Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. Receive the blessing from John chapter 1. May God give you the eyes of Jesus so you'll see everything as He sees it. Through Christ's eyes, as he promised Nathaniel, you'll see greater things. Under a cloudless open heaven, may you have the Savior's own clear vision so that you'll see yourself more blessed than broken.
you'll see others' potential more than their problems. You'll see the world's hope more than its heartaches. God's grace is all around you. You'll see. When you have the eyes of Jesus, it changes your perspective, which changes your thoughts, which leads to empower you into new behaviors.
That's the way grace works, and that's the gospel. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. The first time that someone experiences this, It is so transforming that it might rightly be called a baptism of sorts, an initiation, an immersion. But it is not to say that you have suddenly received the Holy Spirit, whom you did not have before. It is instead the further releasing of the power and the place and the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.
That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Philved as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource today.
It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.
So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.
More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. I just was in the midst of this when it dawned on me. It was like A thousand glad assurances.
all gently settled into my mind. And the things that had worried me and confused me began one by one, miraculously, and like a puzzle that suddenly had a missing piece, began to fit together, and my mind was opened up with a greater clarity than I'd ever had in my entire life. And that was really exciting to me because I thought, hallelujah, I'm submitting to the Spirit, but my brain's not turning to mush. And instead, what I found at that time And what I have found now for these past twenty-six years since that time. Is that the more that I'm submitted to the Holy Spirit?
The more My intellect is heightened and my creativity is released. The Holy Spirit heightens the intellect and releases creativity. in the people of God. And it's a glorious thing. Never be afraid to surrender fully to God as if somehow Him controlling you is going to diminish.
You are creative, intellectual or otherwise orderly capacities to live. He is going to make your mind more and more what it is always meant to be.
So these disciples that are walking on the road to Emmaus with Jesus. They have an experience something like this. And they're walking along, and their faces are downcast because they have. Been so disappointed. They had carried a preconceived idea, along with most of the whole of the Jewish people, that the Messiah would come and would reign in the manner that King David reigned.
That the Son of David would come and the new Messiah would have some sort of political revolution that would come about, and the people. And so they didn't understand Jesus fully, and they heard his teachings and their hearts burned within them. But they, like so many, they stood on the edge with a burning heart and yet something not enabling them to see fully who Jesus really was, though he was there with them. And when Jesus broke the bread, And they were served, not unlike what will happen today in the breaking of the bread with Jesus Christ, our invisible host, here to break it and to remind us of what He's done for us.
Something happened. All the Bible tells us is their eyes were open because it's too difficult to describe spiritual experiences. But what happened was the presence of Jesus' Spirit. Connects somehow with them spiritually, and their eyes were open, and suddenly, like an intricate puzzle fitting together everything that they had studied of the Torah and the prophets since their infancy, all of it now made sense to them. And everything that Jesus had been teaching them on the way, which had caused their hearts to burn, but which they did not fully understand, now began just like a thousand light bulbs turning on.
They began to understand and say, Oh, so that is that. Oh, that's why that means that. That's why Hosea said that. That's why Isaiah prophesied that in chapter 9. Oh, now I understand what it was about the serpent being lifted up.
Oh, now I can understand who Joshua was, Yeshua, HaMashiach. Oh, I see it now. And it just begins, it's just like this. Just revelation. See, nobody was giving them more of an intellect.
Instead, the intellect was being made alive to the truth. Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He knows everything. And he has a supernatural capacity to commune with a spiritual being, which we are in Christ. Such that the mind becomes subservient to the spirit.
See, I thought if the Spirit had priority, that means the mind takes a backseat and we got to shut the mind off. And that's not what it means. What it means is that the mind becomes subservient to the genius of the spirit. And now the mind can be what the mind was created to be. But that has That's exciting to me.
And so These disciples Have A shift. That is on the one hand, so absolute. That it would turn them from despair to joy. from cowardice to boldness and from emptiness to fullness, and it just came by a revelation. What I'm saying is our lives Can change that much.
by the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit. What happens when the Holy Spirit reveals truth to us, as Jesus promised?
Well, in the first place, what the Holy Spirit does is he assures us of truths. that previously we believed in our head but did not believe in our heart. Do you know the difference? We say that all the time. We say, well, I know it in my head, but I don't know it in my heart.
But when something moves into a deeper belief, it comes because there's some assurance of that. And the first work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian's life is to assure you. That you are a child of God, and if a child of God, then you're a joint heir with Jesus Christ. And he is actively right now at this moment seeking to convince you of that. Because he wants you to be assured.
He is so different from the ways of religion. What religion often does is want to question your assurance.
so that you will perform better. But what the Holy Spirit does is wants to erase any of your doubts and convince you so that you are totally assured, because it's the people that are totally assured that stake their lives on it. And so A thousand glad assurances from the Holy Spirit. And people say, well, how do you know what you know? And you ever feel like saying, I just know that I know that I know.
We'll prove it.
Well, I can't prove it. I just know.
Well, how do you know it? I just know it in my knower. Yeah. That's the Holy Spirit. It is part of the reason that I long every day of my life and ask him to be freshly infilled with the Holy Spirit because.
How to live out of that assurance. That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Do you ever feel like your home could use a little more peace and encouragement? This Giving Tuesday's featured resource from Pastor Alan is a special Good News for Your Family study bundle, including two DVD series with study guides, Good News for Your Marriage, and Good News for Parents.
In these sessions, Pastor Alan and his wife, Anne, show how God's grace can strengthen communication, restore joy, empower forgiveness, and help raise children without pressure or shame. Their practical wisdom and Christ-centered encouragement will equip your marriage and your parenting with hope and confidence that only the gospel can give. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. or come to our website, pastorallen.org.
Today's teaching now continues. Here once again. is Alan Wright. The second thing that I think happens, and I'm trying to explain in natural terms what happens in a supernatural process. But What happens is, we use the phrase and probably overuse it, paradigm shift, a phrase that was originally a scientific.
term To think of a whole new way of moving from one way of physics to another. But we take it sociologically or psychologically to mean that some new information comes that so affects the way that you view everything that you now reinterpret everything and view it differently. And this happens to us. And what happens is that you begin with one piece of new information from the Holy Spirit. You begin to understand a lot of other components of your life.
Our daughter Abigail, she loves to play the draw the picture on the back game at night. And we've been doing this for years now. Um It's a game where you draw a picture on the other's back and they try to guess what you've drawn. And it's not an easy game because our pictures aren't very good. In fact, even if we had a pad of paper and we were drawing the picture so you could see it, it would be hard to guess it.
But we're doing it on the back, and so it's kind of hard.
So in the early days, it was really difficult to ever get it right.
Now we've been doing it for years, and we've got little symbols and things, and so we just know water, you know, oh, sailboat. How'd you know?
Well, because you always do that. But in the early days, it was harder than that. And so I'd be drawing a mouse, and she'd guess an elephant. And I'd go, an elephant? I'm drawing a little mouse.
Well, it didn't feel like a mouse. That wasn't a mouse. It was so a mouse. And I'd say, see this, feel this? That was the ear.
That was the ear. I thought that was the head. And I'd say, see, the tail was over here. That's a tail.
Okay, well, I guess.
So those were little feet and little whiskers.
Okay, now it makes sense to me. But if you have. If somebody's drawing on your back and you think they're drawing an elephant, then you interpret everything as to what part of the elephant it would be. But if you knew they were drawing a mouse, then you could see it. What I'm saying is that.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and things that you have misunderstood. You get a new perception and you begin to understand it, and so things get integrated in your life. Which is wonderful. And you don't always get every answer that you want, but. But you get the answers you need.
And that's why there have been so many moments in my life where I've looked back and I go, oh.
So that happened such that this could happen, such that that moment would occur, so that then I would be in this place.
So and you understand what Paul means when he says, therefore, in view of God's mercy. Present your bodies. As living sacrifices, you can trust him. because he's orchestrating it all together and before you couldn't see it. I've used this illustration frequently, but it's the best I know of.
Author Stephen Covey was on a subway and he was tired at the end of a day. A man came onto the train with his two boys, and the boys were rambunctious. and inconsiderate of the other passengers. And it bothered author Stephen Covey so much. that eventually he was at a boiling point.
And he couldn't help himself. He had to say something to the man, and he said, Sir, aren't you going to do something about these boys? They're bothering everybody. The man uh almost as if he had awakened from a stupor, said, I um Yes, I'm I am sorry. I'm not thinking straight.
We've left the hospital. Their mother died this morning, and I just don't know what I'm doing. And You can imagine that now Stephen Covey, who just one moment earlier was totally bothered by this, could honestly say. They're not bothering me. No, I'm sorry.
What can I do for you? It's the same train. same people, and the boys were being just as rude. But now Honestly, he could say, I see this and feel about it totally differently. This is part of the power of what the Holy Spirit does.
For our minds. This is part of what it means to have our minds transformed. By the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit.
So glad assurances come. And the disciples on Emmaus Road, they A hard, uh Awakened Yeah. We've been reading the scriptures totally incorrectly. They don't have a new body of knowledge, but they have a whole new understanding. And there's one more thing that I want to mention that the Holy Spirit does, and this is the most difficult to speak about in terms of trying to explain it.
And I have very limited knowledge about this subject in itself, but. The peace And the joy of the Holy Spirit. Bringing peace and joy into our lives. And by this, I don't mean theoretic, I mean peace not as the world gives, a peace that passes understanding, not a peace that comes by you figuring out all your circumstances. Talking about a transcendent, supernatural impartation of peace, where you just get this strange feeling that even though I'm going through some really rough things, that it's all right, and I'm going to be all right.
And until you've experienced that, you can't explain it to somebody. It's just peace that passes understanding. And I'm not talking about joy theoretically, I'm talking about joy laughing. Joy, gladness of heart, joy. This comes from the Holy Spirit.
Well guess what? When you have peace, And you have joy. Everything, especially your mind, works way better. There's a very interesting chapter in Gladwell's book, What the Dog Saw. He's the one who wrote the famous book, Tipping Point.
And the chapter caught my eye because its subtitle is Why Some People Choke and Some People Panic. And I thought that was kind of a funny Thought in and of itself. And I thought the reason it's interesting is, why draw a distinction? Aren't choking and panicking the same thing? And he says, no, they're quite different things.
Choking A la Greg Norman, 1996, six-stroke lead at the Masters. Greatest golfer in the world. And going into hole number nine at the Masters on the last day, he had a six-stroke lead, which is basically. you're about guaranteed to win unless you choke. He hit it short on number nine, which you don't do.
On number nine at Augusta. And then he pulled his T-shot on number 10, missed a three-foot putt there. Uh got the number twelve, hit it straight in the water. hitting the pine needles on number thirteen, hit it in the water again on number sixteen. And by the time he walked up number eighteen with his head hanging down like this, Nick Faldo, who had been six strokes behind, was now four strokes in front of in front of Greg Norman.
Now, how could the greatest golfer in the world He could go out there one-handed and hit the ball better than that on a practice round.
Well, I understand what it's like because it's like if I got a chance to break 80 and I got a three-foot putt left.
Well, actually, if I got a three-foot putt, I just give it to myself. But. But Yeah. Let's solve that.
Solve the choking problem right there. But, you know, if there's something on the line and you got that putter in it, I mean, what's this why? You know, sorry for all the golf illustrations, but it's why, why is this, why is our second shot, why is the practice shot, why is the mulligan always so much better than the first shot? Cause. You you relax into it.
And the mind We start with explicit learning, but then it becomes implicit learning, where the greatest creativity and genius comes. Not by oh hold on. Because what happens when you're choking is you're so focused on yourself. That you go back and you're just obsessed now. Am I holding the club right?
Am I doing this right? But when you're playing really well, you're not even thinking about those things. Yeah. But Gladwell says panic is an altogether different matter. And that's where the nervousness, instead of turning all your attention upon yourself so you're self-absorbed, when you panic, you can't think of anything.
And who hadn't experienced a little bit of that before? When I was being we were sued a couple of years back, and it was a long, terrible, awful ordeal. But while I was being deposed, I was deposed for three days, and they sent you down there, and the lawyers You know, trying to trap you with something. And I was actually fine for the first couple days of this thing, and then they switched a lawyer on me, and something about that. That new batter in there just got me frightened.
And And so I got suddenly nervous with it, and he said, Now, I understand that a Presbyterian church is governed by what's called a session. I said, Yes, sir. He said, and so that's the session's comprised of your elders. You got 12 elders, right? I said, yes, sir.
He said, and who who are the current elders?
Now I work with these people day in and day out. We're seeking to be the spiritual overseers of this church, and I invest my lives, and they invest their lives in mine. And I spent the next five minutes coming up with four names. And one of them I later realized is not a Mona session at that time. Yeah.
Because I panicked. And I couldn't think of anything.
Now What I'm just saying, without going into a whole lot about incredible chemistry of the brain is You think better. When there's peace and joy. You're Stress and creativity are arch enemies. We need some stress, we need some cortisol, we need to sometimes have fight or flight, but not the way we live. You don't need fight or flight to respond to the blackberry buzzin'.
There are not many tigers that are chasing us. But God has made you. to function at your best. When he has you the most. that his plan for the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
Is that you will not be either self-conscious. or without thought at all. But then instead your mind and every creative part of your being comes into alignment. in a glad joining, subservient but joining to the work of the Spirit. And in it God makes you everything.
He's designed you to be.
So In the event that there's somebody here that's a little afraid your brain's going to turn to mush if you yield to the Holy Spirit. I'm going to tell you quite the opposite. It's true. Alan Wright. It's our teaching today: how the spirit heightens the intellect.
Alan is in the studio, and we're back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing. It's free, and just a click away at pastoralan.org.
Do you ever feel like your home could use a little more peace and encouragement? This Giving Tuesday's featured resource from Pastor Alan is a special Good News for Your Family study bundle, including two DVD series with study guides, Good News for Your Marriage, and Good News for Parents. In these sessions, Pastor Alan and his wife, Anne, show how God's grace can strengthen communication, restore joy, empower forgiveness, and help raise children without pressure or shame. Their practical wisdom and Christ-centered encouragement will equip your marriage and your parenting with hope and confidence that only the gospel can give. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries.
Call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Alan, it makes sense now that we've heard this teaching and you've helped answer a lot of questions here that it really becomes that heightening, that furthering of our senses, but our intellect too. I love this. It helps us. He helps us think much more clearly.
Well, I've even, you know, and I say laughing at some of my own fears that I had many, many years ago of if I really submitted to the Holy Spirit, then I'm going to have to cut my brain off and all this. And sometimes you'll hear preachers say things like that. You know, your problem is that you're just all in your head and you got to turn that mind off in order to really get.
Well, I know what they're saying, you know, that sometimes the mind can be kind of a bottleneck to us. You know, we get stumble around intellectually. But just think about this, Daniel. If the God, the Creator of the cosmos, who designed DNA and Molecular biology and the whole systems of the world that we are. It's so complex.
He is. The infinite form of intelligence, if he comes more fully into your life. Why would your brain turn to mush now? You know, it's not going to. Instead, the Holy Spirit makes all of you alive.
And I just want this. I guess I'm especially making my appeal to anybody that's listening that is a co-traveler along the line of kind of being an intellect, you know, and you value that, that don't be scared of the Holy Spirit. He is going to make your mental capacity come to full fruition. And that's been my experience. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
