“ENCOUNTERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT!”
There is, according to Biblical Truth, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the “Three in One”! In this writing, we’re going to be examining one’s “encounter with the Holy Spirit”! Let it be clearly known: no man has ever come to redemption in Christ apart from the conviction ministry of the Holy Spirit!
It’s so interesting and enlightening what the Word of God declares about the “natural man” in 1 Corinthians 2:14 where Paul wrote: “But the ‘natural man’ does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” In 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Paul continued his enlightenment of the “new-born in Christ” about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He said:
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age (Satan!) has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image (or unveiling) of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.”
And the God who commanded ‘light to shine out of darkness’, shining in our hearts ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God’, in, through, and by the face of Jesus Christ? God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, the amazing God of “Three in One”, opens our eyes, minds, and hearts by His Spirit, manifesting to us “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God IN THE FACE OF CHRIST JESUS”?
It would be so interesting, so illuminating, for one to search out his/her nature in comparison to the nature, character, presence, and living example of Christ Jesus! In 2 Corinthians 4:10-11 Paul added, “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal body.” Is your ‘walk of faith’ in the naturalness of “fallen men” or in the supernatural presence of the Resurrected Christ? Is your life testimony one of full surrender and allegiance to your ‘old flesh’ under one’s own ‘self-allegiance’ or a life testimony of the very evidence of Spirit-supernatural birthing and blessing? Let’s look at the Word since man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God!
FIRST, WE KNOW WE’VE ENCOUNTERED THE HOLY SPIRIT AND BEEN LED TO CHRIST BECAUSE OF OUR ENCOUNTER WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE DIVINE CONVICTION OF OUR SIN! In Isaiah 6: 4-5 the prophet had a holy encounter with the Spirit of the Living God! He said: And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
And Isaiah was “touched”, and Verse 7 tells us he became aware of sovereign grace, mercy, and love, and he heard the Voice: Verse 7, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” He learned of the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb of God and put his faith in Him, not his own best efforts!
What does John 1:29 tells us as John and two of his new disciples saw Jesus walking before him? He said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” And later, in John 16:7-8, Jesus said: “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. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment…”! The Spirit turns one from self-absorption in sin to the eternal desire of ‘finished with the old man of sin and its bondage’ to the fulfillment of sin forgiven and Resurrection Life manifested through me in the “new man” by His mercy, grace and love!
George Matheson and A.L. Peace wrote the old hymn entitled “O Love That Will Not Let Me go”, published in the “American Hymnal”, by Broadman Press in 1933! It says: “O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in You; I give You back the life I owe, That in Your ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be.
O Light that follows all my way, I yield my flickering torch to You; My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in Your sunshine’s glow its day May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seeks me through pain, I cannot close my heart to You; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that lifts up my head, I dare not ask to hide from You; I lay in dust life’s glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms read Life that shall endless be.”
And it is because of God’s great love for us that He sends the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment!
SECOND, WE KNOW WE’VE ENCOUNTERED THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHEN CONVICTED, WE WILLINGLY TURN TO THE ACCEPTANCE OF BIBLICAL TRUTH ENLIGHTENED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT! You are aware that there is across the world, then and now, a coldness, an insensitive spirit to the reality of Biblical Truth!
Unredeemed hearts and minds are clear, perfect examples of fallen mankind’s obstinacy toward Holy God’s desire to lift one out of the domain of darkness into the eternal kingdom of light! The spirit of ‘fleshly independence from God’ is bound in the strong wall of godless ‘independence and self-will’, actually, for many, deifying one’s self as more important, more satisfying, more fulfilling than being yielded to the God who made them, lost them, and bought them with the price of the Lamb’s blood shed at Calvary in their place!
In 1 John 2:3-6 are several verses of vital ‘self-examination’ of how devoted and faithful we are, or are not, in obedience to our Living Lord and Savior! “Now by this we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk just as He walked.”
Do you remember Paul’s illuminating word in Ephesians 4:30? “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Has there been a ‘grieving’ of the Holy Spirit concerning your walk as Christ’s disciple and earthly ambassador? In 1 Corinthians 6:17 Paul stated, “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him,” adding in Verses 19-20, “Or DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT YOUR BODY IS THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO IS IN YOU, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
You’ll remember that early in Jesus’ ministry there were some disciples ‘troubled’ and ‘offended’ by some of the things Jesus had to say. In John 6:60-64 we read, Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”
When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Would you please circle, “It is the Spirit who gives life”?
Come to John 14:15-18 and Verses 23, 25-26 where Jesus added to His disciples understanding of the need of the Holy Spirit! He said, Verses 15-18, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – 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. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” Then..
Verses 23, 25-26! “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” Verses 25-26 says: “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 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.”
THIRD, BECAUSE OF OUR AWARENESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S PRESENCE WITHIN US, AND OUR AWARENESS OF HIS GUIDANCE THROUGH THE WORD, WE ALSO MUST BECOME FULLY AWARE OF THE SPIRIT’S DESIRE TO HONOR CHRIST THROUGH US! In John 16:14 the Lord Jesus clearly told the disciples then and now, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”
Oswald Chambers made a powerful statement in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.248), when he said: “When I commit myself to the revelation made in the New Testament, I receive from God the gift of the Holy Spirit Who begins to interpret to me what Jesus did; and does in me subjectively all that Jesus Christ did for me objectively.”
And ‘subjectively’ the Spirit is up to unveiling mankind’s eternal help in and through Christ alone! In Romans 5:5 Paul said: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
If God poured out His love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, was it strictly for a believer’s ‘well’ or reservoir of personal benefit or for the believer to be led by the Spirit in extending Christ’s kingdom-rule, releasing His love to the unloved, and unveiling the supernatural power of God in the Spirit to make eternal differences in one’s life, marriage, occupation, or ministry?
FOURTH, BECAUSE OF OUR AWARENESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S INDWELLING IN OUR REDEEMED HEARTS, IS IT ALSO BECAUSE HOLY GOD UNDERSTOOD AND STILL UNDERSTANDS THE MAJOR WARFARE BETWEEN FLESH AND THE SPIRIT? In Galatians 5: 16-18 the Apostle Paul wrote: “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (of ‘try your best’!).”
Oh, and then in Galatians 5:19-25, Paul unveils for us the differences between a ‘flesh walk’ and the “Spirit-filled walk”! It says: Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, THAT THOSE WHO PRACTICE SUCH THINGS WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”
The “Spirit-filled walk”? Ephesians 5:22-25 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
The identifying ‘stamp’ of the ‘flesh walk’ is one’s approval of, participation with, and defense of ‘alive unto’ the world, the flesh, and the devil, but the identifying mark of a Spirit-filled disciple of Christ is not one’s imitation of Him, but one’s death to self daily that the Resurrection Presence of Christ may be manifested, unveiled, and loosed through a yielded vessel to the Lord’s intent in and through that surrendered life to His and the Spirit’s Lordship!
FIFTH, IN THE SPIRIT’S INDWELLING OF EVERY BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER, HE IS THERE, NOT AS A FREQUENT VISITOR, BUT THE RESIDENT INTERCESSOR FOR EVERY TRUE BELIEVER WHO YIELDS TO HIM. In Romans 8:26-27 we read, “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself MAKES INTERCESSION FOR US with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He MAKES INTERCESSION for the saints according to the will of God.”
What an awesome revelation! YOUR BODY IS THE RESIDENT TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT – and He’s there to intercede in your behalf before Sovereign God! Does this mean I personally need never to pray? I don’t believe that’s what Jesus taught us – check out in your Concordance every time when Jesus said, “When you pray…”! And, yes, at the same time we give the Holy Spirit the blessing of His intercessory praying in our behalf. Just as Jesus said, “I and My Father are one,” in the same vein of eternal relationships between God and the redeemed heart, ‘In Christ’ our bodies become the temples of Holy Spirit presence, and we become “One in the Spirit” and He intercedes in our behalf when we are even so limited in what WE should ask of God the Father – so the Holy Spirit intercedes! It was J.B.Dykes, in the old “American Hymnal” of 1933, published by The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tenn., who wrote the prayer hymn “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,” (p.178). It says: “Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, With all Your quickening powers; Kindle a flame of sacred love In these cold hearts of ours.
In vain we tune our formal songs, In vain we strive to rise; Hosannas languish on our tongues, And our devotion dies.
Dear Lord, and shall we ever live At this poor dying rate? Our love so fain, so cold to You, And Yours to us so great!
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, With all Your quickening powers; Come, shed abroad a Savior’s love, And that shall kindle ours.”
Is there the ‘kindling fire’ of the Holy Spirit in you? Have you been “birthed by the Spirit,” “blessed by the Spirit,” “guided by the Spirit,” “empowered by the Spirit with Heaven’s radiant, glowing, strengthening power”? Another prayer hymn in the same hymnal was written by B.B.McKinney and Edwin Hatch entitled “Breathe On Me.” It says: “Holy Spirit, breathe on me, until my heart is clean; Let sunshine fill its inmost part, With not a cloud between.
Holy Spirit, breathe on me, My stubborn will subdue; Teach me in words of living flame What Christ would have me do.
Holy Spirit, breathe on me, Fill me with power divine; Kindle a flame of love and zeal Within this heart of mine.
Holy Spirit, breathe on me, Till I am all Your own, Until my will is lost in Yours, To live for You alone.
Breathe on me, breathe on me, Holy Spirit, breathe on me, On My heart, cleanse every part, Holy Spirit, breathe on me.” Is that your prayer need of the day?