What a blessing to be in a good place like this – a place where holy people gather freely in the presence of the Lord. Lord, help us to not take this for granted!
In 2004, I was 7 years saved. During Pentecost weekend, I flew in from CO to a revival in OH. I used to help as a translator for a man of God. A few months before I go to this revival, I had spent my days fully preparing, praying in tongues and seeking God. I had been laid off from the company where I was a tech support. When I was laid off, it was an answer to my prayers because I wanted to serve God full time. I had been dreaming of praying and spending time with God a lot and when they laid me off, I said, “here I am Lord, please use me.” I asked, “Jesus, My Lord, do you have something for me to do? I desperately need you now.” The Lord responded, ‘My daughter, what are you doing right now?” I answered ‘Tech Support. I am troubleshooting computers & tech equipment!” He asked, ‘Are you good at it?” “Yes!” Then the Lord reassured and said that from then on I was going to troubleshoot the issues of the heart. And this morning before the service, the Lord was reminding me of that conversation we had together 11 years ago. He was telling me “I am the one who called you to deal with the issues of the heart”. I said, “Please Lord, you know how there are doctors, but some are really really good at it? Can you make me a good one?” He said, “Of course you are my queen, the one I love, so faithful and so true. I have and will always help you get better. My servant, remain humble! Remain in Me!”
So I lost the job. Instead of looking for another one, I put all my hours into prayer. When I went to this revival, I vowed myself to God, to be His bride, His everything- whatever He needed me to do, I promised I would do! That day, I drafted and signed my wedding vows to Jesus. The next day of the revival, I was ordained and it is during this revival I received the blazing holy fire – exactly on the day of Pentecost! That’s when I wrote the Blazing Holy Fire book and this is where the name of our church came from.
The time I received this blazing holy fire were times of testing and great trials. Financially, I was broke. I had nothing. I lived by faith and depended upon God for every need and for every bill I had to pay. The fire doesn’t come easily. There is a price to pay. During that time, I lost completely everything, but I fell in love with Jesus; the precious treasure in the field I discovered and my life would never be the same again.
Today is Pentecost; 11 years I look back and oh, how far the Lord has brought us! Today we are going to talk about the person of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost simply means the 50ieth day after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On the day of Pentecost in the New Testament, the disciples received the Holy Spirit and were baptized into the holy fire. In the Old Testament, God gave the children of Israel the Torah on the day of Pentecost, speaking to them from the mountain blazing with the fire (Exodus 19:16-19).
The heavens are open on the day of Pentecost. The Lord told us that He is a Jewish man but also a man of no race. Whenever there is a feast of the Lord (Leviticus 23), we have seen the Lord in our midst celebrating these feasts. We have seen the Lord always dressed differently, beautifully on each one of those feasts and He would tell us about the feast. What a blessed day it is today, being here and in prayer is the right place for us to receive the blessings of the Lord. God’s blessings are coming every single moment. But people have to be ready to receive what comes from heaven. You have to be in the right place and ready because spiritual things cannot be given to the people who are not ready to treat them right. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. Do you want to see heaven? Then prepare. Do you want to see the Lord? Then prepare yourself like a bride who is preparing for her wedding day.
John 14:16-18. Here is a promise from Jesus to the disciples. There are many people listening/reading this message who right now are sitting on big promises. Some have been fulfilled and some have not, but God is faithful to fulfill them all! Take courage – God fulfills the words that come out of His mouth.
In this passage, the Lord promises to give disciples another Helper. Do you ever get stuck when you’re doing something? Do you ever find yourself saying “oops, I don’t know what to do.” Always remember that the Holy Spirit is your Highest Helper. He’s going to help you when you feel like you are stuck; when school is too hard, when things are not going well at work, do not hesitate to ask for help from the Holy Spirit. Do not forget to fellowship with Him because He is fully God. The promise that the Holy Spirit will be with you forever is a great promise. The one who is with you forever is your number 1 best friend. Trust Him, call upon Him – He will always come for you.
God is a God who works with your free will. You have a choice to receive or reject him. Oh, what a humble savior our Lord is. Though King of kings and Lord of lords, He comes to us and knocks and say, “would you let me in?” That’s not how the devil works – he forces, he works against people’s free will and manipulate. Jesus is Love. Love gives a choice. Love doesn’t force itself on others. Here the Lord tell us that the Holy Spirit may be with you if you receive Him. Hallelujah! He may be with you if you are willing. That is the spirit of truth. People are walking around saying I’m confused- what is the truth but the Truth is everywhere. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of truth. Never say I’m confused. If you say that, confusion will come bigger. Be careful with your words, they create – life or death! The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. God doesn’t work in confusion. When you feel confusion that means it is not God – do not go forward with it.
The world cannot receive him. People have to make the choice to receive Christ and it is the only way to receive the Holy Spirit. The day you get saved, something happens. Ephesians 4:30 says that “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” When people get saved, Jesus comes in; the process to own them begins and they receive a seal, a mark that says “belonging to the Lord”, a warning and a reminder to satan “touch not my children; they are my friends, my brides, the people I bought with a high price.” Children of God, rejoice – you are in God’s grip; you are in the palms of His hands! Hallelujah! Those who are in hell have a mark of satan, that they belong to the devil.
The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit until they renounce satan and it is only by accepting Jesus that the devil is kicked out. What the Lord told me to remind you is that you are extraordinary people. you have what the world does not have – the Holy Spirit! You are peculiar people, you are not supposed to live like the world is living or dress like they dress, talk like they do, walk like they do – no, you are priests to God. We are not supposed to imitate the world; we are not to compare, we are not to imitate, we are not to live in sin. We receive the Spirit that the world cannot receive. The world doesn’t see Him, they don’t know Him. But you know Him.
The Lord tells the disciples, “Because He abides with you and will be in you.” These are the people who have hung out with Jesus for 3 and a half years. He said, “you are the ones who have stood with me in my trials”. That’s where we need to be: to cling to the Lord no matter what. So they had hung out with Jesus for 3 and a half years. Do you think it was easy to walk with Jesus? No, it was not. There was opposition every single day. You yourself know that you have been a church that fights heavy warfares. When the Lord appeared to us, warfare increased big time. When the spiritual realm of heaven opens, even the realm of the evil one also opens and you must overcome satan. You must overcome sin, heaven is for overcomers. Don’t think you will enter heaven if you do not overcome. Don’t think you will enter heaven if you keep your old nature. You must overcome sin. Fight and overcome every day. The Lord told us the warfare of those who see Him face to face is unimaginable and the price to walk with Him is even greater! With much warfare, we grew closer to Jesus however and clinged to Him more than ever before.
Let the storms come. Let the hurricanes hit, when you overcome them you are made stronger and more powerful. Let the devil be warned, the more attacks he launches, the more he will lose, the more victories we gain. If we endure and fight well, the more closer to Jesus we get, the greater the power and authority to stop those who are on their way to hell; the more souls to bring to Jesus, the more people who will fall in love with Jesus! Hallelujah!
The Lord told them that the Helper is with you and will be in you. He was telling them the Holy Spirit is with you but on the day of Pentecost, when you receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit, not only is He going to be with you but He will be in you. When the Holy Spirit comes, He’s going to be in you. Not just with you. We have someone without and within! Hallelujah! We are protected from within and without.
When a person get saved, we are not supposed to just lead them into the prayer of salvation and be content with that and send them home. After they are saved, we are supposed to introduce them to the Holy Spirit Acts 2:38 (Note: During this Pentecost service, we had 6 new guests. 4 of them were not baptized with the Holy Spirit but by the end of the service, 3 of them received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues and received different gifts and deliverance), mentor them right and harvest them in. The gift of the Holy Spirit is for all God’s children that’s why all those who were in the upper room received it. When people get saved and remain without speaking in tongues, they are vulnerable as they are fighting warfare without having the full armor of God (speaking in tongues is one of the armor of God). But when you receive the Holy Spirit, God’s power comes upon you (Acts 1:8).
One time I was talking with the Lord and He gave me this message to give to many pastors. He said, ‘tell those pastors that they are weak. I am not a God who is weak. Tell them they need to build their spiritual muscles and be strong in me.” So beloved brethren, we are not here to raise weak vessels but powerful warriors for Christ – people that satan and demons see and tremble.”
In John 16:7-15, we see the last words Jesus is sharing with the disciples before His suffering. Those of you who were here in the beginning when the Lord started visiting us face to face remember the feeling. After even talking to the Lord face to face only once, you miss Him, you miss His voice that is sweeter than honey; at night you keep waking up of love, you miss Him so much and you are counting, “how many hours until I see Him again? How many hours until church meet tonight?” We encountered the Lord every night and talked to Him face to face. When a night went without an encounter, it was such a long night – we would be sleepless! During the times of visitations, the ones who were not coming to prayer every day started becoming faithful. No words can describe the feeling when you see the Lord. In this passage, the Lord is about to go and they do not know when they would be able to see Him. They are very sad but He comforts them that it is to their advantage He goes. It’s very important that I go because there is another One who is going to come, and when I go I will send him. If I do not go, He will not come. He’s telling them, “I must go, it is better for humanity.” It is better for the whole world. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin. It’s great that Jesus was in their midst, teaching them. But something bigger was even about to happen as He dies for humanity on the cross.
The one who is coming, He’s going to convict everyone. Believers or sinners, they will all be convicted. Nobody can say, “I am sinning but I don’t know if it’s sin”. Even before we are saved, we know that stealing is wrong. So this is a new thing, they do not have to be in Israel where Jesus is to believe but everywhere, the Holy Spirit will convict people. The Holy Spirit convicts people individually of their sins. Satan and his agents go on internet and slander people and point out their weakness or their shortcomings or sins but the Holy Spirit convicts people inwardly. Don’t ever read those articles that slander people – it is a satanic tongues that destroy the readers or hearers. As you evangelize, tell people about the Lord and it is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict them.
When I was little, the first time I was told that there is God – I fully believed. I did not question it. who gave me that knowledge but the Holy Spirit? When I was told about hell and satan, I remember those times very well even though I was little, when I was told – I was convinced it is the truth. Who revealed that to me but the Holy Spirit. When you tell people about Jesus, the Holy Spirit will convict them about the truth. Even right now, sinners are being convicted as you evangelize. Rise up and get these flyers out in every hand. The Holy Spirit is everywhere, you might not see Him yet He is working behind the scenes. In our church, the Holy Spirit has visited us and shown Himself taking on different forms.
The Holy Spirit is fully God
As He works, His ministry is to reveal and glorify Jesus (John 16:14).
The Holy Spirit is the one who reminds you and give you memory. So pay attention
The Holy Spirit also can reveal to you future events and disclose you what is coming. Listen.
The Holy Spirit is the one who guides you into all the truth.
The Holy Spirit does all these things for love’s sake only – a love that does not seek its own but seeks only to value you and enrich you in things pertaining to God.
As Jesus departed from the world, God sent the Holy Spirit. He is indeed your true friend who is with you always and forever – but He is so humble like the Lord Jesus. In humility, He chose to remain invisible, working powerfully behind the scenes, invisible, faceless, nameless.
The Lord told the disciples the Holy Spirit will come but He did not tell them when. Why? Because no human can fully understand God’s timing. Oh, the counting of days, it can only lead to discouragement – be careful! The Lord gives a promise but many times He doesn’t tell you when it will come to pass, it comes like a surprise and it is even more exciting.
Many promises the Lord gives you they come with an if. When God gives you the promise, the first thing to do is to pray for that promise. No promise come to be fulfilled without a fight. He told them to wait in Jerusalem. Waiting is one of the most hard thing and you must fight as you wait: you must fight doubts and overcome; you must fight Mr. discouragement and overcome him and so forth. The disciples waited and they went in the upper room.
On the day the Lord had chosen, this great promise came to pass and fulfilled in the lives of those who overcame. When it happened, it was bigger than they had thought – it was bigger than restoring the kingdom to Israel – but God’s Kingdom was introduced to the whole world. As we close the service this morning, God wants to baptize you in His Holy Spirit and fire. God wants to give you His power. He wants you to possess it and now He gives you the power to tread upon serpents, scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing will harm you. Pray and get hold of God. Desire this power. Receive it. If you are reading this article online and you are not filled with the Holy Spirit: Repent of your sins; Desire the gift; Ask the Father to give you the gift. Pray powerfully and fast, receive.
Receive the Holy Spirit! Smile! Be Happy!
Comments