Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe shares part two of her message called The Fire that Ignites Our Faith, about how the Holy Spirit can empower your faith when it feels like you're running on empty. But first, so many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God. Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series titled Finding God.

In this inspiring series, you'll discover how you can stop spending so much energy on finding God and let him find you. By slowing down and putting yourself deliberately in his presence, you'll recognize that he's already there waiting for you. You'll be uplifted as Jill explains how God worked in the lives of men and women in the Old Testament and how he works in your life, too, even when you don't see him and feel his presence.

The Finding God series is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill with today's message on Telling the Truth.

Jill Briscoe: The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. He cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment. Who's known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

If he who rummages among the things of the Spirit, the things of God, and the things of Christ dwells in us, and he has come within us to be his teacher, then that should drive us into the Bible in a way that we have never been driven before. He is indeed God omniscient, knowing all things. And I, within me, have him, the Spirit of Truth, the one who knows the thoughts of God, the one who knows the mind of Christ, and wants to share this knowledge with us.

This has been a great help to me just this last week. The older you get, the harder it is to remember things. One of the promises of the Holy Spirit is that he will bring all things to our remembrance. And then there's a little P.S.: whatsoever he said to you. He will not bring things to your remembrance that you have not bothered remembering. He will not bring things up into your mind that have never been put there. He might occasionally do that once in a lifetime if it's necessary to do the work he needs to do. But he expects us to put the truth in, and then he will bring it to our remembrance.

But I will be in the middle of something, and it'll just go. It happened to me this week in front of this church full of Presbyterians down in Florida. And they all sat there, and I stood there and I thought, "What?" And I knew it was in a pocket. And I began looking for it. It had obviously fallen out somewhere, and it was very disturbing. And I thought, "Well, all the pockets are full. That's terrible. It's lost in one of those pockets, or it's fallen out."

But I just stood there and I prayed, "Lord, it's gone. Where was I?" In fact, I even said to the women, "I have no idea why I started this illustration. It's just gone." And then they began to help me. "Well, you were talking about so-and-so," says one of them. And another one says, "And so-and-so." And they were willing me to remember. We were all looking in the pockets. It's terrible when the pockets are full. I'm really disturbed about this.

But it was absolutely amazing. It was just as if the Holy Spirit, God himself, found it, rummaged among the pockets—isn't that wonderful?—and he came up with it, and he popped it back in. And there it was. And I said, "Oh, I remember!" Now, I really do believe in a very real way he brings things to your remembrance. I had done my homework. I was prepared. I had remembered what I needed to tell these ladies, but I had forgotten. How neat that the Holy Spirit is my teacher, and he is the Spirit of Truth, and he will bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever he has said unto you.

And then he is presence. He is advocate, he is teacher, and he is presence. Christ was limited on Earth. His body was in one place; he couldn't be in another. He limited himself. "A body has thou prepared for me," the Psalmist said, speaking prophetically of Jesus Christ. God prepared a Galilean body. Jesus, second person of the Trinity, dressed himself in it for 33 years. And when Mary and Martha and Lazarus were in need of him, he stayed where he was. He could not be with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and where he was at the same time. And because he stayed where he was, anchored in that body by choice, Lazarus died and the sisters were distressed because his presence wasn't there.

Now then, Jesus said, "It's going to be an awful lot better if I go away, because then I will come to you, all of you, wherever you are. Now at the moment you're all sitting here looking at me, you 12 men, but this will not always be. This is only for now. Thomas, you're going to go heading out for India. You two disciples are going to head out for Asia, and these two are going to go towards Europe. And you are going to go to the far corners of the world, some of you. And you will not be together. And I will not have to choose to be with Thomas in India and not with you in Africa, or take a journey and perhaps catch up with someone in Europe."

"It is necessary that I go, so that my presence may abide in you, every single one of you, wherever you are." And of course, this is the presence truth about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of Presence. "I am with you, but I will be in you, every single one of you, wherever you are." He is presence. And as presence, he is comforter and strength. I think of the little girl that was drowning, a Christian girl, literally drowning off that boat that went down off the Philippines. My husband met her. I didn't go to that particular meeting, but he met her.

And as she was in the water swimming around, she realized she couldn't hang on. She'd been 36 hours in the water. A little teammate—they were Christians—a little teammate working in the mission in Manila drowned. Literally, she saw her go under for the last time. And now she was trying to hang onto another girl, and she couldn't hang onto her anymore. She let this girl go, and this girl disappeared after hours and hours and hours of hanging onto her. And she decided that she would not go to heaven on her own. So she started swimming around saying to people, "Why don't you turn to Jesus?"

And she led two girls to the Lord right there in the water. One drowned and she saved the other one—or they were saved—and she was saved. And she lived to tell the story. And she said to my husband, "It was amazing. As soon as I began to do God's work, I had the strength. I had the strength to do it." He was present help in her time of trouble. Meanwhile, at the same time back here in Milwaukee, a dear friend was suffering and dying of cancer. And she was able to say, "The Holy Spirit is my strength and comforter."

And she was able to do the Holy Spirit's work and to turn the spotlight on Christ, who was her savior, there in her hospital bed. He was as much present in her body as he was in a little girl swimming in the water in the Philippines. He is presence. That's what he is. So, who will he be? Advocate, teacher, comforter, presence. What will he do? He will comfort and strengthen first, but he will challenge and stretch us second. In 16 of John's Gospel, we read that when the Holy Spirit is come, he will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

So what is he going to do? All of that. So what are you and I going to do cooperating with him? We are going to allow him to use us as an instrument to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He does not work in a vacuum. He works with your lips. He works in your life. He works in your hands. He works in your heart. He doesn't work in a vacuum. He has chosen to indwell us. And we are simply the vehicle of his divine action here on Earth. And what is he doing? Convicting the world of sin. And that really means of their unbelief.

Have you ever realized somebody's not going to come to the Lord unless they're convicted? Unless they're convinced that Christ is their savior? Unless they're converted? And have you ever realized that you can't do that? Have you ever been helpless in the face of realizing that there is somebody sitting opposite you and unless the Holy Spirit does something, you might as well go home, go to bed? I have prayed and prayed as I am counseling people—constantly I counsel, every time I speak, I end up counseling five or six, ten people. And those sort of people you can very seldom help. They've been through every psychiatrist in town and all the rest of it.

And I usually say, "Look, this is too complicated. You need to see so-and-so." But I do come to one or two here and there, praise the Lord, where it's simply a question of leading them to Christ. And I am so helpless, just as helpless before that as I am helpless before these complicated people, complicated cases that need specialist help. And I often sit and look at them and as I'm explaining the Gospel to them, I am praying internally all the time, "Lord, Spirit, do your work. Convict them of their sin." They do not believe they are a sinner. I've told them, but they've got to believe it.

I remember my daughter standing in front of the mirror one day. She said, "I'm not going to school, mommy." And I said, "Why not?" She said, "I'm so ugly." She was 13. Beautiful, but that's what she felt about herself. And I did everything in my power to convince her, to convict her, to convert her round from that point of view. And nothing I said worked until she believed that for herself. She didn't go to school. And she didn't believe it when she did; she stayed off school two days. I couldn't get her to go because she honestly believed she was so ugly. She didn't want to show her ugly little face, as she put it, in the school.

And some people look in the mirror and they believe one thing, and you are powerless to change their mind until they believe it for themselves. And you can't make them believe. But the Spirit can. And if you start and pray for the power of the Spirit to convict, to convince, and to convert, which is his work, and then remember he's in you to do that work, then the very things you're saying, just lean yourself on the Spirit, as it were. I sort of have this little mental picture in my mind: just lean on the Spirit. "Spirit, do this. I can't do it. I'm not getting through. There's nothing I can think of, there's nothing I can say. Do it, Lord."

And over and over again, it is incredible how a light will come into their eyes. They'll begin to say things like, "You know, I really feel guilty about such and such a thing." And I'll say, "Lord, you're doing it," because it's his work. It's his work, and we depend upon him for that. To convince the world that Christ is the answer. We're powerless. God has given an authoritative exam to the world, and we have failed it. There's a great big F over every one of our lives. Unquestioning proof goes on as we live our daily lives. Decisive judgment has been made. Sin, sinners, judgment, hell. Punitive power is in his hand. Judgment to come. The Holy Spirit will deliver those goods.

I have been among some of the most wealthy, classy women that America has in this last two weeks. I was staying in a home, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven last night. In fact, now I've grown enough in God to know I'm not even going to get a nice one like that. My mansion's probably going to be a hut. I used to think it'd be a mansion, so maybe I've grown a little bit. However, I sat down last night, or on the plane actually, just going over these notes. And I began to think of all the things I've said to these ladies. And I began to go cold all over.

And I thought, "I have called these ladies in the last two weeks decorated dust, dry bones, crippled beggars, living in a pigsty, poor men in rich men's clothing." And they listened, and they smiled at me. And at one meeting, 22 ladies came to the Lord. Now I want to assure you those sort of ladies do not take kindly to be called decorated dust, dry bones, crippled beggars, and living in a pigsty and poor men in rich men's clothing. This has to be the work of the Holy Spirit. It's ridiculous. And in fact, that's what the Bible says: the foolishness of preaching. I mean, I really was sitting on the plane going, "Oh, did I say that?" And the Holy Spirit said, "Yes, but I made it work. I convinced them you were right."

That's his work. That's his work. Incredible. Wonderful. He's the one that will convict, convince, and convert the world. And when will he do it? Well, Jesus said, "I've got to go away. I've got to die so I can be resurrected, so I can go to heaven so I can send the Holy Spirit at Pentecost." We know when the Holy Spirit came. And here's our emblem for the week: fire. You know the passage in Acts chapter two, how the little tongue of fire hovered over each head, right? Little tongue of fire. Actually, it wasn't fire.

The Bible carefully says something like fire. Struggling to describe what happened. A symbol or a picture which helps us, conveying more than a thousand words could convey, was given to us. Fire glows. Fire shows. It shows the presence of the triune God. Think of the burning bush. Think of the pillar of fire leading the people through after Egypt. Think of the fire that absorbed the sacrifice on the top of Mount Carmel. That was real fire, but it wasn't real fire. It was fire that could lick up stones. It was fire. It was the Holy Spirit's fire. For he is called the Spirit of Burning in Isaiah 4:4. Something more than physical fire. Something more. Supernatural, spiritual power.

Fire glows. Fire powers. When I lived in England, I used to talk to my children about the puff-puffs when they were little. A puff-puff was a train, which really dates me. It was a fire-powered train. It was a steam engine. Maybe none of you can remember them; I can. And they went "puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff," so we called them puff-puffs. And my kids would look in the book and say, "There's a puff-puff." And whenever they did that in the picture book, there would be this little man stoking the fire and stirring the fire up. And the fire would combust, or whatever they do in these combustion engines, and steam would result and empower the train.

And whenever I know I need power to do something that is beyond me to do, to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to preach the good news, to cooperate with him in convincing the world of their sin and their guilt and their unbelief because they don't believe in Jesus, and in judgment to come, and that Christ is the answer, then I think inside me the Holy Spirit is like that little engine driver, and he's stoking the fire and he's stirring it up. And then I go "puff, puff, puff, puff, puff," and the power is there. The power is there. Next time you don't have any power, think of the Holy Spirit as that engine driver. And think of yourself as a combustion engine for God. Fire is power. Fire burns, producing power to go.

And of course, fire is purity. Over and over again, the Scriptures use the picture of metals in the fire, purifying the gold. James uses it. Other people use it. Your faith, which is much more precious than of gold that perishes, using the idea of faith going through the fire, people going through the fire of circumstance, the fire of life, and you come out as gold. Fire purifies. And we'll be talking a lot more before we're through in this series about the work of the Holy Spirit as he purifies and makes holy our life. For he is God, and he is holy. He is the Holy, Holy, Holy Spirit.

Guest (Male): Now let's chat with Jill about some important points you can take away from today's message. Jill, you mentioned today that committing ourselves to study is a key to changing willful ignorance and blindness. What does that commitment look like in your life?

Jill Briscoe: Well, willful ignorance and blindness is if I don't read, study, mark, learn, inwardly digest the Scriptures. That's my choice. That's willful ignorance. I am willfully not learning and accepting that I'm ignorant in certain places. And that's where it begins—a choice—whether I will commit myself to the discipline of reading when I willfully would rather be doing something else. I have to say in other words, "I will read the Bible today." Let me put it at its basic.

And that commitment looks like in my own life a struggle, like it is in everybody's life, because the devil trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees. Learned that when I first came to Christ, and I haven't changed my opinion. The damage that's done to his kingdom, to the evil one's kingdom, when we learn how to pray in and act on the things we've learned is huge, and so he will try everything he can so that we don't do that.

And so it's a choice. It's a daily choice, actually. I had to make it again today, and I chose to do it later. Now I have to choose to do it later when I get to later. My husband's little phrase helps me: never put your head on the pillow at night unless your nose has been in the book during the day. And if you decide willfully you will do that, then as long as you do it whenever before you put your head on the pillow, that's fine. It's not the time that matters; it's the action that matters. And so just make the choice, just where you are now. Say, "I will not be willfully ignorant of what you want to say to me anymore."

Guest (Male): Jill, how have you seen the Holy Spirit work in your life as a strengthener and empowerer?

Jill Briscoe: Well, how long have you got? I've got 40 seconds to tell you that. I have seen the Holy Spirit work in my life as much as I have invited him to and yielded to his promptings, his teaching, and his instructions. Again, I come down to the will. I will listen to that internal voice in my interior life, and I will obey. Yes, I will. I will. I will. So it's a choice. Have you made that choice to let the Holy Spirit have his way in your life? You can make it right now.

Guest (Male): Thanks for being with us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message encouraged you and helped you experience life in Christ. We'd like to share a note from Peter, a listener in London who says, "I have been so blessed listening daily to the fresh, undiluted words of God from the Briscoes. Thank you, and may God continue to strengthen you." Thank you so much, Peter.

So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God. Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series titled Finding God. In this inspiring series, you'll discover how you can stop spending so much energy on finding God and let him find you.

The Finding God series is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Join us tomorrow on Telling the Truth. We'll hear from Jill Briscoe about how the Holy Spirit can fill your life with such joy that it attracts people to the Gospel. Tune in and experience life Wednesday on Telling the Truth.