book of Acts now the ironic part of this is the last time I went on an extended fast the holy spirit said read the book of Acts and I was like okay and as I read through the book of Acts the time previous I remember what stood out is the Apostle Paul his calling upon his life was to go to the Gentiles but because of his natural love he kept going first in every city to the synagogues to his Jewish country tree men and the result of that was he kept getting in trouble and trouble and trouble and the greatest trouble that was caused for him was from those Jewish people and God spoke to me in that fast and said stay within what I've called you to do because if you go outside of it you're asking for trouble and so this time as I read through the book of Acts I was amazed at how something different stood out to me and that is I began to notice right from the beginning for the apostles the leaders the Believers in the book of my acts how much they look to how much they interacted with how much they depended on and how much they spoke of the Holy Spirit I mean it was jumping out everywhere all over the place and so I realized he was a vital vital part of their lives and involved in everything they do I mean just listen to some of the comments just from the book of Acts and these are not all of them it reads something like this we are his witness businesses to these things and so also is the holy spirit they we read the spirit told me to go with them one of them showed by the spirit that there was going to be a Great Famine being sent out by the holy spirit for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia they tried to go to bithynia but the spirit did not permit them Paul was compelled by the spirit and testified Paul felt compelled by the spirit to go to Macedonia the Holy Spirit tells me that in city after City take heed to yourselves and all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers did you receive the Holy Spirit since you believed why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord you always resist the spirit are you seeing how much they talked about the holy spirit so I'm thinking wait a minute I'm not really witnessing this today in my day why is it that we don't talk about him are you with me so I'm going to make some upfront statements here that I just think need to be declared number one there is virtually no Christian Life without the holy spirit all right without the Holy Spirit Christianity becomes dry monotonous and mundane it remove the Holy Spirit from the church and it will morph into a social club or become a religious institution there is no love without the Holy Spirit there is no Revelation without the holy spirit in as a matter of fact the scriptures become lethal without the holy spirit because second Corinthians Chapter 3 Verse 6 says the letter kills but the spirit gives life there is no vision without the Holy Spirit there's no joy without the Holy Spirit there's no peace without the Holy Spirit there's no freedom without the Holy Spirit you know Paul says in second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 17 the Lord is the spirit that's interesting right there the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom now hold on a minute where the spirit of the Lord is he's omnipresent he's everywhere so we need a better understanding of what he's really saying here a better translation of what he was saying was wherever the spirit is Lord there is freedom he is not allowed to be Lord what does Lord mean Supreme and Authority he's not allowed to be the Lord in every home in every Christian's life in every Church where he's not allowed to be Lord you don't have freedom you end up becoming dry you lose your joy you lose your rest you don't have passion for life I'm 50 some years old I can't believe I just said that and I'm still as passionate about life as when I first got filled with the spirit of God at the age of 19 back in June of 1979. so now you can tell how old I am all right and so you know the purpose I want to say of what we're teaching here is to introduce you to the person of the Holy Spirit volumes could be written I could preach for weeks on the Holy Spirit I mean can you imagine if I stood up here and tried to tell you about Lisa bevere in four sessions there's no way I've been married to this amazing woman for 30 years now and I'm going to tell you something I am still growing in my knowledge and understanding of her her personality her ways every single day and there is absolutely no way I could tell you about her in four sessions I could introduce you to her I could tell you how to uh to contact her how best to interact with her how to listen to her how to work with her I could get you started but I'm not going to tell you everything about her so if you're expecting me to tell you everything about the Holy Spirit in these sessions forget it baby because you know Lisa's only 30 he's from Everlasting to Everlasting okay so he's a bit older than Lisa got it so anyway here's a tragic mistake that every single Christian makes and that is this they have tried they have attempted to study and understand the work of the Holy Spirit without first coming to know him intimately as a person you make a great mistake when you do that you know it's so important that we establish it settle it in our hearts whether the holy spirit is a Divine person who's infinitely holy infinitely wise infinitely powerful yet we're yet wonderfully tender wonderfully sensitive and wonderfully uh compassionate one who is worthy to receive our love our adoration our faith our devotion our complete surrender or if the holy spirit is simply an influence emanating from God a Divine mystical power kind of like those who think of the spirit of generosity or the spirit of democracy the latter view it's crude it's shallow it's even cultic and if we believe like that it opens us up to spiritual Pride because we almost can strut around as being a higher order of Christian and look down on other people are you with me however if we understand him to be infinite in Majesty Glory Splendor might and wisdom and Holiness and that he as a person has agreed with the father and the son to come and make his residence in us and to make our life good then it puts us on our face and keeps us there in humility are you with me and so you know people who see God as an influence who see the Holy Spirit as just a Divine entity you know what they constantly will be saying I want more of the Holy Spirit people who understand him to be a wonderful yet Mighty person will say how much more can I give myself to him you don't walk around with a spiritual Pride because you feel like you got more of somebody else you realize how can I give myself to this wonderful Creator more and more and more can you say Amen one of the reasons some of the people perceive the spirit of God as a mere influence rather than a person is because they refer to him as an it you know the spirit it they'll say it if I had one dollar for every time I've heard and all my Christian Ministry for 30 years of one dollar for every time somebody referred to the Holy Spirit isn't it I'd be very wealthy you know that you know many view the Holy Spirit as a holy entity rather than one who is most holy and desires to be your closest friend if they would just meditate on the scripture and just read it and allow the scripture to open up they would realize that the Holy Spirit has a mind Romans 8 27 talks about the mind of the spirit that he has a will First Corinthians 12 11 says he distributes each of his gifts as he Wills he has emotions as spoken about by his love and his joy in Romans 15 Galatians 22 and Ephesians 4 30 says that he could be made sad and sorrowful he Comforts he speaks Hebrews chapter 3 verse 7 says in fact he speaks clearly First Timothy 4 1 tells us he teaches I don't know any dumb teachers do you I know teachers to be people who communicate correct he can be grieved he can be made sad and sorrowful Ephesians 4 30. he can be insulted Hebrews chapter 10 verse 29 he can be resisted hex 7 51 and he can be lied to Acts chapter 5. our first impression of the holy spirit it's a dove why is that because in all four gospels we read that the spirit of God descended on Jesus like a dove but can I make a statement don't we make statements like this she runs like the wind he is strong like an ox does that make her a win does that make him a four-footed animal absolutely not but somebody says yeah but John he is represented as flames Before the Throne of God well can I tell you also that in the Bible it says I looked and behold in the midst of the elders in heaven stood a lamb as though it had been slain that was how John described Jesus Jesus certainly isn't a four-footed animal that is a lamb just like the holy spirit is not some mystical fire burning in front of God's Throne are you with me so who is the Holy Spirit he is the third person of the godhead Genesis 1 26 said then God said let us us make man in our image our image according to our likeness God didn't say let me make man let us make man if you look at acts 10 38 you see the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit all distinctly identified how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil you've got God the Father anointing Jesus with the Holy Spirit there's the three right there when Jesus was baptized at the River Jordan the three manifest as totally different persons you have Jesus our lord being baptized by John you have him coming up and the spirit of God descending on him like a dove and you have God the Father speaking from Heaven saying this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased so three distinct persons yet one God because Deuteronomy 6 4 says Hear o Israel the Lord Our God the Lord is one if you look at Romans 3 30 there is one God who will justify James 2 19 you believe there is one God you do well an example to help you understand is you've got water how many of you know in water takes three different forms you've got steam you've got liquid you've got solid which is ice but all three have the exact same molecular makeup three distinct forms but yet it's one are you with me that's the father that's the son that's the holy spirit amen he is actually the first member of the godhead that appears in the Bible Genesis chapter one in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth what's verse 2 say the Earth was up without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters he shows up right in Genesis chapter 1 verse 2. so who is the Holy Spirit we got to ask that amen he is the most amazing wonderful beautiful kind tender sensitive Mighty person on the face of this Earth you say John on the face of this earth oh yeah I'm the face of this Earth because you have to understand the father is not here on Earth he's on his throne in heaven Jesus is not here on the earth I hear people say all the time Jesus is in my heart he's seated at the right hand of God and the angel specifically said while the this is acts 1 9 and 11 while the disciples watched Jesus was taken up and a cloud received them out of their sight the two angels said men of Galilee why do you stand gazing up into heaven the same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in light manner as you saw him go into heaven in other words he's gonna come in the clouds has he come in the clouds no there's some people that might think that but you know they're out in a ranch somewhere you know where we can't find them but he hasn't come in the clouds yet that means he's at the right hand of God in heaven because when Stephen was being stoned Stephen looked and he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing in his right hand I love that how Jesus stood for his martyr to come home I just love that but you see Jesus has been there ever since you know approximately 2 000 years ago he's not he's not here I don't care how much you say he's in your heart it's the Holy Spirit the spirit of Jesus Christ because the holy spirit is referred to as the spirit of God the Father Matthew 10 20 Jesus made the statement it is not you who speak but the spirit of your father who speaks in you do you know who's speaking through me right now the spirit of my father you know I used to and I even tried it here before this taping I used to try to you know preach my message oh anybody that's ever preached before that is a miserable miserable thing because it's horrible I can't preach but then all of a sudden what happens the spirit of my father comes on me and I begin to speak the word of God are you with me oh I love him he's so amazing he's never left me dry he's never left me out to dry he never leaves this nor forsakes us he is the spirit of God the son I said the holy spirit is the spirit of God the son Philippians 1 19 for you know this will turn out for my Deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ how do the three work together well first Corinthians chapter 12 verses 5 through 7 gives us a little window into it we read and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord that would be Jesus there's differences of operations but the same God which worketh all in all that's God the father but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all so you can see what this shows us it gives us an Insight of how they work together so we've got the father operates all right that's verse six or in other words he initiates we have the son who administrates and then we have the Holy Spirit who manifests now to help you get an understanding of this let's say we want to build a house okay if we're going to build a house what happens you've got an architect you've got a foreman and you got the people that actually build the house the workers right the subs right well in that illustration this is crude but it works God the father's the architect Jesus is the foreman and The Holy Spirits the workers that actually build the house he's the manifester of creation are you with me because Jesus said in Matthew 12 28 if I cast out demons by the spirit of God now you hear that if I cast out demons by the spirit of God but Luke's gospel records it this way if I cast out demons with the Finger of God so exact same situation Matthew writes spirit of God Luke writes Finger of God so the holy spirit is the Finger of God now listen there's something you got to understand the Greeks always wrote according to form you've got their statues and all that stuff they're into all that stuff the Hebrew writers would always write according to function so that's why he's not actually fingers this is like if I was trying to communicate to you how the holy spirit is my hand does the work that my head desires my hand to do you see he's revealed as the Finger of God the hand of God the arm of God he delivered them with a strong hand and an outstretched arm he delivered them by his Spirit if you look at Psalm 8 3 when I consider your Heavens the work of your fingers so the holy spirit is the one who actually put those stars in their orbit put the Moon and the Earth because he says the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have ordained he's the one that manifested all creation that's why he's hovering upon the waters waiting for the architect to initiate in the sun to administrate by saying light be because Jesus is the word of God so when light B was spoken that was the son are you with me administrating what the father said to do and the holy Spirit made it happen I love that man that is so good are you with me I mean gotta be my favorite scriptures in the Bible and the Holy Spirit Isaiah 40. verse 12 who else now listen to these words who else has held the ocean in his hand think about he held the entire ocean in his hand who is measured off the heavens with his fingers so you can see the holy spirit's being described here by his function okay who else knows the weight of the Earth or who has weighed the mountains in a scale who is able to advise the spirit of the Lord who knows enough to give him advice or teach him has the Lord ever needed anyone's advice no way baby does he need instruction about what is good does someone teach him what is right or show him the path of Justice no for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket they are nothing more than dust on us on the scales he picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand the spirit of the Lord do you see how Mighty he is do you understand how Mighty he is remember when I said he is agreed with the father and the son to come make his residence in US it puts us on our face can you say Amen in regard to the creation of mankind Genesis 2 7 and the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living being who did that the Holy Spirit how do I know that because job said in job 33 verse 4 the spirit of God has made me and the breath of the almighty gives me life he was the one that breathed into Adam's nostrils the Breath of Life not only just Adam but each of us as well because Psalm 139 verse 13 says you formed listen to this you formed my inward Parts you covered me in my mother's womb in fact the spirit of God formed everything we see Proverbs 26 10 says the great God who formed everything he's the one that manifested the creative desire of the father are you with me so the Holy Spirit he's God how how is he referred to what are his names as revealed by the word of God it's called the Holy Spirit 96 times in the Bible it's called The Spirit of the Lord 28 times he's called the spirit of God 26 times called the eternal spirit he's called the helper he's called the comforter it's called the Holy One he's called the Lord he's called the spirit of Truth he's called the spirit of Christ the spirit of counsel the spirit of your father the spirit of the fear of the Lord the spirit of Glory the spirit of Grace he's called the spirit of Jesus Christ the spirit of judgment the spirit of burning the spirit of knowledge the spirit of Life the spirit of love the spirit of Might the spirit of power the spirit of Prophecy the spirit of Revelation the spirit of a sound mind the spirit of understanding the spirit of wisdom the spirit of holiness I love that the spirit of the holy God Jesus depended upon the holy spirit he was conceived by the spirit he was taught by the spirit he was empowered by the spirit he did not do one Miracle until he was baptized in the spirit at the River Jordan because John's gospel says the first miracle he did was that Canaan of Galilee after he was baptized the spirit Came Upon him he was led by the spirit he only spoke when he heard the spirit speaking John 14 10 Jesus said the words that I speak to you I don't speak on my own authority but the father who dwells in me he does the works notice Jesus did not say the Father in Heaven he said the father who dwells in me wait a minute John wait a minute you mean he's referring to the Holy Spirit as of his father well why wouldn't he because listen to what the angel said to Joseph do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit so why wouldn't he call him the spirit of my father are you with me Jesus and the Holy Spirit they work together as one side by side when he was on this Earth in fact Jesus made the statement the son can do nothing of himself if Jesus needed this ongoing partnership with the Holy Spirit to complete his mission his god-given mission how much more do we need the empowerment of the spirit to complete our mission no one knows the Holy Spirit better than Jesus so we need to look to him first Jesus to really understand how we are to interact with this amazing person of the godhead can you say Amen and so Jesus says in John 14 15 if you love me keep my Commandments and I will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever the spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive an unbeliever cannot receive him because it neither sees him nor knows him but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you you know there's so many nuggets but first of all notice Jesus says if you love me keep my Commandments you know isn't it interesting he prefaces talking about the Holy Spirit and obeying him his lordship his word you know what's interesting is Peter says in Acts 5 32 that we are his witnesses to these things and so also is the Holy Spirit who God has given to those who obey him why don't we talk about that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey him now notice Jesus said I'm going to give you another helper now look at the word another there are two Greek words that are translated another all through the New Testament the two Greek words are hetrus and Alice all right heteros means another of a different sort Alice means another of the same kind the question we have to ask is what is Jesus talking about here now let me make sure you understand David come here all right so here's David now David give me this all right now if I give David you're going to stand up here if I give David an apple and David eats that apple and I say David do you want another if I give him an orange I gave him another piece of fruit but it's another of a different sort if I give him another Apple it's another of the same kind right this would be hetras this would be alas which word is Jesus using thank you David which word is Jesus using here he's using the word alas so he is saying the holy spirit is going to be just like me identical he says I'm going to give you another helper everybody say helper the Greek word there is paracletos interestingly enough this word is used to describe Jesus when it says we have an advocate with the father in first John chapter 2 that is actually the word in describing Jesus's function with us as paracletos so what does this Greek word mean it actually comes it well it was actually used to describe a lawyer who would plead someone's case also it was used to describe a personal counselor or a coach now pericletos can be broken up into two words Pera and kalio Pera means this very close Paul used this word Pera to describe his relationship with Timothy there was nobody closer to Paul than the Apostle Timothy right he used that word to describe Timothy's closeness to him are you following me my wife Lisa she is para to me there is nobody closer to me on the face of the Earth than Lisa bevere I would use that word in describing my relationship are you seeing this now Khalil means to beckon or to call this word is frequently used in scripture when the apostles were describing their calling in other words when Paul said I am called an apostle to the Gentiles are you with me that word calling has a destiny to it it has a permanence to it are you following it so you put those two together and you know what Jesus is saying he's saying the holy spirit is permanently called alongside of us to coach us in our like life walk with God this actually is his calling and assignment and he does it permanently because Jesus said he'll abide with you forever he will not leave you nor forsake you isn't that good Jesus is communicating exactly the way I have been with you is the way he's going to be with you are you with me frequently I hear people say oh if I could have only walked with Jesus I would have asked so many questions why aren't you asking the Holy Spirit these questions do you think he's an entity do you think he's just an influence come from God or do you really believe he's a person if you believe he's a person you would be asking questions because you would know he is all-knowing are you with me I have said this before I'm going to say it again I think he's one of the most ignored people in the church are you with me because how many times do we go into church and he's not even mentioned or looked to how many times do Christians go through their day and not say one word to the one who is permanently called within them to walk with them are you with me Jesus made this statement mind-blowing John 16 7 nevertheless I tell you the truth stop and think about it he's been with these guys for three and a half years everything he's ever said has come to pass he said wouldn't be still it was still he said you're going to find a donkey over here and sure enough without having to go to eBay or Craigslist he told him right where to get the donkey right I mean man he he knew there was a thief on the staff said it and manifested he said what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem according to the the elders and turning into the hands of Sinners everything comes to pass okay that he speaks and then he's got to preface this statement after being with him for three and a half years is I'm telling you the truth so in other words what he's about to say to these guys is so mind-blowing he wants to make sure they understand that he's not lying to him the one who never lied and can't lie is saying I gotta tell you the truth this is the truth guys what is what's the rest of the verse it is to your advantage that I go away for if I don't go away the helper paracletus will not come to you but if I depart send them to you now the New Living Translation I like it even better he says it is best for you that I go away why is it best for us that Jesus went away why why well just think about it Jesus stayed and we wanted to talk to him and have him teach us we'd have to catch a flight to Tel Aviv rent a car okay drive to Galilee he's not hard to find because you got a couple hundred thousand people around waiting to get to the center so they could ask him their question and you know he did have to sleep and he did have to eat so maybe he's got you know 14 good hours to give us and people are coming in by the mess to talk to him but when you think about the holy spirit being just like Jesus teaching just like Jesus amplifying the things of God like Jesus the Holy Spirit doesn't have to sleep he doesn't have to eat he can carry on 10 000 conversations at the same time intimately with ten thousand different people that's why Jesus said it's better for you that I go away so in the next session we're going to talk about being intimate with this wonderful God [Music]

Channel: John Bevere

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Keywords: the holy spirit, john bevere, john bevere teaching, john bevere the holy spirit, john bevere the holy spirit session 1, the holy spirit teaching, john bevere curriculum, who is the holy spirit, understanding the holy spirit, theology, the trinity, what is the trinity, study with john bevere, john bevere study, holy spirit teaching, holy spirit, jesus christ, worship, bible study, holy spirit teaching series

Id: QH8VxqtVoSk

Length: 33min 39sec (2019 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023