9. Holy Spirit

Learning More About God

Part 4

IV. Holy Spirit

A. Introduction

1. In the past we have talked about the fact that Christians are Monotheists.

In the past we have talked about the fact that Christians are monotheists; that we believe in one God. And therefore, Jesus can say to Philip, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” “I and the Father are one.”

2. We are also Trinitarians.

But we are also Trinitarians; we believe in three persons of the Godhead, as we say it. We believe that God the Father is fully God and distinct from God the Son. We believe that God the Son is fully God and yet distinct from the Father. And the same is true of the third person of the Godhead; We believe that God the Holy Spirit is fully God and yet distinct from God the Father and God the Son.

And so we understand verses like that in the Great Commission where we are told to go make disciples, baptizing people in the “name” (singular) of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are monotheists and we are Tri-theists.

3. Admit that this is a mystery

And we admit this is a mystery. We believe it because the Bible teaches it and we are not really surprised because we don’t expect to fully understand the character and the nature of God.

4. Focus our attention on the activity of this third member of the Trinity

What I would like to do today is focus our attention on the third member of the Godhead; the third person of the Trinity – The Holy Spirit – and look specifically at two of His primary tasks. Two of the things that He is responsible for and those are:the task of regeneration and the task of “indwelling.”

B. First:  Regeneration

Regeneration is defined as that process by which God gives us new life. Regeneration is what happens when I was given a new birth; when you and I were made into a new creation at conversion and it is this process of specifically making a non-believer into a believer, of making a child of Satan into a child of God.

1. Process begins with conviction of sin — John 16:7-8

That specific process of giving life is called “regeneration”. And that is a function of the Holy Spirit, and this process for many of us began a long time before our conversion because the process begins with the conviction of our sin. In John, Chapter 16, Jesus is getting ready to die and then to leave His disciples and He is giving them some last minute instructions. In John 16, starting at verse 7 He says, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away the Helper will not come to you. But if I go I will send Him to you and when He comes He will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment.” 

Now, the “world” here is a non-believer and so the function of the Holy Spirit is to come in the midst of non-believers and convict them of their sins; show them that they are sinners. It is to show them God’s righteousness and then it is to proclaim to them God’s coming judgment on them because they are sinners and not righteous.

Do you remember when you first became aware that there was something wrong? That there was something missing in your heart? That there was an emptiness and no matter what you tried to fill it with, it never filled. Do you remember that time in your spiritual journey? Well, that was the work of the Holy Spirit coming into your life and beginning the conviction process of your sin and of God’s righteousness.

2. In the midst of conviction, the Holy Spirit begins to draw people to God. — John 6:44

But then, in the midst of that conviction the Holy Spirit starts to draw people to God. Jesus tells His disciples in John 6:44 that “no one can come to Me unless the Father draws him to Me.” And this is the function of the Holy Spirit where in the midst of showing you your sin he starts telling you “There is forgiveness. There is hope. There is righteousness available.” And it is the “drawing” process of God’s Holy Spirit, of “drawing” you to the Father.

Do you remember that first time in your life that the thought went through your mind that maybe this “Jesus stuff” might be right? That is the Holy Spirit “drawing” you to God.

3. Holy Spirit is the actual agent of regeneration

But then the Holy Spirit not only convicts the world of sin, not only draws people to God, but He is the actual agent of regeneration. It is His responsibility, in conversion, to make you who were dead now alive. It is the Holy Spirit’s blessed job to give us new birth and new life and turn us into new creatures. Do you remember the discussion that Jesus had with Nicodemus in John, Chapter 3.  “Truly, truly I say to you, (Jesus says) that unless someone is born of the water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” That unless someone has the cleansing and the regeneration of the Spirit in their life; Unless they are changed because of the power of God, they will never enter the Kingdom of God. They never will become one of My disciples. You see, that is the functioning of the Holy Spirit.

Paul says the same thing in writing to his friend Titus. In Chapter 3, starting at verse 4 he describes salvation in these terms. “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared, He saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, God [in this case God the Father] saved us.” [How? He did it] by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. And then he adds in verse 6] whom He poured out on us, richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

This is one of the most important Trinitarian passages in all of the Bible because you see all three members of the Godhead at work; that it was God’s decision to save; that it was God the Son’s work to make it available and He did it on the cross and then it is God the Spirit’s task to take the work of Christ on the cross and apply it in individual lives as He renews us and He regenerates us. As He washes us clean from our sin and as He fills us with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

That is what I mean when I say the Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration. It is He who takes the forgiveness that is available on the cross and makes it available and applies it to you and to me.

4. Also seals our regeneration

But He doesn’t stop there. Once the Holy Spirit regenerates us He “seals” us. That is a great imagery of sealing. What happens when you “seal” a document? Put a little wax on it and stick your ring in it. Well, you are doing two things, aren’t you? You are first of all putting God’s mark of ownership on it. And part of the Holy Spirit’s function is when you and I became disciples of Jesus Christ He sealed us. He put God’s stamp of ownership on me and on you.

And then the other thing that a seal does is to protect the document. It keeps it safe. And so also the Holy Spirit seals us and then He protects us.

This is what Paul is talking about in the Book of Ephesians. In Chapter 1, starting at verse 13, Paul writes: “In Him [meaning in Jesus] you also, when you heard the word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.”

The Holy Spirit comes, He regenerates us, He seals us, He puts God’s name on our forehead and etches it on our hands that we know we are His and then he protects us; because we have an inheritance. As Peter says, the inheritance is waiting for us in Heaven. And the Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will receive that inheritance. I think that is a pretty powerful word picture in modern Greek. The word that is used for the seal here, arrabon, has changed its meaning in modern Greek. It now refers to the engagement ring. And if the imagery is going to have full force, though, you have to go back to the times of Christ where the engagement was the legally binding ceremony. If you were going to break an engagement you had to be divorced; it is not like today. And the Holy Spirit is, in that sense, our engagement ring. He is the guarantee that the wedding is going to happen and that we are going to be the Bride of Christ and we will all, men and women, marry Christ, as it were, in Heaven. And the Holy Spirit is the guarantee that that is going to happen. So He regenerates us and then He seals us.

Where would we be without the Holy Spirit? Well, we would be dead in our sin. We would be unable to respond to God. And we would be guaranteed of only one thing and that is Hell. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift of the Holy Spirit.

C. Second activity:  Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

But the Holy Spirit not only regenerates us – secondly, He indwells us; the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit.

1. John 14:16-17

In John, Chapter 14, again Jesus’ final words to His friends; John 14 starting at verse 16 He says this:

“And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth who the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” 

Jesus says “ It is good that I am going to go away because God will send another Helper, just like I have helped you, so also another Helper is going to come. But one of the big differences is that He will never leave you. He will be with you forever.”

The word “helper” translates a very awkward Greek word. If your translations don’t say “helper” it is no surprise. Sometimes we bring the word directly into English and we call the Holy Spirit our paraclete. It literally means “someone who comes along side” and the idea is that the Holy Spirit is going to come along side us in order to help us. So paraclete is translated as “helper”, sometimes it is “comforter”, sometimes as “advocate”. But what Jesus is saying is that it is good that I am going because then the Holy Spirit is going to come; He is with you in your midst [i.e. in me, Jesus] but he is going to become “in you” as well And that promise was fulfilled just a few weeks later at Pentecost, in Acts Chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit came in all His fullness and wonder and indwelt all Christians. And the coming of the Holy Spirit for me and for you happens when you and I become a Christian; that God, the Holy Spirit – the third member of the Godhead – comes and takes up permanent residence in your heart and in mine.

2. Not some divine, impersonal force

The Holy Spirit is not some divine, impersonal force. The Holy Spirit is God and He is personally involved with you and me every day of our life, helping us. And there are many ways that He helps us. It is interesting just to get a concordance and to find the references for the Spirit and read through them, or to pick up a theology and look at it. But He helps us daily in so many ways.

He assures us that we are children of God. He is this inner witness inside my head that says “Yes, Bill, you are a child of God.”

The Holy Spirit helps us in our prayers. Romans 8. This isn’t some charismatic gift; it is promised to all believers, that when the hurts and the pains and the anguish and all the things that you want to express to God are so deep that words can’t do it, then the Holy Spirit, who knows my heart, takes my heart and transmits it to God and says “This is what Bill is asking for.” “This is what Bill wants to praise You for.” He helps us in our prayers. He guarantees our final resurrection. 3. Many ways in which he helps

There is a long list of things that the Holy Spirit does, but there are two things that on a daily basis I think are most important.

a. Daily the Holy Spirit guides us.

Every single day the Holy Spirit is there to guide you and to guide me. The Bible talks about being “led by the Spirit”, or “walking in the Spirit”. For example, in Galatians 5:16 Paul says “Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Walk in the guidance, in the direction, that the Spirit is giving.

And I think the Holy Spirit – at least two ways – guides us. Certainly first and foremost the Holy Spirit guides us through the Bible and this is the functioning of the Holy Spirit that as we are reading it, He is at work in our hearts helping us to understand it, helping us to apply it, perhaps pointing out a blind spot in our life that we don’t realize and we read it in the text and the Spirit says “Yes, that verse was written for you.” In 2 Timothy Paul tells Timothy some rather complicated theology and then in Chapter 2, verse 7 he says “Think over what I am telling you and the LORD will give you understanding of it.” This is the functioning of the Holy Spirit; to help the text come alive and to help us understand it.

But I think that the Holy Spirit also guides us another way. I think the Holy Spirit guides us by being that voice in our head who keeps pointing out things to us. Now, we have to be very careful because the Holy Spirit will never guide us in a way that is contrary to Scripture. I don’t know how many discussions I have had, especially when I was teaching in college, of people who wanted to know “the will of God.” Is this what God wants? And they were saying “But you know, I really feel that this is what God wants me to do.” I said “Yeah, but it is contrary to what He said. And the Holy Spirit will never, ever lead you in a way that is contrary to what the Scripture says.” That is one of the checks and balances. And yet, even with the warnings of that, I think the Holy Spirit does work and He is whispering and He is guiding and He is directing and He is prompting “Do that!” “Don’t do that!” “Say this.” “Don’t say that”. That is the guidance of the Spirit.

And this is a process, isn’t it? It is a process of learning to hear the voice of God, learning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in our heads. But as the years go by, and as you and I grow in our Christian walk and in our maturity, one of the things that happens is that we start to hear the voice of God with more clarity

About a year ago I started praying that God would give His Spirit an accent. I said “God, could you give Him like a nice, North Carolinian drawl.” Because I got so many voices in my head that sometimes I am not sure which one is The Spirit. Sometimes it is just me! Sometimes the voices I hear are just baggage from past bad experiences! Sometimes the voices I hear are the power of sin still at work in my body. Sometimes the voices I hear are tradition. Because I said “I don’t want to confuse those with the voice of Your Spirit.” And it has been interesting over this year to start to hear the accent. It is not North Carolinian – I’m sorry. For me it is kind of a quiet – it’s just there! And I can usually identify the Holy Spirit speaking to me because He is normally saying “Shut up!” “Don’t do that!” “Don’t say that!” “Keep your mouth shut!” So I am hearing that part of the Spirit’s voice. But I think that is something that we all need to be doing; to be saying “God, I know the Holy Spirit is in me and He is guiding me. He is guiding me through Scripture, but I need to hear His voice when He speaks, when He prods, and when He prompts. Help me hear that voice. Help me develop the spiritual disciplines necessary to hear. Let me have times of silence. Give me times of meditation where the rest of the world is gone and I am filling my mind with You and Your Spirit and Your Word. Help me to hear what Your Spirit is saying.

That certainly is one of the ways in which the Holy Spirit guides us – and that is one of His daily activities.

b. Daily he empowers

But not only does He daily guide us, but the Holy Spirit daily empowers us. And by empowering I mean that He gives us the ability, the strength, not only to hear the Voice, but also to do what He is calling us to do.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Philippians 2:12, 13 where it says “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Phillips translates this something like “that God is at work in you, giving you the desire and then the ability to accomplish that desire.” That God is at work in you and me and He is saying “You need to grow in your walk.” “You need to stop doing this.” “You need to work on this area of your personality.” I mean, those desires don’t come from my flesh! My flesh is very happy, thank you, in its sin and I can’t muster up all these good ideas on my own. That is the Spirit saying “Bill, I want you working in this area of your life. My will for your life is sanctification [1 Thessalonians] I want you to grow. I want you to look like my Son.” I say, “Okay, God. I can’t do it!” And He says, “Good first step! I can!”

And the Spirit comes in and then enables you and me to do those very desires that He has placed in our hearts to do.

D. Empowerment

I have four things I want to say about this whole issue of empowerment. They are not necessarily connected, but they are just four different things that came out of my study this week.

1. Give us special gifts

First: One of the ways that God empowers us is through the giving of spiritual gifts.

a. Everyone given at least one supernatural gift at conversion.

If you are a new Christian you may be unaware of this, but when you became a Christian and the Holy Spirit came to reside in you, He brought with Him at least one supernatural gift that is now your possession, and that supernatural gift may parallel your natural abilities. It may be something that is totally different from what you were doing before.

b. Lists of some of the gifts (1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4; Romans 12)

And the Bible gives us, in various places, the lists of some of these gifts. There are gifts of teaching; gifts of preaching; evangelization; of pastoring. He gives gifts of administering; my very, very favorite gift for someone else to have. [I am not an administrator.] Gifts of serving. Gifts of encouraging. Gifts of giving financially; the supernatural gift to make a lot of money. But then, even deeper than that, to have this deep, God-given sense of stewardship that you have been given God’s wealth to advance not your purposes, but God’s purposes and so you give. That is the gift of giving. He gives gifts of leading the church, of mercy, of wisdom, of healing, and of miracles. These – and probably many more gifts – are the gifts that the Holy Spirit brings and he brings this variety of gifts because there is a variety of needs in the body and God’s way of dealing with the needs of the body is not to appoint one or two people who stand up front and do all the work of the church. God’s way of dealing with the needs of the body is to gift everyone in the body so that every one of us, with supernatural giftedness, is able to find out what we can do and to locate the needs in the church and then to take the time to pursue those needs and to meet those needs. That is God’s way of caring for the body.

c. Common good (1 Corinthians 12:7)

That is why in 1 Corinthians 12 Paul says that we have been given the spiritual gifts for the “common good”; the good of the whole; the good of the church. In Peter he talks about “using gifts to serve one another”. I am not up here with my gift to make me feel good about myself. I am here to meet a need in the body.

You, likewise. We are in the same boat! I just happen to be standing up here. You are in exactly the same boat that I am in and we have all been given a variety of gifts to meet the variety of needs in this church. That is one of ways in which God empowers us.

2. Purpose of the Holy Spirit’s Guidance and Empowerment?

Secondly: What is the purpose of all this? What is the purpose for God’s guidance? What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit’s empowerment in our lives?

a. Goal is that our changed lives exhibit what is called the “Fruits of the Spirit”

That is really easy. The Holy Spirit is there to empower us so that we will change! The Holy Spirit resides within us so that from day to day and week to week and month to month and year to year we will grow from one degree of glory to the next – Paul tells the Corinthians. That we will begin to look more and more like Jesus. In Romans 8:29 he says that the whole purpose is so that you and I “be conformed to the image of His Son.” And in 1 John 3 he says that we “will look like Him” when we get to Heaven because we will see Him face to face. That is the purpose of the Spirit’s empowering – so that your and my life will change and we will become more like Jesus.

b. Galatians 5:16, 19-25

Another way to state it is that the goal of our changed life is that you and I exhibit the fruits of the Spirit. You may have heard that phrase before. Jesus tells his disciples “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” And fruit simply stands for the visible results of the Holy Spirit changing your life. The primary passage on spiritual fruits is in the Book of Galatians, Chapter 5 and he starts in verse 16 and he says “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Walk by the guidance of the Spirit – walk by the power that the Spirit gives you, and if you do that then you are not going to be satisfying your natural urges and desires. What Paul does is that he sets up a contrast between what our flesh wants and what our spirit wants. Verse 19; he says “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the works of the flesh are evident; sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like that. I warned you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” So those are the fruits of the earth – those are the fruits of our nature, our unregenerate nature.

But then Paul continues, “But the fruit of the Spirit [the visible manifestation that the Spirit is changing your life looks like this,] is love, joy, peace, patience kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. [Those fruits of the flesh are gone!] “If we live by the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit.” [If the Spirit has given us new life, then our lives should show it!] “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” You see, that is the purpose of the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts and changing us. That change is supposed to affect us and it is to be visible and where there was not love, there will be love. And where there was nothing but anxiousness, there will then be peace. Where there was anger and bitterness there will now be love and joy. Those are the fruits of the Spirit. And I know you look at that and you go “That’s too hard! I can’t do that! I can’t love that person!” And the answer is – You are right! You can’t. That is why God gives you and me the power to love the unlovely – and that includes you, by the way. And me. That is the purpose of the Holy Spirit’s guidance and empowerment; so that we show the visible results of the change in our life.

3. Holy Spirit will not empower us without our co-operation

Thirdly: The Holy Spirit will not empower us, the Holy Spirit will not produce fruit in our lives, without our cooperation Now, we do not cooperate with God in our salvation; He saves us. But when it comes to issues of sanctification and growth in holiness, then we must cooperate with the Spirit.

a. We can fight the Holy Spirit if we wish to.

We can fight the Spirit if we want to, can’t we? We can hear His guidance, we can feel the strength to do what He is calling us to do and we can say “Nope! Not going to do it.” The Bible calls that “quenching the Spirit, grieving the Spirit”. The Bible talks about that a person can outrage the Spirit of grace. How do you do that kind of stuff? Well, you do it by hearing but not listening. You do it by being prompted to obey but disobeying. b. Holy Spirit will start to remove the blessing of God from our lives.

And if we quench the Spirit, if we really tick Him off, He will not force us to grow in our spiritual journey. He just won’t force us. But rather, what He will do is that He will start to remove the blessings of God from our life, and the Holy Spirit will start to exert corrective discipline on our lives. c. How much better to hear, and listen; to be prompted, and obey.

It is interesting. There were a lot of the people in the Corinthian church who had gotten very sick. Some of them had even died and Paul writes to them “God did this to you because you have defiled the Lord’s Supper.” You grieved Him! You made Him mad! And the Holy Spirit has been exerting His corrective discipline on you and some He has made sick and others He just said “Enough is enough, I’m taking you home.” And he killed them – just like he killed Ananias and Sapphira. How much better to hear and to listen. How much better to be prompted and obey. Because God will not produce the fruits of the Spirit in our lives if we fight Him.

4. At a practical level, what does it look like to be empowered by the Holy Spirit?

Fourthly: and this is just at a very practical level. What does it look like to be empowered by the Holy Spirit? Have you ever asked yourself that question? I mean, I know what it looks like when I put my head down and I put my nose to the grindstone and I just make it happen! How is that different from allowing the Holy Spirit to strengthen me and to empower me to do the things that He has called me to do? What is the difference there?

a. Difficult to explain the difference — mystical — when it happens, you know it

Well, that is a very, very difficult question to answer, isn’t it? It is difficult partly because it is a mystical thing – and yet, when it happens you know it, don’t you? Sometimes you will look at your life and you go “My goodness, I don’t hate that person any more! How did I do that! I stopped gossiping! Man I used to just open my mouth and out it flowed! I don’t do that any more, how did I do that?” You see, when God’s power IS made real in our lives and we look back at it, it is very clear that it wasn’t us who did it. It is very clear that it was God’s Spirit. But, how does that work?

The answer is – I have no idea! I think, though, that part of the answer – and it is only part of the answer – is that allowing God’s power to flow through us and to do the work that He has called us to do, begins by me saying “I can’t do it.” I think that is the key. That when God by His guidance says “I want you to work in this area of your life. I want this to change. I want you to finally talk to your neighbor.” And you say “I can’t do it!” God says “Good! Got you right where you need to be.”

I think the secret for allowing the power of the Holy Spirit is to say “I can’t do it!” and then following it quickly by the statement of faith “But God, You can.” I mean, you see this all over the Psalms when the psalmists say “Oh God, You are my rock, You are what holds me fast. Protect me from my enemies. I can’t do anything about it, only You can do it.” It is a statement that I can’t but God can – and there is something in that admission and something in that confession that frees the Holy Spirit up to start empowering you and me to do what God has called us to do.

Zechariah in Chapter 4 verse 6 is talking about the tasks that God has given him and Zechariah says “It is not by might, it is not by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD.” My prayer, and I’ve shared this with you before, my prayer every Sunday before I stand up here is that “God, I can’t do anything about these people. I can’t say a single thing [and I believe it].I can’t say a single thing that is going to change your life. Nothing! But I believe that as I am faithful to the Gospel, God’s Spirit can change you and he can change me.” It is what happens when you are talking to a non-Christian friend and the Spirit says “Now’s the time! I have prepared them for the Gospel. They are suffering greatly. They need to hear there is hope.” And you go, “I can’t!” He says “That’s right, you can’t,” “But I believe God, that You can give me the strength and the words.” And the Spirit says, “I can! Good job. Now say it.”

It is in the admission that “I can’t” and in my confession of faith that God can, that God’s Spirit is freed to do the work the He so desperately wants to do. I think that is part of the answer of what it looks like to let the Spirit empower and enable us.

b. Not an excuse for laziness — Romans 12:1-2

Now, this is not an excuse for laziness! I still have to study for my sermon; you still have to read your Bible. You grow in your faith. You become salt and light. I mean, Romans 12, 1 and 2 are powerful verses. “That I appeal to you by the mercies of God, present your bodies as living sacrifices which is holy and acceptable to God. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” You see, these are things that you do as the Spirit gives you guidance and as the Spirit gives you enablement, you say “Today I will present everything I am as a sacrifice to God by the power that God’s Spirit gives me to do so.” “Today I will not be squeezed into the mold of this world, but I will be transformed – I will be salt and light – not because I am a strong workaholic, but because the power of the living God courses through every cell in my body and it is He who will enable me – it is He who will give me the words and the strength to say them. That is the enablement and that is the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

E. Where would we be without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?

Boy, where would we be without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Well, we would never look like Jesus. We would never change. But thanks be to the inexpressible gift of God’s Spirit to you and to me, the blessings of the Spirit.

In John, Chapter 7, Jesus is at a festival in Jerusalem and he cries out, [John 7 starting at verse 37] “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out “If anyone thirsts let him come to Me and drink Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Rivers of living water! And then He goes on to say that river is, in fact, the Holy Spirit.

Let’s not have the Holy Spirit trickle. Let’s not have the Holy Spirit trickle in our lives. Let’s not have the Holy Spirit trickle through our lives to our neighbors and our friends. May the Holy Spirit flood my soul, may it drown my sin, and may it come gushing out of me! May it flood this church. May the Holy Spirit flood my family. May He flood Spokane! May He be that River of Living Water, there to change and transform our lives so that we look like Jesus.

Let’s pray.

Father, there are times, certainly, in which we quench Your Spirit, where we take hold of that tap and we turn it off so the Holy Spirit has very little effect in our lives. We have this silly idea that once He has regenerated us that I can live any way I want and that is not true. Father, may You put the desire in every one of our hearts to open the tap. Father, may, by Your enablement, Your Spirit flood our souls. May it wash all the impurities out of our lives and may it flood through our mouth and through our hands. Oh Father, may rivers of living water come out from me and out from these my brothers and sisters. May this church, may Spokane never be the same because of the work of Your Spirit in our lives and in our midst. That is our prayer, Father, and it is a prayer that is there because Your Spirit has placed it there. In Jesus name, Amen.