Be Confident: Walk in the Spirit – Part 2

Here's Anne Graham Lotz. It's just the constant flowing of the Holy Spirit in and we have to confess and keep strict accountants with the Lord and come back and back and back to the cross so that He fills our lives. Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit. Thank you for joining us for Living in the Light. Today Bible teacher Anne Graham Lotz is teaching from John chapter 16 verses 5 to 16 in a message titled, Be Confident, Walk in the Spirit.

Here's Anne with today's message. The Holy Spirit has no meanness, no selfishness, no unkindness, no rudeness, no pridefulness, no sinfulness at all. And when He comes into your life and my life, He begins to look around, you know. And then He begins to separate you and me from sin because He wants to make us holy as He is holy.

Somebody said He's the most uncomfortable comforter they've ever known because He can begin to convict because He's going to change and He changes you from glory to glory to glory. Every day in Genesis 1 the word went forth. Every day it was clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Every day there was a change and it took day after day after day to make the earth beautiful and where God could see His image. So all of these changes won't take place in one day but it's day after day after day as you pray, as you yield your life to the Holy Spirit, as you get into God's Word, as He begins to convict you of this sin and that way you talk and that place you go and that person you're with and and you begin to let Him separate you and make you holy as He is holy. And increasingly people can look at you and see a reflection of Jesus and they're seeing the Holy Spirit come out, Jesus in you.

And I pray that when they do they'll want to know Him too. So you can be confident of His purity and then of His prayers. And I love this and I've gone outside the passage but Romans 8 26 says that He prays for you and me without words because He lives inside of me.

He's ever before the throne of God and He knows how to pray. He knows what our needs are, what our longings are, what our fears are and He conveyed that to the Father. He cleans it up so that it's presented to the Father in just the form that the Father receives and the Holy Spirit gets answers to His prayers and I know in this final hour we need to be prayed for. That's one reason I asked you to get a prayer partner and let me also say that Hebrews says that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. So in this final hour Jesus is praying for us at the right hand of the Father and the Holy Spirit who is in us is praying for us with words that don't need to be uttered.

And I think it also means there are times when we can be so burdened and so oppressed and our hearts so heavy we don't know how to pray. We don't have words for our own prayers and the Holy Spirit will take over. He can pray for you at those dark difficult times. So the Holy Spirit prays for us and I want to tuck this into because He prays for you with a heart of love. In Ephesians 4 30 it says don't grieve the Holy Spirit and grief is a love word. I grieve for my husband because I loved my husband and when it says the Holy Spirit don't grieve him then that implies the Holy Spirit loves me and He loves you. When I first came across that that was a new thought for me because I thought the Holy Spirit was you know sort of professional and when I asked Jesus to come into my heart the Father said all right now she's been born again so you go in there and so you're you're to make her good and make her you know keep her from doing bad things and help her do the right things and that He just did it sort of mechanically and and instead the Holy Spirit in me loves me and when I do the right thing He rejoices when I do the wrong thing He grieves. He is emotionally caught up in my life. So I want you to keep in mind the Holy Spirit lives in you and He loves you and He wants to conform you to the image of Jesus. Don't grieve Him through your sin. Don't quench Him by neglecting Him.

He's your engagement ring. Don't ever get tired of looking at Him, loving Him, getting to know Him, enjoying Him, surrendering your life to Him is the gift. Another verse in Ephesians says that we're to be filled with the Holy Spirit and I know there's disagreement on what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit and I respect people who disagree but let me tell you what I believe. I believe to be filled with the Holy Spirit is moment by moment surrender to His moment by moment control and when I sin when I grieve the Holy Spirit then I'm not filled in that area and I think it's possible to sort of compartmentalize the Holy Spirit you know so we invite Him to come into our lives He comes in and then we go to that office part and we say Holy Spirit not this you know I want you to stay there and I want to enjoy myself and I do that business deal and I've got an opportunity to make more money if I just do a few shady things the Holy Spirit don't get involved in my business deal and and I certainly want you there on Sunday morning when I'm at church with all these people and I want to talk the right way and I want to fit in so you can come and be with me on Sunday morning.

You know I love being with you Jesus but I love to be with your Holy Spirit but when I come back in the office on Monday morning or when I'm Saturday night at the club you know just keep your distance and we can compartmentalize Him. So when you receive the Holy Spirit you receive and I believe this you receive all of the Holy Spirit you're ever going to get. The Holy Spirit is a person you don't get a person in pieces. So the newest believer has as much of the Holy Spirit as the oldest believer. A person who's just been born again five minutes ago has as much of the Holy Spirit as I have and I've known him for a long time. The difference is that the Holy Spirit sometimes gets us in pieces and as you live and grow in the Spirit as you walk in the Spirit and you open up your whole life to Him and He fills your life that's when the maturity comes in the fullness of the Spirit and other people begin to see Jesus in you.

So make sure He has all of you. When I was a little girl growing up there was a spring that bubbled up a mountain spring that bubbled up the side of the road and and it threw the water over the curve in the road and so in the winter time it would freeze and it was a hazard for the cars going up and down the driveway. So mother took a pipe and she drilled it into the spring then she put a wooden bucket underneath the pipe and the water would come from the spring through the pipe into the bucket and flow down beside the road.

Once in a while we'd walk down the road and we'd found the water was back over the road again. So mother would get a stick and she would run it through the pipe and sure enough there'd either be a little pebble that had come in the pipe or one of those slippery little salamanders or a rotted leaf and she would just run the stick through it just to clear up the pipe and then the water would flow once again and it would come into the bucket and go down beside the road and not to take the illustration too far but the Holy Spirit is like that spring of water and our lives are like the pipe and the Holy Spirit flows in us and He flows through us and fills us up so that we can overflow into the lives of others and once in a while the flow is hindered isn't it? And I don't mean to be superficial but you take the stick, you take the cross and you run it through the pipe of your life and sometimes there's a little pebble, something hard like unforgiveness, meanness, bitterness, anger.

Sometimes it's a slippery little salamander, something, you know, a habit that nobody knows about, some thought process, lustful thoughts or something you're involved in. Sometimes it's just a rotted leaf, a memory of some sin or something that keeps coming back and the devil uses to keep you defeated and you just take the stick and you run it through, you bring it to the cross. Miss Johnson who founded Bible Study Fellowship used to say that every time you bring your sin to the cross it's going to be the same sin. You know, you bring it to the cross and you confess it and it's like radium on cancer, it begins to break the power of that sin so you keep bringing it back and back to the cross. About the fifth time we bring the same sin to the cross we're embarrassed and then we begin to cover it up, we rationalize, we think well that's just my personality, that's just who I am, I was born that way, it's part of my upbringing. Instead of just bringing it back and back and back to the cross and eventually the power of the cross is going to break the power of that sin in your life. I know you can be set free from that sin and sometimes it can be just immediate, sometimes it's a process but you just keep bringing it back to the cross so that you're filled with the Holy Spirit and it's possible for me to be filled right here, right now and to walk off the platform and get in my car and somebody not letting me out of my parking place and I get here and just like that I'm not filled anymore, okay?

And then I have to confess it, tell God I'm sorry, ask him to fill me, go home and go in the house and kids have run amok or neighbors have done something and I was just filled overflowing up here and I get back to the dirty dishes and the clothes and the routine of the week and I just complain and I'm upset and I'm frustrated and just like that I'm not filled. You see it's just a constant flowing of the Holy Spirit in and we have to confess and keep strict accounts with the Lord and come back and back and back to the cross so that he fills our lives. Be ye filled with the filled with the Holy Spirit.

You can be confident. He's in you, he wants to fill you, he will fill you if you just surrender everything to him. Moment by moment obedience to his moment by moment control.

Lastly you can be confident of his priority. His priority is twofold, it's the written word but also the living word so it's the word of God and in verse 13 it says he will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. The Holy Spirit's whole priority is to get you into this written word of God that in the pages you might see the living word of God who is Jesus.

His whole priority is Jesus. He wants to reveal Jesus to you. He wants you to know Jesus. He's the gift of the bridegroom.

He's the matan. He's the gift to assure you that the bridegroom loves you, that he'll be faithful to you, that he's committed to you, that he's preparing a place for you, that he's going to come back and receive you to himself but the Holy Spirit is there to magnify and glorify Jesus and he does that as we get into the word and a lot of people think that the Bible is like a jigsaw puzzle. Lots of funny little pieces and shapes and don't quite know how they fit together and then the Holy Spirit comes along and he turns the puzzle pieces over and he shows you the bit of the picture on the other side and he fits it together from Genesis to Revelation and it's the picture of a man. It's the picture of Jesus on the other side.

So in Genesis 1 verse 3 and God said let there be light and there was and we think that's nouns and pronouns going over out of the mouth of God. The Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece and he shows us John chapter 1 that says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and the word is Jesus. That's Jesus the pre-incarnate Son of God in Genesis chapter 1 verse 3. In chapter 2 when the Lord God is forming the Garden of Eden, that's the pre-incarnate Son of God, the first homemaker.

I love that insight and then he forms man from the dust of the ground and breathes his own life into him and the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece and we see that our own life, our breath comes from Jesus, the pre-incarnate Son of God. And then in chapter 3 when Adam and Eve sin and they're cowering in the bushes and the Lord God, the pre-incarnate Son finds them cowering in the bushes and after he pronounces judgment he clothes them in the skin of a wild animal and you know he's got tears coming down his face because he knows he's the lamb who one day will be slain to cover them with his own blood and his righteousness and the Holy Spirit turns that puzzle piece over and shows us Jesus taking care of his children, not leaving them in their sin and guilt, promising that there would come a seed one day of a woman who would bring them back into a right relationship with their Creator. And you can go on and find him in chapter 4, chapter 5, walking with Enoch, chapter 6, walking with Noah but we see him again, pretty good picture of him in Genesis 18. And Abraham is sitting in his tent in the heat of the day and three men come to his tent and one of them says Abraham I'm going to come back to you in next year at this time you and Sarah are going to have a son. Abraham was 99 and Sarah was 89 and the Holy Spirit turns over that puzzle piece and we know that it's the pre-incarnate Son of God one year later they did have a son named Isaac. And you go on, there's so many glimpses of him that we have in scripture and after Abraham the next clear glimpse is Jacob going back into the Promised Land to claim the blessing that God had promised him, his inheritance, and he's going to claim it in his own strength. So he goes to cross the Japheth River and he bumps into a man and I don't know when he realized that he was in God's grip but he wrestled with that man all night and the Holy Spirit turns the puzzle piece over and we find that that man in the Japheth River is none other than pre-incarnate Son of God refusing to let Jacob go claim his inheritance in his own strength and he broke Jacob, changed his name, a man who was yielded to God before he could go in and claim his inheritance. And after Jacob we see him at Jericho when Joshua is going around the city before they took it you know marched and all that he was trying to figure out how to take this great enemy stronghold and he bumps into the captain of the Lord's host and he tells him to take off his shoes he's on holy ground and the Holy Spirit turns that puzzle piece over and we find the pre-incarnate Son of God, the Lion of Judah, Captain of Heaven's armies telling Joshua how to take Jericho and it had nothing to do with military strategy. And then we come after Joshua there are just so many for sake of time but just remember Nebuchadnezzar who said bow down to the idol the statue of gold if you don't I'm going to throw you in the fiery furnace and Meshach, Shadrach, Nebuchadnezzar did not and so they got thrown into the fiery furnace and Nebuchadnezzar has been staring at the fiery furnace and he said didn't I throw three in there and why do I see four? And the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece and we see Jesus the pre-incarnate Son showing up in the fire with his children and then Isaiah the year that King Uzziah died when he looked up he saw the Lord seated on the throne and the Holy Spirit turns over that puzzle piece because Jesus said Isaiah saw my glory that's Jesus on that throne and Ezekiel sitting on a garbage dump in a refugee camp and a windstorm comes from out of the north and he looks up on top of the windstorm and there's a platform of crystal and on the platform of crystal is the throne of sapphire and on the throne is someone like the Son of God and the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece and we find Jesus pre-incarnate Son with his children in captivity the wonderful counselor almighty God prince of peace everlasting father of a lamb who was slain until on that starry night in Bethlehem we run with the shepherds into the stable and we see a little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger and we find ourselves looking into the face of God who grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man and the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece when we see on the cross he's not just a tragic execution at the hands of Rome he is the lamb of God being sacrificed on the altar to take away your sin and my sin and pay up all those IOU notes from the old testament and bring us into a right relationship with the father and then he ascends into heaven and the Holy Spirit still turning over the puzzle pieces showing us that one day the sky will unfold and we're going to see a white horse whose rider is named faithful and true followed by the armies of heaven coming back to rule the world and reign here and his name is the word of God king of kings and lord of lords this entire book from genesis to revelation is about Jesus it's all about Jesus reveals God the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus it's all about Jesus and you can be confident of the priority of the Holy Spirit it's to be in the word of God that you might know Jesus that you might see Jesus that you might love Jesus that you might live for Jesus that you might obey Jesus and one day that you would see Jesus face to face he's the gift of God to you and to me so listen to me what is your priority if it's not Jesus I'm going to question if you're filled with the Holy Spirit because his priority is Jesus so my prayer oh dear Jesus in this final hour don't leave us alone and he says and I put my name in it I will never leave you I'll never forsake you he's given me a gift gift of his love the pledge of his commitment his faithfulness that one day he will come back to receive me to himself he's given me the matine the Holy Spirit and my responsibility is just to give myself fully to him that I would not only be indwelt but I'd be infilled with the Holy Spirit of the living God Jesus in me until other people look at me and they see him and he's glorified and they're drawn to the father through Jesus so in this final hour be confident walk in the spirit walk in God's love love for you as evidenced by the gift that he's given you in the person of the Holy Spirit I want that message to just settle down I don't know where you are in your spiritual journey but I believe God appointed you to this place so now I don't know how God has really answered our prayers and we may never know that's okay but I do believe we're living in the final hour I don't know if we're going to be facing severe judgment before the rapture or the rapture will be simultaneous with the severe judgment but whatever it is I believe God has firmly decided it and it will come to pass soon just as Joseph told Pharaoh so in this final hour be vigilant watch what's going on in our world heed the warnings they're credible comprehensible you know they're comprehensive they're just every level every area but they're compelling oh let them motivate you to cry out to God to pray and as you pray listen you don't have to know how to pray when you start to pray the Holy Spirit did you know that as you pray he can give you insight and understanding as to how to pray that was a relief to me when I learned that from Daniel's prayer in chapter 9 it was as he prayed for his nation that God gave him the insight and understanding to know how to pray so be vigilant and I loved our time considering the great commission I just love that phrase that he will be with us to the end of the age and then meditating on Noah is just that brief example of Noah living in the midst of a world that was even worse than ours it's just I guess he didn't have social media but there was a smaller population so the corruption and evil was just it was saturated in it but he kept his focus he walked with God step by step obedience to his word surrendered to his will and as he walked God imparted what was on his heart was judgment but also salvation from judgment build an ark so it's important for you and me to be in God's word to hear what's on his heart that we would accomplish the work he has for us and I believe one primary work is to share the gospel oh I believe in this final hour we could be looking at the greatest revival in the history of America let it begin with me let it begin with me sharing the gospel with the people that you bring across my path from Habakkuk there's some promise that God hasn't fulfilled some prayer he hasn't answered and you're waiting and I know I'm waiting for Jesus to come back all the signs are there everything's been fulfilled that needs to be fulfilled and all the pieces are falling into place and the nations are realigning themselves in line with what prophecy foretells and we're still waiting waiting be patient eye has not seen ear is not heard has not entered into the mind of man what God has prepared for those who wait patiently for him his timing is perfect he's never late and I'm reminding myself that and then be confident he's given you a gift a gift of his love he's given you the matan the holy spirits you can be confident of his person his presence his power his precepts his purity his prayers and his priority so in this final hour live with vigilance patience confidence walking with God as you read your Bible and pray working for God as you build your ark and present the gospel witnessing as a natural overflow of your relationship with him fully surrendered filled with the spirit in this final hour so I just wanted to refresh you on where we've been if God has spoken to you that's still a small whisper and you're saying at this moment yes Lord I will come back to the cross I'll run that stick through release the hardness the bitterness the anger the unforgiveness oh just crucify just crucify don't let it hinder the flow of the holy spirit in your life it's not worth the trade off if it's just you've left evangelism and witnessing up to the professionals you know just feel like you can't do that maybe God is saying but I want you to share the gospel with your best friend with your neighbor the person you walk with the person that's in the office cubicle next to you share the gospel with your children and your grandchildren and you say yes Lord and if he has you waiting for a promise that has yet to be fulfilled then you just say yes Lord I trust you your timing is perfect you keep your word so whatever he said to you and if he has said something specific and your decision at this moment is to say yes sir I give you my life in this final hour I want to live for you every moment of every day with no regrets five minutes before I see Jesus I don't want to be ashamed from this day forward never mind yesterday and before that was then this is now from this day forward I want to live with abandon filled with the holy spirit living in the light is a weekly study in God's word with teacher and author Ann Graham Lots learn to listen to his voice then start making the choice to keep on going and believing and trusting who God is go to Ann Graham Lots.org take advantage of the many helpful free resources to get you started join us again for Living in the Light