The Gift – 2025 – 3

The Gift – 2025 – 3

Subject – The Gift of Holy Spirit

By Rick Welborne

Acts 2:36-39 (NKJV)
³⁶  "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
³⁷  Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
³⁸  Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
³⁹  For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."

Isaiah 43:18-19 (NKJV) ¹⁸  "Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old.
¹⁹  Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. 

--Today we continue the series The Gift – 2025 and today we will look at the Gift of Holy Spirit. In our attempt to always be Biblical, context will be very important.

--Peter, along with the 120 just experienced the outpouring of Holy Spirit and all of Jerusalem was amazed by what they saw and experienced.

--Talk about God doing a new thing and yes, it did spring forth because it was the birthing of the church. A road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Miraculous!

--Our text was toward the end of Peter’s sermon which, in its self, was a miracle. Days before Peter could not even admit that he was a disciple but now, preaching with power and conviction.

--Matter of fact, his sermon was so powerful and the conviction was so great, the people cried out to Peter and the rest of the apostles…"Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 

--Please, remember all this happened on the Day of Pentecost so all that happened was directly connected to the outpouring of Holy Spirit. God was doing a new thing!

--Peter’s response to the question the people asked was important for the people who were present in Jerusalem and it is also important for us. 

Acts 2:39 (NKJV)
³⁹  For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."

--How foolish can people be to try and convince us that the event of that day was only for that day when the Word of God clearly tells us the contrary.

--For the greatest part of the church of Jesus Christ, many have said “No thank you” to God for the gift of Holy Spirit. How that must hurt the heart of God.

--It’s so interesting to me that on the day Jesus was birthing His church and pouring out the gift of Holy Spirit, and promising believers this gift is for everyone, so many reject His present to them.

--As a teenager, I remember saving for almost a whole year to get my father a large beautiful stereo for Christmas (trying to win his love) and when he saw it…I don’t like that name brand.

--It broke my heart…can you imagine God’s heart when He says to His church, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses.” Nope! Not for today!

--Frances Chann wrote a book, Forgotten God, and it was a book describing how the church has rejected the third person of the Trinity as even being relevant.

--Can I tell you how much we need the Gift of Holy Spirit in our lives? Jesus tells us how much we need Him and how He can change our lives.

John 16:7-8 (NKJV)
⁷  Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
⁸  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

--Jesus is saying it is to your (the church’s) advantage for Him to go away because when He goes to be with the Father He will send Holy Spirit as a gift. Wow!

1. Holy Spirit – A Gift of Power.

Acts 1:4-8 (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."
⁶  Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
⁷  And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
⁸  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

--Wait a minute, Jesus! Are you telling me that if I receive the gift of Holy Spirit, I will have the power I need to be an effective witness for you? Yes!

--Are you telling me that when I share you with my prodigal sons, daughters, grandsons, grand-daughters, mom, dad, and other family members, I will have supernatural power to influence them? Yes!

--Are you telling me that wherever I work or go to school that I will be able to be used by God to see their lives changed by Holy Spirit? Yes! He will convict them of their sin.

--Are you telling me that everywhere I go there will be the presence of God to help people see their need to give their lives to Christ? Yes! He will show them how good Jesus is.

2. Holy Spirit – The Giver of Gifts.

1 Cor. 12:4-11 (NLT2) ⁴ There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all.
⁷  A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
⁸  To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.
⁹  The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing.
¹⁰  He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.
¹¹  It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. 

--How amazing and wonderful. When we receive the gift of Holy Spirit, we receive so much from the Lord.

--Holy Spirit can give us the gift of wisdom. The ability to give wise advice and guidance. He can give us the gift of knowledge to bless a brother or sister…or someone out of the church.

--Holy Spirit can give us the gift of faith. Supernatural faith to believe for a miracle. He can give us the gift of healing to see someone totally healed. 

--I worked at an oil drilling equipment plant in Dallas, Texas. A man I had been sharing Christ with came to me and said his back was hurting so bad, he couldn’t hardly walk. 

--He asked me to pray for him. I prayed in my spirit for God to heal him supernaturally. I prayed for him and we all left to go home. It was Friday. Monday the man ran to me.

--He grabbed me and starting shaking me. I said, “What happened?” He said before I got to my truck, I was healed. He said I went home and told my wife we were going to church.

--We went and both of us were saved and we are going to be baptized next Sunday. Supernatural faith and healing of the sick and lead to salvation.

--Holy Spirit can give us power to see miracles. He gives us the gift of prophecy and the ability to give a message in tongues. Also, the ability to interpret the message. 

--Please understand, you do not own these gifts, they are given as God sees they are necessary. Who would not want Holy Spirit’s gifts to be a blessing to others. 

3. Holy Spirit – The Gift of Counsel, Truth, and Guidance.

John 15:26 (NIV) ²⁶ "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

John 16:13-14 (NIV) ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
¹⁴  He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

--Holy Spirit comes to be our counselor, our comforter, our teacher. He is the Spirit of truth. We need supernatural truth so we will not be deceived by the enemy. 

--Verse 14 says…He will bring glory to Me. Holy Spirit inside of us will help us to bring glory and honor to Jesus in all that we do. 

--Pastor Neftali, Pastor Rick, I need to be able to serve God and live the life He wants me to live. Ok! Receive the gift of Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:11 (NIV)
¹¹  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.