| Unleashing The Dominion Power Of The Holy Spirit Part I |
Pastor Steve Holt
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Mountain Springs Church
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| 07/07/08 |
Unleashing the Dominion Power of the Holy Spirit I
In today’s western church:
- Most believers are living defeated and defenseless Christian lives.
- Satan and his demonic hordes are ravaging the saints.
- Most men today are fighting a losing battle with their physical appetites.
- Most people are constantly fighting off panic attacks, anger, depression, lusts, gluttony, and it seems most of us are just too busy and too powerless to do anything about it.
- Our churches have little power from the Spirit, thus they look more like corporations that are well run and function seamlessly. Yet, are the members of the corporation living new lives of freedom, joy and power?
- Worldliness and immorality are so rampant in our so called “Christian culture” that the levels of divorce, immorality, and sinfulness are just as high in the church as outside the church.
- I have found after 30 years of being a Christian, that most believers don’t know how to live victorious, powerful Christian lives…their lives look very much the same as the unbeliever.
- Most believers have never discovered the amazing power of the Spirit filled life.
- There is a day coming in these latter days that if you don’t know how to walk in the power of the Spirit, you will not last long.
- Most believers are not that different from what happened in Ephesus in Acts 19.
Never Understood the Holy Spirit?
Acts 19:1-2
And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples 2 he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" So they said to him, "We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit."
- I believe that if you asked most church attendees in most churches today, the response would not be any different.
- The passage in Acts 19 occurs about 20 years after Pentecost, and as Paul is passing through the region he meets up with some believers who seem to be lacking something in their faith.
- Their reply to his question is not that different than the way many believers might respond today: "We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit."
- Most believers have heard of the Holy Spirit but they have no clear understanding of who or what he, she, it is.
- For many believers today, the Holy Spirit is an “it” and not a “He” and thus they have no clue how to understand or interact with the Spirit.
- For many the Holy Spirit is kind of the errand boy for God, the Father, but certainly is not needed for greater power.
- For others the Spirit is a kind of mystical “thing” that hovers around doing good for people, like a Casper the Friendly Ghost.
- For the more learned and studied, they understand that the Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead, the three in one, the trinity, and they know the truths about Him through the creeds of the church, but there is no real interaction or personal experience with the Spirit of God.
- This first message is a kind of primer or introduction into the person and work of the Holy Spirit…I will be jumping around, all over the Bible today…
Who is the Holy Spirit?
John 3:1-8
- When we first come to know Christ in a personal way, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us.
- In the same way that we were born physically with water in the birth canal, so we are born of the Spirit.
- Jesus comes into our spirits and takes up abode there.
- There is a flesh part to all of us, through our physical birth. There is also a spiritual birth through the Holy Spirit.
- Paul elaborates on this fact when he explains that the Spirit of God enters into us when we believe in Christ. When we trust in Christ, the Spirit of God comes and seals us for salvation. He writes:
Ephesians 1:13
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
- The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ living within every believer. He empowers us to live the Christian life.
- The mission of the Spirit in our lives is to bring glory to God the Father.
- Jesus said that upon his return to heaven, he would leave the disciples with the Spirit. He described the Holy Spirit in these ways:
John 14:16-18
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
o Jesus is telling His disciples that He will not leave them alone, but will come to them and be with them.
o The Greek word describing the Holy Spirit as “the Helper” is “paraclete” or the one who comes alongside to help us. It could also be translated as “comforter.”
o The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth:
John 16:13
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak.
o He will guide us into truth; He will lead you into truth.
o The Holy Spirit is Jesus, with all His power and attributes, living within you and me.
We were Created in Three Parts
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will diagram it this way:
- When you come to faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit enters into your spirit.
- When you were born again, the Holy Spirit, fully God, came into your life.
- Holy Spirit is a real person, with real emotions, with divine intelligence.
- When we are born again, it is not just that we are forgiven, but there is so much more…we are born into a vibrant connectiveness to God Himself in our spirit.
- The saints of the Old Testament did not have this.
- You become one in the spirit with Christ…
1 Corinthians 6:17
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
- God comes and takes up residency in our spirit.
- Your inner man is transformed by the Holy Spirit.
- With the Spirit of God in the spirit of your inner man, you can now talk to and listen to the Spirit.
- You can be led by the Spirit.
- Now that you are born again, God wants the spirit to have dominance over your soul, “old man” nature, and even over your physical body.
Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
- He releases righteousness, not just healing, into our bodies.
- He puts a check on our flesh and these warring desires and releases spiritual energy into our bodies.
- But there is a violent war going on between our spirit and our soul and body…they violently hate each other.
- The next few weeks I will share how this can happen: I really believe that the Holy Spirit in your inner man can have dominion over and rule over your soul and your physical body.
Adam had God’s Spirit of Dominion
- Before he sinned, Adam had a spirit that had dominance in his life.
Genesis 2:7
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
- The Spirit of God was released into the Spirit of man and Adam’s spirit was completely fed and nurtured by the Spirit of God.
- The spirit ruled over the soul and body, and the inner man ruled over the body
- Adam was given “every tree in the garden” to enjoy.
- Adam was given dominion over everything in the garden…DOMINION!
Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
- So, in God’s divine order, man was to “have dominion” over his soul, body, and the creation, and he was to be fruitful.
- But when Adam sinned everything was reversed!
- The focus changed: from the inward to the outward; from the spiritual to the physical; from life to death.
- The body became the thing Adam was most conscious of.
- Fatigue, sickness, and desires took over.
- Death took over where there had been life.
- We now think much more about feeding our bodies than feeding our spirits.
- Our soul took dominion over our spirit: the more our soul rules over our spirit, the more death rules over life.
- Our soul is no longer in harmony with our spirit; they now go in opposite directions.
- Our spirit man was supposed to have preeminence and dominion, but through the fall, we are living sub-par lives with the body and soul ruling over our spirit.
We are Born of the Spirit
- When we were born again we began a journey of reversing our sinful habits.
- Through being born again we have reversed Eden:
- Our spirit can have leadership in our lives now that we know Christ.
- If we allow the Holy Spirit to rule in our spirit, we can begin to have dominion over our fleshly desires, habits, and sinful tendencies.
- This is what Paul is praying for the Ephesians:
Ephesians 3:16
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.
- The focus of our lives must change:
2 Corinthians 4:16
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
- And the result is “righteousness, peace, and joy.”
- But our body has taken over, and has dominance: feed me, satisfy me, take care of me, pamper me.
1 Peter 3:3-4
Do not let your adornment be merely outward--arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel-- 4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.
- The Spirit within us is called the hidden person of the heart.
- We are to be daily renewed by the Spirit…
Colossians 3:10
and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him
- The new man is the human spirit with the Holy Spirit living within.
- The old man is the human spirit without the Spirit of God.
- But we live as though we don’t have the Holy Spirit.
- Don’t live like the Spirit is not in you; don’t live as though the Spirit is not there! Paul is telling us to put aside the old man, and live in contact with the Holy Spirit.
- We have a new identity! We have a new connectiveness with God…the seed of God. This is the essence of your relationship with God
- How do we put on the new man?
We have the Seed of God
1 John 3:8-9
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
- God’s seed, the sperma of God, is growing within us…if we are feeding Him.
- This is why Jesus came…to destroy the works of Satan.
- We must link Vs. 8 and Vs. 9 together…the purpose of Jesus is to destroy sin in our lives.
- This means “habitually sinning.” We can now go to war against sin and win! Instead of seeking out ways to sin freely, rather we now go to war against sin.
- God’s purpose is that the seed of God might be within us, so that we, as recipients of the Spirit, can contest the power of sin with power from the Holy Spirit.
- We can challenge the work of sin in our lives and we can prevail.
- Being born again is not just about being forgiven, but being able to contest sin in this life.
- You have every reason to believe that you can win the battle!
How Does the Spirit Destroy the Works of Darkness?
- Try the 2-3-2 Plan in your life: Worship for two songs; read 3 chapters of the Bible, and listen for God’s leading in 2 areas of your life.
- Dial it down daily and pull away from the busyness of your life and focus on the Spirit.
- Develop a dialogue with the Spirit, share your heart and listen.
Dialogue with God’s Word by praying the Scriptures.
This sermon was produced at Mountain Springs Church in Colorado Springs, with Senior Pastor Steve Holt. www.mountainsprings.org
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