This is tape KK10 in the Springs of
Living Water Tape Library.
Copies may be obtained by writing Springs of
Living Water Tapes P.O. Box 32636 Spring
Lake Park, Minnesota 55432 Tape
number four in a series of heart-to
-heart talks on the subject, God is a
Person.
This is side one of the tape and
it features the message entitled, Today Inherit the
Mind of Christ, and the Katherine Kuhlman Concert
Choir with a prayer.
I wish
I had the ability just now to bring
you face to face with the person of
the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is as definitely a person
as God the Father is a person.
The Holy Spirit is as surely a person
as Jesus, the Son of God, is a
person.
He is more than just an influence.
He is more than just one of the
attributes.
And I would like in the next few
minutes, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
to make His person real to you.
It would change your whole outlook on life.
He can change your relationship with Jesus.
When you realize the power of this wonderful
third person, the Trinity, it opens up the
entire Word of God to you.
You see everything so differently.
And then you realize how valuable is this
experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
And I believe in that experience with every
atom of my being.
The Bible teaches it.
There is an experience after one has been
born again.
First comes a new birth experience.
That experience that we call conversion.
Being born again.
Regeneration.
When one accepts Jesus as one's personal Savior.
After that, there is an experience that's promised
to every believer.
The experience of the baptism with the Holy
Spirit.
Or being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Call the experience anything that you want to.
But it's a part of every Christian's inheritance.
And it's a part of the plan of
Jesus for His own and every member of
His church.
Now for just a few minutes, I want
you to see the Word of God as
God relates to the Holy Spirit.
Oh, this is something that's very glorious.
The Word of God clearly teaches that the
Holy Spirit relates Himself to both God the
Father and to the Son.
Turn, if you will please, to the 3rd
chapter of Matthew.
Begin with the 16th verse.
And immediately you will recall that glorious event
when Jesus came up out of the waters
of baptism.
Oh, these two verses are very revealing.
I still contend that the full depth of
the meaning of these two verses cannot be
understood by any human being.
It's all so involved and yet it's so
simple that even a child can understand.
For here we have all three persons.
You know it well.
You have read the 16th and 17th verses
of the 3rd chapter of Matthew many times.
I shall read it again.
But I pray that the Holy Spirit Himself
shall give you a clearer revelation than you've
ever had before of that which has happened.
And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up
straightway out of the water.
Now get the picture.
Here we have the person of Jesus who
literally is God in the flesh.
For you will remember that the clearest revelation
that God ever gave of Himself He gave
through His Son, Jesus.
And Jesus literally was God in the flesh
as He came and walked upon this earth.
So here we have Jesus, when He was
baptized, went up straightway out of the water.
And lo, the heavens were opened unto Him.
And this is what He saw.
He saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and lighting upon Him.
That was the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit, the Word of God
teaches, is the Spirit of God.
This is vitally important.
I pray that the Holy Spirit Himself shall
give you this glorious revelation as to just
who He actually is.
Whenever you think of the Holy Spirit, whenever
you speak of the Holy Spirit, remember He
is the Spirit of God.
And whether it's in the Old Testament or
the New Testament, you read of the Spirit
of God.
It was the Spirit of God that moved
upon the waters during the time of creation.
It refers to the Holy Spirit.
Whenever the Old Testament prophets spoke of the
Spirit of God, they were always referring to
the Holy Spirit.
For the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
God.
All right?
Here we have Jesus coming up out of
the waters of baptism.
The heavens were opened unto Him.
And He saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove and lighting upon Him.
Remember, it was the same Holy Spirit, the
same Spirit of God, that came in that
upper room as the hundred and twenty tarried.
And they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit, the Spirit of God, and lo, a
voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased.
No man, no woman can ever come before
the throne of God.
No person in the day of judgment can
ever plead ignorance regarding the fact that he
did not know that Jesus was the true
Messiah, that he did not know who Jesus
really was.
For God Himself made sure that all generations
to come would know that the One who
came in the form of flesh, the One
who came up out of the waters of
baptism, was all that He said that He
was and that He had been sent by
God Himself and that He was the very
Son of the living God, the true Messiah.
God did not leave that for an angel.
He did not leave that for another.
But God Himself spoke and proclaimed to all
generations to follow, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased.
And there you have all three members of
the Trinity.
Jesus coming up out of the waters of
baptism, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God
Himself, but the Person of Almighty God was
still in heaven.
So profound that the greatest minds that have
ever lived have never been able to fathom
the full depth of it, and yet it's
so simple anyone can understand.
And it gives full proof as to just
who the Holy Spirit is and how He
relates to the Father, how He relates to
Almighty God.
He is the Spirit of God.
And you know, the most amazing thing is
that we think we know so much about
the Holy Spirit and there are those who
feel as though He is just a new
personality having come on the scene and that
it was something given just to the Church.
Marvel at how much the Old Testament prophets
knew regarding this third Person of Trinity, the
Spirit of God.
I marvel at the knowledge of Jeremiah.
It's not by might, it's not by power,
but it's by My Spirit, saith the Lord.
The Holy Spirit.
All the Old Testament saints, many of them,
were well acquainted with the Spirit of God
and the Holy Spirit.
Here's Isaiah.
And remember, he's the same Holy Spirit today
as the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God
that Isaiah knew.
That 61st chapter of Isaiah.
And this is so thrilling.
Isaiah describing his experience when he said, The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord hath anointed me to preach
good tidings unto the meek.
He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, on
the opening of the prison to them that
are bound.
As I stand in the pulpit, and I
feel that wonderful anointing of the Holy Spirit,
and I feel sorry for that one who
has been called to preach the gospel who
has never known that wonderful anointing.
Let me ask you, as you stood there
in that pulpit, has that anointing of the
Holy Spirit come upon you to such a
degree that you were not conscious of those
who filled the pews?
That literally, he took those lips of clay.
I'm not talking about speaking in an unknown
tongue.
I'm talking about the Holy Spirit taking your
mind and giving you the mind of Christ,
giving you the mind of God, and literally
as you surrender yourself to Him, you are
hearing with your own ears that which the
Holy Spirit is giving to those to whom
you are ministering.
There's nothing in the whole world like the
anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Nothing.
If you're a man of God and you
stand before your people as the great shepherd
to the flock, and you've been given the
responsibility to preach the gospel, your greatest thrill
is to stand there and have every fiber
of your being under the control of the
Holy Spirit.
The Holy.
I do not have the vocabulary.
It is not in the human vocabulary to
describe these things, the Spirit.
They're so marvelous.
And hear Isaiah utter the same wonderful anointing.
To me, that's glorious.
I know those of us who've experienced the
wonderful Pentecostal experience sometimes feel as though we're
the only people whom the Lord has so
blessed, and that this is something new, a
new thing that has been given to a
precious few.
Oh, bless you.
Isaiah knew the same Holy Spirit.
He's talking about that same anointing that you
and I have today.
And he looks up with great joy and
cries forth, The Spirit of the Lord God
is upon me.
John had that wonderful experience on the Isle
of Patmos, and he knew not how better
to describe it than to say, I was
on the Lord's.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon
me.
The Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit.
Again I remind you, as we're coming face
to face with the person of the Holy
Spirit, I pray that you listen very closely
and realize that the Holy Spirit is a
person that you and I cannot take lightly.
There's something about the Holy Spirit that is
very solemn.
He's one easily grieved.
Those words were never spoken of God the
Father or of Jesus Christ the Son, but
of the Holy Spirit.
He's not a person that you can just
cast aside, put behind the door, shrug your
shoulders and say, I have no need of
Him.
When you consider that the sin for which
there is no forgiveness is not against the
Great Creator, is not against Almighty God, that's
the thing I so marvel at.
And the Bible clearly teaches that there is
a person against whom you can sin and
there is no forgiveness for that one who
sins against.
No matter what you say about God, you
use His name in vain.
You have refused to come to Him, to
call upon Him.
And yet, the very moment, then in all
sincerity, you look up and accept His Son
as your personal Savior, just automatically He adopts
you as His child.
You may be the worst sinner in the
whole world.
You may have committed every sin there is.
And yet, when you accept His Son, the
Christ, as your Savior, He adopts you as
His child.
He makes you His heir and you become
a joint heir with Jesus.
No, the sin for which there is no
forgiveness is not against God.
Neither is it against Jesus the Son, even
those who spat upon Him while the spittle
was running down His body.
Had they turned and cried out and said,
Forgive me.
I confess I'm a sinner.
Forgive my sins.
Even in that moment, Jesus would have looked
down and said, I forgive you.
As He cried out and said, The sin
for which there is no forgiveness is not
against Jesus the Son.
But that sin is committed against the Holy
Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
God.
And the Spirit of God is holy.
That is why He is called the Holy
Spirit.
Yes, make yourself real to men and women
for Jesus.