Sunday School | We Should be People of The Word & The Spirit

Good morning. Good morning. Alright. Summertime, isn't it? Hey, let's pray real quick.

Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this morning. We thank you for this time. We thank you that we're gonna open up your scriptures, your word. And, Father, we just pray that you speak to us. Holy Spirit, guide us and speak to us and lead us. Give us new insight. Stir things within us. Yeah. And so, we just give it all to you. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Alright. So, you guys have been in a foundations class, walking through the foundations of what we believe as a church and foundations of faith. And so, when Tim asked me if I would cover the class today, I thought what he said I could teach on whatever I wanted to. And I thought, what better topic foundationally or foundations wise than to talk about the Holy Spirit. And there is no possible way that we could cover or walk through or discover all there is to know about theology or experience regarding the Holy Spirit. So I just kinda wanna do a race through scripture and look at how, when, and where the Holy Spirit falls, if that's the phrasing you wanna use.

Some of us come from different backgrounds. Right? Who would say that they are coming from a charismatic background in this room? Okay. Ish, some. Alright. Who would be like Pentecostals? Right? Who would be coming more from a reformed theology, a reformed ideology? Alright? Yeah. So we're all coming from these different backgrounds. We all have baggage, good and bad—good theology and bad theology—that we've allowed to form what we think about the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit works.

Cessationism and Our Theology of the Holy Spirit

The reality is, do you guys know what the phrase "cessationist" or "cessationism" means? Yeah. The works of the Holy Spirit have ceased—they're not in action today like they were in the early church. Right. A pure cessationist would be someone who would say that at the time when the apostles passed away or died, all the acts, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the apostles, the signs, the wonders—they ceased. We still have the Holy Spirit, but he doesn't do those things anymore. That would be a pure cessationist.

But then you have the other side, right? Which would be what often makes us very uncomfortable. And we've seen abuses where there's demons under every rock and everyone's like "signs and wonders" and everyone's supposed to be healed. And so we're somewhere in there. We're supposed to be a body of Christ who walks in all of it.

But the reality is that most Christians today, most evangelical Christians, are what we would call practical cessationists. What would you say that would be? How would you phrase that? A practical cessationist. Any ideas? You don't see miracles much. Don't see miracles. We believe the Holy Spirit works. We believe he's here. We believe he's in us. But will he do the things that he said that he would do? Will there be signs and wonders? And so most people walk in this practical cessationism, which often leads to powerless believers. It often leads to believers who go to church every Sunday, they follow the rules, they love the Lord, they read their Bible, but it's often a lot of powerless believers while we have this power within us.

Corrie ten Boom—anyone who knows who Corrie ten Boom is? Corrie ten Boom, famous writer, The Hiding Place. She said, and I quote her: "The greatest danger to this world is not communism or fascism." You could add in it today. It's not socialism, racism, all the isms. Right? She said the greatest danger to this world is powerless Christians who do not believe and walk in the power that they have.

So I wanna walk through this Holy Spirit thing to trigger us in a positive way. To trigger us not to be just people of theology, but also to be people of reality. See, it begs the question, and we're gonna get into some more interchange here in just a minute. I wanna do a setup. It begs the question: Are we to have a theology about the Holy Spirit? And what is your theology about the Holy Spirit? Do you have one? Right? Should we seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Were they for then and not for now? If they show up right now, are we just whack jobs? Or how do we know that we know that we know that the Lord is speaking to us to do a certain thing? And how do we know when it's just gas or bad pizza? Right? How do we know?

Is there a method to the Holy Spirit's coming? Is there a method to the way he falls? How do we know if it's not a counterfeit? How do we know if someone walks up and lays hands on you and gives a word, or if someone says "the Lord" or "I believe the Lord said" or "the Lord said"? How do we know that's not a counterfeit?

How do we know that what we're hearing is not a counterfeit? And yet, Jesus said in John 14:

Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do. And greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, this I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Therefore, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. — John 14:12-14

Now, He wasn't just poetically speaking. He wasn't just speaking rhetorically. I know we'd say that and we pray that, but does that freak anybody else out? What happens if that starts happening in our gatherings on a Sunday morning? What happens if we're in a Starbucks and so—how do we live in this tension?

Jesus also said in John 15, many things about the Holy Spirit, but one of the things He said is:

I have to go away. It's to your advantage that I go away. And if I don't go away, the Helper, the Holy Spirit will not come. And if I do go, then I will send Him to you and He will fill you. He'll be in you. He'll speak to you and He'll work through you. — John 15:7-8

We have gotta be a people of followers of Christ in 2026 that do Holy Spirit stuff, but don't do it like nut bags. And yet, sometimes when we follow the Holy Spirit, we're gonna do nutty things. Agreed?

What Paul Says About Spiritual Gifts

So Paul tells us—I want to kind of begin this run through scripture, and again, I can't tackle all of it. But what does Paul say briefly about the gifts? In First Corinthians 12, 13, 14, I encourage you guys: if you've read it before, if this is just a refresher for you, I want us to just sit today with asking questions and digging anew and looking at it with fresh eyes.

In First Corinthians 12, Paul says:

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed as the pagans were and were led astray. — 1 Corinthians 12:1-2

What's he saying there? Maybe that's obvious, but what is he saying? There must be some kind of information out there you need to know about. Yes. Go be informed. Don't be led astray like the pagans were. Understand this stuff. Know it. Dig in. Be diggers of the word of God. Be diggers in the Holy Spirit.

And in Galatians 5, he says:

Walk by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit. And if we live by the Spirit, then let us also walk by the Spirit. — Galatians 5:25

People of the Word and the Spirit

Here's the point that I hope you leave with today. I believe the Lord intends us to be a people of the word and the spirit, who are equally of the word and who are equally of the spirit.

One of the things I've loved about this church for all these years is that we've stood on and stand on the word of God, the inerrancy of Scripture. And we've also sought to be a place that walks in the Spirit. But we've gotta be a people who are equally of the word and the Spirit.

Isn't it true that we tend to be one or the other? I grew up in a word church. Anyone else grow up in a word church? A word church that would say, we believe in the sovereignty of God, the inerrancy of Scripture, teaching from the pulpit, teaching of the word, strong reformed theology. But then in my college years, I started stepping into a spirit church, which would say, we believe in the New Testament church, we believe in signs and wonders, we believe in the gifts of the Spirit. Both are true. But we tend to be one or the other, and neither is complete alone. They have to be meshed.

You know, R.T. Kendall—he's 91 years old and has written a number of books—he said this, and I think it's profound:

When we have the word without the Spirit, we tend to dry up. If we have the Spirit without the word, we tend to blow up. But if we have the Spirit and the word together, we will grow up and we will fire up. When they are properly joined in union, there is explosive power to be had.

So when we are people of the word and the Spirit, then I believe revival will come, transformation will happen. I think we'll see salvations en masse occur. We won't just have one baptism a month. We'll see baptisms. We'll see signs and wonders. We'll see the miraculous stuff. And it won't be that we're looking forward or seeking it. We'll be seeking the Creator because we're grounded in the word of God.

Jesus was equal parts word and spirit. He would speak the word, he would speak what the father was speaking to him, he would speak from the Torah, and people would be cut to the heart. But then he would turn and heal people and do miraculous signs, and people would be transformed. That is the model that we're to be.

Paul says you gotta be informed. You gotta dig in. We need good sound biblical theology about the Holy Spirit grounded in scripture, but we also need to understand that we are to walk by the spirit and be led by the spirit, which can often lead us into uncomfortable places or doing things that expand or exceed our theology of the Holy Spirit.

Is anyone doing this? This is a question, not a challenge. Are you doing things with your life that make you go, "ugh"? Are you living on the edge of yikes? Are you living out on the edge, taking the word of God but living in the spirit of God and doing things that make you and others uncomfortable? I'm not saying be uncomfortable for uncomfortable's sake. I'm not saying be an idiot for an idiot's sake. But are you living out on the edge of yikes?

When we keep in step with the spirit and listen, he will prompt us, teach us, test us, stretch us. But our theology will get stretched, and our experience will exceed our theology. Good theology never creates a box for God, but it creates a foundation upon which we stand firm. We need to have good theology meshed with divine experience. And with that combination, our knowledge and experience with God will defeat the arguments against God every time. Every single time.

Today, I want us to build a theology that girds up the Holy Spirit and that will guide us to risk and shape our experience to go do Holy Spirit stuff grounded in scripture.

John Wimber and Living Within Scripture

Anyone ever heard of the guy by the name of John Wimber? He was Vineyard, and some agree with him, some don't. But all his elders came to him and said back in the early seventies, "We are concerned about what's happening here." And he said to them, "I promise you, we will not do anything outside the bounds of scripture." And he said, "I was shocked that they left satisfied." He said, "Have you read scripture? All the things that Jesus did and the apostles did and the disciples did and all the things that happened, and you're comfortable with that? If we're gonna live within this, that should terrify us but excite us all in the same breath."

So I want to do a quick run through scripture and see what direction the Holy Spirit gives us about the Holy Spirit. Not an exclusive look, but when, how, where do we receive the Holy Spirit? What does it mean for our lives and the life of the church, the bride, us as Christians together?

As we look at scripture, I want to ask questions. Put yourself in the story. Put yourself there as if you were viewing it for the first time.

You can criticize my life any way you want. I'm incompetent in many ways. I sometimes can be inappropriate. That's shocking for people to know. But one thing I do is I love the word of God and I study it every day. I also love the Holy Spirit and I walk in risk every day. I made a commitment thirty years ago that I would engage in Sabbath rest where I would get away and be known by the Lord face to face. That I would live in radical generosity. And I would go out doing at least one risky thing a day. Not religiously, but invitationally.

So let's reserve our conclusions and let's investigate together.

The Baptism of Jesus

Let's look at the first place to start with the Holy Spirit: the baptism of Jesus. In Luke chapter three:

When all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice from heaven spoke, "You are my beloved son and with you, I'm well pleased." — Luke 3

What do you see about the Holy Spirit? It comes from heaven. It has a recognizable body, a bodily form, a shape. It speaks audibly. It testifies about Jesus. It fills us.

Depictions of movies show that it's a little dove that comes down sweetly. It says in bodily form—what did that look like? Was Jesus standing here and kind of goes like this? What happened? What did that look like? Is that a model for what happens with us when we are baptized?

Was this Jesus' salvation experience? We quickly say no, and I agree. But he was fully God, but he was also fully man. And he did whatever he did on this earth as a man, wholly surrendered and completely surrendered to the Father, doing things as a man in right relationship with the Father so that we're held accountable for what he did. And we can't say, "Oh, he walked on water, but he's Jesus. He healed, but he's Jesus." He did it as a man in right relationship.

So we have this moment where the Holy Spirit comes down in bodily form. Boom. Hits him. And then the heavens open up and the Father says, "This is my son." Identity is spoken over him. So was this a modeling? Was it a priestly ordination from some of the ecclesiastical or Levitical traditions? Was this intended to be a method for the filling of the Holy Spirit for us when we are baptized? Was Jesus not filled before this? Did he need to be filled again? Or was this a priestly ordination? And what happens immediately after he gets baptized and God speaks identity over him?

He goes in the wilderness. And I'm just going to read the bookend parts of this going into the wilderness:

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days being tempted by the devil, and he ate nothing during those days. And when they ended, he was hungry.

I think that's the dumbest line. But I'm like, yeah, he was hungry. And then at the end of it:

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went through all the surrounding country.

What do you see and what do you not see? What do you not see? Power. Sustained. The Holy Spirit was basically all he needed. He was hungry physically, yes. He was a man, but the Holy Spirit did the rest.

He went in full, and he came out in the power. What is that difference? What does it mean to be full versus power? What does full mean? You're completely consumed. It's to the brim, right? It's to the brim, but nothing's really full unless there's a little bit of overflow. It's to the brim. It's complete, lacking nothing.

What does power mean? More than your own strength. The Greek word is dynamis, which is the word for dynamite. It's explosive. It's overflowing. It's power.

So we see Jesus go in. He's led there by the Holy Spirit. During the forty days, there's no signs and wonders. There's no miracles. There's just a lot of surrender and a lot of persecution and a lot of testing, and he comes out in the power. So powerful in fact that where does he go immediately after this? Galilee. What does he do when he goes to Galilee? He goes right in the synagogue. He opens up the scroll of Isaiah, and when all eyes are fixed on him, it's this theatrical kind of moment, when he reads:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor, to set the captives free, to heal the blind, to heal the oppressed, to declare the year of the Lord's favor, the year of Jubilee.

And he closes the book and he sits down. You could hear a pin drop. They're all looking at him and he says, "Today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing." Mic drop. And what do they do? They get so mad, so ticked off that they take him up to drive him and throw him off a cliff.

Can you imagine? Is Jesus like Obi-Wan? When it says, "And when he got to the edge of the brow, turning in their midst, he says, 'Not so fast. Not today.' And it says, walks through their midst." He doesn't run away, he walks through their midst. But passing through their midst, he went away.

How do we get this? How do we walk in that? How does that happen? Are we to walk in that? Was that just reserved for Jesus?

Is that something we're supposed to do now? Are there multiple baptisms? A lot of questions people ask. Is there a baptism of water and a baptism of fire? People will ask. Are there certain required steps that you have to walk through to get this Holy Spirit?

See, Jesus had a lot to say about the coming of the Holy Spirit, didn't he? Let's look at Luke chapter 11. When they come to him and say they'd been watching him pray, and he must have been praying in some way that was so palpable and so powerful that they say, "We need to pray like that. Teach us to pray like that."

And then Jesus says:

"When you pray, say: Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." — Luke 11

He had to say it in the King James. It wouldn't affect it if it wasn't King James. So he prays this prayer, but was that the end of that passage? Was that the end of this powerful teaching on prayer? What does he say next?

He says, "This is how you pray," and then immediately launches into a parable. He says a neighbor from next door comes over in the middle of the night, asking for bread. And he says, "I'm not gonna give you the bread because you asked for it, because of your shameless audacity, because of your bold, rude asking and persistence. I'm gonna give you what you want and need."

And then he goes on to say these words:

"Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you'll find, knock and it'll be open to you. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" — Luke 11

Here's the question: Is it possible that this whole teaching on prayer, this whole parable was also not just about praying but about the Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit power? In the context of prayer, is it possible Jesus is saying, "Hey, every time you pray, every time you pray, and in the context of going out daily and living, ask, seek, knock"?

Those words in the Greek are continual words. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. They're not words that just end. It's an asking, seeking, knocking. Is it possible that he's saying, "Hey, every time you pray daily, ask for the Holy Spirit. Every time you pray daily, seek my presence and seek the Holy Spirit as you move, looking for opportunities for where I'm going. Knock, go open doors, push through doors"?

Is it possible that that's what Jesus was saying? That that's how we're to live on a daily basis?

Examining the Acts of the Holy Spirit

Alright, so I wanna now race through Acts and just look at some different events—not all of them, different events of the Holy Spirit, how he came, how he fell, what it looked like. And I want you to put your investigative hats on and just look at each event and see if you can come up with a method, if you will, or a theology of how, when, where, and what the Holy Spirit does.

Let's start in Acts chapter one, verses four through five:

"While staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." — Acts 1:4-5

What do you see and what do you not see here? They're told to wait for the Father, not to go out on their own. Told to wait. They didn't get the Holy Spirit when they were baptized. They had already been water baptized, but they hadn't received the Holy Spirit.

I realize Pentecost was coming, and I get all that theology. It's a different day now. I get that. But in that moment, they'd already been water baptized while Jesus walked the earth. But then Jesus said, "There's gotta come a fire." John the Baptist said the same thing in both Luke and Matthew:

"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier, and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." — Luke 3

Alright, let's look at what happens in Acts chapter two. Notice what you see:

"Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues." — Acts 2

And Peter said to them, going on to verse 38:

"Repent and be baptized every one of you into the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. So those who received his word were baptized, and they were added to that day about 3,000 souls." — Acts 2:38-41

What do you see and what do you not see? You repent, you will receive the Spirit. There's gotta be a repenting. What else? It seems to go together. Repenting, baptism, Holy Spirit. Yes. It seems to be that there's that we should do that, and that's how that happens. What else? The Spirit didn't only fill people. It filled the place as well. It said the entire house. Everybody. All of them were filled.

Now, of course, we don't know if there were 72 in the house or what number that was. It was the rushing of the wind, earthquake noise—the sound was so loud that the entire city came rushing. People estimate that Jerusalem probably would have only had 25,000 people in it, but it was swelling over with lots and lots of people because of the Pentecost feast. So we don't know how many people came, but traditionally when Peter began to speak, there would be people screaming what he was saying down so that everyone could hear it. We don't know how many people were there, but we know that 3,000 souls were added to their number that day.

We didn't see any other signs and wonders besides the tongues that the apostles and maybe the 72 were speaking. We're not sure if it was just the 12 or all 72. We don't know how many of them had tongues and fire, but it says all. So again, we don't know what that looked like, but it was pretty crazy.

There was a baptism, but there's no water. Where was it? Did they go find a lake? Did they go find the Jordan? We don't know. It says they were baptized. So I'm assuming they were baptized and 3,000 were added to their number that day. But there's this swell—there's no other tongues or signs or anything else.

Was the Holy Spirit visible? That's a great question. The Holy Spirit came on Jesus like a bodily form that they all saw. And then, of course, they saw the tongues of fire. But what did that look like for the people that were receiving the Holy Spirit as they were baptized? Should we live in the method that you repent, you're baptized, and you come up out of the water, and you're filled with the Holy Spirit? Great questions.

The gift of the Holy Spirit—we have a tendency for always thinking the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But it sounds like here, the gift is the Holy Spirit. He is the gift. There are signs and wonders that will accompany him, but he is the gift.

Acts Chapter Four

What happens in Acts chapter four? Let's go on to the next occurrence. Peter and John are locked up, and then they come back, and then they pray this prayer:

"Grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. While you stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus Christ." — Acts 4:29-30

And then when they prayed:

"The place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness." — Acts 4:31

What do you see and what do you not see? Their ability to speak the word with boldness was attached to the coming from the filling of the Holy Spirit. Boldness came, but it also says they continued to speak with boldness. So they were being bold, but they got more boldness.

Weren't all these people at Pentecost a couple weeks before already filled with the Holy Spirit on that day? And yet they were filled again? And the place was shaken? What did that look like? We don't see prophetic words breaking out. We don't see tongues. We don't see healings. We just see that there's this shaking in the room. Everyone in the place gets filled again, and they continue to speak the word with great boldness.

So it begs the question: Are we filled again and again and again? Do we live in a level of fullness, but we gotta move to a place of power? And that happens daily, weekly, monthly? Just the question.

Simon the Magician

Let's move on to Simon the magician in Acts chapter eight. Look at this.

When they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. — Acts 8

So what do you see there and what do you not see? Anyone starting to get a little mind blown? Baptized, but there was no Holy Spirit. They're baptized by Philip, but no Holy Spirit. This is the first occasion we see where some apostles come and lay hands on them, and there's a filling after there's a water baptized even though they were baptized in the name of Lord Jesus.

It's almost like there's not a formula. Hold that thought. Do you guys remember Seinfeld? In the last one, it said pray for boldness. Yeah. And that speaks loudly to me, like we need to pray for that boldness. Siblings are not saved and I need boldness. I can't do it. And we gotta pray to be bold, but we also gotta go be bold.

If the Lord comes to you and says, "Susan, you're fit. You're gonna be an Olympic class world wrestler. You're gonna win 10 gold medals in wrestling," and you grab the remote and go, "Okay, cool," you're never going to become that Olympic medalist. Even though it's been put in us, we gotta go do it. We've gotta go be it. We've gotta activate it. We can't just say we have it. We gotta go do it.

In this occasion with Simon the magician, we see that there's no manifestation of tongues, there's no prophecy. There's a laying on of hands on apostle separate from the water baptism.

Acts Chapter 9: Saul's Conversion

Ananias departed and entered the house, and laying hands on him, said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me, so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized. — Acts 9

Ananias is a no name, never heard of him before, don't hear of him since. Don't know if he had been with Jesus before, don't know anything about him. And he's this no name nobody that Jesus or God goes to and says, "Hey, he's gonna be my instrument. You need to go lay hands on him that he would receive the Holy Spirit to be my instrument."

Now, what's the order in that one? What do you see and what do you not see? Laid hands, spirit, then baptized. Laid hands, spirit, then baptized. What else do you see or not see? No tongues, no prophecy, no blowing wind, but there's a miracle. Scales fall off his eyes. He gets his sight back. Then he's filled. Then he gets water baptized. Whew. Okay, Lord, you're frustrating me.

Acts Chapter 10: The Gentiles Receive the Spirit

Now we're gonna look at this story in Acts chapter 10 that is crazy. Peter gets this vision from the Lord, the sheet falls, it's all about the Gentiles coming in. And so Peter speaking to these Gentiles, none of them are believers, none of them are saved. They are not in the kingdom. They're not grafted in. They're uncircumcised. These are people who were considered dirty.

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, "Can anyone withhold water baptism for these people? Who can withhold water from baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. — Acts 10

There was no repentance. They heard the word. I'm not saying that it's not supposed to be repentance. Believe me, I'm just a little confused. What do you see and what do you not see?

Before the baptism. Before the baptism. Before repentance. And guess what? It's like if I'm speaking this morning and there's a crowd of nonbelievers in the back, and suddenly they stand up and start screaming and we'd be like, "Oh. They're screaming, shouting, extolling God."

And then all the circumcised people go, "Well, I guess we gotta—they're prophesying, speaking in tongues? Well, I guess, how can we—what? They're dumbfounded."

And Peter says, "Yeah. Let's baptize them. Let's baptize them all. What do we need is baptism?" Seems like when at Pentecost, unless they went out later and got baptized, it was kind of like the Spirit fell on them and they were baptized by the Spirit or something. But here, it's like they received the Spirit, then they still said, "Oh, well, we should baptize them now." So how they go together, which is a whole other conversation: Is baptism an act of salvation or is it an act of priestly ordination? Let's deal with that another day.

Another Occurrence in Acts 19

Right? Another occurrence—this is the last one we'll look at. In Acts chapter 19:

Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said, "No. We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. — Acts 19

Anyone else confused? What do you see? What do you not see? Baptism, hand, Spirit. Baptism, hand, Spirit. But this is also two baptisms: a water baptism, then another water baptism, and then a fire of the Holy Spirit baptism—laying on of hands by the apostle, followed by manifestations of tongues and signs and wonders.

That didn't even mention the story in Acts chapter 8, where Philip was told by the Holy Spirit, "Walk south on the road to Gaza." And we don't know how long he walked, but people think he walked probably 25 to 30 miles, not hearing another word from the Lord. And how did that speak to him? Was it like a beloved, what—or did he just get a prompting or a thought? But he walks 25, 30 miles maybe until he comes along and sees the Ethiopian eunuch sitting in his entourage, his chariot, because he was the eunuch to Queen Candace.

And he comes upon this entourage—it would be terrifying. And the Holy Spirit says, "Go stand by the chariot." That's the only other word he gets. And he goes and stands by the chariot, and he hears him reading from the scroll, and he says, "What are you reading?" And the eunuch says, "How can I know what I'm reading if there's no one here to explain it? You want me to explain it to you?"

We don't see the Holy Spirit speak another word. He just partners with the Lord and steps out in boldness, gets in the chariot, rides along, explains the whole thing. And the eunuch says, "They're passing some water. He says, 'What is withholding me from getting water baptism right here, right now?'" And Philip says, "Nothing." They get out, he gets baptized.

And then the craziest thing that we just read right over—what happened to Philip? He gets transported to Iotus. And we just read it and go, "Oh, yeah. He got transported to Iotus." And the Ethiopian eunuch goes away rejoicing.

And if historians are correct, the eunuch goes back to Ethiopia to Queen Candace and her entire court and leads them to Christ. And that's why today, Ethiopia is still the most Christian nation of Africa. What does that say?

We Cannot Box In the Holy Spirit

What do we do with all this? How do we apply this theology to our daily lives? It goes back to your statement, Dan. Did Jesus ever heal the same way twice? He never did. He only committed one miracle twice, and it was bookends with Peter—the catching of the fish and the catching of the fish. Otherwise, we never see Jesus heal the same way or do the same miracle twice.

Is it possible that we can never put the Holy Spirit in a box? The way that he will come, the way that he will fall, what he will do, how he will do it? Is that possible? Yes.

So what is our role in it? Be submissive to it. Say it again? Be submissive to the Holy Spirit. So what does that mean though? We live in the Holy Spirit by our own will, by our own actions. We're not God. God can do anything with it. We have to be the vessels through which it happens. Ask, seek, and knock. Ask.

See, that's my wife. She's a good woman. Ask, seek, knock. If we were a people that every day got out of our beds and either got on our knees or got still before the Lord and said, "Holy Spirit, I'm asking for your power today. I'm asking for your fill. I believe that I'm already full, but I'm asking. I'm asking for more. And I'm gonna walk out of here today seeking where you are, and seeking how you're moving, and seeking what you're doing."

And I'm gonna knock on doors, I'm gonna knock through doors, and I'm gonna go live like that. But this concerns us. What about the counterfeits? How did the Secret Service become experts in counterfeit currency? They study the real. They don't even engage in any of the false currency because they pop up all the time. They don't waste their time studying counterfeits. They study the real and know it so well that they can instantly recognize a counterfeit.

But secondly, we've got to walk in the reality, not just the theology, that we are full of the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. That's not just poetic phrasing. That is real. Will we make mistakes? Yes. Will we get it wrong? Absolutely.

A Personal Encounter with the Holy Spirit

Back when I was 23, 24 years old, I was wrestling with this. I was in this church that was really a good word church and a good spirit church. But with the Holy Spirit stuff comes some weirdness sometimes. I would be in these gatherings where other people were laying hands on me, they would say, repeat after me, and I would think, Lord, I gotta sign the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna speak in tongues.

It was probably a year later. I was at this conference in Montreat, North Carolina—before the massive conferences, but probably three or four thousand people. There was this call to come forward. I went forward, I lay on my face in a child's pose position on the floor. I said, Lord, give me all that you've got. I want your Holy Spirit. Lord, stop toying with me. Lord, speak to me.

As I was praying, the music was going, I felt this hand on my left side of my back. I could hear a woman praying quietly. The hand started getting intensely hot. I don't mean just a little bit warm. I mean intensely hot—uncomfortably hot. Like, why won't she remove her hand from my back? A guy came by and prayed over me, nothing happened. But in that moment, for the first time and only time, I know that I know that I know that I heard a voice that I believe was the Lord.

The voice said, "Mike, you have my Holy Spirit. Stop doubting. Get up, walk in it, and believe."

Of course, immediately I thought, was that really—is that really right? And it said again, "Mike, you have my Holy Spirit. Stop doubting. Get up. Walk in it and believe."

If that wasn't enough, this woman leaned up and whispered to my ear, "I know you're struggling, but what the Lord says is true. You have his Holy Spirit. Stop doubting. Get up. Walk in it and believe."

I was like a puddle on the floor. I'm not suggesting this woman was an angel, but when I got up to leave, I thought her hand was still on my back and she was gone. I never saw her. One day I'll get to meet her in heaven.

From that moment to now, I have walked with the belief that the Holy Spirit is in me because he says so. And I have the free gift of the Holy Spirit, but I have got to go activate it. I've got to go walk in it. I've gotta know the real so well that the counterfeits don't scare me. Who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. We have no fear of the counterfeits. Let's go walk in it. Let's live. Let's believe.

Any other thoughts before we close? This will testify. It's like we are promised the Holy Spirit by Jesus to teach us, to encourage us, to remind us. And just by analogy, if you have electricity in your house but you never turn on the light, it doesn't matter, right? So it's like you got it. But what I'm saying is you need to access it. You gotta go walk in it. You gotta go do it.

Every believer in this room, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, is full of the Holy Spirit. But the Lord says to you, get up, do not doubt, walk in it, and believe, and go do stuff. I challenge you guys to do one risky thing a day. I challenge you to do that thing where you're in Starbucks and the Lord gives you the thought, the prompt. You don't have to walk over and be like, the Holy Spirit said. You don't have to be weird. Just walk over, buy a cup of coffee. Just stand by the chariot like Philip did. Hey, what you reading? And see what the Lord does.

Father, I pray for these men and women. I pray for myself. I pray for us. I thank you that you have filled us with the greatest gift of all, your Holy Spirit. And it's not just a thing, it's not just a breath, it is a person. That the person of the Holy Spirit dwells in us, he speaks to us, and you've made us to go be your manifestation, your glory on this earth. Amen.

Thank you guys for coming.