Spirit Food - June 2020
The Holy Spirit
He is a person or a being! If you don't see (believe in Him as) a being, how can you develop a personal relationship with Him. The Holy Spirit is really not His name, it's his description; it's His function in the Trinity. And to be Holy, is to be set apart. God - The Father - - His function in the Trinity is to be the Father
John 5:19 says “Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.”
John 8:28 says “So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me.”
John 12:49 says “for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak.” God - The Son - - In John 1:1-3 it says:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being…” (John 1:1-3) God The Holy Spirit - - His name is God - His function is to be the Spirit that lives within us, that empowers us, that leads us and guilds us, into all truth. So, He is a person. A person is distinguished by the identity or feature of a personality. A person has a soul, which consists of a mind, a will, and emotions. We are spirit beings, created in the image of God. We have a soul and live in a three dimensional body. We think with our mind, we desire with our wills, and we feel with our emotions. The Holy Spirit is trying to help us to think like God thinks, desire what God desires, and feel what God feels.
Romans 8:9 says: “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” He (The Holy Spirit) can tell you what God thinks about an issue because He is living on the inside of you. 1. The Holy Spirit has a mind. John 16:3 – “And these things they will do [a]to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.
John 16:13 – “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
How could He guide you into all truth unless He knows all truth. He knows all truth because He has knowledge. He is omniscient. Omniscient comes from two words - Omni means all - - science means knowledge. God has all knowledge; therefore the Holy Spirit knows everything. You have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you who knows everything about everything, and He's committed to instruct you! (Hebrews 8:9-13) Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:5) That's the Holy Spirit's mind. 2. He has a will. Acts 16:6 – “They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.” They were forbidden - the Holy Spirit exercised His Will. Forbidden means to not allow, indicating an exercise of your will. If you would like to know what God's will is for your life, get to know Him. There are two ways to get to know Him; the general will of God, and the specific Will of God. The general Will of God is written in the Bible. The specific Will of God, we know by His voice. Examples: If you desire to know about marriage and how to treat your husband or wife, it's in the Bible. If you desire to know who to marry, it's not in there. If you desire to know what job to take, where to live, or what house or car to buy, it's not in there; but how to operate your finances in a scriptural way, be a godly husband and father, and a good neighbor, those principles are in there. However, the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. (John 16:13) If you desire to know how to pray, it's in the Bible. (Matthew 6:9-13) If you desire to know what to pray, the Holy Spirit will guide you.
Romans 8:26-27 says:
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” You don't know what to pray until He prompts you, and He makes intercession for you. God desires to have a personal relationship with you. 3. The Holy Spirit has emotions. Galatians 5:22-23 informs us what fruit we are supposed to be producing:
22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” A person loves, inanimate objects don't love. A person expresses joy, etc. Ephesians 4:30 – “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.” Grief is an emotion. The Holy Spirit has feelings. What grieves the Holy Spirit? Look at Ephesians 4:25-32 - - Lying grieves the Holy Spirit. Giving into temptation and sin grieves the Holy Spirit. Stealing grieves the Holy Spirit. Not giving when He directs you to give, grieves the Holy Spirit. A corrupt word would grieve the Holy Spirit. When a believer walks in sin, it grieves the Holy Spirit. Why? Because God loves you and He knows when you walk in sin, it's going to hurt you; so He's sad. Grief is an emotion, (sadness), you feel when you've lost intimacy with a person or an animal. That's the way the Holy Spirit feels when believers sin. You haven't lost your salvation when you sin, but you lose intimacy. Bondage is path or road - Freedom is a different path or road. Choose wisely which path or road you take.
Proverbs 12:28 says: “In the path of righteousness there is life, in walking its path there is no death.”
Wisdom is the principal thing:
Proverbs 4:7 says, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight.”
Let him who lacks wisdom, ask.
James 1:5 says, “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.” Freedom is when you have a change of mind (repent) and turn back to God.
Seek Him first…(Matthew 6:33).
The Corporate Anointing
The Word of God instructs us — that we as the Body of Christ as a whole, have the same measure of the Holy Spirit that Jesus did.
The corporate anointing is to be sought after.
Let's look at some Scriptures in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is full of types and shadows for us.
In Second Chronicles 5 we learn how the Temple of God was dedicated.
2 CHRONICLES 5:11-14 says:
11 And it came to pass when the priests came out of the Most Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without keeping to their divisions),
12 and the Levites who were the singers, all those of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed instruments and harps, and with them one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets—
13 indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying:
“For He is good, For His mercy endures forever,” that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,
14 so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.”
When the Temple was dedicated, the building was filled with a literal cloud.
That cloud was the Shekinah glory of God.
Shekinah – divine presence of God or God’s dwelling place before the Ark of the Covenant.
All through the Old Testament, the glory of God appeared often as a cloud and filled the house. We read from the New Testament that the glory of God is the Spirit of God.
Romans 6:4 informs us “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father.
Romans 8:11 informs us, "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you...." It says He was raised up by the glory of the Father. The Bible calls the glory of the Father the Spirit — so that's the Holy Spirit. We call it the anointing.
In Luke 4:18, Jesus said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me [a]to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed.”
The Temple of God in the Old Testament was a man-made building. But God no longer dwells in earth-made or man-made buildings; He dwells in us.
Hebrews 3:6 informs us of the difference between the house of God in the Old Testament and the house of God in the New Testament: "But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."
The whole Church collectively is God's temple.
Now notice in 1 Timothy 3:15: “but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”
He's not talking about a building; he's talking about the Church (the believers). The Church of the Living God is the house of God.
In 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
In the Old Testament, Solomon's Temple was called the house of God three times. But now we are the house of God.
The Amplified Bible says, (1 Corinthians 3:16). "Do you not discern and understand that you [the whole church] are God's temple (His sanctuary), and that God's Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you — to be at home in you [collectively as a church and also individually]?"
So you can see there is the individual anointing within us because that Spirit — that anointing — is in us, but then there's also that corporate anointing. We're conscious of His presence.
The Corporate Anointing is in our midst so many times. But why doesn't He manifest Himself more often? Let's go back to the Old Testament and see what was done to bring forth the visible manifestation of God's glory.
2 Chronicles 5:13 tells us of singers and those playing instruments becoming as one singing praises unto God, saying, "For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever."
Then the cloud came in and filled the building so the priests could not stand to minister. There's something about that corporate body praising God that brings forth the manifestation of His glory.
The Pentecostals saw it earlier, but modern-day charismatics don't know too much about it. Oh yes, they praise God and clap our hands, and that's scriptural; but God wants to teach us something about His Spirit so we'll enter into the full manifestation of what He has for us.
Let's look at some Scriptures in the New Testament that will parallel the Old Testament Scriptures and will help us.
Acts 2:46-47:
46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
47 Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
There are three things to note about these two verses of Scripture:
first, they were of “one accord”;
second, “gladness”; they were happy – with an attitude of gratitude
and third, “praising God” – worshipping Him
In Acts 4 Peter and John were commanded to preach and teach no more.
Acts 4:23-24:
23 And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.
24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God, Understanding the Anointing with ONE ACCORD, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is.
There's that "one accord" business again. They (plural) — all of them —lifted up their voices.
We have a record of the prayer they prayed. Perhaps they didn't all say the exact same words, but the Holy Spirit is inspiring Luke to write (it is believed this was penned by Luke in verse 24), and He is giving us what God heard.
The Effects of Praise:
Notice when they lifted up their voices with one accord, the first thing they said was, "Lord, thou art God".
They were magnifying Him as God. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken.
That prayer brought forth a manifestation of God's glory, of God's power, of the anointing, of the Holy Spirit power.
In Acts 4:31 it says, “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” The place was shaken — not just the people. The house shook.
Some people get excited because the Holy Spirit moves on people and they shake sometimes, or even fall under the power. But wait until the buildings start shaking! The place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness.
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas had been beaten. Their backs were bleeding. They were thrust into the innermost prison. Their feet were in stocks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed. A lot of times people have prayed and prayed and prayed — and I've seen people go down praying. But sometimes you need to "pray AND...." Paul and Silas didn't just pray; they prayed AND. They prayed AND sang praises unto God. They were doing it out loud, because all the prisoners heard them.
Remember in Psalm 22:3 it says that God inhabits the praises of Israel. He's the same God now that He was then. He hasn't changed one iota. God came down and inhabited the praises of Paul and Silas, and shook that old jail until every door flew open and the stocks.
The Corporate Anointing released the shackles off their feet. Acts 16:26 tells us, “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened and every one's bands were loosed.”
But this wasn't an earthquake as we know it, because it just affected this one group. An earthquake wouldn't cause the bands the prisoners were bound with to fall off. It wouldn't cause the stocks on their feet to fall off. But the bands and stocks fell off them.
Remember Isaiah 10:27 tells us the anointing destroys the yoke.
The Power of the Corporate Anointing
I can be anointed myself and lay hands on people, and a certain percentage of them will get healed because of their right believing in Jesus’ healing power. But the corporate anointing has a greater effect. God wants us to have the greater corporate anointing in these days, and we're going to have it.
When you become one in worship, the Holy Spirit can move.
The Word of God says to praise God in the dance. Music and dancing belong to God and His people.
Psalm 149:3 says, “Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.”
Psalm 150:4 says, “Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!”
Some will argue, "Yes, but, that's in the Old Testament."
I know it. That's just what I wanted you to say.
If praise had such a great place in worship and ministry in the Old Testament when they were operating under the type and shadow of the New Covenant, how much more of a place should it have with us?
United Prayer
Let's look at another New Testament example of united praying.
In Acts 13:1-2:
1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. These five men of God ministered to the Lord, and fasted, and it brought a manifestation of the Spirit; it brought forth a revelation.
According to Acts 22:17 – “And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance” Paul was praying here and was in a trance. His praying brought forth a manifestation of God's power of the Holy Spirit. Then in Acts 22:18, Jesus appeared to him and spoke to him: “...Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me". How did Paul pray?
If we can find out how they prayed, and if we'll pray the same way, it'll produce the same results.
I'm sure he prayed in his own language, but he gave us a little clue in 1Corinthians 14:18 when he said, "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all."
In writing to the Church at Ephesus, he said, in Ephesians 6:18 “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints”
Remember, we looked at Acts 4:23-24. I'm sure some of those people were praying with their own understanding, but I'm sure that many of them were praying with their spirits in tongues they didn’t understand.
What we are told about is the interpretation of their voice. Did you notice they lifted up their "voice," not "voices"?
Most likely, many of them were praying with other tongues.
Paul, when he was praying in the Temple and fell into the trance, prayed in the Spirit as well as with his understanding (1 Cor. 14:14-15).
It takes Spirit praying to produce Spirit results, regardless the tongue, the words need to be faith filled, not unbelief.
In Acts 13 when Paul and the others were ministering to the Lord, how do you suppose they did that? They did it in prayer and praise, or in song.
Ephesians 5:19 tells us, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” That's ministering to the Lord!
Let's go a step further. Paul, writing to the Church at Colosse, in Colossians 3:16 said, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
He said, "Singing to the Lord." Do you see that?
We can minister not only to each other, but we can minister to the Lord. I'm sure that's what they were doing. They were speaking in psalms and hymns, and singing to the Lord, ministering to the Lord, praying in their own language and praying in tongues. And as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit spoke.
You see, that kind of praying brings forth the manifestation of God's power and God's Spirit. As these five (Barnabas, Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen) ministered to the Lord (as documented in Acts 13:1-2), they were praying together and fasting. They were worshipping God together. There is something about united prayer; there's something about united praise; there's something about worshipping God in unity.
I think the Lord knew what He was doing when He sent the disciples out two by two. Jesus Himself made the statement in Matthew 18:19, “… That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”
I believe God wants us to get back to allowing His Spirit to move among the people.
I'm looking forward to meetings on a larger scale — where the power of God will sweep through and we won't have to have any healing lines. Everybody will just go home healed.
Everybody who doesn't have the Holy Spirit will go home talking in tongues.
Everybody who's not saved will go home saved because of His power and presence.
The glory of God had filled the temple of God. You are the temple of God. Do you not discern and understand that the whole Church — the whole Church here or wherever — YOU — are the temple of God?
We ought to expect Him to come into manifestation.
I expect Him to do what He said He would do —
Teach us and lead us.
I expect the minister to be anointed –
But what about our responsibilities as members of that house of God — the Body of Christ?
We need to come with an attitude of gratitude, ready to praise and worship our Heavenly Father and Redeemer! To come boldly to Him, ready to receive and believe for the blessings He has for us!
God's Spirit dwells in you collectively as the Church, and also individually!
Scriptures inform us that we are the salt of the world (Matthew 5:13), and the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). Let us do individually and as a church body, what God has called us to accomplish!
So, in closing, Hebrews 10:25, it says, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Forsaking – or deserting, staying away from the cooperate body of Christ
As is the manner of some – habit, or character
Exhorting – building one another up
Day approaching – that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life - to be raptured.
As the world get darker, the light of our Heavenly Father should be shining brighter through us!
As Christians, God’s ambassador’s here on this earth (Matthew 5:13-14) says we are the salt and light of this world now. I encourage you to receive, believe, and function as such, being a blessing to others, enabling them to have a personal relationship with their Creator.
