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Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Praying In the Holy Spirit or Praying in Tongues - 3

Subject:  More Benefits to Being Spirit Filled
by Rick Welborne

John 14:16-19 (NKJV)
16  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--
17  the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
18  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
19  "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 

1. Jesus is encouraging and comforting His disciples that even though He is going away, they will not be alone…He will send them a helper.

--Context of a chapter is so important and here Jesus is talking about Him going away and His disciples are not happy about that…they want Him to set up His Kingdom so they can rule and reign.

--He tells them He is going away but not to worry because He is going to prepare a place for them and that He is going to come back and get them.
--Of course, Thomas says we don’t know where you are going and we do not know the way…Jesus says I am the way, the truth, and the life.
--Jesus then says something that probably blew their minds and I know it blows mine when I try to put it in perspective.
John 14:12 (NKJV)
12  "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
--Jesus is the Messiah, He is healing people’s sick bodies, blind eyes, and transforming people from darkness into light and He is telling us that He is leaving and we will greater works than what He did.
--Many questions had to be on their minds…Where? Where is He going? Why? Why are you leaving us at such a crucial time? How? How are we going to do greater things than You did? He obliges them:
 John 14:16 (NKJV)
16  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
A. I will pray the Father…
--This is something (actually Someone) Jesus wants us to have in our lives so much that He is willing to ask the Father on our behalf to give Him to us. He is referred as “The Promise of the Father”
Luke 24:49 (NKJV)
49  Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." 

--Not only is He the Promise of the Father but He is also promised by John the Baptist:

Matthew 3:11 (NKJV)
11  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

--Hear this…Jesus is praying to the Father for you to receive Holy Spirit and John the Baptist is saying Jesus is the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit and fire…notice how connected they are.

John 14:8-11 (NKJV)
8  Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."
9  Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
10  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
11  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

B. He will give you another Helper…

John 14:16 (NIV)
16  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—

John 14:16 (NLT)
16  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.

John 14:16 (KJV)
16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever;

--He (God) will give you another…another One just like Jesus. Who would not want a divine Helper, Counselor, Advocate, Comforter, Paraclete…One Who walks along side of us.

C. He may abide with you forever…

--Jesus said I am going away and even if I were here I cannot be with everyone everywhere at the same time.
Holy Spirit can be with everyone everywhere at the same time…wow, what a God!

2. The Spirit of truth…Holy Spirit.
John 14:17 (NKJV)
17  the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 
--It is amusing to me that other denominations warn people to be careful about asking to receive Holy Spirit because you do not know what spirit you might receive…Jesus calls Him the Spirit of truth.
Luke 11:9-13 (NKJV)
9  "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
11  If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
12  Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"
--I guess we say Holy Spirit and Jesus are so much alike…Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth…again who would not want Him in your lives?
--The world cannot receive the Spirit of truth…in other words, you are not a candidate for the baptism in the Holy Spirit until you have been born again. Once we are saved we should be seeking Holy Spirit.
--The world neither sees Him or knows Him…Holy Spirit is such a mystery to the world and sadly so misunderstood by so many in the church…if they just read their Bible with an open heart and mind.
--You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you…They had Christ in their hearts therefore Holy Spirit was with them…He was saying to them a day is coming when He will fill you to overflowing.
--In Luke 24 Jesus tells the disciples to go and wait for the Promise of the Father…they already belonged to Jesus, they were His disciples. He was telling them power is on the way…Holy Spirit is coming.
 Luke 24:49-53 (NKJV)
49  Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."
50  And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them.
51  Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.
52  And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
53  and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. 
--Notice what I believe to be a key to receiving the power of Holy Spirit… And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.
--People who receive Holy Spirit power are people who are not ashamed to open their mouths and worship, open their mouths and praise, open their mouths and bless God.
--It will be hard for you to pray in the Spirit if you are not opening your mouths…as you seek Holy Spirit open your mouth and worship Him unashamedly.  
Acts 1:4-5 (NKJV)
4  And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me;
5  for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
--How many days did the disciples wait for the Promise of the Father…the answer is approximately 10 days. Pastor Rick, how do we come to that number? Great question.
--As you study the Word we see that from Passover to the Feast of Pentecost is 50 days…they were with the risen Savior for forty days before He ascended…that would leave 10 days till the Day of Pentecost.
--Most commentaries agree it was somewhere between ten days and two weeks…why would God have them to wait?  God has a timing or a time table, if you will, when He does what He does. He is God so…
--Let’s say ten days, one week and three days, 240 hours, 14,400 minutes of waiting on God to receive Holy Spirit…maybe He was waiting for their hunger level to rise or their faith but they kept waiting.
--Finally, they were filled with Holy Spirit power and those who struggled to live for Him are now willing to die for Him…Holy Spirit made a big difference in them…accused of turning the world upside down.
--Let’s process this…we say we want Holy Spirit but do we really? How much time do we spend seeking for Him after we learn He is available to us…one hour a day…240 days…2 hours on Sunday…120 weeks.
--I am not saying your seeking after God has to equal 10 full days but I am saying it would only help you get there if receiving Him was more of a priority in your lives. Hunger is the key.
--It says in Luke 24 that they worshipped Him, that they went to seek for and wait for Holy Spirit with great joy and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. This takes time.
--Now this is not a hard set rule but a pattern…At the church in Ephesus…the men there received Holy Spirit after just a little teaching and being baptized in water.
Acts 19:6 (NKJV)
6  And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
3. Jesus said that He would not leave us as orphans and that He would come to us through the power of Holy Spirit.
--To me, probably the greatest thing about having Holy Spirit baptism is knowing that we are never alone.
John 14:16 (NKJV)
16  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--
--I cannot take the time to tell you all of the times that I have felt alone, felt depressed, felt defeated, felt like there was no hope, felt like doing anything other than ministry would be great.
--During those times God would remind me that Holy Spirit is within me, that I am not alone, and that I will not be defeated by the enemy.
--Remember at Ephesus Paul laid his hands on those men and they received the gift of Holy Spirit power. He also reminded Timothy of him laying hands on him.
2 Timothy 1:6-7 (NKJV)
6  Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
7  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
--When you are faced with adversity and when you know you do not have the strength within your own power to fight…stir up the gift within you…pray until He refills you with Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 59:19-21 (NKJV)
19  So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.
20  "The Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob," Says the LORD.
21  "As for Me," says the LORD, "this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants," says the LORD, "from this time and forevermore." 

--I believe this has become a Rhema word for someone tonight…the enemy is coming in like a flood…the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard…your Redeemer is coming!

--He says, My Spirit (Holy Spirit) is upon you and His Words in our mouths will not depart.


John 14:26-27 (NKJV)
26  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
27  Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

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