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2424-How-to-Function-In-Your-Spirit_128k
00:00:00 Speaker: Well, this is the last of the mountains. I wanted tonight to just talk a little while about the area that I suppose I've been asked about most often, uh, during this, uh, this conference and, uh, just reflecting over this past week, I find that, uh, very interesting, uh, the type of things that people came seeking answers for. And I just want to say this. I've found an extraordinary, uh, outward orientation in the people here. Now, uh, it's really quite unusual because oftentimes, uh, it's very inward. Uh, here are these needs of mine, and here are these problems and here these puzzles and so on. Uh, and I don't think I've quite ever struck, uh, a conference quite like this where there's been so much genuine searching as to how to do it out that way. I think that's very healthy. You know, I think that's very healthy. The question I've been asked most often concerns this whole area of how do I function in my spirit? Because we know that that's the area in which we both experience God and communicate with God. And what's more, reach and communicate with one another. You are embodied spirit. You live off spirit. Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He said, the word that I speak unto you is what spirit and life. And we need and we require, and it's necessary for us that we continually touch spirit. And I'm speaking both on the human level and on the supernatural level, has to be the supernatural level first and foremost. But it applies also at the human level. So I want us to have a look a little while for a little while at what the Bible discloses of the way in which God has made us men and women in his own image. In first Thessalonians five twenty three, Paul says, I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless, appearing in the Lord Jesus. So there are three factors in our makeup that are there. One is spirit, one is soul, one is body. It's interesting. Now, just a little while ago, reading a book by clinical psychiatrist and to my amazement and delight, uh, he, he touched on this whole area. He said, look, this is the totally neglected area in psychiatric treatment. We haven't made a sufficient account of fact. A man is a spiritual being and he's created with a human spirit. I don't think he'd been reading my book. Reading another book. Now that's the that's the matter of theological evidence. What I'm more concerned about is the matter of experience. It's not enough for me to know I'm a spirit. I want to know what that means. I think, uh, I first discovered I had a human spirit when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Shortly after that. I didn't speak a tongue in tongues at the time because there was no anything about speaking in tongues. But I remember distinctly, about a week or so later, uh, late one night after the family had gone to bed, I was praying, and I was trying to thank God for what he'd done for me. And I was I was so grateful and I couldn't find words to express it. And I found myself saying all these strange sounds. I didn't know what they meant, but afterwards I felt clearly I'd got something off my heart to God. And because these things weren't coming out of my mind, in fact, I could listen to myself saying them. Although I knew I could start or stop whenever I wanted to. I became aware of the fact that, besides my mind, there was a part of me that wasn't my mind, but was still capable of communication, of touching something that was my spirit. Well, this diagram it this way. For those of you to whom diagrams are helpful. Now, not everybody likes diagrams. See, uh, my wife is one. She can't understand why you've got all these diagrams and things plain as day. Why didn't he draw pictures about it? Well, for me, I need to draw pictures. So for people who need to draw pictures, let's have a look at what it means to have a spirit. And a soul. And a body. So we are a trinity. You see, we are triune being because we're made in God's image. For example, as I stand here tonight, I know there's part of me you've never seen. Matter of fact, I've never seen it myself. But it's that bit of me that makes me sure that I'm me and I'm not Gary Winger. Thank goodness I'm not the Boris Jordan. I'm me. See, it's that inner ground of my being, my individuality, if you like. That is a little analogy of God the Father. The Bible says he dwells in light, unapproachable, whom no man has seen or can see, see the ground of God's being, God father, as well as the hidden me that nobody has seen. There's something about me that shows you what that hidden me is like. See? So if you observe the way I talk and behave and so on, you form a a picture ultimately, of what the hidden me is like, what we call our character. It reveals what the hidden person is like Life in Hebrews one. When it's talking about Jesus, it says he is the express image of God's person. And the Greek word that's used for express image is actually the word character. Jesus is God's character. Wonder what God is like. He's just like Jesus further said that Jesus one time he was talking about his father. Show us the father. That'll satisfy us. He said, don't you understand yet, Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. I'm the father's character. His father is just like me. See? As well as the hidden me nobody's seen. And the character reveals who I am. When we met for the first time as a time, as a lot of us did this conference, you have a certain reaction to me. You might think, well, I don't like little. That little guy, he might think he's not bad or he might even be cold. See? What did you respond? Not the hidden me. You haven't seen it? Not my character. You didn't know what it was like. You responded to my presence or lack of it. See, one of the wonderful names for God, the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is called the angel or the Messenger of God's presence. So when you become aware of God's presence, when you become aware in a meeting of a presence, when you become aware, when you're aware, when you're praying of, of a presence, a time of a great distress or need, there's a presence. The person you've touched has actually God, the Holy Spirit, see? So even in us, we we are in that kind of analogical way, a little image, a little minuscule model of God's great triune being. So God has made us spirit and soul and body like that. We're actually a triple triunity because there are three functions and each of those aspects of our being. And this is what I want to speak about. Spirit. Soul. Body. Our body, we can see made up basically of three elements bone, blood, flesh. Our soul has three main functions. You can't see your soul. You can't see your spirit. You know them. You experience them only by the way in which they function. And the three functions of the soul. One is the mind. One is the will and the other is the emotions. So man is a thinking, willing feeling being. He has affections, he has volitions and he has cognitions. Which is why when something is wrong with his cognitions, I suppose we talk about having a cog loose, but I don't know. But we're all familiar with the way in which our soul functions. Now listen, let me tell you something. Never denigrate the human soul. There's a tendency, often in Pentecostal charismatic circles to suggest that the soul is somehow wrong or evil. You know, I've heard people say about worship, all that was just soulish as though, per se, there's something wrong with it. If it's comes out of our soul. God made your soul, and the soul has a very, very important part to play, as you'll see in just a minute in Genesis one. Let's have a look at it. In Genesis one, there are what seems to be at first sight two different accounts of the creation of man. In Genesis chapter one and verse twenty seven, it says, God created man in his own image. And the word for created. There is a Hebrew word bara, which is only ever used of God creating and is used only twice, right in the very beginning of that chapter. In the beginning, God created bara, the heaven and the earth, and one of his meanings is to create out of nothing or ex-nihilo. So theologians might say, we know that God created out of nothing. There was nothing there before God created out of nothing. Genesis one twenty seven. Same word is used out of nothing. God created something in his own image. What does God like? What is God's essence? If you like, what is God? What's the stuff God's made of spirit. Jesus said, God is spirit. So in Genesis one, I believe we have the account of the creation out of nothing of man's human spirit that was made like God. That was also spirit. Right. In Genesis chapter two, we have something different. Verse seven it says, the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and it uses the word there yetzer, which means to make out of already existing material. So this lectern was made out of wood that was there before it was made into a lectern. So out of something that was already there just from the ground, God formed man. What did he form? He formed man's body from dust. Thou art from dust. Thou shalt return to dust. Thou shalt return there, says God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The same word in Hebrew means both breath and spirit. And it says, man became a living soul. So what I believe the Bible is saying there is that God formed out of nothing. Man's human spirit. God created man's body from dust from the ground. God breathed man's spirit into man's body. And out of that relationship, man's soul came into being. So man's soul is the bridge between the immaterial spiritual realm and the material natural realm. We live today in a two dimensional order of reality. One is spiritual and the other is material. Now they're both real. They're different dimensions, different orders of created reality. See? And the soul of man is the bridge between the immaterial spiritual realm and the material natural realm that I can touch with my hands and experience through my senses. So there is a creational principle, if you like the word made flesh that runs through all of God's purpose and creating man. There was something you see in man's soul that was so important that when man sinned, God did something for man. He didn't do for the angels who sinned. As far as the Bible reveals to us, there's no salvation for the fallen angels. But when Manson, God joined himself up with his own creation to redeem man back to that purpose, because the purpose was so was so glorious to God, what was God's glorious purpose to make his hidden spiritual moral beauty evident manifest in the flesh. See in living, walking, breathing human beings in this material universe. Now, just as man's soul has three functions, man's spirit has three functions, and these are one. To spend just a little while talking about some we've touched on, but this might help to put it into a framework so we can go out and begin to experience some of the things that God has done in our life. Right? The first one that we are fairly familiar with is conscience. As we said the other day, another morning, conscience is not the voice of God. Conscience is the function of your human spirit does two things. Judges between right and wrong says, that's right. That's wrong. It is a categorical non-deductive decision I've noticed. For example, I cannot argue with my conscience. It doesn't listen, but my conscience says that's wrong. I discover I can give it one hundred and one reasons why it's perfectly alright, and everybody else is doing the same. And then when I say to my conscience, now, what do you think my conscience is? That's wrong? Wasn't listening. You see, it's not a mental faculty. It is a spiritual one. The other function of conscience is to bear witness to truth. It discerns the true from the false. As I said the other morning, that's the marvelous thing that you never need to prove that the Bible is true because it's true. The truth bears witness to man's conscience. See? So the day of Pentecost, Peter stands up and he says, The Christ whom you crucified, God has raised him from the dead and made him both Lord and Christ. Where's the proof? None. No visible evidence. What happens? They're smitten and their conscience. And say, men and brethren, what must we do? See the truth registered on the conscience? I think that's a neat thing. You just need to be. You don't need to prove Jesus as Lord. Just declare it. Yes, Lord. See, because his Lord, the truth of that will register on people's conscience. But let me tell you this. As as God's people, it's very important that we keep a clean conscience. See, because of our conscience is defiled or seared or neglected, it won't bear accurate witness to truth. Now, we have a lot of heresy that has come to the Church of God has come. Because somewhere along the line there was a defiled conscience that couldn't be a witness to truth. The thing that will carry us through the skillful deception that goes around today is not a brilliant mind, but a clean conscience. Not a PhD there, but the blood of Jesus here to keep our conscience clear and our discerning faculty will, will, will, will function. You may hear a brilliant Exposition that's laden with scriptures and it hangs together absolutely logically flawless. But down here there's something that sings. Watch it, watch it. There's alarm bell ringing. Okay, you listen to that. That's your spirit. One of the other functions of the human spirit that we are less familiar with, but it's very important, is knowledge. Now, let me tell you this. The mind does not know. The mind never knows. The mind understands or misunderstands, but it doesn't know. Knowing is a function of the human spirit. Turn to first Corinthians chapter two. It was a very important principle touched on here. I don't think you can really understand first Corinthians twelve unless you really understand first Corinthians two. Because in first Corinthians two, Paul is talking about spiritual revelation, and he says in verse. Ten like it is. You'll find the page. The eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered the heart of man. The things that God has prepared for those who love him. But to us, verse ten, God revealed them through the spirit. Revelation comes by the Holy Spirit, for the spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts or the things of God nobody knows but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God. Now, the best word to describe that kind of knowing is this word intuition. Before I was a Christian, I used to drive me up the wall. You know, I'd hear these people say, I know I'm saved. I say, how do you know? And they say stupid things. I don't know how I know, but I know. That made me feel worse. Until I discovered what they meant. Now I know what they mean. I know what they know. You see, now, women are much better at this than men, because women are naturally more accustomed to function in the area of intuition. The only mistake they make is they think it's infallible. Now, you're not infallible, but it is spiritual. See, to spiritual, it's just human spirit functioning. Somebody comes to my house and my wife says, I'm like that man. Say, what's wrong with him? Talks. Nice dress. I don't like him. What? See what's happening. There is an intuitive. There is a knowing. Remember one time Jesus took a little child and put it in the midst of these big, heavy disciples and said, look, if you want to understand anything about the kingdom of God, you've got to become like that little child. Now, I never really understood the way preachers handle that verse. They talk about little children of being humble and trusting, and I know crafty little kids that wouldn't trust you, and they can see you in a dark night. But if you notice a little child like this little boy here and younger ones around this camp here, they must make up their mind about in about 10s flat or less, don't they? Ping, ping. And they decide how they do it. They don't do it with their mind. They don't can't understand how brilliant and generous and all the rest of it you are. They do it with your spirit. They get an intuitive reading. Now here's the point. A little child trusts his intuitions. That's all he's got. God. He thinks you're a scary guy. You can't get near him. I have all the goodwill in the world and all the ice creams imaginable in your hand. He's under mom's skirts or whatever. See if he thinks you're a good guy. He can't get rid of him. He's all over you. See? What's Jesus saying? Is he going to understand anything about the ways of God? You have to learn to identify and trust your intuition, sir. Not that you won't make mistakes. Not at all. It's a human faculty we're talking about. But it is your spirit to you. And it is through your spirit. Primarily. That's the doorway by which we know the things of the God of God. And for men particularly, there are intuitive men. They've got me. Get me wrong. But often we're so accustomed to operate in the realm of intellect, what Kenwright calls intellectually handicapped Christians. That's only half a truth. But it's, you know, it says something. We're so accustomed to operate in the level of reason that we don't understand. Knowledge of God doesn't come that way. Knowledge of God comes intuitively. Long time I spent trying to find God with my mind. God is not a big brain. God is a spirit. God's got plenty of brains. Don't get me wrong. Brilliant, brilliant. But you don't find him that way. God's spirit, he's given you a spirit. The knowledge comes to you from his spirit to your spirit. Paul says. And oftentimes when we when we are saying, why can't I hear from God? God is speaking to us by His Spirit. We're missing it because we don't understand what we're looking for, what we're meant to hear. Now look, it happens. It happens to you all the time and you don't notice it. Or you call it something else. You're driving along the road, remember? And you went around six dead. Bends the blind corners. And there was nothing there. You're doing eighty or one hundred K and you came to the next one and something said, watch it, watch it. And so you slow down and pull in the side, and sure enough, there's a truck coming hurtling around. You never saw on the wrong side of the road. What happened? Spirit of God gave you a word of knowledge and he grabbed you. Mightn't be here if you hadn't listened. Other times. Other times the Spirit of God says to you, sometimes says to me, If I'm driving on the road, go round that way. And sometimes I brush aside. Well, why go round that way? And afterwards I find out what's going around that way, you see, because sometimes when I have gone round that way, something has happened. Now, listen, we need to tune in. We need to tune into that. Some people. What I'm talking tonight to tonight is unnecessary. I know that because you it's you function that way anyway. But those of you who don't, we need to deliberately learn to do what other people do. Naturally, I have to learn in a laborious way because I was way behind the starting line when it started. But knowledge comes to us in that direct, intuitive kind of way. Assurance comes in that direct and intuitive kind of way. The Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirit expressing it. You're a child of God. Right now, another function of the human spirit is what Jesus calls worship. And I guess Morris calls worship, too. From what I've picked up tonight, or if you want another word, communion, or if you want a more secular word, that means just the same thing communication. Listen, we communicate with our spirit, but we don't communicate at all. We aren't our husbands and wives who have been married for years and don't know how to communicate with one another. note, they don't talk to one another. Lots of things they say to one another. Probably better unsaid, but they've never or rarely struck that level of where they really communicate. And if parents do say, can't communicate with my kids or kids that say, can't communicate with the old man, why not? Because they talk a different language or a different argot or whatever. Because I never learned that you communicate with your spirit, right? And one of the things that I had to, again, I had to learn was how to do it, how to do it. I remember for me, and I'll just tell you this, because that's not the way you'll do it. You have to find your own way to do it. But what I want to encourage you is to begin to learn how to do it. See, for me, I identified my spirit as being somewhere about here. Now, John seven thirty seven says, he that believeth on me out of his belly, good Anglo-Saxon word will flow rivers of living. And I observe it when I'm under stress, that's what I tend to give my Daniel says, a spirit in the midst of the body. So in a way, for me, I, I, I, I started here at my spirit is probably somewhere about here if it's localized. So when I was praying, not only I was trying to say the words to God, but I was reaching out from here. See? And perhaps no accidents close to your heart. Uh, both physical and psychological. I would try to reach out to God when I was talking to people. I try to reach out to people from here. Try to listen to them from here as well as up here. Now, a lot of the time, it was totally frustrating. Nothing happened. Every time when I was on the point of giving up, something happened. Suddenly bingo. And I was in touch with God. I think, how did it happen? How did it right last that time? See? Talking to someone, suddenly you're on the wavelength. Now the doors are open and you know No, you're touching something there. I say, how did I do it? How did I do it? It didn't work that time. Now I'm telescoping a lot. But gradually I discovered I became more and more aware of my spirit as part of the communicating aspect of my nature. Now, because I've been asked so often this time, this, this last week, I guess I've reflected a bit more on it, and I noticed a couple of things that I hadn't before, hadn't before about this, this whole thing that might be helped you because I discover that there are two particular emotions, two particular emotions that seem to go with this, this, this aspect of communication. In fact, I think what the Bible calls the heart is our human spirit and probably part of our emotional life. And the two particular emotions that I think are important. One is love And the other is desire. The thing is here am I with this person. I really want to really want to reach them. How am I going to do it? I can't know where my spirit is or what's going to help to draw that out of me. I saw two things love and desire. And when you can find a love in your heart for that person, that greatly facilitates the reaching of them in your spirit. When there's a desire, there desire is equivalent to distance in the realm of spirit. If you deeply desire something, you're close to it. If you don't desire it very much, you're a long way away. And I believe that that, uh, evoking or or recognizing or giving ourselves to, to to those two emotions as they rise in our heart when we're faced with that situation, will help this thing to to come. Right. See, I notice, for example, uh, when I'm speaking that I recognize those things are there. You know, I find that when I. When I'm preaching the Word of God unbidden, somehow there in my heart, there is an intense love for those people. Some of them I've never met before and I've never met again. But there's there's something there that wants to reach them, you see. And God has given us those feelings, those emotions of love and desire to move us. That's what emotion means. It's something that moves us. Now it can move us to do all sorts of things, but we can. We can use it, I believe, to assist us to move in our spirits. And only when you reach somebody in your spirit will you ever affect them. I think it's one of the missing dimensions of of our personal evangelism. See, you'll never save anybody by quoting texts at them. You know the fastest text in the West that doesn't, uh. Well, God's sovereign. I know God does it. Uh, how he. How he wishes. But but you'll never really influence somebody or impart something to them unless you touch them in your spirit. And we have to learn how to move in that area. And the two great emotions, I think, that are, that are help to us in that are love and desire. Because when there's, when there's a lot of love there, you see, often we do it without thinking. And when there's a, when there's a desire, if there's somebody there who is really hurting and, and and you really you really want to want to do to help them. There's no words there. You may you may just say, look, I'm so sorry. And, and and you know, in three words, you've done more for them than an hour and a half's counsel or prayer ministry or whatever. See what happened? Because desire and love has drawn your spirit out. Now, oftentimes, you know, that kind of thing happens to us Just as sometimes when you're speaking, whether it's one on one or or to a group or you're sharing something. The word and the excitement of it. The word will will carry your spirit out. You don't need to try. It's just there. See? But not always. Sometimes you've got to do it deliberately. And we have to to lend, as it were. Our spirit is a kind of a carrier wave on which the Holy Spirit can move. And if you have an unresponsive audience, it's hard work, you know, it's it's, uh. It's exhausting. You have to get out there with your spirit and try and impart something. Hammer on that closed door. But if you don't do it, nothing happens. And you may be laboring away there, and you can see somebody in somebody's face lights up. No, boy, there's an open heart there. So you tag it on him and you preach the rest of your sermon to him. See? Okay, right. The missing area of a lot of our attention is these two areas here. You know, how does my soul and my spirit work together? And how do my soul and spirit, my body, function together? Okay. You see, the Holy Spirit indwells your human spirit. He's a man. He will go no further than that without certain responses on our part. That's why what I'm going to say tonight from here on is quite important, you see. You will have noticed because you're a bright bunch. There's a relationship between knowledge in my spirit and understanding in my mind, conscience in my spirit, the will in my mind, communication in my spirit and emotions in my section. So you don't understand the link yet, but I'll explain it to you later on. The link here is faith. Right. Let me say something. Faith in the Bible is never a leap in the dark. It's never believing without any evidence. It's not, as Lewis Carroll put it, in Alice in Wonderland, believing three impossible things before breakfast. That's not faith. Sometimes faith is presented like that. Before I was a Christian, I used to say, if I only knew, then I'd be able to believe. After I became a Christian, I said, Lord, you got it all wrong. You believe first and then, you know, I discovered I was right the first time, actually, you know first and then you believe. Bible faith always works because it always rests on knowledge. See? It rests on data. It rests on information. See? But it is knowledge of a particular kind. It is knowledge that comes to us intuitively in our spirit. So you go to pray for somebody who's sick of an incurable illness, and you go to pray a prayer of hope and good wishes for them. And suddenly when you're faced with this thing, there is an intuitive knowing in your spirit. God says, saying to you, lay hands on the sick and they recover. Lay hands on her. Heal over you. Then the possibility of faith or unbelief arises, you see. Then if you wait long enough, your mind's going to step in and say, hang on, what's going to happen to her? If you pray for her and she doesn't get healed, and all these other neat excuses that pop up for you. But at that point, when you've got knowledge that the possibility of faith or unbelief arises and you step out, then on that knowledge, you've got knowledge, you've got data, you've got a word from the Lord. You've got information, you've got something your faith can rest on when you step out on that. What happens is the power of the Holy Spirit, who is in your human spirit is released through that faith into your mind to set your mind free. And beyond that, pick it up later on. Now, you see, that's why Jesus said, all you need is faith, like a grain of mustard seed and you can move a mountain. We think you need faith like a mountain to move a grain of mustard seed. Faith is like a kind of fuse wire. It's not the amount of faith that's important. The existence of it. A little bit of five ten amp wire in that system there that's missing all the power. And the grid won't even boil a jug of water. See? Put that tiny little bit, bit of wire in there. You can run a factory on it, see if faith is there, if that living faith is there that's responsive. That knowledge of God and all the power of the Holy Spirit can flow through that faith to do whatever God wills. See, if that faith is not there, the Holy Spirit will go no further. I used to wonder what talked about quenching the Holy Spirit. How can you quench the Holy Spirit? He's God. See? He's not living in God. How can you quench the Holy Spirit? See? Well, just take the fuse. Wire out. Fuse wire out. The link here is an obvious one, and that is obedience. But I want you to see something. I remember when I was a Bible class years ago. Long time ago, no mature Christians and our teachers used to say things like God's commands are his enabling. I think stupid, you know what does what does that mean? See, actually, it enshrined a very important principle. If I'd understood it properly, that is this, that the way to to experience God's power is through obedience. God will never do anything that infringes your moral freedom. God will never make you do anything, even if you think that thing would be good for you. And I need to underscore this because oftentimes I suspect that people come on an altar call and what they're really coming for is to say, here I am, God. Now do it and get rid of that problem. See Or change me so that I become good and holy. God won't do that. God will never do any more than tell you in your conscience what you ought to do. I remember a Dutch brother I knew some years ago who was an alcoholic, and he came to the Lord, and I met him one time, and he was really distraught. His wife had been away, and he'd been at home in the house by himself. Got a bit lonely. And there looked in the kitchen cupboard, came across a bottle of sherry, and the inevitable happened. And he said to me, I was saying to God, stop me, God, don't let me take another drink. He had to go and take another swig and say, God, now make that the last. If God didn't stop me, he said, God won't stop you. I won't stop you. All of you will tell you in your conscience what you ought to do. But but when we move in obedience to what God tells us, we ought to do That act of obedience releases the power of God to touch us where in our will. To enable us both to will and to do of God's good pleasure. And his power reaches our will, and sets our will free from all manner of bondage and all manner of weakness, and enables us to will the will of God. Amen. I think that's amazing, because basically I understand that I am not a strong willed person, and yet I've known the power of God that has touched my will and broken long standing bondages, and set my will free just out of the simple act of obedience. God says, do it and nothing impossible. But I'll do it, and suddenly it's possible. Take the story in the Old Testament about Samson. Samson is in the city of Dothan and outside of the Philistines, and Samson hears that his people in the city are going to hand him over to his enemies. So Samson goes to the gate, and the spirit of the Lord comes upon him, and he puts a pair of human hands on the great timber gates. And what happens is human hands become superhuman. He just lifts the whole caboodle off and marches off with his divine power, reaches natural power and lifts it up the supernatural performance. But it comes out of the simple act of obedience. And without that obedience, there is no enabling. You see, the big thing that that I think often we struggle with is that what God is after in our life is not just even obedience. God is after willing obedience. I said this before, only willing obedience is any blessing to us. How can I be willing? See, you know, we often pray, Lord, make me willing to do your will. See. They do. Somehow, with my will, I get hold of my will and make my will willing. Well, what's the will that make my will willing? See? You know we. How's it going to happen? It's going to happen when in cold obedience. Willing. Just deliver obedience. Oh, God. I'll do it. And the Holy Spirit touches our will and lifts us up to a place where we not only do God's will, but suddenly the most important thing in our life is to will. God's will. Yeah. It becomes the most blessed thing to willingly do what God wants us to do. See, that's the gift of God's grace by His Holy Spirit when we move in obedience. And that is the purpose of obedience. You see, God, make no mistake, it's not that God needs our obedience to do anything. God can get anything done. He wants anything. He's got all the power there is. He's got all the knowledge there is. He's got all the time there is. So he can't overpower God or outsmart God or throughout life. God, he can do anything you like. See, he's got a sovereignty of omnipotence, but it doesn't satisfy him. That's the incredible thing. God is not satisfied to have the sovereignty of omnipotence. The only sovereignty that satisfies the heart of God is the sovereignty of fatherhood. Who gets his will done just because his sons and his daughters delight to do his will? That's what God is after in your life. And that comes out of simple obedience, right? The link over here. Is a very interesting one you might not understand for a while. The link over there is actually hope. Hope? I think hope is the most neglected virtue in the whole of the Christian calendar. You know, Paul said, now abideth faith, hope, love these three. I think in my lifetime I've probably heard hundreds and hundreds of sermons on faith. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of sermons on love. But I could count on the fingers of one hand, if that. The numbers of sermons I've heard on faith, on hope. See, I've preached most of them myself. I think what's wrong with hope? I mean, if it's only three out of three, it must be of some importance. I want to give you a Bible definition of hope. That's very, very important. I'd like to really get this in your heart. Hope is the faith is the confident expectation of something good. In other words, hope is openness. To receive. Hope is openness to receive. I think in English you know it. The sound of it is against your faith. That's a real kind of powerful sounding word. But hope is so kind of tender, though. It's a very powerful thing. See, hope is openness to receive. Listen, you will never experience more than you receive. If you don't receive it, you won't experience it. I want to tell you something. You will never receive what you're not open to. If you're not open to the love of God, you'll never receive it. You'll never experience it. If you don't expect God to manifest his love in your heart, then even though God is trying to do it, you won't receive it. And if you don't receive it, you won't experience it. One of the things I've learned is this God is not prepared to accept our love on faith. If you understand that he's always telling us, love me with all your heart and all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. God says, love me. Why? Because God wants to experience it. And I know if God means to experience my love, I know he means us to asked to experience his love and the reason why I didn't experience it for years and years, in spite of all my searching I discover now was because I never really expected it to happen to God could really be really concerned about me. I couldn't believe it. See, it's the truth, though. It's the truth, though, and we need to cultivate that openness to receive Jesus. And when we're open to receive God's in the giving business, you'll get all God's got to give you to begin to experience it. Right. Just quickly, three links down here. The one here I want to talk about in just a minute is confession. I don't mean the confession that asks God to forgive our sins. I mean the saying together with I mean the declaring the speaking of God's truth. Well, let me say this. And I'm not talking about the power of positive thinking. Words, however, are creative. God created by speaking things into existence. Man creates the same way, good or bad. Jesus said, the good man out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good the evil man out of the evil treasure. His heart brings forth evil. Have you ever wondered where the permissive society we're living in came from? It was spoken into existence. It is being spoken into existence all the time. Have you ever wondered why it is? The devil makes a beeline for the media because he understands this principle. Things are spoken into existence. Have you ever wondered why the devil makes it so difficult for us to give words to our faith? He tells that kind of half truth. You know it's better to witness by your life than by your words. I know many godly lives that are admirable, that somehow don't influence many people round about. I also know many young Christians full of what God had done to them, full of an experience, full of spots in their in their life, and were going around spouting off all over the place. And people are getting saved. See what's happening. Words are creating life. We speak things into existence. Now listen. If you haven't got it in your faith, you can't speak it into existence. See if this was missing. If this was missing here, all you speak is what's in your mind. Okay? But if that is there. And that is not there. Sometimes what you've got in your faith won't come into existence. I learned this first in terms of healing. It's got much wider application than that. I realized for a long, long time that there was more to healing than just faith. In fact, in the Bible, faith never stands on its own. You're not saved just by faith. You're saved by repentance and faith. You're not sanctified by faith. You're sanctified by obedience and faith. Although that's true, what's the missing factor that goes with healing? Faith. And what? I discovered it one day when I was digging in the garden. I didn't discover it in the garden, but I was digging in the garden. Uh, and part of my mind was struggling with this. And we we live on the beach and there's a lot of buffalo grass, I think, like, the grass out here has got a very fibrous kind of root. So when you're digging it out, It's like digging through a feather mattress. You have to really drive the spade down. And I remember I had my spade up here, and suddenly light dawned. It's confession. Confession says calm sea. Now. Literally. Hallelujah. And I drove that spade down with all my weight into the slot. And I put my thumb on a concrete wall on the way down. And God said, that's right. And try that. See, there I was, having discovered a spiritual principle, and my thumb turning blue in front of my face, and I got Ahold of it. I began to say, Lord, by your stripes I was healed. I tell you something, in less than 30s the pain had gone out of my thumb. You had a black nail for a long time to remind me of it. But I'd found a spiritual principle. Many times what you've got in your faith will not come to pass until you give it words, until you speak it, until you confess it. Now this principle Is being misused. Like all God's good things, and sometimes the the thing that's coming across is all you've got to do is pick on something you want and then confess it and you'll feel. Visualize it and confess it and speak into existence that can be idolatrous, that can be a corruption of what God is after. But the principle remains true that words are creative things. And what I've got on my face many times won't happen until I speak it into existence. I can remember another time I had this. This thing that upsets your inner ear balance. You know, the thing that makes the world go round. I thought I'd gotten his name. And at that time, I was. I was going over to a place called Wainuiomata, where we used to live, and I was holding healing seminars on on Monday nights. And one Monday morning I got up and I went into the bathroom, and the bathroom started doing tight loops around my head, and the first thing I thought was, I can't go to the seminar tonight. The second thing I thought was how to explain that I can't go to seminar tonight. The seminar was on healing and I steadied myself in the bathroom taps, and I reached into God and I got my healing. I got it, you know. I got it, I got it in my face. I started to confess. Lord, your stripes have made me whole. By your stripes I was healed. Lord, I believe it or I confess it. By his stripes I was healed. Now I have to drive to work very carefully. That morning, because I turned my head. Suddenly things started to spin. But by mid-morning I was healed and never come back. See now, the principle here that we need to learn and grow in, right? There's another principle here that is also very important, and we could spend a lot of time talking on it. But I want to be brief tonight and that is this. That the reason why God seeks obedience from us is because God wants to give us authority. Now listen. Obedience and authority go together. The most disastrous thing is to give authority to a man who's never learnt obedience. And only authority that comes out of obedience is genuine spiritual authority. Authority of any kind. It's very, very important for parents to understand. You see, a child can recognize real authority. It's not a matter of shouting. It's not a matter of of, uh, defame or anything like that. A child can recognize real authority. You know why? Because it's spiritual. And you know where it impinges on the child? Because the spiritual. It impinges on his conscience. And the child knows whether he does it or not. He knows I ought, I ought. Now, the tragedy of many young people today is that they've never been brought up to know that. And they've got no standards whatsoever. They've got nothing ever in their life that has that ought. And it has come, I believe, largely because their parents, who have been exercising that authority have been living in disobedience themselves. Now, if the person exercising authority is not living in obedience, what comes out is not authority. What comes out is willpower, you see. And it's a clash of wills. And the person that's being ordered around his faith with two alternatives. Either I yield to this and I become less than a person, or I stand up for my rights in this complex area where there is genuine spiritual authority that comes out of obedience, whether it is in the workplace or wherever it is, where there is genuine authority to obey. Genuine authority does not put you down. See, because it always free to choose to obey it. See, there's no pressure. There's an openness about. You know, I ought to do that. That's why if the boss at work says, go and do this, you don't feel well. Who is he to boss me around and tell me to do that? You know I'm just a robot. You don't feel like that. See? Because you know he's entitled to do that. See? And there's an openness about it. The same in the church. If there's genuine authority in the leadership in the church, then to say to me, do this, do that, whatever. There's an openness about I recognize authority is coming down from God through lives and lived in obedience to him. But if that obedience is not there, then it's a bad battle of wills. see. And I believe if we're going to have in our home genuine authority. Parents must learn. Mothers must learn. Fathers must learn to live themselves in obedience. Otherwise, we're saying to Johnny, you must do as you're told when you get as big as I am. Nobody needs to tell you what to do. Not even God. You'll never learn obedience for that. Last thing over here is is is this now? Isn't it interesting that when we touch God, when we communicate with God, the thing that is effective is our emotions. That's why in the Charismatic Renewal, there's been such a such an outpouring of emotional expression. Why? Because people are really communicating with God. Let me tell you this, emotions are always a byproduct. So that before say it again, they're always a byproduct. You can never find them by seeking them themselves. That's counterproductive. They're a byproduct of something. What are they byproduct of their byproduct of our real communication with God and is with us? The thing that's down here. Is joy. Three great creative, productive emotions in our life. And that all I believe are closely linked with this whole business of living out of our spirit. One is love, one is desire, and one is joy. Joy is a very life giving thing. There's a lot of energy in joy. In Nehemiah it says, the joy of the Lord is our strength. I never understood this before until I started to realize how life giving and how energizing joy is. I know I've told you before, but I'll tell it again because the neat story one of John Wesley's old preachers. The story is told that when he came to his deathbed and was about to die, his joy at the prospect of at last dying and seeing his Savior face to face kept him alive for another fortnight. See, here's this old guy going to die, and I'm going to see Jesus. Hallelujah. And the adrenaline pumping through his veins and life. This joy is a life giving, energizing vitalizing. Where does it come from? David says, I have come to God, my exceeding joy. Man was made for joy. I'd go as far as to say man was made for ecstasy, made for ecstasy. He seeks us today in all sorts of harmful and inappropriate ways alcohol, drugs, LSD, promiscuous sex, and all the rest. Why? His heart is hungering for joy and the supreme joy. The thing that will keep us going eternally for all eternity and we can experience it now is the ecstasy, the joy, the delight of knowing God face to face. I'll never forget the night I was baptized, the Holy Spirit. I laughed for three quarters of an hour. You know the reality of discovering that God was real, you know? And by that time I had severe doubts as to whether he really existed or not. And somewhere down about here, I touched the living God. And the relief was so enormous, you know, the joy was so enormous. I had to say to God, Lord, you'll have to stop. You know, I can't really manage anymore, because now I'm here, and that's not meant to be a once for all. It's not meant to be a once for all. God wants you to have joy. It doesn't come by seeking joy. It doesn't come by joy. That merely means I'll never find. It comes. I'll go. And looking for to God. How do I go looking for God? I go looking with my spirit and you know how to do it. You actually know how to do it. I've talked with people today. You know, when you go into a room, for example, and you're mixing amongst all the strangers, what are you actually doing? I guarantee you, most of you settle down ultimately with somebody. When you've gotten the right wavelength, you're going around, you're you're reaching out, talking to this one, talking to that one, sharing with a casual conversation with that. But here, here, here, here, here. Yeah, here. There it is. See. And you're in tune with that person. See, will you go looking for God like that in your prayer time when you're reading His word, when you're walking around in his creation, when you're doing his will just in your spirit? It's not a striving thing. It's just holding a door open. I tell you something, because God loves to come visit him, he'll catch you unawares, The most unexpected times, and I guarantee some of your most ecstatic, glorious living experiences of God. Not going to be in a meeting. There might be. When you're up to your elbows in the kitchen sink, or you're driving your car, or you're getting in a bus. I can remember one time walking across the intersection in James Smith's Corner in Wellington on a wet, windy Friday night. I was going up to Coffee Lounge and halfway across the intersection, suddenly I saw things the way God saw them. And those people, little girls all painted up to the nines. They were beautiful. And the grumpy old people hurrying home through the storm. They were absolutely, absolutely amazing. I don't know how long it lasted. You know, it was kind of timeless. But time had got over the crossing. It was a lot of people wanting to get home out of the southerly as soon as possible. See? But God wants us to come visit him like that. I can remember another time. I came one time to Rome. In the early days. He had a time, a real distress of my life. You know, I really believed I'd come to the end of things. And I remember at the end of the conference, I wasn't speaking at that conference. Uh, Nev. Uh, used to praise, to pray for people, uh, one by one. Before they left, he had a prophecy for me that my ministry was about to begin. And I didn't believe it one bit. I thought, brother, just try to be kind. But I'll never forget that week, because round I think it was somewhere, uh, just before, uh, Gary's house. Somewhere around in the rocks there, you know? God, God suddenly touched my life. And for a moment, uh, all the light and the glory and the wonder of creation just just went through me and I've, you know, I, I can't express it in words, you see. But God wants us to have these kind of peak experiences. Yeah. And he's knocking on our doors at all unexpected times. But the door is a door of our spirit, not our mind, not our feelings. That's the secondary thing. And if we seek him with all our heart, what's the heart? The heart's our spirit. It's our love and it's our desire. God says we will surely find. Blessed be his name. I'd like you to sing. Uh, if you would, uh, songs to finish with. And that's the one we sang before. Jesus, you are more precious than silver, Lord. You are more costly than gold. Nothing I desire compares to you, Lord, you are everything.