Receive [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. When you pull in that parachute and it goes up, what's it like coming down? And he just looked at me and said, in that event, you don't care. You don't care if it's a bumpy ride. You don't care if it's a noisy ride. You don't care what it feels like. You don't care if you're upside down or back like this.

All you care is that you're floating down rather than crashing down. 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 Higher Power, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout our entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org.

Or call 877-544-4860, 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. I was intrigued by her. She was beautiful and deep and spiritual and fun. And she came for our Bible study, and she said that she had been... There was some visiting speaker on campus and some kind of healing meetings and all, and she had gone. And she said, I think that our Bible study, we should go. We were all kind of getting interested in who's the Holy Spirit. And so she talked us into going.

And so we went. It was the first time I'd ever been in a meeting where people were really worshiping passionately, lifting their hands to the Lord and all that. I just hadn't... I grew up in a Lutheran church. And then I'd been in a great evangelical, non-denominational church, but I'd never seen this kind of...

Honestly, I wasn't comfortable with it, but I was thinking, these do seem happy, you know? And that was appealing to me. And so we sat there and we listened and there was prayer for healing and it looked like God was doing things. And I felt like God was there. And so at one point this evangelist, he said, every head bowed, every eye closed, and we all bowed our head. He said, now who wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit? And our heads are bowed and I'm just kind of peeking a little bit left and right, you know, like, you know, and, and finally I said, well, sure I do.

And all of a sudden he says, there a whole row of them. And the only people that raised their hand were our Bible study. We just stuck out like a sore thumb. I guess we're the only people who didn't have the Holy Spirit.

I don't know. But anyway, we went out for prayer. I'll tell you the rest of that story sometime, but my experience was not good when that night I was like, I didn't feel uncomfortable. People, all these people around me laying hands on me and they weren't polite.

Like we teach our people be polite, ask somebody before you go throwing your hands all over them, you know, can I lay my hand gently on your shoulder or something like, you know, when I went forward, I mean, these are good people, but this is what was going on in their mind. Fresh meat, you know, I mean, it was just like, I was, we're going to get you some Holy Spirit today. And, uh, and I, I just was like, I, that's not the way I received from God.

You know, if I feel manipulated or anything, I just, I shut down. And so I was all shut down the rest of the Bible. So we all came outside that school auditorium and we're all going, Oh, that was uncomfortable.

I didn't, I didn't like that. Everybody's saying all that except this girl named Ann. And she's just quiet and we're like, well, it was bad for you too. And she was like, well, wait, did something happen to you?

And she's like, well, yeah. And that, and, and, and I think I started falling in love with her from that day on because I was so intrigued by what was going on this mysterious Ann who had begun experiencing the Holy Spirit. It actually set me on a road of becoming thirsty to receive from God. And I've looked back so often on that experience and that evangelist saying who wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit? And I almost just chuckle at the question because now that I know the Holy Spirit so well, it seems to me the silliest question in the world to say, who wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit? The question is not who wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The question is who wouldn't want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Do you know who he is? He is the third person of the triune God. He is Acts 16, seven, the spirit of Jesus. You love Jesus. The Holy Spirit is Jesus's own spirit. It's like saying who wants to have lunch with Jesus today? I do. Who would like to have Jesus lead your Bible study tomorrow?

I'd like that. The Holy Spirit is the person of Jesus in the spirit to us. He's the spirit of Jesus.

Who wouldn't want to be filled with him? He's the greatest teacher in the world. John 16, 13, Jesus said, when the spirit of truth comes, he'll guide you into all the truth. Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will guide you into all truth. He is the greatest teacher in the world.

He is the all knowing God. I think of him as the best coach you could ever have. You know, a coach makes all the difference.

I mean, I was, I just had to check. I was like, you know who the highest paid college football coaches are? Nick Saban at Alabama and Dabo Sweeney at Clemson both make over $9 million a year.

We will pay for a good coach or at least somebody will pay for a good job. And the Holy Spirit is an omniscient, all loving, all wise coach who knows what you're ready for. He doesn't put you into a training program that you're not ready for. He takes you step by step. He's beautiful.

He's wonderful. He's the one who brings spiritual fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Who doesn't want that? He brings gifts, supernatural gifts. We're going to talk next week about an overview of the spiritual gifts, variety of gifts. Who wouldn't want to be able to have mercy instead of judgment for people? Who wouldn't want to be powerful in your intercession? Who wouldn't want to be able to hear secrets from heaven and share them so that people's lives are changed? Who wouldn't want to have the joy of generosity rather than stinginess? Who wouldn't want to be able to join hands with someone and speak words of healing and they be healed?

I want that. And he is the deposit, a guarantee of our inheritance. Ephesians 1 13, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel, your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who's the guarantee of our inheritance. It's like the image of selling a house and someone gives you earnest money.

It's like, I'm going to pay you the whole amount, but I'm going to give you some now, a non-refundable prepayment that is proof that I will finish this. And so what Paul's saying here is the Holy Spirit is, is a deposit that guarantees to you that the entire spiritual inheritance is yours. All of heaven is yours. And so I'm giving you the spirit so you will have a guarantee that that's who you are, an heir or co-heir with Christ.

And God is going to come back in the person of Jesus and consummate all things and glorify you and take you into a new heaven and a new earth one day. But all you have the Holy Spirit now, who wouldn't want more of heaven now? The question's not who wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The question is who wouldn't?

Why wouldn't we? Well, there are several reasons, you know, that come to mind. Part of it is I think a lot of people just haven't heard much of the Holy Spirit. I just didn't hear that much of the Holy Spirit until we began that little Bible study in college. You know, it's an interesting story in Acts chapter 19. We won't look at the whole story, but they, these people, they were asked, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believe? And they said, no, we haven't even heard there's a Holy Spirit.

I think a lot of Christians in our country today, you know, they, they, there's like, I haven't even heard of the Holy Spirit, you know, so ignorance of an, of something that is for you could prevent you from receiving. If you have an inheritance and you didn't know you had it, you might not appropriate it. That doesn't mean that you earn it by just discovering it. It just means you have faith for it because now it's yours. You know, it's yours. So we need not be ignorant.

That's Allen right. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Would you love a better marriage? You don't need more good advice.

You need more good news. Marriages like people aren't changed by human effort or even by applying principles. Marriages are changed by the gospel of grace. In six video sessions, Pastor Alan and his wife and lead you and your spouse into a fresh encounter with the God of grace. You'll learn a simple grace filled process that makes great communication easy. You'll discover the freedom of forgiveness and the power of celebration. You'll also learn how to pray for your spouse and how to bless one another with a faith filled vision for the future to help you grow.

When you order the video series, we'll also send you two copies of the accompanying study guide. Whether your marriage is going through some special challenges or your marriage is in a season of health, you'll find powerful transformational truth in good news for your marriage. Make your gift to Allen right ministries today and fill your marriage with the grace of God. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen right ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen right ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Allen right. I think one of the fears I had is that, well, I always value the mind. I still, I value the intellect. God made the brain and the brain is, is remarkable. This brain is the pinnacle of all of creation. I mean not this brain, but I mean the, that didn't come out.

Not, not disparate, not disparate. I mean the brain in general that you can think and process. He made the intellect and made us in his own image because he is, there's not a word to describe him. He's just a genius that just blows your mind to think of his intelligence. So I thought that when you get filled with the Holy Spirit more and more that that makes you into a nut and you chop your brain off, you know, that's kind of what I thought. And now I realize how silly is, how would the creator who made the mind do anything to make you shut off the mind? Instead, the Holy Spirit heightens your intellect. He is the author of creativity. He is the inspiration of genius. I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so I can think.

I can't think straight without him. I didn't know that at first. I was worried about that. Some people are concerned about excess and manipulation and I'm concerned about that too because I, you know, and Renalda and I, we value the authentic and we've put a big value on not manipulating people, you know, and we've seen excess, there's excess in everything, right?

And you know, Dr. Sam Storms this year, he just said it well. He said, you know, just because you've seen something that is done poorly, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it rightly. Don't, don't let some negative image you got in your mind keep you from the authentic experience of the Holy Spirit. And let me just say this also, I used to kind of worry, well, is, is he going to make me do something weird? You know, like, you know, I mean, I remember, I remember thinking like, I don't want to, I don't want to lift my hands or I don't want to, you know, and let me just tell you this, God is so good that when he starts touching the deepest places, your life, fixing things that need to be fixed, healing things that need to be healed, empowering places that were dry and you start feeling joy.

We used to have to skirt. You know what? You don't care about other stuff. He is just God. My buddy, uh, Bob Roach, Eldar church, he's flies Cirrus airplanes and he's been so kind to fly me all over to conferences and the Cirrus is a single engine plane. It's a nifty little plane, but it's got an interesting feature that was always been consolation to me. It has a parachute. It's the only plane that has a parachute. There's a big red lever and should there be an emergency, you put the throttle down and you pull this red lever and the whole plane has a giant parachute that comes up and everybody that has had to parachute in a Cirrus because of engine failure or whatever has lived. Now you might be dangling in a tree somewhere or something, you know, but, and so every time I got it, I say, Bob, remind me, how do you pull this lever in case you and this plane are disabled?

I want to make sure I know how to pull the parachute and he'd give me a review of the lesson. And one day I asked him, I said, when you pull in that parachute and it goes up, what's it, what's it like coming down? And he just looked at me and said, in that event, you don't care. You don't care if it's a bumpy ride, you don't care if it's a noisy ride, you don't care what it feels like. You don't care if you're upside down or back like this. All you care is that you're floating down rather than crashing down.

Don't worry. The Holy Spirit loves you and, and not going to take you into some kind of excess and say, he just got. And I think I want to just say that one of the biggest obstacles I had, and I'll just say this quickly, is that a lot of us just don't feel worthy and feel like God might not want us to have an abundant life. But listen, as John Piper is taught so well, God is most glorified when you're most delighted in him. He's a father.

And when you love your children, it's just a hard thing to explain, but a parent can understand this. You are happier for something good to happen to them than you are for it to happen to yourself. And God's a father and he wants you to have life and more abundantly.

This isn't about your worthiness. It's about the worthiness of Jesus Christ. And so you don't have to do something, be something more, be more holy or be more committed. Paul said to the Colossians in chapter one, giving thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in his inheritance of the saint, you're qualified in Jesus. And Joel had prophesied it that the spirit would be poured out on all flesh. So the promise of scripture is the command of scripture receive John 7 38. This he said about the spirit verse 39, those who believed in him were to receive John 20 22. And when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. Acts one eight, you will receive power. Acts two 38 repent, be baptized in name of Jesus and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts eight 14, the apostles Jerusalem heard Samaria had received the word of God. And so they came and prayed. They might receive the Holy Spirit.

We could go on and on. Acts eight 17, they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit there. It sounds sort of counterintuitive, but I would like to just say that the biggest obstacle to receiving the Holy Spirit is to think that there's some hoops you got to jump through in order to save the Holy Spirit. That's what he's saying to the Galatian people. He's saying your idea that you've got to be a little bit more righteous by practicing some Jewish rituals and you put a little bit in here. That's the actual thing that's going to keep you from receiving because the Holy Spirit is a gift. So it's kind of a, like a silly question almost.

Thanks bro. It's almost like a silly question is to, to me it's like, I grew up a third of three teenage boys and uh, it's almost like saying, well, how do you, how does a teenage boy receive food when the mother puts it on the table? Well, I'll tell you, you got three boys competing for the food. Here's why the pizza goes on the table. Nobody have to say, now here are the steps to receiving food. You're just hungry and you just get it. I know there are no obstacles to you receiving more and more from God and he meets us each in different ways and ask him and trust him because the real questions, not who wants to be filled with the spirit.

The real question is who wouldn't want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? That's the gospel. Alan Wright, our good news message today.

It's titled receiving from the series, higher power. He stick with us. Pastor Alan is back here in the studio sharing a parting good news thought for the day before we close out.

Coming back here in just a moment. Would you love a better marriage? You don't need more good advice.

You need more good news. Marriages like people aren't changed by human effort or even by applying principles. Marriages are changed by the gospel of grace. In six video sessions, pastor Alan and his wife and lead you and your spouse into a fresh encounter with the God of grace. You'll learn a simple grace-filled process that makes great communication easy. You'll discover the freedom of forgiveness and the power of celebration. You'll also learn how to pray for your spouse and how to bless one another with a faith-filled vision for the future.

To help you grow, when you order the video series, we'll also send you two copies of the accompanying study guide. Whether your marriage is going through some special challenges or your marriage is in a season of health, you'll find powerful transformational truth in good news for your marriage. Make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today and fill your marriage with the grace of God. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries.

Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastoralan.org. 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. Back here in the studio with Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day on receiving the Holy Spirit. Pastor Alan, do you think it's when we, probably any reluctantly that comes from some of us thinking about this, you're looking at someone who has received the Holy Spirit and you're thinking, wow, but then your human thinking comes back into play and say, well, in order for me to be like that, and then you're introducing your human thought, I've got to have courage or I've got to be willing to step out of my comfort zone when really it's the receiving. You talk about the pizza.

You have to teach it. It's all in one bundle, right? Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for they will be filled. And so I think that my job is to help you be in touch with the hunger and thirst that you have for God. And what we've been doing today is just exposing some of the potential obstacles to receiving, because I think that's what we really do is let's, it's not seven steps to receiving the Holy Spirit. They're not five ways to get more of the Holy Spirit in your life. I mean, we're talking about the reality of God himself who comes in a miracle and takes up residence in your life.

But what we are talking about is getting rid of some of the things that might stand in the way. And I've shared a few that were my own, you know, and I particularly maybe want to end with this, that maybe you identified with me when I said, you know, I had a time in my life, I thought that in order to really receive, I'm going to have to turn off my intellect. And it kept me back, you know, for a while, the thing. And what I realized is what, how silly a notion God through the Holy Spirit created the intellect. He's not here to make us chop off our mind. He made the mind.

Your intellect is heightened. When you submit more and more fully to God, what you're doing is not earning a right to have more of the Holy Spirit. You're just making more of yourself available to the very presence that God so wants you to experience. He is the giver of gifts. He's the giver of fruit. He is the teacher that you need. So may you be filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's just that simple. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.