Video Transcript: We Have the Holy Spirit

In the city where I live, there's a power plant that produces our electricity. I talked to a man from that power plant, and I asked him, "How much power do you produce there?" And he told me it was thousands and thousands of volts that leave on those wires out of the power plant. And I said, "Into my house?"

He said, "No way. If that went into your house, you'd be toast." He said, "It goes from the power plant to those big transformers you see all over the city behind the wire. And from there, it goes up on the telephone poles, and it goes to those big, black boxes that you see on top of the telephone poles. Those are transformers. And each time, it is geared down and geared down until finally, it's safe to go into your home."

When I was talking to him about that, I thought about the Holy Spirit, that we had been promised the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is God. We saw that. God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. In the Bible, it says that when God speaks, the mountains tremble. It says that when God speaks the trees come crashing down. Sometimes it says that the lightning and the thunder are God's voice. There is no way we could ever face the power of God. And so, I want to say that I believe the Holy Spirit is like the transformer, that the power of God in the Holy Spirit - because the Holy Spirit of God is broken down so that we can have the Holy Spirit in our life. Let's pray about that.

Oh, God, our Father, through Jesus, our Savior, you are so good. You know our needs. You know our hearts. You know how we want to serve you. You know how eager we are to be full-time vocal witnesses for you. And so, you give us the One you call to our side, the paraclete, the One who is our Counselor, the dear Holy Spirit. And dear Holy Spirit, we always want to be in touch with you. And as we learn about you now again, we open our hearts to you. We love you. Amen.

Today, we're going to talk about the fact that we have the Holy Spirit. We've been talking in the first part of this session about how Jesus gives us his Holy Spirit to be his witnesses. And then, we saw last time what he meant by that, all the promises he made that the Holy Spirit will be sent from him and the Father with all the truth to anoint us. We saw that we are called Christians because we have been anointed with the Spirit of God to be his spokespersons, to pray and lift others up to him, and to rule our lives in the name of Jesus. 

So, today, I want to ask you a question. Do you have the Holy Spirit? We're going to talk about him for a while, and then, I'm going to ask you the second question. But are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Let's look at some verses that talk about us having the Holy Spirit. 

In 1 Corinthians 12:3, it says, "Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit." I want to ask you a question. Is Jesus your Lord? You can fill it in. Yes or no? When you think about it, is Jesus the Lord of your life or is satan? Have you crossed the line to a new life in Christ? Is he your Lord? Yes or no? 

And then, I want to ask you this question. Why are you able to say that? Here's what I mean before you fill it in. The Bible says that we are born dead in sin. Especially these people in the church in Corinth where Paul was talking about. Corinth was an important world city. It was the center of business and of art and of military might, because of where it was situated, and of corruption and sexual immorality and a huge temple there to a false god. And these people who grew up there and just a couple of years ago were living that way, why are they able to say that Jesus Christ is Lord? How can a dead person do anything? 

Imagine if you go into a cemetery and you make an offer that whoever accepts it, you'll give them a gift, you'll say, "That's silly. They're dead." It's the same in offering the Gospel of Jesus. The Bible says we are dead. If you say that Christ is your Lord, why are you able to say that? What does it say there? "No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit."

Yes, you believed. Remember, we looked at John 1:12. "To as many as received him, to those who believed in his name." That was you. You believed, but why were you able to believe? Because the Holy Spirit of God came into your heart. Is Jesus your Lord? Then you know that you have the Holy Spirit. 

Let's look at another verse that way. Romans 8:16, "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." I want to ask you a question again. Is God your Father? Yes or no? What do you say now? Is God your Father? And then, I want to ask you - don't fill it in right away. But why are you able to say that? 

The picture that we're given in the Bible is you and I were in the Garden of Eden at the beginning in Adam and Eve when we sinned against God. We ran away from him. We hid from him. We were afraid of him. How did we become his children? We were his enemies. And do you know what? God is called Father. God is referred to as Father over 200 times in the Old Testament. And not once do people dare to call him father. Because they knew they had sinned against him. He shows himself to them as a father, and he refers to them as if they were children, but no one ever calls him father. And then, the verse we just talked about in John 1:12, it says, "But to those who receive Jesus, to those who believed in Jesus' name, to them he gave the right to be called the children of God." God then becomes your Father. No one is born as a child of God. There is no such thing as the Fatherhood of God that includes all people. 

But to those who received him, to those who believed in his name, to them, he gave the right to become the children of God. And that's why it was such an amazing thing at the beginning of the New Testament when the disciples said to Jesus, "How are we supposed to pray? Teach us." 

And how did Jesus start? "When you pray, say this, 'Our Father'." 

And I think the disciples must have fallen over backwards. For all those years in the Old Testament, no one ever dared to say that. And finally, they could say, "Our Father." What does this verse say? Why are you able to say that? The Spirit himself testifies with your spirit that we are God's children. Beautiful. 

Another way we want to look at it is from Galatians 5:22, 23. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." I want to ask you a question now. Are you sometimes-- I'm not saying all the time-- but are you sometimes loving? Are you sometimes joyful? Sometimes peaceful? Sometimes patient? Check it off. Are you sometimes? I think you are. As a Christian, you are. 

And let's look at why you're able to say that. In this passage, Paul is talking about two things: about the work we do and about the fruit we bear. And he says the work we do is all kinds of sin - anger and malice and immorality and stealing and hurting. That's what we do. That's what we earn. That's our work. 

Then he says as the followers of Jesus, we are like a tree and we bear fruit. Jesus comes through the trunk, through the branches into us and we bear fruit. He calls what we do as a Christian, fruit or results. Some of those that he lists are love, joy, peace, patience, and others. 

In John 15, Jesus says that when we are tied to him, he says he is the vine and we are the branches. And when we are connected to him that we bear fruit. So, then, answer the question. Why are you able, sometimes, to bear fruit? And it says it right there. Because it's the fruit of the Spirit. 

One more thing that we want to look at is when we look at the trail of sin in the world and in our lives, and we say what kind of contact does God have with us? Look what it says here in 1 Corinthians 6:19. "Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own." So, I want to ask you this question. God lived in the Old Testament temple before it was destroyed. Where does he live now? 

Listen to this first. In the Old Testament before people could call God Father, before they could come close to him, he had them build a temple. It was a special building. If anybody messed around with it, they died. Well, we know that God could not live in a building. The Bible says that. But it was a picture that God was with his people. That temple's long gone. Nobody knows what happened to it. And where does God live now? He lives in you. How do you know? It says here, "Don't you know that your body is now the temple of the Holy Spirit?" 

Here's just a great thing. In John's Gospel 1:14, it says, "And the Word became flesh [became human] and lived among us." Do you know what? I told you that the New Testament was originally written in the Greek language. In the Greek language there, the word for lived is a word to temple. Do you get that? God was in that building. Not really. It was a picture of it. And when Jesus came down, God was templing in Jesus among us. But then, Jesus ascended, and now what? We (you and I) as followers of Jesus have become temples of the Holy Spirit. So, when somebody asks you, "Do you have the Holy Spirit," what are you going to say?

The other question that people will ask you and you will wonder yourself, "Are you filled with the Holy Spirit." And we ask that question because of a verse in Ephesians 5:18. It says, "Do not get not get drunk on wine which leads to [wildness] debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." And what we have to look at there are the contrasts in that verse. Do not get drunk on wine, but be filled with the Spirit. So, the contrast there is between getting drunk and being filled and getting drunk on wine and being filled with the Spirit.  

What happens when a person drinks too much? He comes under the influence of whatever he's been drinking - the wine, the beer, the alcohol. It controls him. People do stupid things. Later on, they wonder how they could do it. Do you know why? Because they were controlled by something other than themselves. Now, the contrast with that is to be filled with the Spirit, with the Holy Spirit. Why is that a contrast? Because when the Holy Spirit is in us, he controls us. So, what we have here in America is called DUI - driving under the influence. That's what they mean when somebody's driving drunk. He's not himself. She's not herself. They're under the influence of that other power. When we think of DUI (driving under the influence), it makes us think of LUI (living under the influence). 

I told you the New Testament was written in Greek. And a Greek scholar said, "That which holy takes possession of the mind is said to fill it." Are we getting an idea here now? The alcohol takes possession of your mind and makes you live a certain way. The Holy Spirit takes possession of your mind and helps you live a certain way. He says in the Greek language, "When something takes possession of your mind, it is said to fill it."

Do you hear that? We're going over some great material here. You don't have to read another book. You don't have to go to another conference. You don't have to have another laying on of hands. When you trust Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit. And what does it mean then when I ask you to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It means to be totally controlled, to be possessed by the Holy Spirit just like a person, who's drunk, drives under the influence, so a person who has the Holy Spirit, who is filled with the Holy Spirit lives under the influence. 

In the next verses after this, where Paul has talked, he says, "Don't be filled with wine, which leads to wildness, but be filled with the Spirit and speak to each other in Psalms, in hymns, in spiritual song singing praise to the Lord." That's the difference. That's what the Holy Spirit does for us. Because he fills us.

So, I want to ask you now. Maybe you're still wondering. "But am I filled with the Spirit?" Here's a question. How much of God created the world? We don't say, "Part of him." We say, "God created the world." How much of Jesus died on the cross? We don't say, "Part of Jesus died on the cross." Jesus died on the cross. 

Well, then how much of the Holy Spirit do you have? Part of him? Is part of him out there somewhere? No. You have the Holy Spirit. Keep this thought in mind. It is not how much I have of the Spirit but how much the Spirit has of me. We'll go over that once more. It is not how much I have of the Spirit-- we are filled with him-- but how much the Spirit has of me. Let's pray.

Dear Holy Spirit, thank you for living in us. And thank you for filling us. Help us to yield to you more and more and more but never to doubt that you are in us and we have as much of you now as we ever will in our lives. We love you. Amen.