Michael Koulianos emphasizes the divine nature of the Holy Spirit, explaining that true fellowship with Him is essential for spiritual strength and wisdom. He illustrates this through David's love for God, which empowered him to conquer enemies, highlighting that intimacy with the Holy Spirit precedes the power of God. Koulianos stresses that the Holy Spirit is fully God, as evidenced by His role in the life of Jesus and the authority He holds. The sermon calls believers to recognize the importance of character and purity in their relationship with the Holy Spirit, as well as the necessity of worship in experiencing His presence. Ultimately, Koulianos encourages the congregation to prioritize intimacy with the Holy Spirit to unlock divine power in their lives.

Okay, we're talking about the person of the Holy Spirit, and really how to fellowship with the Holy Spirit, how to walk with the Lord. But if we're going to do that properly, we have to know who He is. And the Scriptures tell us who He is. We are on an endless discovery in walking with the Spirit. Psalm 18, verse 1. When I read this, you may say, what in the world does this have to do with the person of the Holy Spirit and walking with Him? Everything. Okay, Psalm 18, verse 1. I will love you, O Lord, comma, my strength. I want us to read that together. We're going to read from the King James, our New King James. If you don't have New King James, just read it from the screen. I will love, come on together. I will love you, O Lord, my strength. Say that again. I will love you, O Lord, my strength. One more time and it will get in there. I will love you, O Lord, my strength. Okay. Here we see David's key to success. Now David had killed more of the enemy than anyone. I mean, how would you like to go to an in-law, your father-in-law, and say, I'd like to marry your daughter. And Saul's deal with David was, bring me a thousand foreskin. It's quite the dowry. But we have progressed in many ways. That's what happened. It's in the Bible. Sorry, I didn't write it. It's in the Bible. It became known of David as a warrior in the kingdom. It became known of him and actually found its way into songs in this manner. Saul has killed his thousands, David his tens of thousands. So David was known primarily in God's eyes as the sweet psalmist of Israel, which is very telling to me that when it came time for the Lord to talk about David, He said two things. He's a man after my heart. And then David actually writes of himself, David, the sweet psalmist of Israel. All right. That tells me that David discovered that his harp was more powerful than his sword. All right. His harp was more powerful than his sword. Something that Bill talks about that I think is really beautiful and full of wisdom, which isn't rare coming from Bill. It's like Solomon met Smith Wigglesworth and merged. That's just like talking to Bill. Bill talks about what passed through the cross and continued and what ended at the cross. Like for instance, animal sacrifice ended at the cross. There's no reason to kill a goat anymore because Jesus shed His blood on the tree. Does that make sense? There are certain lifestyle core values and activities that actually pass through the cross and continue into new covenant, New Testament lifestyle, one of which is worship. Okay. Now David, David saw into another age ahead of his time. Now listen very carefully. What David is telling us in Psalm 18 is this, the strength to kill the Philistines and the Jebusites that nobody could kill. The strength is found in my love with Jesus. See, he gave it away right there. Most people just go right over that. What David's actually saying to Israel and to us today is this. If you want to know why I'm so amazing with the sword, why I kill Philistines for breakfast by the tens of thousands, it's because I'm in love. A lover will always accomplish more than a mercenary. Example, the Jebusites were living in Jerusalem. It was known as the iron clad city built on a mountain surrounded by valleys. Obviously it's a mountain. Okay. It was so walled in and protected that it was a city that not even Joshua could take. The great warrior Joshua could not take Jerusalem. Nobody messed with them. A few tried and they were dealt with, with the swift response from the Jebusites. Nobody could take the city. It was important that David take the city because it's called the city of David. Side note, Jesus is called son of David even though David screwed up. Don't write people off because they get screwed up. Jesus was not embarrassed to be called son of David after David screwed up with Bathsheba. Jesus is a better friend to you than you are to yourself. He forgives you typically before you forgive you. Isn't that the truth? I'll never forget my father-in-law telling me he, I guess he had done something that grieved the Lord and he was in a crusade and he was while ministering and preaching and he was asking the Lord under his breath, please forgive me, please forgive me, please forgive me. And the Lord rebuked him and said, I forgave you the first time. Now do your job, Benny. Sorry, I hit you hard there. Forgive me. Forgive me, Ryan. Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me. Said, I forgave you the first time. So Jerusalem is called city of David. By the way, Jesus is returning in bodily form to Jerusalem. He will land on the Mount of Olives, walk through the Kidron Valley that we have walked through. Now the gate has been walled in, actually walled in by Muslims who conquered Jerusalem because there was a hope that the wall would keep Messiah out. Think of the logic. The one who flies through the air and lands on a mountain could probably handle concrete. Call me crazy, but I think he's got the wall handled, right? Now that valley is filled with tombs. That area is filled with tombs. When Jesus returns, those tombs will break open. It's going to be a wild scene in Jerusalem. So Jerusalem is very important to the Lord. So it was vital that David take Jerusalem and set up the kingdom. The first thing David did after taking Jerusalem was to build a tent. All right, now listen up. Proof of you living in the kingdom is not you having the mere verbiage of the kingdom, which helps. But one of the traps in an intimacy, presence-driven movement is to have lingo and not the reality. That's really nauseating. Not that there's something wrong with you, but it's just nauseating to be around people who say all the right things but don't live for Jesus. It's like, oh, I just love intimacy. I'm just so filled with Papa's love, but you backbite. You know, throw people under the bus. So the first thing David does is not to establish mere principle, but he says the ark needs to come home. And so he builds this tent for the ark. That tent did not have curtains. It was the first of its kind because David operated unto another age that we are living in now, the day where there would be no veil that would separate us and keep us out of God's presence. Imagine that tent was about the size of Judah where we meet on Sunday nights with no curtain, and the ark was in the middle. Eighty percent of the songs, the worship songs of the day that we still sing today, came out of that tent. So if you make room for the presence of Jesus, make worship central, put the ark in the middle of your community, put the presence of God in the middle and do everything in and around him, songs will flow like water. It's just so natural. It's like a big green room, greenhouse I should say. I preach too much. Green room, that's where you sit before you come out. It's like a big greenhouse. The Lord creates this atmosphere and things come to life. Does that make sense? So it was vital David take the city, and it's interesting to me at least, now go back and read through this, but it's interesting to me to see how David took the city. He took it another way. He gained access through the waterways, secret channels. What does that tell me? The one who loves the Lord, Psalm 18, receives a strength and a wisdom to conquer through avenues that those who do not worship, those who are not in love, will never see. The worshiper, listen carefully, the one who loves the presence of the Holy Spirit gets access that nobody else will get. The waterways speak of the deep recesses, the hidden, these were hidden waterways, went through the mountain. The waterways speak of the hidden life of intimacy, the place where you find the flow of the water. That type of person begins to see with the wisdom that other people just can't see with. They will accomplish through love what the greatest planners will never accomplish. Does that make sense to you? So David here gives us the key. I love you Lord. You are my strength. Another way to write that current day, current context would be this. Intimacy in the presence before power. Let me say it another way. Person first, then power. I have to know the Holy Spirit before I am entrusted with the power of the Holy Spirit, listen carefully, and it is the understanding and the intimacy of walking with the person that makes me responsible enough to be trusted with sheer power. Power is wonderful, but let me tell you, it is scary. It is scary. When you read the book of James and James tells the church, teachers will be judged more harshly than the rest. That means the moment you crack your Bible in your townhouse, your rented house, your apartment, or the house you live in, the moment you invite some people over for a little fellowship, the moment you decide to open your Bible and tell people what the Bible says and how they should live, you need the understanding, the sobriety that one day you will stand before the God of the ages and give an account for your life, more intentionally will that judgment be on you than on someone who never did it. That is why we don't just quickly give people the pulpit here and quickly ordain people, quickly do this. While it may bring growth or make people feel empowered, the right way of loving people is to love them the way the Word says, to make sure that there is a character within them that can sustain the anointing on them. It is a big deal. If there are fractures in the character, the anointing will crush them. Because when you get anointed, you just have to breathe and people's lives are changed. You just get around people and people's lives are changed. Not to say they are born again, but they begin to sense something on you. There is a wisdom that comes. Now every Christian is anointed, I know that. But I am talking about being entrusted with power at a certain level. You must have character to sustain it. And not having it has brought much reproach to the body of Christ. Much reproach. I have never felt the command from the Lord to build something big. I have felt the Lord tell me to build something pure. And the Lord would add to it. My focus is not on size. Tomorrow night, Dom, myself and some others will be working on a song that we're about 80% done with. And there are many ways to write songs. I mean, you can get like everyone's advice and they'll tell you exactly how long a song should be for it to be played on the radio. Or people like to sing for this long. But why don't we just throw all that out? Throw all that out and write songs that move the heart of God. At that point, they are successful, right? And let the Lord determine where the chips fall. Do you understand? So there is a way to build with purity or a way to build with man's wisdom that is risky. It's incredibly risky. So I've never felt here, create systems that build by number. I have felt from the Lord create systems that offer longevity and purity. Because the Lord adds to the church. It is the Lord's church. We are His people. It is the Lord's house. Jesus said, I will build my church. Michael doesn't have the pressure of building a church. May it never come. It wouldn't be my job to build a church. Does that make sense to you? Intimacy before power. Say that. And that's Psalm 18, 1. I love you, Lord. You are my strength. Hallelujah. Now, in loving the Lord, we must begin to see the Holy Spirit. In loving the Holy Spirit, I should say. Who is the Lord? We must begin to see Him properly. Last week, we talked about God, the Holy Spirit. That was the name of my message last week. I want to continue with that this week. Hopefully get through enough. And then we'll kind of change gears within the person of the Holy Spirit next week. Isaiah 11, verse 2. You ready to kick it into fifth gear here? All right. Isaiah 11, 2. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him. Him being Jesus. How many of you remember when Jesus was baptized, what was John commanded to see? And what would John see that would distinguish Jesus from amongst the rest of Israel? What was it? The Spirit what? In the form of a? Okay. Did it end there? Is that all John was to look at? No. John was to look for one more thing. John said, He whom the Spirit comes upon, listen carefully now, and remains, He is the one. Because He had never remained on any of the other prior. Before that precious Holy Spirit would come and go based on assignment and task. So He'd come upon the prophets, and the prophets would say, The Word of the Lord came unto me, saying. See, we think that means God gave me a message. No, it means the Word of the Lord came unto me. You can't come unto somebody unless you're a person. And you certainly can't say something unless you're a person. What the prophets were really saying is the Word of John 1, the pre-incarnate Word. The Word prior to becoming flesh came unto me and had something to say. Jesus came unto the prophets by the Spirit. It's always been the way it is. And so the Spirit would come upon them based on assignment. That power would come upon them and lift. Look at Samson. He murdered people with a jawbone from a donkey. He carried a gate of a city and ran with it. How could he sleep with Delilah and still do the work of the Lord? It's what happens when the power of God comes on you, the person of the Holy Spirit, right? When you lose your covenant, like Samson did, when you lose your intimacy with God, and sometimes this takes a while. There are many people who are anointed and gifted, who see people's lives changed in front of them, who are living in absolute sin behind the scenes. The day will come, though, where that anointing will turn on them, and they'll be judged based on it. To whom much is given, much is required. But you see this track record in Samson's life. What happens? He's still seeing breakthrough publicly while compromising privately. So this is what he says when they finally come and he shares his covenant with Delilah. He shares his secret with her. Delilah speaks of the world. She's outside the covenant. You need to be very careful who you share your intimacy with. Ultimately, the devil is after your covenant, your intimacy with God. So finally, Samson says to this pestering woman. I'm going to keep it moving there because I don't believe all women are pestering pests, but in this case she was. She was a pest, and she was on assignment from the devil. You can be an assignment from the devil and be a guy. Just let me clarify that. In this case, it was a woman who seduced Samson. He went to bed. He shared his covenant. He shared the intimacy with someone outside the covenant. This is a biblical pattern that brings destruction and I should say the stealing nature of the devil, the robbing nature of the devil into your life. Never share your secrets with people you do not trust. This is a life lesson. David brought Delilah, not Delilah, Bathsheba, all the ebas and ayahs. David brought Bathsheba into his bed that belonged to his wives. He brought an outsider into the secret chamber of the king. David lost a firstborn or a child, I should say. Solomon married an Egyptian wife, a woman outside the covenant, and sickness struck Israel. I can go on and on. Judas betrayed Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed, in the garden of covenant, in the garden of intimacy. I can keep going. Hezekiah brought the Babylonian leaders into the treasury of the Lord to show them how great he was. It is not called the treasury of Hezekiah. It is the treasury of the Lord. You can make yourself famous through Christianese talk. It is really easy. We can always manipulate something to make us famous. Hezekiah does this. The Babylonians see everything that belonged to Israel. Who came to conquer? The Babylonians. Listen carefully. Whoever you let in and whatever you let in, who has not been sent by the Lord will ultimately be used to rob you of what you are showing them. Don't do it. Do not do it. That was for free. It just saved you 10 years of heartache. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. Isaiah 11-2. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Lord. He is the Lord. Isaiah 40-13. Give me 10 more minutes. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or as his counselor has informed him? In other words, who can tell the Holy Spirit what to do? Nobody can inform him. He is the Lord. Say Amen. Isaiah 48-16. And now the Lord God has sent me and his Spirit. Me there. If we can throw on the screen. Isaiah. No, no, no. It should be Isaiah 48-16. Yeah, there we go. Come near to me. I have not spoken in the secret from the beginning from the time that it was. I was there and now the Lord God and his Spirit have sent me with a capital M. Who is the capital M? The servant of the Lord here. The Messiah. Jesus. So Jesus is calling the Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Lord. That is very important. That means that the second person of the Godhead is calling the third person of the Godhead the Lord. Listen up. He is also saying I have been sent by the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is fully God and that is revealed here in the Scripture that he is so fully God that he had the authority to lead the God-man, the Messiah, to speak to Joseph in dreams and to lead Jesus ultimately into the desert to be tempted and to lead him throughout his life. And the Bible even says that Jesus through the eternal Spirit offered his body. In other words, Jesus yielded to the cross through fellowship with the Spirit. That, my friends, proves that the Holy Spirit is God Almighty. You cannot lead the Son of God who is God unless you are equal with him. Does that make sense? All right. Zechariah 4-6. I love this. This was inscribed on Amy Semple McPherson's pulpit at Angelus Temple when she pastored. Then he said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, It is not by might, nor by power, but by my, say my, my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Well, how can it be the Spirit of the Lord unless he is the Lord? How can he be the Spirit of the Lord, I should say, unless he is the Lord? Matthew 4-1. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. No. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. Therefore he is God Almighty. Matthew 12-31. Listen to this. Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. There is mystery here. I have asked that question a million times. I have my opinions. This isn't the place for my opinion. However, if you were to maybe ask me in private, I'd probably tell you. But let's not do that today. But what I am saying is that for this Scripture to be written, it speaks, number one, that if the Holy Spirit can be blasphemed against, he must be God. Now blasphemy clearly, scripturally, is to accredit God with the work of the devil. Or to assume something as being God that is not. Remember they accused Jesus of blasphemy for saying he was the Lord. Remember they said this is blasphemy. So we see those two angles regarding blasphemy. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for saying that he cast out demons through the work of demons or the devil himself. Remember they said that? You do this by the work of devils. And Jesus said blasphemy against the Father and blasphemy against the Son are forgiven. But blasphemy against the Spirit will never be forgiven. So there we see that Jesus considered that judgment blasphemous. Hear me church. Everybody under the sound of my voice. If you don't get it, don't judge it. It cannot be forgiven. I didn't write that. Now if something clearly contradicts Scripture and is bizarre, the end of the enemy, you will know according to the Scriptures. But if someone acts a certain way in the presence of God that isn't necessarily rebuked in the Scriptures, that isn't addressed in the Scriptures, maybe it doesn't bring division, but you just don't get it. In other words, let's say somebody is filled with the joy of the Lord and they just happen to get happy near you. What a crime. I mean certainly what the world needs is more bad news and more stoic, depressed people who are trying to divide everyone right now. Is that what the world needs? I mean is happiness a crime? Did you know the Bible says, the Bible says this, that Jesus was anointed with joy, the oil of gladness, above His fellows. I have news for you. I think much of the church would have been offended by the joy on Jesus. Jesus said, My joy I give you. I am telling you this so your joy might be full. Now I get it. Some people, they even stretch me. Some people just laugh all the time. But then I walk through depression. Man, how I would have traded 30 minutes of laughter for just feeling like I'm living in a dark tunnel. Amen? Don't judge it. If somebody falls to the ground, you shouldn't be so shocked under the power of God. As John Arnott said, you should be shocked they survived. We're talking about God touching them. I cannot believe they fell. Okay. God and that piece of dust met tangibly. Falling is like, that's the kiddie pool. And it's all through the Word, by the way. You know, I'm a man of the Word. It's all through the Word. They, Jesus, they said, Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Which one of these is Jesus of Nazareth in the garden? The Gospel of John. Jesus says, I am He. And the whole company that comes to arrest falls. The prophet said, I feel like a fire shut up in my bones. One said, I heard my own bones rattle. Ezekiel laid on his side for months and months and months and months. John in the book of Revelation said, I fell as though dead as a dead man. It's in the Word. But if you don't get it, and the Bible does not clearly forbid it, if it's possible that it's bringing glory to Jesus, it's always safer to not go there. God has a way of humbling us. Trust me, I've been through the ringer with that publicly. God knows how to bury dignity. God knows how to bury dignity. The world needs joy. So here Jesus says that the Holy Spirit can be blasphemed against. Blasphemed against. Well, He must be the Lord. I said, He must be the Lord. Let me give you two more. Matthew 28, 19. It's right here in the Great Commission. Go therefore and make disciples. Does this say fans? I don't know, man. Do you need to pray for my eyes, Amy, since it's on you? Go therefore and make followers? No, don't say that either. Fans? Clicks, likes, hearts. I don't see that there. It says make disciples. Disciples. Do you know what the root word is for disciple? Discipline. Teach them the ways of living with Jesus. Now discipline without presence is religion. All right. But spirituality without the discipline of the Scriptures can get bizarre. So here the Bible says go make disciples of all nations. Now this is how you're going to do it. Baptize them in the name. Here we go. In the name. One God. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One God, three persons. This is how you're going to disciple the nations. Baptize them. Immerse them. Preach the gospel. Heal the sick. Cast out devils. Raise the dead. Follow the words of Jesus. Jesus said, teach them, the nations, everything I have spoken to you. All right. But he mentions the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Holy Spirit is the Lord God Almighty. Now he's mentioned third here. Not because he's third in rank. This is about function. Not because he's less God than Jesus or less God than the Father. No, no, no. He is as God, as powerful. Do you understand? He is equal with the Father and the Son but mentioned in the same breath here. Therefore he is worthy of adoration, honor, respect, and our lives. Does that make sense? Last one. Oh man, if we hit this one we may do a retreat tonight. All right. Luke 135. The angel answered and said to her, Mary, this is Mary speaking, or speaking of Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High. Think of this. The Holy Spirit is the power of the Most High. It will overshadow you and for that reason the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. All right. The Holy Spirit, who by the way is the wind that carried Gabriel to Mary. The Bible says he maketh his ministers a flame of fire, speaking of the angels. Well who makes them fire? The Spirit of the Lord. In other words every time, every time they pass through or enter His manifest presence that angelic being begins to burn with holy fire. Amazing. So Mary says how can this be? How can the Messiah, the Son of David, the uncreated one, the one Moses spoke of, and all the prophets. I am a virgin. I have never been with a man. Guys we have got to get this. You are telling me I am going to have a baby but I have never been with a man. We get so used to hearing in the Christmas story oh yeah the virgin shall be with child. What? So rightfully so. She goes how is this going to happen? Can you help me out here? Now Zechariah John the Baptist's daddy said something similar but different. He doubted in his response. And Gabriel said do you know where I stand? I stand before the Lord. I live in the glory and the presence of the Holy Spirit. You just doubted. And so you don't screw this thing up with your words since there is life and death in the tongue. The power of life and death rests in the tongue. I am going to shut your tongue up. Because if you talk too much over these next nine months you are going to jack this whole thing up. And I need the forerunner to come. We need the forerunner to come because it is in the Word. And God cannot deny His Word. He cannot lie. He is not the Son of Man that He should repent. Since I am God's messenger and I am on assignment. You are not jacking this up for me Zechariah. Your tongue is now bound until you get this thing right. Alright. Zechariah similar but different. Zechariah had doubt. Mary is just like according to thy Word be it unto me. But how is this going down again? See God can work with that. God can work with curiosity. Doubt is different. So here Gabriel gives the answer. You ready? The Holy Spirit. First thing out of His mouth. He will come upon you. And the power of the Most High will overshadow. You remember what we talked about last week? The earth was formless and void. Darkness covered the face of the deep. What was God's remedy? The hovering of the Spirit. Like a bird over a nest. That is what the Hebrew word means. So now Gabriel is saying let me turn your attention back to how it all began. The same thing is going to happen to you. To your little maybe 14 year old body. Your little virgin body. The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you the way He did in Genesis in creation. But this time He is going to show a different element. A different avenue of His power. He is going to come upon you without killing you. And you will be with child. What power does it require? Or I should say only God could take the formless Son of God dwelling in heaven in the bosom of the Father. That is where He lived. Take the formless Son of God and implant Him into a virgin in the size of a seed. You talk about power. You talk about ability. The Holy Spirit would take the Word of God, the Son who has no beginning and place Him with tender, loving, powerful care into the body of Mary and she be with child. Only God can do that. No angel could do that because the angels bow down and worship the formless Son. For this to happen only God had what it took to make that happen.