Let's Get Reacquainted with the Spirit, Part 2

Today, from Chuck Swindoll. I think the Spirit of God has the power to alter the emotional battles within us and to erase the scars that men and women have put on us.

Wishing for that as though it isn't a possibility. In Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll presents a series that will reignite your passion. It's about the Spirit of God.

The series is called Flying Closer to the Flame. Chuck titled his first message, Let's Get Reacquainted with the Spirit. I don't believe I've ever had anyone address the groanings of the Spirit of God. And how in some way, in the times of deepest trials, when I cannot seem to get my thoughts disentangled so that I can put my aches into words, he is dispatched to my rescue and he interprets my garbled, emotionally drained feelings into words.

How significant. And yet, how could we have spent our entire Christian life without somebody addressing this work of the Spirit that in some ways is so powerful it's too deep for words. 1 Corinthians 2, speaking of these two things too deep for words, I thought of this example in the early part of the 1 Corinthians letter. 1 Corinthians 2, 9. Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.

His point is, there are things that the natural world cannot grasp and will never appreciate. To them they are moros. They are moronic. They are foolish. These things that are precious to us, which eye and ear cannot grasp, they are not that kind of thing, not empirical knowledge, not something proved in a test tube, they are inner, they are deep, they are intimate, all these things God has prepared for those who love him. Doesn't stop there. Now look, for to us God revealed them through the Spirit.

How interesting. These things that eye has not seen and ear has not heard and tongue cannot express, these things are the things God reveals to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the bathos of God. The depths, the deepest things of God, the Spirit is able to probe into the mysterious mind and profound will of God. He traffics there.

He is comfortable in that scene. He knows his way around in our words. Jump from 1 Corinthians way over to 1 John. Let me mention a couple of more of these intimate activities that I'm so concerned that we not miss.

These are all the places we want to go in this series. 1 John 2, 18. Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen.

From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. In the earlier versions of the Bible, this is rendered unction. You have an unction from the Holy One.

It is rendered here anointing. Chapter 4, verse 1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist.

What is? The spirit that does not confess Jesus is from God. That's the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

You are from God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. You have a power. I would rather use the word dynamic. I'm weary of the word power. There's power everything. Power worship, along with power ties. There were power, power. This is a dynamic.

Let's use the correct transliteration of the word dunamis. A dynamic. We have a dynamic within us, and the dynamic allows us to test the spirits to see whether they are of God. Do you test the spirits with this dynamic that is greater within you than all of the dynamic of the world?

Are you even aware of a dynamic within you? Another, chapter 5, verse 1, mentions the witness of the spirit. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and observe his commandments.

For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ.

Not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. Now look, and it is the spirit who bears witness because the spirit is the truth. The spirit bears witness.

What does that mean? What is this witness bearing work of the spirit? I think you're getting the drift of where I'm going. And I could have used 12, 15 other examples that have sort of hung in the back of my mind without a label. And without any background in teaching. I have not been instructed in these extremely important though often unmentioned areas of the work of the spirit.

I want to get into these. And though they seem vague, they are as important as the more practical and easily grasped truths of the scriptures. And let me have us all relax, okay? I'm not, quote, going charismatic.

I can just feel some of you nudging your mate saying he's getting a little close to the edge. We better be careful. Let's pray more for Pastor Chuck. He's going to lead this church into some dimension of holy rollers or whatever. By the way, that's the name of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle gang up in Denver.

I think it's a great name. Just relax. That's just a little side comment. Let me tell you, never fear the truth. Forget the labels. Go for truth. Stop defending denomination. Stop defending some area of insecurity that you get nervous about.

Relax. A great reason we spend so much of our time in theological ignorance is out of fear. We are taught in schools whose faculty are often afraid to get into areas that are, quote, outside the realm of their doctrinal persuasion. Does that mean then that I ignore portions of scripture? Do I use half verses because I can't explain the other half?

I don't read that verse. The fact is, most of us don't have a clue of the depth of the dynamic that is ours in the Spirit of God. It is a dynamic that is deep. It is peaceful. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is peace.

There isn't chaos. There is a peace in the midst of the most profound period of trial. There is a solid confidence in God that comes from His Spirit, though the illness lingers. And as I spoke with a couple just this morning who said, we just lost our 10-year-old to cancer, and we waited on God for the miracle, and it didn't come.

They've not been cast on the rocks of unbelief. They've just come to realize that His plan for them was not a healing for their daughter. And that was from God. It is poor theology to think God is in it when there is a raising from the sickness. Listen, God is in it even when there is death.

Precious in the sight of the Lord are the death of His godly ones. Now, I want to get into the whole idea of the Spirit's work of healing us. I think the Spirit of God has the power in this inner dynamic to alter the emotional battles within us, and to erase the scars that men and women have put on us. And the whole area of abuse and the whole issue of incest that brings with it these enormous deep scars that can make us bitter and confused. The Spirit of God has within His power a healing, a balm that can bring relief.

I think it's tragic that we spend our years wishing for that and hoping for that, as though it isn't a possibility. So we're going to learn together. We're going to discover this balm together, and we're going to all trust the Lord to lead us into the truth, and we're going to get reacquainted with the Spirit.

Frankly, I'm very excited about it. Turn, if you will, to John 14. Let's lay a little groundwork now that we see where we're going in this. John 14, I want to point out here and elsewhere a couple of three things that we need to just put to bed.

Just settle in our minds, and once that's done, we can get on with the business at hand. Now, context is always important. When somebody says, let's look at a passage, and they're not going to the first of the book, they're going to the middle of the book.

As in my case, in this 21-chapter book, I say, let's go to John 14. In your mind, you ought to ask yourself, what's the context? It's like beginning a newspaper article right smack dab in the middle. What's this about? I haven't even read the title. I'm just starting to read, maybe mid-sentence.

It's easy to do that. So let me give it to you real quickly. Jesus has been with his 12 for over three years. Over three years, they have walked together and ministered together, prayed, wept, laughed, and learned.

They have learned with him. It is only hours now before he is taken under arrest, and after night has fallen and daybreak has come, he is nailed to a cross. The cross is less than 24 hours away, okay? This is last will and testament truth. Theologians call it the upper room discourse.

The 12, and Judas is finally removed from the group, so the 11, Faithful and Jesus, are around the table. And he's giving them last-minute information before he's gone. And they're still in a cloud, not knowing, mentally, they're in a cloud. They don't know exactly what this is going to mean. They're frightened.

Of course they are. They still haven't got it clued out in their minds how he's going to go to a cross and die. He's going to come back and he's going to leave.

He's going to come return to us. It's clear because we've had centuries to hammer away at the truths and get it clear, but this is like brand-new stuff, even though he has mentioned it before. It hasn't come clear.

So they're sitting around the table, sipping on the last bit of wine, eating a bit from the table, and then he says in this great 14th chapter, John records it, some things mentioned nowhere else in Scripture. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God.

Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

And you know the way where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father but through me. And what are they afraid of? They're afraid of being left. All through ministry, they've had him right there with them. Through three years and more of touching lives, he's always been there. When they woke up, he was there. When they got frightened, they could hide behind him.

When they were confused, they could ask him questions. It's like having your mom and dad nearby and you're young and you're fragile and you're brittle and having mom or dad there gives you comfort. You can always put your hand in your dad's hand or your mom's hand. I remember when we buried my father. I felt, though I was a grown man and ministering and had a family of my own, I felt strangely orphaned. My mother had died. Now I had no more daddy. It was a thrill of being able to call him on the phone and ask him and have him answer my question.

That was gone. These are not old men. Jesus is 33 in the prime of life and they're afraid of being left. Verse 12, truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do because I go to the father. Look at what that says. I've done great things. We have done them together. You have seen them done, but I say to you men who are being left when I leave, you are being left on this earth, greater works than these you will do.

Ever pondered that personally, allowed it to say what it is really saying? Now because of what follows, it must be related to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Verse 16, I will ask the father and he, the father, will give you another helper, another of the same kind. I've been with you for three and a half years. I've been a help. I've been an assistance.

I've been a source of power and strength. I'm leaving. I'm going to the cross. I'm going to the grave, and shortly thereafter, I'm going back to the father. But greater works than I've done, you will do. The reason is I am passing the baton in this relay. I am handing it off to you, and it will be the person of the Holy Spirit who will now take over and do things that I never did before among you, greater things.

Now here is a terribly important transition. I will ask the father. He will give you another helper that he may be with you forever.

That is, this is amplifying helper. The helper will be the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold him or know him. But you know him because he abides with you, but he will be in you. It's the first direct statement regarding the spirit of God's coming that is in the context of the training of the disciples.

Now, at the risk of sounding pedantic, look at the prepositions with you, in you. Right now, men, he abides alongside you, and in you he will be, literally, is the way the original text states it. If you have ever watched a run, a relay, or ever run in a relay, you know that the most critical part of the relay occurs three times during that race, the passing of the baton.

And just in the latest Olympics, we watched again as the baton was not passed carefully and was either dropped or was mishandled, slowed the race, and they didn't win. This is a passing of the baton. Jesus is handing his men over to another of the same kind of helper. They have known of him. He has been alongside them, with them, but he has not until immediately, it will happen immediately or very soon, he will be in them.

He will reside inside them. You and I may be friends, and I walk alongside you, but I have no ability to come inside you. If I could, much of what I am could be a part of you.

And it would be for you, perhaps, an advantage or for me to have each other's presence within. We would have a new dimension, a whole new personality, a dynamic that would come alive that would not be natural to us because someone has come within. And think how magnificent it is that God has come within you. I'm getting ahead of myself, but that's what's going to happen to these disciples. They're sitting there worried about being left as orphans. And Jesus is saying, don't worry. I will tell the Father, I will request of him to send another helper, and he will do that. And he will bring his permanent presence which will become a part of your inner being.

What a change it would bring to them. Verse 16, I will give you another helper, I went over it too quickly, that he may be with you forever. You know what the Greek says? Unto the age, forever and ever and ever. Forever! You will never know a moment in your life when you haven't the Spirit.

And don't let anybody tell you different. You come to know Christ, a part of that marvelous spiritual package is the presence of the Holy Spirit. A brand new dynamic to bring cleansing and freshness and insight, perception, knowledge, growth. All that and so much more he says, I will give you him who will be another helper, and he will be in you forever.

I'll send him. You're listening to Insight for Living, and Chuck Swindoll has just started our next teaching series. We're talking about developing a renewed passion for the Holy Spirit. And Chuck titled this message, Let's Get Reacquainted with the Spirit. To learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit us online at insightworld.org. Well, the resources we offer along with this daily program are made possible through the voluntary contributions of our listening audience. And when you give a donation, your gift is channeled directly toward reaching other people with Insight for Living, so they can benefit from the life lessons just as you have. For example, we recently received this note from a listener in Amarillo, Texas, who told his story of redemption.

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Here's Chuck Swindoll. For thousands of years, no place has been more meaningful to God's children than the land of Israel. The rugged landscape reminds us to find refuge in God alone. The fertile valleys invite us to follow our shepherd. Jerusalem's position at the very center of the world announces the good news of Christ to every nation. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and Insight for Living Ministries, March 5th through the 16th, 2023. Every time I visited the Holy Land, I returned home with a refreshed heart for God and a renewed vision for the world.

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I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to join us when Chuck Swindoll's study called Flying Closer to the Flame continues, Monday on Insight for Living. The right of material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.