Fullness of the Holy Spirit Part V, “How the Holy Spirt manifests himself” Bible Study 07/28/10

Fullness of the Holy Spirit Part V
“How the Holy Spirit manifests himself”
Synopsis of Bible Study 7/28/10
Delivered by Bishop Walker III
The Holy Spirit strengthens us as believers. Like toys need batteries to function, we need a power source in order to function. Batteries often are included in the packaging. In this same way, when we got saved, a power source was included in the package. The ultimate aim of the Holy Spirit is so we have victorious lives. God wants us to have victory in every area of our lives.
A. God wants us to accomplish great things.
• Paul’s prayer is for us to be strengthened in the inner man. Ephesians 3:14-16 says 14For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; – Often we go through life depending on worldly things. Though those things may be important to us, there are things we go through that are more important.
• The Holy Spirit inside of us is refreshed and empowered every day. 2 Corinthians 4:16 says 16For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. – We get agitated and frustrated daily. The question is how do we get through this? Sometimes your mind and body is too tired for this. There is a power inside you to give you strength to accomplish great things. Whatever you put your hands to, the Holy Spirit will allow you to accomplish.
• How does this power work in your life? Things happen that trigger a response. The Holy Spirit intercepts the response and gives us a response that is consistent to God’s word. Ex-The Holy Ghost gives a reaction that is consistent to what God wants us to do. This confuses the enemy.
• Trouble will come. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 says 8We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; – The natural response is for us to be distressed about what is happening to us. The supernatural response is for us not to be distressed. Through the help of the Holy Spirit, your response has intercepted your response and as a result, you don’t look like you supposed to look according to world standards. You have just learned how to listen to the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can do this.
B. The Holy Spirit helps us to win at spiritual warfare. • This thing called warfare is real. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to fight against demonic forces. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 says 3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) – Strongholds are also referred to as fortresses. The devil puts up fortresses or camps with the intent on staying. The devil just came into your life and brought luggage. Satan will protect this fortress at any cost. You need to understand that you can’t defeat this fortress in your own flesh. You will never out curse or out do the devil in your attempt to get even. Knowing this, we need to know that we need to take the warfare to another level. We must raise the level. Ex – On one occasion, a poisonous viper got loose on an airplane. The people in the first cabin noticed it and you can only imagine the chaos inside the plane. There was a poisonous snake on the plane and the passengers were afraid someone would get bit. Some people thought the pilots were going to turn the plane around, but the pilots kept on going up. Pretty soon, the passengers saw the snake uncoil and then a few moments later, they saw the snake stretch out. When they got to a certain altitude, the snake rolled over and died. The pilots realized that snakes couldn’t survive at a certain altitude. This is why they kept going up, instead of stopping the plane. Just like this, if you just raise your level, Satan and his helpers can’t survive. The reason you have snakes in your life is, because you are low down with them. Our weapons are mighty through God and not carnal. We have 66 rounds (book of the bible) that we can use, but we don’t know how to use it.
• We have to bring our thoughts into captivity. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says 5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; – In other words the scripture is saying we are captive to the obedience of Christ. 90% of what we go through is in our head. The devil is making you think something is happening that really isn’t. Ex-The doctor calls you in to discuss something he or she found and you are already seeing your funeral. You see these images that Satan plants, but you have to learn to arrest them. You have to be like a police officer. Pull it over and take it in, because it has broken the law. By that we mean if it doesn’t line up with what the word says. We don’t put our thoughts on parole; we give them a life sentence. This is why our thoughts keep coming back up. We keep putting it on parole. Every thought, cast it down. There are things you just think, that don’t make sense. Ex- Often we say people don’t like us, because we think they are looking at us. This is in our mind. Most of the time, they are not even aware of us.
C. The Holy Spirit helps us to cope with burdens.• People came here with some heavy stuff. They are reading this, because they want answers. The problem is, we think we can handle our problems on our own. Listen to what Jesus says, “Come unto to me all who are heaven laden and I will give you rest” The Holy Spirit bears these heavy burdens for us.
• We have got the Holy Spirit to abide and dwell with us forever. John 14:16 says 16And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
• We must commune with the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 13:14 says 14The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. – Paul said let this be a communion, a constant engagement with the Holy Spirit. Ex – There was a man that went into the hospital to lose weight. He had gotten down to 300 pounds, but he still wasn’t where he wanted to be. This small nurse came in to take him for a walk and she didn’t even weigh 100 pounds. This man wasn’t sure that she could hold him up. The small nurse told him to just lean on her, but the man still wasn’t sure. Finally the nurse told him that she has been doing this for a long time and had never dropped anyone. In like manner, God has been at this for a long time and has never dropped one person. He has never let anyone down.
D. He gives us the power to overcome sin.
• The reality is, the Holy Spirit inside of us is the only way we can overcome sin. Galatians 5:16 says 16But I say,(A) walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify(B) the desires of the flesh. – The keyword here is desires. The church doesn’t want to deal with this. Ex- This guy on one occasion asked his Pastor to take away his desire to lust after women. The Pastor responded to him by saying, “I will pray, but when you get married, do you want me to pray that you get the desire back?” There is nothing wrong with the desire, but there is something wrong with what you do with that desire. The Holy Spirit says it will overcome that desire, but we have to let him take over.
The only way we can overcome sin is through the Holy Spirit. Lots of people become dogmatic as they look at sin. Ex – People older look at people struggling with a sin and they forget that they once had problems with that same sin. They were not always saved. They forget they had a process to go though to get where they are today. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us the power to overcome our mess. Your flesh is in cahoots with the sin and will not try to avoid it. We need the Holy Spirit to help us overcome this.
E. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to evangelize the lost.
• We must reproduce. Acts 1:8 says 8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.- What is a witness? It is one that testifies to what they have seen and heard. When Jesus worked his ministry, he was reproducing himself. He took ordinary men and made them extraordinary. He reproduced himself.
John 14:12 says 12Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. – The disciples ultimately became Apostles. When they got to Antioch, they were first called Christian’s, because they looked like Jesus. As Christians, we are supposed to be like Christ. If we are not a full duplication of him, what does that make us? It is important to understand it is about duplication. In the book of Acts when 3000 souls were added to the church, this was about duplication. Ex – How many people reading this remember that before they were saved, they invited people to do things before that they wouldn’t invite them to do today? What changed? With the same energy and passion that you had to tell people to do things that didn’t add value to their lives, the Holy Spirit gives you the same energy and passion to tell people to do the things that will add value to their lives.
• If our churches were more spirit filled, we would not have these ego problems in our church. Ex- We talk about church now days like they are gangs. For example one may say, “I go to Mt Zion” or “I am down with Lake Providence” or “I roll with Temple”. We forget that we are on the same team. We act like there is something wrong with going to a big church or a small church. Do the math. There is over a million people living in Nashville so to speak. At least 25,000 of them don’t go to anybody’s church. The point is there is enough unsaved people in Nashville alone for all churches big and small to be busting out at the seams.
F. Holy Spirit establishes proper relationships.
• As you look around, there is dysfunction around this area in the church when it comes to relationships. Ex- Bishop Walker explained how he and the First Lady Stephanie had been watching TV and they were amazed at the amount of shows that were reality TV shows. What is more amazing is at the chore of most of these we were dysfunction of relationships. Bishop says he saw one show where two people were dating and each of them gave the other person permission to date someone else outside the relationship and bring them home with them. Now two guys lived to there and each brought one in their house to stay. In this generation, this is what our young people see every day. The world presents them this dysfunction and this becomes a reality to them and then they come to church and see our dysfunction and the dysfunction of the church. This makes them not know what to do. Like the reality shows, we are trying to make relationships work without the Holy Spirit.
• Ephesians 5:22 says 22Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 6:9 says 9And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him. – These relationships are only possible by the help of the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit will make a woman submit to her husband. If he is following the leadership of God, the man is the head of the household. Husband, you have to love your wife in such a way that if you roll over in your sleep, you it should seep out of you how much you love her. This makes the wife not mind submitting. Children, you don’t pay for nothing. You eat and sleep for free. Behave with your bad self! If you rise up against your parents, they will rise up against you! Employees, do your job with integrity and respect. Don’t ask people to clock in for you. Employers treat your employee to with dignity and respect not slaves. They add value to your company. This can only be achieved with the Holy Spirit. Scarcely if the righteous is saved, where will the ungodly be. God can barley love us with the Holy Spirit, so how can we imagine doing anything without the Holy Spirit.
G. To maintain hope-the devil is after your hope.
• The Holy Spirit is what keeps our hope alive. Romans 15:13 says 13Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.- Faith is by product of the word. Faith says it is possible and hope says we will hope until it comes to pass. The devil is at our hope hoping that he can stop it from coming to pass so that we will turn on ourselves. The Holy Spirit brings us hope back to remembrance when we find ourselves in a hopeless state.
H. Holy Spirit wants us to serve God.
• Serving God is the ability to do God’s will. Ephesians 3:20 says 20Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, – There are a lot that we can do with our own mind and training. In other words, we have a skill set. We can lawyer, dentist, teach and etc … By ourselves, based on our skill set, we start putting out projections. When you say or start saying to God, “Thank you for giving me this skill set”, then you open yourselves up to the process of the Lord doing things through you. Ex- Bishop explains that when he first became Pastor, Mt Zion had a project called “Project 2000”. Bishop explained that we were going to build a church across the street from our original Jefferson St location. It was going to be 3 million dollar project. Everyone had been hired from the person who drew the blueprints, to the builders. Bishop asked the Holy Spirit to breathe on this project and the next thing you know, the church growth exploded. This is how Mt Zion came to be where it is today. People often ask Bishop, “Did you know Mt Zion was going to be this big?” The answer is no! That would have blown his mind.
I. The Holy Spirit wants us to praise God.
• The Holy Spirit empowers us to praise God. Ephesians 5:18-19 says 18And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; -Praise serves a 3 fold purpose. It is to build us up, to encourage those around us, and to trigger something in the supernatural. Sometimes you find yourself in contexts that rob you of your strength and determination. These are pretty negative contexts to be in. Now to praise God means you have to will yourself to that place. The truth is sometimes you just don’t feel like praising God. Sometimes you have a week where things have gotten so bad, you just want to be mad. The Holy Spirit wills you out of that to a place of praise. Your praise has to encourage others like it is found in Acts. Ex – Acts 16:25 says 25And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. – When Paul and Silas praised God, the people in the same situation heard them praising God. Their praise was at such a level, people in the same context were able to see the goodness of God. When you praise like this, you are saying that you speak of the goodness of God no matter what your situation looks like. You are saying you are willing to will yourself to a place where you are praising God not just for you, but for someone else.
Acts 16:26 says 26And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.-Some people get upset when people are standing up praising God all through church. They wonder if that person will ever sit down. They don’t understand that their praise can set blessings up for everything around them. Our praise can set everything around us free. Our praise is not some emotional reaction. This praise is rooted in what we know about God. This praise is rooted into the revelation into what we are believing God for. The Holy Spirit is bringing word back to us and telling us that we got to keep holding on and trusting God. No matter what our situation looks like, we will try and will ourselves and praise his name any how. When we praise we do so to build ourselves up, encourage others, and trigger something in heaven. We will ourselves to a better place!

Fullness of the Holy Spirit III, “How do we respond to the Holy Spirit” Bible Study 06/30/10

Fullness of the Holy Spirit III

How do we respond to the Holy Spirit?

Synopsis of Bible Study 6/30/10

Delivered by Bishop Walker III

There is a process that they teach in seminary called systematic theology. Using this process, you study the word systematically in order to get a better understanding of it. This is the approach we will use today.

4 things about the Spirit of God

1. He can be obeyed. Acts 16:6-7 says ⁶Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, ⁷After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. – Timothy, Paul, and Silas are moving in their assignment. They moved through the region of Phrygia and Galatia and were prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the Province of Asia. Notice the Holy Spirit is preventing them from speaking in a certain place. What we see here is even though there may be an assignment on your life, one of the things that the Spirit of God does is give you a specific time to move in that assignment. Many of us have a zeal for our assignment, but how many people will admit that they have gotten ahead of God on their assignment? There has to be sensitivity to when the Spirit of God leads us. Sometimes he will say not now. In some places, the spirit will tell you to keep your mouth closed.
2. Spirit of God can be lied to. We think we are supposed to do something and we claim we did it under the anointing, but we lied. Ex- You actually see people doing this in church. They act like they are writing something on the envelope and they act like they are putting something in the envelope, but actually there is nothing inside. Acts 5:1-5 says ¹But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, ²And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. ³But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? ⁴Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. ⁵And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. – They had come up with a system of pooling things together so that everyone’s needs would be met. The goal was to bring their stuff to apostle’s feet and allow them to distribute it to the members. Verse 2 says that Ananias kept some of their possessions back, and his wife Sapphira was aware of it. They bought a certain part of their earnings in to lie at the Apostle’s feet, but lied by saying it was all that they had. In verse 3, we see that Peter knew that they were lying, because he was anointed. He wanted to know why they would allow themselves to be used by the enemy. In verse 4, Peter reminded them that it was in Ananias & Sapphira’s will to do right, but they didn’t. Peter reminded them that they did not lie to Peter; instead they had lied to God. In verse 5, Ananias died after hearing the words that Peter said. Everyone had great fear as if to say, “Here is my offering.”Now are we saying you going to die if you lie to the Holy Ghost? No, but we are saying Ananias did and because he did, the risk is too great for us to lie to him.
3. He can be resisted - Acts 7:51 says ⁵¹Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. – Basically this scripture is saying that the people resisted, because their fathers did. We have the power to obey, but we willfully disobey. Ex-Royce (the church Organist) travels with Bishop when he preaches across the country. Royce decided he wanted to stay and shape and he asked Bishop about his diet. Bishop gave him his diet and its perimeters. On one of the trips they bought out the food and Royce had a choice between the baked chicken and the fried chicken. Royce willfully resisted the Holy Ghost by choosing the fried chicken over the baked chicken. When you get to point where you have to do what you have to do, you have willfully resisted the Holy Spirit. It might not be chicken for you, but you have something that you have chosen to do while willfully resisting the Holy Spirit.
4. He can be blasphemed. Blasphemy is the only unpardonable sin. Matthew 12:31 says ³¹Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. – God says he will forgive all sins but blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. When you curse the Power of God in your life, it is unpardonable.

The Greek word for spirit is 4151. Pneuma pnyoo’-mah from 4154; this is where we get the word pneumonia. It means wind or breath.

Historical framework of the Holy Spirit

The advent and age of the spirit

1. The Holy Spirit abided with us in the Old Testament. Ruach or 7307 ruwach roo’-akh from 7306; is the Hebrew version of this word pneuma. When Ezekiel called the four winds of God to come together when he was in the valley with the dry bones; this was the pneuma/ruach, the breath or wind of God. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was beside us. In New Testament, he abided in us.
2. God spoke to prophets preparing for this arrival of the Holy Ghost.

1.  
   1. God told the prophets that the only way to live this word out is in the Spirit of God. Ezekiel 36:24-27 says ²⁴For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. ²⁵Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.  ²⁶A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. ²⁷And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. – Even way back then, the Prophet Ezekiel is saying the only way you can live this word out is by the Spirit of God. There is no way you can live God’s word out in the flesh.
   2. God says he spoke it and he will act. Ezekiel 37:14 says ¹⁴And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
   3. God said he will pour his blessing on their off spring and children. Isaiah 44:3 says ³For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.

The Holy Spirit generationally

1. The prophecy of the Holy Spirit is found in the book of Joel. Joel 2:28-29 says ²⁸And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: ²⁹And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. – The references of the Spirit of God coming happened through Ezekiel, but manifest himself in Joel.
2. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit is going to stay with us forever.  John 14:16 says ¹⁶And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
3. When we receive the Holy Ghost, we will receive power. Acts 1:8 says ⁸But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. – What will we receive? It will be power. Who will it come from? It will come from the Holy Ghost. What will the Holy Ghost make us? He will make us witnesses. Where? In Jerusalem or in other words everywhere.
4. Jesus tells them to wait. Acts 2:1 says ¹And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. – In Acts 1:8 Jesus told them to go to upper room and wait for the power to come. They were all there on one accord in the same place in obedience.
5. The Holy Ghost comes. Acts 2:2 says ²And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. – Pentecost means 50. 50 days after Jesus ascended back into heaven; there came a sound like a mighty rushing wind. The wind was the pneuma as we discussed earlier. The pneuma filled the entire house where they were waiting which meant if you were in that place, you were going to be filled. They were in the house on one accord and everyone got filled.
6. Tongues appeared like fire. Acts 2:3 says ³And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. – There was tongues sitting on top of them on their heads and they looked like fire.
7. They were filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts 2:4 says ⁴And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. – This verse has been confused by so many people and given so much credence to false theology, it is important for us to discuss this. What we have been hearing all our life is people will know when you have received the Holy Ghost, because you will speak in tongues. This is not the only sign that you have received the Holy Ghost. Tongue comes from the Greek word glossolalia. It comes from the English word dialect. It was like this tongue referred to a language. What they were speaking was not the series of mixed syllables (tela-um-ba). we here They were speaking another language.
8. The Jews that were responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion were gathered and heard the manifestation. Acts 2:5 says ⁵And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. – This was only 50 days after Jesus had ascended. This means Jesus had just been crucified just a little over month ago. These same Jews that was at this place were the same that were responsible for Jesus being crucified. The Jews gathered here was part of the religious establishments.
9. Everyone heard each person witness in their own language. Acts 2:6 says ⁶Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. – Every man heard them speak in his own dialect or language. It would equivalent to a group of German students and a group of Russian students coming and sitting down and we all turn around speaking German and Russian to them, though we were never taught to speak their language.
10. There were witnesses. Acts 2:7-11 says ⁷And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? ⁸And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? ⁹Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. – They heard them speak in their own tongue, the wonderful works of God. Remember in Acts 1:8 it says ⁸But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. What is a witness? It is someone who testifies of what they have seen and heard. What had the disciples seen and heard? They had seen the wonders of Jesus, so when they spoke the tongues, it was of the wonder works of God. There were witnesses everywhere. Everyone heard them speaking in tongue. Nobody wants to deal with this part of the issue. Everyone wants to just deal with the mixed syllables (tela-um-ba) that you hear people do and they just want to fall out.
11. There was doubt at first. Acts 2:12-14 says ¹²And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? ¹³Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. ¹⁴But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: – Jesus on one occasion asked the disciples who did the Jews think he was? The Jews could only relate to the Spirit of God they saw working through the prophets. It was Peter that said that Jesus was the Son of the Living God. Jesus said that flesh and blood could not reveal this to him. He said this could only be revealed by his Father in heaven. As a result Jesus told Peter he would give him the keys to heaven. This same Peter was the one who denied Jesus. Peter who had messed up was the same Peter that stood up and addressed what had taken place.
12. Peter assures them that these people were not drunk. Acts 2:15-17 says ¹⁵For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.¹⁶But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; ¹⁷And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: -. Peter reminded them that this was a manifestation of what was prophesied by Joel (found in Joel 2:28-29). The Holy Ghost will bring it back to remembrance for you.
13. Peter reminds the Jews of the prophecy. Acts 2:18-19 says ¹⁸And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: ¹⁹And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: – God prophesied that wonders will happen above and below us.
14. Peter reminds them of who he was. Acts 2:20-21 says ²⁰The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: ²¹And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. – Peter says this and reminds us that this is coming from someone that messed up before (denying Christ). In other words, now because of the Holy Ghost, if we call on him, we shall be saved. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done.
15. Peter reminds what was prophesied. Acts 2:22-23 says ²²Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: ²³Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: – Peter said there was no fair trial. They knew from the beginning that they wanted to kill Jesus. He told them that Jesus knew this, but had a bigger plan to execute.
16. When we were taught the 12 tribes of Israel, it was for a reason. Remember that the Jewish people identified with David the greatest king of Israel. Jacob and Leah had a son named Judah (meaning praise). When she had that son, it was from the tribe of Judah that David is born. David comes from the lineage of Leah. From the tribe of Judah also comes Jesus. When Peter makes a reference to David, he really is associating them with what they are familiar with. Peter starts to quote David in Acts 2:24-28 says ²⁴Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. ²⁵For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: ²⁶Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: ²⁷Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. ²⁸Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
    1. Peter says let me speak more freely: In Acts 2:29 – 33 he says ²⁹Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.³⁰Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; ³¹He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.³²This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.³³Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
    2. Peter begins to quote Psalms 22: Acts 2: 34- 36 says ³⁴For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, ³⁵Until I make thy foes thy footstool. ³⁶Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
    3. Now the Jewish people wanted to know what they should do. Peter says in Acts 2: 34- 41 ³⁷Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? ³⁸Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. – The Holy Ghost had already come. From that point on anyone who repented and accepted Christ received at that moment the Holy Ghost. You don’t have to wait on him anymore; because at that moment once you received him he came you’re your life. You have the Holy Ghost. He lives within you.
    4. Peter says save ourselves from this wicked generation. ³⁹For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call. ⁴⁰And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. ⁴¹Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.- The reason why some people have  problem with a big church is because they want it to be about them. They want people to recognize them and their family. They want people to know that they are here, but when you get filled with the Holy Ghost, you empty yourself. I ain’t about you or your name; it is about God’s name. It’s about him being exalted. You decrease so he can increase. The same Holy Ghost and the same Holy Spirit that manifested himself then dwells in us. He gives us power to do more than go through the forms of Religion. We are tired of people who dance, run, and shout, yet have no power. He gives us the power to walk right, talk right, and live right. We ought to be after his anointing and his power to fill us up. We ought to want to be his witness, because when we were in the world, we had all the power to witness to the world. We had no problem telling the people what we wanted from them. We had no problem inviting people to the club. We had no problem walking up to strangers asking what’s up. Now that we are saved, we try to be shy when it comes to talking about the goodness of God. We don’t even want to invite people to walk down the isle to experience God. When you got power though, you have the same boldness that you had in the world. You don’t mind letting somebody know about God, because you have the power to be his witness everywhere. Not just in church, but on your job, on your campus and in your house. You don’t just have power in your church. Your power is portable! He gives us this power and this fullness. It is available and it is inside of you.

Fullness of the Holy Spirit II, Bible Study 06/23/10

Fullness of the Holy Spirit II

Bible Study 06/23/10

Delivered by Bishop Walker III

1 Corinthians 4:20 says  ²⁰For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power – To understand fully this you have to tear this scripture apart. The kingdom means God’s way of doing things. God’s way of doing things is not in word only. It is in power too. This sounds like a contradiction, because when God created the world, he spoke it and it was done. He set things in motion by the word. Remember in the beginning the Spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the water. John the Baptist was sent to announce the coming of Jesus Christ. In the wilderness he cried out, “Repent because the Kingdom of God is at hand.” When Jesus comes, he makes a declaration about his purpose. When he talks about what he is going to do in  Luke 4:18, he says ¹⁸The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, – In other words Jesus explains that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him and had anointed him to do what he was about to do. On another occasion, Jesus says, “When you pray, pray our Father who art in heaven… let your will be done as it is in heaven … let your kingdom come, thou will be done in earth as it is in heaven. “ It is all about the kingdom. The kingdom of God suffers violence, but the violent taketh by force.

Now just to clarify things, the concept of the Kingdom of God is not found in the word. It is found in power. This says to us, the Kingdom of God (God’s way of doing things) is not just in word. You come to church and operate in a relationship with Jesus Christ. The fact that there are two kingdoms is indicated in the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus says his kingdom is not of this world. So when we enter a relationship with Jesus Christ, we change citizenship. We live under Kingdom principles. The Kingdom of God contradicts the Kingdom of Darkness. The kingdom we are in is not in word only, it is in power. Many come in and get a word, and they gain faith, because conceptually they understand the word. We believe that what we heard is possible. Now we have the word, we have the key chains with spiritual slogans; we have the license plates, mugs, and etc… So as you can see, having the word is not our problem. The problem is after all that word; we keep making the same bone headed mistakes. You can come to church all day long and believe what you heard, but you don’t have victory over the shortcomings, because you don’t have power. The kingdom doesn’t operate on the word. It takes power to get to the Kingdom. Remember even the kingdom of darkness has the word. The devil will quote the word right back at you. This is why Jesus refuted the devil with word in the garden. It is clear, since Satan kept using the word to tempt Jesus; the kingdom of darkness has the word too. The missing element is they don’t have power.

I.                  How do we move from this to actually attaining the victory?

1. We have to decrease so he can increase so that we might have the power to overcome what is trying to trip us up. How many of you believe that God wants our best? Lots of times we rationalize things by saying none of us are perfect which is true, but God desires us to live an abundant life. John 10:10 says ¹⁰The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.- The thief is going to come, but Jesus came that we might have life more abundantly (the God kind of life). Jesus came that we might have victory over what the enemy is trying to do. Jesus came that we might not become permanent victims. Jesus came that we might be able to fulfill the promises in his word.
2. The truth is God doesn’t want our best. This might be a shocker to most of you. Let’s think about it on another dimension. Maybe God wants you to have faith in his best. Your best is limited at best. You don’t know the potential you have inside of you so when you. This is evident, because when you reach your threshold, you say you are at your best, but God pushes you to give more, because he knows your real best. You didn’t even realize that you had this inside you until God pushed you. The truth is God wants you to have faith at his best (his standard), because your best is subjective. Ex-As a parent you go to child’s room after you told them to clean it and you see that stuff is not right. He/she says they did their best, but you make them do it over again. The reason for this is their best is not defined by the child, it is defined by the parent. Go to your school professor and turn in your paper while saying you did your best and your professor may say it doesn’t reach their expectation for you. As a result, you do better the next time, because you got a B on what you thought was your best. You do better. Until you can believe that you can conquer a thing or until you have faith to believe it possible or until you are challenged, you will not give your best. If you don’t have faith to do better, you will simply say it is your best. It is this easy to fall off your best if you don’t live in the spirit. It is easy to say that the Lord knows your heart which again is true, but this is why God left someone inside you to help you do what you can’t do.
3. Positive side – Romans 8:4 says ⁴That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.-The righteousness of God cannot be lived out in your flesh. God’s standard is not possible in our flesh. It is only possible in the spirit.
4. Negative side - Romans 8:13 says ¹³For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. – The spirit will put to death the deeds of the body. The Holy Spirit will put to death the deeds, because your body will conspire and conjure up things your flesh wants to do. The Holy Spirit will say, “You ain’t going to do that!” You need someone to say that you are not going to do that and the Holy Spirit is the only one that you will listen too.

II.               The Person of the Holy Spirit (his personality)

1. Being the least understood of the God head, a lot of people deny the very presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit occurs 89 times in the New Testament. This doesn’t even include the times when the New Testament refers to him as “Spirit”. There are others times he is referred to has the Spirit of the Lord (i.e. … the Spirit of the Lord is upon me).
2. His Attributes:
   1. He has Intellect – He is intelligent. He has a mind. He thinks, he searches, and he teaches. 1 Corinthians 2:10-13 says ¹⁰But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. ¹¹For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.¹²Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. ¹³Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. – We have to see how the Spirit of God is at work in our life. The Spirit of God searches all things. He knows the deep things of God. Even when we pray, the Holy Spirit is able to give us revelation about the deeper things of God. He knows what God is up to.
   2. He has emotions - Ephesians 4:30 says ³⁰And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. – How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? He is inside you ready to assist you and ready to help you get the victory and you keep ignoring. You conceptually understand the word you got, you believe it is possible, and you ignore the Holy Spirit and his ability to help you do what you need to do and as a result, he is aggrieved. When you put something crazy in your body, you grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wonders why he has to coexist with your foolishness. When you curse somebody out, it grieves him, because he could have helped you with it. Can you imagine that the Holy Spirit is grieving over your ignoring him?
   3. He has a will – 1 Corinthians 12:11 says ¹¹But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.- He distributes gifts according to his own will.

III.           8 things the Holy Spirit does

1. He teaches- John 14:26 says ²⁶But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. – First, Comforter used in this scripture also means advocate. The Holy Spirit will teach you all things. The Holy Spirit will speak to your Pastor and take everything you are dealing with and place it on your Pastor. This will inspire him to write a sermon just for your situation. It is clear this is the work of the Holy Spirit, because your Pastor doesn’t have time to interview each and every person in the church to make this happen. The Holy Spirit deposits our issues on the Pastor so that he or she may release a word to us. Every time your Pastor gets up to preach, you shouldn’t see him. Instead you should see the Holy Spirit speaking to you. Each of you can end up hearing the same sermon a different way. Everyone is hearing it where they are. It is like medicine to your bones. Your body has receptors for pain. When you take medicicine it goes to those receptors. This is how the medicine knows it is a headache rather than a foot ache. In like manner, the word we receive goes where we are hurting. This is why you should not look at folk strange when the word hits them and not you. You don’t know where they are hurting. You might also receive a word and think it is not for you, but a year later the Holy Spirit will bring this word back to your remembrance.
2. He testifies and bears witness of himself. John 15:26 says ²⁶But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: – He will always confirm that this is of Jesus. All week you will be talking about and issue, you come to church on Sunday, and the same issue you have been talking about will come out in the sermon. The Holy Spirit will confirm and testify of Jesus Christ. He verifies things and will bear witness God’s word.
3. He guides or leads- Romans 8:14 says ¹⁴For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. – All who are led by God are the sons of God. Every day when you wake up, the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you where to go. We are so stubborn; we want to go out on our own way. Every day the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us where to go. The spirit is saying just follow me. Ex- Bishop demonstrates how we react to the Holy Spirit trying to direct us. Bishop randomly asks a guy to get up and follow him. This guy is a husband, a grown man, has children, and a CEO of a company. Why is this guy following Bishop? It is because he respects Bishop’s spiritual authority and he submits. He has confidence in Bishop’s leadership. Everywhere Bishop goes, the man follows. This guy didn’t even question why Bishop wanted him to follow. He just jumped up and followed him. This makes us ask the question, why then do we question the Holy Spirit? Further in the demonstration, the guy is instructed to go his own way. Soon he goes far enough to lose sight of Bishop Walker. Just like this, people lose sight of the Holy Spirit by trying to go their own way. The Holy Spirit tries to tell us to follow and we want to go our own way. This is what your Pastor is doing every Sunday at our churches. He is trying to get us to follow the Holy Spirit. Get in line with Holy Spirit, because he is trying to guide you! Inside of you is this amazing navigational system (the Holy Spirit). Ex-It’s sort of like your GPS system. Once you put a destiny in, you can even get detracted if you want to. This system is so committed she will get on line and say rerouting if you make a wrong turn. She has factored in your foolishness. She just keeps on talking regardless to what you do. She will not turn off until you get to your destination. She will not stop talking until she is able to say that you have arrived at your destination. The next time you act a fool and hear the phrase rerouting or make a U-turn, think about that. This is the same dedication the Holy Spirit has to guiding you to your destiny.
4.  He performs miracles- When Phillip the Evangelist meets Ethiopian Eunuch, he came to him out of the water and the Spirit of the Lord snatched him away. The eunuch did not see him anymore. Acts 8:38-39 says ³⁸And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.³⁹And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.- Phillip got baptized or saved and was just snatched away. It was like a miracle. Miracles are often the work of the Holy Spirit. Many of us are objective people. This simple means we believe it is this way or that way. There is no gray area. Then there are subjective people that believe things can vary. When you look at how miracles happen, the doctor says you have this illness, by faith you come to a person of faith and say pray for me. You believe Gods word so you go through the act which is exercising the word. You also know there is power inside of you. You pray and you wonder how the tumor shrinked. It is t he power inside you that miraculously did the work that amazed the physicians. The same power that can remove a tumor can heal a mind. He is a miracle worker.
5. He convinces. John 16:7-8 says ⁷Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. ⁸And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: – Reprove means he will prove the world wrong. The world’s kingdom has its own idea about sin, judgment, and righteousness. Bishop states he is not fundamentalists which takes everything literal. He is not a liberalist either, which is someone that says anything goes. He classifies himself as being right in the middle. Sometimes it is amusing. There is a place between amusing and nausea. The world we live-in have to dilute sin. So it renames stuff to minimize it. They have to be politically correct. They dilute it so much; it doesn’t seem like sin anymore. You have to say it so it fits in a social construct so that it doesn’t offend anyone. They dilute it so much; it doesn’t seem like sin more. What the Holy Spirit does is convince the world what sin is. He will convince them of what rightness and judgment is. Only the Holy Spirit can speak to this wicked generation and convince them that they are wrong. You can go all day long arguing with someone about what is right or wrong or what the word says, but only when the Holy Spirit convinces them will they change. Some of us were stubborn, we were set in our ways and it was the Holy Spirit that convinced us to check ourself. It is hard to submit to the Spirit. You will create your own righteousness. This is what the world has done.
6. He restrains.2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 says ⁶And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. ⁷For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. – Paul says there is a hidden power at work. If you let that power run, it will run all through your life. It is called iniquity. You have an authory in you that can restrain it. Every time Jesus showed up, he didn’t have to negotiate with demons. They automatically said when he showed up, “What do we have to do with thee?” This is why you can’t be a punk Christian. Even on the job. There comes a time that you have to walk in authority and say, “This house isn’t big enough for the both of us. You will not have my children, my destiny, or anything else. “You got to walk in the room and cause devils to go running! You don’t have to peep around corners! Walk in your authority. Ex-Bishop was somewhere and his hotel was by the French Quarter. Bishop decided to take a walk and the guy at the front desk told him that he needed to be careful. He says that they have witches, warlocks, and voodoo. Bishop responded to him, “No they need to be careful” Why does God’s people have to be careful? We need to walk in our authority.
7. He commands and directs people Acts 8:29 says ²⁹Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. – There was a specific time that the Holy Spirit had revealed for Phillip to go over and talk to the eunuch. The Holy Spirit will release you at the right time. We are gifted and got vision, but you are too anxious. Exhibit A is this, you got the vision and you envisioned these people to help you, so you make calls. They tell you no. You automatically think since everyone said no, then you must have missed what God wanted you to do with the vision. The truth is you should have waited until the Holy Spirit released you. The Holy Spirit knows exactly when to tell you to go to somebody. You got to be released into the right season. When the Spirit of God sends someone to you, he is going to let you know that they are coming. Beware of people who come into your life telling you God told them to. Even UPS has the courtesy to tell you that you have a package on the way. The Holy Spirit will tip you off when God is sending something or someone your way. He might not tell you the whole thing, but he will tip you off.
8. Intercedes in prayer. There are moments where we are in trauma. We are in acute pain, when life just hurts. Out of your belly there is nothing but pain and out of your mouth are fragments of disconnected emotions. There are things that just don’t make sense to anybody. In those moments of ugghhh…, because we know it doesn’t always come out as, “Father in the name of Jesus… “Romans 8:26 says ²⁶Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. – The Spirit of God softens the blow of the pain. There is some stuff that we went through that we would have lost our mind, but he softened the blow. We don’t even know how to pray. He stands between earth and heaven and interprets for us. The Holy Spirit will take our tears, put it in a heaven beacon, and send it express to heavens laboratory. They will put it under a microscope and look at the tear and know the very cause of it. Then heaven will prescribe a word for you, package it up, and send it to your man of God (your Pastor). Out of your Pastor’s mouth will then come healing for your body. He will heal you right where you are hurting. Thank God for the Holy Ghost.