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The
Blood of The Everlasting Covenant
Chapter
19
The
Blood Shed by Jesus for the Holy Spirit
God
created man for relationship.
In Scripture we see that without a blood covenant
there can be no relationship; that is God's terms for relationship. People become dysfunctional because one
or more relationships have been broken.
Broken relationships are the primary cause of all of our problems,
addictions, and most ungodly behavior, and evil.
The simplicity of the Gospel, and indeed
the blood covenant, is that God wants to return human beings to
"normal." What is
normal? A human vessel created by
God from the dust of the earth, made in His image and filled with His Spirit.
One more thing: there can be no covenant without death, or without
blood shed by both parties. Throughout this book we have often spoken about our
cross and His Cross. We must take
up our cross (as we have described), which is our way of “shedding blood.” We have seen God’s wonderful commitment
to us to give us His Spirit to inhabit our very beings through the blood
covenant.
Not only is the blood covenant with God a total exchange of our sinful
nature for His righteous and perfect nature, it is the very basis for continued
fellowship. Even more, fellowship
with Him is the very reason for the blood covenant. A dog can only have so much fellowship with a human because
they are not of the same species.
An unregenerated person can only have limited contact with God because
that person is of a different species.
But if somehow God can change his species, to a New Creation, then the
fellowship can be complete and be returned to normal.
Jesus’ blood was shed so we could receive the Holy Spirit.
Jesus shed
His blood on the Cross so that we could be cleansed from sin, to the end that
we could be filled with His Spirit, and thus receive His life, and thus be
saved. That is what takes us back
into an intimate relationship with Him.
In a previous chapter we covered the story about Abram in the blood
covenant ditch. There were two
figures of Deity walking that ditch.
One was Jesus who was making the covenant with the other figure of Deity
on behalf of Abram, and in the end, you and me. Had Abram attempted to make that covenant, he would have
failed. Jesus took that failure
and gave us the benefit.
What happened in that ditch? God exchanged natures with
mankind. He gave Abram, through
Jesus, the nature of God, the Holy Spirit. He took, through Jesus, and for Abram and you and me, the
nature of Adam, the curse, the old nature that is destined for Hell. Galatians
3 tells about this.
.
Galatians 3:13-14 says,
13 “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law,
having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs
on a tree’),
14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the
Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith.”
Galatians 3:29 says,
29 “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs
according to the promise.”
Do not settle for anything except for the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit.
Matthew 3:11 says,
11 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is
coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
To baptize means to totally immerse, to dunk something into a liquid
until it dies, changes, and comes back to life in a different form.
“Baptize” is defined in Strong’s
Concordance as follows:
“Baptizo. Not to be
confused with bapto. The clearest
example that shows the meaning of baptizo is a text from the Greek poet and
physician Nicander, who lived about 200 B.C. It is a recipe for making pickles and is helpful because it
uses both words. Nicander says
that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be ‘dipped’ (bapto)
into boiling water and then ‘baptised’ (baptizo) in the vinegar solution. Both verbs concern the immersing of
vegetables in a solution. But the
first is temporary. The second,
the act of baptising the vegetable, produces a permanent change.
When used in the New Testament, this word
more often refers to our union and identification with Christ than to our water
baptism. e.g. Mark 16:16. 'He that believes and is baptised shall be
saved.' Christ is saying that mere
intellectual assent is not enough.
There must be a union with him, a real change, like the vegetable to the
pickle! Bible Study Magazine, James Montgomery Boice, May 1989.”
God offers all of us a “flooding” of our
souls with the Holy Spirit. Too
often believers settle for less.
Usually it has to do with obstructions which keep the Holy Spirit
confined to our spirit, rather than allow Him access to our mind, will and
emotions.
A major benefit.
A major, somewhat overlooked benefit for being full of the
Holy Spirit to overflowing is that it will make you eligible to be an
overcomer, and to see God raise the dead things in your life by His
resurrection power.
Colossians 1:20 says that all things are
reconciled by the blood of His Cross. To reconcile means to make a friend with
someone or something that was formally at enmity with you. In other words, whatever challenges,
sufferings, or other manifestations of "death" that come into your
realm of influence, the Jesus in you can and wants to resurrect it into a blessing,
a friend. Most of us have heard
about Romans 8:28 which says that all things work together for good for those
that love God and are called according to His purpose. Only when the life of Jesus prevails
over your old flesh nature can resurrection take place in your life while you
are still in your body. His purpose is to see you become a vessel for His
resurrection power.
Paul knew he could
experience the resurrection power of God while still in his body.
Philippians 3:10-11 says,
"10 [For my
determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become
more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and
understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and
that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His
resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His
sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even]
to His death, [in the hope] That if possible I may attain to
the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead
[even while in the body]."
When Jesus came into my life, I saw Him in the Book of
Revelation as the ascended Christ, the victor and deliverer.
At that point I became a man completely filled with
the Holy Spirit. Rivers of living
water gushed up out of my soul.
John
7:38, 39 says,
“38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said,
out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
39 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.”
I did not speak in tongues right away, but received
that gift about two months later after I discovered it in Scripture. One predominate work that the Holy
Spirit did in my life from the beginning, was to make Jesus real to me. I knew that Jesus was alive. I could experience “real-time communication”
with Him through the Holy Spirit.
People tried to give me their own and often false opinions about
Christianity, but the Holy Spirit was always my teacher. Another work that God did in me was to
hunger and thirst for righteousness, and holiness. I had a hunger to be "clean" in His
character. Of course we struggle
with that issue, but as long as our hunger is strong, God is pleased.
I believe the reason that I was filled with the Holy
Spirit the very day of my salvation is because Jesus revealed Himself to me as
the Glorified One. I had been
reading the Book of Revelation and a book having to do with Revelation, and I
saw Jesus in His glorified state, not as the person before the Cross, or the
person in the grave, or even as a resurrected person, but I saw the Jesus who
had already ascended to the right hand of God in Heaven.
John
7:39 says:
“39 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.”
I cannot explain everything about the
Holy Spirit of God.
I do not understand the various ways the Holy
Spirit is experienced by different people. There are a few simple things that I can share with you.
In order to be a child of God, you need to have His Spirit joined
to your spirit.
That is what happened when you were re-born. You were joined to God, much in the same way Adam was before
he rebelled against God.
1 Corinthians 6:19 says,
“19 Or do
you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
You became a container for the Holy Spirit when you made Jesus
Lord.
Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would come after He (Jesus) ascended
back to Heaven to take His (Jesus’) place here on earth.
Knowing how we could feel
fatherless if we could not experience His presence, Jesus said the following,
“I will not leave you as orphans [fatherless]; I will come to you” (John
14:18).
He told His disciples, after His
resurrection but before he ascended, that they would be immersed into the Holy
Spirit.
Acts 1:5 says,
“5 “for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be
baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.””
Acts 1:8 says,
“8 “But 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 end of the earth.””
He told them not to worry after He
left.
He explained that the Holy Spirit would take
His place and make Him (Jesus, God) real to them. Read what Jesus told them in John 14:16-26.
Jesus told them that the Holy Spirit
would make Him real to them.
John 15:26 says,
“26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you
from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will
testify of Me.”
John 16:7 says,
“7 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your
advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to
you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
Jesus told His men that he would come
back soon.
He did!
He came back in the form of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit and Jesus are not different people; they are
the same, but in different form.
The Holy Spirit can actually dwell inside humans, where Jesus was restricted
to one human body.
That sounds simple, but the devil has convinced men and women to
complicate things.
Entire denominational structures have been built around what people
believe or do not believe about the Holy Spirit. Often what people believe is some sort of tradition that is
not even Bible based.
How does
this filling happen?
John 15
says that we are connected to our source like a branch on a vine.
We are not
independent containers like a water glass that must be filled from an outside
source.
It is a matter of staying connected to the vine.
The sap in the vine represents the Holy Spirit, Jesus is the vine, and
we are the branches. We need to
abide in the vine. Jesus says that
obedience to His Word is what keeps us abiding. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is being flooded with God
when we are connected to Him, as the vine is to the branch. His “sap” flows into us and we stay
connected if we abide.
I submit that we become flooded or filled with the
Holy Spirit when the various obstructions, in the connection between the branch
and the vine, are removed.
Are there degrees of being filled?
I submit that there are
degrees. When you are full of the
Holy Spirit, all areas of your life will begin to be changed. The fruit of the Spirit will begin to
be manifested in your life.
Galatians 5:22-23 says,
“22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no
law.”
You will be hungry for the Word of God.
Jesus will be real to you.
Christianity will be more than a mental understanding; it will be alive
and real. You will know that you
are in relationship with God.
Ideally, every Christian would be filled with the Holy Spirit when they
are born again. Sometimes it
happens like that (as it did with me), but not always. The New Testament shows different
experiences. At Ephesus, Paul
encountered a group who had believed, but who had not even heard of the Holy
Spirit.
Acts 19:6 says,
6 “And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon
them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”
Another incident took place while Peter was preaching the Gospel to the
Gentiles.
Acts 10:44-46 says,
44 “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell
upon all those who heard the word.
45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as
many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured
out on the Gentiles also.
46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God…”
Paul prayed a blessing for the church in Ephesus. He wanted them to experience the
reality of God in their present day lives, “…experience for yourselves, the
love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience…that they
may be a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself” (Ephesians 3:19,
extracted from Amplified Bible).
I believe that a lot of obstructions can keep us from the fullness of
the Holy Spirit.
The major obstructions are:
- Pride (James
4:6)
- Religious
tradition (Mark 7:13)
- Fear (Luke
11:11-13)
- Doubt (Luke 11:9-10)
- Inadequacy
(Luke 11:13)
Other big obstructions are:
- Not
wholly submitting your will to God.
- Refusing
to give up some sin in your life.
- Not
living in obedience to the Word of God.
- Not
addressing spiritual and demonic strongholds in your life.
- Going
to “other gods” to obtain your needs.
I believe that the simplicity of the whole matter is this.
You can become confused if you study and
debate modern denominations and their theology about the baptism in the Holy
Spirit. That type of debate has
proven to be quite unprofitable.
However if you would simply look at the original intelligent design of
Adam, as described in the second paragraph in this chapter, which says,
"What is normal? A human
vessel created by God from the dust of the earth, made in His image and filled
with His Spirit."
Then look at what caused God to "move
out." God moved out of Adam because of disobedience and the desire for
independence. That being true,
then what will invite God to move back in with His fullness? Obedience and a hunger for dependence
upon God.
Acts 5:32 says,
“32 “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is
the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.””
The following is a quote from Watchman Nee from his book, A Table in
the Wilderness. [1]
"When the vessels
were full... she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her,
There is not a vessel more. And the oil
stayed" (2 Kings 4:6).
The divine almightiness is content to confine itself to
our capacity. The oil of God's Spirit flows according to the measure man has
prepared for God. Divine blessing is subject to the limits of human channels.
"Make this valley full of ditches," said Elisha on another occasion.
"For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain,
yet that valley shall be filled with water.... And this is but a light thing in
the sight of the Lord: he will also deliver the Moabites into your hand"
(3:16 ff.). Man has not the power to obtain anything more than God has given,
but he has the option of taking less.
"Ye will not come tome that ye may have life."
Ask God to show you what may apply to you.
The Holy
Spirit desires to do two fundamental things in your life:
1. To make Jesus real to you so that He (Jesus)
can make you whole.
He wants to set you free from past bondages and
prisons. He wants to make you holy
like God.
2. To make Jesus real to the world through you.
In other
words, to glorify or reveal God. Jesus’ only body on this earth is the
Church. The Church is His
body. We represent Him to the
world in the same way that He represented the Father to the world when He was
here. You are part of His body,
the Church.
What about
the gifts of the Spirit?
Please study
1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4. One type of gift is part of our personality, and other types
are given to operate in special situations as determined by God. I have personally had many of the gifts
operate in my life from time to time, but not all of them. I have witnessed gifts such as the word
of prophecy and the word of wisdom that only the Holy Spirit could have
spoken. My wife and I have
participated with the Holy Spirit in casting out demons, and have seen the
results of people being healed and set free.
Speaking in tongues is a valuable and powerful gift.
I believe that God does not give every believer the gift of tongues to
use publicly. However I do believe
that the gift of speaking in tongues, praying in the Spirit, is a very powerful
gift for all believers to utilize in their private prayer time.
Matthew
12:34-b says,
“34b “...For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaks.”
If your heart is full of the Holy Spirit, why not let it spill out
of your mouth?
It will pray the perfect will of God for your life, and for those
others for whom God decides to bless.
God uses it not only in public ministry, but more importantly, He uses
it to take control of our mind for His benefit. James 3:4-5 says that the tongue is like the rudder that
guides the entire ship. Science
has shown that the speech center in your brain controls the entire brain. If you want to give Jesus the rudder of
your life, you should give Him your tongue. It will renew your mind, pray the perfect will of God, and
resist Satan. Praying in tongues
privately for extended periods of time is powerful. It has produced miracles in
my life. Far too many Christians
have not enjoyed the benefits of this gift due to ignorance. There is a more in depth teaching on
the Holy Spirit in the ISOB curriculum, lessons 117 and 118 [2].
One time, early in my walk with God, I took a Jewish friend to church
with me (he asked me, I did not pressure him). During the service, the person right behind us was prompted
by the Holy Spirit to speak out in tongues. My friend turned and stared at him while he spoke. Later, my Jewish friend invited Jesus
to become His Lord. He saw Him as
the Jewish Messiah.
On the way home he asked me about the “funny language” this man
spoke. I explained 1 Corinthians
chapter 12 to him. Then he told me
that he understood what the man had said in Hebrew and that he had learned it
in Hebrew school as a young boy.
Here is what my Jewish friend heard that morning:
“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days…
Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the
LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall
walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the
LORD from Jerusalem…They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruning hooks ” (taken from Isaiah 2:2-5).
However, wholesome speech in your native language is
more important to God. Your words
are much more powerful than you can imagine. What you say will not only tend to cause things to happen on
earth, but your words will tend to bind the underlying thoughts to your mind
forever. Negative words will put
you and others into darkness.
Positive and God-controlled words will set you and others free. You will experience a peace that is
much like Heaven in your heart.
Negative words will put “Hell” into your heart.
Ask God to
show you what areas in your life are keeping the fullness of the Holy Spirit
from being manifested in and through you.
The presence
of God through the Holy Spirit is worth any adjustment you may need to make.
Prayer.
“Lord Jesus, the Word of God says that you have a desire to
fill me with your Spirit so that You and I can be more intimate. I am hungry for you and your presence
in my life. Jesus, I believe your
Word. I confess to you that I want
everything you have for me. Come,
Jesus, baptize me with the Holy Spirit and fire. I am open and ready for the fire in my life. I renounce and repent from all sin in
my life. I forgive everyone who
has wronged me. I offer myself to
you a living sacrifice. You are
sovereign over my life. Have your
way. I offer to you all of my
members, my mouth, my tongue, my hands, feet, ears and eyes. Take it all!”
For more information on this subject, read
Chapter 11 of the book Grow or Die. The reference is on the second page of this book.