SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Church, do you realize that across the globe today, the church is being planted in unprecedented numbers.
SPEAKER_01: And it's unbelievable what's happening with Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Stuff in Russia, China, India, stuff that's happening in South America and Latin America.
SPEAKER_01: Really, the only place the Spirit of God's not moving powerfully is in the United States of America and in Europe.
SPEAKER_01: We're jaded.
SPEAKER_01: We're so religious that we can't even allow the Spirit of God to live in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to do something a little different today in that over the last year, God has given me three times prophetic words from Ezekiel 47.
SPEAKER_01: Three times from the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: But today, and we'll see how far we get, I want to give this word because I feel like God's speaking something to our church this fall.
SPEAKER_01: So look in your Bibles at Ezekiel 47.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your Bible, it's in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Move past Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: As you go through, you'll find Ezekiel, Ezekiel 47.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you didn't bring a Bible, there may be one.
SPEAKER_01: They're in different slots across the back of some of the chairs, or you can even share with someone.
SPEAKER_01: But it's a very interesting passage.
SPEAKER_01: It's from what I would call the charismatic prophet, the spirit-filled prophet of the Old Testament, because of all the visions that he had.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the book of Ezekiel, the very beginning, talks about stuff that some have even called UFOs and things like that.
SPEAKER_01: It's a very fascinating book.
SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel is predicting and prophesying into the future, a future day of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And in so doing, he actually takes us through several places where he talks about the fact that the people of God will someday have a new heart and a new spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a little bit of background on the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament, the Spirit would come upon certain anointed individuals, anointed individuals like a David or a Samuel or Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_01: It was very individualistic in how the Spirit moved.
SPEAKER_01: But with the coming of the Spirit, in the book of Acts, which is where we're going to go in a few minutes, we see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the whole church, upon the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: We call it the last days.
SPEAKER_01: We call it the Spirit outpouring, is what it's called in Joel and Ezekiel and other places.
SPEAKER_01: So in Ezekiel 47, Ezekiel sees a vision of the temple.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the temple.
SPEAKER_01: He sees this vision.
SPEAKER_01: And look what he sees.
SPEAKER_01: It's really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: We could camp here the entire time, but I'm just going to read it to you, and then we're going to move quickly to where I want to go today.
SPEAKER_01: Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and there was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east.
SPEAKER_01: For the front of the temple faced east, the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar.
SPEAKER_01: He brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside of the outer gateway that faces east, and there was water running out on the right side.
SPEAKER_01: And when the man went out to the east with a line in his hand, it's almost like he had a measuring line there with him, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters, and the water came up to my ankles.
SPEAKER_01: Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters, the water came up to my knees.
SPEAKER_01: Again he measured one thousand and he brought me through, and the water came up to my waist.
SPEAKER_01: Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross.
SPEAKER_01: For the water was too deep.
SPEAKER_01: Water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.
SPEAKER_01: He said to me, Son of man, have you seen this?
SPEAKER_01: How would you like to be in a vision where you're watching this?
SPEAKER_01: And then the Lord asked you, Did you see this?
SPEAKER_01: That's almost like when Jesus was ascended to heaven and they're all standing there.
SPEAKER_01: It says he was lifted up into the sky, and the angel says, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: What are you looking at?
SPEAKER_01: So of course he sees it.
SPEAKER_01: Then he brought him and he returned me to the bank of the river, and when I returned, there along the bank of the river were very many trees on one side and the other.
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to me, This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea.
SPEAKER_01: When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed.
SPEAKER_01: And it shall be that every living thing that moves wherever the rivers go will live, and there will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there, for they'll be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.
SPEAKER_01: And it shall be, for all you that are fishermen here in the room, this is good news for you, that fishermen will stand by it from the from in Gedi, which is really close to the Salt Sea or the Dead Sea, to in Iglam.
SPEAKER_01: There'll be places for spreading their nets.
SPEAKER_01: Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many.
SPEAKER_01: So the Great Sea being the Mediterranean.
SPEAKER_01: But its swamps and marshes will not be healed, they'll be given over to salt.
SPEAKER_01: Along the bank of the river, on this side and that will grow all kinds of trees, used for food, their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail.
SPEAKER_01: They'll bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary, their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.
SPEAKER_01: That's very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: This is very similar in many ways to what we see in Revelation 22.
SPEAKER_01: So one of the things about prophecy that's interesting is there's always, in most prophetic, not always, but in most prophetic words, there is an immediate as well as a distant nature to the prophetic word.
SPEAKER_01: So when we read Matthew 24 about the last days where Jesus is predicting the coming of the Lord in the last days, there's an immediate, and then there's a future reference in those prophetic words.
SPEAKER_01: And we've talked about that before here in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Well, in this case, it seems that, and I say it seems that because there's debate about this.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of different perspectives on what Ezekiel's seeing here.
SPEAKER_01: But what I get from the Lord as I look at it, and as I've studied it, and listen to different commentaries and stuff, is that I believe he's prophetically speaking into the future of an outpouring of the Spirit coming to the church through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit often being depicted as water, and in the case of Jesus being like a river.
SPEAKER_01: Let me make a note of a few things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, I want you to note that the water is flowing from the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just take a moment.
SPEAKER_01: The water's not flowing from the White House.
SPEAKER_01: And the water's not flowing from Wall Street.
SPEAKER_01: It's flowing from the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: Many women don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: However, we define or look or prophetically dissect this passage, the main point is that the water that may start only ankle deep but becomes a great river that brings healing wherever it goes, that actually changes the Dead Sea into a bountiful sea of wildlife and fish and trees along the side.
SPEAKER_01: Only the Spirit of God can do that.
SPEAKER_01: And you may be a dead sea today.
SPEAKER_01: You may be the Dead Sea.
SPEAKER_01: You may feel dead spiritually, mentally, emotionally, maybe maritally and relationally.
SPEAKER_01: But when we begin to focus on the throne of God, when we begin to focus on Jesus, when we begin to fill with the Holy Spirit, that's where healing comes, gang.
SPEAKER_01: It flows to us.
SPEAKER_01: And many times for many of us in this room, it's only, some of you, it's only ankle deep.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're just kind of kicking the water right now because you it's the first time you've heard about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was called, how many of you grew up hearing about the Holy Ghost?
SPEAKER_01: How many saw the movie The Patriot?
SPEAKER_01: You saw a ghost?
SPEAKER_01: It was a ghost.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up Lutheran.
SPEAKER_01: It was a Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is Jesus in spirit form toward us.
SPEAKER_01: He's real.
SPEAKER_01: He's a part of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And so that Holy Spirit flowing out from the throne always starts ankle deep.
SPEAKER_01: But the more we grow and the more we mature and the more we walk with God, it becomes knee deep.
SPEAKER_01: Waist deep.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a day coming in this church, men and women, where God's Spirit is going to so move, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: That we're going to we're going to have to learn how to swim with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to have to learn how to breathe in the rivers of living water that God is bringing into our midst.
SPEAKER_01: So now turn to the New Testament to John chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: So in John chapter 7, Jesus now prophesies of a day coming when the Spirit would be poured out upon the people of God, not just to individuals, not just to kings, and not just to prophets, and not just to leaders, but to all the people.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit was going to be poured out all those who believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: So John 7, you're probably wondering what this is.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, this is an old table that's been in my family for at least 75 years, as far back as I can remember.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm going to illustrate something in a minute that comes from the Feast of Tabernacles.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus attends the Feast of Tabernacles, and on the last of the great day, when the priest would take a golden pitcher.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't have a golden pitcher, I have a silver pitcher.
SPEAKER_01: They take the golden pitcher and they would take water from the temple and then take it.
SPEAKER_01: And when they took it, they would take it to the pool of Salaam and they'd pour it out.
SPEAKER_01: And we believe that it was at this pouring out, a reminder of when water poured forth from a stone.
SPEAKER_01: It poured forth from a rock in Moses' time.
SPEAKER_01: When he struck that rock, the water came out.
SPEAKER_01: It was a reminder in the Feast of Tabernacles of the struggles of being in the wilderness and living in these, in the in the in the tabernacling in the tents during the time in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: So we believe that when the priest was bringing out this pitcher and pouring it in the pool of Salaam, Jesus stands up and look at verse 37.
SPEAKER_01: And on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and he cried out, saying, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.
SPEAKER_01: He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
SPEAKER_01: Remember Ezekiel 47, rivers of living water.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at the commentary of John in verse 39.
SPEAKER_01: But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
SPEAKER_01: So I believe Ezekiel's making a prophetic utterance.
SPEAKER_01: He's seeing a vision, he's prophesying to us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is prophesying to us.
SPEAKER_01: Other passages in Ezekiel speak of a new spirit, a new heart that he would give to those who believed in the last days.
SPEAKER_01: So now turn to Acts chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: So just keep turning to the right, keep going to the right, and you'll come to Acts chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: And what I'm calling this today is the seven dynamics of a whole-hearted church.
SPEAKER_01: The seven dynamics of the whole-hearted church.
SPEAKER_01: As I see the falling, the pouring out of the Spirit of God, the foundation, the ideal that I look at is the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: I see this as the foundation-laying principles of what it means to be the kind of church that God wants us to be.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me let me just say this: who's the church?
SPEAKER_01: You're the church.
SPEAKER_01: So everything I'm about to say relates to you as an individual also.
SPEAKER_01: So we could call this the seven dynamics of a whole-hearted Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_01: The seven dynamics of a whole-hearted believer.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we have the whole heart advance coming up in three weeks for men up at Ponderosa.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're going to train for three days.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to equip.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be together talking about how to be a whole-hearted man of God.
SPEAKER_01: So everything I'm about to say relates to us as individuals as well as to our whole church.
SPEAKER_01: So look at the very beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Luke is writing Acts.
SPEAKER_01: He's just completed the gospel of Luke, and that's what he refers to here at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: The former account I made, so that's the gospel of Luke, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach.
SPEAKER_01: Until the day in which he was taken up, after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandment to the apostles, whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: So he rises from the grave.
SPEAKER_01: For the next amount of time, he is just talking constantly about the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: For 40 days, he's talking about the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: And you would think, okay, you've been with Jesus for three and a half years.
SPEAKER_01: Every day, in the case of most of these people, he's teaching for 40 days on the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the theme of what we're teaching here when we get back to it after this message, the kingdom of God, as we find it in the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: And then look what happens next.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this promise was talking about in Luke.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to have you go back to Luke, but the very last chapter of Luke, the fourth verse before the last verse in Luke says, Tarry in Jerusalem until the promise of the Holy Spirit is come.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's referencing there.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, this part is, this is hilarious.
SPEAKER_01: Really makes me feel good.
SPEAKER_01: Because it takes me a long time to get most things too.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_01: They still think that the kingdom of God is economic, political, and military.
SPEAKER_01: That Israel's going to be set free from Rome.
SPEAKER_01: And we know from the book of Matthew, and we know in all of his preaching, Jesus has an entirely different definition of the kingdom of God and his reign and his rule.
SPEAKER_01: So they're still confused.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, people are confused today in America about the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I made the emphasis that the water doesn't flow from Washington, D.C., gang.
SPEAKER_01: The water does not flow from Wall Street.
SPEAKER_01: The water flows from the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power.
SPEAKER_01: Dunamis, where we get the word dynamite.
SPEAKER_01: You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: A new kind of people.
SPEAKER_01: A new nation of people.
SPEAKER_01: A new kind of kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: A new kind of work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: A revolution, a kingdom revolution upon the earth that would affect starting in Jerusalem, then it would go to Judea, and then it would go to Samaria, and then it would go to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Church, do you realize that across the globe today, the church is being planted in unprecedented numbers?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's unbelievable what's happening with Christianity right now.
SPEAKER_01: Stuff in Russia, China, India, stuff that's happening in South America and Latin America.
SPEAKER_01: Really, the only place the Spirit of God is not moving powerfully is in the United States of America and in Europe.
SPEAKER_01: We're jaded.
SPEAKER_01: We're so religious that we can't even allow the Spirit of God to move in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: But across the globe, God's moving.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe there's a day coming, church, when God wants to do that in Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_01: And God wants to do that in this church in a mighty way.
SPEAKER_01: And many of you are beginning to experience that.
SPEAKER_01: God's level of his spirit, and I don't know if we're ankle deep or knee deep or waist deep.
SPEAKER_01: But God's spirit is rising, church.
SPEAKER_01: He's rising up.
SPEAKER_01: And as we surrender more and more to him, he wants to move.
SPEAKER_01: So let me give you what I think are seven dynamics of a whole-hearted church or a whole-hearted person.
SPEAKER_01: Because what happens next is interesting.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the prophetic word, and then look at verse 14 of Acts 1.
SPEAKER_01: The end times church.
SPEAKER_01: These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
SPEAKER_01: Then look at chapter 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together, one accord in one place.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the first dynamic.
SPEAKER_01: The first dynamic of a move of the Spirit in our lives is one accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: One accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: This word one accord is interest.
SPEAKER_01: It means being unanimous, having mutual consent, being in agreement, having one mind and purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, addressing the Philippian church, said, therefore, if there's any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
SPEAKER_01: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.
SPEAKER_01: Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul's joy was in a church that had unity, that was one accord in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It was what Jesus prophesied.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be one in us, and that the world may believe that you sent me, and the glory which you gave me, I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one.
SPEAKER_01: That the goal Christ had for the church was unity, to be one accord.
SPEAKER_01: And men and women, God calls us to this one accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray at noon on Tuesdays, and we have 24 7 prayer that you can sign up for.
SPEAKER_01: We come here at 9 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: and we pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you come in here and you walk across the sanctuary an hour before the service praying.
SPEAKER_01: One accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you how important that is in a marriage.
SPEAKER_01: How important it is in a marriage that you learn to Pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Liz and I years ago figured it out through a whole bunch of problems and a whole bunch of issues in our life that we had to start praying together.
SPEAKER_01: To begin to pray together as a couple, to pray with your kids, one accord.
SPEAKER_01: It builds unity in our hearts when we pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Something about inviting the throne room of Christ into our atmosphere and into our present situation.
SPEAKER_01: Something about lifting our eyes into that throne room where the river, which may only be a trickle for some of you right now, he starts to move.
SPEAKER_01: And as we start to wade into it gets deeper.
SPEAKER_01: One accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: The early church started with one accord prayer, that unanimity, that unanimous coming together that they had at that time, in which they trusted God.
SPEAKER_01: God, we don't know what you're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: The very end of Luke, he says, tarry in Jerusalem until the Spirit comes.
SPEAKER_01: And so they don't even know what they're waiting on.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter one, it's just something about a promise of the Spirit, but they're waiting together.
SPEAKER_01: Think what would happen in our city if we as churches could work together.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it'd be amazing.
SPEAKER_01: But we become so religious about our own particular doctrinal stance that we can't spend time and we can't fellowship with those that aren't exactly the same way we are, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm reading a great book by Eric Metaxis called Amazing Grace.
SPEAKER_01: And it's and it's on the life of William Wilberforce.
SPEAKER_01: How many saw the movie Amazing Grace?
SPEAKER_01: Man, if you haven't seen that, you need to see that movie.
SPEAKER_01: It's a fantastic movie.
SPEAKER_01: But Metaxis really captures the Clam 7.
SPEAKER_01: The Clam 7 were this group of seven men and women that came together to work with Parliament to end the slave trade.
SPEAKER_01: And for over 25 years they labored and they labored.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, we and Wilberforce labored to the point of almost complete nervous breakdown and exhaustion.
SPEAKER_01: But they were from different political parties, and they came together and they prayed and they strategized and they eventually ended slavery.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you know this, but by the 1940s and 50s, for you that are older, and I've heard this from many of you that are that are older, when you were in school at that time, William Wilberforce was very well known.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, in your schools in America, you studied about William Wilberforce.
SPEAKER_01: You don't anymore.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what, this is my point.
SPEAKER_01: When you study Wilberforce, when you study what happened in England, when I mean it was just a horrific time, in England, horrific time.
SPEAKER_01: With slavery, horrific.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing that's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: In England, most people didn't even know about slavery.
SPEAKER_01: There were hardly any slaves in England.
SPEAKER_01: Where the slave trade was prolific was with the sugar plantations down in the uh, where we would call the Bahamas in that area today.
SPEAKER_01: Just horrific conditions.
SPEAKER_01: But what you had is you had child prostitution, no laws for workers at that time.
SPEAKER_01: And so is as Wilberforce got really saved at 26 years old.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's an up-and-coming star, but as he begins to follow Christ, he begins to shift gears toward reaching the poor, ministering the poor, he called it the reformation of manners.
SPEAKER_01: The reformation of manners.
SPEAKER_01: What he meant was to bring a reformation, a kingdom of God revolution to England.
SPEAKER_01: But here's my point.
SPEAKER_01: My point is this how they worked together.
SPEAKER_01: How they work together.
SPEAKER_01: Let me encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: If you spend the majority of your time listening to broadcasts that are constantly ripping the other side of the political lot, I want to encourage you to be careful.
SPEAKER_01: It's not good for your heart.
SPEAKER_01: The reason I say that is because I is one of them.
SPEAKER_01: And I can tell you right now that it's been really refreshing to begin to think in terms of loving God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and my neighbors, myself, even with those who I have differences of opinion politically.
SPEAKER_01: We are not going to get anything done in this country if we don't come together at least one accord on something that we believe in.
SPEAKER_01: And you may say, well, that's super hard right now.
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
SPEAKER_01: No doubt about it.
SPEAKER_01: But every great movement, there was a unified beginning of one accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And so, church, may we be a church that has one accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we get one accord, God moves.
SPEAKER_01: Look what happens next.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_01: And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
SPEAKER_01: Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
SPEAKER_01: And they were all filled.
SPEAKER_01: So you see the difference now?
SPEAKER_01: It's not that one particular priest or prophet or leader is filled.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody, the 120 up there in the upper room, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
SPEAKER_01: The second dynamic of a wholehearted disciple, the second dynamic of a wholehearted church is empowerment with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now I don't have a ton of time to unpack this because I got the other points to get to, but when you get saved, when you come to know Christ, when you give your heart to Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You receive the Holy Spirit when you put your faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 1:14 is clear about that, 12 through 14.
SPEAKER_01: But this is speaking of something else, because we know in John that when Jesus rose from the grave, there was a point where he's with his disciples, and he blew on them and he said, Receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So they had the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: This is subsequent to this.
SPEAKER_01: This is an empowerment of the Spirit of God, a release of the Spirit of God, of the Spirit of God taking control.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's what's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: If we look at Acts chapter 1, 1 through 8, and then we have the entire book of Luke before that.
SPEAKER_01: Listen now.
SPEAKER_01: Think about this.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples had been with Jesus 24-7.
SPEAKER_01: They've probably heard every message that he spoke that's recorded in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: They've ate with him, they slept with him, they've hung out around the fire with him, they've seen every one of his miracles.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, wouldn't you wouldn't that be the coolest thing to have been a part of that?
SPEAKER_01: And yet he says to them, You don't have what it takes.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard me teach, you know my teaching, you know about the Bible, you know about Judaism, you know about the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them had probably had memorized big, huge portions of it.
SPEAKER_01: You've seen me do miracles, you've seen all, but you don't have what it takes for the kingdom revolution that I want to do until you get filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's crazy, man.
SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
SPEAKER_01: To be filled with the Holy Spirit is the key to what God's called every one of you guys to do in this room.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'll just tell you that I believe very few of us are called to the ministry as we consider it vocational ministry.
SPEAKER_01: But every one of us are called to the ministry and whatever the talents and gifts that God's given you to be at in your job.
SPEAKER_01: You are a missionary there.
SPEAKER_01: And have you ever, how many of you struggle with fear and doubt when you're at work about your Christian faith?
SPEAKER_01: Wow, man, you guys are really anointed because like nobody raised their hand.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's like.
SPEAKER_01: I struggle with it too.
SPEAKER_01: We struggle with that.
SPEAKER_01: And so this filling of the Holy Spirit took a guy like Peter, James, and John, who is fearful.
SPEAKER_01: They're hanging out up in the upper room, scared of the Romans, scared of the Jews at that time, and they get filled with the Holy Spirit and they're transformed.
SPEAKER_01: Completely transformed.
SPEAKER_01: Look at chapter 2, verse 17, as an explanation of what is happening here.
SPEAKER_01: And this comes from the Old Testament, from the prophet Joel.
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 17, and it shall come to pass in the last day, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, it says that everybody's gonna get the filling of the Holy Spirit who wants it.
SPEAKER_01: Then he says, Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna go beyond gender.
SPEAKER_01: Your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams, it's gonna go beyond age.
SPEAKER_01: And on my men's servants and my maidservants, I will pour out my spirit in those days.
SPEAKER_01: That means it's gonna go across class, because he's talking about slaves there.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll show wonders in the heaven above and signs in the earth below.
SPEAKER_01: So God's spirit moving is not unlike that picture that they would take there on the great feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, where Jesus came, and he made his pronouncement that there's a day coming when out of you, every one of you, will be rivers of living water.
SPEAKER_01: And they would take that golden picture and they'd pour it.
SPEAKER_01: And so some of us are probably like right there, ankles with the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Keep coming, keep coming, keep coming, because God's spirit will move as you give more and more control of your life to Him.
SPEAKER_01: So really the issue is control.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 5.18 says, do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So when he uses the idea of wine, it's the idea of control.
SPEAKER_01: Who's in control of our lives?
SPEAKER_01: And for some of us, this upper area here is still got still got the porn, still got the little lady or the little guy on the side that we're messing around with.
SPEAKER_01: But God's spirit, if you will continue to surrender Him, church, God's Spirit wants to continue to fill you up.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't like the word spirit-filled.
SPEAKER_01: I like the word spirit spilled.
SPEAKER_01: Because when God's Spirit comes, he wants it to be like this.
SPEAKER_01: He wants it to spill out of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: He wants it to spill out.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the river's all about, gang.
SPEAKER_01: Is that right there?
SPEAKER_01: God's spirit spilling out of our lives where we look, we sound, and we act differently from the world.
SPEAKER_01: If we have more and more of our church, spirit spilled, we'll rock this nation for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll quit depending on Washington, and we'll quit depending on what's happening on Wall Street because we'll know that the water of the Spirit that's becoming a river is flowing from the throne of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Are you filled to spilled with the Holy Spirit today?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter your gender, it doesn't matter your educational background, it doesn't matter your socioeconomic background, God will fill anyone who wants it.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody who desires it, he'll fill them with his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants to so fill us up, church.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to so fill us up, church.
SPEAKER_01: We spill out.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.