Getting to Know the Holy Spirit Part 1: Introduction

Welcome friends to the Line of Fire broadcast.

Michael Brown here. Classes are now in session. School is ongoing.

Our digital school ongoing right now. It's our goal five days a week to infuse you with faith and truth and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines. And we're going to start a brand new series on getting to know the Holy Spirit. Getting to know the Holy Spirit. I'll get into that more in a little bit, but first some bigger pictures to paint. Those who've been used to our live daily radio show for many, many years, we have now replaced that with this equipping broadcast. So from beginning to end you'll be out of here in like 25 minutes or less just to pour in, equip on subject after subject after subject.

And I'm going to give you a very vivid picture from the book of Isaiah in a moment. That's our goal. That's our purpose.

Those who've been listening on radio for for a while, you're used to this broadcast. Those who've been getting our podcast, it is now named Courage in the Line of Fire. Again, it's part of our goal to infuse you with faith and truth and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines. The fact is there is no neutrality in the kingdom of God. The fact is we are in a spiritual war. We are in a battle. Those are the facts.

That is the reality. And the Word of God urges us, Paul writes and says, finally, coming to the end of his letter to the Ephesians in Ephesians 6-10, finally my brothers, my sisters, be strong in the Lord and the power is might, put on the full armor of God. Those were just the believers in Ephesus.

Those weren't the front line missionaries or the preachers or the evangelists or the apostles or the prophets or the pastors. No, just all believers put on the full armor of God. And I don't need to tell you that you're in a war. You know, it's like we're in the midst of a torrential downpour and I say, by the way, it's raining. You don't need to tell, you don't need me to tell you that we're in a battle, that the spiritual pressure is great, that the attacks on our individual lives are great, on our families, on our kids, to make forward progress spiritually is often a real battle. And sometimes the battle is more intense than others, but it is the reality. We are in a spiritual war. We're not fighting people. These are demonic powers, the flesh and the world that we're dealing with. The good news is in Jesus we are more than conquerors. In Jesus we are overcomers. So as we continue to pour into you week to week to week, we want to do our best to bless you, edify you, strengthen you, whoever you are, whatever your calling is, we want to come alongside you with the school of the word and the spirit to see you built up in the Lord. Also, we're going to be doing lots of special broadcasts on our YouTube channel, live chats, extended interviews, more Jewish outreach material.

I even plan on going through books in the Old Testament in Hebrew and opening those up. So how can I get that? Really simple. Just go to our YouTube channel, you may be watching there now, but if you're listening, go to our YouTube channel, that's the Line of Fire on YouTube.

The Line of Fire. And just click subscribe and there's a bell, bing, press the bell. This way you'll be notified when we put out new videos. As I'm traveling, been traveling extensively for decades, but we're hoping to do more broadcasts from on the road, from different locations, with different leaders.

So along with this, steady every single day, equipping teaching, equipping teaching, building you up, strengthening you in the spirit, in the things of God, helping you stand strong on the front lines where you live. Along with that, we want to put out all kinds of additional programming. We're also going to grab sermons I've preached over the decades and from around the world and post more of those on our YouTube channel.

So this way, if you're getting courage in the Line of Fire podcast, boom, you got that every day and everything we put out new on our YouTube channel. So we're really excited. We live to pour into you. We live with three major R's in mind. What God's called us to do. Every ministry, every church, every individual has unique calling.

What he's laid on our hearts, three R's. Revival in the church. Seeing the church come alive. Seeing believers come back to their first love. Seeing a fresh encounter with the living God. Fresh love for God. Love for the word. Love for souls. Fresh power to overcome sin and live godly lives.

That's the first thing. Revival in the church. Revival is a season of unusual divine visitation.

And that's what we long for. There have been seasons of revival in America that have shaken the nation. Outpourings in other countries that have shaped the destiny of nations. We need a fresh wave of the spirit in America and beyond.

So that's our first start. Revival in the church. But like so many of you, we're burdened about the culture. We're burdened about the direction that the world is going.

The schools that our kids are learning in. What's being put forth in media and all different platforms that continues to degenerate in so many different ways. So we burn to see a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution in society.

Revolution means radical, dramatic, sweeping change. That's our great burden and vision. I know so many of you resonate with that.

So that's what we want to do. Come alongside of you and help stir revival in your own heart and help you wherever God's placed you in society, public or private, to be a revolutionary force for good. In fact, the church coming alive will have a life-giving impact on the society because we are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And then the last R is redemption in Israel. Redemption in Israel. Seeing the Jewish people saved.

The redemption of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. We know it's near and dear to God's heart. God cares about every individual on the planet. Someone that gets saved in a tribal region in India, and I've been to those places, is just as loved in God's sight as the Jewish person that gets saved living in Jerusalem. Jesus, Yeshua, shed the same blood for Jew and Gentile alike. So God cares. There's joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Doesn't say, well, they've got to be Jewish. Then there's more joy.

No, there's joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. At the same time, we realize that God has unique purposes for Israel and the Jewish people. We realize that Israel's salvation is not guaranteed outside of people coming to faith in Jesus.

There remains one way to the Father, and that is through the Son. And we know that Satan wants to wipe out and annihilate Israel. And we know that only a healthy church can provoke Israel to envy. So our great goal, if you kind of put it all together, is to see the church get healthy and strong. Because a church that's healthy and strong and thriving, what does that mean? That means that there'll be change in the society. A church that's healthy and strong and thriving, what does that mean? It means that Jewish people will be provoked to envy. It means that God's purposes on the earth will accelerate as his people come alive. All right, before we get into our first class on getting to know the Holy Spirit, and by the way, you know what's sweet about this class?

No test to take, no papers to write, no grades, and no cost. Or you can come alongside and support the broadcast. We welcome that.

That's wonderful. But just enjoy. And take in everything you can.

Let the test be how much you've taken in your own life in a helpful and useful way. And if you miss any of the broadcasts, no problem. They'll be archived on our YouTube channel and on our podcast. So you don't miss anything.

You go back and review. So before we get into that, I want to paint this picture from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 10 27. It's in the midst of God's judgment on Assyria. Assyria was raised up by God as a rod of his anger to discipline his sinning people in Israel and Judah. But of course, as often happens, those that are raised up by God go too far. They become proud.

They take things in their own hands. So Assyria went beyond God's purpose and became proud in it and inflicted and inflicted all kinds of horrific suffering on the people. And God is talking about the decimation of this mighty tree of Assyria, this mighty nation, this mighty army, this empire. And there's a verse that's become well known through the King James that the yoke, meaning the yoke of the Assyrian oppressor, the yoke will be broken because of the anointing. The yoke will break or the yoke will be broken because of the anointing. And it's true that the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Spirit, sets captives free. We believe that.

It's true. But that's not what the verse is saying. In Hebrew, the yoke will break. What is shaman? Well, shaman is another form for shaman, which means being fat or fatness. Now the King James translators read it as if it was another form for the Hebrew word shaman, which is oil.

And then they saw oil, so they said, well, it's the oil of anointing and hence the anointing. But it's really quite a stretch. With all the beauty, the King James, that one is really quite a stretch. There are other ancient traditions that understand it's the same way, but it's quite a stretch. You say, well, why is there a different form of shaman, shaman?

Because at the end of a verse, at the end of a pause, the accents shift, the vowels can shift. So I don't want to get into the technicalities of Hebrew there. But in Hebrew it's shaman. But is it shaman or is it shaman? Shaman, oil, the yoke will break because of oil. What does that mean? Well, it's the oil of anointing, hence the anointing. That's quite a stretch. It only would say oil if you read it that way.

What if you read it the other way? The yoke will break because of fatness. Oh, that's the image! That's the image that the animal has been emaciated, beaten down, so the animal representing the nation of Israel, the yoke of Assyria on it, it starts to eat more. It starts to get healthy and fat here, not like bad fat.

Fat is a picture of health and thriving. The animal gets so healthy that the yoke, it snaps. The yoke snaps because of the anointing. No, not because of the anointing, because of the fatness.

Because the animal gets so healthy and strong, the yoke breaks off. And that's our goal on this broadcast, on the line of fire, to see yokes of bondage broken, yokes of misconception broken, yokes that have held you back in so many ways, things that have repressed you and held you down, to see them broken in Jesus' name by the word and by the Spirit. That's my intro.

We come back. We're going to start lesson one on getting to know the Holy Spirit. Fortifying your immune system defense is crucial, especially this time of year, to help keep you healthy and vibrant through the winter months. This is Michael Ellison, founder of Trivita Wellness. I would like to introduce to you Trivita's elderberry supplement with zinc and vitamin C. It's a power-packed weapon to support your immune defense, and elderberry has been used for centuries to support overall wellness. Our formula, it's been carefully crafted to provide an optimal synergy with the elderberry extract, along with zinc and vitamin C, to help you get the most out of this incredible natural product. You will be supporting a stronger immune defense, healthier blood vessels, wound healing, and support your brain health with Trivita's elderberry with zinc and vitamin C. And it is available to you today with a special promo code discount.

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Shout out to our great co-sponsor Trivita for your great wellness products and being so generous with our listeners and viewers and pouring so much into the Line of Fire. All right, Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1-2, the earth was formless and void. You know the description, unformed, void. It's just an emptiness, right?

Darkness over the surface of the deep. Ruach Elohim m'rachhefet al-penei hamayim. The Spirit of God.

Ruach Elohim. The Spirit of God hovering over the face of the ones. Right there in the second verse of the book of Genesis. That's a pretty early place to introduce a concept.

The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is introduced in the second verse of the book of Genesis. And then you have, as we go on, Exodus chapter 31, we have Ruach Elohim and this is for those that are going to help build the tabernacle and need special skills. So, God fills Bezalel.

Bezalel and Ahoyav are going to craft all the items of the tabernacle. I'm not a builder. I'm not a graphics person. I don't conceptualize these things well. So, when I read the descriptions of the tabernacle of the altar, it's very hard for me to imagine them.

Others, that's what you do. You see things like that, but then different people have different conceptions of what it looks like. You'll see different artists' conceptions. Well, they were anointed by God. God gave them the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God, Ruach Elohim, in Exodus 31-3. Exodus 35-31. God has filled him.

Again, Bezalel and his helper Ahoyav and others, but speaking specifically of the leader. He has filled him with the Spirit of God, of wisdom, ability, and knowledge in every kind of craft. So, there was an anointing of the Spirit to do a certain work. Or Balaam, who is hired to curse Israel, in Numbers 24-2, as Balaam looked up and saw Israel and Kam tribe by tribe, the Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of God, came on him and he prophesied.

And we have example after example like that in the Hebrew Bible. Jesus, taking the words of Isaiah 61 on his own lips in Luke 4, says, the Spirit of the Lord God is on me because he's anointed me to preach. Jesus spoke of driving out demons by the Spirit of God in Matthew, the 11th chapter. And we see the Spirit of God so active through the book of Acts and even referenced often in the epistles, the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 9 speaks of the Holy Spirit as the eternal Spirit. So, we're not talking about something abstract. We're not talking about something weird. We're not talking about just some unusual manifestation in the Pentecostal or Charismatic service that scares some people. What was that? Scares some people.

What was that? We're talking about God himself in the person of his Spirit. As we believe and understand that God is complex in his unity, that the Father sits enthroned in glory. No one has ever seen him. No human being can see him in this world. Jesus says that you haven't seen God. It says in John 1 18, no one has seen God. It says in 1 Timothy 6 that God dwells in unapproachable light. No one has seen him, can see him.

What's that talking about? That's talking about the Father, unseen in his glory, veiled because to see him we would die. Then the Son is the shining fourth of the Father. Jesus says in John 14, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

John 1 14 says the Word which was with God and was God, John 1 1, that that Word became flesh. Hebrews 1 tells us he's the shining fourth of the Father, of the glory of the Father. Colossians 1 tells us that the Son is the image of the invisible God. So no one has seen God, but God the Son has made him known. Jesus says again, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So the Father sits enthroned in heaven, veiled in the brightness of his glory.

The Son makes him known on the earth. That's why if you really want to understand the character and nature of God, look at Jesus, look at Jesus, look at Jesus, he will reveal to you the character and nature of his Father. And then the Spirit, this is the most interesting thing, the Spirit works most closely with us and yet is invisible and doesn't have a name like Father or Son but rather Holy Spirit and is also the only one of Father and Son and Spirit that as part of the name and identification is called Holy. And 2 Corinthians 13 14 says that we have fellowship, koinonia, communion with the Spirit. And Romans 8 16 tells us that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. Romans 8 14 says as many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God. Jesus would not let his disciples go out, his apostles go out and preach and minister, Luke 24 49, until they were endued with power from on high.

Then Acts 1 8 he says you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you'll be my witnesses. So the role of the Holy Spirit in the Bible is very very important and we're going to open this up, we're going to look at the personhood of the Spirit, not in it but a being with intelligence, with understanding, someone that we can actually grieve, someone that teaches us and instructs us and leads us and yet he's the one that is invisible so as the Father is enthroned in heavenly glory no human eye can see him in this world. The Son makes him known so on Mount Sinai you hear the voice of God speaking, God says you don't see any form but then Exodus 24 on Mount Sinai 74 Israelites including Moses and Aaron they go up on the mountain 74 Israelites and it says they saw the God of Israel.

Who'd they see? Well it's obviously the Son, he's making them known. Whenever God appears in earthly form or invisible form in the Bible that's the Son making himself known. That's why these are called Theophanes, divine appearances or Christophanes, appearances of the Messiah, of Christ. So this is reality in terms of Father and Son but the Spirit he's the one working inside of us. He's the one when we didn't know the Lord that was convicting us of our sin or as believers is convicting us of our sin to turn us away from wrong and to bring us into fellowship and harmony with God.

The Spirit working invisibly all over the earth and then sometimes in manifest power and coming in ways that filling the tabernacle, filling the temple so that the priest or Moses couldn't even enter and minister because of his presence and it's the Holy Spirit in in the book of Acts who's speaking through the believers in new tongues and who's revealing things and who's giving prophecy. So there's so much that the word says about the Spirit and as I was praying about this new series I just felt this is this is a good place to start. So today's just a general introduction in our school of the word and the Spirit here on the line of fire and whatever we can do to help you thrive in the Lord that's a win for us. Whatever we can do to see you stronger in the Lord bearing more fruit more in love with the Lord and experiencing his goodness and grace that's what we're here to do and then through that we can raise up a holy army that goes out and touches the world with the love and truth of the gospel. We'd love to pour into you with our monthly frontline newsletter and when we do the very first thing when you sign up I want to send you a free book. It's a mini book you read it won't take you long to read it on how to pray for America. Five simple things whether it's the day before the elections the day of the elections or a week or a month or a year out from the elections how to pray for America. It's a free mini book ebook you get it immediately begin to read it and then we'll put you on our list to send your a monthly frontline newsletter just go to thelineoffire.org you'll see it pop up right on the home page thelineoffire.org and just click subscribe there we'll send you that free mini ebook and then once a month we'll send you the frontline newsletter and so many other resources we have let us come alongside and be a blessing in your life. Hey I hope you enjoyed today's broadcast make sure that you click subscribe and then ring that bell this way whenever we're putting out a new video we've got live videos commentary on what's happening in the world around us debates broadcast from different parts of the world long-form interviews a whole host of amazing videos we're putting out just for you so be sure click subscribe and ring that bell.