The Power of the Holy Spirit
Pastor Glenn Newton June 6, 2004
AC 1:1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
AC 1:6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
AC 1:7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
AC 1:9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
AC 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
This morning I want to talk to you about without a doubt our greatest need as Christian people, and our greatest need as His Church, His Body of Believers. This morning I want to talk to you about the Power of the Holy Spirit. As Christians we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit….. And as His Church, we need to be Spirit filled and led as we work for the Kingdom.
How do you describe the Power of the Holy Spirit?
It’s interesting that in Scripture, in both the original Hebrew and Greek languages, the word used in speaking of the Spirit is the word that can also mean “wind”.
Billy Graham, in his book, “The Holy Spirit”, talks about this metaphor of the wind and the Holy Spirit. He said, “I have seen tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma, and even in my home state of North Carolina when I was a boy. Yes, I have seen the power of the wind. I have seen the air-brakes that used the wind, or the air, to stop the giant truck going down a highway. That same force can lift a giant airplane.”
Rev. Graham, goes on, “The manager of a granite quarry in North Carolina said, ‘We supplied the granite for the municipal building in NY City. We can lift an acre of solid granite ten feet thick to almost any height we desire for the purpose of moving it. We do it with air. We can do it as easily as I can lift a piece of paper.’”
Rev. Graham concluded, “Air – this invisible substance in which we live and move, this substance so immaterial that we can move our hands through it as though it had no real reality at all. But the power it possesses. How great! How terrible.”
Air is essential to our bodies, if you go without it for very long you will die. The Holy Spirit is essential to our Christian Life, without Him we will be lost.
Let’s look at our passage in Acts, what we have is Jesus giving some final instructions to his disciples, he has been raised from the dead, he has appeared to the believers, he has shown them his nail scarred hands and feet, he has proved to the doubters that He is alive, and now He is about to ascend into heaven to be with His Father.
What a wonderful plan the Father has shown us, the plan of salvation, Jesus came and died for us, took our sins upon himself, so that we could choose Him. Now he has come back from the dead, he is about to leave his followers and be reunited with His Father…. Do you think, that after all this, God would somehow mess up and not provide all that we need to carry out what Jesus has taught us?
Listen to what Jesus says to us, JN 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
Jesus promised a Counselor who would be with them for how long? Forever…. Who was this Counselor? The Spirit of Truth. Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” When you have the Holy Spirit, You have the very Spirit of Jesus Christ living in you, empowering you, counseling you, encouraging you…
The question for us today…. Have you been Filled with the Holy Spirit?
Pastor, I was saved last year from my sins and I’m doing the best that I know to do…. That’s awesome, but being saved and being Filled with the Spirit are two different things… let me explain. And remember this morning, the point that I want us to remember… Each one of us as individuals need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that you can become all that God wants you to be.. so that you can know what it means to produce the Fruit of the Spirit… Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control…. So let me explain the difference between being saved and being Filled with the Spirit, or another term we use, Entirely Sanctified.
First of all, It’s the Holy Spirit who brings a person to the place where they realize, they are convicted of their personal sins, and they realize that they need to be saved from those sins… The Holy Spirit serves as our conscience, for all mankind.
When a person comes to that point, they pray and ask God for His forgiveness, they put their Faith and Trust in Christ as the Son of God, and they make a decision to become a follower of Jesus. We call this being born again, because they have moved from being Spiritually dead, to being spiritually alive.. there spiritual eyes have been opened.
Does this new Christian have the Holy Spirit in his life? The answer is yes. We call this initial Sanctification. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit comes to live in our hearts, isn’t that we teach our kids? So far, here’s what’s happened, this person’s past sins have been forgiven, and now He has been given the Holy Spirit to help him live his Christian life, but what does the Holy Spirit find in this new believer, in his heart?
A new love for God? Yes. But also there is still a love, or a affection for other things that have been apart of their lives for a while, maybe a long time.
So now the tussle begins… the Holy Spirit, who is Holy begins to point out the unholy, and brings conviction on these areas, and the new Christian has to decide, will I Follow God and obey what He is teaching me about the Christian life, or will I decide to do what I want to do.
This Christian has been saved from the past, but now is facing the real problem… the sin nature that we have been born with. During this growing process the Holy Spirit begins to make it clear to us that He wants Everything.
Have you ever had that Conversation with God?
God I’ve given you this thing that I liked, Lord I have stopped going there, I’ve stopped saying those things, I’ve already given up so much Lord, what else do you want?
Have you had that conversation? If you’re a Christian this morning, and your growing, you have without a doubt had a similar conversation… you have had the struggle over issues, attitudes, habits, beliefs.
I want you to listen to me this morning, this is really important. Only two things happen with this Christian who is in this situation… I want you to ask yourself where you are.
This new Christian has two options, and two ways to go. First, He can decide to listen to the Holy Spirit, to keep sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is teaching him, and through this struggle there will come a time when the new Christian will come to a point where they want to give up the struggle for control of their lives, there tired of trying to have a foot on both sides of the fence….
Do you think the Apostle Paul understood this struggle with sin, listen to what he says,
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Friends there is a power at work within you that is attempting to keep you from carrying out what God has planned for you, it’s the sin nature, it’s a disease that needs a cure if you are to live for God, and do His Will. There’s only one cure for this disease… Death.
That’s a funny cure isn’t it?
We have to die to ourselves. When we first get saved we must come to a place where we admit our past sins, we confess, we humbly ask for forgiveness and God in his great Love forgives us.
When we come to this point of Entire Sanctification, being Spirit filled, we have to die to self, we have to admit we have a sin nature that needs to die, we need to humbly ask God to fill us with His Spirit, We need to be willing to give over everything.. our past, our present, our future… We have to pour it all out into His Hands, so He can Fill Us Up with His Spirit. Listen to this description… Do you know today that your free… or you can be from the sin nature?
RO 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
Through Jesus Christ, the spirit of Life… Who is that? The Holy Spirit… And what can the Holy Spirit do for you? “set me free from the law of sin and death.”
Will you say that with me this morning… Set me free. Set me free.
This is what the Spirit Filled life is all about.. We are free to be who God created us to be, because we have given God His proper place in our lives….
Free from Bondage to things… Free from past failures… Free from selfish attitudes and ways of thinking…. Free to love, free to dream, free to be…
The Spirit filled life is a life marked by power, why? Because we have died, so now God’s power can be unleashed in and through us.. You see when we try to control our own lives, we keep God from using us for His glory.
I have a friend who is beginning to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. He’s tried for along time over the years to break bad habits… but it never worked. But this friend, he has allowed God to speak to his heart, and he has made a decision to listen and obey to what God has told him to do. Do you know that my friend, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, has been able to break habits that would have never been possible before, and he’s giving the glory to God…. Doug Reynolds has been cigarette free for 6 weeks, and he’s told me that He can feel God’s presence with him everyday…. That’s the life changing power of the Holy Spirit. Doug, let me tell you, it’s only just begun what God wants to do with you life, don’t ever stop saying yes to Him, there’s no telling what He has planned for you.
Or any of us. Amen? Can you imagine a church filled with people who would just die to their own selfish, sinful desires and tell God that they wanted to be Filled With His Spirit, so that He could use them to do His Work? Can you think of the possibilities? Do you realize how much power God could unleash on Clarksville, reaching the lost, loving those who are hurting…. Do you know what would happen? True Revival would happen, many many people would be saved.. that’s what would happen… That’s what happened in Acts chapter two when the disciples were filled with the Spirit.. the church grew by 2,000 in that same day.
The Spirit filled life is marked by power… it’s marked by a Spiritual hunger and Thrist for God… it’s a life where you are salt and light…. You are a witness to the people around you… People will sense your love… His love in you.
What about you? Are you in the struggle for control? The second option for people to take when they are in this struggle is to ignore what God wants, and continue to do the things they’ve always done…. The end result is a death… spiritual death. They may be religious, they may come to SS and Church, They may serve in different positions in the church, they may look the part…. But Jesus called these people “Whitewashed Tombs”, why?
They looked good on the outside, but they were dead on the inside. You can’t tell God no and grow. You can make yourself feel good by all the good deeds you do, you can make yourself feel good by all the activities that you take part in… but friend, if you are not allowing the Holy Spirit total access to your heart, mind and soul, you will lose your salvation.
I ask you this morning…. Are you Filled with the Spirit? Have you come to the place in your Christian walk where you can identify with this struggle between doing what God wants vs. what you want?
I want to challenge you to make a descison. Choose today to die to yourself, and allow God to fill you up with His Spirit. He promises to give us this gift of the Holy Spirit if we ask, and if we are willing to Make Him First in our lives. Will you do it? Count the cost… you see it really will cost you everything.. He doesn’t just want Sunday mornings, he’s not interested in your leftovers… The Spirit Filled life is about living life for God 24/7, it’s a step by step, minute by minute relationship that God wants with you.
Church, Will we ever experience that Acts 2 kind of revival? I’ve been praying for it, I want it more than anything else…. Will you listen this morning for His voice?
As the invitation plays, come and pray… Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to Fill you completely…. Pour everything out on the alter… give him everything…. He promises the Holy Spirit…. Let’s start the revival today…. True revival always starts with His people praying about their own spiritual needs.. will you come?
