The Presence of the Holy Spirit | Brad Straarup

It's good to be in the house of the Lord together, amen.

I tell you what, over the course of the last three weeks in our church, we've been going through a series on the Holy Spirit.

And we're talking about who the Holy Spirit is, the person of the Holy Spirit, how he came to bring power, how he came to give every single one of us gifts.

And tonight what we want to do is we don't want to talk about the Holy Spirit, but we want to create an environment where you can experience him.

Because how many of you know you can come into a place like this and you can learn about him and you can leave, but you're not actually one inch closer to him.

It's possible that you can know a whole bunch about a person, you can hear the stories, you can hear everything that they've done, and yet you don't actually know that person.

And we believe more than anything tonight, what I want for every single one of you is that you will develop this close, intimate, deep relationship with the Holy Spirit.

And I really felt this as I was walking in here.

I was praying for you guys, and I just know that there's some people that have come into this place today and you're desperate for a touch from God.

I don't know what it is that is going on in your life.

For some of you, it's something in your marriage.

Something has died in your marriage, and you're saying, God, I need you to move, I need you to do something.

For some of you, it's healing.

You're sick in your body, and you're like, God, I need you to heal me, I need you to touch me.

Others of you, there's been a wave of depression that has come over your life, a heaviness that has come over your life, and you're saying, God, I need you.

I need you more than ever before.

And I think while some people it might be that, some people are in this place, and you're like, Brad, my job is good, my family is good, my marriage is good, it's all fine.

But I think if you're honest with yourself, we can come into a place and we can be like everything's good, but it feels stale.

Anyone ever felt like that?

Like it just feels stale.

It's almost like you've been in this room, and this room is just stale, and then the second you get to go outside and you get to get this breath of fresh air, you're like, oh my gosh.

And I believe that God wants to come and he wants to breathe on so many of you tonight.

He just wants to come and he wants to breathe on every single one of you.

There's a scripture that I want to share, and then we'll grab our seats.

It's found in Ezekiel 37, and it's a theme verse actually for our entire church.

Core chapter for our church, and here's what it says Verse 1 it says, The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley, and it was full of bones, and I think for so many of us, this is a picture of your life.

Where there's some things in your life that feels dead, there's some things in your life that feels like you need a touch from God, where it's desperate.

And Ezekiel says, He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.

And he asked me, Son of man, can these bones live?

And I said, Sovereign Lord, only you know.

And he said to me, Prophesy to the bones.

Say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

I I love this so much because when I hear and when I read this chapter, I think so much of Phoenix, this valley of dry bones.

And I believe God wants to speak to the dry bones that says, This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones.

I will make breath.

Say breath.

I will make breath into you, and you will come to life, and I will attach tendons to you, and I will make you come upon you with skin, and I will put breath in you, and you will come to life, and then you will know that I am the Lord.

Come on, there's some things that God is gonna do in your life that when he does that thing, you're gonna say, No, that could only be the Lord.

That couldn't be that could only be.

The Lord, I believe, wants to do that tonight, but someone in this room, someone in this room, you are here tonight, and you are looking for a touch from God, and I believe that tonight is the night that you're gonna receive that in Jesus' name.

Let's make this room, God, let's make it.

So, God, we pray that you will come.

We pray that you will move, we pray that you will speak, and that you will do what only you can do in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, and all God's people's head.

Come on, all God's people's dead.

Amen and amen.

Y'all can grab your seats for a couple of minutes.

We'll be back into worship here shortly.

I want to understand something about Ezekiel 37, is Ezekiel's in this valley full of dry bones.

And what God says to him is he says, I'm gonna make breath come into these bones.

Gonna make breath come into these bones, and it's gonna come to life.

And while the chapter is talking about breath, what this chapter is actually talking about is the Holy Spirit.

You'll read, whenever you go throughout the Bible, you'll see that there are many metaphors that the Bible uses for the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes he's cold wind, sometimes he's cold, rain, water, fire, oil, breath.

It's the same word, but it's translated in many different ways.

And he says, I want to go on, I want breath to come in.

And I think so often we can reject the things of God.

We can reject the Holy Spirit, and often when we reject the Holy Spirit, it's because we've had a bad experience.

Had a bad experience with him in some way, and our theology is not shaped by what the Bible says.

Our theology is shaped by something that happened.

And if that's you here today, I just believe that God wants to come and He wants to speak to that.

And my encouragement tonight is this that you'll let him in.

What I want to be able to do is I want to be able to spend a couple of minutes just demystifying who the Holy Spirit is.

Encharge you to do one thing.

Let him in.

That situation that's dead, that you've been trying to white knuckle by yourself, let him in.

The thing that you've been struggling with, let him in.

The thing that you don't feel like you have the strength to push through.

Let him in.

Let him in, let him in.

See, because when you read throughout the Bible, you'll see that the spirit is used a ton, this word for the spirit, whenever you're reading in the Old Testament and you see the word spirit, the word is ruach.

Okay, say ruach.

Almost sounds like you've got a kernel stuck in your throat.

Ruach.

Like if you if you you're saying it right.

Ruach.

This word ruach is used, it's used about 400 times in the Old Testament.

And this word means various different things.

I have a definition on screen, but this word can mean wind, it can mean breath, and it can mean spirit.

And it's interesting because we have three words in the English language to describe this, but for in the Hebrew language, it's just one because for them it represents one thing.

And all three of those things, what it does is it brings life.

Brings life.

Now that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is wind, often when that word ruach is used, there's a modifier that's used to signify that it's the Holy Spirit.

Ruach Hakadesh.

It's the spirit of holiness.

But it's used because what this does, this word ruach, it brings life.

You see it all throughout the Old Testament.

One of the places that you see it is Genesis 1, verse 2, when God creates the earth, when he brings life, and it says this in verse 2 now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the of God.

Genesis 1:2

The breath of God, the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

You see that word used in the Old Testament.

You don't only see it in the Old Testament, you see it in the New Testament.

The word in the New Testament is the word Numa, say Numa has the same definition: wind, breath, spirit.

John 6 63, it says this the Numa, the Spirit, gives life.

The flesh counts for nothing.

The words that I've spoken to you, they are full of the spirit and of life.

The words that I've given to you, they are full of.

And what they do more than anything is they bring life.

Have you ever been reading your Bible?

And there's just this phrase that comes out of you, and it just grips your heart, and it just makes you come alive in that moment.

What you're feeling is you're feeling the breath, the spirit, the wind of God.

And he's wanting to come into that situation.

And what I want to do tonight, very simply, is I want to encourage you to receive the Holy Spirit in a beautiful way.

And I think so often we can be so freaked out about what the Holy Spirit is.

We're like, okay, Holy Spirit, I'm gonna let you come in, but kind of.

You know what I mean?

Like you behave yourself.

Like you come in, just make sure you're gonna behave yourself.

Okay, I don't want you to do anything weird.

Okay?

Don't make me do anything crazy.

The Holy Spirit's not weird, people are.

Is that okay?

Because let's be honest, wind isn't weird.

Have you ever walked outside and felt wind and been like, oh, that's weird?

Wind's not weird.

Okay, if you see this, it's gonna help you.

The first thing I want you to understand about wind is wind is unseen.

Wind is unseen.

We're in monsoon season here in AZ, and you know, you can be in a building, like I said, and it can be stuffy, especially when it's like 120 degrees out.

And you walk out at night and you feel that wind.

You're like, man, that feels good.

Wind is unseen, but you know it's there.

So often the Holy Spirit is unseen, but you know that he's there, and you can walk out and you can be like, man, that feels so good.

Right?

And no one looks at you and they're like, Man, that's weird.

You're being weird.

Okay, why are you being weird?

But you can be in a place like tonight and you can say, Man, I feel God.

And people are like, that's weird.

What did you feel?

Like, I didn't feel anything.

What did you feel?

And people can come to this place and they can say, No, no, no, Brad, but you're not you're not supposed to run on your feelings.

Yeah, you're not, but it sure is good to feel what you're running on.

Because I'm by you, but I need the Holy Spirit in everything that I do.

I need the Holy Spirit to breathe.

I need the Holy Spirit in everything that I do.

And my prayer is this that when you come into a night like tonight, that you're not like, wow, the worship was awesome, which it was, or like, man, that that word was great.

I pray more than anything that when you come into a service for with spirit, that you have this moment where you say, Oh my gosh, God is here.

Oh my gosh, God is here.

God is here.

In fact, I've had more conversations in the lobby.

That's awesome.

I try my best to meet as many people as I can, and people come up to me, and you know, they're like their first time at church, and I'm like, How was it?

And they're like, It was great.

And I'm like, what stood out?

And it's funny, they never say, Oh, the preaching, they never say, oh, the worship.

It's crazy.

Nine out of ten times they say this, they say, Man, I can breathe.

It feels like a breath of fresh air.

And sometimes they don't even know what they're describing.

But what they're saying in that moment is, I can feel the Holy Spirit.

He's unseen, but he's in this room.

I don't know if you'll felt that.

He's unseen, but he's in this room.

John 14, 16, it says this, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate.

Some versions say comforter, some versions say counselor, to help you, to be with you forever.

He is the spirit of truth, and the world cannot accept him.

They're like it's a little freaky.

It says because they can't see him, they're not comfortable with things that they can't see, but it says this they don't know him, but you know him.

For he lives with you, and he will be in you.

Breath of fresh air.

Why do we feel the Holy Spirit when we come into a place like this?

It's because the Holy Spirit has worshipped here.

He's worshipped here.

And if there's any part of you that when I said that made you go, uh you're like, no, you're supposed to worship God.

He is God.

He is God, He's the third person of the Trinity.

He is God.

And if there's any part of you that went, what can happen is sometimes we've had bad experiences, like I said, that have shaped our theology more than the Bible has.

He's worshipped here, he's welcomed here, and you need him for the very next breath that you're gonna take.

You need him for that thing that you are white, knuckling.

Wind is unseen.

The second thing I want you to know about wind as it relates to the Holy Spirit is that wind is unpredictable.

Right?

Man, it goes one way and then it goes another way.

Like if you look at an airport, they have these orange cones that kind of describe where the wind is going and what is happening that that they can help the pilots know exactly where it is that they need it to land.

It's not like the wind is going southeast and it's always gonna go southeast.

No, it is consistently changing.

And it's the same with the Holy Spirit and the challenges so often we like the Holy Spirit tucked in.

We're like, okay, I'm gonna let you in, but like I said, you go ahead and behave yourself.

Okay?

Don't make me do anything weird.

Don't make me.

We're like, no, God, if you're gonna do it, like I need you to do it, and I always need you to do it the same way every single time.

Let me just say that God doesn't move the same time, the same way every time.

God doesn't move in one service the exact same way that he moves in another service.

That's not how it works.

Jesus actually talks about this, John 3, verse 8.

John 3:8

Jesus says this, the wind, here's the word pneuma, that they're actually translating to wind.

It says, the wind blows wherever it pleases.

You hear it sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.

So it is everyone who is born of the spirit.

So often God does things a single time, one time.

One time God spoke through a burning bush.

One time.

And then we're like, unless God speaks to you through a burning bush, that ain't God.

No, no, no.

One time.

He did it one, one time God spoke through a donkey.

One time.

I love it in Mark chapter 8.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

There's a person that brings a blind man to Jesus and he says, Jesus, can you put your hand on him?

He says, Jesus, can you do the hand thing?

Just do the hand thing when you heal someone.

It's to be awesome if you can just do the hand thing.

It's my friend, his name is Bob.

Just do the hand thing.

Jesus takes him out of the city and spits on his eye.

Just imagine the friend sitting there being like, oh my gosh.

I am so sorry.

That is not what he does.

That's not what he does.

He normally does the hand thing.

I promise you, he does the hand thing.

Jesus doesn't do it the same way every time, and I'm convinced the reason for that is because if he did it the same way every time, we'd worship the system instead of worshiping him.

He doesn't do it the same way every time.

He does it different.

In 2 Kings, he goes up to Elisha and he's like, I need you to heal me of my leprosy.

Elisha doesn't even talk to him, he sends his servant.

And the servant says, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, go dip yourself in the Jordan seven times and you'll be healed.

And you actually see how disappointed he is.

Verse 11 of 2 Kings 5, he says this.

I thought that he would come up to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over me, and the spot would be cured.

It doesn't work that way.

It's unpredictable.

The Holy Spirit can't be tucked in in everything that you're doing in your life.

Like I remember there at a pastor that I grew up with when I was super young, and I remember one day he was praying for someone who needed to be healed.

And as he was praying, he felt the Lord tell him, um, I need you to I need you to blow on that person.

And he was like, What?

It's like you need a blow.

And uh he was praying, and then he had this moment, and he went, That's crazy.

The person got healed.

And uh and he went up, he went up to my dad and he said, We need a healing service.

That's what we need.

He says, and Brad, he told me the story.

He says, Brad, we had a wee healing service and we had so many people.

He says, Let me just tell you, we huffed and we puffed and we blew, and we blew, and we blew, and he says, and no one got healed.

And he says, I went to my office and I said, God, why?

He says, and I felt God say, I didn't tell you to blow.

I didn't tell you to do that again.

Yo, the Holy Spirit is unseen, but it can be felt.

He's unpredictable.

You can't predict him, you can't put him in the box.

And if you think he's gonna fit into a box, you're gonna miss out on the best of God because you're unwilling for him to shift anything that it is in your life.

The third thing I need you to know about wind is this wind is powerful.

Wind is powerful.

I don't know if you notice this, but wind can turn a turbine, create electricity.

Wind can help a ship sail, but it can also destroy a city.

Like as a monsoon came in a couple weeks back, I have a tree in my yard that fell down.

Why?

Because wind is powerful.

Wind is powerful.

The same way that wind is powerful, the Holy Spirit is powerful.

I need you all to look at me.

There's some things in your life that you are trying to fix by yourself that you need the power of God.

It is only the power of the Holy Spirit that can fix that thing.

That marriage that feels like it's breaking about it.

You need the power of the Holy Spirit to come into that thing.

He is powerful.

Acts 1 verse 8 talks about this.

Acts 1:8

It says that you will receive power, dunamis, dynamite power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And I don't know about y'all, but if the Holy Spirit is gonna bring power, I'm gonna say, bring it on.

Come on, because I need some power for the things that I'm facing.

I'm like, Lord, I need your power.

Holy Spirit's unseen, unpredictable, powerful.

The final one that I think is my favorite is this the Holy Spirit is refreshing.

It's refreshing.

You know the springtime when you get in your car and that Phoenix sun has taken it up to like 120 degrees, and you just open the window and that breeze comes in.

It's refreshing.

The Holy Spirit wants to refresh you.

My encouragement is this open the window.

Open the window.

Let him into that space that you're white-knuckling.

Let him into that space that you've been trying to do it by yourself.

1 Corinthians 2 verse 9.

1 Corinthians 2:9

It says, it is written, what no eye has seen.

Man, if you all could see the things that God wants to do in your life, you wouldn't believe it.

What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things that God has prepared for those who love him.

These are the things that God has revealed to us by his spirit.

Do me a favor, take a deep breath.

Ephesians 4, 30 in the message paraphrase that says this, do not grieve God, do not break his heart.

His Holy Spirit is moving and breathing in you.

And this is, or it can be, the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself.

But do not take that gift and forgot it.

Unpredictable.

Powerful.

I think the thing that I love most about the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit is the giver of life.

The end of Ezekiel 37, it says this this is what the sovereign Lord says.

My people, I'm going to open up your graves and bring you up from them.

So speaking to Israel, but I believe it's a prophetic picture for so many of us.

Verse 13, then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord.

I'll put my spirit in you, and you will live.

Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and I have done it, declares the Lord.

I'll tell you what, our church is called Spirit Church, and the reason it's called that is because of that verse.

We just believe that God wants to do something powerful with his spirit in the valley.

We believe that what the valley needs more than anything else is the spirit of God.

I believe that what you need more than anything else in that situation that you're facing is the Spirit of God.

God to come and touch and move.

And my only encouragement tonight is this.

Let him in.

He's not weird.

He's not weird.

He wants to fill you.

Some of you feel heavy.

You feel depression, you feel like you've been going through the motions.

There's a word for that, and it's called the doldrums.

And what the doldrums means is it's a it's a place of low spirit.

Low spirit.

That's how some of you feel.

But not only is it a word, it is actually a place.

There's a place on the equator called the doldrums, where the northern and the southern trade winds meet, and in that place there is no wind.

And if you're a ship with a sail and you sail into the doldrums, you die there.

You can't get out.

Without a motorized ship, you can't get out.

Some of you are in the doldrums.

You've sailed into this place and you're saying, Brad, I can't get out.

And you feel like something is dying.

Let me say if that is you.

There's power that is available that can get you out of the doldrums.

And his name is the Holy Spirit.

His name is the Holy Spirit.

He's not weird, he is powerful.

All you have to do is let him in.

All you have to do is let him in.

Can y'all do me a favor?

Can y'all stand?

I want to pray for every single one of you.

And we're going to go back into worship.

It's going to be beautiful.

It's going to be great.

Tomorrow in our church, we're going to be talking about being filled with the Spirit.

If you don't have a church home, I want to encourage you to come.

I'd love to explain what that looks like theologically, what that looks like.

How you can be full of the power of the Holy Spirit.

But as I was praying for tonight, I just believe that there's some people here today.

And there's some things that you're facing, there's some things that you're struggling with.

And what you need is you just need the Holy Spirit to come into that place.

And here's what we're going to do.

We're going to go back into worship.

I'm going to ask our prayer team to come right up here up front.

Now it's wild.

You might have to fight for the front.

We're full.

It's incredible.

Like God is doing an incredible thing.

But what we want to do is we want to pray for you.

Our team wants to agree with you.

Whatever it is that's going on in your life, wherever you feel like you need power, wherever you feel like you've been white knuckling it, I want to pray for you.

I want to stand with you.

Because we believe God wants to do something significant in your life.

If you need healing, I want you to come forward.

If you need emotional healing, I want you to come forward.

If you're facing depression, I want you to come forward.

If you're white knuckling something and you need the spirit and the power of God, I want you to come forward.

Whatever that is in your body, in your mind, in your finances, whatever it can be, I want you to come forward.

And what we're going to do is we're going to worship, we're going to pray, and it's going to be incredible.

We'll get you out here on time.

Okay?

But we're going to go back into a time of worship.

And we're believing that God is going to do something significant in this place.

Can you do me a favor?

Can you lift up your arms just in surrender to who God is?

Holy Spirit, I want to thank you for who you are.

Holy Spirit, we give you this room.

We pray that you will move, that you will move in power, that you will speak, that you will do what only you can do.

We love you, Holy Spirit.

We love you, Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

I want to encourage you to come forward.

Come on forward.

Come on forward.

Come forward.

We're going to pray.