Empowered: Life in the Spirit week 2

“Flow”

Announcement:

Saturday, July 6th Rudgate Block Party

5-8 pm

Vision: 5 in 10

Need: 15 volunteers

How: sign up online

Review:

Pentecostal in name more than experience

We want to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Festival of Tabernacles

Jesus stands and declares

“Thirst is the currency in heaven’s economy.”

Drinking from Jesus will result in flow

John 7:37–39 (ESV)

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Teaching . . .

Jesus said in John 7:38 “From your inner most being will flow rivers of living water.”

For an entire week, the people had witnessed the flowing of water as the priests poured out their daily water offering in the Temple.

With this image of flowing water readily available in the minds of the people, Jesus makes His statement of the Holy Spirit flowing from us.

Notice that the Holy Spirit is both within and flows without.

The Holy Spirit comes within us for our benefit, and He flows from us for the benefit of others.

The flowing of water is a common theme throughout Scripture.

We see the flow of water as Moses struck the rock in the desert.

The provision of water was life saving for the people as they traveled through the desert.

We see the flow of water in the book of Ezekiel as the vision of increasing depths of water reach the river stage at which point the prophet is unable to cross.

The implication here is that God has ever increasing depths of His Spirit for us, but we must continually wade out into greater depths.

We see the flow of water in the book of Revelation coming from the throne of God.

Here, the apostle John is witnessing a glimpse of heaven with the river of God flowing down the middle of the street with the Tree of Life on either side of the river.

John indicates that the fruit of the Tree is “for the healing of the nations.”

The flow of water is both life-giving and refreshing.

It is the Father’s heart to “reward those who diligently seek Him.”

The metaphor of flowing water is the reward from the Father.

The fact that the water is flowing would indicate that it is on the move.

The flow of the river prevents it from becoming stagnant.

A congregation without the flow of the Spirit will also become stagnant in their faith.

A congregation can grow numerically, yet become stagnate in their faith.

This is a growth that looks good on paper but has no impact for God’s Kingdom.

Impact for God’s Kingdom is doing the works of Jesus.

Isaiah 61:1–3 (ESV)

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

A river flows within the banks of the river.

It takes both the flowing water as well as the banks to accomplish the plan and purpose of the Father.

Scripture provides the “banks” for the “river” of the Holy Spirit to flow within.

As a congregation gains an understanding of the Scriptural teaching about the Holy Spirit, they will begin to discern the flow of the Holy Spirit.

We must grow in our ability to discern where the Holy Spirit is moving and join Him in His movement.

For some, the thought of joining the Holy Spirit brings a fear of disorder.

Often as a result of a prior experience, some believers have forsaken the pursuit of moving with the Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately, abuses have occured throughout Church history, but we can never afford to set aside the blessed promise of Christ for the flow of His Spirit.

To do so will result in a life barren of the Spirit’s refreshing presence in the midst of a desert.

For others, memories of prior moves of the Holy Spirit quickly come to mind.

These memories can produce a longing to return to “the good ole’ days.”

The reality of this perspective limits the move of the Spirit to that which has already been experienced in the past.

God is sovereign and as such, He has the say as to how He will have His Spirit move.

So how do we get in the flow of the Holy Spirit today?

Getting into the flow of the Spirit begins at the individual level.

As I mentioned in last week’s sermon, the expression we will receive at the corporate level is in direct connection with what we experience at the individual level.

We will only receive the move of the Holy Spirit as each of us purpose within ourselves to thirst more for Jesus.

Secondly, getting in the flow of the Holy Spirit requires a pursuit.

The invitation of Christ was based on conditional thirst. Jesus said, “if anyone is thirsty.

God responds to thirst.

It is our thirst that brings us to the flow of the Holy Spirit.

But we must maintain a firm focus on Christ Himself as we pursue the flow of the Holy Spirit.

To lose sight of Christ leads an individual and congregation into deception.

The flow of the Holy Spirit always moves in such a way as to bring glory and honor to Christ alone.

If or when we become more focused on the manifestations than the Master, we have just taken steps toward missing the flow of the Spirit.

Thirdly, the flow of the Holy Spirit utilizes spiritual gifts. (1 Corinthians 12/Romans 12/Ephesians 4)

These gifts are given according the will of the Spirit for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ.

Each person receives at least one gift. We must discover and develop the gift(s) that the Holy Spirit gives to us.

Forth, the flow of the Spirit is available for the corporate body of believers as we gather together.

Getting into the flow of the Spirit is not only experienced individually, but equally received corporately.

It is my belief that God has a specific outpouring of His Spirit for each congregation.

No two congregations are alike.

As a result, we must pursue God’s plan and purpose for our congregation in this current season.

As we take steps to join the Holy Spirit in His flow, mistakes will be made.

How we handle the mistakes when they occur will determine the extent to which we continue to move into a greater fullness of the Spirit’s flow.

How do we handle mistakes?

In the book of 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul places chapter 13 in between chapters 12 and 14. 1 Corinthians 12 teaches us about the spiritual gifts and their use.

1 Corinthians 14 teaches us how the gifts are to function in the corporate setting.

1 Corinthians 13, know as the chapter of love, answers the question of how to handle missing the flow of the Spirit.

[1Co 13:1-7 ESV] 1 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

In order for us to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s flow as a congregation, we must create a “safe” environment.

Freedom Christian must be known as a “safe place.”

If there is an absence of Christ’s love to cover mistakes when they happen, the Holy Spirit will become hindered in His ability to flow in our midst.

Illustration: Think of the training the disciples received from Jesus as they walked alongside of Him during His earthly ministry.

There were many times when they got it wrong.

Jesus corrected them, taught them, and modeled to them the correct way to live according to the Father’s plan.

We must do the same as Jesus.

We must be able to give and receive correction and teaching in order to grow into mature disciples of Jesus.

We must also model what it looks like to extend grace and love to one another as we learn and grow together.

The key to entering the flow of the Holy Spirit is discernment.

We must develop the ability to rightly discern what is of the Spirit and what is of man.

It is the Father’s heart that we grow in our ability to rightly discern the move of His Spirit.

How do we develop discernment?

The development of discernment often occurs through trial and error.

We must learn to take incremental steps in our growth.

It is similar to a child learning to walk.

They crawl, then they stand, they take their first step, and then they begin to walk.

Many abuses of discernment occur when we attempt to run before we have even crawled.

We can get ahead of the Holy Spirit’s development within us and stumble.

Once again, when this happens, we must be willing to get up and learn from our mistakes.

We must be willing to take risks in order to grow in discernment.

Fear of making a mistake will prevent us from growing.

As we sense a potential prompting of the Holy Spirit, we can test to determine if we are hearing correctly.

Here are 5 ways to test what we are hearing . . .

1. Is this in agreement with Scripture?

The Holy Spirit will never leads us in a way that opposes God’s Word.

The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of Scripture and He will never contradict Himself as He leads us.

2. Does this bring glory and honor to Jesus?

The Holy Spirit always leads us to Jesus.

His movement continually brings glory and honor to Jesus.

Jesus said that the Spirit would “lead us into His Truth.”

Therefore, we can be assured that any leading of the Holy Spirit will be directly focused on Jesus.

3. Seek godly counsel.

Find a mature follower of Jesus who has learned how to rightly discern the move of the Holy Spirit.

Place yourself alongside of them and when you are unsure, ask them to help you grow in your discernment.

4. Fast and pray.

If you want to grow in a greater level of sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, there is no better way than fasting and praying.

Fasting is the intentional absence of food for the sake of spending more time with Jesus in prayer.

Fasting can also include things other than food.

For example, we can fast social media for the purpose of spending more time with Jesus. We can fast T.V.

We can fast sports.

Anything is possible for the sake of setting aside intentional time to be with Christ.

Prayer is both asking and listening.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you grow in discernment and then listen for His instruction.

The more we are with Jesus, the more we will grow in discerning the movement of His Spirit.

5. Journal.

Keep a record of your journey with the Holy Spirit.

As you progress, look back through your notes to discover patterns of the Holy Spirit’s leading in your life.

Notice the times you made a mistake and what you learned from the mistake.

Each person will grow a little bit differently than others in their discernment.

You will need to discover what works best for your relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Next week:

“Fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5)

The fruit of the Spirit serves as the foundation for the Gifts of the Spirit to operate.

Close:

Spiritual attack-

Physical

Relational

Emotional

With the pursuit comes resistance.

“Pray one for another”