Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

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Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm.

Speaker 3

Glad to study God's Word with you every day.

Speaker 2

This Bible teaching program on today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 3

God has not shortchanged you. If you're a Christian, God isn't over here reserving something extra that you need to beg him and ask him to do in your life.

He has granted to you everything you need to lead a supernatural and fulfilling existence while here on earth. He has granted to you everything pertaining to life and to godliness.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and doctor Robert Jeffress. When you seem to be going through a difficult season of life or you keep falling into the same old bad habits, it's easy to feel powerless and defeated.

But if you know Jesus Christ, then you already have everything you need to be victorious. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress discusses how to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Speaker 2

Dr. Jeffress thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Over the past several decades, I've noticed a telling trend in American churches. You see, I believe that a growing number of Christians are becoming disillusioned and discontent with their spiritual condition. They're tired of simply going through the motions, and as a result, these Christians are gravitating toward churches that emphasize experience and excitement over anything else.

Well, if you feel like there's something important missing in your relationship with God, then let me assure you you're not alone. In fact, I've faced this struggle as well, and in my bestselling book titled *I Want More*, I share how I went from longing and discontentment to experiencing the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in my everyday life.

I'll send you a copy of my bestselling book titled *I Want More* when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. And when you contact us today, I'll also send you a complimentary copy of the *Jesus Map*, a beautifully illustrated reference tool that traces the footsteps of Jesus throughout his earthly ministry, along with 52 key events that took place along the way. You won't find this resource anywhere other than right here. The *Jesus Map* is my gift to you simply for contacting Pathway to Victory today at ptv.org.

I'll say more about these resources later, but right now it's time to pick up our study titled "You're Richer Than You Think."

Speaker 3

We're going to begin a brand new series of messages I've titled "Experiencing the Power of the Holy Spirit in Your Everyday Life." As we begin our study today, we're going to answer two essential questions about the Holy Spirit of God. If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians 12 as we discover why it is you're richer than you think.

The first question we're going to look at briefly today is: Who is the Holy Spirit? If indeed the answer to the greatest longing you have in your life right now is the power of the Holy Spirit, we need to understand who the Holy Spirit is. I want to make two statements this morning about the Holy Spirit. First of all, the Holy Spirit is God. I have a pastor friend who grew up in a Southern Baptist church, and he said, "You know, whenever we heard the Trinity talked about, we never heard about the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit." Instead of a Trinity, it was presented to us as a dynamic duo: the Father and the Son. But we never heard anything in our church about the Holy Spirit of God.

There's a second truth about the Holy Spirit we need to understand. Not only is the Holy Spirit God, but the Holy Spirit is also a person. That's why whenever the New Testament talks about the Holy Spirit, He is always referred to as "He." He is a person. Now, what do we mean when we say the Holy Spirit is a person? Well, think about what distinguishes you as a person from this pulpit up here. To be a person, a living being, you have to have three things: intellect, a will, and emotions. For example, as a person, you have thoughts all the time. You're having many thoughts right now. This pulpit, which has been here since 1890, has never had one single solitary thought. Not one.

You have a will; that is, you make decisions about what you're going to do and what you're not going to do. This pulpit doesn't have a will. It's not sitting here right now thinking, "You know, as soon as this clown gets through preaching, I'm going to go have lunch." It doesn't think that at all. It's never had a thought before. You have emotions, all kinds of emotions. This pulpit has never shed a tear; it's never smiled at all. Intellect, emotions, and will are what make us a person. They distinguish us from objects. It's the same way with the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God possesses intellect; that is, He thinks, He understands, and He comprehends the thoughts of God. Jot down 1 Corinthians 2:11: "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God." The Holy Spirit of God can understand what we can never understand, and that is the thoughts of God Himself.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit possesses a will; that is, He makes decisions. One of the decisions He makes is what spiritual gifts He's going to give to individual Christians. And then, number three, the Holy Spirit of God possesses emotions. He can actually feel things. One of the things the Holy Spirit feels is deep sorrow when we sin as Christians. When you, as a Christian, sin, think about this: any sin you engage in, you are taking the Holy Spirit with you to be a part of that sin if He is living in your life. That's why Ephesians 4:30 says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed in the day of redemption." The next time you're tempted to enter into sin, ask yourself, "Do I feel comfortable making God a partner with me in this sin?" Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Who is the Holy Spirit? He's God. He is also a person.

Now, the second question: How and when do we receive the Holy Spirit in our lives? If indeed the deepest longing we have can be filled by experiencing the Holy Spirit, don't you think it's important to ask and answer the question, "When do we receive the Holy Spirit of God in our lives?" The fact is, if you are truly a believer in Jesus Christ, you have already received the indwelling. The presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in man is the essence of the Christian faith. The Holy Spirit is indwelling every believer. How does that happen? How is it that the Holy Spirit comes into every believer's life? We call it the baptism with the Holy Spirit of God.

I want you to look at verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 12. Paul explains the process by which the Holy Spirit sets up residence in every believer's life. In verse 13, he writes, "For with one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." God doesn't call for the church to be uniform; He calls us to be unified. There’s all the difference between the two. Let me say to some of you listening to this broadcast on the radio: if you're a part of a church where everybody's the same age, the same race, the same economic background, drives the same cars, dresses in the same clothes, guess what? You're not in a church; you're in a country club. God didn't call us to be a country club; He called us to be a church. That means people of all ages, of all ethnic backgrounds, of all economic backgrounds, of all different walks of life coming together to worship Jesus Christ.

And see, there's power. There's a witness in that. Because how in the world could you ever find another organization where you had such diversity in it? The only answer is it is a supernatural work by the Holy Spirit of God. And that's what he says in verse 13. Even though the church has many diverse members, look at what happened in verse 13: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." The diversity of the church is one of the greatest testimonies to the power of God. The way the church comes together from a diversity of backgrounds to be one is with the baptism of the Holy Spirit of God.

Now, there are four key words in this verse I want you to write down to understand. First of all, the word "baptized." "For with one Spirit we were all baptized." Now, that word "baptized," as you know, is a transliteration of the Greek word "baptizo." It's exactly like it sounds in Greek: "baptizo." The Greek word "baptizo" doesn't mean a variety; it means one thing and one thing only: it means to immerse. In fact, it was used in classical Greek literature to describe the process by which you would take a piece of cloth. If you wanted to change the cloth's color, let's say it was a red piece of cloth and you wanted to change its color to purple, what you would do is take that red piece of cloth and you would "baptizo" it into a vat of purple dye. You didn't take the purple dye and sprinkle the red piece of cloth; that wouldn't do it. No, if you really wanted to change its color completely, you had to "baptizo" it; you had to immerse it in order to change its color. That's what the word "baptized" means.

Now, when some Baptists hear the word "baptized," they get all excited and they want to turn down the lights, crank up the organ music, and jump into a pool of water. Okay, now that's okay. Water baptism is important, but it's important because of what it symbolizes. It symbolizes the spiritual reality of what we're talking about in 1 Corinthians 12:13. Water baptism is a symbol of what the Holy Spirit of God does for you. When you trust in Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit of God changes your spirit completely. He immerses you, He pours over you, and He transforms you from a guilty, rebellious enemy of God into a forgiving, obedient disciple of Jesus Christ. That's what happens. Your spiritual color is changed forever.

But not only that, the baptism with the Holy Spirit not only changes us, but get this: the baptism with the Holy Spirit joins us to Jesus Christ, the head of the body, and to other Christians who are already part of the body of Christ. Do you understand that? The baptism, the immersion with the Holy Spirit of God changes our spiritual color, changes us individually, but it also joins us together to Jesus Christ and other believers. And that's why Paul says, "For with one Spirit we were all baptized."

Now, the second word in this verse to understand is the word "by." "For with one Spirit." Did you know that the Bible never speaks of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Never. Some translations translate it that way, but it's a mistranslation. It is never the translation of the Holy Spirit. This word translated "by" is a word that is best translated "with." "For with one Spirit." "By" is not a good translation, even though your NASB uses it, because people misunderstand that word "by." When you use the word "by," it appears that the Holy Spirit is the one who is baptizing us. Because of that, there are a lot of Christians who mistakenly pray to the Holy Spirit: "Oh, Holy Spirit, come upon me. Oh, Holy Spirit, come into my life. Oh, Holy Spirit, baptize me." Never does the Scripture tell us to pray to the Holy Spirit or to ask for the Holy Spirit to come into our life. You know why that is? Because the Holy Spirit never baptizes anyone.

We see that illustrated in baptism every Sunday night up here. Let me ask you: have you ever, when you've watched a baptism, seen the candidate of baptism stand up there by himself, just waiting or with arms crossed, and suddenly, without warning, the water comes up and absolutely immerses him? And the guy says, "Thank you very much," and out he goes. Does that ever happen? Does he ever stand up and pray, "O water, baptize me. Drench me. Soak me completely"? That doesn't happen, does it? No. Instead, with that candidate, there is always a baptizer—somebody who does the baptizing. It is either I or someone I've designated. We are stand-ins—very poor stand-ins—but we are stand-ins for Jesus Christ Himself. We are picturing what Jesus does for us when we trust Him for salvation. He is the one who baptizes us, and He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. That water is not the one who does the baptizing; it is what we baptize with. The water represents the Holy Spirit of God.

My point is that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is accomplished by Jesus. It's what He does for us, and you see that all throughout Scripture. Jot down Mark 1:8: "I, John, baptize you with water, but Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Do you see that? That's why we never pray to the Holy Spirit of God asking Him to baptize us. No, Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit.

The third word is the word "were." "For with one Spirit we were all baptized." Notice that is past tense; it's denoting an action that has already taken place. There were no Corinthian Christians who were sitting around waiting for the Holy Spirit to come into their life. In fact, it is something that had already taken place. "For with one Spirit we were baptized." In his excellent book, "God in You," David Jeremiah gives three categories of verses in the Bible dealing with the Holy Spirit. It's important to be able to classify these verses because there's a lot of confusion about this topic. David says some of the verses are verses of expectancy. Those are verses mainly in the Old Testament and some in the Gospels that anticipate the time when the Holy Spirit will come and set up residence, will indwell every Christian. For example, Joel 2:28: "And it will come about after this that I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind." God is looking forward to that time when He would pour out His Spirit on all believers.

Or in Luke 3:16, John answered and said to them all, "As for me, I baptize you with water, but one is coming who is mightier than I, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Even in the New Testament, in the Gospels, they were looking forward to, with expectancy, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Secondly, there are verses that deal with experience—verses that teach us about the experience of the Holy Spirit. These are verses in Acts that record the actual coming of the Holy Spirit into believers' lives. Of course, that happened at the day of Pentecost when people believed—thousands believed—and they were baptized immediately with the Holy Spirit of God. In Acts 11:16, Peter looks back on that experience of Pentecost and he says, "And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, 'John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'"

Then, thirdly, there are verses of explanation. These are verses in the New Testament that deal with the benefits of experiencing the baptism with the Holy Spirit or the empowering with the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk about the difference in two weeks. The baptism with the Spirit is something every believer experiences, but only a few experience the filling or the empowering of the Holy Spirit. These are verses of explanation. For example, Romans 6:3-4: "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of God the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."

A study of all of these verses will lead you to the conclusion that the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at this point in time, is not something we as Christians look forward to, anticipate, pray for, or beg for. It is something that happens at the moment of our salvation. Again, I know some of you are saying, "Well, Pastor, how do you explain these verses that seem to teach that the baptism with the Spirit is not concurrent with salvation, but it is subsequent; it comes after our salvation?" Next time, we're going to look at four passages in Acts that everybody always turns to in order to try to show that the baptism with the Holy Spirit comes after salvation. We're going to look at those four passages next time.

But will you trust me at least with this statement? After Acts chapter 8, the pattern is clear: the moment somebody trusts in Christ, he is baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. And that leads to a fourth word in this verse that's key to understanding this whole principle, and that is the word "all." "For with one Spirit we were all baptized into one body." Now, I want you to think again about whom Paul was writing. You know these Corinthian Christians; you could not find a more carnal group of believers than these Corinthians. Think about what they were doing. They were fussing and fighting all the time. They were committing every kind of immorality imaginable. They were even getting drunk at the Lord's Supper. Can you imagine that? Getting drunk at the Lord's Supper. And yet, as carnal and as ungodly as they were, what did Paul say to them? "For with one Spirit you were all baptized." Even you, sorry, disobedient, rebellious Corinthians. Every one of you who is a believer in Christ, you have been baptized with the Holy Spirit.

You know that one little word "all" should drive a stake through this idea that is out there—that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a special experience reserved for only a certain class of Christians. It's kind of like a spiritual upgrade for that group of Christians who want to have a first-class relationship with Christ and are willing to pay a little bit extra to experience it. No, the Bible says it's part of the basic package: "For with one Spirit we were all baptized into one body."

I want you to turn over for just a moment to 2 Peter 1:3-4, the passage we read just a moment ago. I want to show you something that ought to be a great encouragement to you. 2 Peter 1:3-4: "Seeing that God's divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these things He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you have become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Now, I want you to underline in verse 3 this phrase: "He has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness." Do you realize what that passage is saying? If there's one truth I want you to walk away with today, it's this: God has not shortchanged you. If you're a Christian, God isn't over here reserving something extra that you need to beg Him and ask Him to do in your life. He has granted to you everything you need to lead a supernatural, fulfilling existence while here on earth. He has granted to you everything pertaining to life and to godliness. Everything He has given you is all wrapped up in the Holy Spirit of God.

In the weeks ahead, we're going to discover how to access this tremendous power, this person whom God has given to every one of us. How you can experience more by understanding and experiencing the Holy Spirit of God. "For with one Spirit we were..."

Speaker 2

All baptized into one body. And in the coming weeks, we'll discover how to access this tremendous power, this Holy Spirit whom God has given to every one of us.

Well, it saddens me to think, in light of what we've just learned, that so many Christians feel dissatisfied with their spiritual walk. In reality, every Christian possesses the power to experience more joy, more peace, and more daily victories. Right now, many of us just don't know how to use that power.

And so I've written a bestselling book that deals with this very topic. It's titled *I Want More*. In my book, I explain how you can activate and unleash the power of God's Holy Spirit in your life today. If you're struggling repeatedly with the same sins, if you're straining to see God's miracles in your life, if you feel like your prayers are going unanswered, this book will be a game changer for you.

Again, it's titled *I Want More*, and a copy can be yours today when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. Plus, while supplies last, I'm going to include the resource I mentioned at the beginning of today's program called the Jesus Map. It's an accordion-style map that folds out to show you what Israel looked like in the first century, and it helps you visualize 52 major events in the ministry of Jesus and where and when those moments occurred.

David will give our contact information now, and I look forward to hearing from you today.

Speaker 1

David thanks Dr. Jeffress. You can request the book *I Want More* along with a copy of the *Jesus Map* when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Call us at 866-999-2965 or visit our website at ptv.org. When your gift is $75 or more, you'll receive not only the book but also the Unleashed teaching series on both CD and DVD.

One more time, our phone number is 866-999-2965 or find us online at ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Let me give you that mailing address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins. Does the Holy Spirit dwell inside every Christian at the moment of salvation, or does that happen later in the Christian walk? Dr. Jeffress addresses this pressing question Wednesday, right here on Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible.

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