THE FIRE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Our text taken from Matthew  3:11-12   In verse 11 says, “He will baptized you with Holy Spirit and with fire.”

Selwyn Hughes that wrote “Everyday with Jesus” booklet taught the emblems of the Holy
Spirit.  He wrote:-

1.      The dove speaks of the beauty and gentleness of the Spirit’s character.

2.      The oil is suggestive of the Spirit’s consecrating grace and guidance in qualifying us to minister in divine things.

3.      Water symbolizes the Spirit’s effectiveness and sufficiency.

4.      Fire is an emblem of the purification and penetration of the Spirit’s operation.

5.      Rain designates the abundance and grace of the Spirits supply

6.      The Deposit (earnest) is the pledge and guarantee that what we receive here will be multiplied a million times in eternity.

7.      Breath symbolizes the constant and consistent ministry of the Spirit whereby He supports and upholds the believer every minute and hour daily.

To see the Holy Spirit in terms of emblems is not enough.  We must know Him not merely know about Him.  How well do we know the Holy Spirit?

In 2 Corinthians 13:14 ends with this benediction – The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God (Father’s love) and the Communion of the Holy Spirit.

Grace means ‘favor’ with no expectations of reward or payment.  Grace in Greek means “ultimate in beauty”.  God’s grace ultimately makes us beautiful as His Bride for Jesus.

A.      Communion of the Holy Spirit

Communion means “communicating with or travelling together, transporting with”  Likewise, the Holy Spirit is for “communication” and “communion”, also constant fellowship and travelling together is necessary for a believer.

In Romans 8:26and Jude 20 we see the Holy Spirit in Prayer Communion.  Without the Holy Spirit there’s no spiritual life.  Why many Christians settle for mere outward formalities of religion, dry worship ceremonies and church is only a place for social fellowship or even a club house. The Church should be a House of Prayer (communion)

The second meaning of “communion” is “to do business in partnership” and “to participate in.”  The Holy Spirit works together as partners for the same purpose and to share the joy, sorrow, victory and trials in our lives. The bible says, He sympathizes with us.

In Acts 15:28 the Holy Spirit is the director or manager referring to Him first in any missions.  He is the senior partner like business partner.  His purpose is to bless the business.  Our business is to share the gospel and it’s the Holy Spirit our partner blesses it.

B.      Fire an emblem of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11)

When we come in contact with Christ and the Person of the Holy Spirit we come in contact with fire.  Fire also symbolizes zeal, purifying, molding and cleansing.  We have the nature of the sun above us and spiritually divine fire blazes above us, beneath us and all around us. In Hebrews 12:29 tells us that God is a consuming fire.

1.      Fire Consumes – Isaiah 4:1-6

Once you invite the Holy Spirit comes into your life you must expect fire to come and burn your whole being – Penetrating any moral rottenness, cleaning all sinful desires,  burning the imagination clean.  Isaiah describes as ‘spirit of fire’ and it deals with dross of pride, rags of self- righteousness and roots of bitterness.  (see Matthew 13:40-42)

You are saying “Spirit come and burn me with your fire to my whole being – have your own way.   Go on burning until there’s nothing left to consume”.

2.      Fire Softens or Melts – Psalms 68:1-2

Wax can be written on but bring it near the fire it melts all.  Likewise, when we come close to the fire of God He melts all our rebellious nature – words of iniquity or any sinful inscriptions will disappear.  In the Welsh/Wales Revival “the fire fell upon them” and people hard hearts were wonderfully softened. The God of fire and His Words can burn inside a person and melt their hearts.  Hebrew 4:12 says, “The Word of God is living and active sharper than any double edge sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit … it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

3.      Fire Get Things Moving – Acts 1:8

A secretary once said, “we have everything you would expect a church to have, except the fire”.  Sometimes churches have everything – offices, staffs, computers, finances except the Holy Ghost fire and grace. 

  Isaiah 32:15 tells us “till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high and the desert becomes a fertile field and the fertile field seems like a forest vs 16 Justice will  dwell in the desert and righteousness live in the fertile field.  The fruit of righteousness will be peace (blessings) and the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence (faith) forever. Until the Spirit of God is poured down upon us blessings would not flow down.

Unless the Holy Spirit works in our lives there is no real progress.  It takes the fire to get things going and our fire must not be allowed to go out. Jesus says you are the light of the world and let your light so shine before men to see your good works in order to glorify your Father in heaven.  Fire attracts attention it’s like house or building on fire.

4.      Fire Aspires – Isaiah 43:21

Fire natural desire is to aspire upwards and reach its arms to the sky. The more the fire burns within us the more our hearts will be lifted up in praise to God. The more fire of God consumes us the more we are drawn towards heaven.

Worship is like that – our worship must have fire (pray in the Holy Spirit - Jude 2) Every altar in the Old Testament must have fire and an offering to bring. Sometimes it is better that fire comes down from heaven like Elijah did. The fire of God consumes all his sacrifices inclusive of the water he poured into. 

5.      Holy Fire Releases Zeal – Leviticus 9:23

The fire is from God and it consumed the altar of burnt offerings and fats.  It was no ordinary fire.  It was from God and it was holy.  The fire of God then begins to burn in our hearts and we will have the zeal to serve Him.  This fire must not die down.  Fire speaks of zeal.  The zeal of the Lord must consume us.  Strange fire was offered to the Lord by Nadab and Abihu but instead fire came and devoured them and they both died. The zeal must come from God not human zeal.  Human zeal never lasts.

New American Standard Bible
For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.  - Psalms 69:9  

New International Version (©1984) Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. - Romans 12:11 International Standard Version (©2008) Never be lazy in showing such devotion. Be on fire with the Spirit. Serve the Lord. PRAYER: “ O! God everything about the Trinity speaks of fire.  The Father is a consuming fire. The Son Jesus came to baptized us with fire and Your Spirit is the Spirit of fire.   So Lord set us on fire that the world will see we are burning for You.  We want to be burned with holy fire from above. The Zeal of the Lord will build Your Kingdom and Your church.  Amen.

THE REVELATION OF GRACE

The Revelation of Grace

The nature of grace is that it keeps multiplying. It is grace that multiplies (2 Pet. 1:2). So we need to have more fellowship and a deeper apprehension of this grace unveiled to us in the New Testament. First we must understand what the nature of grace is.

John 1:16 is very clear concerning the nature of grace: “For out of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace,” or more literally the preposition means “grace in exchange for grace.” It is compounded grace. It is out of His fullness that we have all received this grace.

Grace is everything proceeding out of Christ

Grace proceeds from Christ. It is everything out of Him — everything that He is and everything that He has done. It includes everything that He has done in the past and everything that He is right now. Grace is what He is as our High Priest, what He is as the One indwelling our spirit, operating in us, energizing, inclining, doing that work inside of us to break down barriers, hardness,

resistance, everything that we cannot do. He is in us operating, doing an inner work to soften our heart, to incline it, causing the love to flow, writing Himself into our mind, into our heart, into the way we are.

Grace is He Himself operating and doing everything. It is not just in our initial salvation, but it is in everything after that. Grace is everything proceeding from Christ. “Out of His fullness we all have received.”

When we go to Romans, we see that we are in a continuous receiving. We are in the position of receiving. So every experience we pass through can be something unique in this universe. As one of our brothers testified, as a human being going through an experience of having his bike stolen, he could stop and receive out of His fullness. Praise the Lord that we could know something

beyond our natural reactions. But it is a matter of receiving. Everything is proceeding from Christ. And this Christ is not afar off. He is a life-giving Spirit in resurrection actually joined to a part of us. A part of you is joined to Christ. You are not just thinking about Him, but you have His very life, nature, impulses, reactions,

within you. So just that little inclination to stop and open to Him, that is the grace operating. That is Him. It comes in the form of an inclination. But when you take it out for a moment and analyze the inclination, it is God.

Philippians 2:13 indicates that it is God who is at work in you producing the willingness and the working for His good pleasure. So every little bit of rise and desire for God in us, even if it is a small amount, that is God. It is God Himself in His inner dynamic of resurrection life able to do something over our being and cause us even to feel it in us, and then we obey, we follow. We say “Amen.” This is grace. Everything is proceeding from Him.

Grace in its highest definition is Christ Himself and everything proceeding from Christ as He imparts His life and nature into us in a continuous way. And our part is to stay on the receiving end, to stay open. It is not to crank yourself up, but to recognize your inability to do it yourself. And that sense of weakness is His sneaky way of getting more fellowship. He wants fellowship. He

wants some touch and contact. He loves the fellowship. And the fact that we could open up in the midst of whatever we are passing through is His heart’s delight.

This is why Paul could testify, “When I am weak, then I am strong, because His power is actually being perfected in my weakness.” It is actually being perfected. His power can be perfected through weakness. That is Paul’s testimony. So, what a Christ. What an operating Christ. Grace is just everything proceeding from Him.

Bill Freeman notes - 12/13/96

New Creation Church - Love's sacrifice

THE REVELATION OF EASTER

Easter is more than a story, it is The Revealing of the Righteousness of God!

Rev 15:4: “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy.  All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Have You Experienced the Righteousness of God?

We must embrace the truth that God is righteous and His righteousness has been revealed and in fact been made available to us through the resurrection of His Son.

In Job 9:2, Job asked: “How should a man be right before God?”

His answer concluded that because God is the kind of God He is, there was no way he could ever approach Him? How can I ever be right with Him? How can I ever get an audience with Him? How can I ever have a relationship with such a God… so mighty, so holy, so powerful? That’s the question. Can a man be right with a God like that? Can a man have a right relationship with that holy, infinite, mighty God? And that is the question answered by our text and the answer is – yes, yes, yes!

Paul makes plain the Revelation of the Resurrection in Romans 3:21-26

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26 (ESV)

What does the Righteousness of God Mean?

Dikaiosúnē, righteousness, means conformity to the claims of a higher authority and stands in opposition to anomía, lawlessness. Righteousness describes the character and the quality of God Himself. His character, his conduct, his actions his word, everything that God does, thinks, allows is according to who He is-righteous. His creation, his design, is all consistent with who He is-righteous.

Righteous is a state of being that cannot do wrong, cannot do that which is not righteous.

 Taken from (mudpreacher.org) website

THE THIRD DAY RESURRECTED CHRISTIAN

I believe the answer to the greatest need in your life is about to break through the Spirit of the Overcomer – Jesus Christ. From the time of Christ’s birth to 999 A.D. was the first day.  From 1000 A.D. to 1999 was the second day.  And with the advent of 2000, we have prophetically entered into the third day. Today it’s Resurrection Day. The Third Day when Jesus was resurrected from His grave.  That Jesus who was resurrected from the grave and He broke loose from death and into hell. 

As Hosea 6:1 says, “Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

6:2  After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

This Year can be the Breakthrough Resurrection for your life and ministry. God is going to resurrect your life.  Some of you are going to expect the dead bank accounts to come back to life.  Amen!  You are going to expect dead relationships to be rekindled with passion and love.  You are going to expect the lost souls of unsaved loved ones to come to new life in Christ.  You are going to see miracles after miracles.

Roman 8:11 "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ form the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." 

God is giving life to your bodies in this life.  This is also a quickening life through the power of His Resurrection.  The quickening of the Spirit is giving life to our mortal body in many areas.

Romans 8:11 -KJV "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you."

The Greek word "quicken" is "zoogoneo" is to endure with life, produce life and preserve life.

 

God is concerned over our bodies for our bodies are temple of the Holy Spirit.

I believe prophetically and supernaturally, Resurrection day for 2012 is our third day in God's calendar when that which was all dead is going to live again.  Our congregations are going to be raise in spiritual resurrection for His glory.  I believe it. God does not want His body the Church to be dead. He wants His body to be raise up to live for Him.

Marriages that are withering are about to burst forth with new life and excitement.  Diseased bodies are about to receive an impartation of supernatural life.  The church that has been in obscurity is about to step out of the grave and take the grave clothes off.  God is about to announce, “LOOSE THEM AND LET THEM GO!”

This is the 3^rd day, we proclaiming and declaring the Breakthrough Blessings of the Lord’s Resurrection. We believe God to meet the biggest need in our life?  This is the year of Overtaking, Overthrowing and Overflowing.  So begin to plant your biggest seed to your biggest need.  Why I say this???

Job. 42:10 – Job has the biggest need (all his families, wives, children & property were gone) and he began sow his biggest seed. He prayed for his 3 friends. As he prayed the Lord met and release his double portion blessings.  He had twice as much as before. 

Job had a Breakthrough. He overtake, overthrow and there is an overflowing. I tell you – you can recover all the devil has taken from you.  If God loved Job he loved you church! His body!

May this Easter brings forth Resurrected Glory and Grace in your life and family.