Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:07] I'm going to talk about the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, today. How many of you guys know God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?
[00:00:20] And we're called to walk in intimacy with this person. We're called to experience a sweetness, relationally, a tenderness with the person of the Holy Spirit, a deep fellowship.
[00:00:35] And, you know, I believe that one of the primary missions of the cross wasn't just to heal us, to set us free, to deliver us and even to save us, but more than that, to restore us to God's original design to man is this intimacy. And we see that in the resurrected body, Jesus Christ breathed his spirit into the disciples. That was the new heart, new Spirit. That was the born again experience.
[00:01:04] And we're called to live this way and walk in this type of fellowship. So I'm going to talk a little bit more about that today. And the first thing I want to mention is if Jesus is third, is perfect theology. If Jesus is the example that we want to look at in terms of, like, how should we walk this out? How should we live this?
[00:01:28] Then, then, then we're going to see it in the Scriptures what he did in context of this conversation. But Jesus did really great things like multiply bread and, you know, raise the dead and his ability to, like, see people that no one else saw, like Zacchaeus or the widow or, you know, know people that were lepers and all of that. So Jesus was great. The only reason the Pharisees and Sadducees were angry with him or opposed them was because of jealousy.
[00:02:01] But. But there was no one like Jesus.
[00:02:04] There was no other prophet that would compare to him. People were in awe of Jesus.
[00:02:10] And so Jesus lived this out. And I want to look at a couple scriptures, because what we see in the life of Jesus is that Jesus lived fully yielded to the Holy Spirit.
[00:02:25] We'll see this in Luke chapter four, verse one.
[00:02:28] Now, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was being led around by the Spirit in the wilderness.
[00:02:41] Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit. We understand that everything, actually everything that Jesus did was through the anointing and the empowerment and the enablement of the Holy Spirit all the way from his birth to his ascension. He was born by the Holy Spirit, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He did every miracle through the power of the Holy Spirit. He was raised to life by the Holy Spirit and he ascended by the Holy Spirit.
[00:03:16] We see in Luke chapter 4, verse 18. This is what Jesus does Is he reads in the temple from the scroll, kind of stepping into public ministry. And he reads this. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim released to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set those who are oppressed, to set free those who are oppressed. So Jesus is directly connecting or attributing the power and the anointing. He's walking in to the person of the Holy Spirit in Acts, chapter 10, verse 38 says it like this. You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power and how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
[00:04:22] So I want us to see that. I want us to see that. That in the life of Jesus, that though he was God, he surrendered his will. He could have done things, he knew things, but he didn't. He. He chose to surrender and yield to the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit and operate in that level of intimacy and unity.
[00:04:43] But this is not just for Jesus. This is for us through Jesus.
[00:04:51] And I want us to see this. Matthew, chapter 3, verse 11.
[00:04:57] As for me, this is John the Baptist, who was Jesus's cousin. He's saying, as for me, I baptize you with water for repentance.
[00:05:07] But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, he's greater than I. And he says he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
[00:05:18] He will clothe you with the Holy Spirit. He will submerge you into the Holy Spirit and fire.
[00:05:27] When Jesus.
[00:05:29] We see this in John 14, when he's sitting at the table having this meal known as the Last Supper. And this is after, if you guys remember, when Lazarus left the table to go and betray Jesus. And Jesus is telling his disciples, who have been with him for over 30 years, that it's my time to go. I'm gonna leave you.
[00:05:52] And he's prophetically talking about his resurrection to come and that he's gonna go. And they're kind of, you know, I'm assuming, confused, afraid, not really sure what he's talking about.
[00:06:06] I think the chosen gave us some images of that.
[00:06:09] But. But he says, hey, guys, listen, it's better that I go, because when I go, I'm gonna send another one just like me. I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit, who is now with you, but later will be in you.
[00:06:24] Other translations will say, it is to your advantage.
[00:06:29] It is towards your benefit that I go.
[00:06:34] In other words, he's passing this on, that the life that Jesus lived in power, in anointing supernatural is what he's passing on through his death and burial and resurrection to us.
[00:06:54] And that's what John saw when he looked at him. There is one who is mightier than I, who is greater than I. I could baptize you in water. I can preach a sermon, I could pray for you. But there is one mightier because I, I can baptize you with water. But only he can baptize in the Holy Spirit. Only he can can fill you with the Holy Spirit and power.
[00:07:21] And so Acts 1:4 says, Jesus commanded them to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father for what the Father had promised. What is this promise? This is the person of the Holy Spirit coming to indwell in his people.
[00:07:41] For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
[00:07:50] And then, few verses down, you will receive power. Verse 8. When the holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall become my witnesses.
[00:08:02] Luke, chapter 24. I can't skip these because they're so. Just.
[00:08:07] I picked the best ones, but I just. It's hard to like, pass just, I'm like, okay, no, I can't.
[00:08:15] Luke chapter 24, verse 49. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you.
[00:08:25] But you are to stay in the city until you are clothed.
[00:08:29] Wow, look at that word. Clothed, wrapped in with power from on high.
[00:08:48] You know, you look at the disciples and they, you know, if you could have the best coach in life or the best mentor, I think Jesus would have been that person, right? So here's the disciples. He picked them, he saw something in them.
[00:09:00] He trained them in private rooms, in private settings. He coached them. And after like three years of the best coaching, they all leave him at the cross. The Bible says all have abandoned him.
[00:09:16] And so now. And he foretold what was going to happen. He was talking about his resurrection, that he was going to raise. They didn't believe, they doubted. You guys remember the story. And after that, he looks at them and he says, go change the world.
[00:09:28] And I'm like, these guys.
[00:09:32] And I think what he was saying when he was looking at them was, you have to reach your state of bankruptcy apart from the Holy Spirit and recognize that all the information, all of your natural experience can't enable you to live the life I'm calling you to live.
[00:09:50] But if you wait on the promise that I will send, if you will be clothed with this person. You will receive power.
[00:09:59] You will receive ability to live the life I lived. So I want to read what this is unto 1 John 2, 6.
[00:10:13] The one who says that he remains in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked.
[00:10:25] Do you see that the call for us is to actually live the life that Jesus lived.
[00:10:34] That the evidence of someone that's remaining in Christ or abiding in the Holy Spirit and his anointing and power leads to the same lifestyle.
[00:10:46] Because walk speaks of lifestyle, the way of life that Jesus lived.
[00:10:53] Try doing that without the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
[00:10:58] Trying doing that without being clothed with power from on high.
[00:11:05] That's impossible.
[00:11:06] And what I think this should lead us to is total surrender and dependency on the anointing and the enablement of the Holy Spirit.
[00:11:19] There's nothing weak about that.
[00:11:21] There's nothing wrong about that. To declare bankruptcy, that apart from you, I can do nothing.
[00:11:28] My knowledge is not enough. My experience is not enough. My finances are not enough. My status is not enough. My last name is not enough. Apart from you, I cannot live the life that you lived that you're calling me to live.
[00:11:50] And I want to jump into Acts, chapter 13, verse 2 here in this context.
[00:12:01] This is the church of Antioch, which would become like a sending hub to.
[00:12:09] To the missionaries. They were sending people. This is where Paul was sent on his, you know, early missionary journeys and planted churches.
[00:12:19] And look what it says here in verse 2.
[00:12:24] While they were serving the Lord and fasting.
[00:12:29] Another translation is while they were ministering to the Lord, fasting.
[00:12:37] A lot of us, when we think about ministry, when we think about serving God, we think about things we can do for Him. How many of you guys been there?
[00:12:47] Like, I just want to give it all for you, God. I want to go preach the gospel. I want to go to the nations. I want to. I want to. I want to do something for you. Assuming that God really, really needs your help.
[00:13:03] And if you're, you know, if you're confused about your calling, we're about to make this real clear.
[00:13:07] If you're confused about what you should be doing with your life, what should. What you should. What's the one thing you should give yourself to? We're about to find out.
[00:13:18] And look what it says here. As. As they were ministering to the Lord, which means, you know, loving on him, enjoying him, singing songs to him, being with him, ministering to him, fasting. Not to, you know, upgrade to the level of demons you can cast out, but fasting to draw near to him, to have a tender heart, to experience the sweetness of intimacy with a person, of the Holy Spirit, to fast, to remove distractions.
[00:13:54] This is defined as ministry to the Lord.
[00:14:02] This is defined as serving the Lord.
[00:14:10] If you could find one thing to give your life to, it's this.
[00:14:16] Waste your life on this.
[00:14:18] Give your life to this.
[00:14:21] Make your life about this one thing.
[00:14:26] And you know, Jesus had a big call.
[00:14:31] It was all recorded in the scriptures about all the things he had to do. That was a lot of stuff, right? Like the task list was massive.
[00:14:42] I don't know, 300 something prophecies, plus like 700 something like that's a big task list. That's a. Whoa, God, that's like a weighty assignment.
[00:14:51] And knowing that assignment ahead of time. You know what Jesus did? Nothing for 30 years, just enjoyed the Father, just, just waited on the leading of the Holy Spirit.
[00:15:06] That's it.
[00:15:08] And until baptism, when the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove and a voice from heaven, that's when he was led into the wilderness and then from there and into public ministry.
[00:15:19] I'm not saying life in the Holy Spirit, life in intimacy with God doesn't look like anything. No, it looks exactly like the life of Jesus, which is a lot.
[00:15:34] It's raising the dead, healing the sick, doing things we cannot do without the enablement of the Holy Spirit. But I do see that all that doing comes from one priority. Yeah, and Jesus showed us that priority.
[00:15:50] And he says here, ministering to the Lord and fasting in that context, from that environment, look what happens. The Holy Spirit said, that's where ministry begins. That's when doing things for God begins.
[00:16:13] The Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them.
[00:16:25] We, we see how that one moment impacted the trajectory of his life, impacted the next day, decades of his life. And him being, you know, dying as a martyr and planting all the churches, all the things he had to go through. But it came from his presence, from that sweet place of ministry to him, just loving on him, being with him.
[00:16:59] Our first call is to be with him, is to be conformed to his image, is the call is to him, to the person.
[00:17:14] And look what David writes in Psalm 69, 30.
[00:17:18] I will praise.
[00:17:21] I will praise the name of God with a song and exalt him with, with thanksgiving.
[00:17:31] And it will please the Lord.
[00:17:39] David is writing this by revelation that this song that I'm going to sing to him this thanksgiving is going to please him and not just that he says it will please the Lord better than an ox or a young bull, better than the sacrifices he commanded his people to bring. He says, I'm actually. I'm going to. I'm going to a song to him and I'm gonna give him thanks. And this will move his heart. This will minister to him.
[00:18:10] He saw this by Revelation. And some of us, we lost the joy, we lost the pleasure, we lost the sweetness of intimacy with the person of the Holy Spirit.
[00:18:29] As I was praying and preparing for the service, the Holy Spirit said to me. He said, I'm gonna fill today. I'm gonna fill every empty vessel today. I'm gonna feed every hungry person.
[00:18:47] And, you know, the Holy Spirit is a person who can be grieved, but he also responds where he's welcomed, where. Where you invite him, where you invite him, even, like, to the spaces of your weakness.
[00:19:04] And I believe that God is going to renew first love. God is going to return tenderness, sensitivity to the voice and the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our life.
[00:19:16] You know, I. I was remembering, just reflecting back.
[00:19:24] On the seasons of my life. And this is going to be our next passage. Acts, chapter 16, verse 6. And here we find, you know, the call that Paul now has. He's. He's going to Asia and preaching. And the Bible uses these two words there in verse six and seven, that the Holy Spirit forbid them and then towards the end of the passage, did not permit them to go.
[00:19:51] And I want to propose to us that that's not a loud moment, but a gentle whisper.
[00:19:59] And the way we experience that leadership is through a conscious, like, yielding and sensitivity. It's found in the sweetness of his presence.
[00:20:14] And just reflecting. I remember I said, holy Spirit, show me these moments. There was many moments, some that maybe I'm not ready to share, but I remembered one when I was 20 years old. And I felt like this pause, like the Holy Spirit. You ever feel like he just came, but he's not saying anything, and you're like, whoa, I don't know what to do. And you pause and you just fix your gaze on him.
[00:20:37] And I remember just. I walked into the office and I just started praying. I started waiting on the Lord. And in this moment of ministering to Him, I felt the Lord say to me that. That he's calling me to go to Africa.
[00:20:51] I didn't know what that means. I didn't feel like I'm ready. I didn't feel like I was qualified. I didn't feel like I have the resources. None of that mattered. I just knew in my knowing how many you guys know what I'm talking about. Like you just, just knew in your nowhere that this is the Lord and this is what's going to please him. Everything else doesn't matter.
[00:21:10] And I didn't know that my yes to this would like impact the next decade of my life. I had no idea. I was clueless about what the Lord wanted to do with that.
[00:21:22] But I realized that my tenderness, my intimacy with God is connected to the way I steward those moments, the way I treasure those moments. And most of the time they're whispers, they're gentle, like, gentle like just a little prompting, just, just, I just stay here.
[00:21:56] I was reminded of a story one of my friends shared with me. He does large crusades in Central America, South America, and he was sharing the story that they had this outpouring that came to one of their crusades. And it was, there was a huge like cartel and drug, drug cartel and a lot of like gangsters. And some of them came because so many people that were users came to this crusade and they were worried that they're interrupting their business, so they came with guns. And the anointing of the Holy Spirit fell upon that crusade and he began to prophesy to them. And two of them, two of like the big, I don't know what positions they held, but they were like drug lords in that city they gave their life to Jesus, surrendered to Christ right on the stage on that crusade in that, in that evening. Praise God. Yeah, you can, can give glory to God for that because only he can transform people's hearts like that.
[00:22:53] But what had happened was the, the, this, this gang decided to do a drive by in the hotel and take them out. So after the crusade, they were sitting in the lobby talking about what the Lord did and he's like, I was just sitting there and I just felt like to go for a walk. It's like the middle of the night and he's like, hey, let's just go for a walk around the block. Let's just kind of take a walk. And, and they're like, it's not safe to go for a walk here. This is not like it's not a safe place for you to go for a walk. No, I just feel like we need to go for a walk. So they get up with their whole team, they get out of the hotel lobby to go for a walk. And as they went for a walk, you know, they, they drove by with guns and shot up the whole lobby. And by the time they Came back around, these people were gone. But God completely, like, saved them and spared them from this attack through this tiny, like, prompting and whisper. I'm saying it could be as little as go for a walk with the Holy Spirit.
[00:23:52] And maybe, you know, it's not that radical for our everyday life, but, but it's, it's the fact that he didn't have an explanation. He just had a prompting.
[00:24:02] He didn't know all the things that were going to happen until afterwards, that the Holy Spirit was leading him and protecting him and navigating through unction and prompting of the Holy Spirit. That was very soft and, and gentle.
[00:24:28] The doing that we're called to has to come from that place of ministry to the Lord.
[00:24:37] It has to come from that place of you just being caught up by the Lord and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit being sent. Look what it says further in verse, in verse 3 and 4 in Acts 13.
[00:24:54] Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. And verse four. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, whereas you could do a lot of stuff on your own.
[00:25:15] And, you know, the Bible even says, like, you could gain the whole world and lose your own soul, or you can realign yourself with this priority that's connected around the person and you can be sent by the Holy Spirit, and the result will be the difference.
[00:25:38] And so I believe that the Lord wants to just fill us with fresh oil today. God wants to renew that first love. He wants to renew that, that tenderness, that sweetness of his presence. So if you would stand to your feet with me here when I invite the worship team to come.
[00:26:10] I had to divide this into two messages because I plan to talk about what brings our heart to that. To that tenderness, what brings our heart back into that posture of fully yielding living life at this rest, of yielding to the person of the Holy Spirit.
[00:26:33] And I believe that God is going to anoint people today. God's going to anoint the call on. On people's lives as, as we reprioritize, as we center back where. It's not about what you can do.
[00:26:49] Like, we could. We. We can do a lot of things. We have free will to do things, but it's about the desire to only do things in partnership with Him.
[00:27:00] It's about understanding in this time of ministry to the Lord what he desires from us.
[00:27:08] You want me to go over there? I'll go over there. You want me to stay here? I'll stay here. What do you desire from. From me?
[00:27:21] But More than that, God is going to return people to the pleasure, to the joy of knowing Him.
[00:27:32] And so we're going to. We're going to open up this time.
[00:27:35] And if you're in a place where we're.
[00:27:41] You're like, I don't know why, but I lost the pleasure, I lost the joy. I lost the sweetness of that intimacy with the Lord, of that intimacy with the Holy Spirit.
[00:27:53] Or maybe you're a person that identifies empty spaces in your heart, empty vessels, maybe loneliness, maybe anxiety, depression, whatever it is, unfulfillment, there's this emptiness. These are symptoms that draw us to nearness, because in his presence, there's fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Pleasures forevermore. Just like Jesus maybe did nothing in the eyes of man for 30 years, but was full of pleasure.
[00:28:31] Loved by the Father, known by the Father, Father, seen by the Father, loving people at rest, not overwhelmed with the to do list, not overwhelmed with the expectation.
[00:28:43] And some of us, we need to remove the false expectation that you have to do this in your strength and actually surrender that weight to the Holy Spirit and say, you're gonna do this. You're gonna accomplish this through me. As I wait upon you, as I minister to you, as I love you and enjoy you, you're going to go before me. Amen. So as we go into this worship, I want you to just lift your hands as a sign of surrender and welcome the Holy Spirit into your life. Welcome him into those empty spaces. And if you identify with what we were talking about and you want to, just come forward and say, I want to return to. To that place of intimacy with the Holy Spirit. I want to return to that sweetness. I want to experience that pleasure. I want to experience his presence. I want to return to ministry to him rather than ministry for Him. I want you to just come forward. We're going to have the ministry team kind of just roam around and pray. And I believe the Holy Spirit will just release a fresh oil and fill every empty vessel.
[00:29:54] In the name of Jesus.
[00:29:56] Come on, let's just take time to just love on Him.
[00:30:00] Thank you for joining Kingdom Movement online. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.
