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THE HOLY SPIRIT II SIB Metro Bible Class
– Lesson 12, every Thursday Night at 8. Brother Ronny Cham began the series on THE HOLY
SPIRT Part II. 3rd July 2008 We have learnt in the past few weeks
on what is the spirit of man and what is the inner spiritual being in the man
came alive in Jesus Christ. We have
also learnt what it means to have our mind, the spirit of man, controlled by
our spiritual inner man/being. Last week we studied on the topic, who
is the Holy Spirit. This week, we are going to look at
what the scriptures say about the “working of the Holy Spirit in man”. God has given us His Spirit as our
Helper to teach us all things and bring to our remembrance all things that
Jesus have said to us (or we read) (John 14:26). Jesus was there with the disciples, then the Holy Spirit came to replace Jesus, to take over the
work from Jesus. Thus, we must know the working of the Holy Spirit with us, by
us and through us. Let me quote the words of our Lord
Jesus in John 16:5-15, about the work of the Holy Spirit: “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' But because I have said these things to
you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless
I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not
go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to
you. And when He has come, He will
convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in
Me; of righteousness, because I go
to My Father and you see Me no more;
of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. "I still have many things to say to
you, but you cannot bear them now. However,
when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for
He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak;
and He will tell you things to come.
He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is
Mine and declare it to you. All
things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said
that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” We therefore must now realise that
we are not in the flesh anymore but in the Spirit because the Holy Spirit has
been given to us and dwell in each one of us. The difference between a Christian and a
non-Christian is whether, first, our spiritual inner being has been born again
into the newness of life and secondly, whether we have the Holy Spirit in us,
if one has not the Spirit of Christ, “he is not His” (Romans 8:9). In what way do we feel,
experience and tangibly know the Holy Spirit working in us, by us and through
us? Here are some examples: 1 The Holy Spirit has made man: Job 33:4,
“The Spirit of God has made me, and
the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Genesis 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living being.” There are ample examples we can see in the mortuary or
in the Hospital the reality of human bodies without spirit – dead bodies
as described in James 2:26 2 The Holy Spirit is a free Spirit. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians
3:17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit;
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Indeed, the Lord Jesus Himself said of
Himself in Luke 4:18-19, “The
Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel
to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable
year of the LORD." The
tangible experiences of “freedom “ and “liberty”
from the work of darkness, of bondages, of sickness & suffering and of sin are
the testimonies of all born again Christians. 3 The Spirit is omnipresent: Psalms 139:7
the Psalmist declared this solemn truth, “Where can I go from Your Spirit?” God’s Holy Spirit is
omnipresent. We have heard believers testifying the working of miracles by the
Holy Spirit in all sorts of situations, circumstances or places, literally
everywhere. I have the experiences
of praying for my someone overseas and the Holy Spirit
worked miracles in answer to my prayer miles and miles away overseas. 4 The Spirit is a Spirit of Wisdom,
understanding, counsel and might: Isaiah 11:2, “The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the LORD.” There is a difference between the wisdom of
God and the knowledge of man. In
James 3:13-18, the Bible says: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let
him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom . But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in
your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not
descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For
where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But
the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to
yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” Here we know there are
the ‘wisdom’ of the world, sensual and demonic demonstrating the
fruits of bitter envy, self-seeking, boastful, yet confusion and every evil
thing are in such ‘wisdom’.
But Wisdom from the Holy Spirit is first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality and without hypocrisy. This Holy Spirit of Wisdom expresses and
speaks through us and by us (our spiritual inner being within us) His
wisdom. Often when that happened,
we knew and acknowledged that it was the Holy Spirit who gave us the “wise”
decision, judgment or words said in a situation or circumstance. 5 The Spirit lifts up standards against
Satan: Isaiah 59:19, “So shall they fear the name of the LORD from
the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy comes in
like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.” Today, I had to deal with something
really troubling me in my spirit. I
really feel that I am unable to pull myself together to teach tonight. I was thinking of calling Ps Bios to
inform him that I have decided to cancel the Bible Class tonight. In my distress, I went to a place to
pray and seek the Lord. I know I
would be dealing with the topic of the working of the Holy Spirit in man, but I
felt as if the devil is speaking to me, “you are tired, there are so much
problem surrounding you, you better take rest, cancel the Bible Class and go
and sort out your problems”.
But after spending sometime praying, suddenly I realise my God is a God
above the storm. Lucifer might
claim to be like God but he was far below God. I immediately asked the Holy
Spirit to lift me up above my storm.
Yes, in whatever circumstances, we can ask the Holy Spirit to raise His
standard against the enemy. Isn’t
this the testimony of Christian warriors? 6 The Spirit makes men full of power, the
Holy Spirit empowers men to stand our position, take our place and control over
our territory in the Kingdom of God.
No one can stop us, no one can come against us
when we know it is the Holy Spirit leading us. He will not lead us to do any task
without empowering us. Consider Micah
3:8, “But truly I am full of power
by the Spirit of the LORD, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his
transgression and to Israel his sin.” And Luke 24:49, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon
you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on
high." And also consider Acts
1:8, “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." 7 The Spirit is a Spirit of Grace and
supplications: Zech 12:10, “And I
will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit
of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes,
they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as
one grieves for a firstborn.” God promised to give us the Spirit of Grace
through Jesus Christ and His precious blood. We must know the working of this Spirit
of Grace in our midst. We must heed
the warning of Apostle Paul in Hebrews 10:28-31, “Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy
who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by
which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace ? For
we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the
Lord. And again, "The LORD will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God.”
We shall be guilty of insulting this Spirit of Grace, trampling the Son
of God underfoot and counted as dishonouring and disrespecting the Blood of the
Lord if we fight each other, condemn each other and consider one another as ‘devil’
or with contempt. The Holy Spirit
is not only a Spirit of Grace, but also a Spirit of supplication. In Ephesians
6:18, the Apostle Paul said that, “praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance
and supplication for all the saints.” The true experience of the Spirit of
Grace and supplication is when we esteem one another as brothers and sisters in
Christ, and constantly praying for one another and upholding and interceding for
one another, then and only then you will come to experience the work of this
Spirit of Grace and supplication. 8 The Spirit leads : Matthew 4:1, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Luke 2:27, “So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when
the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom
of the law.” If the Holy Spirit led Christ to be
tempted, the Holy Spirit can lead each one of us to be tempted and tested. In James 1:2-4, we are told that, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall
into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But
let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking nothing.” Trials
and testing are common to us all.
For this reason, I will never give up on my children, my wife, my
brothers and sisters in Christ even though he or she or they may seem to be
drifting away from the Lord or from Christianity or doing something wrong, I will
recognise the working of the Holy Spirit in leading us to be tested and
tried. I will pray and intercede
and ask the Lord for opportunity to share the Word, the Truth of God to him,
her or them because that was what Jesus did when he was tempted by the devil,
stand on the Word of God. In John
8:31, 32, Jesus said to the believers, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples
indeed. And you shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free." In this way you shall surely hear of
testimony of victory in such trials and testing. 9 The Spirit can cast out devils: Matthew 12:28, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of
God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” This was not the work of the Holy Spirit
then, this is still the work of the Holy Spirit today and every day. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to work
in, by and through our spiritual inner being to rise up and come against the
devil and cast them out of the lives and bodies of people. The Holy Spirit will give us wisdom to
recognise the presence of the evil spirits and He will empower us to speak
against the evil spirits and cast out the evil spirits from men. We have experienced evil spirits being
cast out of us and being freed from the works of such evil spirits. They are real tangible life-changing
experiences. 10 The Holy Spirit speaks to men and
directs our Gospel Works. Following
from what we have seen in Paragraph 9 above, we read in Acts 8:29, how the Holy
Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and
overtake this chariot." In Acts 10:19, the Holy Spirit said to Peter, “Behold, three men are seeking you.” The Holy Spirit not only shows us by wisdom
the devils so that our inner spiritual man can rise up in His Power to cast out
such devils in the lives of people, the Holy Spirit also directs us in the
Gospel Works. For example, we see
in Acts 11:12, “Then the Spirit
told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren
accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.” And also in Acts 16:7-8, “After they had come to Mysia,
they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing
by Mysia, they came down to Troas.” I have
experienced the Holy Spirit telling me to go to this village or to that village
and to preach what He told me to preach. When our spiritual man within us hears
His voice and obeys and acts on it, we see and witness what His Holy Spirit can
do through us, by us and in us, that would bring about
changes in the lives of people. We shall end here. Next week we shall deal with the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. Ronny Cham |
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