Joyce Meyer - What Is The Holy Spirit And How Do I Follow Him? (08/20/2019)
Tonight's message honors the Holy Spirit as a divine Person who testifies of Jesus, reveals God's mind, and leads us in everyday life. We explored the Trinity, our triune makeup (spirit, soul, body), and how yielding to the Holy Spirit brings complete sanctification, freedom from struggles, and intimate guidance in all things—culminating in a call to surrender whatever holds us back.
Honoring the Holy Spirit as a Person
Father, we thank you for the word tonight and this weekend. And in teaching on the amazing, wonderful Holy Spirit, we approach the subject with reverential fear. Not wanting to misrepresent in any way, but to just give honor to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit tonight. And to bring a greater awareness of his present-day ministry in our everyday lives.
So I ask you for your help, and for people to listen, and even if they need to be, to be open to new thinking. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, I would like to just start with a scripture, John 15:26. "But when the Comforter, the Counselor, the Helper, the Advocate, the Intercessor, the Strengthener, the Standby comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who comes and proceeds from the Father, he himself will testify regarding me."
Understanding the Trinity in Scripture
Now, in this one scripture, we see the Trinity. As well as in many, many other scriptures throughout the Word of God. We see the Trinity. I'm sure you know we serve a triune God. One God, but manifested in three persons or personalities.
The Trinity is really the perfect example of true unity. Because in the Trinity, there's no jealousy, there's no competition. They're all for each other and all about glorifying each other. So, in here, we see that he comes from the Father, and he'll testify regarding me. The "me" is Jesus, because it's Jesus talking here, and he's talking about the Holy Spirit.
In the book of Genesis, it starts out in the very beginning and says, "Let us"—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—"make man in our image."
The Holy Spirit Is a Person, Not an "It"
So, whether you understand the Trinity or not—well, let's just don't even say it like that. We don't understand the Trinity. And I'll tell you, the more that you would try to figure that out, the more confused you should get.
So, there are many things in the Word that we must come like a little child, and I do believe it. It's amazing to me the things that the Holy Spirit can enable us to believe in our heart, that if you got into your mind with it, wouldn't make one bit of sense at all. You agree with that?
I mean, how do we know that Jesus actually died on a cross? I mean, how do we know? We didn't see it. We don't know. But we believe it, and we believe it strongly enough that most of us would lay down our lives for what we believe.
And so, I believe that we serve a triune God, and that we need to be aware of each one. We need to worship each one. We need to fellowship with each one as we're led by the Holy Spirit.
Proofs of the Holy Spirit's Personality
We need to know the Holy Spirit as a person. Not a person like we are, but a person. And I say that he's a person because he has all the traits of personality. Everything that makes a person a person, he has it.
The Holy Spirit is not an it. He's not an influence. He does influence us, but he's much more than an influence. He's not just a power or a presence, although he does all those things. He is a person. He has knowledge. He has a mind. He thinks. He knows things. He has feeling. And he has will.
And I want to just share a couple scriptures with you just to verify my point. 1 Corinthians 2:11: "For what person perceives, knows, and understands what passes through a man's thoughts, except the man's own spirit within him."
So, I can look at you and you can be sitting there smiling at me, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're paying one bit of attention to what I'm saying. You could be thinking about something totally different. Well, I don't know it, but your spirit knows it. You know. The inner part of you knows.
Well, it's the same way with the Spirit of God. He is the only one who fully knows the mind of God. So, when we pray to know the mind of God on something, it's very important to realize that the Holy Spirit is living in us, and he's the one that will reveal the mind of God to us.
Being Led by the Holy Spirit Daily
So, when it comes to, quote, hearing from God or being led by the Holy Spirit, we talk a lot about the still, small voice, or many times when God speaks to you, it's going to sound like your own thoughts. But there's a different oomph on it. There's a different emphasis on it.
So, when you have the Holy Spirit filling your life, you can expect to have a greater and a different level of communication with God than what you might have without that.
Now, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 22, 23, and 24. First of all, he says, abstain from evil, shrink from it, keep aloof from it in whatever form or whatever kind it may be. And may the God of peace himself sanctify you through and through, separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God, and may your spirit and your soul and your body...
Now, get that. May your spirit and your soul and your body... May your spirit and your soul and your body... One more time. May your spirit and your soul and your body be preserved sound and complete and found blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah.
And verse 24. Faithful is he who is calling you to himself and utterly trustworthy. And he will also do it. Fulfill his call by hallowing and keeping you.
Understanding Spirit, Soul, and Body
Now, I think if we're ever gonna not be mad at ourselves most of the time, we have to understand ourselves a little bit better maybe than what we do. Because do you know that you can want two totally different things at the same time? One of them right and one of them wrong.
And you think, what in the world is my problem? I want to get up and go to church tomorrow. I don't want to get up and go to church tomorrow. I don't want to eat that hot fudge sundae. I want to eat that hot fudge sundae. I want to forgive you. I want to stay mad at you the rest of my life.
Well, what happens is this. These are our little friends this weekend. Body, soul, and spirit. When we're born again, this part of us, the spirit part of us, which is the deepest part of our being, is made holy. We're all cleaned up inside. Because God can't be anywhere that's not holy.
In order for him to come and live in us, he has to clean the place up before he can come and live in there. I like to say that when we're born again, we become pregnant with a seed of everything that God is. We get a new nature. God comes to live in us. And we literally have everything that we need spiritually to grow and mature and be all that God wants us to be.
Renewing the Soul Through the Holy Spirit
So, he says, I'll sanctify you, spirit. But, what about this guy here? The soul. And then what about the body. The soul is my mind, my will, and my emotions. Your soul tells you what you want, what you think, and how you feel. It doesn't tell you anything about God. It tells you all about you.
So your spirit can be leading you, say, to get up and go to church or to give away something or to apologize to somebody or do a favor for somebody. And so in this part of you, the new nature part of you, you really do want to do it. You love God and you want to do it.
But then your soul says, I don't feel like doing that. I don't want to. And frankly, I don't think it's a good idea. After all, they really haven't been very nice to you. Why should you do that? So then all the reasoning kicks in about why you don't really need to do that.
And then, of course, your body just wants to lay down and have a nap or watch a soap opera or eat a donut or something like that. So you've got to understand your body is only able to do what you train it to do. It can't do anything else. It's just really kind of, to be honest, kind of stupid unless you train it and keep it under all the time.
No wonder Paul said, I buffet my body. And let me tell you something, sisters. He did not say, I buffet my body. He said, I buffet my body. Same spelling, emphasis in a different place.
Yielding to the Holy Spirit's Leading
You know, I believe that our part is to learn how to let the Holy Spirit lead us. And when we sense the Holy Spirit leading us to do or not to do something, we don't have to fight with it. We just simply need to yield to the Holy Spirit.
We just simply need to say, okay, you're smarter than I am. Been around this mountain a hundred times. Why do I want to just insist on having my way and go around the mountain one more time? Why not just believe that you're smarter than I am, that you know what you're doing, and just let it go.
But we're a bit stubborn, aren't we, sometimes? The Holy Spirit is the agent in sanctification. And when the Bible talks about sanctification, although we are already sanctified in spirit, it's talking about our complete sanctification.
God wants to, if I can just put it like this, He doesn't want to just be kept in this little spiritual box. He doesn't want to just live in this little Sunday morning spiritual box where we let Him out on Sunday morning for 45 minutes and then walk away, and the rest of the week, we've got a bumper sticker on our car and a cross around our neck, but we do exactly what we please and what we feel like all the time.
That's not God's goal for our life. His goal is that we feed our spirit man with the Word of God, which then begins to renew our mind, and then that Word begins to act in our lives. It changes our mind, it changes our will, and it begins to control our emotions.
But it doesn't happen without us saying, yes, Lord, that's what I want in my life.
The Holy Spirit Cares About Everything
Let me tell you something. The Holy Spirit leads us in so many things. Many of you that are sick and don't feel good. If you would just listen to what the Holy Spirit tells you, there are probably a dozen simple fixes in your life. Quit drinking cola all the time, start drinking water. Well, I don't want to do that. Well, then keep feeling bad.
Hearing from God means that you have a knowing about what you should and shouldn't do. I think that we think all this hearing from God is all this supernatural God said, and I saw angels. No, it's just like, I need to go to bed.
You guys are getting a little squirmy in your seats. Here's the thing. Man, if God would give me the grace to some way, somehow, be able to push all of you this weekend to really make a commitment to leave here and be led by the Spirit. Man, if I could just get you to make that commitment.
Wow, to just leave here and say, man, God, I belong to you. Boy, you paid a tremendous price for me. And I've got everything I need in my spirit. I've got everything I need inside of me for a great life. I've got all these wonderful promises. Now, I just, I want to grow in hearing from you.
And you know what? As you grow in hearing from God, you're going to make some mistakes. That's part of how you learn. Sometimes you think you're hearing something from God and it's not God and you go do some dumb thing, get yourself in trouble. But you're just like, well, God, that wasn't you. I won't do that again.
Let me tell you something. The Holy Spirit cares about every, to me, this is the most wonderful thing about this intimate personal relationship with God is that He cares about everything that concerns you. Everything.
My daughter makes this chili that I really like and so I thought, man, I wonder if Laura would make me some chili today. Well, she's got four teenagers and I'm thinking, I don't need to be calling her asking her to make me chili. She's got enough going on in her life. So, no, I just, I'd sure like to have it, Lord, but I don't want to bother her. 30 minutes later, she called. I was just wondering this morning, would you like me to make you some chili today? Whoa, Holy Ghost, yes. Hallelujah.
Now, you know what? You can think what you want to. That kind of stuff sometimes means more to me because that lets me know that God cares about every little thing that concerns me. Every little thing that concerns me. God cares about every little thing that concerns you.
A Call to Surrender Tonight
Okay, let me ask you a question. How many of you have something in your life? You walked in here with it, been hanging on to it a long time, and you know that God is talking to you right now, and you're ready to say it's time for me to yield and surrender that thing to God. I don't want to take it home, Joyce. I want to give it to God before I leave here.
How many of you would say? That's you. Well, then I got the right crowd at the right time, don't I? If that's you, let's stand up. We're going to pray right now. Prayer of surrender.
This is actually quite beautiful because you know what this says to me? Progress. God thinks this is beautiful. He's not mad at us because there's something we need to yield. He thinks it's beautiful.
So now I'm going to pray a prayer, and I want you to just agree with me for your own life. Father, we bring whatever these situations are to you tonight. We can't fix our own problems. We can't find enough methods. We can't find enough plans. We can't make up enough strategies to ever set ourselves free.
But if we will just surrender to you and yield, simply let it go and yield to you. Although that doesn't mean that we won't feel any pain in our soul, it does mean that you'll have another little part of us that you can work through.
So, God, we choose tonight to surrender, to yield. We leave it, we let it go. Now, give us the grace, God, to go all the way through with this thing and do it your way. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Everybody give God a big praise.