Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us for today's broadcast of Power Walk as Pastor Paul Cannings brings us this series on what it means to be born again from John Chapter 3. Pastor Cannings continues to teach on the work of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives. Now, this may sound strange to those of you who are not familiar with scripture, but this is why Pastor Cannings brings this series to clearly explain what it is that Christ has done for us on the cross and His promise that the Holy Spirit will lead, guide, and be with us all throughout life. Today, he continues with part two of the message, Work of the Holy Spirit. Let's listen.

Dr. Paul Cannings: When we pray, he says you'll hear the groans of our heart. That's maybe a little bit something we don't necessarily consciously experience, so I should have took that out. He guides us into the truth of God's word, which we already addressed. The Holy Spirit will remove fear out of your life because Romans Chapter 8:15 and 2 Timothy Chapter 1:7. He'll take fear, meaning what does the Bible say? Perfect love cast out fear. In other words, what is perfect love? 1 John Chapter 2:3-6 explains what perfect love is before it goes to chapter 5 to tell us perfect love cast out fear.

When he says perfect love cast out fear, what he's saying is a person who's gotten to the point where no matter what they're going through, they keep verses, they follow the system of the work of the Holy Spirit and rely on the muscles, the spiritual muscles that he's given them. After a while, they just don't fear a bunch of stuff. They could go stand there and the people stone them, and Paul is still going to go back and say, "Let me tell you about what you need to do." They're just not as afraid anymore because they're committed to do what God is saying, and he promised to never leave them nor forsake them. So one of the things the Holy Spirit removes from a person's life is this constant fear that something will go wrong, I better not do this because this could go wrong. He takes that away from the person so they could walk with God consistently.

It's a conscious situation. The Holy Spirit is not this mystical thing you touch in the sky. He's a conscious experience of God every day. That leads us to this paragraph here. As a matter of fact, you could tell when somebody's walking in the Holy Spirit by the fruit that comes out their life. You could see it. They could love anybody. In every situation, they find strength. You could literally see the results of the conscious experience of God's Holy Spirit by the fruit that comes out the person's life.

I remember when Pierre was growing up, he and I used to get into these discussions about his study habits. If you want to get Pierre mad when he comes home from school and his mom is very gracious to have dinner ready, is to tell him he can't study right away. Just tell him, "Pierre, you've got some chores you left not getting done. Get the chores done. This is going to be a long night, and then do your homework." Pierre, when he was a younger child, would literally cry because he wants to get it over with.

So he sat in the bedroom one day and he says, "Dad, why am I doing all this work? What is the point? Why am I doing this? I've got to go to school, I've got to do this homework. What are we doing?" I said, "Son, if you don't do elementary school, you can't make it to middle school. If you don't do middle school, you can't make it to high school. If you don't do high school in a productive and efficient way—some folks will just pass you through—but in a productive and efficient way, if you don't do that, you terminate your life. You can't go to college. You terminate the potential you have in your life."

Because we kept developing that discipline, that's who he is today. The Bible is saying if I keep functioning with this conscious movement of the Holy Spirit constantly moving in my life, I become drunk with him. I no longer live, it is Christ that lives in me. The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. That's how it presses in that direction. 2 Corinthians Chapter 3:18 to bring that home.

This is why the scriptures declare we are a brand new creation. That's why it says that. All things have passed away and we have become new again, as in the days of Adam. As a result, we no longer under our own control. Christ now fully controls our lives through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He literally tells us where we're going, what we're doing, because we can't tell the wind when it's coming and when it's going. We can't stand up and tell Christ nothing. That's why Paul says, "I have died. I no longer live. I'm a dead man walking. My job is to just deny myself, pick up whatever cross and follow him."

I don't know what he's going to tell me to do when he's going to tell me not to do. I don't have any control over this wind. In 2 Corinthians Chapter 3 verse 18: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." We're being transformed from what? Glory to glory. What is he talking about?

From the time of Adam—as a matter of fact, you could name the Bible one word: redemption. We're going from Adam all the way to experiencing Christ. That's what we're doing and he's transforming us from one glory to that glory. In this glory, he would come and visit Adam in the cool of evening, spend time with him, talk to him, interact with him, and this friendship developed. He says, "You will no longer be slaves. You will become my friends. If you do what I tell you to do, you'll be my friends." I have restructured what happened in the garden to today's time.

That is what I am after for the church. As a matter of fact, Colossians Chapter 1 verse 22 through verse 29 is the job of every pastor, and that is to present you complete in Christ. Whatever you face, you've got a verse, you've got an experience of the Holy Spirit that you could rock right through it because he that was in you is greater and you're more than a conqueror. But that is what he's talking about when he says to Nicodemus, "Nicodemus, you can't get to this glory, this eternal life, this experience of God without the Holy Spirit. And Nicodemus, I came to do that. That's why you've got to be born again. I came to do that and I now leave you a helper, the Holy Spirit."

Obviously, Nicodemus, when you're trying to do the law, you never experience what you experience when you have the Holy Spirit. You're trying to experience this, but you keep sinning and sinning and sinning. You've got to take one animal after another animal after another animal and you still can't get it done. So what I'm doing now, Nicodemus, if you accept me as your savior because I already know you can't do this, I give you the Holy Spirit who will become your muscles to take you down this journey. So you go from glory to glory in my image.

That's why the first lesson Christ will make sure is included in all the lessons he would ever teach in the Bible is the story of Nicodemus. Because if that story's not understood, we can't understand none of the teachings throughout the Gospels and the Bible. That's why Living Word is structured the way it is, by taking out all these traditional stuff, only leaving in the traditions Paul says are good traditions: the Lord's Supper, baptism. Good traditions. It's not to go against one denomination against another, but that God is a conscious experience in your life.

Why did I talk about this praying and the groans of our heart? A lot of times when you come to that one, it's hard to explain it because at the end of the day, when you're groaning—groaning in the Bible is representative of pain and not that pain being so compelling that you're just praying your heart out. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane was praying sweats of blood. He was groaning, but obviously he's right next to God so he don't need an intercessor. But when that is happening for us, sometimes we don't know what to pray, when to pray, feel like praying, sometimes get upset about praying.

The Bible is saying because—this is where it's coming from, because of Romans Chapter 8—I am doing what God tells me to do and in doing that, it created groans. Suppose you have a wife that is not submissive, not listening to God, and you're still hearing this word, "Serve her." Suppose you have a wife that ain't going to church, don't care what you've got to say, but you're trying to get the kids to work it out because they're listening to Mom, but you're trying to get the kids to understand this is the way to go and Mom is saying, "You can stay home if you want to." You're trying to do what you're called to do as a husband and as a father, but the circumstances surrounding that are very hard, or vice-versa for a woman doing that with a man.

The Bible is saying after a while, that stuff takes you into emotional pain, and in that emotional pain sometimes you don't know what to pray. You don't want your husband dead, but you're praying. The Bible says because when I'm praying out of that groans that I don't know maybe what to pray, how to pray, what to feel, the Bible says the Spirit of God takes that over and he tells God all about it because Jesus understands what it's like to groan because he became flesh.

So even though that exchange—I may not feel that exchange. The way I feel the exchange is that all of a sudden the peace of God, which surpass understanding, keep my heart and my mind. So I feel the peace from the groans, but I don't hear the intercession. The Spirit of God provides a strength. They say things like, "I'm going to love my wife anyway, I'm going to love my husband anyway, he's my husband, that's my wife, so I'm going to love them anyway, I'm going to love my kids." They're telling me the fruit of the spirit is working. So what they're telling me is even though they didn't know what to pray in their groans, the Spirit of God is working. They're telling me that, but they're not realizing they are.

So that's why I look at them and I say, "You're going to be good." "Pastor Cannings, what do I do about this?" In God in the wilderness, he didn't get people in the wilderness to follow him. I can't guarantee your husband or your wife will follow you, but God is keeping you. So hallelujah. That's why it's sometimes hard to take that one thing, especially when the time is running out, and explain groans. But people tell me the Spirit of God is not some mystical thing. It really bothers me. My Pentecostal friends, pastors do this, it's not like that. It's a conscious experience. He's trying for us to experience the kingdom of God in our midst, not something mysterious out here.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings. It's true, Paul's experience is summarized in his words when he no longer lives but Christ lives in him. This can be our testimony as well when we're fully surrendered to God and trust him for everything happening in our lives. Now, to review this series or any of our other resources, log on to powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org, or call us at 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402. And when you contact us, ask for the series: What Does It Mean to Be Born Again?

If you live in the Houston area, you're invited to join Pastor Cannings at Living Word Fellowship Church where he serves as Senior Pastor. The church is located on TC Jester Boulevard in Houston. Sunday services are at 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. We hope you'll stop by. And now as we leave you, remember, Jesus gave His Holy Spirit to help us reflect Christ in our lives and the fruit of the spirit will be evident to those around us.