Unleashing the Power: The Holy Spirit's Role in Transformation

All right, so Joel 2, Joel 2 verses 28 to 32, my grandson says,

Joel 2:28–32

and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams,

your young men shall see visions.

And also on my men servants and on my maid servants, I will pour out my spirit

in those days. It's those days now.

And I will show wonders in heaven and in the

earth Blood and fire and pillars of smoke The

sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into

blood Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord And it shall

come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved For in

Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance As the Lord has said

among the remnant whom the Lord calls,

And I've got to read Acts 1 and 8 as well.

Acts 1 verse 8 says, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come

Acts 1:8

upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends,

the end of the earth.

Now, I'm preaching this today because I honestly believe it should be every

Sunday and really every day of the year.

But Pentecost Sunday is a day that's set apart and it's set apart among churches

as the day that we celebrate and give honor to the coming of the Holy Spirit

to live in and upon and through the life of every believer.

And every church, I believe, should be celebrating the day of Pentecost.

I was in Bowerall a couple of weeks ago, the week before Pentecost Sunday and

the Catholic Church in Bowerall, what's it called? The Catholic Church?

St. Thomas, St. Thomas Aquinas, yep. They had a sign out the front and it said,

this Sunday is Pentecost Sunday when the Holy Spirit came on us.

I thought, wow, isn't that awesome? But every church should be celebrating Pentecost,

even if they don't believe in speaking in tongues or the gifts of the Spirit

and signs and wonders and miracles.

Every church should be speaking on the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit.

They should be celebrating his coming, his coming for the simple fact that without

him, none of us would be saved.

None of us would be saved because no man comes to the Father except that the

Spirit draws him, except that the Holy Spirit draws him.

It is clearly revealed in the scriptures that the only way an individual can

be born again is to be regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So we know that the new life and the new birth of the believer can only happen

through the power of the Holy Spirit.

But there's so much more than that as well. I mean, that's enough,

but there's so much more beyond the simple indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus met a woman at the well one day, okay?

Jesus met a woman at the well, and he spoke to her of a well of living water.

And he said that the well of living water would be within her and it would spring

up in her into everlasting life, this well of water.

That's salvation. That's what salvation is.

Salvation puts a well in us that ministers to our personal life that we can draw from personally.

Isaiah calls it the wells of salvation that Jesus was talking to that woman about, that day.

But there's another level beyond salvation from sin and a personal well for

personal benefit. There's more to it.

There is what Jesus said would be that we've spoken about a well.

Jesus also spoke about a river. Jesus spoke about a river, or should I actually say rivers,

plural, of living waters that would flow out of the innermost being of the spirit-filled

believer. Jesus spoke of that.

I love the fact that when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to live

in and live in the life through his children, I love that fact.

And as I said earlier, every church should be expressing their gratitude for

the coming of the Holy Spirit.

In fact, every church, every church that claims to be saved by the blood of

Jesus Christ and redeemed from the power of sin through the death,

the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ should be expressing their

thankfulness and their gratitude for the mighty Holy Spirit.

Hang on a second. I'm going to get to this. But the simple truth is this.

If you take the Holy Spirit out of the gospel, there's no gospel. Okay?

Remember, gospel means good news. Okay? But if you take the Holy Spirit and

his ministry and his operation out of the gospel, there's no good news.

You say, Tim, can you clarify that a bit for me? Can you go a bit deeper? Okay.

I'll go a lot deeper for you because I believe I can.

Here is what I'm saying. If you take the Holy Spirit out of the Bible, there's no prophets.

There's no prophecy because all prophets prophesied, how?

By the Holy Spirit and their prophecies were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

If you take the Holy Spirit out of the Bible, no one gets saved because no one

can come to the Father, as I said, except through, except the Holy Spirit draws him.

Okay. And if you take the Holy Spirit out of the Bible, no one can ever be saved

because the only way Jesus could be raised from the dead was by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And if there's no Holy Spirit, then Jesus didn't rise from the dead.

And if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, no one is saved from their sins, the Holy Spirit.

And if there's no Holy Spirit, there's no anointing.

And if there's no anointing, there's no power to destroy the yokes of the devil

because it's the anointing that destroys is the yokes of the devil.

And if you take the Holy Spirit out of the Bible, there's no power to cast out

devils or to heal the sick.

If you take the Holy Spirit out of the Bible, it's just another book like Gone

with the Wind or War and Peace.

If you take the Holy Spirit out of the Bible, there's no conviction of sin and

there's no revelation because he is the spirit of revelation.

If you take, can I go further? If you take the Holy Spirit out of the Bible,

there's no such thing as faith.

And without faith, it's impossible to please God.

If you take the Holy Spirit out of the Bible, you know what you have to erase?

You have to erase the dividing and the crossing of the Red Sea.

And you have to put the water back in the rock.

And you have to put the walls of Jericho back up again.

And you have to put the three Hebrew boys back in the furnace,

where they will be burned to a crisp.

And you have to put Paul Daniel back in the lion's den, where he becomes a midnight

snack without the Holy Spirit.

Are you seeing what I'm saying here? Every miracle that has ever happened,

whether Old Testament or New Testament, has been the work and the operation of the Holy Spirit.

Kara would not have had a visitation from Jesus himself if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit.

Miracles come from the Holy Spirit.

And you'd have to give Mary Magdalene back her seven demons if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit.

You'd have to take the stars out of the sky because the Bible says,

by the word of the Lord were the heavens made and the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

Andrew, what's the breath of God's mouth? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit,

the breath of God is the Holy Spirit.

If you take the Holy Spirit out of the Bible, you have to give back every disease

and sickness that Jesus healed and every devil that Jesus cast out.

Because the Bible tells us clearly the way that Jesus healed the sick and cast

out demons and cleansed the lepers

and raised the dead was because he was anointed by the Holy Spirit. it.

Luke 4, verses 18 and 19 says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

Luke 4:18

because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,

and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

I don't know what it means to you guys, but what it means to me is I need the Holy Spirit.

We all need the Holy Spirit. And it means that I want the Holy Spirit and I

want his presence and I want his power and I want the anointing on my life that

comes from the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus spoke his last words to the disciples, he knew he was leaving planet

earth and he knew the disciples and all disciples to come needed the same power that he had.

And he knew the power source in his life was the Holy Spirit.

That's why he told them to wait, to wait until they'll be endured,

endured with power from on high.

But we have to understand that when we talk about the Holy Spirit,

we're not just speaking of power or force or energy, but we're speaking about

a person, a person who has power.

And the more intimate our relationship with the person of the Holy Spirit is,

the more of his power he will share with us.

A life filled with the Holy Spirit is marked by deep love for this person,

a hunger for his presence, a dependence on his power.

The experience, his benefits and the manifestation of his transforming work.

Every believer needs to cultivate a deep love for the Holy Spirit as a person.

Honoring his presence, yielding to his voice and delighting in his fellowship.

That's why Jesus said these words to the disciples. That's why he said in Acts 1.8,

read it again, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon

you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria

and to the ends of the earth.

What kind of power are we talking about here?

What kind of power? Number one, it's power to witness.

It's power to testify.

Witness and testify, the power that comes to us from the Holy Spirit.

Next, it's the power to cast out devils, demons, and destroy the works of the devil.

The power of the gifts of the spirit, miracles, signs, and wonders.

That's the power that comes from the Holy Spirit.

This is what we should be contending with every day of our life.

It's not a life reserved for more mature Christians.

As a matter of fact, it's basic Christianity 101, seeking the Holy Spirit.

The book of Acts is a record of the birth of the New Testament church.

And if you ever wondered, that was 2,000 years ago, okay?

That was 2,000 years ago. If that was the birth of the New Testament church

2,000 years ago, do you think we should have grown up just a little bit since then?

Just a little bit? Yeah.

It won't happen automatically. You have to get hungry for the Holy Spirit and

you have to reach for it, push for it. I should rephrase that.

You have to reach for him, push for him, pursue and chase after him.

Because blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,

for they will be filled, for they will be filled.

This is not some hyped up, weird experience that a few eccentric religious people have either.

This is given for the benefit of every born again believer. If you've been saved

by the blood of Jesus, you should be pursuing the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The first thing the Apostle Paul said to any new believer was,

have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?

That's what he said to every new believer. They said, we've never heard of such

a thing as the Holy Spirit.

And Paul laid hands on them and the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke

in other tongues and they prophesied.

The Bible in Acts 2.39 says this, the promise of this baptism is for you and

your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

It's for everyone, everyone. This is not a one trip to an altar lifetime fix it experience either,

but it's an invitation to go deeper and deeper and deeper with the Holy Spirit,

deeper in relationship so that we can go higher with him in manifestation of his power and glory.

I don't know where you're at on the scale of a spiritual life of power, but I can tell you this.

The Holy Spirit will put you at 10 or above if you have the Holy Spirit.

I need you to know this. The Holy Spirit's not a bully either. He won't push in.

He won't just come busting into your life, knocking everything over.

He must be invited into your life and then you must yield to him.

However, I do need to tell you that when you invite him to come into your life

and to come upon you and you yield to him, you will probably get more than you bargained for.

Who can say amen for that? Yep.

Because he's a God of abundance. Our God is a God of abundance and he's a God

of overflow and he's a God of more than enough.

As a matter of fact, he's a God of way too much. Praise him.

It's so awesome and so powerful. He has to turn the power down for us to get close to him. Okay.

There's not a human body on this planet that could contain the full unfiltered

measure of the power of God.

Even if it's lowest setting, even at the lowest power setting,

we can't stand up when he comes close.

That's why sometimes you see people fall over in church or sometimes what we

call sometimes getting slain in the spirit because people just experience his

presence and can't remain standing.

I love it when I'm praying for John, Mel's husband, John.

He automatically gets a chair behind him because he just loves the presence

of the Holy Spirit and down he goes. Isn't that right, guys?

That's your dad. And then he will sit there for hours if we left him there.

Even if you guys were all in the car with the engine running,

John's still with the Holy Spirit Bless him,

When the Holy Spirit came He

announced his arrival A bit like this The arrival

Bang Poppers But in this

occasion When he announced his arrival There was a sound from heaven Like a

mighty rushing wind Like a mighty rushing wind When visible tongues of fire

Sat upon each of them And they were filled with the Holy Spirit And they began

to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave the mutterance.

I love it. I love it. That's awesome. Awesome. Right, where am I up to?

Rushing wind. Yeah, that's right. Tongues of fire, tongues of fire.

Immediately when the Holy Spirit fell on them, they knew they had been touched

by power, not of this world, not of this world.

And if this power doesn't come just to touch you, he comes to live in you and to flow through you.

That's what the Holy Spirit does. Every blood washed, born again Christian.

Born again child of God needs the Holy Spirit.

And then you need more, which he brings. He brings more.

Doesn't matter how much you have, you need more.

You need more. More power, more glory, more anointing, more grace,

more love, more wisdom, and more mercy. Who wants a bit of that?

Yeah, come on. The Bible says signs will follow the believers.

Signs will follow us signs

will follow the believers it says in mark

Mark 16:17

16 verses 17 and 18 and these signs

shall follow them that believe in my

name they shall cast out devils they shall

speak in new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink anything

deadly any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick

and they shall recover signs will follow the believers who have received power from on high.

Signs will follow the believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Signs will follow those who are on fire for God.

Now, the only way to get the fire of God is to have a relationship with God.

Not a long distance relationship either, but one of connection and companionship.

Then he will manifest himself to us and through us. We know that God is everywhere, don't we?

But he's not manifested everywhere. If you want God to manifest himself,

you need to create something that gets his attention and draws him to you.

You have to create a landing strip in your life.

What do you mean, Tim, create a landing strip?

Let's say the Holy Spirit is a plane loaded with every good thing your heart could desire.

Okay. And he's circling around in the sky above you.

And you're down on the ground saying, I want that.

I want that. I want that in my life. And the pilot's saying,

I want to give this to you, but you haven't given me a place to land.

This is what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. You have to show me you really

want this. If you want fire, you've got to put some wood on the altar.

Somebody's going to get it this morning, I believe. Somebody's going to get it.

Somebody's going to get the glory and the presence of the power and his power.

Somebody's going to build the Holy Spirit a landing strip this morning.

Somebody's going to show God that they're hungry. And somebody's going to build

that landing strip and they're going to put wood on the fire.

The only question that I've got for you this morning is who will it be?

Who will it be? The answer is simple.

The answer is simple. Whoever wants to reach for him,

whoever wants to reach, whoever is willing to put the effort into building an

altar for God, putting wood on it, whoever's willing to build a landing strip

where he can come in and land and give you all those blessings. Josh, come on up for me.

Now, in the Bible, there were three kings who went off into the wilderness and

found themselves in a dry, barren place.

Without any water, they were sure to die.

In desperation, they called for the prophet Elisha, who instructed them.

He said, if you want water, you're going to have to fill this valley full of ditches.

Full of ditches. In other words, you have to prepare a place for the water.

You have to do more than just say you're thirsty. You have to praise.

You have to read your Bible. You have to pray.

You have to give. You have to fast. And you have to worship this morning.

You have to show God that you're hungry and show God that you're thirsty.

So these three kings, they dug ditches. and in the morning, the water came rushing

into the middle of the desert and filled every one of those ditches.

Who's ready to dig some ditches this morning? Who's ready to dig some ditches?

Come on, lift your hands with me now.

Let's lift hands together. Come on, lift your hands up to receive this morning.

Lift your hands and tell him, I'm ready to receive.

I'm ready to receive. I'm ready to put some wood on the altar this morning.

I'm ready to build a landing strip, a landing strip. I'm willing to dig some ditches in my life.

Come on, get those shovels out right now. Get those shovels out and start digging

ditches that is gonna be filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit.

If you provide, if you know, it's a saying, if you open the doors, they will come.

Well, if we dig the ditches, if we build the landing strip, the Holy Spirit will come into our life.

Friends, the truth is there's no price too high to receive power from on high.

There is no price too high. And we have to be willing to do that and to give

that in Jesus' name this morning,

to dig the ditches, to build the landing strip, to allow the Holy Spirit to

come to us, to invite the Holy Spirit to come to us.

Lord, this morning we pray. Lord, this morning we cry out for your presence.

Lord, this morning we cry out for the presence of the Holy Spirit to fill every life here.

Lord, when we were saved, we received the Holy Spirit.

And that's the well that Jesus spoke about. But Jesus also spoke about the rivers,

the rivers of life that would flow into our bodies.

That's the filling and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's what we cry out

for now, Lord God, in our lives.

That you would fall upon us, Lord. That you would inspire us.

That you would empower us, Lord God, to go into the world and live to your glory, Lord.

To show people of your glory. To show people of your salvation.

To show people to cast out demons, Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

To set captives free, Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

To lay hands on people and see them healed by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus' Name.

Lord, we cry out for that right now in Jesus' Name, that Your Holy Spirit would

fall on this place right now and on every person here right now in Jesus' Name.

Your Holy Spirit would fall onto us and lift us up because His weight is so light.

His weight will lift us, lift us above all that, above the miry clay,

above what we spoke about earlier, the anxiety, the depression,

the addictions, above all of that, the Holy Spirit will lift us up if we would

just create that landing strip for Him.

So Lord, we choose to do that now in Jesus' Name, to create a place for the

Holy Spirit to land in our lives.

Because without the Holy Spirit in our life, there is nothing. There is nothing.

So we cry out and we wait for the presence of the Holy Spirit to fall on every

person here this morning.

And we pray the Holy Spirit would fall upon our friends' lives,

on our families' lives, on our children's lives.

The Holy Spirit would inspire and regenerate all those that we know, Lord God.

If they cried out and they received, We praise you for that,

Lord, for the presence of the Holy Spirit.

We thank you, Lord, for that early church that were obedient and they tarried

and they waited for the presence of the Holy Spirit to fall.

And when it did, Lord, they were empowered to go into the world.

Well, that's what we pray for this morning, Lord, that your presence would fall,

your Holy Spirit would fall to empower us to go into the world and to share

the good news that comes by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

And we thank you for that, Lord.

Pray for every person here now, Lord God.

That, Lord, as they go today, that they would be kept safe, Lord God.

But that they would be inspired by the presence of the Holy Spirit in their

life. That they would go into the world as we spoke about, Lord.

And that they would be a beacon of hope because of what you've done for them,

what you've filled them with, Lord God.

And people would look at them and think, I want that. I want that.

So, Lord, I pray for that, Lord. In Jesus' name, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Bless your holy name. Bless your Holy Spirit. We thank you, God.

And everyone said, amen.