Sunday Message - Move with the Holy Spirit
1
04/05/2008
<John 1:29-34,
3:3-8, 31-36, 4:24, 5:17, 35-39, 6:35, 53-57, 63, 7:37-39, 14:16-26, 16:12-16,
19:30, 20:19-23; Acts 1:8, 2:1-4, 2:29-47; Eph 1:13-14>
I COME TO BAPTIZE WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
·
In our Christian living, the three most
important phrases are: rely on the Holy Spirit, drive out demons, enjoy the
coming of the heavenly Kingdom
·
These three mysteries (Holy Spirit,
drive out demons, heavenly Kingdom) are what the eyes cannot see nor hands can touch
·
Those who are not born again, or are
born again but are carnal, will not understand the Holy Spirit
·
Why are there so many different
denominations in the Lord’s churches in history and past generations? It is a
result of people having different understanding of the Holy Spirit
·
In this present era, the two biggest
denominations are the Charismatic and Traditional churches. However, what is
most important is that we must go back to the Holy Spirit which the Bible talks
about
·
What is the Holy Spirit? The Holy
Spirit is God. Those who misunderstand the Holy Spirit, misunderstand God. Not
relying on the Holy Spirit also means not relying on God
·
If we live not by submitting to the
Holy Spirit, we are relying on the “flesh” (carnal)
·
Those who rely on the flesh will surely
die. We will see the negative results of those who rely on the flesh in a few
months, 10 years or 20 years later
·
We must live according to the Holy
Spirit. However, there is no one person who can totally understand the Holy
Spirit. This is because we are still humans
·
In the course of our Christian living,
and through the things we learn and confirm, we are given an understanding and
outline of how the Holy Spirit works
·
The Holy Spirit does not work
haphazardly: causing you to be convicted by this today and convicting you
otherwise the next day. From this outline, we can know God’s unlimited perfect
will
·
Thus, the Bible says, “I will give you
a Counselor, the Holy Spirit, who will teach you all things.”
·
We have already accepted the Holy
Spirit and this can be seen from our concerns and desires. We all hope that our
loved ones will accept Christ. This is the evidence that the Holy Spirit dwells
in us
·
We must confirm together, that we
already have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. However, many a times, we do not
know how the Holy Spirit works in our lives and how it leads us. Therefore, we
are often miserable
·
Do we rely on the Holy Spirit’s
guidance when we look after our children?
·
We must know the Holy Spirit. Many a
times, our understanding of the Holy Spirit is vague and abstract
·
All that we believe in comes from the
Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must be interested in the Holy Spirit. Otherwise,
everything that we do is done relying on the flesh
·
If we want to know the Holy Spirit, we
definitely have to understand the Holy Spirit in a practical manner. Many
believers have very abstract understanding of the Holy Spirit. They often say
how the Holy Spirit convicts them. However, the feelings they receive from the
Holy Spirit do not have a foundation
·
There are times when they feel that
they are very close to God but that is based on feelings only. Does it mean to
say that when we cannot feel the Holy Spirit presence, the Holy Spirit has left
us?
·
Some people say that they have
experienced, dreamed and received conviction from the Holy Spirit. However,
some people also say they have never experienced that. The conviction of the
Holy Spirit should be common. If the Holy Spirit dwelling in all believers is
the same, why is it that some people have convictions while some do not?
·
The conviction of the Holy Spirit is
common, and can be experienced at any situation. Those who have already
received the Holy Spirit will definitely experience it
·
Those who already have the Holy Spirit,
must definitely see how the Holy Spirit is working now and how He is leading
them
·
The big principle: If a person does not
know Jesus Christ, he will definitely not understand the Holy Spirit
·
When we rely on the flesh, there is no
way we can understand the Holy Spirit. This is because the Holy Spirit cannot
be seen with the eyes nor felt by the hands
·
Jesus Christ made his dwelling among us
through His word becoming flesh. It is through His teachings, His role model
examples, and the things that He did in his entire lifetime that we know about things
of the heavenly Kingdom and Holy Spirit
·
The first sentence in the Bible
therefore tells us that even before the creation of the earth the Spirit of God
was already hovering over the waters
·
The energy and power that come from the
Holy Spirit is evident from all the created beings of this universe. The sun
will rise today, we are being born by our parents, we have loved ones beside us
- all these are the work of the Holy Spirit
·
When Man obtains the appropriate
conditions, he will immediately know the Holy Spirit, confirm and accept the
Holy Spirit
·
Regardless of the situation a person is
in, if he knows how to rely on the Holy Spirit, he will become the blessed
person of an era and will bless the entire era
1.
All the works of the Holy Spirit are related to the revelation of
Jesus Christ
1) Before
sinning, Man can communicate and walk with God
·
Man is created in the image of God.
Therefore, the life of the Trinity God dwells in us
·
Our heavenly Father’s love,
righteousness, glory and eternal purpose are in us
·
Jesus Christ did not suddenly fall from
the sky. He was born from a mother’s womb, went through the life process to
exemplify the work of God and the Holy Spirit
·
When God created Man, He said, “Let us
make Man in our image, in our likeness.” Therefore, the life of the Holy
Trinity is in the bodies of Man
·
When God breathed into Man’s nostrils
the breath of life, the dust became a human with life and spirit. Therefore,
Man has spirit. Man has the image, glory, power and wisdom of God in his life
·
There were no repetitions when Adam
named the animals. This is because there is unlimited wisdom and power in a
person’s life
2) After
Man sinned, they became [flesh]
·
The problem in <Gen 3> happened. At
the start, there was already the work of the ancient serpent, devil
·
On the first day, he caused Man to have
doubts and asked Man to leave, misunderstand and disbelieve God
·
All our misery comes from our
misunderstanding of God’s words, and not knowing how the Holy Spirit convicts
us
·
<Rev 12> His name is
“ancient serpent, great dragon, Satan, devil, ruler of the air, the king of the
world, deceiver and accuser”
·
These are all his works. He calls
people to disbelieve God’s words and drift away from God’s words
·
Man has no choice after they are
separated from God. They will definitely listen to Satan and the voice of this
world. Just like how we must work and eat etc
·
<Gen 3:7> After Man is
separated from God, the Holy Spirit also departed from Man; when the eyes of
Man are opened, Man becomes flesh. Therefore, Man must
rely on the flesh to judge all things.
These are the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the
boasting of what he has and does
3) Henceforth,
it is only through God’s initiated Revelation that Man can know God
·
After the Holy Spirit departed from Man,
Man cannot know God if the Holy Spirit does not reveal to Man
·
In the process of growing up, Man knows
that there is god. Thus, he will create a lot of idols
·
<1Cor 10:20> Idol
worship is actually participation with demons
·
Some people say that they can communicate
with their deceased parents or grandparents. Actually, they are communicating
with the evil spirits that bound their ancestors
(1) The
revelations in Genesis 3 related to Jesus Christ = the seed of woman
<v15>, garments of skin = sacrifice of blood shed = The
Cross <v21>
·
God has never departed from
·
The sacrifice of blood shed is
continually repeated throughout the Bible
·
Without blood, there is no life. The offering of Cain and Abel differed in
whether there was blood in their offering
·
The “sacrifice of blood shed” does not
only refer to Jesus Christ being nailed on the Cross. Through God’s words
becoming flesh, Jesus Christ abandoned His own flesh, desires and everything to
submit completely to God. This is the sacrifice of blood shed
·
Every time we come for Sunday Worship,
do we have the sacrifice of blood shed?
·
When we worship, do we abandon
ourselves? Do our concerns, lustful desires die? Are we willing to abandon
everything to discover God’s perfect will and follow Him?
·
No matter how we cry and jump before
God or serve Him, our offering is like that of Cain’s if we have not “died”
·
Cain’s offering is thanksgiving
offering. Do we only give thanks when we have received benefits? God wants to
see if we have abandoned our lives to discover His perfect will and thus submit
·
Enoch also walked with God according to
the sacrifice of blood shed. Therefore, God revealed to him through his life.
After living 300 years, God took him away, so that he did not meet death. This
shows that those in Jesus Christ will not meet death
(2)
The revelations in Noah’s Ark = Judgment, Set apart from the world,
New Life, New World, New Promise
·
What does Noah represents?
·
Because of Jesus Christ,
all saints have already been set apart. Therefore, only those who are in the
·
God told the people who
came out from the
·
All of God’s revelation is
related to the development of Jesus Christ
·
Our lives, our days, all
the conditions we possess are for Jesus Christ
(3)
Abraham/Isaac/Jacob/Joseph = Born Again, Promise, Sanctification,
Conquest
·
Abraham represents all
Saints. He also represents Jesus Christ
·
He left for a new land,
that is, left the world to new life
·
Abraham gave birth to
Isaac. This is the life of a saint who is born again. Isaac was one who prayed
and did everything according to God’s promise. Thus, he received everything
·
Man must go through Jacob’s
life. Jacob went through sanctification. In Jacob’s lifetime, he had to return
to
·
Joseph had to conquer the
whole world. Only those who have lives that are born again, and are sanctified
according to the promise are able to conquer the whole world
·
Above Joseph was King
Pharaoh. However, at that time, King Pharaoh was useless. The reason why God
spared King Pharaoh was to have the head broken through the sacrifice of the
blood. This is the history of
(4)
·
Through
·
Those who are born again
must definitely cross the
·
When they reached the
wilderness, they must first build the tabernacle to communicate with God. Those
without the tabernacle are worshipping the golden calf and the things of the
world
·
Although they may fall
while following the tabernacle, it is alright. By following the tabernacle,
God’s providence will come upon them
·
Before they enter
·
How do we know what crowns
we will receive when we return to the heavenly kingdom? We will know from how we
now follow the tabernacle, lead a church and prayer-centered life and continue
to accomplish God’s works
·
What are things of the
heavenly Kingdom like? No one knows. However, Paul gave us an analogy. Our
entire body must be changed
·
The salvation of Man is the
same. However, the crowns they receive will be different
·
What is important is that
the way we submit to God and the footsteps we take in following the tabernacle
is different
(5)
All prophets = prophesies concerning Jesus Christ and
·
Moses prophesized the
revelation of Jesus Christ. At that time, the word of Jesus Christ was revealed
only in parts
·
In the Old Testament, the
revelation of Jesus Christ was still incomplete. This is because the main
character had not appeared. Therefore, at that time, the Holy Spirit‘s work was
limited to special times, places and people. The Holy Spirit suddenly appeared
and revealed Himself to the prophets
·
That was because Jesus
Christ had not come to the world
(6)
Especially, every time when God’s people acquire the revelation of
[the main Belief outline concerning Jesus Christ’s gospel], specially blessed
and thus revived = Abraham’s altar (promise, sacrifices) à Moses’ tabernacle
(promise, 10 commandments, decrees, sacrifices) à David’s tent
(promise, 10 commandments, decrees, stipulations, laws, institutions,
sacrifices)
·
King David was the most
blessed King. David was the closest to Jesus Christ. Once he became King, the
first thing he did was to bring the Ark of Covenant back. In his entire
lifetime, he wanted to build the temple. He established all the decrees, laws
and institutions
·
This is God’s perfect will.
How can we love God and Man? When a person submits to God’s perfect will, he
will know how the Holy Spirit convicts him
Read
<John
1:29-34>
·
We must really know the Holy Spirit
through Jesus Christ
·
At first, John the Baptist also did not
know the Holy Spirit. This was because before Jesus Christ was incarnated, the
Holy Spirit was revealed in parts to Man
Read
<John
3:3-8, 31-36>
·
v4 Nicodemus replied using the method of the
flesh. When we rely on the flesh to listen to messages, we will not be able to
understand God’s perfect will
·
How does one enter the heavenly
Kingdom? It is not when we become Christians and wait till the day we meet the
Lord that we know whether we can go to Heaven
·
The heavenly Kingdom is where we are
now and we can see that God is leading us
·
Other religions do not have assurance
of salvation. It is only at the last moment that they know if they are saved
and where they would be heading to
·
v31 All of Adam’s descendants come from the ground.
Jesus Christ testifies Himself
·
v33 Have we accepted and certified? We must certify
and seal daily
·
v34 What God gives is without limit. After Man
fell, he is unable to know God. Therefore, man will only know God through how
much God revealed Himself to them
·
Jesus Christ’s partial revelation is
made complete. Therefore, those who really know Jesus Christ have already
received the Holy Spirit completely
Read
<John
4:24>
·
The Truth must be revealed through God’s
words, that is to know through God’s words becoming flesh
Read
<John
5:17, 35-39>
·
This talks about John the Baptist. He
is a relative of Jesus Christ
·
v37
The whole history testifies Jesus Christ
·
John the Baptist was the last prophet
in the Old Testament, John the Baptist came to baptize with water, repentance
through baptism. Jesus Christ came to baptize with the Holy Spirit which is the
baptism to Born Again. Why is there a need for people to repent? The repentance
that religions talk about is to ask people to do good deeds and not to repeat
their mistakes
·
What is true repentance? The repentance
that the Gospel talks about is to return to Jesus Christ
·
John the Baptist calls us to repent to
turn our lives to Jesus Christ
·
If our repentance is not to turn our
lives to Jesus Christ’s purpose or to His words, it is not God’s repentance
Read
<John
6:35, 53-57,60-63>
·
v53 This talks about the Holy Spirit
·
What Jesus Christ is saying is that His
source of life. We must eat and drink Jesus Christ. That is to say, we must
receive the life of Jesus Christ
·
v63 Not everyone will understand God’s words. We
must rely on the Holy Spirit to understand God’s words. Otherwise, what we
obtain is only knowledge. Knowledge is dead and it causes people to distant
themselves from God
Read
<John
7:37-39>
·
v38 This is an analogy of the Holy
Spirit
Read
<John
14:6. 16-26>
·
v6 Knowing
the Lord is knowing the Father
·
v16-20
Who are the “you” referring to? It is those in verses 21-23
·
v23 God will reveal to those who receive the Holy
Spirit conviction and submit to Him. This is the condition for the Holy Spirit
to comply to
·
v26 “all
things” God teaches us all things, not just in evangelical matters. The Holy
Spirit will teach us regardless of whether we are at work, in our studies or in
being parents.