Holy Spirit; How He Works Through Us

>> Well, good morning, everybody. [ Cheers and Applause ] Good morning, everyone. >> Good morning. >> Oh, never mind, I'm sorry I messed up. It's afternoon now, isn't it? Like I say, good afternoon, everybody. How you guys doing today? Anybody glad to be in the house of God today? Would you give God some of your praise today? Yeah, I love it. [ Cheers and Applause ] I can't wait to share the word with you guys, but before we do that, we've got a special thing that we do once a year, and that is honoring one of our college students, so I'm going to ask Pastor Jordan and Gracie if you guys would come on out here. Would you give it up for these two right here as they come up here? Yeah. So we have a scholarship that we award our highest performing, our best student every year, and it's called the Larry Stock Steel Scholarship Award. Now Larry Stock Steel is my pastor. He's been my pastor since 1985 when he took over the church that his father started, and the man exemplifies so much in my life, he's still my pastor today, and we still talk regularly, and I still receive from him all the time, but to see a man that has lived his life as long as he has 50 years of ministry now

that he's been in with integrity, the way that he loves the Lord, the way that he loves his family, the way that he leads the church, and most importantly though, is how he even empowers other people. He has literally sent pastors and missionaries all around the world, one of the biggest missions giving churches that I've ever been a part of or ever seen, and so in honor of my pastor, and I love you, Pastor, I really do, thank you for all you've done in my life, but I want to just award a scholarship to Gracie Briggs, and she is a junior this year at Bay Psychology. Hey, you guys, give it up for Gracie, yeah. (audience applauding) She is an incredible leader. Her parents are pastors, they pastor in Richmond, Virginia, and so this is her junior year, so her third year with Bay Psychology, and you are incredible leader. The way that you lead, when something is given to you, the way that you own it, and you don't just own it to continue to lead it or manage it, but you're always trying to figure out how to make things better, and what I love about you is even though you are usually the best leader in the room that you're in, you don't lead like that. You value other people above yourself, and you just live with integrity and with a heart after the Lord, and so we wanted to honor you with the Larry Stock Steel Scholarship Awards. They're full-paid scholarship for this year. Y'all give it up for Gracie, yeah.

(audience applauding) Thank you so much, great job, Jordan, yes. Come on, y'all, give it up again for them, thank you. (audience applauding) Well, today is gonna be a great day. Somebody say amen, and whether you believe it or not, God knows that you're here, and God has a word to encourage you today, and I'm so excited about this message today, and of course we have those that are watching online, and there are other locations that the county jails around, and I'm glad you guys are here because we are launching into a two-week series on the Holy Spirit. Now, let me tell you how we got to this place. We just finished the series, we called it I Believe. We were breaking down the different parts of the Apostles' Creed, and it's kind of the Apostles' Creed is basically a Christian foundational beliefs of here's what we as Christ followers should believe. And last week, we finished that series talking about who the Holy Spirit is. As we were looking at the calendar and praying, and like, God, what do we need to preach on next? What do we feel like is the right topic? It just kept popping up inside our spirits as a leadership team, and those that are leading this church, that it would be great to take a little bit of a deeper look at Holy Spirit, because I feel like a lot of times people are too uninformed, or ill-informed even, about the Holy Spirit.

So now we're gonna take two weeks and kind of add on to what we just finished, and we're doing this series on Holy Spirit. Today, I'm talking about how the Holy Spirit works through us, and next week, we're gonna look at how Holy Spirit works in us. Now, I have to set up what's gonna happen today. I need you guys to get ready, everybody say get ready. Because I have 40 points in scriptures to share. So next week, sermon will be completely pointless. So I'm gonna make up for it this week. Now, the reason why I'm telling you that is because I need to get your mindset on this journey that we're about to go on. The reason why I have so much scripture, and all I want to share with you, because I need to take us through a journey of understanding who Holy Spirit is, so that you can then see and understand how Holy Spirit works through you. And at the end, I got a little special something that we're gonna do in service today, but I just need you to put your thoughts on that. In fact, this would be the best thing I could do to help you get the right framework and the right context. And that I'm not really up here preaching a sermon, you know, like I went on a weekend. I want you to look at this as like, we're in a college class. I'm gonna be Professor Randy today.

Professor Boudreau, okay. So seriously, so that's the mindset that I need you to have here today. So get your notepads out, get your phones out. You're gonna take a lot of notes. I'm gonna take us on a little bit of a spiritual journey, helping us pull back the curtains and really understand who Holy Spirit is. Not that it wasn't explained good last week, but I just need to set the framework in case you did miss last week to make sure that everybody is on the same page. Everybody say, all right, I'm ready. Okay, first thing you need to know about Holy Spirit is who he is. He's part of the triune God that we serve. We serve a God that is three parts to him all the same. There's God the Father, there's God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And it's not like the Holy Spirit is kind of like the lesser of the three. No, he is just as much as important as the other two. And he holds equal value. And you understand, well, how do we serve a God that has three parts? It's kind of like you have three parts. You have a body, you have a soul, and you have a spirit. All three of those are different functions, but they all make up who you are. And that's what the Holy Spirit, God the Father and Jesus,

all three parts of God, they make up the triune God that we serve. And what's interesting and what you need to know about Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit has been around since the beginning of time, Genesis chapter one. Now the earth was formless and it was empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. They're at creation at the very beginning. Before anything was even created, Holy Spirit was there as well. Also, you need to know Holy Spirit is a person. Write that down, Holy Spirit, he is a person. He's not some force, you know, may the force be with you kind of Holy Spirit thing. No, he's a real person. He wants to have relationship with us. Bible talks about how he can be grieved as well. Man, it's important for us to understand that he is extremely relational. Jesus described him like this in John 16. But when he defining the spirit of truth, Holy Spirit, when he comes, he will guide you into all truth. He, everybody say he, he will speak or not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. You see the very important concept here is that the Holy Spirit is a he, in other words, it's a person, all right?

Now that you understand Holy Spirit's been around since the beginning, he's relational. Let me teach you and help you understand what Holy Spirit was like in the Old Testament versus after Jesus came, okay? So let's look at Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Now, what's important to know about this is in the Old Testament, Holy Spirit would empower people, certain people for certain tasks at certain times. And that's what he would do. For example, he would empower leaders, he would empower kings. He would actually even empower just common people for different things. Here's the first example in Exodus chapter 31. When they were building the tabernacle, the place of God's presence, it says in Exodus 31. See, I have chosen Belziel, son of Yuri, the son of her, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, of all kinds of skills. What was that filling for? To make artistic designs for work in gold, silver in bronze, to cut and to set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. How many of you would confess like me? I didn't get that. I can't build anything.

In fact, I'm good at breaking things. And even things that are broken that I try to fix, they get more broke. Okay, so that's me, I didn't have that. But God, His Spirit, God's Spirit, fell upon this guy to help build the tabernacle. And that's what he was doing. Now Moses is a leader in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit came on Moses to help him lead the nation of Israel. And we're gonna see in this verse, not only did God empower Moses by Holy Spirit, but he also empowered the other leaders that were around Moses as well. Here we are in Numbers chapter 11. The Lord came down in a cloud and spoke with him, Moses. And he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and he put it on the 70 elders. And when the Spirit rested on them, it says they prophesied, for a specific task and that was it. And they didn't prophesy again. In other words, the spirit of God was not on them the same way as he was at that time. David, David was anointed as the king of the nation of Israel. Holy Spirit came upon him and anointed him and appointed him and equipped him to be the leader of the nation of Israel. Here we are in 1 Samuel 16. So Samuel, the prophet, the man of God in the Old Testament, took the horn of oil and anointed him, David,

in the presence of his brothers and from that day on the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Not his brothers, not his family, not his father. The spirit of God was just for David. It came on him in that particular instance. There's a book in the Bible in the Old Testament called Judges. And Judges is a historical book on the Old Testament, which teaches the different leaders of the nation of Israel, they called them judges. And then eventually the nation said, we want a king, and so it wasn't a judge and it became a king. Saul first, and then David. Well, in the book of Judges, there was a leader named Deborah, and she led the nation of Israel for 40 years. Why? The Holy Spirit came upon her to be a prophetess, to be a woman of God for the nation of Israel. Judges 4-4. Now, Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lapidoth, you might miss Lapidoth. I think she could have picked somebody else. Okay, anyway, she was leading Israel at the time. All right, so you see different instances where the Holy Spirit came on people for different tasks, for different moments, different opportunities. Another thing that's important to note about Holy Spirit in Old Testament is that sometimes he would come on someone

and because of their life or their choices, Holy Spirit would remove himself. That is not true in the New Testament. We will see that in just a moment, but that is true in the Old Testament. Two people that you may be heard of. One of them was Saul. He was the first king of the nation of Israel, and then also a judge or one of the leaders named Samson. Remember Samson and Delilah? He had an improper relationship with her. Look what happens in Judges 16-20. Then Delilah called Samson, the Philistines are upon you. That's his enemy. So he woke up from his sleep and he thought, I'll go out as I've done before, and I'm gonna shake myself free. Look at this. Probably one of the saddest verses in the Bible. He did not know that the Lord, the Spirit of the Lord, had left him. In the Old Testament, the Spirit would come on people, and then it would sometimes come off of people like we just read. However, not just with people, there was a permanent dwelling place of the Holy Spirit in two different places. One called the tabernacle, which is before the Israelites had a home. So they were like moving around from place to place.

So the tabernacle was a tent that housed God's presence, the ark of the covenant, the tent commandments. That was where God's presence was. So it was a tabernacle, and also the temple once Solomon built a temple in Jerusalem. And that's where the Holy Spirit would dwell. Here we are in 1 Kings 8-10. It says when the priest withdrew from the Holy Place, except part in the temple where the presence of God was, it says that the cloud filled the temple of the Lord, and the priest, they could not perform their service because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord filled his temple. All right, that's how the Holy Spirit functioned in the Old Testament. On and off people, sometimes removing from them because of their lifestyles and decisions of being disobedient to the Lord. Also in this holy place, the tabernacle in the temple, but then Jesus comes. Jesus comes and says, okay, first of all, I'm going to provide a way for you to have right relationship with God because I'm gonna take your sin. And Jesus says, then after I leave, I'm gonna send something called the Holy Spirit, and he's gonna function in a different way. And Jesus describes that in John 14. He says, and I will ask Jesus saying, I'm gonna ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you,

and he will be with you forever. Everybody say forever. In other words, he's not gonna leave. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. This is for believers, in other words, it's for people who follow Jesus. But you know him, for he lives with you, and he will be in you. Everybody say in. That's a whole new understanding about Holy Spirit. Like he's not just gonna show up and then leave, or equip me for a particular task. He's gonna live in me. He's gonna, I'm gonna experience the fullness of Holy Spirit. Then after Jesus leaves, and he sends the Holy Spirit, And Penta just means 50, so 50 days after Jesus' death and resurrection, the day of Pentecost happening, and that's when Jesus releases the Holy Spirit on the earth. Look at what happens, Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Everybody say all. Here's what I want you to understand about this verse. There's a lot of things we're going to unpack, so just stick with me.

But the word all, say it again, all. That means everyone. That the Holy Spirit is not just for certain people. It's not for certain leaders who do certain tasks or super spiritual people. It's for all. Everybody say it again, say all. And that word filled means to be supplied, means to be complete, means to be lacking nothing. That is an incredible spiritual concept for you guys to understand. That when you understand who Holy Spirit is, and that he is living inside of you, and he wants to equip you to where you are complete and lacking nothing, I don't know if you've ever been like me before, but I've been in charge or facing situations in life. And I felt like I didn't have what I needed to overcome that. I don't have to, I got Holy Spirit in me. You need to understand that's who he is in your life as well. You could say amen right there. So that means we all have access to the Holy Spirit. And what's so interesting is how Jesus really flipped the whole script and how the Holy Spirit works, even in such a way that he did it, did it to show the whole world, even in a physical way. Look what happened to Jesus in Matthew 27 when he died, or look what happened to the temple when Jesus died, verse 50. And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit at that moment. The curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom. Why is this so important? Remember, I told you about the dwelling places, the tabernacle in the temple where the presence of God was housed. Okay. In the temple, when Jesus died on the cross, signifying a new era of relationship with God and Holy Spirit, the curtain that separated the common folk from those could actually be in God's presence.

That curtain was torn and it went torn from the bottom to the top. It was torn from the top to the bottom, which no one could reach the top, saying God has now made a way for his presence to be accessible to all of us. That's so important, theologically, for us to understand what the Holy Spirit really was doing. And not only did he rip the curtain so that we could have access and be in relationship and be filled with Holy Spirit, he actually wanted us to see that we are now temples of God's Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul said it like this in 1 Corinthians 3, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?" In other words, you're a temple, like the Holy Spirit now lives inside you. That's so important to know. Listen, I know what happens a lot of times. People often think, then there's just something about when I'm in church. There's the presence of God, there's an anointing, there's a Holy Spirit that is there. And yes, that is true. It's what's called corporate worship. There's something about all the believers getting together like this. But you need to know something. That same Holy Spirit is living inside you and you are a temple. It's not this place, it's you can have the same thing operating inside you as well. That's Holy Spirit Old Testament. That's what Jesus did to create a new era, which we call it, the New Testament era that we're in. So now let me teach you how the Holy Spirit operates and functions in the New Testament, okay? There's three primary functions that the Holy Spirit has in the New Testament. The first one is the Holy Spirit draws people to Jesus. We would call this salvation. All right. In other words, the Holy Spirit's job is to draw you in to create inside you this hunger and this thirst and this desire, even if you don't know what it is, to be in relationship with Jesus. He even described it like this. Jesus said, "When Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regards to sin, righteousness, and judgment to come." Well, you have to understand something. Holy Spirit does not want to make you feel guilty to push you away, but to draw you in.

Roman says that it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. The Holy Spirit is not trying to make you feel guilty so that you run. He's making you feel guilty or convicted. Like, oh, I don't know if I should have done that. I don't think that's the right way. I shouldn't have responded that way. I shouldn't participate in that. That's the Holy Spirit wanting to bring you into relationship with Christ so that you can be free and forgiven. That's His first and primary job. The second primary job of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is to make us more like Jesus. And that's the fruits of the Spirit. In other words, that we respond differently. Like the book of Galatians says, Galatians 5, 22, and 23, which we're studying all of this next week, it's the fruits of the Spirit. It helps us live with joy, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, okay? That's the fruits of the Spirit. We're gonna teach them all of that next week. And that's how the Holy Spirit works in you to help you bear the right kinds of fruit to be more like Jesus. And the third thing that the Holy Spirit does is He empowers us to do work for Jesus.

And that's the gifts of the Spirit. So back to this, making sure you guys understand about the gifts of the Spirit and what the Holy Spirit does, look at Acts chapter one. This is the last thing that Jesus says before He ascends into heaven. Think, all right, you guys, let me make sure you get this. Jesus died, came back to life again, appeared for 40 days to people, and then He ascended, He went to heaven. The Bible says, He's in heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father, and He's interceding and He's praying for us. Wow, what a cool con. This is a whole 'nother sermon, but I just want you to understand that God the Father is in heaven. Jesus is sitting next to Him, and the Holy Spirit is the one that's with us, all right? And look what happens. The last thing Jesus says before He ascends to heaven, you will receive power, everybody say power. Say it like there's some power behind it. Let's try that again. Everybody say power. - Power. - Woo, that was good. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witness telling people about me everywhere, starting in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.

I like that word power. In other words, the Holy Spirit gives us power to overcome sin and temptation, to overcome the things in our life and the problems in our life that we're facing, but that isn't the end-all goal of Holy Spirit, that He also wants us to be a witness, and a witness is someone who shares with others the experiences that we have had. You're a witness to the goodness of God. You're a witness to the power of God. You're a witness to the forgiveness of God. You're a witness to the peace of God, and that's what a witness does, and so He wants to give you power, but so that you can use it to help other people, all right? So that's what is called the gifts of the Spirit. Let's look at what Paul says about these gifts. Corinthians chapter 12. He says, now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I don't want you to be uninformed. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them all. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There's different kinds of working, but in all of them, and in everyone, it is the same God at work. Now to each one, the manifestation or the expression of the Spirit is given for the common good. This is a very important verse that you understand

that none of us are the same, but we all have a gift that Holy Spirit has given us. Everybody say all. It's given to all of us for the common good. That word common good means to bring us together and to build us and to contribute. In other words, gifts of the Spirit are not spiritual trophies, so we can go, hey, look what I have. It's for the contribution and for the building up and for the bringing together of the body of Christ. So Paul goes on to describe the different gifts, and we're gonna talk about what each of these mean in just a moment. Here we are, now we're in verses eight through 11. So to one, there is given through the Spirit, a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of that same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, and to another miraculous powers, and to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another, the interpretation of tongues. All of these are the work of one and the same spirit. Look at this. And he distributes to each one. Everybody say everyone, 'cause it's to everyone, just as he determines. What I like about this is that there are different categories of the gifts, and I wanna break those down for you and tell you what they mean.

And then like I said, we got a special little thing that we're gonna be doing in just a moment. And so let me teach you what these gifts are in the different categories. Theologically, you can break 'em into three groups. The first one are vocal gifts. And that includes the one that was just mentioned, prophecy. What is prophecy? It's simply a spirit-prompted message from God that strengthens, encourages and comforts. All right? It strengthens, it encourages, and it comforts. Paul described it as it should be like this. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging, and comfort. I have heard people before who pronounce that they operate in a gift of prophecy to sometimes speak things that are not strengthening, encouraging, and comfort. You're like, "You're gonna burn and go to hell." I'm not kidding. I know it is a bit funny until you're receiving that and you go, "Well, that's not what this is about." Or, you know, that's why your house burnt down. I just want you to know 'cause you're being disobedient to Lord, or whatever it is. But this gift, and all of these gifts, are given for strengthening, for encouraging, and for comfort, for prophesy.

The next one is tongues. Tongues is a message from God. Nathan, you're not gonna believe this, but my iPad's about to go out again. So, I'm signaling you again to help me out, sir. This happened a few weeks ago. I'm gonna get fired. Okay. Tongues is a message from God through a person in an unknown language. All right, tongues is a message from God through a person in an unknown language. We're gonna go back to Acts, chapter two, when the Holy Spirit was first poured out, okay? Remember, when they were sitting in the room and it all happened, here it is, in verses four through 11. And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. As the Spirit enabled them, now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together and bewilderment because each one heard them in their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our own native language? There were parithons, meads, elamites,

residents of Mesopotamia, Judah, capidocious, Pontus, and Asia, Pragera, and Pamphlya, Egypt, and parts of Libya near Cyrene, and even visitors from Rome, both Jews, and converts to Judaism. Oh yeah, and there were Cretans and Arabs who hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own languages, in our own tongues. What a day that must have been. Could you imagine being in a city when this people are walking around? Everybody's speaking in all these different languages, all at one time? That would be wild. I mean, there are a lot of things that I'd like to go back to in Bible times, you know, I'm setting it. I think that'd be a pretty cool thing to see how all of that was happening. Now, that's the gift of tongues that was operating in speaking words of comfort, strength, and encouragement to people. In fact, they were even sharing the message of the gospel. But Paul went on to talk about this gift of tongues, speaking in tongues, not just in moments like that, but inside the church, there's rules of how this thing should operate. Here's what he said in 1 Corinthians 14. "Everything must be done so that the church can be built on."

So that means if anyone speaks in a tongue, two, or at the most three should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, then the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God. Very interesting. So in a church setting like this, if someone, the gift of tongues, is gonna come out and they were to speak something, there must be an interpretation. Then that means we have the gift of interpretation operating as well. So what exactly is that? And that is when the Holy Spirit enables someone to communicate the meaning of a message that was given in tongues. there must also be an interpretation. All right, that's that category of gifts. Now, let's look at the second category of gift, and that is the revelation gifts. The first one is a word of wisdom. This is simply a divine answer or a solution. Oh, it's Josh. Y'all give Josh a hand clap. (audience applauding) They're shopping right now for me a new iPad, 'cause something is apparently wrong with this thing. Okay, everybody say wisdom. That is a divine answer or solution

for a particular situation. But understand this, that word of wisdom is not just knowing what's going on, but a word of wisdom is knowing what should be done in this situation. And there's a difference. Anybody can look at a situation and go, "Oh, yeah, look, this looks like a mess. Here's what's going on. Yeah, but what do I do?" The operation of gift of wisdom would be someone would know what should be done in a particular situation, which is also different than this next gift, which is a word of knowledge. Word of knowledge is when the Holy Spirit reveals something that you could not know naturally. Think about the instance when Jesus ran into this woman. It's in John chapter four. She was at the well drawing water, and Jesus was there getting some water at the well. And Jesus began to tell her everything that was going on in her life. And she had never met him, right? And so she ended up going, "You must be the Messiah, because you've told me everything about my life." And then she goes and spreads it around all over the place, saying, "Come meet a man who told me everything I've ever done." That's a word of knowledge.

When you see something that's happening with someone and God gives you insight to their lives and it gives you knowledge about what's going on in their life. That's a word of knowledge. And then there's also discerning of spirits. The discerning of spirits is when you discern something that is happening in the spirit realm, not in the natural realm. Okay, this happens a lot of times. I've actually seen this in my own life at many times, where you're talking to somebody about something that is going on. And rather than just seeing the natural things you see into the spirit and you know, like you just know, well, oh, you're dealing with a spirit of rejection. And then you can go to the root of that spiritual thing and then you can get free from that. Rather than just dealing with natural things, there are spiritual things. You guys understand this. We are, first of all, spiritual beings having an earthly experience, right? We're not earthly beings having a spiritual experience, which is why Jesus oftentimes, when he would run into people, he would deal with the spiritual problem before he dealt with the natural problem. And when you and I are operating in this gift of discerning of spirits, we see things in a spirit realm rather than just discussing what's happening in the natural realm.

Hope you guys are getting this. Okay, then we have the power gifts. This is our last category of these spiritual gifts. And the first one is faith. And this is not the gift of faith for like salvation. And faith for salvation is not a gift. It's an understanding. It's simply this, oh, Jesus really is who he says he is, which means he lived a sinless life. He died on the cross with my sin, in my place, died, but came to life again. And that is my way to heaven and eternal life is through Jesus Christ. It takes faith to believe that. That's not the gift of faith. The gift of faith is simply having a supernatural confidence in God regarding situations or circumstances. In other words, your face was something and you go, man, I just don't know how in the world we're gonna get through this, but you know what? I have this surety in here. And I just know God's gonna take care of it. It's not a positive outlook in life either. It's not this kind of a hype man kind of a, yeah, we're gonna make it, man. It's this surety. It doesn't make sense, but I know God's gonna get me through it. You ever been through something or met someone going through something?

And you were like, I don't know how in the world you're making it and they go, yeah, I don't know either, but I just know God's got me. That's a gift of faith that was departed in them for that particular situation. How about healing? This is when the Holy Spirit brings physical, emotional or body healing, bodily healing to someone. I've told my story many times, most of you probably heard this, but I did overdose on drugs years ago back in the early 90s. And my church, my pastor, they started praying for me and God healed my body and gave me life again. That's an example of the gift of healing operating in life and not only did he healed my body, but he healed my liver, most of my brain is functioning pretty good, so he's still working on me. But that's healing. This is where God intervenes supernaturally to change circumstances. In other words, no way this is ever gonna work out and all of a sudden God does it. In Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas were in prison, right? And they were worshiping God. And at midnight, there was an earthquake, chains came off, doors opened up. That's a miraculous thing right there. It's God opening up doors or doing things that no one could explain.

That's the gift of miraculous powers. Now, here we are back in 1 Corinthians 12. After Paul listed all these gifts and he said this, "All of these are the work of one and the same spirit." Look at this and he distributes to each one just as he determines. What does this mean and what do I wanna say as we get ready to close this portion of service? I want you to understand something. First of all, you shouldn't pursue gifts, you should pursue Holy Spirit and let him distribute what you need. And what I can tell you is I have found myself at different times in life, not because of me, but because of who God is, who Holy Spirit is. I've operated in all of these different gifts because I was going through a particular situation or I was with a friend who was going through something and Holy Spirit dropped that gift in me so that I could help them or overcome something in my own life. So what you have to realize is the Holy Spirit is not holding onto these things and going, "Well, I mean, I don't think I'm gonna give it to him 'cause I don't think they really deserve it." He's looking for an opportunity to distribute that to you. You just have to have a willing heart to say, "Holy Spirit, whatever you want to do in my life, I want to have the manifestation, the expression of your gifts operating in my life."

It's so very important. So what I want you to understand is that I think it would be a really poor job of me as your pastor to teach you all of this stuff about Holy Spirit and say, "God bless you guys, see you next week." But rather, the best thing that I could do is bring understanding so you're not uninformed. So now you are completely informed about Holy Spirit and now to create a moment for Holy Spirit to fill us and let his gifts begin to express itself in us as we are sitting here. And there's no better place to start at this moment than first of all, starting with the first role of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. And that is that he draws people into relationship with God. And I bet that there are some of you here today that if I were to ask you, if you got in a car accident and died, do you know where you would spend eternity? Well, see, the Holy Spirit can be prompting you right now, going, "You know what, that isn't you, but we can make sure that is you." He's drawing you into relationship for forgiveness and freedom that only comes in Christ. And if that's you, maybe you've never done that before. I don't, maybe you have at some point in time and your life's kind of drifted. And you know, you got to re-up that relationship. That's the Holy Spirit that's prompting you right now.

He's convicting you. He's drawing you into relationship with the Lord. So I want to take a moment with your eyes closed and no one looking around at you and you know that you're not right with God. What's so awesome is that, if you're not sure, then I would submit to you, you probably aren't because the scripture says that your spirit bears witness. It connects with God knowing that you are a child of God. So don't let this moment pass you by. It's just one decision away from living in eternity with God and being free. If that's you and you want to pray that prayer on the count of three, just raise your hand. One, two, three. Praise God. Come on, lift it up. Don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed. Just right there where you are. That's right. I wish you guys could see eternity changing from this perspective. It's a beautiful thing. Okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna all pray this prayer now. Say heavenly Father, thank you for loving me. Jesus, thank you for dying from me. Holy Spirit, thank you for empowering me.

So today, I believe it. Jesus, you are my Lord and my Savior. My life is not mine. My life is yours. So as I surrender, Lord, lead me in Jesus' name. Okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're going to have a moment. And I would like to ask you if you, I mean, if there's emergency, you have to leave. You go ahead. If not, can you just give me a few moments? Because I don't want to see any of us with the Bible calls, grieve the Holy Spirit. You can't wait to go eat something or do whatever you have to do. I mean, it can wait and disturb what Holy Spirit. So I'm just asking you, please, if you could just hold on a few moments and let's honor the Lord in this time. Okay, now what I want to do is I want to have all of us pray this prayer and then we're going to see how we can activate Holy Spirit operating in our lives. So would all of you close your eyes? Would you lift your hands to the Lord? Even if you feel uncomfortable. In fact, you probably need it more if you do feel uncomfortable. Put yourself in a place and a position, perhaps where you've never been before.

So you can receive something that you've never had before. Now say, Holy Spirit, feel me. Holy Spirit, speak to me. Holy Spirit, use me. Holy Spirit, I am available. Whatever you want to do is okay with me. That attitude wants you to stay in that attitude. Can you guys put your hands down for a moment? I want you to stay just like that. I'm going to ask you a question. How many of you know someone right now that needs faith? They're going through something and you know they need faith. They're lacking faith, maybe they're discouraged to faith. They don't have trust right now in the Lord and the circumstances. And you know them. Okay, if that's you, I want you to raise your hand. You know someone like that. Okay, now the rest of you, I want you to open your eyes and I want you to find somebody around you. If your hand is up and you've got people around you with hands up, y'all can join together. Okay, we're going to activate this gift of faith right now and praying for one another. I'm going to find somebody whose hand is up and join with them. It's okay. It's okay. It's not going to be weird. It's all right. It's cool. We're all family. We're all operating for the common good, for the building up of each other and encouragement to each other. There you go. Okay, so Father, right now, you know what's happening in everyone's life.

You know the circumstances that are in front of the people whose hands are raised. You know what their friends or the family or what they're dealing with. So right now, Holy Spirit, I pray you would activate faith in their lives right now that all of a sudden there would be this surety. There would be this confidence that God, I know what my problem is, but I also know God that you are bigger. I pray that you would begin to do something that's so real, that's so tangible that people can know and experience and feel the faith rising up inside of them. Thank you for working. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for what you do in Jesus' name. Okay, now with your eyes closed again, I want you just to begin to once again hear from Holy Spirit. Maybe some of you know someone, maybe they need a miracle, a healing, like a supernatural something, or their body needs a physical healing. If that's you, would you raise your hand if you know somebody like that? Uh-huh. Come on, raise your hand, there you go. All right, I want you guys to find those that are around you and join with them. Right now, rally together. Remember, that's what these gifts are for. They're for the building up, for the common good, contributing to one another. This is you activating Holy Spirit in your own life, and this gift for miracle and healings right now. God, thank you for those whose hands are raised. Thank you for those who are standing on behalf of someone that they know, or even their own lives. I thank you for bodies being healed. I thank you for kidneys functioning, liver, begin to function the way that it should. I thank you, God, for healing of eyes in Jesus' name.

Thank you for sight, being restored. I thank you for stigmas, being removed. Thank you, God, for ringing in people's ears for it to be gone. I speak against cancer in Jesus' name. I thank you, Father, for bringing healing and wholeness to bodies. Thank you for bones that are broken. Thank you for healing right now. Thank you, God, for what you're doing. In the name of Jesus, God, for miracles. I pray right now for people that are, they seem to be hemmed in on all side. Like there is no way out on whatever they're dealing with. God, make a way. God, open the door right now in Jesus' name. Thank you for what's happening in people's lives, because we're activating the Holy Spirit in our lives for miracles and healings. And I thank you. You are the same God today that you were back then. You are the same God here as you are in Africa, as you are in Asia, as you are in India. Thank you, God, for what you're doing. Miracles happen today. maybe some of you in here know someone that needs encouragement, someone that needs a prophecy, a word of encouragement, for strengthening comfort and encouragement. If that's you, you know someone that needs that and will raise your hand as well. That's right. Here's what I want you to do, too. As you raise your hand, I want you to begin

to think about them. Won't you get a picture of their face, who they are? Could be somebody right next to you right now. That's OK. See, it's Holy Spirit. He's speaking to you right now. He's showing you what someone is dealing with. Here's what I want you to keep doing. Keep your eyes closed. I need you focused on the Lord. He's giving you someone. And you know what they're going through, or you wouldn't have lifted your hand in the first place. God, I ask that you would begin to activate the gift of wisdom. Thank you, God, for activating the gift of knowledge. Begin to help them see the discerning of spirits. They can see into the spirit realm. God is what is going on with these people that they want to give an encouraging word to. I pray right now. Give them insight. Holy Spirit, deposit inside them. Activate this gift of knowledge, wisdom, discernment. Thank you for what you're doing. Now, maybe this person is right there by you. Go ahead and take a moment and start encouraging them. Start giving them some encouragement, strengthening them, comfort them, encouraging them. If they're right there, go ahead and do that. Begin to activate that gift.

Begin to use it for the common good. It could be somebody you don't even know. And God right now is dropping inside you a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge. Turn to the person next to you and just tell them, "God wanted you to know he loves you. "He sees the situation. "He's working in this." Go ahead, just begin to let it function. Let it begin to operate. Let it begin to activate right now as Holy Spirit. Right now is filling this place and giving you the words that you need. Thank you, Jesus, for sending the Holy Spirit. Thank you for this advocate. Thank you for this partner in our lives. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for helping us to do what we can't do on our own. Thank you for drawing us in, empowering us to be the church. Now here's what we're gonna do. You guys keep going. This is no like set thing. This is you guys, if you're encouraging somebody, keep that up. I'm gonna have our prayer team if they would come down to the front. We're gonna go into this song, this bridge, and fight the Holy Spirit into our lives. Like it did when the Holy Spirit

was first poured out on the earth. Here's what I need you to do. I need you to understand this as we go into singing this song and we're gonna sing it with them. But please, here's the context. I don't want you to sing a song. I want you to say a prayer. Let these lyrics not be lyrics that are just on the screen that you would sing. Let this be a prayer coming out of your own heart, your own spirit, and we'll see what the Lord does. And in a few moments, we'll be done. If you wanna stand, great. If you need prayer from our prayer partners, I will say this when you join your faith with elders, the prayer of the righteous, they'll be made whole. Okay, so if you need that, make your way down here. If you're encouraging someone or God gives you a word for someone else, take your time. Go ahead and do that. If you're ready to worship him standing or sitting, do that as well. We're gonna go into this. Gabby, would you lead us into this bridge?