Lesson 94 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     In John 3:5-6 (Amplified) Jesus says, "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and (even) the Spirit, he cannot (ever) the Kingdom of God. What is born of (from) the flesh is flesh (of the physical is physical); and what is born of the Spirit is spirit."
     Without the Holy Spirit, no man can be born again.  One of the great movements and work of the Holy Spirit, comes during what we refer to as the "tribulation hour."  Revelations 7:9-17 (Amplified) tells us, "After this I looked and a vast host appeared- which no man could count, (gathered out) of every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. These stood before the throne and before the Lamb; they were attired in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. In loud voice they cried, saying, (Our) salvation is due to our God, Who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb (to them we owe our deliverance)! And all the angels were standing round the throne and round the elders (of the heavenly Sanhedrin) and the four living creatures, and they fell prostrate before the throne and worshiped God."  Verses 12-17 go on, "Amen (so be it) they cried, blessing and glory and majesty and splendor and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might (be ascribed) to our God to the ages and ages (forever and ever, throughout the eternities of the eternities) Amen! (so be it)! Then, addressing me, one of the elders (of the heavenly Sanhedrin) said, Who are these (people) clothed in long white robes? And from where have they come? I replied, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation (persecution) and have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are (now) before the (very) throne of God and serve Him day and night in His sanctuary (temple). And He Who is sitting upon the throne will protect and spread His tabernacle over and shelter them with His presence. They shall hunger no more neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun smite them, nor any scorching heat For the Lamb Who is in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to the springs of the waters of life; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
      God showed John( and us), the power of the "incorruptible" Seed of the Word of God.  We are also shown above, the power of God's love and His forgiveness.  The Holy Spirit is operating in the midst of the "tribulation," to bring about the new birth and deliverance available to those left behind after the rapture of the Church.  Some of these persons might be the "five foolish virgins" from Jesus' parable in Matthew 25:1-13.
     I believe that these five virgins represent part of the Church.  The very fact that they were virgins waiting for the Bridegroom, indicates they were to be at the wedding.  Some however, seem to "burn out" or simply cease seeking and following the Bridegroom.  Referring to them as "backslidden" isn't a popular description these days, nonetheless, these virgins "ran out of oil" before the Bridegroom arrived.  Jesus showed up while they were "trying to get it together."
     Revelations 7:14 (Amplified) says, "Who are these (this great multitude that could not be numbered)? And He said to me, These are they who have come out of the great tribulations (persecution) and have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb." 
     Ephesians 5:25-27 (Amplified) says, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her. So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word. That He might present the Church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things (that she might be holy and faultless)."
     I often wondered why those coming out of the great tribulation would need to wash their robes.  When we received the robe of righteousness, it was already clean, so why would it need to be cleansed?  Could it be that these are the foolish virgins who ran out of oil and missed the call of the Bridegroom?  Praise God that the Holy Spirit could still reach them and that people received the Spirit even during the tribulation.  Personally, I would rather be part of the wise virgins and maintain the oil in my lamp, thus skipping the tribulation.
     One of the greatest harvest to be reaped by the Holy Spirit, is the one in Revelations 7:9-11.  In the middle of history's worst period, the love of God, through His Spirit continues in the quest to make  "My House shall be full."  In Matthew 22:8-10 (Amplified) Jesus says, "The wedding (feast) is prepared, but those invited were not worthy. So go to the thoroughfares where they leave the city ( where the main roads and those from the country end) and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out on the crossroads and got together as many as they found, both good and bad, so (the room in which) the wedding feast was held) was filled with guests."
     He went on to say in Verse 14, "For many are called (invited and summoned) but few are chosen.  I cannot stress enough how we must make sure our lamps have plenty of oil (the Holy Spirit) to run us until our Bridegroom returns.  They Holy Spirit will never cease to bring forth Truth, Light and the Knowledge of salvation, even in the midst of the great tribulation.  But, it's far better to be ready when Jesus comes back.

Lesson 93 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8 (Amplified), "But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth."
     Acts 2:89 (Amplified) says, "For the promise (of the Holy Spirit) is to and for you and for your children, and to and for all that are far away, (even) to and for as many as the Lord our God invites and bids to come to Himself."
     The anointing at Pentecost changed the disciples in Acts 4:13 (Amplified) which says, "Now when they saw the boldness and unfettered eloquence of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and untrained in the schools (common men with no educational advantages).  They marveled, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus."
     Acts 5:32 (Amplified) says, "And we are witnesses of these things, and the Holy Spirit is also, Whom God had bestowed on those who obey Him."
     John 16:13-15 (Amplified) tells us, "But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-Giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the truth (the whole, full truth) For He will not speak His Own message (on His Own Authority); but He will tell whatever He hears (from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him); and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come (that will happen in the future)."  Verse 15 goes on, "Everything that the Father has is mine. That is what I meant when I said that He (the Holy Spirit) will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you."
     These scriptures tell of the promise of the Holy Spirit and then the fulfillment of that promise.  Peter said in Acts 2:39 (Amplified) that the Holy Spirit is for himself, the people in the crowd, us and for as many as God invites to come to Him.  It stands to be clear, that our Heavenly Father intended for "All who will believe" to receive the Holy Spirit.
     Many Christians only go as far in their faith to become born again by the Holy Spirit.  Others have believed that the Super-natural abilities were only for the early Church.  Others still, believe to the point of speaking in tongues, while others believe that the Gifts of the Spirit in 1Corinthians 12, were only for the early Church and have since passed away.
     Many aspects of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit have almost divided the Church, instead of uniting it.  The Holy Spirit hasn't changed any aspect of His ministry since He was sent forth from the Father at Pentecost.
    Everything that He was to the Church then, the Holy Spirit is today.  The only things that have changed are the way we, the Church, have believed and have taught and been taught.  The Holy Spirit is God Himself, living in and dwelling in everyone who will accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  Having someone state that, "What the early Church had, isn't for today," is the same as saying that God cannot do today, what He did then.
     Jesus said that we would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon us.  Has He not come?  Why then, would we ever believe that the power was ever removed from the Church?  The "great deceiver," satan, has no power over the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet he lies to us, telling us that he does have power over us.  It isn't any different than when he came to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  He only needs to make us doubt what God has said and the deception takes care of the rest of it.
     The Spirit of the Living God has taken up residence in every born again child of God.  The Holy Spirit in you, is the same Holy Spirit Who brought about creation in the beginning.  God hasn't diminished in power, wisdom, love or might.  "He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever," according to Hebrews 13:8 (Amplified).
     If you need to know Who and What the Holy Spirit is to today's Church, then simply ask the Father to fill (baptize ) you in the Holy Spirit.  This will equip you to walk in what the Father has for us to accomplish in this day and age.  Do not allow the devil to talk you out of the blessing, like he did Adam.
     The world not only needs to hear about God through the Church, but also needs to "see" God through the Church.  In this dispensation of the Church age, we are about to reach the end of it as we know it.  Jesus is coming back soon and we do not have another two-thousand years to wait.  And, because these are the Last Days, satan has pulled out all the stops and we need the Super-natural power of the Holy Spirit in order to gather the last times harvest.
    
  
    

Lesson 92 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     Revelation only comes by and through the Holy Spirit.  Even when the Word of God is taught in the street or the church, it is only education and not revelation unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to your spirit.  We've had our senses educated throughout the years, but it's only produced religion and not revelation.  We've mostly made behavior modification of our flesh (which is good) from this, but we've failed to "become new creations in Christ."
     We continue trying to change our flesh, without the revelation of "righteousness" to strengthen our spirits.  The enemy has magnified our failures in our flesh above our victories in the Spirit.  And, because of this, we still see ourselves as we once were, instead of who we now are in Christ Jesus.  Once the revelation of who we are now comes into our spirit, we'll be able to pray and fellowship with our Heavenly Father in an entirely new and powerful way.
     The Holy Spirit is the Only One to ever realize the power of this new birth in the heart of the Church.  We read about being made righteous with His righteousness in 2Corinthians 5:21 (Amplified) which says, "For our sake He made Christ (virtually) to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become (endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of) the righteousness of God (what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness)."
     The natural, carnal man will believe that the above things are for when he arrives in Heaven, without the Holy Spirit's revealing this passage to his spirit.  The revelation of being righteous before God, now and in this world, seems too incomprehensible for the carnal mind to accept.  We can read the Word and be educated as to what it says, but still not have the revelation of what it truly says to us now.  Man's unrenewed mind enforces a sense of being unworthy deep within the natural man.  The renewed mind allows the Holy Spirit to lift us out of the natural, into the Super-natural (or spirit realm) where our Father's Kingdom and family abide.
     Then, the behavior modification will come from the inside and work out and not the work of the flesh from the outside in.  Ephesians 5:25-32 (Amplified) says that a husband and wife are like Christ and the Church and that, "This mystery is very great, but I speak concerning (the relationship of) Christ and the Church. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her; So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word. That He might present the Church to Himself inglorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things (that she might be holy and faultless)."
     It's only by revelation knowledge from the Holy Spirit, that the above Word can actually wash you clean in your natural man.  The natural man cannot receive this truth in his own mind.  As revelation comes into your spirit, you begin seeing yourself like God sees you and not as the way the natural man, as well as satan, will allow you to see yourself.
     Paul stated that only the Holy Spirit can bring this truth into your heart in 2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amplified), saying, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). (No) even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh)."  Verse 17 goes on, "Therefore if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, Behold, the fresh and new has come."
     Without the revelation by and through the Holy Spirit, most of us will still see Jesus after the flesh too, as a human viewpoint, and as a Man.  "Yet now we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh)."  The revelation of the Risen Christ will help us no longer just see "the Son of Man," but the Risen Son of God.  We will no longer see Him as just the Man who died on the cross, but as the Christ Who was raised from the dead, ascended into Heaven and justified us in the presence of His Father, by His Own sacrifice.  Now, through the revelation of the Word by the Holy Spirit, we can see beyond the cross and into eternity.  We will see how we are now righteous in our Father's eyes, because of Jesus' righteousness.
     Many of us continue struggling because of our flesh's weakness and don't realize that our strength is in our spirit, which has now been made one with Him in Jesus.  We can modify the behavior of our flesh with willpower, but can never quiet the voice of the flesh without the Holy Spirit power, because "It's not by might, but by My Spirit, says the Lord."  Only the revelation of the Word, and not the education of the Word, will set the captives free.
     John 8:31-32 (Amplified) says, "So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My Word (hold fast to My teachings, and live in accordance with them), you are truly My disciples and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free."
     John 6:63 (Amplified) tells us, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."  Only the Holy Spirit can reveal the truths and life of the Word that will set you free.  The freedom has already comes, but it take the Holy Spirit to reveal the Truth that will set you free.  

Lesson 91 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     I've been absent from my blog for four weeks now, while I was rebuilding my barn.  The weather has been holding here and I need to finish it before everything broke loose for the winter.  God has been very gracious holding back snow and cold, until I was done.  We moved the chickens into their new home on Thanksgiving Day and hopefully will be moving the horses into their home soon.  Thank you Mr. Walker for all your help and the use of your trailer.  Thank you Bob and Danny and everyone for being patient in my absence.
     We've been speaking about and learning about the Holy Spirit.  I will continue doing so here, so  let's get brought up to date here.  Many things we've learned throughout the years hasn't been given from the Holy Spirit.  In fact, in many Christian circles, the Holy Spirit has been left out completely from their teachings.  We recognize that He is here, but then deny His presence and His Super-natural power in the Church.
     The greatest part of His ministry is the building and bringing the Church, the Body of Christ, into unity.  Only the Holy Spirit can bring the revelation to the Church.  Some of the teachings and direction we've received over the past two-thousand years, has come from man's carnal knowledge without the revelation from the Spirit.  Proverbs 20:27 (Amplified) says, "The spirit of man (that factor in human personality which proceeds immediately from God) is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts."
     It has been mostly the soulish or carnal part of man that the Church has ministered to.  And, we've neglected to train and teach the spirit of man.  In these last days before Jesus returns, the Holy Spiirt is revealing the revelation of Jesus in the spirit of man.  Carnal teaching and thinking says that the power of the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives, is for when we get to heaven.  We've expected people to believe what we preach and teach, without any evidence of what we're telling them.  Even Jesus has to present "signs and wonders" to reveal God to the people.  In John 14:11 (Amplified) Jesus says, "Believe Me that I Am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the (very) works themselves (If you cannot trust Me, at least let these works that I do in My Father's Name convince you)."
     The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 15:18-19 (Amplified), "For (of course) I will not venture (presume) to speak thus of any work except what Christ has actually done through me (as an instrument in His Hands) to win obedience from the Gentiles by word and deed (Even as my preaching has been accomplished) with the power of signs and wonders (and all of it) by the power of the Holy Spirit, (the result is) that starting from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel (faithfully executing, accomplishing, carrying out to the full the Good News) of Christ (the Messiah) in its entirety."
     1Corinthians 2:1-6 (Amplified) Paul tells us, "As for myself, brethren, when I came to you, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony and evidence or mystery and secret of God (concerning what He has done through Christ for the salvation of men) in lofty words of eloquence or human philosophy and wisdom for I resolved to know nothing (to be acquainted with nothing, to make a display of the knowledge of nothing) among you except Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and Him crucified."  Verses 3 says, "And I was in (passed into a state of) weakness and fear (dread) and great trembling (after I had come) among you And my language and my message were not set forth in persuasive (enticing and plausible) words of wisdom, but they were in the demonstration of the (Holy) Spirit and power, (a proof of God, operating in me, and stirring in the minds of my hearers the most holy emotions and thus persuading them)."  Paul continues in Verses 5-6 saying, "The reason that this demonstration of the Holy Spirit and power was So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men (human philosophy) but in the power of God. Yet when we are among the full grown spiritually mature Christians (who are ripe in understanding), we do impart a (higher) wisdom (the knowledge of the divine plan previously hidden) but it is indeed not a wisdom of this present age or of this world nor of the leaders and rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing and are doomed to pass away."
     The world and its way of thinking, cannot accept the revelation of the Risen Christ, except by the Holy Spirit.  Even the Church, with man's idea of Christianity, cannot receive the real revelation of who we are in Christ, except through the Holy Spirit.  Mans way of thinking has made the real "demonstration" of the Holy Spirit difficult to be accepted, even in the Church.
     We've been preaching to the world and expecting them to simply believe all we say, without any demonstration of Life in our words.  We should always expect the Super-natural power of the Holy Spirit to confirm what we preach, according to Mark 16:20 (Amplified) which says, "And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord kept working with them and confirming the message by the attesting signs and miracles that closely accompanied (it) Amen (so be it)."
     Only the Holy Spirit can bring forth the "confirming" signs and miracles that accompany the Gospel.  We, the Church, must have the accompanying signs and wonders of God in order to reveal Him as He truly is, to the world and the Church.  We serve a supernatural God and we must allow the Holy Spirit to reveal Him to and in the world as He truly is.  Otherwise, we are just another religion, no different from the rest, in their eyes.  The Holy Spirit will proclaim to the world, that our God is not dead, but He is alive and still full of power.  Through the Holy Spirit, we are to not only tell the world about Him, but show the world that OUR GOD LIVES.
    

Lesson 90 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     Most of us have failed to obey the Holy Spirit's leading, because we've never been trained to hear His voice.  The Lord is always endeavoring to lead us, but we have been led by the five senses for so long that we haven't listened very much to the Spirit of God.
     Many have decided that only a very few persons can actually hear or know His voice.  Hearing and following His leading requires training our spirit to listen beyond our five senses.  Jesus told us that, "God is a Spirit."  Genesis 1:26 says we were "Created in His Image and Likeness" and that we are truly "spirit beings."  We were born with a flesh and blood body to live in, just like Jesus was. This body is to have contact with the natural earth and with nature, but we were always meant to be led and raised by the Spirit.
     Since we are now (and were from the beginning), a spirit in His Image, our spirit is the way His Presence must be reached and understood.  We can only come to a mental ascent to His presence, without contacting God by our spirit.  God's Word is also Spirit, according to John 6:63 (Amplified) where Jesus said, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no proof in it) The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
     His Words (the entire Bible) are Spirit.  God speaks to us by His Spirit and His Word.  If only we would allow the Holy Spirit to reveal His Word into our spirit, instead of trying to understand it with our carnal minds.  The only way to understand its truth is by our spirit, because His Word is Spirit and Truth.
     The Holy Spirit is the Only One Who can reveal the depth of the Father's heart and intent.  1Corinthians 2:13-14 (Amplified) tells us, "And we are setting these truths forth in Words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language (to those who possess the Holy Spirit)."  Verse 14 goes on, "But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and revelations and teachings of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated."
     If someone tried telling you that you can simply lay hands on the sick and they would be healed, then your carnal mind would dismiss it as foolishness.  Anything that has to do with the supernatural things of God in this natural world, seems to be foolishness to the natural man.
     There has been a division within the Body of Christ over these spiritual truths.  Some seek to believe, but fail, because we won't accept by our spirit.  Some truly believe that God can do anything, but they cannot believe that He will.  All have received the truth from the Holy Spirit, as far as they will Him to take them.  When we stop receiving in our spirit, we stop in our quest of understanding our Heavenly Father.
     Jesus said that, "I and the Father are One" and then He prayed in John 17:21 (Amplified) saying, "They (those who will believe in Him by the words of the disciples) all may be one (just) as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be One in us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me."
     The Oneness that Jesus and the Father had (even while Jesus was a Man in the flesh), is the same Oneness He prayed for us to have.  If there was ever a Person Who had His prayers answered, then it would be Jesus.  You know that God has answered Jesus' prayer for us to be one with Him and our Father.  The same potential to hear the Voice of the Spirit that Jesus had, is ours too.

Lesson 89 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     We've discussed prior to this, how the Holy Spirit's main ministry is revealing Jesus as our Savior to the world and revealing God as our Father to the Church.  He reveals Jesus to the world as the sin bearer and the only way to salvation.  And, He reveals the Father and His new covenant to God's "new creation" family.
    The Church still views God as the Old Testament God, without the Holy Spirit's revealing Him as Father.  We seem to return to the Law instead of grace and we try pleasing God by our works.  This part of the Holy Spirit's ministry has probably been the most difficult part of His job.
     It's difficult for us to view God as Father, even though we refer to Him as Father.  We seem to understand more about Him as our Father, but less about us as being His family.  We carry around the Image of the way He dealt with man in the old covenant, more than the Image of how He deals with His family in the new covenant.  The Holy Spirit has worked for more than two-thousand years, trying to teach man that Jesus is the Only Way to understand the heart of our Heavenly Father.  When we witness Jesus' attitude towards the people, we see the Father's attitude towards mankind.  Jesus never used sickness to chasten or teach the masses, but He always healed them from what sin and satan had done to them.  We, however, have come to believe that the opposite is our Father's way of teaching His children.
     Hebrews 1:3 (Amplified) tells us that Jesus is our Image and example of how we are to see the Father.  Thus, it says, "He (Jesus) is the sole expression of the glory of God (the Light-Being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine), and He is the perfect imprint and very Image of (God's) nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty Word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt. He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on High."
     These verses should be enough for any believer to God as Father and as the One Who shows grace and mercy and not judgment on His family.  The very same way Jesus taught the masses, is the exact way the Father teaches us today.  Sickness and disease were the enemies to covenant people and they still are today, because sickness, sin, disease and death are under the curse of the Law.  Some people think that the Law means the Ten Commandments, but they're not the same thing.  The Law allowed God to deal with His people by grace.  As long as the people obeyed the Law, they could be protected from the consequences of the Curse.  Without the Law, the old covenant people would have to bear the results of what Adam brought upon all mankind.
     The curse wasn't God's idea, but was the result of Adam's disobedience.  God's idea or plan for man was blessing.  The Law we've been redeemed from can be found in Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified) which says, "Therefore, (there is) now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live (and) walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit."  Verse 2 goes on, "For the law of the Spirit of Life (which is) in Christ Jesus (the law of our new being) has freed me from the Law of sin and death."  This is the Law that Jesus has freed us from.  The Ten Commandments are not a law to the New Testament people, but the "walking after the Spirit of Liberty," because violating the Ten Commandments puts believers in a place of bondage.
     We follow after righteousness by the Holy Spirit's leading and not the Law of Moses.  The people under the Law of Moses couldn't walk under the Spirit's leading because they weren't born again.  They could only obey the Laws that would keep the flesh under control, but they couldn't overcome it.  We have overcome the flesh by our new covenant with Jesus.
     We read about Paul's struggle with his flesh, by observing the Law of Moses in Romans 7:24-25.  It was his understanding our new covenant that set Paul free from the condemnation of guilt from his past transgressions.  Thus, Paul says, "O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from (the shackles of) this body of death? O thank God! (He will!) through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of god, but with the flesh the law of sin."
     Paul spoke about the Law of God in reference to the "Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus" in Romans 8:1-2.  The Law of the flesh Paul spoke about was the Law of sin and death.
     We're still engaged in this same "warfare" in our bodies today.  None of us are so pure in ourselves that we are free from wrong thoughts or deeds.  What Paul was simply saying was summed up in Hebrews 1:3 (Amplified) which says, "[Jesus] had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt."
     Paul was determined to walk in and by the Holy Spirit.  If we spend all of our time walking in guilt or the condemnation from our failures, then we will never rise to the place of being successful in god's victory over our flesh.  We could spend our lives in guilt or shame from our past.  Or, we can live our lives in the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus.
     Until we reach the fullness of our salvation and the redemption of our body, we will continue walking in the forgiveness that is ours in Jesus.  By not doing this, we remain under the Law of sin and death and will never be allowed to "feel" like we can walk in holiness and purity needed to operate in God's family.
     We alibi our sense of guilty by saying, "God is doing this to teach me," but truthfully, we walk in it because we won't believe Jesus has "released and delivered us from the shackles of this body of death," like Romans 7:24-5 says.  Paul became so convinced of this truth, that he later wrote 1Corinthians 4:3-4 (Amplified) which says, "But (as for me personally) it matters very little to me that I should be put on trial by you (on this point) and that you or any other human tribunal should investigate and question and cross question me, I do not even put myself on trial and judge myself. I am not conscious of anything against myself, and I feel blameless; but I am not acquitted before God on that account. It is the Lord (Himself) Who examines and judges me."
     Here stands a man who has trained his senses to walk to much in the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, that the Law of sin and death no longer can hold Paul down with guilt and shame in the flesh.
  

Lesson 88 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     The revelation of God as our Father was lost at Adam's fall in the Garden.  From the time of Adam until Jesus, no one could or would dare address God in such a familiar way.  Only the last Adam, Jesus, had the relationship or revelation of God as Father.  When Jesus spoke about God as Father, it angered the religious people who were present.  The deemed it "blasphemous" to do so.
     The Holy Spirit is here today in order to reveal this awesome God again as "Father."  He is having trouble once again, with the religious people, who refuse to accept this revelation.  Although we address Him as our Father, we continue to pull back from Him as exactly that, Father.  We remain suspicious as to His intentions and motives and will for us as His children.  It still seems we are reluctant to trust God as One Who loves us unconditionally.
     Those of us in God's family, have a difficult time truly understanding His will for us.  It is only the Holy Spirit Who can wholly reveal Him in the fullness of His love for us.  Religion constantly pushes us further away from this marvelous truth.  We call God "Father," but we approach Him like He won't be our Father until we get to heaven.  We just cannot seem to grasp the Holy Spirit's revelation of God in all His love and wholeness to us.  We address Him as Father, but still approach Him in unbelief.
      This unbelief is that we're never sure whether or not God will hear us or answer our prayers.  How many times have we heard or said, "I don't think God talks to me" or "God never answers my prayers?"  We're a double-minded family who never seems to know what such a perfect Father, as our God is, will do.
     The Holy Spirit's work and ministry is to bring God's family into a complete and whole family.  Through Jesus, the Holy Spirit has revealed the very person and purpose of our Heavenly Father.  We read many times in the Word, where Jesus says, "When you have seen Me, you have seen the Father, the Father and I are One."  We see Jesus as One Who walks in love and forgiveness.  We see Him as One Who heals without discrimination and One Who walks in compassion.  He is One Who always meets the needs of the people and never turns anyone away.  Yet, we have a difficult time seeing our father in the same light.  We read about Jesus' walk and how He does God's will, but fail to understand whether some things are God's will.
     It is certainly true that if Jesus came to reveal God as Father and He came to do the Father's will, then the things we see Jesus do, must be God's will for us too.  We act like healing is not God's will today, but one of the principle parts of Jesus' ministry was to heal the sick.  How could Jesus do these things and then it no longer be God's will?  Jesus Himself said that it was, "The Father in Me, that does the work."
     Our problem hasn't been that we cannot get the Father to act, but we don't trust Him to do what He's wanted to do all along.  When we fail to understand what God's will is, it's hard to walk in faith with His will.  The Holy Spirit has come to reveal God's will and God's heart.  If Jesus Christ is "The same, yesterday, today and forever," like Hebrews 13:8 says, then God is still doing exactly the same now as He was doing then.
     Our religious teachings make us feel sinful and unclean in God's eyes, so that God will not hear nor move on our behalf.  We still think we must do something to have God's approval or His ear.  What the Holy Spirit has come to do, is remove this old spirit of guilt and condemnation from us and help us to simply believe (even though our flesh cringes at it) that God has already perfectly cleansed and purified us by the Sacrifice of Jesus.
     Jesus was asked in John 6:28-29 (Amplified), "What are we to do, that we may (habitually) be working the works of God? (What are we to do to carry out what God requires)?"  Verse 29 says, "Jesus replied, This is the work (service) that God asks of you; That you believe in the One Whom He has sent (that you cleave to, trust in, rely on and have faith in His Messenger) to do, and have God do, what we really want and desire Him to do, all that is required of us, is to trust Him."
     The Holy Spirit has been working in the world to bring everyone salvation.  And, He's been working to bring God's family into fellowship with Him.  The most simple understanding of God's will is to "Believe on the One Whom God has sent (Jesus)."  Jesus, Himself said this about God's will in John 6:38 (Amplified) saying, "For I have come down from heaven not to do My Own will and purpose but to do the will and purpose of Him Who sent Me."
     This, by the Holy Spirit, should once and forever, seal the question of what God's will for us today.  Why would God's will change from the unsaved to the saved?  Why would it be His will to heal, feed, comfort and deliver those who weren't yet in His family and then not His will for us, His Own children?
     We struggle with the weakness of our flesh, instead of glorying in the strength of the Spirit.  We identify more with the first and fallen Adam, than with the Last and Victorious Adam, Jesus.  We still cannot do anything of ourselves, but we can "Do all things through Christ Who strengthens us."  All we're required to do is "Believe on the One Whom God has sent (Jesus)."  We keep hearing "You can't heal anyone" instead of remembering that it's not us who are required to heal, but the Father in us, Who does the work.
     We have a Father Who loves us so much, that He took our place and bore our entire punishment so we can come into His presence "pure and holy" by His Own Blood.  We should never be afraid or embarrassed before Him.  He doesn't look on our outward appearance, but looks upon our heart or spirit.  2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amplified) says, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards or value). (No) even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh) Therefore if any person is (engrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether) the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
     Again, we read in John 6:29 (Amplified) that, "This is the work (service) that God asks of you; that you believe in the One Whom He has sent (that you cleave to, trust in, rely on, and have faith in) His Messenger."

Lesson 87 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     The foremost work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the heart of the Father, through the revealing of Jesus to the world.  Many still struggle with the knowledge of God as a loving Father.  We fumble with distinguishing between the Old Testament God and the the new covenant Father.  For many believers, this has been one of the greatest weapons the enemy has used to hold back the power of the resurrection in their lives.
     Jesus said in John 14:7 (Amplified), "If you had known Me (had learned to recognize Me), You would also have known My Father. From now on you know Him and have seen Him."  The only way to ever know the Father is to know and understand Jesus, but many have only viewed Him from the four gospels.  In these four books (the Synopsis), we still see Jesus as an Old Testament prophet Who functions under the Law of Moses, speaking to the unsaved, unborn-again people.  They didn't have the new covenant or the revelation of the new birth or the Holy Spirit yet.  They only knew God as One Who would bless them by keeping the Law and if they failed to comply with the Law, then the curse would come upon them and they could even die. 
     Many of those under the Law, didn't understand that the Law wasn't intended to punish wrong doing, but to protect them from the power of the curse that could destroy them.  Many of today's Christians look at this same thing as though God was punishing them for their disobedience.  The truth is, that by keeping the Law and the commandments, the curse could not come upon them.  If they violated the Law, then the curse, which was already here through Adam, would be able to operate in their lives.  It wasn't something that God does to punish the, but what Adam did in the Garden.  The Law was to be their protection from the curse.
     It was never God's plan to punish mankind for Adam's transgression, but to place a covenant of safety from the curse that came at his fall.  If God hadn't made a Blood covenant for mankind, then all would have had to live in the curse from that point on.  God activated the blood to cover the curse, according to Romans 3:23 (Amplified) which says, "Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives."
     By the shedding of blood, God could demonstrate that death (the wages of sin) have been met and was legally paid, at least on a temporary basis.  Because He is a Just God and Judge, God must act justly on behalf of His creation.  Now, through the blood of bulls and goats, He could legally make restitution for mans sin, by death their behalf.  Every time the blood was displayed, satan had to accept the fact that his wages (death) had been met.  Now God could once more begin to bring the blessing that was on Adam back into focus for all His people.  As long as they would walk under the umbrella of covenant blood, the curse couldn't come upon them.
     It wasn't God's punishment on the people that brought about misery, but it was their own disobedience that put them outside the blood of the covenant.  We've blamed God accusing Him of saying, "I am going to get you," when in reality God has said, "If you do this, then no one can get you."  It was God's only way of keeping man safe until He could get Jesus into the earth.  God had always intended for His family to be blessed from the beginning.
     Deuteronomy 30:14-19 (Amplified) says, "But the Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your mind, and in your heart, so that you can do it. See, I have set before you this day life and good, a death and evil. (If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which) I command you today, To love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land into which you go to possess. But, if your (mind and) heart turn away and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish, and you shall not live long in the land which you pass over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness this day again you that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live."
     Notice how God didn't say He would place a curse on them, but that they had a choice.  If they would accept and walk under His covenant, then it would protect, bless and bring long life.  But, if they chose not to accept His covenant, then the only thing left to them was the curse that was already here.  We have this exact same choice today.  Did part of the above scripture sound familiar?  It's the same as Romans 10:8-9 (Amplified) which says, "The Word (God's message in Christ) is near you, on your lips and in your heart; that is the Word (the message, the basis and object) of faith which we preach."  Verse 9 says, "Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
     God has once again presented us with the choice to "choose life and blessing, or death and cursing."  The choice is ours.  John writes in John 3:16-17 (Amplified), "For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He (even) gave up His Only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal life."  Verse 17 goes on, "For God did not sent the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him."
     If we choose to walk in death and cursing, then that is our choice and God will respect that choice.  If you choose to receive and believe in Jesus, then you can still have blessing and be made safe and sound, by and through Him.  The choice is ours.  The curse is still here, but God has given us a way out of it.  If we don't choose the blessing, then we cannot say, "God put this on me to teach me something," because that would mean that Jesus' sacrifice was a "Band-aid" put on the sin problem and the curse is now stronger than Jesus' Blood.
     Settle it in your heart that when the Holy Spirit reveals the Father through Jesus, that when you see Jesus you see the Father.  There is no curse, no death, no sickness, no rejection, no condemnation, no judgment, no sentencing, there is only salvation and soundness by His Blood and the restoration of our Father's blessing on our lives, through Him.  As the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus, we must keep in our hearts and minds that this is our Father and He isn't the old covenant God, but the new covenant Father.  We're no longer servants, but sons.  We're no longer under the protection of the Law and sacrifice of animals, but by His grace and the protection of the Blood of the Sacrifice of the Almighty God Himself on our behalf.
     Let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart and deliver you from the bondage that the worldly idea of God has placed before you.  Choose life and blessing in Christ Jesus.

Lesson 86 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     Luke 3:21-22 (Amplified) says, "Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus had also been baptized, and (while He was still) praying; the (visible) heavens were opened And the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, saying, You are My Son, My Beloved! In You I am well pleased and find delight."
     Luke 4:1 (Amplified) says, "Then Jesus, full of and controlled by the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led in (by) the Holy Spirit."
     Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19 (Amplified) that, "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) to proclaim the acceptable and accepted year of the Lord (the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound)."
     These scriptures illustrate how the full ministry of Jesus didn't come into full power until the ministry of the Holy Spirit came upon Him in power.  From that point on, His ministry was actually the very work and ministry of the Holy Spirit.  The very "indwelling" of God Himself in Spirit form, was working and ministering through Him.  Jesus said in John 14:10 (Amplified), "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? What am I telling you I do not say on My Own authority and of My Own accord; but the Father Who lives continually in Me does the (His) works (His Own miracles, deeds of power)."
     We know that the Holy Spirit is God, or the Father Himself.  The works and ministry of the Holy Spirit is the Father Himself actually living out His life among mankind, through us, just like He did through Jesus.  We've never been cognizant of the full truth and ministry of the Holy Spirit in our own lives.
     Jesus said on more than one occasion, that "It is not Me, but the Father in Me that does the works.  The same Holy Spirit working in our lives is the Holy Spirit Who worked in Jesus' life.  The only difference is that Jesus yielded Himself over to the Spirit and allowed the Spirit full access in His life.
We've heard Christians say, "Yes, but that was Jesus and I am not Jesus."  But, Jesus kept saying, "It's not Me, but the Father in Me."  When we learn to yield to the Holy Spirit, then we can also say, "It's not me, but the Father in me that's doing the works."  Jesus was dependent upon the same thing in His life that we are, the Holy Spirit.
     Somehow, we've portrayed the Holy Spirit as being more dependent on us, than we are on Him.  Everyone should know that it's not you healing the sick or raising the dead.  God never intended for us to do that.  He intended to do it Himself, through us.  It was to be Him in us doing the miracles.  We've become so self-centered that we thought we had to do it.
    The work and ministry of the Holy Spirit hasn't changed since He came into this earth at Pentecost.  We've been the only hindrance to revealing the Father to the world.  God has been ready ever since He made His entrance in the Upper Room.  We've been so afraid that we were overstepping our own authority, that we've never thought it was His authority through us, that was to be revealed.
     It's not a matter of pride, but of understanding that will release God into the masses of people today, like it was in the early Church.  We've successfully talked ourselves out of having the indwelling power of our Father in us.  All He needs for us to do, is recognize His presence in us and to simply allow Him to be Who He is...God!  "With God all things are possible."  It's not with us, but with God.
     We continue to focus more on our own inability rather than on His ability.  2Corinthians 4:6-7 (Amplified) says, "For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as (to beam forth) the Light of the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God (as it is manifest in the person and is revealed) in the face of Jesus Christ (the Messiah). However, we possess this precious treasure (the divine Light of the Gospel) in (frail, human) vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not from ourselves)."
     Jesus repeatedly taught that the glory and the Light of His message and power was not Him, but the Father in His earthly vessel Who did the work.  Jesus was without sin, but we must realize that because of Him, God sees us without sin too.  2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, Behold, the fresh and new has come."
     We've been seeing ourselves as our old selves, instead of the way God sees us, as new selves.  We still view ourselves from the frailty of the flesh, and thus, we disqualify ourselves.  God sees us by the faith of our relationship with Jesus as Lord, and sees us without sin.  Our faith in Jesus as Lord has qualified us and the Holy Spirit chooses to live in us like He did in Jesus.  Now He can be exalted even in our earthen vessels.  And we know that the glory be of God and not of ourselves.

Lesson 85 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     John 14:26 (Amplified) says, "But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Stand-by) the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name (in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf) He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you."
     The Holy Spirit was sent to represent or take the place of Jesus to the believer.  He will be everything to the believer that Jesus Himself was to His disciples.  If you can accept Jesus Himself (or actually the Father in you) by His Spirit, into your spirit, then He will direct your actions.  This is the Counselor and Teacher of the Church.
     The Apostle John reveals the ministry of the Counselor and Teacher for our lives today, in the above scripture.  He writes about false teachers and false doctrines and speaks about an "unction from the Holy One" in reference to the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit," saying in 1John 2:20 (Amplified), "But you have been anointed by (you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction from) the Holy One, and you all know (the Truth) or you know all things."  If we can truly believer what God's Word says, then through the very Spirit of Truth, we have access to the full knowledge of God and we know all things.  Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified) that, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever, this is no profit in it), The Words that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."  Is there anything that God does not know?  We then too, have all knowledge, from Him.
     John said that we have "an unction" or anointing abiding within us from the very Anointed One Himself.  This isn't an anointing that comes from within or upon us to do a certain work in the ministry.  I have an anointing to function as a pastor and teacher.  I also have an anointing in my own personal life making it possible to know things occurring in my life at every turn.
     The anointing of the Holy Spirit is present in every born again child of God.  Have you ever been in a situation where, on the surface everything seemed alright, but you felt a "check" in your spirit concerning that situation?  You couldn't "put your finger" on what was wrong, but you had a check in your spirit.  Then someone asked you what was wrong, but you were unable to answer them other than you had a check in your spirit.  This is the unction, from the Spirit of Truth, that will protect you or prevent something you couldn't discern on your own.
     Throughout the years, I've learn not to go again this check.  I might not know why, but I have learned to always trust in it.  In every occasion where I failed to follow this check, something not foreseen happened that I wish did not.  I didn't always hear the Holy Spirit directing me not to do something, but I did get a check in my spirit.
     One time we met a man who wished to donate four acres of land, in a resort area, to our church.  A partially completed townhouse complex sat on those four acres and this property's worth was estimated to be over four million dollars.  I didn't know what I was supposed to do with this gift, but I knew the Lord would make good of it.  I thought we could perhaps provide low income housing or housing for the elderly.  The people who began the complex could not afford to finish it.  So, the owner of the property, a real-estate lawyer, two realtors and I met to finalize this transaction.  I had a check in my spirit and wasn't at peace in my spirit.  I finally went against this check in my spirit and received the property for the ministry.  We drew up all the paperwork, recorded the deed and had it registered in the county court house in the hall of records.
     I then found how much I needed what Jesus spoke about in John 14:27 (Amplified), when He said,"Peace I leave with you; My (Own) peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled."  I came to a peace with the world's peace, but not His peace.  I found peace from what the lawyer and owner said.  Everything seemed alright, but the check in my spirit remained and I didn't have God's peace.
     To make a long story short, one of the co-owners of the property had entered bankruptcy court and the transaction wasn't valid because of that fact.  It cost me over seven thousand dollars to "return" the "free" gift of this property to whosoever legally held the rights to it.
     It cost me seven-thousand dollars to learn a very valuable lesson about the check in my spirit or "unction" from the Holy Spirit.  This check was in fact, that I didn't have peace about this entire matter.  I didn't know and I believer the others didn't know whether this was a legal transaction, but the Holy Spirit (Who knows all things) did know.  I've learned since that I will always listen very closely to this check or lack of peace, when it arises in me.
     I've become more aware of the Holy Spirit's counsel or anointing that abides in me.  I've been delivered many times from making a mistake that could be very costly, not only costly monetarily, but even worse disasters.  I hear many Christians say that "they don't hear God's Voice"a or they "never get answers to their prayers."  This unction or check in my spirit or anointing that abides within me, is God speaking to me and is there at all times.

Lesson 84 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     We've been studying the difference between the Gifts of the Spirit and the new life of the Spirit.  When we were born again by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God,  we became a new creation.  We became an entirely new being altogether.  With this new birth into the Kingdom of God, we took on a new nature (the nature of God) and became once again "alive" unto God and God to us.
     This new birth is more than just going to heaven when we die, as some have taught, but now heaven (the Spirit of God) has come into the earth in earnest.  Our citizenship changed from the natural man, into what God had intended when creating the first Adam.  When God created man in "His likeness and Image," He created man a spirit.   Genesis 2:7 (Amplified)  says that God made a body or a physical house to inhabit for man, making it possible to contact and rule in the physical earth God created for man.
     Man is a living spirit, indwelling a natural body, making him able to rule the natural world and fellowship with God.  Man was to be ruled by his spirit, by the Holy Spirit, and rule over all of earth's creation.  God would be the Directing Voice and Mentor, while ma would be in perfect fellowship with God by his spirit.  After the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, man was "cut-off" from the life and fellowship with God because Adam's act of treason in disobedience.  Satan became the de facto father and mentor of man, by death and sin.
     Man now had to learn from only his natural sources and five senses.  He could only count on what he saw, heard, smelled, touched and tasted.  Man no longer had the Guidance of the Holy Spirit in his life...he actually didn't have life at all.  God told Adam that the day he partook of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, "that day he would surely die."  Adam only had the memories of the things the Father had taught him.  And, as he was drawn further and further from who he was, he depended more and more on who he had now become.
     Throughout the Old Testament (the old covenant), the Holy Spirit is seen only "abiding on" those whom God chose for certain ministries and not "in them."  God's plan for man hadn't or hasn't changed since He set the plan for redemption in motion, after Adam's fall.  God's dream of having a family wouldn't be stopped by the adversary (the devil).
     Jesus died, resurrected and then He was accepted by God as the Perfect Lamb.  His Blood did what all the animal blood couldn't do for thousands of years.  His Blood was sinless and perfect.  After Jesus was made "after the likeness"  of sinful flesh or in the likeness thereof.  Through Jesus, God did what satan couldn't have believed possible, He made a "new creation," according to 2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) which says, "Therefore if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old ((previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, Behold, the fresh and new has come."
     Through faith in Jesus, man has now been created again, like he was intended from the beginning.  Man was a living spirit, housed in a flesh and blood body, living in his natural home on earth.  Now, he is once more alive in his spirit and led by God Himself, through the Holy Spirit's living in him.  We've been restored into perfect union and fellowship with our Heavenly Father.  The Gifts of the Spirit are only God's means of meeting the natural and physical needs and repairing and restoring the house (the natural body) man lives in.  The Holy Spirit is to minister to the body and the spirit of God's Family.
     When man became born again by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit could educated this "baby in Christ" by revealing God's Word to his spirit.  The new spirit baby would grow and mature in the Words of Life, Truth and Spirit.  God gave man a new language, which was a language of the spirit, by the Spirit.  God gave us His Word, in our earthly language and also gave us a "Heavenly Language." This Heavenly language would be used to reach beyond our natural intellect and be led again by our Rightful Father.
     The speaking of tongues is simply the heavenly language by which we can speak to our Heavenly Father and learn from Him once again.  The Gift of Tongues and Interpretations is God speaking to His family, through the Holy Spirit.  The unknown tongue or praying in the Holy Spirit or speaking in unknown tongues is simply the new language of the new creation, who is back in fellowship with our Heavenly Father.
     Both the Gift of Tongues and the unknown tongue are brought about by the same Holy Spirit.  One is God speaking to His Own Family, by the Holy Spirit, through the interpretation of tongues.    The language of tongues is my spirit, by the Holy Spirit within me, speaking to God in secrets and mysteries.  Both are part of the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
     We try so hard to make the things of God complicated, that we miss the simplicity of what He has done.  If we would simply allow the Holy Spirit to lead and direct our lives, then we would see just how simple God has made it to reach Him again.  Why would God make a new creation and still have no communication with them as before?  Jesus said that He "could only do what the Father told Him to do" and He could "only say what the Father told Him to say."  Jesus drew all of His "education" of the Spirit from the Holy Spirit Who lived within Him.  Wouldn't we then learn the same way?
     We've struggled for many years, trying to communicate with a Spirit Father, from a "natural" standpoint.  We've tried reaching and walking with God by our own terms, through tradition and efforts, not His terms.  Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified) that, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life Giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
     If the Holy Spirit is the Life Giver and His Words are Spirit, then how can we, as natural man, possibly receive life (the full life and understanding) of the Spirit without the Spirit?  Only the Holy Spirit can release the Life and Spirit of God's Word.  Man can only create religion and more bondage in the natural.  The speaking of tongues, the new language of the new creation, is the Life breathed into the Words God has spoken.
     How can we possibly know and communicate with God (Who is a Spirit), without the Holy Spirit's speaking to our spirit?  Our limited language of English (or whatever language you speak) is simply "baby talk" that doesn't begin to take us into fellowship and communication with our Father.  We've heard "baby talk" spoken by babies and even though we thought it was cute, we knew it wasn't communication and couldn't commune with them in that language.  We were only moved by what we thought the baby needed or wanted.  As they grew and learned the language, we could fellowship and mentor them.  God is no different with His children.
     Speaking in tongues, or the language of the Spirit, brings life and truth and answers to what our carnal mind (and its language) could never produce in our lives.  1Corinthians 2:14 (Amplified) says, "But the natural, non spiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts or teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated."  We must necessarily then, have a language of the Spirit to receive of and understand the things of the Spirit.
     Having the ability of praying in the Spirit, has been my most direct way of knowing and understanding my Heavenly Father.  In order to know His will, His heart, His character and His voice, we must enter in by the spirit.  If you are truly born again and are a new creature, like the Word says you are, then within your new life, you have a new language.  If won't manifest in your carnal mind as English (or whatever language you speak), but will proceed directly from your new being, from your spirit.  Your new being will speaking in spirit and will contact God, Who is a Spirit according to 1Corinthians 14:2 (Amplified) which says, "For one who speaks in an (unknown) tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the Holy Spirit he utters secret truth and hidden things (not obvious to the understanding)."
     Do you know how much more simple it is to walk with the Father, when He can tell you "secret truths and hidden things"?  All the things we've been trying to learn and understand by our own intellect are wasted, but in the Spirit (tongues), God reveals them all to us by the Holy Spirit living inside us.

Lesson 83 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     For many, receiving of the Holy Spirit was a one time event.  Even though He came into our lives at our new birth, there is the opportunity to be "filled" daily with His new and exciting presence.  When the Holy Spirit comes into our spirit and brings about our new birth, He will "never leave us or forsake us."
     The "one time" experience was to be an eternal time of knowing and growing in the knowledge of our Heavenly Father and Jesus.  He came to build an understanding and relationship with our Father.  Only the Holy Spirit can fully reveal the Mind of Christ within the new child of God.  Without His teaching and leading us (the children of God), we simply will return to religion instead of relationship.
     One of the greatest things I've found in my walk with God, is the ability to speak in tongues.  Many Christians have taught that this gift from the Holy Spirit has "passed away" or they've been given watered down teachings about this gift.  1Corinthians 14:2 (Amplified) tells us, "For one who speaks in an (unknown) tongue speaks not to men but unto God, for no one understands or catches his meaning. But in the Holy Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things (not obvious to the understanding)." Paul also says in 1Corinthians 14:4 (Amplified) that, "He who speaks in a (strange) tongue edifies himself and improves himself."
     Jesus spoke to His disciples about the Holy Spirit and the Truth of the Word in John 6:63 (Amplified) saying, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the life-giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."  The only way to receive "Truth and Life" from reading the Bible, is by having the Holy Spirit revealing it to you.
     All of God's Words is truth, but all of God's Word hasn't been revealed as truth or life.  We can read the Word and still not receive the truth and life of it.  The Holy Spirit has nearly become a forgotten Entity for many Christians, but it was He, Whom God sent to nurture and raise His children into maturity.  Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit in John 16:13-14 (Amplified) saying, "But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the truth giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the truth (the whole, full truth) For He will not speak His Own message (on His Own authority) but He will tell whatever He hears (from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him) and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come (that will happen in the future)."  Verse 14 tells us that these "secret things and hidden truths" are edifying and building up the person who is praying.  If I am praying in tongues, then I'm not praying for things I know about, but I'm receiving things I didn't know (which are the things of the Spirit).
     Everything I have learned about my Heavenly Father and His plan for me (and all of His family), has come by the Holy Spirit's revelation.  The Holy Spirit is the only One Who can reveal it to your spirit.  Once it's revealed to you, you can understand and implement it in your life and daily walk with Jesus.
     There are many Christians who have received the Holy Spirit (and all who have been born again have received the Holy Spirit) and remained babies in Christ.  1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) says, "Like newborn babies, you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, the Word of God that you may be nurtured and grow unto (completed) salvation."
     The "completed salvation" is the renewing of our minds, according to Romans 12:2 (Amplified) which says, "Do not be conformed to this world (this age) (fashioned after, and adapted to its external, superficial customs). But be transformed (changed) by the (entire) renewal of your mind (by its new ideals and its new attitude). So that you may prove (for yourselves) what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, Even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect (in His sight for you)."
     These are some of the things a believer will receive of, that are the "secret and hidden things" the Holy Spirit will reveal to us in the Truth and Spirit of the Word.  This is how we can renew our minds and renew our way of thinking about the Father and His new covenant with us, through Jesus.  When we pray in the Holy Spirit (in tongues), we can pray above our own understanding and in the true understanding of the Spirit. 
     It doesn't matter how educated a person is, he can still only speak by what he knows.  Our own understanding and intellect cannot reach the wisdom of God.  Even though we might be well educated, we can't determine how Jesus raised the dead, multiplied the loaves and fishes, or walk on water.  Can our own understanding explain how with simply His Word can heal the sick or raise the dead?  The Spirit of God is the Only One Who can reveal these things in our lives and duplicate these things in our lives.
     Jesus said in John 14:12 (Amplified) that, "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he himself will be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these because I go to the Father."  Without knowing the secret things of the Father by His Spirit, there is no way to even consider this statement as true.  We all would admit that we could not do any of those things in our natural selves.  But, Jesus said we can do them.  The only way of understanding His statement is by the Holy Spirit and praying in Him (praying in tongues). 
     We hear multitudes of various teachings, from multitudes of various churches, about our Heavenly Father and this has caused much confusion about Who He is.  Only the Holy Spirit can correctly reveal the character and the true mind of God to His people.  We've been walking in darkness, by not allowing the Holy Spirit to bring the Light of God's Word to us.
     Paul speaks about the difference between the Gifts of the Spirit in the congregation and the personal tongues of the believer in 1Corinthians 14:27 (Amplified) saying, "If some speak in a (strange) tongue, let the number be limited to two or at the most three, and each one (taking his) turn, and let one interpret and explain (what is said)."  This is the Gift of Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues he spoke about in 1Corinthians 12:8,10 where he said, "To one is given in and through the Holy Spirit (the power to speak) a message of wisdom, and to another  (the power to express) a word of knowledge and understanding according to the same Holy Spirit."  In Verse 10 he says, "To another the ability to interpret (such) tongues."
     These gifts are ministerial gifts for primarily congregational usage, but the tongues Paul speaks about in 1Corinthians 10:2, aren't to be "interpreted" to the congregation, because it's not "speaking to men, but unto God."  The interpretation of this prayer is of personal use to the one who is praying.  It's for his edification and the building up of his faith.  The other is for the edifying of the Church.  Can you see the difference between the two?
     When we pray in tongues, we receive from God, through the Holy Spirit, the hidden truths and secret things that God has laid up for His family.  This language of the Spirit doesn't seem so strange once we try thinking of it in terms of God's Word.  If you're born in Mexico, then you probably speak Spanish.  If you're born and reside in Germany, then you speak German.  If you're born in China, then you speak Chinese.  Why is it so strange that if we are born of the Spirit, then we speak in the Spirit? 
    

Lesson 82 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     I wish to address one of the greatest things I've learned in my own life about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit's presence in our lives today is something many have never used or allowed themselves to receive.
     Let's begin in 1Corinthians 12 learning about the differences between the ministerial gifts of the Holy Spirit and the power of His presence in the lives of those not being used in the five fold ministry or congregational offices.  The Apostle Paul instructs the Church about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the local church.  Paul writes about the Gifts of the Spirit in the use of ministering to others and the work of the five fold ministry.
     As Paul addresses the Gifts of the Spirit, he made note how he didn't want the Church to be ignorant or misinformed in Verse 13, where he plainly states that, "No one speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit can ever say, Jesus be cursed, nor can they proclaim Jesus is Lord, except by the influence of the Holy Spirit."  That statement itself should end satan's lie to the Church that, "speaking in tongues is of the devil."  Let's not be misinformed.
     As Paul continues his discourse about the Gifts of the Spirit, he defines "special" manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life.  These are men and women in the Body of Christ, who are called into the five fold ministry.  Ephesians 4:11 (Amplified) describes these ministers to the Church, saying, "And His gifts were (varied) He Himself appointed and gave men to us some to be apostles (special messengers), Some prophets (inspired preachers of the gospel, traveling missionaries) Some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers."
     These five fold ministries are most likely to operate in the Gifts of the Spirit, but not always.  Paul says in 1Corinthians 12:11 (Amplified), "All these (gifts, achievements,abilities) are inspired and brought to pass by one and the same Holy Spirit, Who apportions to each person individually (exactly) as He chooses."
     This verse illustrates how even outside the five ministry, there are times the Gifts of the Spirit will work through whomsoever the Holy Spirit chooses.  Those who are always sharing and speaking about Jesus and witnessing to the world about salvation, as well as proclaiming Christ, need these Gifts to deliver one from the bondage of the world.
     We again see the distinction Paul makes concerning those who are appointed by God in 1Corinthians 12:28 (Amplified), which says, "So God has appointed some in the Church (for His Own use) first apostles (special messengers); second prophets (inspired preachers and expounders); third teachers; then Wonder-workers; then those with ability to heal the sick, helpers; administrators (speakers in) different (unknown) tongues."
     God makes a distinction between those He has "appointed" and the rest of the body in Verses 29-30, saying, "Are all apostles (special messengers)? Are all prophets (inspired interpreters of the will and purposes of God)? Are all teachers? Do all have the power of performing miracles? Do all possess extraordinary powers of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?"
     These obvious answer to the above questions is, "No!"  These are primarily ministry gifts to the world and not necessarily to the Church.  Although these gifts are often seen in our local churches, that is not their primary use.  We've called in various speakers into our local churches who operate in these gifts.  Most local churches invite different speakers from the five fold ministries into our congregations from time to time.  We certainly do so that these gifts will flow through our congregations at the operation of the these guest speakers.
     Many times the Lord has set men and women into the local Body, who are used by the Holy Spirit on the local level.  One of the things that has confused Christians is the difference between the Gift of tongues and the language of the Spirit.  Ever believer who is born again, is born of and into the Spirit.  As we come into the Spirit realm, there is a language spoken that is not of man, but of the Spirit.
     We haven't been taught about this distinction in most of our churches and it has hindered the progress of our church's maturity.  Many teachers stop their teachings about the Holy Spirit's gifts at 1Corinthians 12 and never go on to connect that Word with 1Corinthians 14:19.  Or, they use 1Corinthians 14:19 to justify their stand about tongues.  Let's read that scripture, "Nevertheless, in public worship, I would rather say five words with my understanding and intelligently in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a (strange) tongue (language)."
     One must read and consider the preceding verse before dismissing tongues as unnecessary.  Thus, 1Corinthians 14:18 (Amplified) says, "I thank God that I speak in (strange) tongues (languages) more than any of you or all of you put together."  Verse 19 goes on, "For one who speaks in an (unknown) tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the Holy Spirit he utters secret Truths and hidden things (not obvious to the understanding)."
     The one Gift of Tongues is a ministry gift to the Church and the world, which allows God to speak to and through His people.  1Corinthians 12:10 (Amplified) teaches,"To another the working of miracles, to another prophetic insight (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose) to another the ability to discern and distinguish between (the utterances of true) spirits (and false spirits) To another various kinds of (unknown) tongues, to another the ability to interpret (such) tongues."
     We will find a great distinction between these two verses, if we will allow the Holy Spirit to interpret the scriptures for us.  One gift is a ministry gift where God, by "unknown" or "strange languages" speaks to His Church and then another member by the same Holy Spirit, can interpret to the Church what the Lord has spoken; they can say, "Thus says the Lord."
     Paul teaches about the other "strange" tongues in 1Corinthians 14:2 (Amplified), saying, "For one who speaks in an (unknown) tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the Holy Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things (not obvious to the understanding)."
     The first of the two is the gift of the Spirit where God speaks to His people using tongues and interpretation of tongues (1Cor. 12:30).  The other is your spirit, through the Holy Spirit, speaking to God (1Cor.14:2).  One tongues is interpreted as "Thus says the Lord" to edify His Church.  The other is your spirit, through the Holy Spirit, to edify your own spirit.  1Corinthians 14:4 (Amplified) says, "He who speaks in a (strange) tongue edifies and improves himself."
     So, you can understand that there are differences in the ministry of the Gift of Tongues or prayer language of the spirit through the Holy Spirit.  One is God speaking to us (1Cor. 14:4) and the other is our spirit, through the Holy Spirit, speaking to God (1Cor. 14:2).  One is to be interpreted to the people for their edification and the other is "secret truths and hidden things" spoken to edify the one speaking.
     Both of these gifts are for the edification of the Church, individually and collectively.  Both are the Holy Spirit, but both are different as "He wills" to profit or edify God's people.  This may be the most powerful weapon the Church has in its arsenal today.  This is why satan so voraciously attacks the credibility of these gifts.  These hidden things and secret truths are the wisdom of God Himself being fed directly into your spirit and satan cannot stop it or interfere with it because we are "speaking mysteries" in the Spirit.

Lesson 81 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     The Apostle Paul relates the things of the new creation to the Church in Corinth in Romans 8.  As he begins this portion of his letter, Paul reveals the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.  The power of the cross made so many things different in their lives (and ours) that Paul wished to bring into the light for them.  Thus, Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified) says, "Therefore [because of what he had previously taught in the last chapter] (there is) now no condemnation (no adjusting guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live (and) walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life (which is) in Christ Jesus (the law of our new being) has freed me from the law of sin and death."
     Paul went on to expound the revelation of the "outward" man, the mindset that we all had and the weakness of the fleshly body.  He continued in this discourse of how Christ has made us free from what Adam did in disobedience.  He continued into the "burden" of bringing the old man (the fleshly body) into the subjection of the Spirit.  Verses 23,24,25 are about the whole of creation and how we, along with all of creation, groan under the curse placed on us after Adam's fall.  Then, Paul begins speaking about the first fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives and how they give us the hope of what is to come.  Romans 8:25 (Amplified) tells us, "But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure."
     Then Paul speaks about the Holy Spirit's ministry in our lives and how the Holy Spirit bears us up in our weakness and shows us how to pray when we do not know how too.  The Holy Spirit prays,  through us, the perfect prayer on our behalf with "groanings that cannot be uttered."  Paul tells us how the Holy Spirit is there to intercede on our behalf so we stand together with Him in prayer, through our spirit.
     Romans 8:27 (Amplified) says, "And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the Holy Spirit (what His intent is) because the Spirit intercedes and pleads (before God) in behalf of the saints according to and in  harmony with God's will."  Then Paul writes a verse that is so familiar with today's Christians and one they use for not standing fast and having an understanding of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, Verse 28 goes on, "We are assured and know that (God being a partner in their labor) all things work together and are (fitting into a plan) for good to and for those who love God and are called according to (His) design and purpose."
     We need to go back to what Paul was really referring to when he said "all things."  Was Paul talking about car accidents, sickness, divorce, child molestation, war, famine, disease and children dying of starvation?  No!  Paul was talking about "being set free from the law of sin and of death" because Jesus made him free.  Paul ended Romans 7:24-25 (Amplified) with a cry of praise and thanksgiving to God, saying, "Oh unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from (the shackles of) this body of death? Oh thank God! (He will) through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin."
     Now, let's consider what Paul began chapter eight with our being "made free from the law of sin and death" "by a higher law, the law of the Spirit of Life."  You can understand that Paul was talking about "all things working together for his good."  He speaks about the Holy Spirit, being led by the Spirit, allowing the Holy Spirit to minister life into our spirit, delivering us from the old bondage of our flesh and allowing life to flow out of our spirit.  Paul teaches further about the Holy Spirit, saying that no matter where we are in Christ or where we are in weakness of the flesh, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will set us free from all the bondage of the old man.
     The new birth, the new law along with the mind and body, must be put into subjection of the Holy Spirit according to Romans 8:4, 28 (Amplified) says, "The Holy Spirit will teach us (the Holy Spirit will reveal the adoption)  (the Spirit producing sonship whereby we cry Abba, Father)."  Verse 28 goes on, "We know that all things are working together for our good, and are fitting into a plan for those who love God."
     So, when Paul says "all things," we know he isn't speaking about the trials and struggle we go through on earth, but the Holy Spirit and the Word working in us will turn all things to our good.  Paul is talking about the dealing with the flesh by the Word and the Holy Spirit, along with the renewing of our mind by the Word.  The law of Life, through the Holy Spirit, and the ability to pray the perfect will and mind of God brings "all good things" into our lives.  Because of the curse on all creation, our flesh and mind will fight against our new spirit or new birth.  Sin will continue trying to trap us.  But, we have all the things the first fruits of the new creation and "All these things" are working together for the "good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose."
     Don't use Romans 8:28 out of context, as an excuse for doing nothing about the things coming against you in your walk with God.  Paul said that "all things" the Holy Spirit does would set us free.  If you walk in that, then you'll walk in victory over all those other things.  Romans 8:34 (Amplified) says, "Who is there to condemn (us) will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead; Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us?"
     All these things are working together for our good. 

Lesson 80 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     The Holy Spirit is the most important Person in the life of a new born Christian.  When we are born again and receive new life through Jesus' Sacrifice, we become like "newborn babies."  1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) says, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto (completed) salvation."
     The KJV says we "Should crave, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow there by."  The Holy Spirit is the One Who has been given charge of God's family to train them up.  We have a daycare and Preschool ministry in our church to train, teach, care for and watch over babies and young children.  Similarly, not everyone in God's family is the same age. 
     We have all received equally when being born again and we are all children of God, but we aren't all the same age spiritually.  People who just received Jesus today do not have the maturity of those who have been saved for years.  Some Christians know nothing of God's will or His character at all, because not every pastor teaches these things.  And, some preachers weren't taught by the Holy Spirit so we have multiple degrees of spiritual maturity in the Church.  Some Christians have been taught incorrectly from the time of their salvation and remain under denominational teachings and law.
     It's not that all who are called as pastors and teachers are not sincere, but some are sincerely wrong.  Man's idea of what the Word says is not the same as what the Holy Spirit says about the Word and leaves us in varying stages of spiritual maturity.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Grace and Truth, Who came to reveal the truth of Jesus to God's children and the world. 
     He was sent to us for many things that are never manifested in our lives, because we don't understand grace and faith.  Ephesians 2:8 (Amplified) says, "For it is by free grace (God's unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation) through (your) faith. And this (salvation) is not of itself (of your own doing, it came not through your own striving) but it is the gift of God."
     Grace has been poured out upon this planet by the arrival of the Holy Spirit in Acts.  Grace for the salvation of all mankind is now present, yet many remain unsaved.  It's not that grace isn't available, but that faith hasn't been applied to this grace of God.  Every one of us in the Body of Christ has been made partakers of this salvation (we are all saved), but we haven't applied our faith into the depths of God's grace.
     As the Holy Spirit reveals more and more of the depths of His grace, we must by faith, plumb the depths of it.  Grace didn't end when we were born again, like some have been taught, but actually it opened a door into our new life.  Only the Holy Spirit, the Teacher of the Church, can reveal God's great grace to us.
     Satan has fought diligently against the speaking of tongues or praying in the Spirit.  Many haven't grown up like 1Peter 2:2 instructs, because we never did receive the "sincere milk of the Word" in truth.  I do not believe that any Christian (if they are truly Christians) would deliberately receive or teach in error.  Many have spent much time, effort and treasure to attend Bible schools and seminaries, preparing to teach about the Father.  Those men and women were sincere in their hearts, but can rethink some of the things they were taught and teach themselves.  Jesus said that, "The Spirit is the Life Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life" in John 6:63.
     Jesus spent three and a half years teaching "educated" men about the Truth and Spirit of the Word.  Their flesh rebelled against the Spirit and denied the Words of Jesus.  Romans`8:7 (Amplified) says, "(That is) because the mind of the flesh (with its carnal thoughts and purposes) is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's law; indeed it cannot."  Romans 8:2 (Amplified) says, "For the law of the Spirit of Life (which is) in Christ Jesus (the law of our new being) has freed me from the law of sin and of death."
     The "degree of the knowledge" of Jesus is the "degree of the knowledge" of God's grace.  We cannot place faith in something that we have no knowledge of.  2Peter 1:2 (Amplified) says, "May grace (God's favor) and peace (which is perfect well being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in (the full, personal, precise, and correct) knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord."
     Without the Holy Spirit's leading us into this "(full, personal, precise, and correct) knowledge," we have no concept of what our Father's prepared for us.  Man continues walking in the guilt of the Law of sin and death, without the Holy Spirit's guidance.  Even a born again man will necessarily be carnally led, if he doesn't listen and be taught by the Teacher, the Holy Spirit.  Under the carnal man's thinking, we live under the bondage of a guilt conscientiousness (sin and death).
     And, even though the sin has passed away, guilt remains.  Even though abundant life has come, fear of death continues to prevail in our minds.  We can read what the Word says, but they convey nothing in the carnal thinking, because they are Spirit.  Thus, we continue as newborn babies like 1Peter 2:2 describes.  We never grow into mature Christians.  
     God is a Spirit and His Word is Spirit.  We are born again of the Spirit and we are to be taught of the Spirit.  Jesus was exactly right in saying that, "The flesh conveys no benefit whatever."  God doesn't reveal Himself based on what we feel, what we see, what we think, or how we decide to do things.  He reveals Himself to our spirit, according to 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amplified) which says, "Consequently, from now one we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value) (No) even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, Yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh)."
     Only the Holy Spirit can reveal this "knowledge" to our spirit.  Without this revelation from the Holy Spirit, we still see "after the flesh."