In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: Often times, people will go through their whole life and never understand the absolute essential ministry of the Holy Spirit in their life. Now, one of the things that I'd like to do is to answer several questions about the Holy Spirit in this message, several questions that often times people overlook. If you ask the average person, "Who is the Holy Spirit?" I guarantee you most people would stumble around trying to define who he is.

Guest (Male): Some people refer to the spirit of God as the Holy Spirit. Others call him the Holy Ghost. Either way, how much about him do you really know? Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley will be reminded that the spirit came to enable us to fulfill the will of God. Here's part one of "The Holy Spirit: An Absolute Essential." Let's listen in.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Have you ever wondered why you don't make any more progress than you do in your Christian life? In fact, you look back last month, or last year, or 10 years ago and you have to ask yourself the question, "Well, why don't I love God anymore than I used to? Why don't I have a deeper hunger for him? Why don't I read the Bible anymore than I used to? Why don't I give more than I used to give?"

What's happening in my life? Am I stagnant? What's going on in my Christian life that I don't seem to make any progress? In fact, you look at your life and you realize that you are still hesitating to share your faith. You still hesitate to take a place of service in your church. You still hesitate to tithe. You're still battling over the same old habits that used to battle over a long time ago.

You're still wondering why God doesn't seem to answer your prayers as you'd like. You know that you're saved. You go to church, you read your Bible, you pray at times, and yet you know that something is missing in your life. What is it that's causing you to realize in your life that there's probably more stagnation than growth, more failure than success, and more emptiness than joy?

Well, I think there probably could be a number of reasons, but there's one primary reason I believe that most people continue failing in all those areas. I want you to listen very carefully because if you listen carefully and apply this message to your life, then you're going to begin to see God work in your life in a different kind of way. That emptiness is going to get full of joy and you're going to begin to take on a whole new perspective of the Christian life. You're going to begin to experience the thrill of knowing who Jesus Christ is personally, the thrill of serving him, and the thrill of watching him bless you in ways that you have never been blessed before.

So, I want you to turn, if you will, to Luke chapter 24. That's the last chapter in the Gospel of Luke. I want us to turn, if you will, to beginning in the 36th verse. Let me give you a little background of what's happening. Jesus has risen. In the passage before this, he met those two disciples on the Emmaus Road, and you'll recall they were walking along and Jesus appeared with them and began to talk with them and explain to them what had happened when they asked him, "Haven't you heard about the crucifixion and so forth?"

So, he began to explain to them what happened, and then toward the end of the journey, he reveals himself and then he disappears. Well, they are back now with the other disciples, telling them what happened. So, verse 36 says, "While they were telling these things, he himself appeared in their midst. But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. And he said to them, 'Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.'"

"And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still could not believe it for joy and were marveling, he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?' And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them. Now, he said to them, 'These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled,' referring to all those prophecies in the Old Testament."

"Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You're witnesses of these things.' And then listen to this 49th verse, what he said to them. He said, 'And behold, I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you. But you are to stay in the city, that is a city of Jerusalem, until you are clothed with power from on high.'"

Why in the world would he say to these disciples, "You're to stay in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high"? Often times, people will go through their whole life and never understand the absolute essential ministry of the Holy Spirit in their life. The title of this message is "The Holy Spirit: An Absolute Essential."

Now, one of the things that I'd like to do is to answer several questions about the Holy Spirit in this message, several questions that often times people overlook. If you ask the average person today, "Who is the Holy Spirit?" I guarantee you most people would stumble around trying to define who he is. So, what I'd like to do in this message is first of all answer this question: who is the Holy Spirit?

Because here is what he said. He said, "Even though you have walked with me for three years and have watched all these things, you're not ready for the work that I've called you to do. Sit down, that is stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high." Now, who is the Holy Spirit? What I want to do is I want to answer that question, then I want you to give me back the answer so that anytime anybody asks you about the Holy Spirit, you will know who he is.

First of all, the Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity. That's who he is. If you'll turn to Genesis chapter one, and you'll recall in the very first chapter of the Bible, here's what you'll discover. You'll discover the scripture says, "And the earth was formless and void and darkness was upon the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters."

Then if you'll notice in the 26th verse of the same chapter, again the Bible says, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" Who is "us"? "Us" is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

For example, if you look in John chapter 15 for a moment, and if you'll notice in this 15th chapter, there's a verse here I want you to notice because here is the Trinity all in one verse. The 26th verse says, Jesus speaking in the upper room, "When the helper," capital H, "comes whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me."

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all in this one verse. Notice, "when the helper comes." A helper couldn't be a something. He is a somebody. "When the helper who is the spirit, whom I Jesus will send to you from the Father." God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all at work. Now, if somebody says, "Well now, who is the Holy Spirit?" what are you going to say? He is a person of the Trinity.

The second thing I want you to notice about him is he is the promise of the Father. If you'll notice in this 49th verse, listen to what Jesus said. He said, "Behold, I'm sending forth the promise of my Father upon you. But you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." He's the promise of the Father. God promised to send the person of the Holy Spirit.

He promised to send him as the helper. Now, the very fact that he is called a helper is an implication that he is certainly somebody and not a thing. So, he's a person of the Trinity. He is the promise of the Father. If you'll recall, for example, Jesus said in that 14th chapter of John, you may just want to put your blue ribbon somewhere in the 14th and 15th chapter, he said, "I will ask the Father," in verse 16, "he will give you another."

That "another" is another just like me. "Allos" is a Greek word. It means another just like this one. He says, "I'm going to send you somebody like me." Notice what he says, "and he will be," he says, "another helper that he may be with you." You see, Jesus didn't call the Holy Spirit, he didn't say that "it" may be with you, but "he" may be with you. A person of the Trinity, the promise of the Father.

"That is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it doesn't behold him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you." What he's saying is, this is not some force, some power. This is the person of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the three persons of the Godhead who make up the Trinity. So therefore, when he said, "Let us make man in our image," God the Father, God the Son, Holy Spirit.

Here he's saying, "whom the Father will send in my name, he will be with you and he will abide with you for how long? Forever." So, he is a person of the Trinity. He's the promise of the Father. Listen, he is the gift to every believer. Look if you will in Acts chapter two and verse 38. You'll recall in this passage that this is the sermon that Peter preached at Pentecost. That sermon was so powerful, they said when he was about finished, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"

Here's what he said in verse 38: "And Peter said to them, 'Repent, let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" The Holy Spirit is not somebody we pray to get. The Holy Spirit is not someone we work for to get. When you were saved, the spirit of God sealed you at that moment as a child of God.

He came to indwell you. The Bible distinguishes between believers and unbelievers as those who are indwelt by the spirit and those who are not indwelt by the spirit. Not by conduct, though that's important, not by behavior, though that's important, but the fact that we are either sealed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit or we are not. You don't have to get him.

The baptism of the spirit is not something that you get. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the work of the Holy Spirit at your salvation when he places you in Christ and makes you a part of the whole body of Christ. So, that's what he is referring to in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 when he talks about baptizing us into Christ Jesus, making us one of his.

In the third chapter of John, when Jesus and Nicodemus are talking, he says, "That which is born of the spirit." The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us of sin. He's the one who brings us to the realization and the understanding so that you and I understand how to be saved. We understand what it means to believe in Jesus. We understand what it means that he died for our sin. That's all the work of the Holy Spirit in revealing, unveiling, and giving us understanding of his ministry.

Therefore, when somebody says, "Well, who is he?" we know that he indeed, without a doubt, is not a thing. He's not a force, and he's not a power. He is a somebody. He is indeed the gift to every single believer. Well, the question comes then, if that's true of him, then why did he come? That is, why did he come? So, I want you to go back to Luke chapter 24 a moment. Look at that 49th verse again.

Why did he come? Listen to what he said to them. He said now, "Behold, I'm sending forth a promise of my Father which is the Holy Spirit." Now, he says, "What you must do is you must sit down in the city of Jerusalem and just wait." Now, I can imagine that they thought, "Well, that's a waste of time. You've given us the Great Commission and we ought to be out here doing the work."

He said, "You're not ready. You're not ready to do the work that I've called you to do. You're not even ready to live the life that I've called you to live." So, he says there are two reasons, two primary reasons God the Father sent the Holy Spirit into this life. First of all, he sent the Holy Spirit into your life and mine in order to enable us to do the work God has called us to do.

When somebody says to you, "Well, why did he come?" what are you going to say? To enable us to do the work that God has called us to do. Now, let me say right up front, that does not mean just preach. That means that God through the Holy Spirit, who has gifted you with your personality, your background, your birth, and all that God fused into your being even before you were born, and all that he has built into your personality.

God through the Holy Spirit has gifted you. We have different gifts: the gift of service, the gift of giving, exhortation, prophecy, mercy, teaching, all of these gifts, many, many gifts in the scriptures. So, every single believer has been gifted by the Holy Spirit. Now, just the fact that we have been gifted by him does not make us adequate.

He said to those disciples who had walked with him, listened to him, and watched him, "Sit down until you be clothed with power from on high." That is, even though they had been in his school for three years, they were not ready. Knowing what to do and how to do it and when to do it did not make them ready.

Often times, we limit the power and the work of the Holy Spirit to some service inside the church. God has equipped you. Now, probably some of you chose the occupation you're in, you didn't ask God what he wanted, what he wanted you to do. You went to college, you chose your own major, you never asked him what it was he wanted you to do.

You see, you and I do our best when we are doing what God has called us to do and when we are operating out of our spiritual gift. You can take each one of the spiritual gifts and you take a person, put them in their spiritual gift, and help them understand how to operate out of that gift, you're going to see a person who begins to reach toward the maximum of their potential to fulfill God's purpose in their life.

That's why it's so very important you ask the Lord, "Lord, what would you have me to do? Where would you have me to do it? What vocation, what job would you have?" because you want to exercise the gift that God has given you where he has taught you and where he has led you in your life. So, he has called us and he's equipping us. Now, we may sharpen up our skills and we may sharpen up the way we operate out of our gifts. That comes from experience and comes from praying and seeking the Lord.

But God has given you a spiritual gift. There's no such thing as a non-gifted believer. No such thing. There's no such thing as a believer who is not indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You may not be filled, you may not be operating out of his strength and power and energy, but you are indwelt by the spirit of God. That means that you have within you the supernatural power of God to do the work that God has called you to do.

It wouldn't even be right for God to call us to do something and then not equip us to do it. Now, if a person ignores him and you're unsaved and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, you'll never be able to reach what God would have you to reach apart from him because, listen, he designed us to be dependent upon him.

God did not design these bodies, these minds, these hearts, he didn't design this life to live independently of him, but to be dependent upon him. You say, "Well, that kind of dependence is weakness." No, it takes a strong man and a strong woman, especially those who are gifted, those who are talented, to rely upon the Holy Spirit.

You see, one of the reasons that some people have a hard time depending upon the Holy Spirit is because they are so gifted. They are so talented. They feel so absolutely confident. That's why the more gifted, the more skilled you are, the more danger you have to face because it's real easy to operate out of your own sense of naturalness and abilities and talents apart from the spirit of God.

He said to those men, "Do not dare leave the city of Jerusalem until you have been clothed, until the spirit of God has come upon you in order to enable you to do what you need to do." Listen, he told a small group of men, "Your mission in life, your mission in life," one of them was probably a teenager, John the Beloved, who wrote the Gospel and the three epistles at the end of the scriptures.

He was a teenager. The rest of them were older. How old they were, we don't know. But one thing for certain, he gave them this absolutely impossible task. He said, "Your task is to evangelize your world." He said, "As you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things that I have taught you, and lo, I'll be with you all the way even to the end of the age."

The key was that he would go with them. How would he go? Here's what he said. He said, "I'm going away, but I'm not going to leave you as orphans." He said, "I will send the spirit whom the Father will send." He said, "The spirit of God will come upon you and he said he will be in you and with you and upon you forever." Why?

Because he knew that in their strength, in their energy, their knowledge, they could not do it. He gave them a supernatural task which was an impossible task, but he said to them, "I'm not going to send you out by yourself. I'm going with you in the presence and the person and the power of the Holy Spirit." And that's the reason those 11 men plus the Apostle Paul who came along later, that's the reason they turned their world upside down. That's the reason where Paul went, they said, "Here come those people who are turning the world upside down." That's the reason 2,000 years later, you and I are talking about Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul, lifting up the Word of God. Why? Because what they did worked because they went in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. The believer who relies on God will be enabled to accomplish any God-given task. Yield to the Lord, be willing to do his will, and follow him faithfully. We'll learn more about the Holy Spirit tomorrow.

Are you frustrated when you try to read the Bible? At intouch.org, you'll find many resources to help you study God's Word and apply it to your life. You can listen to this message again by clicking on Today on Radio. And the bookstore is where you can order a copy of today's complete message, "The Holy Spirit: An Absolute Essential."

Visit intouch.org, or call or text at 1-800-INTOUCH. You can write to us at In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. News reports often make the future seem bleak, but believers have a way to stop fear dead in its tracks. Today's encouraging moment with Charles Stanley is coming up.

Dr. Charles Stanley: To have strong convictions based on the Word of God. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future. Now, watch this.

Guest (Male): From the Pastor's Heart is an in-depth teaching letter inspired by the teachings of Dr. Charles Stanley. To receive In Touch's From the Pastor's Heart letter, call 1-800-INTOUCH, or visit intouch.org/pastorsheart.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Let your time and your schedule and everything about you revolve around this: that you and I are to develop and continue to develop this ongoing, intimate, wonderful, exciting, satisfying, indescribable, wonderful, incomparable relationship with a personal God. Get closer to Jesus as we always want to do.

Guest (Male): You can learn how at charlesstanleyinstitute.org. You're listening to In Touch. We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but believers can trust that God knows. In a moment with Charles Stanley, learn the value of staying connected to the Lord so anxiety cannot attach to you.

Dr. Charles Stanley: I think the simplest and the most powerful way to do that is to begin your day with the Lord, and that is in his word and praying and asking him for divine guidance and direction. Remembering he says he cares for us, that he sovereignly overrules in our life, and knowing that he loves us, and knowing the fact that he says, "I'll never leave you nor forsake you."

And realizing that he's a God of awesome love and desires to care for us. If I can begin the day like that, then I'm going to keep that off. It's like it just pushes it away. And then I would say one other thing that's so very important, and that's this: if you live a godly life and you're walking obediently before God, it's amazing how that in itself guards you from that anxiety.

Father, thank you that you know all about our circumstances and you have the power to control, to change anything you desire. Give us wisdom to know how to respond in a positive fashion, to keep our focus on you, and to recognize that you do understand, that you do care, and you will change the circumstances of our life when you know that it fits your perfect will for us.

Sometimes we don't understand, so give us patience to walk in your will and your way. And we do pray for understanding, and we claim by faith that simple promise that you will cause all things to work together for our good to those of us who love you and are called according to your purpose. For an unconditional, undying, unchanging love, we say thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Anxiety can creep up on you when you least expect it. Learn how to handle fear and other strong emotions at intouch.org. And if today's program encouraged you to invest more deeply in your relationship with Christ, we'd love to hear from you. Tomorrow on In Touch, we'll discover why the spirit of God is vital to every believer every day. I hope you'll join us Thursday for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.