...is one of the Times Square Church pulpit
series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing, World Challenge,
Post Office Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or
by calling 903-963-8626.
None of these messages are copyrighted, and you
are welcome to make copies for free distribution
to friends.
If you love me, keep my commandments, Jesus
said.
I will pray the Father.
He shall give you another comforter, that he
may stay or abide with you forever.
Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him, but you know him, for he
dwelleth with you and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you.
I will not leave you comfortless.
Holy Spirit, we're hungry.
We're desperately hungry to know you, the work,
the ministry of the Holy Spirit in us.
Jesus, you sent the Holy Ghost to abide
with us.
It's imperative that we know what his ministry
in us is.
We can no longer live in ignorance of
the work and the ministry of the Holy
Ghost.
Holy Spirit, I'm hungry to know what you're
doing in my heart.
I'm hungry to know what you're doing.
Having been sent to me, having lived in
my heart, I want to acknowledge you.
Holy Spirit, I acknowledge you now for an
anointing.
The anointing that abides is the Holy Ghost,
is the Holy Spirit.
We're beginning to see more and more as
the pastors unburden our hearts to this congregation.
We're learning more of the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, thank you for bringing us to
a closer image, a closer revelation of who
you are.
We acknowledge you tonight.
Open our eyes, Holy Spirit.
We know that you're here to reveal Jesus
to us.
Come, Holy Spirit.
We invite you, I invite you to use
my body and my lips and speak the
revelation of truth about yourself in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Let me try to go over very simply
what I've been trying to share with you
about the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has been over-complicated.
We really haven't known what it means to
walk in the Spirit.
If you call, we told you that walking
in the Spirit is simply letting the Holy
Spirit do in us what God has called
him to do.
That God sent him to this earth with
an eternal purpose.
That eternal purpose is simply this, to bring
a bride to the bridegroom.
To preserve and keep and sustain the bride.
To present a chaste virgin to Jesus at
the marriage supper of the Lamb.
That's his eternal purpose.
He'll never be swerved from it.
Everything he does in us is in keeping
with that eternal purpose.
Furthermore, everything has to line up with that
purpose.
Everything that is disassociated with that purpose ends
up in error.
We learned last Sunday night that he's our
keeper.
And he keeps us by convicting us of
sins so that the devil can't get his
hands on us.
He keeps us in love with Jesus by
showing us all the glorious promises and the
inheritance that waits for us.
I don't think that's complicated.
I ask you again, what is it to
walk in the Spirit?
It's simply letting the Holy Spirit do in
us what he's been called to do.
That's simple enough, isn't it?
Little by little, we've learned also that we
can pray to the Holy Spirit.
We can talk to the Holy Spirit.
That he's just as real in the spirit
world as we are in the flesh world.
And tonight, I want to speak to you
about another aspect of the ministry and mission
of the Holy Spirit.
I tell you folks, I have been totally
consumed with the searching and the seeking after
the work of the Holy Spirit.
Because we call ourselves a Holy Ghost people.
We talk about living in a Holy Ghost
dispensation, a Holy Ghost age.
But so little has been known about him.
We've neglected him.
He lives here.
We don't talk to him.
We're learning to.
But he's been the most neglected of the
Godhead and yet he's the one who lives
here.
Jesus is a man who's been glorified.
He's in heaven.
The Holy Ghost lives here on this planet
Earth.
Where does he live?
He lives right here.
Something I've learned about the Holy Spirit in
the last few weeks that's really blessed me
about him.
It's something we all need to know.
He doesn't talk about himself.
Here's what the scripture says.
When he, the spirit of truth has come,
he will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself.
But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak.
And he will show you things to come.
He shall glorify me, Jesus said.
He, the Holy Ghost, will glorify me.
When he comes to a meeting like this,
it's to glorify Jesus.
When he stirs us and moves us, it's
to glorify Jesus.
For he shall receive of mine and shall
show it unto you.
Folks, when I got hungry to know more
about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
In fact, I got to studying.
I got all my Puritan books out.
I studied Owens and Sibbes and Mannington and
I could name a whole bunch of them.
Folks, I have read volumes.
There's some very deep things written about the
Holy Spirit.
And I thought, well, I'll go and find
out who he is.
I'll learn all about his nature and about
him being a paraclete.
I want to know the Hebrew meaning and
I want to know the Greek meaning.
If it takes me seven days a week,
every waking hour, the Holy Ghost has stirred
me to dig into his nature or rather
to understand him.
So I read and I read and the
more I read, the less edified I was
and the less I understood until it dawned
on me.
Wait a minute.
The only thing that you can understand is
what the Holy Spirit himself reveals.
The book is dead unless the Holy Spirit
reveals.
This letter can kill you.
It's death without the Holy Spirit bringing life
to it.
And I realized the Holy Ghost doesn't talk
about himself.
How does he edify something he doesn't want
to talk about?
See, he doesn't want you to study his
nature.
He wants you to study his mission, why
he's here.
You don't have to know about me.
You don't have to know about the paraclete.
You don't have to know about all of
this Hebrew, Greek meaning of my name or
my personality.
All you need to know that I am
of the Godhead and that I am the
spirit of Christ.
I am the spirit of Jesus.
He is one man who left now.
He came down upon the whole.
He has been poured out upon the world,
the very spirit of Jesus.
Jesus said, if you see me, you've seen
the Father.
And he said, I will come to you.
He's come to us through the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit does not want to
be the object of our study concerning who
he is.
He wants us, though, to be totally familiar
with what he's called to do.
And that we're free to do.
That is what he blesses.
And he'll bless you tonight in the hearing
of the word.
If you really want to know why God
sent him to your heart.
Do you believe he lives in your heart?
All right.
I want you to follow me closely, please.
The messages I've been preaching last three weeks
really are not about who the spirit is,
but it's really about Jesus.
How the Holy Spirit has been sent to
make him known in real hearts by bringing
to our remembrance everything Jesus said.
That's his mission.
Now, Jesus said, I will not leave you
comfortless.
I will come to you.
And when he said that, he was standing
before his disciples.
He gathered on the Mount of Trent at
the Mount of Translation.
He's about to leave.
And he looks over this sorrowful lot.
The Bible says their hearts were sorrowful.
They were sorrowing.
Because, you see, their sole source of comfort
was to be taken from them.
Jesus was their only guide.
He was their only comfort, their only hope,
their only teacher.
And now he's leaving.
And they were sorrowing at heart.
And I know Jesus knew their mind and
they were thinking, surely, what do we do
now?
He told us to go and preach the
gospel to all the world.
He said, we're to preach his name.
Where's the authority?
Who's going with us?
He is God the flesh.
And they were saying, God's been taken from
us.
This is God.
Now, you have to understand the thinking of
these disciples at the time.
They said, we've staked our life on this
man.
This is all we know.
And when Jesus saw that, he said, look,
I'm not leaving you comfortless.
I'm going to come again.
But I'm coming in another form.
See, I'm one man.
I can stay with you here.
But he said, there's going to be a
great harvest.
And I want to live and abide in
all of you.
All who believe in me.
I don't think the disciples understood it.
I don't think they comprehended it at all.
Until Pentecost came.
I don't think they fully comprehended.
Jesus was looking at them and said, now
look, I'm not going to leave you to
the wolves.
I'm not going to leave you to the
clutches of the devil.
Jesus knew what they were going to face.
He saw the tribulation coming.
He knew that some of them would die
at the stake.
He knew they would be persecuted around the
world.
They would have their goods stolen from them.
And they would be cast in prison, mocked
and ridiculed for his name.
But he said, I'm not going to leave
you powerless.
I'm not going to leave you helpless.
I'm coming to you.
Something glorious is going to happen.
And they didn't understand that.
In other words, I'll not turn you over
to the clutches of the devil.
He said, I'm going to my father.
But I will pray the father.
And he shall give you another comforter.
That he may abide with you forever.
And he shall live with you.
And he shall be in you.
Glory be to God.
I don't know if you and I have
even tried to understand it.
Folks, aren't you beginning to hunger to know
who this is who lives in you?
Aren't you beginning to hunger and thirst and
say, Holy Spirit, I've neglected you long enough.
I want to know.
I want to know this power that is
inherited in me through your Spirit.
Now, who is the Holy Spirit sent to?
You say, well, he's sent to the whole
world.
Doesn't the Bible say, in the last days,
his Spirit will be poured out upon all
flesh?
Alright, listen to me closely, please.
The Holy Spirit is sent to the world,
to the ungodly, for one corporate purpose.
And that only.
To convince and convict of sin.
When he, the Holy Ghost, has come, he
will convict the world of sin.
Because they believe not in me.
And of righteousness, because I go to my
Father, and you see me no more.
And of judgment, because the Prince of the
world is judged.
And what he was saying, when the Holy
Spirit comes to the world, he's going to
convict of the sin of unbelief.
He's going to reveal that that's the root
sin.
That when you disbelieve in me, you have
no object for faith anymore.
And the Holy Spirit was going to unveil
this great truth.
That the one predominant sin, out of which
all other sins are birthed, is unbelief in
the person of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice.
Secondly, he said the Holy Spirit's going to
convict the world of righteousness, because I go
to my Father, and you see me no
more.
And what he was saying, he looked out
over those disciples who were going to see
him translated.
And here's the message, I hope you understand
it.
He said, you're going to be a testimony
to something the world doesn't understand.
But the Holy Ghost is going to make
real through you.
He said, they call me a wine-bibber,
this is the essence of it.
They call me a wine-bibber, they're going
to call me an imposter.
You're going to hear the Jew mock me,
and they won't even mention my name.
My name will be accursed in their lips.
They'll say, I'm an imposter.
But how do they justify the fact that
I'm taken into heaven by the Father?
The Father wouldn't take an unholy imposter to
glory.
And you're going to see me go.
And that's going to be the testimony of
the Holy Ghost, of righteousness, because I go
to my Father, and you see me no
more.
And you can tell the whole world, how
can he be an imposter?
How can he be a liar?
Because he was taken by the Father into
his own bosom.
He had to be a holy, righteous man,
or God would not have translated him.
And of judgment, and he was saying the
Holy Ghost was going to tell the whole
world there's freedom, because the power of Satan
was broken at the cross.
He was going, he wanted that message known
to the world, and that is the work
of the Holy Spirit to the world.
But, the Holy Spirit is not living in
the whole world.
There are people who say there's some of
the Holy Ghost in everybody.
Everybody's got a light in them.
And eventually, as that light brightens, you begin
to see Christ in his glory.
Not so.
Here it is very clearly, he's living at
this moment only in those who are truly
born again, who walk by faith in the
finished work of the cross.
Only in the true believer does the Holy
Spirit abide.
And by the way, there are many, I'll
show you before the message is over, many
that are Christians who do not have the
Holy Spirit living in them.
They have had the work, the convincing, convicting
work of the Holy Spirit, but they've not
had the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost.
Now, the sending of the Holy Spirit to
this earth is a very personal matter.
I tell you, this has gripped my heart,
it has absolutely overwhelmed me.
The Holy Spirit is dealing with me because,
you see, we have this idea in our
mind that the Holy Spirit is like some
kind of mystical ether that's sprayed on the
whole earth, like a holy smoke.
You know, God just poof!
This ether, this beautiful divine ether, this soothing,
soft ether, just fills the whole world.
You just breathe it in.
No, folks, the Holy Spirit's a person.
He has a personality, he has a mind,
he has ears.
Now, that's not a human, you don't picture
it in a human form.
But he hears, he talks.
My argument with the Lord's been this.
When I read that the disciples and the
apostles prayed and the Holy Ghost said this
and the Holy Ghost said that, I said,
Lord, if you ever talk to any man
who's ever lived since the cross, if the
Holy Ghost has talked to anybody, he's going
to talk to me.
I have that right.
If you talk to anybody, Holy Ghost, you're
going to talk to me.
And the Holy Ghost said, I will if
you'll realize how personal I am to you.
I've not been sent to the whole...
You see, we believe the Holy Ghost has
been sent to the world.
We have a harder time believing he's been
sent to us as individuals, that he's mine.
Because, you see, the first thing the Holy
Ghost does when he comes is to show
you how personal this thing is between you
and God and Jesus.
He personalizes it.
He brings it down to such intimacy.
First thing the Holy Spirit does when he
comes, he begins to make you cry, Abba,
Father.
Now, that's taken from oriental custom during Christ's
time.
When an adoptee father adopted a child, that
child was not even permitted to call him
father.
He was only a father.
But when the papers were sealed and signed,
the tutor brought the child to the father.
The papers were shown.
The child that was being adopted was presented,
and the tutor said, Now, go to him,
embrace him, and say, Abba, which means my.
That's all he did.
Abba means mine.
My father.
And so the adopted child looks at the
papers, holds it there, and now he can
say, He's not a father, he's my father.
He's mine.
Folks, that's the work of the ministry of
the Holy Spirit to show you.
That's why the first thing he does, he
comes in, he says, Cry, Father.
You are no longer an orphan.
Those papers were signed and sealed.
You've been adopted by the Father.
You are a child of God.
And I am the Holy Spirit, and I've
come to show you that, and I've come
to show you how much you're loved by
the Heavenly Father.
He adopted you.
He wouldn't have adopted you unless he loved
you.
And he adopted you when you were wild,
and you were worldly, and you were sinful
and rebellious, but he wanted you because he
loved you.
No good thing in you, but out of
all those that he could have chosen, he
chose you.
Think of the millions going to hell in
New York, and God chose you.
Not only did he choose you, he adopted
you.
He signed and sealed the papers by the
Holy Spirit, and then he sent the Holy
Spirit to tutor you, and to bring you
to him, and say, Embrace him and call
him yours.
Abba, Father.
And that cry is not one of agony,
it's of joy, because the Holy Ghost said,
Your father's wealthy.
Your father's the wealthiest man in the whole
universe.
You've got resources.
You're an heir to everything that his son
died for.
That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
It's not a sad cry.
Cry, Abba, Father.
No, it's a cry of joy.
Why is it that we have Christians running
around like they're orphans?
Running around so sad and dejected like they
were poverty stricken.
I'm not talking just about physical money.
I'm talking about the lack of spiritual joy
and victory.
And when he's come, he will...
I'm sorry.
You have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear, but you've received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The spirit itself bearing witness with our spirits
that we're the children of God, heirs of
God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah.
Have you seen your papers yet?
Right here.
This is the seal that says, I have
been adopted by the Heavenly Father.
Hallelujah.
The Holy Spirit's been sent to us in
what I call a love mission.
And that's to comfort the bride in the
absence of Christ, the bridegroom.
Until we get to him, the Holy Ghost
has been sent to comfort us, to make
our journey so comfortable that we'll not turn
to anyone or anything else.
Do you know the Lord is so concerned
about bringing you to glory?
God the Father is so concerned about getting
you to the married supper, clean and holy
and pure and distracted from this world, that
he sent the Holy Ghost to abide in
you, to keep the devil's hands off of
you.
Saying, this is my property, and I'm sending
my very spirit to keep you.
In that spirit of adoption.
That gives you liberty when you pray.
You go to him and say, I'm going
to my Father.
He loves me.
This is the mission.
I can boil down the ministry of comfort
to two sentences.
And I want you to get this.
Holy Spirit just exploded this in my spirit
this week.
I said, Lord, how do you comfort?
Holy Spirit, how do you comfort me?
Now, of course you know what comfort means.
It means to soothe in a time of
pain or grief.
Or one who eases pain and sorrow.
One who brings relief.
One who consoles and encourages.
But I like this Greek meaning of comfort.
One who lays you down in a warm
bed in safety.
One who lays you down in a cold
night.
He lays you down in a nice soft
bed without a worry in your head.
How do you accomplish that in me, Holy
Spirit?
I've heard all my life, you're a comforter.
How do you comfort me?
I'm in trouble, I've got problems and difficulties
in my life.
You can say that to me.
Holy Spirit, how do you comfort me?
Two sentences.
Here's what he'll tell you.
You are loved and you are leaving.
Now, I want you to, just so you
remember, say that with me.
I am loved and I am leaving.
Again, I am loved and I am leaving.
Now, I want you to listen very, very
closely.
Because this is just burning in my heart.
It just touched my heart.
By calling him the comforter, God was giving
an infallible prediction.
That was an infallible prediction, just naming him
comforter.
That there was going to be a lot
of discomfort.
You don't need a comforter unless you're discomfortable.
Uncomfortable.
He knew there was going to be a
lot of hurt and pain in the body
of Jesus Christ.
And naming him is an infallible, eternal prediction.
That we were going to need comfort.
Why is it that it always comes Sunday
night, Bob?
Just hold steady.
Hold steady.
Let's not chase rabbits.
You see, the Holy Spirit is not a
passive, weak influence.
That's where the church has missed it.
We've thought of him as some passive, if
we need him, we'll go to him.
No, he's not weak.
He's not passive.
He's not an influence.
He's a reality.
He has a personality.
And he lives with you with all the
power of God inherent in his being.
And that's why you can say, greater is
he that's in me than he that's in
the world.
And it's an absolute affront to God.
It's an affront to the Holy Spirit to
go day after day and week after week,
living as if we were powerless and helpless
and orphans.
It's an affront to the Holy Ghost.
We go about fretting as if the Holy
Spirit living in us is off on some
journey, like he's in Chicago tonight.
I've got to face it by myself.
Holy Ghost never takes a journey.
He's come to live.
He's come to abide.
Here's the Holy Spirit.
He said, we glory in tribulation, knowing it
works patience, and hope maketh not ashamed, because
the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is
given to us.
There it is.
That's the mission of the Holy Spirit as
Comforter.
He's been sent to shed abroad in our
hearts.
In other words, to outpour.
The New American Standard said to be poured
out in every nook and cranny of our
being.
That means that when you're in trouble, when
you're in the daytime when persecution comes, when
your heart is aching because you don't know
which way to turn, that's when you must
allow.
This is what it means to walk in
the Spirit.
Let him do what he's been sent to
do.
Just stop and say, Holy Spirit, what do
you have to say about this?
Stop in the middle of your day, businessman,
worker, wherever, whatever you may be.
Just stop.
Go to the restroom if you have to.
If that's the only place you can get
along.
Put your head on your desk.
Say, Holy Spirit, this is above me.
I'm being harassed.
I don't know which way to turn.
What do you have to say about this?
You're all worked up inside, and you need
the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
And he abides.
You think you're going to sit by and
do nothing when he was there at the
creation of the earth?
Do you think that he's going to stand
by when he was there when your parts
were numbered before you were born?
Do you think he's going to stand by
when he's been there stirring and moving?
Somebody in the choir said, we're talking about
the Holy Spirit, and she said, oh, that's
who's been after me.
That's who's been bringing me in.
Yes, it's been the Holy Spirit.
You stop and say, Holy Spirit, what do
you have to say about this?
Do you have any word?
And I'll tell you what the Holy Spirit's
going to say.
Yes, I do.
Stop and take a big drink of the
love of Jesus.
He's come to love you.
You are loved.
It says, when in tribulation, God's trying to
work patience in you, first of all.
And don't be ashamed, because the love of
God is being shed abroad in your hearts
by the Holy Ghost, which is given to
you.
The Holy Ghost is shedding.
He's pouring out love.
Will you receive it?
Will you receive the love?
He's going to tell you something else.
He's saying, by the way, your bags are
packed, and you're not here for very long,
so why get worked up over all of
this?
Because five minutes into eternity, you won't remember
any of this.
It's all going to be over.
You're leaving.
You're gone.
You're not like the rest around here.
You've got an appointment, eternal purpose, and I'm
here to see it through.
Glory be to God.
I didn't say that.
The Holy Ghost said it.
The Bible says that.
You know, the legalist can't accept that.
The legalist is like this.
The legal person loves to be convicted.
He lives under conviction.
Now, in this pulpit, we've been preaching that
a righteous person loves to be reproved.
Not for the sake of reproof, but because
the more you're reproved and deal with your
sin, the happier you become.
The more joy you get.
It's just that simple.
You want joy?
Get rid of the sin.
Because the truly repentant heart is the joyful
heart.
And we've been praying, and we've been saying
from this pulpit over and over again, there's
going to be a lot of reproof in
this pulpit if you're godly, you'll love it.
But there are some people who keep saying,
beat me, Lord, beat me, beat me.
They're almost sadistic Christians.
Listen to me, please.
They don't say that in so many words.
But I noticed in my mailing list, if
I start preaching, I have a lot, probably
400,000 people or so on a mailing
list.
And when I thunder, boy, I get the
biggest mail you ever saw.
When I start preaching the sweetness and the
love of Jesus, I get letters saying, you're
not preaching the truth anymore.
It's almost if I'm not reproving, I'm not
preaching the gospel.
But see, the legalist has never understood the
love of God.
Never understood that he's my Father.
Never allowed the Holy Spirit to minister that
to his soul.
He allows the Holy Spirit to minister conviction,
but he will not allow the Holy Spirit
to bathe him in the love of God.
It reminds me of, I think I've said
it once in this pulpit, my beloved daughter
Bonnie, who's fighting cancer with the help of
the Holy Spirit right now.
And I probably, the worst moment of grief
I've had in my relationship with her, this
is after she's married and two children.
She was suffering and tears rolled down her
cheeks.
She said, oh daddy, when I think about
going to heaven, and I look back over
my life and I failed you so much.
I never really was quite what you wanted
me to be, was I?
I was always letting you down.
Oh, that cut me.
Because it wasn't true.
It wasn't true at all.
I said, Bonnie, where did you get that
idea?
I realized she lived with this concept since
she was about 12 years old, that she
displeased me.
That she could never make me happy, that
she was always kind of the black sheep,
that she was always letting me down.
I said, honey, you've got it all wrong.
I've never seen you that way.
I've always loved you.
You've always been a jewel in my eyes,
along with Debbie.
Both of you.
I've never seen you or Debbie that way,
ever.
I've loved you.
I've seen nothing but the goodness.
I've seen the love that you have for
people, that spirit of joy, your giving.
I've not seen that part of you.
And we have Christians live like that, as
though they're an orphan child and never can
please God.
They're always saying, God, I'll never please you.
I'll never be what I'm supposed to be
in your sight.
And that's a front to the Holy Ghost.
That hurts God as much as it hurt
me.
It hurts Him.
Because you're not seeing the work of the
Holy Spirit to comfort your heart, and He
comforts you with the knowledge that you are
loved, that you were adopted by Him, and
that the Holy Ghost is there to see
you through your troubles and your problems.
And you can try to shake the Holy
Ghost off, but He'll come to you and
He'll say, This is the end of side
one.
You may now turn the tape over to
side two.
I had a young pastor this past week
tell me an experience he had, and it
really related to what I'm saying.
He got so hungry for God.
He just got so enraptured with Jesus.
He went to conventions and seminars just to
reach out to the Lord.
He wanted to soak it in.
And I'll tell you what, when you get
hungry, and you're really hungry for Jesus, watch
out, the enemy is going to try to
give you a substitute.
He's going to try to jump in there
and mimic the voice of the Holy Ghost.
But if you're sincere, God will bring you
out, always.
He was at a meeting, hungry, and he
was praying desperately, and he heard a still
small voice.
And this still small voice said, If you
really want to know the Lord, or worse
than this effect, if you really want to
know God with all your heart, you've got
to do two things.
You've got to pray two hours a day,
and you have to eat so many calories,
and no more, each day.
A legalistic spirit had moved in.
If you really want to please God, you've
got to pray so many hours a day,
you've got to eat certain foods, and only
so much, and count your calories, and don't
move from it.
He was under terrible bondage.
It nearly destroyed him.
Terrible, terrible bondage.
You don't mind if I tell you, it's
my friend visiting, Brother Lafont from North Carolina,
right here on the platform.
And I'd asked him before the service about
that again.
And I was thinking about that, Jim, and
God's given him glorious liberty, glorious freedom, because
the Holy Ghost exposed that as a lie.
How many of you sitting here are under
some kind of legalistic thing?
You got hungry for God, and you heard
a little voice that said, well, you have
to do this, you have to do that.
And you've been robbed of the love of
God.
You come to church, Times Square Church, and
you sit with bondage and fear, like Bonnie
did all those years, thinking you've never pleased
the Father, that He's displeased with you, you've
got dirty hands, you're the black sheep, or
the white sheep, whatever you are.
And, uh, you know my heart.
But you don't know how to say my
Father, Abba Father.
God take that from you tonight.
That's not the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has come not to condemn
you, He came to condemn the world.
He came to show you you're adopted.
He came to show you how much you're
loved.
If you're going to walk in the Spirit,
you're going to let Him do what God
sent Him to do, to comfort you with
this knowledge that you are loved and that
you're leaving, and that you keep this always
in mind, why should I get worked up?
Why should anything affect me?
Because I'm going to be here for such
a short time.
Folks, if you live another 20, 30, 40
years, what is that compared to eternity?
That is just a whiff of smoke.
That's a vapor.
I know, I'm 61 now, and it's getting,
the vapor's getting thinner all the time.
Because the love of God is poured out
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which
is given to us.
Hallelujah.
Isaiah said, and boy, this blessed me when
I saw it the other day, this just
blessed my heart.
Isaiah said, as one whom his mother comforteth,
so will I comfort you, and you shall
be comforted in Jerusalem.
As one whose mother comforted, this is Isaiah
66, 13, as one whom his mother comforted,
so will I comfort you, and you shall
be comforted in Jerusalem.
Now, Isaiah was writing to a stubborn people.
In fact, they were so rebellious, the prophet
had just said, you're going on forwardly in
your own way, in your own hearts.
You're doing your own thing.
How many teachers would stick with a student
who gets rebellious and doesn't want to learn?
Not very long.
How long would a counselor stay with a
counselee who would not take advice, who would
not listen, and still goes on forwardly in
their own way?
Not many.
But you see, God comes with the prophet
Isaiah and gives this message, even to this
rebellious people.
He said, as one whose mother is loving
him, I'm going to love you as a
mother loves a child.
Now, you can't understand this if you're thinking
of some of these wild mothers in New
York or elsewhere that abandon their children.
I was in a restaurant the other day,
and the owner's a Christian.
He said, see that there was a young
lady, probably in her late 30s, attractive young
lady, and he said, you see that woman?
She's got four children, and she just told
us she's leaving them and her husband, because
she said, I put in my time, and
now it's my time to take care of
myself and do my own thing.
She just goes, pack up and leave her
children and her husband.
Four children!
How do you walk away from four children?
How do you walk away from a husband?
How do you walk away from anybody if
you're married?
I don't understand that at all.
But the point is, the prophet takes the
best image we have of true love on
earth, and that's a mother's love for a
child.
A true, godly mother for a child.
You see, a mother doesn't give up.
How many times I've picked up the New
York newspapers, and I have seen pictures of
mothers going into courtrooms with their sons indicted
for murder.
And that mother sits there while all the
evidence piled up, and she cries, and she
weeps, and she hurts inside.
She stands by faithfully as he stands before
the judge, and here's the pronouncement guilty.
She tears, her heart is tearing apart.
She watches him being led away, and he
turns and waves one time to the mother,
and she throws him a kiss.
You know, that's not the end.
She still doesn't give up on that boy,
because we have mothers.
I know of one mother in this choir,
goes to a boy in upstate New York,
she gets on the bus and takes her
all day.
And she gets on that bus, and I
know the hardship involved, the money and the
time.
And she goes up to that prison, or
she did, I think the boy's out of
prison now, but she went up there to
that prison so many weeks just to visit
with that boy, and look him in the
eye and say, I still love you.
Even though he's indicted, even though he's a
criminal, that mother held on.
And this is what the Holy Spirit really
wants you to know, like one whom his
mother comforteth.
Think of a mother's love for a child
who doesn't give up.
Just that kind of love, I'm going to
comfort you by saying that's the kind of
love the Father has for you.
And the Spirit will say, I've been sent
to keep you, not to let you go.
I've been sent to show you how much
you're loved, and no matter what you do,
no matter how low you go, no matter
how hard you run, no matter how dirty
or lost you feel, the Holy Spirit's going
to say, you can't shake me off, because
my Father has his eye on you, my
Father adopted you, and I don't care what
you do, I don't care where you go,
I don't care how far you run, I
don't know how low, I don't care how
low you sink, I've been sent, I've been
sent to tell you he still loves you,
and I'm not going to let you go,
I'm going to hound you with love, I'm
going to keep after you, and folks that
is what the Holy Ghost has been called,
the Hound of Heaven.
Dad, Mom, that boy, if he's ever known
Jesus, ever touched the Lord, when he's a
boy in Sunday school or anywhere else, I
want you to know the Holy Spirit is
still trailing, the Holy Spirit is on his
track.
Others may get lost, your boy's not going
to get lost, because the Holy Ghost knows
right where he is.
The Holy Ghost knows where your daughter is.
Backslider, if you're here, you've tried to run
from the Holy Ghost, you can't run from
him.
He said if you tried to go to
the heavens, he'd find you.
You tried to make your bed in the
hell, in hell, he'd find you.
Hallelujah.
He couldn't tell you he still, the Father
still loves you.
Now, there's positively no comfort outside of the
Holy Ghost, there's none.
The Bible says the world doesn't know him.
I'll tell you what, I see people all
over the United States running from counselor, to
psychologist, to friends, to priests, to books, to
tapes, to lectures, to seminars, group sessions, and
you know how much comfort they get?
Not enough to last them to get home.
And that all comes back again.
It comes in, why?
Because there's no other source of comfort outside
of the Holy Ghost, that's why you need
the Holy Ghost living in you.
Hallelujah.
He hath, who hath loved us, and given
us everlasting comfort and good hope through grace.
Now the God of hope fill you with
all joy and peace in believing that you
may abound or overflow in love through the
power of the Holy Ghost.
That you may abound, that you may overflow
in the love of God through the Holy
Ghost who abides in you.
Isn't it something to be so loved?
And to be leaving?
Think about it.
I'll tell you how that blesses me in
prayer.
I don't go to prayer condemned because I
know my sins are under the blood.
I know the Holy Ghost will give me
strength to walk in His holiness and His
righteousness.
And I walk into His presence and I
say, Holy Ghost, I know you're in the
whole world, but you're mine.
God, you created the whole world, but you
were my Father.
Jesus, you died for the whole world, but
you're my Savior.
Make it personal.
Let the Holy Ghost be personal to you.
Hallelujah.
Now, not every believer can be comforted because
not every believer has yet received the Holy
Ghost.
Not all believers have the Holy Ghost abiding
in them.
Now listen closely, please.
I'm not going to preach much longer, but
you must hear this.
Paul goes to Ephesus and meets 12 disciples,
12 believers who'd been baptized in John's baptism
in water and that's a baptism of repentance
for sin.
They were truly repentant.
They were preaching Christ.
They were believers in Jesus.
And the Scripture says, and Paul said to
them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since
you believed?
Now, the New American Standard says, when you
believed, but that makes no difference whatsoever because
the fact is, it's suffice to say that
they were believers.
They believed in Jesus Christ.
They were preaching Christ.
They had truly repented and been baptized in
the baptism of repentance by John's baptism.
Have you received the Holy Ghost since you
believed?
And they said to him, this is Acts
19, chapter 1-7, don't turn, just listen.
They said to him, we've not so much
as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
A lot of people have heard the term,
but I ask you, have you received the
Holy Ghost since or when you believed?
You see, the Holy Ghost was working in
you to bring you to Christ.
That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
No one can be saved without the work
of the Holy Spirit in convicting and convincing
of sin and drawing you.
But that's another thing to have him dwelling
and living in you.
It's an entirely different thing.
Have you received the Holy Ghost since or
when you believed?
Is he abiding in you?
And they said, we haven't even heard if
there be any Holy Ghost.
And they were baptized in water into Christ,
and then when they came out of the
water, Paul laid hands on them, and the
Scripture said the Holy Ghost came upon them,
and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.
Now let me tell you in closing, the
Holy Ghost is given only to those who
ask the Father for him.
Here it is.
If ye then being evil know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy
Ghost to them that ask him?
Have you been asking for the Holy Ghost?
I, oh, I tell you what, I thank
God for the Holy Ghost, but I keep
saying, Lord, I want more of your revelation.
Holy Spirit, I want more of the revelation.
I want to know more of your work
and ministry in and through me.
For everyone that asks receives, and he that
seeks finds, and he that knocks, it shall
be opened.
Now, the Holy Ghost never comes in the
back door.
He comes right in the front door.
And I tell you, first thing he does
is knock down your pride and your decorum.
Oh, we got a lot of people don't
know what to wash in the Jordan.
They want to go to a nice, clean
river and wash.
A lot of people don't like to come
to Times Square Church because, you see, the
Holy Ghost is doing a whole lot of
work here.
And when the Holy Ghost is doing a
lot of work, there's a lot of manifestation.
When he's stirring and working, someone told my
grandpa, he said, don't you know that when
they built the temple, there wasn't a sound
of a hammer?
He said, yeah, you should have been there
when they were blowing out the rocks.
You should have been there on the mountain
when they're blowing out the granite.
And you see, God's blowing out the granite.
God's working on the rocks.
He's chiseling.
He's working.
And there are going to be some manifestations
of the Holy Spirit.
And every time the Holy Spirit came down
in the book of Acts, something happened.
The day of Pentecost, what happened?
Mighty rushing wind filled the house.
I don't think anybody's hair was standing anywhere
but on edge.
I believe it blew every hairdo away.
All those nice primp ladies.
The house shook.
Just like it does here at Times Square
Church when we get blessed.
You know, when the Holy Ghost came down
in the house of Cornelius, the Spirit fell
upon them.
You know, that's not an attack, but he
banged.
I mean, he fell.
He came on them.
That hit me today.
Hit me.
Fell on me.
That's not a quiet entrance.
And when he fell on them, they spake
with tongues and magnified God.
They were all shouting and praising the Lord.
At Ephesus, the Holy Ghost came upon them.
They spake with heavenly languages and they prophesied.
You can't be proud and receive the Holy
Ghost.
That doesn't mean any going to do anything
silly to you.
Holy Ghost doesn't do silly things.
I've seen people in meetings supposed to be
in the Holy Ghost and falling over and
some lady fell and cut her head.
All they do is knock you around and
cut you up.
Now, a lot of manifestations are pure flesh,
nothing but flesh.
And you can always tell flesh because it
wants to be seen.
It always takes the prominent place.
That's why I think you really I'm not
going to say it.
I'm going to pass on.
Because I don't want to take anything away
from what the Holy Spirit's trying to say
here today.
It's so very, very vital and important.
I do know that when the Holy Ghost
came on me, when I was ten, I
think ten, eight to ten years of age,
I was a boy, just a child at
Camp Meaton, when the Holy Ghost, now I
believed in Lord, trusted Him, but I'd never
been possessed by the Holy Ghost.
He'd never come to live in me.
Boy, He came.
He's in the sawdust and the straw at
Camp Meaton.
I'll tell you, when the Holy Ghost came
on me, I did it all.
I prophesied.
I spoke in a heavenly language.
I glorified God.
I was drunk for three hours.
I was literally drunk in the wine of
heaven.
I didn't know where I was.
I didn't care where I was.
I was so wrapped up in Jesus.
Folks, when the Holy Ghost comes, you get
so enraptured with Jesus.
You don't care if anybody sees what you're
doing.
You'll shout His praises.
You'll glorify His name.
You won't care because you'll be drunk with
the wine of Jesus.
The wine of glory.
Hallelujah.
Sometimes I wish I was as open to
the Holy Spirit as Brother Charles is.
He gets on his Holy Ghost bicycle so
many times.
And I wonder if the Holy Ghost didn't
say, David, if you weren't so proud now,
or if you weren't so, you know, worried
about what people think, you'd probably be doing
the same thing.
No, you don't have to manifest all the
time.
But something's going to happen.
People are going to know the Holy Ghost
is going to come and take over you.
He's not going to just slip in quietly.
He's going to let you know He's there.
So don't seek His sign.
We've got so many people say, well, I
spoke with tongues so I've got the Holy
Ghost.
I know a lot of people speak in
tongues and live like devils.
I pray in tongues every day of my
life.
When it came to me, I spoke with
tongues.
But you see, there are many evidences.
They glorified God.
They magnified God.
If you're not praying in tongues, you can
magnify God.
You can praise the Lord.
You can say, Jesus, come and so rapture
my heart.
Holy Spirit, come and possess me.
Be my comfort.
Be my guide.
And when you pray that the Father send
Him to you, you pray in faith.
Because if you don't pray in faith, you're
not going to get anything from God, the
Bible says.
You pray in faith.
And I know you receive the Holy Ghost
because the Bible said you would.
He'll send you the Holy Ghost to live
in you, and when He does, He'll manifest
Jesus.
You'll become a Jesus fanatic, more than you
are now.
If you thought you're Jesus fanatic before, wait
till you get full of the Holy Ghost.
Hallelujah.
Once more, before I close, I'm loved.
Say it.
I'm loved.
I'm leaving.
Now stand, please.
Where's the Holy Ghost?
What's walking in the Spirit?
Letting Him do what He's been called to
do in me.
Hallelujah.
He's called to manifest and reveal the love
of God in your heart.
I want everybody in this house to slip
your pride.
Pull the plug and let it go down
a drain.
Just pull the plug and let it go
all the way down a drain.
I don't care if you go to this
church or not.
I don't care if you're high church Episcopalian.
And I mean this with all my heart.
The Bible said I would met everywhere lift
holy hands.
Your hands are made holy by Jesus' blood.
I want you by faith to believe He's
finished that work.
Raise your hands right now, and I want
you to thank God for loving you right
now.
Thank God.
Let the Holy Spirit, let the Holy Spirit
reveal how much you're loved right now.
God's not mad at you.
God loves you.
God loves you, and He's going to deal
with your sin tonight in love.
He'll deal with your sin in love.
Hallelujah.
Lord, you're loving us.
I am loved.
I am Abba Father, Abba Father, my Father.
My Father loves me.
Glory be to God.
Holy Spirit, thank you for coming.
Baptize everyone who needs you.
Baptize everyone who needs the Holy Ghost tonight.
Pour out your Spirit, O God, upon all
who need you.
Hallelujah.
Glory be to God.
We glorify your name.
We magnify Jesus.
We exalt Christ, our Lord, through the Holy
Spirit.
The love of God shed abroad in our
hearts.
Hallelujah.
We glorify and magnify your name.
We worship you, Holy Spirit.
We worship you, Jesus.
We worship you, Father.
Worship Him.
Let's praise Him.
Just worship Him.
Lord, we worship you.
We give you praise tonight.
You are worthy of our love.
You are worthy of our praise.
Worthy, worthy, worthy is our Lord.
Holy Spirit, Holy, Holy Spirit, abide with us.
We talk to you.
We're Holy Spirit, come.
He can baptize you right where you're standing.
He can baptize you right now.
Just love Him.
Hallelujah.
Pray, Holy Ghost, Father, send the Holy Ghost
to me.
Give me the Holy Ghost.
Give us the Holy Ghost.
Give us the Holy Spirit.
Give us the Holy Spirit of God.
This is the conclusion of the tape.