The Spirit of Grace!! 2006/17 07/30/06
I wonder if any of us realize just how radically things have changed in the last 120 years? The last portion of the 19th century, the entire 20th century and now into the beginning moments of the 21st century. There have had to be added many pages to the dictionary because there are so many new words added to our daily vocabulary. Computer, Databank, Nuclear Fission, Intel, bytes, technology and technics. New words about space, and about this world in general. There have been multiple wars in a shorter time than ever before and rumors of even more and the beat goes on with earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and volcanoes more numerous than we can calculate, just as it has already been foretold in the bible, but, we, as a people, are living in those exciting days prophesied of so long ago, and prophecy is now being fulfilled faster than we can cope with, including a great move of aliyah, Israelis moving into Israel in record numbers.
In our last session, in the latter part of the lesson, the Holy Spirit had me take a direction that I had not intended to take, but it is where He sent and I want to go back there for just a moment to begin this time with the Lord, turn to Zechariah 4;
Lets look at Zech. 4:6b-7 and we will not go into it deeply, but again, just a surface glance. We have heard and used the Words of God, when He spoke, saying, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.”
How many times have we heard this scripture quoted, and taught on? Many I am sure, but this, I feel, is truly the season that we need to recognize what is being prophesied here. By the way, Zechariah spoke this around 521BC, and Ezra and Haggai are of the same period. I feel that Zechariah is speaking of the time we are in now because there is much spoken here of the dividing of the land of Israel and “This Day” is spoken here often and I believe he is speaking of the days that we are in.
Here, the subject is the temple being rebuilt or refurbished by Zerubbabel, and God saying that He will remove the mountain of [human obstacles], (sounds like a mountain of flesh that has to be forsaken)and He shall bring forth the finishing gable stone with loud shoutings of the people, crying, Grace, grace to it.
Zerubbabel here, is a type of Christ, who is both the Author and Finisher of our faith; His being the Author of it assures us that He will also be its Finisher. God’s work is perfect, and we are that temple in the days that were being prophesied (1 Cor.3:16-17 & 1 Cor 6:19). The words shouted, Grace, grace may be taken as magnifying free grace, giving to it, all the glory of what is being done. It is all being done by this grace and not of ourselves. From first to last, it is nothing of works, but all of grace. God never forsakes the work of His own hands. He is ever vigilant to bring all to completion (this includes us). In fact lets read those two verses in 1 Cor and see if you don’t feel like jumping up and shouting, “Grace to it;”
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.
If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”
Now to 2 Cor 6:19
“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.”
Just recently the Holy Spirit spoke to me and this is basically what He spoke; “I am calling those who will come to Me, to be more deeply related to Me and come to a fresh revelation of My power already within them. I am going to cause a shift in the body of Christ to My paths that they have been called to walk in”. We are going to stay in this call for the rest of the class session today.
Going back to the opening statement, concerning the massive changes in the world in the last 131 years, I was reminded of John 16:33, and in light of all that is happening and this is the last thing He said before He prayed to the Father, and verse 33 took on a deepened meaning, so lets turn there;
“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world (cosmos) you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]
Now from John 13 all the way through 16, Jesus has been ministering to them concerning His sending the Holy Spirit back to them. This was the last thing that He spoke to them before He prayed the High Priestly prayer and then entered Gethsamane, and for one thing I am sure that Jesus, knowing how He Himself came, was intense when He relayed the verse to them that we will come too in just a moment, but first lets turn to Phil. 2:5-7;
“Let this mind and attitude be in your which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.”
Since He Himself became a man, like as we are, knowing all the turmoil that we would face, especially in our day, and the times that we would live and endure in, I am sure was His reason for sharing with them the expediency of receiving the Holy Spirit from the Father, and said, in John 16:7;
“However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you].”
I know Jesus knew exactly what was in their hearts and would have been in ours too, had we have been there; (Oh me! He’s going to leave us, what and how are we going to do without Him?)Remember, He had told them to not let their hearts be troubled; He said if you believe in God, then believe then in Me also; I go to prepare a place for you and I will come back for you. I will not leave you orphans. He also told them that the He would pray the Father, and He would send them 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. Alleluia, we are of those that He dwells within, being with us always.
I think it is now more important than ever, that we truly know with a new intimacy, the person of the Holy Spirit. He is the One that is with us. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us, and is our advocate with the Father concerning things of our spirit. However, the Holy Spirit is here with and in us, being our advocate, interceding for us and standing with us against the world. It is the world that Jesus said He overcame for us and the Holy Spirit is here with us to back that up, but we need to have an inside knowledge of that and respond with His power that is within and available to us on call. We need to get more inside information of just what some of His titles and functionsare and study them as they apply to our daily lives, ‘and they do’!
I am sure that we have all heard the Father is the Owner or Executive, the Son is the Architect, and the Holy Spirit is the contractor, Who builds what the Father and the Son call for. Lets look at just one verse, in Genesis 1:2, and take hold of what is happening in us today;
“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
The Spirit of God was hovering over a work in progress, awaiting the Owner and the Architect to call out the design specifications, and He, the Holy Spirit, would then bring that to pass. The same is now happening, except the contractor is within each of us, who are a work in progress, and with our submission to the call of the Father and the Son in His word, He, (the Holy Spirit) will do the work that has to be done, to cause the conformation to be completed. We are a work in progress, we are the city that Abraham was looking for, whose builder and maker is God, and God’s perfect will is being done in us as we submit to our commitment to Him in our salvation experience. This is part of our working out our own salvation with fear (of God) and trembling as called for in Philippians 2:12-13. God is not violating your freedom of choice, but is exercising His part in your salvation, which occurred when you accepted Jesus as Savior, but it is also a work that started then and is in progress daily, because you are being brought to the place where He is Lord as well as Savior, and this is a step that is ongoing and is by the Holy Spirit [1 Cor 12:3b].
“…no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.”
The word for Lord in [greek] is kurios, and has a most wide significance, being used as Owner, Master, Authority, Power and the Supreme Head of all, and that can be achieved only by the inner revelation of the Holy Spirit! I have to ask daily; “Jim, is Jesus really Lord in your life? Have you given it all to Him to do as He wills with it?
Jesus, as we said, is at the right hand of the Father, but the Holy Spirit is here with and in us just as Jesus said. He also spoke of a few of His functions in John 14, 15 and 16 in various verses that follow and you can find;
“…the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in my name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things, and He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you.”
“And now I have told you [this] before it occurs, so that when it does take place you may believe and have faith in and rely on Me.”
“But when the Comforter comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth Who comes (proceeds) from the Father. He [Himself] will testify regarding Me.”
“And when He comes, He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God) and about judgment:
About righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God), because I go to My Father, and you will see Me no longer;
About judgment, because the ruler (evil genius, prince) of this world [Satan] is judged and condemned and sentence already is passed upon him.”
“I have still many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them or take them upon you or to grasp them now.
But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes;
He will guide you into all Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell you whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future].
He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, (transmit) it to you.”
Every thing the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He [the Spirit] will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, (transmit) it to you.
We know that He brought gifts for the church, in 1 Cor 12 and 14, and these demonstrate the ministry and power that Jesus exercised when He ministered here in the earth, these gifts are from the Holy Spirit.
Then we know, from Ephesians 4:11 that these gifts are from Jesus, The Son to the church, and the word declares that these are to build up Christ’s body, equipping the church to build itself up and move into the dimensions of Kingdom Life [the kingdom that is already within each of us.]
Now, last, but not least, are the gifts in the church from the Father, in Romans 12:6-8, are gifts that are for the physical and material needs, to be administered to those of Christ’s body.
All is in perfect order, the gifts from the Trinity, but under the direction of the Holy Spirit, Who is to lead and guide through our daily walk. He does not overpower us into doing anything, but empowers us to do all things that we are called to as Christ’s body. There is, within, our spirit, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, fruit being produced, and that is the character of our Jesus, as He is lifted up in our lives, by the quality of life that we display, and those of the world will be attracted and will be drawn to His Life in us. This is a major function of the Spirit of God.
I think that a lot of understanding can come from our grasping some of the titles that He is known by;
The Spirit of Grace, The Spirit of Truth, The Spirit of Holiness, The Spirit of God, The Spirit of The Son, The Spirit of Promise, The Spirit of Power, The Spirit of Life, The Spirit of Adoption, The Spirit of Love, The Spirit of Soundness of Mind, and the Spirit of Faith. This is like a hall of fame of the heavens.
Then He has been recognized by certain power demonstrations such as, ‘Fire’ [Acts 2:1-2]; ‘Wind’ [Acts 2:1-2]; ‘Water’ [John 7:37-39]; ‘Oil’ [Acts 10:38]; ‘A Dove’ [John 1:32]; and a ‘Seal’ [Eph. 1:13].
He is eternal, He is Omnipotent, He is Omnipresent, He is Omniscient.
We spoke of His functions, that we need to become more acutely aware of, and I say this because He told me to do exactly as I am telling you right now. His word is that the body needs a closer relationship with His functions in the earth, because as He said, in the soon, and the emphasis was on the word ‘soon’, we are going to need to know the greater One Who is within us more intimately than we have ever before.
He points us to Jesus.
He leads us into all Truth.
He discloses the things of the Lord to us.
He causes us to have recall of all that Jesus said.
He discloses future events to us – He is the Spirit of Prophecy!
He teaches, counsels, strengthens, intercedes, and He is our advocate.
He convicts and convinces.
He is the empowerment of the fruit that we bear.
He cultivates the immortal seed by which we were born again.
He empowers all the gifts in 1 Cor 12 and 14.
He is, as we said before, continuing to hover over a work in progress.
I can’t help but think of the words of Paul in Phil. 3:10, saying that his determined purpose was to know Him in the power of His resurrection, and in Romans 8:11 he declares;
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (and He does),” (1 Cor 6:14 & 19)
God’s plan is for us to grow in Him and His grace and receive the power to fulfill His plans in and for us. As we come to know Him more intimately, the way are destined to, we will do exploits for Him, and that is the condition spoken of that brings Dan 11:32 to pass. Through the Holy Spirit you will come more and more to realize that He alone is your source, and nothing nor no one else, and as you begin to intimately know Him in this way you will become more intimately knowledgeable of Jesus and assured of His power and the fact that it is there for you on call.
God knows Who and What He put in you and also what He can do in and through you as you go forth in faith believing. God said, through Paul, in Ephesians 3:20, that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can dare ask or think according to the power that works within us, but let me read that same verse from the Amplified and I know we have heard this many times, but lets put on new ears and hear the heart of God in this for us in the days that we are now in. (Eph 3:19 and 20;
“[That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!