What's Got a Hold of You?

All right. Welcome, everybody. Welcome in Dickinson State Penitentiary Online. Come on, Bismarck. Welcome them in. So glad that you're joining us today. Before I jump in, we're going to go right into the message today, but I want to invite you to midweek this week. We had a prayer midweek this last Wednesday. It was powerful. God met us there. He's going to meet us this week. We're doing something different. We have two guest speakers coming in, one this week and one next week. This week, it's one of my pastors, one of my mentors, Pastor Jeff Little, who's spoken into my life over the last year and just been a huge part of our journey. He's going to be speaking to the heart of our church in a dynamic way this Wednesday night. And then Pastor Noah Heron will be here in two weeks. And if you're a young adult or a high school student and you're not following Pastor Noah on social media, you should just go ahead and do that right now. And then also be at midweek because he's just a great leader and speaking into the next generation in a powerful way. So I hope you'll come be a part of midweek. I'm going to start this week, not necessarily where I left or ended last week, but I'm going to start with what I left out last week. And I'm going to start at one of the weirdest passages of scripture I've ever started a message on, but we're doing it today. You ready? You're not ready for this. Okay. Okay. You're ready. Here we go. It says in Daniel 10 20, Daniel is having, oh, time out. Daniel's having visions. He's having God speak to him. He's having messengers show up and he starts to get a little description of what's going on in his life in the book of Daniel. It says this, he replied, do you know why I have come? This is a messenger from God speaking to Daniel. He said, soon I must return to fight against the spirit Prince of the kingdom of Persia. I think last week I said, whatever that means today, we're going to talk a little bit about what that means. And then he said, and after that, the spirit Prince of the kingdom of Greece will come. Greece was not even a country at this point. So Daniel is truly speaking to supernatural heavenly beings about future things and also present realities. He says, meanwhile, I will tell you what is written in the book of truth. No one helps me against these spirit princes, except Michael, your spirit Prince Michael known as an Archangel who commands the armies of God. And so before you think pastor Josh, this is weird. It's in the Bible. And if it's in the Bible, we should talk about it. The Bible specifically calls, uh, both Michael and also these other princes of Egypt and, or of, uh, Persia and, uh, princes of Greece. He specifically

calls them spirit princes. So there's a lot we don't know, but what we do know is that they're spiritual beings. And we also know that they have some sort of rank or authority. They don't only show up in the old Testament and in the times of Daniel and others, but they also show up in the new Testament. In the new Testament, Jesus encounters a man who comes to him and says, Jesus, help me. My son is a, has an evil spirit. That's stopping him from being able to speak. Not only that, but this spirit throws my son to the ground. It makes him foam at the mouth that makes him grind his teeth and more. And the disciples try to cast this spirit out and nothing changes. So they bring this boy to Jesus. And at the sight of Jesus, the spirit throws the boy to the ground and all the things begin happening again. And then they say, Jesus, if you can help this boy, Jesus responds, what do you mean? If I can, anything is possible. If a person believes, come on, somebody who's been believing Jesus for something, say amen. Anything is possible. If a person believes the father instantly cried out, I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief. So this is not perfect faith. It's not perfect belief. This is like, I'm working with a mustard seed with a tiny little bit of faith here, but Jesus helped me with my unbelief. When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, you rebuke the evil spirit. And he said, listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak. He said, I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again. Then the spirit screamed through the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd. As people said, he's dead, Jesus killed him. I knew it, these kinds of things. But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet. And he stood up. Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, why couldn't we cast out that evil spirit? Jesus replied, this kind can be cast out only by prayer. The Apostle Paul also continues this and says it's not just in the Old Testament, it wasn't just in the time of Jesus, but this is something that affects us today and affected the early church. In Ephesians 6, he says, our struggle is not against flesh and blood. People are not the problem. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, not talking about political leaders or mayors or political authorities, it's saying against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. That there's a realm outside of the physical, there's a heavenly realm where these things

are happening. And he says the encouragement, six verses later, is to pray in the Spirit, capital S Spirit, on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all of the Lord's people. I want to give you a message today entitled, What's Got a Hold of You? What's Got a Hold of You? When I was a kid, I used to go down in my parents' basement. And it was a partially finished basement, but it was wide open. And it was truly a basement. So there's just these tiny little windows that give a little bit of light. But at night, it was pitch dark. And one of my least favorite things I would hear was when one of my parents would say, somebody left the light on in the basement. Because that meant you had to go to the bottom of the stairs in the dungeon, where the devils and all their friends dwell, and shut that light off, and then escape out of the abyss before something ate you. And so I remember going down into the basement, shutting the light off, and then I would sprint up the steps, imagining something nipping at my heels. Anybody else? I still don't prefer dark basements. When I was down in that basement, I would shut that light off, something would get a hold of me. And I think it's what the Scripture would call the spirit of fear. Come on, if you've been afraid in a way that goes beyond like, oh, I'm kind of spooked by that, into like, there's a fear in you, you know what I'm talking about. It's like something else has gotten a hold of you. Here's what I want you to see. In what I read to you from Ephesians 6 and Mark 9, Ephesians 6 says there are, quote, spiritual forces. Ephesians 6 also says pray in the capital S spirit. Mark 9 says that Jesus was dealing with an unclean spirit. In Scripture, there is one word from the Hebrew and from the Greek, I should say, that translates into spirit and is used in all of these occasions. It says there are pneuma-like forces, that we should pray in the pneuma, that Jesus was dealing with an unclean pneuma. This word pneuma is the word for spirit, and it refers simultaneously to the human spirit, evil spirits, the angelic spirits that visited Daniel, and also the hagios pneuma or the pneuma hagion, the Holy Spirit. And my question for you today is who's got a hold of you? See, in Genesis 2, God creates man. Adam was not a name. It's the Hebrew word adam. And God creates Adam, and he breathes the breath of life into him. This breath, when the Bible says that God breathed breath into Adam, it is the ruach or ruach of God. It's the very breath of the Almighty entering into humanity. And we know that it makes Adam

physically alive, spiritually alive, and in perfect communion with God, walking and talking with God, in the garden. He had a human spirit that was fully alive towards God. And God warns Adam, he says, if you disobey, you'll surely die. Adam and Eve do disobey, and they don't physically die, but spiritually something dies within them. Part of their spirit that was alive to God is now dead. It's similar to what the Apostle Paul writes about us in Ephesians 2.1, when he says, you were dead because of your sins, that something in you was not alive because of the sin that you've committed or that you've carried from Adam and Eve. According to Ephesians 4, you can be dead in sin and still be spiritually aware, capable of moral reasoning, creative, offering worship to different things in your life. But apart from Christ, you are spiritually dead because you are not regenerated into the life that God gives. You can think of it like this. The human spirit still exists, but it's disconnected from its true source of life. It's like a branch that's been cut off from a tree and cast aside. It still exists, it's just no longer receiving life from its source. But the good news is, even though every one of us was a branch that was cut off because of our own sin, even though we were dead because of our sins, God gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God's grace that you have been saved. The Bible says that you were picked up, that you were grafted back into the tree of life. That you are grafted back into God's family. That you were grafted back in to the source of life through Christ Jesus because of God's favor and his grace. And so when we know Jesus, the part of us that died

with Adam is regenerated and given new life because of Christ, amen? Jesus is trying to explain this to a man named Nicodemus who goes, what do you mean you can have new life? What do you mean that you can be born again? How does someone go back into their mother and be born again? And Jesus said, you're thinking in the physical, I'm talking about the spiritual. He says it this way, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born not just of a woman, but of the water and the Spirit. Capital S, Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. And we know from Scripture that if you confess your sins and your life is hidden in Christ, that the Spirit of God comes and resides in you. And you are given new life in Christ Jesus. It's spoken about by the Apostle Paul in Romans. He says, you've not received a spirit, a pneuma that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you've received God's Spirit, the pneuma hagion. When he adopted you as his own children, now we call him Abba Father. That the Spirit of God meets our spirit when we accept Christ and we are made alive in Christ Jesus, no longer dead in our sins and our trespasses and the mistakes of the past. Your spirit is like a musical instrument.

The Holy Spirit is the musician. The violin exists, but until the musician picks it up, it cannot produce the music it was designed for. It can't fulfill its purpose because the human spirit was designed to be in fellowship with God. You are not called to intermingle your spirit with any other spirit outside of the Holy Spirit. We are called to relationship with and to be full of the Spirit of God. The Spirit who belongs uniquely to God and is completely distinct and set apart from all that is ordinary and all that is unclean. This is why we talk about, get the mixture out of your heart. It's not mashing religions together and finding your way to quote unquote God. There is one Holy Spirit and there is one Jesus Christ and he is separate from all that is ordinary and all that is unclean. In the Hebrew, the Holy Spirit is known as the Ruach HaKodesh, meaning the breath or the wind of the Holy One. In the Greek, he's known as the sacred breath, the set apart Spirit. His name is Holy Spirit. Why? Holy being set apart, Spirit being eternal and he's the one who eternally sets us apart, makes us new in Christ Jesus.

He's described often in scripture as breath or wind or as air in motion. In fact, Jesus described Holy Spirit this way when he said, the wind blows wherever it wants. Come on, North Dakotans. Wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit or even what the Spirit might wanna do in your life. But listen, the Holy Spirit is not an experience that we chase. We've gotten this wrong in the past, the church. The Holy Spirit is a person that we walk with. Maybe you're here and I bring up Holy Spirit and I go, I've been to that circus before. See, there are generations that abused and use the Holy Spirit. It became kind of a circus. The problem was everybody saw the circus, but nobody saw anybody's life being changed. And so we swung the pendulum and said, I don't want weird. I just want God. So don't bring up the Holy Spirit, that's weird. But you cannot separate wanting more of God from wanting more of the Holy Spirit or wanting more of Jesus because we are Trinity people, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all functioning together. We need the presence of Holy Spirit. I need the presence of Holy Spirit.

We need the set apart one who makes us holy. We need the breath of God that brings life to our souls, even when we feel barren. We need the personal life-giving presence of God that proceeds from the Father, bringing God's life and God's power and God's holiness and God's presence into creation and into the lives of the followers of Jesus. We need the Holy Spirit who teaches us, who abides with us, who leads us, who intercedes with us, who can be grieved, who gives gifts, who bears spiritual fruit in our hearts. We need the presence of the Holy Spirit. We need the ruach, the breath of God, the invisible presence of God that produces visible evidence in the lives of his people, who reveals Christ to us and through us. We need the presence of the Holy Spirit. And God instructs us to give ourselves fully to the work of the Spirit, fully to the presence of the Spirit. He says it this way, he contrasts here, the work of the flesh and the work of the Spirit. He says, don't be drunk with wine because that's going to ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves and making music to the Lord in your hearts. What is it saying? If you give yourself fully to the work of the Holy Spirit, there is going to be a testimony.

There's going to be a praise. There's going to be a song. There's going to be worship. There's going to be affection. There's going to be devotion that flows from your heart back to the Lord because the Holy Spirit will reveal the work of Christ in your life. Don't be drunk with wine, but be full of the Holy Spirit. What the Apostle Paul is not saying is stop drinking and pray more. Some of you should. What the Apostle Paul is saying is whatever fills you will control you. Don't be controlled by the caffeine from coffee. Come on, you liked it when I called out the alcohol. Don't be drunk and let that take control of what you do. Don't let substances make you feel better. Don't get drunk on your own flesh and your own desires and just do whatever you want to do. Whatever you're full of will control you. And he says, be full of the Holy Spirit. It's an action verb. It says, don't just one time be filled with the Holy Spirit, be continually filled with the Spirit. So my question to you again today is what pneuma have you been full of? What have you been under the influence of? What's got a hold of you? Because we are called to live under the influence

of the Holy Spirit only, but how many of you know it is a battle? It is a battle. In fact, the book of Galatians says that it will be a battle. It says, the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit. And just in case you don't understand what that means, the Spirit, what is contrary to the flesh? That they are actually fighting against one another. The Apostle Paul says, I do what I don't want to do and I don't do what I want to do. What is wrong with me? The Spirit is in conflict with your flesh. Your flesh is your sinful nature. It's what Adam walked in after he sinned. It is what we call our carnal nature. That's our flesh. It's the animal-like way of living in us. Every one of us has warped desires that come from our flesh. No amen. and they're in conflict with God's Spirit. Every one of us has natural inclinations, desires of our carnal nature that pull us away from Christ Jesus. Each of us has it. And Galatians 5 tells us the result when we follow them. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your flesh, your carnal nature, the results are very clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,

idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. The Bible says the results are clear. If you live according to the, so the problem is not the outbursts of anger that you're having. The problem actually is not that you're getting drunk all the time. The problem is not these, that you're searching out sorcery and witchcraft to try to find some power. That's the result. The problem is you're living according to your flesh. You're following the desires of your flesh. Even some who have been made alive in Christ Jesus are still acting like you're spiritually dead. But back in Ephesians 2, the apostle Paul writes, you've been made alive in Christ. So don't follow the sinful patterns and desires of your flesh. But it will be a battle. And just because you know Jesus and you're still battling doesn't mean that God has left you. It doesn't mean that it's always a devil or a demon.

It just means it's gonna be a battle to crucify that flesh, to put it up on its own cross, and to walk in the way of the Spirit, and to again and again and again say no. It's why we fast, it's why we pray, it's why we give things up, because we're saying no to our flesh so we can say yes to the Lord Jesus. See, some battles are just battles against our flesh. But also the world and the devil appeal to that flesh. The enemy knows where you're weak. He knows your propensity. He knows your sin pattern. He knows where you're weak in the flesh. I mean, think of the worldly appeal, the cultural appeal of just drunkenness in North Dakota. We're known for it. And then look at the way the enemy whispers, even on that particular topic. Doesn't matter, it's just one drink. Everybody's doing it. It's no big deal. God will forgive you later. Don't get me wrong, there are evil spirits that want you to pursue exactly what your flesh desires. That will entice you, that will bring temptation. And this is why Ephesians 6 says you better get up every morning and put on the full armor of God so you can stand against the schemes of the devil.

Because he is scheming to steal and kill and destroy. And so we listen not to the voice of the evil one, we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. The way of the Spirit is contrary to that of the flesh. That's why even sometimes there's something you desire that your flesh wants and you get it and it's not as satisfying as you thought it would be. It's like somebody who's in a raft with no water, surrounded by salt water, and they think if I just drink, I'll be satisfied. No, that's the way of sin. You drink that salt water, it will mess with your mind and it'll make you thirstier. It won't satisfy you. And that's what the evil one, that's what your flesh wants you to believe. I was fasting earlier this week and I thought if I could just have one bite of eggs. But I knew immediately when that bite goes in, will it taste good? Yes, but I will regret it. This is why the Holy Spirit leads us to greater desires that are without regret. Praise God. And Galatians 5 says, keep in step then with the Holy Spirit. How do we keep in step with the Holy Spirit? Some of you gotta empty the house today. I just think of the recurrences over and over again. I just think of the recurrences over and over again.

over in scripture when people try to put a false god or false worship in the same house with God's I just think of the recurrences over and over again. I just think of the recurrences over and over again. spirit or the place where God's presence dwells and only one wins out and it's the Holy Spirit. He has to win out. In fact, Richard Foster says more than any other single discipline, fasting is powerful because it reveals the things in our lives that control us, the things that dictate to us. It reveals what's in your house that needs less control or needs thrown out altogether. Today might not be like Elijah or like Daniel's day where you may, maybe you don't need to go home and tear down the Asherah pole or the shrine or you're not tempted to go make a sacrifice to a foreign god, but don't be deceived. Those false pneuma, that evil pneuma still exists in our world today and in the places where you see power and greed and corruption and witchcraft and sorcery and exploitation and death and idolatry and deception, those age-old forces are still at work. They're still in operation and the results are clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins. Like these, our modern day does not have fewer idols than the days of the Old Testament, they just tend to be more implicit. And if you don't have a hold on it by the power of the Holy Spirit, then it'll have a hold on you. So empty the house, get rid of it, so that you can be filled with the Spirit. So that the spirit man dictates to the flesh, I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and I'll walk in the way. God's Spirit helps us with this. How do we walk this out? Make much of Jesus. Make much of Jesus in your life, make much of Jesus in your family, make much of Jesus at your work, make much of Jesus in your thought life. Jesus said in John 16 that if you're full of the Spirit, that the Spirit loves to glorify Christ. So the evidence of the Spirit in you is your surrender and your obedience to Christ Jesus. He is the strong man that must fill your house. How do we walk in the Spirit? Create space to listen for his voice. Don't just listen to all the other voices. Even if you're in a crowded, loud room, you can quiet your spirit, it gives God space to speak. Find moments of silence, linger in worship, slow down, because God often speaks to still spirits in still places.

And the doorway is surrender. Lord, I'm listening, search me, speak to me, have your way. And then when he speaks, you act and expect him to move. God, I only got a mustard seed of faith, but I know that's all that you require, so in Jesus' name, let it be so. And walk in the Spirit. The Bible says he's like the wind. Discern, see when he's moving, follow the moving of the Spirit where the wind blows. This is the exciting Spirit-filled life when we're listening for his voice, when we're under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and he's leading us, and he's guiding us to serve and to help others. I'm going to take a moment and transition to all of our campuses. Our campus pastors, campus leaders are going to lead our response here together at this time. You know, a relationship with the Holy Spirit, we talk a lot about the Holy Spirit as if he's like a celebrity that we've heard of. Like, oh, yeah, LeBron James, I know about him. Played for the Lakers, he's going to the 76ers, he's the second-best basketball player of all time after Michael Jordan. Thank you, young adults, for not booing me. But the Holy Spirit should not just be like a celebrity that we've heard some things about. The Holy Spirit should be like a relationship, like somebody that we know in a deep and meaningful way. My friend Jonah, I know about his family, I know his wife, I know where he works, I know his personality, I know his love for people, I know his love for God's Word. we know each other. I was thinking one of my other friends today was dropping his daughter off in E-Kids and as they're walking down the hallway his hand was just swinging by his side and that kind of came still and it was extended a little bit and I thought at some point that little five-year-old's gonna reach up or eight I don't know how old she is and reach up and grab her daddy's hand. Sure enough they got halfway down the hallway and his hand was extended the whole time and she reached up and she grabbed it. The father is here, he's moving, he's walking with you, you just gotta reach up and grab on. You're not just invited to the party where the work of the Holy Spirit happens, you're invited to relationship with Holy Spirit. I wanted to just close the service today by leading us in a few moments of just being in God's presence and I'm just going to do it in a really personal way. I'm going to mirror some time with the Lord that I had just the other night

and I'm just inviting you into my prayer closet if that's okay. When Jesus said when you pray go in your room shut the door and pray to your Father in heaven and he who sees what's done in secret will reward you. So when I want relationship with the Holy Spirit, when I'm trying to be filled with the Holy Spirit, this is sometimes what it looks like for me. Sometimes the days are busy and it's reading the Bible in bed for a little bit or it's praying throughout the day but in the ideal situation I turn on a song like the one that you're about to hear, a song that just takes me personally just right into the presence of Jesus. I can just sense his nearness. And I just invite him to come. I just begin to worship him because the word worship is sometimes used as the word proskuneum which means to lean in and kiss and he's not just my God Almighty but God is our lover. We're called to an intimate space with him. The word says I am my beloved's and he is mine. I believe this is true masculinity to be able to come into the presence of Jesus, get on your knees and love your heavenly Father. I thank him for my family. I thank him for what he's done in my life. I thank him for our church. I thank him for his goodness to me. I thank him for his forgiveness. I thank him for his peace. I thank him for his presence. I welcome come Holy Spirit. Fill me to overflowing again. Consuming fire. We honor you tonight. And often as I continue to worship, I open up my journal and I begin to write prayer requests. I begin to write concerns that are in my heart and in my mind, the things that I just have to give over to the Lord. I empty myself of all those things so that I prepare myself to be filled with his spirit. And as I write them down and as I pray over them, I feel the weight. It's not on me. It's not up to me. It's up to the Ruach of God to make it happen. And then I'll open my Bible and I'll begin to read and I read until something hits me. I read until something registers. I read until something stirs in my heart. And then I just lean back and I yield to his Holy Spirit. I let him minister to my heart. I let him speak to me. I open my hands to receive from him and say, Lord, speak. Your servant is listening. Come on, without anybody leaving, would you stand on your feet all at once? Across this room, would you open your hands, open your heart, say, Father, here I am.

Speak, your servant is listening. Come on, if you wanna be full of the Holy Spirit, just ask Him, even right now, Father, begin to fill me with your Spirit in a new and a fresh way. If you've been in a desert spiritually, like, don't be full of pride, don't be full of ego, don't be full of disappointment. Instead, be filled with hope, be filled with faith that God can come and meet you right now in this place. We thank you, Jesus. Come, Holy Spirit. Soak up, breathe on your feet right now. Thank you, Jesus. Soak up, we've gathered together to wait on you. To wait on you. To wait on you. Father, I just pray for your people right now, everybody with their hands lifted. Lord, that you would fill them with your Spirit in a new and a fresh way. Lord, we talked last week that a broken and contrite heart you will not despise, you will not deny. I ask that you would meet us here. Father, I ask in Jesus' name that there would be a growth in those who hunger and thirst for righteousness in our church, that we would desire the presence of the living God, Lord, that we would know your presence and we would taste and see that the Lord is good. And once we taste and we see, we would be drawn back again

and again and again. Lord, that this church would not be known for the number of people who come or the things that we've been doing in the community, but we would be known as people of the presence of God, that they would encounter us, that they would see us, and they would say, those people have been with Jesus. They've been with Jesus, they speak like Jesus, they act like Jesus, they talk like Jesus, they love like Jesus, they forgive like Jesus. They have the authority of Christ. I just keep getting this picture in my mind, this weekend, of people who have been playing in the kiddie pool, and God is calling you out of the kiddie pool and into the deeper mysteries of who he is. It's not comfortable, your feet can't always touch the ground. Oh, it's where we come to see his glory. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. If you're here in the room today and you say, Pastor Josh, I haven't sensed the presence of God in my life ever before, or in a really long time, would you just lift your hands right now? It just feels kind of barren, kind of dry. Father, I ask, Lord, that you come and meet us in this place. Lord, I ask that you come and meet us in this place. I've given you a public example today, but this is a private invitation, a daily invitation.

Some of you are wrestling with your identity and the answers in the presence of Jesus. Some of you are wrestling with sin, the answer is in the presence of Jesus. Somebody here, you're wrestling with that spirit of fear I was talking about, the answer, the confidence is in the presence of Jesus. Prayer teams, did you come right now? If you're here today and you need to receive prayer, we have team members that would love to pray with you. This moment is to be continued Wednesday night, we're going to continue like this. Actually that's wrong. This moment is to be continued when you get home, go in your room, shut the door, pray to your father in heaven and he meets you there. Come on, Father, we thank you for your presence. Like Pastor Dylan said, it's precious. We thank you for moving among us and we ask that what you started in the spirit, we would not try to continue in the flesh, but would be completed in the spirit. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. If you want prayer, you can come, otherwise this service is over, but church is not, so go be the church.