Power Surge Part 4

John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So if we were to turn to our friend who got baptized yesterday and say that to him, what would that look like?

The question then we have to ask is, is baptism in the Spirit a separate or distinct operation or event after salvation?

That's a question that many books have been written on.

And having come from a Pentecostal background, my thought process was yes it is, but over the years as you look at scripture, my answer is no.

But it's a qualified no, meaning there are things that I want to add to it and we can have a time for questions if you want to.

If you look at Acts chapter 2, let me put it this way, believers must have, and after that we look at scriptures, believers must have subsequent experiences of the Spirit.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

But such experiences should not be called receiving the gift of the Spirit.

That's what I want to present to you, that is it a separate or distinct operation or an event that happens after salvation?

Because that's what I grew up believing and that I preached, I taught.

So if I ask the question again now, my answer would be no, but it would be a qualified no.

Because I would say that believers must have subsequent experiences of the Spirit.

They must have multiple occasions after salvation where they experience deep encounters with the Spirit.

But such experiences should not be called receiving the gift of the Spirit.

So if you go to Acts chapter 2, verse 38 and 39, Acts chapter 2, verse 38 and 39, reading from the NIV, Acts chapter 2, verse 38 and 39,

Acts 2:38 Acts 2:38 Acts 2:38

Peter replied,

So it's saying that if you repent and you receive the forgiveness of sins, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And if you go to Ephesians 1.13, Ephesians 1.13, Ephesians 1.13 says,

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation,

when you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.

So the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to one who gets saved and who repents of his sin and is forgiven of his sin.

He receives the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And because the Holy Spirit is a person and not a quantity, you can't receive a bit of him and more of him later.

You either receive him or you don't receive him, but you receive him when you get saved.

But we must have subsequent encounters with the Holy Spirit, which we will talk about.

So do you want to bring up different viewpoints?

Please understand, there are some things that if Scripture informs you, we'll have to change it.

Yeah, there's not much we can do if tomorrow Scripture convicts us that this way of thinking was wrong.

This is the better, not wrong, this way of thinking was incomplete and this is a better position to take.

So any questions or any thoughts on that?

If you want to shed your isms, okay, and just go with Scripture,

because it is very hard for me to shed my charismaticism or Pentecostalism,

and it might be very hard for some to shed their Baptecostalism or whatever.

So if we shed our isms and we looked at Scripture, would we be able to work with this or would it be a struggle?

Go ahead, Jill.

I have a question about the times when other places are in need of spiritual help,

or being so dependent on the Spirit and not having such incidents.

Yeah. Oh, you're asking, are there such incidents?

Yeah, there are. I will go through them.

Different places where they were filled with the Holy Spirit and different words are used,

but filled is one of the words that's often used.

And then whenever the Holy Spirit came upon people in different parts of the Bible,

it was a new bunch of people, like in Samaria it was new, with the Gentiles it was new,

with the ones in Acts 19 who did not know that Jesus had risen because they were disciples of John, it was new.

So there are occurrences in the Book of Acts where you see the Holy Spirit falling upon people like it in Acts 2,

but they were different places because it's always Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the ends of the earth.

The Spirit of God followed that pattern.

And there are many places in the Book of Acts where you see this idea of filling,

of baptizing or different words are used, immersing, filling.

And we'll go over that.

Go ahead, Chama.

Ephesians 1.13.

Yeah, 1.13. Yeah.

Any other thoughts?

Because the intent is not to say this one is wrong or that one is wrong.

The intent is that this is what Scripture seems to indicate.

And yet it's not saying that we...

I'm saying we must have, must have experiences that are subsequent to salvation with the Holy Spirit that take us to another level.

Go ahead.

So, everybody who repents becomes at the stake.

Receives the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So then these experiences that we see subsequently in Acts will be a fresh outpouring?

A fresh outpouring, a fresh filling, a fresh immersion, a fresh closing.

Different words are used.

And I'm using these words from Scripture.

I'm not even pulling them out of my head.

Yeah?

So let's look at them.

The experience may come.

So this experience that we are talking about, experiences of the Spirit,

they may come at the moment of conversion or a day later or a year later.

And an experience is not standard.

But there will be evidence.

It can't be that what the Spirit of God did for me is now the format that everybody in the church has to experience to acknowledge that,

ha, the Holy Spirit has done that.

It can be different.

It can be diverse.

It can be various.

And that's fine.

But there must be evidence.

Every experience has an evidence.

I saw evidence of Evan's conversion.

He picked up that towel and he started waving it like a crazy guy.

And so there was evidence of the experience.

Yeah?

So this will come up very often in some of these.

Soon the leaves will disown you.

So the experience may come in an unusual event after conversion, a moment, at the very moment, a minute, a day or a year later.

And it will be followed by subsequent, more outpourings, fillings periodically throughout your life.

Because you yield.

The question is, if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, how can we have more filling?

The greater the yielding, the greater the filling of the Holy Spirit.

No napkins here, no tissues.

We have the Holy Spirit living in us.

I'm going to lose my good coffee.

It doesn't show as much.

I'll drink one more sip.

So what happens is the more we yield to the Spirit, the more we get filled.

So if that is my degree of yielding, then that's how much of me gets filled.

And if that is my degree of yielding, that's how much I get filled.

And if that is my degree of yielding, then we don't drink this coffee anymore.

Because I might drink it by mistake and then you'll watch me choke on it.

Yeah, so subsequent outpourings, fillings will happen periodically throughout your life.

I may come in various ways, various fillings, various blessings throughout a lifetime.

And it's sometimes unpredictable, sometimes predictable.

I remember the first time after I got saved, I went up to my aunt's terrace and hadn't been to church for many, many years.

I took some bread and some grape juice from a fridge, went and sat up on the terrace, opened the First Corinthians 11,

and said, I haven't had communion for ages, oh God, you and I have communion.

Broke bread, grape juice, took the guitar, knew the song Hallelujah, started playing,

and suddenly I knew that God was there and I started speaking in tongues, singing in tongues.

And no one prayed for me, no one made me pray faster, no one asked me to repeat anything.

It was just a very natural experience.

And so that was the first time I thought, wow.

And then I remember years later, I was in a church in Bahrain and a man called Mike Hyman came up and he called me out.

And he said, you have the gift of faith. And he told me you will serve the Lord.

He calls me out, begins to pray for me. And I actually knew that day that I will never turn back again.

That was a year and a half after getting saved. That day I knew that I will not turn back.

It wasn't because I had some great strength not to turn back.

There was something that happened inside me where I thought, this is the rest of my life.

It was in Feb. 1989 that it happened, or Feb. 1990. I don't remember. Most of you were not born then.

And so that was the second experience.

Fast forward, and I was at Richmond Pentecostal Church and a pastor called Mike, shorter than me, which is hard.

And he came and he was a nobody. And he came and he said, anyone here who thinks they will serve the Lord full time,

like no other stuff to do except this. And I felt I should go up. And he didn't even touch me.

And before I knew it, I was on the floor, no touching, no drama, no emotions, nothing.

And I knew something was transpiring because I couldn't get up.

They had to leave. The entire church left. I can hear people saying, I think he's gone to sleep.

And I'm thinking to myself, if I could only get up, I would punch you in the face. No, I didn't think that.

And so finally the pastor brought me because I didn't have a car then.

And so he said, Jacob, my wife is hungry. We will have to leave. I said, can you come back?

And so he took his wife and went. It was a deep work. And I remember God bringing up promises in my life saying,

do you believe this? Will you ever not believe it? That was in 1994.

And all those promises have come to pass. That is another subsequent feeling or encounter.

All that was happening that night was God would take an area, let's say humility.

And then he would show me me and my best at humility. And then he would show me Christ and his humility.

And I just start bawling because there was such a huge difference between my best humility and Christ.

And so something deep happened. I can give you an instance after instance.

I'm just taking the first six years of my life as a believer. And these were not fabricated.

These were not asked for. These were not something I thought would happen, but they were different and they keep happening.

And each time there was a change. And this is not a unique Jacob experience.

If I ask people around this church right now, they would stand up and they would say the same thing.

So any questions on that?

What if you don't get a full and full experience after New Testament?

Yeah. What if you don't? Then ask. Because the Bible seems to indicate that there were these fillings and outpourings often enough.

So it was normative for the New Testament church. If it is normative for the New Testament church and it's not happening in my life, I should ask.

I should ask. And so in the New Testament, most of these occasions were accompanied by either prophesying or speaking in tongues.

I'm saying that there's more than that because we aim at those two gifts.

And if we have those gifts, we think we now have the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The gift of the Holy Spirit was received the moment you got saved.

Our friend received the gift of the Holy Spirit yesterday.

He has very little background in other than going to schools in this faith.

Yet he received the gift of the Holy Spirit yesterday.

Oh, not yesterday. Whenever he got saved. Sorry. Yeah.

Baptism and salvation are not connected that way. And so he received that.

And so now the thing is one should expect subsequent fillings.

And if that is not your experience, one should ask for it because the Holy Spirit must be experienced.

The reason Christianity is becoming sterile is because Christians are not experiencing the reality of the Spirit.

There is some reality happening there. Yeah.

Who's in charge today? Sheldon? I had a strange feeling it was Sheldon.

Yeah. So one must begin to ask for the experience because to have the Holy Spirit is to have a reality that one experiences.

To have the Holy Spirit, to have the Holy Spirit is to have the reality of experiences.

Academia has the ability to make it historical, academic, factual, biblical.

And yet the very book is called not the biblical account of the Holy Spirit, but the acts of the Holy Spirit.

It's experienced. And so if we are not experiencing it, praise God, that's why we teach and learn so that we can experience it.

Go ahead, Anna. Sorry, I saw your hand.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I mean, when you married George, you didn't get a first installment.

Sometimes you wish you had just gotten it in installment, but you got all of them and now you're stuck with them.

Oh, I repeat the question. The question was when I married George, how come I didn't?

The question was the background that Anna comes from and that I come from.

The understanding was that you receive the first installment of the Spirit when you're born again.

And then as you mature, you receive the filling of the Holy Spirit.

And while there are incidents in the scriptures that seem to indicate that,

the truth of the scripture seems to say that, not seems to say, says that the gift of the Holy Spirit is received when you receive Christ.

And so when it comes to speaking in tongues, sometimes people don't speak in tongues not because of any other reason,

but because you sometimes are raised saying tongues is not to be spoken in.

Or sometimes you're raised saying tongues is of the devil.

Sometimes there's a block in terms of speaking.

Sometimes you insist on speaking in English and cannot speak in tongues.

I've seen guys struggle for years and then one day it breaks forth.

I do not have an explanation for it.

All I know is because it's a gift of tongues and it edifies a person, it is not going to be held back by God,

because God won't say Sue can have it, Echo can't have it, Heidi can have it, Gillian can't have it.

Any, many, many more is not tongues. It's just a poem.

Yeah. So it won't be held back because it's a gift that edifies everybody.

A father does not hold back a gift that strengthens everyone.

So I go back to that old question, which is a very unsatisfactory answer, but kind of may help.

Can all drive cars? Yes.

Do all drive cars? No.

Can all speak in tongues? Yes.

Do all speak in tongues? No.

Then here's the other thing.

Is it possible to speak in tongues and behave like the devil? Yes.

Is it possible to not speak in tongues and behave like Christ? Yes.

I have met elders who speak in tongues and had slept with at least 13 women in the church.

I know them because we were casting demons out of them.

So, go ahead.

Yeah, totally.

That's why Jesus said that you've gone around healing, casting out demons, but I don't even know you.

So yes, the evidence in the New Testament was speaking in tongues and prophesying and living the way Christ wants us to live.

And I do believe that the same thing holds good today too.

We should use that because that's scriptural precedent.

So we don't want to devalue the speaking of tongues as evidence or prophesying as evidence.

We don't want to devalue that.

But that is not the one measure.

Yeah.

What song is that?

Oh, Jump Jump Jump in the River.

Oh, he must be doing his funky dance thing.

So to have the Holy Spirit is to have a reality of one's experience. Why?

Because guys, please try and memorize this.

The Holy Spirit or Holy Spirit, depending on how you want to say it, Holy Spirit is God's empowering presence.

If he is God's powerful presence or God's power giving presence, how can we have him and not experience him?

He's God's empowering presence.

And if he is God's empowering presence, how can I walk with him if I don't experience him?

And what do you mean, Jacob?

His Holy Spirit is more like a renewed mind or a conscious mind.

So what is the difference between a renewed mind and a renewed mind?

He's a person. It would be like, let's say I want to be like you.

I can read books about you. I can watch you and try to imitate you.

But the best way would be if your spirit came into me.

And if your spirit came into me, I'd immediately be in a comb my hair like you, wear your clothes, walk like you, talk like you, ask questions like you.

Everything would be like you because your spirit has come into me.

So it's not that now I have a renewed mind. I have the spirit of Abhishek inside me.

That changes me completely.

So the idea of the Holy Spirit is that the spirit of Christ now dwells in me so that I may become like Christ.

Now I begin to renew my mind because his spirit lives in me, but my mind thinks like myself.

And now I begin to read the word so that my mind begins to correspond to the way the spirit of God thinks.

That's renewing of the mind. So the spirit of God is not a renewed mind.

Yeah? And so when it comes to the Holy Spirit being God's empowering presence, we must experience it.

So what does it mean to experience the Holy Spirit's presence?

Experience it like, let's ask Thuuni, what do you experience about Anilay?

All righty, moving on.

Okay, so Thuuni experiences Anilay's occasional elbow when he's doing wrong.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's, come here, Abu. And she guides him.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's, you could wear something better.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's, I'm so glad you're here, Abu.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's, I'm so glad you're back from Houston.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's, I miss you a lot.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's, you are running a fever, let me bring healing to you.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's, I know you're feeling sad about what happened, but let me cheer you up.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's, you can't pray, I'll pray for you.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's, you can't even speak, I'll speak on your behalf.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's, did Jacob say that about you? I'll go defend you.

Thuuni experiences, it just goes on and on. This is what experience looks like.

Thuuni also experiences Anilay's speaking in Kasi, which is the language they speak.

Thuuni experiences Anilay's prophesying over him.

But those are not the two things that it's limited to.

When we limit the experience of Anilay to speaking in Kasi and speaking prophetically over him,

Thuuni might as well not be married but just have someone who speaks in Kasi.

There's so much more.

This is what experiencing the Holy Spirit looks like.

And this happens daily, daily.

When we talk about fillings in clothing, yes, these are encounters that happen often in life.

But the experience of the Holy Spirit is a daily thing.

You have to think of the Spirit of God just like Thuuni thinks of Anilay. Why?

Because he is a person.

And only if we think of him as a person do we get to experience him on a daily basis.

If you don't think of him as a person, you'll experience him on a Sunday

if this so-called Thuuni we are talking about leads worship well.

Go ahead.

Yeah, it'll be like me coming to your house.

And if we pray, come Holy Spirit.

Isn't the Holy Spirit already here, so why even pray?

In a sense, why even pray?

But it's the same way if I come to your house and I'm standing at the door,

you'll say, come in, come in, Jacob, come sit.

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. Why do you need to say it?

But you'll still say it.

Because it's an inviting, it's a welcoming.

So on one hand, it's a welcoming, it's a welcoming.

Yeah.

So I have taken extreme positions where we don't say come Holy Spirit

because he's already here.

And that was nice.

But then we got to get over that, saying come Holy Spirit,

I know you're here, but my God, please come here.

Yeah.

And then you say, come Holy Spirit, come in.

And then you say, come in.

And then you say, come in.

And then you say, come in.

And then you tell Mike to get up from the couch that he normally wants to sit up

because Jacob needs to sit there.

It's that kind of thing.

And then, yeah, we won't go down that.

Yeah.

So the Holy Spirit is God's empowering presence, eh?

God's empowering presence.

Experience Him on a daily basis, guys.

And here's the thing.

I might ask someone else to preach the rest of this teaching and add to it next week.

It is Jesus who immerses you, fills you, baptizes you,

clothes you with the Holy Spirit.

It is Jesus who does that.

It is Jesus who does that.

He does that because he wants to.

It's Jesus who does that.

This is not you asking desperately for it.

It is Jesus who does that.

I will ask my father, why?

Because the same Spirit that helped him publicly discharge his earthly ministry

is the same Spirit now he says that his reps or representatives will receive

because Jesus says, I will give you the Holy Spirit.

It gives me great confidence that it is Jesus who immerses me.

It's not a pastor who's laying hands on me.

It's not some great decree.

It's not even asking for the Holy Spirit to come.

Yesterday when we prayed for my friend and I was going over these notes,

I was thinking, yesterday when I prayed for my friend, I said,

let the Holy Spirit, oh, Holy Spirit, come upon him.

And I'm thinking to myself, but the scriptures clearly indicate that Jesus is the one who immerses one in the Holy Spirit.

So I'll make that slight adjustment in my prayer.

Jesus, could you cause the Spirit of God to come upon my friend?

Because he is the one who immerses us.

He is the one who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit.

He said, I'm going.

And don't worry, I'll talk to the father.

And the father will send the Spirit of God that is upon me upon you.

There should be confidence when Jesus wants to do something because he usually gets his way.

And if you are in agreement with him, that's great, man.

Yeah, can be that too.

Yeah.

He plunges me into the life of the Spirit.

And everything the Spirit does, every da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da, Jesus, every.

What's that song?

Yeah, sorry, I forgot the words.

The Spirit of God moves with Jesus and for Jesus.

The Spirit of God moves with Jesus and for Jesus.

Jeremy, did you turn me down?

Or is the battery dying?

So here are some words that you need to think of when we think of being filled.

Clothed.

Luke 24.

49 or thereabouts.

Filled.

Acts 2-4.

Outpouring.

Or refreshing.

Acts 3, I don't know the words.

These are some words that are used.

And these words are used often.

So let's look at those scriptures.

Acts 2, you know, happened.

Acts 4-8.

Acts 4-8.

Acts 4-8.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of the people.

So here is a situation where Peter and John have been brought in front of the leaders

and they're being rebuked for what they did.

They're going to get beaten for what they did.

And then while they're standing there, there's this sudden moment where the Holy Spirit begins to fill them.

He's filled with the Holy Spirit.

Peter begins to respond.

So Acts 2 we saw.

Then there's Acts 2-4 we saw.

Then there's 4-8.

And then there is 4-31.

4-31.

These are the fillings that begin to happen.

Acts 4-31.

After they prayed, the place they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

These guys got filled just two chapters ago.

I don't know how many weeks two chapters are, but it wasn't long ago.

Acts 4-31.

They get filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly.

Let's take another one.

Acts chapter 7, verse 55.

Acts 7:55

This is about Stephen.

Acts chapter 7, verse 55.

Acts 7:55

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and they gnashed their teeth at him.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Sometimes the intent of the Holy Spirit is, can I begin to show you visions that Jesus wants you to see?

Can I begin to show you the same passion that I have for Christ?

Can I begin to stir it up in you?

When you begin to have the same passion that the Spirit of God has for Christ, can you imagine what happens?

When you begin to see the vision that the Spirit of God is seeing because he is part of the triune Godhead

and he shows you a glimpse, can you imagine what happens?

And this is something that must happen on a regular basis because he's a person and he was sent to exalt Christ in your life and through your life.

And now you begin to wonder, why should we just limit it to one outpouring that happens with the speaking of tongues that we live with for the rest of our lives?

Azusa was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Happened down the road in California.

Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Yes, people spoke in tongues.

But I remember I was in Bihar.

Bihar is known as sometimes a graveyard of missions in India.

I was in Bihar and these guys come, they were hippies who were caught up in the Jesus revolution in New York.

Long hair, bell bottoms that can sweep the entire floor and flowers all over.

And they got touched by Jesus.

And some of them learned how to play the guitar on their flights from New York to Delhi.

But passionately, I'm an 11 or 12 year old and they come and ask me, have you received Jesus Christ in your life?

I don't know why but I burst into tears because I know I had it and I know I needed to and I didn't know how to.

And that was my first encounter with Jesus where they told me to receive Christ.

I didn't know what to do with thereafter.

But the very question wrecked my life.

And I was only 11 or 12.

This is the work of the Spirit.

And it is for us.

It's for us sitting in this room, guys.

You have to become a hippie for this.

Acts 7, 55.

Acts 11, 24.

11, 24.

Acts 11, 24.

He was a good man.

Talking about Barnabas.

He was a good man.

And not everybody was referred to as full of the Holy Spirit and faith.

And a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Acts 13, verse 9.

Acts 13:9

Acts 13, verse 9.

Acts 13:9

Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elimastor Sorcerer.

And he said, you're a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right.

Different people filled with the Holy Spirit different times so that what God wanted to achieve in their lives could be achieved.

Any questions?

Okay.

So let's end with what we should look for.

And then someone else can do this next week, hopefully.

Here's the question.

When the 120 guys in the upper room were filled with the Holy Spirit, what happened?

Like, what was the immediate expression or display?

Yes, they spoke in tongues, but what was it about?

Yeah.

One of the immediate things that everybody witnessed was there was an overwhelming sense of God's greatness.

And an overwhelming sense of God's wonder.

And an account of his works that they were all speaking with tongues to people from all around.

Overwhelming sense of God's greatness.

Overwhelming sense of God's wonder.

Overwhelming sense of God's works suddenly being expressed.

Part of the reason we need to be filled over and over again.

And part of the reason I pray, God, that we end in three minutes and spend a little time seeking him

is so that we have this overwhelming sense settle on us.

Sometimes the Bible calls it being clothed with power from on high.

Clothed with power from on high.

Sometimes it calls being filled with the Holy Spirit inside.

Sometimes the reason the Holy Spirit is sent is so that Joel's prophecy can be fulfilled.

What's Joel's prophecy?

It's crazy.

Peter stands up and he says, hey guys, this is why we are being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Why?

So that Joel's prophecy can be brought to pass.

What's Joel's prophecy?

Young men and women shall prophesy.

They shall see visions.

That's one thing that God has done in this church.

When it comes to seeing visions and prophesying and the young being involved in it,

young men and women, that is happening in this church.

But there are other things that need to be added to it.

You think God does not want Joel's prophecy to happen through us?

He wants it.

He prophesied it.

Peter is standing and saying it's going to happen.

One of the things that God does through the filling of the Holy Spirit is giving people a taste of the future.

Another thing he does is, if I send you the Holy Spirit, can you go and make everything new?

Can you be my witnesses?

Witnesses to what?

Witnesses to who I am and what I do.

Please hear this, eh?

And we'll end with this.

One of the reasons the Holy Spirit is sent, Acts chapter 1 verse 8, Acts chapter 2 verse 16,

Acts 1:8 Acts 2:16

is that, hey, can I send the Holy Spirit upon you, my friend, and you, Tommy, and you, Anna, and you, Betty,

can I send the Holy Spirit on you so that you become my witnesses?

What do you mean, witnesses?

Can you go and begin to tell people who I am and what I do?

Who I am and what I do?

I'll give you the boldness to do that.

My Spirit has the ability, as He did when the earth was created, when the Northern Lights were created,

as He did then, He has the ability, Jacob, to change you, to begin to bear witness to who I am and what I do.

And who am I?

And what do I do?

Here's what I do.

I make all things new.

That's what I do.

That is what God is doing.

What do you think, forgiveness is?

Forgiveness is making all things new.

No longer are you an enemy.

You are a friend.

What is healing?

Your bodies are crippled.

I will give you back your bodies as it was in Eden.

This is what I do.

Who do I do it through?

I do it by the Spirit.

Why are we talking about this?

Because if we desire the same things that God desires, then the Spirit of God gets to work,

other than make a few people fall and speak in tongues, which He enjoys, but that's not what He's after.

I'm here to make all things new.

That's His main desire.

We think witnesses, we think proclamation.

Important, but so much more.

Super important, but so much more.

That's just the end for now.

I've got some really good lines, man.

Power is the atmosphere of heaven.

Let's not leave it half-baked.

Man, look at how, when He releases power, how it comes, eh?

The sound of heaven, a rushing wind.

You've got to imagine it sometimes.

You're sitting in a room like this, sixty people, not hundred and twenty, and suddenly you, everything begins to rattle, eh?

Everything begins to rattle.

You hear the sound of a mighty rushing wind.

It just sweeps through the place.

They've never experienced it before.

The only time they've heard about it is when Elijah spoke about it.

And then they suddenly remember Ezekiel and his prophecy in Ezekiel 37, where there was a valley of bones, and as breath was released, the bones began to live.

And they make these instant connections, just like we do.

The sound of the mighty rushing wind.

And while they're still just taken aback by it, and the people outside are hearing too, and it's only a sound.

There was no real wind.

It's just a sound.

I've filled the place and filled outside.

And just as that's happening, suddenly there are these tongues of fire, eh, that begin to come in.

And instantly their minds begin to click.

They know that Moses met God in a burning bush.

They know that there was a pillar of fire and pillar of cloud that led them through the desert.

And they begin to think along those lines.

And they know what's happening.

This is the power of God nakedly displayed with absolutely no apologies.

Can you receive that?

The power of God nakedly displayed without any apologies.

But at just a heart so that we align with God and say, it doesn't matter whether I'm 60, 70, 40, 20.

I am going to align with you and say, oh God, make all things new but involve me in that.

Oh God, fill me because I need more of this.

Oh God, clothe me with power from on high.

Clothe me.

Because the atmosphere of heaven is power.

How do we know that?

We read in Daniel chapter 7, verse 13 and 14.

Daniel 7:13

And behold, I saw the ancient one seated on a throne.

And I saw the son of man come towards him and take his place at the right hand of all power.

Matthew 26, verse 64.

Matthew 26:64

Jesus, they ask him, are you this Messiah, the son of the living God?

And he says, yes, I am.

And then he says, very soon you will see the son of man seated on the right hand of power.

That is the power we are talking about.

When in Luke 24, 49, Jesus says, wait in Jerusalem for I'm going to clothe you with power from on high.

Clothed.

Filled.

Who wants to do this?

Jesus wants to do this.

Do you know how quickly we can have this if we align with him?

Because it's not even you having to beg and scream for it.

Why does he want to do this?

Because he says, little flock, it's my pleasure to give you the kingdom.

What is the kingdom about?

It's not a matter of eating, drinking or talking.

What is it about?

It's power.

1 Corinthians 420.

Just take some time, guys.

No drama.

No drama.

Just based on what we've heard, quietly ask him and then I'll come ask her.

When we are done, I'll ask Anita to come and sing that song.

But just quietly ask him.

Find your corner, ask him.

It's 620.

Please don't take this as going to get over it in a minute.

Okay.

The expressor speaks, groans more.

Whatever you need to.

Needed Father.

In moments like this, as we are yielded, find space, Holy Spirit.

I want to join you in making things new.

Hunger, please give us hunger.

Jesus, I'm so glad you want to do this.

So we come to you, Jesus.

For your own sake.

Send boldness.

Send passion.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Find room, Holy Spirit.

Find room, Holy Spirit.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

Send joy.

See, yielded in this room right now.

See, yielded in this room right now.

So many different ways of yielding to you across this room. Different hearts saying different things yielded.

For your fame, O God, for your fame.

Holy Spirit, you like exalting Christ. We want to exalt him.

Amen.

Amen.

Spirit of God, fill us with the passion that you have for Jesus Christ.

Consuming fire, consuming fire, please fall.

The passion for his name.

Oh, God, please.

Father, we refuse to be like everybody else, so give us boldness even now, O God, to break free from what we have so gotten accustomed to.

So, Father, we just ask, Lord, not to follow the crowd. Break us out of good patterns. Break us out of good patterns, O God.

I want to be like David, who danced foolishly, O God, for the approval of one, one, one, just one, single-minded passion for the Christ.

Nothing else.

Oh, God.

Oh, God.

We groan about how we groan for you.

Mmm.

Cloth us, O God, with power from on high.

Cloth us.

We are wretched, naked, poor, and blind. We come to buy gold, O God, from you. Gold, Father, casting down all our pretensions.

Come to buy gold from you, Father. Cloth us, O God.

Cloth me.

Give us this, Father, and we'll do our best to carry it faithfully, carry it reverently.

You want to, Jesus?

Fulfill Joel's prophecy in our midst, O God, that the Holy Spirit will be poured upon all flesh, that your young men will see visions, that your old, your young men and women will prophesy, will see visions, O God, for the benefit of others.

Hallelujah.

Jesus, thank you, Holy Spirit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, Father. Yeah, Father.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.

You see a yielded church, Jesus.

on an altar. You're seeing hearts with sincerity and it will provoke a response, Father, because

it is you, Jesus, who wants to do this. This is our best offering. I know it's sweet aroma

in your nostrils, but even as our offering ascends to the heavens, O God, we want to

hear the sound of heaven. We want the Spirit of God to descend afresh on us. We can't ascend

our offerings, I said, but the Spirit of God descends. Spirit of God, break upon us. Break

upon us. We'll change whatever you want. Each of us will do it individually, but as a church

you can have your way. You can have your way, please. We'll change the way we speak. We'll

be bold. We'll do whatever you want. This is our only purpose, O God. We don't have anything

greater than this. Here I am, down on my knees again. I'm not going to be able to

do it. Surrender, O God. Surrender, O God. Find me here, Lord, as I draw to be here,

desperate for you, desperate for you. With arms stretched wide, I know you hear a cry.

We hunger and thirst. We hunger and thirst. Why, I know you hear a cry. Speak to us now.

I surrender. I surrender. I want to know you more. I want to know you more. Like a rushing

wind, Jesus breathes within. Lord, have your way. Lord, have your way in us. Like a mighty

stone, stir within us souls. Lord, have your way. Lord, have your way in us. Like a rushing

wind, Jesus breathes within. Lord, have your way. Lord, have your way in us. Like a mighty

stone, stir within us souls. Lord, have your way. Lord, have your way in us. Thank you,

Father. Thank you, O God. Thank you. Jesus, I am trusting because of your faithfulness

that you will plunge us afresh into the life of the Spirit, that you will outpour the Spirit upon us as a church, that you will fill us afresh this week, and by the time we get to next Sunday, we'll already be flowing in a newness, a new level.

So we thank you now, and we trust you, O God. We trust you. This is your desire. The Spirit of God yearns over us jealously. We trust you. Thank you, Spirit of God. In Jesus' name, amen.

Oh, they've left. Anita, do you want to come up now or do you want to do it? Okay. Sure.

Good afternoon, church. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. I just want to dedicate this song to all the mothers who are here and who are not here around the globe and who are all in heaven. So just a small, just a few lines dedicated to a mom.

M is for the million things she did for me. O is only that she's growing old. T is for the T's that she said for me. H is for her heart of purest gold.

E is for her eyes of love that shine. E right is right and right she's always be. Put them all together, this little mother. The world that means the whole world to me. The world that means the whole world to me.

Thank you so much. Happy Mother's Day to you all again.

Can you just sing it one more time a little slower?

M is for the million things she did for me. O is only that she's growing old. T is for the T's that she said for me. H is for her heart of purest gold.

E is for her eyes of love that shine. E right is right and right she's always be. Put them all together, this little mother. The world that means the whole world to me. The world that means the whole world to me.

Thank you.

Thanks.

For those of us who still have our mothers living, give them a call and be nice, eh? Yeah? They can't be difficult, but we can be nice.

If you need prayer, feel free to come up and someone will pray for you. Otherwise, during this week, Danny, you did something for your mother, right? Bought her something and all. Okay, good. Yeah.

So, Iris, you did too? No, not yet?

Okay, so during this week, try to just go with some of the things we talked about and see if you can begin to experience the power and the person of the spirit of God, yeah?

And talk to you when I talk to you next.

Thanks.

Digambar, please check your text messages.