Lesson Three: The Holy Spirit- AN EVER-PRESENT SOURCE OF POWER

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

2 Corinthians 6:16 ESV

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Lesson Three: The Holy Spirit- AN EVER-PRESENT SOURCE OF POWER

Central Truth: Every Spirit-filled believer has within Them all the power they will ever need to put them over in their life

The New Testament gives us three relations that God sustains towards man:

Three constants with God and you:

God is for us

God is with us

God is in us

To have God for us guarantees success:

Romans 8:31 “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”

If God is on our side, we arwe sure to win!

If God is for us- and we know He is for us- we become utterly fearless in life!

No MATTER HOW DIFFICULT THE SITUATION MAY BE - NO MATTER HOW DARK THE CLOUDS THAT HANG UPON THE HORIZON OF OUR LIFE- WE ARE CALMLY ASSURED THAT WE MUST WIN!

THERE IS NO DEFEAT IF THE LORD IS FOR US!

2 Cor 2:14- AMP- “But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere”

“Always Leads us in Triumph”

We are the trophies of Christ Victory!

We can also have the assurance that God is with us.

No matter what the circumstances may be, our Lord is with us.

The Knowledge of the Word of God along this line should always lead our hearts to leap within us for joy and build our spirits up in faith and confidence

According to Hebrews 8:6, New testament Believers have, “But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.”

Under the covenant in the Old Testament, God was For Israel and was with Israel, BUT HE WAS NOT IN THEM!

GOD IS:

FOR US

WITH US

AND WE HAVE SOMETHING BETTER- GOD IS IN US!

GOD IS ACTUALLY MAKING HIS HOME IN OUR BODIES!

Our Bodies the Temple of God

1 Cor 3:16, “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in* you?”

1 Cor 3:16 NASB, “Do you not know that b you are a 1 temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

1 Cor 6:19, “ Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself”

2 Cor 6:16, “  And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said: “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Too few of believers are really conscious of God in their bodies

If people were conscious of God in their bodies, they wouldn’t talk and act as they do.

Some Christians constantly talk about :

their lack of power

their lack of ability

If they realized that God is in them, they would know that nothing is impossible to them!

Mark 9:23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

The reason all things are possible to the person that believes is because God our Father planned that the believer should have God Himself living in them through the power of the Holy Spirit

And God within a person makes nothing impossible

Hebrews 11:11 “By faith y Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered z him faithful who had promised.”

Faith is considering God faithful

Of all the mighty truth connected with our redemption, this is a the Apex -

After God Himself has recreated us and made us new creatures- made us His own- the He, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, makes our bodies His home.

The Apostle john writes in 1 John 4:4, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.”

Both Paul and John were writing to people who not only had received eternal life, but were Spirit-filled believers- who are those in whom the Holy Spirit has come to dwell- those who had the supernatural witness or sign of His indwelling presence: Speaking with other tongues

John Says, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”

Kenneth Hagin says, “I maintain that every born-again, Spirit-filled believer has within them, all the power he will ever need to put them over in this life.”

When we put the scriptures we have looked at together, it is quite obvious that through the infilling of the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Godhead- God Himself in His nature- indwells the believers.

No longer does He dwell in a man-made temple concealed to the Holy of Holies.

Our Bodies have become His temple

The Old Covenant Finished

In the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, God’s presence was kept enclosed in the holy of Holies. No one dared approach there except the High Priest, and he only with great precautions.

if anyone else dared to intrude, they would fall dead

it was necessary for every male throughout Israel to present himself at least once a year at Jerusalem, because that was where the presence of God was

But when Jesus died on the cross, He said, “It is finished.” -

Jesus was not referring ton the New Covenant; He was speaking of the Old Covenant

The New Covenant covenant was finished or completed until Christ ascended on High and entered into the heavenly Holy of Holies and with His own blood to obtain eternal redemption for us, just as the book of Hebrews declares-

Hebrews 9

Then and only then is the New Covenant finished

When Jesus was on the hill of Golgotha hanging on the cross, In one of His final statements He declared, “It is finished”, the Bible tells us that the curtain that separated off the Holy of Holies in the Temple was ripped in two from top to bottom.

Josephus, the Jewish Historian, tells us this curtain was forty feet across, twenty feet high, and four inches thick.

God sent His messenger down to tear that curtain apart, from top to bottom, signifying that the Old Covenant was finished

God’s presence, which up until the veil was torn was contained in the Holy of Holies, left that man-made structure, and God has never again dwelt in any made-made building or structure.

This is why Satan despises people- He said Isa 14:14, “  will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.”

God said in Gen 1:26 of people, “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.”

Satan wanted to be like God, God make us like Him.

That is why we can House the Presence of God

When we call a building “the house of God” we are only partly correct, and we are only partly incorrect, according to what we mean.

if we mean that the building is a house of God because God lives and dwells there we are completely wrong.

He does not dwell in a building

If we mean that it is God’s house and it is sacred because it is built in the Name of Jesus and is dedicated to the service of the Lord, then we are correct- It is a house of God

However, God doesn’t live in a building made with hands; He lives and dwells in us through the power of the Holy Spirit!

John Said “Greater is He that is in you…” And in John 14:16, which we looked at in our last lesson, Jesus says,

John 14:16, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,* who will never leave you.”

and Jesus Goes onto say in verse 17, John 14:17, “17 even e the Spirit of truth, f whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and g will be7 in you.”

This is what John is writings about in 1 John 4:4 to every born-again, Spirit-filled believer.

1 John 4:4 “ because He Who lives in you is greater (mightier) than he who is in the world.”

Who is he that is in the World? Satan- the God of this World ( 2 Cor 4:4)

But He who is in you is greater.

If we were conscious of the Greater One in us, we would have no fear of the devil, because He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

If we are conscious of the Greater One who indwells us and we believe what the Word of God says about His presence, no matter what or whom we face, we will have no fear.

We have the source of all power dwelling within us.

As the Holy Spirit dwells within us, according to Christ’s promise, we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

we don’t have to be defeated by the circumstances of life.

We can rise above our physical limitations through the power of His Spirit.

Memory Text: 1 John 4:4 “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.”

Lesson in Action: James 1:22 “but be doers of the Word, and not hearers only…”