The Spirit's Most Important Gift [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

The Holy Spirit begins to anoint you and fill you, and the Holy Spirit longs to then teach you the most important thing that you could ever know as a Christian, and that is that you have received a spirit that has made you adopted like a firstborn son. 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, Filled, as presented at Reynolda 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 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.

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. Somehow David, in both the experience of the Holy Spirit coming upon him for power and for ministry and revelation, David experienced the nature, the true nature and heart of God. It is the revelation that enables David to say, Surely God, you are not pleased with the sacrifices of burnt offerings and rams that I bring.

But it is a contrite heart, a submitted heart that pleases you. He knew this. So Psalm 23 is David the king, David the shepherd, and it is David the prophet who sees astoundingly a vision that only would fully make sense a thousand years later at the cross of Jesus Christ. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. He might have to the shepherd seen a plateau of green grass for his sheep and it looked like a table. But God had been giving little foreshadowing feasts along the way. The thing that's so exciting about reading the Old Testament is because on every page something is pointing eventually to Jesus. And the banquet is there everywhere. The banqueting table is being prepared and God's giving little insights.

He's letting us see it in a thousand different ways. Abraham, who was the father of Israel and was called by God up out of the earth, the Chaldees, and God said, Look at the stars of the sky. Your descendants are going to be as numerous as the stars of the sky. And he kept wanting Abraham to know that it's real. And so he came and he told me, You're going to have a child.

Your wife's going to be a child in your old age. Well, Abraham was believing this. Not exactly sure if Sarah believed it right off, but three guests came.

And the Bible makes it clear that two of them are angels and one of them was probably the Lord himself. In Genesis chapter 18, look at it sometimes, it's a funny story. These three guests come and eventually one of them, the Lord himself, says to Abraham, Where's your wife Sarah? And he said, Well, she's in the tent. And then they say, obviously Sarah is listening to all of this.

And one says, Well, she is going to bear a child in her old age. And the Bible says, Sarah laughed to herself. And so I don't know how loud she laughed, but she laughed. And then the Lord says to Sarah, Why did you laugh? And now she lies and she said, I didn't laugh. And it's just so funny because the Lord says, You did so laugh.

Did not did so, did not did so. And while she is laughing, what Abraham has done is he sent his servant to kill the fatted calf. And prepare the table so that they would have a meal, a feast there.

So Sarah is in the tent laughing in unbelief and the Lord is preparing a table. The people of God are human, they have sinned, plenty of sin, one of which is a generational sin that got into the family. And which Jacob finally manifested again by showing favoritism to Joseph, his son Joseph. And the other brothers, Joseph's brothers, they hate Joseph because of this.

They hate his beautiful coat that his father gave him, they hate his dream, they hate him. And his brothers are going to kill him, but instead they throw him into a pit and they sell him off into slavery and to Egypt. Joseph there is falsely accused, he's put into prison and seemingly forgotten. Until one day it happens that Joseph is given opportunity to interpret a strange dream of Pharaoh.

And when Joseph interprets the dream saying that there will be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine, Pharaoh is so taken by the supernatural wisdom in this man that he appoints Joseph to second in command of all of Egypt so that Joseph could administrate the years of plenty and administrate the years of famine. And indeed Joseph wisely administrates it, they save up grain and it turns out this is the only place in the region of the known world that anybody could find food including Joseph's brothers who had assumed Joseph for dead. But now the one Joseph who had been sent away as if dead is thriving and eating lamb chops every day and the brothers are about to starve along with their dad.

And he says you got to go to Egypt and see if you can get some grain. And they come and they don't know it's Joseph that they're talking to, and Joseph knows it is them. Finally when Joseph can no longer contain himself, he throws himself upon them with affection and tears and they have a feast. And he really loves his little brother Benjamin that he didn't get to see grow up and the Bible says it gave him five times as much as everybody else because God sent Joseph to prepare a table for his enemies. Moses was called to be a deliverer of the people of God and it was not until the final plague that Pharaoh would finally let them go. For on that night the destroyer would slay the firstborn of every Egyptian, but the Hebrew people were given a simple instruction that you're to take a lamb and put the blood of the lamb over the door. This is a lamb that you're to roast.

You'll have a wonderful meal. You're going to have put the blood over the door and wherever the blood is the destroyer will not enter in because the people of God were delivered by the blood of the lamb because God had prepared a table for His people in the presence of all of Egypt. And they got in the wilderness and they didn't have any food and they cried out and God rained down manna on the table of the forest. And all throughout the old covenant it's just over and over and I see little glimpses of it, Esther saves the people by coming and serving a feast to the king not once but twice and then makes her appeal because a table is prepared in the presence of the enemies that would have slaughtered the people of God. And Nehemiah rebuilds the wall and Ezra reads the law and as Ezra is reading the law some of the people begin weeping and such and Nehemiah says no, no, no, let's rejoice.

They were eating the choices of foods. Take some delicacies to the poor people that don't have anything and just rejoice and celebrate because the joy of the Lord will be your strength. We have been attacked from the day that we began this building project. We've had a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. We've been putting the rocks down and fighting off the enemy and God has been with us and now let's prepare a table in the presence of our enemies because the wall's been built. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. In a special bundle alongside the audio teaching, Pastor Alan has also written a booklet. Both the audio and the booklet not only explain the infilling of the Holy Spirit but will nourish, inspire and draw you nearer to the God who longs to immerse you in His love and power.

Discover how to be filled with the Spirit and get ready for your life to be filled with fresh love, joy and power. 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. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. In Isaiah and the prophets, they prophesied of a great feast that would come and then Jesus came and He began to teach about the kingdom of God. And He says, well, let me tell you what's the kingdom of God like. The kingdom of God is like a great banquet that has been prepared. And there are people that are invited that are very noble.

They're very busy. And they don't come. And the king so wants to share the feast that he says go out to the highways and byways and just bring anybody that will come to the feast. That's what the kingdom of God is like. And what no one had been able to see fully, clearly, and David had only seen somehow in the Spirit is the way that God would perfectly and ultimately prepare the table. The table. The communion table. The salvation table. The wholeness table.

The table of healing and joy. Is that He would send His only begotten Son to live a sinless life and die a cruel death. And then Jesus hung on the cross and said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The king was preparing the table in the presence of his enemies. And every demon in hell must have come and taken a pot shot at the Messiah.

Oh, you could hear it in the voices of the passersby. They, look, he saved others. He can't save himself. This is the one who said, destroy this temple and I'll raise it up in three days.

Ha! Why don't you come down, king of the Jews? And while the enemies taunted, while the wolves salivated, while all of hell was rejoicing, and all the angels were wondering how could this end up being a blessing, God the king was preparing the table. The table was being prepared and it was being prepared as the table of grace for Jesus to become our sin and we to enjoy everything that should have only come to Jesus. And somehow David saw this and he said, you have prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

And this is what happens. The revelation that Jesus Christ has died for you is a revelation that comes about into your heart and you don't have to know everything about Jesus. You don't have to know everything about the Bible. You just come to realize that God, throughout eternity, He's been planning it, He's been planning it, He's been planning it, that though there was sin and though we were trapped in it, just like He delivered the people out of Egypt, He was going to deliver us, He was going to have a way, how was He going to do it? And His son died for our sin, He took the penalty. And when you come into this and you just accept this, then the incredible thing that happens is that not only are you born again for all eternity, but a miracle then takes place that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the one who died for you, comes and lives inside of you and the Holy Spirit begins to anoint you and fill you and the Holy Spirit longs to then teach you the most important thing that you could ever know as a Christian and that is that you have received a Spirit that has made you adopted like a firstborn son. And so David, he doesn't have language to describe all of that because he hasn't seen Jesus yet, but he somehow sees us and he says this in the Spirit and he says, surely goodness and steadfast love shall follow me.

Here is what the Holy Spirit teaches you when you start becoming convinced that you're an heir and it is absolutely essential for any level of victorious living. He teaches you that all of your life in the past and in the present, God's goodness has been pursuing you. In other words, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, the more we submit, you'll hear the Spirit say to you, God is good, life is good, good things are intended towards you.

And if we never hear that, then the clutter and distraction of a world filled with troubles will convince us that our life is filled with bad things and that we're pursued by bad things, which leads to hopelessness. What I'm saying is that let's ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit so that every day as we're increasingly submitted to God, we understand the simple truth that God has good in store for you. And with that, he realizes that what has been pursuing me is not only God's benevolence, his kindness and good gifts, but his chesed, his covenantal love that is not rooted in my performance, but in his covenant with me. The Holy Spirit longs to teach us of the depths of what that means. It is this that Paul is referring to when he says the Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God. This does not just mean that the Holy Spirit bears witness to you that you are saved and that you're going to heaven, although he does that. But this is to teach us that we are heirs right alongside of Jesus. And if you never receive any other revelation or any other gift from the Holy Spirit, if there never were a gift of healing, a gift of a prophecy or a tongue or a teaching, if there are never anything else from the Holy Spirit except this gift, that the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and therefore heirs and co-heirs with Christ, it is more than enough. And the Holy Spirit will never stop longing to teach you the depths of what that means.

And we need to know it. In a fatherless generation, what could be more important for every orphaned heart than at the deepest place, the deepest place of wound in our soul to find out I have a father after all, that I am no orphan, I am a child of God. And the Holy Spirit ever since I've been a Christian has had a full-time job just teaching me about that.

And it's a great teaching. I just encourage you, the first and primary thing to ask in the infilling of the Holy Spirit is to show you who you are in Christ because here's what happens with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of God himself in you witnessing with your own heart, your own spirit because he's God. He's always going to agree with God. He's always going to agree with God's own word. So you have inside of you the power of God to bear witness to every word that has proceeded from the mouth of God. And the battle is will we believe the distracted, deceptive world or God?

And you have an advocate who's teaching you how to agree with him. And then David says, surely I will dwell, I'll abide in the house of God forever. Temples didn't live permanently, I mean priests didn't live permanently in the temple. What does David mean? Somehow he'd seen in the Spirit what would come to every believer of Jesus Christ. The assurance that there is nothing that disqualifies you from communing with the presence of God.

Absolutely nothing. It is to say that when David gets a vision that you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, he's seen it all. He's seen it all. In the Spirit, somehow he's seen it. My enemies can't steal this banquet.

This is where I belong. You might say to yourself, well I would never disqualify myself from the presence of God. Think deeply about that.

Think deeply about that. Because why would we ever do harm to ourselves? Why would we ever even move into the patterns of sin that we have in our life? Why would we not feel free at every moment to draw upon God? Isn't it because that sometimes when we're at our greatest need, we feel the worst about ourselves and therefore we don't think we could ever be in the presence of God. Later Hebrews says come to the throne of grace boldly in your time of need, not afterwards. In other words, when you're at your worst in Jesus Christ, you belong right in the presence of God. Your worst temptation, your worst sin, come to God.

He loves you. Allen Wright, and today's teaching as we kick off this series called Filled, it's the Spirit's most important gift. And Allen is back here in a moment with additional insight on this for your life in our final word today. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Allen Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Allen Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastorallen.org. Someone once said, doing your will by your power is humanism. Doing God's will by your power is religion.

But doing God's will by God's power, that's Christianity. Can anyone love his enemy just by deciding to be nice? Can anyone produce peace that passes understanding by mental discipline?

Can anyone heal depression by just trying harder to be happy? Of course not. In fact, almost everything about New Testament Christianity is impossible by human power alone. Thankfully, God has never expected you to live the Christian life by your own strength. He has sent a helper and every single Christian is invited to live a supernaturally empowered life through the continual infilling of the Holy Spirit. In a special bundle alongside the audio teaching, Pastor Alan has also written a booklet. Both the audio and the booklet not only explain the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but will nourish, inspire, and draw you nearer to the God who longs to immerse you in his love and power.

Discover how to be filled with the Spirit and get ready for your life to be filled with fresh love, joy, and power. The Gospel is shared when you give to Allen 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 Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Allen, this is really one of the most common questions we do receive at Sharing the Light. And it's, well, what in the world does that even mean, filled with the Holy Spirit? And someone right now, as you've been describing in this message, might have a lot of questions.

What would you say to that person? I'd say to everyone, first, open up your mind and open up your heart to see what the Scriptures really say. And be assured of this, the infilling of the Holy Spirit is not for some few spiritual elite.

It's not for people who have done certain religious things. But this is the ordinary Christian life. Is that God inhabits us by the very presence of Jesus. And so the invitation is for the Spirit of Jesus himself.

That's who the third person in the Trinity is. The Holy Spirit to have not only residence in your heart, but the image in the Scripture is being filled with the Holy Spirit. And what this means is that our being, our very nature, our mind, our will, our emotions, our whole being becomes increasingly saturated with the power and purposes and affections of the Holy Spirit within us. And so that's what we've put together, this little booklet, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, because it explains, I think, from a good, balanced perspective, what it means to be filled with the Spirit, how it is that you ask the Lord for this, and also what it doesn't mean. Unfortunately, sometimes the conversation about the Holy Spirit, Daniel, has caused controversy. And in the end, I think that we can lay some of that aside and just say to every listener, receive and be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not a one-time invitation. This is about the growing presence and awareness of the presence of the person of the Holy Spirit in your life. Today's Good News message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.