John Bevere - Knowing the Holy Spirit at the DEEPEST Level
- Watch
- Donate
Hey, welcome to a new session, kind of continuing from what we talked about. Let me just review some of what we said. Jesus said it's to our advantage that he went away. Why? Because if he didn't, he wouldn't send the Holy Spirit. If Jesus had stayed, we would have had to fly all the way over to Israel, get in line—might take a couple of months—but talk to him. But now, with the Holy Spirit, we can talk to him every day. For this reason, the Apostle Paul made this statement: "May the fellowship, the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you." Communion is the Greek word "koinonia," which means fellowship, companionship, communication, intimacy, sharing together, social intercourse, partnership, joint participation, and close mutual association. We are breaking it up into three different major categories: category number one is fellowship, category number two is partnership, and the third, which I'm really excited to get to in this session, is intimacy.
First of all, fellowship. Fellowship means a relationship of friendship; it means sharing together. It's keeping one another informed. We see statements like Paul made, that the Holy Spirit told him in city after city that chains and tribulations awaited him. We see the guys forbidden to go into certain cities by the Holy Spirit. We see situations where they said the Holy Spirit said to Philip, "Go near that chariot and join up with it." The second word is partnership. Partnership means this: it means to work together; it means to be comrades together. He's the senior partner of Messenger International. I always like to say, when we walk into our board meetings, we welcome the Holy Spirit, and I say, "You're the senior partner here. You're the one that's really going to be calling the shots because you're the Supreme Lord of this ministry, of my life, and of my family. Amen!"
Partners work together. We look in 1 Corinthians 3:9: "We are laborers together with God." That is a mind-blowing statement. You see, the apostles knew the Holy Spirit so well that they said it seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit. They were able to represent him without him speaking; they knew him so well. Then we look at people who have tried to have a relationship with Jesus apart from the Holy Spirit. How sad! Because what happens is Christianity becomes very dry. They really don't come to know the person; they come to know a historical figure in a book. I remember, before I became very close to the Holy Spirit, I'd read the Bible and think, "You know what? I love God with all my heart, but it's a bit dry." Do you know the Bible has never been dry since the Holy Spirit came to dwell in his fullness in my life? It goes deeper than partnership; it goes to close mutual association.
I talked about Lisa and I; we're mutually associated. I love the fact that when people hear John Bevere, they think Lisa Bevere. When they hear Lisa Bevere, they think John Bevere. Just like if you hear Ringo, you think of Paul McCartney and the Beatles. If you hear Curly, you think of Mo and—what's the other one?—Larry! Yeah, close mutual association. But it goes deeper. It's when you communicate; you partner with the Holy Spirit; you're fellowshipping with him. Now what happens is people are aware of your partnership with him. There are ministers of the gospel, I have to say, when I see them, I realize there's a real close partnership with the Holy Spirit; you can sense his presence.
You know, we've done something in the church I'm deeply concerned about, and that is this: we have substituted atmosphere for presence. I believe we need great atmospheres in our church services, and I believe that this past 10 years, I tell you, I believe God is pleased. I'm so pleased with the atmospheres we create—with the lights, the smoke, and the great worship. But you know what? I've almost seen some leaders settle for atmosphere, substituting it for presence. I say, "Let's have atmosphere and let's have presence." Amen! I don't really like going into a service and leaving without people feeling or sensing the manifested presence of Jesus Christ. Who's the one that does that? The Holy Spirit. Jesus said part of Christianity is, "I will manifest myself to you." How does he do it? He's on the right hand of God; he does it by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Can you say amen?
And so there's an association. Now we come to intimacy. We started talking about intimacy. Intimacy can only be developed by fellowship, what we first talked about, but it goes deeper than fellowship; it goes into sharing our thoughts, our secrets, and the desires of our heart. I believe you can have a relationship with the Holy Spirit where you desire what he desires to where you can go deep in intimacy—secrets and thoughts. You know God has secrets, and he shares them with those who are his intimate close friends. When you develop that friendship with the Holy Spirit, God then starts revealing his secrets. That's what I yearn for; that's what I long for. It all comes down to friendship. This is the end goal of communion. The Spirit of God desires to be your friend; he yearns for your fellowship.
James, the Apostle, made this statement in James 4:5: "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously." What does he yearn for? He yearns for your intimate communication. But yet he yearns jealously. Jealously means he's not going to tolerate other lovers. If you look at James 4, he's talking about if you make yourself a friend of the world. What's the world? The world goes after the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. What is the pride of life? It's status. You ever see the world? They're always going after status and position—that's the pride of life. The world seeks those things. If you seek those things like the world, what happens? You put enmity between you and the One you're supposed to be close with. That's what gets him quiet; that's what suppresses his voice, is the way I should say it. Are you with me? So he yearns jealously. He wants you just like a man would not want his wife sleeping with other guys around town and coming home, expecting her husband to treat her with intimacy and closeness.
So the Holy Spirit is not going to be intimate and close with us if we're flirting with the world. Are you with me? We're to go into the world but not be of the world. Believe me, Jesus was going to Mafia parties. He was having prostitutes follow him around; he was going into some pretty tough places. But he wasn't going there to be a part of what they pursued; he was going in there to reach them. Are you with me? And so when it comes to intimacy, we discovered in one of our sessions that the Holy Spirit, if we had to look at him, he's mighty like a warrior, but yet he carries some of the feminine aspects. I'm not saying the Holy Spirit is female; I'm never saying that! He's not some goddess. However, he can be saddened. He's the Comforter, just like a female. If a child gets hurt, they run to Mom first. He's the one that the Father and the Son protect. They said, "You better not speak against him! You sin against him; you're done." Just like a husband would say, "You speak against my wife; you're done."
Are you with me? So, in relating to him intimately, when we understand that yes, he's tender in communion and fellowship, but yet he's mighty in manifestation, when we go into our closets and we have fellowship with him, let's realize you're dealing with the tender member, the sensitive member, the one who can easily be saddened of the Godhead. So understand his personality when you go in to have fellowship with him. All right, again, I'm not saying that he is female.
Now, a final secret I've learned when it comes to intimacy with the Holy Spirit is this: if you don't engage with him, he will be silent. You know something I've noticed? I've traveled to churches for 24 years, and when the person driving picks me up, do you know if I go to a really good church where they've developed good workers? Do you know the person who picks me up? You know what they're trained to do? Not talk to me! Their leaders say, "Don't talk to him unless he engages you." Are you following me? So I've gotten into cars before, and I do it on purpose. I start asking my driver about his family, about the church, about how long he's been with it, because I realize these guys won't talk to me if I don't say anything. I can sit there and open up emails and all that, and they won't say a word to me all the way to the hotel, because that's the way they're trained.
Now, I find the Holy Spirit is a little like that. He will not engage with you unless it's an urgent matter of Jesus, like, "Hey, there are three men down there waiting for you; get down there!" or "I want you to go join this chariot." Okay? But if you don't engage him, he remains quiet. He's waiting for you to engage him. This is why there are some Christians the Holy Spirit has been quiet to them. They go, "Why doesn't God talk to me?" Are you engaging him? Do you understand his personality? Are you realizing you are talking to the third person of the Godhead? Yes, they are one, but don't separate them; don't confuse them. Are you with me? So talk to him! You would be amazed at how he will respond if you talk to him. Are you with me?
And this is why many people go, "God didn't talk to me; he hasn't talked to me in weeks, years!" Why? They don't engage him. He's almost like that driver: He won't say something! They'll look at me; they're trained; they say, "Okay, the service is at seven; we're going to pick you up at 6:25." They know they have to say that to me. But if I don't get engaged in conversation, we're not going to have it. So I, as a speaker, have to make a real point to engage with the people that are picking me up. Lisa does the same thing, because I want to know why! I go to places, and they go, "Oh, your wife is amazing! She talked to us; she made me feel like I was the most important person in the world!" And you know that's my wife; she will just make you feel so at home.
Now Jesus continues his instruction to the disciples at the Last Supper, and listen to what he says. Now here it really gets good: "Oh, there is so much more I want to tell you, but you can't bear it now." Listen, he's looking at these 11 guys: "I want to tell you so much more, but you can't bear it; you cannot handle it right now." That gets my attention; that puts my radar sensors up. Right there, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. In other words, there are things I want to tell you I can't, but when the Spirit of Truth comes—did you just see that? Yeah! He will not be presenting his own ideas; he will be telling you what he has heard; he will be telling you about the future! He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me! All that the Father has is mine! This is what I mean when I say the Spirit will reveal to you whatever he receives from me. Remember Jesus said it was best—everybody say best—that he goes away. The best thing for you guys is that I go away, right?
We see the continued benefit of this in these words I just read you. There's much more Jesus wanted to reveal to them, but he couldn't do it. But then he said, "But when the Spirit of Truth comes." So if you recall, after Jesus was raised from the dead, ten of the disciples were in a room with the doors locked, and boom, he appears! Now remember, he's not a spirit, because he said, "Handle me; a spirit doesn't have flesh and bone like I have," but he walked through a wall. Now, that's pretty cool! That means we're going to get to walk through walls when we get our glorified body! Okay, so the disciples are amazed, and Thomas is not there. A few days later, they all come to Thomas and say, "Dude, we saw him! I mean, he came in; we touched him!" Thomas went, "You're nuts! Have you—what, have you gone back to drinking since he was crucified? You saw him! I will not believe it unless I put my finger in his hands and put my hand in my side; I won't believe it."
So what does Jesus do? He pops in a few days later again; this time Thomas is there. He says, "Okay, Thomas, come here; let's take care of this first. Put your hand in my side; put your fingers in the holes. See, I'm alive!" And Thomas collapses and goes, "My Lord and my God!" Right? Now listen to what Jesus says: "Thomas, because you have seen me, you touched me, you handled me, you believe. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!" Now I used to say, "Jesus, that was kind of hard! I mean, the guy's already groveling on the floor! He's already gone, 'Please forgive me my unbelief!'" Right? And then Jesus looks at him and makes a statement like that. I'm like, "That's a little hard!"
The Lord spoke to me, and he said, "I wasn't rebuking Thomas; I was making a statement of fact." Right? He said, "What I was saying is it's much more blessed to not see me because you can go to a deeper level of relationship." Now let me explain what's happening here. There are three levels of relationship; you need to write this down. Number one, it is the lowest level of a relationship: that is the physical. Everybody say, "The physical." Okay? This is the level of relationship that, unfortunately, many people get married off of: "She's got a great body; he's got a hot body," and they ignore everything else. "I can ignore that; I know we don't get along; I know we don't talk very much together, but my goodness, I need this girl!" And they get married. So they get married on the physical level, right? Unfortunately, the soul level wasn't developed. So what happens is, after marriage, after the honeymoon basically wears off, she goes to her interests with her girlfriends; he goes to his interests with the sports, and they lose contact with each other because why? They got married based on the physical.
Okay, are you following me? All right, the next level up—I've already mentioned it—would be the soul or the personality of a person. Now this is the level in which David and Jonathan went to; the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. That was a comment that the writer of Samuel wrote. David made this comment: "I am distressed for you, my little brother Jonathan. Your love for me was wonderful, surpassing the love of a woman." He was not talking about a perverted relationship with Jonathan; he was talking about their souls being so tightly knit. They were so connected in their souls that it went even beyond the connection of soul he had with his wives, like Michal and Abigail. Well, actually, it was just Michal then. Are you with me? Because Michal was the only wife he had then.
Now I want to say this: this is the level where, hopefully, marriages connect, too. Don't get me wrong; physical is important. I love what Josh McDowell used to say: "The physical aspect in a marriage is the one-twelfth aspect." But boy, what a one-twelfth! Okay? My wife is really, really physically attracted to me. Okay? And that's a big one-twelfth! But you know what? What Josh was saying is one-twelfth is another aspect; it's not the physical; it's the soul; it's the personality. And the one I'm going to get to next.
And so let me tell you something: unfortunately, we've heard situations where married couples have left each other for somebody they met on the Internet. You want to know why? I'm going to tell you something. I'm preaching one night; I go back to my resource table, and there's a guy; he's got six kids—two kids in his arms, two kids grabbing his legs, and two kids running around! Right? And the guy had the most depressed look on his face. I said, "Sir, are you okay?" He goes, "Not really." I said, "What's wrong?" He said, "Well, my wife left me today for a man she met on the Internet." She developed a soulish relationship with this guy on the Internet to where it surpassed the physical and the soulish relationship she had with her own husband, with six children.
This is why sometimes long-distance relationships that start out long-distance end up being some of the best marriages, because you don't have the aspect of, "Oh, look at his biceps," or "Ooh boy, look at her curves." You know, you don't have that standing in the way, blocking you from going to that level of the soul. Are you seeing this? And so that is the soulish or personality level. The highest level of relationship would be the spiritual level. Now this would be the level that Jesus was talking about with Thomas. All right?
1 Corinthians 2:11 makes this statement: "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of man which is in him?" In other words, you don't know the true hearts of a human or the thoughts and intentions and motives of a human being except for the spirit of that person that is in him. Right? The closest relationships I've had are spiritual. So I didn't realize this in my early walk. I remember there were people I got closer to than Lisa. I remember, early in our marriage, there was a guy I prayed with; this guy, we talked about the Word constantly, and we became very close to where there became times I started listening to him over my wife. Stupid. Stupid! Really stupid!
Okay? After God revealed how wrong this was and I got out of this, I realized I have to get close with her. So, you know, Lisa and I were celebrating our 30th last week. You know some of my favorite times I remember with Lisa are when we were sitting by the pool, talking about the Word of God. We were talking about this curriculum, taping, and I was sharing with her things that God was putting in my heart, and she was sharing with me, and I was getting so enlightened. When Lisa and I pray together, you know our staff prays together every single morning. Why? There's a reason this leader does that. I want my staff connected spiritually! Are you following me? You get connected with people on the spiritual level when you fellowship with them around the Word and you pray with them and walk with them. You understand what I'm saying?
Because why? You really don't know a person until you know their spirit. You know what's so interesting? People walk up to me, and they'll start trying to talk to me out of the Bible, and I know they're talking out of their heads. Want to know why? Because it's so tiring; my mind gets exhausted. But then people come up to me and they speak from their spirit! I can talk to those people for hours! I could talk to Lisa for hours about the Word and not get tired. Want to know why? Because it's coming out of her spirit!
1 Corinthians 2:11 says this: "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?" Now listen: "Even so, the thoughts of God know no one except the Spirit of God." So just like knowing a person's spirit—he's saying now, how do you think you're ever going to know God unless you know his Spirit? Because no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. And then he goes on to say, "Now, we've not been given the spirit of the world but we've been given the Spirit of God that we might know the deep things of God." Are you getting this? I said, "Are you getting this?"
You see, Paul went to this level. Paul made the statement: "I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man; for I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but it came by revelation." He got it from the Spirit of God, right? So Paul goes to this depth of this relationship with Jesus; it's so deep that Peter finally writes a letter toward the end of his life, and he says this: "This guy Paul, he knows Jesus so well, so deeply, I don't even understand some of his writings!" I'm going to read it to you: 2 Peter 3:15-16. "This is just as our beloved brother Paul wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him." Speaking of these things in all of his letters, "Some of his comments are hard to understand!" What's going on here? Peter is probably still reverting back to when he walked with Jesus on the shores of Galilee to when he was with Jesus physically, when he fed the five thousand, and he keeps reverting back, and that's actually hindering him from going deeper!
See, Jesus said you're more blessed if you don't see! In other words, you can go deeper with me if we connect on a spiritual level, rather than you seeing me physically. So God, in his goodness, you know what he's done? He said, "I understand flesh." No, no, don't get me wrong. One day we're going to have a spiritual body, and that spiritual body is going to be redeemed. Do you know that your physical body right now is not redeemed? Your spirit is redeemed; it's in the exact image and likeness of Jesus. Your soul is being transformed; it's in the process of being redeemed, right? But your physical body is not redeemed. You ever notice you get bored of stuff? You can buy a brand new car, and one week later, it's old hat! Why? Because physical gets tired; physical can't go deep!
Right? So God says, "I'm not revealing myself to them physically; I'm going to show them the deep things of God by my Spirit so they can really know me." So God says, "I'm going to have a long-distance relationship with you so you can really get to know my heart." So when we get to the marriage, we got a good marriage! Because remember I said some of the best marriages are the ones that started with a long-distance relationship.
So God says, "I don't want your physical; it's not redeemed; I don't want it hindering you." And so Jesus isn't rebuking Thomas there; he's saying, "Thomas, you can't go to the depth of knowing me if you just live in this physical realm; you got to get into the Spirit." And that is why Paul writes, "From now on, we regard no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. We know him by the Spirit, the Spirit of the Living God." Why? Because Paul says, "The Spirit searches all the things—yes, even the deep, intimate things of God!" For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except a man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may know the things that he's freely given to us—his intimate secrets of his heart, etc., etc.
So if you want a deep relationship with God, I'm not talking about weird or spooky; I'm talking about a real knowing of God. You have to know him by his Spirit, because no one knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of man. Even so, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. See you in the next session!