Do You Have the Spirit?
JCC 18.04.10 pm
Read Jude
Key verse: These are they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. Jude 1:19
Sensual, literally, ‘animal-souled: as opposed to the spiritual, or ‘having the Spirit’
It is translated, ‘the natural man’
Read1Cor 2:-16
The natural man CANNOT receive spiritual things
Why do we expect people to understand us?
Unless the Holy Spirit gives them a glimpse of God, they will never see
It is not about what you know, but who you know
Too many churches have people who are not awakened spiritually
How do we know?
Because they don’t move, they don’t grow as in character and they have nothing to show the world that would make them want it
Man is, body, soul, and spirit
God's design is, that it is ‘the spirit, that is the receiver of the Holy Spirit, this unites man to God
Our spiritual man should rule the soul but most of the time it’s the other way around
But in the animal, or the natural man, the spirit is like the animal soul, which is earthly in its motives and aims
It cannot see let alone move into spiritual realms
So the conclusion here is, they will never please God
Only spiritual things please the Lord
The ‘carnal’ sink even lower, for these move in the flesh, the lowest part and the corruptible side of man's bodily nature
Again they cannot please the Lord
These ‘having not the Spirit’: his spirit is not in its normal state as God intended from the beginning
John 3:5, 6-7 Jesus answered, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit' KJV
Flesh cannot enter the Kingdom
Do you really understand this statement?
There are some who even sit with us each week that will never enter the Kingdom of God!
The impact if this verse alone should make us want to run to the feet of Jesus and ask for a spiritual awakening
Lord I want to be sure that I’m entering the Kingdom
Lord I’m not perfect, but in Christ I can be
Lord Help me to see with spiritual eyes and not with my mind
Do you want the assurance that you are the wheat and not the chaff?
I do?
A farmer separates the wheat from the chaff
What would he rather have?
Quantity or quality?
He may seem to have a lot, but he cannot sell the chaff, it is good for nothing
Only to be thrown away
It’s hard to tell how much chaff there is, but throw it up in the air and the two separate
The wind takes away the chaff and that is why it says that these are they blow around by every wind of doctrine
The real evidence is in those who remain
If you feel God is throwing you up in the air, rejoice, he is seeing what you are made of
We want the church to be as large as possible
But on the other hand, we have no wish to see the church multiplied at the expense of purity and quality
This verse suggests three things: first, there has to be an examination: Have we got the Spirit?
Secondly, there is a concern: If we don’t have the Spirit we are sensual
Thirdly, a suspicion: There are many people that separate themselves
I’m only going to look at the first 2 today
1. Examination: Have we got the Spirit?
Have I the Spirit?
This does not deal with any externals of religion
It doesn’t say do you go to church?
Do you read the Bible? etc
But we have to look within us for the answer
Even if your morals are outwardly as pure as the law, you are still unsaved
This was the message Jesus was trying to warn the Pharisees about
You that have the Spirit, even though you do wrong things, you are saved because of what Christ has done and your acceptance of Him
You are destitute of the essential part of salvation which is the Spirit of God dwelling in you in you haven’t received Jesus
So have I the Spirit?
Have you the Spirit?
And what is the operation of the, Spirit?
How can we discern it?
Now the Spirit operates in different ways, all of them mysterious, and supernatural
All of them bearing the real marks of God’s own power, and having certain signs following so that they may be discovered and recognised
The first work of the Spirit in the heart is a work in which the Spirit is compared to wind
But not the same as being blown away previously mentioned
Jesus spoke to Nicodemus saying the first work of the Spirit in the heart is like the wind, which blows where it wants, even so, is every one that is born of the Spirit
The wind is a mysterious thing
There are certain definitions which try to explain the phenomenon, but they leave us questions:
How does the wind blow?
What causes it to blow in a certain direction?
Where was it before?
Where has it gone now?
The breath within us and the wind outside of us
All motions of air; they are to us a mystery
The renewing work of the Spirit in the heart is even more mysterious
How many times have you seen the Spirit move upon one person and yet another seems untouched?
The Spirit goes where He chooses and does what he wills
We cannot control Him, He must control us
We cannot say to HS I want you to come and do such and such
But, we can say, I would like you Lord to move by your Spirit etc, but Your will be done
It can be copied and look like the real thing, but again the chaff is left to grow alongside the wheat
You can bible study until you are grey and old, but without the Spirit enlightening the word it is useless
All you have is knowledge but no power
Religion but no reality
The efforts of the flesh are worthless
Real power comes only from the H Spirit within
We cannot get ourselves reborn
You didn’t choose me but I chose you..
In Ezekiel, he saw dry bones lying scattered around in the valley
The command came to Ezekiel, ‘Say to these dry bones, live’
He said, ‘Live,’ and the bones came together, ‘bone to his bone, and flesh came upon them’
But they were still lifeless
‘Prophesy, son of man; say to the wind, breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’
They looked alive; there was flesh and blood, there were eyes and hands and feet, but when Ezekiel spoke there was something given which men call life, and it was given in a mysterious way, like the blowing of the wind
So can you make yourself born again?
Not at all
Only the Holy Spirit can breathe life
Those bones lived because God gave them breathe
2. The Spirit is also referred to as ‘fire’
After the wind comes and breathes life, the fire needs to purify the heart
The Lord searches and tries our heart
He then lights up our spirit todiscover the wickedness in our nature
As He illuminates our nature we see what we are like in reflection of His light
Like Samuel, when the Lord called him as a child
Have you heard the voice?
You may not know where it came from
But a stirring started in your heart, and you began to feel that in the sight of God you were a lost and condemned sinner
Then a burning began in your heart
The conviction of sin overwhelmed you
Has you approached closer to the Lord you saw more of yourself
This is the fire
His eyes are lamps of fire
Then the work of the Spirit lifted you to a new height
You knew the experience of being lifted higher
Then you will begin to exercise the supernatural gifts
This is unknown territory
It is not natural
You cannot do this of yourself
It’s the most fantastic feeling ever
But, is this your experience?
Or is it just something you have read about or heard about?
It can be yours, it can be mine
I’m not being hard when I say, if you haven’t received this, have you really got the Spirit?
You must question your own heart and look deep within yourself
You may be flesh and blood like Ez body in the valley, but without the Spirit you have no life in you
You are like a dead man walking
Of no value to God, no use to Him
Like the chaff, no value and of no use
3. Then the Spirit is like oil
The Holy Spirit frequently in Scripture is compared to oil. ‘You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over’
Though the Spirit is wind and fire, it does not end there, He is oil too
He anoints us
But for what purpose?
For service, for healing, for deliverance
Do you know the Spirit under the symbol of oil?
Have you felt Him at work in your spirit?
Comforting you, anointing your head, making you glad, and causing you to rejoice?
There are many people that have never felt this
They hope they are Christians, they hope they are saved, but their Christianity never makes them happy
Has your heart leapt for joy in His presence?
Like John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb as the Spirit witnessed with him
The song writer said, ‘O the joy that filled my soul; something happened and now I know, He touched me and made me whole’
If you haven’t felt this, question whether you have the Spirit
Or if it has been a long time since you did, question whether you still have the Spirit in fullness of measure
Where the Spirit lives, there is Joy
But also the other fruit is there
Fruit that ‘remains’
Do you have them?
If not, why not?
So do you have the Spirit?
4. And lastly, when you have experienced the Spirit as wind, as fire, and as oil, He then comes like water
We are told that we are ‘born again of water and of the Spirit’
This is not water baptism
A priest cannot sprinkle your conscience clean
A Pastor cannot wash away your filthy rags
It is by washing in the water of the WORD, that will change you
This causes you not to want to sin
The person that to this day loves sin and lives in it just as they want to; they need to know that the truth is not in them
He/she has received a strong delusion to believe a lie
God's people are a holy people
God's Spirit works by love, and purifies the soul
Once He gets into our hearts, He will have no rest until He has turned over every stone of sin and uncovered it
He will expose sin where sin lives
God's Holy Spirit and man's sin cannot live together peaceably while sin is there
They may both be in the same heart, but they cannot both reign together, nor can they both be at peace with each other
For ‘the Spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh lusts against the Spirit’
They cannot live together
There will be evidence of war in your soul
You will have to cry, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’
In time the Spirit will drive out all sin, and will present us blameless before the throne
2. Concern
So, have you received the Spirit?
You may say, ‘I might have done’
But if you have left something out, you haven’t received the Spirit
Have you had a supernatural happening in your own heart?
Have you been made a new person in Christ Jesus?
If not, depend on Him
Throw yourself at His mercy
God's Word is true, if you are outside of Christ, then you are dying and you will be shut out of heaven
The Bible calls you ‘sensual’, or fleshly’
No flesh shall inherit the Kingdom
This word ‘sensual’, in the Greek, really means in English the word ‘soulish’
We don’t have such a word
But we need one
There is a big distinction between animals and men
Man has a soul, and animals do not
There is another distinction between sensual men and a converted man
The converted man hath the Spirit
The unconverted man has nothing
He is a soulish man, not a spiritual man
He has got no further than nature and has no inheritance in the spiritual kingdom of grace
Strange as it is, soulish and sensual should mean the same
If you don’t have the Spirit, then you cannot enjoy spiritual things
They are spiritually discerned
You are a fallen creature, having only capacities to live here in sin, and to live forever in torment
You don’t have the capacity to live in heaven at all, if you have no Spirit
Therefore, you are unable to know or enjoy spiritual things
You may take communion, and be baptized, and may be the most devout churchgoer
But if you not have the Spirit you have not started an inch from where you were before you started doing all these things
You are still in ‘the bonds of iniquity,’ a lost soul
You may say religious phrases, read biographies, be able to write an article upon the deep experience of a believer
But if this experience is not your own, if you have not received it by the Spirit of the living God, you are still nothing more than a carnal person
And heaven is to you a place to which there is no entry
You might even become a minister of the gospel, and a successful minister too, and God may bless the word that you preach, but unless you have received the Spirit you are nothing more than a soulish person
And to top it off, you might even have the power to work miracles, as Judas had
You might even be received into church membership, as was Simon the magician
He cast out devils, healed the sick, and worked miracles, only to find the gates of heaven shut in his face
The Spirit of the living God is searching for truth
Do not rest until you have answered this question: Have you the Spirit, living, dwelling, working in thy heart?
Conclusion:
Examine your own heart
Have you the Holy Spirit?
Be concerned if sin is reigning in you
Does the devil have a foothold or does God have a hold on you?
Diligently seek spiritual gifts
Desire to serve Him for without Him you can do nothing, but with Him, all things are possible
