Foundational Truths of the Spirit Pastor Christine Miller

Well, because this is now School of the Spirit and Wednesday nights, it's just good for us to learn how to be led by the Spirit, even in our giving. I just want to start out saying, and just as a reminder, you all know this, but the spirit realm is the unseen realm. Always remember that we're dealing with a realm that few people even know exists, or even understand that they do know it exists. Think about the majority of this world that doesn't even believe there's another realm. And yet, this other realm that's unseen is more real than this realm, and it's very complex. There is so much to it that we can't even learn it all just reading our Bibles. The Bible contains the Word of God and it contains a degree of revelation that God has for us, but it does not contain all of God's facts and revelations. It's the part he wanted us to have. But there are prophets that see things and experience things, and it's amazing what exists in the realm of the Spirit. And so the way you can judge some of these things, if you ever hear about them, is you have to know that it bears witness with your spirit. And I was thinking about this just recently, that the School of the Spirit is, of course, we're doing the basics to begin with. We're going to learn what's basic and what's in the Word. But there's so much out there to learn about. I remember hearing Brother Hagen teach it and then Dr. Dufresne, that there are different realms in the Spirit that you enter into and occupy. Most believers never even heard of such a thing, and probably never even get to the first place. Amen. It's not just for ministry offices, it's for everybody. There are different degrees and categories of operations and manifestations and anointings. And there's a whole angelic army, and they have different assignments. And just because we've never seen one, some of you may have, but most of us don't, unless you have the discerning spirits. And that doesn't mean they don't exist, right? And so there's just so much in the realm of the Spirit. And so the School of the Spirit, the purpose of this is going to be to educate us along the lines of things that pertain to the Spirit. Now last week, unfortunately, we had no light, no air, no electricity. And I tried to preach without a microphone, without any sound system, to a room that was very hot. And many of you were very sleepy. And I don't think we got a good recording either. But hopefully you were able to get something out of it. And we talked about the personality of the Holy Spirit, right? So let's open up tonight. Actually, before we open up with the message, there's something I want to read to you that I recently came across. And it was a prophecy given by Kennedy Hagan in 1980. He said, The end of the age is coming upon this generation. The powers of darkness, the forces of evil are rampant as never before, and they will be increased in intensity and velocity. And even many Christians will see and look upon these things and say, Oh, there is no use. Throw up their hands in futility and say, Well, I guess it's all over. We'll just have to hold on and pray for Jesus to come shortly because the devil is about to take over everything. I don't know if you've ever had that thought. I'm tempted to be overwhelmed by what we see and hear. But thus saith the Lord, In this day I am searching the body of Christ to enlist soldiers. I'll raise up a new band. I'll raise up a new army who will know how to pray against the powers of darkness. And the light will dispel the darkness. And the truth will set men free. And prayer will break the bonds that bind men's minds and spirits and bodies. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Yea, there are those who will learn to take their place hurriedly. This is the hour, guys. It must be hurriedly. It must be. Quickly it must be that they learn. That they enter in quickly to stand against the forces of darkness and evil that will try to come against the land, against the church, against the home, that would try and disrupt and destroy all that is good and all that God has endorsed. But the hand of the Lord is upon those who will listen. And at the urge of God in the Spirit to those who are attentive, they will pray. This is why we're going to be talking about things that pertain to the Spirit. The Spirit of God will help you to pray. Do not try to do it yourself. Though there must be labor on your part, yet at the same time rest in Him. Let the Spirit flow through you like a river, like a mighty wave. Let it flow through you. Give vent to those innermost groanings. Let them escape your lips. Take the time to get alone and wait. Sometimes not even saying anything, but on the inside of you there's an agonizing. There is a flowing out of your spirit by the Holy Spirit to the Great Spirit, the Father of Spirits. And thou shalt be sustained. Thou shalt be kept, and thy family and thy home will be sure and stand fast. And thy children shall grow up strong and stalwart in the Lord, and they shall have no fear. Now I thought this was so good because we are living in that hour. That was given 40 years ago. Can you believe 1980 was 40 years ago? And I can't. That's the year I graduated high school. I suppose there would be a reunion if it wasn't for COVID, but I wouldn't go anyway. But here's the thing. We're living in this hour. We have to become sensitive to the Spirit. We have to learn to flow with the Spirit. We have to learn how to pray by the Spirit, give by the Spirit. We have to have a degree of sensitivity in this hour. And there's a sense of urgency out there. And one of the things Pastor Jeff was saying in the offering is we don't fully understand why. You know, Jesus paid the price for everything, but there is a degree of works on our part to receive certain things. Well, we don't understand fully, but I have an idea that if it just came super easy to everybody, if there was no effort exerted, there'd be no faith involved. And faith is what pleases God. You know, if you just got money without having to give anything, if God never asked you to give your last $100 and you don't know what you're going to do next if you give it, then there's no faith involved. If you've never had God speak to you to give your last $10 or your last $20 or your last $100, then you're not listening. He won't do it every week, and He might not do it every year, but there are going to be times where He does that because it's a faith issue, not a money issue. And the same thing with the situation with the world today and our government and all the chaos. It's driven by demonic forces designed to stop the church from moving forward. And even though we wanted to say, because a lot of the church is here, Oh God, just do something about this, do something about this. And He's waiting for us to do something about it. We have to take our place and do our part. And so I don't want to just, I don't feel like just jump into the deep nitty gritty of the things of the Spirit. I feel we need to lay some foundational truths, which is what we started last week. And so let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 1. So we're not even going to get into the gifts of the Spirit for a while. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 1, it says, Now concerning spiritual gifts, that word gifts is italicized, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. Young's literal translation says, And concerning the spiritual things, brethren, I do not wish you to be ignorant. So really, the most accurate translation of this is, Now concerning things that pertain to the Spirit. So it's not just about spiritual gifts, it's about anything that pertains to the Spirit. God does not want us to be ignorant or, a better translation would be, misinformed. And there's a lot of misinformation about the things of the Spirit. That's why there's so much craziness going on in the churches all over the world, because there's misunderstanding. So God doesn't want us to be ignorant, which is why we're holding these Bible classes, you could call them. And I fully expect God to move, you know, as time goes on. So Satan wants the church so distracted that we miss out on things that pertain to the Spirit. Do you know, if you get distracted by the news all day long, you're going to miss out on what the Spirit's saying. A huge majority of the church world, well, maybe I should say majority, a larger percentage than I'm delighted with, doesn't even recognize why we have the president we have right now. Which means they're misinformed regarding things that pertain to the Spirit. Because he was raised up by God, whether people like it or not, not to be a pastor, not to be a preacher, not to sugarcoat everything he says with Christian lingo, but to be a type of Osiris, to set things back in order, to restore the ancient foundation of what God set up. Not men, we're talking about what God set up. Like I said before, this is not a perfect country, but you find a perfect country and we'll all move there tomorrow. But the main purpose of this country, it was raised up to get the gospel out to the world. We have sent more missionaries than any other nation on the planet. Which, if you don't look at the spiritual things, things that pertain to the Spirit, and you just look at what the Spirit of this age is up to right now, you will get caught in the crossfire, in the distraction, in the wrong interpretation of everything. And Satan wants the church to be distracted. Then you fight the wrong battles, you're not praying like you should be. First of all, if the church was praying like they should be, they would recognize the answer when it comes. Because I said this before, not to try to pull the spiritual card or anything, but we prayed long before the 2016 election and the Lord showed us who was going to win. Because we pray, not because we're some spiritual giant. It's for anybody who will set aside time to pray. But you can be a Christian and never pray, and you're always in the mental arena, and you try to figure things out with your mental faculties, and you'll miss it. And you'll be frustrated, and you'll wonder what's wrong with those Christians that are actually following the Spirit, because you're not. Amen. So we are to avoid the distractions of the devil, because it will hinder us from being sensitive to the Spirit. And what did Randall Brewer preach at the first of the year? That there would be many distractions this year. We're not in a political battle, we're in a spiritual battle. We in the church are in a spiritual battle, and it is ultimately for the souls of men. And the more the church gets caught in the fighting and the bickering and the protesting, the less time they're spending winning the loss, which is our primary purpose, and praying for the loss, and being sensitive to talk to the right people and say the right things, and the more we get caught up in the fury of what's going on, and that becomes our only conversation with other people, we limit our ability to reach people with the gospel. Amen. Because the church is not supposed to be about politics, we're supposed to be about the Master's business. And there will always be people that disagree with us politically, but here's the thing we have to remember as the church, we can say, look up the platforms, look up what the different parties believe in, and ask yourself, does it line up with your biblical principles? That's right. But don't tell them, you don't have to tell them anything beyond that, because our job is to tell them the gospel. Amen. So we're living in the last days, and it is very important that we become sensitive to the presence and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Now I'm just going to do a quick review from last week, in case you were half asleep, or weren't able to pay attention in the dark. The only part of the Godhead that is in the earth today is the Holy Spirit. Now there are times when people see Jesus, but when they're seeing Him, they're in the realm of the Spirit. They're not seeing Him in the earth, per se, they're seeing Him by the Spirit, in the Spirit. It's a spiritual vision. Amen. Are you seeing Him now? I know Brother Charlie has seen Jesus in this building more than once. Praise God. Hallelujah. And thank God for it. He wouldn't ever come here if we weren't doing something right. That's right. So the Holy Spirit is in the earth today. The Father is in heaven. The Son is at His side as our great mediator and high priest. And the Holy Spirit is in the earth. Now I said this last week, He was present in the very beginning. Genesis chapter 1 verse 2, the Spirit of the Lord was hovering over the face of the deep. Why? Because God is the one who comes up with the concepts and the ideas and the plans. Amen. Jesus paid the price for it. But the Holy Spirit is the one who causes it to come to pass, who causes the manifestation of things. So even though God said it took the Spirit of God to cause light to be. That's right. So we saw that He was present in the beginning. We see Him present in the book of Revelation. And we see Him working all in between the pages from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. Amen. The Holy Spirit is a person. We discussed that last week. He is not an influence or a cloud floating around. He is literally a person. Now just as by way of illustration, you are a Spirit. So let's just clarify this for the sake of school of the Spirit tonight. You are a Spirit and someday when your body dies, your Spirit will walk on without the body and it will look like you. Your Spirit is really you. And in the same way, the Spirit of God is a person, just like your Spirit is a person. Now let's go to John chapter 14. John chapter 14 and verse 16. And you get some of the best information about the Holy Spirit from Jesus Himself. John chapter 14 and verse 16. It says, I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper. Say helper. Helper. What does a helper do? Help. You passed that first quiz. He will give you another, another, another. That means Jesus was a helper. Think about this. When Jesus was in the earth and the disciples needed something, they'd go to Jesus and He brought help. Right? When they said, Lord, you know, send the multitudes away. It's getting late. And He said, you feed them. And they're like, we feed them? Well, Jesus helped them to feed them. When Peter stepped out to walk on water and he started sinking, Jesus reached out His hand to help him. Jesus was present. He was the helper while He was on the earth. That's why He works this way. He says, He will give you another helper. It's not going to be me anymore. It's going to be another helper. That He may abide with you for how long? Forever. Does forever mean more than this life, Heather? Yes. Amen. The Holy Spirit, there's a place in the New Testament, I can't think right now, where it talks about He is the seal of our redemption. In other words, we were given the Holy Spirit as evidence, as proof that we're redeemed. He is the seal. He is the one that is like having the title deed, so to speak. He's the one that we hold on to as our security, that we have eternal life, we have redemption. And He stays with us forever. And of course, we're going to be with the Father and Jesus forever. So that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot see, or whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him. This is why we have conflict with people in the world, because they can't receive the things of the Spirit. And I'll tell you something else, neither can carnal Christians. For He dwells with you and will be in you. That's powerful. So we said this last week, this is the day of the Holy Spirit. You know, if this would have been 40 years ago, we'd probably say this is the day of the Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost is just King James. We never used the word ghost in the Catholic Church, because we celebrated Halloween. So naturally, the word ghost didn't mean something holy, it meant something spooky. But it's the same thing, whether you say spirit or ghost, He is holy, He is the Holy Spirit of God. And it's His hour, it's His dispensation. On the day of Pentecost, He came to the earth to stay for this dispensation. And we talked about this last week, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, there was a sound of a rushing mighty wind. And when He came to this planet, in the measure that He came, He made a grand entrance. Grand entrance. And so there were people all around that heard the sound. You know, think about it, that day they didn't have jet airplanes, they did not have earth moving equipment, they didn't have trucks, they didn't have engines. They weren't accustomed to loud noises. Possibly thunder would be the loudest thing they would have heard. So when this sound came, and the Holy Spirit made His grand entrance into the earth, it got the attention of the people. And God wanted it that way. It drew a crowd. Peter preached a glorious message and 3,000 people got saved. Hallelujah. And you know, it was the job of the Holy Spirit then to draw men unto Jesus, and it's still His job today. So, we're in a great dispensation. You know, when Jesus was on the earth, He could only be at one place at one time. But now that the Holy Spirit is here, He can be everywhere, all the time. That's why, you know, when Brother Hagin said Jesus told him there's enough power in every sick room, in every bedroom, in every building, in every place you go, there is enough power for any sick person to be completely healed. Because the Spirit of God is present everywhere. But the glorious thing is He's also in us. Now, we said this regarding anything that God has done for us. The Father thought it, the Son bought it, and the Holy Spirit brought it. Amen. God has great plans for us. Jesus paid the price for us, but they are manifested with the help of the Holy Spirit. And now we have to go back to what we just read. He is the helper, not the doer. Now, He does the works, but He does them through us, helping us. In other words, you still have to use your faith. You still have to be obedient. If the Holy Spirit leads you to stop your foot three times and say Hallelujah, well then do it. It may seem silly, but if that's what He's leading, then that's your part, and then He does His part. I've heard stories, but we haven't heard them in recent days hardly at all. Because that was during the crazy charismatics days. When people just didn't have enough sense to be rational. We need those days back again, because it's better to have a little wildfire than no fire. But I've heard stories where the Lord would speak to somebody to go up on a stage and stomp their foot three times, and then something miraculous happens. I don't know why. Probably just as an act of obedience. An act of being sensitive. You know, why would Jesus spit on somebody? He's obeying the Holy Spirit. He received the Holy Spirit when He was baptized in the River Jordan. And He never did a miracle or a healing until then. So the same Holy Spirit that He performed miracles and healings with, the help of, is the Holy Spirit. We do these works with His help. Amen. So Jesus is not going to be the only one that's ever been given instructions to do peculiar things. That's my point. I know Pastor Nancy has a whole series, a whole message anyway, which I haven't listened to in some time, about seeing things that we've never seen before. Well, you've got to first see it in the Spirit. But there will be things that happen that haven't happened before. That's the hour we're coming into, and that's why we need to talk about our precious helper, the Holy Spirit. Amen. He is a person. We said He has personality traits of a person. He performs the acts of a person. And He can be treated like a person. Just like you can grieve somebody or you can insult somebody, you can insult the Holy Spirit. You can grieve the Holy Spirit. And we don't ever want to be guilty of that intentionally. Amen. And we said this, God wants each of us to have an intimate, personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. Now, just a few short instructions regarding the Spirit of man, and then we're going to go into some other things tonight. Man is created in the image and likeness of God. So we just discussed this earlier. God is three in one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man is three in one, Spirit, Soul, and Body. We're created in His image and His likeness. In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, it says, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's an important scripture because it's the New Testament. It gives us clarity that we are combined of three parts. And I think Christianity for many centuries, even though this writing has been around for a couple thousand years, they did not understand the difference between the spirit and the soul, and that's how doctrine gets mixed up. Because so often we take scriptures in the Old Testament that talk about soul or spirit, and we interchange them and use them the wrong way, and we come up with wrong ideas. And so that's why we need to bring clarity to this. Like I said earlier, you are a spirit. That's the part of you that gets born again, that gets created brand new when you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, and then the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of your spirit. And then you possess or have a soul, which is your mind, your will, and your emotions. And the soul and the spirit, you know, I like to take two rings and put them together like this, because the soul and the spirit are so joined together. When your body dies, these both live for eternity. But they're so closely joined, the Bible says only the Word of God can divide what's of the spirit and what's of the soul, and therein lies the majority of the Christian's problems. Because so many times it's the soul talking to you, and you think it's the spirit, and it's not. And we get into messes. That's why we have to wait on God with important decisions to make sure what is the spirit saying and not what is the soul pulling and tugging at and saying. Because the soul has a will, it has emotions, it has ideas, it has want-tos. I want to do this. And so it's sometimes easy just to ignore the spirit and go with the soul. And then the third part of us, our body, well, the spirit and the soul are housed inside of this body, which is flesh, and is basically corrupted by sin. And when we're born again, our body's not born again. And so then there's certain things about your flesh. Like I said a week and a half ago on a Sunday, the flesh never craves the things of the spirit. Never, never, never. Just get that straight right now. Your flesh will never want to spend time in prayer. Your flesh will never want to read your Bible. Even today, just as a way of illustration, and I thought it was humorous too, because when you're in the spirit, you catch things so quickly that it becomes humorous. But, you know, I've been praying all day long. I've been spending the whole day in the Word preparing for tonight. And as I'm getting my makeup on at 4.30 tonight, getting ready to come to church, I had this thought, gee, you haven't watched an episode of Magnum in a long time. Maybe you should go sit down and watch Magnum P.I. before church and relax a little. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is humorous. I would never watch television before I come to church to preach. But the point is your flesh still craves things and wants things. And I don't think there's anything wrong with Magnum, because that's about the only thing I ever even watched once in a great while from Amazon Prime. But the point is that the flesh still wants to do what it wants to do. But when you're more spiritually minded, you can reject it so easily. But when you're not being spiritually minded, you'll go with the flesh. Oh yeah, you deserve to rest. You worked hard all day long. Go rest and watch your favorite television program. Well, I don't think the Spirit of God would necessarily advise you to do that. He might advise you to go spend an hour praying in other tongues if you need a refreshing. Because that's the way the Spirit refreshes. Well, somebody needed that. So we are first and foremost a spirit, and God will always deal with us through our human spirit. He doesn't talk to you through your mind. He doesn't talk to you through your body. So if you're hearing things, and it's coming more from up here, and it's not coming from in here, you better check that out before you go with it. Amen. Even in prayer on Tuesday, I asked the people that came to pray to now shut down your mind and just really focus on your spirit. Because you can actually pray in other tongues and never even really get into the deeper areas of the Spirit. Because your mind is working on its grocery list, to-do list, what am I going to do after I leave here, or you start falling asleep. Any number of things will happen to you when you get ready to follow the Spirit. Because the devil wants you distracted, so you will not be sensitive to the Spirit. And it doesn't matter who we are. I'm not pointing the finger at anybody. We all have this problem where we're constantly having to pull our attention back to our spirit. Because we have a soul and a body. In Proverbs chapter 20, verse 27, it says, The Spirit of a man is the lamp, the King James says, the candle of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart. So God deals with us through our human spirit. And that's important for us to know, going forward in anything we teach here, God is going to deal with us through the Spirit. And then the other thing, which I already mentioned, I guess, just because I forgot I had it written down, but it came up by my spirit. When a person is born again, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside your human spirit. So, technically we say our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. That's because our spirit is the temple of the Holy Ghost. And our spirit is inside of our bodies. Okay. Another thing is there are scriptures throughout the New Testament. Some refer to the human spirit, some refer to the Holy Spirit. And you don't always necessarily know which is which, unless you did with a purport. Or sometimes you have to look at the context of the passage. So these are things we'll be looking at as the weeks go on. Now, with our remaining time tonight, I want to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit. And really, we're laying foundational truths, and I'm not going super, super deep. Because almost any one of these points could be a whole. Well, how many know who Bob the Endian is? I could never be a Bob the Endian. He teaches line upon line, precept upon precept, I mean word by word, or like a Rick Renner. Rick Renner was raised up under Bob the Endian, so you get a feel for that. Very detailed. There are all kinds of people in the body of Christ. Some are gifted to do that, others are not. I could have a little bit of a bet that way, but that would not be my full bet. But what I'm trying to say is that any theologian could really go deep into any one of these points, depending on how much information any person would want. And that's what I discovered when I quoted from you last week from R.A. Torrey, who's in heaven. But he has a whole book on the subject of the Holy Spirit that gets so detailed and so deep, that most of you would probably not be in a position to handle it without going to sleep on it. So, you have to be super hungry to want that kind of detail. And there's a place for it. Because there are some people in this world that can't be convinced without those types of, sometimes in some cases it's apologetics, but sometimes it's just like trying to prove your case. If you're spirit-filled, you're trying to prove your case to someone who's not spirit-filled, why being baptized with the Holy Spirit is a separate experience from salvation. And it's amazing how you can have to get into a real theological detailed explanation for somebody to be convinced. But if you just tap into the Spirit, you don't necessarily need all those facts. Alright, so we're going to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit, just bringing out some points that I, when I was going through John today that I pulled out. First of all, He will teach you all things. Right? In John chapter 14, which we just read from, but down further in verse 25, These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. There are a lot of things Jesus said to them, and they didn't all get recorded in here. But the ones that even did get recorded, how many know that sometimes the Holy Spirit will bring them to our remembrance as we need them? Have you ever been witnessing to somebody, and there's a real anointing to do it, and all of a sudden these scriptures just start coming up that you didn't even know you remembered? That's the Holy Spirit bringing to remembrance the things that Jesus spoke. Amen. So, from what we're saying here, number one, He'll teach you all things, and number two, He will bring to your remembrance all things Jesus said. Number three, He is our Helper. Jesus called Him the Helper here in verse 26, and the scripture we read earlier from John 14-16 said, I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper. Now, I'm going to read that particular verse, John 14-16 from the Amplified. It says, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another Comforter. Now, this word parakletos, which is in the Greek, has many definitions. It's all spelled out in the Amplified. Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby. That He may remain with you forever. Actually, if you have all of that, what else do you need? We think, you know, when we get into a situation where we are feeling pressured, or we feel like it's urgent or it's an emergency, the first thing we want to do is call another person. But really, you have the greatest person possible inside of you. I can't tell you, you know, in my earlier Christian life, there were so many times where I just felt like I just had to call somebody. I just need some help. I need some help. I need some help. Because I wasn't thinking right. I have help. The Holy Spirit's my Helper. And maybe you've had this experience that no matter who you called, when you got done talking to them or praying with them, you still really didn't have the relief you thought you would get. And the reason is they're not able to give you that relief. It comes from the Holy Ghost. Amen. So we have to learn to tap into this wealth of help that we have on the inside of us. I mean, my goodness, He'll comfort you. He'll counsel you. He'll direct you. He helps you to pray things because we don't always know how to pray as we ought to. He'll strengthen you. He's an advocate. He'll stand up for you. You don't have to try to vindicate yourself. Amen. Now, let's go over to John chapter 16 and verse 7. And this also, Jesus is calling in the Helper. In John 16 verse 7, it says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. Now, it's interesting that Jesus himself is saying, you think you just want me to stay and not leave. And that's because it's all they could see. It's all they knew. You know, this happens a lot of time in relationships. Sometimes people will date somebody and then it doesn't work out. And then they're lingering for a period of time and there's nobody else that they can see that could be a prospect. So, because there's no other prospect, they keep wishing that one would come back, even though that one's not the right one. Well, Jesus is saying, hey, I know you want me to be here, but that's because you don't know what's to come. He said, yeah, you may really think you want this person, but that's because you don't know what's coming. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now, let me just stop there for a minute and say a few things because this is the next point, number four. He will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Let me just make something clear. There is no human that can bring another human to see clearly, to the place where they can see clearly that they are a sinner in their own ability. It is something that, it's a work of the Holy Spirit. This is one of his jobs, is to bring conviction. He will convict the world of sin. There is not one person here tonight that got saved without the conviction of the Holy Spirit. At some point in your life, the Holy Spirit was able to get through to you and convict you that you needed a Savior, that you needed to accept Jesus, that you were actually a sinner, that you actually had to repent of your sins, that you actually were not good enough with your own merits without a Savior. That comes by revelation. It comes by conviction of the Holy Spirit. And so often, I think sometimes in our soul winning efforts, we're witnessing to people and it's right to witness, because the Bible does tell us to preach the Gospel, but a lot of times people don't get saved because the conviction hasn't come. And the reason the conviction hasn't gotten through to them is because it hasn't been birthed through. Which that's something we'll talk about in the coming weeks, that there has to be more travailing and laboring and prayer for people to be birthed into the Kingdom of God. Sometimes people hear the truth and they believe the truth, but they're not ready to make the decision and there are obstacles in the way. But a lot of times there's just no conviction. My husband's told the story of how sometimes there's no conviction because we stop short. We don't say enough. And we don't give the Holy Spirit a chance to really convict somebody because we just say a few little things and then we back off. So there's not enough for Him to work with. But other times you could talk and talk and talk and talk, but without the help of the Holy Spirit it won't do any good. And part of learning to be sensitive to the Spirit is learning when to say something, when not to. Amen. What to pray for that person and what not to pray. So he's going to convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. I mean, people need the help of the Holy Ghost to break through hardness. I keep thinking about like Finney. The reason why he had so many people that were, they'd come to the altars and they'd be converted, but they would last. They wouldn't just come and then backslide within a year. The reason why we see so many people that do come to the altar never come back again or backslide within a short period is because Christ has not been formed in them through travail, through prayer. It's a work of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the things Paul prayed in Ephesians chapter 1, not chapter 1, chapter 3. Let's go there real quick. This is just a rabbit trail. In Ephesians chapter 3, because you can pray in the Spirit and you certainly can pray in English as well, but in chapter 3 he says that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That's one of the things we're to pray for, believers, that Christ would dwell in our hearts through faith, because you're going to backslide if you don't have Christ formed in you. Meaning it can't just be a decision. It has to be a true heart conversion. It's a spiritual work. That's a little bit of a tangent. Let's go back to John chapter 16. It says he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they do not believe in me, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Brother Hagin used to say that. There are many things that I wish that I could preach to you, but you're not ready to receive them. And of course our reaction is, I wish he would have recorded them and put them in a safe. But here's the part we have to remember. However, when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. So whatever it was that he wanted to share but couldn't share can still be received by those that will allow the spirit to guide them into it. But it takes time and the spirit for those things. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak and he will tell you things to come. So let me go ahead and give you number five. He will guide us into all truth. If we learn to listen to our spirit, we'll know when something is true or false. Doctrines of demons will never be a problem for the believer that lets the Holy Spirit lead them into truth. You know, the Bible talks about itching ears. There are just some Christians that they are just craving some new idea, new concept, new teaching, new doctrine, new revelation. That's a dangerous place to be because the devil will accommodate it. And when we talk about doctrines of demons, we're talking about truths that are even maybe 95% true, but there's just enough poison in it to cause a whole lot of trouble. Like hyper-grace teaching, just as an example. Is there grace? Absolutely there's grace. But when you preach it out of balance, you create monsters. Somehow the church has gotten this idea in the day we live in that they can live any way they want and they're still going to be pleasing to God and go straight to heaven. And that's false teaching. When you read the stories from saints and pioneers of the past that had the greatest conversions, the greatest miracles, the greatest healings, the greatest moves of God, these were people that were holy, consecrated, sacrificing their flesh and their own desires to please God. That's why they had the power and the fire. The reason why the modern church has no power is because this feel-good message they're getting. There's no sacrifice talk. There's no, you know, well, anyway, it's another tangent, but you understand what I'm saying. The Holy Spirit will always let you know something's not quite right. I've gotten, you know, over the years we've gotten to this place anyway, but you could, I don't even watch TV preachers because I don't have cable, I don't have television, but there were times in the past where you could turn on the channel and even if it was TVN or some major Christian network, somebody would get up and start sharing, and something on the inside would just go, eh, eh, eh, eh, something's not right, something's not right. It may not even be necessarily what they say, but it might be the way they're living. They could be living in adultery. Then you don't want to receive any impartations from that person because they don't have a good impartation to give you. So if you learn to be sensitive to your spirit, you're going to turn off voices that aren't, they're not really facilitating the truth of God. The Holy Spirit guides you into this truth. Number six, He will show us things to come. As we spend time in prayer, the Holy Spirit will reveal things about the future that we need to know. You know, things about your future, your future spouse, your children and their destinies, things about the church, things about the plan of God for your life. He shows you things to come. Sometimes He'll show you things. If you're a person of prayer, He'll warn you about something so that you can pray and it won't happen. You know, I remember Brother Hagin telling the story of how he and his wife were getting in the car one day, and he had come back off the road from being in meetings, and he had so much to take care of at home that he got real busy for several days, and they got in the car one day, and he just kept having this sensation of being thrown through the windshield. And so, you know, he didn't take the time to pray about it, so he said to his wife, Put on your seatbelt. You know, in that day, nobody wore seatbelts. Nobody. I mean, we never wore seatbelts until they acquired it by law. And so, she's like, Well, why should we wear a seatbelt? You know, what's going on here? And he said, Well, I just keep having this sense that someone's being thrown through the windshield. And so they put on their seatbelts, and they went on their way, and he found out a day or two later, he got a phone call from his sister, and his niece had been driving in a car and got into an accident and got thrown through the windshield and died. And the Lord said to him, The reason why I was trying to get your attention is because you could have done something about that. See, the Lord will show us things to come. And let me take that a step further. If you'll be sensitive to the Spirit, He'll show you things to come, particularly regarding your family. Your family and even your extended family, because you are a watchman over your family. There was a time when I lived in Aurora here, where I would walk my dog every day throughout the neighborhood, and the Lord started telling me, I'm making you a watchman over your neighborhood. And I could walk by a house and wouldn't even know who lived there, and I would pick things up and I would just pray it out. Or pray over that house, pray over that family. God will do things like that, because He's trying to find somebody that will stand in the gap for somebody else. But especially your family. He'll make you a watchman over your family. So if you start picking up somebody's name that you haven't been thinking about for a while in their family, remember you better stop and take time to pray for them. But the Lord wants to show us things to come for the benefit of the future. Now having said that, I love something Pastor Nancy said, that really it's very liberating. We've all missed it in this area. We've all missed it where maybe somebody could have been rescued if we would have listened and prayed. But we have to remember that we are not the thief. The thief is the one that comes to kill, steal, and destroy. And so to live under condemnation about missing it is not of God. You just say, Lord, I'm sorry, and you move on. Because you're not the thief. You're not the one that stole someone's life. You're not the one that caused the tragedy. You could have perhaps prevented it through your prayers and standing in the gaps, but we're not called to live feeling guilty about things. So he'll show us things to come. Number seven, he will glorify Jesus. Because in verse 14 it says, He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. So if anything that's done or said, if it doesn't bring glory to Jesus, it's not of the Spirit. That simple. If what they're preaching to you or talking about is drawing all the attention to themselves, it's not driven by the Spirit of God. Amen? And you'll know, too, in your heart, because when someone is preaching by the Spirit, it's reaching down into your spirit and getting a hold of you in your spirit. It's not making you think about the one who's doing the talking. You're thinking about what's the Spirit saying. It's Spirit preaching. So this is one reason why, in a way, I'm glad. I mean, I came from a family that was more Mediterranean. And you know, when you think about Italians or Greeks, they're very lively. And yet, an interesting thing is, because I used to be a lot more lively, and I think my husband being much more stoic and low-key, he's kind of pulled me a little bit that direction. But really, by nature, I'm not afraid of anybody. I will talk to any stranger and any person on the planet. I don't care who you are. I mean, I've said this before, when you're a nurse and you have to give people enemas, forget about worrying about what people think. Sorry, guys. I hope that's not too crude for you. You just learn to get over it, you know? So I could probe into anybody's soul, ask you questions that you probably would be uncomfortable with me asking you, but oh well, I'm going to do it anyway. As the Spirit leads me, but yeah. But you know, preachers that are just always wanting to have this sensationalism every service have to be careful. Because they're trying to work something up, and if the Holy Ghost is not in it, it's nothing but you drawing attention to yourself, like a three-ring circus. So I'd rather be low-key and have it be the Holy Ghost than always be emotional, emotional, emotional, and have it just be fluff, and have it just be, you know, not God in it, and not changing anyone's life for that matter. You may hoot and howl while you're in church, but what are you going to do when you land, you know, when you get to the parking lot and you get home? What are you going to live your life on? And we want our church to live their life on substance. So anything that's not said or done to bring glory to Jesus is not prompted by the Spirit. And then number eight, the Holy Spirit will take of what is Jesus' and declare it unto us. I looked up that word, declare, and I decided to put it this way. The Holy Spirit wants to show and tell. Because that word, declare, means rehearse, report, show, and tell. So he wants to show and tell what is of Jesus. He wants to show it to us. He wants to tell it to us. He wants to declare it to us. Amen? Amen. So these are just very briefly, as you can see, some of the works of the Holy Spirit. And in upcoming weeks, we'll talk more about the Holy Spirit within, the Holy Spirit upon us. We'll talk about, you know, did you know in the Bible, there are a lot of references to the Holy Spirit that they use water as a way of describing the Holy Spirit. The Bible uses wind as a way of describing the Holy Spirit, or breath, or God breathed his life into Adam on the day that he formed him from the dust of the ground. So there's a lot of cool things in the Bible about the Holy Spirit. And by the time we get done, by the time this year is over, you're going to know a lot more about this personal friend, helper, counselor, comforter that lives inside of you. And you ought to be stronger and more powerful and walking in the things that you have. You know, the Bible says, greater is he who is in you than he that is in the world. And you have to always remember that. The things that you face, you're facing in the world, and the greater one in you will always put you over. Amen. And of course, as we get to know him better, and we get to learn more about the spirit of prayer, the goal is that we become a church that really prays. Because in this hour, like I began reading that prophecy by Brother Hagin, we have to learn hurriedly how to do these things. If we haven't been in those places of prayer, it's time to get there. So we're going there. Amen. Alright, I know it's a little later than I normally preach, but if you came tonight and you would like hands laid upon you for healing, then why don't you come up right away. You need healing in your legs, your ankles, your joints. Run up. Don't limp up. Run up. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Glory to God. Father, we just thank you. The rest of you can stand and stretch forward your hands. Father, we're so thankful tonight that you have not left us as orphans, but you have given us all the help we need. We thank you, Holy Spirit, for being our constant guide and helper. And even tonight, we know that it's your power and your anointing, and we just simply administer that power as obedient servants of the Lord. And so we thank you, Lord, for your healing power tonight. In the name of Jesus, we release the power of God into this cloth. We thank you, Father God, that it is going to cause the anointing to go into that sick one and drive out all sickness and disease and pain. And if there is a presence of an evil spirit that will be driven out, we believe it by faith in Jesus' name. In the name of Jesus, I release the power of God. Be whole. Be free in the name of Jesus. And I command this harassing spirit, you are finished. You go from her in the name of Jesus. We thank you, Father, for it in Jesus' name. In the name of Jesus, we release the power of God. I command this eye to be whole. In Jesus' name, be whole. In the name of Jesus, I release the power of God. Be whole. From the top of your head to the soles of your feet. Be whole. Thank you, Father, for strength. In Jesus' name. Strengthen for the time. You are a busy being, helping people all over, and God is pleased with that. Father, we release the power of God in this clock. By faith, we declare that as it goes upon, as it's laid upon that sick one, that every sickness, disease, and pain will be driven out. And if there is a presence of an evil spirit, it will have to depart. We thank you, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. All right, just another reminder, set your timers every day. Are you still doing it? Yes. Okay, because it's making a difference. Fifteen minutes a day on the timer, praying for the pastor and the church, it is going to transform things, and I'm going to tell you why. It's not just the fifteen minutes, even though it makes a difference, but as you do it every day, you're going to start doing it longer than fifteen minutes. Amen. And we're working ourselves into that place of prayer that we belong. Yes. Amen. Keep on keeping on. Yes. All right, we love you, God bless you, and we'll see you Sunday.