THE PRESENT AND POWERFUL MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The speaker is excited to share what the Holy Spirit has been teaching them. They emphasize the continued power and presence of the Holy Spirit in the church today. They refer to the last discourse of Jesus to His disciples, where He talks about the Holy Spirit. The speaker believes that the Holy Spirit is just as important as the Father and the Son and that the Spirit brings the fullness of the Godhead with Him. They encourage recognizing and celebrating the work of the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to move freely. The speaker desires to see the Spirit demonstrate His power through miracles and manifestations. Alright, our kids' church can be dismissed. I'm going to jump right into the Word today. This week, the Holy Spirit's just been teaching me about Himself. And I'm excited about sharing what the Spirit's been speaking to me. I feel like it's been forever since I've been up here on this platform. So, just listen. I'm just going to go ahead and say I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry. I don't know what's going to happen. I just know that I feel the anointing of the Lord. I may lay hands on you. I may speak in tongues over you. I may prophesy over you. I don't know how it's going to go, but how many of us are going to let the Holy Spirit have His way? Today's the day that we remember the outpouring of the Spirit upon the earth. Amen? And I don't know about you, but it's been 2,000 years since that time. And He's still as good today as He was back then. He's still just as powerful today as He was then. Amen? Alright, grab your Bibles. Go with me to John chapter 14. John chapter 14. Today, I want to talk... And I'm praying, listen, I'm praying that this doesn't start a series. Hopefully, I can get through what I want to say today. But we're going to let the Holy Spirit move. And however He wants to do it, we'll go series. But I want to talk about the present and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit. The present and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit. If you were to talk to some people, they would lead you to think that the Holy Spirit doesn't do today what He did in the early church. But how many know, the Holy Spirit is still moving. He's still baptizing. He's still filling with fire and passion. He's still doing a work in the earth today. And we've seen it this morning, Him moving and working. So, we're going to talk about the present and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit. John chapter 14. We're going to read starting with verse 16. I have several passages of Scripture that I want to read out of John. Now, if you know anything about John chapter 14, 15, 16, and 17, you know that this is Jesus' last discourse to His disciples at the Last Supper right before He goes to die on the cross. These are His last words to His disciples. And in His last words to His disciples, He does what? He talks to them about the Holy Spirit who is to come. Isn't it amazing? Jesus dies on the cross, rises from the dead, and the Bible says right before He ascends up, He looks at them and says, He looks at them and says, That was His last words before ascending up into heaven. The last words of any person are the most important. The Bible says that He spent 40 days with His disciples teaching them things pertaining to the Kingdom of God and looked at them and said, Why? Because what I've told you before is getting ready to happen. The Holy Spirit is coming. And after He comes upon you, you shall receive power to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. So here in John 14, 15, 16, 17, He's giving them His last discourse and He talks about the Holy Spirit. Listen to what He says, verse 16, And I will ask the Father When will He ask the Father? When He ascends to Him and sits down beside Him. He says, I will ask the Father and He will give you another. He will give you another advocate who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive Him because it isn't looking for Him and doesn't recognize Him. But you know Him because He lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans. I will come to you. Down verse 26 of chapter 14, Jesus says, But when the Father sends the advocate as my representative, that is, the Holy Spirit, He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. Go with me to chapter 15, verse 26, 15, verse 26, John 15, verse 26, But I will send you the advocate, the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry. Now go with me to chapter 16, chapter 16, starting with verse 13, When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak of His own, but He will tell you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever He receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine. This is why I said the Spirit will tell you whatever He receives from me. So today we're going to talk about the present and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit. Father, thank You for Your Word in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. You can be seated this morning. Although there are some who believe that the powerful works and demonstrations of the Spirit is no longer for today, I want to tell you that is false. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that the Holy Spirit ceases to do what He did in the early church. Amen? There's two camps that are always fighting about this, and that is cessationists and continuationists. Cessationists say that the Spirit doesn't do what He did in the early church today. Continuationists say, no, He's still the same today as He was in the early church. The same power He had, the same miracles that He performed, and the same mighty things that we see and read about in the early church, He's still doing it in the church of today if the church will let Him have His way. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. One translation says that where the Spirit is recognized as Lord, there is liberty. The problem is we rank the Holy Spirit third in the Godhead, but the fact of the matter is the Holy Spirit is just as important as the Father or the Son. Amen? And as you'll see here, Christ is not here physically or bodily, He is here through the Holy Spirit that is working in the life of the church. So you can say it like this, the Holy Spirit is Christ now in the earth. He's not some third-ranked person in the Godhead. He's the same as God the Father, the same as God the Son. They are equal together. As a matter of fact, when the Holy Spirit comes, He brings the Godhead with Him. So it's not just the Holy Spirit living in me. It is the Father living in me. It is the Son living in me. It is the Holy Spirit that is in power in me. All of God is in me. The Bible says, For the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. And then it goes down to the next verse and says, And you are complete in Him. And you have the fullness of God. Ain't nobody want to talk about that. The fact of the matter is, is just as Jesus was the fullness of the Godhead bodily, we are the fullness of the Godhead bodily now. Why? We are complete in Him and we have the fullness of God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live on the inside of me. That's why we can say today, as 1 John 4 verse 4 says, For greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I want to tell you there is a force on the inside of you that the devil can't handle. You've got to believe it. But I believe that we are living in a day where we need to begin to recognize the Spirit as Lord of the house. And to recognize what He's doing in the earth. And celebrate it and thank Him for it. And allow Him to move. Though it may look fanatical and it may look radical and it may look like sometimes there's no order, but I want to tell you everything that has happened this morning was led and guided by the Holy Spirit. Right? I'm not, just because it gets a little late in time, I'm not going to shut down the Holy Spirit because I want to get everybody out of here. No, no, no, no. I want the Holy Spirit to have His way. Why? Because the more we give Him freedom and liberty, the more He shows up. Why? Because He loves to show up to places that actually want Him there in the building. Come on. We're not going to regulate the Holy Spirit to a backroom experience. We want Him to display and demonstrate His power in a public atmosphere where He's celebrated and glorified. Come on, He's just as much God as any of the other persons in the Godhead. Come on, He is Lord. For that Spirit is Lord. Sometimes I think, you know, we get it backwards. I think a lot of people think, well, you know, I've got the Holy Spirit. I begin to change my prayers. It's not, Lord, I want to have the Holy Spirit. My prayer has been, Lord, I want the Spirit to have me. You can go around, bless God, I've got the Holy Ghost. Do you? I'm not so concerned about you having the Holy Ghost. I want to ask you a question. How much of you does the Holy Ghost have? How much of your calendar does He have? How much of your time does He have? How much of your mind and your heart and affection does He have? That's the error that we've walked in for so many years, is that we have convinced people, hey, you need to have the Holy Ghost. We should have said, you know what, that will be a secondary byproduct of Him having you. Because when the Holy Spirit has you, you'll have Him. Right? And so we've got to get back to allowing the Spirit to move like He did in the early church. To allow the gifts of the Spirit, to allow the power of the Spirit. Even Paul said, I didn't come to you with eloquence of speech or with the wisdom of men. He said, but I come to you with a demonstration of the Spirit and of His power. Paul even said, I didn't come to speak great swelling words of man's wisdom. He said, I come that you might experience and encounter a demonstration of the Spirit. Not just feel Him, but see Him. Every time somebody speaks in tongues, He's manifesting Himself. Every time somebody operates in prophecy, it's the Spirit manifesting Himself. Every time somebody gets a miracle, it's the Holy Spirit manifesting Himself. Every time a heart gets healed, every time a family gets restored, He's manifesting Himself. He's making Himself known. Amen? And I want to see Him. I don't want to just feel Him. I don't want tears to just run down my face. But I want to see miracles. I want to see people healed. I want to see cancer healed. I want to see the demonstration of the power of the Spirit. I want to see people get up out of wheelchairs. I want to see things that I've never seen before. I want to hear things I've never heard. I want to encounter things that I've not even imagined before. Who does that? It is the Spirit. I love what Paul says in 1 Corinthians. He says this, he says, I have not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. I have not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into our hearts the things that God has prepared. But He has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches the deep things of God. You know what the church has done? The church has gotten locked into an attitude where we think that we've seen it all. We've heard it all. We've imagined it all. But I want to tell you there are some things that God has prepared for each and every one of you and it is the Holy Spirit who brings the revelation of it. You don't want the Holy Spirit to have His way? You're going to miss out on a lot of deep things. Come on, I want to go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and it is the Holy Spirit that brings that about in our lives. Amen? Alright, let's jump into some of these Scriptures here because I never have enough time. You know that. Never have enough time. But there's four things and I'm not exhausting these at all because there are so much. If I was to go through everything that the Holy Spirit does today in our lives as believers, Spirit-filled believers in a Spirit-filled church, it would take me a long time. I've chosen four and I've tried to keep within the parameters of John 14, 15, and 16. But in John 14, 15, and 16, Jesus gives us four things that the Holy Spirit would do in the life of the church and in the life of every believer that is Spirit-filled. The first one that Jesus says, He says that the Spirit, when He comes, He will be with you and He will be in you. Now, we think that that Scripture is specifically for us today, but you've got to understand, Jesus was speaking to His disciples, right? And He was saying the Spirit, when He comes, He's with you now, but later He will be in you. He's not just with us today. He's actually in us today. When Jesus was on the earth, the Holy Spirit was with the disciples through Jesus, right? But when Jesus dies and rises from the grave on the third day and ascends back and sends the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit came, watch, He didn't come to be with us. He came to get in us. There's a big difference. Amen? It's not just Him being around me. Now He's in me. It's an indwelling. It's not just being surrounded by Him. It's being indwelt by Him. How can you not be changed when the Holy Spirit gets on the inside of you? How can you not love people when the Holy Spirit, who sheds the love of God abroad in their heart, how can you not be transformed with the Holy Spirit? Listen, I know how powerful He is, and anybody who has the Holy Spirit indwelt them, it will transform their lives. When He gets on the inside of you, He'll heal your broken heart. When He gets on the inside of you, He'll take out prejudice. When He gets inside of your heart, He'll remove hate and bitterness and unforgiveness. Amen? When He gets in your heart, all of a sudden, you start loving your enemies. All of a sudden, you want to do something for God. You want to step out and take risks and move in faith. One thing I've learned about the Holy Ghost, Nick, is He won't let me just get lazy and settle. He pushes on you, challenges you, convicts you. Some people don't like that conviction, but that's okay. I like it. Why? Because it keeps me right. So He's not just with us, but He's in us. Listen to what Jesus said. Jesus said, when I get to the Father, I'm going to ask the Father, and when I ask Him, He's going to give you... Notice this. He says, He's going to give you another advocate. Now, when the Bible says He's going to give you, everybody say, give you. In the Greek, it reads like this. He's going to give you something to your advantage. So when Jesus says, I'm going to go to the Father, and I'm going to ask Him, and I'm going to ask Him that He gives you another advocate, when He says, I'm going to give you, it's to give something to somebody that is going to give them an advantage in life. Do you know what we need more than anything? We need the Holy Spirit, because it is the Holy Spirit who gives us the advantage over our circumstances, who gives us an advantage over the enemy, who gives us an advantage in our battles, who gives us the advantage over our finances, over our life, over our children, over our family. How can you not win when you've got the advantage? Even Jesus said, it is expedient that I go away. For if I go not away, then the Holy Spirit can't come. Do you know that word expedient? It means exactly the same thing. It is to your advantage that I go away. Why? Because when the Holy Spirit comes, He's going to come and He's going to empower you, enable you to do supernatural things that you cannot do in your own flesh and strength. So He says, I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you. The Greek word is dido me. I'm going to give you something that will give you the advantage. And what is that? He says another comforter or another advocate. The word another here is the Greek word alos or alos, and it means this. It means another of the same kind or one of the same kind or different of the same kind. What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying when the Holy Spirit comes, He will be just like me. Heteros is the Greek word, which means of a different kind altogether. No, no, no. Jesus said He's different but the same. He's not going to do everything like me, but He's still the same as me. Jesus is God. How many believe that? Come on, you've got to believe that to be saved. Right? It's easy for us to believe that Jesus is God, but I want to tell you the Holy Spirit is just as much God and the Holy Spirit, watch, is the same as Christ. Jesus knew that He had to go away, but Jesus said that when He goes away, He's going to send one that will be just like Him to take His place. There was a transition. Jesus ascended to the Father, and there was a transition, and the Holy Spirit came and continued what Jesus did and taught. Right? So Jesus said I'm going to send you another. I'm going to send you an alos, another of the same kind. I love this. Ready? The word alos can actually also mean I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, and He's going to be another of the same kind. And there's another meaning to this word alos, and it means the rest of. Jesus said I've given you what I can give you, but when I get back to the Father and I sit down on the right hand of Him that sits on the throne, when I get there, I'm going to ask Him, and listen, I've given you what I can give you. That was my purpose to give you. But He says when I get to the Father and the Holy Spirit comes, He's going to bring the rest of it. Oh, He's going to bring the rest of what the kingdom has for you as an inheritance. When the Spirit came, He came to bring us all of heaven with Him. I don't just have the Spirit in me. When the Spirit got in me, He brought heaven with Him. That's why I can say I'm seated in heavenly places with Christ. How's that happen? I'm still here on planet earth. Because when the Spirit got in me, I ascended. I ascended, not bodily, but spiritually. And in that ascension was included all of heaven and the blessings and the benefits of heaven. The Spirit brought that. He brings the rest of it. Now watch. Now here's where we really get deep. You ready? Alright, buckle up. So Jesus says another advocate. Everybody say advocate. Now this is a very important word in the Greek. It's parakletos. Parakletos means this. It means called to one's side. Especially called to one's aid. One who helps or enables another person. Now let me break this down. Everybody say para. It's the same word that we get parameter from. Let me say it another way. Proximity. Para. Proximity. As a matter of fact, it would be intimate close proximity. Kletos is where we get the word called. So it's someone who's called into a close proximity. Are you getting this? So Jesus said when the Spirit comes, He will be with you. But then He says later, He will be in you. You can't get any closer than mutual indwelling. I'm in Him. He's in me. He's been called to come alongside of me. He's been called to come and the Spirit is my parameter. I'm surrounded by Him. I'm enveloped by Him. I'm moved by Him. I live. I walk in Him. Everything about our life ought to be done in the Spirit. I love what John said in the book of Revelation. He said right before he gets the revelation of the end times, he says, and I was carried away in the Spirit. Come on. I love to get carried away in the Holy Ghost. Come on. There's some things that happen when a church gets carried away. There's something that happens in each and every one of our lives when we get carried away by the Holy Ghost. Not resisting Him. Not quenching Him. Not extinguishing His fire. But allowing Him to move in our lives and get carried away in what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives. Isn't it amazing that John didn't get the revelation of the end times until he got carried away? I want to tell you, in the midst of being carried away, there is a revelation that He's bringing you to. Right? If the Holy Spirit's carrying us away, where is He carrying me to? To a greater revelation of who God is and of Jesus Christ. Oh, and the end times. Not just so that we might know the end times, but understand and make sense of it. Alright? You still with me? This is me going real fast, okay? He says, I'm going to send you another advocate. Why does He say another or one like me? Because Jesus is an advocate. 1 John 2, verse 1. John calls Jesus advocate. So if Jesus is advocate and the Holy Spirit is advocate, then who's really the advocate? Both. One is an advocate in heaven who's representing us before the Father and the Holy Spirit is in the earth right now as an advocate representing us, working in us, fighting for us, praying for us, working everything out for our good. He's our advocate, no? He's the one who's been called along close to us. So close that He's in us. There's a word. I love this word. I learned it this week. Interpenetration. That's what the Holy Spirit does. There's an interpenetration. He cuts into your... That's why when Peter gets up and preaches on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit's being poured out. Guess what the Bible says? And they were pricked in their heart. What was it? It was the Holy Spirit interpenetrating them. That's what we need in the church. Some people wouldn't walk out of here the same way if we would let the Holy Spirit move because He knows how to penetrate the hard heart. He knows how to get past all the hindrances and all the smokescreens that we throw up to try to hide ourselves away from the influence of the Spirit. But I want to tell you, it's hard. It's hard to kick against the pricks of the Holy Ghost. Preach, Pastor. I'm going to. He says when He comes, it's parakletos. When He comes, He will never leave you. New King James Version says abide with you forever. I like the translation abide with you forever better. They both mean the same thing. But I like it. He will abide with you forever. I'm going to geek out on you right here. Or Greek out on you. However you want to say it. In the Greek, it reads like this. Menos meta eon. Menos meta eon. What does it mean? The word abide in Greek is menos. What does menos mean? I love this. Menos means this. It means to be in close and settled union. It means to continue to be present. The Spirit continues to be present with us. He never leaves us. Right? So He menos. He lives. He dwells. He abides. Not just with us, but in us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are the house, the habitation of the Spirit of God. So He menos. He comes close. He comes in and He rests in us. He settles Himself in union. Seamless union with us. And then it says menos meta. Meta. Which is, watch this. So He says abide with. With in the Greek is meta. And it means expressing union, companionship, and fellowship. I'm going to put all this together. He says, and then He says He will abide with you. He will menos meta you forever. The word forever in the Greek is the word, watch, eon. Which means unbroken ages or eternity. So let's put it together. When the Advocate comes, He will abide with you forever. He will come and He will dwell in you, live in you, become settled in you. And through this settling in you, you will become one with Him in seamless union. And when you become one with Him, you will have, watch, unbroken fellowship, companionship with Him. And this fellowship and companionship will not just be a temporary thing, but it will be a permanent thing that will last into the unbroken ages of eternity. Woo! Come on! I don't care what you've been through. I don't care where you are today. The Holy Spirit is here to be with you. And He wants to get in you and have union with you. And companionship and fellowship. When you read the epistles of Paul, Paul would say things like this at the end. He would say, and communion with the Holy Spirit. Come on, I don't want you just to feel Him. I want you to have communion with Him. I want you to fellowship with Him. I want Him to be your closest companion. Let me tell you something, the Holy Spirit is personal. He wants relationship. Oh, we ain't even got into the good stuff yet. I'm just breaking this down for you. So here's what I wrote about this scripture. When Jesus ascended back to heaven and sat down on the right hand of the Father, He asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit in fullness. And upon the request of the risen and exalted Christ, the Father gave us the Holy Spirit who would be one like Christ. Who would take His place in the earth to be our advocate. A close companion who would be with us and in us in such an intimate way. Who would never leave us, but will remain with us even to the end of the age. The presence of Christ will continue to be in separately one with us through the Spirit. How do we have this closeness with Christ? It is only through our companionship and fellowship with the Spirit. Now listen to me. In the Passion Translation, Some of you, you have that, you read that just like I do. It's a great Bible, great translation. Paraphrase however you want to say it. It says this, it reads this. He translates it this way. He says, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another Savior. Okay. Now let me read the footnotes of the Passion Translation. What Brian Simmons writes about this passage. He says, the Greek word alos means another of the same kind. As Jesus is the Savior from the penalty of sin. Listen, the Holy Spirit is the Savior who saves us from the power of sin by living through us in fullness. If Christ was our Savior from the penalty of sin, then it is the Holy Spirit's ministry in our lives to do what? To help us overcome the power of sin. And then one day Jesus is going to come and rapture us out of here. And how many of us are going to be delivered from the prisons of sin forever? Hallelujah. But watch. So if Jesus is the Savior who saves us from the penalty of sin. He sent us the Holy Spirit who is also the Savior who saves us from the power of sin. How? By living in us and through us in fullness. I don't have a measure or portions of spirit. I have the full measure. Watch. I have the same measure Christ had. We don't have a Junior Varsity version. Sorry if you played Junior Varsity. I got a second tier, third tier Holy Ghost. But man, some people have a one tier. They're up there. No, no, we all have the same Holy Spirit. For by one spirit were we all baptized into one body. Whether Greek, Jew, bond-free, male, female. We all have been made to drink of the same spirit. I don't have a greater spirit than you guys. I've got the same spirit. Right? How does he get so much revelation? Spirit, you have the same revelation. Some people just want to dig with him. Some people just don't want to dig. They're too much of a casual reader. But I'm going to tell you, underneath the surface of the Scripture is so much more. And the only way that you unlock it is through the Spirit of God who takes you beyond the surface of Scripture into the very spirit of it. That's why you can hear one preacher preach and it'd be dead and boring and you'd be about ready to fall asleep. And then you have somebody who preaches the same Scripture with passion and authority and excitement. What's the difference? It's one who tried to stand on talent while another said, I can't do this without the Holy Spirit. Come on. And there's something about saying and relinquishing all control and surrender to the Holy Spirit that produces a fire in you that the devil can't put out. Amen? Now, let's talk about this Greek word, parakletos, again. Because here's what Brian Simmons says in the Passion Translation in the Footnotes. He says, The Greek word parakletos is a technical word that could be translated defense attorney. It means one called to stand next to you as a helper. Various translations have rendered this counselor, comforter, advocate, encourager, intercessor, or helper. And all those are great translations. Don't get me wrong. It's great translations. However, none of these words alone are adequate and fall short in explaining the full meaning. The translator has chosen the word Savior for it depicts the role of the Holy Spirit to protect, defend, and save us from ourselves, our enemies, and to keep us whole and healed. He is the One, watch, who guides and defends, comforts and consoles. Keep in mind that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ our Savior. Now listen to what he says here. In the Aramaic, the word parakletos, because in Greek it's parakletos, in Aramaic it's parakletos, right? Which is taken from two root words. Prok, which means to end, finish, or to save. Litos, which means the curse. You compound those together and it means the Holy Spirit comes to end the work of the curse of sin in our lives. And to save us from its very effect. Parakletos means a redeemer who ends the curse. Well, brother, what about generational curses? Well, when the Holy Spirit got in this body of mine, every generational curse was broken immediately and forever. Brother, do you believe in generational curses? Yes, before Christ. But after Christ, and the Holy Spirit gets in me, He redeems me from the curse. Any curse! For Jesus took the curse with Him on the cross. I don't care if you call it a generational curse, if you call it a hex, I don't care what you call it. When the Holy Spirit got in me, He redeemed me from every curse of sin and the law and death. There is no curse in me. Let me say, I am generationally blessed and my children shall be blessed and their children shall be blessed because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Quit believing the lie and quit listening to preachers on YouTube telling you got a generational curse as a believer. Oh, it got real quiet right there. Yeah, because some of you have been told all your life what you are dealing with is a generational curse. And the devil loves it when people believe that crap. Why? Because what you believe, you behave. So if you believe that everywhere you go there is a curse chasing you, then guess what? In your mind, you really think there is. So you live that way. But when the Spirit came, He came to break the curse. He came to appropriate what Jesus done on the cross. What did Jesus do on the cross? The Bible says, For cursed is the man who dies upon a tree. But Jesus took the curse of the law in His body on the cross and the Spirit comes and does what? Transmits, appropriates everything Jesus achieved and accomplished on the cross. And one of those things that He did is He broke the curse. So it's time for you to get up out of the muck and the mire and rise up and be who the Spirit has called you to be. Live in liberty and freedom. Come on! Jesus said, watch what Jesus said, He said, If you see me casting out devils, then know the kingdom of God has come upon you. Then another scripture says, If you see me casting out devils by the finger of God, then know the Spirit has come upon you. Then another gospel, He says, And if you see me casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then know that the kingdom of heaven is upon you. So watch, Jesus says, I'm coming to bring the ministry of the kingdom and the Spirit. And when the Spirit comes, what is of the kingdom of darkness has to move out. How was Jesus casting out demons? By the Spirit. So when you get the Spirit in, who is the Holy Spirit, every unclean, evil spirit has to go out. You guys still with me? You still with me? Listen. A demon doesn't have you. What you need is more the Holy Ghost. Not that you don't have Him in fullness. You just don't know it. And you don't know what you have in fullness. But I come to tell you that you don't have a portion or a measure and the Holy Spirit's not in some back room of your life. The Holy Spirit, when He came into you, He took over your life. He has all of you. He fills all of you to the overflow. That's free. I gave it to you for free. Listen. I love this part. The word periklatos was also used as a legal term, but it has a broader meaning also. Or since it referred to a person who needed help when they were in trouble with the law. We know what the law is. The law is the very thing that exposes us as sinners. Right? Paul said that the purpose of the law was to shut the world up and to let them know that they're guilty before God and they're sinners. And the purpose of the law was to expose sin, but not just to expose sin, but to punish sin. Right? So where the law exposes sin, the law had no other reason to expose but to punish what it exposes. Right? But the Bible says that the periklatos is a legal term, but broader than that, it means someone who comes to help you when you're in trouble with the law. Yeah, let me say it another way. The Holy Spirit, when you live based upon the impulses of the Spirit of God, you are free from the law. I love how the Passion Translation says you are free to soar above the law. Why? Because the Holy Spirit doesn't call you below the law. It always calls you up higher. To a higher standard. When you've got the Holy Spirit, you won't live any way you want to. You'll be free to be righteous, free to be holy, free to be sanctified. And when you live by the Spirit, living free from sin is possible. You have to rely on Him. Right? I'm definitely not going to finish this today. Stuff packed in here. Then he goes to verse 17. Watch what he says here. I'm just going to read this, and then we're going to close. And then Lord willing, we'll just continue this next week. Verse 17, he says, He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. Or the New King James Version says He is the Spirit of truth. Or let's say it another way. He is a revealer of truth. He says, He is the Holy Spirit. He leads into all truth. He is the Spirit of truth. The word truth in the Greek means reality. Truth is reality. Let me cover something here. Truth means reality. Reality does not refer to doctrine. Because there's a lot of people who have a lot of knowledge of doctrine, but don't live according to the Spirit. Right? Everybody say reality. The Holy Spirit and the ministry that He has in your life is to take the truth and make it a reality in your life. Right? We'll see here in a minute. The Holy Spirit takes what is the Father's and the Son's and transmits it into us and makes it a reality in us. Right? The Holy Spirit takes the freedom that Jesus purchased on the cross and makes it a reality in your life. He takes the joy and makes it a reality in your life. He takes the victory of Christ and makes it a reality in your life. Listen, it's not just truth by knowledge. It's truth by application. Jesus even said, He said this, He said, If you know the truth, the truth will make you free. Right? Know in the Greek that it means intimate personal knowledge. Right? It's not just academic knowledge. It's experiential knowledge. I know because I experience. I know because I've encountered it. It's become real to me. It's a reality in my life. The power of the Spirit? A reality. The gifts of the Spirit? A reality. Holiness? A reality. Freedom? A reality. Liberty? A reality. Authority? A reality. Victory? A reality. Conqueror? A reality. And it is all brought to pass by the Holy Spirit working in us. So He says this, He says, He's the Spirit of truth. He's the revealer of truth. What truth? Even Jesus is called the truth. He's not a truth. He's the truth. Which means He's truth incarnate. The Spirit is truth means He's the revealer of divine truth. So Jesus says when the Holy Spirit comes He will expose you to truth. That's what we need today. We need less people compromising truth and instead standing on truth without compromise. I had a conversation with a pastor friend of mine yesterday we had dinner together and I told him I said ever since I started here I've made up my mind I will not do what other churches do because so many compromise the truth. Oh listen, listen you can't speak in tongues in this sanctuary. We've got to get an out saying 15 minutes. Preach 15. Take up offering for 30 minutes. Right? And then let's get everybody out as quick as possible. The Holy Ghost is like well where's my slot? Can I tell you our agenda today was to let the Holy Spirit move as He wishes. Right? We're not going to come in I've heard people complain that their worship is too long. You know what the problem is? It ain't got nothing to do with our church having long worship services. It has something to do with your heart not being fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit. Because if we were fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit when Pastor Adam when Pastor Adam hits the last stroke of the cord and he begins to everybody should crave more of it. Right? But preacher listen we've got to get out we've got food downstairs you need to hurry up and preach at least 15 minutes. No, no, no, no, no. You know me that's not going to ever happen. Right? I just owned up that's not me. But you know what? I love the Word so much and everybody ought to love the Word. If you have the Holy Spirit there's a craving and a desire and an appetite for the Word of God. And when you come in here you can't worship Him enough and you've got to have more Word and more revelation. And so when you get a group of people like that in one building my gosh, you don't know what's going to take place. We might be here in a move of God. And before you know it we're here weeks on end because God is saving and the Holy Spirit is baptizing. Because we didn't come you know some people get in the church quick and then see how quick they can get back out. I want to linger. I want to linger. Come on, the disciples got together for 10 days and they lingered. And they stayed and they were faithful and they said we're not going to leave until the Holy Spirit breaks through. I think that's what we need to do. Come to church and say we're not going to quit worshiping and we're not going to quit going after God until we see a breakthrough in this building. Until people are laid out on their faces. Until people's minds are renewed and devils are cast out and bodies are healed. Can I tell you? You start doing that stuff it's going to go beyond two hour services. I remember preaching a revival supposed to be two days in Kentucky ended up going 10 days. We baptized so many people the water was muddy every night. I'm like, did these people even take a bath? But I think it was a sign. This is sin being washed away. Come on and we I remember praying and prophesying I mean there was hundreds of people there praying and prophesying praying and prophesying we were there for five, six hours just praying. I remember I couldn't pray anymore and I had to sit down on the platform and lay back and rest because I was so exhausted praying and prophesying praying, casting out devils casting out devils casting out devils praying, prophesying praying, prophesying preaching, singing. That was the same service where my wife gets healed and we have Eden. When the doctor said it's impossible for you to have a kid. Now what if we went in there and did our little hour thing and then went about our way? We might not have ever had a miracle. But I thank God for some people that will linger with you at the altar. Some people that will pray and seek God on your behalf saying I don't care we'll be here until midnight if we have to. I want to see a breakthrough in your life. That's what we need. We need less people trying to get out of here quickly and say let's all come to the altar and lay hold of it until God moves. Some of you that are here today God would move if you would have the mindset I'm coming to linger today. If He won't leave me I ain't leaving Him. That's why when we see people praying at the altar I don't just jump up there and start preaching. Why? The Holy Spirit got me working. I'm not interfering with that. So if you see me up there just walking back and forth I'm just allowing the Holy Spirit to do what He wants. This ain't my house. This is His house. I know why we sing Welcome Holy Spirit. We don't invite the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact He's already here. He invites us. Yeah, we come up in here acting like this is our house and we let the Holy Spirit come in. No. This is His house. He let you come in. And when we come in here how are we going to treat His house? How are we going to treat His presence? We ought to honor it. We ought to honor the... Let me tell you something. This is not some book that you have on your shelf. This is not the same as a magazine. This is the very Word of God. For this is the Word that proceeds out of His very mouth. You know the book of Ezra? The Bible says they stood up and read it for days. They stood up. They cried. They wept. Some even tore their garments when they would read the words of God. This is not... That's not... This ain't just a book. This Word is powerful. It is quick. It's alive. And if you would ever believe it you would become alive too. Quickened. So when somebody gets up behind the pulpit and they're preaching the Word you don't get distracted and you don't think of other things. Why? Because this is the very Word of God. How you treat the Bible is how you're treating Jesus. How do you treat your Bible? Do you read it? Do you digest it? Do you spend time with it? Do you fellowship with the Word? Because the Bible says that when you obey the Word Jesus said, I'll come and manifest Myself to you. Watch this. I'm getting very close. How many have ever said this? I just don't feel the Holy Spirit. Could your attitude toward the Bible and the Word could it have changed? Have you gotten familiar? Have you neglected it? Have you been careless with it? From coming to listen or reading it on your own in your own devotion what relationship do you have with the Word? Because the way you determine the depth of your relationship with Jesus is determined by how you treat the Word. If a preacher's preaching and he goes past a little time how many is looking at their clock? Let me tell you, if you were hungry like the Word tells us to be hungry you're not satisfied with an hour of Word. You get up reading your Bible. You're going to work reading your Bible. You're listening to the Bible. You're watching YouTube TV. You're so consumed. Why? Because your spirit man craves it so much. What we need to do is quit feeding the flesh so much. We may not have problems with our flesh if our spirit man was strong enough to overcome the desires and the affections of the flesh. How do you feed the spirit man the only food he takes? And that's the Word. You can't feed him sports. You'll die. You can't feed him hunting and fishing. I love fishing. But it is not my God. And it does not... Listen, if I fish I can get a loan and be out there with God. And I have a Bible that I carry with me in my truck. Sometimes I'll just sit on the river reading my Bible. It's my time to fellowship. But some people, if you're not careful you will put things above that. And whatever you put above that it is your God. It is an idol. I'm trying to be nice. I really am. Until the Holy Spirit stirred me. It just blows my mind. We'll go to a movie theater and sit there in the movie theater for three hours watching a movie that has nothing to do with feeding our spirit. If you're wondering what I'm doing right now I'm filtering. I'm filtering. Because it aggravates me. How are you saying you walk in the Spirit but then you don't never spend time with the Spirit? When you come to church you want to complain because we go over time a little bit. There is no... How can you go over time when you don't have a time set? We're in Holy Spirit territory. We're dwelling in a different dimension when we come in here. Who knows what could happen? I come curious to see. What's going to happen? Who's going to get healed today? What kind of devil are we going to cast out today? What's going to happen? Who's going to come and encounter the presence of God and their life be changed? Come on. That will make you linger right there. So we're just going to start a series today. I wanted to get to verse 18 too. We just ain't got time. But we'll get back into this. I think we need to really shine a light on the Holy Spirit. Amen. Francis Chan wrote a powerful book. The book is called The Forgotten God. And it's a powerful book. If you ever get a chance get that book and read it. And he talks about how that the church has focused so heavily on the Father and Son but the Holy Spirit doesn't get enough attention. And it's true. I think that we need to give more room for the Holy Spirit in our own lives in our churches and in our services. Amen. So we're going to continue talking about the present and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit next week. I'm being flexible with the Spirit. I'm saying that now but He could change that. So don't say, but I don't know. I don't know. Amen. If we want new wine you have to be a new wineskin. We can't pray, God give me new wine which is a fresh encounter of the Spirit and then be an old wineskin. You have to flex. You know why Jesus said be a new wineskin? Because a new wineskin knew how to flex. Because new wine had a fermentation that it produced and if you put new wine in an old wineskin and it fermented the gases and the pressure would bust the old wineskin that was brittle and dry and it would bust and it would leak and it would waste the new wine that you put in it. And so Jesus said if you want new wine you've got to become a new wineskin and it means be flexible with it. Know how to expand and expand with the capacity of the Spirit. The reason why some people never get new wine is because they haven't allowed the Lord to change them from an old wineskin to a new wineskin. People are easily broken. Why? Because there's too there's too much of an old wineskin. Let me give you an example. Old wineskin would be somebody that's not how the Holy Spirit has done it before. Well what about you know where's that in the Bible? Or wonder what scripture Jesus had when he spit on the ground made eyes and put it in a man's head. There was no scripture in the Old Testament that said okay listen if you're going to heal people take mud spit in it and then apply it to somebody's eyes. There was no scripture for that. What about the scripture you know people say that you know bless God where's the scripture for that? Where's the well Jesus the Bible says eye has not seen ear has not heard neither has it heard the things that God there's so many new things that God wants to do. Even the prophet Isaiah said God will be God wants to do new things but will you recognize it? The thing is some people miss it because they don't recognize it as a work of the Spirit. You got to be careful who you judge. That's not how we done it back in the fifties. Well how many of those this ain't the fifties? I'm glad that we still don't have to have horse and buggy. I thank God for that. When you go to the dentist you will be thankful that we have modern technology. That's not how the dentist used to do it back in the 1800s. I'm glad he got new stuff. I'm glad. How many is ready for new things? Are you ready to flex? Are you ready to bend and yield to the Spirit? Yeah because he's going to throw off power and force and he's going to do great things but we have to flex with him. Amen? I'm going to be honest with you. Here lately and the leaders will know this. We don't plan revivals anymore. We stopped it. We stopped it. We stopped it. We stopped it. We stopped it. We stopped it. We stopped it. We stopped it. We stopped it. We stopped it. We stopped it. We stopped it.