Abound In The Holy Spirit (357)

0:01 Welcome once again to the Quality Christian Living Podcast. I am your host, David Friend. Today's podcast is basically entitled How to a Bound in the Holy Spirit. And we're going to get into some things I think that will really help us understand the fullness of what the Holy Spirit wants in our life. You see, the Holy Spirit wants us to abound in life throughout. our entire life and to do it by building a relationship with Him. Jesus said in John 10 .10 that He came to give us life and give it more abundantly, while the Holy Spirit came to give us that abundant life also. So we need to understand that and believe that. You know, we need to define before we get too far the word abound. It means to overflow, to increase in strength. And so before we get into this, let's pray. Have any father? I thank you and praise you for who you are. I invite the Holy Spirit now to come in and take control.

0:50 Take me in this podcast where you would have me to go and keep me from going in areas that I should not. So I believe in that and I thank you for it. And I pray blessing upon all those who are listening in today. I thank you God for this opportunity we have and I pray that you would bless it, that you would anoint it, and that people's lives would be deeply touched by it. I pray. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well the Holy Spirit is, I like to call it, at the door of our heart. That means we need to open that door. be at the door and he's knocking and he's trying to get in but we don't open that door to him. A lot of people have a difficult time opening the door to invite the Holy Spirit into their heart, into their mind, into their life and to receive his abundance, to see what he has in store for each and every one of us.

1:31 The Holy Spirit is the only way that we can live abundantly. Now I've heard the word abundance used many times misused and even manipulated. Some use it to talk only about money and possession. There's an old saying back in the 1980s that whoever dies with the most toys wins. Well, that certainly is not the abundance I'm talking about. You might have a lot of stuff, but it's not going with us. And we've got to understand that abundance is the only kind of abundance of any value is spiritual abundance that we all need. And the Holy Spirit is the only one who can bring spiritual abundance help us to abound in our walk with the Lord. In this podcast, our focus must be on the Holy Spirit -led spiritual abundance.

2:16 First, we must believe that we can abound in the Holy Spirit. So I want to break any thoughts that the Holy Spirit like you or that the Holy Spirit is hard to get to and hard to communicate with and hard to understand. No, he's not. He's living in the hearts and lives of all believers and he is there to help and he's aware of what we need and who we are and ready to help us. We just simply need to submit to him, yield to him and receive the blessings that he has in store for us to help us to live that abundant life or to abound in him. Now it is the desire of the Holy Spirit to help us live more abundantly. Now that word abundantly many times people want to turn you off because you think you're just going to be hearing about money and talking about wealth and being richer than the next guy and that's not at all what this podcast is about nor is that what it shouldn't be about that because the abundance that the Holy Spirit brings is truly spiritual and is eternal and the other kind of abundance is temporal and No matter how much money a person has, how much wealth they have, how many houses they own, when they pass from this life to the next, it's all going to be left behind. And what's kind of ironic about that is that there'll be people living in the possessions that we had when we go on, that maybe we didn't even care for those people. They'll be driving our cars. But none of that really matters unless we focus on our spiritual abundance and what we can do to be blessed and receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. You know, I've talked and done podcasts on just on specifically on abundant living and how to live abundantly.

3:46 And the one point that I've used many, many times is people focus on financial abundance when in reality spiritual abundance is certainly key and of far more importance than financial abundance. Although there's nothing wrong with making money, there's nothing wrong with having good finances, but that's not the focus on this particular podcast. Now here's some proof, I believe, of how we are able to abound in the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter 15 and verse 13 in the New International Version says this, all joy. It doesn't say some joy or a little bit of joy or a little tiny piece of joy or one day of joy. It says, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. All right that certainly brings this whole podcast together and that is that that Paul was writing to the Romans and he's telling them about the significance of our walk with God and that it's all basically directed by yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit. See God wants to bring his hope to us.

4:53 He wants to fill us with all his joy. That's the Holy Spirit's joy and he wants us to have Holy Spirit peace and Holy Spirit trust and he wants us to overflow. That means to have more than we can even handle. Now the word overflow is kind of a fun word. It's another synonym for the word abound is to overflow. To overflow means it's more than you need, more than enough. So God can bless us so much. He has so much love and so much kindness and so much that we have to give to other people that it overflows to others and those around us and that's why he gives talents and abilities to people and he wants that talent and ability to overflow from them into others and minister to the people of God. It says that you may overflow with hope, isn't it? Some overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. So here we're seeing basically a foundation that's being built to understand how we can abound in the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit reveals the God of I mean, he's the one that reveals everything to us. The reason we know that we're saved is because the Holy Spirit has the one that he drew us to God. And the reason we know that we can live in peace is that he brings the peace to us. We can know that we trust God because of our relationship with the Holy Spirit who helps us to have trust, the kind of trust that we can only get from him.

6:09 So the Holy Spirit reveals the God of hope. The Holy Spirit brings all joy to us, not just some joy, not just joy in sports, just joy in having money or shopping or whatever it might be. All those things are fine. There's nothing wrong with those things. But in reality, the Holy Spirit brings all joy to us. That means regardless of what we're going through, regardless of our circumstances, we can still have joy. People don't realize when Jesus was, well a lot of people do, but some people don't understand that when Jesus was on the cross the Bible tells us that he had joy in his heart for what he knew was going to take place because of his crucifixion. The number of people who would follow him and the number of people who would follow in the years to come and the centuries to come before he returns to pick up his church. He had joy and it's hard to imagine that going through that but I know people who I have a sister, for example. She is struggling with multiple sclerosis for many years, for like 35, 40 years. Before that, before she got to know the Lord, she wasn't very happy person. She was moody and all that. But now, her life is filled with joy. And if you go see her right now and walk to her and say, how are you doing? And she's bent over, can't hardly walk. But bottom line, when you look at her and say, how are you doing? She still loves Jesus.

7:27 And she just smiles at you and says, oh. Jesus is everything. See all hope and all joy in him because of the Holy Spirit who's living and dwelling on her in the midst of her circumstance. She can be filled with joy. And that's the kind of joy that the Holy Spirit brings. That's what abounding in the Holy Spirit is all about. The Holy Spirit brings peace. And I talked about that in prior podcasts. I'm not going to spend a lot of time right now, but the Holy Spirit brings peace. And as I've mentioned in prior podcasts, if there's one thing that I've prayed for people in the church when they've come up and say, pastor just could you help me and could you pray for me if it's not a physical thing it's usually something like they need peace or they need hope they need what the Holy Spirit brings and the Holy Spirit is living and dwelling inside of them and so the Holy Spirit brings that peace and that's what people are looking for they're looking for that peace that doesn't break down when they're challenged that peace that is maintained in the midst of a bad diagnosis or a divorce or a financial failure or a bankruptcy or children you know going astray those types of things we can still maintain a hope, all joy, and peace. The Holy Spirit helps us to trust in God. You know, we need to put our trust in God. Trust in the Lord it says in the Bible says, with all your heart lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. Now when we think about that trust that trust can only come into our heart because of our you know through our relationship I should say with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us to trust in God. He reminds us of the goodness of God. He reminds us of scriptures

8:59 that strengthen us and helps us. He reminds us of what life we lived before we received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior in the new life that we have. So the Holy Spirit brings that to us. and that's how we can abound in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings the ability to have an overflowing life and I talked a little bit about that earlier. So let me just kind of review real quick the points that I just made on this. I wrote them down. The Holy Spirit reveals the God of Hope. He brings all joy. He brings peace and He helps us to trust in God and He brings a life that's overflowing. It's more than abundance. It's more than enough and that's how He wants to live and how He wants us to abound in the Holy Spirit as we walk through life. Abounding in the Holy Spirit is expanding our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Now I've had podcasts where I've talked a little bit about the relationship with the Holy Spirit, but let me just ask you, you're listening in right now and wherever you are on a bicycle or on a walk or just sitting at home or wherever it might be where you're listening in, you ever thought about what your relationship is with the Holy Spirit? Is he welcome in your home? Is he welcome in your conversations?

10:06 Is he welcome in your decisions? Is he welcome when you face a trial? That's what we need to have in order to have that abounding relationship with the Holy Spirit and to live life with abundance. The Holy Spirit wants to have a relationship with us. He's there, ready, willing, and able to connect with us, but we can't shut the door on him. We've got to open the door to him. We've got to reveal to him what we think our most secrets. He knows what they are anyways because he's fully God and because he's fully God he's able to understand who we are, what we're thinking, how we're thinking and we can't hide anything from him so we might as well be open to him and when we're open to him he steps in and helps us and takes us through life. It will change our heart and what comes out of our heart and out of our thought life.

10:54 That relationship with the Holy Spirit will do everything to change. How we act, how we react, how we spend our how we have our marriage, the relationship we have in our marriage with our children, with our church, with our work. Those things are all impacted by the Holy Spirit who wants us to abound. What Jesus was talking about in a wonderful scripture here, Matthew 12, 34. I'm not going to read the exact scripture, but I'm just going to tell you what he was saying. Jesus was talking about this abundant living. What Jesus basically said was this. I'm paraphrasing just to make it easy and comfortable to receive it. What is in our heart is who we are. Not necessarily what's in our mind, but what's in our heart.

11:34 Those are the deep things, those things that go down deep. We can have something in our mind and think about something and have an idea or something, but until it comes into our heart, it becomes part of us and goes deep and it's headed. That's why people have a difficult time when they have bitterness and they have unforgiveness and maybe they went through a divorce or a bad business transaction or a business that's split or whatever it might be, relationships between relatives and it gets deep and it gets into their heart. and it's harder to get rid of it there. But if it's in our mind, we can beat it up easier in our mind than we can in our heart. And so what Jesus is saying in Matthew 12, verse 34, he's talking about what is in our heart is actually who we really are. The words we speak reflect our thoughts. our intentions. All of this comes about in having the right relationship with the Holy Spirit and having that comfort in our heart and having our trust in God and lean not on our own understanding and trust Him in everything that we do. The thoughts that are in our heart will come out to be who we really are. Here's an example. A moral person produces moral living.

12:40 An evil person produces evil living. So if a person is immoral in their heart they're going to produce that. If a person has love and joy and peace and the fruit of the Spirit in their heart then they're going to produce that. So Jesus really wants us to understand that our heart is who we are and the Holy Spirit will help us to work on the situation our heart whether it's difficult or whether it's Wonderful and peaceful, but the Holy Spirit is there to help us. Remember what the Apostle Paul said in prior scriptures that I read him. He says it's I think it was Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 and 7. He's basically saying that the Holy Spirit can guard our thoughts. and that we must seek the Holy Spirit for help with what is in our heart and in our mind. That's where he says, to be anxious for nothing, but everything through prayer, petitions with thanksgiving, make your requests, be made known to God and the peace of God that pass us all understanding will guard your hearts and guard your mind. In Christ Jesus, the apostle Paul is telling us that the Holy Spirit can guard our thoughts and he can guard our mind and that the Holy Spirit wants to help us with what is in our heart and what's in our thought life.

13:45 The Holy Spirit has made an investment in us. So I guess you might even say that God made an investment in us. Jesus said when he was leaving his disciples he said okay I'm leaving and I gotta leave because if I don't leave then the Holy Spirit won't be here. When I leave, I must leave," he says, because then the Holy Spirit will come. And he'll be the comforter. He'll be the paraclete. He'll be the advocate. He'll be on your side. He'll have your back. He's got you covered. He's got a good life for you if you yield and submit to him. So when Jesus left, what he's basically saying is, I'm leaving an investment. I'm making an investment in you. And so the investment that God made by sending the Holy Spirit down to earth, that investment now has gone into the hearts of every single follower of the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ. And there's something that I want to talk about when it's when it's investment. I'm not going to get into money, but think about this. The Holy Spirit has made an investment in us. He's there. He's ready. He was deposited in us. He personally was deposited in us. What kind of investment return do we produce? Now in business there's something we call ROI. It stands for return on investment. Abounding in the Holy Spirit will have a great ROI, a return on our investment because it'll be a return to the Holy Spirit's investment and will be pleasing unto the Lord and will be a blessing unto the Lord and will be a blessing to the church, will be a blessing to the kingdom of God. So when the Holy Spirit has been invested in us, how are we treating

15:16 that investment? Are we protecting him or are we grieving him? The Bible says, don't grieve the Holy Spirit. And we grieve Him by making Him sad, by when we sin, when we make mistakes, when we have errors, when we get into arguments that we lose control of. Those all grieve the Holy Spirit. We can correct those. We can make them right. So let's work on that investment that God has made in us, which is the Holy Spirit. Now don't take me wrong. I'm not trying to turn this into a finance discussion. Not one tiny bit. But it's important that we understand that God did make an investment in each and every one of us. He's looking for a good return on his investment, and that return is that we're living a godly life, that we're telling people about our faith, we're witnessing to others.

15:59 Jesus, when he left us hers, he said, spread the good news. That means let everybody know that I came to earth, that I was crucified, resurrected, and I'm sitting at the right hand of the Father. He says, let people be aware of that, and that is the responsibility of every believer. The Holy Spirit is the investment that God made in us, and he wants to have a return that we share our faith with others. You know, I would be remiss if I didn't read this one scripture to you when we're talking about how to abound in the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul wrote about that, about the power of the Holy Spirit in our life. He wrote about it in the book of Ephesians in chapter one in verses 13 and 14. I'm just gonna read both of those verses to you because they truly are powerful, extremely powerful. He says, and this is Paul writing, and now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the good news, that God saved you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit. There we are, whom he promised long ago.

16:56 Verse 14, the Spirit is God's guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him. That is so beautiful, I think, when Paul wrote that. Now, when he said that he purchased us, obviously the price that he paid was the sacrificing of his son, Jesus. And what Jesus had to go through, Jesus suffered just unbelievably. for us and he didn't have to. He could have called for help. Thousands of angels could have come to his rescue but that's not why he came. He came that he would make a sacrifice and God made that sacrifice of his son and then turn around after his son was resurrected then God sent an investment of the Holy Spirit down so that we could have bound in that investment. We could have bound in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has several reasons that he's here. The manor, if you will, the manner of the Holy Spirit is a divine person with unlimited power. He speaks to us. He acts in us and communicates to us. Now, some people say, well, how does he communicate? Have you heard his voice? Well, I've not heard an audible voice, but there have been many, many times. I mean, numerous times I couldn't count the number of times that the Holy Spirit has impressed me one way or another by doing something or changing something or calling someone. I've had situations where I wouldn't work by myself and just doing things, getting ready Saturday getting ready for the church service on Sunday and in the middle of it the Holy Spirit reminds me to call someone and I'll think okay

18:27 I'll write the name down and I'll think okay well I'll just get around to calling them and the Holy Spirit's going now. I get this pressure right now, and I'm thinking, I got a lot of things to do. I got to get ready. You know how the thought goes through our mind? But that still quiet voice is basically saying, call now. So I called this person up. And when I called the gentleman I was calling, picked up the phone. And as soon as I said, hi, this is Pastor David, he started laughing. And I thought, well, thank you, Lord. I'm calling someone so they can laugh at me. And so, no, the guy says, oh, I'm sorry. He says, I'm not laughing for anything other than just, you won't believe what just took place. He said, not more than 10 seconds ago my daughter and I were chatting he says you know we're new in your church I said yeah I noticed that you had just been coming here recently and he says in your much bigger church than we're used to so my daughter said well dad you know that pastor is gonna be so busy he'll never have time for you he won't be able to meet with you and I'm sure he'll probably never call you and he says as soon as you as she said that the phone rang.

19:23 He says, and I picked up the phone. That was just powerful in itself. And of all people, it's you. And he looked at his daughter and she said, it's Pastor Friend. He's calling us just to see how we're doing. You see, the Holy Spirit knows. He knew right then that I couldn't wait five minutes. I couldn't wait two minutes. It was right then at that time that I had to make that move. And I thank the Lord for that. And I thank the Lord that I did stop what I was doing and listen to that still quiet voice that told me to call now, not later, but do it right now. I've got dozens of other stories like that. I just can't take time for them in this particular podcast. And he communicates with us in many ways. He teaches us. He guides us. He comforts us. He intercedes for us to the Father. He prays for us. And he's praying through us when he prays for us. And the Holy Spirit speaks to us in so many different ways. He speaks to us through a friend, through a sermon, through a scripture that you read. through somebody else's prayer.

20:19 He might speak to us, we might be reading a newspaper, or reading a magazine, or whatever we're doing, and we're going through that. And of course, I read my newspaper now online. People say, you read the old newspaper? Well, I do read a newspaper, but it's online, and it's available for me every single day, and I can go back and pick it back up later if there's something I missed. But when I'm reading that, sometimes in reading an article on something, I'll think, you know, I need to talk to this person, or talk to that person, or I'm supposed to do something about that situation. And the Holy Spirit communicates to us in so many different ways. Like I said, he prays for us and he empowers us and he transforms us by the renewing of our mind is what the word of God says. That's so powerful. He is God. He is divine. He is omniscient, which means all knowledge.

21:04 He's omnipresent, which means he's everywhere and he is omnipotent with all power. You know the Holy Spirit even sanctifies us during our life. He's the agent of change. He's the agent that directs us. Now what's sanctification? Some people may not even know what that is, but sanctification is an ongoing journey that Christians go through a process of drawing closer to God. It's defined as being set apart from the world, which simply means that you just don't accept those things of the world. It doesn't mean you won't make a mistake, you won't sin, you won't do something wrong, but you'll have the Spirit of God in you so that you can go correct that situation. So it's a process. It's a process of learning how to help others. It's a process of understanding the Word of God and learning to yield to the voice, that still quiet voice of the Holy Spirit.

21:50 And the interesting thing about sanctification is that I don't believe sanctification ever ends. It's a process we go through our entire life. There's been some great men of God that put in 40, 50, 60 years of ministering and leading people to Jesus all over the world and just great ministries and helping means of people to be fed and all those great things. And when you listen to them, they say they're still growing. They're still growing in the Lord. So let me ask you a question. Are you still growing in the Lord? Because we don't ever complete the work that God's doing in us. It's like saying that I've read the Bible and I understand every bit of it. No, there's no one on the face of the earth that understands every single part of the Bible. It's a continual process of growth. And that's what the Holy Spirit is the agent of. He's the one that helps us to grow spiritually. So let's seek Him. Let's ask Him for help. asking for guidance. Well, I have to kind of wrap this up now, so let me just pray for you before we do that. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord once again for another podcast. Thank you Lord for this teaching because it came out very differently than what I had drafted, what I thought that I would say, and how I would even quote certain scriptures and things. I thank you for that because I know when it changes.

22:55 If I've asked you and asked for your guidance and direction, I've yielded to you that when there's a change made that comes from you. And I pray now for those who've listened in today that whatever they listened in to receive that they have received that that they'll take it and they'll grow in it that father that each and every one of us will understand that we can have a right relationship with the Holy Spirit so strong so powerful that we will abound in him and we will live that abundant life that Jesus promised that we could have so father I claim that for those who are listening in I claim that for those who may be struggling with their faith struggling with sickness I I pray for healing. I call forth a miracle healing in their bodies. For financial needs, I pray a financial blessing would come upon them. I pray for those maybe in marriages that are struggling. Father, I pray the Holy Spirit would move and help them, Father, to mend that marriage and mend that relationship.

23:44 That families that have been torn apart, that you would restore them and bring them back together because that's what you are. You are the restorer. You are the healer. And so I believe for that, God. And I pray blessing upon everyone who's taken the time to listen in today. Bless them and keep them. my pray in Jesus' name. Well, again, I hope that you enjoyed that. It's been really quite interesting as I moved on this. We're going to continue our series on the Holy Spirit. And Lord willing, this is what he wants me to do. The next podcast I've written down is Holy Spirit Lead Destiny. And so that's interesting. That's an interesting set of words. So we all have a destiny that God has ordained for us and planned for us. He has a plan for our life, a life and a purpose for our life. And we're going to talk about how the Holy Spirit can help review that and take us to the destiny that he has for us. So I pray that you'll tune into that. I don't have any other statements to make about that because all I know is the title. I'm not really sure where we go from here, but before the next week's is ready and we bring this next podcast to you, I believe the Holy Spirit will give us something very strong that will help each and every one of us. Well, if you'd like to know more about quality Christian living, that's the name of our podcast and that's the covering as quality Christian living as to how to live a quality Christian life, not just get a get by life are just I'm kind of making it but a thriving life that a life filled with spiritual abundance and I believe that's what the theme of this this whole series has been on the Holy Spirit and if you'd like to know more about a quality Christian living you can go to my web page at davidcfriendauthor .com and when you pull it up on the front page

25:14 there you'll see a link to all the podcasts we've done and so there's a whole bunch of them there's four years or more worth of podcasts and we've covered so many different topics there's there's teaching series of 20 or 30 lessons on finance, on the gifts of the Spirit, on how to have faith for miracles, how to increase our faith, how to pray for people, for their healing, all kinds of different things and talking about the fruit of the Spirit. And quite frankly, as much as I can imagine, we've been talking about, there's still far more that we can talk about as we continue our series on the Holy Spirit. So with that, I want you to lecture friends and relatives and neighbors know that we're doing a series. I've had more people text me and on Facebook and on Instagram. and text me by a phone call or email me through my through my email and when they do that and telling me that they're listening in and I'm just so blessed I tell you the other day I noticed all the countries that these podcasts have gone into in these four years and it's now over 140 countries now have been downloading now not all at the same time but that's how many countries have been hearing this these teachings over the last four years I just thank the Lord for that that's not about me that's nothing to do with me it's all about the Holy Spirit leading guiding and directing and as you've noticed as you listen to my podcast or something that I do frequently as the Holy Spirit leads give people an opportunity to turn their life over to Christ and I pray with them and just just tell them how to pray to ask for forgiveness and ask and admit that they sinned and they need a Savior and surrender their life to Jesus and to get

26:45 into a good church find a good Bible -believing church and get the Word of God out and go to Bible studies and really grow in your walk with God so God's made a great investment in all of us. He gave his son and then he sent the Holy Spirit to come and comfort us. So what an investment he's made in us. We want God to have a great return on that investment. So thank you once again for listening to this particular podcast. So I just want to sign off with a blessing for you. Heavenly Father I pray that you would bless everyone listening in today and that you would keep them and that you would shine your face upon them Father and that you would be gracious to each and every one of us and give us your peace. May we prosper and be in good health even as our souls prosper. I thank you for that, Father.

27:27 I pray blessing, Father God, on all those who have listened in. I pray, Lord, as we move forward to our next podcast, that you would bless it. And I want to thank people for listening in. And if you enjoyed this podcast, just take a moment, please, and give us a rating, if you will. Give us a review. You can leave your review on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Charisma Podcast Network, or just give us a star rating on Spotify. However you choose, it'd be a blessing. If you'd like to subscribe to my podcast, you can do that by going to cpnshows .com. or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Well, may God richly bless you. Thank you again for listening in and we'll see you next time. This is Dave Friend of Quality Christian Living. May God richly bless you.