EXPERIENCING THE HOLY SPIRIT!

“Since we have learned how to be filled with the Holy Spirit and walk in His power, the believer life has become a great adventure for us, overflowing with joy and excitement!” we exclaimed. “Now, we want to experience this same adventure with Christ.”

Would you like to know how to enjoy millions of other believers who have experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit? We too can experience of a full, abundant, purposeful, and fruitful life in Christ!

If we have been living in spiritual defeat — powerless and fruitless, wondering if there is any validity to the Christian life — there is hope for you! What greater promise could Christ offer to the Christian than the assurance that he or she can walk daily in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and experience an abundant and fruitful life of purpose and adventure? Here is His promise:

John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.

[13] You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.

[14] Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” 

Certain basic spiritual truths, when understood and experienced by faith, bring revolutionary spiritual benefits. These proven principles can help us to be more consistent in our walk with God and be more effective in our witness for our dear Savior.

The believer life, properly understood, is not complex or difficult. As a matter of fact, the believer life is very simple. It is so simple that we stumble over the very simplicity of it, and yet it is so difficult that no one can live it! This paradox occurs because the believer life is a natural and supernatural life. The only one who can help us live this abundant life is the Lord Jesus Christ who empowers us with His Holy Spirit.

BE SURE WE ARE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

One of the most important truths of Scripture, the understanding and application of which has enriched my life as has no other truth, is a concept which I like to call “Spiritual Breathing.” This concept has been shared with millions — with revolutionary results — through our literature and various training conferences and seminars.

As you walk in the Spirit by faith, practicing Spiritual Breathing, you need never again live in spiritual defeat. Spiritual Breathing, like physical breathing, is a process of exhaling the impure and inhaling the pure, an exercise in faith that enables you to experience God’s love and forgiveness and walk in the Spirit as a way of life.

The moment you invited Lord Jesus Christ into your life as a Lord and personal Saviour, we experience a spiritual birth. We become a child of God and we are filled with the Holy Spirit. God forgive your sins — past, present, and future — making us righteous, holy, and acceptable in His sight because of Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross. We are given the power to live a holy life and to be a fruitful witness for God.

But the average believer does not understand this concept of Spiritual Breathing as an exercise of faith and, as a result, lives on a spiritual roller coaster. He goes from one emotional experience to another living most of his life as a worldly Christian, controlling his own life — frustrated and fruitless.

If this is our experience, Spiritual Breathing will enable us to get off this emotional roller coaster and enjoy the believer life that the Lord Jesus promised to you when He said, (John 10:10″I came that they might have life and might have it abundantly” ). As an exercise in faith, Spiritual Breathing will make it possible for us to continue to experience God’s love, forgiveness, and the power and control of the Holy Spirit as a way of life.

EXHALE

If we sin by committing a deliberate act of disobedience, breathe spiritually. God’s Word promises in (1 John 1:9, But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.)

In the Greek, the original language of the New Testament, the word “confess” (homologeo) means to “agree with” or “say along with.” Such agreement involves at least three considerations.

First, we acknowledge that our sin or sins — which should be named to God specifically — are wrong and are therefore grievous to Him.

Second, we acknowledge that God has already forgiven you through Christ’s death on the cross for your sins.

Third, we repent, which means that we change our attitude toward our sin. The power of the Holy Spirit will enable us to change both our attitude and conduct. Instead of doing what our old sinful nature — our flesh — wants to do, we can do what God wants us to do.

INHALE

This is how we appropriate the fullness of God’s Spirit by faith. Trust Him to control and empower us according to his command to “be filled with the Spirit” which actually means to be constantly and continually controlled and empowered with the Holy Spirit.

According to His promise, God hears us and grants our request because we pray according to His will. We encourage you to continue to claim His love, forgiveness, and power by faith and continue to have fellowship with Him moment by moment.

We can get off your spiritual roller coaster, cease to be a worldly or carnal believer, and become a Spirit-filled believer by practicing Spiritual Breathing. If we are breathing and inhaling to appropriate the fullness of the Holy Spirit by faith, we are a Spirit-filled believer. We become a worldly Christian again when we develop (over time) an attitude of unbelief — when we set our heart against believing the promises of (1 John 1:9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.)

and (1 Corinthians 10:13:The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure)

We do not become carnal simply by committing one sin or a dozen or a hundred sins provided that you sincerely continue to breathe spiritually. We will become worldly only when we develop and attitude of unbelief and refuse to breathe spiritually.

We can know right now that you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Through the concept of Spiritual Breathing, you can go through life assured of his fullness. Simply keep short accounts with the God. Do not let sins accumulate.

If we try to live the believer life by your own fleshly effort, it becomes complex, difficult, and even impossible to live. But when we invite the Lord Jesus to direct our life; when we know the reality of having been crucified with Christ and raised with Him by faith as a way of life; when we walk in the light as God is in the light in the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus simply lives His abundant life within us in all of His resurrection power.

We are not suggesting that the believers who walks in the fullness of the Spirit will have no difficulties. Problems of poor health, loss of loved ones, financial needs, and other such experiences are common to all people. However, many of our misfortunes are self-imposed because of our own worldly, selfish actions. The spiritual person is spared most of these self-imposed hardships. But when the problems do come, the spiritual person can face them with a calm, confident attitude because he is aware of God’s resources which are available to him to deal with adversity.

This is not simply a matter of positive thinking. We are instructed to cast our cares upon the Lord Jesus because He cares for us. The spiritual person knows the trustworthiness of God from experience. The Lord becomes the problem-solver, and the trials and burdens of this world are no longer too great for us when He is carrying the load.

This was at the heart of the Apostle Paul’s moment-by-moment experience:

(“ Galatians 2:20” My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me). And the real life we now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me

There is a throne, a control center — the intersection of one’s intellect, will, and emotion — in every person. And either self or Christ is on that throne. Let us illustrate.

We wanted some printed banner in our Ministry after 15 days, so we called our printing division to give us designs and printing materials and banners. However, due to the busy schedule and overload they said they shall not be able print within 15 days but can do the work after 15 days. We made my point clear to them.

“But if we had more notice…” he protested, “There just is no way we can squeeze in such a huge job with so little time. There’s the writing, then the design and typesetting and artwork, then the printing.”

It seemed obvious that he did not share my burden for the upcoming event. I pressed my point. “Look, this is an important international conference,” I said firmly, my voice rising, “and this is no time for ‘business as usual.’ Please find a way to finish this project in time for the conference, even if you have to work around the clock.”

Within a few moments after our conversation, we sensed the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Yes, even in our well-intended service to the Lord, we can stumble — and in the name of godliness we had offended a dear brother in Christ. We had failed to give him and his staff the benefit of the doubt — failed to take into account the tough workload they already were facing each day. Instead of asking him to think through the possibilities with me and helping him rearrange his priorities to accommodate the new task, we had virtually ordered him to get the project done and shown little appreciation for the many late evenings his team was already devoting to their work. We had reacted impatiently rather than in a spirit of love, understanding, and teamwork.

At this point I had a choice to make. By all human standards, we probably could have justified letting the incident go. But deep inside I would have been restless and uncomfortable as the Holy Spirit continued to point out the sin to me, and God would not have blessed my efforts on His behalf as long as this sin remained unconfessed. On top of that, several of my dear co-workers would have continued to hurt as a result of my calloused attitude. What we had thought was forceful leadership, He was identifying as the sins of impatience and unjustifiable anger.

Then came the toughest part. We drove down to the office complex where my associate and his team were located and asked their forgiveness. We confessed our apologies, prayed and laughed together, sensing a fresh outpouring of God’s love in our midst. Then we talked through our mutual needs and found a way — as teammates — to rearrange priorities and accomplish the task — on time!

That is what the believer life is all about — just keeping Christ on the throne. We do this when we understand how to walk in the control and power of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit came for the express purpose of glorifying Christ by enabling the believer to live a holy life and to be a fruitful witness for our Lord Jesus Christ and our Saviour.

As we have said previously, to be sure we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we need to remember two important words: command and promise. The command is found in (Acts 2:4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability)

And the promise is found in

(1 John 5:13-15: I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

[14] And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.

[15] And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for)

On the authority of God’s command we know that we are praying according to His will when you ask Him to fill us — to control and empower us. Therefore, we can expect Him to fill and empower us on the basis of His command and promise provided that you genuinely desire to be filled and trust Him to fill us.

Remember that the Holy Spirit already dwells within us if we are a believer. We do not have to ask Him to come into our life; He is already indwelling us. Our body was a temple of God from the moment you became a believer. So we simply say to Him, “I surrender my life to You, and by faith I claim Your fullness and power.”

Then continue to breathe spiritually, exhaling whenever the Holy Spirit reveals sin that you need to confess and inhaling as you go on walking in the fullness and control of the Spirit by faith. Some believers breathe spiritually faster and more often than others.

Do not depend upon feelings. Tied as they are to your ever-changing circumstances, feelings are unreliable in evaluating your relationship with God. The unchanging promises of God’s Word, not your feelings, are your authority. The Christian is to live by faith, trusting in the trustworthiness of God Himself and His Word.

A train is a good illustration of the relationship between fact, faith, and feeling.

Let us call the train engine “fact” — the fact of God’s promises found in His Word. The fuel car we will call “faith” — your trust in God and His Word. The caboose (waggon) we will call “feelings.”

HOLY SPIRIT WORKS ON THE PRINCIPLE;

HEAR THE VOICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT “WORD OF THE GOD” (FACT) + FAITH IN THE WORD OF THE GOD + CONFIRMATION OF SAME WORD WITH 2-3 MATURED COUNSELLORS = PRAY TO THE GOD THROUGH HOLY SPIRIT FOLLOWED BY THE ACTION IN LIFE.

As fuel flows into the engine, the train runs. It would be futile and, of course, ridiculous to attempt to pull the train by the caboose. In the same way you, as a Christian, should not depend upon feelings or emotion to live a Spirit-filled life. Rather, God wants you to simply place your faith in His trustworthiness and the promises of His Word.

Feelings are like the caboose — they are important but are designed to follow a life of faith and obedience. Jesus promised all who obey Him, 

(John 14:21Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”) So, we can expect to have a valid emotional relationship with our Lord when we trust and obey Him. But we should never depend on feelings or seek after an emotional experience. The very act of looking for an emotional experience is a denial of the concept of faith, and whatever is not of faith is sin.

To summarize then, you can know that you are filled with the Holy Spirit by trusting in God — His command and promise — and you can go through life with that assurance.