The Holy Spirit in Us (317)

0:02 Welcome to the Quality Christian Living Podcast. I am your host, David Friend. We are in our new series entitled Simply the Holy Spirit, and today we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit working in us. We're going to search the scriptures for a better understanding of how the Holy Spirit works and what He wants to do in our life. We're going to see how the Holy Spirit will help us in our weaknesses and our difficult times in that we're going through trials, and how the Holy Spirit brings wisdom and power and understanding into our life. And we're going to discover how the Holy Spirit works in us so that we can be a blessing for someone else and be an example of how He can give us power and strength and understanding. And we're going to find a way to live and walk in the Spirit. Before we do that though, we need to pray and seek for His guidance and direction. Heavenly Father, I thank You for the opportunity once again to get into Your Word, to be able to speak to people quite frankly around the world who have a desire to learn about the Holy Spirit. I pray that You would bless it now. And I now submit and yield to the Holy Spirit. I ask him to come in now, take control of my thoughts, my minds, any prayers that we may have or any scriptures that we read that he would help us and take control of this podcast and guide our thoughts and our minds.

1:15 And I pray those who are listening in would receive a very special touch from him today and that the anointing of the Holy Spirit would flow through the airwaves to people around this country and this world who need a closer walk with the Holy Spirit. us and guide us, and I'll give you praise and give you glory in advance for what you're about to do. For I ask these things in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. There are so many places in the Word of God that talks about the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament refers to the Spirit of God hovered over the earth and all the way through the Old Testament and throughout the New Testament we hear of the power of the Spirit of God. So we're going to get into some examples in the Word and one of my absolute favorite stories in the Word of God has to do with the life of a man named Stephen who was quite frankly a servant, a man who served others. It's such a powerful story and has great examples of how we can then operate underneath the power and the anointing and the grace of the Holy Spirit. So I'm going to read it to you. It's in, not the whole story, but I'm going to read excerpts of it, scripture here and there, in order to see how the Lord wants us to understand how the Holy Spirit worked in Stephen's life and how he can also work in our life. So as we go through this story and as we go through the example of his life, I want you to think about how the Holy Spirit wants to work in us, wants to touch us and help us in our weaknesses and our difficult times. And even when we're on top of the world, so to speak, when we are absolutely being blessed in every area of our life and experience the joy of the Lord and when living that abundant life that God promised us. truly understand that the Holy

2:47 Spirit wants to bless us, that He has a desire to bless those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I'm going to be reading this story found in the book of Acts in chapter 6 and verse number 8 in the New Living Translation says this, it tells us that Stephen was a man full of God's grace and power and that he performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. So here we have a man who was an average guy as far as You know, as far as he wasn't a special leader, he wasn't a wealthy man. He was just simply someone who wanted to serve Jesus Christ and he did it by serving others. The apostles loved him and they wanted him to be a part of the ministry. Stephen was a man who simply served other people daily. That's the main theme that we hear about him is that he was there to help others. You see, when we help others, we're going to be blessed. When we give, it comes back to us. Press down, shaking together and running over. That's what Stephen did, and I believe there's the key to him being filled with the Holy Spirit. He was one of the seven men who were chosen by the apostles to serve and to minister to the members of the church because the apostles were told, you need to preach, you need to study, you need to prepare, you need to reach out, you need to go to the masses. Well, they needed a group behind them. They needed a group of people who were servants to help and support the apostles and hold up their hands and lift them up. It's the same way in the church. have a senior pastor who's just a wonderful powerful man of God and someone who's blessed to the Lord and anointed

4:19 by the Holy Spirit and he's reaching people and doing a great ministry but the behind -the -scenes things the things that opening the doors and getting the place cleaned up for the services and going out and talking to people inviting people to come to the church and the people who who watch the floors and the people who who set up the tables and the people set up the chairs these are all people that are vital part of the church and that's what Stephen So I hope that gives hope to people out there. Maybe you're not a pastor, maybe you're not ordained, maybe you don't really feel you have a call in your life that you're supposed to quit your day job and go into full -time ministry and like that. But bottom line, you know that you know that you know you want to be used of God. And if you want to be used of God, He will put us to work.

5:01 It reminds me of a story of my pastor who came to me one day, Pastor Tommy, and he came to me and he says, you know David, he says, I just really feel that the Lord wants to use you in the church and would you Do me a favor and help this one Sunday school class." He says, I just need someone to step in and kind of teach it and oversee it. It's an adult class. And maybe for four, five, or six weeks or so, you can help it and kind of see if we can't find someone else to come in and take it over and do this permanently. And I said, well, sure, I'll be happy to do that. So my wife and I decided, OK, we'll be the Sunday school teachers. So we started in first week, second week, third week. The next thing you know, the class started to grow. And it was five and six weeks. And it was growing and growing. grew and grew and grew it wasn't because of me it was because of God it was a divine move of God a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit to draw people in that class we started with about 25 or 30 people that were meeting in the church sanctuary and in a period of about a year we had like 200 people then it went to 300 to 400 to 5 we had roster of 600 people who attended that class we tended that class now don't don't take this wrong I'm not boasting or bragging about anything that my wife and I did but there was a in the church, the pastor came, they needed someone to serve other people. He asked us if we would do it for six weeks. We wound up teaching that class for 15 years, and God blessed it. Matter of fact, that was how my wife and I were being taught. Quite frankly, we didn't know it at the time. We were being trained and put in a position that someday we would pastor our own church, and that's what happened, and so we thank God

6:33 for that. But that little six -week assignment that we were asked to do, we stepped in. What if we'd have missed on that? What if we had have passed on that? We could have missed our opportunity to be quite frankly led into pastoring and starting a church in North Scottsdale. So God blessed it. I thank God for it. And to God be all the glory and honor. And I want to thank my pastor Tommy for asking us to take a stand and do that. So you may be in a church that needs someone to step up and take over an area or help in an area. Go to your pastor, talk to them, and volunteer to be a servant of the Lord. I know God will richly bless you in all that you do. Now, none of that I had prepared to talk about my past experience with our pastor and the class and the Sunday school class and all that. And none of that was anything I planned to talk about, you see. So therefore, the Lord obviously has placed the Holy Spirit in this teaching already to take me in an area that I think would help and minister to people who are trying to make decisions on what they should or should not do in their church. Let's get back to Stephen now.

7:32 He was chosen because it was evident to the apostles that he was with the Holy Spirit that he just showed it in everything that he did. That tells us that anyone in the church can experience life being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now let's look a little closer at Stephen. In Acts chapter 7 we see that because of Stephen's faith in Jesus Christ. The religious priests hated him. The apostles loved him. The people loved him. The people in the church loved him. But the outside people, the people that were not followers of Jesus Christ, matter of fact they were enemies of the gospel, they hated Stephen because Stephen was doing something that would bless the kingdom of God and bless the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. But because of his acceptance by the Holy Spirit and his acceptance by the Lord and acceptance by the apostles to be a part of that.

8:24 He was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and that power was making quite an impact in the church in those days. He was a servant to others. That's all he did. So any of us can be filled with the Holy Spirit if we just simply submit our lives to Christ and submit our hearts and our minds and our thoughts to the Holy Spirit and ask him to lead us, guide us, and direct us. Now Stephen was anointed by the Holy Spirit to challenge his accusers. You see, they came after him. But he had something to say back to them. Now, he was bold and strong in this. If you want to really read the whole story, you should read the book of Acts, chapter 7, and I believe in chapter 6. If you'll read those, you'll see the whole story, but I'm going to just use a few scriptures in order to help us better understand how Stephen's life affects us today and how the Holy Spirit can work in each and every one of us. In Acts, chapter 7, verse 51, Stephen called his accusers. This is what he said to them. You are stubborn people.

9:19 You are heathen. at heart and death. in the truth you must forever why is it he says why is it you must always forever resist the Holy Spirit he didn't say you're resisting me he didn't say you need to hear my message you needn't say you need to hear the Apostles message he said a very powerful statement that's what he had great wisdom and it came because he was filled with the Holy Spirit he said you are always resisting the Holy Spirit see the Holy Spirit wants to move into everyone if you're a Christian or not if you're of another faith of maybe even in a cult or something, or no people in a cult, the Holy Spirit wants to speak to them, wants to speak to every single person on the face of the earth. And we need to yield to the power of the Holy Spirit. And he knew that they were fighting against the Spirit and would not surrender to the Holy Spirit. You see, the Jewish leaders were infuriated, absolutely violently upset with Stephen and the words that he had to say. So let's look a little closer as this story goes along and we can see what's taking place as Stephen is filled with the hope Spirit and his enemies are filled with an evil spirit. So let's look at Acts chapter 7 and verse 55. I'm reading again in the New Living Translation.

10:30 It tells us that, but Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily. Now while they were his accusers, were coming after him and they were attacking him and they wanted to beat him to death and soon they would kill him. In the midst of all this, Stephen stopped and it says, but Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven. You know, that's what we need to do in the midst of trials. We need to gaze steadily into heaven. We need to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and comfort. I know when I've been diagnosed with incurable cancers and given basically death sentences by doctors in my lifetime on three different occasions, I needed to gaze steadily into heaven. I need to gaze steadily into the Holy Spirit and seek comfort and his guidance because my flesh wasn't going to give me any comfort. My flesh was being accused and my flesh had no way of battling it but the Holy Spirit who lived and dwelt in me gave me the strength in the power of the Holy Spirit to deal with these issues and that'll happen in your life.

11:29 It'll happen in every one of our lives if we gaze into the eyes of our Heavenly Father and that's through seeking the Holy Spirit in our life. It says, but Stephen full of the Holy Spirit gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand." Wow. Verse 56, let's go on. Stephen told his accusers in verse 56, look, I see the heavens opened and the son of man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. Now, picture this. My goodness, the man is under attack. I don't know how many people were at him. They were picking up stones to stone him to death. They were yelling and cursing at him and saying all kinds of hideous things about him and threatening him and all this. And in the middle of that, he decided to turn his attention away from all that stuff, all those trials, all that anxiety that could be upon him and look for the Holy Spirit and look for the guidance.

12:24 And the Holy Spirit is the one who revealed the vision of Jesus being in heaven to Stephen. So it's pretty powerful. This angered the priest. The more they yelled at him, the more he looked up into the heavens. It's basically what happened to him. So this angered the priest and the leaders. So they began to stone Stephen. They figured, well, this guy, we can't shake him with words. We can't shake him with threats. We can't shake him with all these accusations and whatever. But basically, they're saying, we're just going to have to take you out. And so they started to stone him. The Bible continues to tell us, it says this, as they stoned Stephen, prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He fell to his knees and shouted, Lord, don't charge them with.

13:05 the sin, and with that he died. We have to stop and think for a second. Look at what he was going through. Look at what this incredible scene must have been. These people were gathered all around him. They had taken him out into the countryside to stone him to death. And as they're stoning him to death, he's so filled with the Holy Spirit. See, as he's facing the most difficult thing he'll ever face in his life here on earth, in the middle of all that, he is so filled with the Holy Spirit that he has compassion for those who are attacking him. Such compassion that he's based saying the same thing that Jesus said when Jesus was on the cross and before Jesus gave up his life he said forgive them father for they know not what they're doing and Stephen was so filled with the power of the Holy Spirit that in the middle of this horrendous, absolutely horrendous event that was taking place, he knew that he was dying. He said, please forgive them.

13:56 These people don't know what's going on. They really are not aware of it. What amazing power that is. And I know that's heavy, and I know that's extreme. A lot of people would say, well, that's a pretty extreme example. But really, when you think about what we face in life each and every day, we've got to learn how to overcome it. We've got to know that when we're told that we've got a sickness, we've got to trust God. When we're told that We have a financial problem. We've got to trust God. When our marriage is maybe shaky and in trouble, we need to trust God. When our kids are wayward, we need to trust God. Whatever takes place in our life, we've got to understand that we've got to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do this on our own. We can't just say, well, I've got strength. I can do this. I can overcome. I'll do it my way, that type of thing. No, we've got to stop thinking that way. We can't think that we can do it in our own ability because we are weak in our abilities. God's abilities are unlimited.

14:45 and his power is great and unlimited, the Holy Spirit's power is unlimited, and that's where we get our strength. I think after all this, you can now understand why I love the story of Stephen. And by the way, as Stephen was being stoned to death, the Bible tells us that the accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. This was Saul, the man who eventually became the apostle. Paul. You see, in those days, Saul was a man who hated Christians. He wanted to take out Christians. He wanted to kill as many Christians as he possibly could. And I believe that when he experienced and saw what Stephen went through and Stephen's faith and Stephen's trust in his God, that was the beginning. That was the first thing that ever happened, I think, that made Paul, back then known as Saul, started to look in a different direction. And of course, we know later on the road to Damascus, Paul was slain down on the ground and he lost his eyesight. and Jesus came there and said, why are you persecuting me? Why are you coming after me? And Saul was converted and named Paul the apostle, one of the greatest men that's ever walked the face of this earth.

15:51 But he did that under the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. You know, we've learned so much from this Bible story. Let me first list just maybe a couple of those items I think we've learned from it. One, we learned about a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit, that that's what we've got to have. We need to have that in our life in order to face all the trials that we're going to face. And we learned that it's so important to understand how God wants so much to help us and wants to bless us. Stephen was able to face difficult times, but we learn from that that the Holy Spirit was with him. And I think it's important I make a statement here. I talk about a lot on how the Holy Spirit is with us when we're facing trials, but the Holy Spirit's with us all the time. He's with us when we're really doing well, when things are going great. If we yield to Him, He'll give us direction and guidance, and He'll lead us in our life.

16:42 So we've got to understand the Holy Spirit is there to help us in good times and bad times alike. You know, we need to stop and think. every time in our life about whatever we face, good or bad, that the Spirit is there to comfort and to help us. All right, number two. In this story of Stephen, I think that we see how the Holy Spirit gives us strength and grace for others. Isn't that interesting? Strength and grace, they go together. You know, Jesus came to earth and he was filled with strength, but he was filled with grace. And the Holy Spirit has all the grace that we'll ever need and all the strength that we'll ever need. So we've got to understand and we see that in Stephen is that the Holy Spirit gave him strength to face the challenges and strength to be able to be aggressive and to be able to tell people what he believed and when he believed it and to serve others and in all areas of his life but grace for other people when he was being mistreated and I think that's a great lesson for us to learn. And now number three, in this story we see how the Holy Spirit filled Stephen so that others could see that Stephen was full or filled with or filled in the Holy Spirit. You know, other people will see us. Have you ever been to someone and walk up to you're chatting with them and they'll look at you and they'll say something like, you just seem to be happy all the time. You just seem to bring a kind of joy into the room and you're just a positive, encouraging person. You see, when that's said to us, we've got to realize if we're a follower of Jesus Christ, that's the Holy Spirit that brings that to us. And people are drawn to that. They are drawn to the Holy Spirit. They're drawn to the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. So I think it's amazing that from this story we can learn that we can live

18:13 filled with the Holy Spirit that other people will see. And we'll have so much of God in us and so much power and strength and love and grace in us that it'll overflow. It literally will overflow. We'll have an abundance for good works and we'll have an abundance to be able to reach out. We'll be blessed but we'll have so much left over that we can be a blessing to others. And then the final step here maybe for this particular podcast dealing with this story on Stephen, we found in the book of Acts chapter 7, it shows us how the Holy Spirit brought wisdom to Stephen. even in what to say and how to say it. Now think about that for a second. A lot of times as a pastor I counsel people that are having problems in their families, problems in their marriage, difficulties with their kids and they come in to see me and I pray with them and I many times pray and say, Heavenly Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit now would help these parents or help this husband or this wife, this spouse to know what to say and how to say it. So that's so important.

19:10 The Holy Spirit knows what to say. But just as importantly, he knows how we should say it. And so ask for the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us in that area of our life. Now I realize that some may say that Stephen, after all these great things you're talking about and this great man that he was, he was stoned to death. The bottom line was he was stoned to death. Well, it's true, that's true. But listen to this. The story of Stephen that took place over 2 ,000 years ago has brought life, and hope and peace and comfort and grace and forgiveness of sins to hundreds of millions of people in this world. He went through all that, and yes he was stoned to death, but now he's spending eternal life with Jesus Christ, his Lord and Savior. And no matter what we go through here in life, here on this earth while we're here, we have a goal and a plan in our life is to spend eternity with Christ. And Stephen was so filled with the Holy Spirit that the good times and the bad times, he was led by the Spirit of the Living God and his life was strong and vibrant. He had a great impact and so can we as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're kind of running out of time because I have a goal to keep these below 30 minutes That's kind of my goal And I know the Holy Spirit will help me to keep it within that in addition to that if I get a thought or something I'll write it down the Holy Spirit gives me and we can talk about that in future podcasts because I don't have to get everything done in one podcast so let's just kind of as we wrap this thing up talk a little bit about what we've learned today and what we've come to understand about the Holy

20:41 Spirit living in us the Holy Spirit truly lives in every believer in first Corinthians chapter Chapter 6 and verse 19, Paul wrote these words, Don't you know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit? Who is in you? So therefore, you know if Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, he lives. The Holy Spirit lives and dwells inside of you. The Holy Spirit is always available to help us. So we need to yield to Him. That means think only about Him and think upon only those things that are good and true and right. Paul talked about that and we'll talk about that in future podcasts. The Holy Spirit has many titles. He's the Comforter, the Periclean or the Helper. He is the grace in our heart and in our mind.

21:22 He reveals the deep things of God. He intercedes for us. He is truth. He has the answers to to our questions. There's only one condition. that we have to meet in order to have, I should say, the power of the Holy Spirit in our life. And that condition is to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. So before I close this podcast out, I need to just take a moment. It'll only take a moment, but if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, or if you're not sure of where you're going to spend eternity, whether you're going to spend it in heaven or not, I want you to pray this prayer with me. Because the Holy Spirit will dwell only in believers, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who have submitted their life to Him and are trying to him and follow him all the days of their life.

22:02 So if you don't know the Lord or if you're not certain of your relationship with the Lord, just repeat this prayer with me right now. Say, Heavenly Father, I need a Savior. I need you to help me, but I've sinned. I've fallen short of your glory. I ask that you would forgive me of the sins that I have committed. I repent of my sins, and I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He was born of the Virgin Mary, that He was crucified but resurrected, and He sits at the right hand of the Father. So on this day, I surrender my will, my desires, and my heart and mind to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept Him as my Lord and my Savior. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. If you prayed that prayer and you really meant it, you really meant it with all your heart, get to a good church. Find a good Bible preaching church. Get yourself a Bible.

22:49 I truly recommend you read the book of Romans. It's a powerful, powerful book and will help you in your walk with the Lord. There's a lot of other things you should read, but get into Christian fellowship. Find fellow believers who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and start searching the scriptures and see what God has planned for you because he has a purpose and a plan for your life. And the Holy Spirit, as soon as you accepted Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, came to live and dwell with you. So he's in you now. So seek him, ask for his guidance, ask his direction, and yield to his power and presence. And I ask all these things in Jesus name I pray, Lord. Amen. You know, when the Holy Spirit comes into your life, he will always be there to help. He's waiting to help. His first desire is to comfort us. He's ready, willing, and able. So now let's seek him. Well, I hope this has been a blessing to you, and I just want you to know we're going to continue on this series on the Holy Spirit. Matter of fact, my next podcast is going to be entitled, I Believe, unless the Lord changes this, if the Holy Spirit redirects me. But I'm planning my next podcast to be entitled, The Holy Spirit, Our Helper. And I believe that's something that will help people, encourage people.

24:00 So with that, I would like you to invite some family and friends, tell some people that we're doing this series on the Holy Spirit. tell you how excited I am about this particular series on the Holy Spirit. My wife loves to talk about the Holy Spirit. She loves for us to share with people and pray with them to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit. And she just really wants people to understand the power. And so she's so excited about this. So she's praying about this series and that God will bless it. And I just feel an anointing on this. It's just wonderful. And I pray that it'll bless you. You know, if you'd like to know more about Quality Christian Living, which is the name of our podcast, you can go to my webpage at davidcfriendauthor .com and when you go there, pull up that first page and you'll see a link to all the podcasts that we've done. This is podcast number 317, so you can tell there's been a lot of topics that we've covered. We've talked about the Holy Spirit before, but not as in depth as we're going to now in the months, depending on how the Holy Spirit leads us. And I wouldn't be surprised if this could take six months or so to really really complete the work that I believe the Holy Spirit's called us to do in this particular series. So you can look at that and you'll see a list of all of those and you can scroll all you want to. It talks about finances. We talk about miracles, about having faith. We talk about the gifts of the Spirit. Just a plethora of topics that you can be blessed by. And if you want to know more about me as an individual, you can scroll down on my webpage and you'll see a number of books that I've written dealing with various topics

25:30 including our veterans, including our finances, including various issues, I think, on faith and miracles and things that are important. So I believe that that will be a blessing to you. And if you'd like to subscribe someday to my podcast, you can do that by going to cpnshows .com or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Once again, I appreciate so much you being here and being a part of this. Our next podcast is going to get into talking about how the Holy Spirit helps and the way He wants to help and how we can find help and we all need help. from time to time and so I believe that we'll get into something that will be very very helpful very strong with people so if you know people who are struggling with questions about where do I go from here or should I do this or is it is it okay if I do that or they have questions about the Holy Spirit just contact them and let them know about this series because I believe this is going to be one of the quite frankly the most anointed series that we've ever done and I claim that in Jesus name just to kind of give a little hint about what I believe the Holy Spirit has placed upon my heart We're going to have podcasts. We're going to talk about what it means to receive. the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And what does it mean to understand that the Holy Spirit is willing and that He's ready and that He's able? Those could all be individual podcasts. I truly believe that. So we're just going to yield to the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit and ask for His guidance and direction so that He can lead us through every area of this. And I believe it's going to be fun, exciting, and I believe it'll help us in

27:03 our walk with God. Before I close, let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, pray for those who are listening in, and they, many of them are here because they have a desire to get closer to you and be led by the Spirit of God. Those who are Christians that are strong in their walk with you and and they walk and they're filled with the Holy Spirit I pray that this could be a blessing to them to share some of these thoughts with others So I pray a blessing upon everyone who's listening in both in the United States and across the world as we've been blessed To see so many different countries around the world who are listening to these podcasts I pray that you would bless them father and that they would receive Exactly what you have for them help them to be led by the Holy Spirit and help them to learn to yield by the power of the Holy Spirit into everything they face whether it be good times or bad times bless them and keep them I pray and I'll thank you for it in advance in Jesus name amen let me just give you one final blessing as I close out this podcast may the Lord bless you and keep you may his face shine upon you and may he be gracious to you and give you peace May you prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers. So may God now richly bless you in all you do and may you be filled with the power and the might and the strength and the grace of the Holy Spirit in your life.

28:19 May you walk daily in it and just receive the goodness of God. Be blessed in all that you put your hand to. Thank you once again to listening into our podcast entitled Quality Christian Living with this series on the Holy Spirit as we continue on it. I pray you'll be blessed, and I pray that you'll let others know about this opportunity. We'll give you praise, Lord, and give you the glory for what's taking place. Bless those that are here. I am your host, David Friend. Thank you once again for listening in. This has been podcast number 317, The Holy Spirit Working in Us.