One Power: The Holy Spirit

Well, if you have a Bible, I hope you or somebody around you does that you can look on with, let me invite you to open with me to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. I remember that day like it was yesterday, I was a junior in college and my girlfriend for the previous three years was coming back one afternoon from a conference much like this, and my plan was to ask her to marry me that night. I’d picked up an engagement ring that morning. It pretty much cost me all the money I had. I knew I did not want to lose it, so I had a few hours to hold onto it and not lose it. I had one errand to run. I needed to play a song that night as part of the whole asking her to marry me, and this was before the days of Spotify or Apple Music. We had these things called CDs that you had to buy from a store.

So I planned to go to the mall, to a music store, to get a CD with this song on it, but I was so concerned that this was the day some dude was going to rob me in the mall and take this ring I had with me. So I found the heaviest thickest coat I had. It wasn’t that cold outside, but I put the coat on. It had a pocket right here. I unzipped the pocket, I put the ring in the pocket, zipped the pocket back up. I put the coat on. I got out of the car and I walked into the store with my head down, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone, just get in, get the CD, get out. So I get to the music store, I’m looking around for the CD and I can’t find it anywhere. So I go over to the woman who worked the store and I said, “Ma’am, I’m looking for this CD. Could you help me find it?” And she’s like, “Sure, why do you want that CD?”

I’m not really in the mood at this point for small talk but she asked me that question so I said, “Well, I’m getting engaged tonight and I’d like to use this song from that CD.” And she said, “Well, do you have the ring with you?” I was like, “Why all the questions? Just help me find the CD,” and I’m starting to think, “I don’t want to tell her I’ve got the ring with me, but I’m not going to lie.” So I’m like, “Yes. Yes, ma’am, I’ve got the ring with me. She was like, well, can I see it? I’m like, no, I don’t want to show you the ring. It’s not for you, it’s for somebody else.” So she’s like, “Come on, please, can I see it?” So I’m like, “Okay.” So I turn my back, we’re in the corner of the store at this point, turn my back to everybody else. I unzip the pocket, I pull out the ring. I just lean over and I show it to her and she’s like, “Wow, that’s beautiful.” Then she rises up and she says, “Hey everybody, this guy’s getting engaged. Come check out this ring.”

At this point, I’m just looking for the dude who wants to rob me, like, “I’ll just throw it to you. No need for a physical altercation, just take it.” Everybody in the store is coming over to look at the ring. I’m like, “Ma’am, will you please just give me the CD so I can get out of here?” And finally she did. I took that ring in my hand and ran out of there. Everything about my life changed that day, the way I thought, the way I talked, the way I walked, the way I acted, the way I interacted with others, everything changed when I realized what a valuable possession I had with me. That is the picture I want to put in your mind as we talk about the Holy Spirit tonight. The third person of the Trinity, father, son, and Holy Spirit. And if you are a follower of Jesus, the Bible says you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you as your possession. Read it in 1 Corinthians 6:19.

“Do you not know,” I think we’ll have it on the screen, “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God.” Your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives within you. The Holy Spirit of God dwells in you. And I think most of you, or maybe I could put it this way, most of us in this room do not understand or realize how awesome this is, and I want to submit to you that Satan wants it that way. Francis Jan in his book on the Holy Spirit, Forgotten God, wrote, “If I were Satan and my ultimate goal was to thwart God’s kingdom and purposes, one of my main strategies would be to get churchgoers to ignore the Holy Spirit,” and I believe that’s exactly what Satan has done with most of us, and I’ve got a relative few minutes tonight to try to communicate how awesome this is so that you might realize not what, but who is living in you in a way that totally changes everything about the way you think and desire and act and interact and speak and spend your life.

So here’s what I’m going to do, and I’ll just add, this was not my plan coming into this conference. I had a whole different message planned, but yesterday the Lord redirected me through the course of being here. I stayed up most all night because I want to show you 50 ways the Holy Spirit supernaturally transforms your life. And just so you know, I had to cut it down to 50, so you’re welcome. The only other time I have done a message with this many points, was at Cross five years ago, so we’re going to roll with it again. I want you over the next few minutes to be overwhelmed, completely overwhelmed with what it means to have the Holy Spirit inside of you. And if you’re not a Christian yet, maybe you’re feigning Christianity like Joanna’s testimony yesterday, that you will say tonight in the next few minutes, “I am tired of playing games. I want the Holy Spirit in me.” Now, obviously, we’re not going to spend a lot of time on each of these points. We’re going to go pretty fast through most of them, camp out on just a few of them, and if you want to try and take notes, I’m going to have everything up here on the screen, so good luck.

Here we go. Number one, you ready for this? And I should caveat, these first two are just generally what the Holy Spirit does in the world. So here we go. One, the Holy Spirit gives life, the Holy Spirit gives life. I read this in my Bible reading two days ago, first verses in the Bible, Genesis 1:1-2. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The Earth was without form and void. Darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” The spirit of God involved in creation. And in the verses that follow, He gives life in such a way that the Book of Job later says, chronologically around the time of Genesis, “The spirit of God has made me. The breath of the Almighty gives me life.” It’s the spirit of God by the common grace of God who gives life to all of us in this world. And number two, the Holy Spirit sustains life.

So Job 34:14-15, speaking of God says, “If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together and man would return to dust.” So if God were to withdraw His spirit, you and I would be done. Now this is as I mentioned, something that applies to all people, not just Christians, but think about this, Christian, the same spirit who was hovering over the waters before the world even began, the same spirit who sustains life for over 8 billion people on this planet, that spirit lives inside of you, right where you’re sitting right now. That will knock you out of your seat if you really think about it. And we’re just two in. All right, number three, the Holy Spirit testifies to the one who is life. In John 15:26, Jesus tells His disciples, “When the helper comes who I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness or testify about me.”

We know about Jesus because the Holy Spirit testifies to us about Jesus and it’s the Holy Spirit who enables you, number four, to confess Jesus as Lord. 1 Corinthians 12:3, I want you to understand, no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says, “Jesus is cursed.” No one can say, “Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.” Do you see that? The only way your eyes can be opened to the glory of Jesus and your mouth to confess him as Lord of all and Lord of your life, that only happens by the Holy Spirit. If you confess Jesus is Lord, it’s the Holy Spirit who made that happen. You can’t say that truly without him. So now I’m going to start to use the word you in these pictures of the Holy Spirit because I want you to feel this, the wonder of the Holy Spirit and what He does in you and for you. So it’s the Holy Spirit, number five, who gives you new birth.

Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3, “You must be born again.” Nicodemus says, “What do you mean?” And Jesus answered, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound. You don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.” For every follower of Jesus in this room, you have a story of a moment where your eyes were opened to see Jesus as Savior and Lord, it was the Holy Spirit who was doing that. You didn’t even realize it. It was the Holy Spirit of God who was making that happen, giving you birth. The Holy Spirit did that, gave you entirely new birth, which leads to number six, the Holy Spirit gives you new life. Check this out, Romans 8:11, “If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit who dwells in you.”

The Spirit, he’s the one who raised Jesus from the dead. The Holy Spirit is the one who took Jesus’ dead body and after three days, brought it to life, and that same Holy Spirit will give life to you in your body. Again, just think about it right where you’re sitting right now, the same spirit who brought Jesus back to life is dwelling inside of you right now, giving you spiritual life. Holy Spirit gives you new life every single day. Number seven, the Holy Spirit testifies to your adoption into God’s family. So just a few verses later in Romans 8:15, Paul writes, “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. You’ve received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba Father.” The Spirit himself testifies, bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. The Spirit decrees, you’re an adopted child of God. The Spirit says that you call the sovereign, holy, omnipotent, infinitely glorious God of the universe, dad, father.

I think about all my kids, 18 years old, down to two years old. I think about the pride I feel and say, “That’s my son, that’s my daughter.” The Holy Spirit says that to your spirit. You are His daughter, you’re His son, you’re His child. Do not listen to who the world says you are. Listen to who the Holy Spirit says you are. Do not ground your identity in what other people think or say about you. Ground your identity in what the Holy Spirit thinks and says about you as a treasure of God, as His child. Then, so see the unity of the spirit with our spirit here, which then leads to number eight, the Holy Spirit comes to live in you. So we’ve already seen this in 1 Corinthians 6, but this is what God had promised centuries before this.

In Ezekiel 36, “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh. I’ll give you a heart of a flesh. I will put my spirit within you,” which is why Peter’s first proclamation of the gospel ends with these words in Acts 2:38, Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” What a gift. Are you serious? The Holy Spirit, I receive the Holy Spirit, God, himself, in me. No, we do not come to Jesus to get health or wealth or prosperity or comfort or stuff. We come to Jesus to get God and we receive him, God himself in our lives. All right, I got to pick up the pace here. Well number nine, oh, it’s time. Oh, all right, number nine, what does the Holy Spirit do in you?

So the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin. In John 16:7-8, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it’s to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away, the helper,” talking about the Holy Spirit, “will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you and when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” Conviction comes from the Holy Spirit who helps us turn from sin. Praise God for conviction of sin that keeps us from death and judgment. And not just convicts us of sin, number 10, the Holy Spirit sets you free from sin. 2 Corinthians 3:17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom where the Holy Spirit is.” Freedom to experience the life God made you to live. And number 11, the Holy Spirit sets you free from condemnation. Do not hang your head low, Christian.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. The Holy Spirit sets you free from condemnation, sin and death. Later in Romans 8, “The Holy Spirit puts your sinful nature to death.” Romans 8:13, “For if you live according to flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Christian, you are not a slave to sin anymore. Sin does not have reign over you. You have reign over sin by the power of the Holy Spirit inside you. You are not conquered by sin. You are a conqueror of sin by the Holy Spirit in you. Do not believe the lies of the adversary that you’ll just never get over this sin. You have the one who has defeated sin and the grave, living inside of you, His spirit. Holy Spirit puts your sinful nature to death.

Number 13, the Holy Spirit washes, justifies and sanctifies you. 1 Corinthians 6:13, “You’re washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God,” it’s the spirit of God who makes you holy. More specifically, number 14, the Holy Spirit transforms you into the image of Jesus. Listen to 2 Corinthians 3:18, “We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit.” The spirit is in you to transform you to look more like Jesus today than yesterday, and tomorrow than today. This is stunning. Transformed from one degree of glory to another, every day. Yes, Holy Spirit, do that in me. And how does that happen? Number 15, the Holy Spirit takes all that belongs to Jesus and reveals it to you.

In John 16:14, talking about the Holy Spirit, Jesus says “He will glorify me for He will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the father has is mine. Therefore, I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Do you hear this? The Holy Spirit takes all that belongs to Jesus, how much belongs to Jesus? Everything. And he passes it on to you and Jesus has all that the Father has. This is amazing. You and I invited to share in all that Jesus and the Father, God the Son, God the Father, have, which leads to number 16. I really have to speed it up. I’m just going to give you the references for these next ones. The Holy Spirit reveals who God is and all He gives to you. It’s 1 Corinthians 2:10-12. It’s probably going to get harder if you’re taking notes. I put some of the keywords in all caps to maybe make it easier. I don’t know. I’m going to do my best to help you. Number 17, the Holy Spirit gives you peace in an anxious world. Listen to that good news. Romans 8:6 says, “The Holy Spirit sets your mind in a world of anxiety on life and peace.”

Number 18, “The Holy Spirit gives you joy that transcends suffering, the joy of the Holy Spirit, in the middle,” 1 Thessalonians 1 says, “of severe affliction.” And number 19, the Holy Spirit gives you hope that overcomes despair by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 says, “You will abound like overflow with hope.” Then Romans 5, number 20, “The Holy Spirit pours out God’s love into your heart every day.” That’s what the Holy Spirit does. He just pours out the love of God all over your heart. You’re living under a waterfall every day, the Holy Spirit pouring God’s love into your heart. Number 21, the Holy Spirit comforts you. That’s what His name means. The comforter, the helper who comes alongside you in this weary fallen world. Number 22, the Holy Spirit removes fear from you. God says to His people in the Old Testament, “Haggai, my spirit is among you. Do not be afraid of anything because you have my spirit among you.” And then in the New Testament, “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.”

It’s the Holy Spirit who removes fear from you. Number 23, the Holy Spirit helps you by interceding for you. How incredible is this? Romans 8:26-27 says, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don’t know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groans, the words that cannot express. The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” The Holy Spirit intercedes, stands in the gap for you. Number 24, “The Holy Spirit guides you to truth,” John 16:13. And then number 25, listen to this one. The Holy Spirit gives you skills. I’m going to pull this one from the Old Testament. The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name, Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Herb of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the spirit of God with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs to work in gold, silver, and blondes and cutting stones for setting, carving wood, work in every craft.”

It’s the spirit of God who gives you skills, ability, intelligence, knowledge, craftsmanship. Artistry, look to the spirit as you study in your major, college students. And not just skills for work. The Holy Spirit gives you gifts in the church for the building up of the bride of Christ. Every single follower of Jesus in this room, you have spiritual supernatural gifts in you for the building up of the people around you in the church, 1 Corinthians 12-14. Number 27, the Holy Spirit produces fruit in you. This is the song I sang with my youngest kids who were here in family worship last night. Holy Spirit gives you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. That’s the fruit of the spirit just flowing from you, which leads to number 28. The Holy Spirit causes streams of living water to flow from you. That’s the picture. Jesus says in John 7:37-39, “In the Holy Spirit, you have streams of living water just flowing from your life.” What a picture. Every one of us when you interact with each other, just see each other this way. Streams of living water flowing from you.

All right, we’ve passed the halfway point. Ah, it only gets better. We haven’t even talked about how, number 29, the Holy Spirit reveals the word of God. So, so many places we could go in the Bible here. 2 Peter 1 says, “This book was recorded by writers who were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Oh, that’s the language and it makes total sense. This book is supernatural, 66 books written by more than 40 authors in three languages over the course of 1500 years all telling one consistent story and no passage in the entire book contradicts the singular focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not one. How’s that possible? If you asked 40 people you know to write a book that told one overarching story about who God is, who we are, how this world was made, what’s wrong with this world, how this world can be made right, there is no chance those 40 people would agree.

Those are people all living in the same time period, likely speaking the same language. We’re talking about a wide variety of authors from a wide variety of professions over the course of centuries speaking different languages, not even to mention over 300 specific prophecies that were fulfilled in detail in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Mathematicians say the probability of one man fulfilling 10 of those prophecies is about one in a hundred billion. Jesus fulfilled all 300 of them. How is that possible? Here’s how, it has one author, the Holy Spirit of God has revealed this word. There is nothing like this book anywhere in the world. In fact, this whole world is one day going to fade away. This word will remain. The Holy Spirit reveals the word of God and the Holy Spirit reveals the will of God.

So just one of many examples in scripture, Luke 2:22-25, “There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout waiting for the constellation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So he came in the Spirit into the temple and he saw Jesus just like the Holy Spirit had told him he would.” The Holy Spirit reveals the will of God like this and I’ll be the first to admit there’s mystery to this. I could tell you so many stories. I’ll tell you one just real quick. A close friend of mine who has spent his life working in unreached places, he was on a train in an unreached country in the middle of nowhere and he sensed the Holy Spirit saying to him, “Get off the train now.” The only problem was well, he had two problems, he had no idea where he was and the train was moving. But as best as he could tell, the Holy Spirit was speaking to him. So he got up, got his stuff, hopped off the train. He’s now in the middle of a field, doesn’t know where he is, looks off in the distance and sees a light in front of what looks like a small house in a village.

So he starts walking toward it. There’s a guy sitting outside the front of his house, come to find out this guy was a pastor praying for help and my friend ended up starting a pastor training center with that brother in that village. Now I’m not advocating for you going hopping off trains all over the world, but I am saying God’s spirit still directs God’s people according to God’s will. And I would say, my friend would say, now what’s most important is not subjective promptings like that, what we may think the spirit may be saying, but objective obedience to what we know the spirit is saying, which is why number 31 is the Holy Spirit enables you to obey the word of God, what you know beyond the shadow of a doubt is the will of God in His word. This is the continuation of Ezekiel 36:27 from earlier, “I will put my spirit within you and I’ll cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

You have power from the Holy Spirit of God in you to obey all the rules of God to you. There is not one command in scripture that Jesus gives to you that you cannot obey by the power of the Holy Spirit inside of you. Some of you are struggling with sin, with temptation. Look to the Holy Spirit. He will cause you to walk in His statutes and be careful to obey His rules. In the big picture of Romans 8:14, is it’s the Holy Spirit who leads you in every facet of your life or to use language from Paul in Acts 20:22, the Holy Spirit compels you to go even to hard, difficult, dangerous places, which is exactly what God by his spirit in Paul was leading him to do in Acts 20. How does he do this? The Holy Spirit transforms your thoughts and your desires. Romans 8:5, He doesn’t just give instructions. He transforms us from the inside out to enable us to walk in His will. The Holy Spirit does that.

Number 35, the Holy Spirit tells you what to do or not do. Acts 16, Paul starts to go one way and the spirit stops him. He starts to go another way. The Spirit stops him again. Then he goes, Spirit ends up leading him in a totally different direction. Why don’t you want to live like that? Just led by the spirit of God, him directing your every step, your every word. And for number 36, the Holy Spirit gives you supernatural might and power to do what He’s telling you to do or to not do it. Zechariah, God says to His people through the prophet, “You cannot do what I’m calling you to do by your might or your power, but you can do it by my spirit,” which is the thrust of the promise that Jesus then gives to His disciples right before he ascends to heaven in Acts 1:8. So what does the Holy Spirit give us supernatural might and power to do? The Holy Spirit empowers you to lead people near and far from you to eternal life.

So we’re going to camp out on this one for a minute. If you want to look at Acts 1:8, you can, but many of you are familiar with this verse in your Bible, but I don’t think we realize what it would have been like to hear these words from Jesus. When He looked at them after rising from the dead, He says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” So just imagine that scene, Jesus gathered with his disciples on the mountain outside Jerusalem, they’re still overwhelmed that Jesus has died and then come back to life. They’re pretty excited. The gang is back together. They’re rolling again and Jesus says, “All right guys, here’s the plan. We’re going to start back in Jerusalem.” Now think about that. What just happened in Jerusalem? They just killed Jesus there. If you’re a follower of Jesus, the last place you want to go back to is Jerusalem right now.

They hate you there. So Jesus says, “That’s where we’re going to start,” where they hate you, and then you’re not going to stop there. Then you’re going to go to Judea and Samaria and as soon as we hear that, we got to put ourselves in the shoes of these Jewish disciples because Jewish people hated the Samaritans. So Jesus just said, “Here’s the plan guys. You’re going to start where they hate you and then you’re going to go where you hate them. And then that’s not all, after that, you’re going to go to places in the world you don’t even know exist at the ends of the earth, places you don’t even know how to get to.” And then, watch this, verse nine, when he had said these things as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. Jesus just said, “We’re going to start where they hate you. You’re going to go where you hate them.

Then you’re going to go to places you don’t even know exist,” and they’re looking at him and then all of a sudden he takes a flight into heaven and they’re looking up totally dumbfounded. You say, “How do you know?” Well, look at the verse here. Verse 10, “While they were gazing into heaven as they went,” then watch this, “these two men show up. Behold, two men stood by them in white robes.” Imagine that. Again, put yourself in these disciples shoes, you’re dumbfounded looking into the sky because Jesus just levitated into a cloud and then all of a sudden you look beside you and two dudes in white robes have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. What do you do then? Like, “Who are you? How’d you get here? What just happened?” I’ll tell you what just happened. Jesus just gave this plan to His disciples, took a flight up to the right hand of the Father, sat down, got comfortable, looked down, saw a bunch of disciples looking up into the clouds and said to two angels, “Go down there and tell them to do what I told them to do.”

They say, “You’re making that up.” No, I’m not. Look at verse 11, they said, these men of Galilee said, “Why do you stand looking into heaven?” What kind of question is that? “Well, there’s a guy who just levitated up there and a cloud took him. So I was just curious to see where He went, if He’s coming back, and by the way, who are you and how did you get here?” And the guy says, “Oh, listen to this. He’s coming back. This Jesus who’s taken up from you in heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” So what do they do? They go and do what Jesus told them to do. They go to Jerusalem. They do not start white-boarding a plan. They don’t start strategizing. They don’t get a big conference together with a bunch of preaching. They just pray. They just seek the face of God and wait for power from the Holy Spirit, like He promised He’d give. Which leads to then chapter two, and again, I’m guessing many of you have read this before, but even if you have, just picture it like it’s the first time you’ve ever read it.

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they’re all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven, a sound like a mighty rushing wind. It filled the entire house where they were sitting. So it’s not an actual rushing wind blowing through their hair, but it’s the sound of a rushing wind. Can we just maybe simulate that? All right, on the count of three we’re going to do sound of a mighty rushing wind. All right, 1, 2, 3. Maybe. I don’t know, but actually that was like… I think a mighty rushing wind, I think it’d be like, “What is going on here?” Not like, “Ah,” I think this was crazy panic. What is going on? A sound like a hurricane in the room and then check this out, divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. What? What is a fire tongue? What does that even look like? Rested on each one. Turn to the person next to you and just picture a fire tongue on them. Do you see it? What do you do?

Fire tongues? “And then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” There He is, He’s on them, and they began to speak in other tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them the ability to utter different languages. How amazing would that be? What language would you choose? Somebody said Wakandan. I don’t think… Yeah. Anyway, just think all the different languages. Just imagine in this room if that happened, like Bahasa, Indonesian, just people spouting out Swahili over here and Korean, just languages. Just think about the thousands and thousands of languages in the world, just imagine them all being spoken by people who didn’t know them one second before and now know them and you’re declaring in these languages the mighty wonders of God. Now you look at this scene and this is where I just want you to let it soak in. Do you realize that the same Holy Spirit who did that in Acts 2 is the same Holy Spirit who’s living inside of you right now? The same Holy Spirit, that same Holy Spirit is in this room right now. He’s here. He’s here in our midst.

This is amazing. I don’t think we realize it. I think most of us came in here tonight, maybe even if you came in with a sense of expectation, it wasn’t like… We have the Holy Spirit in us. We have the Holy Spirit in our midst. This is going to be breathtaking. We’re meeting with the Holy Spirit. He’s living inside of me. This changes everything and specifically here, gives you power to lead people near you and far from you to eternal life. You have power to speak this word, this truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit will take your words and use them to bring people, friends of yours, family members of yours, from death to life. The Holy Spirit has given you that power. Number 38, the Holy Spirit shows you God’s power in the proclamation of His word, that’s what 1 Corinthians 2 is all about. And even more specifically, the Holy Spirit fills you with power in particular moments to proclaim God’s word.

I listed to two scriptures there eight times. Luke uses the phrase, “Filled with the Holy Spirit,” and Luke Acts, it’s two-volume work, and all eight times there’s a specific relationship between someone being filled with the Holy Spirit and the word of God being proclaimed. It’s staggering. When you speak God’s word to others, there’s a filling of the Holy Spirit that accompanies that proclamation and Jesus promised the Holy Spirit gives you words to say and the power to say them. Jesus says, “It won’t be you speaking, it’ll be the Holy Spirit speaking through you.” So don’t stay silent. Spirit-filled Christians, you have power to proclaim the greatest news in all the world to lead people to life all over the world forever. My mom was with my family on Christmas this year. One night in family worship she was sharing with me and our kids about how she didn’t grow up in church until one day a middle school girl named Monica invited my aunt, my mom’s sister and my mom to go to church and Monica shared the gospel with them and they ended up coming to Jesus.

And I just sat there in awe as I looked around my living room at my kids as we’re praying and we’re singing together and I just realized this is happening because a middle school girl named Monica shared the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit with my mom one day. Do not underestimate for a second the power of your words with the Holy Spirit inside of you to affect generations and nations, people through the Holy Spirit in you. All right, 10 more, we’re going to fly through them. 41, the Holy Spirit helps us make decisions together. Acts 15:28, as brothers and sisters in Christ, the Holy Spirit gives us access to the Father together. Ephesians 2:17-22, the Holy Spirit gives us unity in the body of Christ together. Ephesians four… that actually should say 3:6. Sorry about that. There we go. I love the instant fellowship I experience whenever I meet another brother or sister in Christ here at this conference, anywhere in the world, and we may be different in so many ways, we have the same spirit in us though and it transforms the way we relate to each other.

So brothers and sisters do not ever give up on working to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace with each other. We have supernatural power to experience otherworldly unity. So spirit of God help us as your church to be one as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, you are one. It’s John 17. Then Ephesians 5:18-21, “The Holy Spirit directs our worship. Do not get drunk with wine, that’s debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit and listen to the fruit of that, addressing one another in Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing, making melody to the Lord with your heart.” Do you see how we’re commanded to be filled with the spirit as we sing and make melody together? Don’t be mechanical in your worship, be spiritual in your worship. John 4, “Worship in spirit and in truth.” Do not sing songs to God mindlessly or monotonously.

You think about our bodies being temples of the Holy Spirit, God’s presence, His spirit in us as we’re worshiping. What did people do throughout the Old Testament when they came into God’s presence? Look at Solomon when he dedicated the temple in 2 Chronicles 7, “As soon as he finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven, consumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priest couldn’t enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord saying He’s good for His steadfast love endures forever.”

That’s what you do when you’re in the temple. How much more when you are the temple? Ezra 10, “Ezra prayed, made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God at the temple. A very great assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him out of Israel for the people wept bitterly.” Isaiah, when he beheld the holiness of God in Isaiah 6, it’s on his face. I’m just wondering if we have the Holy Spirit of God inside of us, like personally in our bodies, temples of the Holy Spirit and corporately in the gathered church, which is what 1 Corinthians 3 talks about, how we’re the temple as the church and Holy Spirit among us, then why is this posture so rare in our worship? We have the Holy Spirit of God in us. It’s filled with the Holy Spirit in ways that lead you to awe before the Holy God. The Holy Spirit directs our worship. And then as we’re gathered for worship, the Holy Spirit speaks as we worship, fast and pray.

Acts 13:2, “As they were worshiping the Lord, fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke, set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I’ve called them.” We are not just going through motions and worship. We’re not playing a game, even in this room tonight, tomorrow we’re not attending a conference. When we go to a Sunday service, we’re meeting with God to listen to God speak by His Holy Spirit. I was thinking last night about recent times I’ve had in prayer and worship like Acts 13 with others, when people who’ve not even known me or anything about me have spoken words from God to me and over me that were clearly from him, of course in alignment with scripture.

This is a supernatural thing we’re doing when we gather together for the worship of God. Don’t be casual with worship of God. Don’t be casual with gatherings in prayer. I can share so many stories in our church family of gathering for hours at a time, sometimes all night in our church family. The Holy Spirit moves, works in ways, unique ways after 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 hours together in prayer. And then here in Acts 13, the Holy Spirit sets us apart for mission to the nations. “After fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” They were sent out by the Holy Spirit. What God did in this worship gathering would literally turn the world upside down. And if I could be so bold, it’s what we’re asking God to do in these worship gatherings during this week, that God would speak and God would lead and constrain some of you to go to your church and say, “The Holy Spirit may be leading me to go to people who’ve never heard the gospel in such a way that years and the years to come, people who’ve never heard the gospel will hear it because of what the Holy Spirit did in this room.”

And in all of this, the last four, the Holy Spirit assures you that you are in Christ. John writes, “This is how we know that we’re in Jesus, by the spirit that He gives us.” We have assurance of salvation by the Holy Spirit. Number 48, the Holy Spirit guarantees you eternity with Christ. Ephesians 1:13, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.” You are sealed by the Holy Spirit who is a guarantee. You have an inheritance waiting for you that you’re going to acquire one day. And the Holy Spirit is the guarantee that one day it’s going to be yours.

And in similar language, number 49, the Holy Spirit anticipates your future resurrection with Christ. We have the first fruits of the Spirit as we groan inwardly and wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. These bodies in this fallen world will one day be redeemed. I have two people I’m very close to who have terminal diseases right now and maybe in their last days, leukemia, tumors, cancers, hospital, hospice, which may cause some people to wonder, where’s the power of God in that? I’ll tell you the answer to that question. Both of these men have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling inside of them. And as I’ve spent time with them in recent days, I’ve seen two men who are not afraid of death. Two men who have supernatural peace and joy and comfort, and hope and love being poured into their hearts because they know their spirit is sealed.

I want to pray you will know deep in your heart you will hold onto no matter what happens to you in this world that number 50, the Holy Spirit will one day welcome you to a feast forever with God. This is how the Bible ends. Last chapter, Revelation 22, “The spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ Let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. The Holy Spirit who lives in you is going to welcome you one day along with men and women from every nation, tribe, people, and language, to a place where there will be no more hospitals and no more hospice and no more tumors and no more cancer, no more sickness, no more suffering, no more disorders, no more disease, no more death. There will just be life full and free forever.

Observation (What does the passage say?)

• What type of writing is this text?
  _{(Law? Poetry or Wisdom? History? A letter? Narrative? Gospels? Apocalyptic?)}
• Are there any clues about the circumstances under which this text was originally written?
• Are there any major sub-sections or breaks in the text that might help the reader understand the focus of the passage?
• Who is involved in the passage and what do you notice about the specific participants?
• What actions and events are taking place? What words or themes stand out to you and why?
• Was there anything about the passage/message that didn’t make sense to you?

Interpretation (What does the passage mean?)

• How does this text relate to other parts of the Scriptures
  _{(e.g., the surrounding chapters, book, Testament, or Bible)?}
• What does this passage teach us about God? About Jesus?
• How does this passage relate to the gospel?
• How can we sum up the main truth of this passage in our own words?
• How did this truth impact the hearers in their day?

Application (How can I apply this to passage to my life?)

• What challenged you the most from this week’s passage? What encouraged you the most?
• Head: How does this passage change my understanding of the Lord? (How does this impact what I think?)
• Heart: How does this passage correct my understanding of who I am to the Lord? (How should this impact my affections and what I feel?)
• Hands: How should this change the way I view and relate to others and the world? (How does this impact what I should do?)
• What is one action I can take this week to respond in surrender and obedience to the Lord?

[Note: some questions have been adapted from One to One Bible Reading by David Helm]