Welcome to the line of fire.
Classes are now in session. This is Michael Brown here as always to infuse you with faith and truth and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines. We continue our study on getting to know the Holy Spirit. We are going to talk more this week about recognizing the voice of the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, and then look at what the Bible says about the gifts and power of the Spirit. Whether you just believe it was for biblical days or understand it's for today is all as well.
We're going to open up the scriptures together. Reminder, you don't want to miss our frontline newsletter. It's free.
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The line of fire dot org and click subscribe. All right. It was over 60 years ago. A. W. Tozer made a comment. So think of what things were like then in the church world in America. Think of what they're like today in the church world in America in terms of hype, in terms of fleshly activity and kind of making things happen. Over 60 years ago, Tozer said, if the Holy Spirit left the earth today, and I think he was thinking more about in the West, if the Holy Spirit left the earth today, 95% of the work would continue on a daily basis.
It would affect it and nobody would notice the difference. Conversely, if the Holy Spirit had left the earth in New Testament times, 95% of the work would have stopped and everyone would have noticed the difference. So I want you to consider this, friends. I want you to consider this. If you go through the book of Acts and you take the Holy Spirit out, we're going to do that in a moment.
You don't have much left. The book of Acts without the Holy Spirit is nothing. Now think of church in America today.
Think of how much we do. So much of our ministry could be done without the Holy Spirit. So you can build a nice building without the Holy Spirit. You can build a nice parking lot without the Holy Spirit. You can have an exciting children's program without the Holy Spirit.
You can have good music, inspirational speaking without the Holy Spirit. You could have small groups for relationships without the Holy Spirit. You could have counseling for trouble.
Obviously, it wouldn't be anointed counseling, but all the stuff that the world does, you could do it. You could build a nice club. You could have a nice organization. You could bring an income. You could do good in the community.
All that could happen easily, easily without the Holy Spirit. Go and preach the Gospel. Go and declare the Kingdom of God is near. Heal the sick. We're not doctors.
No, no, no. You just go. Heal the sick. Drive out demons.
How do we drive out a demon? Cleanse the leper. Raise the dead. What do you mean raise the dead? Freely you receive, freely give.
I'm commissioning you with my power and I'll go do it. Well, we can't do any of that without the Holy Spirit. We can do none of that without the Holy Spirit. You can even bring about moral change of behavior. Not a true change in someone's inner condition, but AA, 12 steps, these different things, they help people.
Other things, anger management. We could do a lot in terms of what people call behavior modification without the Gospel. But the lost cannot be truly saved without the Gospel. A true disciple cannot be made without the Gospel. There can be no true sanctification without the Gospel. And the power that sits free, that transforms lives, that will impact nations, that is a threat to the devil, all requires the power of the Holy Spirit. And we have cessationist friends that don't believe in speaking tongues or prophecy today, but they would say the Gospel must come in the power of the Spirit. And people's lives are only dramatically changed by the power of the Spirit. Amen.
100%. And those of us who are charismatic, continuationist, Pentecostal, we would say that the other works of the Spirit still operative today along with preaching of the Gospel and sanctification, that God is doing these things. He's healing the sick regularly.
He's setting captives free. He's delivering people from demonic strongholds. Either way, friends, I've often asked the Lord many times, where is the evidence of the Holy Spirit in my life? Doing daily talk radio for 16 years, you don't need the Holy Spirit to do daily talk radio. You don't need the Holy Spirit to write a book.
People write books every day. You don't need the Holy Spirit to be a social media influencer. You don't need the Holy Spirit to be a good business person.
You don't need the Holy Spirit to be a good parent, just in terms of plenty of good parents who aren't believers, plenty of good business people who aren't believers, plenty of good radio talk show hosts and social media influencers who aren't believers, and they do what they do with their own power. I've said to the Lord, where's the evidence of the power of the Spirit in my life, in my ministry? You say, well, I'm not in ministry.
I'm busy raising a family and working a job. Ah, but where's the evidence of the Holy Spirit in your relationship with God? Where's the evidence of the Holy Spirit working through you in other ways? This is not to condemn.
This is not to put you under pressure. This is to say maybe there's more the Holy Spirit has available. Maybe there's more that the Holy Spirit wants to do in us and through us. It's nothing we can conjure up or produce.
It's His gracious work in our lives. I was flying somewhere one time, and it was in the old days where you didn't have a choice of many different movies to watch or TV shows to watch where you were flying. There would be a show, a movie that would be on. If you got headphones, you could listen to it, and it would always be edited for the movies, for the plane.
In other words, for a general audience. There wouldn't be profanity. There wouldn't be nudity. They were safe to watch. You still might not like the content or want to watch, but overall, they were safe. I watched this movie one time with this famous action hero, and it was very enjoyable.
With the moral ending and fighting for the underdog and the bad guy goes down in the end, it was amazing. I was out with Nancy one night, and we were looking to get some electronics for the home. While she was looking for something, I saw this movie coming up on a screen in the store in the back. I thought, oh, that's the movie I saw. All of a sudden, there's all this profanity.
It's like, where'd that come from? Oh, this was the unedited version. I saw the edited version, but there are some movies so filled with violence, so filled with profanity, so filled with bad stuff, you can't edit it. There's nothing left. If you edit it, there's nothing left.
Now, flip that around on the good side. You edit out the Holy Spirit from the book of Acts, and you have nothing. We're going to go through Acts quickly. In the first chapter, I'll just do this off the top of my head. In the first chapter, you have Jesus referencing the power of the Holy Spirit. Don't leave Jerusalem until you're in due with power from the heart. It's Luke 24, then coming into Acts 1. Then he says, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. This is, in Acts 1, the promise of power. Then you do have, they choose another apostle to replace Judas, so they draw lots for that.
Drawing lots, okay. Don't need miraculous intervention, just trusting God. Okay, either way, but there's the reference to the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's go to Acts 2. Well, that whole chapter disappears. You take out the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. All of Acts 2 disappears.
Why? Because that's when they're filled with the Spirit. They speak in new languages by the Spirit. Peter preaches, gives a promise of the Spirit. Okay, so Acts 1, which talks about the power of the Spirit, that's kind of gone. Acts 2, all of Acts 2, throw that out, right?
You say, what do you mean throw it out? I'm saying if you edit out the Holy Spirit, if you edit out the work of the Holy Spirit in Acts, throw it out. So, I'm contrasting that with a lot of our modern church ministry, a lot of our modern church ministry, which we can do in our own power and might. Okay, so, that's the first thing. Now we go to Acts 3.
What's that? Peter, John, the healing of the lame man who's been born lame in front of the temple begging every day. Peter says, I don't have silver and gold.
What I have, I give you. In the name of Jesus, the Messiah of Nazareth, get up and walk. And he gets up and walks and he goes to the temple walking, leaping, praising God. There's this great crowd and now Peter preaches. Peter preaches to the crowds and miracles of God's at work. Okay, that's the third chapter. Let's go to Acts 4 and see if there's anything miraculous in Acts 4.
Well, let's see. Peter and John come before the son, Hedron, verse 8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said, you've got to take these words out if the Holy Spirit is not active.
So, he preaches, full of the Holy Spirit. Then what happens is that they go pray. In Acts 4, they pray. Acts 4, beginning with verse 29. And then after prayer, after prayer, listen, here's what happens.
The Holy Spirit falls, they're filled with the Spirit, and the place where they're praying is shaken. Okay, so Acts 4 is out. Well, let's see maybe Acts 5. Maybe that's just something that happens in Acts 5 and there's no really big deal there. Oh, we have Ananias and Sapphira dropping dead for lying to the Holy Spirit. Okay, and then you have all kinds of healing and miracles.
As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Okay, so we've got Acts 1 is out because they mention the Holy Spirit. Acts 2, Acts 3, Acts 4, Acts 5.
If you're editing, wherever you have the activity, the supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit, you have to edit that out. Alright, so Acts 5 is out. Okay, well how about Acts 6? Well, that's the seven servants, deacons, are appointed to wait on tables.
And what happens there? Well, Stephen is full of faith in the Holy Spirit. Philip, and what does it say about Stephen? That a man full of God's grace and power performed great wonders and signs among the people. So throw out Acts chapter 6. So far we don't have much in the book of Acts if you edit out the supernatural work of the Spirit. As compared to in so much of today's church life, life could go on without the supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit.
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Great supplements are just that, great supplements. Okay, so we go back to the Book of Acts to say, what if there was not supernatural activity taking place in the Book of Acts? Then what would be left? So we get now into the seventh chapter, and that's where Stephen testifies before the son, Hedron. When he testifies before the son, Hedron, what happens? He's full of the Spirit.
His face looks like the face of an angel. Jesus appears to him in a vision. Okay, let's get rid of that chapter. Acts chapter 9, excuse me, Acts chapter 8, the persecution breaks, the apostles, the others scatter, the apostles stay in Jerusalem. And then you have the healing ministry of Philip, supernatural healings, deliverances through Philip.
And then he's actually translated, goes from one place to another. Get rid of Acts 8. Let's go over to Acts chapter 9. That's where Saul of Tarsus has a vision of Jesus as he encounters the risen Lord and is transformed. Okay, so we got to get rid of Acts 9.
I mean, according to a lot of people, those kinds of things don't happen today, so any accounts of these happening today have to be dismissed. Okay, Acts 10, Peter has the vision. Oh, and there's more healings in Acts 9 with Peter being used in healings. Then Acts 10, Peter has the vision. And then he preaches to the Gentile believers and then the Holy Spirit falls on them. They speak in tongues. And there are other supernatural things in Acts 8.
I didn't get to it with Elymas the sorcerer and stuff like that. So now Peter explains the vision in the 11th chapter. So that, and he talks about being baptized in the Holy Spirit and so on. Okay, so got to get rid of Acts 11. Acts 12, what happens in Acts 12?
And there are other things. I'm not mentioning the apostles being delivered from prison, different things like that. Acts 12 now is when Peter is miraculously delivered from prison.
The angel comes in, gets him out of prison. Get rid of 12. Okay, let's see. Is there, maybe 13. Maybe 13 has nothing miraculous happening.
Oh, hang on. Acts chapter 13, the Holy Spirit says, set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So prophetic word, supernatural word in Acts 13. Acts 14, Acts 14 is now Paul sees a man with faith to be healed.
He's healed. And then Paul's on the stone to death but then gather around him, he's raised up. Acts 15, the Jerusalem council. Okay, but Paul and Barnabas talk about all the signs and wonders they've seen.
And then what do they say? It seemed good to the Holy Spirit in us. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit in us to make this decision. Okay, Acts 16, you've got demons driven out. Demons driven out of a girl or spirit driven out of a girl. And then you've got the miraculous deliverance from prison, the earthquake with Paul and Silas. Okay, somehow we've gone halfway through the book of Acts and every chapter has something dynamic about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Acts 17, these men have turned the world upside down.
And yeah, there's teaching and preaching and so on. Okay, Acts 17 maybe is not quite as much supernatural activity but they're somehow turning the world upside down. You get to Acts 18, Paul has a vision in Corinth, no one's going to attack and hurt you, keep speaking. Acts 19, Acts 19 and their handkerchiefs, things taken from Paul, sicker being healed, demons leaving, other demonic accounts there. Acts 20, Eutychus raised from the dead.
Acts 21, prophetic words with Paul. I mean, we just keep going. Wait, hang on.
Hang on. And we go right to the end of Acts, the 28th chapter, the 28th chapter where everyone on the altar of Malta is healed through Paul. This is the end of Acts. It's just chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter and then Paul recounting the visionary experiences he's had and things like that. And what you basically do have, what you basically do have, if you remove the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit from the early church and from the church of Acts, you have a split between Paul and Barnabas.
We got plenty of splits, plenty of splits through history, plenty of splits in the church today, sadly. And hang on, you got a shipwreck, a shipwreck. But wait, even then they're miraculously preserved and the angel of the Lord comes to Paul.
So even in the shipwreck, basically you have nothing. There is no book of Acts to tell. It is the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles. Now you say, well, are we supposed to see the book of Acts today? Well, show me where we're not. Please show me where we're not.
Please show me in the Bible, which is our authority, Sola Scriptura, this is our authority for faith doctrine. Show me in the Bible, in the Bible where you have anything saying that we shouldn't expect the book of Acts today, especially when the gospels go into places it's never been over and over and over and over and over to this moment. And there are too many to document. Craig Keener estimates at least 200 million. Professor Craig Keener, one of the most meticulous scholars on the planet, he estimates based on reports and demographics and missions, at least, and it's a very conservative number, at least 200 million people worldwide are I with the sister miracles in Jesus' name.
At least, at least. And whenever I travel around the world, I hear miraculous stories of the working of God in people's lives. And these are Jesus-loving people. These are not people you see on TV. These are not some charlatan fundraiser. These are Jesus-loving, Bible-based people.
That's what you see. And in the outlying villages, you go out there, the first white person you've ever seen, and they love Jesus, and they love the word, and they're sharing the gospel with their friends even though they're getting beaten and hated, and they had these supernatural divine encounters, supernatural healings, deliverances. It is quite extraordinary to witness what the Holy Spirit is doing around the world today.
But here's what I say to all of you. The same Holy Spirit lives in us that lived in Paul, that lived in Peter, that lived in Billy Graham, that lived in Charles Spurgeon, that lived in whoever it is that you admire as being used by God. It was the same Holy Spirit working through them. And whatever your own theology says as you study Scripture, whatever your own theology says we should expect from the Holy Spirit at work today, you work that out between you and the Lord, your church, the things you hold to, the denomination you follow, et cetera. You're based as you can on Scripture.
I'm not trying to impose my view on you, but I want to say what I feel so strongly. There is an invitation from God to us to go deeper. There is an invitation from God to us to go deeper. There is an invitation from God to say there is more. The Holy Spirit wants to walk in us and through us in a more profound way, in a more glorious way, in a more noticeable way. Because look, even the fruit of the Spirit that's produced in us, love, joy, peace. In fact, I want to read that to you. And we'll come back to that as well.
But I just, I want you to consider this. The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Put aside tongues, put aside prophecy, put aside all these other things because this is even more foundational.
We all agree on that, right? There is a supernatural dimension of the Spirit's love He wants to manifest through us. A supernatural dimension of the Spirit's joy He wants to manifest through us. A supernatural dimension of the Holy Spirit's peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This is one of the greatest ways that God demonstrates His supernatural power in us is by our character, by our lifestyles, by the walk that we have in the Lord. The life that we produce, people look at us, they should see something different. I don't mean that we're walking on water. We're regular in ourselves.
We are wretches. But the Holy Spirit can produce a love and a joy and a peace, a goodness, a graciousness, a self-control. There's an invitation from the Holy Spirit today through the word of God saying, let's go deeper together. There is more. It's beautiful.
It's an adventure. So, God, we pray you take us deeper in our relationship with you through the Holy Spirit that Jesus might be more glorified. Amen. Hey, remember, if you're enjoying this podcast, this broadcast, tell a friend, encourage them to subscribe, and wherever you're listening, if it's podcast, post an encouraging review.
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