Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: 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 really bring not only warning to you, but I want to speak to you about real power. Not emotional power, but real solid power that God gives to us.

Host (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 1, here's Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: 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 drastic days for families, and people are not aware of the evil that really is going on even within our own backyards or the 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 coming from different churches who 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 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. 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. 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. God surely brought revival among us during those 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.

One of the things that I have in my heart as a desire to give to you tonight is that you, myself, and each one of us here—and those listening to the radio—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 at a very drastic point in history. We have seen American young people who are being seduced, young people who really have not had a rooting and grounding in the Word of God in the last 20 years. They have been enticed into drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, and all kinds of things where their lives are being destroyed.

I am concerned deeply because of where our country is heading. As we look around, 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 stand tonight, whether it is the second or third generation, but the first generation stands like 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 it. Nobody has to educate me on the world because I was in it. 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 possible way. No one is perfect. But those who are first-generation Christians are the ones who 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 are constantly fighting against: the flesh, the world, and Satan. Those three things you're going to have to fight against all of the days of your life.

It seems that first-generation people really have been truly converted, especially those who come out of the world. It seems like they don't want any more part of the world. They're sick of it and 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, marriages, and adultery. 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 hear what you're saying, but they don't fully understand because they haven't been there with the first generation. They've been spoiled. Everything has been given to them. Think about what happened to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt and went through the wilderness. They entered the Promised Land and Joshua got the victories. They were taking the land and became very prosperous.

The third generation sells out to the enemy. They have no power at all. I feel that we are living in these times. In the book of Judges, chapter 2, verse 10, 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 of the Word of God. When a generation sells out to the enemy, it is a generation that is empty, searching, and not finding satisfaction. People's lives are broken and destroyed, even as we have it in the Old Testament with many warnings.

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 and 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 recognize is 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've got to make up your mind who you're going to serve.

When Jesus was teaching in Matthew 13, He came to the parable of the sower. There we see four types of people. The first people are those who have no faith. The second ones are the ones who come to church and 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 because they have nothing to stand on. The third group is where probably today 85% of the church is. 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 He talks about is where the seed went out and it fell on good ground. It took ground and brought forth fruit, some thirty, 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. I believe this in my heart, and this is why tonight I want to speak to you about real power. Not emotional power, but 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. I want to take you to the book of Acts and take you step by step through how the birth of the church came about and how this power can be gained in our own lives tonight. Turn to the book of Acts, beginning with chapter 1. We'll go through the whole book, looking at the chapters and seeing what God has to say to us. When we begin to speak about spiritual things or 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 manifest Himself through our lives. As God wants to move in my life and manifest Himself, 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 for His glory.

Host (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. Even though He was going to depart, 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, 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 hearing dirty jokes, now you feel not comfortable. 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 3, you must be born again, not of the wind but of the Spirit. At that particular time when you say, "Okay, I've had enough. I want to give my life to Jesus Christ," you know that it's right. You might rebel against the messages week after week, but 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 is that the Holy Spirit will never 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 children are Christians. There is 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. How did this conviction come about? Well, first of all, it comes about as people are praying for you. As people begin to pray for you—and you don't even know it—the Lord is going to do a work in your life. I didn't even know people were praying for me before I came to the Lord, but 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 when you come to that place where you're looking up from 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."

As you say those words, the Holy Spirit that was with you, convicting you of sin, is invited 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 2 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 as God begins to give you compassion and love for other people.

You don't want to see them go to hell because God took you out of hell. Those people who are born again of the Holy Spirit begin to hunger after God, get into the Word of God, and learn how to pray. All of a sudden, God begins to use your life in a mighty way. As a child of God begins to grow in the Lord, you know that there are those times where you see people who gave their life to the Lord and started out strong. Some of them lasted a couple of days, some lasted a week, some lasted a month, and some even years. Then all of a sudden, you start kind of getting cold. You begin not to lose your first love, but you begin to leave your first love.

This means that other things begin to take the place of God. Your Bible reading, your fellowship with God in prayer, and 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 his own vomit. 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 accept anybody who wants to come back if they repent. If you repent, God will take you back instantly. He will forgive you, cleanse you, 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, what I need when I begin to get cold is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit. That preposition in the Greek is the *epi* experience, which means the with, within, 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 where everybody has to speak in tongues, 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 God empowering you 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. You receive it by faith. It is not by feeling, but by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. 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." Can God fill a life full of smoke? No, that's not true. You need to be filled so you can stop smoking.

You need to be filled to stop drinking, smoking, and adultery. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. 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 the angel said, "The same way He's going up, the same way He's coming again." Remember that when Jesus left and went up in the clouds, He told His disciples not to depart from Jerusalem.

They were here for 40 days with the disciples, and over 500 saw Him after the resurrection. 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, we need the power.

Host (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 1-800-634-9165. 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 1-800-634-9165 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 1-800-634-9165, 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 a.m. 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.