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Part 2 of 7
Pentecost Sunday Teaching
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Jesus said something that doesn't make sense on the surface. In John 16:7, he declares, "It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you."
Wait a minute. What are you talking about? You are the one that heals the blind eye. You are the one that raises the dead. Every authority is in your hand. Why would you say it is to my advantage that you leave?
Put yourself in the position of the disciples. They've been hearing their master for three years tell them that they would be abandoned—and he's saying it was to their benefit. It was their advantage. This requires us to understand something fundamental about the Holy Spirit's role in transformation.
My son Joel has two very different experiences depending on who takes him to his soccer games. When his dad takes him, there's a constant, loud running commentary: "Joel, what are you doing? Watch your left. You could have shot. You missed your opportunity."
This has been consistent since Joel started playing at two years old. It's a running play-by-play.
With me, I barely know what's happening. All I know is they need to take the ball from here to here and do what you must to get there. >> [laughter] There's a reliance on that external commentary.
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Now, hypothetically, what if the coach could say to the parents: "Don't say anything. Allow them to play"? That would be very difficult. But here's what happens: Joel now has to internalize all the lessons the coach has provided. He has to pay attention to the field. He has to watch what's happening, think ahead, have ball mastery and ball control by himself. Automatically, he becomes a better player because he can no longer rely on an external factor. He has to take what was given to him from the outside and put it on the inside to produce a result.
Dad can't tell him what to do anymore. Neither can Mom. There's a transformation on the inside of him to become a better soccer player.
The departure of Jesus and the release of the Holy Spirit was to do one major thing: transform the disciples. If the Holy Spirit is in us, there should be valid evidence. There should be a difference.
John 16 describes what the Holy Spirit comes to do using the word metamorpho—the root word for metamorphosis. It means to change into another form. You acquire a different way of being because you have been transformed.
This idea of transformation didn't just start with the disciples. It began in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit's evidence on somebody's life will come upon that person for an assignment. God would choose a few men and women and descend upon them.
This was an upon experience in the Old Testament. But when we come into the New Testament, the evidence is not just upon. It's now within. It's on the inside.
Peter went from denying Jesus to declaring the goodness of God to over 3,000 people in one day. He was transformed. He wasn't the same man when he was with Jesus. He became a different man when the Holy Spirit entered on the inside of him.
Saul, who is now Paul, was transformed as soon as he encountered the Holy Spirit. He went from being a murderer to leading the greatest revolution in Scripture for the most amount of Gentiles coming to the faith.
Acts 4:13 tells us: "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."
Hold on. Peter and John were not like that when they were with Jesus physically. But somehow, when the Holy Spirit descended into their lives, people recognized that they had been with Jesus. Make it make sense.
They had the physical presence, but they could not become all that God intended them to be until the Holy Spirit took over their inside and transformed them from ordinary, unschooled human beings to ones discerned to have been with Jesus.
The Holy Spirit in you is not the expression of your personality. The Holy Spirit in you is the expression of God's desire through you.
Jesus said in John 16:12-15: "I still have many things to tell you that you can't handle them now. When the friend comes—the friend, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth—he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won't draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and indeed out of all that I have done and said."
Romans 8:14 says, "For all who are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God." The physical presence of Jesus did not make the disciples the sons of God. It was the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that confirmed their assignment as sons of God. At that point, they could be guided into truth. At that point, Jesus was truly revealed to them.
Yes, they saw him with their physical eyes, but now they saw him with their spirit eyes. The Holy Spirit brought the download of heaven to register on the inside of them. It made sense—all the parables Jesus was trying to reveal. The Holy Spirit reveals to you the capacity and the capability of God.
He takes ordinary persons, untrained persons. I don't have to have all the education in the world to be the wisest person on earth. I don't have to pass through the processes of men to attain the wisdom of heaven. He takes ordinary people and superimposes extraordinary ability upon the life of those who are filled with the Holy Spirit.
In Acts 3:1-8, Peter and John were on their way to church. They encountered a man who had been crippled from birth, begging at the beautiful gate. He asked them for money.
Now, our natural disposition today: if I have money, I will give it to you. If I have food, I will hand it over to you. We don't always remember to give something greater than a fish sandwich.
Peter and John saw an immediate need. These were men used to being around fish—they could have easily supplied this man with something to eat. But suddenly, they had been filled with the Holy Spirit. They fastened their eyes upon this man. And they said, "I don't have silver. I don't have gold. But such as I have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus. Rise up and walk."
Wait a minute. Weren't you the ones looking for bread in a previous season to feed people? How come you're not looking for bread now? What has transformed on the inside of you?
Somehow the fish sandwich and the money went away. The Holy Spirit was sufficient to meet the need of this man. They had been so full of the Holy Spirit that they recognized what Jesus was trying for them to recognize in the past. You don't need money. You don't need a fish sandwich. You need the spirit. You need the spirit of God. Because when you have the spirit, you have everything that you need.
Our first solution today is: let me find you something. Let me find you a resource, a physical resource. Let me find this person or that person. We're waiting for somebody to provide the introduction. We're waiting for somebody to speak well of us. We're waiting for somebody to give us money.
If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit resides on your inside, why do you need a fish sandwich? Why do you need someone to provide for you? What the Holy Spirit is able to do is more.
Peter understood: What's in me is greater than what's outside of me. What I have internalized on the inside of me is far better than what is external.
In John 7, Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers.' Peter and John were like, 'I've got a lot of river flowing on the inside of me. I am here and available to give you some of that water.' I don't have fish sandwich. I got the Holy Spirit. Out of my belly flows rivers of living water."
The flow isn't quenched by the need. The flow answers the need. The flow rises to the occasion when you are full of the Holy Spirit.
Now let's deal with reality. Make it make sense. Make it make sense. Make it make sense.
Why doesn't what I ask God arouse something in me? Why does it seem as if I am begging God for prayers and answers? Why do possible situations to God look impossible to me? Why do I still approach difficulty with the same timidity as if the Holy Spirit doesn't reside on my inside?
Where is the evidence? The evidence is not just in your ability to speak in tongues. The evidence is not just emotional moments. You come to a worship night and all your emotions are high and we say that's the Holy Spirit. He can act on your emotions, but your emotions are not necessarily him.
Why is it that when I step into a difficult situation, my first reaction is for a fish sandwich or money? Why isn't my first reaction the presence of God, the power of the Holy Spirit residing on my inside?
The Holy Spirit is not proven by what you pray, but by how he shows up in pressure.
Here's a truth for all of us: We allow our appetites to be tied to how we think the Holy Spirit is supposed to respond. We allow our disappointments, our fear to marginalize the Holy Spirit on the inside of us. The Holy Spirit doesn't shrink, but we create barriers to the Holy Spirit. We marginalize him by our appetite. We don't allow him to be fully God on the inside of us.
But true transformation requires true discipleship. It's a continual awareness. It's a discipline to be aware of his presence. It is more difficult to be aware of God's presence than you are of your need. It is more difficult to be fully present with the Holy Spirit than you are present with your difficulty.
We spend more time idolizing what we don't have or who we are not versus spending time with the Holy Spirit, who is like a river of life that flows to every area of need, that flows to every aspect of your life.
We spend time placing pressure on ourselves to meet what the Holy Spirit says, "I've got it in control."
True transformation is recognizing when you get that phone call, when you get that text, you now run to the source of who is your peace. You run to the source, the fruit of the Spirit, and you rest in the fruit of the Spirit. You don't allow yourself to be drawn out by the burdens of this life. You do not allow yourself to be moved by every sway and wind of doctrine.
You settle something on the inside of you: If God be for me, who can be against me?
Transformation is the understanding that there is a direct connectedness to your willingness to be yielded and submitted to the Holy Spirit. It's your desire: "Let your will be done in my life. I may plan, but I will yield. I might prepare, but I will yield. I will go at the movement of the Holy Spirit's pleasure."
Transformation is truly a cooperative effort. Your responsibility is to intentionally participate. We have treated the Holy Spirit like a visitor rather than a housemate.
Do you know what I find interesting today? We treat the Holy Spirit like they did in the Old Testament. We want the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders. We want the sensationalism. We want the wind, we want the waves, we want the rain. We want the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. And when he has brought us to that place and we have seen the greatness of God, we no longer remember that he resides on your inside.
We have relegated the Holy Spirit to what the Old Testament people believed in and were hoping for. The Bible says in Hebrews that they were looking forward to the residing of the Holy Spirit, but we who have him are looking for what they have—just the manifestation of the Holy Spirit and not the indwelling that causes true transformation.
We run to different conferences looking for manifestation, but he's saying, "I reside on your inside."
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
I'm not saying those manifestations are bad. Let me tell you why they exist: to draw men to himself. When we see those miraculous things, it's so that people come to salvation. It's not so that the church gets sleepy and relies on just the spirit upon.
The Bible says that the Old Testament people were seeking, hoping for, longing for the opportunity where the Holy Spirit won't just rest upon them, but will live on the inside of them. And now we have it, church. We have it. Jesus Christ came and left. And he said, "Greater works than these shall you do. You will spread my gospel to the far reaches of this world."
We have allowed our daily problems to limit the access of the Holy Spirit on the inside of us to just answering needs. And the purpose of the in-filling of the Holy Spirit is to preach the gospel. It's to tell somebody about Jesus Christ. The hope that he is coming back again. The fact that he is living, that he is seated at the right hand of his heavenly Father making intercession for us. The Holy Spirit in us is the hope of glory.
David exclaimed in Psalm 51:11, "Cast me not away from your presence. And take not your Holy Spirit."
David recognized it. He said, "God, this measure of the Holy Spirit I've experienced, please God, don't take it from me. This measure of the fullness of your presence that has allowed me to conquer in words—God, please don't take it from me. Cast me not from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me."
I can only imagine the kind of prayer he must have been praying before he met the lion and the bear. "Cast me not from your presence. Keep me before your presence, God."
What are we praying? What have our prayers been resolved to? What are we praying that the Holy Spirit relieves on the inside of us? What are we activating him to do on the inside of us?
There is pain. Cast me not. Don't take away. Keep me before you. Let it be that I am saturated by your presence. This spirit upon that is transient—make it last longer. Give me more battles to win so I can keep your presence. That's what David was praying. Give me more opportunities to kill Goliath. Let me prove that I have a God living with me.
Cast me not. God, I don't want to just enjoy an upon kind of anointing where you transit. God uses a donkey. Balaam refused to be obedient to God. God said, "Okay, fine. I will allow my spirit to rest upon a donkey for a moment so that that donkey can correct human foolishness."
If you are waiting for just the upon presence of the Holy Spirit, he's used donkeys before. But David saw it, and he turned his attention to the New Testament. He said, "God, cast me not. I want to be a partaker. I want to enjoy what 21st century church enjoys because there are assignments you're going to give me the ability to conquer because I'm utilizing the Holy Spirit."
Matthew 13:17 says, "For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what we see and they did not see it and to hear what we hear and they did not hear it."
I ask myself every day: Was I transformed this week? Was I transformed this week so that the spirit of God on the inside of me will not be relegated to what I can control? Will not be relegated to my needs? Will not be relegated to the things that make me feel comfortable?
The Holy Spirit has been given, poured out, spread abroad in our hearts and in our lives. He will receive space to be activated on the inside of me. And what is that space? To preach the word of God with boldness. To tell somebody about Jesus. To show somebody else that Jesus Christ is the living way.
We don't come into church just to be satisfied, to have our ears itched once in a while and then live all kinds of way during the week. The Holy Spirit is going with you wherever you go. He has to watch your disobedience. He has to watch your compromise. He has to be there because he's with you and he's in you. But then you've bottled the Holy Spirit.
1 Peter 1:10-12 says, "Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Things into which angels long to look."
But in Acts 1:8, Jesus said, "You will receive power." I remember as a child, I encountered raw electricity for the first time in Nigeria. We had something called NEPA, and NEPA took the light. Something in me told me not to do this, but you know, we children. I reached for the phone. It was thundering and lightning outside. That combination of things—I received the massive shock of my life. There was live current coursing through my body. My little body was knocked down.
The fact that became evident after was that our house did not have the proper surge protectors. The sheer force of it knocked me down.
That's the Holy Spirit. This sheer power. Imagine this: The Holy Spirit is present in Genesis to animate the body of Adam. Present in Genesis to create the world that we see. Present in Genesis to animate the body of Eve. The Holy Spirit is present when Jesus dies. And after three days animates a dead body.
All these things did not draw breath. What kind of power is it that can animate non-existing things and dead things? That is the force that resides on your inside. And you are living and breathing.
We relegate him to something soft and gentle because we saw that he was trying to deal with a prophet's depression and was in the still, quiet voice. He is a quiet voice, but he's a force.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus said, "But you shall receive what? Power. That word is dunamis exousia. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power. You will receive power to be the electric shock to bring people to Jesus Christ. You will receive power to be my witnesses. Not just where you feel comfortable, but where you feel the most uncomfortable—in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of self-disciplined, sound mind." The same power resides on my inside.
Acts 2:17: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. Power."
Ephesians 1:19 says, "And what is this exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ and raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above."
We are dealing with an untapped source.
I have a surge protector that we use in our home. We have something called a step-down. In Nigeria, we use it to pair whatever you bring from the United States to be able to use elsewhere.
Here's what I think happens to us: The demoniac man in Gadarene had 16,000 demons living on his inside. So, that proves to us the sheer capacity of the spirit of man. A man who had been living for years with 16,000 demons—in one instant, the pigs that took those demons after Jesus healed him immediately rushed over and crushed and were swallowed up in the water.
How much more the capacity of the human spirit. God knew that when he created you in his own image and likeness, he understood your capacity. He understood how much of the Holy Spirit you can handle, how much the fact that the Holy Spirit can move in and through you as a conduit.
But here's what we do as believers. We tell God, "Put a surge protector on your spirit. Run your spirit through my fears. Run your spirit through my doubts. Run your spirit through the limitations of my eyes. Run your spirit through the things I have yet to experience."
I haven't seen people raised from the dead, so why should I believe that God will have me raise somebody from the dead? I haven't seen people get out of a wheelchair. Why should I believe that God would want to use me?
But the capacity of the human spirit is greater than what we can imagine. So, we have run God through a surge protector.
And then, here's where we plug in. "God, you know, and that bill is coming due. God, you know, I'm being persecuted on my job. God, you know, where is the man? My man, my man." And we run God through the limitations of a soul that has yet to be submitted to the unlimited spirit.
That's why you speak in tongues. Because when you speak in tongues, it allows you to grow your capacity to be able to have the right kind of language and interaction with the Holy Spirit, so he shows you dimensions of the spirit you would naturally not be able to access.
We run the Holy Spirit through surge protectors. We run the Holy Spirit through environments of sin. "God, why aren't you answering my prayer?" Maybe it was the environment you were just coming out of. He's not pleased with the presence you have him in. Do something different.
Perhaps it's your language, how you talk. You run the Holy Spirit through the limitations of your negative talk, your negative conversations with yourself.
Perhaps it's the limitations of your belief system. "God, you only work through men of God who are, you know, we see them on YouTube. That's the only people you work through." No, those men grew their capacity. That's just the difference between you and them. They recognized their capacity. They didn't just limit God to the bounds of human imagination. They didn't limit God to what their eyes could see. They allowed their imagination to be expanded upon by the Holy Spirit.
Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has it entered into the thoughts and mind of Christ what he has in store for you.
So, God is saying today, "Take the surge protector off my spirit. Stop limiting me to what you can see, to what you can hear. If you will just step into the spirit, the spirit bears witness with your spirit that he is the son of God."
As he's bearing witness with your spirit, he's causing those things that be not, that are not alive, to come alive. He causes things to come alive. Your problem is not the absence of the presence of God. Your problem is access. It's not the absence of his presence. Your smallness is a product of an untapped electrical source.
So, Father, light me up. Make me burn again for you. I will not limit you because they say this is how it's supposed to go. They say this is how Christians are supposed to behave. They say that Christians are supposed to be safe. Who said so? God, light me up. Cause my inward parts to come alive in you. Let me see you.
So, how do we transform?
Number one: Embrace the Holy Spirit within you. Not when you need something, but every day. Father, thank you. Holy Spirit, thank you for the movement of your spirit in my life today. What do you have to tell me today? What do I need to be aware of?
Have the Holy Spirit be the first point of calling in your life, not the last. He lives in you. 1 John 3:24 says, "Now, he who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given to us."
Number two: Have more communion with him than external voices. Shut it down. Shut it down. No one should give you a word that the Holy Spirit hasn't given to you. No one should tell you something about your life that the Holy Spirit hasn't revealed to you. Less noise, more sensitivity.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 says, "Now, the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the spirit of God."
Have more communion, more fellowship with the Holy Spirit than with those around you.
And then finally: Make your perception of him greater. Before you complain, meditate. Before you open up your mouth to say what's not working, ask: what does the word of God say?
Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
It is to your advantage that the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of you. It's to your advantage. You're not empty. You're not lacking.
As long as you believe in Jesus and have accepted him into your heart, and have confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior, the first in-filling happens. The Holy Spirit now says, "Okay, you're a comfortable abode for me." And then the more you behold him and are transformed into the image of the invisible one, he now comes to remind you, to build you, to show you who Jesus Christ is.
