This series is a wake up call for believers to come back into alignment and receive the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We are in the season of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, where you will encounter the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for the marketplace. A believer’s life is ministry Whether you’re in the marketplace, whether you’re a teacher or whatever vocation you have, it should be an expression of God. He gave us His Spirit so that we would have an advantage and live our lives governed by his life. We ought to live life influenced by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit teaches us ways to engage life and express the life of God in everything we do. As believers we are not frightened by the devil because the Holy Spirit is there to help us exercise the victory that Christ has given us consistently. A lot of people think the Holy Spirit is only a partner when we’re at church or when we’re praying, that’s why many believers don’t produce God’s results in many aspects of their lives. The Holy Spirit is not just there to sing and pray to God and read the Bible. No! The Holy Spirit is there to be with you forever however he won’t force himself on you, on your business, on your health or on your circumstance. He requires your willing submission in order to guide you. The Bible calls Him the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive! We’re going to read John 14:16-17 (ESV).
John 14:16-17
“ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (ESV)
The Spirit of Compliance
The Holy Spirit ensures compliance so you can live a life that brings glory to the Lord. The reason why believers are underperforming in terms of the faith that we proclaim is because we’ve neglected the Holy Spirit. He is supposed to teach us, guide us and help us because there’s nothing we can do without Him! Jesus told the church/disciples don’t go anywhere, wait for the promise of the Father! He commanded them from Acts 1, not to depart from Jerusalem until they’d been induced with power. Jesus was showing us that every promise he’d made would come to fruition after the church received the Holy Spirit.
The Advantage of the Holy Spirit
Without the Holy Spirit, there’s no kingdom life, no fruits of the Spirit, no true prosperity and no manifestations of the life of God. The empowerment we have in God is not by human wisdom but it is superior in nature and gives us an advantage. When you study the life of Daniel and Joseph you can see the manifestation of the empowerment of God in their lives. They stood out in hostile environments because of the influence of the Holy Spirit. God desires that we stand out even within our present age because of his influence in every aspect of our lives.
The influence of the Holy Spirit singles you out amongst others who don’t operate in that realm. For example you can work influenced by the Holy Spirit and you will be a sign and wonder to those you work with. Even as a student you have that advantage! Imagine, if God does business, will He fail? If God takes an exam, will he fail? I’m not condemning you for failing, if you’re a believer, but if you are consistent in failing, or the unbelievers are outperforming you, there’s a problem!
There’s a spiritual reset that’s happening throughout this series, where by the help of the Holy Spirit the reality of the word of God will bring light and lift us out of the pits of wrong identities that we’ve been sheltered in. When the Spirit of God comes on you, you can’t deny it! It’s not emotions, it’s beyond that! It’s reality! For example, when Saul was anointed he received a new Spirit, after David was anointed he also received a new spirit.
Is your life consistent with the word of God?
May God help us to become doers of his word. I desire that you will come into this experience. Moses said that I wish that all of you were prophets! Anybody that has encountered the sweetness of His presence will desire that everybody should taste this. It says in the scripture, “taste and see that the Lord is good”. The presence of the Holy Spirit will make a mess of your intelligence because it cant be adequately captured in words.
Acts 1:4-5
“ And while staying[a] with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (ESV)
After Acts chapter two they did exactly what Jesus said they should do. They did not leave Jerusalem, they stayed as he commanded them to wait; they waited.
Acts 1:13-18
“ When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was one of our number and shared in our ministry. (With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.”
The Bible says they continued in the upper room, they waited until they received the Holy Spirit. The value you place on the Holy Spirit, will determine your level of sacrifice . The value you place on the Holy Spirit will determine what extent you will go to make sure that you come into that experience of manifesting the presence of God/Holy Spirit.
Practicing the Presence of God
To practice His presence there are things that I do that I am very positive will also help you. What I do is that I spend time alone with Him, I do a lot of praying in the Spirit, I add fasting to it (fasting is not to bribe God, it’s to humble my flesh). I pick a scripture verse and I say it often to myself. I meditate on the word of God; I occupy my mind with His word. Furthermore, I practice repentance from dead works, I examine myself. You should judge yourself, so you will not be judged. I examine myself consistently. I practice forgiveness and obedience consistently which builds my consciousness of the Holy Spirit.
In Acts 1 the apostles waited for the promise of the father while engaging prayer. If you cannot sacrifice time for the Holy Spirit, to practice fellowship, communion and , to get acquainted with him He cannot empower you. If you’re the kind of believer that prays only to get something from God, and when you get the miracle, you neglect him and come again when it gets tough he will forgive you indefinitely, but you will limit your expression of God in your life. If you can’t value this relationship with the Holy Spirit you can’t manifest your real fullness in God. There’s no way you can be the real you without the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said He will teach you and bring to remembrance the things that I have taught you, if you remove the Holy Spirit from the equation of your walk with God, it will amount to nothing. I heard this quote “Christianity without the anointing is an annoyance” which I agree with. The world is waiting for the manifestations of the sons of God. We know by intellect too many scriptures yet lack the life proclaimed in scripture. How many versions did Paul know? Did you know that Paul didn’t have the revelation from the old to the new testament compiled for him like we do? He didn’t have the volume of the books we have. Many of the early church members had just some of these epistles/emparchments like letters written to them. They didn’t have the bible yet they changed the whole world by the power of the Holy Spirit. God expects that as the church grows older on earth, his manifest glory should be revealed in greater dimensions.
We are bankrupt of the glory of the Lord because we’ve kicked out the Holy Spirit– the custodian of the glory, grace and power of God. He’s the one that ensures that we can live the divine life, such that, when you start laying your hands on the work that you normally do it’ll begin to prosper. The Holy Spirit will start giving you inspirations, concepts, ideas, innovations, on how to engage life.
Jesus said, these signs shall follow them that believe. The demons on your job, He said you will cast them out. The early church paid that price before they could manifest. My question to you is this, are you willing to pay this price so that you can manifest? When I see people getting angry when they tell them to pray it’s due to ignorance. When people don’t understand what it takes to take delivery of the supernatural, they trivialize the way they engage the Holy Spirit. When you understand that everything that will make you the testimony that God wants is dependent on your relationship with the Holy Spirit, you will take it very seriously. You will not want to go any day without Him. You will not want to do anything without Him. I said “Him” because He is a person and not a thing. He has things, He has power He has wisdom, etc but He is a person. Only those who understand Him as a person, can see the power of God released in their life. If you relate to Him as a person, you will relate to Him like Paul did.
"May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." - 2 Corinthians 13:14
You don’t communion with things like you’re talking to someone, it doesn’t work! You could see the results in Paul’s life. The outcome is what I desire. He understood the Holy Spirit and how to engage Him. What we have learned in these series, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit and that which is born of the flesh is flesh. You are a Spirit, because what? God is a Spirit.
Spiritual Children Born of God
“ God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” - John 4:24
God gave birth to Spirit children. Now that you know that you are a Spirit, it’s important to know that you’ve been given the Holy Spirit. The administrator of the gifts of God, of the power of God, the explainer and expositor of the word of God, you have been given that person who knows everything that God knows. The scriptures say in Corinthians, who knows a man better than the spirit of a man, nobody knows God like the Spirit of God. So He knows God very well! He knows what God wants for you, He knows how to make you like Jesus because Jesus Christ said that He will testify of him. You are a Spirit given the Holy Spirit. God says that He gave the Holy Spirit without measure. The Holy Spirit is the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, everything Jesus became on earth was by the Spirit. That was Jesus’s mentor when He was on earth! That was the person that empowered Him. God anointed Jesus Christ of Nazareth:
38 "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him." - Acts 10:38
Now we have been anointed with the same Holy Ghost! This will help you not to rate Him small and treat Him as if He’s not important. The same Spirit that made Jesus to conform to the will of God in the flesh, such that he pleased God. That is the Spirit that we had been given, read John chapter 14 and 15. You’ll discover some things about Him. When you give the Spirit/the Lord attention, your life will start speaking for God. Let’s open to Ezekiel 39:29:
Ezekiel 39:29
"I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
What is the grand plan of God? You remember in Joel when He said, “in the last days He will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh”. Peter quoted from that scripture in Acts 2:17:
Acts 2:17
"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
We’ve entered a season where we will see a mass salvation of souls because of this understanding of the Holy Spirit. When you’re speaking you’re not just speaking your words, you are speaking from Him! He inspires your thoughts and He inspires your words. So God made a promise I will pour out my Spirit on all men. I want you to imagine all the things God said will happen, visions, dreams, signs and wonders, that means that without the Spirit they can’t happen. The type of prosperity that God has ordained for you as a New Testament believer, cannot happen without the Holy Spirit. If we want extraordinary influence of God, to be seen evidently in our lives we have to embrace the lordship of the Holy Spirit. If you do, your results will be different, it’s a promise.
Isaiah 32:15-16
“until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust] forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.”
When the Holy Spirit comes on the scene, He is the game changer who ensures that we live in ways that are consistent with redemption. it’s your right and your inheritance to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. If your Spirit is not submissive to the Holy Spirit, you will be very vulnerable and naked. The time has come for you not to walk naked but to walk covered with His glory. The glory of God is our covering and our defence. The Holy Spirit anoints us for ease so that by Him, we can boast that we can climb the mountains, we can break through the troops, we can leap over the walls! The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us.
We’re born of the Spirit to be nurtured by the Spirit, so we can express the life of God.. The world is waiting for your manifestation. The truth is that without the Holy Spirit, you’ll only manifest defeat. Without the Holy Spirit, you will only manifest shame. Without the Holy Spirit, you will only manifest struggle. You will not manifest what God has ordained you to manifest. We are sons of the living God, we are not strangers to divinity. We are not strangers to the power of God. Furthermore, we are not strangers to the glory of God. We are not strangers to divine inspiration. We are not strangers to prosperity, we are not of this world because we’ve received the Spirit that is not of this world.
