Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Communion of the Holy Spirit

There is a particular verse of Scripture that the Holy Spirit revealed to me recently which has become most interesting in my life - The last verse of 2 Corinthians: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen" (2 Cor. 13:14, NKJV). In this message we deal with the communion of the Holy Spirit. The other two of the three phrases will be my future messages - "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" and "The love of God." Briefly, where do we read about the love of God? In the Gospel of John: "For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). The cross reminds us of God's love. Where do we read about the grace of the Lord Jesus? In the book of Ephesians: "In Him (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace ..." (Eph. 1:7). This reminds us that Jesus died for our sins.

The work of the Holy Spirit in the individual's life

Three things happen when the Holy Spirit enters your life:

1. The Word of the Living God becomes absolute life to you. No longer did you read a little from Matthew and a little from the Psalms in your daily devotion. When you open the Bible you feel as if you are inside of it - seeing it "live and in vivid living color!"

2. Your prayer life will be changed completely. Gone will be the hours of going through the motion of prayer which is mechanical and repeatedly saying the same prayer. The Holy Spirit and you will be in conversation. He makes God real to you. He gives you power and boldness that make you feel ten feet tall and more!

3. He transforms your daily Christian life. You will be full of joy and begin to sing spontaneously but don't know why until you read these words: "... but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5:18, 19). Notice that what is going to happen to you will not be natural - it will be supernatural. He will baptize you with a love for people. It will be exactly as the Word declared: "... the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Romans 5:5). You will be such a changed person that your natural instincts and reactions will be replaced by the leading of the Spirit. You will learn what it means to "crucify the flesh." (Read Galatians 5:24). But you will realize that you cannot do it yourself. Paul said: "For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:13, 14). How are you led by the Spirit? You become familiar with His voice. You recognize it. You respond to it. And the more you fellowship with Him, the deeper the relationship becomes.


The work of the Holy Spirit from the beginning

From the beginning of time, God made the person and the power of the Holy Spirit clear. In fact, the Holy Spirit is the first manifestation of the Godhead of the Godhead in Scripture - ".... And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Gen. 1:2). When God created Adam out of the dust of the ground He began by forming mud. That mud was absolutely dead until the breath of life came. The Bible says that God "... breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Gen. 2:7). The breath of God is the Holy Spirit. Here is how Job described it: "The Spirit of God has made me. And the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (Job 33:4). The moment God breathed into Adam, he came alive. When Adam opened his eyes the first contact he had was with the Holy Spirit. For He was the breath that flowed through Adam's body and remained hovering over him. Adam stood up completely filled with the presence of God. The Scripture tells that God the Holy Spirit was the power of creation - "By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; ..." (Job 26:13).

The voice of the Holy Spirit

What is even more exciting, however, is that God wants to take that same Spirit and give Him to you. He actually wants to "pour" Him on you: "Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field" (Isaiah 32:15, 16). What a wonderful promise. God wants to pour His Spirit on you. He wants to breathe His Spirit into you. He wants you, like Adam, to come alive! Realizing that the breath of God is the Spirit of God was for me like discovering a buried treasure. Have you ever heard the voice of the Almighty speaking to you? Many people have. But exactly who was speaking? Whose voice did you hear? I believe you hear the Holy Spirit. He is the one who communicates the voice of God. The description of God the Father's voice is recorded in Job: "Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling that comes from His mouth. After it a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, and He does not restrain them when His voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend" (Job 37:2, 4, 5). The power of God's voice was more than the people of Israel could understand.

A voice from Heaven

In the Old Testament, God spoke through an angel. God spoke to Moses through and angel. In the New Testament, there were only three times that God actually spoke: 1. God (a voice come from heaven) said: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). 2. Jesus asked the Father: "Father, glorify Your name" (John 12:28). Then God (a voice from heaven) said: "I have both glorified in and will glorify it again" (John 12:28). 3. At the Mount of Transfiguration God (a voice from the cloud) said: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him" (Matt. 17:5)! Notice that the One (God) who was speaking was the Holy Ghost.

The voice of the Holy Spirit

I believe the voice of God is the voice of the Holy Spirit. The voice that was heard by the Old Testament prophets was that of the Spirit - not the voice of the Son or the Father. Isaiah talks about hearing the voice of the Lord saying: "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; less they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed" (Isaiah 6:9. 10). But who was really speaking? Was it really the voice of the Lord? Or was it the voice of Jehovah on earth - the Holy Spirit? To find out, let us look at that same Scripture as it was repeated in the book of Acts. Paul, in Rome under the watchful eyes of a guard, preached that: The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, "Go to this people and say, 'Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you will see, and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have close, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them'" (Acts 28:25 - 27). Who really spoke those words? What Isaish attributed to the Lord, Paul clarified as being spoken by the Holy Spirit. This is an example of the New Testament explains the Old. In Jeremiah we read: "But this is the covernant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Jer. 31:33, emphasis added). The prophet writes, "says the Lord," but to understant the true source of that Scripture, you need to read it in the book of Hebrews: "But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them'" (Heb. 10:15, 16, emphasis added). Who said it? The Holy Spirit. Not only did He witness it, but Scripture reveals that "He had said before."

The Holy Spirit is God

Thousands of Christians (I was among them) are somehow brought up to believe that the Holy Spirit is less equal to God. We are somehow indoctrinated that because He comes third He is not really God. You must come to this truth: "The Holy Spirit is God. He is no less God than Jesus. He is no less God than the Father. He is as much God as the Father and the Son. Jehovah is the name of the triune being - not the name of just one of them. The Father is called Jehovah. The Son is called Jehovah. The Holy Ghost is called Jehovah. When God the Father speaks, He speaks through the voice of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus sent out the twelve, He said: "But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you" (Matt. 10:19, 20). Over and over again in the book of Revelation we are advised, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17). Whose voice should we hear? The voice of the Holy Spirit. Even Christ Himself does not speak without the Holy Ghost. In the book of Acts we read that He was taken up into heaven: "... until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen (Acts 1:20). and in the book of Hebrews we find that Christ offered Himself to God "through the eternal Spirit" (Heb. 9:14). It is therefore clear that the Holy Spirit is the one who communicates heaven into your heart. he is the voice of God to you. To put it another way, it is the Father, through the Son speaking by the Spirit. It is without any doubt that the Holy Spirit is God - equal in majesty, power, glory, and eternity. He is God. The moment you realize that you should begin to worwhip Him and treat Him as God. What did Jesus say about the Spirit? He said that when He comes, "He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speaks; and He will tell you things to come" (John 16:13). What does He hear? The precious Holy Spirit hears the Father and speaks directly to you. But when He speaks, He does not say, "The Father says," He says, "I say." Why? Because Father, Son, and Holy Spirit always act in harmony.

The leading of the Holy Spirit

How does the Holy Spirit speak? He witnesses to your conscience. Paul said: "I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 9:11). You should never doubt the leading of the Holy Spirit. At a time when your "inner man" is troubled, don't move. If you attempt ot be your own guide, you'll collapse. Listen to His voice as he speaks to your very soul. The world does not have the foggiest notion of the things of the Spirit because they are spiritually blind. But you can know because you understand how the Spirit operates and you are learning how to recognize His voice. you are learning how to commune with the Spirit.

The communion of the Holy Spirit

There are seven Scriptural meanings of the word "communion":

1. It means Presence - the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit.

2. It means fellowship. You do not need to pray to the Holy Spirit; you simply fellowship with Him.

3. It means sharing together. You pour out your heart and He pours out His. you share your joy and He shares His.

4. It means participation with. The Holy Spirit becomes your partner.

5. It means intimacy. You'll never experience a deep love with Christ until you know it with the Holy Spirit who brings that intimacy. You can't love God without the Holy Spirit.

6. It means friendship. The Spirit longs to be your closest friend - somone with whom you can share the deepest secrets of your heart.

7. It means comradeship. It Greek the word means commander. he is like a captain, a ruler, or a boss - but a loving, friendly one. Since Christ departed, the Holy Spirit is "in charge" on earth. You should begin to commune with the Holy Spirit day and night. This is the secret of praying without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17)!