After the resurrection, Jesus Christ in Acts 1:1-11.appeared to His disciples for 40 days teaching and speaking with them and then when they were all gathered together with Him on the top of a great high hill, He was taken up into Heaven before their eyes.
Before leaving, Jesus gave His believers a very beautiful, glorious, eternal and wonderful promise: “…I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth… I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” John 14:16-18; 16: 5-7
The will of God is not to let the flesh have its way because the flesh takes us through a down-going speedy road to destruction. It is His will that you walk in the spirit, live in a higher supernatural realm with Christ in divine victory protected and surrounded by His glory firewall, walking and guided by the Holy Spirit 24/7. (Zechariah 2:5: For I,’ declares the LORD, ‘will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst).Our natural default setting as humans is to do the natural things we do and that is to let our flesh control us. As we know, our flesh is loud, greedy, aggressive, demanding, and wants its own way, steeped in selfishness and wickedness.and this was why God sent us the Holy Spirit for us here on Earth. He also sent us the Holy Spirit so we could glorify God our with Spirit-led and lived lives.
Who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is God: Many have not understood Him as God and refer to Him as it. See also 2 Corinthians 3:17. God has chosen to express Himself to mankind as Father, as Son and as Holy Spirit.
Acts 5:3,4, Peter said, ‘Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit… You have not lied to men, but to God “..Father Son and Spirit are three distinct Persons, yet the three are one.So the Trinity has always been present in God’s revelation of Himself to those who believe and follow Him. As Christians, whenever we say the word “God” we should keep in mind that for us, this means the Trinity – the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is God’s Gift to Us: The Holy Spirit is God’s wonderful special gift to every believer. When a person believes in Jesus, and receives the salvation He offers, the Holy Spirit comes to live in the believer, imparting spiritual life. “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call’ “
The Ministry of the Holy Spirit to Us:
1. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell within the believer to minister to us personally. He testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children and born again. We know that we know that we know we are born again. Romans 8:16 1 John 3:24.
2. The Holy Spirit is our teacher: “Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” John 14:26 . Often we will suddenly recall something, or a certain truth will flash very clearly in our hearts resounding to our spirits that this is Truth.
3. He is our guide: “because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” Romans 8:14. When we pray for direction, He will start to impress a certain direction on our minds. If we are praying about where to go, who to marry, what job to take, the Holy Spirit will start to impress the right direction in our hearts, spirits and doors in that direction will also open. Sometimes He will send someone to help us along the way and many times, we hear Him speaking deep within our spirits. We just know that this is the right direction.
4. He enables us to live holy and pleasing lives unto God: So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature”. Galatians 5:16 and17-25. This means if we are consumed with lusts, we are living in the flesh. As we surrender unto Him and say, “Holy Spirit” take this lust, or take the anger or greed or selfishness or spirit of gossip and I die to it..I surrender to You, take over..and throughout the day, we keep talking to Him and surrendering that area, in time we will notice those areas will fall off like dead leaves and we suddenly pleasantly will be surprised that we are no longer plagued by that!
It is a wonderful exciting time to discover self deliverance within us! Perhaps we are watching certain things on television we should not, some addicted to pornography, even to drugs, addicted to medications, alcohol, drawn heavily to certain music, books which are world-centered with a different point of view and these are draining and depleting our spirits..Sometimes we can say firmly and aloud, “In Jesus Name I caste out this addiction . I do not receive that. I cast down every high imagination that tries to exalt itself against God.” In this we are exercising our spiritual authority and the Holy Spirit empowers us and those prayers of authority very powerfully.
5. The Holy Spirit helps us to pray: Sometimes we have no words to pray, and are in deep pain, and in that we may start crying or even groaning, with no words, but the Holy Spirit takes those painful groans to the Throne of God translating it into an answer. For many Christians, the Holy Spirit also gives us “I Corinthians 14:4: Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves..” 1 Corinthians 13:1, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels…” which again points out to tongues as being a supernatural gift from the Holy Spirit to help us pray. Many times, when we pray in tongues and then back into the language we speak, we will notice that our prayers are different, stronger, piercing and powerful. It is almost as if this was the interpretation of the unknown tongues. If you have a gift of tongues, use it liberally to pray; In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” .Romans 8:26
6. The Holy Spirit gives us His life: “And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you” Romans 8:11 We have the mighty Spirit of Life who gives abundant life to all believers living in us! He is our comforter and experiencially in times of sorrow, we have felt Him comforting and pouring out peace into our hearts and strengthening us. John 14:26 But the [a]Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you.
The Holy Spirit equips us to Minister to the World:
God also wants to fill and baptize the believer with the Holy Spirit to empower each one to serve and glorify God in the world.
1. The Holy Spirit fills us with pure worship for God: Sometimes when we are in a communion conversation with the Holy Spirit and then later go about our daily tasks, we would suddenly be filled with songs and praise and start singing in the kitchen overcome with worship and adoration, sometimes weeping, washed and holy. This is the Holy Spirit in us, we are filled with the Spirit, speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord” Ephesians 5:8,19 See also John 4:24. If we walk in the flesh in our own carnal thoughts and acts, we would never experience this worshiping glory that encompasses us like a firewall of glory.
2. The Holy Spirit gives us boldness and power to witness: In our natural selves, we are timid and shy and cannot really witness to others about Christ, but when the Holy Spirit comes upon us clothing us with His endowment and He dwells within us, we suddenly get emboldened supernaturally and the shyness is swallowed up with the Holy Spirit’s zeal in us. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”. Acts 1:8 and Acts 2:14-40.
3. The Holy Spirit takes us to the supernatural realm: We are suddenly opened to the supernatural realm after the Holy Spirit enters our lives The dangers encroaching us now are very real. Spiritual believers are more open to both the supernatural planes, both from God and the Satanic, which is why they have to walk in close reverence and worship of God all the time because the believer can now see and hear into the spiritual realm. They can see deceiving angels of light appearing as angels of God. A believer walking in the presence of God will be able to discern in their spirits which is from Satan and which is from God.. So a spiritual believer has to choose the narrow spiritual pathway with Christ each day. Many strong men and women of God have fallen because they did not realize they were more impressionable, vulnerable and visible than ever before they were born again to demons appearing to them or attacking them.
There is a powerful testimony of Smith Wigglesworth. He said “”We were sleeping one night, when the manifestation of evil filled the room and the spirit of fear gripped both of us. Polly was so frightened she could not open her eyes. I suddenly sat up, in the bed, and saw the devil. I rubbed my eyes to be sure, it was him. I said, ‘Oh! It’s only you.’ I then turned to Polly and told her to go back to sleep, it was nothing of consequence, and I laid my head back down. Suddenly an overwhelming sense of peace and love filled the room and we had the most blessed sleep ever.” Smith Wigglesworth knew His Lord, rested in Him and trusted Him! In the realm of God’s love and presence, fear has to depart.
When we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, we are given gifts in the Body of Christ through the Holy Spirit. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge, to another faith, to another gifts of healing, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another the ability to speak in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues” 1 Corinthians 12:4,8-10 and Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6
4. The Holy Spirit Ignites the Word of God in fresh illumination and understanding: When we were unsaved, we probably never understood the Bible and may have found it boring and mundane, which was why many people from Christian homes turned to other religions. But once our inner man is illumined, sparks of understanding thrill us as we read the Word. “No mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him’ but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” 1 Corinthians 2:9,10 See also John 16:13. As we understand the Word and walk in the spirit, we start to translate and change as people, become wonderful fruity Christians filled with pure holy Love for one another.Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.2 Corinthians 3:18.
5. The Holy Spirit will always take us to Jesus Christ and glorify Him: The Holy Spirit never glories Himself, but glorifies Christ, which means, people are always drawn to worship Christ in His presence. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you” John 15:26 and John 16:13-15 .
6. Sow to the Spirit: He who sows to the Spirit will reap everlasting life.” –Galatians 6:8. When you sow to the spirit, you will rise to a new realm where you’ve never been before. Soon you will rise to a place where the truth of God’s Word is so real, the Spirit of God will rise up on the inside of you and you’ll do things you never would have done before. We sow to the Spirit by getting the Word of God inside us and we commune with the Holy Spirit.
Many Christians don’t grow because they don’t get the Word into themselves and they never spend time with the Holy Spirit to listen to Him. If you don’t give God time, natural voices of the flesh and world will clamor, yell, demand and keep wanting more like a bottomless pit to grieve His Spirit in your life. The rush of the sound of the world drowns out the Holy Spirit’s gentle but powerful Voice within you if you don’t spend time in His presence. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman so He will never force Himself on you. Give your spirit the opportunity to feed on the Word of God, fellowship with Him, and build yourself up in faith. If you say you don’t have time, the truth is you do make time for anything you consider important.
How to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit:
1. The baptism is a gift promised by the Father so we can ask for it. It is usually said that we don’t ask for a gift, but in this verse it is said, “…how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Perhaps the Father wants to see us yearning for a deeper walk with Him. This walk has a price because once we walk in this Highway of Holiness, no unclean thing can walk with us. If we open our doors to gossip, illicit sex outside marriage, lust, pornography, cheating, lying, stealing, and the list goes on, we are inviting that unclean thing to walk in our Highway and will get attacked and fall down very badly and later on may even open trapdoors to very devious places of further downfall. One wrong doing or sin can beget another bigger evil. So if we want the gifts, we have to walk with purity or we will get hit and the fall will be very hard. Remember the gifts are different from the fruits, the fruits transform us into His image, but the gifts are a service unto this world to draw many into the Kingdom because when they see these gifts in operation, many will believe. People with the gifts have the propensity to fail and fall, so they need to yearn the fruits of the Spirit unequivocally and parallelly.
2. When ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit, the majority of the time, you would feel His presence and sometimes feel nothing so you would become a faith walker in the dark until He rewards us with His manifestation: This is because when the Holy Spirit touches you, it is powerful and transforming. Either you may feel calm, peaceful or feel fire or heat around you or you may even feel a washing of your soul like cool water washing you deep within. You would be flowing over like a bubbling brook with praise that you cannot stop. “Then they worshiped Him ,and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God” Luke 24:52,53
3. You can now speak in a supernatural language “…The Holy Spirit may or may not give you the gift of tongues. Tongues should never be forced on people because if so, people can end up receiving false tongues which will draw in greater deceptions in their lives. Sometimes men and women of God literally force people to open their mouth and speak, and we can see the struggle they have to speak, and they are condemned if they cannot speak in tongues. If people say, open your mouth and speak whatever comes to you, this self effort is very much in the flesh and when they do it, in time, they would come up with words that the devil might put into them. This is how many spiritual Christians over time do get demonized, sad but true. (I will go into this in another study)
In this verse, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues…”Acts 19:6 See also Mark 16:17; Acts 2:4; 10:45, 46; 1 Corinthians 14:5, 18. If we study these verses, when the Holy Spirit comes upon a person, it is overpowering that sometimes He blazes our hearts with His fire and we feel so wobbly we can barely stand, and in that power of His presence, we start to utter out words from the depths of our being. That is tongues..it bubbles out like a brook and burns in us as we speak. In way of testimony, when I first spoke in tongues, I was admiring the snow-clad mountains and praising God and suddenly I opened my mouth and this new language bubbled out..there was no self effort. If you long for this gift, it would be good to meet up with people who have the gift who can pray for you too. Sometimes, you would not speak immediately and might even speak tongues a week later!
If you want to walk in the Holy Spirit pray in Jesus Name, and say, Father, I surrender, I die to my flesh and take authority over my fleshy body. Holy Spirit, take over, You are in charge, lead me, guide me, show me, teach me, I surrender to You.”
This is a daily practice, and you may have to do this for some time before you are able to walk in spiritual highlands, but do continue to doggedly present yourself to the Lord as a routine habit, and God will honor your obedience. As we surrender to Him, our lives will start to take a new shape, and things start to fall in line, in alignment with His will, and we start to experience the new and wonderful walk in the Holy Spirit..
Rita F. Kurian
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