Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: We need to come to a place in our lives where, like Elisha, we ask for a double portion of the spirit. We fully surrender our lives and ask God to do something by the work of his Holy Spirit.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us another message from a series entitled "Heroes." Let's listen in as JP gives us part two of Elisha.

JP Jones: Do you want more of God in your life? Do you just want same-old, same-old Christianity? I don't want to fly above the radar. I don't want to go down into the pit. I just want to stay here in mediocrity. If you're here and you really don't know Jesus and the transforming mercy of his grace and love in your life, do you just want to continue in a life separated from God? Or do you want more?

Elisha wanted more. He prayed for a double portion of the spirit. I'm convinced that the reason he did those miracles, the reason he counseled kings, the reason he spoke the word of God, the reason he was used by God in his generation was because he asked for a double portion of God's spirit. It's exactly what the New Testament teaches us, what Jesus and the apostles teach us is God's design and desire to grant for every one of us.

In fact, Jesus said this in Luke chapter 11: "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; to him who seeks finds; to him who knocks the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Notice the logic of Jesus. Jesus is using this how-much-more argument. We've talked about this passage before because it's so powerful in the promise that it makes to us. This is Jesus saying to us: Hey, we dads, even in our sinfulness and weakness and fallenness, we get the idea of wanting to bless our kids. Every dad here in some way wants to bless his kids.

Jesus said our heavenly Father, who's perfect in his love and goodness, how much more does he want to bless us? So if we ask him, he will give us the Holy Spirit. Jesus is telling us we need to ask God for the best gift, and by implication, the best gift is the gift of his spirit. Are you asking God for the fullness of the Holy Spirit in your life? Are you asking God for all that the Holy Spirit wants to do in you and through you? Are you asking God, because of his goodness, to give you the best gift?

Remember several years ago that Christmas movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the "Governator," Jingle All the Way? This is back when he was acting, not doing the political thing. It's the story about a dad who all of a sudden realizes Christmas is here and he hadn't gotten his son anything. The one thing that his son wants is a Turbo-Man. It's the latest toy. So he starts going to the stores and Turbo-Man is sold out. He finally finds one place that has a Turbo-Man and he gets into a whole battle to the death almost about getting this Turbo-Man. The whole reason he wanted to do it is he wanted to give something good to his son.

Jesus said if you can grasp that concept, then how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit just to those who ask him. Like Elisha, who asked for a double portion of God's spirit. In John chapter 7, Jesus says this: "On the last day, the greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone is thirsty...'"

Remember, this is the Middle East. It's hot. It's dry. Of course they understood what it meant to be thirsty. "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the spirit whom those who had believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time, the spirit had not yet been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Jesus is offering living water to really satisfy the soul thirst that people have. John, commenting on this, says that's the Holy Spirit. That's what this promise is all about. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out in fulfillment of Hebrew scriptures and the promise of Jesus. Now anyone who comes to God through Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit come into them and live within them.

Jesus says when that happens, out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. He gives this great invitation, but he gives it to people who are thirsty. If you're not thirsty, you're probably not experiencing rivers of living water. Now think for a moment. This is easy for me because at about this time in the sermon, I actually get thirsty. Thirst is something you really feel. You can be dehydrated but not feel thirsty. You could actually be hydrated but feel thirsty. Your mouth gets dry. There's something that you want to satisfy this physical feeling.

Jesus said there's a spiritual parallel where you recognize there's something missing in your life. You recognize there's something more that you want. You recognize there's something that you desire. Jesus said if you're thirsty and you come to me and you believe in me, then I will satisfy that thirst and I will from within produce rivers of living water. He spoke about this with reference to the Holy Spirit's work.

But you've got to be thirsty. About 36 years ago to this day, I was thinking about this because as I was driving the other day, I saw all these guys as I was driving in Santa Margarita and I drove by the school. They were out there playing football, doing double days. About 36 years ago, I'm doing double days playing football and it was hot like it is now. Back in those days, they didn't give water breaks. They thought, if you were really tough, you could go through a three or four-hour practice with no water. Remember that? You didn't get water until the end of practice.

So we'd been practicing for about two hours and I'm dying. I'm standing in this mass of other guys playing football and the coach is talking to us. He's giving us some kind of pep talk, but all I'm thinking about is when is this practice going to be over so I can get some water. I looked down and we're out on the field and there was a sprinkler. Remember playgrounds, practice fields? Around the sprinkler was this brown water with grass floating in it.

Now, I'm desperate. I'm thirsty. I start ducking down in the mass of these bodies and the coach doesn't see me. I get down on my hands and knees, put my head in the puddle of brown water, and drink that water. I think about that now and I go, oh my goodness, the bacteria that must still be floating around in my body 36 years later. But at the time, it tasted good. You know why? I was thirsty.

Jesus said if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. This he spoke about the spirit whom he had not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Elisha, he was thirsty. When he was asked, "What do you want?" "I want a double portion of the spirit."

What do you want? Do you want just same-old, same-old? Don't need any more, don't want any more. I'm good. I'm cool. I want to keep on living the same life I've always been living. Or do you want a double portion? More love, more grace, more power, more truth, more fruitfulness, more intimacy with God?

The Holy Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The Holy Spirit gives us power to be witnesses for Christ. The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual victory to resist sin and to choose righteousness. Do you want a double portion of the spirit? Because Jesus said if you do and you ask, I'll give it to you.

In the book of Acts, the early church experienced the reality of this. In Acts chapter 4, it says this: "When they heard this"—and what they heard was they were being pressured and threatened with persecution if they continued to talk about Jesus—"When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. 'Sovereign Lord,' they said, 'you made the heaven and the earth, the sea, everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth they take their stand, the rulers gather together against the Lord, against his anointed one. Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did whatever your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.'"

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly. They get threatened that if they keep talking about Jesus, persecution was coming. They gather together, they pray, they pour out their hearts to God, they appeal to scripture, they ask God to give them power to be bold, they ask God to do miracles. It says when they prayed, the place they were gathered together, it was all shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Guess what? When the church prays, God answers. When the church asks for the power of the Holy Spirit, God answers. Is it any surprise that the most powerful and dynamic weekend around our church is the men's retreat? When we come back and celebrate that here on Sunday, for the last three or four years, that's been the testimony here at Crossline because we pray about that more than anything else.

We pray, we gather together and pray every week all year. We intensify our prayers. We mobilize people praying. We go up there the weekend in advance and we walk all around the retreat. We go into every room and we go into every meeting hall and we go out on the football field and we go where we're going to eat food. We pray and ask God to do miracles in men's lives and families and marriages and our church. We pray for the Sunday when we come back that God would just make that a powerful worship service.

While we're there before every session, we gather all the men to pray for miracles and salvation and healing and brokenness and restoration. We pray for God to do what only God can do. Is it surprising that he actually answers those prayers?

When we ask God for the work of his spirit in our church, for the work of his spirit in our family, for the work of his spirit in our lives, he answers it. So the apostle Paul prays for the church at Ephesus and these prayers actually get written down. They're such good prayers. They're inspired by the Holy Spirit. They're written down for the rest of us to pray.

In Ephesians chapter 1, he says, "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he's called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come."

Are you asking for a double portion of the spirit? Paul prayed that the folks at Ephesus would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know God better, and that they'd know the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and they'd know the power of the resurrection of Jesus. That was such a good prayer, it got written down in the Bible so we could pray it today.

He prays again in Ephesians chapter 3, "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge"—that's a great prayer, know something you can't know—"so that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God."

Again, Paul prayed that for the Ephesians. God said, that's the kind of prayer I want my people praying. I want churches praying this prayer. I want marriages praying this prayer. I want men praying this prayer. I want women praying this prayer. So he put it in. Do you want a double portion of the spirit? Elisha said, "I want a double portion." Because he prayed that, God answered that prayer. God used him to counsel world leaders. God used him to do miracles. God used him to help ordinary people and God used him to advance his kingdom in his generation.

Do you want a double portion of the spirit? When I was in college, I was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ and the Campus Crusade staff member who disciplined me and mentored me. I guess he saw some potential and so he gave me the opportunity one time to teach all of the students who gathered together. He gave me an outline of a message and it was a message on the Holy Spirit. He said, "I want you to study this outline and I want you to give this message."

So I did, and I stood up there in fear and trembling and gave this message on the Holy Spirit. I remember one of the things on the outline said that the filling of the Holy Spirit was critical and progressive. So I said that, and then I realized I really don't know what that means. I don't do that now, by the way. I never say things that I'm not really sure what they mean.

So I'm explaining what I thought it meant, but I didn't get it right. Afterwards, he's debriefing me and saying, "Good job. You were up there," and so on. He said, "Now, when you said the filling of the Holy Spirit was critical and progressive, you didn't really know what that meant." "No, I didn't." He goes, "Well, what that means is this: it's critical not because it's important—that's what I said—it's critical in the sense that it's a crisis event. There is a moment in time when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, when you surrender your life to God, when God does something uniquely at that moment. But it's progressive because that's just the beginning of many more moments. You are transformed and changed by the work of the Holy Spirit."

What he explained to me many years ago, I really believe. So let me tell you, the filling of the Holy Spirit is critical and progressive. We need to come to a place in our lives where, like Elisha, we ask for a double portion of the spirit. We fully surrender our lives and ask God to do something by the work of his Holy Spirit. That's critical.

But you know what? We keep on asking and we keep on surrendering and we keep on experiencing. What I would love to happen for you, for me, for our church, is that you would pray those prayers in Ephesians, in Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 3, and pray it with a surrendered heart to really ask for a double portion of God's spirit today. But do it again tomorrow, and again on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday, and again on Thursday, and continue to experience what only the Holy Spirit can do.

Do you just want same-old Christianity? Or do you want a double portion of God's spirit? If you're here and just between you and the Lord, you know you've never crossed that line and given your life to Christ, you've never really trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, do you want to continue a life separated from God? Or do you want to know with certainty God's in your life, that he has a plan for your life, that you're going to heaven, and that life right now can be filled with his abundance, the overflow of his spirit, living water from within?

Just ask him. Just ask him. Wherever you are in your spiritual journey, ask God for more.

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives: 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of twenty-five dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath.

Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a series talking about Heroes. We're looking at men and women from the Old Testament who were used by God to make a difference in their generation. The thing that we've discovered is that they were not used by God because they had some special anointing or they had something in themselves that commended themselves for God's work.

They were just normal people. But they were normal people who cried out to the Lord, normal people who surrendered their lives to God, normal people who were available for God to do whatever God wanted to do in their lives. And that gives me hope, and that should give you hope as well. Because God can use us, God can transform us, God can make us the kind of people that can impact our world for Jesus Christ.

We live in a world that is in desperate need for the gospel. We live in a world that is in desperate need for love. We live in a world that is in desperate need for God. And we are the ambassadors of Christ who get to take that message and live that life before people. In fact, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to let our light shine before men that others see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

Today we've been looking at this character from the Hebrew scriptures, Elisha. He was the servant of Elijah. And Elisha cried out when Elijah was taken up into heaven in a fiery chariot that he could have a double portion of Elijah's spirit. And God was pleased to grant that request to him. In fact, when we look at the scriptures, Elisha performed twice as many miracles as Elijah. Elisha had the spirit of God within him, the same spirit that empowered and worked in the life of Elijah.

And you know, as believers in Jesus Christ, we have the spirit of God. It says in Ephesians chapter 1 that the moment we believed in the gospel, in the word of truth, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our eternal inheritance. We're told in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and 1 Corinthians chapter 6 that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We're told by Jesus in John chapter 3 that we are born again by the Holy Spirit. Every believer in Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit.

But does the Holy Spirit have you? Are you filled with the spirit? Are you led by the spirit? Are you empowered by the spirit? Jesus promised this in Acts 1: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth." We're commanded in Ephesians 5: "And do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit."

I've discovered over the years that there are many Christians who confuse the indwelling of the spirit with the filling of the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is when the Holy Spirit controls our life, empowers our life, guides our life, leads our life, produces spiritual fruit through our life, empowers us to serve through our spiritual gifts, makes us bold in being witnesses for Christ. It is the filling of the spirit that is his direction and power in our lives.

The indwelling of the spirit, on the other hand, is the fact that he lives within us, that he's made us new creations, that he permanently is inside of us, guaranteeing our salvation. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit, but not every Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Holy Spirit, we have to ask. We have to be like Elisha and ask God to fill us.

Jesus said in Luke 11:13: "If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask." Would you be willing to ask God to take control of your life? Would you be willing to ask God for the power of his Holy Spirit in your life? Would you be willing to ask God for more by surrendering more?

That's what it means. To surrender all of our lives to God so that he might fill us with his spirit and use us as his witnesses and ambassadors and servants. If that's your desire, would you tell God that and ask for that in prayer? God, I need you. I'm desperate for you. I want all of your life in me. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Empower me with the Holy Spirit. Take control of my life through your Holy Spirit. Produce your spiritual fruit through me by the power of the Holy Spirit. Use me to be a bold witness for Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, I ask you to take full control of my life. I surrender my whole life to you and I pray that I might be a spirit-filled Christian. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives: 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.