I would like to share a prophetic word which was revealed to my wife and me on Sunday morning of June 9, 2019 during our “worship” time. At one point during our quiet time, we found ourselves so lamenting the hurts (sorrows/griefs) that fellow Christians have/are experiencing by the millions throughout the world, tragically!
I am still on the crucial topic of “Sorrow/Grief”, however, I am approaching it from a different slant for the time being!
I felt led to ask the Holy Spirit (as I do often during our quiet time) if He had anything that He wanted to share with us. So often we are blessed when He does indeed speak to us not in the flesh, but in the Spirit (our innermost being) and this is what we heard that morning:
“My children, you are experiencing My heart. It so grieves Me when My children have little or no concept of ‘Who I am’. I want you to pray for and encourage those that I bring to you – where there is so much hurt, lack of hope, lots of sorrow, despair, and loneliness among My people. I will equip you with an anointing that when I speak through you – you will be enabled to set My people (those who are being held captive) free.”
You might well be declaring . . . ”Of course I know who God is, why would you even need to ask such a question?” Really? Let us continue.
However, before we continue, it is crucial that we give attention to the Holy Spirit.
How many of you have had the awesome experience/blessing of hearing the Holy Spirit speak to you in the Spirit – in other words, not through your physical ears, but deep within your innermost being – hearing His still small voice? Please keep in mind, He will not shout at us! That’s why He tells us to focus on Him and to “be quiet/still” in our very being so we can “hear” the Holy Spirit guide and direct us as we walk along each day. It is so easy to be distracted in the moments of the day and sadly miss what the Holy Spirit is saying to us!
Please keep in mind that the Holy Spirit is of the Godhead – the Father, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit – the triune God – Elohim, the All In One God.
How does one become “baptized” in the Holy Spirit? First and foremost, one must be “born again” as it is written in John 3:1-16. At this point, I would like to share my personal experience with you.
I was “born again” in 1975. My wife and I comment from time to time as we reflect on our “experience” that all along until 1975, we believed we were indeed (but sadly in name only) “Christians”, because we were not of another religion. Three years later, a friend gave me a book entitled “THE HOLY SPIRIT and YOU” written by an Episcopal Rector Dennis Bennett who was evicted from his church because he became spirit-filled. He, would you believe it, received the gift of speaking in tongues, as did the Apostle Paul who encouraged those (and us) to whom he ministered, especially in 1 Cor.! I was oblivious to just who the Holy Spirit was, since I grew up in New England, attending churches which tragically being “born again” was unheard of, let alone being baptized in the Holy Spirit! I learned over the years, sadly, that “one cannot give away that which one does not have”!
When I began reading the book, I soon learned that my whole being was the Holy Spirit at work in my life like never before – such a blessing! Upon completion, I closed it and placed it on the couch beside me, and said “God, I have no idea what this I just finished reading is all about, You know where I grew up and basically was ignorant of You, tragically! However, IF this is of You, I want ALL that You have for me!” It wasn’t a few seconds until I “heard” a word come into my very inner most being which was unknown to me! I went to my wife and shared with her what had just taken place. She smiled and said, “I believe this is the beginning of the gift of speaking in tongues for you” (for she had received hers a year earlier but didn’t tell me – for she was afraid of what I would say).
That was all that took place that evening. However, the next morning as I was driving to school where I was an elementary school principal, I no sooner got on the highway when I began singing in an unknown language (I had never sung while driving) and it was if my car was taken out from underneath me and I would have floated to school!
Thankfully, my life was never the same. The Holy Spirit is at work in me! Praise God! All because I surrendered to Him and asked Him to “fill” me with His empowering Spirit! If this can happen to me as a born-again child of the living God, it can happen to you. All one must do is first of all, be “born again” as stated earlier. Then simply ask the Holy Spirit to “fill you with His Spirit” and by faith, trust that you were indeed “baptized” with the Holy Spirit, as Jesus was when He was baptized by John the Baptist in Matthew 1:16! Try it, you will like it and you will be so blessed – guaranteed!!
Another experience concerning the Holy Spirit took place when I was offered a “swap” position in the school of education at a college not far away for one year. The professor wanted to return to a public-school teaching position in the county where I was an elementary school principal so as to “refurbish” her teaching skills.
An incredible “God experience”: One day, one of my advisees came to my office at the college seeking advice concerning her classes. During our time together, I was “guided” by the Holy Spirit to ask her where she “was” with the Lord God Almighty. She began to cry. As she began to calm down, she shared a horrible experience she had one Sunday night about three years ago concerning a pastor who was about to teach those who desired to receive their “prayer language – speaking in an unknown tongue”. Tragically, he instructed them saying “all you have to do is to open your mouth and your new ‘language’ will come pouring out”! She opened her mouth as instructed and nothing came out of her mouth – obviously tragic advice, to say the least! Immediately she felt that God had “slapped her face” leaving her with the devil’s lie that she wasn’t “good enough” to receive her prayer language. As a result, she lived with that lie for those three years!
I told her that we would address this and “fix” that which she had suffered at the church three years ago. We left my office and for privacy, we went to my car where I began to instruct her as to receiving the “gift of tongues” as spoken about in 1 Cor. 14:1-25 where the Apostle Paul provides the guidelines for “exercising” the gift of tongues. I would encourage you to spend time reading the words of Luke in Acts 2 concerning what took place with the “coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of God’s Church”.
Back to the car – first, I instructed her to “ask the Holy Spirit to fill her with His spirit and to provide her especially with her gift of tongues” that she had so long desired. Then I shared with her that I, as a model for assisting her in receiving her “tongue”, would begin praying ever so softly, to encourage her to “step out”, with the precaution that she not try to copying my “language”! Next, I told her to begin using her tongue out loud in making sounds of all sorts, and not to be concerned as to the sounds she was experiencing. She began making sounds and it wasn’t long before she began to consistently express the same new words. I encouraged her to continue speaking and soon she indeed was speaking in her new “language”! Before I knew it, she opened the door and ran across the campus now knowing that the Holy Spirit revealed to her that she was indeed “good enough” to receive her prayer language! Such a blessing, and one each of you can experience – IF you so desire, truly!! Check out what the Bible declares in the scriptures I have shared. Praise God from Whom ALL BLESSINGS FLOW. Amen?
As Jesus, Who was crucified and was getting ready to ascend to the Father 40 days after his resurrection, gathered His apostles (sent-forth ones) and said to them after showing them His hands and His side in John 20:20-22: So, Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And as was said in verse 22 “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And in the Book of Acts 1:5, Jesus gathered the apostles and said to them “For John truly baptized, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Verse 8, describes the beginning of the empowerment of the church for ministry. The “not many days from now” comes to pass in the upper room where they were gathered in “one accord” – it was crucial that they were in one accord (agreement) or they could very well have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit! (Acts 1:12-26; 2:1-47). Could this be a warning to churches that if they so desire to “walk in the Holy Spirit”, that they must indeed be in “one accord”? “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints” (1 Cor. 14:33) and thus could well be that the gifts and empowerment of the Holy Spirit as written about in 1 Cor. 12 could well be nullified, tragically!
First of all, in order to be aware of His presence, or hear Him speak to our very inner most being (two different experiences), we must be “Spirit Filled” i.e. baptized by the Holy Spirit, as Jesus was in Matthew 3:13-17 which was the Holy Spirit anointing Jesus, thus beginning His ministry, and “led away by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil…” (Matthew 4:1-11) Keep in mind that Satan “left Him” (v 11), guaranteeing that the devil would return, as he does with us – thus always keeping in mind that “we are at war in the heavenlies” with the devil and his demons! Keep in mind what is written in Matthew 11:12 “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent (those of us who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit) take it by force”! Thankfully, Jesus overcame Satan with the help of the Holy Spirit, as we will as well, because it is written in Deuteronomy 31:8:
“And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed”
Since He is God Almighty (Jehovah – “Self-Existent Eternal God” (Exodus 20:2) with one of His names (and He has 40 names) being El Shaddai – The All Powerful God, He could and has spoken to anyone…even through a donkey to Balaam in Numbers 22:28! And to the animals for going onto the Ark, is another example.
Tragically, so many believers truly are unaware of Who the Holy Spirit is! It must be stated here that far too many churches become divided because part of the congregation wants no part of the Holy Spirit (Satan’s work in dividing the church body) and the other part believe in and so desires to “Be filled with the Holy Spirit” now (present tense), as it is declared in Eph. 5:18.
You could very well ask, how does this that you are sharing concerning the Holy Spirit, relate to the question “Who Am I”?
Hopefully, one must know that in Genesis 1:1, the scripture sets the critical foundation concerning the clarification of just “Who God is”! In this case, God is identified as “Elohim” which in the Hebrew, translates “God in the plural – the Triune God (the Three in One). Thus ’God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit’”. We also read in Genesis 1:26, further support as it is stated “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness….”.
Thus, the Person of the Holy Spirit is of the Godhead and each has His own special function (attributes).
Considering the Holy Spirit, it has been said “The Bible reveals that the Person of the Holy Spirit has been the primary agent in all of the ministry of the Word throughout the centuries and the triune Godhead operates coequally, coeternally, coexistently, as one unit. Also consider that each member of the Trinity has the special function: the executive is the Father, the architect is the Son and the contractor is the Holy Spirit.” (Holy Spirit Gifts and Power – The New Spirit Filled Life Bible page 1849)
We will continue sharing further information concerning the Holy Spirit, such as gifts of the Holy Spirit and the fruits of the Holy Spirit and then return to “Who Am I” blog.
BE GLORIFIED, ALMIGHTY GOD, BE GLORIFIED
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