Why Am I preaching about the Holy Spirit?
Because the Church started under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and they made history with the Holy Spirit.
Nowadays though, the Holy Spirit is probably the least understood person of the Trinity. It is vital for the church to know the Spirit, learn to relate to Him, and understand how He manifests Himself.
Most of the historic churches around the world are declining because they don’t have a relationship with the Holy Spirit or because they received wrong teachings about the Holy Spirit.
Also, many Christians inside churches have defeated spiritual lives because they have no relationship with the Holy Spirit or don’t know Him.
The communion or the fellowship with the Holy Spirit is what will change everything in your life. Many know about the grace and love of God but very few Christians practice communion with the Holy Spirit.
Remember : The Holy Spirit is God, He’s a person, He speaks, He has his own will, He gives direction, and He is the only One from Trinity who is on earth today and he lives in you. However, the question remains, do you have fellowship with Him?
Did you know that the primitive Church did not have the Bible like you now have (New Testament), but instead they had the Holy Spirit.
Today I want to talk about the power of the Holy Spirit over sin because He can help us and give us power to overcome sin.
Last year Fabiana and I had a chance to visit Israel and it really was a life time experience. We visited the tomb where they claim Jesus rose from the dead.
And the tomb is empty. If you visit the tombs’ of all the other leaders from different religions around the world you would be able to testify how their corpses are still there but Jesus is the only leader who has risen.
We believe that when Jesus died He defeated sin and when He rose He defeated death.
Death is the strongest enemy which no one had ever been able to defeat; but when Jesus Christ died, His death defeated our sin, and by His resurrection, the strongest, the oldest and the most powerful enemy of all time was defeated!
“The Spirit of God, 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 resurrection of Jesus Christ teaches us that The Holy Spirit rose Jesus from the dead to prove that Jesus is not just a teacher , He’s not just a good man, Jesus was not another religious leader;
Jesus is who He said He was!
Buddha never claimed to be God, Mohammad never claimed to be God but Jesus claimed to be God and as a proof God rose Him from death.
Therefore we now have assurance that our faith is not blind.
“And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.”
1 Corinthians 15:17
If Christ has not been raised it would mean we believe in fairy tales, but we know that the disciples of Jesus would never give their lives for something they knew not to be true.
In fact, the disciples witnessed the resurrection of Jesus because they saw Him dead on the cross, they put His dead body down in the tomb and 3 days after they saw Him risen from death! The risen Jesus talked to them, ate with them and gave the last instruction before leaving again.
I’m going to the Father, but I’m sending you The Holy Spirit, He is going to help you and He is going to live inside you and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
Christianity is based upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Bible documents that resurrection.
The earlier Christians did not have a New Testament but they had an event on which they based their faiths upon: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
My faith is based on an event from 2000 years ago when Jesus Christ died like a criminal and three days later He rose from the dead.
People witnessed this; over 500 who didn’t expect for Him to resurrect, but they saw Him , He did resurrect and He changed the world and changed my life and the Bible documents it.
The history of the world was thus divided in two: BC before Christ and AD (Latin phrase: Anno Domini (“in the year of the Lord”—the year Jesus was born)
In every book you read you may find this reference; BC and AD.
Let’s read again Romans 8:11
“The Spirit of God, 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
Beloved ones , the good news for you is: as Jesus overcame death by the power of the Holy Spirit, so can we experience the same.
Our life doesn’t end at death, the Bible says we are going to be raised from the dead just like Christ.
He was first who got raised, but we will also be raised from the dead.
We will have a glorious body, we will have new bodies which will experience no fear, no pain, no cry, no tear and no death.
“Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.’’ Do you believe this?
John 11:25-26
Jesus said : resurrection is not just an event, resurrection is a person and that person is Jesus Christ !
That means you don’t have to wait until you physically die to experience resurrection.
When you have things that have come to die in your life, you can experience that resurrection!
Maybe you have things that died: in your marriage, maybe in your health, in your finances , in your family. You can experience Jesus’ resurrection today, when you experience Jesus Christ.
That’s why we believe in healing, because resurrection is something that Jesus continues to do by resurrecting our health, resurrecting our dreams, resurrecting our relationships, resurrecting our peace , resurrecting our sanity, resurrecting our ability to make good decisions , resurrecting our freedom from drugs, alcohol, cigarettes.
God is the God of resurrection and resurrection today!
But there can be no resurrection if there is no death and there can be no death if there is no sin.
The only reason Jesus was raised from the dead was because He died. The reason Jesus died is because Jesus had all of the sins of humanity placed on Him.
Sin brings death.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23
My beloved ones God’s gift to us is not religion, God’s gift to us is not Christianity. Because you can meet Christianity and not find life.
A lot of churches that you go into are dead. That’s why God didn’t come to give you religion, He came to give us life.
That’s why as the Church we focus on life, eternal life. Life on earth is good but eternal life is much better.
That’s the reason you need to do your best for God and His Kingdom , you need to live your life here focusing and investing your time , money , gifts and talents in God’s eternal kingdom.
“For the wages of sin is death“
Sin is the cause of all evil in this world. Sin is the reason people kill each other, sin is the cause of marriage and families break-ups.
The problem the problem in Ireland, America, Brasil and indeed the problem within humanity is sin.
The only way to remove sin from our lives is through repentance and through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Sin is responsible for the destruction of our society. Sin is responsible for people dying earlier than they should.
Sin is responsible for dreams being crushed.
Sin is the reason why people’s marriage are falling apart. We can blame each other but the root of it is a selfish desire to do what I want and only me , myself and I.
Sin is the reason why there is so much fighting within families.
Sin is the reason why your kids don’t obey you.
Sin is the reason why your spouse is always angry or watching porn.
Sin is something that is so easy to see in other people. But when we look to ourselves we became blinded.
Parents ask their children, why did you lie to me? You should not lie! But when an undesired someone comes to your door you tell to your children, ‘say that I’m not home”.
We see sin in other people but we are blind when it comes to sin in ourselves.
We see sin in everybody except in ourselves, because when it comes to ourselves we don’t call it sin, we call it mistakes, a weakness.
Mistake is when I have to turn left at an specific street and since I don’t know the way I take the wrong one.
But when you cheat on your spouse, when you live in arrogance and pride , criticising people , gossiping about people, it’s no longer a mistake, that is disobedience God, it is sin.
Weakness is running 50 metres instead of 5km, that’s a weakness.
Weakness is not drinking myself to sleep every single night. That’s not a weakness, that’s a choice and that’s is disobedience and that’s is sin.
The bible talks about the wages of sin, which does not only destroy our society but it destroy us. The bible says the consequences of sin, the wages of sin is death.
Sin is work. How many of you know that you don’t get your wages if you don’t work?
Do you know why God sends sinners to hell?
Because they worked for it!
What would happen if your boss didn’t give you a paycheque at the end of the week?
Would you call him a good boss?
If a boss does not give you your due wages after you work so hard you would not think he is fair, you would think he is mean.
Why do we then think God is mean when people go to hell?
Sin is work and if we don’t want hell then why are we working so hard for it?
The problem with sin is not only the fact that it destroys you but that it also destroys people around you.
So, what can you do? Jesus paid your debts at the cross;
What should you do?
I’m leaving the job of sinning, I’m leaving the job of smoking, I’m leaving the job of drinking, I’m leaving the job of living in pride and arrogance, I’m leaving the job of living a lazy life, I’m leaving the job of being religious, I’m leaving the job of sin, I’m turning my back to the devil and my face toward God and I’m following Jesus Christ.
What happens when you resign, when you say, Lord I quit , Lord I give up , Lord forgive me.
What happens after that?
God gives you a gift of salvation and forgiveness.
This forgiveness is free to get but it doesn’t come without a cost from God. God gave His son to give you this free gift of forgiveness.
You need to know how much it cost Him to forgive you.
By forgiveness and repentance I’m free from my sin
But God not only forgives you your transgression, He says : I’m also going to send The Holy Spirit to help you repair your character, to repair your soul from the abuse that you’ve experienced growing up.
The Holy Spirit comes to live in us. When we become christians, the Holy Spirit doesn’t live in us to makes us better than our friends , He makes us a better version of ourselves!
He makes us better than ourselves!
The Holy Spirit came to make me different than I used to be.
Not only God forgives you but God sends The Holy Spirit and He will help you with the damages, He will help restore you , and make you the best you can be!
Maybe you never knew a day without emotional pain, but He says: I will make you better.
Maybe you never knew a future that’s full of hope and optimism and He says: I will make you better.
Why? Because the Holy Spirit comes in us to repair the damage sin has made.
When the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, He not just repair us, He repairs the damage around us.
As He changes us, we make a difference in the world.
When you accept Jesus Christ you accept the Holy Spirit inside you.
You have the life that gave Jesus lift behind when He was in the grave inside of you.
My message for you today is, Jesus paid the price for all of your sins at the cross.
Whatever consequences of sin you are facing today, don’t accept it. Rely on the power of the Holy Spirit.
I want to have a first prayer of repentance. All of us , those of us who are believers must turn our lives away from sin, because that’s what resurrection is.
I know I have preached harshly on sin, I can’t give medicine for people who don’t understand their diagnosis.
Lord have mercy on me, Lord forgive me of all my sin, wash me with your precious blood.
Lord I resign sin , I resign alcoholism , I resign cheating, I resign lying, I resign atheist, I resign the life of pride , I resign living in fear , I resign living with worries and anxiety, I resign living in jealousy and laziness, I quit the life of sin, I quit the life of following the devil, I quit the life of following sexual immoral desires , I quit today , I walk out, pornography I resign from you , social drinking I resign from you , addictions I resign from you.
Keep your hands in your heart and pray this second prayer :
Lord Jesus I believe that you died on the cross for all my sins and that You’re the Son of God , I repent of my sin , I place my trust in what you did at that Cross. Wash me clean , set me free , and fill my with The Holy Spirit. In Jesus name !
May God bless you