What is The Will of God for My Life?

November 10, 2013

God Wants Us to be Filled with Holy Spirit (part 1)

Last week we looked at the fact that God wants us to SERVE Him. As we will continue to build upon our previous discussions; we have found that Christ is the cornerstone of everything we do as Christian. We found that without love it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God, therefore the first ingredients to finding the WILL of God in our lives are 1) to have a relationship with Christ, and 2) to genuinely Love God.. In loving God we will love people.

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We found that our expression of Love toward God as gratitude for saving us is worship and obeying His Word, following the example of Christ in love toward our fellow brothers in Christ and those who desperately need Christ. This week, we will look at being filled with Holy Spirit. We will take a look at WHO exactly Holy Spirit is and how he interacts with men. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. He is a person; the 3rd person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is affected by our actions and attitudes. He can be grieved, lied to, resisted, insulted, etc. [Act 5:1-3 ESV] 1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. 3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? [Act 7:51 ESV] 51 "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. [Eph 4:30 ESV] 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. [1Th 5:19 ESV] 19 Do not quench the Spirit. [Hbr 10:29 ESV] 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

The Holy Spirit possesses the attributes of God because He is God. He has the same nature of God, the same essence of God and the same substance of God. He is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, holy, and creator. [Psa 139:7-10 ESV] 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. [Luk 1:35 ESV] 35 And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of God.

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[Jhn 14:26 ESV] 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. [Jhn 16:12-13 ESV] 12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. [Hbr 9:14 ESV] 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. [Rom 1:4 ESV] 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, [Job 33:4 ESV] 4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. [Psa 104:30 ESV] 30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. The Holy Spirit is God and, at the same time is His own distinct person thus is the nature of the Trinity. One God/3 distinct persons. [Act 5:3-4 ESV] 3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God." [Mat 28:19 ESV] 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [Luk 3:21-22 ESV] 21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

Before we were Christians the Holy Spirit was with us, convicting us of sin and drawing us to Christ. When we become Christians, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us. [Jhn 16:8 ESV] 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: [Jhn 14:16-17 ESV] 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 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. [Jhn 20:22 ESV] 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.

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[1Cr 3:16 ESV] 16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? [Act 1:8 ESV] 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." The Holy Spirit is given to us by the Father and is to be a helper, a guide and an equiper. The Greek language describes our experience with the Holy Spirit in three ways: PARA, EN, and EPI. Before we gave our lives to the Lord, we experienced the Holy Spirit para us or WITH us. Even though we did not know the Lord, the Holy Spirit was with us, convicting us of sin and drawing us to Jesus as we were exposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we become Christians and were born in to the Kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us. En in the Greek means in. Holy Spirit leads, guides, and comforts us. He illuminates scripture and is it He that groans in prayer to God when we dont know what to pray. Adrian Rogers said that when Holy Spirit comes in us, we get a new wanter. Meaning that our wants and desires become that of the new spirit man living EN us. The third way in which we experience the Holy Spirit is EPI, which means UPON and it is this experience that we refer to as the the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit comes upon us, empowering us for ministry. It is this EPI experience (enabled by Gods GRACE) that makes the ministerial FRUIT possible.