In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of living a spirit-filled life as instructed in the Bible. He criticizes those who mimic the ways of the devil and compromise their faith. The speaker quotes from the book of Romans, highlighting the separation believers are called to have from the world. He urges listeners to come together in unity, regardless of their religious background or race, and return to the Word of God. The sermon concludes with a prayer for a spiritual outpouring and a plea for individuals and nations to repent and seek God's face.

Side 2, entitled, Your Bible Insists on a Spirit-Filled Life. Plus, the Catherine Kuhlman Concert Choir singing, If My People. What more is there to be said? God's Word gives the answer. Eyes closed for just this brief moment, when there's so much at stake. There's everything at stake. And I pray, Heavenly Father, please, in your tender mercy, in your great compassion, touch hearts, there shall be a mighty spiritual outpouring. We shall forget whether we're Catholic, whether we're Protestant, whether we're Jew, whether we're Gentile. We shall forget color, race, and creed. We shall come back again and meet at the foot of the cross. We shall come back again to the Word of God. We've gone our separate ways. We've lived in pleasure. We've forgotten you. No man, no nation can live contrary to the Word of God, and get by with it, and neither can we. I pray again, give us a fresh baptism of the love of God. May we turn from our wicked ways, seek thy face, come back again to your Word, and your promise to heal our land. Answer this simple prayer. Amen. We've been having a heart-to-heart talk regarding the person of the Holy Spirit, and how he relates to God the Father. So we see that both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is the very Spirit of God. And whenever he is spoken of as the Spirit of God, in Genesis we read that the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, relating to the creation, that refers directly to the Holy Spirit. Whenever the Old Testament prophets spoke of the Spirit of the Lord, or the Spirit of God, it always referred to the Holy Spirit. And so it is in the New Testament. And I left you and I had a little heart-to-heart talk with the 61st chapter of Isaiah. And it was the same Holy Spirit who fills believers today. If you have been immersed with the Holy Spirit, if you've been filled with the Holy Spirit, if you've been baptized with the Holy Spirit, the one and the same experience, it is the same Holy Spirit, the same Spirit of God, of whom Isaiah speaks when he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto me. What was he referring to? He's referring to the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But let's see what David has to say. You know, I love that 139th Psalm. And yet, it was a long time before I realized to whom David was referring when he's talking about that Great Spirit. The 7th, the 8th, the 9th verses. I always thought that he was referring to God, the mighty Creator. But pause just a second. Begin, if you will, please, with the 7th verse of the 139th Psalm. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? He's talking about the Holy Spirit. Thy Spirit. The Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God is a Holy Spirit. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, beholded, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. Let me repeat. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? David was always very conscious of the Holy Spirit. I know. There are those who are new in the pedagogical experience feeling as though the Holy Spirit is a new person, just recently having come upon the scene. A new personality. A new experience. And yet, if you and I were to have a heart-to-heart talk, even now, with David, regarding his experience with the Holy Spirit, it would be similar to ours. Let me pause a minute and make something very clear. When the Old Testament saints were filled with the Holy Spirit, and not all were filled, but whenever there were those who were filled with the Spirit, it was always through the sovereign act of God. Today, when the believer is filled with the Holy Spirit, it is a part of his inheritance. It is the gift that Jesus left for his church. It is not just a sovereign act of God, in the sense that David was filled with the Holy Spirit, and some of the Old Testament saints were filled, and those who work in the tabernacle, in the wilderness. Moses was filled with the Holy Spirit. There is no doubt about that. And every worker who worked on the tabernacle in the wilderness was filled with the Holy Spirit. It had to be a perfect work, carrying out God's perfect plan. And to get perfect work, and to carry out God's will to perfection, they had to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Even the craftsmen were filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't you understand? If that was necessary in the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness, how much more necessary it is that the believers in the Body of Christ today be filled with the Holy Spirit? Don't you understand? And let me say just now to that pastor in that church, and I feel this is vitally important, it is important that you as a pastor, as a great leader, as the shepherd of your flock, need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is not optional. And as surely as you find it necessary to be filled with the Holy Spirit, every member on your board should be Spirit-filled. Why? I repeat, if God found it necessary that not only Moses be filled with the Holy Spirit, but even the craftsmen and those who worked on the tabernacle in the wilderness had to be filled with the Holy Spirit to have perfect harmony, to have oneness in the Spirit, and to obtain perfection and work according to the will of God. You see, that's one reason why there's so much friction in the church today. There are very few places of worship where you find oneness in the Spirit. On the surface, you may think as you attend this Sunday morning service, oh, isn't this lovely? The church building is beautiful, perhaps the very finest, perhaps the most modern. The pews are very restful. The atmosphere is great. The sermon a must. The personality above reproach. And yet, unless there is oneness in the Spirit, whether it's with the members of the choir, the choir leader, the organist, the pianist, members of the board, unless they are Spirit-filled, sooner or later there'll be contention, there'll be jealousy, there'll be friction, and sometimes it becomes a tragedy. Please hear me. This is vitally important. Vitally. Again, I repeat, God's children need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. If ever there was a day when members of this wonderful body of Christ needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to have the Spirit of the Holy God, a Holy Spirit to guide us, to strengthen us, to direct us, to reveal the truth to our hearts, to stand against the wiles of the enemy, to stand true to what we believe, you can't do it in your own strength. I don't care how strong you may be, how good your intentions, you still cannot do it in your own strength. That's the reason Jesus gave the Holy Spirit. Oh, David knew all about the Holy Spirit. If he was to come now and complete this heart-to-heart talk that I have begun today, he could talk well regarding his relationship and his fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was so important to him that that was the reason that he looked up and cried the greatest, the most perfect cry that a man has ever cried. There is no greater heartbreak in the world. There is no more sincere prayer, and it's more than a prayer, it's a cry. And the cry from the heart of David, as he looked up, it was more than through blinding tears. It came from every atom of his being when he cried out, Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. You can take everything else. You can take every earthly possession, you can take anything, but take not thy Holy Spirit from me. And he continues in this 139th Psalm, Whether shall I go from thy Spirit or whether shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up to heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day, and the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. We see here, the Word of God relates the Holy Spirit to God Almighty. Oh, to me that's very Satan. That's very Satan. See something else, that sometimes we forget. There's a reason why He's called Holy Spirit. You see, we get so familiar sometimes with things that are holy, we forget the sacredness of things that are so sacred, more sacred than our minds can comprehend. Very glibly we use His name. Very glibly I've heard of those in Pentecost as we speak of the Holy Spirit. We forget the Spirit of God is holy. That's the reason He is wisely called the Holy Spirit. He is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God Almighty. The revelation that God made of Himself, He made through Jesus. The revelation that He made regarding the holiness of Himself, He has made through the Holy Spirit. See something. You know, I am awed sometimes when I realize not only how much the Old Testament prophets knew regarding some of these deeper truths, but I never cease to marvel the fact that Paul was so well acquainted with some of these things that are becoming a great revelation to us. Won't it be wonderful when we get home to Glory and we all talk about these spiritual truths. There'll be the Old Testament saints. There'll be Paul and John and Peter. And we'll all have the knowledge of the same person. Even today, you know, I get acquainted with some saint of God and I say to that one as we converse regarding the deeper things, do you know that too? Why, I thought I was the only one who knew that, you know. Because it was a revelation the Holy Spirit had probably given to me. And I thought it was so wonderful that I never dreamed He'd given the same revelation to somebody else. And then throughout all of eternity when we talk to the saints of God through all ages and we say, well, when did you find that out? When did He reveal that to your heart? Paul, how did you know it? And it is all revealed by the same Spirit and none given with any private interpretation. Here's Paul in the first chapter of Romans talking about the very same thing that I'm talking to you about now. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called it to be an apostle separated unto the Gospel of God. Now that's what we need today. If you would ask me what the pastor needs more than anything else today it's the very thing that Paul is talking about here. Separated unto the Gospel of God. And the hour has come when we have everything else but this glorious separation. Instead of separation we're having compromise. We're acting just like the devil. We're trying to mimic the devil. We're trying to mimic the things the devil does. We throw in the beat. You know, that's right. Honestly, the way some saints of God act and even some ministers act you would think the devil was their master because they try to mimic the things of the devil. And we find a compromise there and a compromise here. And you can't tell one from the other. But do you want to know what Paul says here? Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle separated unto the Gospel of God. Right at the outset. As a servant he's called unto a life of separation. In the world but not of the world. Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead and by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. Let me repeat it. And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead And who is the spirit of holiness? The Holy Spirit. Watch something very closely. The Holy Spirit cannot abide in a vessel that is not clean. There has got to be that separation. That's the reason I do not care what you profess. I don't care what glorious experiences you may have had. I don't care how loudly or how long you speak in an unknown tongue. If there is not holy living there and if your life does not bear the fruit of the Spirit your body is not the temple of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He is a spirit of holiness and cannot dwell in an unclean vessel where there is sin. You cannot live a spiritual life and live in adultery. You cannot live a spiritual life and also live in sin. The two do not go together. That concludes this message. We hope it has been a blessing to you. For information about thousands of helpful messages such as this one available for lending on a free or voluntary donation basis write to us at the Springs of Living Water Tape Library Post Office Box 32636 Spring Lake Park, Minnesota 55432 Your prayerful and financial support of this ministry is also welcome and greatly appreciated. Thank you and God bless you. Please fast forward this tape to the end for its next listening.