Matt Hagee - The Promise of His Power
Jesus is having a conversation with more than 500 people in Acts 1:4. We know that there's more than 500 people, because later in the New Testament, Paul writes that he appeared to 500 witnesses. Whenever we read that he, Jesus, was assembled with them, it's not just the 11 disciples, but it's the 11 disciples plus those who had heard that Jesus who was crucified had been risen again. And now they wanted to see for themselves if it was true. To all who were there, Jesus gives the command, "Do not leave Jerusalem". How many of you know what a command is? How many of you know what "Do not" means? Okay. So just a few days later, when the day of Pentecost had come in Acts 2, there's not 500 people in the upper room: there's 120 in the upper room. Why?
One reason is many people are interested to hear the promise of God, but they're not willing to do what needs to be done to receive the promise of God. And the promise that he spoke about was not just something that was coming from the father, which was the Holy Spirit, but it was a promise that brought something with it, and that was power. Power to do what? Look at the description in Acts 17:6 about those who received the power of the promise of the Holy Spirit in their lives. It says, "These are they who have turned the world upside down".
The power of the Holy Spirit in the life of New Testament believers was such an awesome thing that it disrupted every norm and every standard. It disrupted Rome and its government. Rome had a sword that was attached to the hip of every soldier. But the church had a weapon that was greater than the sword that Rome held. He said, "You shall receive power". Say that with me. "You shall receive power". And that power is so that you will be a witness, not a secret agent. You didn't get saved and join the witness protection program. It's not that you don't want people to know who you are and what you're about. But this power is so that you will tell the world who he is.
One of the reasons why we struggle with this idea is because we are operating on the wrong system. Who's program are you operating on? Our lives, now much more than ever, are reliant upon technology. How many of you would agree with that? I mean you used to know how to read a map. Now your phone knows more about where you're going than you do. You used to remember phone numbers. With area codes. Now your phone asks you if you would like for it to make a call. We used to get together at barbecues and talk about preferences like, "Are you a ford or a chevy man"? And now we talk about, "Are you an apple or an android? Lyft or Uber"? In this world of technology, there are three major components of every piece of technology. There's hardware, there's software, and then there is an operating system. And if any of these three don't work, something with your system is wrong.
For example, look at this device here. It's a computer. This is hardware. The monitor, the keyboard, everything that's physical that you can touch is what we could call hardware. Now, somebody wrote some instructions that tells the hardware how to operate, so that whenever you turn it on, it turns on, and whenever you swipe up, it swipes up. Whenever you hit on the keyboard, the letter you hit shows up on the screen. The written instructions of technology, that's not hardware: that's software. That's the programming that tells the hardware what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Now, another unseen part of this system is called the Operating System.
Now, people, who work in technology, love acronyms. And I heard them talking about the OS. And I'm kind of illiterate about stuff, but I just nod really well, and be like, "Oh, yeah, the OS and the CIG, and the RAM, and the TCT". But I found out by asking somebody after the meeting, "What's the OS"? They said, "It's the operating system". So between the hardware, the stuff you see, and the software, the programming that's written, there's also an operating system. And it's the job of the operating system to make sure that the written instructions are understood by the hardware and that the hardware understands the written instructions.
Now here's the thing: if you have the right hardware and you have the right software, but you have the wrong operating system, then things don't work like they're supposed to work. Said it this way, "You can't run Macintosh operating systems on Microsoft products". You can't run apple on android. If you do, they don't work right. It's too slow. Things that should be open are closed. Things that should be closed are open. Things that shouldn't run, run. Things that should stop running, keep running. You won't be able to do what you need to do if you're on the wrong operating system. Now some of you say, "Pastor matt, what does this have to do with the Holy Spirit"?
I'm so glad you asked. You and I are made up of several components: heart, soul, mind, and body. Our hardware, our physical bodies, the things that you can see, are not intended to operate on the world's instructions. The Bible says, "We are in this world and not of this world". This is the software that God intended for our lives to operate in. This is what we are supposed to be ingesting and functioning on. This is the lamp unto our feet. This is the light unto our path. This is the programming that brings health to your navel, and marrow to your bones. This is a shield of protection and a two-edged sword in your mouth. This is what does not return void. This is what opens the windows of heaven and closes the gates of hell in your life.
These are the written instructions that you are designed to live upon. That's why David said, "I'll hide your word in my heart: that I might not sin against you". That's why the Psalmist says, "Your word has given me life". That's why Acts tells us that in him do we live, and in him do we move, and in him do we have our being. Guess what, church? This software is incorruptible. There is no malware that can come and take it over. There isn't anything that can hold it hostage, because it's pure, it's true, it's been tried by fire, it endures forever, it cannot be broken. "The grass may wither and the flower may fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever". Give the Lord a handclap of praise!
The problem is not with the program. The problem is with the operating system. Whenever you try to run God's program on the world's operating system, they don't connect. Your life was not meant to run on the world system. Your life was meant to run on the operating system of the Kingdom of God, which comes to you through the power of the Holy Ghost. Until you open up his os, everything in your life is o-f-f. Off. You need a reboot. You need a download. You need an update. Because you can't run God's system on the world's ways. 1 Corinthians 2:10 through 12 tells us these things: it says, "The things of God are revealed by the spirit. And the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God". Verse 11 lets us know that, "Man knows the things of man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except", who? "The Spirit of God".
You can't know anything about God unless you've got the operating system of the spirit working in your life. And then it says, "We received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we may know and freely receive the things given to us by God". How are you going to receive the things that have been given to you by God unless you have the system that God intended for you to operate in, which is his Holy Spirit in your life? Without the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, you are operating on the wrong system. You've got to get that old program out and get God's program in. In order for you to witness, you have to have the power of the Holy Spirit. You can't do it in your strength. In order for us to change the world, we have to have his power, which means we have to operate in his word.
Some of us want to use a number of things when it comes to this topic of the promise of the Holy Spirit. You hear the word "Holy Spirit," and immediately, people want to tell you, "Oh, I know where he's going. I know what he's going to say". And the second that you believe that, you immediately start to talk about two things primarily. One is your tradition, whatever you were raised in denominationally. And you start to talk more about what your denomination taught you than what God's word says.
What you need to know is that tradition does not explain the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible explains the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. He is God's promise to the church. He's not a denominational gift that has cornered the market in one section of our faith and not in the other. He is for everyone. And when you begin to talk about your religious traditions, the problem is, is that you are putting limitations on the unlimited one. Consider what Ephesians 3:20 says. "To him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you could ask or think".
How many of you find any limitation there? There's none. It says, "To him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you could ask or think, according to the power", according to what? "The power that works in us". The power that works in us is the Holy Spirit. "And it is an exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think kind of spirit. But the second you start to put your denomination on it, suddenly, you've put a limit on the unlimited one". "Oh, the Holy Spirit doesn't do that". I sat in seminaries and heard that. "The Holy Spirit did that then, but he doesn't do it now". If he's God, he's like God, he doesn't change!
The Holy Spirit gives you power to do what you cannot do on your own. He gives you wisdom to know what you would not know without him. He gives you peace that surpasses all understanding when the world around you is falling apart. The Holy Spirit, according to what Jesus said, brings to your remembrance the promises of the Word of God. Have you ever been going through something, and all of a sudden, you remembered a scripture, and you don't know how or why you remembered that scripture? The Holy Spirit did that. How many of you have trouble remembering things? Jesus said in John 14:26, "He will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you". The Holy Spirit gives you joy. It's that Holy Spirit joy that gave the apostle Paul the ability to write, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice".
Do you know where he wrote those words from? He wrote those words from a prison cell awaiting execution. Staring in the face of death, the man had joy that the world didn't give and the world didn't take away. You can't do that if you're not operating on heaven's system. The Holy Spirit gives you hope. The Holy Spirit gives you confidence. That hope and that confidence understands that Jesus Christ is not a man that he should lie. It gives you the confidence to declare, "Greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world". It gives you confidence to say, "I know in whom I have believed, and I believe that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him even to the day of Christ Jesus". It's better for you and I now than it was in the time of Christ.
I know sometimes we want to believe that the grass is always greener somewhere else. And we think to ourselves, oh, if I could just have been there on the day of Pentecost. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away: for if I do not go away, the helper will not come... But if I depart, I will send him to you". Now, how is it better for us that Jesus is in heaven instead of down here on earth? The Bible says in John 1 that Jesus was the word made flesh and he dwelt among us. As the Word of God, he had the power of God. With the power of God, all of the promises, the yes and the amen, were wrapped up in a flesh suit, which means that wherever he was, the power was. If he was there, the winds and the waves would stop. If he was there, the blind would see, the deaf would hear, the dead would live again.
This is why Mary and Martha sent someone to Jesus and said, "Come quickly. Lazarus is sick. You need to heal him". And Jesus didn't go until he died. But when the word made flesh showed up, the dead lived again. Now, when Jesus rose from the grave, he told the disciples in Matthew 28, "Lo, I am with you always". "Lo" does not speak about altitude. What Jesus is saying is i, even i, me personally, I am going to be with you, how often? Always. Now how could he be with you on Monday and with me on Monday unless we're together? I'll tell you how. The word made flesh has gone to heaven, and the Spirit of God has come to earth. And the Spirit of God goes where you go. The power of God is now no longer in a person. The power of God is living in you. Wherever you go, he goes. Whatever you need, he has. 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, "The Lord is the spirit: and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty".
What is liberty? "Liberty" is the overthrowing of oppression, so that you can walk in freedom. Whenever Christ comes into your life and the Holy Spirit comes in with him, you now have freedom from the oppression of the world, of the flesh, and of the devil. Wherever you go, because the Spirit of God is with you, that liberty goes with you. Whatever you need, he has already provided. Whatever you're looking for, he has. Whatever tries to resist you, he overcomes. Whatever tries to break you, he gives you the strength to withstand it. Whatever tries to destroy you, he has said, "No weapon formed would prosper".
Whatever tries to defeat you, he has given you victory through his shed blood. Whatever tries to stand against you, the constitution and the bylaws of your faith have declared that whatever you ask the father in his name, he'll give it to you. Whatever you bind, he'll bind. Whatever you loose, he'll loose. The gates of hell shall not prevail, and the keys to the kingdom, they belong to you! The Holy Spirit is God. Just as God is, the Holy Spirit is. God is unchanging. The Holy Spirit is unchanging. God is all-powerful. The Holy Spirit is all-powerful. God is consistent and unmoving. James said, "There is no shadow or variation of turning with him".
So then what is it that makes us feel like there's times when he shows up and there's times when he doesn't? I'll tell you what it is. It's our tradition and it's our experience. I'm guilty of doing the same, letting my tradition trump what the Holy Spirit and the Word of God say, letting my experience tell me instead of the word operate in me, so that I understand how to live and move and have my being in his power and in his strength. If the spirit is God and Jesus is with us, how could he be with us always and we feel like the spirit shows up and then disappears? I mean, we've often talked about, "Well, the Holy Spirit really showed up today". You ever describe the service that way? I have. I mean, nobody says, "Hey, Bob showed up today". No, we Mark them when the Holy Spirit shows up. But the truth is he's always there.
This is what Paul said to the New Testament church: in Ephesians 5:18, he said, "Be filled with the Holy Ghost". "Speaking to one another in Psalms and in hymns and spiritual songs... And making melody in your heart to the Lord". Verse 20 says, "Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ". So he's saying, spirit-filled people are not complaining people: they're praising people. "The Lord inhabits (what?) the praises of his people". You enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. When you walk into church and you've got nothing but complaint on your lips, you're operating on the world system and not God's.
Now this word, "Filled with the Holy Spirit" is something that you have to do intentionally. It's a statement that means to submit your life under something. How many of you've ever gone to whataburger and filled your soda pop? In order for you to get the drink in your cup, you've got to put it underneath the fountain. You can't stand out here in the lobby and say, "Man, I wish I had a coke". You've got to walk over to the machine and put your vessel underneath the fountain. Whenever we live our lives saying that the Holy Spirit showed up, this is what it looks like. It's not his inconsistency: it's ours. We come to church, and we say, "Wow! The Holy Spirit showed up".
We go to work on Monday and we lose the spirit. "I got the spirit today". And then we lose it because something in the middle of the week went wrong. And then I got the spirit today. "I saw pastor on YouTube and he encouraged me". And what happens is we keep moving our lives in and out of what God is pouring out from heaven on a daily and a consistent basis. And this is why we can't function in the victory that Christ has promised us. Go read the Bible. It doesn't tell you that Christ is trying to win. It says he's already won. And then he said, "You have the keys". We're not fighting for victory. We're standing in it. But what happens is we move our lives in and out of the victory that he has already won. And then we wonder why God's so inconsistent. He's not inconsistent! We are.
So what do you have to do? You've got to put your life underneath the outpouring of his promises. You've got to live your life baptized in his word. You've got to say on a daily basis, "This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and I'll be made glad in it". It may not go like I want it to, but I'm not sovereign. God is, and he promised all things he would work out for my good according to his promises in my life. It doesn't matter what I'm facing. God's going to help me through it. It doesn't matter what I need. God's got what I need to receive. It's doesn't matter where I'm going. He'll direct my path in the path of righteousness for his name's sake.
When you pull your life under what he's outpouring, he'll fill you up until you cannot contain it. And the power and the promises of Jesus Christ will be yours! Paul said, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit". Spirit-filled churches are filled with spirit-filled people. You can't come empty and expect the church to be full. He said, spirit-filled people give thanks always for all things. He didn't say everything was good. He said, "In everything give thanks". That's what spirit-filled people do.
So right where you are, I want you to stand to your feet. And just for a few moments before we leave this service, we're going to set things right in this service and in heavenly places by giving God thanks.
Heavenly Father, today we thank you. Today we give you praise. Today we honor and magnify your matchless name, because there is none liken unto you, not in the heavens above, not on the earth, or the worlds beneath. You are God and you are worthy to be praised. You are the king of glory. You are the lamb who sits upon the throne. You are the precious Holy Spirit that surrounds us, that anoints us, that keeps us, that guides us, that provides for us, that brings us peace that surpasses all understanding, joy that makes rich and adds no sorrow. So pour yourself out in our hearts. Pour yourself out in our lives, as we bring ourselves underneath your blessing, underneath your promise to receive the outpouring of your grace and your power, in Jesus' mighty name. As we ask on earth, let it be done in heaven. Lord, we ask in faith believing, that you would fill us afresh and anew. In Jesus' name, we pray and ask. And all of God's children said, praise the Lord.