Message: The Transformative Presence of the Holy Spirit
We are in the Holy Spirit series. For the past two weeks we’ve been learning that God has a Book about our life and only the Holy Spirit is able to go into God’s deep knowledge and reveal His plan to us.
Last week we learned that if you want to meet the Holy Spirit and have a relationship with Him, you must first start by getting to know Him.
When you start studying and learning about Holy Spirit, He takes notes of that and He sees you’re interested on Him.
The Holy Spirit is the only person of the Trinity who is here on this earth. God the Father is in the throne, Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God and Holy Spirit is among us. (1 Peter 3:22). The Holy Spirit is not in Heaven, the Holy Spirit is on earth.
Remember that anything God does in your life will be through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not a power, He is a person; a person that has mind, emotions and a will. And only an intimate relationship with Him will allow you to fulfil your life’s purpose on this earth.
Today’s message: The Transformative Presence of the Holy Spirit
In reading the Bible and reading about the life of Jesus, we see some very interesting things.
The disciples were with Jesus for 3 and a half years. They witnessed the most extraordinary miracles one could ever witness.
They saw things that would blow your mind away. Some people may say: if I saw any of those things that the disciples got to see, I would forever be faithful to Jesus.
Some people may think: If only I could have the privilege of being with the disciples, my life would be forever changed and transformed and I would never be the same again.
But the disciples have lived that life for you, and they proved one thing: Seeing the miracles of Jesus and being with Jesus (with Him physically) does not change you!
The disciples saw Jesus walking on water, they saw Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah. They saw Jesus taking 5 loaves, breaking it and feeding a multitude of people. They saw Jesus healing blind people, they saw Jesus resurrecting dead people and when times got tough they still cursed Jesus, turned around and abandoned him.
“Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.” Matthew 26:56
All Jesus’ disciples forsook Him.
“This is what the Lord says: It is not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord ” Zechariah 4:6
It’s not by power, by strength or by force but by my Spirit, says The Lord.
There is something that Jesus in the flesh could not do: He could not change the hearts of His disciples.
That’s why Jesus said: It’s better that I go away and send The Holy Spirit.
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (παρακλητος parakletos ) will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” John 16:7 NKJV
Helper is the Greek word παρακλητος – parakletos : one who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate. One who pleads another’s cause with one, an intercessor. a helper, succourer, aider, assistant, comforter.
Jesus said, you’ve spend time with me and you’ve seen miracles but if I don’t leave, your inside cannot be truly changed !
When I go, I will send you the Holy Spirit, who will live inside you, then you will be able to really live for me, die for me , and to be used not by power, not by might, but by my Spirit who brings the power and the might.
If the Holy Spirit does not touch our hearts, miracles alone will not change our lives!
In fact, we see in the bible that the more miracles pharaoh saw, the harder his heart became.
The Holy Spirit is the only one who can change our hearts.
I once thought that the best days were the days lived by Jesus’s disciples, when Jesus was physically present with them.
But if I believe that, it means doubting what Jesus said. He said: it’s better for you if I’m not physically here!
You have to believe what Jesus said. I have to believe what Jesus said.
It’s better for me that the Holy Spirit is in me than having Jesus physically by my side! It’s better for you and it’s better for me that The Holy Spirit is in us.
Because when The Holy Spirit is inside you, you can be changed from the inside out.
When Jesus was physically with His disciples all 11 ran away, but the story tells that once The Holy Spirit comes inside all 11 disciples, none ever betrayed Jesus Christ again.
What was inside them was the presence of the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus was going away he said, it’s better, it’s more advantageous that I leave you! The Holy Spirit is better for you than Jesus in the flesh.
You actually can live a life today that is a little bit better than what the disciples had with the physical Jesus around them.
The disciples experienced both of those lives, with the physical Jesus by them and without Jesus and they only really made history after Jesus was gone, when they had The Holy Spirit.
We have the privilege of doing the same again today, of making history with the Holy Spirit.
You should get to know the Holy Spirit! Just because you can speak in tongues doesn’t mean that you know Him, just because you experienced a miracle once, does not mean you know the Holy Spirit.
We are living in the last days, because the last days began with the first coming of Jesus, and will reach its climax at the second coming of Jesus.
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
Acts 2:17-18 NIV
We are in the last days and God has promised He will pour out His Holy Spirit on all people and on His servants, men and women.
The true church of Christ will be awakened and revived and sent with extraordinary passion and zeal and prophetic power right into the midst of terrorism, war, persecution and natural disasters.
In the mist of troubles, wars and pandemics, The church of Christ will finish the Great Commission, and welcome King Jesus !
But before God can bring revival to our church and ministry, He will bring revival to you, God is interested in you and He wants to wake you up.
Revival starts with a relationship with the Holy Spirit, if we have no relationship with The Holy Spirit we are spiritually dead!
Churches with no relationship with the Holy Spirit are just religious dead monuments.
A Body without a Spirit is a corpse. Christianity without the Holy Spirit is a corpse.
It has all the fingers, legs, feet, it has all the right members, the right theology, the only thing it doesn’t have is the breath of life.
Christians with no relationship with the Holy Spirit are lifeless monuments.
Now I’m going to talk about the importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus.
1- Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit
“This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 1:18 NLT
The Holy Spirit was responsible to bring Jesus on earth and to make Mary pregnant.
2- Jesus was filled by the Holy Spirit
“Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,”
Luke 4:1
After Jesus’ baptism He was filled by The Holy Spirit.
3- Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.”
Matthew 4:1
The bible shows us that while on this earth Jesus was led and guided at all times by the Holy Spirit.
4- Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit
“Then Jesus returned in the power of the Holy Spirit to Galilee.”
Luke 4:14
Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit to fulfil God’s plan for His life.
5- Jesus offered himself as sacrifice through the Holy Spirit
“…. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.” Hebrews 9:14
We can marvel at Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, but the Bible says that it happened through The Holy Spirit. By the power of the Holy Spirit Christ offered himself as perfect sacrifice for our sins.
6- Jesus was raised from death by the Holy Spirit
“The Holy Spirit , who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”
Romans 8:11
The Holy Spirit was responsible for raising Jesus from death; this is the same Spirit that lives in you! This Holy Spirit can revive you from spiritual death and spiritual sleeping.
Can you remember the first sermon that Jesus preached in the Bible?
7- The first sermon Jesus preached was about Holy Spirit. Jesus was in the temple, he got up and he opened the book of Isaiah 61
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor”
Isaiah 61:1
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” – this was the first sermon that Jesus preached!
Do you know the last thing that Jesus said before He died?
8- The last thing that Jesus spoke about before he died was about the coming of the Holy Spirit
“I’m leaving and the Holy Spirit is coming. I’m not leave you orphans, I’m going but I’m sending the Helper, the Holy Spirit.” John 14:16,17, 25
Do you know the last thing that Jesus said before He went to Heaven?
9- The last thing Jesus said before he left earth and went to heaven was: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
Acts of the Apostles 1:4-5, 8-9
4 “Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before.
5 John baptised with water, but in just a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”
8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.”
Acts of the Apostles 1:4-5, 8-9
The Holy Spirit was so important in the life of Jesus that the Bible tells us everything in Jesus’ life was done through the Holy Spirit.
If we have no relationship with the Holy Spirit we are as good as dead. If I have no revival, I only preach dead sermons to dead people.
You will only have experiences with Him if you are hungry and thirsty for His presence!
I believe that revival is never determined by the size of the Church. It’s determined by the size of God’s activity in the Church and by our thirst and hunger for the Holy Spirit.
We can have a small or a big church, but what makes a church alive is when there is the Spirit; The heart of the church beats for the lost, the mouth of the church preaches the gospel, the ears of the Church hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, the legs of the church go into the world and make disciples: that is movement in the church.
It might not have professional musicians, or a nice building or parking space, but it has the Holy Spirit.
I don’t want a big church, or a big gathering, I want to see people hungry for the Holy Spirit who brings life to their mist and creates a movement.
We have indeed been praying for a new building, but the most important thing for us is not the building but a revival and the move of the Holy Spirit among us.
A revival can come over our town and our nation through you!
Nothing is impossible when we are on the side of the Holy Spirit.
I challenge you to get to know the Holy Spirit, spend time praying, fasting and seeking his presence and coming to church prayer meeting.
When we do that we are showing the Holy Spirit that we are interested in Him, in being under his wings and that you want to be used by Him by the Glory of God.
May The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!