THE SPIRIT OF GOD

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

Sunday evening we began our Keys of the Kingdom series with The Word. One of the most valuable keys given to us by Jesus Christ, because according to Heb. 4: 12 “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

John 17:17 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

Ephesians 5:26 “that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,”

In moving forward this evening and having just celebrated Pentecost Sunday. I would like to again take another look at the Third person of the Trinity.

We must be fully aware that the Holy Spirit is a person nit a thing or an it, but God, Himself. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

There is an old saying God Taught it, Jesus Bought it and the Holy Spirit brought it.

Just like Jesus, i believe the Holy Spirit, was destined to come to us, because God knew in our limited capacities as human our abilities would fall well short of being able to fulfill and receive the Promises and Calling of God.

The Spirit is an important key to have on our spiritual keychain.

As we learned onPentecost Sunday we need to get back to the power of Pentecost. We have maintained this form of Godliness long enough and it is time to get reintroduced to God’s power.

For many, the Spirit is sought for personal attention, to be misused and in many occasions, the Spirit is handcuffed and the scope of Who He is and what He is able to do is limited by us.

Jesus said in John 15:26 ““But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.”

When you look at this passage and then remember what Christ said in Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””

So if your testimony isn’t about what Christ has done for you and you are not able to tell people about Christ and His wonderful works then you may need to recheck your baptism.

Acts 2:11-13 “Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.””

One moment they are afraid and scared then in a flash they are bold and courageous speaking in an unlearned language, declaring the works of God.

He Empowers us; God know the frailty and the limitations of this body and mind knew we would need help to fulfill the task before us.

So he helps us in our weakness. He stated to Paul when Paul felt inadequate and said ‘In your weakness is My strength made perfect and My grace is sufficient..”

He strengthens us; Isaiah 10:27 “It shall come to pass in that day That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, And his yoke from your neck, And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.”

The infilling or the baptism of the Spirit is so much better, because in the OT, the Spirit came upon people.

Samson’s great strength.

Elijah’s ability to outrun the King’s chariot

Today however, the Spirit doesn’t come upon us, but it now dwells or abides or lives within us.

It was then Peter and John were able to heal the lame man, in Acts 3 and in Act 4 they were able to undergo the persecution and pray for and increase in Spirit as they asked Jesus for boldness to preach the word.

Because of the baptism Paul was able to write Eph.3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,”

also Phil.4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

! Cor.12:7“A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭12:7-11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Through the Spirit the Psalmist states he teaches my hand to war.

He leads in Paths of Righteousness...