In this sermon, the speaker discusses the movement of the Spirit of God throughout history as depicted in the Bible. He uses the example of Jonah and the city of Nineveh to illustrate how the Spirit of God moved upon the hearts of the people. The speaker emphasizes the need for energy and movement for something to happen, comparing it to the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters in Genesis. He encourages the audience to look at the scriptures with a closer perspective and recognize the ongoing movement of the Spirit of God in the world today.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Thank God for His grace and mercy to us. Surely He has looked upon us and has saved us. Brought us out of the miry clay and set our feet upon a rock. Granted us life when we deserved death. Welcome to each one this morning. May the Lord minister to your heart today in the songs and testimonies and God's Word. Since the Lord led me to study and prepare a message on the moving of the Holy Spirit, I know that today is Mother's Day and maybe the mothers would like a Mother's Day message, but I think they heard a very good children's lesson on that. Thank you, Brother Aaron. But it also is what is known as the day of Pentecost today. And so I would like to share a message on, not necessarily on Pentecost, but on the Spirit of God moving amongst God's people. I have preached on the Holy Spirit numerous times in the past and I would like to preach from a different perspective this time. Not a theological perspective, but rather from a place of observation or an observatory perspective. And I think of going up, climbing, some people will climb a mountain or up on the face of a cliff where they can look out over the river and the valley below and they're up at a high place and they might take binoculars along and they want to go up there and they study a certain bird or maybe an eagle or something. And so there's people who spend a lot of time in their life going out and studying specific animals or a bird or something like that. And if you do that, you want to have the necessary equipment along to do that. You need to have binoculars to try to get a close-up view and so forth and maybe people take their cameras. So that's what I would like to do is take an overview of God's Word of the Bible and see the moving of the Spirit of God there. That would be my heart. Father, we come to You in Jesus' name. Thank You for Your precious Word to us this morning. I ask You, Father, to enlighten our eyes and give us understanding in our hearts of how You move. Lord, this is something that the prophets have looked into and they've wondered about it and they've longed to see it. But we are here today. We have the Bible in front of us and we can see the working of God amongst humanity for the last approximately 6,000 years. So, Lord, help us today to look at this principle of how You move in the hearts of men and upon men. May You bless this congregation and this message in Jesus' name. Amen. I wish that I would have had a couple of tools this morning. I would have brought them along. I would have wanted to have a telescope, one of those long, thin ones where you look into a small hole here and out here. It's bigger. A telescope is what you use when you want to look at something that's a long way off. Telescopes are used to study the stars. And someone who wants to study the stars needs a good telescope and they'll spend a lot of time adjusting that telescope and focusing in on a specific star and maybe then another star. And that's what people do with telescopes. I also thought about bringing along some binoculars. A binocular is not the same as a telescope, although it does similar things. A binocular is more for something within a closer range. You might say 500 feet or so or to look at a bird or something in closer vision, closer field, but to have that made bigger so you can study it also. And I also thought of another tool which would be a magnifying glass. When you take a magnifying glass, you want to look at something that is very small. We have this magnifying glass at home that we use to look at our fingers or hands when we have splinters. Sometimes little children, they'll come with a splinter in their foot or their toe or their finger and say, Daddy, I've got a splinter. Daddy gets the magnifying glass out and he looks at that thing and that little speck of wood or whatever it is, it is magnified and I can see it clearly that way. And so I want to also today encourage us to think of a magnifying glass as we walk through this. And there could be another tool which people use and that is a microscope. A microscope is something that you want to look at germs and blood and things like that, maybe things that are too small to see with the natural eye. But I just thought I would give that a little bit as an introduction here this morning to the message. I would like for us to look at the Old Testament first with that telescope because it's a long way off and we're going to zero in on specific things and just see and try to understand how the Spirit of God moved upon His people. And then we want to look at the Gospels and maybe that's where we could use the binoculars. It's a little closer at hand and we have a broader field of vision there. And then we also want to go and look at the moving of the Spirit of God in the book of Acts and that's, I think, where we'll have the magnifying glass. And then the Epistles, we'll look at them also. I'm not sure how the microscope will apply there, but maybe God will give us an application. So, turn with me to Genesis chapter 1 for the opening Scripture of the Bible. Well-known Scriptures to us. If we could look at them a little bit closer, we're going to look through our binoculars a little bit at what happened. We don't want to look at the Scriptures with our binoculars, but we want to, by faith, adjust our binoculars and look way back there and see what God was doing. We need to recognize that the Spirit of God is the power of God or the energy of God that is moving upon the face of the world even today. It's that same power that moves the hearts of men. Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 and 2 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Have you ever stopped with your telescope and looked at what that really was? What does it mean when it says that the earth was without form, it was void and there was darkness upon the face of the deep? I think I've shared some of this here before, but basically what there was, there was a glob of matter maybe hanging there in the universe somewhere. I don't know exactly, but it was in the beginning He created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and it was void. There was maybe a glob of matter, there was no wind blowing. There was no waves there that were moving. It was void and it was dark and it was like without life. Nothing was moving. You see, it takes energy to move something. And before the Spirit of God moved on the face of the deep, it was dead and there was nothing moving. But then it says, and the Spirit of God. Listen, now we're going to watch to see what the Spirit of God is going to do. The Spirit of God, it says, moved upon the face of the waters. And when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, things began to happen. For something to move something, there must be an energy behind it that is the mover. And today the waves in the ocean are continually moving. There is an energy somewhere that is moving them. For the wind to blow, there is an energy that makes the wind to blow. And I don't understand all those things. This is not a theological thing, but we're looking at what we see the Spirit of God doing. Beginning here in Genesis chapter 1. In Proverbs chapter 8, it speaks about wisdom, and I believe it's speaking of Jesus. And it says that before the hills were, I was brought forth. I'm going to turn there. Beautiful verses, I love those verses there in Proverbs chapter 8. While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. In verse 26. When He prepared the heavens, I was there. When He set a compass upon the face of the deep. When He set a compass upon the face of the deaf. When did He set a compass upon the face of the deaf? When was there first a magnetic field placed in the North Pole? He set the compass on the face of the deaf. It's speaking of when He did something. And I believe it's when the Spirit of God began to move upon the face of the waters. When He established the clouds above. When He strengthened the fountains of the deep. When He gave the seas the creed that the waters should not pass His commandment. When He appointed the foundation of the earth. Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him. I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth. And my delights were with the sons of men. I believe it's speaking of Jesus. But let's move on and look at some other areas in the Old Testament where we see the Spirit of God moving. I wonder if you have any thoughts as to where that was. I'm going to give a few. And if you have some, I'd like for you to mention or raise your hand. Maybe we can talk about that also. Look now also in Genesis chapter 3. This is also a very interesting one to me. I love Genesis. I love the first part of Genesis very much. Genesis 3 in verse 8 is where Eve had eaten of the fruit of the tree. And their eyes had been opened. And they had seen they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons for they were afraid. And verse 8 says, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. That cool of the day, the root word for that is Spirit. Another word that's closely associated with the word Spirit is wind or breath or air. And the picture here is that when the evening, when the sun has gone down and there's been a warm day, often times you will feel a little soft gentle breeze come blowing across the land in the evening in the cool of the day. That's the picture there. A breeze began to blow through the garden in the evening there. That is the cool of the day. And that breeze was the presence of the Lord moving upon them there. That was a moving of the Spirit of God upon Adam and Eve there. And they were afraid. And the picture there is that sinners, sinners when the Spirit of God begins to move, they become afraid. They become afraid. They begin to fear. Other areas where we could focus our telescope on would be when I thought of was when Noah had built the ark and the animals began to come in. The animals came into the ark. They came. I don't think Noah was out there finding a male and female of each species. I believe they came. Maybe that was a moving of the Spirit of God. I also thought of the tower of Babel where man had become so proud and arrogant thinking he was God and made this huge tower to reach up to heaven. And there the Lord came down and the Lord moved upon those men. The Lord moved upon the people there and divided their languages. Surely that was a move of the Spirit of God. Surely God was moving upon the people there. And if you were to turn your telescope upon that situation, you would probably see them after the Spirit of God moved upon them maybe one evening. The next morning as they came together there was utter confusion because they could not communicate with each other. Genesis chapter 10 speaks of 70 nations. I don't know if it was divided into 70 languages or not. But He divided their languages in the tower of Babel. Does anyone else have any... I want you to think a little bit with me on some clear Old Testament times or pictures or men that the Spirit of God specifically moved whether it be on a man or on the people. As we go into the time of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the nations of Israel we see that the Spirit of God moved specifically upon God's people and He moved the Lord upon the nation there as a nation. Not as much on a specific person although numerous times that was true also. Anyone have any thoughts this morning? Any times when you can think about that the Spirit of God would have been clearly moving upon the people's hearts? Yes. When Elijah ran ahead of the chariot. And how was the Spirit of God moving? The Spirit of God moved Elijah. Anyone else? When Noah built the ark. I think God moved upon Noah. You see God delights to show His power but He shows His power through... Today it's through men. I thought of the deliverance from Egypt and how a nation of approximately 3 million people who were in slavery and bondage were moved out of Egypt that night and began to cross the land and then came to the Red Sea and how the wind blew that night and it opened up a channel in the middle of the sea and that huge multitude of people spent all night crossing the Red Sea on dry ground. Surely the Spirit of God is moving His people in a place like that. Also it says that the Spirit of God moved upon specific men in the time of the building of the tabernacle. There were in Exodus 28 verse 3, the Spirit of wisdom was given to all those who were wise of heart and also in Exodus 31 the Spirit of God was given to Beziel. The Spirit of God was given to him that he might know how to build the tabernacle. Specific work was ordained therein. The Spirit of God was given to that man to do the work. I think of when Moses got 70 elders to help him. And God said, I want you to call these 70 elders up and I will take of My Spirit and put My Spirit upon them, He said, so that they can help Moses with the work. Joshua, Caleb, they were men. It specifically says of Caleb, he was a man who had another spirit. He was different. There was something different about that man. He stood out from the rest of them. He didn't go with the flow. He stood against those things, but he was a man who had another spirit. Joshua had the Spirit of God upon him. In Judges we read of Ophiel, the judge who the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and moved him mightily to go to battle and win the war. Likewise, Gideon, Jephthah, and also Samson. We could turn our telescope and we could look in there at the days of Judges and see and watch Samson. Samson began to exercise the power that God gave him. He misused it. He didn't use it properly. But it says that the Spirit of the Lord moved upon Samson at times. The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times. The Spirit of the Lord began to move this man. And numerous times when he would be in a difficult situation, the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him and he would do some mighty thing. But there came a time in Samson's life when he was laying on Delilah's lap. She shaved off his hair and she said, The Philistines are upon him. And he got up and shook himself like at other times, but he did not know that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. He didn't know it. So we see that the Spirit of God had been moving upon this man's life and then departed. And the man was without the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. Samuel, the prophet, anointing Saul. He told Saul that, Saul, you will be changed into another man. And Saul went down the road and his heart was changed. And the Spirit of God came upon him and he was a different man. But then there came a time when Saul disobeyed God. He no longer listened to the Spirit of God, but he went his own way. He went his own way. He didn't follow the will of the Lord, but he followed his own will. And he lost the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God specifically departed from Saul. And God sent Samuel to go and anoint David to be the next king. And from that day forth, when David was anointed king, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, moving him and so forth, preparing him for the work of God. The prophets, Isaiah, beautiful prophecies, many, many beautiful prophecies of the coming king. Isaiah 59. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Isaiah 61.1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and opening of the prisons to them that are bound. Many beautiful verses, many beautiful prophecies by the Spirit of God of what would happen in the days of the Messiah, the coming king. Jeremiah likewise. Ezekiel. I love the one where Ezekiel had a vision of the dry bones. And if you and I could look at that, and what's pictured there is Israel is in the focus, but those dry bones in Ezekiel 37. The Spirit of the Lord showed Ezekiel a valley full of dry bones, and they were very dry. And the Lord asked him, He said, Can these bones live? And Ezekiel said, Thou knowest, Lord. And the Lord told him to begin to prophesy. He begins to prophesy, and as he prophesied, as he preached, it says the bones, there was a shaking and a moving, and the bones began to come together. And the flesh came up on the bones, and the bodies became whole bodies, but there was no life in them. And then it says that he was to prophesy to the wind. Wind, blow out of the north and out of the west and come. And the breath of God came into these dead bodies, and they stood upon their feet and became a mighty army. Surely that's a picture of something unusual. Something is happening there. There's a shaking and a moving going on. That's the moving of the Spirit of God. I especially love the place in Ezekiel 36 where it talks about that day. He says, I will give you a new heart, and I will put My Spirit within you, and I will cause you to walk in My statutes and to keep them. There's a prophetic picture that the day is coming when God would put His Spirit into His people, and He would give them a new heart, even like He did King Saul. And when that new heart is given, something would happen that would cause them to walk and obey God. That must be one of the greatest, finest things that could happen to mankind, that God would be able, that God would do that. We could look at Daniel. The Spirit of God was within him. We could look at Esther. When her people were in danger of annihilation, and God's people, they gathered together, and they fasted and prayed, and God moved by His Spirit, and He moved the circumstances in such a way that Haman, the wicked man, who was out to kill the Jews, that man lost his life, was hung on his own gallows, and it was by the moving of God's Spirit through his people. Haggai, Zachariah, prophesying of the temple. Let's look at Jonah. Just turn that glass over to the city of Nineveh, and look what happens. What happens to those millions or thousands of people in that city of Nineveh, as you see the prophet Jonah stumbling across the desert sands and entering into that city, and there he says, this city, forty days, this city is going to be destroyed. And just watch what happens as he walks into that city, and he keeps prophesying about in forty days there is going to be destruction. This city is going to be destroyed. What began to happen? You might see people running to the king, running to tell the king of this strange man who is prophesying these things, and you might see the king sitting there listening to that, and you might even see him begin to think and ponder, and you might see him even tremble on his knees as he heard the Word of God coming, and he began to fear for his people, and he made the commandment that no one should eat or drink for three days, neither cattle nor beasts nor man. And such a sobriety came upon the people. Why? Because the Spirit of God was moving upon the whole city. There was a moving of God's Spirit bringing the people to repentance. We could look at Joel prophesying of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon their sons and daughters and so forth. Let's go into the... Maybe someone else has a thought about in an Old Testament setting where they could see that. You haven't given much thought, but I have. But is there someone? Yes, Lester. Joshua. In the battle, he asked his son to stand still. Surely he was being moved by the Spirit of God because that's the only way it would happen. God's Spirit is a Spirit of power. Let's look now at the Gospels. As we come to the Gospels, we might lay down that telescope now and we pick up the binoculars and just kind of... You know, we're doing more of this just going around watching what's happening all around. And what we see is we see a man. We don't see a nation anymore. We see a man. The focus has now turned from the nation of Israel and it is focusing now upon a man. Specifically, his name is Jesus Christ. Let's go to the book of Luke for an introduction there. Luke speaks more about the power of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Holy Spirit than any of the other Gospel writers as I would understand it. Luke is speaking about the human side of Christ and he brings this point out over and over again about the power of the Holy Ghost. And it's a very clear picture to me that we, as human beings, without the Spirit of God, without the power of God within us, we fail. We amount to nothing. We're done. We are humans. We must have the Spirit of God within our hearts and lives. And Luke gives a very clear picture of that. He speaks of the prophet Zechariah who was in the temple doing his duty that day and an angel appeared to him and spoke to him and told him he would have a son. In his unbelief, he had questions about it, but he couldn't talk until the prophecy was fulfilled. His wife, she bore a son and when they gave the son his name, his mouth was opened up and he began to prophesy. Likewise, when the angel Gabriel came to Mary and spoke to her that the Holy Ghost would come upon her and the power of the highest would overshadow her, therefore the holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Here we have a moving of the Spirit of God upon Mary and Mary conceives in her womb the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a moving of God upon her. Likewise, when Jesus was born, the shepherds came, the wise men came, and they went into the temple there for the purification and Simon he prophesied and likewise Anna spoke of Him to all the people thereafter. We see that Jesus was born. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost. And even before His birth, when Mary met the mother of John, it says He left in the womb and He was filled with the Holy Ghost before He was born. John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit of God before He was born. We see the Spirit of God begin to move in a different way. Then we could go and let's look at Jesus and His baptism. Let's look at Luke there. I'm in the book of Luke. We can look at it in the other Gospels also. Verse 21 of chapter 3. Luke 3 verse 21. Now, when all the people were baptized, this is by the river with John, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son. In thee I am well pleased. And Jesus Himself began to be about 30 years of age. Jesus here at about the age of 30. It was at the age of 30 that the priests were initiated into the priesthood. Before that, they were considered to be too young and they would be initiated into the priesthood or their ministry with certain rituals and washing and so forth and anointing of oil. Here we have Jesus who is now being initiated into His ministry at water baptism and at that point in time as He's praying, it says the Holy Ghost came down from heaven in the form of a dove. Maybe a pigeon or a dove. It came down and it sat upon Him and a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Here we see the Spirit of God coming down upon Jesus. He had received the fullness of the Spirit of God. It was given to Him not by measure. One of the thoughts I have about that is that when we come to the book of Acts, we see the Spirit of God being given unto the church and it's divided out to each one severally, but not here. Here the Spirit of God comes down specifically on the Son of God and He is full of the Holy Spirit. He is now being led by the Spirit of God. In chapter 4 of Luke you see in Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Being 40 days tempted of the devil, and in those days he did eat nothing and when they were in the end he afterwards hungered and the devil said to him, If thou be the Son of God, command these things that it be made bread. And we see how he's being tempted here but he was being, he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He withstood the temptations and he overcame them how? By the power of the Spirit. He overcame the temptations by the power of the Spirit. And I do believe that that is probably the greatest power of God working in our hearts and lives that we could ever expect or desire. Many people might desire to see the power of God in miracles and healings and so forth, but as for me, I need the power of God in this area. This is where I need to have the power of God working in me. Without, without this power I will not overcome temptation. Without this power I will fall into sin. Without this power working in me, I will be an old man. But the new man, being born of the Spirit of God, we could go right into John 3 where Jesus preached about the new birth. This must be one of the most miraculous things ever happened that ever could happen to man. It can happen to every one of you. I still remember the song that was sung years ago. There's a miracle in me. I've never seen Him raise the dead. I've never seen Him heal the sick. But there is a miracle and that miracle is within me. And that's what you and I need. You and I, if we do not have the moving of God's Spirit within our hearts and soul and life, we are as dead men. We're like those dead bones and we are very dry. And except a man be born of this Spirit, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Can you see the Spirit of God throughout the whole Bible? Or is Pentecost the only time you see the Spirit of God moving and working? It's throughout the whole Word of God and it's full of the moving of the Spirit of God. We see the focus in the Gospels is on Jesus. We see holy men of old who were inspired by the Holy Ghost. They took account of those things. They wrote them in this holy book. We have the records. We have the records of what He said by the power of the Spirit in His preaching. We have the records of what He did. We have records of how He healed the people. We have records of how He raised the dead. We can read of how He cast out devils. Many such things He did. And as we look upon Him with our binoculars, we're watching Him day after day after day. And I'm wondering, are you observing Him? Do you enjoy watching this man? Or don't you care? I want to see what He's been doing. I want to pick up my binoculars if I were to live in His day. If I were to be a journalist or a newspaper writer, I would be very, very interested in what He was doing. I want to be there when it happens. I want to see what He's doing. I want to see Him when He raises up that dead person. I want to see how He does it when He heals the blind and heals the sick. He opens the ears of the deaf and so forth. I'd like to see those things. I can see them here. Or don't I care? Don't I care enough to read it? Am I more interested in the news that happened out in town last week than I am in what God's Word is saying? And when we open this book, having been born in the Spirit of God, then that Spirit begins to work in me. And the Spirit of God in this book begins to connect with the Spirit of God in me. And there's life. There's life. We can see some... He imparted some of this power to His twelve disciples. He sent them out to do the same thing He's doing. He told them to go preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, and so forth. And they went forth. And when those twelve disciples came back, they were so excited about all those things that Jesus at one point said He lifted up His eyes and He rejoiced with great joy. And they came back. Do you see the moving of the Spirit of God? In the book of John, He tells us that unless we're born of the Spirit, we cannot see the Kingdom of God. Many times we love to see power without. That's what the world sees. The world sees the power without. The world sees the healing. And they make great things of that. But let's look a little bit at the power within. This man was possessed with a Holy Spirit. This man, Jesus, was possessed with a Holy Spirit. He spake of the Spirit which should be given. He spake of the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it sees Him not and neither knows Him. He spake of the Comforter that would come whom I will send from the Father. He spake of the Spirit of Truth which proceeds from the Father. He shall testify of Me. He says when the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak of Himself, but He will speak Whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. He said when that Spirit comes, He will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. I wonder what that's going to look like. Place yourself there with Jesus' disciples if they heard these words, they didn't understand it. Let's look a little bit at the power of Christ within. He demonstrated His power outwardly. But did you ever stop and focus on the power that He had inwardly? I think of His passion. I think of the time when He was being arranged before the judge. I think of what happened in His heart when Judas came up to Him and kissed Him and betrayed Him. He said, Betrayest thou Me with a kiss? And He sees Simon pull out his sword and begin to swing and cut the man's ear off. One of the soldiers. Jesus just kindly admonished him, Put your sword away. He that lives by the sword must die by the sword. This is where the power of God really comes in. How do I handle it when someone betrays me? When someone is condemned before the judge. When he's beaten with a lash 39 times and the mocking, the spitting. What's happening in his heart? What's happening in your heart when someone misuses you and mistreats you? This is where the power of God is needed. This is the greatest need of the power of God in my life. For me to be able to go through difficulties. He was mocked. He was spit upon. They took Him out there and they laid Him on a cross and they nailed His feet and His hand to the wood. And there you could hear Him saying, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. This is where the power of God is needed in our lives, brothers and sisters. And without the Holy Spirit moving in your heart, you'll never be able to forgive. Without the Spirit of God moving in your heart, you can't forgive those people who hurt you yesterday or last week. You won't be able to forgive when they reject you and they move against you and say all men are evil against you, but as Jesus said, rejoice in that day for great is your reward in heaven, He said. This is where the power of God is needed, brothers and sisters. This is where the power of God is needed in my life. Forgiving. Lord, You know, the emotions are too strong for a man. We must have the moving of God's Spirit in our lives to overcome. Yes, we can resist it. We can resist the Spirit of God. We can go our own way. We can do our own thing. But it's sure death. I think of those disciples as they watched Him there, how they must have realized there's something very unusual. They knew what it was like to see people being crucified, but they had never seen a man do this before. And they began to realize this man has a mighty power working in Him which they yet knew nothing of. And then He was crucified and He died and He was buried. And while they're still discussing this, I can just about imagine them in the upper room hiding out because of fear of the Jews and they're mulling over this thing. They're wondering how. They're just astonished at this man that they had followed, this man called Jesus. And maybe they were discussing how He just laid Himself on the cross and He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what to do. That must have been one of the most amazing things they could have heard during that time. And while they're discussing this in the upper room, some women came by and told them that He's risen from the dead. Very confusing to them. They said He's alive. As a little boy, I grew up, I was thinking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and somehow in my mind I had an idea that the people there in the garden, they saw Jesus coming out of the grave and rising up from the dead, but that's not the way the Bible says it. The tomb was simply empty. They didn't see Him rising up. They didn't see Him waking up from the dead and coming out of the grave. No, He wasn't seen doing that. But He did come out of the grave and He rose from the dead. And the Spirit of God moved upon Him and He became alive again. He rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit. God raised Him up by His holy power, by the Spirit of God. He raised Him up. We see Him coming into that room there with the disciples and saying, look upon me, my hands, see the nail prints in my hands and put your hand into my side. I am Jesus. And in their question, they're all questioning, is this just some kind of a spirit or who is this? It looked like Him. It talked like Him. It sounded like Him. And when they saw the prints of the nails in His hands and feet, they had to agree it is Him. And they knew that He was alive. They spent some time with Him there about 40 days. Being with Him upon the mountain there. One day talking with Him and listening to Jesus again. And Jesus told them that they would be endued with power from on high, not many days hence. They were to go to Jerusalem and wait for that. Let's go to the end of the book of Luke for that. Read those Scriptures. Luke 24 These are words which I speak unto you. Verse 44 While I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. What a wonderful verse. What a wonderful verse that is. Have you ever been in a place where you don't understand the Scriptures? Unconverted young people. The Scriptures you do not understand. Your mind has not yet been opened to those things. But there is coming a day, let me say, that when the Spirit of God moves upon your heart and your life and you come to that place where you're willing to open up your heart and let the Spirit of God have His way in your life and you want to say, Lord Jesus, I'm coming to be saved. And when you give up your own way and you yield your heart and your life to Jesus Christ, then He will do a wonderful thing. He will open up your understanding. Oh, it's a beautiful verse. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. Beautiful verse. And said to them, Thus it is written, thus it behooved Christ to suffer, to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins shall be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. Go to Acts chapter 1. Luke again writing in the book of Acts. They ask him, Lord, when wilt thou restore the kingdom of Israel? Verse 7 It's not for ye to know the time or the season when the Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall receive power. Ye shall receive power, after as the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth. And we see very clearly here the purpose. The purpose of the Holy Ghost is that they would have power to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Samaria, Judea and the uttermost parts of the earth. That's the purpose of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now we're looking at the book of Acts. Maybe we can use a magnifying glass here. I don't know where you stand, but as the day of Pentecost was fully come, it says that in chapter 2, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind. We're now in the room with the disciples. Here we are in this room. There's about 120 of us. And we begin to sense the moving of the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God moves upon every single one of us. And there a rushing of a mighty wind. There came a sound from heaven. It sounded like a rushing mighty wind and that sound filled the house where they were sitting and there appeared on them cloven tongues like as fire and it sat upon them. Here we have the opposite of the Tower of Babel where the language was all one. It was diversified out. Perhaps 70 different languages. But here now we have about 18 different languages outside there later on in the day. But here is the disciples in the upper room and God's Spirit is moving. Visibly moving. The Spirit of God is visible to the naked eye moving upon them in tongues of fire. See, the Spirit of God is like the wind. You cannot see it. You can only hear the sounds of it. You see the effects of it out there. The trees are blowing. The branches are blowing. You can see the effects of the wind out there. But here we have a mighty rushing sound. It sounds like something's coming in and there's tongues of fire sitting upon them. They saw that. That was a result of an outpouring of the Holy Ghost from the Father on high upon His children. Upon 120 in the upper room. And maybe you're not standing in that crowd. Maybe you're standing in the crowd that's outside. And as the disciples began to preach and there was noise abroad, the multitude came together. But they were confounded because every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled saying one to another, Behold, there are not all these which speak Galileans. How here we, every man, in our own tongue, wherein we were born. And then it gives about 18 languages there. But Peter in verse 14 stood up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said, Ye men of Judea, here was Peter who had denied the Lord when a girl had asked him if he knows Jesus. The night of the arrangement, the night of the condemnation of Christ, there he is warming himself by the fire and a girl comes and says, Aren't you one of His disciples? And three times he denied himself. The third time he even swore and just absolutely swore and said, I don't know the man. And then he heard the cock crowing and he looked across the room and he saw Jesus and their eyes met. And Peter, he went down and he wept. And he wept bitterly. And here is this same Peter whom a girl was able to shame him. A slave maybe if you want. Now he stands up in front of this crowd of Jews who had just killed Jesus and were out searching for them perhaps. And here he stands up boldly. Boldly he stands up. Why? Because the power of the Spirit of God is moving him to do something. And the Spirit of God within is just bursting forth and He opens up His mouth and He begins to preach. And He preaches that a very powerful message there. And then as He's preaching to them, something else is happening. Now there are, I don't know how many thousands of people are out there, but they were there for the feast of Pentecost at Jerusalem. Must have been thousands of them. I wonder how many was in the crowd. But it says that there was 3,000 that did get saved. And as these people were listening to Peter preaching, something was happening inside here. And this is where I use the magnifying glass. This is what the Holy Ghost does in the book of Acts. This is what the Holy Ghost does in the life of the believer today. It begins to magnify the sin that is hidden in my heart. And the Spirit of God begins to move upon those people there. And as Peter is preaching, and he's just preaching the Word of God to them, the Word of God is coming down. It's coming to the ears and setting down, coming down their heart. And there their sin, that little sin that had been so small yesterday, all those sins have been buried back in there. All those little sins suddenly begin to grow. There's a magnifying glass and something's happening. And the sin just gets bigger and bigger and bigger until it seems like it's just overwhelming the person. And they follow their faith and say, Maddened brethren, what shall we do? Oh, I would to God that every one of us would be at that place. That the Spirit of God would be moving upon our hearts in such a way we'd fall upon our face and we'd say, Oh, God, have mercy upon me. My sin is so big. And that's what the moving of the Spirit of God does in the lives of people today. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. When the times are refreshing, the blessings will come from the presence of the Lord. You see, it's the presence of the Lord that is there. It's the presence of the Lord as we look down upon those people there. And 3,000 souls get baptized that day by the moving of God's Spirit. What about my sin? Oh, God, would You magnify the sin in our midst? Would You magnify the sins in our hearts? That sin, like it says in Romans, becomes exceedingly sinful. Sin becomes exceedingly sinful. Oh, I knew it was wrong. I knew it was sin. But suddenly, I'm just overwhelmed with the condemnation of my sin. And it's so big. It just keeps growing. And it feels like it's going to swallow me up. Lord, may it be that way. We can look at other situations during the book of Acts. Stephen, as he preached, they gnashed on him with their teeth. Took him out and stoned him. And as he was kneeling down, he lifted up his eyes into heaven and he said, I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. God gave him a vision as he died. Look at what happened with Ananias and Sapphira. Stole their property. Stole their property. Pretended to give all the money. And Peter said, is this how much money that you received? And he said, yes. And he said, why have you lied to the Holy Ghost? And he fell over dead. A little while later, his wife comes in. Same thing. She falls over dead. They take him out and bury him. Philip, being moved by the Spirit of God, being told to go down to the desert, walking out there by himself. Why does God want me to come here? This doesn't make sense. But that's okay. That's the way it is, isn't it? When does the Spirit of God make sense? We don't obey the Spirit of God because it makes sense or doesn't. We obey the Spirit of God because it's God speaking. The question sometimes is, is it really the Spirit of the Lord? And there he's walking out in the desert. And already if you look at the Ethiopian eunuch coming on his way home from Jerusalem back to Ethiopia, reading the book of Isaiah, deep questionings in his heart. The Spirit of God was moving upon his heart. The Spirit of God moved Philip, the evangelist. And they met there. And Philip joins them in the chariot there. And that man comes to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And he said, here's water. What does hinder me from being baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he took him down to the water and was baptized. And then it said the Spirit caught Philip up and away, and he disappeared. And the Ethiopian eunuch went on his way. I think of the Philippian jailer being there that night when Paul and Silas were brought in. Seeing these men who had been beaten with stripes 39 times. They might have witnessed that Philippian jailer right then, but I don't know. But anyhow, at midnight they heard him singing and there was a mighty earthquake. And this Philippian jailer, you can just see the moving of the Spirit of God upon his heart as he falls upon his knees about to take his own life. And Paul comes and says, do thyself no harm. And they preached to him the Gospel and took him to his house that night. He bathed their wounds and him and his house were baptized. And they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see the Spirit of God moving upon these people. Why did the Spirit of God move upon the Philippian jailer? Because he came in the presence and contact of someone who was full of the Holy Ghost. And that's exactly what you and I ought to be. We should be living in such a way that when we get in contact with sinners, they fall under such conviction that they fall on their face before us and they say, oh, what must I do to be saved? Oh, that there be such a moving of God's Spirit in our midst. Many other instances we could look at. I want to look a little bit yet at the epistles. If you could just, again, go in the book of Romans. Let's look at Romans chapter 8. If you look up the word Holy Spirit, the word Spirit in your concordance, you'll see it used over and over again. Romans 8, There is therefore now no condemnation. To who? To them which are in Christ Jesus. Who do what? Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. You could go on and on, just over and over again in this chapter. Verse 4, That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Can you walk in the Spirit without the Spirit? Can you be a spiritual person without being born of God? Can you walk in the grace of God without experiencing His Holy Spirit? You cannot do it. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. You are not in the flesh. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Does the Spirit of God dwell in you? Have you yield to the moving of the Spirit of God in your heart and life? Quench not the Spirit. If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Quicken your mortal body. Yes, you can't see the wind itself, but you can see the effects it has on the trees and on things around you. And likewise, the moving of the Spirit of God. You cannot see the Spirit of God, but if you observe closely, you can see the effects of the Holy Spirit moving on the souls of men. And brethren, it should be a joy to us when we see the Spirit of God moving. It is a joy to me. Verse 14. For as many of us are led by the Spirit of God. They are the sons of God. And I had to think of this as I was going through it, meditating and preparing for this message. In the book of Acts is where if we can place ourselves there with those 3,000 that day, yes, I would stand there with the crowd. I would want to listen. I'd be listening to Peter preaching and I would hear what he said. And the Spirit of God moving upon my heart, I would be delighted to kneel down there and confess my sins, repent and believe on the Son of God, the Lamb of God there and be born of the Spirit of God and be baptized. I would believe I would be doing that. Like Jairus said, I would have done that if I had been there. I believe I would have done that. I lost my thought. For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. This is the life in the Spirit. Yes, and now I know what I was thinking. In the book of Acts is where you see the explosion or the infusion of the Holy Ghost in the lives of many, many people. Now we come into the epistles of Paul and as Paul writes about these things, he actually is explaining what's happening. He goes and he gives the theological explanation of what happened there in the book of Acts. And there's people today who when they get born again, they don't know what has happened. They know something has changed, but they don't even know what it is. They never even heard the term being born again. There's actually people who get saved that way. And somewhere along the line, someone comes to them and talks to them and they have these questions. They're asking these questions. The person looks at them and says, well, you've been born again. And the person says, oh, is that what that was? And it actually happens. Yes, you can get born in the Spirit of God in the book of Acts if I may look at it that way. But then as time goes on, and again, in the book of Romans, Paul gives the theological explanation, may I say, of the power of this Holy Spirit moving in the hearts and lives of people. And he begins to talk about that. He says, now this isn't just a one-time thing. This didn't just happen one time back there. No, this is to become your life. This is your daily life. What does he say? For as many as are led of the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. If ye are in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit. If you go to the book of Galatians, likewise. And see what he says there. Continue in that Spirit, he says. Let's turn yet to Revelations in closing. Revelation. It's a revelation of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. This Jesus Christ has been revealed by His Spirit to the Apostle John. Numerous times here, many times here, He says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Revelation 1 verse 10, he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice of trumpet. Over and over again, he says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And specifically, the Spirit of God, the messages to those seven churches there in chapter 2, 3 and 4 of Revelation, it is a revelation of what the Spirit of God is saying to the churches. We see in Revelation the Spirit of God just moving there. We can see the end times. We can see many things there. The great white, the judgment throne and so forth. But look at the last verse in the book of Revelations. Second to last verse. Or, let's see, not the last verse. Verse 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. Again, we have here from the beginning of Genesis 1 verse 2 to Revelation to the end, we have an overview, we have a picture of the moving of the Spirit of God. And here in the very end of the book, once again, the Spirit is speaking. The Spirit is speaking. And He is saying, Come. The Spirit of God is saying, Come. To everyone who is not right with God. To everyone. And the Spirit of God is speaking, saying, Come. But right here, remember the Spirit of God and the bride are saying, Come. They are saying, Come to the Lord Jesus. And we are ready to go. Come. We are ready to go. But, the Spirit of God is moving among His people. Well, may the Lord do His work in our hearts and lives. Without His Spirit moving in our services, we won't have life. Without His Spirit moving when the Word of God is preached, there won't be souls converted. Oh, I would long that God's Spirit would move in your heart. And that sin would become as sinful in your life. Let's kneel for prayer. Father, we we see many places in Your Word how the Spirit of God moved in the Old Testament. We see how it moved upon the patriarchs. We see how it moved upon the prophets. We see how it moved upon the nation of Israel many, many times. We see how You have such great patience and long-suffering. Father, we see how You by Your Spirit, You sent forth Your Son. We don't understand all the theology of it, but we can see the results. We see Jesus being filled with the Holy Ghost and beginning to move and minister to the people and to the people's needs. Oh, Father, we would that Jesus would minister to our needs today by the same Spirit. And we would, Father, that You would enable us by the Holy Ghost and by the power within us to live godly and righteously and uprightly in every area. Lord, this is the area that I most need Your power in. This is the area that I must have Your power to live in a God-free life. To live in such a way like Jesus did. Self-sacrificing, forgiving, Lord, those who have hurt us. I pray, Father, that there be anyone here today that Your Spirit is moving upon, that that person could open his heart, could yield and could let You have Your way there. Father, would You receive all glory and honor and be Thou exalted in our midst. In Jesus Christ's name, Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother. I can confess that's where I need the power of God, the power of the Spirit of God in my life. To forgive. To not answer back. To suffer. To just die to myself. Give up my will, my rights. I don't have any rights. I just think this morning it would be it would be right to give an opportunity to respond to the Lord, to the moving of the Spirit of God. If you're wrestling, if you're under conviction this morning, that the Spirit says, come. If you're heavy laden, you know you're lost, the Spirit of God is convincing you of sin, that you can just come to the altar this morning and find forgiveness. Can we sing a hymn, brother Jeremy? Do you have a song of invitation that we could sing together? And if God has spoken to your heart this morning, the altar is open. Come to Jesus. What number? 906. The Spirit and the bride say, come. Let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. He which testifies these things saith, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Those that have responded, if you would desire some private counsel, just get to your feet. Make your way to the basement. Someone will meet you there. If you want to just take time to pray here, that's fine. Just want to open it up here this morning. Someone has a confession or a testimony to share. Just raise your hand, we'll get a microphone to you. Is there anyone who would feel led by the Spirit of the Lord to share this morning? One of the brothers. I'd just like to say that God has really been doing a work in my heart, especially last week at the revival meetings, and I want to praise God for his forgiveness, and God is just really bringing me close to him. And I thank God for the way that he works in our hearts. He's constantly drawing us ever closer to him. And the Bible says, as we draw an eye to God, he will draw an eye to us. And so I want to praise God for the victory. And I feel like this message this morning, that's what I too need. I just need a walk in the Spirit. And that's what I want to do from day to day. So thank you. Amen. Thank you. There's another hand on the brother's side there in the back. Sisters as well, feel free. Up front here on the sister's side as well. Front row here. Okay, sister, you can go ahead. I just want to give God glory this morning. This past week, it was something the Lord just really laid on my heart to share with a family member, and it was hard to share because I knew it would bring reviving, and I knew it wouldn't be received, and yet I felt the Lord, Holy Spirit, was just really pressing on me to share. And I just shared with a burden and a desire for this individual. And it did bring reviving and all manner of evil spoken against me, but I just had absolute peace. And the Lord was just bringing verses to mind of rejoicing and praising God. And I just thank the Lord. I'm just amazed at how the presence of God was there, and there was no feelings of bitterness, no feelings of offense, but just a love and a desire that they would come to experience the peace and the joy that I was experiencing. I just want to praise the Lord and thank Him for the way that He moves and interacts with His Spirit. Thank you for sharing that. Obey the Spirit of the Lord. Okay, we have one here on the brother's side. I was really glad for this message this morning as well, and I just want to publicly confess this is the area I really need the power of God at work in my life as well. When I'm challenged with something that is threatening to me of wanting to stand up and, like you said, Aaron, answer back. So I just confess this is an area that I really need a deep work of the Lord in my heart. And I've just been praying for that the last couple of months, and the Lord's been very faithful in bringing things to realize, to show me, even during the revival meetings. The Lord was very faithful in showing me who I am, how much I need Him, and that I need to keep pressing in. So I want to make this confession this morning that I do desire your prayers in this area, and I do desire to keep walking in the Spirit of the Lord, because I know this is His will for me, is to walk humbly and not rise up and stand up for myself, but to let God be glorified. God bless you all. Amen, Clare. God bless you. God giveth grace to the humble as they humble themselves. I think there's a microphone over on the sister's side. Yes, okay. I just want to say praise be to God for traveling mercies that He saw us through the two days of traveling from Missouri to here. And also I want to thank God for all of you. And the other church in Missouri for dealing with me as kindly as they could, but yet firmly, because I know that the Lord has been tugging on things in the past that I would have let go. But I'm thankful that I did, and I want to continue to do that and walk in His will and not mine. And also pray that I can be more forgiving and not rise up against some injustice or something and just leave it in the Lord's hands to do that. And I'm thankful for what all God has done and what He's going to do. And I'm also thankful that I am a mother. And praise the Lord. Amen, Debbie. Today, I'm going to deepen my own psalm in the Heart of my Wife concerning thinking on those things that are edifying and positive instead of dwelling on what's more negative or the downside of life. Scripture says in Philippians 4, verse 8, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are pure, are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me, those do, and the God of peace shall be with you." And I think I've always known these verses and I've known the principle, but I believe that many people, including I myself, sometimes dwell on the negative side of what's happening in our lives and what's happening in this world. This world is full of violence, death, the devil is deceiving many to follow after him in his subtle ways with lies. We can dwell on those things and we can do research and find all those things that the devil can take glory for. But if we chose, because of scripture, because of God's commandment, to dwell on what's positive, on what's true and what's good, that's the only way we can walk in heavenly places like we heard from our brother Jerry last week. And my wife and I just realized that we just want to give testimony to that. Maybe someone else can be blessed in that way too. The Lord bless you. Amen. Thank you, brother. It's true. Is the microphone somewhere else on the sister's side? Yes. All the way in the back. Brother Abner? I guess I just want to thank God this morning for his mercy on me, my life, the past couple days. I'm just, I'm really thankful that I'm still here. Here a while, couple weeks, last couple weeks, I had been praying that God would just do a work in my heart that I felt just rather, not very connected with the Lord. I felt just a lot of unbrokenness, I guess, in my life, and I prayed that God would just do whatever it takes just to break me and to take away so much of the pride that is in my heart. I guess I didn't realize how soon my prayer would be answered. I had a pretty major accident. It's just a miracle that I'm here. I guess I feel like I had my life in my own hands too much. I think of Brother George shared this morning there in James chapter 4 there about not to say today we're going to go to such and such a city or tomorrow and buy and sell and get gain there, because we don't know what our life is, it's just a vapor. I guess I had, today I had the accident, I had everything. I had my whole day planned out. I had started pretty early at work and then had an appointment at 12 and then the children's ministry in the evening and everything was just going to click and I had it all planned out. But things changed so fast. I guess if you think about it, you can just pray for me that God would continue to do his work in my heart. I feel that he wants to just break me and make me more useful. I just felt like I have a lack of power, God's spirit, and I'm just so thankful that for this message this morning I needed that very much. I need the spirit of God, the power of God in my heart, in my life, flowing through me so that I may be effective in being a light for him in this world. Thank you. Thank you, Abner. God bless you as you continue to seek him. Praise the Lord, he has the work for you. He's still here for each one of us. Is there anyone else that has the microphone? Okay. You know, I would just like to agree with my brother Emmanuel that unless God, by his spirit, brings conviction, brings the power in our lives, you know, it's not by might nor by power, but it's by my spirit, say of the Lord, that that shouldn't cause us to become discouraged or hopeless, but we can lay hold on the promises of God and we can pray and we can humble ourselves and there we find grace and mercy to help. And he invites us, come, come boldly to the throne of grace. Come, ask that you may be filled with the spirit, you know, and put ourselves in that place where God can pour out his spirit. He gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey him. It says there in the book of Acts. And we can just empty ourselves of ourselves and yield and cry out to God. And I would just encourage us that way as a congregation that God in mercy would visit us at Charity Christian Fellowship, that the wind of God would blow in this congregation and in my own life. I am not scolding you. I need the spirit of God to blow in my heart freshly. I thank God for what he's doing, but I am not satisfied where I'm at. I need more. And of course, you know, that's yield, give up, surrender to Jesus. So let us pray and continue to believe that God, he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Amen.