Case for Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7)

In this message I have put the case for the Holy Spirit as I ask the question:
Is there a valid reason why you should not be so filled with the Holy Spirit? 
Do you recall in the beginning the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. And do you recall Noah after the flood sending out a dove to see if the waters had abated from the face of the ground and it returned because it found no resting place. Seven days later Noah sent again the dove and this time it returned with a freshly plucked olive branch revealing that the waters had abated from the earth. The Gospel reading from Mark 1 we see the promised Messiah Jesus showing up before John to be baptised and we see the Holy Spirit as a dove from heaven finding somewhere to rest, finding the source of that olive branch; the branch God the Father’s offering of peace.

We are a Bible believing people; I ask you members of the jury, is that not right? Most Christians are trying their best to live up to the precepts the Bible sets out before us, and these precepts are God’s road map for life. This is the reason why we read the Gospel at every service; so that everyone gets at least some of the truth whether they read the scriptures themselves or not. Yet I say to you reading the Bible without the Holy Spirit can be extremely dangerous and cults have arisen this way.

How many of you know that light is made up of three primary colours and seven colours of the rainbow? So when it is said of Jesus that He is the light of the world you know there are three primaries in the God-head but they emits seven colours that we can see. These seven colours form the rainbow that God set in place as a promise that He would never as in Noah’s time flood the earth again. I’m here to tell you here is one Holy Spirit but within there are seven spirits of God working with us which illuminate the seven facets of God’s nature.

Light comes with these seven spirits of God listed by Isaiah Chapter 11; the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  It has been my job to so enlighten you to the truths within as I shepherd you on this journey of faith. You were once hungry and I have fed you as Paul has fed me with the mysteries of God; I have modelled to you what it is to be in Christ, to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

We have meandered through the Gospels for two years now; initially we have been on the road with Jesus Christ through the eyes of Luke, training with the disciples on the road to Jerusalem. Then we walked with Matthew and Mark viewing life with Jesus through other eyes but still the same story. These are the synoptic Gospels, i.e. they share the same or similar stories of the truth. In this journey I have been challenged from heaven and also challenged on occasion from the floor. But, I have not wavered from the truth of the Gospels.

The one thing I have done is to ground you in the truth there in and within this truth is this repeating mention of this Holy Spirit tangibly given to men and women of faith. The Bible is about the work of the Holy Spirit through men and women of God. The work of men and women of God is to redeem the earth and replenish it with the glory of God. Error is all that stops us from doing what we were put here to do. Adam and Eve sinned in the garden when they challenged the word of God.

Adam and Eve set us a lesson to turn from the doubts of the snake and heed the word of God here before us in the Gospel. The Gospel is the truth about mankind’s possibilities for setting this world straight in the light of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who gave up his blood that we might live a life in His likeness in the Spirit of God. The Gospel is about the restoration of true religion once misused and abused by evil and to restore creation as God intended.

The Gospel is the truth set before us that is supposed to set us free from the garbage which imprisons mankind in a lessor life. We needed a shunt to carry the life blood back into the veins of not just the church but the whole world. There is nothing more beautiful than the idea of a redeemed and restored world under the one who created it in the first place. I am keen to see this in my time because Babel/Confusion/Babylon sits over the lost as the Angel of Revelations says:
The waters where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. (Rev 17:15)

As with the coming of John, it starts with repentance for the remission of sins, a washing to clean away the taint of evil ideas in our minds. The Jews all came confessing their sins to one who said, “I indeed baptise with water, but He (Jesus) will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” So it is not enough simply to confess and be washed for the remission of sins. Something else is required of you and I in this faith, and that is to receive the baptism that Jesus Himself was baptised with, namely the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said this will be the second birth; first you are born of woman and man then you will be born of the Holy Spirit, awakened into a spiritual life which is in God. Jesus made it clear that we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without this birth. The kingdom of heaven is the unseen rule of its King Jesus Christ who will seat Himself above any place we ask of Him; to displace the evil in the world.

I often pray in a new place like this, “Lord Jesus take your throne above this place and rule and reign in your name.” Therefore above us we have unseated the unholy one and establish the kingdom of heaven for my own benefit and others who might follow. All of heaven conspires to assist its own and the side effect is salvation for others.

We must acquire this 3D spirituality that shifts our understanding from a two dimensional flat world into a 
well-rounded sphere of God’s own presence through His agents, angels and attendants. Is something bad happening in your home? Paul says to the Ephesians:
 “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:12)

Are you who are married fighting with each other? Who then is enthroned above you? Not Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life I’m sure. Is your child rebellious and you at your wits end trying to keep the peace? Who then is enthroned above? Not Christ! Is your workplace a mad house of people making you feel wretched? Who then is enthroned in the heavens?

I pray, King of kings, Jesus Messiah, take your throne, your rightful throne, and rule and reign above us this day. Command the kingdom of heaven as you should, bind up that which would bring doubt and evil amongst us. Set us at liberty in this kingdom of heaven to reign as kings under your great reign above us. As we repent of our failing to be reborn in your Spirit, please, please, do not delay but baptise us with your empowering Spirit O God, make us makers of disciples in every moment of our days.  For as Paul says to the Ephesians:
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.  But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” (Eph 5:8-14)

Now for those of you who were praying and are hoping for such light and have not as yet received more than the baptism of water of repentance for the remission of sins, I am as Christ to you as He abides in me, and you will receive power from on high so that the dove hovering above the waters, as was the case in the beginning, as was the case on that glorious day on the Jordan, as was the case with Paul and the Ephesians, He will indeed come to you and find a place to alight, to give you of this glorious light.

This is an act of faith that God will do as He says He will do, as promised since the dawn of the world to break the shackles of the law and sin and set mankind at liberty in the Holy Spirit to restore and replenish the earth. You are the temple of the living God, so now welcome His Spirit reside within. Have you feared of what others might say and do?

Are we holding people out of this glorious gift because of our own comfort? Fear not for has not God given you the spirit of power and of love, and a sound mind. (1Tim 1:7) Do not let the enemy rob you of the better life, of eternal life in Christ Jesus. I ask this question again:
Is there a valid reason why you should not be so filled with the Holy Spirit? 

If not then let us do as the Lord desires…let us remain resistant no longer.

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