We are going to talk about the Holy Spirit. This first message will set the foundation, and we are going to read many verses from bible and I want you to take notes and to read again all these verses.
When you want to know about a person or a place you need to read about it , you need to study about it and you need to know the Holy Spirit and read about Him .
Learn as much as you can about the Holy Spirit.
If you want to meet the Holy Spirit, to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit , start by first learning about The Holy Spirit.
When I go to a Country that I don’t know and have never been to, I want to know as much as possible about it in order to enjoy that time.
Before I started dating Fabiana I tried to know as much as possible about her , because I wanted to know how she really was before I married her , and I was interested in her.
When you start learning about Holy Spirit, He takes notes of that and He sees you are interested in Him.
Many people may say : if the Holy Spirit wants to reveal himself to me, He will, I don’t have time for that. You need to learn about the Holy Spirit.
My brothers and sisters, years ago I had a great, wonderful and powerful experience with the Holy Spirit but before this experience I spent years and months studying and reading about the Holy Spirit.
Many people may say they want the Holy Spirit but they know nothing about Him.
It’s not necessarily how broken you get, but you know so much about Him and He already knows that because you show curiosity and interest in Him.
You have to learn as much about him as possible. When you read the Bible take a pen and mark anytime it mentions the Holy Spirit.
Remember : God the Father is in the throne, Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God and Holy Spirit is among us.
The Holy Spirit is not in Heaven , Holy Spirit is on earth.
Remember that anything God will do in your life will be through the Holy Spirit and this is the person that you and I need to learn from. We need to find who He is today.
The Holy Spirit is probably the least understood person of the Trinity. He has been described as a force, a ghost, a power , dove , fire and a second-class or replacement god. It is vital for the church to know the Spirit, learn to relate to Him, and understand how He manifests Himself.
Most of historic churches in Brazil and also here in Ireland are declining because they don’t have a relationship with the Holy Spirit or they received wrong teachings about the Holy Spirit.
Also many Christians in churches have a defeated spiritual life because they have no relationship with the Holy Spirit or don’t know Him.
When we comes down to the Bible we begin to associate Holy Spirit to: emotions or feelings.
The Holy Spirit in the bible is many times seen as a gust of wind , but He’s not wind.
He is seen like fire , but He’s not a fire. He’s seen in the form of a dove , but He’s not a dove. He’s seen as different things but that is not it.
If I ask you : What is the Holy Spirit ? What would you answer me ?
He’s a being , He is a person !
The problem is that Christians they have it in their heads that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity. That means : God the Father is the most important, Jesus is the vice President and the Holy Spirit gets the third and last place. He comes third in rank.
If you know anything about coming third, you know that it is not the position anyone wants to be in. No one ever knows who is third. When it comes to Olympic Games, football championships, we all know who comes first , maybe who came second , but no one really cares who came third.
Who won the Football World Cup 2018 ? France won by beating Croatia (4-2). Who came third ? Do you know ? Can anyone remember ? Most can’t remember it (It was Belgium)
You know who the is president, maybe some of you will know who the vice-president is, but most people don’t know who’s next in line after that.
When you see Holy Spirit as the third person you will immediately think of Him as less important.
He is not Third , He is not the third person of the Trinity, He is a person of the Trinity.
When we think of third place we immediately think He is the least important, then we read scripture out of context because we don’t have the right understanding about the person of The Holy Spirit.
If The Holy Spirit were really not so important, why is it that blasphemy against the Father and blasphemy against the Son can be forgiven but not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
Matthew 12:32
He is not third , He is actually the most Important Person on earth today.
We have to remove that from our minds, we need to remove the idea that he is in a lower rank than the Father or the Son.
He is in fact The most important person on earth.
In the trinity, there is one God manifested in three persons. Some people have difficulties to understand how can there be one God in three persons.
Whenever the Bible says: The Lord is one , the Word “one” is the same word that is used when the Bible says : a man and wife will join together and will become “one”.
When a husband and wife became one , do they become one? Yes , but they still are 2 separate people.
When it says the Lord is one , it does not mean necessarily one as a singular person , it means “one God”. Just like as husband and wife is one , but they are still 2 different people.
We have one God but He reveals himself in three completely distinct persons.
Me and my wife are distinct , we are different beings but we are one. That means that we have one God. And He doesn’t have two persons , He has three persons.
One God but He reveals himself in in three persons.
1- Holy Spirit is God
What makes the Holy Spirit as God is that Holy Spirit is Eternal
Hebrews 9:14
“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
Hebrews 9:14 NIV
Clearly the Bible declares the Holy Spirit is eternal.
2- The Holy Spirit is omniscient
Omniscient means that He knows everything !
“these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:10 NIV
The Holy Spirit searches all things, And only God can search all things.
3- Holy Spirit is omnipresent
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?”
Psalms 139:7 NIV
The Holy Spirit is everywhere at the same time.
4- The Holy Spirit is omnipotent,
That means He is all powerful !
“When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.”
Psalms 104:30 NIV
When the Holy Spirit comes things come alive , things are created by the Holy Spirit.
5- The Holy Spirit is many time called God
“Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?”
“What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
Acts 5:3, 4 NIV
You know the story, Ananias brought some money to the church but he kept part of the money back
Here apostle Peter refers to Ananias and says: Why did you allow satan to fill your heart and lie to The Holy Spirit? In verse 4 he says : you didn’t lie to man , you lied to God.
Peter here is using Holy Spirit and God as one , because the Holy Spirit is God !
6- The Holy Spirit is a person – The second most important thing about the Holy Spirit is: The Holy Spirit is a person.
What makes somebody a person?
Being alive does not make someone a person. A tree has life, but a tree is not a person. Your little dog has life, but your little dog is not a person, it is alive but it is not a person.
What makes somebody a person is personality. What makes somebody a person is their mind , emotions and will.
And the Holy Spirit has these three qualities !
Wind doesn’t have a mind, wind has no emotions, fire does not have a will.
A dove does not have the ability to communicate with you.
Holy Spirit has a mind ! Romans 8:27
“And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
Romans 8:27 NIV
The bible mentions the mind of the Spirit , The Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and He himself has a mind.
Holy Spirit has a will – Acts 16:6
“Paul and those with him went through the areas of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit did not allow them to tell the Good News in the province of Asia.”
Acts 16:6
Many people think that the Holy Spirit is a robot , fulfilling every command given to him by God The Father. But the Bible says that Paul was about to preach the gospel when The Holy Spirit told him not to.
Holy Spirit has its own will.
“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.””
Acts 13:2
Here The Holy Spirit sets Barnabas and Saul apart- can you see His will ?
The Holy Spirit has emotions – Ephesians 4:30
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
Ephesians 4:30
Trees can not be grieved, fire cannot be grieved , only a person can be grieved.
The Holy Spirit is very important in the life of a person and a life of a Christian.
In reading the Bible and reading the life of Jesus, we see some very interesting things.
The disciples were with Jesus for 3,5 years. They witnessed the most extraordinary miracles you can ever witnessing.
They saw things that would blow your mind away. Some people say : if I see those things that the disciples saw you would forever be faithful to Jesus.
Some people say : If you could only have the privilege of being with the disciples your life would be so changed and transformed and you never be the same.
But the disciples have lived that life for you , and they proved one thing : seeing the miracles of Jesus and being with Jesus (and Him physically) doesn’t change you !
The disciples saw Jesus walking on water , they have seeing Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah. They have seeing Jesus taking 5 loaves, breaking it and feeding multitude. They saw Jesus healing bind people , they saw Jesus resurrecting dead people and when time came they all cursed, left Jesus and run.
“Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.”
Matthew 26:56
All Jesus’ disciples forsook , left Him and run away.
This is why God said :
“This is what the Lord says: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord ”
Zechariah 4:6
It’s not by power 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 their hearts.
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 will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
John 16:7
Jesus said , you are with me , you saw miracles but if I don’t leave , your inside can not be changed !
When I go and send you the Holy Spirit, whom will live inside you will be able to live for me , to 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 heart , miracles alone can 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 what changes 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, I don’t believe what Jesus said. He said : it’s better for you if I’m not physically there!
You have to believe what Jesus said. I have to believe what Jesus said.
It’s better for me thar the Holy Spirit is in me than having Jesus physically with me !
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 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 go !
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.
The disciples experienced both of those lives , with the physical Jesus and other without physical Jesus and they made history not with Jesus but with The Holy Spirit.
We have the privilege to do the same again today , to make history with the Holy Spirit.
Get to know the Holy Spirit , just because you speak in tongues doesn’t mean that you know Him, also because you experienced a miracle once, does not mean you know the Holy Spirit.
In a place called Azusa in California 1906 , a man called Willian Seymour , a man who was born a slave, got hungry for the Holy Spirit, so every night he would lay his head on the concrete for 2 hours and pray that God would give him the Holy Spirit and fill him with the Holy Spirit.
He would also pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon people around him. The moment God started touching people in his church the deacons from church kicked them out. So he ended up living in somebody else’s house. Every night he prayed for 2 hours for God give him the Holy Spirit and nothing happened. He increase his prayers by 4 hours and would pray for 6 hours for God to give him the Holy Spirit and then the Holy Spirit finally came.
One day he was touched by God and a great revival came over Azusa. I have no time to talk about it, but you read about Azusa’s revival.
Children of 6 years of age were filled with the Holy Spirit touched sick people and they were healed. A 11 years old boy prayed for a blind and drunk man who entered the church and immediately his eyes were open and his drunkenness left that man.
There are some people in elderly homes still today and they share the miracles that happened that time when the Holy Spirit came in Azusa Street and spreed all over the United States and all over the world.
A revival can come again through you in our town and in our nation.
Nothing is impossible when we are 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 to the Holy Spirit that we are interested in Him , in being under his wings and you want to be used by Him by the Glory of God.
Holy Spirit I want to know you more.