A Power Beyond Our Own

How are you doing today? Good to see you. Did the rapture take place or something? It's a little lower attendance today, yeah. I've got some empty seats out there.

Where are you guys out online? We miss you here. Come on. Come on back to church, okay? I know it's 78 degrees today and a good day to get out to the beach, but hopefully you're tuning in.

We're so glad that you're here with us online, if you are, and all of you here in the house. It is always special to see you here. Amen. I like to see your faces. I like to see your faces, and we actually have, give a shout out to my in-laws.

Man, they're always faithful every week online. Thank you guys for always being faithful. They're probably like, we would be there every Sunday if we were here in Virginia Beach. I know you guys would, but we got people all over the place that are watching in different states and stuff, so it's, and some of you are watching later on in the week as well, and we just appreciate you. Thank you tuning in, and for those of you here in the house today and online, if you want to fill out a connection card, if you're new with us today, you can drop it off right over in the Next Steps area, and we will connect you with some things going on here in the church.

Just a few things coming up. Next week is Baptism Sunday, guys. Baptism Sunday. So, yeah, come on, give some thanks to God. So, if you're here today, and you want to be baptized next week right here on campus, right following the service, right after the service, we're going to have a celebration, baptism celebration right here.

Sign up, register. You can register at the table. You can register online, and we would love to get you there. Yeah, we will have warm water. Yes, that's right.

We got warm water ready for you, so it will be, we'll make it as comfortable as possible, but we want to praise God in the process and celebrate new life in Christ with you. So, if you haven't been baptized, that's something that God has for you and wants you to do and is the commandment in Scripture. Also, a couple weeks, the week before Halloween, we're going to have a little fun treat for our kids. It's a trunk or treat, we're going to do a trunk or treat right after the service and and if you want to decorate a car or anything come on out set up a car or right outside we're going to have it out out in the parking lot area and the kids have a good time so bring your kids bring everybody bring the family bring bring your friends and enjoy let's enjoy that together today is our guest lunch so if you are new with us and haven't attended our guest lunch this is this is the day to do it we would love you yeah. Get some pizza and and enjoy lunch with us and we'll tell you more about the church and I'll share my heart and how you can be a part of Salt Church so we're super excited about that as usual we always love seeing new people and connecting with new people but we are in a series called stranger stories and oh my goodness it's just this is something that that isn't talked about a whole lot because frankly some of it is weird.

You know there's there's there's things going on in places that we can't see and uh and uh there's an unseen world taking place out there there's there's things that are happening that we're not aware of Paul says our battle is not against flesh and blood it's against the powers and principalities and let me remind you as I reminded you last week as we introduce the subject that the people that are in your life that are making your life miserable or hate you or hate you or have caused any bitterness in your heart let me just say that it's not them there's powers behind it they're trying to keep you from the will of God and they're doing everything they can to to work against you because you have a calling you have a purpose you are a child of God and the enemy doesn't like it so remember that keep that perspective and it helps to know our enemy and last week we talked about Satan the devil and what he does and it's important for us also to know what we have on our side so so next week this is a good week actually to be here because a lot of you have questions about demons how do demons work fallen angels that are are deployed deployed deployed against us um and they have a plan to harm us but how do they work and how do they how do they interact uh what's the truth about demons and what's real about demons and and how can we attack demons how can we be demon slayers right very very very strange subject to talk about that but it's a it's a biblical subject right it's it's throughout the bible we see them operating all the time in these stranger stories and then the following week we're going to talk about angels okay that's halloween weekend we're going to talk about angels we're not going to talk about demons we're going to talk about angels we're going to talk about god's side of the house and how god uses angels and in that suit in the supernatural realm and works for our favor and for our good So, excited about that, but today I want to talk about a power beyond yourself, a power beyond our own, a power that is above all powers, that you have access to as a believer. You have this power that is available to you to fight the enemy. It is a power that nothing has, even in comparison to this power, and it's available to you, and that is the power of the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk about the Holy Spirit, this supernatural person called the Holy Spirit, who is God, who works in our lives. Now, that's always an interesting subject.

The Holy Spirit is always a real interesting subject when it comes up. Because we get God the Father, because we understand what a Father is, and even if we don't have a Father in life, we understand that we need a Father. And then we have the Son, because a Father has to have a Son, right? So that's easy to understand. But when we use the word Spirit, Holy Spirit, the thing that we can't see, it's strange.

It's very interesting. It's a very strange thing to talk about, this strange story about the Holy Spirit. And what's interesting is back in college, I took a—this was way before my calling. I was in a secular institution in Bible college, and I was taking New Testament studies as an elective. And one of the things that they talked about in the class, obviously, is the Holy Spirit.

We were on the subject of the Holy Spirit. And I grew up understanding the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost, okay? The Holy Ghost. You've got to have the Holy Ghost. You know, that's how we talked at the South about the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost, you know?

And I mentioned in class, as we were discussing the Holy Spirit, I used the term the Holy Ghost. And everybody in class started laughing. And I was like, why is everybody laughing? And it dawned on me that they had never heard the old English word ghost, for Holy Ghost. They had never heard the King James Version, which uses the Holy Ghost.

It was very common for me, but for them, they were thinking ghost, you know, like this ghost, man. Like, he used the wrong term, spirit, spirit, ghost, ghost, spirit, which really doesn't—it translates the same way. But I also realized that a lot of people don't have knowledge about the Holy Spirit. Now, granted, that was a—it wasn't a Bible school, so not everybody went to church or even understood anything about the Holy Spirit and how—who He was and how He works and who He is. But it is a very interesting, interesting subject.

In fact, for some of you, you probably grew up in a church environment where the Holy Spirit was talked about, but not much. It was kind of skipped over, you know? Father, Son, Holy Spirit, let's run past that, you know? We'll— We'll talk about Jesus all day long and the Father all day long, but the Holy Spirit somehow gets dismissed because I don't know if people really know how to handle the Holy Spirit. Maybe they're afraid they'll handle Him wrong and not communicate it properly.

And on the other hand, you have traditions that I grew up in that overemphasize the Holy Spirit, like the Holy Spirit was all there is, the Holy Ghost is all there is, you know? Like, the Father and the Son, they're there, but you need the Holy Ghost, you know? And it gets kind of weird in some of those church services, if you know what I mean, people. I had this one lady behind me, Sister Scarlet, man, boy, when a good point was made, she'd go, woo! And she'd yell and scare you to death, and you would, you know, whoa, what's going on?

And some of those churches, you know, you were afraid to invite your friends to church because you didn't know what was going to happen that Sunday, when you grew up in a Pentecostal tradition, that's kind of what you get sometimes. So, but the fact is, the Holy Spirit is one of the most neglected and misunderstood persons of the Trinity. He is the most misunderstood, the most neglected person of the Trinity. But you need the Holy Ghost. You need the Holy Ghost.

You cannot fight this battle alone without the Holy Spirit. You need the Holy Spirit. He is essential in your life. He is essential as a follower of Jesus. He, the Spirit's job is to perform and to complete the perfect will of God.

And He represents Jesus, He bears testimony of Jesus Christ and perfectly represents Jesus in this world. He is the God, He is God in this world. He is God interacting in this world. He is God moving in our church, moving in our people, working in our life. He is connecting.

It's God's way of connecting with us. He is an essential part of our lives. And every victory, every triumph, every enablement, every grace that you receive is a result of us following Jesus and the Holy Spirit interacting in our lives. And our testimony is of that. And everything in life either succeeds or fails based on our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Everything in life succeeds or fails based on our underlying that relationship with the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit isn't a feeling, although feelings are associated with the Holy Spirit. Feelings are definitely a part of that. It's not just an emotion that we feel, although there are emotions there with the Holy Spirit. That's a beautiful thing.

But the Holy Spirit isn't. It is. This is God, and we need a relationship with the Holy Spirit, the relationship with the Holy Spirit. And I'm going to take you to John 14, 16 through 17, and we will introduce what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit. Here's what it says.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you a counselor to be with you forever. Another counselor to be with you forever. The Spirit of Truth. Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him.

For he lives with you and is in you. Now let me make a few observations here. The first observation is Jesus calls the Holy Spirit he. Over and over again. He doesn't say it.

He says he. The Holy Spirit is not a force. The Holy Spirit is not a vibe. The Holy Spirit is not an energy. The Holy Spirit is he.

It is God. It is God. And it will not make sense to unbelievers. He will not make sense to unbelievers because they don't see him and they don't know him. But we know him because we see him from a different perspective.

We experience his presence in our lives. His presence is with us and his presence is in us. Get that. That's what he says. He's going to be with us and he's going to be in us.

The Holy Spirit is not only walking with you. The Holy Spirit is in you. He is working in you. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. There is a power above all powers that works in you.

And you are filled. If you are a Holy Spirit filled believer, you have a supernatural power within you. And you have the ability to tap into that power. Anytime you face a battle. Anytime you're walking this life.

And you can hear him. He talks to you. He communicates with you in supernatural ways. He guides you. And you are filled with his supernatural power to do a work that you are incapable of doing without him.

A power that enables you to do more way beyond what you are capable of doing in your own human abilities. He has it available for you. He gives that to you. He offers that to you. And this is why Jesus said this.

He said this in John 16, 7. But it is actually best for you that I go away. Because the disciples were asking a lot of questions about... He's talking about leaving. Why is he talking about leaving?

Why is... We need him. We need Jesus here, right? But he says, I've got to go away. It's best that I go away.

Because if I don't, the counselor won't come. The Spirit won't come. If I do go away. He will come because I will send him to you. So Jesus knew, Jesus knew this full well, that if he were to remain on earth, if he were to remain the person of Jesus on earth walking with us physically, we would be incapable of or even limited in what we were able to do without the Holy Spirit.

He knew that we needed the Holy Spirit to accomplish the mission. I want to be careful not to sound heretical here, but if Jesus had remained on this earth as a person and not went away and sent the Spirit, obviously he died on the cross, resurrected, he's God, all that beautiful stuff, but if he did not send the Spirit, we would be incapable of fulfilling the perfect will of God to change this world. We can do way, way, way more with the Holy Spirit's involvement than Jesus remaining on this earth walking with us. He said it is good for us to have the Holy Spirit that he go away because he even said this, you will be able to do greater things even than I, as a result of the counselor being with you. So I send him.

Think of it this way. Have you ever thought, wouldn't it be awesome to have Jesus just walking with me? When you're going through that problem or that situation, you're dealing with some financial issues, you've got to pay taxes, taxes come due, oh, I don't have the money. Man, if Jesus is here, he would just go poof. And they would grab a fish out of the water and pull the money out, you know, and there it is, yeah.

Wouldn't it be great to have that? Or if someone was sick and Jesus is here, he could just heal them, right? Just touch them and heal them. Or if I'm walking in sin, oh, Jesus is here, he could just keep me accountable. He could push me right back on the straight and narrow.

Hey, Leon, don't go that direction. Don't go that direction. You can go this direction. Or sharing the gospel as we're all called to do. Wouldn't it be cool to have Jesus?

You know, I want to share the gospel with my friend over here, but I don't know how. Well, I got Jesus with me, right? So, Jesus, why don't you take care of it while I introduce you to my friend here? Well, guess what? We still have that.

We still have that in the Holy Spirit. He offers all that because the Spirit is in us and with us, and he testifies of Jesus. He is called the Spirit of Jesus, and he does nothing outside of the will of the Father, and speaks only of Jesus and shows us exactly what Jesus would do. He gives us the enablement to do that. All that is available to us now.

We have Jesus walking with us by virtue of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks nothing outside of Jesus Christ. He is the perfect representation of Jesus Christ. He will not go outside of him. He will not go around him.

He is the Spirit of Jesus, as the Bible tells us. He does not go out of Jesus. He lives in the temples of Jesus Christ, and He is our counselor... and He is our counselor. Our God, our strength, He gives us everything that we need.

He gives us power. Power. That phrase is called dunamis in the original Greek, meaning dynamite. You have dynamite in your life, you know. You have dynamite available for you.

Explosions, you know. Think of it that way. The Holy Spirit exploding inside of you. Something happening radically. Something happening supernatural.

He is not just this dormant spirit that's just kind of hanging around. He wants to work and interact in your life and do things that you are not capable of doing. He wants to do supernatural things. That's why we're talking about this because it's supernatural. It's a world beyond what we understand in physical terms.

The power of the Holy Spirit is very real. He does things that we cannot see and unbelievers don't know Him, don't see Him, but we have access to Him. Amen. You have access. I want you to know you have access to a power so great.

It can change things. It can do things. You can't even describe or imagine. So I want to talk about that power for a minute. I'm going to give you five things that the Holy Spirit gives us power over and to do.

The Holy Spirit, first of all, gives us power the power of salvation. He gives us the power of salvation because He and He alone is the one that draws us to God. He is the one that draws us to Jesus. He is the one that pursues us and points us to God. And He has the supernatural power to regenerate us from the inside out.

Him alone. And that gives me comfort because all I have to do is preach the gospel and I let the Holy Spirit do the rest, right? And He's able to do that. In fact, the power of God is probably working in you and through you right now just by the presentation of the Word of God today. Pursuing us, longing for us, pulling us towards Him.

I think of a rope just pulling us in, just feeling the tug of the Spirit. He makes us a new creation. In fact, Jesus and Nicodemus were having a conversation about this. And Nicodemus, a Pharisee, was asking, you know, what is this thing that you're talking about? Being born again.

All of us understand being born again as Christians and believers. And even if we don't go to church, we haven't been in church for a while, we know about being born again. You know, that's kind of a normal phrase within Christian circles. But in that time, it made no sense. He said, he talked about someone being born again.

And Nicodemus is so confused. He's like, what do you mean? You mean that somebody has to be rebirthed physically? That they go back to the womb and come be born again? And here's Jesus' answer.

He says, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Only by the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh. But what happens? The Spirit gives birth to Spirit.

Gives birth to Spirit. How do you know that you belong to God? How do you know that you belong to God? Because the Spirit testifies. When we are born in Spirit, the Spirit testifies to our spirit that we belong.

In fact, Romans 8.16 says the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. We are God's children with that security, that peace that you have. Think about it. That day that you gave your life to Christ, you felt new.

You felt like you belonged to something. There was something in you that was peaceful and hopeful and it was life-changing. What was that? That was the Spirit of God working in us, letting us know that you are an adopted son and daughter of me. That's how the Spirit works.

It's the power of salvation. He gives us salvation. Him, He and He alone, gives us salvation. Number two, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit will give you the power to walk in God's will. The Holy Spirit is God actively participating in completing the will of the Father here on earth.

That's what the Holy Spirit's purpose is. He's commissioned, He's sent from the Father in heaven to complete the perfect will of Him who created all things here on earth. The Holy Spirit's sole mission is to complete that perfect will. Even Jesus' earthly ministry, get this, even Jesus' earthly ministry needed the Holy Spirit. We see Him as He's baptized.

What happens? A dove comes down from the sky and anoints Him, right? He needed the power, the unction of the Holy Spirit even to pursue His ministry, deciding where to go, what to do in prayer and petitioning the Holy Spirit and seeking the Father. We see Jesus working and moving in the Spirit as He talked to people, as He approached people about certain things, even in His teachings. In fact, the Bible tells us that the Spirit was given to Christ in all His fullness to aid Him in the work of redemption.

He needed God's Holy Spirit for Him to even to endure the cross, even to go to the cross, even to endure the cross to do the work of redemption for all mankind. He needed the Holy Spirit to enable Him to do that. Everything the Son did for our salvation was made possible by the help of the Holy Spirit. He needed the Holy Spirit. He needed the Holy Spirit.

If He needed the Holy Spirit, we need the Holy Spirit because Jesus is God. And He required the Holy Spirit to be a part of His life. And in the same way, if you don't know what to do, if you don't know where to go, if you don't know the perfect will of God, the Holy Spirit guides us and helps us and directs us towards His perfect plan. In fact, it says this in John 14, 26, But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit from whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you, not some things, right? All things.

He will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. He will teach you all things and remind you of what I've said. That's what Jesus said. He will remind you of what I said. He's not going to say anything that I didn't say.

He's not going to do anything that I wouldn't do. He gives you everything to complete the perfect will of God. And you don't need me. You need the Holy Spirit to guide you to do the perfect will. I think of it this way.

If you're familiar with the music director, here with our band, you'll probably notice they have headsets and you know something's going on, you know, trying to guide the band and stuff like that. They hear things that you can't hear. And one of those things is called a music director. They have an electronic music director that kind of guides them. Some churches, they actually have a real director that's back there and he's on a headset and he's telling you where to go and what to do and this and that.

In fact, last week, the guys were texting in the back, you know, sharing, you know, we're going to this, we're going to that. That's kind of messing up. Let's move this back in. Let's guide this. And you don't know what's going on, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes as someone directs the music.

Same thing is with God. It's like we have a spiritual headset going on saying, hey, go to course, go to verse, bridge, course, verse. Pastor's a little long winded. Go back to the course again. You know, keep going.

Keep going. That's what God does. He speaks to us. He's in the more we walk in the spirit and we respond to the spirit and he shows us what he is capable of doing. The more we can discern his voice and know that it's him.

And if we sit back and we don't respond and we don't I don't know if it's God, I don't know if it's this or that. We will never know. The voice of the Lord. We walk in his will. He gives us things.

He directs us. He shows us. And the more you walk in the spirit, the easier is to hear the voice of the Lord. Here's what John 16, 13 says. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

He will guide you into all truth, meaning he will direct you towards his perfect will. Right. And it goes on to say, and I don't have this on the screen, but it says he will not speak on his own. He will. He will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come.

He only speaks what the Father tells him. He only speaks of Jesus. And he will guide you into the perfect will of the Father. That's his sole purpose, is to be God here on earth, working in you, through you, connecting you with God, and pursuing the complete will and perfect will of God. The third thing is, he gives us the power to share Christ boldly.

The Holy Spirit will give you the power to share Christ boldly. Perhaps you're intimidated of sharing the gospel. You're afraid to share the gospel. This should give you comfort. Even the Apostle Paul said he was not good enough.

I'm not good enough. That's what he said here in Scripture. Essentially, he says it's 1st Corinthians 2, 4 and 5. He says, My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. On God's power.

Paul, are you serious? The Apostle Paul wrote most of the New Testament? No way. This man was so humble and knew that he could only depend on the power of God to speak boldly. He says, I wasn't good enough.

I'm not good enough, guys. I will tell you, I'm not good enough. Every week, I'm over here at the side, praying, God, I can't do this without you. I cannot do this without you. I can do none of this without your power, Lord.

I need your power. I need your, I need your Holy Spirit. In the mirror in the morning, as I'm getting ready for church, I'm telling myself in the mirror, I'm speaking to God. I'm just like, you cannot do this. I tell myself, you cannot do this without God's power.

God, I cannot do this without you. I cannot do this without you, Holy Spirit. You have to be in this talk. You have to be in this message. Let your word speak, God, I can't do it on my own.

I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough to do this. I don't even deserve to be up here, but the Holy Spirit, you do. You deserve to be up here, and you speak for me, and you speak through me. Our abilities aren't that great compared to what God has, and he enables us to be what he's called us to be and do what he's called us to do.

The Holy Spirit prompts us and guides us and even in questions that we have. Think about this for a minute as you're talking to somebody. For me, when I'm having a conversation with somebody, perhaps somebody doesn't know the Lord or they're asking questions. There's times, man, I'm like, I'm praying in my head. I'm praying in the back of my head.

Lord, I don't know the answer to this. I don't know how to do this. This person's crazy. I don't know how to address this. Lord, you're going to have to input something in me right now.

I need something downloaded because I don't know what to say. And what I've discovered is, at the right moment, God will lay a scripture on my heart, or he'll give me something to say, or give me a quote, or something just to speak directly to that person at that moment. It's amazing what the Holy Spirit can do. He can give you the words to say. He can help you and direct you to say the right things and to do what he's called you to do when you speak boldly.

In fact, on the day of Pentecost, who do we have? I'm telling you guys, Peter, John, they weren't exceptional people, okay? They didn't take an oral communication class in seminary, okay? They never even spoke loudly. They watched Jesus the whole time.

Yeah, they walked with Jesus for a few years, but they just watched and they followed. They had no clue how to share the gospel. This was all new to them. And here's what it says, after they prayed, the place that they were meeting, right before they went out, was shaken. And the Holy Spirit, here's, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly.

They went out speaking the Word of God boldly. These were simple people. They were not good enough. They were not capable. The Holy Spirit made them capable, and they began to speak in other languages and other tongues, and there was a festival going on.

All types of people were there from every region on that particular area of the earth, and they were speaking fluently the language with boldness the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Peter stands up, and he says, you know, the prophet Joel, he said this, and I'm telling you today that this has been revealed towards you, before you, and it is available to you today. And he spoke with boldness and with power because the Holy Spirit filled him. There's a boldness that God gives us. A boldness.

Number four, the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to live a holy life. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to live a holy life. When you're tempted, the Holy Spirit gives you the ability to overcome those temptations. He gives you the ability. Look what it says in Scripture, Romans 8, 5 through 6.

It says, those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about simple things. I mean, that's just what they do. They have an excuse. They don't know the Lord, right? I mean, they're going to practice simple things.

That's just how they think. They think that way. But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit, which is us who are believers, think about things that please the Spirit. That's how the Spirit works in us. And if you're, it says this, if your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death.

But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace. There is life and peace. Meaning, if you are a follower of Christ, let me just say this, if you're not a follower of Christ, sin can be really, really, really fun. Only for a season, because even the unbeliever ends up facing death consequences because of sin. But if you're a believer, there's something in you that says, when you're walking into those situations, and you're making those decisions that aren't of God, something inside of you is like, ugh, that's just not right.

I don't like this. It's the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. It's correcting you and pulling you back because the power of the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to discern sin in our lives. The unbeliever, they don't know, but you know because you've been rejuvenated. You are not the natural person anymore.

You are a supernatural being that has been changed and transformed by Christ. Therefore, you're connecting with God on a level about your sin, and you can walk in freedom from that sin. You have the ability to overcome willful sin and conquer sin in your life. And what does it do? It brings life, meaning that you were once doing things that destroyed your soul.

Death, but now you have life and peace. You don't feel guilty because you have the power of God taking you away from that. And you don't feel guilty anymore. You're freed from the bondage of sin. That's what the Holy Spirit does.

It frees you from the bondage of sin. Galatians 5, 16 and 17 says, So I advise you to live according to the new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is the opposite of what the Holy Spirit wants. These two forces are constantly battling each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.

So that's why you need the Holy Spirit. You need the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, because there's always going to be a battle. There's always going to be a battle. There's a supernatural war going on in the unknown. Strange stories are happening out there that we can't even see.

We know they're going on, but we can't see. But you have a power that is available to you to help you win the battle. You can win the battle. You can overcome. The forces of evil will try to pull you towards that sinful nature, but the forces of good, the Holy Spirit empowers you to overcome that nature, because you have a nature more powerful than your old nature.

You have that new nature. You need to let that nature rise up. And that's what the Holy Spirit does. He infills you and brings you above those things that you're facing in life. He gives you the power, the unction to be able to overcome sin in your life.

And then number five, he gives you the power of spiritual gifts. He gives you spiritual gifts. It's good that I go away, says Jesus, because I get to send a helper and he's going to do things far greater in you than you would be able to do just with me alone. Because the Spirit's going to do this. And here's what he does.

He gives spiritual gifts. He enables gifts on people of different types, different forms of gifts, all kinds of gifts. In fact, here's Hebrews 2.4 says, God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributing them according to his will, distributed according to his will. He will give you the ability that only, or the abilities that only the Holy Spirit can give.

He will give you abilities beyond what you're capable of doing. It is available to you. The power of God is available to you in your gifts. In fact, 1 Corinthians 12 gives us a list of gifts. Romans 12 gives us a list of gifts.

And here's how it works. I mean, there's all kinds of gifts. It labels discernment and wisdom and prophecy and giving and all these things. God enables those things on you. If you have the gift of wisdom, God gives you a supernatural unction of wisdom, the ability to speak to people and help people and guide people.

If God gives you the gift of prophecy, some of you have prophecy where you can see things and where things need to go and help direct people and direct paths and direct the church in the right direction. You have that ability. Maybe some of you have the spiritual gift of giving. You just love to give. It just warms your heart to give.

Some of you have the gift of speaking in tongues. Some of you have the gift of interpreting those tongues so that it edifies the church. And some of you have the gift of serving, of encouragement, of administration, of evangelism, of mercy, of teaching. All these gifts are enabled on us through the power of the Holy Spirit. And some of these gifts may be natural and He enables and makes them more powerful through His Spirit.

And some of them are supernatural gifts that you may not even be aware of that are bestowed upon you so that you can do miracles and signs and wonders, prophecy, healing. All those things are available to us. They didn't die. They didn't die. They're still going.

They didn't die with Christ. Those gifts are available. They didn't die. That's why there's no indication in the Bible that these gifts have died. Just because we don't see them as much doesn't mean...

They're not still there and the reason we don't see them as much is because we don't believe they're there and we need to believe it and we need to step into that more and more and more. First Corinthians 12 7 says a spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means and here's the reason of helping the entire church. All the gifts that are given to us, again, Jesus left so that he could send the Spirit to put all these gifts on us so that we can accomplish far more together than what he could do alone. Yes, he's God, I know that. But in God's perfect will, the Father's perfect will, he has empowered us to do his work in far greater things than we could even think through the gifts of the Spirit.

How do we do that real quick? You need to discover your gifts. If you have a gift, there's a gift tailored for everyone, okay? You've got a gift and you need to discover that. Ask God to show you, you know, your gifts.

God, I really want spiritual gifts. I want you to show me what I'm capable of doing. I want you to show me what you've given me to do, what you've put on me. Ask other believers. What do you think?

What do you see in me? What is working in me? Do a spiritual gifts inventory and there's a lot of those out there and there's some bad ones and some good ones. I'm going to give you a really good one and you can write this down and get this book if you want to, The Search for Significance by Robert McGee. It's one of the best books of spiritual gifts and you can take spiritual gift inventory.

It will help you identify your spiritual gifts and how to walk in the Spirit in those gifts. Secondly, you need to develop your gifts. Not only do you discover your gifts, you've got to use those gifts. You've got to develop them. You've got to stir them up in you.

That's why you go to groups and get with people so that you can practice these gifts a bit more, you know, and work in those gifts. And then you need to use them. Just use them. Develop them. When you develop them, you're asking God to give you more, right?

Just do more, but you've got to use them. You've got to use them. In fact, I don't have this in your notes, but 1 Peter 4.10 says, God has given gifts to each of you for his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well, okay?

So that God's generosity can flow through you. It's about God's generosity in this world and how he wants to use those gifts through you to pour into others to complete God's perfect will for our lives in the church. And I can tell you this, if all of us operated in each individual gift that he has given us, there's no telling what we could do. Thousands of people would be saved and rescued. And that's what God desires for our church.

So believe that gifts are available to us. He gives us the power. Through spiritual gifts. In closing, I want to give you two things. Some spirit-filled advice to you, okay?

Spirit-filled advice. The first thing is, don't resist the Spirit. Don't resist the Spirit. God may be prompting you to do something, and you hold back. Maybe it's because you don't believe it's God.

You think it's yourself, maybe, or you don't want to do it because maybe it's something that kind of scares you a little bit. But I will say this. Don't resist the Spirit. I think about Stephen, the first martyr in the Bible in the New Testament. As he was being stoned, he looked at the people, the Pharisees, and he's like, you had the prophets.

You had the patriarchs, and you killed them as well because you were hardened. You were not ready to receive what the Spirit's trying to give you. The Spirit's trying to give you a message today. And he says this to them. He says, You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears, meaning they're not prepared to hear the Holy Spirit.

You are just like your fathers. Let's not be people. Let's not be... Maybe you come from a tradition that kind of played down the Holy Spirit. Maybe you came from a tradition that played up the Holy Spirit to the point where it was way too much.

Whatever it is, don't ever resist the Holy Spirit just because of your background. If the Spirit's calling you to do something, if the Spirit's prompting you to share the gospel, if the Spirit's prompting you to give, if the Spirit's prompting you to do something beyond what you're even capable of doing, and the second thing is be filled with the Holy Spirit. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We need to be filled... I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit every day.

I need to be. Because I cannot do it on my own. This is subsequent from the salvation Holy Spirit that has been given to you and He lives in you. The filling of the Holy Spirit is an empowerment, an overflow of love that takes place in our hearts. And we're able to see and do more and we're unctioned to do things that we were not capable of doing because of the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's why He says do not be drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery, but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit because you need to be drunk on the Holy Spirit, not drunk on wine because what does wine do? Wine fuzzes the mind, takes you, makes you do things that are silly, but the Spirit is completely sober. He acts in a way that brings you right to where you need to be. You will work and operate in a powerful way, be filled with the Holy Spirit. We need a church that is filled with the Holy Spirit.

We need a church that you need to be filled with God's Spirit in your life. I love how someone used the phrase, being plugged into the Spirit. I read a book many years ago, being plugged into the Spirit. You have a Spirit inside of you, right? And that Spirit has been regenerated.

But in some sense, it's kind of not powered. And that's what being filled with the Holy Spirit means. It means to be filled with power, to be empowered. The electricity, the energy of the Spirit, if you want to say that, is actually activated. It's not an energy of its own.

It comes straight from God, and it's empowered, and we need that. I love how Bill Johnson said it. He says, it's a heightened awareness of the presence of God. That it gives us, and it's a down payment of the inheritance that we've already received. The Holy Spirit, God gave Himself as a down payment, and He made that available to us.

Let's not forfeit and resist the Holy Spirit. Let's be filled with the Holy Spirit. Let's see what God can do when we are filled. How are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Ask Him.

Lord, fill me. Fill my heart. Fill my life. Let it overflow. I can sit here and read so many testimonies of people who have gone before us with great ministries, and even smaller ministries that have been anointed and gifted and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

One of those men is Dwight L. Moody. In fact, my first name is Dwight. And I'm a junior. Dwight Leon Dunning, Jr.

, in case you don't know. And my father is Dwight Leon Dunning, Sr. And Dwight is a name that was given to my family because my grandfather was miraculously healed under a ministry that came from Dwight L. Moody's ministry, in case you don't know that. And Dwight wrote a lot about the Holy Spirit.

He had an encounter with the Holy Spirit. And I'm paraphrasing him, but he said it somewhat like this. He says, you know what? That day that I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I was filled with the Holy Spirit. He called it like love just overflowing from his heart.

He just couldn't get enough of it. It was like this just thing that was happening when he was filled with the Spirit. It just came from his heart. He just couldn't believe it. Never experienced anything like it.

He said he had some older women in the church that came to him and said, we're praying that you be filled with the Holy Spirit. He's like, I am filled. I'm filled with the Spirit, you know. I run a big church. I have a lot of things going on.

People are getting saved, right? I said, we're praying for you. And he says he was walking down the street one day and it happened just like that. God just empowered him and filled him up. And he says he walked away from there.

He says his sermons were the same. His church and ministries were the same. But there was power. There was something about how he spoke that was different. There was something about how he ministered was different.

And it went from hundreds being saved to thousands being saved. Because the power of God works. And we need to be empowered, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. God, I pray over our people today.

I pray that they be filled with your Spirit, God. We need your Spirit because there is a war that we cannot see. And the only way we can win this war, Lord, in these battles in our life is be filled with the Holy Spirit. So I'm praying that the Holy Spirit just touch people right now. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't be filled with anything else but the Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus, we pray over our congregation. We pray for those online as well. Be filled with the Holy Spirit right where you're at, wherever you're watching, later this week or whatever you're doing.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit right where you are. Be filled, filled, filled with the Holy Spirit. Be empowered for ministry, God. Thank you for your Spirit. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for being with us and working through us and walking with us and being our guide and our friend and all those things that we need to walk out this light.

And there's one more promise that God made. God's promise to you was the Holy Spirit. Acts 2 says it like this, verse 38. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift promised for you, your children, and for all who are far off.

Maybe you've never even given your life. Maybe you attend church every Sunday. But you've never really experienced this joy and this hope. Because it's not in the acts we perform. It starts with a relationship with the Holy Spirit.

It communicates Jesus Christ perfectly and fully in the will of the Father who loves you. Just pray that, Lord, Lord, I need you and I need your Spirit. And I believe, Jesus, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you gave your life for my sin. And today I feel I call you, Savior. So I give my life to you today and I walk with you.

Thank you for... Forgiving my sins. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for convicting my soul so that I know that I can experience life in you. And for others who are walking this Christian life, Lord, I pray that there would be an extra special anointing over their lives as they walk through their ministries and their families and their work situations. That they wouldn't be hungry for more, Lord Jesus.

That they would be hungry for more of you, God. That they wouldn't settle for just the status quo, but they would reach for more and they would experience more in your name. And experience you, God, in your fullness. God, I pray that over everybody.