09/27/2019
Where the Spirit of the Lord Is…
This morning as much as my flesh wanted to sleep in and dismiss the Holy Spirit, I can’t run away from the ministry God has put on my heart. Many precious people who love the Lord are missing the fullness of who the Father is, the sacrifice Jesus made for them and the personal fellowship of the Holy Spirit. My heart is to continue to share this message. “He who has ears to hear let him hear…”
2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty”. This foundational scripture is not one that we can no longer dismiss as ‘well that was two thousand years ago’ or ‘the Holy Spirit is not for today since we have scripture’. If you stop and really think about why people deny, dismiss and set aside the importance of the Holy Spirit, this scripture must be ringing in your ears. So many people who claim they love God but do not have the fellowship of Holy Spirit are missing one third of the Trinity of God.
The Holy Spirit as referred to in Acts 2, is the mighty rushing wind who empowered Peter and the other apostles to speak boldly the testimony of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit even in the Old Testament, was the one who worked through the prophets of old to lead people back to the Father. Did they do that on their own? Was Peter, John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul and others under their own words and works to bring people to Jesus and reconciliation to the Father?
Where the modern time evangelists, teachers and those with prophetic gifts and others, like Kathryn Kuhlman, John G Lake, Smith Wigglesworth, Billy Graham working under their own power? Were the changed lives, healings, testimonies of deliverance just by chance or was it the same power that raised Jesus from the dead working through these men and women of God? The signs and wonders that followed these precious people of God, where they just illusions? We cannot deny that God was working through these people on behalf of God’s Kingdom.
Getting back to 2 Corinthians 3:17, let’s break this down to get the full meaning of what Paul is saying. The word liberty literally means freedom. This scripture can also mean where the Spirit of the Lord is not there is bo***ge. Denying who is God is bo***ge; enslavement to a lie believed.
God is love. God is powerful. God is merciful and gracious! He performs signs, wonders and miracles to prove His Word is true. He sent the Holy Spirit through the resurrection of Jesus Christ to fulfill His promise to send us a Helper who will lead us into truth.
John 8:32 “and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free”. But as the Pharisees contemplated to Jesus, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never been enslaved to anyone, how is that You say ‘You shall become free’?” John 8:33. Did they ever think they were in bo***ge? Did they ever come to the full knowledge of the Son of God or even understand Jesus was letting them know that they were in bo***ge to their religious theology?
Yes, the religious people of the time of Jesus were in bo***ge to their theology! They believed in God but never knew that the very One whom they were seeking was standing right in front of them. They even dismissed the power and authority working through Jesus! Talk about hardened hearts.
Is that true for today? Oh yes. As I have prayed, proclaimed and stated over and over, we can no longer deny the gifts, power and voice of the Holy Spirit.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.
John 8:31 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.””
If the words of Christ are still true today, how is it that people deny the existence if the Holy Spirit? If you know the truth that the Holy Spirit is still for today. The Holy Spirit and who He is, is still for today. God has not changed.
The lies of Satan have not changed. He is still leading precious people away from God’s truth. He is keeping people who love God in bo***ge to the truth. The spirit of doubt and unbelief are prevalent through our churches. What other way could Satan keep Christians as ineffective as possible? What other way could Satan keep strongholds of addiction, perversion, pride, performance and fear over the people’s lives? Tell Christians the Holy Spirit is not for today. Say other things like ‘miracles were done away with’, ‘we have the scriptures what more do we need’, ‘God doesn’t heal – He uses sickness to teach us a lesson’, etc., etc.
Do not harden your heart against the Holy Spirit! There are too many people in this world who need the power of God to set them free from bo***ge!
2 Timothy 3:5-7 “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captivate weak women [and men] weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the [full] knowledge of the truth”
The word ‘power’ is the same translation in Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;” as in 1 Corinthians 4:20 “For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power” and through out all scripture. That power is the very same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. The very power that brought the heavens and the earth into existence and the very same power who will bring the New Jerusalem and the New Heavens at the proper time.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are the same yesterday, today and forever!
