Getting to Know the Holy Spirit Part 7: Keep in Step with the Spirit

Welcome to the Line of Fire, our digital school of the Word and Spirit class is now in session. And by God's grace, you're going to get infused with faith and truth and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines on this listener-sponsored broadcast. We're talking about getting to know the Holy Spirit, getting to know the Holy Spirit. I want to share a few quotes from Christian leaders.

Some of them I know the author of the quote and the quote itself, some I have the quote and because I'm not 100% sure the author, I'll just give you the quote. But D.L. Moody, D.L. Moody said this, one of the great American evangelists in the 1800s and used by God also in England and Scotland. The Spirit of God first imparts love, he next inspires hope and then gives liberty. And that is about the last thing we have in many of our churches, in other words, where's the liberty of the Spirit?

That's an interesting thought here. So just a couple of random quotes, in other words, not just the focus of our subject here, but some different quotes from Christian leaders as we're talking about the Spirit. What does Paul write in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 17, now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom, there is liberty, and Moody says that's about the last thing we have in many of our churches. And he wasn't talking about speaking in tongues or prophecy, he was just talking about true liberty in Jesus through the Spirit, not being found in many of our churches. Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers of all time, also in the 1800s, he said, without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are ships without wind.

We are useless. Are we that dependent on the Spirit in our ministries? Again, we'll talk later about tongues, prophecy, healing, those things, but for all those who are vocationally doing ministry work, it's when you do full-time for others that are doing all kinds of other ministry work in the midst of your other vocation, whether it's preaching on the street, whether sharing the Gospel in front of an abortion clinic, whether it's discipling someone that's had a lot of struggles, whether it's preaching to 100,000 people in a mass outreach, big, big, big, big question. Are we really relying on the Holy Spirit? Do we consciously know and believe that without the Spirit's working in us, our work will amount to nothing of eternal significance? When Jesus says in John 15, without me, you can do nothing, that now works itself out through us, through the Spirit. Without me, you can do nothing, meaning without the Spirit working in you.

That's how Jesus works in us now, by the Spirit. When I started live radio, this was 16 years ago, our live daily radio show, which is now 16 years of archives is what we have, but we have the daily equipping show, your in and out in 25 minutes, and then many other live things that we do, but no longer a live daily show. When I started it, we did it for 16 years, my wife Nancy said, this could be very dangerous for you, meaning that you could rely on your own strength.

I could rely on my own strength. In other words, anybody could get on radio and talk. Some of us have, quote, the gift of gab, or live call-in. I love that. I love live questions, and live controversy, and on and on. I love that. That's just who I am, and debate, and this and that, and responding to the news and stuff on the fly.

I love that. And there are tons of great radio hosts, far better than me, more eloquent, and more equipped, and smarter, and better educated, and more insight, and things like that, but they're not believers, and they do what they do just by that natural gift that they have. So it's one thing if God says to you, alright, your mission this year is to plant a vegetable garden in your backyard.

Even if you don't know how to do it, you get online, you have some friends, you go about doing it, and okay, you can figure out how to do that. If God says your mission is to raise one person from the dead, it's like, how are you going to raise them? Only God can do that through us. Only God can do that through us. So I could do a good radio show, and that's what Nancy and I realized could be a real trap. I could do a good radio show without God.

I could do a good radio show that people would enjoy, but without eternal significance. So I wonder, in our lives, in our ministries, do we really rely on the Spirit? It was said that Charles Spurgeon, each step that he would walk up to the platform, he would say, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the Holy Spirit. That should be foundational in our lives, in our ministries.

And my habit, for some years now, as I walk up each step getting on the platform, is to say you're a strength out of my weakness, strength out of weakness, strength out of weakness. This recognition, there's nothing good in me that I can bring, it's God working through me, and I'm depending on his empowerment and his grace. The Holy Spirit wants to work in us and through us more deeply. The Holy Spirit wants to make himself known to us more deeply, more powerfully, more profoundly. Billy Graham said this, the Holy Spirit illuminates the minds of people, makes us yearn for God, and takes spiritual truth and makes it understandable to us. It's good to know what other Christian leaders have said about the Holy Spirit.

And it's a good test for ourselves. Here, let me back up and throw this out to you. Do you have a close friend, really close friend? Maybe it's a sibling, maybe it's somebody you just grew up with, a neighbor, somebody you met in college, but yeah, you have a really close friend. Tell me about your friend. What's your friend like? You can tell me about your friend, right? I wrote a book, kind of my journey thus far, first seventy years, scheduled to come out next year, and there's a whole chapter in it about my bride, about Nancy. Forty-eight years, by then, God willing, it would be forty-nine years of marriage. I could tell you about Nancy all day, all night, and I'd probably do it with tears because of my incredible love for her.

That's my bride, right? So tell me about your spouse, or your kids, or tell me about your parents. We could, especially if you have good relationships with them, you could talk a lot and say a lot. Hey, tell me about Jesus, tell me about your relationship with the Lord, because Jesus calls us friends, right? Abraham was the friend of God.

Jesus told his disciples in John 15, he called them friends, and I believe by extension he calls us friends. So tell me about your friendship with Jesus, what's he like? What's it like to know God? Tell me about the Father. What's he like?

Or just talk to him about God. Who is he? Well, he's the unseen and uncreated creator of all... No, I get that, but talk to me about him. What's he like? What's it like to walk with him?

What's it like to have him as your friend? Well, another question now, tell me about the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. What does he do in your life? How does he work in your life?

Yes, he points to Jesus. Everything he does is to point to Jesus, who in turn points to the Father, that God may be all in all. But tell me about the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Hey, Pastor Evangelist, tell me about the work of the Spirit through your ministry. What's the Spirit doing in your church? What's your Spirit doing in the outreaches? What's the Spirit doing in the community?

I pray big prayers because I'm praying to God, because me, I'm a frail human being that would fall flat on his face the moment God took his hand off me. Boom, I'm out. I'm down and out for the count without the ongoing grace of God in my life, 24-7. I recognize that. I recognize outside of him I'm a wretch. I get that.

I understand that. But when I'm praying to God to move, when I pray big prayers, we're praying to God, Almighty God. As long as they're in harmony with Scripture, and especially if God's put something in your heart, in harmony with Scripture and bears witness with your heart, pray big prayers, we're praying to God. So tell me about the Holy Spirit's work in your life. What's he doing?

What's he doing? What's the fruit of it? What's the, you say, oh, my life's dramatically changed, man. I was nasty and short-tempered and full of lust and I can self-control now. I'm kind to people.

I control my time. That's fruit of the Spirit. That's beautiful. That's the work of the Spirit. Yeah, the Holy Spirit just, the other day I felt prompted, park your car here, go in the mall, you're going to meet someone with like this weird red hat and matching jacket, kind of walking with a limp and you're supposed to go share the Gospel with them and you just go and do it. And they started crying, I probably thought there's no God, I prayed that God would send someone to me. It's like, whoa, that's the Spirit, he's amazing. He's amazing. So Billy Graham said, the Holy Spirit illuminates the minds of people, makes us yearn for God and takes spiritual truth and makes it understandable for us. I love that. Is this scriptural?

Sure it is. It illuminates the minds of people. The Spirit brings us into all truth. God opened my mind, give me understanding. I often tell the Lord, I'm just a dumb sheep. I don't know anything and it's up to the shepherd to figure out how to communicate with the sheep. The sheep aren't having a conversation, it's like, I don't know, is that the shepherd or not?

His voice keeps changing, I'm not sure, how do you like learn to hear his voice better? Well, no, the sheep, that's their nature to learn the voice of the shepherd. So I said, God, you speak to me in a way that I can understand, show me the way that I can understand.

When I read the Bible, yes, I have biblical scholarship, I've written commentaries, I'm considered by some biblical scholar, but I come like a child, God, open my heart, open my mind, give me insight, give me insight. It illuminates the minds of the people, makes us yearn for God, oh, oh, that hunger. I was praying Psalm 63, quoting it in Hebrew to the Lord, taking a prayer walk the other day, Elohim, Eliyat HaShacharecha, oh God, you are my God, I'll seek you early. And I was saying those words, my body longs for you, my soul thirsts for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. And as I was saying the words, I said, God, that's not true, that's not true. I'm not longing for you like that, I'm not yearning for you with that desperation right now.

There have been times when I have, but I'm not. I went to Psalm 42, and just looked at the first verse in Hebrew, K'ayal taro gal-afik'im maim, as a deer pants after streams of water, k'ay nashii taro gal-echa Elohim, so my soul pants for you, oh God. God give us a greater hunger for God, not for things, not for ministry, but for God. God takes spiritual truth and makes it understandable to us. Isn't that what the Holy Spirit does?

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TriVita.com is their website. By the way, if you go there, the code you use is BROWN25 because that gets you a 25% discount and 100% of the first order is donated to the Line of Fire more than the tithe of all subsequent orders. A few more quotes about the Holy Spirit from different Christian leaders, but I haven't verified 100% that these are the ones who said, so I'm just going to give you the quotes themselves. I believe in the Holy Spirit is the most neglected line of the Apostles Creed. The Holy Spirit tends to either be forgotten or fantasized.

Now when I was searching for these quotes, and again I have to verify them, we were only able to verify several directly, but this was spoken, if accurate, by a non-charismatic, by a non-Pentecostal. But part of the Apostles Creed, I believe in the Holy Spirit, what does that mean in our lives, in our ministries? What does it mean to believe in the Holy Spirit? I believe in the Holy Spirit is the most neglected line of the Apostles Creed. The Holy Spirit tends to be either forgotten, think about it, or fantasized, we make the Holy Spirit into just some genie in the sky or some weird thing that does weird things through weird people. Here's another quote, the Spirit is the source of all genuine Christian experience.

Without him, Christianity would be like any other religion, a mere philosophy of living. Again, the Holy Spirit is to be experienced. Let me ask you this, do you experience fellowship? Do you experience fellowship, deep, intimate fellowship communion with a friend, do you experience that?

I didn't ask you, did you get goosebumps, I didn't ask if you're jumping up and down on the inside, but do you experience, yeah, because it's face-to-face, it's person-to-person, it's intimate interaction, it's sharing of hearts, of course you experience that. We experience intimacy with God. Psalm 16, in your presence is fullness of joy, in your presence is fullness of joy.

That is something we experience. Nehemiah 8, the joy of the Lord is your strength. What's one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, goes on from there. Joy is something we experience. Peace is something we experience. God wants us to experience him by the Spirit.

I'm not relying on feelings, neither am I, neither am I. I'm relying on the truth of the word coupled with the witness of the Spirit. As Romans 8, 16 says, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and then Romans 8 and Galatians 4, that God has put the Spirit of his Son within our hearts, so the Spirit is Jesus to us. The Spirit does what Jesus did on earth, now he does that in us and through us. The Spirit comes in us, and through that we now pray as Jesus prayed, Abba, Father. That's something we experience.

That's intimate, that's beautiful. If you don't experience God, I'd encourage you to really study scripture first, to read about the Holy Spirit, to read about love, joy, peace, the things that God says we have. Romans 14, 17, Romans 14, 17, the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Do you experience peace? Yes! Do you experience joy? Yes! Do you experience righteousness having been made right with God and living different lives?

Yes! God wants you to experience him. If you're not, read the scriptures, see what the Word says, and then don't look for feelings, look for spiritual reality.

It's not a matter of feelings. The Holy Spirit transcends our emotions. You can be in the most fearful, horrific situation you've ever been, and you think it's all over, then you get hit by the joy of the Lord, and start laughing for joy, because you know everything's going to be all right. The Holy Spirit has so much he wants to do in our lives, and I feel like there's an ocean there, and we're going like with a little eyedropper to take a little drop, and no, there's an ocean to dive into and swim in. The Spirit of God not only maintains this hope within us, but helps us in our present limitations.

The Holy Ghost, whom Jesus called the Spirit of Truth, is the only teacher of divine truth. Yes, I mean, these are scriptures, scripture-based thoughts, and quotes from Christian leaders of the past, reminding us of the work of the ministry of the reality of the Holy Spirit. Let's look at Galatians chapter 5.

I want to begin in verse 17, Galatians 5.17, and then the next broadcast, we're going to dive into grieving the Spirit, how we grieve the Spirit. Galatians 5.16, so I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.

They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law, meaning the Holy Spirit will lead you not to steal, the Holy Spirit will lead you not to commit adultery, the Holy Spirit will lead you not to murder, the Holy Spirit will lead you not to worship idols. The Spirit will lead you in these ways. The acts of the flesh are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By the way, some things are extreme expressions of the flesh, debauchery, orgies, but a lot of the other stuff, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, sounds like some of our social media pages. But the fruit of the Spirit, verse 22, this is what the Holy Spirit produces in our lives. These are evidences of the work of the Spirit in our lives, love. Our lives marked by love, joy. Paul wrote to the Galatians earlier in this chapter and said, what happened to your joy?

It's what happens when we get into legalism and judgmentalism. Where's the joy? Where's the joy?

Yeah, there's a time to mourn, but there's a time to dance. And Jesus felt the pain of this world like no one else, but it also says in Hebrews 1, including Psalm 45, that he was anointed with the oil of joy above his companions. Joy, peace, peace like a river in the midst of the storm, forbearance. These are things the Holy Spirit produces in us, that patience, that long-suffering kindness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. How about we pray, Lord, show us what it means to be led by the Spirit. Show us what it means to live by the Spirit, Lord. Show us what it means to keep in step with the Spirit. Show us, Lord, what it means to have communion with the Spirit. Show us what it means to be empowered by the Spirit, that we can glorify Jesus to the full. That's a prayer God will answer.

Jesus said in Luke 11 13, if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? Hey, remember, if you're not getting my Frontline newsletter, this is monthly, digital, life-impacting, life-changing, absolutely free. Go to thelineoffire.org and click subscribe. Frontline newsletter, you don't want to miss it, thelineoffire.org, click subscribe.

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