Ruah - Part 2

So, what is it that works against the filling of the Spirit? What works against the filling of the Spirit?

We talked about that yesterday. So, what works against it?

And these things that work against it, if I don't develop a hatred for it, it will persist.

What you hate, you don't tolerate. What you don't hate, you tolerate. What you don't hate, you tolerate.

These things have the ability to work against the filling of the Spirit, as in the Spirit of God baptises us with power,

which is why we are here for the last four days. He baptises us, immerses us, pours upon us Himself and His power.

What resists it? What fights against it? What dulls it? What kind of makes us null and void?

The first one is, we mentioned this briefly yesterday, politically correct, covetous.

Politically correct, covetous. This is one of those things. And the deeper it takes root, the deeper it roots itself, the greater the hindrance.

The greater the hindrance to the Spirit.

I must begin to hate it. Hating it doesn't mean reacting. Hating it meaning having strong dislike for it,

so that when I'm confronted with it, I have the ability now to respond to it with the wisdom of God.

But it's important that we talk about this because after all this, when we talk about conviction, self-denying courage and wisdom,

what is the point if we are allowing this to stand on one side and conviction, courage and wisdom to stand on the other side?

Why have them clash? Beat this down so that this may increase. Because the Spirit of God is giving us the hammer.

This politically correct, covetous, is something that is so strong that Christians are either reacting foolishly to it or being cowed down and subdued by it.

The second one, unquenchable consumption, unquenchable consumption, unquenchable consumption of social media,

of demands of career and the quest for more stuff.

Unquenchable consumption of social media which steals time and of the demands of career and the quest for more.

This is that soil where the seed falls but the cares of the world choke it out.

This is that Matthew 13 parable of seed that falls on soil but it's choked out because of the cares.

The cares of the world are the demands of career and the quest for more stuff.

And whatever robs your time, in our case usually social media. That's in Mark 4.8.

And because a life devoted to consumption consumes you.

Whatever you're devoting yourself to consume will consume you.

Whatever you're devoting yourself to consume will consume you. If it's social media then it will consume you.

If it's money it will consume you. If it's your work it will consume you.

And that's true with God because everything else will not satisfy.

And with God you get satisfied and you long for more.

And then the third one is acceptable comfort.

Acceptable comfort. This one is a very subtle one where it creeps in on you.

It creeps in. Where you begin and I begin to say stuff like, I've earned it.

I struggle to get here.

It's the season for it.

I deserve it.

It's relative.

These are the three things that usually resist or counter the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Pick one that really affects you.

For me it's the third one.

Acceptable comfort.

It's strange. It doesn't matter which country we've come from to Canada.

Some of you were born here.

But as you've come from other countries to Canada you suddenly realize that the very things that you could handle before you came here

you no longer handle because you get to a place where things are comfortable.

That the cost now is too high. Before traveling 20 kilometers to do something wasn't.

Through traffic that was so thick that it would take you two hours to cover 20.

Now if it's more than 20 minutes it bothers you.

And so what begins to happen is this, I'm only talking about myself, for you it might be different.

Acceptable comfort.

It begins to take away from what the Holy Spirit wants to do because there's a level of comfort you won't go beyond.

What is it to you?

Can you at least face up to it?

That's all we're asking. That's all the Holy Spirit is asking us to do.

What is it that you need to face up to?

Politically correct cowardice. Unquenchable consumption. Acceptable comfort.

Any comments? Any thoughts? Anything you want to?

You know, one of the advantages and disadvantages of telling you what I'm struggling with is

it makes me not pastoral because pastors are supposed to be a cut above the rest.

And two, there are people that watch and then say, look, we knew this about this guy.

I don't care. This is my struggle. What is yours?

Which one? Yeah, we don't need to take a detour.

What is it that you find hardest?

Because it will combat the conviction, the courage.

It'll combat it. It'll silence you. It'll sap your strength.

It's like a hole in my bucket dealizer.

I guess that didn't connect with most people here.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Some of us know that.

It's not an Adele song, nor is it a Taylor Swift song. It's much older than that.

Okay.

Yeah. So if I don't react, but I begin to hate it because it's silencing me.

What Christians do is we react to it and so we steamroll.

And that's almost as obnoxious as cowardice.

But what if somewhere inside me this thing builds that I'm not going to be silenced

because it is not supposed to be talked about because it ruffles feathers.

It's a response, not a reaction. It's filled with wisdom.

It's peaceable. It's gentle. It's loving.

But it refuses to be eaten up by the cancer of silence.

Yeah. So these are the three things that you have to pick from.

We'll go a little further.

But this destroys what the Spirit of God is trying to do.

How do you manage acceptable comfort?

By beginning to dislike what it is doing to my life,

where it has to be sufficiently comfortable before I'll attempt it.

Or if it's too difficult, I'll postpone it till it gets more comfortable or convenient.

It's not like the people that you read of.

I mean, I went to a place called Cherrapunji.

It's the rainiest place on earth.

The rainiest place on earth.

I've got a picture of it.

There's a big sign which tells you how much it rains there.

It's the rainiest place on earth.

And I go there and this person takes me to the place where I was born.

I go there and this person takes me to a church.

It's a Presbyterian church.

And it has four pillars in front and then the rest of the church behind.

On the pillars are the names of about 50 to 60 Scottish missionaries that died there.

All the names are carved on these pillars.

And as I read them, I began to weep thinking,

it is hard enough to get to Cherrapunji now.

How did they do it 125 years ago, 150 years ago?

How did they get their families, their children?

The names are not of pastors or missionaries, families, little children.

Families that came to this area.

It's one of the only provinces in India that's strongly Christian besides Nagaland.

But it is because someone decided that the acceptable levels of comfort must be stretched

even though they were Scottish and they were coming to a place like India where at that time in that area,

there were no roads.

It is just hilly terrain.

So when we talk about DWAG, Dynamic Life, yes, witnessing to Christ,

obedience to mission, which is always accompanied by gifts and miracles,

deep conviction, the self-denying courage to step out

and the wisdom to show the world who he is,

most of it gets shut down because of acceptable levels of comfort,

beyond which the spirit of God cannot push me.

That is terrible.

Pick your poison.

I understand that the institution we should not opt out because we react to the things that are bad,

like in terms of political correctness,

but sometimes when we are to respond in a particular situation and kind of like think about political correctness,

like how do you understand that this is the situation that the population must respond to?

Or like when we keep our mouth shut or we don't respond,

like how do you tell people to ask them to be more honest?

Yeah, forgive me for answering it this way.

I think for tonight we will have to deal with, I am going to hate it.

And then we will have to spend time talking about how do you deal with it, which we will follow up.

But tonight we will have to deal with it because it is so elaborate.

It can't be summed up in one sound bite or one line because so many different contexts.

When do you come under authority?

When do you not come under authority because there is a higher authority and so on?

It is actually a question of authority at the end of the day.

And so we will have to deal with that separately.

But today we have to deal with which one am I going to hate because it is beginning to poison the flow of the Holy Spirit through me and through this church.

So pick your poison and don't drink it.

What is politically correct cowardice?

Politically correct cowardice.

Cowardice in itself is just not being brave and being subdued, being intimidated.

Politically correct cowardice is the system that is now prevalent in most places.

In many non-Western countries it is just very simple.

This is the rule because this is the religion or the philosophy that we believe in.

So you shall be this way or forget it.

Here there are no rules, no ideologies, no philosophies, nothing.

It is this sense of everyone should tolerate everything and accommodate everything.

So that we all are correct in our behavior which is not being managed by the word or by God or by personal integrity or conviction but just managed by what at present may be either majority or the minority.

Yeah, either the majority or the minority.

Thanks.

Sometimes it's just this constant feeling of I hate the feeling of being bored.

Yeah.

So one of the things about social media is swearing off it for seven months does not help it when the seven months is over.

Like I stayed off social media for seven months.

After the seven months are over I realized that I'm going back to the same habit as it didn't do any good.

It's not like you get healed or anything.

It has to be.

I cannot afford to mismanage time like this.

I cannot afford.

Time is precious.

It eats up your time.

It eats up your time.

It devours your time.

It is like you heard a cookie monster.

This is time monster.

It just devours it.

Devours it and it's just endless.

And then as you go the more mindless you get the loser your morals get.

What you begin to watch now does not have a filter.

It says flee youthful lusts.

I would suggest to you regardless how old you are social media can be youthful lust.

Sometimes you can use the excuse.

Like you said sometimes you can use the excuse.

I'm not arguing.

That's a self-defeating argument.

Yeah.

Okay.

How do we beat this all?

And we'll end with that.

How do we beat this all?

We beat it all with a thing called joy.

You mean all this can be beaten by joy?

Yeah.

Christian joy is the power that can cut these cords.

How?

So here's a question.

There's two questions I want to ask you and then we can go into a time of praying that God takes care of this.

Do I rejoice or find joy whichever word you want to use because we don't use the word rejoice too often.

Do I find joy?

Do I find joy that it costs me my time, resources,

and even my life to serve God and to serve another's faith?

What a question.

Can you imagine the transformation that could happen here if the Holy Spirit could get your heart on this one?

Do I find joy?

Do I find joy that it costs me my time, my resources, and even my life to serve God and serve the faith of another?

Do I find joy in it?

Philippians 2.17.

Paul says, you know, I'm being poured out like a liquid offering on your sacrifice of faith and I take great joy in it.

And I hope you will take joy in it too.

How crazy is that?

What if this can happen in my heart?

And only one person can do it.

Only one person can make this happen.

No amount of discipline, no amount of trying can make this happen.

It is a heart change.

Heart changes are some of the greatest miracles.

Let me share a quick, very short, I'll shorten it.

There was a person I disliked immensely for no good reason.

And the person just used to, no, let me change it.

This person used to agitate me, irritate me immensely.

Every time I look at the person, irritation and agitation would rise up.

I'd avoid the person.

And I prayed, I read scriptures, I even put an elastic band on my hand to remind me that I shouldn't do it.

I did everything and it wouldn't go away.

And then something happened.

I was sitting by the dikes near the river in Richmond and I was pleading with God, Father, take this away.

I feel so guilty after this.

Every time the person would come into my presence, the person would feel uninvited.

And then while I'm sitting there, someone calls me and they say to me, trust the work of the Holy Spirit.

And I said, sure.

What do you think I've been doing all this time, trusting the work of the Holy Spirit?

And then I go over the next few days and I meet this person and every time I meet the person,

I'm waiting for the dislike to come, the agitation to come.

And it's not coming.

And I don't have faith, so I'm saying, don't worry, it'll be there in two minutes.

Like I am so sure that nothing is going to change.

That even though God said trust the work of the Spirit, I'm looking at the person thinking,

no, this is just a temporary hiatus, it'll come.

You'll begin to hate again.

Five minutes is over, one hour is over.

I'm saying, this is one of those days when you're top of your game like holy, it will come.

Two days go by, five days go by, seven days go by.

And I began to weep one day because I realized that it was a miracle.

And I actually experienced a miracle, a miracle of a heart that was changed without effort.

It is the strangest, strangest thing.

Inside, how can something change?

How can you begin to like somebody that you are sure you're going to dislike?

How?

Something happened inside, man.

Some people ask me, what is the biggest miracle you've seen?

And I've seen the dead rise, I've seen lame legs grow, I've seen open eyes that are blind open,

I've seen ears that are open.

But this is easily the greatest miracle I know because I know how hard it was.

Why am I sharing this?

Because it is possible for us to have these transformations happen to us internally today

because the Lord wants to close us with power.

Close us with power where outside, for what?

Inside? Absolutely. Why?

Weak flesh, treasures of, jars of treasure.

Expect this. He is here.

He is active. He is brooding. He is yearning.

He is present. He wants to do this.

He invited us. He'll get his way.

What he says, he will do. What he speaks, he will do.

What he touches, will come back to life.

Change, man. I'm looking forward to this.

I'll tell you a secret later.

That's the cool thing about secrets, huh?

If you know it and you don't know it, it's up to me when I say it.

Here's the second question.

Am I willing to pay the cost or suffer loss as a direct result

of trying to bring others in on the joy of knowing God?

Okay, first question.

Do I find joy that it costs me my time, resources?

Let's throw in comfort, consumption.

Cover this.

Do I find joy that it costs me my comfort, my time, my resources,

my desire for consumption, my fear to speak out,

and even my life to serve God and to serve another's faith?

Do I find joy in it?

And today, if you're willing, God is willing to give me

and give you the joy of this.

When that joy comes, the Spirit of God gets what He wants.

It's all connected, guys.

Dwarf, dynamic life, witnessing to Christ,

obedience to mission, gifts and miracles,

which will go into effect when we have deep conviction,

when we have self-denying courage, and when we have wisdom,

which will not be subdued by our desire for acceptable comfort,

our consumption of goods, or politically correct, cover this.

It will not be subdued by that.

But underlying it all is this joy that you have,

that all of this is worth laying down,

my time, my resources, my consumption, all of it is worth laying down,

because I am ridiculously joyful over what God wants me to do

and what will happen in Dilna's life if I do it.

So any cost is okay. It's the joy of it.

This is exactly what parents do.

This is what parents do.

They give up comfort, they give up consumption,

and they are super brave.

Every day they do it.

The Spirit of God is looking for it.

Any questions?

Any questions?

Hey, Rivers of Living Water, what do you think it is? Joyful? Not joyful?

Some of you went for the retreat, the young adults retreat.

We always have to cross a bridge to get to food,

and there's this river running under.

Doesn't matter whether it's summer or winter,

that river is just like a babbling brook, man.

It's just like a river, and it's just like a river.

It's just like a river, and it's just like a river.

Doesn't matter whether it's summer or winter,

that river is just like a babbling brook, man.

Just continuously.

What we are doing in terms of the Holy Spirit,

please understand, it is impossible to connect with the Holy Spirit

if joy is not a desire of yours.

The Rivers of Living Water, oi, oi, come.

Who do you want to go to?

Come here.

Rivers of Living Water, Holy Spirit,

impossible to connect to if your great desire is not joy.

Mia, do you want to know the Holy Spirit well?

Just begin to decide, Mia, how old are you?

Three? Six.

At six, decide that I want to be so joyful in the Holy Spirit,

I'm going to try and learn what it is to be joyful.

It doesn't matter who you are, this must be a deep desire.

Pray God that he does it for us today.

Then it will cross the boundaries of worship.

Joy.

And once we have that, you'll be surprised at how well he uses us.

Let's just stop there and ask the Lord for a few things.

Here's what we are asking him.

Oh God, I want to get rid of one of these.

Pick one.

Okay, pick one.

I'm picking three.

I don't know what you'll be picking.

Pick one.

Second thing.

He's saying, Oh God, I don't see joy as a high priority in my life,

but everything you do comes from that.

The ultimate purpose of God in everything he does is joy.

Please hear me.

The ultimate purpose of God in everything he does is joy.

Everything he does, his ultimate purpose is joy.

We've been through this.

Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into my joy.

There's a heaven that awaits where there is no crying, there's no tears,

there's no mourning, there's joy.

I will anoint you with the oil of gladness and joy.

The kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking,

but it's about the peace and righteousness, peace and joy.

And so, desire today that, Father, I want this.

It's what will give you zest, space, light, life.

It will give it substance.

What is the one thing that's common to zest, space, light, life, obedience?

What is the one thing that's common to it that makes it explode?

Joy.

I can't create it, you can't fabricate it, we can ask for it.

What does it look like?

Different for different people, because each one is going through different things.

So we're not standardizing this, but we are asking for it.

Any questions?

We begin with a confession that perhaps I am not a joyful person.

We begin with that confession.

We begin with that confession that perhaps, instead of being a joyful person,

I am this kind of a person.

We begin with that confession, because unless I face up to that,

I'll be putting new wine into an old wineskin.

Confess to what it is.

Sometimes there's one issue that is ruining your life, eh?

Confess it.

Can we start there and then let the Holy Spirit do?

We can do very little, so let's begin there.

Pick one of these things.

We'll start praying and then we'll go to the Joy Bit.

Because I want to...yeah.

Let's go.

Spirit of God, could you help us?

I don't want to lead this.

But I do want to say that the creep of acceptable comfort

has ruined or hindered your ability to have me at your disposal.

I want to confess it so that you can change it.

I want to be just as serious as you are,

how I just speak in quiet.

You can change that in my heart.

Spirit of God, could you give us something that we rarely ask God to give?

Hate.

Could you give us a hatred for these things?

Across this room, down this room, this room, that room.

Could you begin to give us a hatred for this?

A hatred for it.

This touches you through me.

I can press unquenchable consumption into me.

It eats nothing and can just use it to work in my life, to refine my life.

I ask you to help me give it.

I don't feel that God should be like a stream of water to me.

I'm sick of the places that you've been off to in my life.

Am I a desperation that I've never had fun to work through the things that I think that aren't beautiful enough?

I'm giving you a desperation of spirit to see the new things that you've watched in my life.

Yeah.

Through what he's going through, Abba.

Let him see it.

Then watch as those things fall off too.

Unstoppable, Abba.

I'm a full Mark Butler.

Oh my God.

Yeah.

Guys, when someone prays and it speaks to your heart, raise your hand or do something quietly that acknowledges that this is my problem too.

Yeah.

All of us may be able to pray, but you hear someone else praying and you know they're speaking your heart.

Yeah.

Thank you, Father.

Spirit of God, we are an average church with average people, nobody too rich.

But we don't want to avoid the fact that there is a consumption attitude that affects most people everywhere.

So even though that might not be a strong issue like the other two, do put your finger where in my life there's a desire to have more.

Sometimes just to have it in the bank or just to have it in the house.

Where there is that, just put your finger and say this too, Jacob, but we can deal with it later.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Come guys, have the courage to put into words what you need to and then begin to call out for joy too.

That, oh God, would you, joy has not been a priority. Joy has been difficult.

Confess your lack of joy quietly. You don't need to talk about that.

But then begin to call out for it. Call his name, call his name, call his name Jehovah.

Yeah. Begin to confess why sometimes you're robbed of joy.

Begin to pick the poisons that have affected you and say no more.

Our words really matter, guys. We are speaking to him who is brooding, hovering, present, active, desirous.

Words sometimes have the ability to, yeah, you know.

Say that again, Pao.

Father, this might sound boastful, but I want to be the most joyous person on earth.

You are enough and what you have given me is enough.

The church is enough.

There's not enough reason to not be joyful. I want to be the most joyous person on earth.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

We're going to give us two or three minutes more before we do what the Spirit of God wants next.

So please take advantage of it.

I don't want to remember my days.

I don't want to remember my days that all the time wasted spent on things that were just no good.

Things that I spent on time.

Yeah.

It's crazy, but you were joyful, Jesus, when you chased people out of the temple.

You were joyful when you were agitated at the lack of faith that the disciples showed in the boat.

So it's not ha ha ha smiley face, Lord. It's not you're not an emoji.

You're not asking us to be a smiley emoji. You're just saying this is something you can possess always.

Even when people are agitating you, even when things are going wrong inside, you refuse to give up on the one thing that I always have been,

always am, always reward with, always am.

You are the most joyful person in the universe.

How we are cut out of the same cloth, have the same DNA, now have the same blood.

It must flow through my veins, oh God.

It's your joy that allowed you to endure the cross. It's your joy that it says so in Hebrews 12.

It's your joy that made you come down to the earth for me.

Great joy you now have because of what you have done with us.

And then that joy becomes the reason why we break, Father, cover this.

Why we break, oh God, this whole idea of comfort because there's something far more joyful.

We do it for our children, oh God.

Two more minutes, guys. Put it into words.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hallelujah. Joy to be my continual feast.

That scripture. Joy to be my continual feast.

Hallelujah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think we're getting it, guys.

Keep going.

Yeah.

Huh.

That'll be so cool when this whole church begins to experience that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hallelujah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

You see, we never connected to being clothed with power from on high to joy, but it is critical.

Fullness of joy.

Yeah.

Let me read you something that God gave us a promise before we started, eh?

This is the secret.

I wrote it on the top of the page. That's why I've been going there and singing.

He said, before we started, one of the things he said was, watch the Father by the power of the Spirit, reveal the Gospel of the Kingdom to the little children of Acts 29, and fill them as they believe.

And as you watch, rejoice in the Holy Spirit.

Watch the Father by the power of his Spirit, reveal the Gospel of the Kingdom to the little children of Acts 29, meaning us, and I will fill them as they believe.

And you, Jacob, can rejoice in the Holy Spirit, for I'll do this.

So I've been reading that again and again, and what we're doing here is so unmeasurable. How do you measure this?

Internal change, how do you measure?

I keep asking Kezia, is it a boy or a girl? But you can't measure that yet.

Or if you can, she hasn't told me yet.

But you can't measure this. It's an internal change. It's happening inside, right? It's an internal change.

Watch the Father by the power of his Spirit. This was something he said to me this afternoon.

Because, guys, you don't know what a struggle it is preparing for evenings like this.

Because it's not teaching. It's not to need leading worship. You can't just conclude it and go.

You've got no idea how to make this happen. It is so blooming frustrating.

Because I have the skills to teach. But how do you do this?

How do you measure internal change?

And so you get scared, and when you get scared, you receive words like this.

And here's what it says.

Watch the Father by the power of his Spirit, reveal the gospel of the kingdom to the little children at Acts 29.

And fill them as they believe.

And you, Jacob, you just rejoice in the Holy Spirit.

So...