Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for today's installment of Power Walk with Pastor Paul Cannings. Today we continue with the series, what does it mean to be born again? Pastor Cannings takes us to John chapter three to the moment when Jesus is having a conversation with Nicodemus and explains a matter that's critical for us to grasp and apply to our lives.

Are you living a victorious life since you accepted Jesus Christ as savior? Or are you operating primarily in the flesh, trying to accomplish and live the good life in your own strength? Pastor Cannings brings us a two-part message on the work of the Holy Spirit, and here he is with the first part of this message.

Dr. Paul Cannings: He is committed to us at the point of salvation forever. He's not going nowhere. So you can't lose the Holy Spirit. Can't lose him. He says he'll be with you right in that verse, forever. Forever is forever. You can't lose him.

Number two, you feel him when there's conviction. When there's conviction. Anytime I sin and I feel convicted, I consciously am experiencing the ministry of the Holy Spirit seeking to lead me to holiness. And he's telling me, turn around. You already committed to turn around because you did repentance. And you said your heart was set on doing what Christ says. When I convict you, it should be easy not to keep going in this direction because you were determined to go that way in the first place. So he's convicting us based on our sin, it's a conscious experience.

Here's the next thing he does for us. He reminds us of the word of God, John 14:26. So when you start remembering scriptures, that is not you having a great memory when it comes to the Bible. That's a conscious experience of the ministry of the Holy Spirit trying to guide you to truth. That is his job. John 16:13 says he guides us into what the word of God means in real-life situations.

Let me give you an example. Learning in seminary, coming home trying to teach the wife to be the man who washes his wife with the word. Then it dawned on me one day, because she's just trying to be nice because this man is learning the Bible. But it dawned on me one day, it never said teach. It said wash. Wait a minute. He never said teach. He said wash. What is wash? The only reason I could get from sitting there, doing devotions, poor woman got to listen to all this Greek and Hebrew that she ain't even interested in and then turn around and try to learn from it because she start asking questions about it. I start trying to say, "Well, I never thought of that," so she started getting more and more into it. Technically, that was not it. It was a washing.

So I only got from there to there because the Bible says in trying to do what God says, he groomed me to see. That's the next thing the spirit of God does. When you start reading the Bible and you go, "Oh, that's what it means," that is not you or I. The Bible says the spirit of God is the one who illuminated it so you consciously experienced this illumination because it is the spirit of God.

This is a conscious thing. It's not a mystical thing. It's not something, "Oh, the spirit is in our presence today. I could sense him. He's here." He was not designed to do that. That was not—when you study the work of the Holy Spirit, it would tell you God was not designing us to do that because he's moving us from the flesh to the spirit. So he wants for us to become conscious of God because his focus is for us to experience the kingdom of God while we are on earth.

So that when we arrive in heaven, it's not something like, "Oh," it's more like, "Thank you, Jesus." For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. I'm going up yonder because I am so much like Christ now, I long for that, because I'm closer to heaven than I am to earth.

Here's the next thing he does. The spirit of God causes us to desire the word of God like a baby desiring pure milk. So in other words, I matter of fact I get in trouble when I do pre-marital counseling. Thank God the staff does most of it now and the marriage ministry. So I sometimes end up with rough situations because I'm saying, "No, we can't marry them. He's not saved. There is no sign that you're saved." And our job is to marry you in Christ. There is no marriage because the Bible is saying if I was to marry you, I have sinned. What fellowship does light have with darkness? He's telling me I am not allowed to marry you if you're not saved. I don't have the authority to do it.

So I can't do it. Obviously, people want to marry and God is saying, "You're trying to chase a body, I'm trying to get you to chase a person." You got to be like Christ, she has to be like the church so you could have a marriage. So if you're not chasing that, you're going to chase a body and after a while, you're not going to be as interested in the body. And then you're going to want to walk away. And guess what the Bible is going to say to you? Can't. Then you're going to be mad at God.

Back to Romans chapter eight. You're going to be angry with God and his word because you're not saved. Were you going to church before you met her? "Off and on." But you come every Sunday now. There was no thirst. Did you bring your Bible? "Oh yeah, I mean the preacher got it, the verses are on the screen." Did you leave with a desire to say, "What does that mean?" No.

See, the appetite for the person changes. They now like vegan food because their appetite changed and the spirit of that house takes over and so they like to eat it. And so the Bible is saying they're not going to be as much for the things the world is teaching them. Their appetite changed, so now they want the things that God is teaching them and they thirst for it like a baby coming out of the womb thirsting for milk.

Because the spirit of God came to guide us in the truth. It's his job. Why is it his job? I am the way, the truth, and the life. I came to give you life and life abundantly. So if I don't get you the truth, the purpose for me dying and raising from the dead you never get it. You got to come to the truth or you're just going to church, going home and you're doing the same thing that Nicodemus did. And I don't want that. I want you to have life. That's what he was longing for. I want you to have that. And that's why the Bible is saying the spirit is a conscious experience of God. It's not as mystical as people are making it.

So look at First Peter. I want you to see. Peter stuck with Christ because he kept asking questions. Why? He had a thirst for the word of God. Why is Nicodemus asking all these questions? He has a thirst. He just can't get the thirst quenched. When you have the woman, the Samaritan woman, what did he say? "If you come to me, you will not thirst." So when you come to me and you receive the Holy Spirit, you will never thirst again.

That's why he says this in First Peter chapter two, therefore putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow up in respect of salvation. By longing for it. In other words, the spirit of God came to remind us of the Bible, illuminate the Bible, guide us into truth so the word of God starts making sense in real-life situations.

So now I learn I don't have to teach my wife the word, I got to wash her with the word. I got to learn what that means. I got to study what that means. I got to learn why he would say wash. But I'm thirsting to learn how. He says that's all the Holy Spirit and he's saying yes, and while you're doing it I'm bringing verses back to your head. I'm trying to remind you when you read the Bible, I'm helping it make sense. What are you doing as a result of that? Gaining the full experience of salvation. You're working it out in fear and trembling.

So therefore, by the spirit of God, you are now being delivered. The word salvation means you're being delivered from yourself because the more the word of God becomes real to you is the less you do the flesh. I'm delivering you from your flesh. So now you're experiencing salvation. Who's doing all that work? The spirit. That's why I get frustrated when people say you got to do this or you got to touch this. What are you talking about? It's like, man, you could feel the wind. You could feel it's coming and going.

My wife and I had some chicken wings and we said this guy jumped into this canoe in Galveston and he pointed like he's trying to go that direction. He's talking to some guys on the shore, on the beach, and he's talking to them and he keeps pointing that way and I said, "Baby, he ain't gonna make it that way. I bet you a wing." So we had this thing going on, a wing. I'm going to bet you a wing. I said he's not going that way. She said, "No, just you can't just say he's not going that way, you have to say." So I said he's going that way.

So she goes, "Alright." She said, "You know what? Since you're so confident, two wings." So I said, "Alright, you got two wings." But he's paddling really hard and he starts drifting. Because I said watch the wind. Watch the currents. Everybody that leaves this beach from close by where we are sitting and they go out in the water and you watch them drifting this way. They don't even know they're drifting.

So she said, "How did you know this?" I said, "I've been watching these folks go out in the water and they're going that way and they don't even know they're going that way because the current is taking them that way. There is no way in a canoe as light as it is, it is not going in that direction. You cheated!" Give me my two wings is all I do.

The Bible is saying that the currents of the spirit, it is something you would experience every day because he's guiding you into truth. You may think that, "Oh man, I finally got it." He says he spent all day making you pick up this verse, experience this situation, putting somebody in your life, a radio program, your devotions. He spent all day long getting you there.

I heard this sermon, I read this devotional book, I was listening to this podcast, I was listening to this situation and somebody at my job said this and it made me think. He was doing all that work to get me there.

The next thing he does is John 14:16 and 27. He comforts us, gives us peace. If I stay in the Bible, the Holy Spirit will be my peace. So in spite of how I feel, if I get into my flesh there's depression. But if I stay in the work of how the spirit of God works, I'll experience his peace, his comfort, his strength.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings. I hope you'll join us for our next broadcast as Pastor Cannings brings us part two of the message, The Work of the Holy Spirit. Now if this series has been a blessing to you and the Lord is bringing a family member, colleague, or friend to mind and you think they would benefit from this teaching series, then reach out to us and secure your copy.

Our web address is powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org. Or call us at 281-260-7402. Again that's 281-260-7402.

Dr. Paul Cannings: You know, I had someone walk up to me and said, "Hey, you so blessed me when I listened to the station and feed off the word that God has placed through you." Oh, that means so much. I had a person say to me, "Hey, you saved my marriage. I was really going to walk out on my wife, you saved my marriage."

Oh man, that moved me to keep pressing on. I pray, folks, that you would support our ministry and become a part of it and share with us in the resources that we have because that goes to the support of this ministry. Pray for us, please, sincerely mean that, pray for us. You share the word with other people and that you'll become a partner, regular partner with us. All you have to do is go to our website, powerwalkministries.org, and press the donate button and it would explain in there how you could become a Power Walk partner. God bless you. It's been a blessing serving you.

Guest (Male): And when you contact us, ask about Pastor Cannings' book, Giving Fear a Knockout Punch. It provides strategies for overcoming fears and walking in faith.

And now as we leave you, as we just heard, the Holy Spirit living in us is a conscious and real experience, not some mystical or unreal one-time event. The Holy Spirit is committed to us from the point of salvation for the rest of our lives. So let him guide you into all truth.