HopeLives365

Mark Finley: The Holy Spirit wants to come along your side. The Holy Spirit wants to reveal Jesus to you. The Holy Spirit, most of all, wants to guide you home.

Guest (Male): This is Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message: A Fulfilled Christian Life through The Holy Spirit, Part 1. Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with Hope Lives 365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com. And now, Pastor Mark.

Mark Finley: I was giving a series of lectures on the Holy Spirit and after that, a man came up to me and he said, "Pastor Mark, can I ask you a question?" I said, "Sure, I always love questions." He began to wander. I didn't know what his question was, but he kept going this way and that way. But I could tell he's a very intelligent man.

I said finally, "Sir, I'm not getting it. Do you have a question?" He said, "Yeah, here's my question. Is the Holy Spirit a power flowing from God as some sort of impersonal influence or is the Holy Spirit a divine person?" That was on his heart, on his mind. Now, I would acknowledge tonight that the subject of the Holy Spirit is a divine mystery, that we don't understand everything about it. But because you don't understand everything about something doesn't mean you can't get the benefit of the thing you don't understand everything about.

We will talk about that a little later as we go, but one of my dear friends was Dr. Bill Bright, the founder and former president of Campus Crusade for Christ. He used to fast and pray for one month every year. He'd just drink some juice and pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And he wrote in a powerful book on the Holy Spirit that nearly 95% of the respondents, this is on a survey that Campus Crusade for Christ took, have indicated that they have little knowledge of who the Holy Spirit is or why He exists. It was quite a sobering statement as I read it.

A.W. Tozer, revivalist of another century, wrote, "The idea of the Spirit held by the average church member is so vague as to be nearly non-existent." So there is this idea that the Holy Spirit, what is the Spirit? How does the Spirit work? What does the Spirit want to do in our lives?

Bill Bright went on to say, "I'm personally convinced that if today's Christians better understood the Bible's basic teaching about the Holy Spirit and then invited Him to release His power in their lives each day, they would experience unprecedented joy and personal fulfillment. More than that, our verbal and non-verbal witness for Jesus Christ would sweep the world."

Do you long for deeper peace in your life? Do you long for greater joy in your life? Do you long for greater power in your life? This subject of the Holy Spirit is a key to unlock that. In Gospel Workers, page 370, the 1892 edition, it says, "It's the Spirit that quickens, that means makes alive, the lifeless faculties of the soul to appreciate heavenly things and attracts the affections toward God and His truth."

There are times in life where we come onto a plateau of our Christian experience. We seem to come to a point where our prayer life is not as vibrant, our Bible study life is not as exciting anymore, we're not as enthused about singing some of the hymns that we used to love to sing, and certainly our witness has become dull.

But it's the Spirit of God that brings life to the faculties of the soul. It's the Spirit of God that helps us to appreciate heavenly things and attracts our affections toward God and His truth. Would you like to experience unprecedented intimacy with God? Would you like to receive Christ's supernatural power to live a victorious life?

You know, there are some people that want to debate constantly about the Holy Spirit. More than debate about the Holy Spirit, I want to receive the Holy Spirit. What do you say? More than debate about it, I want to have a new experience with God through His Spirit. Would you like to be a powerful witness for Jesus in the world? Now, understanding who the Holy Spirit is and receiving Him into your life is the key to a fulfilled Christian life.

So first, who is the Holy Spirit? Isn't it rather interesting when you look throughout the Bible, that you look at scripture and you look at the things that the Holy Spirit does? You remember in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30, it says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit," so the Holy Spirit can be grieved. If you look at Genesis 6 about verse 3, it says the Spirit will not always strive with us. So you can grieve the Spirit, the Spirit strives with us.

You look at Hebrews 10, the Holy Spirit witnesses for us. Rather Hebrews 10, the Holy Spirit witnesses to the Father. You look at Romans 8, verse 26, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. If you look at John 14, the Holy Spirit teaches us. So when you look at the attributes of the Holy Spirit, He pleads, He intercedes, He teaches, you can grieve the Holy Spirit. When you look at the Bible, the Holy Spirit has the attributes of personality.

You know, we often equate divine personality with visibility. Have you ever heard the saying "seeing is believing"? Have you ever heard that one? Seeing is believing. And we can say, "You know, when I'm in heaven, I'm going to see God." The Bible says in Revelation 22, "I'm going to see His face," and we're going to certainly see Jesus, right?

But somebody says, "Are we going to see the Holy Spirit?" So we get this idea that we equate divine personality with visibility. Thinking the Holy Spirit is some kind of a force or influence rather than a divine being, it's really a human attempt to explain divine reality. Because when you try to explain divine reality, often you come to doors that are just shut. It's very difficult to do that.

Now, we don't have to understand everything about something to appreciate the something we may not know everything about. Let me give you an illustration of this. Let's suppose you have a PhD at the University of Cincinnati. This man is a cornologist. He's done his PhD degree on Ohio sweet corn and he can tell you about the fourth row over on the sweet corn, the 13th kernel down, and he can write a dissertation on that one kernel. I mean, he knows everything about sweet corn there is to know.

He is the world's foremost authority on sweet corn. I mean, he's written books on it, he's published scholarly papers on sweet corn. And then you have some guy living in the backwoods of Ohio. I don't know, you got any backwoods in Ohio? Anyway, this guy is so far in the backwoods, he never read one book on sweet corn, he can't even read. But he's a farmer and he grows the sweet corn that the professor eats, okay?

So the professor sits down to eat the sweet corn that this old guy who's illiterate grew, and the guy eats the sweet corn that his wife makes. Who gets the most out of the sweet corn? The PhD guy or the guy who grew the corn? If they both eat the same ear of sweet corn, not the same ear, but I mean if they both eat an ear that came off the stalk, the guy who doesn't know anything about it is going to get as much as the other guy, right?

You don't have to know everything about something to get the benefit of the something you don't know everything about, right? If I asked you to explain to me how there are pictures in this room, and you had some little remote and you pushed some button number 12 and you can get this station, can you explain all that to me about those light waves, the chemical composition? You may not know that.

The subject of the Holy Spirit is an infinite subject. But if something is infinite, it doesn't mean you can't know anything about it, it means you can't know everything about it. Let me repeat that. If something is infinite, it doesn't mean you can't know anything about it because you can't know everything about it. Infinite things call us to study them.

And the more we study them, like a multi-faceted diamond, the more beautiful they become. So thinking of the Holy Spirit as some kind of force or impersonal influence, it's a human attempt to explain divine reality. But also, it's contrary to the Bible. Look, here are three extremely plain New Testament passages describing the divine trio or in the Godhead.

First, Matthew 28, verse 19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in," what everybody, read it with me, "the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." If I only had that text, it seems to indicate that there's the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's very plain.

Here's Ephesians 2:18, "Through Him," that is Christ, "we have access by one Spirit unto the Father." Again, you have this divine trio, this Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you look at Hebrews 10, verse 9 to 15, the Father wills our salvation, the Son works for our salvation in His sacrifice on the cross, and the Spirit witnesses to us of the Father's will and the Son's work.

You see that together, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are there. Throughout scripture, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit cooperate to accomplish heaven's purposes in the plan of redemption. When you look, for example, at creation, do we have evidence in creation that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit worked?

In the beginning, God created heaven and the earth and the Spirit of God moved on what, the face of the waters? "Let us make man in our image." You remember in Colossians, what does it say? That Jesus is our creator, right? So at creation, at Jesus' baptism, Christ is being baptized. The Father speaks from heaven, "This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased."

And then you have Jesus there, and you have the Holy Spirit descending on Him. So again, you have that divine trio. Remember, if I asked you this question, who raised Jesus from the dead? Does the Bible say that God raised up Jesus? Does it say Jesus, did Jesus say, "If I lay down my life, I can take it up again"? And does Romans 8 say that the Spirit raised Him from the dead?

You see, so it was all part of the divine purpose, wasn't it? So when you look at the plan of salvation, do we have a God that sits on a real throne in a real sanctuary in heaven? Is there a real Jesus that intercedes? And does the Holy Spirit come from the throne of God to lead us, to draw us to Jesus? So you see this divine trio working together.

Guest (Male): We'll be right back with Pastor Mark Finley. We thank you for listening and hope you're enjoying today's message. Our mission is to attractively present the Christ-centered biblical truths of scripture in a practical, relevant way to people around the world so that they may experience the abundant life that Christ offers and effectively share with confidence His life-changing truths with others. You can support this ministry and help us reach even more by going to hopelives365.com/donate. And now, back to Pastor Mark Finley.

Mark Finley: In 2 Corinthians 13:14, I read, let's read it together, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." Does Jesus give us grace? Does God love us? And can we have communion with God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit? So you see these biblical passages that link the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the communion of the Holy Spirit.

So as we kneel to pray, we lift our voices up, but at times we pray in the frailty of our human language and the Spirit takes our words and interprets them before the throne of God in the language of our hearts. It's through the Spirit that we enter into intimate communion with divine. Before you open the word of God, ask the Spirit to come, to explain the teachings of the word of God to you.

The Holy Spirit is just as real, just as much a divine person, just as much a member of the Godhead as the Father and the Son. We have seen that in scripture. The Holy Spirit, of course, clearly is a divine person. Look, this was a quote from Series B and reprinted in Testimonies to Ministers, page 392. There are, can you read it with me please, there are what?

There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will cooperate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ. Is the Father a real being? Is the Son a real being? Is the Holy Spirit a real being? That's what I would have to conclude from this reference.

Or look at this one: "Evil had been accumulating for centuries and could only be restrained by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy but in the fullness of divine power." Don't you long for this in your own life? Evil around us has been accumulating for centuries. Wouldn't you agree with that?

And wouldn't you agree with it that at times we are just too weak to resist those evil forces? But we need the Holy Spirit to come with no modified energy but in the fullness of divine power. LeRoy Froom wrote a book first published in 1928, *Coming of the Comforter*, page 41. He says, "Jesus was the most marked and influential personality ever in this old world and the Holy Spirit was to supply His vacated place. No one but a person could take the place of this wondrous person. No mere influence would suffice."

Jesus' teaching on the Holy Spirit is life-transformational. In John chapter 14, Jesus says, "I'm going to go away. But if I go away, I'm going to send you another Comforter." And he says, "I'll pray the Father and He will give you another helper that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

Now notice the words of Christ very carefully. Jesus puts it this way, "I'll pray the Father." You know, Jesus said it's to your advantage that I'm going away. If I were with the disciples and I wanted to stay with Jesus and believe that He was going to set up His eternal kingdom and Jesus said to me, "It's to your advantage that I go away," I would have said to Him, "Jesus, You touch the eyes of the blind and they're opened. You touch the ears of the deaf and they were unstopped. You touch the withered man's arm and it was healed. You caused the lame to walk, the blind to see. You forgave sin, You raised the dead. Jesus, I think You're making a mistake. It's not to our advantage that You go away."

Would you have clung to His feet like Mary did? Sure. But Jesus said, "I am going to impart to you the power of the Holy Spirit and I can be with one person in one place at one time. But the Spirit can be with all of my believers at all times." And He says, "I'm going to pray the Father and He's going to give you another helper," we're going to look at that word "helper" shortly, "that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

In the pagan religions of this world, there's no teaching like this. Christianity is unique. The teachings of Islam, of Hinduism, of Buddhism basically say that human beings have to bring themselves up to God. Christianity says God came down to us. And He lived the life we should have lived and He died the death we should have died.

But whereas in Buddhism, in Islam, and in Hinduism, the attempt is to live a moral life and that if I try hard enough, I can live that moral life, in Christianity it is opening our hearts to the ministry of the Spirit to receive the strength for our weakness, to receive wisdom in our ignorance, to receive might when we are frail. It is the idea that the Holy Spirit enters in us and strengthens us.

The first and second person of the Godhead, the Father and the Son, take up residence in our hearts through the third member of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. Somebody said, "Can you explain that to me?" Nope, can't do it. But do I believe it? Absolutely. Absolutely. Because the Spirit of God wants to do something in our lives and in our hearts. Jesus says, "I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you."

My wife and I have visited Africa so many times and one time after the genocide, I was in Africa in Rwanda trying to bring some kind of joy and peace and reconciliation. And I remember walking out of the auditorium where I was speaking one night and a group of orphans gathered around me and they were just holding my feet, wouldn't let me go. There must have been 15 or 20 of them there.

This little boy looked up at me in the African night and said, "Mister, Mister, I don't have a daddy. Would you be my daddy?" And I'll tell you my heart just pitter-pattered. Right now, my wife and I sponsor four orphans and we just get one of the little kids, their parents died and they were just from house to house and we've sent them to Adventist schools in Africa and it's just amazing what God is doing through these kids' lives when they get a chance.

When I was there, I was with Pastor Aman Rutaringa. And Pastor Rutaringa's wife, his granddaughter, and his children one day were in church during the genocide and the rebel forces came in, took them out and killed them all. He lost 27 members of his family. And we talked a long time about the genocide, about forgiveness, about the power of God, about the Holy Spirit giving us new life.

And he said to me, he said, "Pastor Mark, before you leave, I want you to meet somebody." So we get in his truck and drove out over this old dirt road and he said, "I want you to meet Mrs. Adele Selfu." Her husband was a pastor as the killers were coming across the countryside. Pastor Selfu and his wife fled into a church with other people.

And as they were there, the killers came in with machetes, her husband and her were holding hands and he was hacked to death, blood spurted all over her. They hit her on the head with a machete, they hit her in the neck with a machete, and they about chopped off her hand with a machete and she was lying on the floor.

The killers moved on, she was lying among the dead bodies for three days. And when the killers had moved on, somebody came to bury the bodies, a number of the townspeople did. But they said this woman still has a pulse. They took her to a nearby clinic, sewed up her wounds. It took her months and months and months for her to become rehabilitated.

And so Pastor Rutaringa said to me, "I want you to meet her. This is a woman who the Spirit of God has totally changed her life. The Spirit of God has given her forgiveness for those that killed her husband. The Spirit of God has changed her life. Would you like to meet her?" So we went into the house and as I got there, the picture of her husband was on the wall.

And I stood there just looking at the picture for a little while and she walked out and sat on the couch. And I said to her, we talked a little bit and she asked me about where I was from and so forth. And I said, "Sister Selfu, I know it may be difficult for you, but do you want to talk about what happened that night? If you don't want to, it's okay for me, but if you want to talk about it, I'll pray with you about it."

She said, "Pastor, I would." And she told me the day that they were in that room, she told me about the killers that came in. She took her hand and pulled back a lock of her black hair and I noticed the scar down her skull. She held up her floppy wrist and I noticed the scar here. She modestly pulled back her dress on her shoulder and showed me a scar here. She said, "Pastor, I lay among the dead there for three days."

But then she said after her months of rehabilitation, there were 13 prisons that were established in Rwanda for the killers and there were thousands that were put in prison. One prison wasn't far from her home. And she said, "Pastor, I kept praying and said to the Holy Spirit, 'Come into my life, give me forgiveness, give me strength, give me power, Lord.'"

She said, "I got this idea, I must go back into the prison. I must minister there to the killers." And she said, "I went into the prison and I became the mother of the prison. I'd give them blankets when it was cold, I would give them soap, I would pray over them." And she said one day in the prison, a man came around the corner, a young man in his early 20s.

And he fell at my feet and began to kiss my feet. And I looked up and he said, "Do you remember me?" And she said, "I wished I couldn't. I wish I'd never seen that man. He was the man that hit my husband in the head with a machete. He was the man that hacked me in the head."

And she said, "Pastor, only the Spirit of God allowed me to do this. I picked him up and I said, 'By Jesus' grace, I embrace you.'" And then she said to me, "Pastor Mark, he got out of prison later, a few years later, and his parents were killed too, so I adopted him as my son. Would you like to meet him?"

My heart was pitter-pattering, you know, and this young man walked around the corner. He was new. The Spirit of God had changed him. He was a new man. The Spirit of God can do within us things that we cannot imagine. We're not orphans. We're not some speck of cosmic dust wandering on a planet that's out of control. But Jesus said, "I'll send my Spirit and I'll live within you."

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you've enjoyed today's message and remind you that you can find more in our many ministry resources at hopelives365.com. And you can support this ministry by going to hopelives365.com/donate. And now, a final thought from Pastor Mark.

Mark Finley: Jesus fills us with His personal presence through the Holy Spirit. Pentecost brought them the presence of the Comforter of whom Christ had said, "He shall be in you." And He had further said, "It is expedient for you that I go away," expedient, necessary. Henceforth through the Spirit, Christ was to abide continually in the hearts of His children.