Yeah, how's Mohini doing? Anybody know?
Okay, cool.
Okay, guys, hopefully we'll go down this path for the next few weeks.
The spirit of God and the people of God.
I want to start off by going to Hebrews 1, verse 3, and take us back to a space when there was no time or place.
There was no time, there was no place. Nothing had been created.
And that's when we see Hebrews 1, 3.
Hebrews 1, 3.
It says there, reading from the NIV,
The sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his power, by his powerful word.
After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of majesty.
Then if you go further down to verse 8, it says,
Without the sun, he says, your throne, O God, will last forever and ever.
A scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
Before there was time, before there was time and before there was any known creation or place, there existed the kingdom of God.
In the very idea of there being a throne, if there was a throne, and on the throne sat the self-existent triune God,
then we need to understand that before there was time, before there was any place created, there existed the kingdom of God.
We think the kingdom of God only exists if people, if churches are around or people get born again.
Not true. The kingdom of God existed before anything else existed.
Before there was creation, there was the kingdom of God, meaning there was God's reign. There was God's rule.
The Bible says it has been from everlasting to everlasting. It has always been there.
Just try and imagine that. There was no time, there was nothing that was created, and yet before there was time and before anything was created,
the rule of God already existed, the reign of God already existed, the kingdom of God already existed.
Angels existed before the fall, before creation. Angels existed before creation.
Just keep that in mind. Angels weren't created as part of the creation narrative in Genesis 1. They were created before.
Millions upon millions of them. I mean, uncountable, innumerable. They existed before anything was created.
So there are certain things that existed in the invisible that we need to be aware of.
Two or three things that we need to touch on. And in our lives, they are there, but they might be small,
but if we are aware of them, they become big and they become something God can use.
So one of the things that existed was the kingdom.
Then go to Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11 3, and Genesis 1 2. And you'll see two other things that existed in the invisible.
Hebrews 11 3, here's what it says,
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
So we know that, so here's what you're saying, what is seen was made out of what is invisible.
What is visible is invisible. Or in other words, what is visible was made out of what is invisible.
So what are we talking about? Go to Genesis 1 verse 2. Genesis 1 verse 2. Genesis 1 verse 2.
And it says in Genesis 1 verse 2, the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep.
And there was someone who was invisible present there, and that was the Spirit of God.
And then there was something else that was invisible that was spoken, and that was the Word.
So we are talking about three things that existed before anything existed,
before there was time, before there was anything created, before there was a thing called a place, before there was time,
before all that, three things existed for sure that are critical to our present existence.
One was this thing called the Kingdom of God with innumerable angels.
Two, the Spirit of God was present before creation began.
And three, the Word of God. And we think about the Word, got to think about it in so many different ways,
when you think about the Word, we are talking about the Word as in the pre-incarnate Christ,
as in He existed and He's called the Word. We are talking about the spoken Word, God spoke and light was created.
We are talking about the written Word, which is what we have on our phones and in our Bibles.
And then we are talking about the Word made flesh.
But let's just keep that aside for now. These three existed before there was time or before there was place.
From then on, everything visible begins to exist. These existed before.
And from then on, everything begins to exist.
Everything begins to exist that is visible, everything.
And this divine process is still active today.
So let's pause and think of that.
So if you are a believer, these are three things you must always hold front and center.
One, that the kingdom as in the God's rule and reign has existed before creation, will continue to exist and will be the only thing standing.
You have to find out how it is important to you, how you fit into it.
What does God want you to do with it? And we don't.
We don't even know how to define the kingdom. Most of the time, it's so hazy, so blurry that we can't even put it together.
But it has existed before anything existed.
The second thing that you have to keep in mind as believers is that the Spirit of God has always been invisible and been there throughout.
He'll be there. He was there before creation. He will be there at the end.
Let the Spirit and the Bride say, come. That's how the Bible ends. And that's how the Bible starts.
He's always there and he's constantly, he's the one who advances the kingdom that has existed.
He's the one who makes Christ real. He's the one who is here right now. He's the one who gives us understanding of these things.
How do you locate himself? How do you locate yourself with him? What's the role he's playing in your life on a daily basis?
And then the third thing we need to realize is that there's a word, and we're not talking about the written word.
The written word is just 66 books that can never tell you all about Jesus.
The writers themselves said it, that if we could write down everything that Jesus did and said, there wouldn't be enough books to hold it.
It was an exaggeration, a hyperbully, but the point was there's so much that was happening that you can't write it down.
How do you take an infinite God and compile a library on him?
So we're not talking about the word as in the written word. We're talking about the word as in Christ the word being revealed to us by the Spirit.
And Christ the word that, I mean, unless you be, yeah, we won't go there yet.
So these are the three things that exist. Any questions on this before we go on?
How do you locate yourself? The question we have to ask is, how do you locate yourself in the word, in the Spirit and in the kingdom?
Do I have an understanding of it? How much of a role does it play in my life on a daily basis, on an hourly basis?
That to an extent defines how I function as a Christian here on earth.
Any questions?
No? Anything that's not clear that you want to challenge?
Okay.
So imagine that these three things, Spirit, word and kingdom,
imagine them as stones cut from God's quarry without human hands.
You can't do this. God will have to bring this to us, eh?
Without human hands, placed into your life, crafted, fleshed out, given momentum and sustained by the Spirit.
Imagine that God has a quarry and he cuts out three stones for you to carry.
One of them is, hey, can you locate yourself and understand how the Spirit of God works with you?
How critical he is to you? How you can't understand me without him?
Hey, can you figure out how you understand the kingdom? How you locate yourself in the kingdom?
How important is the kingdom of God to you? Does it work in your life on a daily basis?
And three, can you understand how to relate to the word?
How important the role the word plays in your life?
How every thought must be shaped by the word? How it should wrestle you?
It's like giving us three precious stones and saying, the Spirit of God will help you with this.
He'll craft it into you. He'll flesh it out. As in it'll become real to you.
I remember times in Davant when he got baptized, he would say, the word was alive.
The question is, the Spirit of God still wants to do it. Is he doing it in our lives or is it a baptism thing?
Because the Spirit of God wants to do it.
All these things are given to us and the question is, do we continue to be sustained by it?
He'll flesh it. He'll give us momentum. Every time we stop, he'll reignite momentum.
His job is to make sure that believers understand this.
He's never going to tire to restart things in my life. He'll do it a million times.
It's just an openness and a willingness to restart.
Maybe be people of a million restarts.
Because after a million restarts, he'll still be as eager to restart you again.
And these are stones that your hands cannot cut. You can't make this happen.
You can't make the Spirit of God happen. You can't fabricate him.
You can't make the word happen and fabricate it. You can't do anything of this sort.
God has to do it with invisible hands.
The Bible talks about this. In Daniel chapter 2, it says,
And then I saw a stone, a stone that was cut not with human hands.
And the stone began to gather momentum.
And as it began to gather momentum, it began to come and crash against every statue
or every idol of Nebuchadnezzar and breaks it into pieces.
There was not a single kingdom that could withstand this stone.
And the stone was the kingdom of God.
You see that in one place.
And then you go and you see again in Matthew 21, which we'll read next week.
Next week is Palm Sunday.
Matthew 21, Jesus turns around to the Pharisees and he says to them,
The stone that the builders rejected has now become the chief cornerstone.
And anyone who stumbles on it can rise up.
But anyone on whom it falls will be completely crushed.
The point being, hey, Pharisees, I gave you a kingdom lifestyle.
If you don't want it, I'm going to take it away from you.
And know this, that either you stumble on it and you find it,
or it comes crashing down on you and you will be destroyed.
And then we read the same thing in Deuteronomy 9.
And Moses is saying to the Israelites,
I went up the mountain, I was there for 40 days and 40 nights.
And then the finger of God took a stone, made it into a tablet,
and on the stone tablets started writing the word of God.
And I brought them back.
But by the time I came down, all of Israel was rebelling.
But it was the finger of God that wrote on those stones.
And I saw your golden calf.
And I took this stone tablet on which these words were written.
And I hurled it down.
And I took your calf.
And I broke it, crushed it, made it into powder, and sent it down the river.
For us, it's critical that these three things be things that we understand.
The kingdom of God and how we deal with it on a daily basis.
On a daily basis, it's not a weekly thing, guys, or it's not a Sunday thing.
Ask yourself this question when you're playing basketball, Mr. Vegas,
or when you're teaching, Ms. Betty, or when you're skiing, Ms. May.
At times like that, what is the role of the kingdom?
What is the role of the spirit, Chava, in your daily life when you're working?
And how do we locate ourselves in the Word?
I'm not talking about just reading the Word.
How much of the Word influences?
These three things were before the earth began.
It must be a daily thing in our lives.
One of the best ways to get to hang out with these three things is to love the Holy Spirit.
The people of God must love the Spirit of God, because otherwise this becomes very difficult.
So here's the question.
Do you love the Holy Spirit?
As in, yes, we love the Father.
Yes, we love Jesus Christ the Son.
But we hardly talk about loving the Holy Spirit.
Love requires a relationship.
Do we love the Holy Spirit?
Do we love Him with reason?
As in, when you love somebody, there's reasoning behind it.
Do we love Him with reason?
Do we love Him with thinking and thoughts?
Do we love Him with feelings?
Do we love Him with our spirit?
Do we love Him with our soul?
If we don't, then we don't love Him.
We don't love Him.
We love Him with our soul.
If we don't, He will remain an invisible, misunderstood wisp.
You know, people can understand Jesus.
You talk about Jesus often.
You talk about Him, you tell people about Him, and people seem to know that you actually have a relationship with someone called Jesus.
But hardly anyone knows that we have a relationship with the Spirit of God.
He's fully God, but we don't even know how to talk about Him.
We see Him as an external power agency, someone who does things, but not someone who we have a relationship with.
And because the Bible has presented Him as dove, as oil, as fire,
all objects that we don't necessarily have a relationship with every day,
unless you're growing up in India and use coconut hair oil.
Someone once gave me a sachet of coconut hair oil, but they forgot and they told me it was shampoo.
So I'm pouring it over my head and lathering it and nothing's happening, so I pour more.
By the time I was done, I didn't know whether I was covered with water or with oil because I was dripping oil.
But that's besides the point.
The point being, because He's known as oil, fire, dove, we don't know how to relate to Him personally.
We don't talk about Him personally.
And yet the way Jesus talked about Him was so personal.
He dedicated two chapters to the Holy Spirit, like not dedicated two chapters.
In John, He talks about the Holy Spirit in John 14, John 15, John 16.
He's talking about the Holy Spirit.
Then He continues in John 21.
Then He goes into the book of Acts and He's talking about the Holy Spirit again.
So do I love Him with reason, with thinking, with feelings, with spirit, soul?
He's the one who brings to me today the Father and the Son.
And the better you know Him, the more you will get to know and understand His revelation of the Father and the Son.
If you've met some famous guy, if I know you, I'll get to know things about the person you met better.
And the Bible talks about Him that way, that the Spirit of God searches the mind of God.
It talks about Him as if He's the third person and He is.
And then it says the Spirit of God goes and searches the mind of God.
He plumbs the depths of the Father's heart and mind.
Wouldn't you want to know?
One of the things we have to move away as Christians is we've got to stop seeking the Spirit of God for the will of God.
But what if we started seeking the Spirit of God for the mind of God?
Would you rather know the will of God or would you rather know the thinking of God?
Strangely enough, most of us will answer the will of God. It's easy. I need answers immediately.
But really, what we should desire is, can I seek after how God thinks instead of seeking after answers that God can provide?
If we can think like God, eventually we will not need to know answers.
We will know how to solve it because we begin to think like God.
How brilliant it would be if you didn't have to seek the will of God because you know how He thinks.
And the one who searches the mind of God, who brings us the mind of God, is the Spirit.
On one hand, in Isaiah 55 verse 9, it says, who can know the thoughts of God?
His thoughts are higher than ours, His ways are greater than ours. So that's one part of it.
But the second part of it is in 2 Corinthians 2.16 or thereabouts it says,
but we have the mind of Christ brought to us by the Spirit of God who searches the mind of God.
It's like, let's say, Chava is a good friend of Nick's and I want to know what Nick is thinking,
but Chava knows him so well that Chava comes and tells me what Nick is thinking because Chava digs out the thoughts of Nick.
And I come and whisper to you, bok choy today.
When we deal with the Holy Spirit, we are dealing with the personal presence of God.
We are dealing with the personal presence of God.
And so what are we looking at? We are looking at walking with God like Adam did in Eden 24-7.
Think of that guys. That's the extent to which God wants to make it real.
God has always been Spirit. God is Spirit.
So I don't know whether there was an anthropomorphic form that Adam used to relate to in the garden where there was some kind of form,
but we know that Adam was as Spirit being as they come because he had not fallen.
And that the way he would relate, God only knows he would know the ways of God.
He was supposed to expand from there on.
If without God in our fallenness, we can go to the moon and create iPhones, imagine what it would be if we hadn't fallen.
And so the Spirit of God wants each of us to have the Eden experience now.
To dive into the well of the Spirit or to dive into the life of the Spirit is to actually begin to have a taste of what Eden was like before the fall.
Imagine that.
I mean, I want to get to a place where I think like God so that I don't have to figure out his will.
Won't that be cool? He just knows.
If you dive into the well of the Spirit or if you dive into the life of the Spirit,
you can get to taste what Eden is like because the Spirit of God has been given to us so that presence can be returned to us.
The reason we have the permanence of the Spirit in our life is so that we can have the permanence of presence in our life.
The same permanence of presence that Adam had and lost is now restored.
And so it is important to love the Spirit and to love him not as in, oh, I love you, I adore you,
but love the Spirit as in I reason with you, I think with you, I feel with you, I engage with you.
It almost feels like we are talking about someone we don't know.
Strange day after all these years.
Any questions?
He is amazing, eh, the Holy Spirit? He is amazing. He is exuberant.
He's like Yaya, Mia and Phoebe on steroids.
Put them all together, give them flags and the Holy Spirit will beat them any day.
Really, he is childlike, he is servant-like, he is exuberant, he is very enthusiastic.
He pines for relational joy.
Hear me, he pines, he yearns for relational joy.
He does not want it all to himself. He is that way anyways.
So for us to be anything else is actually us to an extent resisting who the Holy Spirit in us is.
By adding, by putting Mia, Phoebe, Yaya together, I'm not saying that the Spirit of God jumps up and down.
That's not what I'm saying.
But they are childlike and don't have a care in the world and are joyful.
That's what I'm trying to get at.
But this is how he is. He is exuberant, he is highly enthusiastic, he is amazing and he pines for relational joy.
As in he wants to, in relating to me, bring to me who he is because he is in me.
And when I'm in him, he wants to bring to me who he is because he is in me.
And when I'm not like that, it is because I'm either resisting him or cooperating with the environment around me or spirits around me.
Either. Either my situation or my environment is beginning to dictate how I am or I'm falling prey to the father of lies.
So when I begin to fall in love with the Holy Spirit, these things begin to change.
That's why it's important that we fall in love with the Holy Spirit.
It is so unreal right now that I think we need to pause and pray because none of us look very convinced.
So let's pray.
Spirit of God, we have relegated you to making sure that we know the right songs to pick for worship,
that we speak in tongues, that you bring a revival, that you show us the word and we talk about you on Pentecost.
That's about it. As we are talking right now about you, about having a loving relationship with you, it's very unreal.
It's either that or it's the afternoon heat on a hot summer Sunday, hot spring Sunday.
I doubt it though. So I just ask Spirit of God, could you please open up our hearts to the absolute truth that Jesus Christ and the Father asked us to engage with you in a deep, deep relationship.
The reason sometimes the intimacy cry of Abba is missing from our lives is because we have not cultivated that deep relationship with you.
The reason sometimes that I don't feel adopted but feel abandoned by God is because I do not have a living relationship with the Spirit of adoption.
So Spirit of God, we just open our hearts for just 30 seconds to a minute and begin to say something clumsy to you so that we can initiate this reaction today.
So we begin that right now. Just say something clumsy. Maybe some of you are smart, but just say something clumsy to him right now.
Initiating this.
Can you sing this really old song with me?
The greatest thing in all my life is loving you.
Sing it to the Holy Spirit, eh? Let's start again.
The greatest thing in all my life is loving you.
I want to love you more.
The greatest thing in all my life is loving you.
Sing it a second time for those who didn't know the song.
The greatest thing in all my life is loving you, Holy Spirit.
The greatest thing in all my life is loving you.
I want to love you more.
The greatest thing in all my life is loving you.
Let him respond to our prayer, eh?
Because he is more than willing. He is always enthusiastic.
He has emotions, and I know you know that.
Otherwise we wouldn't have the fruit of the Spirit.
He has love, he has compassion, he has peace, he has goodness, he has patience, he has grace, he has mercy.
What do you think the fruit of the Spirit is? It's his nature.
He has all these, and they are not just truths. They are truths packed in emotion.
You cannot have compassion as a truth. I feel compassionate towards you.
That's strange, eh? It's not real.
Truth always comes with emotions. It's his nature.
And so to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit is one of the sure ways of having the presence of God.
To have a relationship with the Holy Spirit is one of the sure ways of having the tangible presence of God.
To have a relationship with someone is to have their presence.
Even when they are absent, you miss their presence. Isn't that wonderful?
When you have a relationship with someone, even when they are absent, you miss their presence.
This is how real it can get.
So try it, guys. Awareness, eh? Of these things.
Awareness of loving and try it.
The intent of the Spirit, what is the intent of the Spirit?
The intent of the Spirit is not to make you a better Christian.
The intent of the Spirit is one, this is so important, to make you confident of how God sees you.
That's the first one.
One of his main intents is, can I tell you how the Father really thinks about you?
Can I tell you how Jesus really thinks about you?
If you listen to me, I'll tell you.
I mean, you listen to the letters that are written to the churches in the book of Revelation.
Yes, Christ writes those letters, but it's conveyed to John on the island by the Spirit.
I was in the Spirit, he says. He conveys it to him.
One of his favorite things to do is, can I tell you how the Father and the Son actually think about you?
The Spirit has a voice. It doesn't matter how it comes through, he has a voice.
Never doubt his ability to convey to you what he wants to say.
He doesn't need special attention. He's not a dove that whisks away.
He's not that sensitive. In fact, it's very hard to offend him.
You have to vex him on and on and on before he says, I'm vexed.
So, he has a voice, and that's why you continuously hear him in the book of Revelation in particular,
saying, let him who has ears hear what the Spirit is saying.
How he says it doesn't matter.
Guys, awareness leads to engagement. Awareness activates engagement.
When we become aware of these things, and awareness is not a passing thing.
You can be aware of it now, but to continue in awareness, one must then begin to practice what you learn.
To continue in awareness, one practices what one learns.
But awareness always activates engagement.
You begin to engage with someone when you're aware of them.
You begin to participate in their lives.
And so, one of the favorite things he likes doing, and boy, do we need it.
Because most days, how we think of ourselves, we don't even need help beating ourselves up.
And then, of course, there's always help.
So, he gets to tell you how God really thinks of you.
That's one of his intents.
The second one is to elevate you to the same richness of relationship, to the same ditto,
to the same richness of relationship that Jesus has created.
And so, he's going to tell you how God really thinks of you.
To the same ditto, to the same richness of relationship that Jesus had, has with the Father.
That's another one of his favorite things to do.
Hey, I want to show you how I helped Jesus relate to the Father when he was growing up,
in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.
I was the one who helped him.
Can I please help you?
Because I want you to have the same relationship that Jesus has with the Father.
These are daily active functions that the Spirit of God thoroughly enjoys.
We've got scripture to prove it.
In James, it says, can I tell you how jealously the Spirit yearns over you?
So, that's one of his second things.
Can I elevate you to the same richness of relationship that Jesus had with the Father?
Because I helped him when he was on earth.
Crazy!
It's not, can I show you how it was because I know how he was?
No!
Can I help you because I helped him?
Jesus wasn't a baby who was suddenly relating to the Father like your dad.
No!
It wasn't like that.
He had to go to the Father.
He had to grow in it.
That's why he had mother and father.
Jesus needed parents so that he could learn.
This is what he's inviting us into.
Any questions?
Third,
I'm not going to tell you how Jesus was invited into the world.
He was invited into the world by the Spirit of God.
Third,
he wants to help you attain the same maturity that Christ has.
Same maturity that Christ has.
How does he do that?
One of the simplest ways he does that is, hey, can I exchange?
The Spirit of God's favorite word.
Any guesses?
Obviously not.
Because whatever you guess, I'll say no, that's not it.
The favorite word of the Spirit of God is instead.
He's always exchanging.
He is always exchanging.
Give me this, I'll give you that.
Oil of joy instead of mourning.
Praise instead of heaviness.
Ashes instead of beauty.
Freedom instead of captivity.
Eyes that see instead of blindness.
He's always exchanging.
The Spirit of God loves exchanging.
Someone should write a song called Instead.
That's what he loves doing.
So how did he help me attain the same maturity that Christ has?
What he does is, hey, I know you're angry and you really want to get your pound of flesh,
but instead, can I help you with my nature by replacing that with mine?
It's always an exchange.
And there's a table across which the exchange happens, and that table happens to be the cross.
Because the cross now facilitates exchange.
You've been cleansed.
There's no condemnation.
The exchange happens across the table called the cross.
So many things then quickly happen.
On one hand, you're being forgiven and cleansed and separated from your guilt.
On the other hand, that's not enough.
Now, can I do the exchange?
These are his favorite things to do.
Let me give you a fourth one.
And these are the four main things he loves doing.
The fourth one is, he wants to help you.
He wants to make you a partner agent.
A partner agent of change.
As in, hey, can you join me?
Can you partner me so we can change things?
Can you join me so that we can change things?
He can do it on his own, but he wants you to be his junior partner.
I'm not recommending this movie.
I haven't watched all of it, but Men in Black, Will Smith.
No? Okay.
All righty. Moving on.
I don't know. I haven't watched it. I wouldn't know.
Moving on. Yeah.
So it's like your junior partner.
And he wants to make a partner agent.
Can I make you a partner agent of change?
And what does that involve?
Subduing, ruling, multiplying, replenishing.
It's the Genesis mandate.
Like he did in Genesis 1.
Always remember, guys, servants seek the will of the master, sons seek the mind of the father.
Servants seek the will of the master, sons seek the mind of the father.
That's the difference between sons and servants.
Servants seek the will of the master.
What is the will of the master? Master, what is your will? I will do it.
Sons seek the mind of the father.
Father, how do you think because I want to think like you.
Servants seek the will of the master.
Sons seek the mind and the heart of the father.
By the way, the Spirit of God has never lost a fight.
Is the undefeated?
WBC World Boxing Federation Champion.
Never lost a fight.
Artemis.
Pharaoh.
Goliath.
Head.
Herod.
All these things really happened. His stomach was full of maggots and he died.
Goliath.
Pharaoh.
So, this doesn't translate well on audio.
So the number of people who went up against the Holy Spirit and who lost, my God, it's a long list, man.
And not even a technical knockout, it was like a complete knockout.
Yeah.
Never lost a fight.
How does it tie in?
Yeah, when you read scriptures, take Psalm 110 for example, there's not a king or a nation.
Brandon, you want me to repeat the question?
Okay.
The question that Diana asked was how do you...
How does it play in with all the horrible things that are happening in the world?
Because of the Spirit of God being here on earth and because of the church being here on earth, the earth is still being preserved.
If the church was removed and the Spirit of God is removed, the lawless one would do whatever he wanted to.
And yet, this kind of rebellion is still accountable rebellion and will not be allowed to go on forever.
In a day, tyrants are deposed.
In a day, kings are executed.
In a day, nations that are rebellious are brought to heel.
It is just that in a day for us seems very long.
But for God, like he said about Egypt, like he said about Assyria, like he said about Babylon, I will wait.
The stench of their evil is reaching my nostrils, but I will still wait so that Nineveh can repent.
For it is his desire that none perish, but everyone gets saved.
And so in his mercy, he keeps giving time, keeps giving time, hoping someone will change.
What if he didn't give some of us that time 20 years ago, 25 years ago?
Most of you are nice people, but sitting amongst us are some big time crooks.
Me being one of them, that God in his mercy gave more time.
I mean look at Mike, who could ever doubt it?
Another thing with seeking is mind, guys.
If you seek the mind of the Holy Spirit, you will have conversations, arguments, reasonings.
It will be like a dad or a mom walking with a maturing son or daughter.
Till we seek God's mind, we don't usually end up having conversations, arguments, or arguments.
We don't usually end up having conversations, arguments, or arguments.
Till we seek God's mind, we don't usually end up having conversations, arguments.
We don't duel with God.
One of the cool things that happens in the Old Testament is when Isaiah says,
Hey, come reason with me.
God is inviting you to reason with him.
He'll still win the argument, but he wants to hear your side.
Sometimes he makes exceptions, gives concessions.
But you can't do that unless you are wanting to seek his mind and not his will.
When you seek his will, it's very easy.
Should I go? Should I not go?
Yes? No.
Yes. Okay, I'll go.
No. I'm upset, but I guess I don't have a choice.
There ends the conversation.
The Spirit of God and the people of God, that's what we are talking about.
I'll end in five minutes because we've got to do the thingy.
To search his mind, guys, we must know the word.
We must know the word.
The Spirit authored the word.
The Spirit of God authored the word.
He's in a good place to tell you what to read, how to read, what to see, how to see,
what your slant should be at this phase in your life.
Let no one say of Acts 29 that we don't know the word.
Let no one say that of us.
I've heard a couple of people saying it and it just agitates me
because I think to myself, what if it's true?
That's why it agitates me.
If I was confident that we were fluent in the word, it wouldn't agitate me.
I'd laugh at them.
But the question needs to be asked, is there enough word in us?
Let no one say of us that we don't have a good grasp of the word.
Not a good grasp of how to use words like pneumatology and eschatology
and progression and penetration and proclamation.
That's not important.
Those are not words we normally use.
But the thing is we need to know the word.
And that shouldn't be leveled against us that we don't know the word.
I say to the different church leaders here, get a reading plan so that
here's a question I want to ask.
How many here?
Just put up your hand if you've read the Bible more than twice.
That's pretty decent, man.
And so we've got to have the entire church lift up our hands and say,
we've read the Bible more than twice.
If you've lived as a believer for more than five years,
about time you had your hand up saying, I've read the Bible more than twice.
It doesn't have to be cover to cover.
And it doesn't have to include Leviticus.
No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
Read Leviticus too.
But just make sure that it covers, that you read the Bible.
Let no one say that of us, eh?
The thing is we need the Spirit of God to show us the Word of God.
There are far too many churches,
and I'm not talking about churches that I'm not familiar with,
too many churches that I've been to that I'm familiar with,
where people know the Word, but they don't have the Spirit of God.
And when you don't have the Spirit of God bringing alive the Word of God,
my God, man, you end up being religious and you end up creating a golden calf.
Something will take over when it is only the Word and without the Spirit of the Father.
You cannot read the Word with the eyes and the lens of the Father.
If the Father does not get formed in your heart while you're reading the Word,
my God, it's terrible.
And I've met it, I've seen it too often.
The jargon is there, the terms are there, the history of every book is there.
But the one person that is missing is the Father.
So the advantage we have is we understand who the Father is
and we do have an idea of how to follow the Spirit.
Now let's take the Word and bring it together.
Let it collide, let it explode.
Catch me or any other person who's preaching here and say,
hey, we are Berians. That didn't sound right.
It's a noble thing to do.
So on one hand, you must read the Book of Acts and know the ins and outs of the Book of Acts.
On the other hand, let's decide that reading the Book of Acts
without living the Book of Acts is unthinkable.
I don't care how many panels there are, how many different places we go.
If I can't live the Book of Acts, then it's pointless.
One of the things about traveling to different places is you see what you have here
and you see what you don't have here.
And inside you, you wish you could rise to a place where you have both.
Zechariah 4.6, I know it just says it's not by might nor by power.
I'd say it's not by power, it's not by power.
I'd say it's not by the letter either. The letter kills, the Spirit gives life.
Whenever you read the Word, just, you know, you don't even have to ask the Holy Spirit
to illuminate the Word if you love Him.
If you love somebody and you're sitting next to them and reading the Word,
it's natural for that person to explain what they wrote.
We don't have to pray, open the eyes of my heart that I may behold the wondrous works of your Word.
We won't have to do that.
The Holy Spirit has a voice, Revelation 3.6.
He who has an ear, let him hear.
In Galatians 3, verse 3, it says,
After having begun with the Spirit,
are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
Meaning, man, in everything we need as the people of God, the Spirit of God, eh?
John 6.63, one of my favorite verses.
The Spirit gives life. The flesh profits nothing!
I hate it when we go into any kind of a meeting.
Let's deal with meetings first.
I hate it with absolute hatred when you go into a meeting
and you find that everything is right,
but the one person that is not being followed or recognized
or that you're not aware of or that you're not engaging with is the Spirit of the Father.
I hate it! That's exactly what religion is.
Hate it, eh? You must hate it too.
Whatever you hate, you will not tolerate.
My desire is to disrupt those things
and bring in the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Father.
Desire it!
Because otherwise, we will always end up building a golden calf.
And then the tablets that were written by the finger of God.
Who is the finger of God? The Holy Spirit.
How do we know? Matthew 12.28.
The finger of God is the Holy Spirit.
Otherwise, the very things written by the finger of God will have to be thrown down
because now there's a golden calf around.
Hiya, Priya.
But when the Spirit and the Word combine,
you destroy every golden calf made with human hands.
The flesh profits nothing.
It is the Spirit that gives life.
Church, I'm begging you, I'm daring you, I'm challenging you.
Please, given what awaits us in terms of this revival that Tuneer's been talking about,
that I've been talking about, we need the Word.
We cannot do without the Word.
May, Jillian, Don, Derek, every other leader,
get a reading plan for the Church so that we do finish reading the Bible through and through.
Read it with the Holy Spirit. It becomes enjoyable.
Honestly, the Greek and Hebrew don't matter.
Because really, you really think this God wanted us all to learn Greek and Hebrew to understand the Bible?
I mean, they will never admit me into any university after that statement.
But it is the truth.
I'm not against academia, but I am against academia that does not have the Spirit of the Father at the center of academics.
I resist that.
Can we turn it off now? I just wanted to share something.
We'll finish the last bit next time.
Hey, so,