Holy Spirit Faith and Power (323)

0:01 I want to welcome you to the Quality Christian Living Podcast. I am your host, David Friend. Today's podcast is entitled, Holy Spirit, Faith and Power. We're going to discover how the Holy Spirit brings a powerful amount of faith and power to our life. And we'll learn from the life of Stephen, who we'll read about in the book of Acts. We'll better understand how faith and power come from the Holy Spirit, and finally, how we can be filled with the Spirit each and every day of our lives. I know God's got some great plans for us, but let's go to the Lord first in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity, once again, to bring this podcast to those who are listening literally around the world. We pray now you would bless them, and I pray that you would anoint this podcast, and I submit to you, and I ask the Holy Spirit to take complete control, take charge, about to speak about today. The topic is the Holy Spirit, so therefore, we need you. we seek you. We need your guidance and direction. I pray you would bless this and that those who are listening in would receive something very special today. Holy Spirit, may you open up our hearts to receive directly from you. I pray that you would guide every thought, every comment, the reading of each scripture and that your name would be blessed and we just give you thanks for it. We ask now that those who are listening in would receive exactly what they're looking for and only you can accomplish that. So we'd be careful to give you the praise and glory for what's about to take place and I with these things now in Jesus name I pray amen this has been a very exciting series for me and a lot of people are calling me people are texting me I've had emails that they're being blessed by it and being touched by it so I just thank the Lord for that because

1:32 when we talk about the Holy Spirit we talk about the greatest power that's ever been written about and when we read the Word of God we have to always remember that every word in the Word of God has been inspired by the Holy Spirit for those who wrote it so I hope you're ready to hear what the Holy Spirit does to give us faith and how he does that and how he gives us power in our prayer times, power in our walk with God, power to live that life that God wants us to live. For the Holy Spirit to help us increase our faith and experience His power, we must be filled with the Spirit. Let's look at a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Apostles needed help. to serve the growing church. They were outnumbered by people and there was so much going on they needed people to serve other people so that the apostles could spend time preparing the Word of God and ministering to people one -on -one.

2:23 So they decided to recruit others. It says in Acts chapter 6 and verse 5, there were seven who were chosen and one of them was named Stephen. So they picked out seven men who were there to be probably the first deacons that we've ever heard of in the church. Then in Acts chapter 6 and verse 8 in the New Living translation. It says this, Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power performed amazing miracles and signs among the peoples. Now the thing that I like about that scripture, I mean there's a lot about it, but that particular verse puts two things together that a lot of people don't, I think, understand. And that is this man was full of God's grace, it said at first, and power to perform amazing miracles. So when you put that together, a lot of people say, well, grace and power, do they go together? Absolutely. God has incredible grace for each and every one of us, unlimited grace for us, and he has the ability to have the greatest power and does have the greatest power that man has ever seen. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. God is God. But Stephen was filled, or full of God's grace and power so that he was able to do amazing miracles.

3:31 and signs among the people. So therefore the Holy Spirit blessed him and gave him these gifts. In upcoming podcasts we're going to talk about the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit and we're going to talk about how the Holy Spirit gives gifts to people in whom he chooses who to give them to. It's his choice, it's his selection, if you will, to let those gifts come down upon people. So Stephen was an ordinary man. Now that's so important to this teaching because we're all ordinary people. Stephen was an ordinary man that the Holy Spirit made supernatural. And that can happen to us. We can literally be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. We're transformed when we become followers of Jesus Christ. We become slaves to sin before we receive Christ but then we're set free of that and we become a new person. The Bible says a new creation we become so therefore Stephen was a new creation and an ordinary man who didn't understand the Holy Spirit and didn't understand what the supernatural was but he became what he didn't understand was possible and that he was filled and full of the Holy Spirit and worked in supernatural ways. He was selected to be a deacon. I mentioned deacon earlier but really he was. He was selected to be a deacon in the two new church in Jerusalem. Now most theologians call Stephen the first Christian martyr. That means the first one to be killed for his faith and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

4:53 Stephen was filled with faith and the Holy Spirit. When you read through chapter 6 and chapter 7 about the life of Stephen and what he went through and the accusations that came up against him, he had to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But while that was going through that, Stephen loved serving other people. He was filled with grace. That scripture said, remember, filled with God's grace and power to perform miracles. Well, he was a servant and he got the attention of God because he was a servant, because he loved people and he wanted to help other people. He wanted to help the apostles build a great church and so he served. And many of you out there who are going to churches, I hope that you'll examine yourself and say, am I really serving where God wants me to serve? Am I doing what I should do in my local church to help that church grow?

5:35 Can I possibly be someone like Stephen who's filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, the way you become filled with the Holy Spirit and we'll get into that in just a moment. One key step is that we need to think of others as being more important than ourself. We need to learn how to love other people and to serve other people. Now Stephen is famous because of his verbal attacks. on the religious, non -Christian leaders of the day. He preached about Jesus being the Messiah, and because of that he was accused of blasphemy. He had a trial that was a mock retrial. It was just a mock trial. It was fake and phony because the people had nothing against Stephen. They just had everything against Jesus, against these Christians, about followers of Jesus Christ. And Stephen was bold enough to tell them that they were wrong. They were wrong in God's sight, had rejected Jesus, and therefore Jesus is the one that his accusers hated, and so therefore they accused him of the very thing that they were doing. They were accusing him of blasphemy, turning against God, and therefore they plan to stone him to death. So Stephen was stoned to death. And during that stoning, two very powerful moments took place. It's so important that we understand that because we go through trials.

6:41 I'm sure everybody out there right now is going through some kind of a trial or a difficult thing that you're going through. You're facing some circumstances you really don't want. You want them out of your life. Trials happen. We have to look to God, the author and the finisher of our faith, and he is our source. He's a very present help in times of trouble. So Stephen knew that because he knew what was going to happen because that's how They talked about people when they didn't like them or they disagreed with them. They wanted to stone them to death. A moment ago, I said that there were two very important things that took place. Well, let me share those with you. First one was about a man named Saul of Tarsus. He stood by and supported the murdering of Stephen. Saul later became the apostle Paul. The other major event in that stoning is recorded in Acts chapter seven, verse 59 in the New Living Translation. Here's what it says, as they stoned him, Stephen, prayed Lord Jesus receive my spirit and in verse 60 he fell to his knees shouting and Lord don't charge them with this sin and with that he died now does that sound familiar or what remember at the crucifixion Jesus said Jesus said forgive them for they know not what they're doing and so Stephen while he was being stoned was so full of the Holy Spirit so filled with the power of God they looked up to heaven and said they don't know what they're doing so please don't count this against them and I just I just think that is just an amazing example of how we can deal with the challenges we face in our life. Now I'm not saying we're going to be stoned. I'm not going to say we go through what Stephen went through or what Jesus went through. What I'm saying is when we're in the

8:13 midst of the battle, let's not let the battle drag us down to lose our faith. Let's have the battle increase our faith, increase our trust in God so that while we're going through something, we'll be focusing on what we're going to go to. We want to look forward to that. future, to what's going to take place, for the potential that God has, for the ability he has, and what God is going to take us through. In order to do that, we've got to have Holy Spirit faith and Holy Spirit power. I can't continue this podcast without reading something that is so incredible when it comes to understanding the power that Stephen had in his life. I just can't leave this alone. It's found in the book of Acts chapter 7, and I think it's verse 55, and it says, but Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gave He's steadily into heaven. Hear the word steadily. He didn't take his eyes off of Jesus and saw the glory of God and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. In the middle of the battle, he kept his eyes on Jesus. Boy, we all need that.

9:14 Let me just pray right now. I just feel the Holy Spirit all over me right now. Heavenly Father, I pray for those who are going through the battle right now, Lord, they'll put their eyes on Jesus. They'll look up into the heavens and see Jesus is there with his hand extended saying, I'll never leave you or forsake you. I'll always be there for you. I'm always going to be at your side. So Heavenly Father, help those going through difficulties right now that their eyes will be off the difficulties and on their Savior, their Redeemer, their Lord, and so they can handle anything that's thrown at them because Jesus is there to strengthen them, to help them, and carry them through. And I'll thank you for that in advance. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Just one more little thought. Look at what Stephen experienced, but because of him being full of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. He never took his eyes off of Jesus. I pray that you're receiving this in the way that it's intended that the Holy Spirit is helping you to give you strength where you need it. Think about this for a second. When we are full of the Holy Spirit, our faith becomes supernatural. That's powerful.

10:15 That's amazing. We operate in what we read about in Romans chapter 8 and verse 27. And he who searches our heart knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. We operate according to the will of God. We operate in the will of God. We operate in the power of the Holy Spirit and the strength of the Holy Spirit and the faith that the Holy Spirit helps us to have and shows us that we can have. from one realm of faith to a whole new realm of faith. When Jesus talked about having great faith, He talked about people who just did not allow their circumstances to rob them of what God was taking them to, what God wanted to bring into their life. You know, God knows the mind of His Spirit operating in us, obviously, because He is part of the Godhead.

11:05 He's part of the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. So therefore, God knows the mind of the Holy Spirit who is in us. That is what takes us into the supernatural. I know that might sound a little heavy to you, but that's what the Word of God tells us. It teaches us that. So how do we become full of the Holy Spirit? Well, first of all, we need to be witnesses of the things that have happened good in our life. And we need to be witnesses to the goodness of God, the power of God. the forgiveness of God, the life that we used to live now has changed to the life that we're living today. And we can be full of the Holy Spirit when we recognize that we're witnesses of what God has done in our life. Listen to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18. It says here, do not get drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. That means we need to live a life filled with seeking a closer walk with God, a life filled with the goodness of God, a life of prayer. a life of meditation, thinking on the things of God, a life of praying in the Spirit, a life of praying without ceasing, which simply means, that doesn't mean you... non -stop pray 24 hours a day, you have to sleep. But obviously, to pray without ceasing means that when we're conscious, when we're awake, our whole life needs to be focused on, I can do that because God will help me go through that. I know that all things are possible because of what Jesus has done in my life and because of his power and his strength. That is really praying in the spirit. We need to have the word of God so in our heart that when anything that we do comes up, we have a scripture to match

12:37 that. We have a scripture that takes that. When I was challenged in my life on various different occasions. I always found it so important to say, trust in the Lord with all my heart, lean not on my own understanding and all my ways acknowledge him and he direct my path. That's Proverbs 3 .5. I quote that over and over again because I say that every day in my life. No matter what I'm facing, before I go to bed, I have to say that. Before I go to bed, I have to remind myself about what Paul wrote in Philippians. He says, to be anxious for nothing but everything through prayers, petitions with thanksgiving, make your Let me get back to the question, how do we become full of the Holy Spirit? Here's a scripture, I think, that just hits the nail on the head, so to speak. In Acts chapter 5 and verse 32 it says this, God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey and surrender. to Him. Now, if you're saying, I don't know if I have the Holy Spirit guiding me and leading me, well then we might want to evaluate whether we're listening to Him, obeying God, and surrendering to Him, because He wants the Holy Spirit to operate on us. Now, when you become a Christian, when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and in the prior podcast I prayed for people to... Receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior to ask for forgiveness of their sins and when they did that with a sincere heart and they and they prayed that prayer and asked Jesus in their life the Holy Spirit came to dwell inside of them and that's wonderful and that's how it is for all of us but in order for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and to guide us and for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit and operate in the

14:09 Holy Spirit we have to obey and surrender to God and it's not that hard to do as long as we just wake up in the morning and maybe just Start off with a me and say, Lord, thank you that it's morning. Thank God that morning is here. And I'm just going to ask for you to guide and direct me. It can be as simple as that. We can just say, thank you, Lord, for this day. Anything to be positive and encouraging and uplifting to your spirit to encourage yourself in the Lord and give him credit for the blessings that he's putting in your life. So we've got to be encouraged. by the Holy Spirit who lives and dwells inside of us. It's so hard for me to talk to people who are Christians. They love the Lord. I mean, they're good people. They love the Lord. They go to church all the time. They give their finances to the Lord. They help people. They bring their family or friends to church. And they're just really great people. But sometimes when you ask them, how are you doing? How are things going in your life? Some of their responses are, well, I'm getting by. I'm just making it. I'm still breathing. I'm still above ground. And they make those kinds of statements. that grieves the Holy Spirit. If we walk around saying, well, I'm still breathing and that's how I'm getting by, that's really not much of a confession of what Jesus has done in our life. When we ask, how are we doing, if you have nothing else to say, just say, I'm blessed. And when the other person's looking at you, they hear that out of you, it touches them, it changes them. And so in order to walk in the Spirit and have that kind of faith and increase faith and power in our... prayer life and power and our trust in God, we've got

15:39 to claim the good things of God and the promises of God and say, I'm blessed in Jesus' name. Now, here's another question a lot of people have asked me over the years. How do we receive greater faith and power? I've talked a lot about it, give you scriptures about it, but some might say, well, that's all good and those are great scriptures. I know I'm supposed to obey the Lord and all those good things, but give me some specifics. So let me just give you a few things I think the Holy Spirit has given me to share with you about how we can really receive greater faith, that means greater prayer life, and power in our life. Number one, study the scriptures. Get the word of God out and study the scriptures that talk about faith. Talk about the scriptures that talk about power. power, and put those into your heart and mind. Remember one or two of them, and they'll help you understand how to receive greater faith and power. Another way is to pray daily. At least some time of our day, whether it's two minutes or two hours, spend some time every single day in prayer. I just can't imagine going to sleep at night without praying. I can't imagine not eating a meal and not praying. I can't imagine not taking time during the day sometime and pray for the needs of other people I know that are hurting. And please forgive me if you think I'm patting myself on the back because I'm really not because I get challenged I get times when I don't feel like praying but I pray anyways I don't feel like praying certain scriptures or whatever but I pray them anyways because I find out if I do that if I do that I know that I'll get the attention of God and I know that he'll be pleased with that so the first thing I said to do in order to receive greater faith

17:09 and power was to study the Word of God two is to pray daily another one is to seek God's presence now how do we do that we seek God's presence by worshiping Him by singing songs of worship. When you get into your car, put Christian music on. Not just all the time, but put Christian music on and it'll lift up your spirit. Have Christian music playing in your home. Go to church and get there for the worship time and the sermon time. You know many times when I would preach that people would come in and I would see them coming in while worship is going on and they're missing part of the worship time. That's an important part of the service is to be there for the worship time. That way we're drawing closer to God. We're together in unity, lifting up the Lord, giving his praise. The Bible says to enter his courts with thanksgiving. We should give thanks in our worship time. And so we've got to seek God's presence, and we do that by singing to him, by worshiping him, by listening to wonderful, godly music, and get that into our heart. Another way is to serve other people is a way to receive greater faith and power. That's what Stephen did. Remember it said that he had great power because he was a man who served others and he had great grace because he served other people and he had great faith and all that because of the fact that he put other people above himself.

18:27 He wanted to help them. He wanted to serve them. Jesus did that. He came to serve. Jesus came to this earth and all he did just went around serving people, healing people, praying for people, encouraging people, blessing people. And when he was challenged, he took authority over them in the name of Jesus. He did. But bottom line, Jesus was a servant and he served other people and we need to do that so to repeat that very quickly how do we receive greater faith and power read the scriptures pray daily get into God's presence through worship and serve other people I've heard this question many times how can we be full of faith well faith has several components one is trust another is patience another is not to be anxious and to stop worrying Stephen was so full of faith and the Holy Spirit that even when he was being stoned he Focused only on Jesus.

19:15 He was so full of faith that his eyes never wanted to go off of Jesus I know there's challenges in our life and I have a lot of challenges. I'm currently the pastor over Congregational care and daily. I mean seven days a week. I hear I get calls I get texts I get emails about people who are hurting and and they're challenging sometimes sometimes I feel like maybe I'd like to have a little rest from that but when that comes in we've got to pray Sharon and I will stop and we'll just see God will pray for I need the comes in because we know that God will be pleased with that. I know there's distractions in life and I know it's difficult sometimes to be full of faith and be full of the Holy Spirit but Stephen found a way to do that and that's a beautiful example because remember what I said he was an ordinary man who became super ordinary, super natural I said because of his faith and because of his trust in God and because he wanted to walk in the Spirit and the power of God. I guess I need to start wrapping this up. Time is going fast. The Holy Spirit helps our faith and gives us power when we work together with those who love God and desire to do His will. Listen to that. When we work with other people, that means we go to church with them, we pray with them, we help them in their needs, and we volunteer to be a part of a local church and to minister to other people and reach out to other people.

20:32 That's when we can sense the power of the Holy Spirit helping us and increasing our faith and giving us power. You know, when you help someone else, you're helping yourself. A lot of people don't realize that, and many, many people do. Many realize when you help someone else, it just feels good, doesn't it? When I was a little kid, I was a greedy little kid. I just wanted every everything from Christmas and I didn't really care if anybody else got anything and I was just terrible and I'm so thankful that God took that away from me as I grew up and when I found Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior all of a sudden He started showing me that when I helped other people and I made sure that they got what they needed that He would take care of me and give me what I needed. And so therefore when we're around wonderful people that need help and people that are loving and people that are not even loving people, just simply people that we need to help, we will be blessed. we will increase our faith and we'll increase the power and our trust in God to do mighty things in our life and we are then walking in the Spirit and full the Holy Spirit when we help others. The Holy Spirit has the same amount of unlimited power as God the Father. We've got to remember who the Holy Spirit is. He is everything. And it's not an it. I've heard people say, the Holy Spirit, it this and it that. No, no, no, no. No, the Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit is a person. It's the third person in the triune God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three in one. We have one God that we serve, not three gods. If we desire to live an overcoming life, we've got to understand the power, the unlimited that the Holy Spirit has.

22:02 So if we want to live that life that's overcoming and abundant and Spirit -led, then we must have a goal to walk in the Spirit and be full of the Holy Spirit like Stephen was. And I keep throwing Stephen up, I guess more than anything else, is because he's just an ordinary guy. He was just a normal person. But when the Spirit of God filled him to overflowing, he became supernatural. He became so filled with the Spirit that all he wanted to do was help others and challenge those who were up. set with him and upset about his faith he was a a man that took on you know the whole the Sanhedrin's he took on the the priests of the day who had the authority the ability to kill him that didn't bother him he moved forward and then when we look at Stephen I guess when you think about Stephen, what he went through, all the accusations he went through, and if you want to read more about his life, then get the book of Acts out, chapter 6 and chapter 7, you'll learn so much about Stephen.

22:55 But all the things he went through, he was very strong and very bold in what he believed, because he wasn't going to back down, just was not going to back down. And yet, when he started getting stoned by his accusers, he looked up into heaven, and I just picture him with, he had joy that came over him, joy that came over him. You know when Jesus was crucified on the cross the Bible talks about for the joy that laid before him You know he endured the cross so therefore Stephen knew that he understood that through the spirit And he actually had joy in seeing Jesus in heaven when he was going through difficulties so counted all joy when we run into trials and challenges because God is a rewarder of our faith and his Rewarder of our desire to serve him and he'll give us power to overcome the challenges that we face in life You know I think I'd be remiss if I didn't give you the scripture of where Jesus experienced joy when he was on the cross. It's in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2. It basically tells us very clearly that for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross and Stephen did that and we can experience difficulties and we will. I mean I've fought some terrible battles.

24:02 I've had horrible cancers. I've had terrible challenges in my life and yet God has always brought me through and I always think about how blessed we are that God is always there, always ready, and the Holy Spirit who lives and dwells inside of us is that same power that God Almighty has, and yet he's living within our meek little frame that we have here on earth. Now to wrap this up again, we are not perfect people, and we never will be, just because we became Christians, but we serve the one who is Jesus Christ. We will make mistakes and experience sin, you know, as we go through life, but always remember that God's grace is greater than our mistakes and the sins that we commit. It doesn't mean we go on sinning. It just means that if we make a mistake, God's grace is sufficient. Call upon Him. Tell Him you're sorry. Ask for forgiveness. 1 John chapter 4 verse 4 says this, the spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. I think that scripture alone will help us to understand how the Holy Spirit can give us faith, greater faith than we have now, and also help us to have great power in our life.

25:03 So I'm going to ask you to allow the Holy Spirit to increase your faith and your power. Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for those who've listened in. I pray now that they would be blessed. I pray the Holy Spirit would fill them faith, greater faith, and fill them with power to overcome the challenges they will face. Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity, for this time, and I give you all the praise for it. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well, I'd like to tell you more about Quality Christian Living. Thank you so much for listening into this podcast as we've talked about the Holy Spirit and will continue to talk about the Holy Spirit. The next podcast, I believe, unless the Holy Spirit changes it is going to be called Holy Spirit Power. I'm just really excited about that. We're going to focus on just that word, the power that the Holy Spirit brings into our life. But if you'd like to know more about Quality Christian Living, that's the name of our podcast, I'd like to invite you to go to my webpage at davidcfriendauthor .com and when you get there, right on the front page, you'll see a link to our podcast. This is podcast number 323 and that tells you there's a whole lot of podcasts out there and I hope that you'll listen to them.

26:09 Many of them deal with faith, many of them deal with finances, many of them deal with what it is to live an overcoming life. Many of them talk about the purpose that we have as Christians, that God gives us a plan, a purpose for our life. So there's a number of topics and we've just finished a series not too long ago dealing with having faith for miracles and that turned into a book that I thank the Lord for and that's been released recently. In addition to the podcasts on my webpage, you can scroll down to the next page and you'll get a list of all the books that I've written. There's quite a few of them. currently on Amazon right now, dealing with help for veterans, dealing with issues with Agent Orange and PTSD that many veterans have experienced. Also, there's books there on faith, books on finances, how to get out of debt and stay out of debt. and books dealing with how to live that powerful, abundant life that God wants us to live. So that's what He chose for us and that's what He desires for us. Jesus said it, remember, in John chapter 10 verse 10, I've come to give you life and give it to you more abundantly. So I hope that that will bless you. If you'd like to subscribe to my podcast, you can go to cpnshows .com or every listen to your podcast. My next podcast is entitled Holy Spirit Power. Now I believe that many Christians are not aware of the power of the Holy Spirit and that we may not really be able to comprehend how the Holy Spirit brings us that power to overcome evil and darkness and addictions and all types of things in our life. And the promise of Jesus giving the Holy Spirit to us coming was more

27:39 than just to help us be better and live comfortable. There's just so much more to that. So I'm excited about this podcast. So with that, I'm going to close this up by giving you a blessing. May the Lord bless you and keep you in his they shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you peace. May you prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers. So until next time, may God richly bless you. May you receive faith and power as you walk in the Holy Spirit. Thank you for listening to Quality Christian Living. I have been your host, David Friend. This has been podcast number 323 entitled, Holy Spirit, Faith and Power.