The Blessed Holy Spirit (Part Three)

Greet everyone!! (Welcome first time visitors to the family!)

Ask Ralph to come up and speak about praying for the peace of Israel!

Announce to everyone that we will be having a baptismal service, immediately following the main service, in the front foyer!

Well, we are continuing our series on “The Blessed Holy Spirit” this morning, as today is actually part three of that series of messages.

So, let me ask you a few questions real quick, just to make sure that everyone is on the same page and up to date with what we have been talking about over the last couple of messages.

As I have stressed to you before, I never want to assume that everyone understands what I mean when I say something. People are on different levels of understanding and they have been taught different ideas when it comes to the Word of God. So, when I share something with you, I want to make sure that you understand what I am saying, and where I am coming from and what the Bible teaches about that subject, or concept.

And in saying that, let me again say to you what I have stressed before: “DO NOT TAKE MY WORD AS THE FINAL WORD......... GET INTO THE BIBLE FOR YOURSELF AND READ AND STUDY ON WHAT I AM SAYING AND LET THE WORD OF GOD SPEAK TO YOU ABOUT WHATEVER IT IS THAT YOU ARE READING ON!! NO MAN IS THE FINAL AUTHORITY ON THE WORD! IT IS GOD’S WORD AND HE WILL DEFEND AND EXPLAIN IT HIMSELF, THROUGH HIS BLESSED HOLY SPIRIT! AMEN?!!

And as I mentioned to you last week, which is right inline with what I am saying right now to you. I don’t have any problem with you coming to me and questioning something that I say or teach on. We can look at it together and study together about whatever it is together.

BUT, if you come to me questioning something that I have taught on and you want to prove your point, based solely upon, “ACCORDING TO SO and SO”, then the discussion stops right there! I will discuss the Word of God with you, but I will not sit and debate the teachings of men as a defense of the gospel and the Word of God! You and I can sit down together and read in the Word together and pray about the subject matter together and in the end, we can base our conclusion upon the Word of God, period!

It will be by, as the Latin phrase says, “SOLA SCRIPTURA”; “by Scripture Alone”!! Does everyone understand and agree to this?

My first question to recap with you about the last two messages:

What do we mean, or refer to, when we use the word, “TRINITY”, or the “godhead”?

Right, they refer to God the Father, God the Son and God the HOLY SPIRIT.

The three unique members of God, who operate differently and yet always to the will and authority of the Yahweh.

Is Holy Spirit an entity, or is He a person?

He is definitely a person, just as we know and regard the Father and the Son as unique and different members of the holy Trinity!

If you remember last week, I started off by expounding upon the “why” and the “how” that we know that He is a person in the godhead and not just a presence, a force, or an energy, as some people believe and teach it.

If you were’t here last week and you want more information on that, then I would encourage you to go back and watch last week’s message from the archives, which you can easily get to, via our free app that you can download onto your smartphone, or, you can go directly to our church webpage, found at www.cumberlandworshipcenter.org and click the direct link for “sermons” from there.

Next question, who has the Holy Spirit of God living inside of them?

Every true “born again” man, woman and child, has the Holy Spirit of almighty God living within them, as the Bible says in Romans 8:9, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

If you have Jesus, then you have have Holy Spirit of God dwelling within you!

And again in Ephesians 1:13-14, we read, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, 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.”

What are some of the roles that Holy Spirit plays within the life of a believer?

He teaches us about the Word and He illuminates the Word of God for us.

He reminds us of all that Jesus has spoken to us as found from within the Word.

He empowers us for completing our role as stewards of the gospel message and taking that message to the world around us, in boldness and authority.

He is also the power behind every aspect of the life of a believer and in their walk with the Lord, from start to finish. (From regeneration and that of our new birth, throughout the process of sanctification and up into our eternal life with the Lord, as completed in our glorification, Holy Spirit is there doing the will of the Father!)

He encourages us, comforts us, guides and directs us.

He give to us spiritual gifts necessary for our role as minsters of the gospel message!

And much more!!

So, today we are continuing our look at the blessed Holy Spirit of Yahweh and as to why it is so very important for each one of us to know Him and yield our lives to Him and His will for our lives.

And in keeping in line with what we just mentioned about Holy Spirit being an actual person, let me give you a simple analogy, or an example of how this relationship with Holy Spirit kind of looks in our life. (I’m not saying that this example is the same thing as a relationship with Holy Spirit, but it’s just an idea to help create a mental picture to remind you of His presence in your life, OK?!)

In Genesis 2:18, the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him”, and then God created the woman. The Lord gave us physical helpmates to walk alongside of us and to ultimately strengthen us in or roles as humans and as His children!

(Ask Dee to stand from her seat)

This is Desirae. She is my wife! She is a gift given to me by God, because He loves me and He chose to bless me with a helpmate and said that it was not good for Christ Palmer to be alone!

Desirae is comforter to me, when I am downtrodden and heavily burdened by this life; she is there sharing in the burden and helping to take some of the weight off of me and to speak comforting words to my soul!

She is a helper for me, who assists me in my role as a pastor and a father and a grandfather and everything else in this life that I undertake!

She reminds me of things all of the time that I need to remember and at just the right times! Important little details and dates to keep up with. Appointments that I have forgotten to write down, or conversations that I had with someone, she is always there to remind me.

She is a guide for me, when I am seeing things wrong, or when I am doing things out of the wrong motive or from the wrong heart. She helps me to see the error in what I am doing, or in my way of thinking and she reminds me of the truth in that situation and thus if I have made a mistake or a wrong judgement, I will apologize and change how I’m acting.

Dee encourages me ALL OF TIME! She tells me that I can do things when no one else believe in me and even when I don’t believe in myself, she is there to tell me, “You can do this and I am going to be with you every step of the way!”

She is an advocate for me! I know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that no matter whatever happens in this life to me and whenever an enemy comes against me, my wife will be there advocating on my behalf! She will support me and defend me and intercede for me, in order that my well being is preserved and protected.

She is my best friend and the one person whom I choose to spend my time and life with. She is the one who I share my heart and soul with and who knows me better than all others in this world, because of the level of intimacy that we share! We are “one”, just as God designed it!

And because of all of this, I will defend her at all costs and her integrity and honor. If you try and come against my wife with malice, or ill-will, then I’m coming after you! Because, this union and this relationship are sacred and worth fighting for and even dying for!

And as much as you can see and understand what I’m saying about the blessing of the relationship that I have with my wife and the intimacy that we share in our heart and souls, in like manner, the relationship that I have with Holy Spirit is even greater and of the highest necessity!

And I say this because I cannot grow my wife’s relationship with the Lord and strengthen her heart and soul spirit in Him and draw her closer to God in complete and total surrender and devotion, nor can she do that for me! It is Holy Spirit within us that walks us through this process and no one else! Jesus was clear that our complete love and devotion was to be with and for Him and not to be rivaled by no one else!

And He and the Father are with us and guiding us, in the person of the blessed Holy Spirit who lives in us; therefor that relationship in us, is to be revered as the most precious and sacred!

Jesus said in John 14:23, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him”. This was accomplished through the indwelling presence of Holy Spirit, so how you approach and treat Holy Spirit, is directly related to how you see and feel about God and Jesus! They are unique in function and yet they are the same in being!!

Does that at all help some of you to get an idea of how Holy Spirit works within our lives? You know, just a mental image of what that relationship looks like? You need to understand that as great and awesome a thing as marriage is for our lives, when walked out according to God and His will for our marriage, the relationship that we each have with Holy Spirit is far greater in relevance and importance, because He is the Lord with us and in us and nothing, or no other relationship is to be held of greater importance than that of our relationship with the Lord!

You know, I was all ready to jump right in this morning and start speaking to you about certain commands that we have been given that pertain to our relationship with Holy Spirit, but then I felt that we should take some time and just slow down and really think about and remember who He really is and what this relationship with Him really looks like. (Not just looking at His attributes as a person and His character, as we have already looked at somewhat, but rather, really looking at and putting into perspective, who He really is in our lives!!)

We are so trained and geared as a people to just fly through and get to the next thing. Hurry, hurry, hurry......rush, rush, rush! That’s how we live our lives isn’t it? We want it now, not in another minute. In fact for many of us, we wanted it yesterday. How do you develop a relationship with other people with that mindset? The long and the short of it is, you don’t!

But that is what we’ve tried to do. Invest as little as possible into others and call it a relationship! Enter stage right, “social media”! You accept someone’s request to be “friends” on social media (and we like this type of relationship, because we have the autonomy and control to both let this person into our circle of “friends”, as well as to give them the boot if they displease us and with no moral or ethical recourse in how you see and deal with this person)! A comment here, an emoji there and “thumbs up” to what they say and express and we are friends; quick and easy and with no real investment of ourselves, because we are just to busy!

And don’t think that how we look at social interactions are much different than how many people approach that of the most sacred and intimate of relationships........the marriage! Instead of taking the time to get to know the other person and go through a slow process of what used to be called, “courting”, dating, and really investing yourself in learning the “ins” and “outs” of that person and then eventually, out of love and respect for them, we stand before God and men and make an open, covenantal agreement to become husband and wife.....the two become ONE BODY and then that night, the night of the wedding, the two become one flesh in the eyes of God as they consummate their vows!

Nope, our society has streamlined this whole process down to quick and easy: you go on a date or two, jump in the bed and have sex and call it love and then move in together and call it a relationship! Who needs a marriage, that it is old and antiquated and why does a ring and those vows to God and to the other person matter any way, before having sex? ANSWER: Because God said it matters, that’s why! In fact, it is so important to God, that He refers to us and our relationship with Him as a bride and groom and of how we are waiting for Him to come and take us to His home to consummate the covenant vows that He has made with us!! IT MATTERS TO GOD AND IT BETTER MATTER TO YOU IF YOU PLAN HAVING A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM!!

So, I’m not going to rush this very precious and special time of getting to discus and teach about who Holy Spirit is and why our relationship with Him matters! Amen?!

If we are still here discussing and learning more and more about Him this time next year, then praise God!

And considering that next week is the Sunday that we refer to as “PENTECOST SUNDAY”, the day that Holy Spirit was poured out upon all flesh and into the lives of all believers and the day that we recognize as birth of the Body of Jesus, then how much more special is it that we are coming here to learn about Holy Spirit and yielding our hearts and minds to Him?!!

As much as we can understand that it’s really important to get to know and understand who someone is, if we want to have any kind of relationship with that person, I believe that it vitally important to remember who Holy Spirit is inside of us!

And so, I wanted to use the Bible, itself, as a witness about who God is and of how great and vast He is, so that we can keep a healthy perspective of who is with us and inside of us at all times!

When you read the writings of the psalmist in Psalm 139, and of their supernatural understanding of how great and awesome the Lord God is, it should set our minds to thinking about how vast and great are Yahweh’s ways and His power!

Listen to just some of what is said of Him in this psalm and let your mind meditate on and wrap around the fact that He is the same with you and I, as He was with David, who was inspired to write this!

READ THROUGH SOME OF PSALM 139

Do you see how omnipotent and omnipresent the Lord God is at all times in our lives?

And then listen to how God, Himself, reminds His people of who He is in Isaiah 40!

READ FROM ISAIAH 40 STARTING AT VERSE 9

This is very similar to what we find in the book of Job, chapters 38-41, where we find God starting to question Job and remind him just exactly who the Lord God is!

And for those 4 chapters, Yahweh, the God of creation reminds Job and all of us, as to how great He really is!!

READ THE OPENING OF JOB 38

And when God was done asking the questions and declaring His greatness before Job, listen to the very sober and honest answer of Job to the Lord in Job 42:1-6. It is an answer that each one of us should state to the Lord God in respect to how amazing and great and awesome He is!

Job 42:1–6 NLT

1 Then Job replied to the Lord: 2 “I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me. 4 You said, ‘Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’ 5 I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. 6 I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”

This same God who the Psalmist David wrote of and of how vast He is and how much He loves us and thinks of us, is the same God who declares to us and proves to us of how His power has no match and no rival and put it on display with all of the created universe.

He is the same God who displayed His love for all of creation, by sending His own Son to pay a debt that we owed, not Him!

And He is the same God in full power and glory and might and splendor, who has come down by His sovereign will, to make His home with us, through the agent of His Holy Spirit, who lives inside of you and I, if we are truly His children!

There is no other religion that has ever existed, before or now, where their god sacrifices itself to save the people and then chooses to dwell within them as a sign of love and devotion and covenant!

Only the ONE true God, El Shaddai, the great I AM, did this, or could ever do this, because there is no other god and hence, ALL of the other religions are fake and lies!

And when you really begin to see and understand that the God of creation whose throne is the heavens and whose footstool is the earth, is living inside of you, it should change the way that you see yourself and the way that you live your life!

He is not just some ominous being who sits and observes everything from high above, everything that we say and everything that we do, but He is here with you at all times, 24/7, listening and watching and guiding and protecting and empowering and encouraging you!

And this is all done through the third member of the godhead, the blessed Holy Spirit of the Lord God!

Just a thought for you as we are looking at Holy Spirit and His relationship with us in our lives and that of the intimacy that He shares with us. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:26-27,

Romans 8:26–27 ESV

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

In other words, Holy Spirit watches you and I and He listens to our words and searches our thoughts and intentions of our hearts and then He goes before God the Father and prays for you and I, in ways that we do not understand and with words that we do not hear, nor express

This is not us praying to the Father, but Holy Spirit inside of us.

And it’s God the Father, who knows the mind of His Holy Spirit, who listens to these prayers and petitions going up on our behalf, as His Spirit intercedes for us.

A question that I will ask you this morning, is this: “What does Holy Spirit see and hear from you and from your thoughts and actions and what is coming out of your mouth?

And what do you think He’s having to go before the Father with in prayer on your behalf?

You know yourself and you know what you do and what you think and what you speak, what do you think Holy Spirit is having to go before the Father with and petition for you?

How deep are the groans that He is feeling and expressing to God as He is interceding for you and I?

The blessing of Holy Spirit living within us, is that even when we don’t know, or understand what to go before the Father with in prayer, He is there searching our hearts and evaluating what we really need and then He intercedes on our behalf!

So, we actually have two members of the holy Trinity interceding for us before the Father at all times.

Jesus, according to Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:25, is always interceding for us to the Father, as a high priest and on behalf of our sins and weaknesses.

And then from within us and at the deepest level, Holy Spirit is crying out to the Father and interceding in ways that we cannot understand.

A. T. Robertson said:

“The Holy Spirit lays hold of our weaknesses along with us and carries His part of the burden facing us as if two men were carrying a log, one at each end.”

How great the love of the Father that He has delegated two members of His perfect being, to constantly be interceding and pleading on our behalf!

And so when you and I feel alone and abandoned in whatever is going on in our lives, remember that you have two members of the godhead, constantly going before the God of all power and of all sufficiency and pleading on our behalf!

Holy Spirit is there with you and I every step of the way and sharing with what we go through. Regardless of whether we see or feel anything, He is there in full power and authority and sharing in the burdens of this present life.

Paul makes mention in Romans 8 that all of creation has been groaning since the fall of man, because it was subjected to corruption and futility from our sin and it is looking for freedom from this curse that comes from the final and complete removal of sin.

And then Paul says, that there is another who is groaning and awaiting being set free from this life and coming into the fullness of adoption and that is you and I and every other believer who eagerly awaits what we call, our glorification!

But there is still a third who is groaning along side of creation and you and I, and this other who groans and cries out, is the Holy Spirit, Himself. He was there moving in power and authority when everything was created. He was there in the garden when mankind fell to temptation and sin. He was there as God destroyed every living creature on the earth, save 8, because of the wickedness of mankind. He was there as God created for Himself, a nation from one man. He was there at the rise and fall of the great kings of men. And He was there throughout the earthly life of the blessed Son of God, leading Him and strengthening Him all the way to the cross. And then He empowered the body of Yeshua and raised His body from the grave to forever render death and sin null and void!

He joins in with all of creation and you and I, groaning and longing for the release of this life and awaiting the perfection and completion of the will of the Father that is coming soon!

And so, in faith and belief in who He is within us and what He is doing on our behalf, we should walk as new creatures, in all of the power and authority that Jesus said we would have in this life and in His stead.

Hopefully next week, Pentecost Sunday, we will talk some about the commands given in the Word about Holy Spirit and the power that comes by Him and through Him. Also, I may spend some time looking at our faith and belief and why so many people do not walk in the fullness of Holy Spirit!