Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, November 12th. Do you find that your Christian life often shifts too easily between contentment and frustration? Today's podcast helps you understand both rest and peace in part two of The Power of the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Believer. What I want to talk about in this message is the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Now, to many people, their idea of the power of the Holy Spirit is some miraculous thing that God does through some so-called healer or some outstanding preacher or teacher and so forth. But what I want you to understand in this message is this, that the work and the ministry and the power of the Holy Spirit is not only available to every single believer, but is the will of God for every single believer, no matter who you are.
And oftentimes that is the big hedge we have to get across, because so often people think, well, that's for missionaries and this is for teachers and this is for preachers. And certainly this has nothing to do with me as a businessman or me as a mother or me as a student. I'm a plumber. I'm a preacher. I'm a carpenter. I'm a secretary.
I work out here in the business world and I'm ahead of this and ahead of that. What does the Holy Spirit have to do with any of this? Well, listen very carefully, because it is so very important you and I understand that this message is not limited to preachers and missionaries and Bible teachers, but God intends for it to be for every single person. So what I want to do, first of all, is to define what I mean by the power of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit is that divine authority and energy which God releases in the life of every single one of His children in order that you and I may live a godly life and that we may live a fruitful life. The power of the Holy Spirit is that divine energy and listen, that divine energy and authority that God releases in and through every single believer in order that we might live a godly life and bear a fruitful life. So when He talks about being clothed with power from on high, that's the kind of power He's talking about now. What I'd like to do in this message is simply this, I want to give you a comprehensive view of the Holy Spirit.
I want to start out with something very simple and move it to the more complex. One thing I'm certain, if you will listen carefully to this message, if you'll be wise enough to take some notes, you will not only be enlightened probably in some areas, but you're going to be encouraged in your life no matter what your vocation or what God has called you to do. So let's think about the work of the Spirit. What I'll do is I'll give you the work of the Spirit and then I will give you the chapter because I don't want you to just read one verse.
I want you to read what's in the context of it. Now, when you think about the work of the Spirit, we said, first of all, when we talk about the power of the Holy Spirit, this is divine energy that God places in our life to physically and emotionally enable us to do what He's called us to do. And so God is in a very practical way working in our life moment by moment, day by day. With that comes the authority. With that authority, there's a sense of confidence. But listen, it isn't human natural confidence. It's confidence based on a relationship, confidence based on what He says the Holy Spirit will do in our life, a sense of authority. We can speak with authority because we are absolutely certain and sure of what God is saying. Now, think about this.
I'm going to give you all these, jot them down, and I'm going to come back for just a moment. First work of the Holy Spirit is that He convicts us of sin. That's how we got saved. His conviction of our sin in John Chapter 16. He regenerates us. That is, He brings about the salvation experience as a result of that conviction in John Chapter three. Then the Bible says He indwells us. He lives on the inside in our spirit. In Romans Chapter eight, He seals us forever as a child of God in Ephesians Chapter one. That is, once we are saved by the grace of God, we have Him indwelling us. And the Bible says that He is God's earnest money. He is God's down payment, so to speak, that we belong to Him and that all that God has promised for us in heaven He has for us. Not only that, the Bible says in the 14th chapter of John, He is our teacher.
I may speak words, but the Spirit of God must teach you the truth. He's our teacher. Not only that, He is the one who reminds us.
Same chapter there. He's the one who reminds us of things that we know, things that we've been taught when we need to be remembered. Not only that, He says He is our God in the 16th chapter of John.
He's our God. He's the one who will guide us into all truth. Not only that, He says in the same chapter, He's the one who reveals truth to us.
And when we need understanding of the truth. The scripture says that He is also our comforter in that 14th chapter of John. The scripture says He's not only that, but He's the one who gives us spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12. He's the one who not only gives us spiritual gifts, but He's the one who fills us with the Holy Spirit. He's the one who, listen, who does what? He's the one who bears fruit through us in Galatians Chapter 5. He's the one who empowers us in this 24th chapter of Luke as well as the first chapter of Acts. Now, I want you to think about something. Every single area of your life and my life in which we are inadequate within ourselves, the Spirit of God is committed to working in your life and mine in that area.
Now let's think about this for a moment. This person of the Holy Spirit, now think about it, this person of the Holy Spirit, He's the one who not only convicted us of sin to begin with and brought us to salvation, regenerated us, but He's the one who convicts us now of sin. He is the one who indwells us. He's the one who has baptized us into Christ, placed us into Him. He's the one who has sealed us to the day of redemption. He's the one who guides us and teaches us and brings things to our remembrance and reveals truth to us. He's the one who is our comforter. He's the one who gives us spiritual gifts. He's the one who bears the fruit through us. He's the one who fills us. He's the one who empowers us. Now listen, anyone who does those 12 or 13 things for me daily except for saving me because that happened once and for all, I need Him.
I want Him. I must rely upon Him. I have a reason to wake up every single morning absolutely confident.
Confident of what? In the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit. By the fact that He has been sent to live on the inside of me. I can know for certain today that I'm not going to waste my time if I will walk in His power, that is, in His divine energy, in His authority. If my heart is bent toward Him and my hunger is to know Him, I'm going to be able to come home at night being able to thank God and praise Him no matter what I may have faced and been through in life. This has been a good day. God has blessed me today. Why?
Because the Spirit of God was doing His supernatural work in my life in that day, in that moment. Now listen, tell me, give me a good reason to get up down in the dumps. I know that sometimes a person can be emotionally depressed over certain things that have to do with chemical things in life. I understand that. But you know what a lot of depression is?
It's just down and out, gloomy, gloomy, gloomy. You know why? Because not trusting God. Now think about it for a moment.
I believe I could give you enough facts that could happen in your life to give you a nervous breakdown before you walk out of here. You know where most people are living? Here's where they're living. They're living in their own strength. They're living in their own energy. They're facing a wicked, vile world. They could...
Listen, there are already enough atomic bombs out there, out there, floating around among many nations to destroy the whole world four times. Do you go to bed thinking about that? Some people do. You're driving down the expressway 60 miles an hour, 70 miles an hour, and somebody's three feet from you. All they got to do is take one long turn.
It's over. You worry about that every day? You know the economy could collapse?
You could get ill health? A thousand things could happen to us. Is a believer supposed to get up every morning thinking, oh, God, I'm going to make it today. Lord, I think about all these things. Am I going to lose my job, going to lose this, going to lose that?
No. Listen to what Jesus said. How in the world could He say this apart from the Holy Spirit living inside of you?
Here's what He said. My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth and giveth unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Why?
Because there's somebody living on the inside of you who has sealed you forever as a child of God. You know what a lady said to me on the way out this morning? She said, she said, I'm almost there. I'm on the verge. I'm right on the verge.
Verge what? I'm on the verge of believing in eternal security. So lady, I want to push you over right now.
Because listen, if you don't believe you're eternally secure, where in the world are you? This is where you are. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Did I live up to?
No, you can't live up to it. This is why Paul said, he says, I've been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I. Christ is living in me in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the life which I now live, I live with the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Now, would you not agree that the Holy Spirit is the Person of the Trinity, the promise of the Father, and what's the last one? Gift to every single believer. That He came to enable us to do the work that God is called to do, live the life that God is called to live.
And we named about twelve or thirteen things that He does in our life, almost all of them every single day, if we'll allow it. Now, how, the big question, how do I become full of the Holy Spirit? How do I walk in the Spirit? Listen carefully, listen and say amen.
Amen. Having trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, by placing your trust in Him and what He did at the cross of Calvary, and receiving Him as your Savior by faith, here's what you do. First of all, you've got to recognize you need. You've got to recognize your need of the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. If you don't, you'll never be full. You know what you'll do?
You'll do it in your energy. You know one of the most, probably the most difficult things for people to deal with in their life? If they're talented, skilled, gifted, or good looking, or whatever it might be, all the things they put together, that some people seemingly have it all together, you know what? All of that is a detriment.
Why? They trust in their looks. They trust in their skill. They trust in their ability. They trust in their talents. They trust in everything else but God. You know what? They don't.
They say, what? I need God. If you're one of those persons who feels inadequate, thank God for it. If you're one of those persons who thinks, oh God, I feel so inadequate, thank God for that. Let me tell you something, friend. I'm inadequate every single day. Now listen, I don't just feel that. I know that to be true. You say, well, how could you be inadequate? I'll tell you why. Because I'm human just like everybody else. You know what? We're all inadequate.
Some of us just smarter than I know we are, and some of us are smarter than I don't know it. First of all, recognize my absolute need of the Holy Spirit, His fullness in my life. Secondly, I must desire to be filled. If you don't have a desire to be full of the Holy Spirit, it's not going to happen. First of all, having been saved, recognize my need.
Secondly, desire. And thirdly, I must be willing, listen, I must be willing to repent of sin. I must be willing to repent of sin in my life. Whatever God brings to my mind, I have to deal with it. The fourth thing, I have to surrender my life to the Holy Spirit.
Now listen carefully. When somebody says, what does it mean to walk in the Spirit? Here's what it means. It means to walk surrendered to the control of the Holy Spirit in my life. What do you want me to do, Father?
What would you have me to do? Willing to live under His control. Willing to submit to His control. If I'm not willing to submit to His control, I'm not going to be filled with the Holy Spirit because fullness of the Spirit speaks of the control of the Spirit.
If I'm full of the Holy Spirit, that means I've surrendered my will to Him to say, not my will but Yours be done. So step number one, recognize my need. Step number two, have a desire. Step number three, deal with any sin that hinders me.
Step number four, what's step number four? Surrender my life to Him. Which means, listen, walking in voluntary submission to the Holy Spirit in my life. Allowing Him to control.
And what's the next one? Simply this, believing Him. Just believe that He'll do what He promised to do. What did Paul say? He said, be ye being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now listen carefully.
God would not ask me or require me to do something if He wouldn't do it. Now here's where I had my biggest struggle. It took me years to get through this one. I kept thinking, okay, repented, prayed, cried, begged, fasted, and kept expecting something to happen. It was one Friday afternoon, somewhere around four o'clock, when for some reason, I don't know how it took me so long to get to this place, write this scripture down, 1 John chapter five, verses 14 and 15. What does it say?
Listen to this. This is the confidence that we have in Him, in God. That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Now to be filled with the Holy Spirit is certainly according to His will, so He heard me. If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, we know we have, at that moment, we have the petition that we desired of Him. Did you know I've struggled for years about how, how would I know this, that, and the other? The moment I accepted that verse as real from that moment, for the first time in my life, I knew what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. So what have we said? There must be a, listen, awareness of the need, a desire, a confession, repentance of sin, and asking Him, trusting Him, having surrendered the best I know how, everything, trusting Him and letting, and seeing what He'll do.
Now what can you expect if you ask the Holy Spirit to fill you? Number one is joy. Does that mean everything around you is going to straighten out? Not necessarily. It just means that you're going to be able to have a peace in the midst of all that no matter what. First of all, there's joy.
Secondly, there's going to be fruit. There's no such thing as a Spirit-filled Christian who is a spectator. A Spirit-filled Christian is involved in some fashion, in somebody or some people's lives, or in some work of ministry somehow.
Spirit-filled Christians are not those who are spectators. The third thing is your faith is going to become stronger and stronger continually. As you walk in the Spirit, walk in submission, you know why it's going to become stronger?
Here's why. Because God's going to begin to do things in your life and through your life that's going to amaze you. You're going to be standing there going to say, didn't know that, well, Lord, why is it taking me so long? When you and I come to the last breath in our life, we're probably going to be saying the same thing, Lord, why did it take me so long to learn such awesome truths in life? Listen, there's going to be joy. There's going to be fruitfulness in your life. There's going to be a strength in your faith.
Now somebody says, now wait a minute now, I want to ask one last question. Does that last forever? Is it just a one-time thing that you get full of the Spirit?
No. So all right, what I want to know is how long can I walk in the Spirit? You listen and say amen.
Amen. This is how long you can walk in the Spirit. You can walk in the Spirit in His power just as long as you are willing to submit to His control in your life. This decision, that decision, this decision, that decision, this decision says, well, does that mean I can walk in the Spirit a long time?
Absolutely. You say, okay, now suppose I choose to take control. Suppose I decided I know that's what God wants, here's what I want.
Suppose I just downright sin against God. Then what? Listen carefully.
Here's what. You confess it. You repent of it. You thank God for His forgiveness. Somebody says, now that's awfully easy.
Wait a minute. The crucifixion of Jesus was not easy. My friend, listen to me carefully. This is what grace of God's all about. The grace of God is His forgiveness purchased for you and me through, listen, the atoning death of His Son on the cross. The only reason you and I can confess and repent of sin and instantaneously experience forgiveness is because of the awesome, awful price Jesus paid on the cross when He died and took your sin debt in mind in full almost 2,000 years ago.
That's the reason it appears to be simple, but it is not simple. What do you do? You confess it. You repent of it. You thank Him for your forgiveness and you move on. Now, you can either keep living your life the way you live it or you can make the most awesome discovery of finding out what God will do in your life, in every aspect of your life, if you will recognize your need of the Holy Spirit.
Having recognized that need, you have a strong desire for change in your life. You confess whatever sin God brings to your mind. You just lay down control and tell Him that you want Him to prevail in the control of your life. And then you just thank Him for filling you with the Holy Spirit. And you know what? Your life won't be the same.
That's the other choice, the best choice, the wisest choice you could possibly make. And Father, how grateful we are that you are so good to us that in your patience and love for us, you just wait years for us to finally realize what it's all about. But it's my prayer today that you cut that time short for everybody who listens to this message. Sink it deep in our hearts. Let it roll over in our minds. Let it be inescapable in its effect.
Let it make an impact over and over and over again. It is my prayer that those who are listening to this message would accept the challenge and stand back and watch what an awesome work you can do in their life, which is what you desire to do for every single one of us. And we thank you for it in Jesus' name.
Amen. Thank you for listening to part two of The Power of the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Believer. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-11-12 03:24:36 / 2024-11-12 03:33:24 / 9