Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme. I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today.

Scott: Good morning, Steve. How are you?

Steve: I am recovered.

Scott: Were you sick or something?

Steve: Well, that's an interesting story. I had the privilege of being in Wisconsin this past weekend surrounded by lovely Christian cheeseheads. I got there on a Thursday. Thursday night, I had spoken twice that day. Thursday night, 01:30 in the morning, I woke up with this bad sore throat. I panicked because I have been on the road when I have gotten strep throat, and this felt like it. I didn't have a fever. I had no chills or anything, but my throat was sore.

I thought, "What am I going to do?" I knew salt was good. Gargle with salt. Looked through all my briefcase and suitcase. I had no salt or even lozenges. I got dressed and went down to the lobby. I'm wandering around looking for salt and honey. I found a station for hot drinks, and they had honey.

Then I went to the desk. There was only one person working. Now it's 02:00 in the morning. I said, "Is there any chance you have some salt?" She said, "Yes." She got me a bunch of little packets.

I went up to my room and added hot water, and gargled with salt water. Then I drank some fluids, and started eating honey. My throat felt better. I went back to bed and woke up around 04:30 or 05:30, and I did it again. I had to speak four times that day. I didn't want to be texting my wife and my people that I normally call out to for prayer because it's 05:30 in the morning.

When I came down for the conference and was talking to a family, the mom says, "Oh, you don't have any problems. It's allergies."

Scott: Oh.

Steve: It turns out the pollen count was off the charts in Wisconsin. I can't tell you how that relieved me because I can deal with allergies. If I know it's just an allergy, that just takes all the pressure off. If I've got strep and I have to speak all day with strep and then fly home, that’s a different story. Thank the Lord.

Scott: Drinking some fluids, you mean right at the mini bar?

Steve: No. Even if I was dying of thirst, I wouldn’t spend $5 for a bottle of water. I am way too cheap. I was drinking tap water because I'm not spending that money. There you go. That's probably more information that you wanted. I am well now. Praise the Lord. Throat's recovered, and here I am.

Let's pray. Father, thank You for delivering me from allergies or what I had built up in my mind is a lot worse. I pray that You, by Your good spirit, will draw near to us today as we consider this topic before us, that You'll give us ears to hear what Your spirit is saying to us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Scott: Amen.

Steve: We're going to talk about the Spirit. As I was searching back through previous podcasts, I found lots of talks that we've done on the Spirit. I don't think you can do too many on the Spirit.

A couple years ago when I was out waiting on God, walking through my neighborhood when it was the Spirit Who said, "We're going to do something different today." He told me to, first, sing, so I did. Then I said, "Now what?" He said, "Give thanks." I said, "Now what?" He said, "Praise His name." I went, "OK," and I did.

Then after 15 minutes had gone by, I prayed. "Father, give me ears to hear what your Spirit is saying." I don't know how many times that that's in scripture. In the book of Revelation, He says to every one of those seven churches, “He that has an ear to hear, hear what the Spirit is saying.” I have followed this approach to coming to God now for moving on seven years. I first I sing, then I give thanks, followed by praising His name. Then I pause and pray, "Give me ears to hear what Your Spirit is saying to me." I think that's critical because we don't have natural ears to hear. We are naturally hard of heart. We're stiff-necked. We're unbelieving, and we need God to circumcise our hearts and our ears so that we can be in tune to heaven. That's a big piece of my journey.

A couple years before that, God was making me know the gospel in a different way. The good news that He really did provide everything we need so that we can be not only loved by God, but we can be pleasing to Him and clothes us in His righteousness. Then God taught me that He not only loves us but He likes us.

I've been talking about these topics now for a decade. I can't get enough of it. When I was sharing my testimony in Wisconsin, I saw people getting it. I saw people receiving that knowledge that we don't have to be continually striving. We can be pleasing to our Heavenly Father because as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. John 15:9

I was basking in this new relationship I had with God's love and His grace, and it was at the end of a service one Sunday, and my mind was beginning to think about who I might see after the service or where we're going to go to lunch.

However that day I found the benediction to be riveting. It came across so powerful. It's the last verse in 2 Corinthians 13:14. "The grace of the lord Jesus Christ." I thought, Yes. I'm tasting that grace in a new way. “The love of God” yes, I'm finally getting it. God really does love us and like us."

Then the third part of the verse reads, "The fellowship or the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." This was Paul's heart that that church would get a new understanding of the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the communion, the closeness, the koinonia of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

That's the ultimate benediction in my mind. I remember leaving the service and praying, "I'm understanding God's grace. I'm taking in God's love in a new way. I need to understand what it means to be in communion with the Holy Spirit which Paul is speaking about." I began asking God to teach me about the communion of the Holy Spirit.

We're been discussing the many facets of the Holy Spirit. I didn't do an exhaustive study. I've already done that multiple times. These are some aspects of the Spirit that I think will help to increase our understanding. I have been in evangelical circles since the '70s.

I know that some of this is not normal for people to hear because we have our own ways of putting the Holy Spirit in a box. I want us to have fresh ears. I'm trusting as we prayed in the beginning that the Holy Spirit would give us ears to hear what He has to say.

Our last multifaceted study was two podcasts on the water. Here's a couple passages that link the water to the spirit. Luke 3, "John answered them all saying, 'I baptize you with water, but He Who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.'" We know about the baptism with water, but we need to learn about the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire. John 1:33, John speaking again. “I myself did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'" As I read that, I am envisioning that powerful baptism scene at the Jordan River when John was there in the water. He had just baptized God's Son, and he watched a dove come and alight on Him. All of a sudden, the bells went off. The things began to connect, and he went, "Oh, there's the spirit descending, and He's remaining. This, this is the son of God."

Even though there are other things that make us know that He already knew, somehow that was the sealer. Later in John, 3:5, "Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.'" Oft quoted verse. I feel like I'm still going deeper into what it means to be born of water. I think I understand a little bit more of what it means to be born of the Spirit because it's the Spirit that recreates or regenerates our hearts and changes us and makes us new creations. The water has a part to play, and that's what we just studied. Most of the verses that I read regularly about the Spirit are as I'm progressing through my daily, what I call, spiritual sacrifices. Twice a day, God has led me to draw near to God and offer spiritual sacrifices. Those two words come from 1 Peter 2. As I do, first, I come into his presence with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise, sing, give thanks, then stop at the altar.

That's why we studied the blood of Jesus for two podcasts. Then we wash our feet in the bronze basin just like the priests of old did. We do it now under the new covenant where Jesus said, "Now are you clean through the water of the word which I've spoken to you."

Then we enter into the tent of meeting, and there is the menorah, the golden lampstand. The priests, twice a day, were to fill up the oil in the lamps. I'm going to start reading some passages about that. Exodus 27:20-21.

"You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set to burn. In the tent of meeting, outside

the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before Jehovah. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel."

This is one of their tasks. They also had to make sure that the incense was burning. Once a week, they had to make new showbread, 12 loaves. Today we are focusing on their task to ensure the light was burning in the lamps.

I see the lamp as the body of Christ. I get that because it talks about the seven churches in the in the Revelation which were called the seven lampstands. I look at that with New Covenant eyes, you might say, and I see the lamp as the church. I don't have any physical oil, but I know that the oil is the Holy Spirit. Almost every day, I pray, "Fill us." Us, meaning all of us. True believers in Jesus, “Fill us with your Spirit." Ephesians 5:18, "Be filled with the Spirit." This is not a perpetual flame there that burns by itself. Priests had to tend it.

I want to, you might say, top off the oil in those lights, and not only so that the church will burn brightly, but that the light from the church would then impact everything else in the tent. I'll come to that later.

Real simple. There's a lampstand. I'm a priest under the new covenant. I'm going to fill it up by praying, "Father, pour out Your Spirit on the church today. Fill us afresh with Your spirit." Here's some connections with the oil and the lampstand to see that it is the Holy Spirit that is represented by the oil.

Zechariah 4, "The angel who talked with me came again and woke up woke me like a man who was awakened out of his sleep, and he said to me, 'What do you see?' I said, 'I see and behold a lampstand all of gold,' with a bowl on the top of it and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. There are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left. I said to the angel who talked with me, 'What are these, my lord?' Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, 'Do you not know what these are?' I said, 'No, my lord.'

Then he said to me, 'This is the word of Jehovah to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit,' says Jehovah of Hosts." That's verses one through six. I'm going to skip down to verse 11 because the angel really didn't answer him. He asked again. "I said to him, 'What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?'

The second time I answered and said to him, 'What are these two branches of the olive trees which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?' He said to me, 'Do you not know what these are?' I said, 'No, my lord.' Then he said, 'These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.'" Which, to me, clearly takes us into Revelation 11 talking about the sons of oil. They're anointed by the Spirit. I think it's pretty clear that when we are asking God to fill up those bowls with oil, it's the oil of the Spirit. The golden oil represents the Spirit. Another connection is in 1 Samuel 16 when Samuel was looking for the next king. Saul had disobeyed God, and he was rejected. Then in the twelfth verse, Jehovah said,

"Arise, anoint him, for this is he." Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of Jehovah rushed upon David from that day forward.

The oil, the anointing, Spirit of God, all connected. Wow. That was a big introduction. I'm looking at the time. Now, let's talk on some beautiful passages with minimum commentary.

Luke 11, just read this in my bible reading, "Ask and He will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and He will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened." That's verses 9, 10, 11.

Then He talks about the stones and the fish because good dads give good gifts. Thirteenth verse. "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

I know there are passages that say that we are sealed with the Spirit. We have the Spirit. I'm aware of them. I've been in the Bible for decades. That is so clear right there. To me, that is just as simple as you can make it. We sing songs about ask and it would be given, seek and you will find, knock and it'll be opened, etc. The context is now ask for the Holy Spirit. That's what I do. I do a lot of asking. I know that the Holy Spirit is the One that even helped me to say, "Jesus is Lord." I know that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit.

I know it's the Spirit that convicted me of sin. That's what He does. He comes to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and things to come. I also know that these verses here say, "I need to ask. I need to be filled with the Spirit." I'm going to let God sort out my theology. I don't think He's offended when I say, "Father, fill me afresh today. I'm asking. I'm seeking. I'm knocking. I want more of the Holy Spirit today."

I'm sure, at least I am, convinced that He doesn't say, "Oh, Steve, you haven't been doing your theology classes." No. He said, "Yes. Here you go." John 3:34 says, "He gives the Spirit without measure." I like that verse. He doesn't just give me little taste. He pours out His Spirit when I open up my heart to Him, when I ask, and when I seek to be filled according to Ephesians 5.

Scott: Hey. Can I jump in there?

Steve: Sure.

Scott: That was the verse I was saving to mention when you asked me about it. I want to jump in and say the thing I love about that passage is that you don't have to have all your ducks in a row theologically and know every verse about the Holy Spirit and know all that stuff. It just says Jesus just says right there, ask, and He will pour out His Spirit.

Steve: Amen.

Scott: The Spirit, I want to live by the Spirit. Yes, I want His word in my heart. Yes, I want to obey Him and follow Him. If I don't know what I'm doing or what I'm supposed to do, the Holy Spirit does. Jesus says, "Well, ask for Him." I mean, you want to know what God's will is? There's another one of those verses where it's pretty clear. Just ask for the Holy Spirit. God will pour Him out, and then you don't have to worry about what you're supposed to do. The Holy Spirit will help you.

It's one of those catch all verses for me where it's like, "OK. I'm not the most brilliant Christian on Earth. I don't know all of the stuff that I'm would like to know, but the Holy Spirit's here to help."

Steve: Preach. Amen.

Scott: There you go.

Steve: Thank you. I totally agree. You know what? You said you might not be the most brilliant. You know what came to me as you were saying that? Good. We have two kids here on the podcast because we are childlike. He doesn't say be childish, but childlike means we simply take God at His word and say, "Yes, Dad. That's what You said and

we believe it."

Scott: Right on. You can continue now.

Steve: John 4:23-24, "True worshipers will worship the father in Spirit and truth." When I was waiting on God for the very first time 11 years ago, I came home, I wanted to continue this connection that I had with God in a whole new way. One day, I was seeking Him, and I felt like the Spirit made me know. "You're solid on the truth, but we need to work on our relationship." That's the verse that came to my mind. We need to worship the Father in Spirit and truth.

That's why I stick to the Bible and rarely consult theology and commentaries. This is the word of God. That's the truth. We also need the Spirit. We need to have that living relationship with the Father because the word of God is alive, and so is the Spirit. The rest of the verse says, "For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth." I'm more comfortable in the Bible. I’ve read it scores of times, and it's a little out of my comfort zone, but I want to learn to be led by the Spirit.

I want to learn to hear the Spirit. I want to learn to be communing with the Spirit. That's what I prayed many years ago. God is patiently getting me there, and He's waiting for me to come along, but He's patient, and His spirit is a really good teacher. John 7, and there's a bunch about the Spirit in the gospel of John. Steve: On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

Now this He said about the Spirit, "Whom those who believed in Him were to receive. For as yet, the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified." He hadn't risen from the dead. He didn't have His glorified body. There was an already and a not yet.

If you're believing in me, it's because the Spirit helped, but there's more. You know who gets more? The people that are thirsty.

Let's pray. Father, satisfy us today in a new way. Not satisfy us perhaps, but give us a hunger and a thirst for communion and an intimate knowledge and intimate walk with the Holy Spirit.

I pray that You will lead us into that, right where each of us are. We're different places in our journeys. Help us to trust the Spirit. Help us to love the Spirit. Help us to love the Spirit as much as Jesus loved the Spirit, and count on the Spirit as much as Jesus counted on the Spirit.

A lot of us know lots of verses about the Spirit, but I pray that You'll take our relationship not just in the truth, but help us to worship You in the Spirit in a fresh way. Give us a thirst for more. I want more. I want to be thirsty for the Spirit because I know that only You and only the Spirit can satisfy that divine thirst in my spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.