Turning Point

Guest (Male): Asking the Holy Spirit to strengthen you isn't something you do weekly or monthly, but one day at a time. Are you receiving that strength each day? Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah continues his look at securing inner peace in a world of outer conflict. Peace that's given as it's needed each day through the Holy Spirit. To introduce the conclusion of his message, The Strength of the Spirit, here's David.

Dr. David Jeremiah: I am sure you've heard people talk about how hard it is to live the Christian life. You know, I often say that the Christian life is not hard; it is not difficult. It's impossible! It's impossible in your own strength. If you try to be a Christian without Christ, if you try to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit, it's an impossible task.

And because the Christian life is supernatural, you need the supernatural to make it work. And that's where the Holy Spirit comes in. He is the strength of the Christian life. He is the inner working of your daily walk with the Lord. And the Holy Spirit is there to strengthen you so that when you are weak, even then you are strong.

I've learned that lesson not only from the Bible but from personal experience. The Spirit of God is the strength of God. And that's the subject that is before us in today's program. Also, I want to remind you that the ministry of the Holy Spirit and what it means is in this book that we have written called *The Holy Spirit You May Not Know*. A 250-page book that completes the trilogy on the Godhead.

We now have *The God You May Not Know*, *The Jesus You May Not Know*, and this finishes it: *The Holy Spirit You May Not Know*. We're so excited because this book explains a lot of things that people wonder about. There are more questions about the Holy Spirit than the other members of the Trinity. I just have known that over the years as I've talked to people.

In fact, many people who want to be Christians stumble over the truth of the Holy Spirit. We've answered many of the questions and explained the doctrine in many ways in this book. 250 pages in a hardback book, it's yours for the asking when you send your gift to Turning Point today. Send the best gift you can, do what you believe God wants you to do, and then when you do that, ask for the book and it will be sent to you.

This is part two of The Strength of the Spirit. We're talking about how the Spirit of God enables you to do what the Christian life demands. Let's begin part two together.

Now there's much more to glean from this prayer. In verses 16 through 19, we learn about the possibilities of this prayer. Ephesians 3:16 says, "Here's what I pray, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man."

Paul asked God to fill the Ephesians with inward power, with inward strength. All the strong words he uses in verse 16: riches, glory, strengthened, and might. And the word might appears over and over in the New Testament—over 120 times in total. It refers to the power that God gives to His people. God gives might to us through the inner part of our being.

I'm so taken by the verse in 2 Corinthians 4:16, that the outward man is wasting away, but the inner man is being renewed day by day. That's true. I don't think anybody has to convince us of that. We know it; we experience it, especially the outward man part of it.

But the interesting thing is the Bible tells us that while we may be seeming to be weakened in the outward person, we can become strengthened in the inward person. And that's what Paul is praying about. He wants his people, he wants us, to have a strong center so that whatever happens, whatever takes place in our lives, we have this power, this might, this strength that carries us through.

One of our friends here at Shadow Mountain is a man named Rob Morgan. He preaches often when I'm not here. And he wrote a book some years ago that became a very special book to me because it was during the early days of my illness. And the book was on strength.

The book was called *The Strength You Need*. I was feeling pretty weak then, and I was looking for strength anywhere I could find it. I remember picking up that book and Rob had taken all of the passages in the Bible that talk about strength and written a chapter about them. And I was blessed by that book and helped by it.

In this book he said, "We're living in a difficult age and events on the world stage are disconcerting. In times like these, we need to be stronger—stronger as husbands, we need to be stronger wives, stronger people. We need stronger children, stronger families, stronger churches, stronger determination to tackle each day for good and for God."

And he said, "If you're like me, you want stronger faith, stronger peace, stronger joy, and more stamina to do the work the Lord assigns each day." And I kept saying to myself, "Amen, that's what I want." I want to be strong in my spirit. I want to be able to have the resilience and the strength and the stamina to face challenges that come my way, no matter what they may be.

Not because I'm strong, but because there's a strength in me that is greater than me. The Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And when you're strengthened by the Holy Spirit, Paul says three things will happen in your life.

These are things we may not think about, but Paul wants us to know. That when we are first of all strengthened in the Spirit, we sense the presence of God in our life. Now this is a little bit delicate, but let me see if I can help us grab hold of it.

He says that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (verse 17). The Bible says that Christ comes to live within our hearts when we become Christians. And Paul is writing this to Christian people and he's praying that Christ may dwell in their hearts. There must be a difference between dwelling and living, and there is.

The word dwell there means to be at home. Paul says, "My prayer for you is that Christ may be at home in your heart." Have you ever been in a place where you were in the house, but you weren't at home in the house? Maybe they talked to you as close to the door as possible so that as fast as you came in you would leave, and you do not feel welcome; you do not feel at home.

The Bible says that God's prayer for us is that Jesus Christ might live in our hearts and be at home there. That He might dwell there, that He might be comfortable there. Is Christ comfortable in your heart? Are you comfortable with Christ in your heart? It's interesting to think about that in terms of the scripture that we have here from Paul.

John 14:23 says, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and the Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." That's what Almighty God wants. Paul is praying for the believers in Ephesus to experience this.

Christ wants not just to be a resident in your life, not just your ticket to heaven; He wants you to be comfortable with Him. He wants Him to be a part of your daily existence. I don't know if this happens to you, but for me, when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I think about when I wake up is the Lord. And I pray and I talk to Him even before I'm totally awake.

And many days the last thing that I think about before I go to sleep is the Lord, and what He's done and what He's working in my life. He wants you to be in that vein. He wants the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus Christ into your life and that He would not just be a resident, but He'd be the president and He'd be at home there.

So here's a question to ask yourself: is Christ at home in your heart? I'm not asking you if He's in your heart, because most of you already have taken Jesus into your heart. But have you made Him comfortable? And I don't need to go into all the details of the things that can make Jesus uncomfortable, but you know what I'm talking about. Give Him a place of honor and comfort in your heart.

He says when you have this inner strength in the Holy Spirit in your heart, first of all, Christ will be at home in your heart. And then secondly, he says you will be able to comprehend the love that Christ has for you (verse 17). "That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge."

I don't know if you can get your arms around this. What an incredible thing it is to know that somebody loves you. And what a wonderful thing to know that God has you as the object of His love. I know that we know God loves us; we read that. But just think about that for a moment. You are loved by the Creator of the universe. He loves you.

And Paul wants us to understand that with such desire that he actually gives us the four dimensions of God's love. I don't know if you've ever noticed this before—the width and length and depth and height of His love. Now, I've read a lot of sermons on these. A lot of pastors have taken these four things and created some fanciful sermons. I don't have one of those for you today, but I want to illustrate it for you by taking you to John 3:16.

You don't have to turn to it because you all know it. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Now, let's look at that verse in terms of the dimensions of the love of God. "For God so loved the world"—that's the width of God's love.

How wide is His love? It's as wide as the world. And anybody teaches you any different than that, they're not teaching the gospel. God loves the whole world; He loves everyone in the world. "For God so loved the world"—that's the width of His love.

"That He gave His only begotten Son." How much did He love us? He loved us so much that He dispatched His only begotten Son to this earth. That's the length He went to show us His love. He didn't just say, "I love you." He said, "I love you," and sent Jesus as the person of His love.

"That whosoever believes in Him should not perish." That's the depth of God's love. God loves us so much that He doesn't want us to go into the depth of the earth in hell. He wants to save us from that, and His love reaches to the very depth of life.

And His love is also a love that has height to it. He loves us so much that we might have eternal life. Every time you read John 3:16, just remember: John 3:16 is the four dimensions of God's love.

I remember reading that many atrocities were committed during the period of history known as the Spanish Inquisition. I once read a story about a Spanish prisoner whose bones were discovered when soldiers opened up one of the underground dungeons used by the leaders of the Inquisition.

What they found was that flesh and clothing had long since dissolved, but the soldiers found the remnants of bones chained to a wall. And that wasn't all they found. On the wall of that prison, cut into the rock with a sharp piece of metal, was a cross.

And above the cross in Spanish was the word "height." And below the cross was the word "depth." And one arm was "length" and the other arm was "breadth." So not only does John 3:16 teach us the four-dimensional God's love, but so does the cross.

I'm sure you've noticed in recent days how many people on business and talk shows are wearing crosses. Everybody wears a cross. But you have to wonder, do they understand that that cross is a symbol of the four dimensions of God's love? He came down to us and reached out to us that we might not go down but that we might go up to be with Him.

That's what the Scripture says. Love that passes, the Bible says, all understanding. That's what you call an oxymoron. How can love be understood if it passes understanding? Well, the point is that we can't know this love by human knowledge; we can only know this love through the Holy Spirit who is in our heart.

Remember, Paul was praying this prayer at a very certain time. I think this is instructive because when we read this prayer in Ephesians, it's right in the context of the anger that was being expressed by the Jews toward the Gentiles and the Gentiles toward the Jews. And Paul was trying to help them understand that God has enough love to bring these two entities together in one thing called the church.

The love of God inspires us to go into the worst parts of town and minister to the down-and-outers. And we can't do that on our own strength. But when we have the Holy Spirit in our life, when the Holy Spirit is filling us and giving us strength, then we can do what we would not otherwise be able to do. And we can be emissaries of the love of Christ.

We should love others in the same way that God loves us. We should reach into the reservoir of God's love for us and out of that reservoir we should find a way to love other people. Then, not only is it true when the Holy Spirit strengthens you you will sense Christ's presence in your life and the Holy Spirit will strengthen you so that you can comprehend God's love in your life, but when the Holy Spirit strengthens you you will be filled with the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:19, "that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." These progressions come in the right order. The inner strength of the Holy Spirit leads us to the indwelling of Christ. The indwelling of Christ leads us to the knowledge of God's love for us. And now His abundant love leads us to experience the fullness of God's presence within us.

I know over the years when you read about being filled with the Spirit, it sends questions running through your mind. I told you earlier it doesn't mean filled up like filled up to your knees or your shoulders. It means to be controlled by.

When some people read this, they don't understand it because it doesn't mean what it normally would mean in English. It means to be filled by, to be controlled by. When you're filled with God, you're controlled by God.

Look at the illustration Paul used later in his book. He said we aren't to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Spirit. In the same way that a person is controlled by inebriation, the Bible says we're to be controlled by the Spirit of God. We're to be controlled by God.

He was telling us that when we are allowing the Spirit of God to live His life in us, when we acknowledge that He is there for us, the one thing that will happen is we'll begin to learn what it means for God to control our life.

Do you ask God about stuff? You ever see somebody in need and you say, "God, should I help this person?" Do you think God will answer you? Not out loud, but in your heart, in your spirit He will. Do you ever do things that you do and people question it? "What are you doing that for?" Did you ever say, "Because God told me to"?

And they look at you like you're some weird person—God talks to you. Yes, if you're controlled by God, you have the impressions and the sense in your heart that what you're doing is a God thing. And He gives you great joy to do that, even when some people may not understand it.

I told you once before that one of the things I did during Christmas, and I've continued to do it, is to carry a little extra cash around and when you see somebody that you'd like to bless, just to bless them. And it's so interesting. Donna could tell you we've had so many interesting stories. When you do that, people don't want to take it. "I can't take that. What's that for?"

And you know what I tell them? "God told me to do this." "Oh, okay." And then they say thank you and put it in their pocket. Listen to me: God wants to tell us what to do and help us do it. He wants to be in control of our life. And that sometimes seems so out of perspective for most people. God wants to control my life? Absolutely. When you let the Holy Spirit have His way in your heart, God will control your life. And the possibilities of that are overwhelming.

As we bring Ephesians 3 to a close, I want to highlight the potential of Paul's prayer. In verse 20, he says, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." You know how much God wants to do this for you? Do you know how much He wants to help you?

Let me show you the pregnancy of this verse. This verse tells us that God is so anxious to help you, you can't understand this verse unless you take it apart and put it back together. I have told people it may be the most pregnant verse in the Bible. Here's what he says: He wants to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you could ever ask or think.

He wants to do exceedingly. What does that mean? Only eternity will reveal how God has answered all of our prayers. We thought He'd ignored them, but when we look back, we realize He not only answered them; He answered them exceedingly. And He wants to do it abundantly. He doesn't want to just make minor improvements. He wants to overrule our plans and give them a magnificence worthy of Himself.

He wants to give us exceedingly, abundantly. And then the Bible says He wants to give us exceedingly, abundantly above. He's able to do exceedingly more. God can take what we ask and enlarge it. He can take our thoughts and go beyond them. We can only see the here and now; God sees the then and there.

And then He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all. He's not restricted to just one request; He can do all requests. He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask. What are we asking for? The Bible says we have not because we ask not. The Bible says if we ask, God will hear us.

Maybe it's the peace in the midst of the storm. Maybe it's salvation of a loved one. Maybe it's help in an emergency. Maybe it's guidance in a direction. Maybe it's victory over sin. No matter what we might ask, God is able to do it. He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above, all that we ask. And here's the one that's really hard to comprehend: or think.

God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or even think. We have thoughts we never express. We have yearnings that we would like to ask God about, but we're afraid to; maybe it's too much to ask God for this. And we have longings that are so intangible we can barely put them into our own words. God is able to do everything that I have said, even to the things that you think when you pray. God reads these thoughts and He's able to accomplish what is beyond our imagination.

This is the potential of Paul's prayer. That's the application of his prayer to your life and mine right now, today. If we will put our life in His hands, He can do everything He promised. How much is that, pastor? It's exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or think. What a wonderful guarantee that is from the God of heaven.

And that's why at the end of this there's a benediction. "To Him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ to all generations forever and ever." What a great God we have. He's given us all these promises, and He's given us the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to grab hold of these promises and put them into action.

This is a lifetime experience for us. We grow in this every year as we trust the Lord. But what a wonderful thing it is to know you're not alone. You're not trying to get through all of this in your own strength. You have a God who cares about you. You have a God who knows what's going on in your life. And you know how much He loves you? He loves you exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or even think. But you have to be willing to accept it. You have to be willing to respond to it.

I want to wrap this up today with a brief story from history. In the list of American presidents, there's one man who appears twice besides our current president. His name is Grover Cleveland, and he occupies the 22nd and the 24th places in the roll call of presidents. He dedicated the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, and he was the only president to marry while he was in the White House. He was 49 at the time and his bride, Frances, was 21. And it was a romance that captivated the nation.

Grover Cleveland was a Presbyterian preacher's son, well trained in Christian truth. And in the midst of national turmoil and a personal health crisis, he actually endured surgery on a friend's yacht so that no one would know he was having surgery. He kept working late into the night as soon as he recovered.

Historians tell us of his integrity and his courage and his common sense. His dying words summed up his life. Here they are: "I have tried so hard to do right." Above his bed hung his life's motto from Deuteronomy 33:25, which captures what we've been talking about today. Here's that verse: "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."

Grover Cleveland said, "If I have any coat of arms, that's it. As your days, so shall your strength be." That means every day you get up and you ask God for strength for that day. And then the next day you do the same thing. You don't get to have four or five days at a time. It's one day at a time. As your day, here's the day, here's the strength for that day.

And that's the way you live this life that Paul is talking about in Ephesians 3. You access the strength of the Spirit of God every day. Every day you say, "Lord God, here's this day You've given me. Now give me the strength to do what I need to do today to bring honor and glory to Your name and to bring wholeness to my life."

God is able to do that. How do I know that? He told me so in this book. He told me He's able to do that for you and for me. We don't have to live normal Christian lives. We can live supernormal Christian lives in the power of the Holy Spirit if we'll give Him a chance to let that happen. Amen?

And we've been talking about this over these weeks. And the filling of the Spirit is the giving of control of your life to the Spirit of God and letting Him be the one who makes the decisions, and you counsel with Him and He tells you what to do and you do it. And when you do that, you begin to live at a different level than you've ever lived in before.

And you sense as you look back over things that have happened, "How did that happen? How did that take place? That had to have been a God thing." That's what the Spirit of God does. And I hope you've gained some of that from these last two days of discussing the strength of the Spirit.

Tomorrow, as I mentioned to you the other day, we're going to talk about the best evidence for the Spirit. Over the years I've heard a lot of people talk about how you can know if somebody's filled with the Spirit, and they have a lot of different ways they have concocted, but they're not from the Scripture. The Scripture tells us that the Spirit of God is evidenced in certain ways. We'll find out about them tomorrow. Be sure and join us then. See you next time.

Guest (Male): Today's message originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. Drop us a note to let us know how God is using this ministry in your life. Write to Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163. Visit our website at davidjeremiah.org/radio or call 800-947-1993.

Ask for your copy of David's new book, *The Holy Spirit You May Not Know*, a valuable resource that's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also stream more than 1,200 of Dr. Jeremiah's messages on demand on any screen on our streaming service, Turning Point Plus. For a monthly gift of any amount, visit turningpointplus.org for details.

This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue *The Holy Spirit You May Not Know* on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.