Power & Presence of the Holy Spirit
Galatians 5:16-18
16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
Zech. 4:6 So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
We are in our series on Core Values. Core Values are the DNA that define who we are, what we are in infancy and in greatness. What God has called us to be. They are not just creeds on plaque or notes in book somewhere. They are the essence of who we are, if you were to describe our church in 12 words, the core values would be it. The core values we’re going to be speaking of for the next few months are establishing a foundation for New Mercy Community Church – Prayer, Holy Spirit, Evangelism, Equipping, Relationships, Love, Family, Sound Doctrine, Character, Excellence, Worship, and Missions. Today we’re going to talk about the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
ILLUSTRATION: HALF-EMPTY – Speaking to a large audience, D.L. Moody held up a glass and asked, "How can I get the air out of this glass?" One man shouted, "Suck it out with a pump!" Moody replied, "That would create a vacuum and shatter the glass." After numerous other suggestions Moody smiled, picked up a pitcher of water, and filled the glass. "There," he said, "all the air is now removed." He then went on to explain that victory in the Christian life is not accomplished by "sucking out a sin here and there," but by being filled with the Holy Spirit.
ILLUSTRATION: MISSING MOTOR – Sometime back the Associated Press carried this dispatch: "Glasgow, Ky.--Leslie Puckett, after struggling to start his car, lifted the hood and discovered that someone had stolen the motor."
ILLUSTRATION: IRA YATES – Come with me into West Texas during the Depression. Mr. Ira Yates was like many other ranchers and farmers. He had a lot of land, and a lot of debt. Mr. Yates wasn’t able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on a government subsidy.
Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.
At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he’d been living on relief. A multi-millionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn’t know the oil was there even though he owned it.
It is fair to say that you and I are a lot like Mr. Yates at times. We are heirs of a vast treasure and yet we live in spiritual poverty. We are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, and yet we live unaware of our birthright. We gather today to remember how rich we are.
We must remember that Pentecost in the Jewish tradition commemorated the giving of the law at Sinai. What the disciples experienced when they were all together and the Spirit came upon them was nothing less that the release of the law of the Spirit of life, replacing the old covenant law of sin and death. But, Pentecost was also a time of the celebrating the first fruits, a harvest festival. This experience of the disciples was only the first fruit of the outpouring of the Spirit, and we must consider, “What will the outpouring of the Spirit look like in our day as we get closer and closer to the Lord’s return?”
A tremendous amount of confusion and controversy exists about the Holy Spirit today. You can visit churches today were people experience hysterical laughter said to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, or you can go places where people fall down on the ground, where they even growl like animals...all in the name of the Holy Spirit.
I. WE ARE NOTHING WITHOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
a. In the book of Acts (6:3) you had to be full of the Holy Spirit just to wait tables. Why?
i. They understood that without the power of the Spirit, no ministry was effective
ii. They knew with the power of the Spirit, the awesome repercussions
1. 3000 saved in one sermon!
2. Chief of sinners saved from a martyr’s witness
3. Ordinary witnessing Christian gets translated 30 miles after baptizing a convert
4. Shadows were healing the sick
5. Handkerchiefs and aprons were healing and delivering
6. Greater works than these shall you do. . .
7. They knew the fullness of what the Comforter, the Holy Spirit did for God’s people
iii. They surrounded themselves with Holy Ghost people
1. Faith and the Spirit are stirred as you get around people of like mind & purpose
2. Surround yourself with people who have vision, faith, the Spirit
b. We must feel deeply humbled, emptied, and cut adrift from self.
i. But we must go a little further. Since everything depends upon the Spirit of God, we must be very careful to be such men as the Spirit of God can use.
c. The Word of God is the Holy Spirit’s sword; he will not wield our wooden weapon.
i. He will only use this true Jerusalem blade of God’s own fashioning.
ii. Let us, then, set high value on the inspired Word; we shall defeat our adversaries by that sword-thrust, "It is written."
iii. So spake the Christ; and so he conquered Satan. So also the Holy Spirit speaketh.
d. If we want revivals, we must revive our reverence for the Word of God.
e. Moreover, we must be ever ready to obey the Holy Spirit’s gentlest monitions; by which I mean the monitions which are in God’s Word, and also—but putting this in the second place—such inward whispers as he accords to those who dwell near to him.
f. ILLUSTRATION: LIFEGUARDS – Several years ago there was a celebration at a municipal pool in New Orleans. They threw a party at pool-side to celebrate the first summer in memory without any drownings in any of the New Orleans pools. Two hundred people gathered in honor of the momentous occasion, including about 100 certified lifeguards. But as the party was breaking up and the four lifeguards on duty began to clear the pool, they found a fully dressed body in the deep end. They tried to revive Jerome Moody, 31, but it was too late. He had drowned surrounded by lifeguards celebrating their successful season.
II. Apart from the Spirit, we are powerless
a. We must value greatly every movement of His power.
i. Notice, in this account of the vision in the valley, how the prophet draws attention to the fact of the shaking and the noises, and the coming of the sinews and the flesh, even before there was any sign of life.
b. I think that, if we want the Spirit of God to bless us, we must be on the watch to notice everything he does.
i. If we want the Holy Spirit to be surely with us, to give us a blessing, we must, in the power of the Spirit, realize the scene in which we are to labor.
c. In this case, the Holy Spirit took the prophet, and carried him out, and set him down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.
i. This is just a type of what will happen to every man whom the Spirit means to use.
ii. Do you want to save people in the slums? Then, you must go into the slums.
iii. Do you want to save sinners broken down under a sense of sin? You must be broken down yourself; at least, you must get near to them in their brokenness of heart; and be able to sympathize with them.
d. I believe that no man will command power over a people whom he does not understand.
i. You cannot pluck the brand out of the burning if you are afraid of being singed yourself; you must be willing to smut your fingers on the bars of the grate if you would do it.
ii. If there is a diamond dropped into a ditch, you must thrust your arm up to your elbow in the mud, or else you cannot expect to pick the jewel out of the mire.
e. The Holy Spirit, when he blesses a man, sets him down in the midst of the valley full of bones, and causes him to pass by them round about until he fully comprehends the greatness and the difficulty of the work to be accomplished, even as the prophet said, "Behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry."
f. If Ezekiel had not had faith, he certainly would not have preached to dry bones; they make a wretched congregation; and he certainly would not have preached to the wind, for it must have been a fickle listener.
g. Who but a fool would behave in this manner unless faith entered into action?
h. If preaching is not a supernatural exercise, it is a useless procedure.
i. Our prophesying must be an act of faith.
j. We must preach by faith as much as Noah built the ark by faith; and just as the walls of Jericho were brought down, by faith, men’s hearts are to be broken by faithful preaching, that is, preaching full of faith.
III. If the Holy Spirit is to be with us, we must speak in the power of faith.
IV. If we desire to have the Spirit of God with us, we must prophesy according to God’s command.
a. By prophesying, I do not mean foretelling future events; but simply uttering the message which we have received from the Lord, proclaiming it aloud so that all may hear.
b. You will notice how it is twice said, in almost the same words, "So I prophesied as he commanded me."
c. God will bless the prophesying that he commands, and not any other; so we must keep clear of that which is contrary to his Word, and speak the truth that he gives to us to declare.
d. As Jonah, the second time he was told to go to Nineveh, was hidden by the Lord to "preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee," so must we do if we would have our word believed even as his was.
e. Our message is received when it is the Word of God through us.
V. If we would have more of the power of the Spirit of God with us, we must see only the divine purpose, the divine power, and the divine working.
a. It is not my plan that God is going to work out; it is his own.
b. It is not my purpose that the Holy Spirit is going to carry out; it is the purpose of the eternal Jehovah.
c. It is not my power, or my experience, or my mode of thought, which will bring men from death to life;
d. It is the Holy Spirit who will do it, and He only.
e. With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
i. There is no such thing as a hopeless case.
ii. There are no hard cases
iii. There are no problems that are too big for our God.
iv. There is no situation that we face that comes as a surprise to Him.
v. Did it ever occur to you, that nothing has occurred to God?
f. Mighty Revival Examples:
i. Can You Imagine 3,000 people being saved in one day, in one place, in one service?
ii. That’s what Revival can do to a people. That’s what a group of Spirit Filled, Spirit led, Spirit Powered people can be used by God to accomplish for His Glory.
iii. Do You want to experience something like that?
iv. Throughout the age of the church, there have been many visitations where God’s manifest presence came down and the church was blessed, the people were changed, and revival blazed as fire across the landscape
1. In the Welsh Revival, the Presence of God came down so that entire townships were converted and the mines were shut down – because the horses no longer understood the workers who quit swearing with profanity!
2. In the Great Awakening, the Presence of God came down so powerfully that men gripped their pews until their knuckles were white in fear of His Holiness.
3. In the Cain Ridge Revival, the Presence of God came down in such a way that hundreds of people lay on the ground, prostrate and quaking under the control of the Holy Spirit.
4. In the Prayer Revival, the Presence of God came down so that entire towns were emptied for prayer meetings.
5. In the Holiness Revival, the Presence of God swept from the north to the south on the eastern seaboard bringing repentance to our land.
6. In the Azusa Revival, the Presence of God came down in a way where people wept and spoke in a heavenly language until missionaries were launched into every continent around the world
7. We need to seek a manifestation of the Presence of God in our city.
8. Does Your Heart Ache to see such an outpouring of God’s Spirit that People’s lives are changed and People are saved?
9. My heart aches for a glimpse, for a taste of what that Day of Pentecost was all about.
10. And you know what, I have Hope that we will experience it, here, in our church, in our town, in our own families, with our own friends, with our neighbors. I have Hope because I know what God can do. And I pray for that breakthrough.
11. This morning I want you to know that it wasn’t by chance that those people were saved, it wasn’t a case of being at the right place at the right time. The reason it happened was because God’s people were doing what God wanted them to do. Fruitfulness and blessing follow obedience!
12. If the Church, paralysed by fright and preoccupied by perplexity, needed a gale force wind and flames of fire to win the world of its day to Christ, we need the manifestation of the power of Pentecost today.
a. Unless the eye catches fire, God will not be seen.
b. Unless the ear catches fire, God will not be heard.
c. Unless the tongue catches fire, God will not be named.
d. Unless the heart catches fire, God will not be loved.
e. Unless the mind catches fire, God will not be known.
ILLUSTRATION: GOLDMINE SECRET – I like the story about 3 prospectors who found a rich vein of gold in California during the gold rush days. They realized what a great discovery they had, & decided, "We’ve a really good thing going here as long as no one else finds out about it." So they each took a vow to keep it secret.
Then they headed for town to file their claims & get the equipment necessary to mine the gold. True to their vows, they didn’t say a word to anybody. They filed their claim, bought the equipment, & headed back to their mine. But when they did, a crowd of people followed them.
And the reason was because the expression on their faces had given them away. Their faces were aglow in anticipation of the wealth that soon would be theirs. People knew that they must have found something very special. So a crowd followed them out of town.
A tremendous amount of confusion and controversy exists about the Holy Spirit today. You can visit churches today were people experience hysterical laughter said to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, or you can go places where people fall down on the ground, where they even growl like animals...all in the name of the Holy Spirit.
