Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Lesson 64 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

    We have undersold the ministry and the working of the Holy Spirit in the Church for many years.  We lack understanding of Who He is and what His role is in the Church.  His role in most congregations has simply been the speaking of other tongues and the Gifts of the Spirit.  He is the One Jesus and the Father have delegated the completion of the Church to.  We seem to forget that He, the Holy Spirit, is God Himself Who is walking and dealing with the entire world.  He is the One Who draws the unsaved and He is the One Who is perfecting the Church.
     The Church has been given many revelations and instructions over the last two-thousand years.  The Holy Spirit has been teaching and guiding the family of God into a more accurate and powerful body.  We have rejected many of His teachings and instructions because they seem "contrary" to our church doctrines.  One will find in the Word how even Jesus didn't begin His ministry until the Holy Spirit came upon Him at the Jordan River.
     It has been and is the Holy Spirit's job in the God-head, to take that which is spoken and bring it to pass.  No word, no action.  Genesis 1:1-4 (Amplified) says, "In the beginning God (prepared,formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep, The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters."  Verses 3-4 go on, "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good (suitable, pleasant) and He approved it: and God separated the light from the darkness."
     We see the Trinity, the three fold God-head working in unison.  The light wasn't the sun, that was created in Genesis 1:16-17 (Amplified) which says, "And God made the two great lights-the greater light (the sun) to rule, the day and the lesser light (the moon) to rule the night. He also made the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth."
     When God said, "Let there be light," it was His Word (brought to pass by the Holy Spirit) Who became that light.  The Holy Spirit didn't have anything to create, until God spoke.  We find the order of creation explained in John 1:1-5 (Amplified) which says, "In the beginning (before all time) was the Word (Christ) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him, and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being."  Verses 4-5 say, "And the Light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it (put it out, or absorbed it or appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it)."
     Although the entire God-head (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) were all present, until the Word was spoken by God, no light came.  Once God spoke, the Holy Spirit took that Word and performed His part of the ministry.  This is still His present ministry, according to John 3:34 (Amplified) which says, "For since He Whom God has sent speaks the Words of God (proclaims God's Own message) God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the gift God makes of His Spirit."
     When we speak in in line with what God's Word says, the Holy Spirit will take what the Fathers says and create or bring to pass whatever God's Word says.  The Holy Spirit is the power and creative force in God's Word.  We see this throughout the Word of God, but sometimes we fail to recognize His role in our lives.
     Throughout the years, I've seen people who have decided that it really doesn't make a difference what we say.  They believe we can't take a word from the Logos (the Word, the principle of divine reason and creative order, Jesus Incarnate) and simply speak it to have it work in our lives.  Do you realize that is what Jesus did in His Own earthly ministry?
     Jesus repeatedly said that He "only spoke what He heard the Father speak."  He stood in the synagogue in Luke 4:18 (Amplified) proclaiming, "The Spirit of the Lord (is) upon Me, because He has anointed Me (the Anointed One, the Messiah) to preach the good news (the gospel) to the poor He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed (who are down trodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity)."
     The above scripture tells us that He Whom God sent, speaks only God's Word and He gave Him the Holy Spirit without measure.  Jesus spoke God's Own Word, the words that were written centuries before in Isaiah 61:1-2.  Jesus was very deliberate in what He spoke.  Even while on the cross, He spoke and gave power by the Holy Spirit to bring it to pass, just like in the beginning when God and the Holy Spirit brought His Words to pass.
     The Holy Spirit watches over God's Word to perform it.  He is not authorized to fulfill anything except God's Own Word.  Jesus said that "He only spoke what the Father spoke" and that He "only did what He heard the Father say and do."  This not only means that the Spirit of God continuously spoke to Him, but it includes what had been written was God speaking to Him.  When we read God's Word, it's still God speaking to us, through His Word.  All the promises of God are God speaking to us now.  The promise of salvation in Romans 10:8-10 is our acceptance of God speaking to us.  When we spoke the Words of salvation, the Holy Spirit took that Word and brought it to pass in our lives.
     It's peculiar how we can accept that part of God's Word and put faith in it, but then not do so for the rest of the Word.  When we begin aligning our conversation with the Word, the same Holy Spirit Who brought the manifestation of what Jesus spoke, will bring forth that same manifestation to God's Word in our lives.  God is not obligated to fulfill all words, but only His Words.
     Have you noticed when people spoke contrary to God's Word didn't receive the promise of the Word?  Hebrews 3-4 tells about those coming out of Egypt were not speaking what God said, but voiced their own words of unbelief and anger against His Word.  Those people didn't receive the promises because the Holy Spirit only confirms God's Word.
     We wonder why we do not see the manifestation of the power of God in today's churches.  It's mostly because we don't give the Holy Spirit anything to work with.  Remember that Jesus, Whom God sent, only spoke God's Word and God gave Jesus the Spirit, without measure.  Many Christians say that, "Healing has passed away" and "Miracles have ceased" and "God uses sickness to teach us."  What part of this speech is the Holy Spirit going to manifest, when He only says and does what the Father says and do?
     Do we really believe that it doesn't matter what we say?
     
    

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