(The lame believer: living without the Holy Spirit’s reliance)
They don’t bear lasting spiritual fruit because of all the busyness and distractions in their lives.
lame believer doesn’t deny the Holy Spirit, but he lives his life without relying on Him, and therefore, results are minimal.
If we don’t learn to walk in harmony with the Holy Spirit, the Christian life will become a difficult yoke and ministry will become a heavy burden.
The lame man in the Bible was sitting and begging instead of leaping and praising. He asked for alms, but what he really needed was healing.
Oh how I could relate to this man! I was a lame leader sitting at the gate, begging God for “alms.” The alms that I was chasing were miracles and Holy Spirit power.
He looked at me intently and declared, “I can’t give you power. You don’t need power. You just need to know the Holy Spirit personally and He will release His power.” In other words, we don’t need alms (miracles, manifestations, power)—we just need to walk in the power of the One we already have abiding in us.
(Shifting from seeking power to knowing the Spirit personally)
But we can and must endeavor to get to know Him personally, more and more on a daily basis, by spending more time talking with Him and loving Him, living in harmony with Him, and listening for His quiet voice speaking into our spirits. That’s what started to happen to me. I turned my prayer from “God, give me Your power” to “Holy Spirit, I want to know You better.”
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the youngest son demanded, “Give me what is mine,” and that led him away from his father. But after he was desperately broken, his prayer changed to, “Make me your servant” (Luke 15:11-32).
The lame man needed to get the miracle of walking, not the miracle of money. Yes, we do need revival in our churches, but what we need even more is for people to fall in love with the Holy Spirit.
I would like you to switch your focus from the power of God to the presence of the Holy Spirit. He is already in you. Now you need to walk in close harmony with the Spirit, always keeping your focus on Him alone.
Alms are what you might have desired, but what you actually need is to get up and walk with Him. That’s the greatest gift—to know Him and to have a deep, full, ongoing relationship with Him—to “host the Holy Ghost.”
The Dove Descends The Coming of the Holy Spirit
Let me state it another way: the kinship that the Holy Spirit already has with you is the foundation of your relationship with Him.
That night, I intended to preach on the topic of the Holy Spirit, but I felt totally unworthy to talk about Him because my emotions were such a mess. It was as though a dark cloud had descended over me during the previous service. Not only did I feel totally disqualified from talking about the Holy Spirit; I didn’t even feel like preaching at all.
(The altar, the sacrifice, and full immersion in the Spirit)
The fire of the Holy Spirit falls on the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God. You are simply an altar, but Jesus is the sacrifice that attracts the fire of the Holy Spirit.
It was so much fun and so relaxing! In fact, one of the reasons I have a gym membership is because my gym has a sauna, steam room, and hot tub. After a good workout I can reward myself with those relaxing pleasures.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is being fully immersed into the body of Christ, which is His church; the baptism in the Holy Spirit is about being fully immersed into the Spirit.