Supernatural: Understanding The Holy Spirit

Understanding The Holy Spirit

Acts 1:8 NKJV – “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The most important message to the world is Jesus. People in the world need to know that Jesus loves and forgives them, and that Jesus saves. They need to know that Jesus gives eternal life. The world needs to know that Jesus is Lord. However, the most important message to the church is the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples that He had to go so that the Holy Spirit could come and that the church can be established.

The most important message to the church is the message and ministry of the Holy Spirit. We need to learn to experience and follow Him, lean into Him, listen to Him, and be led by Him. The Holy Spirit will help the church to stay focused on Jesus. He makes sure that we remain committed to the great commission and that we stay close to God. We have to stay close God when we are able to be sensitive and submitted to the Holy Spirit.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is God. He is just like Jesus. Some people are afraid of the Holy Spirit because they don't really know what to think or they don’t understand the “idea” of the Holy Spirit altogether. But if you're not afraid of Jesus, then you don't need to be afraid of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Jesus, and He wants a relationship with you.

The Holy Spirit is not some force just moving around in the universe. He is a personality with emotions and an ability to speak and lead. He has ideas, and He gives us wisdom. The Holy Spirit guides us. So, He’s not a good vibration or a good feeling you get when you’re at church. He's a personality. The Holy Spirit is a person that we need to have a relationship with.

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands.”

John 14:15-17 NIV – “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.”

Scripture describes the Holy Spirit as an overcoming power. And Jesus said that it is power to be a witness. We all need to witness and talk about Jesus. And so, the Holy Spirit will help us to be a witness, not just talk about Him but to demonstrate Him through our lives.

Before Jesus was crucified, Peter denied Him three times. But when Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter went from being a cowardly lion who ran and hid in the shadows to becoming a disciple who was as bold as a lion. Once he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he never backed down again.

One of the main things that Jesus did when He was on earth was to teach His disciples. Many of them were uneducated, and some were very religious. And so, Jesus spent a lot of His ministry and time correcting their theology. Sometimes, we need the same straightening out the disciples did, and the Holy Spirit is there to teach us if we listen to Him.

The Holy Spirit won't teach you anything contradictory to the Word of God; He will teach you the Word of God. When Jesus walked with His disciples, He strengthened them. The Holy Spirit will strengthen you. When Jesus walked with His disciples, He led them. And the Holy Spirit will lead you. So, the Holy Spirit is an extension of Jesus’ ministry.

Why We Need the Holy Spirit

Jesus left so that we could be born again and become a new creation. When He went to heaven, we could then receive the Holy Spirit. We could receive this due to His power. We couldn't have it before. Jesus went away so that the church could be established.

Jesus could only be in one place at one time. But when He ascended into heaven and the Holy Spirit descended, the Holy Spirit can be everywhere at once. So, no longer is the ministry of Jesus limited to one place at a time. Now it's everywhere. The Holy Spirit is everywhere, and He is all that Jesus was. Understanding that truth is very significant in our lives as believers.

Jesus said to keep His commandments if we love Him. Now, we all want to keep the commandments of God. But sometimes that's a struggle. We want to hit the mark, but we miss the target. That's what sin is – falling short. We want to keep the commandments, but we just can't seem to consistently obey God. And so, Jesus said He would ask the Father to give us another Helper – the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is there to help when you're having a hard time serving God. If you're having a hard time finding victory in certain areas of your life, the Holy Spirit will help you through those difficult times if you rely on Him. The Holy Spirit is just like God, understanding who He is and what He does. God has given us this strength in our lives.

The Holy Spirit allows you to operate in supernatural power, to bring healing and deliverance to hurting people. A lot of times, we think the Holy Spirit is a feel-good moment in church. But He isn't just for us to feel good. Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach, teach, bring good news, and heal the wounded. So, the Holy Spirit comes to us for an assignment.

When you experience the Holy Spirit, there's something in your life that He wants you to do and accomplish. As a believer, you can pray for people and lovingly demonstrate the power of the Kingdom to them. But your relationship with God is dependent upon the Holy Spirit. We couldn't even get saved without the Holy Spirit.

We need the Holy Spirit in our lives, and people often neglect or avoid Him because they think this is all just too confusing. So, they do not pursue the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit will help you to know Jesus. Having a relationship with the Holy Spirit will allow you to love Jesus more. It will allow you to know Jesus at a deeper level.

If you want to know God better, it is through relationship with the Holy Spirit. He reveals God to us; He shows us the very nature and the very heart of God.

How Exactly Does the Holy Spirit Help You?

The Holy Spirit is essentially a life coach. A life coach helps you with your problems. They help you make better decisions, reach your goals, and stay on track. They hold you accountable. The Holy Spirit does that in every area of our lives. He's right there to tell you how to go forward. He'll help you get through whatever you're going through.

The Holy Spirit will  help you make decisions, solve your problems, and reach your goals. He's going to stretch you, push you, instruct you, and take you further than you could ever go on your own. When you build a relationship with Him, the Holy Spirit will help you pray.

Romans 8:26-27 NKJV – “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

How Do We Pray?

Have you ever had a situation where you didn't know how to pray? You knew that something needed to be handled in prayer, but you didn't have the words to say. When you come to that place, the Holy Spirit will assist you in prayer. There are two ways to pray with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

Oftentimes, the Holy Spirit will assist you by prompting you to pray for something or a particular person. He will sometimes drop something in your heart, whether it’s a person, a situation, or something that you just weren't thinking of. This is the Holy Spirit directing you to pray. God works through prayer. If we pray more, God moves more. So, the Holy Spirit will remind you. He'll even show you things and people to pray for.

The other way to pray with the assistance of the Holy Spirit is to pray in what the Bible calls a prayer language, commonly known as praying in tongues. Praying in the Spirit is praying out of your belly. It’s a deep, intercessory prayer.

When you pray with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, you are always praying the right prayer. And the right prayers get answered. When you pray according to the Word of God, that prayer always gets answered. So, when you’re praying in the Spirit and with the Spirit, you’re praying prayers that are going to be answered.

When you pray in the Holy Spirit, you let the Holy Spirit impress things upon you for prayer. You allow yourself to be led by the Spirit of God.

The book of Acts tells us that when the Holy Spirit came in the church, they all began to speak with other tongues. So, we know that the church was birthed in the Spirit. The church was born when the Holy Spirit showed up supernaturally. And they were praying in tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance.

Baptisms

Baptism of the Holy Spirit

There are three baptisms, with the first being baptized into Christ. This is a new birth. You and Jesus become entwined together, and God seals you with the Holy Spirit. When you get born again, you don't just pencil Jesus in for the weekends. He moves inside of you, such that you are the same spirit and the same nature as a supernatural new creation.

Then there's baptism in water, a supernatural experience that God has given to the church. Finally, there's the baptism of the Holy Spirit. After Paul baptized a small group of people in Acts 19, He prayed for them. They got filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues. So, there is this ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He wants to assist us and minister in our lives. He wants to minister through us. He wants to lead and guide us, but we've got to build that relationship with Him.

We can have a relationship with God when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Every believer needs three experiences in their life. First, we all need the experience of the new birth, not just going to church or being raised in a Christian home. Every person needs to be born again and experience what Jesus did for us at the cross.

We need the empty tomb, which is the resurrection power. Jesus brushed off death, and the Bible says that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will quicken and make alive your mortal bodies. And so, we need to understand that Jesus died on the cross, but He didn't stay on the cross. He was buried in a tomb, and He didn't stay in there. So, there's resurrection power. You have authority in prayer. You have the power to declare the miracles and the hand of God. Every believer needs to understand that we have resurrection power.

Finally, we need to go to the upper room. That's where the Holy Spirit was poured out. So, we need to have that relationship with the Holy Spirit. Today, I pray that we realize how much we need Him and that we no longer push the Holy Spirit away from us. I pray that we realize that we need to have a relationship with Him. I want us to begin to build that relationship with Him, to wait on the Holy Spirit, and to get in the presence of the Holy Spirit.