Creflo Dollar — Has the Holy Spirit Become Taboo?
This morning, as things are being revealed, it is always important for us to get in the Word of God, and to see the Scriptures, and to read it. Not just for me to comment or to say things, but to show you things, because if you heard it from a religious standpoint or you heard it as a fable, then all your life you may have been thinking one way about this thing, and that's not even it.
And so this is going to be a revolutionary morning, where your thinking is not only going to be challenged, but it's going to change. But I promise you as you sit there and listen to the Word this morning, your spirit is going to leap, because it's going to bear witness to truth that I believe is finally in the earth today, amen?
So let's quickly go into this. Let's go to St. John chapter 14. St. John chapter 14, verse 26, and I'm going to establish this foundation. I call this teaching this morning, and I ask this question this morning, "Has the Holy Spirit Become Taboo to You?" Has the Holy Spirit become taboo?
Now it's no mistake that we use the word "taboo" because the word "taboo," it is defined as "something being improper, something being unacceptable." Has the Holy Spirit become improper or unacceptable in your Christian experience? The word "taboo" means prohibited. It means banned or forbidden. Has the Holy Spirit become prohibited in your experience as a Christian? Has it been banned from your experience as a Christian? Has it been forbidden?
It also means to exclude from use or practice. Have you suddenly found yourself excluding the Holy Spirit from use, practice, or even acknowledgement? And so my hope today is that you can change your answer or answer the fact that no, he's not become taboo, because he has become taboo in a lot of churches. He has become taboo in a lot of Christians and their lives, because they really just don't know what to think about the Holy Spirit.
Well, he is a person. He is as real as the person seated next to you. He is alive. He has emotions. He can be grieved. He is a real person. He's the third person of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. It is the same God, but with three different functions. God functioning as father, God functioning as son, and God functioning as the Holy Spirit.
But there's something so interesting about the Holy Spirit being on this planet, being in this physical world. In this physical world, the Holy Spirit has an assignment to work in this physical world. If you'll notice in your Bibles in the very beginning, in Genesis, he was the first one to be mentioned. It was God the Holy Spirit. The Bible says the Spirit of God moved on the face of the water. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has the ability to function in this physical world.
Who do you think it was that moved the water in its place? Who do you think it was that hung the stars in their silver sockets in glory? Who do you think it was that was responsible for the creation? It's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has an ability to impact physical things, and we've got to understand that the Holy Spirit can also impact physical things in your life, in your world, in the things that you deal with.
Yes, there's God the father in heaven. Yes, there's God the son, Jesus Christ. And then there's God the Holy Spirit, whose specific assignment is to work with men who live in physical bodies in this physical world. Now what is about to be revealed to you, that the Bible makes it clear that carnal-minded men won't believe, because they can't see him, and that's what I believe Jesus was saying to Thomas.
He says, "Thomas, you believe because you can see me, but there's coming a time where people who won't be able to see me, they're going to believe anyway." I believe prophetically he was saying, "It's one thing for you to see me, but boy, it's gonna come a time where they won't be able to see the Holy Ghost, and yet they will be able to believe."
And so in John chapter 14 and verse 26 let's begin this morning. Verse 26, I'm going to read it out of the King James and the Amplified. Read it aloud with me. Ready, read. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
Now notice the Comforter is making reference to the Holy Spirit. In the Amplified, he says, "But the Comforter, the Counselor, the Helper, the Intercessor, the Advocate, the Strengthener, the Standby" — this is what you and I can expect from our relationship with the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit will be our comforter, the Holy Spirit will be your counselor, he's going to be your helper, he's going to be your intercessor, your advocate, he's going to be your strengthener, he's going to be your standby, the Holy Spirit, "whom the Father will send in my name in my place to represent me and act on my behalf."
So the Father has sent the Holy Spirit in place of Jesus, and he says that the Holy Spirit is going to now represent him, and he's going to act on his behalf. So whatever you saw Jesus doing in the Scriptures, when he was walking on the planet, he said the Holy Spirit now has been authorized to do everything you saw and read that Jesus did, that the Holy Spirit has been authorized to do that.
He says, "And in my place, to represent me and to act on my behalf, he will teach you all things, and he will cause you to recall" — look at this. "He'll cause you to recall and will remind you of and bring to you your remembrance everything I have told you." So everything that's been told and everything about Jesus, you have been sent the Holy Spirit to help you.
Now for some people, that's just not enough, to have a desire for him. For some people, it's just not enough to really want him. And you might ask, "Well, you know, why do I even want to have anything to do with the Holy Spirit? I hadn't seen him. I've, all my life, heard it was a church thing," and in some cases, you may admit that it has become a little bit taboo, maybe because of the lack of knowledge, or maybe because of some weird things that have happened in your life that you have seen, and people labeled it as the Holy Spirit.
Well, let me see if I can kind of help you out with that. First of all, I believe that as Jesus is, so are we. And I believe if Jesus had a need for the Holy Spirit, then you and I should have a need for the Holy Spirit, because he came in a physical body to demonstrate to us how we should be existing in a physical body in this physical world.
So let's pay attention to Jesus. Jesus was completely dependent on the Holy Spirit, completely dependent on the Holy Spirit. Now that's big thing, that's big time, saying that Jesus was completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit.
Now in the lives of some Christians, we're not completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit, because we really don't know about him enough, or it's not been preached enough, I don't know what the reason is, but, you know, it would be interesting to see the number of people in here who are completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit. And to be completely dependent on the Holy Spirit means you don't move without depending on him. You're depending on him for everything.
You're depending on him for how you're gonna live today, for your job, for how you're gonna handle this, for what you don't know. You're depending on him for your comfort. You're depending on him when you're lonely. You're depending on him when you have lack. You're depending on him in every area of your life, and so I'm not asking you to say I religiously depend on him. I'm talking about depending on him, relying on him in confidence, and I am saying that Jesus on this planet would have not been able to fulfill his mission without total dependence on the Holy Spirit.