Jesus and the Holy Spirit

Turn to Luke chapter 1. My subject that I'm going to be looking at is the Holy Spirit and Jesus. And it's kind of difficult because basically this conference has been given over to who has the most flesh. And, uh, and trying to compete in that.

And I, uh, I've tried. You know, I mean, I was sitting there, Raul was talking about how his wife, you know, when he gets home, you know, tells him it's lousy. And I was thinking, boy, I wish my wife had that much tact.

And, uh, because she doesn't wait till we get home. One Sunday, I'm standing, people are coming out. It's one of those nice Sundays, you know, where it all came down the way that you were hoping it would come down.

And the people are coming out and just telling me how they appreciate the message and stuff. And my wife is standing next to me and this woman comes up to her and says to her, you know, it just must be wonderful to have him for a husband. And, you know, and I'm listening to this while I'm, you know, this little conversation and think, ah, she needs to hear this, you know, and how, uh.

She says to this lady, I mean, coming out of church, in line, right after church, you ought to wash his underwear for a week. Man, I'd take going home and saying it's lousy any day. I'm sitting there, wait a minute.

And, of course, I got to enter in by saying, well, if you'd let me, if I didn't have to wear them a whole week, it wouldn't be so bad. But, uh, anyway, another time she's getting ready for a conference and is really concerned about what she was going to share. So I just kind of said, well, which one of my sermons would you like to borrow? She says, neither.

You know, I, well, you don't know how good you've got it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this few days together.

It's been, it's been fun, it's been refreshing. And, Lord, we thank you for your love for us. The joy we have in you.

Serving you, loving you, worshiping you. Father, we thank you for your love for us. How you love your servants, how you care for them.

You watch out. And, Lord, we ask that as we just continue this morning, you would minister to us and speak to us. Father, we ask it in Jesus' name.

What I want to do is just as a, as kind of in the thing, is look at the relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The reason that I want to do this is in Corinthians, Paul tells us about Jesus in a couple places. One, that he is the second man.

Another, that he's the last Adam. And that there as Jesus came into the world, he came in really to reflect to us the quality of life that was forfeited in Adam and to reveal once again humanity to us as it was really designed and meant to be lived. Peter tells us that he was our example.

Paul tells us we are to be imitators of Christ. And that, and when you look at his life and his relationship with the Holy Spirit, I'm going to give you a number of scriptures as we're kind of running through, and I hope that in it we'll realize the phenomenal relationship that there was between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit through the life of Jesus on a continuous basis. In Luke chapter 1, I'll just, you can write them down, you can try to run along with me, but I want to, when at the very beginning obviously of Jesus' life, when there Gabriel is speaking to Mary, in verse 31 of Luke 1, it says, And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.

And he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be seen? I know not a man. The angel answered, he said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also the Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

But the first thing that we see about Jesus even in his coming into the world is that first of all, Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit. When there in his life, not only physically, but in every sense of the word, it was absolutely imperative that the Holy Spirit give him the life and that he was born of the Spirit of God. And the very first thing that we see about him is that number one, he was born of the Spirit.

And not only, of course, was Jesus someone that was born of the Spirit, but we find in Hebrews chapter 9, in verse 14, a beautiful verse that just simply says about Jesus that he offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit without spot, without blemish. That there was something that not only was Jesus born of the Spirit, but he also, through the Holy Spirit, he offered his humanity to God's deity through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was the one through whom not only Jesus was born, but he was also the one through whom Jesus offered himself to God.

He was the one through whom the relationship, while Jesus was here on earth, it was through the ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit that that relationship was not only born of, but also was being sustained by. At the time that that happened, it tells us in Hebrews chapter 10, that in verse 5 it says, Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared me, and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God.

And here we have, it says about Jesus, this is from back in Psalm 40, but it says when he came into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings for sin thou hast had no desire, but a body thou hast prepared me. Then said I, Lo, it is written of me in the volume of the book to do thy will. And so there, at the very birth of Jesus, when he was born to the Spirit, when he came into this world, not when he was 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 or 30, but at the very initiation of his life here on this planet, and here as a person, as a human being, he turned and when he came into the world, he looked and God said, God, sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings for sin thou hast had no pleasure or desire.

He's saying, God, you don't want my time or my energy or my effort. You don't want my little money, a little involvement. What you want, you've prepared a body for me, and it is written in the book for me to do your will.

And Jesus was somebody that his life was offered to God through the eternal Spirit from the day he came. He was somebody born to the Spirit. He was somebody that he was offered to God through the Holy Spirit.

And there as he grew, it's interesting, there's a verse about Jesus, very always interested me, but it says that he learned obedience. And to me, of course, the way that I interpret that is, uh-oh, that means sometime he must have been disobedient. If you've got to teach somebody obedience, the subtle thing about that is that maybe they must be disobedient somewhere.

But the amazing thing about Jesus is that when he became a man, and he humbled himself, and he took upon himself the form of a servant, and he took on this human flesh, and he stepped from his glory, and for his 33 years of humiliation, in effect, there he had to do something now as a man that he had never ever done before as God. And he had to learn something that every man everywhere has to learn if they're going to truly be a man. And that is that not only are they born of the Spirit, not only are they offered to God through the Spirit, but they obey the Spirit.

Something he'd never done as God before was obeyed. Now, though, if he was truly going to be an example to us, and if he was truly going to reveal to us what men are like, what men think about themselves, what they think about God, what they think about others, what they think about anything, it is going to be typified through a life of obedience to God. And through the Spirit, specifically, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew chapter 3, at Jesus' baptism, it says in Matthew 3, 17 there, that, in fact, you know, one of the interesting things to me is how that when John, you know, there is, as Jesus comes out to John, and John, knowing who he is, realizing that he is standing there in the presence of the second person, the triune God in, now standing before him, and he's out there to be baptized, he says, I shouldn't baptize you. He says, it's up to be so for now. He says, because I am here to fulfill all righteousness.

I am here in my humiliation, not to play man at times, but to be one at all times. And one thing that all men do is they completely identify with God in any and every way that they can. He said, John, be about your business, baptize me.

And there is, you know, it's something that as John is standing there realizing who he is in glory, but now Jesus is there standing in his humanity and says, no, this is the way it will be. And as Jesus comes up out of the water, the heavens are open, the Spirit of God descends upon him as a dove, and the Father says, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And you know, one of the most interesting things about that is so far we don't have anything recorded about Jesus and what he did.

He hadn't preached a sermon, healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out a demon. He had done nothing whatsoever ministry-wise at all, and yet God says what he is pleases me. And what was it? He was born of the Spirit.

He was offered to God through the Spirit. He was obedient to the Spirit. He was fulfilling everything.

It wasn't the size of his ministry or the greatness of it. It wasn't anything that he had done that the Father says, that's what pleases me. It's the fact that God had somebody that was entirely his, that he could do whatever he wanted to, anywhere, anytime, anyhow, through him.

He'd never had anybody like that since Adam walked away and said, no, thank you. But now he had somebody that once again through the Spirit, he was born of the Spirit, you know, walked in the Spirit, submitted to the Spirit, and he loved it. And he enjoyed it.

And God says, this is so pleasing to me to have a vessel like this, to have a tool like this, to have a relationship like this with somebody here on earth. And, you know, there is, as we realize, it isn't what we do that pleases God, it's what we are. So often we think that if we do a lot of things that please God, then somehow or another there is a merit of all that, we will become pleasing to God in what we are.

It's never that way. It's what we are. Later on, Jesus in John 8, 29, He says, I do only always those things that please the Father.

So what He did please is God. But what He did please God was because what He was pleased God. He was God's tool.

He knew what it was to walk in the life and in the power of the Spirit. And, you know, one of the most interesting things is the very first thing that happens there is the Spirit of God is there, of course, already He was born of the Spirit. He'd walked in the Spirit.

He'd submitted to the Spirit for 30 years so far. But now at the initiation of what He was going to do, after what He had already been for 30 years, now it's like this could do something. And the interesting thing, the very first thing that happens is Jesus finds Himself in the wilderness where He was tempted to the devil for 40 days.

But the interesting thing about that, we oftentimes think that the devil came along to try to thwart the ministry of Jesus before it got going. That wasn't what happened at all. Because Luke 4, 1 begins by saying, Being filled with the Spirit was led by the Spirit in the wilderness where He was tempted to the devil for 40 days.

Here we have Jesus not only born of the Spirit, offered to God through the Spirit, pleasing to God because of the Spirit. Now we have Him filled with the Spirit and led or more literally driven by the Spirit. That here under the office and the authority of the Holy Spirit, there is we have the second person that God had now humbled Himself down, becoming lower than the angels.

As a man He did what any and all men ought to always do and that is submit to the Holy Spirit because He runs His life. And therefore being filled with the Spirit, He was driven by the Spirit. And this to me is one of the most beautiful and wonderful things that happens in the ministry of Jesus.

It was like as far as the Holy Spirit was concerned before we go out and we do anything with humanity. It was like the Holy Spirit had a piece of business that He wanted to settle with the devil that had laid dormant ever since the garden. Because He drove now there that He had another body that was His.

He had a second Adam. He had another man. The only other one that He really had like this since they'd made the first one.

And now here's the second one. The first piece of business, unlike though being there in a paradise in the comforts and the beauty of the garden, He sends Him out and He drives Him into the wilderness and He lets Him deplete in energy and everything for 40 days. Let's Him come to the exhaustion, not where He's even high and up and on the pinnacle and enjoying all the blessings of God.

He takes Him out in barrenness and in emptiness and hunger and stars Him as God sits Him out there. Letting the devil sit there and watch the whole thing as He gets emaciated and He physically begins to deteriorate and His body begins to send all of its impulses toward something. And then there is the devil is setting up.

This is His piece of business. I mean this is the Holy Spirit's piece of business with the devil. And then the devil comes.

If ever he's got a shot at Him, now's it. If ever there's a contest that if there's ever anything to do, now He shows up on the scene after God lets Him sit and rot for 40 days. And at the end of that, after He was tempted all the way through it says, but He comes to Him.

Now at the end of this, and He says to Him in His tragedy, because in the King James it says, if you're God. As if there's a question, as if there's anything going on between the devil and Jesus like, gee, I've heard rumors. I wonder if you might be the one who created all of us and everything else.

He knew exactly who He was talking to, literally because you're God. He knew exactly who He was talking to when He was talking to Jesus there out in the wilderness. And He turned to Him and said, because you're God, He says, turn this stone to bread.

Do it. And there is the Holy Spirit, I mean the devil was trying to get Jesus to behave as God. To use His deity to get through this trial and through this struggle.

And you know one of the most beautiful responses that I don't think we've ever sometimes really stopped to realize, but the response that Jesus had when He came right back to the devil and He looked at Him and He says, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. As if to look at Him and say, listen, there's a couple things I want to make quite clear. Yes, I am God.

But at the same time, I also want you to realize, I don't need to be God to meet you. All I need to do is be a man filled with the Spirit of God. All I need to do is be somebody that's born of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, led, guided, offered.

And then God, the Holy Spirit, resident within me, He'll be sufficient in every issue. And all I need to do is be a man filled with the Spirit. He'll take care of me through all of the trials, all of the struggles.

And you know I think that one of the first things that the Holy Spirit wants to do when He calls anybody into ministry, isn't anything unique that He did with Jesus? It's a pattern. And whether it's 40 days or it's 10 years or it's 50 years or whatever it is, while He takes somebody out there and He wants to settle a piece of business, say, are you mine? Are you somebody that under the pressure or under the trials, it'll hit you later on, you're going to succumb to it. Or when the devil offers you this or that later on, as heavy as all of those things are, whose are you going to be? And some of us, early on in the ministry, we go through a lot of things and there's a lot of barren valleys and there's a lot of wildernesses.

But so often, it's nothing other than the Holy Spirit wanting to bring us through something and wanting to really find out whose are we anyway? What are we in it for anyway? Who's called us? Who's empowered us? Under who is it that we serve? And there is Jesus in the midst of the whole thing. It's His life. He could turn back to the devil and look at him there and say, I don't need it anymore.

And there was something that the Holy Spirit, He wanted this settled before anything else. He knew what it was, that the drop of a hat back in a garden and all of the pleasures, all the comforts, in paradise, nothing less than that. At the drop of a hat, the devil would come in and say, hey, follow me.

And just, off they went. And now it's something where now the Holy Spirit's got another body and He sends Him out there into the wilderness and He says, we've got one thing to settle. And you know the beautiful thing there is Jesus settled it.

There was never again, as the devil came to want to tempt Him, that business was over. That was settled. I think a lot of times because we avoid those wilderness experiences, we have great trials later on in the ministry because we've never truly settled that business.

The devil had nothing more to say to Jesus in terms of trying to afford Him because he'd already lined up at his best. And I think one of the greatest hours of blessing in our life so often is in the wilderness because there we can settle some things that later on won't necessarily come back to haunt us if we truly settle them. But if we avoid them and we maneuver our way around the trials, then later on they'll come back because the enemy's still got something he can entice us with or draw us away with or bring us down.

But here as Jesus then comes out of the wilderness in Luke chapter 4, goes on to tell us in verse 14. It says, And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit unto Galilee, where there went out a fame of Him through all of the region round about. Here we have somebody born of the Spirit, offered to God through the Spirit, submissive or obedient to the Spirit.

Now we have somebody who lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. And there as He comes out from this wilderness experience, He comes out in power. He comes out there with the dominance, the reign, the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit.

They're being executed within His life and fame begins to go out from Him round about the countryside. Verse 16, And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and He stood up for to read.

And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found a place wherein it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering the sight of the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

And He closed the book and He gave it again unto the minister and sat down in the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened upon Him. And He began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your eyes. Here we have born, fed, filled and led and guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And now as He initiates His public ministry, He walks into the synagogue, He opens up to Isaiah and He says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me because He has anointed Me. And then He proceeded to say what the Spirit of God had anointed Him and was going to be doing through Him for the next three years. He says this is what you're going to expect to see the Holy Spirit doing in and through and round about my ministry for the next three years.

He said I'll lay it out. Here's the program, here's the outline of what He will be doing through this body submitted to Him. Born of Him, filled, guided, empowered by Him.

He says now you can watch Him do these things for me for the next three years. He is going to be preaching the gospel to the poor. He will be sending me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach the deliverance to the captives, recovering the sight of the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

He'll do this. You know the thing that is so important I think sometimes to realize is how entirely Jesus lived as a man. And one of the things that is typical as a man is a man is somebody that is in the image of God.

And an image of God is simply a reflection of who God is. That they allow God to completely rule and reign within their whole lives. In every situation by the power and the life and the dynamic of the Holy Spirit.

In John 17, as Jesus came down towards the last hours of His ministry, as He came before the Father, He says, Father, glorify Thou me with the glory that I had with Thee before the world began. And He says, I have done the works that You have given Me to do. I have said the works that Thou has given Me.

I said the words that You have given Me to say I have done the works that Thou has given Me to do. And He says, I have fulfilled all of the things that You have laid out for Me to do. And He says, as You have given those unto Me whom You will, Thine they were, You gave them to Me.

And He goes on, He says, of those that Thou has given Me, I have not lost any, except the son of perdition, that's which might be fulfilled, because that was already laid out for us. I've done everything You've always wanted Me to do. Every moment of every day.

It has always been Your words, Your work. My key has been to live in submission to You and to Your life and to Your power. You have been leading Me and guiding Me just like You wanted to do any and every man around that would ever trust You and let You empower.

Empower their life the way that life was designed to be. I've been a good example, Father. And there is eternity.

It was something, you know, one of the amazing things to me about Jesus in John 5.30, when the Pharisees are coming to Him and they're asking Him, who do You think You are and what right do You have to do this and say all this stuff and where do You get Your credentials and where is Your authority? He then turned, in one of the most amazing verses, Jesus said, I can on my own self. But as I hear, I respond and my response is always right because I seek not my own will but the will of Him that sent me. He said, if you imagine here, here we have the second person, the triune God had never lied.

But in His humiliation, as He came to show man what it is like to live as a man, that if you're going to truly be a man, you're somebody, you're born of the Spirit, you're filled with the Spirit, you're led by the Spirit, you're guided by the Spirit, you're empowered by the Spirit, you're anointed by the Spirit, your whole life is typified by the Holy Spirit giving you that relationship with God day in and day out as you're living under His office because that's what a man is. But there as He looked at Himself and He had taken on that humanity, it just wasn't kind of a little earth suit where behind it He lived in His own power. That's what the devil tried to get Him to do because if Jesus had to use His own power to get out of the trial that He was in in the wilderness, what would we have when we're in the trial? Because we're not God.

And so He could sit there and in effect divest Himself of His own authority or of His own deity, live in His humility and His humanity and find that the sufficiency of the Holy Spirit was as sufficient as His own deity was if He relied on Him. That He could sit there and live in complete submission in every trial and to find the sufficiency of God in all of life. And He did that for us.

One of the great tragedies, interestingly about, that I just was told a little while back, is that how that there's a, I think it's from the positive confession theology group, but how that Jesus, that He wasn't God when He died. Is that right? Is that what they're... That His deity wasn't there or something when He died. You know, the interesting thing to me, in John 17, when Jesus there is praying to the Father, He says, Father, I have glorified Thee on earth.

And He says, Now glorify Thou Me with the glory that I had with Thee before the world began. The whole 33 years of the life of Jesus Christ, He lived there glorifying His Father, honoring His Father. And the one clear picture that we have of Jesus, all by Himself in effect, in His deity, in His glory, in His awesomeness, was on the cross.

When there, the Father stepped back and He says, Here He is. Here's God, the second person, the triune Godhead. Here's the creator of heaven and earth.

Not only proving that He can create the world, but He can recreate it through His own blood and His forgiveness of sins. He wasn't... His deity hadn't left Him. It was the ultimate reflection of all that it was, is now the Father said, Alright, He's been glorifying Me for the last 33 years.

Now, I'm going to glorify Him and let you see something of what He is really like. But there is... Jesus lived His life in the power and in the ministry of the Holy Spirit every moment of every day. It's interesting in Acts chapter 1. It's all the way from Bethlehem to the Mount of Olives.

It never changes. Acts chapter 1 in the form of treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus both began to do and to teach until the day at which He was taken up after that He, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen. Here we have not only born of the Spirit, but the very last thing that He's doing before He's taken up is through the power of the Holy Spirit giving them commandments.

But the whole explanation of His life was not His own deity of which He would never rob God whatsoever to live in His power. No, as Paul makes it quite clear, who being in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, He could have commanded and demanded and expressed His equality any moment. As the one who in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God, and by Him were all things made.

And without Him was not anything made that was made. He didn't come, though, in that. It's like He divested Himself by act of His own will.

That's what blew John's mind when he's looking at Him and realizing who He is. I know who You are. You should be baptizing me.

And he says, because I'm here not only to show you who God is, but I'm also here to show you who man is and what men are like if they really want to experience true humanity. And there as he lived his life, it was totally in the ministry and in the power of the Holy Spirit. He goes on in John chapter 14 with his disciples, and he is sharing them, of course, one of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible.

Here as the disciples, all confused and frustrated, all they know is tomorrow there's leaders leaving them, and one of them is going to deny them, one is going to betray them. All of them, like sheep, are going to scatter each into their own, and they can't understand what in the world is going on, and there's more commotion in their life than they've ever known. And with that, Jesus turns and He says, Let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God. I believe also in Me. In My Father's house were many mansions, but not so I said.

I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am you may be also. And whether I go you know, and the way you know.

Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus turns and He says, I'm the way, and I'm the truth. And there He said, that I'm the way back to God, and I'm the truth.

There's only been one person never in the history of the world who can say that. We can say, I know truth, I believe truth, I believe truth, I teach truth, I subscribe to it. But Jesus can say, I am truth.

I'm the absolute exposition and declaration of the truth about God, the truth about man, the truth about life, the truth about anything, I'm the way, I'm the truth. He says, just trust Me. Just center your life around Me.

Let Me be the one through whom it revolves around. Study Me, know Me, evaluate Me. Look at Me from cover to core.

You'll find more and more life all the way through it. If you had known Me, you should also have known My Father, and should henceforth have known Him. Henceforth, you have known Him, and try it again.

He says, henceforth, you know Him, you've seen Him. And then Philip speaks up, and he says, show us the Father. That'll be sufficient.

Jesus, we don't know what's going on. We don't understand You at all. And He says, just show us the Father.

That will be sufficient. And Jesus looks and He says, have I been so long with you? And yet, thou hast not known Me. You don't understand Me at all, do you? You don't know what makes Me tick.

You don't really know how I was born, how all of this ministry that's happened in and through and around about Me, you're trying to attribute it to Me. And He says, but you've seen Me. You've seen the Father.

And He says, now you know Him. And He says, you've seen Him. And, you know, that's one of the most amazing things about Jesus Christ is that we, in one sense, He's somebody that we don't know anything about, and in another sense, He's one that we know everything about.

But He was somebody that always only revealed the Father. It was His whole life. In John 12, 44, one of the most amazing verses, it says that Jesus cried, and He says, He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me.

Imagine that. You spend years trying to lead somebody to Jesus Christ, and now they finally come to Jesus Christ. By the way, you really don't believe in Him.

You believe in the Father. You see, because you don't know Me, you know Him through Me. And it's something, you know, He says that when you come into a living relationship with Me, it is My ministry and My joy to introduce you to Him.

And that's who you've been seeing every moment of every day. He that has seen Me has seen the Father. It's always been Him.

Through the life and the dynamic and the power of the Holy Spirit. Preaching, teaching, healing, walking, loving, ministering. You know, everything that's happened every moment of every day, the Father expressed Himself by the person and the power of the Holy Spirit through the Son.

Believe us now, not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He does the words. He says, what's always been has just been the Father in Me, through Me.

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the very works sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than he do, because I go unto My Father. And now Jesus says one of the most amazing things.

He says, the life that you've seen Me live. He said, you can live it too. As He is looking there, He says, if you adopt an attitude towards Me like I have towards Him.

He that believeth on Me, like I believe on Him. If you will give Me that place in your life, like I have given Him place in My life. The works that He has done through Me, I'll do through you and greater.

Incidentally, as you're probably aware, that's not greater in quality, but it is in quantity. At that time, there was one physical, visible body through which an invisible God was living. But as others adopted the same attitude towards a living God by the power and the life of the Holy Spirit that this one had, He could then say, as you have that same moral relationship with Me that I have with Him, the life that has come from Him to me will go to you.

And there will be more people running around doing the ministry, comforting, healing broken hearts, seeing people's lives come together. He says, you will see these things happen because I go to My Father. In verse 16, it says, I will pray the Father that He shall send you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.

Even the Spirit of truth in the world cannot receive because it is He. Neither knoweth Him, but you know Him. For He dwelleth with you and He shall be in you.

Now as Jesus is beginning to explain what's been making Him tick to the disciples, as He shares with them, He says, when I get to the Father, I'm going to ask Him that He will give you another Comforter. And as you're no doubt aware, that's another of the same type that He's expressing there, that He may abide with you forever. And He says, even the Spirit of truth in the world cannot receive because it's He.

Neither knoweth Him, but now He says to them an amazing thing. He says, but you know Him. We know Him.

The Psalms of the Lord, we know Him. Never introduced Him to us. He says, you know Him because He's been with you.

But He shall be in you. And there as He continues, He goes on and He says in verse 18, He says, I won't leave you comfortless. I will come to you.

And you know, this is one of the most amazing verses to me that there is in the Bible. And one of the things that is personally a great blessing to me throughout history, we've tried to figure out the Trinity. And the only thing that really gives me great comfort is the Trinity can't figure out the Trinity either.

Really. Here Jesus on one hand said, I won't leave you comfortless. I'll pray to the Father that He will send you another comforter, even the Spirit of truth in the world can't receive.

Neither see Him, nor know Him. But you know Him. Has been with you, shall be in you.

I won't leave you comfortless. I'm coming again. One breath, He says, the Holy Spirit, He will come to you.

I won't leave you comfortless. I'm coming. Now wait a minute.

Who's coming? Who do I put on the placemat? Who's invited to dinner? The thing is, is that we don't understand is that they don't have a problem with that. We do. And the reason we do is we have something that's foreign to them.

It's called ego. A need for a self-identity. Who we are.

What we do. How we do it. Why we do it.

And so we have something, all of our own self, separate from anything and everybody else, but something to the one and three and the three and one, having the slightest concern of because they're the embodiment of love. And love doesn't think of itself but an interest in itself. It is something that they're, all that it does is as others.

And that's where they're always wrapped up in. They're concerned. You know, in terms of, you know, I think sometimes if you really listen to us when we pray a lot, the way that we pray is so interesting because we'll start off, you have a picture there of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you know, round in us, something else.

There as we start to pray, Dear Father, Oh, that's me. Now I just thank you, dear Lord Jesus. Oh, you're on.

You know, and how that, you know, for the wonderful worth of the Holy Spirit. Oh, that's me. You know, and how that we, as we get in our prayers, we go back and forth all around.

They aren't interested. They don't care about that. It is, oh, my turn.

I'm on. This is me. They don't have that problem because they don't have ego.

They didn't fall. And what we fell from and what was created through the fall is this thing that says we want to know who you are all by yourself. Oftentimes, wouldn't it be wonderful if there was just a chapter, a bunch of verses in the Bible where Jesus would have just laid it out? It's all there in the Bible, but it would have been so nice if Jesus would have just said, listen, I want to make something absolutely, perfectly clear.

I am the second person to try and God and the creator of heaven and earth. The I am, you know, that I am. Timeless, eternal, ever-present God.

I am the only one there that is the redeemer of the whole world. And, you know, I mean, again, it's all there, but you got to go and get it in because it's just subtle here and there. But there is, it wouldn't be wonderful if there's just one thing and anybody else that comes up wants to, you know, lift them up to my height or lower them down to your height.

It wants to take away from my glory and not worship me or fall down or anything else. You know, and the whole thing is there as he could lay it out. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he just had a verse, a chapter in the Bible that's made absolutely clear? You can find it there.

It's all there somewhere. And how many cults could have just been taken care of? But you see, it would have violated his nature because, you see, Jesus really didn't like talking by himself. That's the one thing about all of them.

You know, it's like Jesus loved to glorify the Father and he said, I'm going to tell you about the Holy Spirit because when he comes, he's not going to talk about himself either. He'll glorify me. He says, so anything you want to know about the Father, I'll be glad to tell you anything you want to know about the Holy Spirit, I'll tell you about him.

But I'm not too interested in talking about myself. But however, anything you do want to know about me, he'll tell you because he loves to glorify me. He's all wrapped up in who I am.

He'll tell you the Father's. And it's the Father's joy that when I'm baptized, this is my beloved Son. And so he loves to glorify thee.

He loves the Holy Spirit. He loves to do those things. But you can never pin any one of them down.

It won't do it. It won't do it. Because that's love.

And that's the way they are. But here Jesus said, I won't leave you to come to this outcome. And in a little while, the world will see me no more, but you'll see me and because I live, you'll live also.

He said a little while when I'm glorifying. He says in a little while, the world isn't going to see me anymore. But you will.

You're going to go on seeing me long after I'm gone. You're going to go on experiencing me day in and day out. Just like I've experienced the Father having seen Him.

I've seen Him every moment of every day. As He lived in the power and the life of the Holy Spirit. Seeing Him so well that He could do His works and share His words and live in His life and live in His power expressing Him completely day in and day out.

He says in a little while, He says the life that I live, you'll live too. Because I'm going to give it to you. It'll be yours.

And at that day, He says you're going to know the most wonderful, thrilling thing in all the world. I'm in the Father. You're in me.

He said that day, the thing that was forfeited in the garden, in sin, it'll be back again. We'll share our life. We'll share our fellowship.

We'll walk together. What was robbed from God and ripped away from Him, we'll have it back. John 15, verse 26.

He says, But when the Comforter has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceeded from the Father, He shall testify of me. And you shall bear witness because you've been with me from the beginning. Here He says now when the Holy Spirit comes, who I'll send to the Father, He says, which proceeded from the Father, He will testify of me.

And you also will bear witness because you've been with me from the beginning. He says, when the Holy Spirit comes, He's going to talk about me. He'll do that.

He loves to do it. And He says, and you'll bear witness. You'll know exactly who He is.

You'll know exactly who He's talking about because you've been with me for three years and the voice that you hear from Him won't be anything different than what you've heard from me. He isn't some weird thing aura that moves in and through and round and about and you can't get your grasp on Him and know who He is and what He is. He's the explanation of me.

If you know me, you'll know Him. You'll bear witness of Him right away when He comes along because you've walked with me for three years. You know my life.

It's just that when He comes, it'll be without my body, but it'll be with His life. You'll recognize Him right away. You won't have any trouble.

Same life. Same everything. Verse 5, chapter 16, But now I go my way to Him that sent me and none of you asked of me whither goest thou.

But because I have said these things, sorrows filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It's expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.

But if I depart, I will send him unto you. Here He says, He says, I'm telling you how to go away. And He says, when I tell you this, He says, sorrows fill your heart.

He says, but nevertheless, I tell you, it's expedient that I go away. You see, because if I don't go away, He says, what's important now is, you see, I've got to leave so I can get out of this body and come back and get in yours. Because in the midst of that, there was one life that had a right relationship with God, that they had walked close to, very close to, for the last three years.

The only thing is, though, is He wasn't in them. Peter was still Peter. John was still John.

Oh, they could rub shoulders and feel security and feel a sense of presence and sufficiency and love coming from. But at the same time, it's like Jesus saying, you've enjoyed these last three years, you wait till I get out of my body and into yours. You wait until the life that I've shared, you know, that's come from me now begins to go in you.

But the most beautiful thing is Jesus said to the woman at the well, as He shared with her, He says, the water that I shall give you shall be as a well springing up unto everlasting life. And He says, when we get in, we'll begin to flow through, as you just have the same relationship that He's had. Verse 13, albeit when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He'll guide you into all truth.

He won't speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me for He shall receive of mine and shall show it to you all things that the Father has of mine. Therefore said I, that He shall take of mine and He'll show it to you.

He said when He comes, He'll lead you into all truth. It's interesting, thy word is truth. The Spirit will never violate the truth, the word of God.

He'll lead you into it. And He'll lead you into the thrill and the power and the blessing and the flow of it. It's unending.

And He says, He'll lead you into it. He says, He'll glorify me. By the way, He says, whatsoever He shall hear, He says, He's just like me.

When He comes, He'll just have the joy of passing on life to you. And He says, all things that the Father has of mine, all mine is yours. I wouldn't leave you with anything less to live than I have.

You know, as Jesus shared with the disciples at the end, He says, as the Father has sent me, even so send I you. We use that scripture all the time on being sent. We emphasize time to go out, go, missions.

It's not what He had to say at all. In the context of it, He said, in the same manner in which the Father sent me, that have I sent you. I won't ever send you off into the wilderness or into the ministry or out to serve me with anything less than I came.

If I had to come being born in the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, driven by the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit, I wouldn't offer you anything less to go do my work and my bidding for me. So with everything that I've been given, it's yours. And you know, as He says, the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood aloud and He cried, and He says, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.

And out of his innermost being will gush forth torrents of living water. That this faith, he of the Spirit, oh, I missed the most critical part of that whole verse. Because it says, he that believeth on me as the Scripture has said.

Out of his innermost being. It's like Jesus saying, whoever adopts an attitude towards me, believes on me the way that somebody ought to believe on me. He said the same thing is flowing through my life.

The exact same power, the same life, as we just come and just yield ourselves over to the Spirit of God. And as God sends you back to minister on His behalf, He says to you, as the Father sent me, so send on you. Don't go with less.

But you also won't have any less to deal with than He did either. He had His trials, He had His temptations. But He was honored to do it.

It was something that He could look and say, all the wilderness you want to put me through. Because He could look there and realize that His other self, the Holy Spirit, had been ripped out of man once. And that wounded them all.

And now when He came and He lived as a man, He said, wound me so that you may never be wounded again. You've been driven out of man once, you'll never be driven out of me. I'm born of you.

And let me hunger, let me starve. I'll live by what you say. The words that proceed out of your mouth.

I'll honor you by life or by death. And you know, when we go through the wilderness and we go through that and we come out, we'll stand. We'll stand with authority.

We'll stand with conviction. We'll stand with power. And the words that we'll have will be ones that God's same Holy Spirit will anoint them.

Because we honor Him. Don't be drawn into anything else but Him. Born, led, filled, empowered by Him.

Let's pray. Father, as we come before You, we thank You for these days of refreshing and sharing. But Lord, as wonderful it is to share with one another, there's nothing more wonderful than sharing with You your life.

And Jesus, I thank You that You come to every one of us and by Your Holy Spirit You want to share Your life with us. You don't just want to fill a room here and have us express the worship and the joy of sensing Your presence. You've been with man for a long time.

You want to be in them, in power. And Jesus, we come before You and we ask that You as our model, that we wouldn't do anything less than what You did. Because Lord, if You said You couldn't do anything, how much more could we? And Lord, maybe some of us are tired and we're exhausted, but it's good that we're tired.

It's good that we're exhausted. We've found that it's really been us for You instead of You and us. And Lord, we ask that You would just take Your Word and settle it deep within us.

You are our God and our Master. And how we thank You for Your love. Thank You that through the countless centuries You've gone on loving and caring and just waiting for someone to love and care You back.

And Lord, we just open up our hearts to You and Your Holy Spirit. We ask that You'd fill us afresh. Lord, that You'd come upon us, that You would anoint us.

It would never be us standing in pulpits and just saying, here's what I'm here to do for God. But we could stand there and say, here's what God's here to do for Himself. I've just offered Him the body.

He's got the power. I've just surrendered my physical visible being over to an invisible God that wants to be incarnate once again. And I'm tired of what I do with my own flesh and so it's His now.

And Lord, I just pray that we'd have a new secret of our ministry and it'd be a new power like never before. And Lord, there would be an anointing and a flow that would be a blessing to You, first of all. A blessing that in us, You'd talk to us and we'd just turn and respond and say, yes, Lord.

And that You would just have such a flow that You could look at us and say, I'm well pleased. I like the way You've been born. And I like the way You're filled.

And I like the way You live. And You aren't enticed by every little tree in the garden. You live by me.

Lord, I just pray that You'd have Your will and Your way within us even this day. For Jesus, we thank You for all You want to give to us and we just want to receive it now. In Your wonderful name we pray, Amen.

You know, putting together the things that Don has just shared with us were the things that Gail shared with us the other night. As Jesus said, As the Father has sent Me, so send I You. Realizing that that same Spirit that raised Him from the dead dwells in us.

Going forth as Christ went forth, anointed and empowered by the Spirit, as we also have been born of the Spirit. And again, coming to the 13th chapter of John where Jesus made that remarkable statement, All power is given unto Me in heaven. And then took and girded Himself with a towel and began to serve His disciples.

And Jesus said, I have set an example for you. Suddenly I began to realize that all of the power of God has been directed toward serving man. So that power of God, and I realize that I can't really serve man apart from the power of God.

My ego won't let me do it. You see, my natural bent is I want men to serve me. Jesus said, I didn't come to be ministered to.

I came to minister. I didn't come that man might serve me. I came to serve man.

To give my life for them. And I think that this perhaps is the concept that God wants to impress upon our hearts from this meeting, this year. Power, the anointing, all that God is being placed in us in order that we might do what God would have us to do.

Serve our fellow men in His name. So, we preach Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, servants, for Jesus' sake. Your servants.

If I am to follow the example that He has set, that is the example of serving men for His sake, for God's sake. So, it's not easy. Because chances are you're not going to get the reward from men that you would like to get.

But in reality, here is a double thing. In reality, I am not serving men. I am serving God.

But it is God's will that I serve men. But I must realize that it is as a servant of God that I serve men. Therefore, I do not look to men for the reward of my service.

And that's where we make our mistake. So often in thinking of serving men, I'm looking to men for my reward and it doesn't come and then I say, well, I did all this for him and look what he did. After all I've done, look what he did.

But, in reality, I'm only serving men because I'm serving God and that's what God requires me to do as I serve Him. And so, I look to God for my reward. So, whatever I do in word or deed, I'm doing all for His sake, for His glory.

Knowing that of the Lord, I shall receive my rewards. So, you've got to keep that concept straight or you'll become discouraged when man doesn't give you the feedback that you're looking for. I'm only serving men because that's what God requires me to do because I've submitted my life to serve God.

So, basically, essentially, primarily, I'm serving God. God, what would you have me to do? I want to be your servant. Go out and wash His feet.

Yes, Lord. So, I get there and His feet are filthy and they're stinky. I don't want to wash His feet.

You know, I do a lot of things for God that I wouldn't do for man, but I do them for man because I'm doing them for God. And the Lord has brought me up short on this issue quite a few times because I have found that serving man is at times difficult because man is often inconsiderate. And man doesn't even know what I'm doing many times.

There's no opportunity for feedback. He's not even aware that I'm picking up his nasty cigarette butts from the sidewalk around the church. Filthy, habit, dirty, inconsiderate people throw a cigarette butt down on the ground and then twist their foot on it so it makes it harder to get out of the pavement.

And as I've been picking up those cigarette butts, complaining about this nasty, inconsiderate person who threw it down, I've had the Lord speak to me and say, why are you doing it? I said, Lord, I'm doing it for you. I don't want your house to look messy and trashy. And He said, why are you grinding if you're doing it for me? And it brings me up short.

You see, God doesn't want you to complain about your service to Him. But your service to Him involves service to man. Thus, God doesn't want you complaining about your service to man because that's what He's called you to do as His servant.

But you've got to keep in mind the fact you're serving the Lord. Otherwise, it can wipe you out. You can get discouraged.

If you don't keep the background, I'm serving God. Jesus said, I came not to do my will but the will of Him who sent me. But what was the will of God who sent Him? That He go around ministering to the needs of people.

Serving man. So, as Don was speaking, the words that Gail shared with us began to come back. And the Spirit began to tie the whole thing together.

This is what it's about. As we go home, this is what it's about. We go home with the same authority and power and all that Jesus had as a man.

The potential is all there. He came to set the example how God would have man to live. How God intended man to live.

Born of the Spirit and so, what are we? Born of the Spirit. Born again by the Spirit. If so, then this is how we are to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit.

Love in the Spirit. Serve in the Spirit. Give in the Spirit.

God help us. There's a needy world out there that needs to know what God is about. They need to know the truth about God.

And as Paul said, teaching you and showing you. And some you'll be able to help by teaching and there are others that will learn by you showing by what you do. They're both essential.

Teaching is essential but also manifesting that light is essential. Again, the role model. Letting them see it in action in you.

May God be with you. As you go back to your fields and areas of ministry and God help us that we not equate success with numbers. May God free us from the bondage to numbers.

And I want to confess to you, God freed me from the bondage to numbers before He ever gave us numbers. He first of all freed me from the bondage to numbers. I used to be bound by numbers.

We used to have a board up in front that told how many we had there that Sunday and last Sunday and a year ago. And I was in bondage to numbers. And when God freed me from the bondage to numbers where I no longer counted people but I only counted opportunities to serve Christ with whomever He sent.

Maybe God only wants me to minister to a few this morning. Doesn't matter. I'm going to give myself to them to share God's love, God's truth.

I'm here because this is where God has appointed me to be at this time. I'm doing this because this is what God has appointed me to do at this time. And I'm not looking, God help me, I'm not looking for the reward from man.

But I am looking for that day when I stand before Him and He says, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful in a few things. Now enter into the joy of the Lord.

Doing things to be recognized by Him, that's got to be the most important. Not what does man think of me? What does God think of me? What does man think of that sermon? No, what does God think of that sermon? What does man think of my life? No, what does God think of my life? And if you live as unto the Lord, you'll be successful. And again, don't measure success in numbers.

You'll be successful. Because in your heart you'll know, I've done what God has called me to do. I'm here because this is where God wants me.

And if you can't feel that, then you better get someplace else. Make your calling and election sure. I'm here because God wants me to be here.

I'm doing this because God wants me to do this. I'm satisfied. Because this is what God wants.

Father, we thank You for the opportunity that we've had of being together these few days. Time has gone so quickly. As it usually does, Lord, when we're in Your presence and doing Your work.

Thank You, Lord, that while we've been here, Your Spirit has spoken to us through those men that You have chosen to share this year. Lord, when we go from here and their voices are no longer ringing in our ears, may Your voice continue, Lord, to speak to our hearts, guiding us, directing us, Lord, in our service to You. In Jesus' name.

Shall we stand? Have Thine own way, Lord. Have Thine own way. Thou art the potter.

I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will. While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Lay Your hand on the person. Pray for him or for her and for their ministries. For the work of God's Spirit be wrought in their lives.

The anointing and the blessing of God to rest upon them and upon that ministry that God has given to them. That they might become effective in their service to God. That they might become fruitful and abound in all things in Christ.

They might be enriched in their knowledge and in their understanding of His will and His purpose. That they might walk in all pleasing unto Him and before Him in love. Serving the Lord with gladness of heart and in joy.

In Jesus' name. Lay Your hand on the person on the other side of You now. Pray for them.

Pray one for another. Bear one another's burden. So fulfill the law of Christ.

The ministry of God's Spirit. They might be enlightened by the Spirit of God. All wisdom and understanding and the knowledge of Him.

That they might increase more and more each day. In that fullness of Him. Being filled with that knowledge and understanding of the Spirit.

They might more fully comprehend the length, the depth, the height of God's love. Which passes our understanding. They might be usable and remain usable.

They might bring forth fruit that the fruit shall remain. Abiding fruit for the glory of God and His kingdom. Should the Lord tarry, we have the opportunity of gathering again.

There will be the glorious witness of what God hath wrought. Thank You for it. In Jesus' name.

This is the end of SIDE 2 and the end of this message. For further information regarding tapes or a catalog, please contact Chapel Tapes, PO Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California, 92628. And may the Lord richly bless you as you study His Word.