Somebody Loves You

Guest (Male): I believe that tonight the church is made up of a minority, not a majority. I believe this in my heart, and this is why tonight I want to just really bring not only warning to you, but I want to speak to you about real power, not emotional power, real solid power that God gives to us.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Today's message is a continuation of our focus on the Holy Spirit, stressing His empowerment of living the Christian life. As we spend more time in the Word and in prayer, we'll find that we're less likely to develop sinful habits or place lesser things before God. Today's lesson is "Empowering Of The Holy Spirit" in Acts chapter one. Here's Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: Now, the reason we want to begin to teach on doctrine is because we understand that surely we are living in the last days. These are days that are very drastic days for families and people are not aware of the evil that really is going on even within our own particular backyards or our own cities that we live in.

I feel that as we begin to grow as a church, we know that there's a lot of people that are coming from different churches, and a lot of people don't know what Calvary Chapel is all about. Many times when it comes to doctrine, maybe you've been taught one way of worship and doing things which maybe you find different at Calvary Chapel.

This is not to put down anything or anybody, but I just want to make myself clear where we're heading as a church. Of course, as a pastor and as a shepherd of this body, I have to inform you of what we desire for the people of God here at Calvary Chapel Golden Springs and where we are wanting to head in the future to come with the church.

We surely have seen in the past God work for the last 13 years in West Covina as we saw God tremendously move among the people and God surely brought revival among us. Among a time of 13 years, not only did we see a decline in the church of Jesus Christ, but we saw things get more evil. From the time that I was saved 22 years ago, things have become worse.

It's interesting because one of the things that I have in my heart as a desire to give to you tonight is that you, myself, each one of us here and those listening to the radio tonight, have a responsibility to pass on to our children and to their children the heritage of the Lord. Very important.

I believe that our country is in a very drastic point tonight in history, as we have seen American young people that are being not only seduced, but young people that really have not had a rooting and grounding in the Word of God in the last 20 years. Young people that not only have been enticed into drugs and alcohol and sex and pornography and all kinds of things where their lives are being destroyed.

I am concerned deeply because of where our country is heading. So, I feel that as we look around, and this is just the beginning of what God is going to do here, let me read to you something that is interesting as a warning to the church. It has been said that the first generation of believers fight the battles. I am a first generation in my family coming to know the Lord.

I don't know where you sit tonight, second or third generation. But the first generation stands like with Moses when the people of God came out of Egypt. Egypt is the world. I was in the world for 24 years, and I got a real bad taste of the world. Nobody has to educate me on the world. I was in the world.

But I can say to you that the only thing that has kept me has been the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. It doesn't mean that I have been perfect. There is no one perfect. But those that are first-generation Christians are the ones that are constantly fighting the battles.

We don't give up in fighting the battles. It's a battle to be fought. We know that there are three things that we're constantly fighting against, and that is the flesh, the world, and Satan. Satan, the world, and the flesh, those three things you're going to have to fight against all of the days of your life.

It seems that a first-generation people really have been truly converted. Especially those that come out of Egypt, come out of the world. It seems like they don't want no more part of the world. They're sick of it. They've been burned too many times. They've seen what drugs can do to the brain.

They've seen what alcohol can do to the liver. They've seen what other things can do in destroying people's lives and marriages, and adultery, sex before marriage. The first generation seems to fight the battles by the Word of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The second generation claims the spoils and enjoys them. You talk to that second generation and they seem to kind of hear what you're saying, but they don't fully understand because they haven't been there with the first generation. They've kind of been spoiled. Everything has been given to them.

Think about what happened to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt and they went through the wilderness, and then they entered the Promised Land and Joshua got the victories and they were taking the land and became very prosperous. Then the third generation, this is amazing, sells out to the enemy. They have no power, no power at all.

I feel that we are living in these times where we have in the book of Judges chapter two, verse ten, there arose a generation that did not know the Lord. Why? Because the second generation failed to tell their children about God and His laws and His Word. How we need to come back to the basics, the basics of the Word of God.

When a generation sells out to the enemy, it is a generation that is empty. Seeking, searching, not finding satisfaction in their lives. People's lives are broken and destroyed, even as we have it in the Old Testament. We have many, many warnings given to us by the Old Testament.

It is important that to win the battle, we need to be men and women of the Word. We need to be men and women of prayer. We need to be separated from sin. We need to have faith in God. We need to stand up by putting on the whole armor of God and fighting against the wiles of the enemy because he wants to destroy us.

One thing I know and I recognize, that greater is He that is in me than he that is of the world. He has no power over my life. God has created me with a will either to submit to Him or to submit to the world. I have to make a choice. Jesus says you cannot serve two masters. You'll love the one, or you'll love the other. You've got to make up your mind who you're going to serve.

Then when Jesus was teaching in Matthew 13 and He came to the parable of the sower, there we see four types of people. The first people are those that have no faith. The second ones are the ones that come to church, they hear the Word of God, but they're emotional. When a time of emotion comes, they fall away. They can't stand up to the enemy.

They have nothing to stand on. Then the third group, actually, that's where probably today 85% of the church is, and that is the things of the world have stolen the Word of God from their hearts. The world is keeping you from the blessings of God. The fourth group that He talks about is where the seed went out and it fell on good ground and it took ground and it brought forth fruit, some thirty and some sixty and some a hundredfold.

But that was a small minority. I believe that tonight the church is made up of a minority, not a majority. Small. I believe this in my heart, and this is why tonight I want to just really bring not only warning to you, but I want to speak to you about real power, not emotional power, real solid power that God gives to us.

If there was any time in the history of the church where we need power, it is tonight. We need another Pentecost for God to come and baptize us with His Holy Spirit. So what I want to do is I want to take you to the book of Acts and I want to take you step by step how the birth of the church came about and how this power can be gained even in our own lives tonight.

Turn to the book of Acts. Beginning with chapter one, we'll begin and we'll go through the whole book and just looking at the chapters and seeing what God has to say to us tonight. One of the things for those of you that are new to the fellowship, and maybe those that are listening to the radio tonight, when we begin to speak about spiritual things or we begin to speak of the Holy Spirit, the first thing that we need to understand is that the Holy Spirit is a person and that the Holy Spirit doesn't bring any confusion.

God wants to move within our lives and He wants to manifest Himself through our lives. At the same time, as God wants to move in my life and manifest himself in my life, he wants us to understand that we bring all glory and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ because God intends to use you and to use anyone here and to use my life for His glory.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. We're committed to helping you walk closely in step with the Lord. Visit somebodylovesyou.com to browse our full range of resources. You can also download our Somebody Loves You app to conveniently infuse God's Word into your daily life. Now, let's rejoin Raul.

Raul Ries: The first thing that we need to look at is who is the Holy Spirit? Is He some mystic person? No. Jesus Christ told the disciples that He would not leave them alone. That even though He was going to depart, that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, would come to assist them and to comfort them and to be right alongside of them.

The first thing that has to happen is that the Holy Spirit, as He begins to deal with you as a non-believer, He begins to come alongside of you. The first preposition is He's with you. You're not a Christian. When the Holy Spirit is with you, He is bringing conviction to your heart.

Where before you felt not guilty about doing something or saying something or hearing dirty jokes or even saying dirty jokes, now you feel not comfortable saying them. There's something that bugs you inside. It is the voice of God speaking to you. God is beginning to convict you and bringing you to repentance.

No one can come to repentance until you come to that place where the Holy Spirit brings you to submission to Jesus Christ. That can only happen at true salvation when you ask Jesus Christ to come into your life. Like Jesus talking to Nicodemus in John chapter three, you must be born again, not of the wind, but of the Spirit.

At that particular time when you say, "Okay man, I've had enough. I want to give my life to Jesus Christ," as you've heard messages and the messages have been piercing your heart and you know that it's right, but you just go out and you rebel against it. Every week you're rebelling and rebelling, there will be a time that God will bring not only conviction, but you're going to have to make a decision in your life.

One thing I recognize and I know that the Holy Spirit will never, ever force you to receive Him. Ever. Nobody is forced to receive Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter if your parents or your grandparents or your son or your daughters are Christians and you're not a Christian in your home, there's no possible way that you or I can ever convert anybody to Christianity. It is the work of the Holy Spirit as He goes out and begins to convict people.

Now, how did this conviction come about? Well, first of all, it comes about as people are praying for you. That's how it comes about. As people begin to pray for you and you don't even know it. I didn't even know it. I didn't even know people were praying for me before I came to the Lord. Now I know because I'm a Christian.

As people begin to pray for you, you might as well forget it, seriously. Because the Lord is going to do a work in your life. You can run anywhere you want to go, but because God loves you so much, He will pursue after you and He will do everything under His power to get you.

Even though when you come to that place where you're looking up and you're in the bottom of the barrel and you find yourself like the prodigal son among the pigs, God cannot rescue you unless you call upon the name of the Lord. God gives you a will. He cannot pull you out unless you're willing to submit and to say, "Jesus, I want to repent of my sins. I want to accept You into my heart, into my life, and I want You to become Lord of my life."

At that particular moment, as you say those words, the Holy Spirit that was with you convicting you of sin, you have just now invited Him into your life and now you've become a Christian. Right there you become a Christian by faith. Now the Holy Spirit is within. He's in operation in my life.

That's why Paul the apostle in Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if any man is in Jesus Christ, he or she are brand new people. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are brand new." You begin to see through the eyes new things. You begin to see things that you never saw before.

God begins to give you compassion and a burden and love for other people because you don't want to see them go to hell because God took you out of hell. Those people that are born again of the Holy Spirit, as they begin to hunger after God and they get into the Word of God and begin to read and begin to learn how to pray, all of a sudden then God begins to use your life in a mighty way.

Then as a child of God begins to grow in the Lord, you know that there are those times where you see people that came forth, they gave their life to the Lord, they prayed the prayer, they went back, they got a Bible and got the literature for being born again of the Holy Spirit.

Some of them lasted a couple of days, some lasted a week, some lasted a month, some even a couple of months, and some even years. Then all of a sudden you find in between those times that when the person comes to the Lord, you start kind of getting cold. You begin not to lose your first love, but you begin to leave your first love.

Which means that other things begin to take the place of God which is most important. Your Bible reading, your fellowship with God in prayer, your fellowship with other believers. If you're not in prayer and you're not in the Word and you're not in fellowship, you're going to be sucked by the world.

You're going to find yourself back in the world doing those things that you once hated, but now you're going to be doing them worse. Like the dog going back to its own vomit and it's going to be harder for you to get back to the Lord because you've tasted of the knowledge of the truth. That's why you have to be careful.

It doesn't mean that people can't come back. The Lord will return. The Lord will accept anybody that wants to come back if they repent. If you repent, God will take you back instantly. He will forgive you, he will cleanse you and wash you and get on with business.

But the problem with backsliders is they're trying to serve God and mammon. They're divided between two opinions. They want God, but they also want the world. You can't have the two. You have to make up your mind who you're going to serve.

When the Holy Spirit comes upon my life, then what I need when I begin to get cold and I'm reading the Bible, I don't feel like reading, I don't feel like praying, and I start feeling like I want to go back into the world, what the church needs today is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that preposition in the Greek is the "epi" experience, which means is the "with," "in," and now the "upon" experience. This is the experience that has been totally abused by the church. For many people will tell you that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the experience when you receive it of speaking in other tongues.

That puts a category that everybody then has to speak in tongues, and yet that's not what Paul taught and that's not what Jesus taught. There's a balance. When the Holy Spirit comes upon your life, it is not so that I can speak in another language, it is not so that I can be more spiritual. It is God empowering me for service.

He empowers me for service and to witness. He empowers me to endure the warfare that I am against Satan, the world, and the flesh. This is the "epi" experience. There are different ways that people receive. Receive it by faith. It is not by feeling. It is by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

It is a time where people will say to you, "Well, you really cannot receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit because you have a problem and you're a Christian and you're smoking." How many times you've heard that? God can fill a life full of smoke. No, that's not true. The Bible doesn't say that.

You need to be filled so you can stop smoking. You need to be filled to stop smoking. You need to stop drinking, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You need to stop adultery, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You see what I'm trying to tell you? That's what the Bible says. Power, "dunamis" power that will give you the power not only for service, but to become an overcomer in sin.

When Jesus Christ left from the Mount of Olives, they thought He was never coming back again. But He said, "Hey you guys," the angel said, "the same way He's going up, the same way He's coming again. The same way He's coming again." Remember that when Jesus left the Mount of Olives and He went up to the sky and He went up in the clouds, He told His disciples not to depart from Jerusalem.

Why? Because the post-resurrection time when Jesus Christ resurrected, He was here for 40 days with the disciples and over 500 saw Him after the resurrection, including the disciples of Jesus Christ. He told them, "Don't go anywhere until the Holy Spirit comes upon you." They already had been born again of the Holy Spirit, and then Jesus says, "Wait for the power of the Holy Spirit. You're going to need it." In the life that we're living today and the world that we're living in today, tonight we need the power.

Guest (Male): Well, we hope today's message has been an inspiration for you to seek more in your relationship with God, pursuing the wisdom of His Word and seeking the strength of His Spirit in your life. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Today's lesson was "Empowering Of The Holy Spirit."

If you'd like to get an unedited version, we'll be glad to send one to you for a donation of five dollars or more. Just call us at 800-634-9165. We'd also like to offer you Raul's series "Filled, Empowered, and Equipped," featuring today's lesson as well as six others. This seven-part study is available on CD and USB.

You'll discover more of what it looks like to submit to God and walk in the might of His Spirit as you accomplish eternal work in His name. This resource also explores how to maximize spiritual gifts to glorify the Lord. Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to order all seven lesson series titled "Filled, Empowered, and Equipped."

We'll send you the CD set for twenty dollars or the flash drive for just eleven. That's 800-634-9165. Or write to Somebody Loves You Radio, PO Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California, 91765. Join Raul for Straight Talk on the Somebody Loves You worldwide YouTube channel every Tuesday at 10:00 AM West Coast time.

This channel also features podcasts of all previously aired programs, or if you'd like, you can browse our full library on iTunes and Spotify. This ministry is fully listener-supported, and every donation is a great blessing. Thanks so much for your partnership. Next time on Somebody Loves You Radio, we'll take a few moments to quiet our hearts and minds before the Lord once again, allowing Him to speak to us through the pages of His Word. We hope you'll join us. This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.