The Miraculous and the Mundane - Pastor Rock's Sermon # 3 on Holy Spirit

Acts 8:29 -  And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”

The Holy Spirit is the first person on the scene at our conversion but often the last person we come to know and trust (John 16:7-8; Titus 3:5). The Holy Spirit is the catalyst of our conversion. He enables us to believe. He convicts us. He transforms and regenerates our soul. But we often come to understand him much later. Our concepts of the Holy Spirit is quite nebulous. And, we are accustomed to the path of self-reliance.

Unfortunately, many of God's people live as though the Holy Spirit does not exist. We do not listen to him, seek his counsel and live in oblivion of his guidance. Although direct leading of the Holy Spirit are everyday occurrences in God’s kingdom they are not everyday occurrences in any single believer’s life! Your life is not a steady diet of the miraculous. It will be a mix of the miraculous and the mundane (the predictable). There are going to be a certain amount of routine. There are going to be intervals of silence, there will be predictability, there will be difficulties. However, spirit filled believers watch for the miraculous but spend most their time walking in the mundane! And they find God in both. 

For example, exclamations are effective if it occurs sparingly. Otherwise it loses its relevance. It should not happen after each sentence. God does not place an exclamation at each instance in our life. He knows where exclamations need to be placed. Direct leading of the Holy Spirit complement and complete our ongoing application of God’s Word. Day by day we seek to bring our behavior, our thinking in to conformity with the revealed word of God. Every so often he completes and complements it by speaking directly to us in our lives.

The direct leading of the Holy Spirit do a number of things. First of all, they affirm God's active presence in our lives. They remind us that we are not just following a book, although the book is sacred scripture. We have God himself dwelling within us through the Holy Spirit. He is actively involved in our lives. Second, reminds us of our need for total dependence on God. They draw our attention, and other people in our lives. Third, they introduce new understanding and new maturity in our lives.

For example, read about Apostle Philip's life. He was performing great wonders and then the Holy Spirit talks to him and instructs him to walk away from an 'evangelist's dream'. He arrives into the desert and spies a chariot. The holy spirit instructs him to go and walk closer to the chariot. The official is reading the book of Isaiah. Philip instructs him that everything that he reads is fulfilled in the life of Jesus. It was an example of the miraculous interspersing the mundane.

But Philip did not get up every day and ask of God - "what unpredictable destination do you want me to go today?" Most of his days were spent in the midst of doing his usual routine. The miraculous in his life did not replace the mundane, it punctuated it.

The Holy Spirit helps us in our witness. Witness is more than us sharing information; it’s the Spirit influencing hearts  (John 6:44). If we witness without consulting the Spirit we may do more harm than good.

There are three things that hinders the work of the Spirit:
1. A compromise with known sin hinders the work of the Spirit.  (Ephesians 4:29-31) The sin that hinders the Spirit’s working is the sin we refuse to submit to His working.
2. Unbelief hinders the work of the Spirit.
3. Fear hinders the work of the Spirit. The supernatural is difficult for us to manage because we were never intended to manage it! We were intended to have it manage us.

Salvation is the greatest miracle of all. But miracles weren’t meant to stop at salvation! They were intended to punctuate the mundane.
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Pastor talks of his personal experiences and also gives some examples on how well meaning Christian preachers hinder the work of the Holy Spirit through false theology on the Holy Spirit. You can listen to the entire message here: http://media.perpetuatech.com/watch?v=NTIxMjgxRDQ0OQ#

Divine Monopoly - Pastor Rock Dillaman on Holy Spirit - Sermon # 2

Divine Monopoly

1 Peter 1:16 - "since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

If you are a follower of Jesus, you need to know that God did not save you out of pity. He saved you to be holy. Because you were created to be holy. When the HS enters our life, his first priority is to make us holy. His holy agenda encounters two very stiff challenges: 1, it is challenged by our distorted idea of what holiness means (our spiritual sight), and 2, it is challenged by our stubbornness (our spiritual desires). We want to have the control of the steering wheel. And, both of these issues constitute a challenge for us to understand the power of the HS. We can’t hit a target we don’t see and we won’t pursue a goal we don’t desire!

What do we mean by 'becoming holy'. To be holy is to be whole or complete – lacking nothing. (1 Peter 1:15-16). Everything he made is pronounced good. He does not produce anything bad. However, we do not remain good. We end up damaged by the ripple effect of a spiritual rebellion. That's why we all begin life infected with sin and we live in the tragic effects of sin. That's why human hearts are perpetually filled with unrest. We have this sense that something is missing. We feel incomplete. We do not feel whole. The spiritual blindness that is a symptom of our sin virus causes us to seek for wholeness, but we are unable to see it. We seek wholeness in stuff, status or sex. These are three bins in which every idolatry can be put in. These just act like narcotics on our soul. It just dampens our sensitivity to God. We just end up less and less and less whole while we are seeking wholeness.

But the good news of scripture is that God wants to rescue us. Wholeness isn’t found in an addiction to over-hyped substitutes for God. It’s found in the adoration of God Himself. And adoration begins with surrender (Proverbs 14:12; Matthew 22:37).

When we hear the word surrender, we tend to attach negative thoughts and response to it. We  associate surrender with failure and weakness. But when we attach God's holy spirit with surrender, we realize that surrender is the key to recovery. We are bonded to a dehumanizing sickness called sin. Until we realize what the HS can do in our lives. God’s calls to surrender are more offers than demands (Matthew 16:24-27).

When we usually hear demands made on us, we tend to push back. We always like offers. In fact, God's call to surrender are more about offers than demands from us. When we usually hear a commandment from God, we tend to push back because we hear demands. But in actuality, these are offers from God. Offers to restore you. To make you whole. God is not calling you to the same amount of moral perfection as His. In fact, that's not possible. It simply is God's way of saying, as your creator, I am complete. As your creator, I want my creation to be complete (1 Peter 1:16). I desire you to be complete. The call to be holy is the most incredible offer you’ll ever receive!  (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

You can learn about surrender by reading about Moses. His first 40 years of his life, he was taught that he was someone special. The second 40 years were spent out in the wilderness. Going nowhere and accomplishing nothing. God taught him that he was nothing special. The final 40 years, when he liberated the people of Israel, he realized that God was special. When that happened, special things happened in his life.

To surrender is to: 1, reject all substitutes for God, 2, acknowledge our need of total dependence upon God, and 3, invite His restoring work  (Acts 5:32;Galatians 5:16).

Surrendering is like a marriage covenant. There is an initial never repeated covenant. But it is followed by almost daily re-confirmation and re-commitment.  Day by day I commit all I know of myself to all I know about God. I keep learning more and more about myself as the HS opens up new things about myself, and offer myself to God more and more every day. That's what it means to live a surrendered life. It does not mean instant perfection. It means reinforced growth.

Committing all you know about yourself to all you know of God - that's what it actually means by the phrase, 'filled with the HS'. It's a very common phrase that's misunderstood. HS is not an 'it'. Not a commodity. He is a person. And therefore, you either have him in you or not. He's not like petrol where you can have half tank or full tank. You either have him or not. If you do not have the HS, you do not even belong to Christ. If someone tells you, you are a Christian, but do you have the HS? That's a ridiculous question. It's un-biblical. The moment you step out as a Christ follower, you have the HS. It is the HS who makes you take that step in faith. It is the HS that carries out the new birth in our life. Filled with the HS does not imply that you get more of the spirit. It means that you give greater control of your life to him. You are under a divine monopoly. Areas of your life that you controlled and closed off for the HS's authority, you are increasingly giving it to the HS's control.

"Filled with the Spirit” doesn’t imply you get more of the Spirit; it indicates the Spirit gets greater control of you!  (Galatians 5:16) 

Spirit-fed believers will demonstrate the fact that they are spirit filled by their increasing progress towards holiness. The HS gives us power for ministry. So a spirit filled believer can cast out demons from another person. But the first thing that a spirit filled believer would do is to cast out demons from your own life. getting the junk out of your own soul. I'm always suspicious of people who want a fresh wind of the HS to 'do' things to show-off. Do people do that? Yes, it happens all the time. The church is a great place to be a celebrity. People do a lot of wrong things in church including pursuing the HS for the wrong reasons. The primary reason to pursue the HS is so that he can make us whole, as is intended for us. 

Holiness should precede mission. We can’t make holiness attractive to others if we aren’t modeling it ourselves (Matthew 5:15-16). You can't lead people to surrender to God, if you are not surrendered yourself. You cannot lead people to a place where you have not been. If we aren’t governed by God’s supernatural Spirit, we can’t possibly do God’s supernatural work (John 6:63). God wants to get you to do supernatural work - something not possible with your own ability. In order to do mission, you have to have an awareness of the HS's leading in your life. You have to have the power to engage in a intense spiritual conflict.

Once we submit our lives to Christ, the HS enables us to do two things for ministry. 
1. To discern God's plans and timing.
2. To do his work effectively.

That in short is what ministry means - discerning and doing. Ministry = Discerning and Doing.
It's not forming your own strategies and plans and holding it up to God and saying, God please bless it. Make it work. Ministry is about listening until the HS reveals God's strategies. Once that is revealed, you align your activities with the strategy that God has revealed. That's spirit-led spirit-filled ministry.

Now, God won't address every tiny matter in our life. He created us with brain. He wanted us to use them. Every large matter of strategy will come from the HS. And some small matters will also come from him because the HS knows that such a small decision could have a major impact on the ministry. How can I tell the difference? Train the senses. If you listen for the Spirit you’ll hear  Him, and if you obey you’ll see Him (Hebrews 5:14).

Train your senses through practice (see portion above). Practice listening to the HS's leading. Practice obeying the HS's leading. Then I see the HS working. That does not work in all believers. In some cases, we do not listen to the HS. God has revealed everything to us in the form of scripture. He has revealed his heart and his purpose to us. In terms of working out the principles of scripture in the moment by moment experience of life, you need the HS to reveal the truth from the word of God. To take the principles of scripture and show how it applies to your situation for that day. You need the spirit to lead you to applying the principles of the scripture. Or else, you have a lot of principles but no applications. Even for the assurance of salvation, you need the HS to reveal it to you from the word of God.

The spirit is speaking. But we are not listening. Sometimes we listen, but we do not obey. Therefore, we do not see the miracles in life.

Scripture talks about the burden of the Lord. (Pastor gives an example of how he heard from God in a specific way and counseled a couple). You will feel in your soul, the strong burden of the Lord when the HS is speaking. Your gift may be different form mine. I have prophetic and word of knowledge gift. I may not have something you are gifted. We have to discover and listen and obey to use the HS's power in your life.

Let me tell you a story about D. L. Moody, the mightiest evangelist of the 19th century.

D. L. Moody was being considered for an evangelistic campaign in England, and one of the organisers asked somewhat sarcastically: 'Does D. L. Moody have a monopoly of the Holy Spirit that we're just thinking about him and nobody else?'. The answer came back very quickly: 'No, D. L. Moody does not have a monopoly of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly of D. L. Moody'. 

God wants to have a monopoly on you. Jesus cannot be a value added commodity. Normal christian life is a life surrendered to God. He has a monopoly on you. Ask yourselves - "Does the HS have a monopoly over my life?"

Going with the Power (Pastor Rock Dillaman) - sermon # 1 on Holy Spirit

Going with the Power

First of all, Holy Spirit (HS) is not a thing. He is a person. He is one personal entity within the Trinity. He is the invisible God within us.

Now let us look into two passages:
Zechariah 4:6 -
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith.
Acts 1:8 -
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. 

To follow Jesus as God intended us to do, we must understand how the HS works in our lives and we must live in his power. If we do not understand the HS, we will lead superficial lives and not supernatural lives that he intends for us.

God spoke to Zerubbabel and gave him an impossible task. God reassured him by reminding him of the HS. God's word was both a promise and a precaution. An encouragement and a warning.

The Israelites frequently ignored both. There sure were moments when they flourished in faith. More often than not, they floundered. They relied upon their own strength. History suggests that we have not learnt lessons from the Israelite's as well. God's people often affirms the presence of the HS without experiencing the power of the HS. If you go to any church in Kerala, they will say they do believe in the HS. But the key question is whether you have experienced the power of the HS.

We teach the doctrine of the HS without acknowledging the dynamic of the HS. We sing about the fire of the HS, but the church is cold, the hearts are dry, languishing in weakness.

If God were to take the HS away from church today, much of what is going on in church will continue and nobody will know the difference - A. W. Tozer

The church was intended as a group of people who are doing what is impossible apart from God, and doing things in dependence of God.

God's people lead average lives. But average is not the normal. We can be accustomed to the subnormal christian living that when we see the normal living, we view it as extra-ordinary. Average is living powerless lives. Remember, people leave the church when they see the preaching about HS's power but don't see the evidence of it.

What is a normal christian life? There is a untiring hope grounded in Christ. A life pursuing God's Holy kingdom and not the American dream. It is Spirit-led and not cause-motivated. It is utterly impossible without the power of the HS.

Understanding normal Christian life requires a model for us. More is caught than taught. The best model is of course Jesus Christ.

How did Jesus know what to say, or what to do? How did he speak with authority? How did he know the best timing? How did he heal? Well, you could be tempted to say that it was possible because he is God. But the answer lies in Isaiah 11.
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord - and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. 

Jesus started his public ministry after the HS came on him. Then immediately, he was led to the wilderness. He started to walk according to the leading of the HS. He said what he told to say (John 5:19 and 12:49). If Jesus' life and ministry was so much dependent on the HS, how much more should ours be?

We need to know where the power is going, and we need to go with it.

The HS's power never corrupts our soul. However, the sin in our souls could corrupt our approach to the HS's power in us. Remember Simon the Sorcerer? He wanted the power of the HS to do tricks and miracles. the same power empowered the disciples to do great things, and not to do tricks.

God's power is meant to accomplish God's purposes through two things:
- He wants us to get the World out of us (HOLINESS) - to set us free from our addictions to sin. We often want God's blessings, but are unwilling to take the trash out. He wants us to be Holy.
- He wants to get us into the World (MISSION)

The latter is impossible without the former. The first thing the HS wants us to do in our lives, is to make us Holy. When HS comes, he will expect us to be obedient to God's word.