Conspiring with the Spirit Pt.2

Alright, guys, so today we talk about the second part of what we started yesterday,

which is conspiring with the spirit on earth.

Yesterday we did conspiring with the spirit in heaven.

And I strongly suggest you listen to part one if you want to grasp and work with part two.

Because one dives into the other.

And if you hear part one, part two becomes much easier to work with.

So today we talk about conspiring with the spirit on earth. Conspiring with the spirit on earth.

Life in the spirit, guys, requires letting go of a dead life that no longer works.

Only Christians can say this.

Life in the spirit requires that I let go of a dead life that no longer works.

We are sometimes married to two lives. On one hand we are married to the life we had before,

which has a normalcy to it, which has reason in it.

And reason and normalcy are highly overrated.

Because what we are being called to is to let go of a dead life that no longer works.

Until you let go of a dead life that no longer works, you will not fully experience the life of the spirit.

And so it requires an awareness and an examination of different areas of my life where I am still working out of a dead old life.

I have to be aware of it and once I am aware of it I can then examine it.

And once I examine it I can make a decision as to whether I want to continue down this road or I don't.

And the more I do that, the more I will experience the life of the spirit,

which is the life that the earth at present does not have unless you are born again.

And as I begin to go down that road and practice it, I will intuitively begin to think, begin to understand,

begin to expect and begin to work the life of the Holy Spirit on earth.

I intuitively begin to think, I begin to grasp, I begin to expect.

That is the...when we get to the place of expecting things to flow out of the Holy Spirit into you and out of you,

that is when you know, ah shucks, this is almost becoming my default.

So examine different areas of your life, your marriage, your parenting, your relationship with wealth, your relationship with people,

your relationship with God as Father.

Examine these and see how much of it is coming out of a dead life that no longer works.

It's fascinating when, if I were to make a statement like, reason and normalcy talks us out of Holy Spirit encounters.

If I were to say reason, and I am saying it, if I were to say reason and normalcy talks us out of spirit encounters,

if your mind is thinking, no, but reason and normalcy are important.

Are you saying that reason and normalcy should be totally thrown aside?

Then we have a struggle.

Sometimes our questions betray our struggles.

I've been to many places where I say reason is highly overrated when it comes to walking with God,

and reason can talk us out of spirit encounters, and there will always be this question,

are you saying that common sense and reason are not important?

Of course they are important, but they are nothing in comparison to the life and the spirit.

We are so used to operating out of a dead life that to take away stuff like reason and normalcy is frightening,

because what does that leave us?

It leaves us with things that are absolutely unfamiliar, invisible, inaudible.

How do you live with that?

You have to understand that reason and normalcy is not something that you can take away from.

How do you live with that?

So let me now say, not if I said it, let me now say it,

reason and normality or normalcy can talk us out of spirit encounters.

And reason and normality will have us look for God through human provisions.

It will have us look for God through human provisions.

God uses humans to provide us what we need, and I'm not talking about material goods,

I'm talking about spiritual things too.

God uses humans to provide us things.

But it is one thing to look for God through human provision.

You look to God and God can provide through humans, but you don't look for God through human provisions.

In the church, in your Christian life, begin to say goodbye to,

begin to bury the dead life that no longer works, because you are special.

You are a species that hasn't existed before.

You are meant to experience the life of the spirit,

till you intuitively think, grasp, expect and work like the Holy Spirit.

Conspire with him.

Conspire means to make secret plans to work together.

Conspire is to make secret plans to work together with the Holy Spirit,

so that heaven can happen on earth.

To conspire is to make secret plans to work together with him,

so that heaven can happen on earth.

So conspire with him. This is his desire.

Can I bring heaven back on earth since Christ has created a pathway?

Now I'm going to bring heaven on earth,

and I'm going to bring it through anybody who aligns himself with me.

What does that alignment look like?

I must align my heart, mind and soul with God.

I must align my body with God.

What does that alignment look like?

I must align my heart, mind and my feet.

Alignment, you align your heart, you align your mind and you align your feet.

Align heart, mind and feet with what?

With the Spirit.

What are we talking about?

We are talking about conspiring, as in making plans secretly towards an end.

We are conspiring with the Spirit.

Please listen to part one if you want to understand part two better.

Conspiring with the Spirit, making plans secretly towards an end.

But how? By aligning my heart, mind and feet with the ways of the Spirit

in the midst of life, in the midst of life, in the midst of temptations, in the midst of trials.

That's where alignment happens. Alignment never happens in a vacuum.

Alignment happens because things are misaligned because of the external pressures

and internal pressures that bear on something.

Something gets misaligned.

It is in the midst of trials and temptations and tests that I need to align myself

with the ways of the Spirit in the midst of life, in the midst of life.

To advantage His friendship that we talked about yesterday.

To advantage His friendship.

To advantage His friendship so that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Any questions?

So guys, let's plan to let go of a dead life that no longer works.

Life in the Spirit is letting go of a dead life that no longer works.

And as I do, I will experience the life of the Spirit till it becomes my default,

till intuitively I begin to think, grasp, expect and work like Him on earth.

Conspire with Him, make secret plans with Him, work together with Him towards bringing heaven on earth.

Aligning my heart and my mind and my feet. Why?

Because yesterday we said we have an advantage in heaven because the Holy Spirit,

even though He is part of the triune Godhead, plays on our team.

He exposes the heart of the Father and the mind of the Son so that we have an in in heaven

so that we can know what the Father and the Son are thinking.

And even though He is the third person of the Godhead, He plays on my team.

He lets me in on things that are happening.

So here are some things that we need to know about the Holy Spirit so that we can conspire with Him.

You can only conspire with someone that you kind of know.

You can't go conspire with someone you don't know.

Because you don't know if they let you down, you don't know how they work,

you don't know what they think. It's very hard to conspire with someone unknown.

Because you're always watching your back.

But with the Holy Spirit you don't need to watch your back.

He watches your back. But the better you know Him, the easier it is to conspire with Him.

Have you noticed how it's usually good friends who conspire and survive?

Friends who don't know each other who conspire, usually one of them dies.

So here are some essential things about the Holy Spirit that we cannot avoid if you want to conspire with Him.

The first thing is that the Holy Spirit is amazingly exuberant.

He's very enthusiastic. He's humorous.

He is. I mean, don't you think I'm funny?

Where do you think that? You don't think so.

What? All this time I was under this false impression that I was a funny guy.

Anyways, so let's assume I'm not funny.

But I am.

The Spirit is amazingly exuberant. He's very enthusiastic and he's humorous.

He is humorous.

If you have any sense of humor, I'm not talking about Kamal's kind of humor, I'm talking about real humor.

If you have any sense of humor,

it comes from God, man.

There's no such thing called a funny bone, eh?

Just in case you thought there was one.

The Spirit is amazingly exuberant, enthusiastic, humorous, with a pining for relational joy.

I'll explain that. This is important, guys.

This is important. This sometimes lies at the heart of Christianity.

Can anybody in the world ever say that,

hey, Christianity is exuberant, enthusiastic, really funny, pining for relational joy.

Why is it that that would never occur to someone in the world?

And yet if I want to conspire with the Spirit, one of the things that I will have to shed

from my dead life is this sourness that can turn milk into cheese.

Happens in some churches. Mothers bring a bottle of milk for their kid and the kid starts crying

because things are so sour during the service that it turns into...

See, I told you God is humorous.

The point is this, guys.

The Spirit is amazingly exuberant.

He's enthusiastic. He's humorous.

And even as I say it, I don't think we actually believe it or don't have that as an experience that is normal for us.

We may have these occasions when we think like that.

But hear me, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead,

is amazingly exuberant, is really enthusiastic, is humorous,

and he pines for, as in he longs for a relationship that is joyful, that is filled with joy.

He longs for, he pines for relational joy, as in friends who go out and laugh and even bike

and have their hair flowing in the wind kind of thing.

That aside, the Holy Spirit has emotions.

What we don't realize is that every fruit of the Holy Spirit is a fruit that has emotion in it.

Try love without emotion.

Honey, you should just know that I love you. I don't need to express it.

And if I have got a deadpan face, that's okay.

But in here, it's love.

Really?

Every fruit of the Spirit comes with an emotion.

Take love, has emotion.

Compassion?

I just am super compassionate.

So listen, I want to do something for you.

Peace. Peace has emotion in it.

My God, man. Peace has so much emotion in it.

Children feel it, eh?

Dogs feel it.

Peace has emotion in it.

Cats don't.

Dogs.

What you did.

Yeah.

Peace has emotion in it.

Goodness. Goodness has emotion in it.

Man, every time someone is good to me, surprisingly, I'm the one who's moved.

Why does goodness move you?

Goodness has emotion in it.

Patience. Patience has emotion in it.

I'm not talking about the patience where your brow is wrinkled as you wait for someone to finish what they're doing.

I'm talking about the kind of patience that makes you think you've got all the emotions in it.

Grace. Grace has emotions in it.

Grace has emotions in it.

Gracious.

You can imagine why Israel would breathe a sigh of relief when they would hear the Aaronic blood.

They would be like, oh, I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

A sigh of relief when they would hear the Aaronic blessing.

The Lord be gracious unto you.

Phew.

Grace has emotions in it.

Mercy. Mercy is so packed with emotion.

It comes from a Hebrew word called Raham, which is the same feeling that a mother has towards a child.

Chris said Timmy disagrees.

Timmy is a cat, by the way.

Just in case you thought it was a dog.

Moving on.

Guys.

Guys, why am I bringing this up?

Because we talk about the fruit of the Spirit and we think very highly of it.

And it brings to pass in us the character of Jesus Christ.

Because the fruit of the Spirit is basically the character of Christ brought to us by the Spirit.

But you must realize that in all these fruits there is emotion.

And I'm saying to you to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit is impossible without you engaging him emotionally.

Because if you want to feel his presence, you must engage him emotionally.

We've got to get rid of this extreme view we've taken where it's all a matter of faith.

Don't worry about feelings.

No, my God doesn't think like that, man.

Get your feelings involved.

Joy, while it is not happiness, is still a feeling.

It is still a feeling.

The Spirit is amazingly exuberant.

The exuberant carries in it.

What's that word, Betty?

Joy, dear whatever.

Pardon?

Yeah, joie au reveil.

So, it's J-O-I-D-E-V-I-V-R-E, however you pronounce it.

It's that word.

So, I mean, I could hardly pronounce it without a mask.

And now that people are saying it with a mask on, I can't hear it at all.

But it's something like that.

And basically it's French for exuberant, a panache for life.

That's how the Holy Spirit is.

My God, man.

We can't be anything less.

It's just a wrong representation of Christ.

Sure, he was a man of sorrows.

But it doesn't mean that he didn't smile.

It means that he was accustomed to suffering.

He was accustomed to sorrow.

He knew how to reach out to those that are sorrowing.

Conspiring with the Spirit on earth, these are requisites.

If you want to conspire with the Spirit, you must remember that one of the things he wants to bring to you before you can conspire is the secure intimacy of sonship.

The secure intimacy of sonship.

It's one of the first things that happens when you're born again and the Spirit of God comes into your life.

The spirit of slavery is exchanged for the spirit of adoption.

And the first cry that actually begins to ferment and ferment in your inside is the Abba cry.

Unfortunately, we don't let the Abba cry come out because one, it's emotional.

Two, the father-son relationship is not the prime thing that we focus on.

We focus on Christ and Lordship and servanthood.

And we destroy the cry that is fermenting inside.

Why is it that more than 60 to 70% of Christians do not understand nor can call God Father when that is his distinctive?

Conspire with him.

The first thing he wants me to step into is the secure intimacy of sonship.

The secure intimacy of sonship.

This is probably not what you mean, but I'm missing a piece.

How come feeling involved, okay, if it's positive, exuberant, but we need to ignore feelings if things are not going our way?

Good question.

So May is asking, so when feelings are negative, the usual response from pastors, including this wonderful pastor, is ignore your feelings.

Just trust in faith.

Don't deny your feelings, but sometimes some feelings must be ignored while you stand in faith.

Yes.

It's just the nature of faith.

The nature of faith is, hey, I know how you feel right now, but why don't you move from how you're feeling to the truth using words?

And those words will bring you into a place that God wants you to, and you will feel a different set of feelings.

So the fig tree is not blossoming.

There are no cattle in the stall.

The olive tree has cast its fruit, and I'm feeling completely not depressed about any of it because I'm not a farmer.

But if I was, I'd feel very sad.

The fig tree, don't eat figs.

Olive, never touch them, not even on my pizza.

Cattle not in the herd, not a problem as long as it's on my table.

The point is, though the fig tree shall not blossom, though the olive trees have cast its fruit, though the cattle have left the stall, yet look at what he says.

I will do cartwheels of joy from the message.

Why?

Because I trust in God.

So I had to move from my feelings to the truth.

But to move from feelings to the truth, I must use words, and those words must be authored by the Spirit for me.

Feelings, dead bones, truth, they will live.

Gap filled by words, breathe.

So yes, when it comes to negative feelings that may cripple your faith, you have to ignore them.

You cannot deny them, you ignore them.

When it comes to feelings that don't cripple your faith, sometimes you have to roll with them.

Sorrow was given to us.

Can you imagine God saying, listen, when someone like Moses dies, I want you to camp there and mourn for a month.

Another question is how do we know when our emotions are out of step with the Spirit?

The way I know my emotions are out of step with the Spirit is when I see where my emotions are leading me to.

Both positive and negative feelings.

I know when they are out of sync with the Spirit and not aligned with the Spirit, when I suddenly realize where they are leading me to.

Where I can get so excited that I'm on a roll and I just no longer am listening to what the Spirit of God is saying,

but I'm listening to how things have worked out the last time so I can go through this time.

Where I can have a lot of money and I suddenly realize God has blessed me,

and now every decision I make is based on the blessing and not based on God.

Or I feel sad and there's a reason to feel sad,

but I realize that my sadness is now getting to a place of being hysterical where I'm beginning to unravel.

I remember when my dad died, I hadn't cried for a month and a half or something,

and then suddenly I started weeping as I was reading the last letter he wrote to me.

And I was weeping. It was a good weeping. I was kind of glad I was weeping.

Then I realized that I began to kind of enjoy my weeping to the point that it was getting a little out of control.

And I remember telling the Lord, Father, this is getting a little hysterical.

This is no longer about my dad. This is about me and my crying.

So I'd really like to stop now. Could you just help me?

And then I stopped and read the rest of the letter later because I knew where I was heading with it.

One can enjoy one's weeping and misery too.

One of the things the Holy Spirit loves is having me feel fully accepted in the Father.

Having me fully accepted in the Father.

Every day he tries to check my pulse and see whether I am fully accepted, whether I know that I'm fully accepted.

Romans 5 says that the Holy Spirit sheds the love of God in my heart.

The Holy Spirit sheds the love of God in my heart.

And if the love of God is not in my heart, there's not much I can expect of God.

When I'm loved, I expect much. When I'm not loved, I don't expect much.

It's odd. You can rarely expect that from a relationship except in a son-father-daughter-father relationship,

where a child who is highly loved expects much.

Can you walk us through an example of examining life to see what's dead and what's not?

Yeah, the question is, going back to the first opening line, life in the Spirit is letting go of a dead life that no longer works.

So the question is, can you walk us through the example of examining life to see what's dead and what's not?

Let me take two examples. Let me take relationships and let me take money.

What is my relationship with money right now? How much am I affected by it?

How joyful am I when I have a lot? How scared am I when I don't have enough?

How do I relate with it when I think of retirement? How do I relate with it when I think of marriage?

How do I relate with it when I think of a large expense or a house?

How afraid am I when it goes away? How afraid am I when I make decisions with it?

How much control does it have upon my life in determining what I do, where I go?

These are all part of a dead life that was subject to mammon and fear.

Relationships. Where am I at with relationships?

How much control do people have in my life where I can negate what God is asking because a relationship has become more important?

Am I at that place where I can say, but why were you looking for me? You should have known that I'm about my father's business.

Can I say that to my own biological father?

Are there times when I cannot say these are my mothers and brothers?

When my mother is waiting outside to take me home because she thinks I'm crazy?

Where am I at with relationships? How do I relate to my culture?

Am I so steeped in my culture that I will not break cultural norms even if it means that the kingdom suffers?

Does the kingdom expect me to be someone who understands what it is to belong to every tribe, tongue, nation?

And yet I am so embedded in my culture that I will not break cultural norms.

And so it limits God's choices in my life because he has realized that Jacob will always be Indian first before he is anything else.

And he will not be kingdom first before he is Indian.

It immediately constricts God's choices in terms of what he can do with my life.

This is how we examine. We hold our life in different areas of our lives against the mirror of the Word of God.

And then see whether it's a great reflection or distorted.

The other thing that the Holy Spirit wants us to know that he says, just look at the way Jesus introduced me to you.

Look at the way Jesus introduced me to you.

He introduced me to you as advocate, as helper, as reliable friend, as teacher, as guide into truth,

as revealer, as comforter.

He loves his role as intercessor.

He says, look at the ways Jesus introduced me to you.

I love these roles that I am.

I am your advantage in heaven, so use me so that I can use you, Jacob.

Use me so that I can use you, Jacob.

Let me advocate for you.

Let me advocate for you here on earth with people.

Let me advocate for you in heaven.

Let me advocate for you against the enemy when the enemy brings accusations.

Let me advocate for you.

I am fluent in the language of heaven.

Let me advocate for you.

Let me speak for you and give you the words that I'm speaking so that you can make declarations.

Let me comfort you.

Let me counsel you.

Let me help you.

You're so helpless. Why do you go trying to help yourself?

Why don't you just call out to me?

I love my role.

Use me. Take advantage of me so that I may use you, Jacob.

Because if I don't get taken advantage of by you, I'll just have to wait till you come to your senses.

I am the one who guides you into all truth.

Come to me when you struggle, when your mind is wrapped up like a pretzel.

I'm your friend.

I'm the friend that sticks closer than a brother.

We talked about it yesterday.

This is something that the Holy Spirit is.

What are we talking about?

We're talking about conspiring with the Spirit.

How can you conspire with someone that you don't know?

It becomes very difficult to conspire with someone you don't know.

All I'm trying to do right now, after having talked about how to conspire with him in heaven,

which was brilliant, I just loved yesterday's teaching.

It's revolutionized my life.

There's plenty of teaching on the Holy Spirit and really good teaching.

But it is about who he is and what his role is and how he functions and what he does.

This is getting into the knowing of his person.

This is the personality of the one you want to conspire with.

That makes it far more personal, man.

Like if you're playing a game of cards, you can't cheat with anybody.

You've got to find the right person to cheat with.

Because otherwise they'll out you.

It doesn't apply with the Holy Spirit in terms of cheating,

even though the image for this message has a card.

The next thing that you need to know about the Holy Spirit, which allows you to conspire with him.

May Wong texted saying, you keep talking about biking.

Is that a subliminal message that you want an invitation for?

No, no, no, I'm trying to send you a subliminal message.

May you stop biking.

The next thing about the Holy Spirit that we need to know if you want to conspire with him

is that he's radiantly holy.

He's radiantly holy.

He's radiantly holy.

It is not some kind of subdued holiness.

God didn't think, hmm, he's my spirit.

What shall I call him? Let's call him holy.

No, it wasn't like that. It wasn't like an afterthought.

Let's call anything in heaven holy.

No, he is the Holy Spirit because he's radiantly holy.

He has such a passion for holiness.

The strange thing though is even though he's radiantly holy,

he enjoys, enjoys convicting me of sin.

Why does he enjoy convicting me of sin?

Because he's radiantly holy and he knows that I'm his temple

and he knows that I now belong to God and that I do have this perhaps unreachable desire to be holy like Jesus.

And so he enjoys convicting me saying, Jacob, you should have done that differently.

It's not condemnation, but there is a pointing out.

He enjoys convicting me of sin and then he enjoys comforting me.

And here comfort means help, comforting me when I struggle with sin.

When I struggle with sin.

We must get rid of the notion that the Holy Spirit leaves when we are struggling with sin.

The Holy Spirit is never as present than when we are struggling with sin.

Because in the past what has happened, and I've preached this too unfortunately,

is we go with the Old Testament model of one of the Psalms where David says,

Cast me not away from your presence, O God, take not your Holy Spirit from me.

And so the moment we have sinned, we think, ah, the Holy Spirit does not want to be anywhere near me

because my temple is contaminated, polluted.

Depending on how bad the sin is, you make yourself feel worse and worse and use really big words.

But the point is that he loves comforting me when I struggle with sin.

He is more present when I'm struggling with sin than when I'm not.

Because he wants me to be aware that, listen, I can help you over this.

Nothing has overtaken you, Jacob, that you can't overcome.

And I'm here to just pull you through this.

So even though he is radently holy, this is how he works.

And then he also can lovingly teach me out of sin into righteousness.

Lovingly teach me, what an odd sentence, teach me out of sin into righteousness.

As in, whoa, you and I just overcame your desire to do that thing that you know was wrong.

Great. Ha, what a relief.

You gave it pretty easily, Jacob.

But now that you've kind of come out of it, let's teach you to walk in righteousness.

You cannot imagine how enthusiastic he is about your life.

Because he has seen what God has seen about you, right?

He was there when you were created, guys.

He was there when you were created.

As Jesus spoke and you were formed, born, made, just because God loved and so you exist.

He was there.

And so he knows what the final product looked like.

He knows how your days are numbered.

He knows where you should be today.

And so he's very enthusiastic about me today.

Very enthusiastic.

And once you understand his enthusiasm, you begin to trust him even when you're tired,

even when you don't know the way forward, even when you think you've hit a brick wall.

You can trust him because you know that someone else's enthusiasm is going to carry you.

Yeah.

One of the ways you know the Holy Spirit is active within you is when you realize that

self-control seems to neutralize desires of your flesh.

How do you know?

One of the ways to know that, oh, shucks, Spirit of God, you're really active is that

self-control is pretty evident in your life.

And it's not just about your body.

It's about your mind.

It's about your mind.

It's about your mind.

It's pretty evident in your life.

And it seems to neutralize everything else.

You don't even know why.

You seem to not struggle.

And that's because self-control comes in.

And it's the fruit of the Spirit.

One of the first things expressed in your life when he is active is self-control.

We don't think much of self-control.

We see it as a restraint.

It's not a restraint.

It is a quality towards greater promotion and headway in God.

A man without self-control is like a city without walls.

Next thing he is, and this is something I so know about him,

if there's one or two points that I'm familiar with in these set of points,

it is that he's very generous and gracious with his presence.

He's very generous and gracious with his presence, with his gifts,

with his patience, with his provision, with his anointings.

He's so generous and gracious with it.

I don't know anybody as generous and gracious as the Holy Spirit.

It doesn't take much for him.

To be gracious and generous with his presence, with his time.

Oh my God, the time he spends.

The patience he shows, the gifts he gives, the provision he brings.

I just marvel sometimes walking behind there as worship is happening.

And I think to myself, man, that sounds so bad, Holy Spirit.

But your presence is so heavy.

Man, that was so unplanned.

That wasn't how it was supposed to go.

But you are so gracious and generous with your presence, with your time,

with your patience, with your gifts, with your provision.

Guys, if you understand this, you know that it is like turning on a tap.

Conspiring with him is basically taking advantage of someone who's saying,

please, please take advantage of me.

Diana, there is self-control that is not from God.

How do we tell the difference?

Self-control that is not from God usually expresses itself in terms of abstaining from something.

Abstinence has very little value in the kingdom of God.

Self-control is what a parent does when there are four pieces of chicken on the table

and he knows or she knows that the son loves chicken

and so I won't touch the chicken till my son has eaten it.

This is self-control that comes from a place that benefits someone else.

It is not self-control that is abstaining from sacrificing.

No, this is self-control that is so packed with love.

Because I love you, therefore I will withhold.

The other self-control, you better have strong will.

The other self-control has in it abstinence.

Abstinence.

Abstinence is of very little value in the kingdom.

Abstinence is something most religions practice.

But not this kingdom, man.

He is very generous, guys.

He is very generous.

If I knew someone was generous, I would have no problems going and asking them for money.

If I knew someone was generous, like if I knew that you had three cars

and you would let me drive your Rolls, I would come and ask you for it.

And even though he is generous and we are talking about him almost like a friend,

know that he has transcendent majesty.

He is Lord Sabaoth, he is Holy Spirit, he is God the Holy Spirit.

And yet there is something so gentle about him that even though he is transcendent and majestic,

hey, if he turned up, none of us would be standing.

How do you know? He has done that a few times.

They couldn't stand in his presence.

They couldn't get up.

He came as a cloud.

How do we know? Isaiah 63 says that the Holy Spirit was with them as they journeyed through the desert.

So on one hand he is transcendent and majestic and yet there is something so gentle to his presence

that it allows me to track with him and grapple with him.

Because if he was only transcendent and majestic, I would have to approach him from a distance like the Israelites did.

But it's not so.

His gentleness is so gracious, so generous that in him I have everything that I need

because he is the Spirit of Christ and he is a friend who sticks closer than a brother and he is here now.

And yeah.

He is a powerful warrior, guys. He is a powerful warrior.

He is a powerful warrior.

It's an aspect of the Holy Spirit that this church has to begin to understand and understand.

And that's why I'm going to talk about it.

I'm going to talk about it in a few minutes.

I'm going to talk about it in a few minutes.

It's an aspect of the Holy Spirit that this church has to begin to understand, especially in this period in our lives.

He is a powerful warrior and he wants me to see things from his perspective.

He is a powerful warrior and he wants me to see things from his perspective.

He is a genius in warfare.

He is a genius in warfare.

He has never tasted defeat. Never tasted defeat.

Pharaoh's magicians came against him.

He had them running circles.

Every god was judged, sentenced, dismantled, thrown to the ground through the plagues.

Pharaoh was no match for him.

Then you come to Jesus' life and Jesus very clearly said that if I cast out spirits by the finger of God or by the Holy Spirit,

then you know that the kingdom of God has come.

The kingdom is fueled by, driven by, the engine of the kingdom and the church is the Holy Spirit.

Christ is Lord over the church, but the engine of the church, and we'll talk about that at the end, is the Holy Spirit.

He dealt with Artemis in Ephesus.

She had a reputation all over Asia Minor that began to suffer so much so that commercially it began to cause ruin to those that peddled her.

In Isaiah 59, 19, if you read the KJV, it says when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of God raises up a standard against him.

He's a genius in warfare and has never tasted defeat and never will.

Learn the preemptive ways of war from the Holy Spirit.

I'm very carefully wording it.

Learn the preemptive ways of war from the spirit.

As in, preempt what the enemy is going to do.

Because we said that the Holy Spirit is prophetic in nature, He always preempts the enemy's attack.

I've seen this in New Zealand.

I've seen this in Uttarakhand in India.

I've seen this in Indonesia where before it happens, He preempts what is going to happen.

And by the time it comes close to you, you already know how to deal with it and it is dealt with it in seconds.

We did it in Puri.

Preempted every day knowing that, ah, so this is what just now when I had to go open the church,

I had to go open the door for someone.

I went down and when I was walking down and I was coming up, I realized that there was a person to,

that the enemy was trying to set a trap up against and I was coming up the steps and I say,

I was telling the Holy Spirit, this is just amazing how you show stuff.

And so prayed.

So Jacob, what is the proof that you were right?

I don't care.

I'm only called to obey. I'm not here to prove things to you.

I ain't going to jump off a steeple to prove nothing.

I didn't mean to be arrogant by saying that, eh?

Things need to be proven.

God's stuff has to be evidenced.

But what I'm trying to say is,

because so much of this is invisible, inaudible, and super wise and supernatural and super illogical,

I can't provide evidence every time.

All I know is five hours down the road, ten hours down the road, two months down the road, you see the proof.

Anyways.

So guys, Psalm 144.1.

He is the one who trains your hands for, war and your fingers for.

Battle Ephesians 6.17.

And now I will use the sword of the Spirit.

He is such a great person to learn war from.

Not flaky war, eh? Like real.

So be consumed with a passion to bring heaven to earth.

And seek his permission before every battle.

Be consumed with a passion to bring heaven to earth.

And yet, in your passion, make sure you seek permission before every battle.

There are battles you don't need to fight.

Like David was so brilliant, he would say,

Do you want me to go and fight them?

Sure. Okay, I'll go.

And they come back again. Do you want me to go and fight them?

No? You want me to go around them and then beat them from behind? Sure.

They'd ask permission, man.

Moses, do you want us to go attack them? Not now? Alright.

You want me to go and provoke them into a battle now?

Okay.

This is how it works.

Guys, the Holy Spirit has a voice.

The Holy Spirit has a voice.

Learn to listen to it. It's a lot of fun.

The Holy Spirit has a voice.

Where does the Bible say that?

Revelation 2-7, Revelation 3-6.

What does it say?

He who has a ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

He has a voice.

Churches cannot survive if they don't actively seek and hear his voice.

This is not a once-in-a-month event.

If the church is a once-in-a-month event or once-in-a-week event, then fine.

Just seek his voice that one day or four days a week.

But if the church is actually a people in whom God dwells who exist 24-7

for the rest of eternity till the Holy Spirit is removed from the earth,

then the church must hear his voice on a daily basis.

Let him who has a ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Sometimes I wonder how did they hear in Acts 13, verse 2?

Acts 13:2

It doesn't even say it was prophesied.

They don't say anything. They just said,

and then the Holy Spirit said, set aside for me Paul and Barnabas.

So how was it? How did he say?

Was it audible? Was it...what was it?

Or was it a prophetic word?

But usually it always said what they prophesied.

Anyways, not important, but important.

Guys, I'm going to read you a few words of the Bible.

One of the Holy Spirit's favorite words is instead.

One of the Holy Spirit's favorite words is instead.

And take advantage of it.

He loves displacing your deficiency.

He loves displacing your deficiency.

He loves displacing your deficiency.

How do you spell deficiency, Don?

Okay. He didn't know how to spell it.

He spelled it like Jodhavavra.

He displays deficiency with his default.

He displays deficiency with his default.

And his default is really divine.

So what do I mean by one of his favorite words is instead.

Beauty instead of ashes.

Gladness instead of heaviness.

A spirit of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness.

Joy instead of mourning.

You go through Isaiah 61 and you'll find that he's always exchanging.

Hey, can I displace this in your life Jacob and can I give you this?

So don't wait too long.

Don't pray too long.

Run to him because he sticks closer than a brother.

Remind him.

Take advantage of him.

Use who he says he is.

Even when it comes to faith, the Holy Spirit is highly involved in faith.

One of the things that the Holy Spirit does is he, when it comes to faith,

one of the things he wants me to do is he wants me to occupy the word.

He wants me to occupy the word.

The Spirit of God causes me to rise up and occupy the word that he has authored.

He has authored.

He doesn't want me just to believe it.

He doesn't want me to just say I trust it.

He doesn't want me to repeat it.

He doesn't want me to just declare it.

He says, hey, this is what I authored.

This is what I said.

Come occupy it.

Get into it.

Sit in it.

You're sick and diseased.

Occupy the word.

Which word?

The one that I wrote in Isaiah 53, verse 4, and in 1 Peter 2, 22.

Isaiah 53:4

Spirit of God, I don't know those words.

You wrote them.

I'll go look in the Bible.

Look in the Bible.

By your stripes I am healed.

Occupy it.

Go sit in that word.

Because he has his ability to take scripture and lead me into divine encounters.

He has the ability to take scripture and lead me into divine encounters.

He'll take scripture.

He'll give me a scripture and then he'll say, hey, I want you to think this.

If you think this, you'll inhabit it and then you'll speak it

and then you'll have a divine encounter.

Take scripture and then he leads me into divine encounters.

Jacob, take the scripture.

You can begin to think about it.

Have you realized you're beginning to inhabit it as in it's where you now sit.

You're beginning to occupy this word.

You actually believe it.

You're beginning to speak it without much trouble.

I'm leading you into divine encounters.

And guys, once we begin to do this, you will find it very easy to go from the unknown

to the unknown.

You'll find it very easy to go from the known to the unknown.

You get so practiced with hearing his voice and recognizing it as him.

And by occupying the word that he has given you and by thinking it, inhabiting it, speaking it

and finding it very easy now to go from the known to the unknown.

And the gap between the known and the unknown keeps increasing.

Today you stepped into the known from the known to the unknown.

And there was only two degrees of separation.

20 years from now, the known will be here and the unknown will be on Grouse Mountain

and you've got no problems.

This is how people of God do mighty exploits.

Mighty exploits don't happen overnight.

Mighty exploits happen, exploit by exploit by exploit, till you're on Grouse.

Some of the people in church are thinking, will he finish by 3.15?

We will.

He's very involved in teaching.

The Holy Spirit is very involved in teaching.

Just give me a second.

Don't worry, I'll come back.

Why is she crying?

Pardon?

Yeah, yeah, it's okay.

I just had to babysit Phoebe for a second.

She stopped crying.

Okay, sorry, it seems like a not very pretty thing to do.

And we were on that point about teaching.

Guys, this is such a cool pointer.

In teaching, one of the things the Holy Spirit wants to do,

and this is something that you should learn as a teacher and you should learn as a student.

Because this is the intent of the Holy Spirit.

Guys, why am I bringing all these up?

Because once we know this, we can conspire with him.

Because we know how he works.

If you know how someone works, you can conspire with them.

You know, that's how hockey players team up well.

They begin to know each other's moves so well.

They begin to figure out that, I mean, the Sedin twins, they used to have a term for it, Sedinery.

What was Sedinery?

It was the ability to do these no-look passes where one twin brother is here and he's looking this way and he passes,

and he knows where the other twin brother is.

The Maple Leafs have been trying it for the last 50 years with no improvement.

So and so that they coined a term for it, Sedinery.

Where in our case it is, knowing what the Spirit of God does allows us to position ourselves

and the Spirit of God passes the puck, we are already there.

That's conspiring.

And so in teaching, one of the intents in teaching, as a teacher I need to realize this,

and as one who's learning I have to realize this.

In teaching, what the Spirit tries to do is, he tries to intensify Jesus' presence in the teaching.

As in, he tries to take a principle and see if you can encounter the presence of Jesus while the Word is being taught.

Whether you can encounter the presence of Jesus while the Word is being taught.

He doesn't want you to make notes so that you have more information.

The Holy Spirit so delights in making Jesus present in my life 24-7, particularly through teaching.

It is a dominant thing on his mind.

It's part of his most enjoyable agenda that as Jacob teaches or as Jacob is learning,

let him not get stuck with the principle but let him encounter Jesus.

This is what moved people about Jesus' teaching.

Who is this man who teaches like this?

This is what blew the disciples away.

Who is he who with words makes the sea calm?

Where our very words are so life and so spirit that people encounter the living God.

That's my desire when I teach that, oh God, as I teach, let it not be information notes, let this bring change.

And when I see change in people at Acts 29 or wherever teaching or the Word brings change, it thrills my heart.

And trust me man, when change happens, there's no way you can take credit because you are just a conduit

and your hands immediately go up and point towards the one who makes the change happen.

And it is the work of the Spirit.

He can be pretty relentless when he wants to teach you something.

He can be relentless because he loves to make sure that you become consistent.

So he can patiently teach you God's ways and he magnify a certain aspect that you need to get.

And he will not move on and will not let you move on till you learn it.

Sometimes the reason you are stuck where you're stuck, hear me, hear me, this is a instructive but prophetic word.

The reason you are stuck where you are stuck even though you have a desire for God is not because he has left you

because there is sin in your life, because you're not being given an opportunity, you don't have an opening.

It is not because of that. It is because there is an aspect that God has been trying to work in your life

and for whatever reason you and I haven't learned it.

And so because of his consistency and because of his relentlessness, he will stay there till you grasp this aspect before he will move on.

And if he doesn't move on, you cannot move on. You can try moving on on your own and not much will happen.

You may get applause but there will be no anointing.

Last point. See, I told you we'll finish.

Last point. I said this earlier on. The Spirit is the divine engine of the Church.

The Spirit is the divine engine of the Church. My God, man, if a Church doesn't conspire with the Spirit, what will we do?

Jesus Christ is Lord over the Church. He is the Bridegroom, we are the Bride.

But the Spirit of God is the engine of the Church, the divine engine of the Church.

He makes everything happen.

He makes everything happen while constantly pointing to the Lord of the Church.

He's like, I'm not using a biblical term now so don't think it's a theological framework.

But he's almost like a bridesmaid who's preparing the bride for the Bridegroom.

And actually he's the only bridesmaid that can prepare the bride for the Bridegroom.

Any pastor who tries to dress up the bride for the Bridegroom is going to end up messing things up.

He's the divine engine of the Church. What does he supply the Church?

He supplies the Church boldness. He supplies the Church vision.

He supplies the Church what he wants to do.

How does he get it? He searches the mind of God like we said yesterday.

He goes, searches the heart of the Father, searches the mind of Jesus.

Then he comes and gives it to us. Why? Because he's our advantage in heaven.

He plays on our team even though he's part of the Godhead.

Supplies boldness, supplies vision, supplies God's present plan.

He supplies the power to witness.

Acts chapter 1 verse 8. He supplies the power to witness.

Acts 1:8

He supplies words that we must speak.

Luke chapter 12 verse 12. Do not worry about what he will say.

Luke 12:12

When you are hauled up in front of judges, Pharisees, rulers, authorities,

the Holy Spirit will give you the words that you need to say.

Do not be afraid. He supplies words.

He, Jesus knew this man.

Remember when Jesus went up to the synagogue after he came back from the temptation.

And what did he do? He opened the scroll.

What does the scroll say? The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me. Why?

To announce, to proclaim, to set captives free, to heal, to recover sight, to deliver.

We're talking about the anointing of Isaiah 61 and the anointing of Acts 10.38.

The Holy Spirit upon Jesus so that he can set free those that were harassed by the devil and go around doing good.

The Holy Spirit is the engine, the divine engine of the church.

And he governs. He oversees and he directs the church.

He governs the church. He oversees the church.

In Acts 20 verse 28, Paul is meeting with the elders of Ephesus before he bids them his final goodbye.

Acts 20:28

And he says to them, listen, I'm appointing you as overseers,

but I want you to know that it's not me who's appointing you overseers.

This flock belongs to Christ.

And the Holy Spirit appoints you as overseers over this flock.

Acts 20 verse 28. Acts 6 verse 3.

Acts 20:28 Acts 6:3

And Peter and the other apostles who heard the complaint of the Hellenist Jewish believers said,

find for us six men who are full of the Holy Spirit,

who will begin to take care of this need so that we can dedicate ourselves to prayer.

Ephesians 4.11. Christ appoints in the church apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors.

And the Holy Spirit then helps them to equip and direct.

The Holy Spirit governs, oversees, directs the church.

So even as we go into the AGM, there's someone else who oversees, directs, and governs the church,

which is why we refuse at this church to constrain God the Holy Spirit

into a few miserable dollars.

Holy Spirit, have your way.

But while you have your way, make sure you have your way within $20,000.

Hallelujah, in Jesus' name.

Can't do that, no?

And wherever the Holy Spirit...

See, the thing is the Spirit of God thrives in the arrangement of God.

What do I mean by that?

Christ said, the Father is my head.

The Holy Spirit said, I have come to glorify Jesus.

And yet they are co-equal.

One is not greater than the other.

Yet there is an arrangement in which they work.

And the Holy Spirit loves divine arrangements and order.

And every time he sees a church where order is prevalent,

not a sheer understanding of order, not out of fear,

the Holy Spirit thrives.

He loves doing what he wants to do.

I'm going to end, but I hope this really helps.

Guys, I'm the one who's prepared these notes.

I'm the one who's teaching it.

And do you know that I'll go over these notes

because I don't want to forget any of these?

I'll even go listen to the teaching one more time.

And then I'll go over each point.

I'll form my own acrostic or whatever those things are.

So I remember the points.

Please do this.

Please do this.

Cool.

Alrighty, let's end.

Let me just pray.

Spirit of God, we've spent the last two teachings just sifting

the sand that you have been covered with,

theological sand, teaching sand, theological sand,

limited experience sand, denominational sand,

what our parents taught us, what our pastors taught us, sand,

preconceived sand, and we're sifting it, gently,

like archaeologists do.

Only you are not old.

You are not fossilized.

You are more modern, relevant, recent than any of us,

everlasting to everlasting, unbound by time.

You are just amazing, Spirit of God.

You are transcendent.

You are presently in charge of the ever-expanding universe.

You fill the earth, and the earth is the way it is only because of you.

If you withdraw, this place would collapse.

You are the goodness of God in our midst.

You are the presence of the Father and the Son.

You are here.

You play on our team, though you are part of the Godhead.

You are our advantage in heaven.

And so we've sifted the sand away to have a better look at you.

And now it's one thing to look at you, and it's another thing to walk with you.

I think Emily said that earlier.

You stretched out your hand, but now it's time to hold your hand and walk.

So I come to grasp.

We come to grasp your hand and begin to experience the life of the Spirit,

bidding adieu to a life that is dead, conspiring with you.

Allow it, Holy Spirit.

You started it, so I don't even need to really plead.

This is your desire, a most exuberant, enthusiastic, relationally joyful...

I don't like saying funny, but I'll say humorous, Holy Spirit.

And yet if this is who you are, this is who Jesus and the Father is too.

There'll be so much laughter in heaven.

I think that'll be the greatest shocker for most born-again believers.

Oh, shucks, I didn't know you were this funny.

We love you, Holy Spirit.

I don't know if you hear that too often.

You made everything so real.

You made Jesus and the Father real.

You made Christian life real.

Every morning to wake up thinking there is more, you're the one.

You're the one.

You're the one.

Ah, you're the one who has been doing this.

That's just awesome.

You know, Holy Spirit, when we sing that song,

Holy Spirit, you're welcome here,

the first verse, we never sing to you.

We are always singing to the Father or the Son.

You don't have a problem with that.

And then when it comes to the chorus, we just switch to you.

But today, we don't want to sing the chorus.

We just want to end with singing the first verse.

But we're going to sing it to you.

Just the first verse to you.

That's how we land.

There's nothing worth more that could ever come close.

Okay.

There's nothing.

So we're singing this to you, Holy Spirit.

Yeah?

Okay.

So please hear as we sing.

There's nothing worth more that could ever.

I don't know why they said that could.

Who could ever come close?

Sorry, this is the last time I'll interrupt.

There's nothing worth more that could ever come close.

Nothing can compare your, our living, your presence, Lord.

I've tasted and seen the sweetest of loves,

where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone.

In your presence, Lord.

One more time.

There's nothing worth more that could ever come close.

No one can compare your, our living, your presence, Lord.

I've tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves,

where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone.

One more time.

I've tasted and seen.

I've tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves,

where my heart is now free and my shame is undone.

In your presence, Lord.

Let me become more aware of your presence.

Let me experience the glory of your goodness.

Let me become more aware of your presence.

Let me experience the glory of your goodness.

Happy AGM, guys.

Be nice to your pastor.