Experiencing the Holy Spirit

[irenemcg]

Experiencing the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:14-17
14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John,
15 who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
16 For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of Jesus.
17 Then they began laying hands on them and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
(NAS)




Acts 9:17-18
17 And Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
18 And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he arose and was baptized;
(NAS)


Acts 19:1-6

1 And it came about that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper country came to Ephesus, and found some disciples,
2 and he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said to him, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit."
3 And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John's baptism."
4 And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus."
5 And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.
(NAS)


Acts 10:42-48
42 "And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.
43 "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
45 And all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also.
46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered,
47 "Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?"
48 And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.
(NAS)


John 7:38-39
38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'"
39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
(NAS)


Ezek 47:9
9 Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.
(NIV)


Ps 42:1-4
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
(NIV)

The cross is the doorway to the Kingdom of God. Vaughan Roberts says "In Christ we have everything, but manifestly we aren't living in light of all we have received in Christ." Amen. God is inviting us to realize what has been already achieved through Christ our Lord and Saviour on the cross.


John 17:1-26

1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6 "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.
11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name-- the name you gave me-- so that they may be one as we are one.
12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:
23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.
26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
(NIV)

We are to be in Him, as Christ lives in us.


Rom 8:15-17
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
(NAS)


2 Cor 3:1-18

CHAPTER 3

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.
3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.
5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-- not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was,
8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.
11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
2 Cor 3:12-17
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.
14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
(NIV)

2 Cor 4:3-7
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.
(NIV)


1 Pet 1:7-9
7 These have come so that your faith-- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your
(NIV)

 

[irenemcg]

Rom 5:5
5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
(NIV)


1 Cor 13:1-13

CHAPTER 13

1If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
12 For now we ee in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.
13 But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(NAS)


2 Tim 1:12-14 12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.
13 Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
(NAS)


Rom 5:5
5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
(NIV)

Love Jesus, think Jesus, desire Jesus, breathe and experience Him.


Eph 3:14-20
14 For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.
(NAS)


Ps 46:4-5
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
(NIV)




Ephesians. 1:15-23
15. For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints,
16. cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
17. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;
18. having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19. and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might
20. which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,
21. farall rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
22. and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church,
23. which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Ephesians 3:16.f. that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;
17. that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18. may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19. and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.

Colossians 1: 9. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

The more is centred on Jesus, the whole prayer for more is centred on Him. Christ wants the whole church to be anointed.

Rom 1:4
4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
(NIV)


1 Cor 12:1-3
1
Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.
2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.
3 Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
(NIV)

Paul introduces three guiding principles that distinguish the ways of the Holy Spirit: 1) The principle of conscious control. Unlike paganism, the power of the Holy Spirit does not drive people into wild compulsive acts. His gentle dovelike ministry strengthens human personality. He empowers; He does not overpower. 2) The principle that Christ is glorified. All manifestations of the Spirit will harmonize with the truth about Jesus. 3) The principle of creedal faith . The main work of the Holy Spirit is to bring people under the lordship of Jesus.

1) The Bible may say that Jesus is Lord, but the Spirit makes that real to me.
2) The Bible may state that God is Father,but the Spirit makes that real to me.


Rom 8:15-16
15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
(NIV)

3) The Bible may state that God is glorious, but the Spirit makes it real to me.


2 Cor 3:15-18
15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

(NIV)

4) The Bible may say that God is love, but the Spirit makes it real to me.


Eph 3:16-21
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
(NIV)

There are too many spectators in the Christian Church today, we need to go futher up and further in. God wants us to be participators..Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is worth losing everything for, nothing can compare to knowing Jesus.


Matt 11:12
12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.
(NIV)

If the devil can't hinder us coming to Christ for salvation, he is sure going to try to hinder our sanctification.


Luke 24:49
49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
(NIV)


Acts 1:4-5
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
(NIV)


Gal 3:14
14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
(NIV)


1 Cor 12:1
1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.
(NIV)


1 Cor 12:4-6
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
(NIV)



1 Cor 12:31
31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
(NIV)


We are to desire the gifts to equip us for service, it’s all about Jesus. The Holy Spirit brings us closer to Him. The gifts are not just to give us a Spiritual uplift, they are empowerment for service, that we might go forth in power, that the name of Jesus might be glorified, that people might be won for the Kingdom of God. The Lord has given us a great commission which we have to obey, which I have to obey, I can’t even try to run away from it any longer, I look at people round about me in this world who are hurting, who are heading for a lost eternity and my heart cries out to them, but how will they know if people like me are too frightened to be bold and speak out about Jesus? That’s just it they won’t, and I pray the Lord will loose my tongue much more than it has already been loosed.

Mar 16:15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mar 16:16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Mar 16:17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
Mar 16:18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
Mar 16:19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
Mar 16:20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.


There is no such thing as having arrived Spiritually, we are all a work in progress, but we should desire the gifts and be sure to use them for the glory of God’s kingdom. Our minds and hearts should be focussed on Jesus, He is the author and finisher of our faith , but it is the Holy Spirit who helps us do so.

Isa 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.
Isa 43:20 The beast of the field will honor Me,
The jackals and the ostriches,
Because I give waters in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to My people, My chosen.
Isa 43:21 This people I have formed for Myself;
They shall declare My praise.


Let’s declare the praises of our Lord and Saviour, allowing the Holy Spirit full sway in our lives, let the rivers flow. We should be a people of power, as Christians we all have the Holy Spirit within us. We need to die to self and let the Lord take the driving seat.

 

[JPPT1974]

That is wonderful indeed! Thanks for all of those verses as well as they will inspire us. Thank you!