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Getting to Know the Holy Spirit Part 8: Peace and Joy

The Line of Fire / Dr. Michael Brown
The Truth Network Radio
November 13, 2024 9:00 am

Getting to Know the Holy Spirit Part 8: Peace and Joy

The Line of Fire / Dr. Michael Brown

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November 13, 2024 9:00 am

In Part 8 of "Getting to Know the Holy Spirit," Dr. Brown talks about the peace and joy that come along with being indwelled by the Spirit.
 

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Welcome friends to the Line of Fire. Michael Brown here with our digital school of the Word and Spirit here to infuse you with faith and truth and courage so you can stand strong in the Lord.

Class is now in session. We continue our study on getting to know the Holy Spirit. We have relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. There are some believers that would categorize themselves as fundamentalists in the past but in a negative sense. And they described their past as they believed in the Father, Son, and Holy Bible. That's how they described their past. I'm not putting that on others. This is how some of these individuals describe their past because in effect they had a relationship with the Bible more than they had a relationship with God or the relationship with God was only through the Bible but to the exclusion of the Holy Spirit.

You say, but how can that be? The Holy Spirit lives in us. Yes, but are we conscious of his presence?

I don't mean feeling something. Are we conscious of the Spirit's work in our lives? Are we conscious of the witness of the Spirit? Are we conscious of the leading of the Spirit? Are we conscious of the conviction of the Spirit? Are we conscious of the voice of the Spirit? Are we conscious of the power of the Spirit? Again, 2 Corinthians 13-14, Paul says, the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God, and the communion, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

I want to tell you a quick story and then we're going to open up the Word and we're going to talk about a relationship with the Spirit, specifically how we can grieve the Spirit and why the Spirit is specifically known as the Holy Spirit. Just a quick reminder though, if you're not getting my monthly Frontline newsletter, we really pour into it. It's beautifully produced.

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Thelineoffire.org, click subscribe. Okay, quick story. God moved on me in 1989 to write a book called The End of the American Gospel Enterprise. It was my first book on repentance and revival related themes. I'd written the book in 85, Compassionate Father Consuming Fire, Who is the God of the Old Testament, but that was more of a teaching book. This was the first book where where the fire in my heart exploded in print, where instead of just a few lines here and there or one page, now it was a book, a short book, but a full book, burning with fire, burning with passion. And I was away on a prayer retreat when I started writing the book. I brought my laptop, which in those days really big and monochrome, if I remember. I brought my laptop with me and and I was working on it and I felt stirred and I said, all right, I want someone to write the forward to this book.

Who is it on the planet? Who on the planet carries that the anointing that I'm talking about has a tremendous message of repentance, carries that anointing for revival. And I thought Leonard Ravenhill, Leonard Ravenhill. I had read some of his classic books in 82, 83, Why Revival Tires, which will still rock your world if you read it today.

It came out in the early 60s. Revival Praying, some of his other works, but those two I'd read, they rocked my world, 82, 83. And then in April of 83, I heard him speak at Brooklyn Tabernacle. He was 76 years old and I heard him speak and he brought a message on Samson and and it was an incredibly convicting message. And at the end of the message, he gave an altar call and the altars reflect.

There's no music, no exhortation or anything. He just said, if God's piercing your heart, even now come and pray. And he just turned and got on his knees to pray. Next thing, the altar flooded, people weeping, wailing, crying out.

It was like a scene out of a revival book. And I got to shake his hand. My long line of people just shook his hand. I said, I understand Keith Green lived near you because Keith Green had died seven years earlier in a plane crash. And he said, oh yeah, he'd come over several times a day.

That was it. I was a stranger to him. But I know he's the man to write the forward.

And then I have this sense from God. He's gonna write the forward to your book. He doesn't know me from Adam. He doesn't know me. I'm one of tens of thousands of people whose hand he shook over the decades. He doesn't know me at all.

And then I thought, is he even alive? I said, no, he's gonna write the forward. Well, I reached out to a potential publisher, Destiny Image. They were super interested in the book, drove from New York to Pennsylvania to talk about the book coming out.

And I said, Leonard Ravenhill's gonna write the forward. Wow. Great. Exciting. Then I come home, talk to a friend of mine who had a big radio ministry. And I said, hey, would you be interested in doing an interview on this book and pre-ordering goes, yeah, I want to pre-order books and help pay for these books to get them out.

Cause I had to participate in the cost of the first publication. Okay, great. And I said, and Leonard Ravenhill is going to write the forward to the book. And it's great.

It's exciting. And then Nancy says to me, my dear bride, Nancy, she said, did God tell you he's going to write the forward? And I said, he doesn't have to. It's all over me. And she said, maybe it's just best to keep your mouth shut about it.

I said, that's true. Well, God miraculously connected us. It's a long, amazing story. I have a book that'll come out next year. God willing that we'll tell the story of how we connected.

That's part of it. And there's a collection. Oh, God is here collection of all his writings in one volume. I got to write the forward to I'm going to talk about that and a future YouTube broadcast. Suffice it to say, God miraculously connected us. And we were, and I never asked him to write the forward. He volunteered.

We were super close the last five years of his life. God used him to make a deep indelible impact on who I am in God. Much that's good in me came from God through him into me. And now for you, but all that to say, I knew without hearing a voice, I knew he was going to write the forward because the spirit bore witness.

Have you ever had that happen? You can't give a rational explanation, but you just know, you just know. And in the midst of sorrow, pain, hopelessness is joy. There's joy. What it makes no sense. It's often counterintuitive or this peace. Have you had that happen? I see some of you waving at me. Yeah.

Yeah. Metaphorically speaking, all I see is me on a screen here and a camera in front of me, but we're, we're talking face to face. Otherwise just, just you and me as we're talking, have you had that happen? Oh, it's so wonderful to have the witness of the spirit. It's not simply the spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, Romans eight 16 sons of God, and that unique relationship that Jesus has with the father.

We enter into that. The spirit bears witness with us in other ways. You know, in Acts 14, Paul is preaching in Lystra and, and he sees a man crippled and it says, perceiving he had faith to be healed.

He tells him to stand up. How did Paul perceive that? That was by the spirit. That was the spirit making him to know.

All right, let's, let's dig back into the word. Romans 8 14 for those who are led by the spirit of God or the children of God, sons of God in that unique sense that Jesus is a son and the father and an heir of the father. We become joint heirs as we suffer with him as well. Paul writes in Romans eight, we will receive the inheritance together with him, but sons of God, as children of God, as many as are led by the spirit, they are the children of God. I don't believe that Paul is saying here, well, unless you heard the Holy Spirit tell you three specific things today, you're not a child of God.

No, no, no. I don't believe he's saying that at all. I don't believe he's saying unless you can point to four specific times in your life where you got directives from the Holy Spirit and were led by the spirit, you are not a child of God.

No, I don't believe that for a split second. It's already saying the reality is as you are a child of God, knowing it or not, you are being led by the spirit. God is at work in your lives. The more conscious we are of the leading of the spirit, the better, the more conscious we are of what the spirit is doing and who he is, the better. But friends, the reason that we seek to honor God rather than the flesh is because the Holy Spirit is leaving us. The reason we have this prompt, I want to get in the word, I got to turn off the TV or shut down the computer, get time with God. That's the Holy Spirit leading. We have a new heart and a new spirit put within us. Our spirits and inner beings are renewed and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us is leading us to say no to sin and yes to God. This is an everyday thing in every one of our lives. It's the primary reason we are moving forward, not backward. Why is it?

Here, I'll give an example. A student would come in, you know, ministry school. Dr. Brown, I'm so ashamed. I used to be a porn addict and Jesus set me free. I've been cleaning for like three years and last night I downloaded porn. I feel terrible.

It was like five minutes. I feel terrible. And we don't take it lightly.

We make sure that they're getting help and accountability and so on. But I'd say, hey, be encouraged, man. You're sitting here weeping. You used to watch porn by the hour and didn't think twice. You didn't even know the Lord. You didn't even care.

You'd watch it by the hour. Now you're smitten and you turn the thing off and you feel ashamed. That's because the Holy Spirit's at work in you. The Holy Spirit is at work to turn us away from ungodliness to godliness. That's why we start to press in to get closer to the Lord. You can't stay in sin. You can't live in sin.

You can't do that because you're a different person and you have to make a choice. And sometimes that comfort we have, we don't know why, but there's peace. The Holy Spirit is leading in godliness. But, oh friend, we can grieve the Spirit of God.

We'll talk about that when we come back. 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. To order elderberry with zinc and vitamin C for yourself, order today and use promo code BROWN25 to receive 25% off your order. As a new customer, 100% of the proceeds from your first order will go to support the Line of Fire radio broadcasts.

So call now 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. Welcome back friends to the Line of Fire. I want to read to you from Ephesians, the fourth chapter. And I want to give a little context to this word, Ephesians chapter four.

And so you understand in some of Paul's letters, he spends the first half on doctrinal issues and the second half on practical issues. It may not be divided exactly like that, but in Ephesians, Ephesians 1, 2, 3 is doctrine. Ephesians 4, 5, 6 is practical living it out. In Romans, it's Romans 1 through 11 doctrine. There's some practical dying to sin, but basically doctrine and then 12 through 16 living it out practically.

This is not how they're all divided, but some are divided like that. So Paul has been urging us to walk worthy of the Lord. Ephesians chapter four, he's been urging us to walk worthy of the Lord.

And then this, I'm going to start in verse 20. That however, in terms of carnality, is not the way of life you learn when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to your former way to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Whoa! Do you understand what we're being taught there? There is a new self that we put on, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. In ourselves, we are righteous. There's the old Martin Luther quote in terms of free will, like a rock has free will. If you lift it up, it goes up.

If you let it go, it goes down. He would say we need to be lifted up by God. But God comes alongside of our will and enables us and empowers us to do right and to live right. You can become something beautiful. In this world, we'll still have weakness. In this world, we'll still have failure.

In this world, there's still flesh. But praise God, we can walk in such a way that we become different people. How many of you were really foul individuals, nasty, violent, full of greed, lust, anger, hatred?

And people know you as a loving, self-controlled person. The Holy Spirit really can bring transformation. Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor.

Speech is so important through scripture, for we are all members of one body. In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer.

But must work doing something useful with their own hands that they may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Sealed meaning God put a seal on us like the old days, the good housekeeping seal, that that's my boy, that's my girl, that's my child. He identified us.

He marked us. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Praise God for those wonderful, rich, and beautiful words. You'll find several instances, Isaiah, Micah, do the study, search for grieve or grief and spirit. You'll find several other places where it is the Spirit of God who's grieved. Now we can grieve God in general, but why is it we're told don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God? Why does it sing about the Spirit? Why doesn't it say don't grieve the Father?

Why doesn't it say don't grieve the Son? Why does it say don't grieve the Spirit? Because the Spirit's the one that's working intimately with us moment by moment. When I get up to preach and suddenly I'm stirred to move in a fresh direction or proclaimed by faith, the faithfulness of God, it's the Spirit that's moving.

Jesus himself ministered by the power of the Spirit. He remained God at all times, but he set aside his divine prerogatives. That's why he had to sleep. That's why he had to eat.

That's why he didn't know everything all the time. It's what was revealed to him. He willingly set aside his divine prerogatives while remaining fully God at all times. And he says, quoting from Isaiah 61 in Luke 4, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he's anointed me to preach good news to the meek, to the poor, to the hurting. He says in Matthew 11, if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, excuse me, Matthew 12, if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, by whom do your followers drive them out?

Speaking to the religious leaders of his day. He drove out demons by the Spirit. He's moved by the Spirit. We're told in the Gospels that he's moved by the Spirit like Luke. He's moved by the Spirit to go out into the wilderness. And we have these different accounts. It's the Spirit working intimately with us.

Acts 20, Paul talks about being compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. As I'm speaking now and just feel God's gracious Spirit working through me to communicate these truths to you, there's that intimacy. There's that closeness. It's just like if you're married, there's no one closer to you than your spouse. And you know each other. You can communicate with each other without even saying a word. You feel each other in different ways, even when you're not in the same room.

And you're honoring your spouse even when your spouse isn't 100 miles near you because you're always connected. The Spirit is the one with whom we're connected. And when we sin, when we speak ugly words about someone, when we think wrong thoughts, when we give way to wrong actions, it hurts the Spirit of God. But notice, he's called the Holy Spirit. We know God by his nature is kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, holy, holy, holy. We know that the demon said to Jesus, we know who you are, the Holy One of God. God in his core essence is love and God in his core essence is holy. But it is only the Holy Spirit in Hebrew, the Ruach HaKodesh, is only the Holy Spirit that is actually called holy as part of his foundational name and identity.

This is not to put us on some kind of trip. We're thinking, well, he knows every single thought. I'm dead because he's not here to condemn. He's here to help. He's our advocate. He comes to our defense. He comes to our defense. So it's so crucial that we don't grieve him.

So the Holy Spirit is given the name, given the term holy as part of his name. We can grieve him to the point that we become insensitive to his voice and leading. I want to I want to share this. I don't want to get preachy with you, but please hear me because this is relevant for some of you. And this happened to me. So I'm speaking by firsthand experience.

This happened to me. But have you ever had a time, maybe you're really walking closely with the Lord and you'd watch a movie and there'd be profanity in it or some sex scene or something like, whoa, gosh, I can't. I thought it was like a clean movie. And you just turn it, shut the thing off, like, whoa.

I remember being on the plane once flying overseas and looking for a movie, a clean movie, just to chill. I say, oh, yeah, this one looks all right. And then it's like profanity. Whoa, God.

I mean, bad profanity. Yikes. I wasn't expecting it.

And they just turned it off. Maybe a year or two, three, four later, it's like, I don't really care about that. It's no big deal. But it's sex scenes. Yeah, whatever.

It's no big deal. The hardening of the heart is so terribly dangerous. And look, conversely, you know, some young guy will say, man, I go to the beach. I just, I'm so weak. I'm filled with lustful thoughts everywhere. I look, this is girls and bikinis and songs and tell them, you know, weak or stupid. Stay off the beach, buddy. You're a young man around 99% naked.

Women stay off the beach. You don't need to be around that. You know, but it's another thing to say, yeah, no big deal.

And they're not naked. You know, what happens is the heart gets hard. And maybe right now, as I'm talking to you, remembering could be intimacy with God used to have. And you're so distant from it.

You don't even remember it. But now the spirit's reminding you or standards used to have or ways used to treat people used to be, say one unkind word to someone and you were smitten, cut to the heart. And now it's like, no big deal.

You tear people up. Maybe the Holy Spirit saying, you're, you've gone really far. You've drifted, but maybe his voice is bringing you back. Jesus says in Revelation three, by the spirit, as many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent. Perhaps this is completely unexpected. Not in my notes. Perhaps this is the voice of the Lord calling you back.

Don't harden your heart. If you hear him speaking. Hey, if you're watching on YouTube, we've got a ton more special videos we're putting out. Click subscribe and press that bell.

This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener supported. If we have been a blessing to you, if you're being enriched in the word and prayer and your own walk with God through this broadcast, then stand with us so that we can reach many, many more and bless many, many more together. Friends, we're making a difference. So go to the line of fire.org, the line of fire.org and click donate.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-11-13 14:44:24 / 2024-11-13 14:54:17 / 10

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