Embracing the Holy Spirit: Surrender and Unity

Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Good afternoon, yes, and happy Pentecost.

We celebrate Happy Resurrection every Sunday, and especially what some call Easter Sunday. We celebrate Resurrection at least one time a year, and most churches also do the same. Pentecost is a Sunday that very few in the body of Christ celebrate. Some talk about the Holy Spirit all the time; others, almost zero. I think we want to at least talk about the Holy Spirit once a year, and the Lord encouraged me also. Why not talk about God the Father on Father's Day? We should at least mention the Father at least once a year, the Holy Spirit at least once a year, and Jesus many times a year.

I won't be here this Father's Day, so maybe Brother Abraham or someone, Brother Matthew, will preach about the Father on Father's Day, which is June 18th. Would someone like to share a testimony and encouragement? Prayer request? If it's a little hard to come up here, I will bring the microphone down there if you want to do it down there. If not, let me read scripture.

First Corinthians 12:27. I should like to welcome those who are joining online, the Fernandez family; they're camping somewhere, so three of them, and others who may be joining online. Welcome.

Switch passages based on the praise time. Thank you, Brother Matthew.

First Corinthians 12:27: "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, and ministering in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way."

Chapter 13: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide."

Among us two or three are gathered in your name, we pray that you would meet us and baptize us, immerse us, drench us in the Holy Spirit. Father, we trust that you will do so in your time, in your way. Lord, it's not up to us how we experience the Holy Spirit; we just wait and we receive whatever you give. We avail ourselves to you in this time. Come, Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Jim is the only one among us who might be qualified to be a spy someday because he is very perceptive, so you need that skill if you're going to be a spy.

Isaiah 55:1 says, "Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters." In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman and asks her for a drink. She is surprised because Jewish people didn't normally interact with Samaritans. Jesus then says that she should be asking Him for a drink because if she does, she will never thirst again, and it will become in her a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

John 7:37 says, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." This was spoken concerning the Spirit whom those believing in Him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

How much of the Holy Spirit is enough? Depending on your theology and denomination, answers could be all over the spectrum. For some, a simple drizzling, sprinkling, or spray of the Spirit is enough. It is received at conversion, and as it says in Ephesians 1 and 2 Corinthians 1, the Holy Spirit was given as a seal in our hearts for the day of redemption. It is like Jesus giving the bride, His church, an engagement ring. It is His promise that He will come back for us. For many people in the body of Christ, that little spray of the Spirit is sufficient, and they never ask for more.

John 20:22 says, after the resurrection but before Jesus ascended, "He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" This is the greatest of all, for it is love.

Jesus gathered with the apostles and breathed on them, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit." Without the seal of the Holy Spirit, we cannot be saved or regenerate in our hearts. We must see Jesus for who He is and hear His voice for what He says. Matthew 3 tells us that John the Baptist baptized people with water unto repentance, but Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and Fire. Some denominations sprinkle baptized their children, but the literal words of the story tell us that people were going under the water and coming out drenched.

Acts 1:4 answers the question of how much of the Holy Spirit is enough. Jesus commanded the apostles not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which was to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Joel 2 tells us that the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all flesh, so every person who believes in Jesus will receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It comes upon all ages, genders, and societal positions. Everyone who wants more of the Holy Spirit has a promise for them.

The Holy Spirit is known as the Helper, and we all need help in many areas of life. Romans 8:26 says, "Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." The Holy Spirit intercedes for us perfectly according to the will of God when we don't even know how to pray for ourselves. He searches our hearts and knows what the mind of the Spirit is.

We often find ourselves weak and confused and don't know how to pray, but the Holy Spirit is there to help us. He is also there for revelation and understanding. We can trust the Holy Spirit to reveal things to us at just the right time and give us understanding. John 14:26 says, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things."

If tomorrow Christianity was outlawed and we cannot gather here on a Sunday, we all want to be a witness for Jesus, but the problem is we lack power. We could try to do it in our flesh, but we know after an hour we're going to get tired, and after the first person spits in our face, we're going to want to give up. There is a power that the Holy Spirit gives for us to preach Jesus and to not give up and to go where Jesus sends us. This requires power.

Even the apostles who lived and breathed and slept next to Jesus for three and a half years lacked this power. It would have been foolish for them to try to do church without this power. They were told explicitly to wait for the power. We must ask for the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mark chapter 16 is Mark's version of the Great Commission. It involves power to cast out demons, power to speak in new tongues, supernatural power and protection from serpents and poison, and power to lay hands and heal the sick. This is what the Holy Spirit does when He comes upon us with power.

First Corinthians 12 talks about the spiritual gifts and it says to bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you, and because you have your Bible and because you have the Holy Spirit, He will teach you all things, not just necessarily spiritual things. He will teach you what's happening in current events; He will teach you which way to go, how to prepare; He will teach you things that are not even in the scripture. He will bring to remembrance especially the things that Jesus has said in His word.

That's why for me, I have a Bible reading plan which goes from Genesis to Malachi in the Old Testament, and I also go through Psalms and Proverbs. I make sure I highlight the gospels because I want to sow a lot of the words, the red letters of what Jesus said, so that at the right time the Holy Spirit will bring to remembrance the very authoritative teaching of Jesus Christ.

In John chapter 15, Jesus says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Without me, you can do nothing."

Every gift is a manifestation of the Spirit. Things like wisdom, a word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healings, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues, and many more are manifestations of the Holy Spirit. It is not up to us to decide which gifts we receive, but rather the Holy Spirit distributes them as He wills.

On the day of Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit was made evident as the disciples spoke in foreign tongues, representing all the nations who will one day gather around a throne to give praise to God. Even now, the Holy Spirit brings unity to the body of Christ, scattered around the world in every country, every city, and every town, proclaiming the name of Jesus and the mighty works of God.

As Jesus said in John 15, "I am the vine; you are the branches; without me, you can do nothing."

About abiding in Christ and bearing the fruit of Jesus, Jesus says we will be hated in the same way they hated Him. In this time of worldwide tribulation and persecution, we will need help from the Holy Spirit. The testing will be so great, and the temptation will be to withdraw from Jesus, to stay silent and not acknowledge His name, and even to recant and curse His name publicly to save our physical flesh. This will be happening in the church as people's hearts grow cold. But the Holy Spirit will be given to give us the words to say. We don't have to prepare in advance, and that is how the gospel is preached to the nations.

The Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He will show the non-believing world how many chances they got, and yet they refused to believe. He will show the entire world their lives will flash before them in great detail. He will show them when they had a chance to repent, and yet they kept refusing. The Holy Spirit will also convict the church of our sin and show us the ways in which we fall short of pleasing the Father by being unrighteous.

The Holy Spirit is also here to convict the world of judgment. There is judgment, and there is hell, but the Holy Spirit is here to tell us that hell is not for us, Christian or non-believer. Hell is only for Satan and the fallen angels. The Holy Spirit's ministry is to warn of the coming judgment.

As far as I can tell from this scripture, if you still live in your sin, if you still follow a pattern of sinning, if you still live unrighteously following your flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8 also says in verse 15, "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.'"

The Spirit is here to give us a sense that we are adopted sons and daughters of God, and we have direct access to our Father because of Jesus. The veil has been torn; we have access to heaven, and now our heavenly Father is Abba Father. He's Daddy. We can draw that close to the Father.

Ephesians 5:18 says, "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God."

This is contrasting the effects of physical wine, the drunkenness that leads to debauchery, dissipation, and a wanton living, with the effects of a different kind of wine, a wine of the Spirit that breathes life, gives strength, gives revelation, and gives us a spirit of adoption.

When we gather on a Sunday, we already did the first part when we sang praises to one another. We're singing it to the Lord, but when you sing it from your heart, it affects the other people around you. When there is that kind of sincere praise, it helps. It's different than when you do this alone at home. When we sing it to the Lord with a melody in our heart, we're also singing a psalm, a hymn, and a spiritual song to one another.

It matters how we sing, and it matters the way in which we sing. Are we half-hearted, or are we belting it out from the depths of our being? It makes a difference; it uplifts the brother and sister next to you because you're singing it to them as much as you're singing it to the Lord.

When we gather as thankful people to God the Father, it uplifts us. We don't have to say much to each other, but just the overflowing atmosphere of gratitude changes the mood. It goes a long way if just one person in the place is thankful. We are thankful to the Lord and to one another, and that is how we speak. This builds up the body of Christ and is a sign of the Spirit filling this place and our hearts, submitting to one another in fear of God.

It is a mini miracle every time I come up here. I would rather be in the back, but it is a mini miracle because I ask to be filled and come up filled with the Spirit, out of obedience to Jesus Christ.

It would be strange if I was filled with the Spirit and created a hierarchy, where I am elevated above everyone else and only I can preach because I have a license to preach. There should be no one else authorized to testify or pray, and everyone should stay silent. If we did this in the service, it would not be a sign of the Holy Spirit.

Out of being filled with the Holy Spirit, we can submit to one another. If I make a mistake, someone can call me out on it, and I should receive it humbly.

In the Kingdom, there are no hierarchies. We are all children of God and should have a sense that if Jesus was standing right here, nobody would be puffed up and say they have things to say and everyone should stay quiet. We believe He is here, and out of reverence for Jesus, we should all be low and on the same level. This is a demonstration of the Holy Spirit changing us.

We should be asking, seeking, and knocking about many different requests, but there is one request that we should make: to send the Holy Spirit. The Father sends, but Jesus is the one who breathes the Spirit and baptizes us by that same Spirit.

Those who walk in the Spirit bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. The Church of God should be persistent in asking for the Holy Spirit. Believers should be asking for the Holy Spirit every day, not just on Pentecost Sunday. God delights when He hears His church asking for the Holy Spirit, even to their children. He promises to send the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name (John 14:26). We should ask for the Holy Spirit with a heart to love others.

First Corinthians 12 talks about the body of Christ, which is one but has many members. Some parts may be more presentable than others, but in God's eyes, they are all honorable and presentable. We should not look at each other in terms of who is more presentable or honorable, but rather recognize that we are all part of Jesus' body.

God gives gifts and manifestations of the Spirit to His church so that we can use them to love one another better. We should not receive gifts to become more honorable or famous, as that defeats the purpose of why the gifts are given.

Chapter 13 of First Corinthians talks about the importance of love. If we do not have love, we will ruin ourselves and everyone under us. We should not be puffed up or divide the body of Christ because of our spiritual gifts or titles.

If we had the end game in mind of God wanting His Church to be one, we should become loving people with the gifts we already have. First Corinthians 13 lists out what love is: it suffers long, is kind, does not envy, does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

If we were this kind of loving Church to one another, God would be quick to pour out His gifts and fan into flame what is already a loving Church.

Galatians 6:2 says to bear one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. Each one should examine their own work and have rejoicing in themselves alone and not in another. Each one should bear their own load with the Spirit's help.

The one thing that interferes in our ability to love well is pride. When we think we are somebody or something when we should see ourselves as nothing, there is conflict, factions, friction, envy, and provoking. Two proud, prickly people colliding upon each other will not have love because each person thinks they are somebody when they should think they are nothing.

The body of Christ thinks that it's a license to be drunk and disorderly, and that's not what it is. It's a license to be filled with the power of God, to be filled with the love of God, to be filled with the joy of the Lord, to be filled with the peace of God, and to be filled with the power of God to be able to do the works of God and to be able to be a witness of God and to be able to be a light in this dark world.

Chances are you can be a person who will not get provoked easily. You're going to believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. That person may be a jerk; that person may be immature and unsanctified, but you will not be affected. You will just show love because you're nothing; there's no flesh there to flare up. You see yourself as such, and the Holy Spirit helps us to get there.

We start sowing to that same spirit and not to the flesh. Galatians 6:7 says, "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." If he sows to his flesh, he will of the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

What if we became a people who loved and loved and loved, and we gave and gave and gave with no strings attached? We're not doing it for ourselves; we're not doing it for any kind of reciprocity that they will love us or respect us, or we want to receive anything from them. What if we, viewing ourselves as nothing, just poured out ourselves in love to one another? Wouldn't God be so pleased to pour out His Spirit and His gifts upon a church like this?

What blocks people from asking for the Holy Spirit? I think the main thing that blocks us from asking for the Holy Spirit is our mind, our mindset. You and I are the blockage. Theology is the blockage. There are many people who've been taught at church that they never have to ask for the Holy Spirit because they already have Him; they already received Him, and so the sprinkling is all they have. No wonder they struggle with the flesh and they are not sanctified because they're doing everything out of human effort. No wonder many sections of the body of Christ are stuck. It's because of their theology; it's how it's been taught.

In Mark 2:22 it says, "New wine must be put into new wineskins." The Pharisees are representative of the religious mindset. In their eyes, they have it all figured out. They are heady people; they don't have experience; their heart is far from the Lord. They have a lot of words; they're very intellectual, but when God looks at them, they are like an old wineskin. They are brittle and dry; they are rigid and stuck, and they are set in their ways. That is the old wineskin.

With the Spirit's help, we are supposed to become new wineskins so that the new wine of the Holy Spirit can come in and make us into new creations through and through.

In Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit did come and baptized and birthed the Church of God, many people's reaction was, "Oh, they're drunk!" When we talk about the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, some people in the body of Christ think that it's a license to be drunk and disorderly, and that's not what it is. It's a license to be filled with the power of God, the love of God, the joy of the Lord, the peace of God, and the power of God to be able to do the works of God and to be a witness of God and to be a light in this dark world.

We should ask often for our mindset to be renewed. The Spirit of our mind has a spirit behind it, and that Spirit has to be renewed. Everything changes when your mindset is renewed. We are stuck even in a religious life, which is the most pitiful existence if we are darkened in our understanding and our thinking is futile. But if our mindset is renewed, the blindness of the heart is taken away. We feel and see and perceive and understand things before they were just words on a page.

But how do we renew our mindset? Ephesians 4:17-24 tells us to put off our former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of our minds. We should put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

We should also take heed to Ephesians 5:18, which tells us not to be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but to be filled with the Spirit.

When we surrender and repent, abandoning our old ways of thinking and living, the Spirit will start teaching us step by step how to be and how to live out this new creation.

Let us pray for the Spirit to renew our mindsets. Thank you. Ask the Spirit of your mind to set your mind to be renewed, so that you and I would become new wineskins. Surrender, repent, and abandon the old wineskin so that we can receive a new wine.