The Ways of the Spirit | Spirit | 4.12.26

Welcome to the Journey Christian Church podcast.

This week's episode is called The Waves of the Spirit.

I'm thankful you're here worshiping with us today as we continue to study through the Holy Spirit.

And this is a continuation of the series.

I started at the first of the year, and I'm excited to share with you some thoughts from God's Word about why the Holy Spirit is such a great gift that it is better for us that we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit than we have the physical presence of Jesus Christ among us right now.

And that's what Jesus said.

It will be better for you when I go that you might have the Spirit of God living in you.

Why is that better?

Now I have to confess, I am not much of a handyman.

Now, if I see something that's broken, I'll do something about it, but it might not be the right thing.

And chances are I'm going to break something else in the process.

And I've got story after story of busted pipes and seven trips to Lowe's for a very, very simple fix.

My dad is very curious about how things work.

He wants to understand how things work.

And he gave me as a kid a old mechanical cash register.

And he said, you know, you can take it apart, you can do with it whatever you want and figure it out and everything.

And so he left me alone with it.

The first thing I did was get the hammer.

Just bam, bam, bam.

Just not very curious about how things work.

But I am curious about how God works.

Very curious, endlessly curious about the Holy Spirit and how God intends the Holy Spirit to work in us.

And I want to know his ways.

In one way, I can relate to Albert Einstein.

Now, not in the mathematical genius kind of way.

In fact, when I was writing this sermon, I misspelled genius, and then I misspelled misspelled.

So it's not the intelligence that I can relate to.

It is one thing he said.

He said, I want to know the thoughts of God.

The rest are just details.

And that's what I am endlessly curious about.

I want to know the thoughts of God.

I want to know how God works, what to expect from him, how he does the things that he does.

And we're going to study today some of the ways of the Holy Spirit.

What we see very clearly in Scripture.

How can we expect the Holy Spirit to work?

What are the kinds of things the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives?

Pray with me, please.

Father in heaven, we are thankful that you have given us the gift of the Spirit, which is far better, far better than anything we could ask or imagine.

That we have this river of life that is flowing in us.

This is a deposit that guarantees our salvation.

The constant, continuous presence of Jesus to inform our minds and quicken our souls to help us to be born again and to live born again, to live in the reality of eternity while we are here on this temporal world.

Father, help us to know his ways.

Help us to know how to keep in step with the Spirit and to follow Him and guide us as we study this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

The Holy Spirit, number one, the Holy Spirit works powerfully through His Word.

The Bible, the author of the Bible is the Holy Spirit.

So it's no wonder he's going to work through his word.

This is the word of the Spirit.

Peter said that all of the prophets in the Old Testament times, all of them prophesied not by their own minds or by their own wills, but by the Holy Spirit.

It says in 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 20.

2 Peter 1:20

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.

For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Peter's, or excuse me, Paul said that the Word of God is a weapon in the Holy Spirit's hand.

In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 17, it says, Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Ephesians 6:17

The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.

And so the Holy Spirit being the author of the Word, no wonder he is going to work through his word and wants to work through his word in our lives, if we will ingest the Word on a regular basis.

What does the Holy Spirit want to accomplish with the Word in our lives?

I've got several things.

A, the Spirit strengthens our faith through the Word.

So somebody comes to you and says, I want to have a stronger faith.

I want to have more faith.

I want to increase my faith because I don't have very much peace in my life.

And I understand that God wants to give immeasurable peace, peace that passes understanding.

So I need to be able to trust God more so that I might have more peace.

How do I increase my faith?

What would you tell them?

Or if somebody said, I just don't feel like I have the joy of Christ to the measure, to the degree that I should, as a follower of Jesus, I want to increase my faith so that I will be living in light of eternity and the hope that we have in Christ and the eternal life that is to come.

How do I increase my faith?

I would tell them, read your Bible.

Because it says in Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Verse 17.

It's in my Bible here somewhere.

There it is.

Romans 10, 17.

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Faith is established, faith is grown, faith is strengthened through the word of Christ.

How do I increase my faith?

Read the Bible.

Because when you read the scripture, you realize that every single promise God has made, he has kept.

He is faithful in keeping his promises.

When you read the scripture, you see that his love, that is higher and greater than we could possibly understand, extends to people and situations that we couldn't possibly imagine.

Situations even like King Manasseh, who sacrificed his children in the fire.

The amount of grace and forgiveness that God offers is unbelievable.

And when you read the word, you become convinced of that.

When you read the word, you understand even why God has done some of the things that we're uncomfortable about.

Why did God go into the land of Canaan and tell the Israelites to wipe out everybody in the land of Canaan?

There are certain passages of scripture, I don't know about you, but when I read those passages of scripture, I kind of wince a little bit, like, ah, man, I sure hope my unbelieving friends don't read these passages.

Because it's a little hard to defend, hard to explain.

But the more you read the Bible, the more you understand that even in God's judgment there is copious quantities of grace.

And even his judgments are far more gracious than what we would meet out if we were the ones in charge.

If you understood what led to the judgments, probably you'd come to the conclusion, why didn't God do something about that sooner?

As you read the word, you grow in faith.

As you grow in faith and trust in God, peace and joy follows.

How do we grow in faith?

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

B, the Spirit reveals God's will through his word.

In order for you and I to know what God wants us to do in any given situation, what God wants us to say in any conversation, we have to have our minds constantly renewed by the word of God.

This is what the Bible says will happen when our minds are renewed by the Word of God.

In Romans chapter 12, verse 2, it says, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Romans 12:2

Our minds have to be renewed by the Word.

Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is.

His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

As we are in the Word, God's will in any given situation becomes more and more clear.

And so I don't know who you talk to when you need advice, but I would recommend before you ask somebody for advice that you ask them first, do you read the Bible?

And if they say no, just kind of slowly, awkwardly walk away.

Because if somebody doesn't read the Bible, all they can tell you is what seems right to them.

And here's what the Bible says about that in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 12.

Proverbs 14:12

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

People whose minds aren't daily being renewed by the reading of the Word of God can only tell you what seems right.

Those whose minds are being constantly renewed by the Word of God, they can test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

So be careful who you take advice from.

Make sure it's somebody who is rich in the Word of God.

The Word of God richly dwells in them.

See, the Spirit fixes our thinking through the Word.

I feel scatterbrained a lot of the time.

And I come by it naturally.

My dad has trouble concentrating on one thing, my grandpa had trouble concentrating on one thing.

If I'm in the middle of a conversation with you and you see that I've just mentally checked out, just shake me, okay?

I mean, I will come back into that moment, but uh uh I just feel mentally scatterbrained a lot of the time.

And not only that, but in my thinking, I don't think the same way all day long or every day.

I think differently when I'm fully rested.

I think differently when I had a poor night's sleep.

I think differently in the morning than I do in the afternoon than I do in the evening.

I think differently about things when I'm in a good mood and when I'm in a bad mood, when I'm hungry, when I'm tired.

All these things affect my thinking.

My thinking is erratic and undisciplined on its own.

And so I need an anchor for my thinking.

And this is one of the benefits of reading the scripture.

It says in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 1, this is one of the things that the scripture is designed to do.

2 Peter 3:1

Peter is writing, he says, Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you.

I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.

The word of God, daily ingesting the word of God, stimulates us to wholesome thinking.

And I need to think right thoughts and not wrong thoughts, and so do you.

And I need to think holy thoughts and not only unholy thoughts, and so do you.

How many people in here feel like, you know, I have my thoughts completely under control?

I never think an unholy thought, I never think an irrational thought, I never think an unreasonable thought, I never become overwhelmed by fear of the future or anything like that.

My thoughts are 100% under control.

If that's not you, then I cannot say this strongly enough.

You need the Holy Spirit to stimulate you to wholesome thinking constantly by reading your Bibles.

You know, I went to a conference at Brooklyn, Brooklyn Tabernacle, and uh Jim Cimbala was a speaker, Francis Chan was a speaker, and it was an amazing time, and and we came away, heard some of the brightest minds in the faith speaking.

We came away at the end of it, and everybody was saying the same things.

You want to grow in the Lord?

Read your Bible and pray.

It's the simple, consistent practices that will strengthen your faith, that will help you conform into the image of Christ, and give you the ability to test and approve what God's good, pleasing, and perfect will is.

It's really simple.

It's really simple.

D, the Spirit provides instruction, correction, encouragement, and equipping through the word.

Do you feel like you know everything you need to navigate this world?

God's word will instruct you.

Do you feel like you're always on the right path?

God's word will correct you.

Do you feel like you have the courage to face the future?

God's word will encourage you.

Do you feel like you have everything you need to face life and everything that comes with it?

God's word will equip you.

We need the Holy Spirit.

We need him to work through God's word, to reveal God's will, to fix our thinking, to instruct, correct, encourage, and equip us.

God works powerfully through his spirit.

Through his word.

Number two, it's not the only ways that the Holy Spirit works.

He works in more ways than can be counted, but but this is also true.

The Spirit works powerfully by altering natural courses, natural processes.

What is the Spirit's goal?

First thing, before we can interpret what God is trying to accomplish, we have to understand what really is the Spirit trying to do in everything that he does.

What is the Spirit's motivation?

What is his goal?

John 16, verse 8, Jesus told us that this would be the goal of the Holy Spirit when he came.

John 16:8

It says, when he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.

In regard to sin, because men do not believe in me, in regard to righteousness, because I'm going to my Father where you can see me no longer, and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

Satan stands condemned.

So what does it mean that he comes to convict?

Jack Cottrell, a seminary professor, writes this.

He says the word for convict is a lanco, which means to expose, to bring to light, to convict or convince someone of something.

Everything he does is either to convict us of sin, to convince us of something, or to bring some truth to light, bring something to light that we are not seeing.

And so how does he do it?

The Spirit might manipulate the weather.

A, the spirit might manipulate the weather.

The Spirit might calm a storm on a raging sea, like he did with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, to convince them to trust God.

God has you in his hands.

The Spirit might bring about some natural disaster, like the earthquake the Israelites suffered as they were at the bottom of Mount Sinai, so that they would know take the word of God seriously.

This is serious.

Take God's word seriously.

And the Spirit might try to just bring to light the faithfulness of God by the consistency of the sunrise and the sunset, the consistency of the seasons.

The Spirit can work through the natural processes.

B is this the Spirit might heal a sick person.

And again, we have to ask, why is he doing it?

It's always to convict, to convince, convince, to bring something to light.

This is what he does.

He convicts, he convinces, he brings something to light.

And sometimes it might not be a sick person, it could be a sick animal.

I went evangelistic calling and knocked on a door, and uh a young man, a teenager, answered the door.

His mom was up on the couch upstairs.

It was a split level.

And so uh she was upstairs trying to take a nap, and I don't think that she was fully awake because um I went through a list of questions.

I asked everybody, do you um have a church home?

And he said, No, we don't go to church anywhere.

And I said, Um, would you like to receive information from the church about upcoming events?

He yells up, Mom, you want to receive mail from the church?

And he didn't hear anything, and so I went on to the next question.

Would you like somebody to come back and do a Bible study here in your home with you?

And and again, Mom, do you want somebody to come do a Bible study?

And nothing.

And so he said, put her down, she needs something.

And so I put her down, and the very next Sunday, just a few days later, she shows up in church and she got involved immediately, and she became a part of the church.

And uh I couldn't understand, you know, in that interaction that I had with that young man, how in the world could anything happen out of that?

And then a few months later, she came to a new member's class and um she told me the story, the rest of the story about what had actually been going on in her life.

She said that that her beloved dog was was very, very sick, took it to the vet.

The vet said, We can't do anything for it, you need to put the dog down.

And she just couldn't bring herself to do that, and so she brought the dog home and then she prayed, Lord, please heal my dog.

And the dog recovered completely.

And right after that happened, I knocked on her door, and she said, She was convicted of this fact.

She felt like God was saying to her, I did this for you.

What will you do for me?

And she felt like the Holy Spirit was telling her, You need to be an active participant in the kingdom of God.

The Church of Jesus Christ, you need to be an active participant in the kingdom of God.

And she answered that call and came to Christ.

The Holy Spirit can heal someone to convict, convince, bring something to light, and then see the Spirit might work to influence our thoughts.

Jack Cottrell wrote of a missionary friend that he has who is who is um knew some people who were missionaries in China when the communists took over.

And it became very dangerous for missionaries to be over there.

And so uh this missionary friend was was called in, he was he was arrested, and he was brought before some interrogators, and they tortured him and tortured him and tortured him, and every interaction he had with the interrogators, he said the same thing.

Thy will, my will, or my times are in thy hands.

And so they torture him, and he'd say, My times are in thy hands.

They hand him a knife to kill himself, to end the torture, and he refused the knife and again said, My times are in thy hands.

And this frustrated the interrogator to death.

And so he went out and found the Bible and came in, stormed in, threw it on the table in front of the guy, and said, Show me where those words are.

And the book fell in front of him and opened to Psalm 31.

And he was able just to point.

Psalm 31 actually describes scenes much like a torture.

And it contains the line My times are in thy hand.

Well, this freaked the interrogator out.

And immediately he called for the release of the missionary.

It's almost as if I just love that.

It's almost as if, you know, this interrogator is demanding, show me where this is in the Bible, and God says, I'll take this one.

The Holy Spirit is working in all of our lives to change our thoughts, to convict us of sin.

Convince us of some truth.

And remind us of who we are as children of God.

Where we are going to bring things to light that we are not currently seeing.

But we all have the option.

Every time the Holy Spirit pricks our conscience, every time the Holy Spirit nudges us towards some loving ministry, for every time the Holy Spirit nudges us towards words that need to be said, we all have the option to follow the Spirit or to resist the Spirit of God.

As Stephen in Acts chapter 7 was being stoned to death, right before this took place, he called out the entire nation of Israel and its entire history and indicted the whole group with these words.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

Acts 7, verse 51, you stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts, you're just like your fathers.

Acts 7:51

You always resist the Holy Spirit.

We have to be very careful not to resist the Holy Spirit.

And so what is the Holy Spirit calling you to do right now?

You know, I have five things that the Holy Spirit is calling all Christians to do, and I don't know where you are in accomplishing these things, but uh the Holy Spirit is moving all of us towards Christian maturity, and these things are involved in Christian maturity.

He's calling all of us to place our faith in Jesus and be baptized into him.

The Holy Spirit is urging us to do this, to discover our spiritual gifts and find a place to serve.

Attending a church is not actively participating in the kingdom of God.

When we are serving in the kingdom of God, we're we're becoming active participants in his kingdom.

And the Holy Spirit has given us spiritual gifts.

And these gifts are not for ourselves.

Spiritual gifts are gifts to be given away to other other people.

And so the Holy Spirit wants us to use those things.

The Holy Spirit wants us to cultivate spiritual disciplines of Bible reading and prayer.

He is leading and urging all of us that we might have a disciplined spiritual life.

The Holy Spirit is calling all of us to practice Christian stewardship, to give God the first fruits of how however He has blessed us.

The Holy Spirit is calling all of us to become multipliers, working to lead other people to Jesus, planting seeds, and planting seeds indiscriminately, going out and just whoever we're talking to.

Anyone has a problem, we offer a prayer.

Anybody has a concern, we point to Jesus, constantly planting seeds.

And if our minds are focused on ourselves, chances are we're not even going to think about the seeds.

But if our hearts are broken by the fact that people who we are talking with and serving with and living next to right now are headed for an eternity in hell, separated from God.

And we have the option.

Will we submit to the Holy Spirit's nudging?

Or will we resist the Holy Spirit?

And we need to be very, very careful not to resist the Spirit of the Living God.

Pray with me, please.