Dispensations of the Holy Spirit

Let's just lift our Bibles up, like we like to do around here, wave our Bibles and make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let ourselves know that we're about to receive something.

Let's say this together say heavenly father, I am about to receive the uncompromised Word of God, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and I'm not just a hearer of the Word, I Commit to being a doer of that Word and and therefore I'm put over in victory on every circumstance, in Jesus name, amen.

I've got a couple of verses tonight Genesis, chapter 8, and it will start with that one, and then Luke, chapter 3.

Genesis 8 · chapter mention Luke 3 · chapter mention

The one in Genesis 8 is is About Noah and the flood in verse 6.

And and it came to pass at the end of 40 days, 40 days in the ark, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made and he sent forth a raven which went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

And Also he sent forth a dove From him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground.

But the dove found no rest for the soul of her foot and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth.

Then he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark and he stayed yet another seven days and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.

And the dove came into him in the evening and Low and her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off.

So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth and he stayed yet another seven days and Sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him anymore, alright.

And then in Genesis, in Luke, chapter 3, verse 21 and this is talking about John the Baptist baptizing Now, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass at Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened and the Holy Ghost Distended in a bodily shape like a dove Upon him and a voice came from heaven which said thou art my beloved son and the.

Luke 3:21

I am well pleased.

And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled dispensations of the Holy Ghost.

Dispensations of the Holy Ghost.

You know, in the Old Testament we have the shadow, and I was talking about my Bible reading plan on Sunday and had some response from it.

You know we need a plan or else we don't accomplish anything, and, and so I won't go through it tonight.

But you notice, if you notice, the Bible reading plan has gotten more Old Testament scriptures because of Psalms and Proverbs, and you add those with Old Testament and what I?

What I wanted to say tonight is always read the Old Testament with the New Testament eyes.

Let's be looking for the shadow of which we have the substance now in the New Testament.

Everything that's written in the old is written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age are come, and so this verse in Genesis is important because it is a shadow of a New Testament fact.

Noah sent forth the dove and then, in Luke, god sent forth the Holy Ghost like a dove to Jesus, to mark Jesus as a Messiah.

So, if you notice, in Genesis Noah sent forth the dove three times.

There were seven days apart each of the times and of course, seven.

The number seven is the number of completion.

It's very significant because it marks a specific timeframe, and so, in fact, a dispensation is a divinely ordained order prevailing at a particular period of history, a particular period of history.

I'm with the word dispensation.

You know we get the word dispense from.

You know, dispense means to give or to impart or to bestow.

And so this particular, these three trips of the three doves or actually it was one dove that made one, you know three trips, but it was sent forth after great judgment.

That's another signal and a sign, something to look at, and this signifies the role of the Holy Spirit in the earth.

And so three dispensations of the Holy Spirit.

We need to think about that, because I hear people all the time and they get confused between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

They get to thinking that the spirit of God is the same.

Well, he is the same, but his dispensation is markedly different in each of these ages.

You know ends of the age.

What age am I talking about?

Well, a church age is about to come to an end and I mentioned this all the time here.

Here's some verses that kind of back that up.

I want you to know the why is behind the things that I say.

So think about three dispensations of the Holy Ghost.

The first one we find is the dove returned.

He found, she found no resting place for her foot, and so that is a sign of the Old Testament.

This is a sign of the Old Testament dispensation, of how the Holy Spirit operated in the Old Testament.

The Holy Ghost found no permanent resting place In the Old Testament.

The Holy Spirit did not dwell in the hearts of men, he didn't even his people, israel, did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them.

It was only the priests, the prophets and the kings, and they did not have the Holy Spirit resting on the inside of them, but rather he was resting upon them to allow them to minister in their office with that help of the supernatural.

And so that anointing on those people was a temporary anointing.

What do you mean temporary?

Well, there's got a couple of verses in here.

Remember Samson?

Let's look at Samson here, judges chapter 16.

Judges 16 · chapter mention

Samson, the Bible says that he judged Israel 20 years and you know, samson was a rather rough around the edges and we could say it that way.

He was a womanizer and he specifically liked a Philistine women which he didn't care for, you know Jewish women, which wound up being a destruction to him.

But it says here in verse, judges 16, 20,.

This is Delilah, and she said the Philistines be upon these.

Samson.

What had happened to him?

Well, she cut his hair.

Well, he's a Nazarite from birth.

Nazarites don't cut their hair ever.

Their hair just grows and grows and grows.

And they don't drink strong drink, no fermented grape juice.

And so she tricked him into allowing her to cut his hair.

And when she cut his hair it took away his anointing.

She said the Philistines, be upon these, samson.

And he woke out of his sleep and said I will go out, as at other times before, and shake myself.

And he did not know that the Lord was departed from him, or in other words, the anointing had lifted from him.

He lost the anointing, so the dove could find no permanent dwelling place.

So Holy Spirit did not dwell permanently on people.

It was dependent upon their behavior and what.

Sometimes they could do, things that would cost them the anointing.

Another example is 1 Samuel 15.

Let's look at that one.

I want you to see.

It's different.

In the Old Testament we have a better covenant found upon better promises.

1 Samuel 15 is talking about Saul and verse 26.

And the prophet Samuel said unto Saul I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected thee from being king over Israel.

And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold, that is, saul laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle and it rent ripped.

And Samuel said unto him the Lord has rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day and hath given it to a neighbor of yours that is better than you", wow.

So again, the anointing was temporary and he lost the anointing to be king, even though he didn't cease being king.

The supernatural ability to be the king departed from him because he had intruded into another office.

Number one, he tried to be a priest and offered sacrifices.

And then, number two, he disobeyed God and did not destroy the Amalekites.

And so you see that in both these Old Testament cases, men that were anointed of God lost the anointing, and so the Holy Spirit found no permanent dwelling place upon men.

Another Psalm 51, let's look at this one, because this indicates what I'm talking about.

It didn't happen to David, but he prayed Psalm 51.

The whole prayer, the prayer of Psalm 51, is a prayer, and he prayed this prayer after he had gone into Bathsheba and had murdered Uriah the Hittite, who had been Bathsheba's husband.

So he had committed adultery and then killed one of the mighty men.

And then, when Nathan came to confront him, well then he prayed this prayer that he had repented, and it says here in verse 10, created me a clean heart, o God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from my presence and take not, by Holy Spirit, from me.

So that was possible right there.

It didn't happen.

I wonder how much this prayer had to do with it.

I mean, you know it's a horrible thing he did.

You know God's not looking to knock us in the head with the two before in the Old Testament or in the New Testament.

You know the Lord is merciful.

He's long suffering, great in mercy, and so when Paul I mean when David asked for mercy, he received it.

However, god had punishment for him.

You see, you had the curses in the Old Testament, and the curse that he had to bear because of his sin was that the sword would not depart from his house, and so he had trouble all the way through.

He had trouble with his sons, he had trouble with keeping on the kingdom.

He had a lot of trouble that came because of this great sin that he'd committed.

Aren't you glad we live in the New Testament where our sins can be washed away by the?

I'm telling you, we're forgiven and it's forgotten, and there are no.

You know we've been redeemed from the penalty of sin.

A lot of people get so confused They'll say, oh, I've been, I'm being punished for my past sins.

No, you're not, because you'd have to go to hell for that.

And so Jesus took our punishment.

So in fact I heard I won't say his name, but a famous preacher is on television had a marvelous ministry and he was caught in a terrible sin, very public, not once, but twice, very public.

And he went on television I witnessed it in front of his big, huge congregation and he confessed that he had sinned.

And he started crying and weeping in front of everyone and he prayed part of Psalm 51 and said oh, take not thy holy spirit from me.

Well, that was.

I mean, I was not a baby Christian, but I'd been saved long enough to know that that was a wrong prayer, that that's not how God works in the New Testament.

He doesn't come and go.

You know, was the sin bad?

Yeah, but when, soon as he confessed it, he was cleansed of it and honestly I just thought he did himself more harm than good making this grandiose statement in front of everyone.

And it was the wrong prayer, it was in scriptural.

Oh, I tell you, redemptive truth is so important.

We must hang on to redemptive truth.

The further we get down the road, closer the return of Jesus, the more liars are out there, the more false teachers are out there, the more people are out there to bind you, to snare you, amen.

So let's remember what God has put in his Bible about the Holy Spirit and what his role is.

So then, the second, seven days later, he sent the dove back out.

This time it came back with an olive leaf in its mouth.

What does that mean?

It means judgment is over Again.

I mean, you know, if the judgment was for the flood waters to stay a certain amount of time, and now, with that leaf in his mouth, that let no one know that judgment was over.

So when we read in John, chapter three, where God poured out the Spirit upon Jesus as a dove, as bodily, as bodily form, like a dove, and he said this is my son, in whom I'm well pleased, in John three, 34, john the Baptist said that that Jesus was filled with a spirit without measure.

Filled with a spirit without measure.

You know, after he was baptized, he went.

He went into the wilderness to be tempted to the devil 40 days and 40 nights, and he needed.

He needed more than just baptism and water.

He needed to be filled with the Holy Ghost and he came back in the power of Spirit and in the power of the Spirit in the Galilee.

So so he was.

He became the Prince of Peace.

You know, the Bible says in Acts 10 38 how Jesus of Nazareth was, was was anointed.

Who went about doing good?

How God anointed Jesus Christ of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil?

For God was with him.

So he went in his ministry three and a half years.

He went as a man anointed of God.

See, that's another mistake a lot of people make.

Well, jesus did all that because he's the son of God.

Well, he is the son of God, he was the son of God.

But that's not how he performed the miracles.

He didn't do it as God, he did it as a man anointed of God.

He did it as a man upon whom the Holy Spirit had come and had filled him with that spirit without measure.

So what is the message?

The judgment is over.

See, he revealed himself as the Jews Messiah, and yet they rejected him.

Why?

Because he's basically preaching that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.

They didn't want.

They wanted to hang on to the law.

There are people today that want to hang on to the law.

They want to hang on to their own righteousness, their own good works.

Should we have good works?

Yes, but they don't save us.

They don't, they don't.

They don't make us worthy, they're just.

They're fruit that we are saved.

But works alone can't save you.

Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.

So judgment is over, boy.

So you know people need to know judgments over.

A lot of people don't realize that God loves sinners.

You know he'll.

He'll do everything he can to get a sinner saved, but not forever.

You know, most people just have one chance or so, unless they've got somebody praying for them.

You know prayer, prayer makes a lot of difference when you're praying for lost people.

So then the third trip that the dove made.

He did not, she did not return.

So the dove found a permanent resting place and so that type that shadow for shadows, the dispensation of the Holy Spirit as he functions today in the church age, and it has two aspects that I want you to pay close attention.

You know you've got one dispensation and two aspects.

Why don't you say that out loud?

One dispensation and two aspects to that dispensation All right, so let's let's break it apart here.

The first aspect is the Holy Ghost abides in the church.

The Holy Ghost found a resting place in the church, his church, and John 14, 16,.

The Holy Ghost abides with us forever, and we're talking about, first of all, individually.

Let's look at John 14.

I'm talking about the three dispensations of the Holy Spirit.

You know we all need to be acquainted with types and shadows and we need to be acquainted with how how the Holy Ghost operates.

Nowadays I hear so much ignorance among Christians that ought to know better.

John 14, jesus is at the last supper and he said in verse 16, and I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter, an identical comforter as I am, that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it sees him not, neither knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you and shall be in you.

He dwelt with the apostles in the Old Testament and soon as Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit dwelt within them.

And then, of course, on the day of Pentecost they were filled, like Jesus was filled.

So so the aspect, the first aspect of this dispensation, is that every born again Christian is the temple of the Holy Ghost and we have that comforter abiding in us forever.

He doesn't come and go.

You know that prayer that that preacher made.

It's unscriptural, according to the New Ted.

God doesn't just leave you.

I certainly not.

Over a sin, even a bad sin, even a terrible sin.

He doesn't leave.

He's waiting for you to get it right.

But he won't leave you.

He'll never leave you nor forsake you.

You would have to tell him to leave.

How would that ever happen?

Well, I tell you that the deceitfulness of sin the Bible teaches the deceitfulness of sin that sin hardens the heart.

It hardens the heart.

And so when someone repeatedly sins and lives in sin, when they're a Christian and does not confess it, does not listen to me carefully, does not confess it, it just keeps doing it over and over, but does not confess it, then that sin becomes a hardening agent until at some point in time that person is gonna get so hardened that they're gonna say you know, jesus, I don't need you.

And that happens.

It's called John in First John, it's called the sin unto death, and I do not say that you should pray for people that have committed that.

We don't know who they are, but we know it's possible because it's in the Bible.

I'm just telling you how hard it is for the Holy Spirit to leave you once you're saved.

It's not once saved, always saved, but it's close, it's close.

And so in 1 Corinthians, chapter six, verse 19,.

It says what?

Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost which you have of God, and you're not your own, for you've been bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

So then, we are the temple individually born again Christians.

We're the temples of the Holy Spirit.

He found a permanent resting place on the inside of us.

Now there's another aspect of him abiding, and that is he abides in the church itself collectively.

Look at Ephesians, chapter two.

Again, I just motivated it by my normal reading and then by hearing people and observing some of the error that's going on out there.

People have a very weak Bible background.

They don't even know how to talk.

Ephesians, chapter two.

It says in verse 21.

Well, let's look at verse 19.

Now, therefore, you're no more strangers and foreigners, but you're fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom talking about in Christ, in whom all the building fitly framed together, growth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are build together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

So, individually and collectively, the Holy Spirit abides in the church.

We are his permanent resting place.

He's never gonna leave the church.

I mean even the church that's asleep right now.

The Holy Spirit's dwelling within it, and I know there's some parts of the church that are dead.

He's not dwelling there.

Well, how do you know the difference?

Well, I don't claim to know the difference, but I don't know how to tell the difference on the outside between people that are dead and people that are sleeping.

But I just make them all wake up, and if they don't wake up, I figure they're dead.

So that is one aspect of the action of the Holy Spirit on the earth today.

He lives inside of the church to empower the church, both individually and collectively.

The greater one lives in us individually, the greater one lives in us collectively.

I'm telling you we get to pray, like we prayed last Sunday night.

Just oh, we had a powerful prayer meeting and I'm telling you things are moving because when you understand that we're not just flapping the air with our tongues, we're being backed up by God himself.

God himself is moving in the earth through the church.

So I mentioned two aspects of this dispensation of the Holy Spirit, and so the second one we find in John 16, let's look at that one.

I pray you're getting something out of this and certainly God can use you to help people that are newer or that haven't sat under good teaching.

They get under condemnation.

You know, the common thing is people get under condemnation when they sin and they think that's all over.

They sinned and that's it.

Well, no, that's not it.

You know Jesus said you needed to forgive people 70 times seven.

You think he would require us to do that.

Not, he wouldn't do it.

So if you have done, if you've caught in besetting sin and you keep committing it over and over and over and each time you confess it, let me tell you something.

God's Word is true.

He washes you clean and he doesn't remember it the next time you remember it and you be best to forget it, because once you confess it it's gone.

The people that have trouble with drug addiction, any kind of addictive situations, are the ones that haven't forgiven themselves and they give up on confessing it, and then you know, the enemies got a foothold in their life, all right.

So, john 16, did you find that?

In verse eight, jesus said about the comforter, about the Holy Spirit, and when he has come, all right, let's go back up.

Let's look at chapter verse seven.

I want you to see this Verse seven.

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come under you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

Well, who's the you he's talking about?

He's talking about the disciples, he's really talking about every believer.

But then he says and now, in verse eight, he's no longer talking to the church, he's no longer talking to individual believers.

Look at this, look at verse eight.

And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

Of sin because they believe not on me.

Of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

So what does all that have to do with?

The second aspect of his being here on the earth is the Holy Spirit is everywhere present.

And he's everywhere present to convict the world, number one of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin.

When they, when they, you know they they're without excuse.

The spirit of God is here and he is dealing with lost people.

You know, if there was a still, a Gillies, the Holy Spirit is wall to wall and Gillies, he's wall to wall.

And every dive, every joint, every, every horrible place you can think of, every crack house, the.

The Holy Spirit is everywhere present.

And he is here to do what?

To remind sinners that what they're doing is wrong, what they're doing, they have a divine influence upon their heart, especially when people are praying for them.

See, that's there's no.

When you pray for your lost relatives, the Holy Spirit goes to work and convicts them of their sin.

They still have to repent, but I still hear people say this.

As believers They'll say oh well, the Lord convicted me, he convicted me of sin.

No, he's not in there to convict you of sin.

He never does that.

That's not what the Holy Spirit does to the believer.

What does he do?

He's your way out, he's your ally, he's your comforter.

He will never condemn you.

Who is it that condemns you when you sin?

Your own spirit, your conscience hurts you, not the Holy Spirit.

When you get that straight, then you'll get over this idea that you've made God mad at you or something, or that you're being punished for something or whatever, and you don't even know what it is.

That's not how God operates.

No, he's here in the world to convict the world, to shine light on the world.

Sin of righteousness.

Because you know what?

When they do accept Jesus, suddenly they're able to say Abba, father, the Holy Spirit instantly is right there, before they even know what happened.

They get right with God because they turn away from the devil and turn toward God, they believe the gospel and the Holy Spirit is there to convict them of righteousness and then of judgment to come.

I tell you that all these movies that you see I mean it seems like all the movies are it's just one disaster movie after another, one hero movie.

You know we've got all this catastrophe going on.

I mean even Hollywood knows that this thing's about to wind up.

I mean, everybody knows about 666.

Everybody knows about the Antichrist, everybody knows.

And so the Holy Spirit has done his job.

The Holy Spirit has convicted the world of judgment.

They know there's judgment to come and they're trying to forget it.

The Holy Ghost won't let them.

I hope you're getting something out of this.

But the three dispensations of the Holy Spirit you can see how they're markedly different.

And so when Jesus returns for the earth, for the church rather, you know it's going to make a huge difference in the earth, because the Holy Spirit is the restraining power of the Antichrist.

And once we are taken out of the way, according to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, then the Antichrist and the Antichrist spirits will be unleashed.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

Evil will be unleashed in the world in an unprecedented way, and we see that in the book of Revelation.

One catastrophe after another.

And we see people who are so hardened that they know they believe in God now, they believe in Jesus now, but they're not saved.

There's going to be people saved.

The Bible says so.

The Bible says a multitude of people are going to be saved in the Tribulation, but every one of them will have to die for their salvation.

Every one of them will be put to death, and so they will never be members of the church.

They will never be in the sense of the church now being born again, made in the image and likeness of God, they will just simply be saved from hell and, yes, they'll be with Jesus.

They'll go to heaven, but they'll never be equal to the church, never.

They'll be saved, but they won't be in the same category as born again Christians that got saved by faith, saved by grace, through faith, amen.

And so well, the Holy Ghosts leave the earth.

I hear people saying that too.

I might have said it before, but I've done some study on it and I prayed about it.

And really, how could anybody get saved without the Holy Ghost?

So if people are going to get saved during the Tribulation, the Holy Ghost has got to be here to help them get that done.

And so the main thing is that the church age, this dispensation, will end when the day of the Gentiles is fulfilled, when the last Gentile becomes a Christian and the door is shut and Jesus comes and raptures the church off the face of the earth and we're gone.

Well, that will be the closing of that age, and then the Holy Spirit will take up yet another dispensation in the final seven years, and right now is the greatest time to live.

Whosoever is called upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And yet, in the Tribulation, you'll have to starve to death.

Essentially, you won't be able to take the mark of the beast, you won't be able to do business, you won't be able to buy groceries, you won't be able to eat.

You'll starve to death.

That's one of the worst ways to die there is.

I don't think there's anything worse than starving, and lots of people are going to starve to death for their faith, and that's what it'll take, because if they take the mark, they're irretrievably lost.

So now is a time to get our loved ones saved.

Now is a time to reach out to people.

Now is a time to reap a harvest.

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

That's what's in effect right now, and so let's take full advantage of this present dispensation of the Holy Ghost.

Come on, let's lift our hands.

Father, we thank you.

We're living in the greatest age there is, and we're so grateful that You've allowed us to be here for the great end time.

Harvest in Jesus' name, amen.