Michael Koulianos emphasizes the profound love and communion of the Holy Spirit, illustrating how our spirits unite with Him at salvation, creating an intimate relationship akin to marriage. He highlights the importance of fellowship with the Holy Spirit, which encompasses intimacy, partnership, friendship, presence, and command, urging believers to cultivate this relationship for spiritual growth and empowerment. Koulianos also reflects on the recent youth camp where many children accepted Christ, showcasing the active work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. He encourages the congregation to recognize the kingdom of God within them and to seek peace through the Holy Spirit rather than external circumstances. Ultimately, he calls for a deeper understanding of the Holy Spirit's role in their lives, emphasizing that true friendship with Him requires sensitivity and obedience.

The love of the Holy Spirit. Let's continue. We touched on the same last week. For three weeks prior to that we talked about God, the Holy Spirit, as we continue to dive into the beauty of the person of the Holy Spirit. We ended last week in 1 Corinthians 6, 17. I'd like to read that to you. The Bible says, but the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. Perhaps that is the most beautiful, graphic, clear picture of what it looks like to live a life in love with the Holy Spirit. So much so that our spirit is one with him. Think of that for a moment. That there is an actual marriage, a union that takes place as our spirit comes alive. At salvation, our spirit becomes one with the Holy Spirit. That is amazing to me. Let me also say how proud I am of our team that just did a youth camp. Ryan preached the gospel. How many of y'all went over there? Raise your hand. Anyone else? I know Mackenzie went and Lily went. They just preached the gospel. How many kids responded to come down the altar at the youth camp? 30 to 40 kids came down to give their life to the Lord. Our team did an amazing job and ministered to them. Where was the camp? Orange Springs, wherever that is. In the middle of Ocala National Forest. That's where I'd like to live. So they did an amazing job. I'm so proud of you guys. It's so beautiful. Alright, this joining is an example of what it looks like to love the Lord. Or I should say what it looks like for the Lord to love us. He loves us so that He becomes one with us. And that is bridled by nature. It's bridled in every way. In the two becoming one flesh. In a natural marriage. So our spirit and the Holy Spirit are one when we are born again. That's amazing to me. I don't know about you, but that's amazing to me. 2 Corinthians 13 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, listen carefully now, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Here we see the Trinity beautifully described in verse 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. This is amazing. I want to talk about this fellowship for just a moment. How many of you have read my book on the Holy Spirit? I'm not trying to sell a book. Do we have that book out there guys? Do we? Okay, it would bless you to get it. I'm not trying to sell books, but I do think it would really bless you. I also want to encourage you to get Good Morning Holy Spirit. And I think if you read those two books, it would really help open your eyes with regards to what I'm talking about right now. The fellowship of the Spirit means a few things. I want you to write these down. Number one, the fellowship of the Spirit or another word in verse 14 is communion. Okay, now I'm not talking about bread and wine, though that's part of it. It's just not limited to the sacrament. So that word fellowship actually means communion, by the way. So number one, intimacy. Say intimacy. All right. And that is Romans 5.5. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. All right, listen up. You cannot walk in the love of God unless you walk in the Spirit. You cannot experience the love of God without the Holy Spirit. The love of God is shed abroad or shared generously by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And the love of God is shed abroad in a certain place, in our hearts. In our hearts. Say, in my heart. Say, my heart is the resting place for the love of God. And so that's why Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you. If you're looking for peace outside of you, you will never find it. If you allow the external chaos or what you think is a lack thereof, if you allow that to determine your peace level, you will never be at peace. What did Jesus say when he was sleeping on the bow of the boat and they were freaking out in a storm? He said, where is your faith? Not it disappeared. He just said, you put it somewhere. Where did you put it? You put it in the wrong location. You directed your faith in the wrong direction. You are trusting in the wrong stuff. So where did you put it? And Jesus amazingly turned their attention back to him. And he calms the storm. I love how Bill frames it. He could calm the storm and bring peace to the storm around him because there was peace inside of him. If peace is not in you, there will never be peace around you. I am not a pessimist. I like to joke. I think people take life too serious. I think there are times to be serious. For me, it is six hours a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night. The rest of the time I am fooling around and joking. It is wonderful. I laugh all the time. It is great. I have so many reasons to be stressed and upset and mad and hurt and offended, but I would rather just laugh and make fun of our team. It is wonderful. No, I don't do that. I don't do that unless you are Austin. Then I do do that. That has been going on long before the ministry. All right. I love you, Austin. But while I am not a pessimist, I know people are acting like things are just going to get better on every front as the coming of the Lord approaches. And that is not what the Word teaches. Much of that is rooted in a supposed kingdom theology that just says everything is going to continue to get better and better on every front. The only problem with that is that the words of the king of that kingdom contradict that. Does that make sense to you? So that being the case, we are going to have to learn to live at peace and learn to live at rest. There is a massive unity movement now that is being led by people who are incredibly divided, saying they have the answer for peace while they are not at peace. So let me just help you with something. Don't follow anyone into a peaceful promise who does not exude peace themselves. Right? You don't go to Chick-fil-A to buy produce. They don't have it unless it is on a fried chicken glorious sandwich. We all know that. Okay. But we are cutting our carbs, so let's keep it moving. You don't go to a place that doesn't carry something to get it. You certainly don't follow someone who is promising something they don't have. Does that make sense? That being said, the kingdom is within us, and the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Spirit. Say this. Say, The Holy Spirit has generously shared the love of God in my heart. All right. What does this word mean, shed abroad? Well, it is similar to this phrase. It is similar to the parable of the sower. In the parable of the sower, you see the generous nature. Oh, my God. I must be doing good. Jesse is taking notes. When your wife is taking notes, it says something. Oh, man. Can we have a moment? Hit the keys. Hit the keys. Oh, Jesus. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. I am a blessed man. I am a blessed man. All your husbands are really fired up right now. One day your wife will take notes when you talk. All right. Okay. All right. Oh, man. Testosterone is tripling. I am such a man right now. All right. Okay. Thank you, babe. Just write faster. What was I saying? Okay. It is in my heart. Listen. Listen. In the parable of the sower, you see the nature of God, and it is so much higher. His nature is so much higher than our ways. To some of us, we would say, Lord, why would you even do that? Why would you throw seed on soil that doesn't qualify? Why would you even throw seed near the thorns? Why would you throw seed on shallow, rocky soil? Why wouldn't you just place the seed very meticulously on the proper plow line and on the perfect path where the Savior is walking? Why would you waste seed? It is a matter of God's justice. The seed is the Word. The Word has gone out at a rapid rate, at a speed that the world has never seen. Do you know, during COVID, Bible sales were already the top book being sold around the world forever. It's always been the number one book in the world, which says something, by the way. If wisdom is found in children, that says something, especially when it's been the book that's been attacked by regimes and governments for millennia, yet it's still the most purchased book in the world. During COVID, that number quadrupled. That's just Bibles. I'm talking about leather and paper and ink, not downloads, not apps. What's happening? He is scattering the Word. God is offering the Word to people He knows will not receive it, so that one day when they stand before the throne, they don't get to say, I just didn't know. No, you just have to turn your phone on. Well, such is the love of God that's shed abroad on our hearts. God is that generous. He just comes in and blows us up with the shedding of the love of God right here in us. So regardless of what goes on around me, it doesn't matter. If I can go within, as I said last week, and realize that the kingdom is within me, that my trust is not in a political leader. I'm not saying you shouldn't get out and vote and vote your convictions and vote the Scriptures. Of course you should. And for those of you who have never traveled abroad, I'd like to take you with me on a few trips, if you're normal, and if not, it'd be a long trip. But I can promise you, you will be happy to land back in Orlando where you can actually do this without hiding and worrying about being shot or killed. We are blessed people. Let me be really clear. And absolutely, I love this nation. But my trust is in the Lord, and that kingdom is actually within me. So you are literally a moving kingdom container. So if you're looking for the love of God to come a little closer, it's probably not. That's not to say you can't have encounters with the love of God. It is to say that the love of God has been shed abroad inside of you by the Holy Spirit. So He's the one who causes that glorious explosion to go off when you're born again. The lights come on. Oh my gosh, deer are not rats. Deer are God's creation, destiny. That's what happens when you're born again. I love people. You're happy. You're forgiving, right? All these changes take place when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and that is only by the Spirit. Let's get back into this word fellowship or communion based on the translation you have. Number one, it speaks of intimacy. That's Romans 5.5. Number two, it speaks of partnership. Oh, this is amazing. Say this. The Holy Spirit works with me. Say the Holy Spirit is looking for partnership. Now, I can't go too far here because it would mess you up, but I'm telling you right now, if you want to learn to flow in the anointing and carry the power of God and be entrusted with His power, I'm talking about the anointing, you must learn to partner with the Spirit. You have to. That is not the deepest place. There is an even deeper place. Rarely do we get there. We got there Sunday night, this last Sunday night. If you were in the room, you know what I'm talking about. If you weren't, watch it. I'm telling you, your heart will come alive. That, I hate using the word realm because it just sounds a bit like outer space, but that place where the anointing flows is a place of precept upon precept, obedience upon obedience, partnership, and it is the place of faith. It's where God says, pray for that person, you take the step, you touch them with your hand, power flows. God says, release that word of knowledge, you take the step, you take the risk, power flows. God says, preach that scripture, you obey the best you can, power flows. This is where the anointing flows. The anointing is the overflow of the power of the Messiah, the anointed one. Okay. The deeper place is once you've been entrusted and properly stewarded that anointing that God entrusts us with, and all of you are anointed if you're born again, all of you, as we steward that anointing, we step into a deeper place that is the manifest presence of the Lord. It is no longer a matter of partnership at that point, but God takes the field and does the work and you just watch. Everything in your flesh will fight that watching because you want to be part of it. God doesn't need you there. He just needs you to join the rest of the people in delightful adoration and watch the Lord do it. All right. But it doesn't start there. You don't just start in the glory of God. You start by stewarding the anointing that's on you. And so for me, before people were healed in the building, when I started preaching, I actually had to lay hands on them. That doesn't need to happen anymore. I still do it, but in the beginning, that's the only way it would happen. I didn't understand it until I was a few years into it. And I was realizing that God wanted me to take so many risks that those risks would kill the flesh. Because if you're not willing to look stupid, God can't trust you with a whole lot. You've got to be willing to fall on your face. And you say, well, what if I do? Well, you never really fall on your face if you're obeying God. Only to people you will. Does this make sense to you? Okay. So number two is partnership. Let me give you a Scripture to kind of help you with this partnership aspect. That is Mark 16 verse 19 through 20. Mark 16, 19 and 20. So then after the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. Listen to this. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them. Say with them. And confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen. That's how Mark ends his gospel. What a great way. Now, now listen carefully. The Bible is clear here in verse 19 that Jesus had been received up into heaven. But verse 20 says he went with them. It also says the Lord went with them. So Jesus is received up, seated at the right hand of God, which is vital. If He's not seated, He does not send the Spirit. We talked about that a few months ago. But now the Bible says the Lord went with them. Well, is the Holy Spirit the Lord? Did Jesus go with them? By the Spirit. So now we see that the disciples learned, this is pre-New Testament Scripture, imagine that. Imagine how much they got done without New Testament text. We have the New Testament and we're not getting a percentage of what they got done. But what did they do? What did they have that we don't have? One of those things is partnership. They knew Him. As Hebrews says, their senses had been trained to discern good and evil. You mean even physical senses? Yep. Yep. I've known over the last 10 years now, many times, what the Lord will do in a room because of what I feel in my body. I know when it's time for people to get touched in Mass. I know based on something I feel when I'm ministering, when it's time for healing. This is what it means to have your senses trained and to work with them or Him working with us. That's how real the Holy Spirit was to the disciples. They were so in love. There was such a communion, as Paul writes in the Corinthians, the communion of the Spirit or the fellowship of the Spirit that He went with them and they knew it. It's a wonderful thing to know He's with you. It's a horrible thing to know that He's not working. When He's not working, you shouldn't be working. Just have a seat. If you really want to look dumb, try doing stuff when He's not. I've done that too. I've done that too. All right. Number two, intimacy. I'm sorry. Number two, partnership. Number three, are you ready? Friendship. Friendship. These are all meanings of the word communion and fellowship. Friendship. I talked about that Sunday night. He is looking for friends. Now, has anybody here ever re-evaluated a friendship? It's healthy. By the way, it's a healthy thing. If you're going to give a lot of you to people in friendship, it needs to be a two-way street. It doesn't mean you need that to love them. But if you're going to walk in deep friendship with them, you cannot be a doorman. You cannot. There must be a give and take. It doesn't have to be dead even. But using friends is one of the most hurtful things people can do to one another. All right. When it comes to friendship with the Spirit, you're going to quickly discover something. You ready? His sensitivity. His sensitivity. Now, here's the question. When you begin to sense His sensitivity, or when He's wanting to reveal it, and He wants to talk about it, here's the question. Who will He talk to? Is the Holy Spirit going to share these intimate details with an angel? Is He going to share these intimate details, for the most part, with people outside the covenant? Is He going to share these intimate details to people who don't want to hear about them? No, of course not. Would you? So who is the Holy Spirit going to actually talk to? Say, me. You got it. Now, when He does, on this friendship level, a conversation is meant to be birthed. Most of us talk so much in prayer that we don't give Him a chance to share His heart with us. And the moment He tries, the prayer time is over. So we've relegated prayer to us talking. And the moment we're done talking, certainly there's nothing left to be said in the cosmos because I embody everything. No, of course not. So one of the beauties of waiting on the Lord, I hope you're getting this, is the releasing of His voice. Did the voice come from the bush when Moses turned aside to see? The voice always comes from His presence. I've said this to you many times. While we're looking for direction, He is looking for affection. We want to know how to do it. He wants to be the how. That's why Jesus never said, I have a way. He said, I'm the way. That was an answer to a question when His disciples asked Him, what is the way? He said, it's me. So if you can teach people into friendship with the Spirit, listen carefully, you will teach them into their destiny. I personally think that much of our destiny teaching, how to fulfill our dreams, how to plan this and how to plan that, is a waste of time outside of teaching people who God is. Simplicity is true depth. If your spiritual life, if your passions are complicated, there's some maturing that needs to take place. God doesn't, oh man, I hope some of you are getting this. God doesn't so much add to you as you mature as much as He reduces from you. Isn't it true? I'm talking about at a heart level. When we start this thing, we meet Jesus and I'm about Jesus, but I'm also about this. I'm about everything that comes with Him at a heart level. It's not that that stuff is evil, but the moment you disconnect anything from His presence, even if it's church kingdom stuff, it will become an idol. So it looks like well, why don't I just compromise a little bit and not trust the Holy Spirit to build the numbers of my church? Because after all, it's for their best. There's an old saying, why do God's work the devil's way? Right? And so you embrace worldly, seductive, Babylonian strategy to build God's house and then justify it by supposed converts and attendants. God does not need our compromise to build the kingdom. So the means do not justify. The means matter too. Or I should say the end does not justify the means. The means matter as well. In fact, we will be judged on the means. At the throne. Wood, hay, and stubble and silver, gold, and precious stones are a means issue. How you built what you built, what structure, what substance did you build with, congratulations. It's a big, big tower that reaches up to the heavens, but you built it. So it doesn't make it through. The how matters if you're looking for friendship. I have never once heard, listen to me, out of the tens of thousands that attend our events, I have never heard once heard the Holy Spirit press me for numbers. Never once. I've never heard him say you better get 12 to 15,000 there for Jesus 21. I've never once heard him say that, but you know what I have heard him say? You better get into the lives of your worship team. You better get into the lives of your team. You better get into your own life. If anything, he's pressed me to monitor our purity, not monitor the size of something. And look what God's doing. I mean, God doesn't need, He doesn't need our mixture. Can I have 10 extra? Good. Nino here will be. Stand up, Nico. So since you waited, Nico will be giving all of you a check. But the last time my father-in-law preached at church, he called him Nino or at school. And then he backhanded him in the stomach when he prayed for him and Nico had his eyes closed and he took one to the solar plex. It was one of the greatest moments in the history of Jesus school. Say, friendship is looking for friends. Thank you, Lord. Fourthly, oh, this is good. The word fellowship of communion or communion means presence. These are all meanings of the word. This is all 2 Corinthians 13, 14. The communion or the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. One of the meanings of that word is presence. OK, listen carefully. Paul is saying this. May the presence of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. What a promise. What a prayer. It is the presence, listen carefully, of the Holy Spirit that keeps us pure. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that keeps us saved. If he left you for a moment, you would lose your salvation. If he left you in here, you cannot be saved without his presence. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes a gathering a church. Say presence. If I hope you get this one, if you steward the presence of the Spirit, you will never have to worry about losing the power of the Holy Spirit. Many people have power but they have lost his presence. At that point you become an employee of God and you will have to answer for using the power to build your own kingdom. And that is what happens every time. You lose the presence, you will use the power for you. And it works. You see because the power of the Holy Spirit is magnetic. Why do you think since probably the early church, why do you think people who are anointed screw up so bad? Because they understand the magnetism. They understand if they snap their finger they will probably see breakthrough and they understand they can tell people to do something without the presence of God that is the purity of God, God himself. They will take that anointing and manipulate people to do what they want. I would say the most common theme at Jesus School is this. I found a place where I can trust our leaders and the one, I would say the most, the number one word I hear during a testimony or at graduation is this. Jesus, that is the number one which makes me happy. Number two purity. After that they will say I found leaders I can trust. Why? Because the presence here is tended to and is valued more than the power. That is why. But we need power because if you have a tumor that needs to go. If we are going to preach the gospel I want it to be filled with power. It is not to relinquish power. It is to say this though. If you give your heart and your time to his presence you will never have a power issue. You will never have a power outage and you won't manipulate it. Have you ever wondered why pastors get picked off so much or why affairs are so common in churches even if the pastor doesn't look like Brad Pitt? Have you wondered why he doesn't look like some bible figure you know? Who is the most handsome? What is it? The anointing. It is the anointing. Because you get a fallen heart who is also manipulative sitting out in the seats looking at that anointing. And that fallen heart that is bound to manipulation says I like the power. I am coming after him. That is why it happens. And the pastor hasn't been feasting on Jesus himself. He is addicted to metrics. Addicted to breakthrough. Addicted to numbers and influence. So he has lost the protection. But he still has power. Not realizing that he is not only magnetic to the saints. He is magnetic to Jezebel herself. The presence of God. The communion of the Holy Spirit. Let me give you one more. I have two more minutes. Blame it on Nino. The last meaning is to command. I like this. The last meaning of fellowship or communion is to command. This is wonderful because in case we get stuck on the friendship thing. The Holy Spirit wants to remind us that He can tell me what to do. You ready? Without a vote. Alright millennials check this out. You don't get a voice in this one. You just don't. You may not like it. He is not changing his mind. I am almost a millennial. I missed it by like two or three years I think. Someone told me that yesterday. I don't know what I am. I don't care. Alright. Okay. But you don't get a vote there. You don't. I have a voice. It's not changing him. But he is my friend. I know. But he is also God. I would like to change his mind. Good luck. There are some things you can. Moses did when it came to judgment because Moses' heart was reconciliation. I mean it would have helped Moses out a lot if God would have smoked all of Israel. They were giving him a problem. But because Moses was in the presence of the Holy Spirit, not just addicted to his position, he had a humble enough heart to say, Father don't smoke them. Don't kill them. And do you know what his main concern was? What would the kill us, the nations would say, you are not who you really are. So Moses was after God's reputation and so God relented. But I have news for you. If God says pray for that person, go here. Go there. Move there. Give there. And you go, we need to sit down and talk with us. I would like to change your mind. On that level it is not going to work. If the Holy Spirit wrote that Jesus is returning, it is a pointless negotiation. He is coming. So He is the commander. You have to know that. Steve Hill told me a story once. I never forgot it. During the Brownsville Revival, he rebuked a group of students because they had a school there. And they were acting a little, I don't know, a little wild. I think I am getting this right. He told it to me personally, in person. So he rebuked the students, but he didn't do it in love. And he walked out of that building. And when he walked out to his car, he said his body came off the ground. And bang, he was slammed into the ground. It happened more than once. And the Lord told him, don't you ever talk to them that way again. Just in case we forget. No, really. In case we start thinking, we own the Holy Spirit. We are the presence people. He works for us. He is on our payroll. We feel Him when we sing. And He also is God, who is the commander of the church. We have to remember that. To be His friend, you have to know boundaries. You have to know when you have just gone a little too far. Let me give you a quick story. This is a vulnerable story. One time, and then I will close. Can you help me, Janae? One time, I took the platform. John Wilds was up there. The presence of the Lord was there. And my joking self came up the platform. I walked up there. The mic was off. And I said something funny to John. And we always do that. I mean, when John and I travel together, you don't even need to do anything funny for John to laugh. And when he starts laughing, it's a runaway train. So I walked up there. I said something funny with him. Because, you know, being uptight, it doesn't help the Holy Spirit move either. Like being so serious, it actually restricts Him. So you do want to be relaxed. But I took it a little too far. And I just said something, nothing vulgar or anything. I just joked around. I'm just like something funny about a song or I think I asked him, I don't know. And he laughed. But when I went to the pulpit, I almost felt like my breath left me. I literally, I walked up to John. I went like this, came up the platform, said something funny just to keep everyone loose. I went back to the pulpit. And when I did, I was jarred by the fear of the Lord. And the Lord said, you just went too far. You stepped on this platform. My glory is here. Act accordingly. This is not the time to talk like that. So I tried to go on, but I couldn't preach. I had to go down and grab John and repent to him before I could preach. As a leader, I said, John, because you didn't say anything that was funny. I go, no, I know that. But that was a bad example. That was not leading according to the fear of the Lord. Please forgive me. I should know better after all these years. I should not. I can say that after service, before service. But when he's there, that was the wrong statement at the wrong time. And John was jarred by it. So was I. He's the commander.