The Promise of the Father

Dr. Charles Stanley: Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity. He is God the Spirit, like God the Son, God the Father. When He comes into your life, He seals you forever as a child of God. Listen, He's omnipotent. Your inheritance is sealed. He says He's sealing you for that moment when He takes you home to be with Him. Child of God, that's part of who the Holy Spirit is.
Guest (Male): At Christ's last meal, He comforted His disciples with curious words. He said, "It is to your advantage that I go away." What they didn't understand was that Christ's departure would soon signal the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, we begin a series that leads us in a study of the person and work of the Spirit of God. Here's the opening session of Dr. Stanley's series, "Living in the Power of the Holy Spirit."
Dr. Charles Stanley: The Bible is full of awesome promises. And when you and I go through difficulty and hardship and pain, there's nothing more anchoring to our lives than to be able to come to some very clear promise in the Word of God. A very clear promise in Scripture that oftentimes deals with exactly what we are having to deal with. And so when that happens, then the promise becomes like an anchor. It makes us courageous and bold to be able to face whatever we are facing in life. It is one of those promises that is just overflowing with the benefits of God that He's given to us. And so this is the first message in a series entitled "Living in the Power of the Holy Spirit." Now, the Holy Spirit is a subject that many people have lots of confusion about. And you've heard all kind of things about the Holy Spirit. I want to make it very clear what the Word of God says specifically and clearly about how the believer is to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. So let's look at it for a moment. Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a person. He is not a thing and He is not an "it." He's a person. Let's look at the Scripture, for example. First Corinthians, the Scripture talks about the Holy Spirit knowing. The Scripture speaks in First Corinthians again, in the twelfth chapter, speaks of the Holy Spirit willing. He gives the spiritual gifts to whomsoever He will. He chooses. He makes a decision. And in Ephesians chapter four, verse 30, He talks about "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit." Well, the only way you can grieve somebody is to have feelings. So the Holy Spirit is a person. He has feelings, He has a will, and listen, He has knowledge. So the Holy Spirit is not a something; He is somebody. The first time that I ever really realized that and learned that, I'd only been in seminary a couple of weeks. And I was seated at the table with a group of students and I didn't know any of them, none of us know each other. And I said something about the Holy Spirit, "it." A fellow sitting across the table from me, he didn't say a word at the point. He said, "Charles, would you come by my room after dinner?" I said, "Sure." I didn't know him, so he told me where he was, down the hall from where I lived. And I walked in the room and I was very intimidated because he had books. He was a doctoral student. He had books from the bottom of the wall to the top. The only thing you could see was a couple of windows in there and the door, everything else covered with books. So I felt very intimidated. So he pulled out a Greek Bible, laid it in front of me. I said, "I've only been here two weeks." He said, "That's okay." And he said, "I heard you talk about the Holy Spirit at dinner tonight and you called Him an it." I said, "Well, I did because that's what the Bible says." Me telling this guy that! I said, and you know me, I turned him to Romans 8 and just showed him it said "it." He said, "Well, let's look at this." Then he took me through the New Testament, every reference to the Holy Spirit to show me that He's not an "it," He's a somebody. Do you think I ever forgot it? No, I never forgot it. And thank God He showed me that. Then my mind began to be open and I began to see we are talking about somebody. We're not talking about... you see, the problem is that most people want to talk about the power of the Spirit. You know what? They're not interested in Him. They're interested in what He has to offer. "The power of the Holy Spirit. I want the power of the Spirit." And I heard a fellow one day on the television talking about, listen, about the unction of the Spirit. He had a double unction of the Spirit. I said, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute now." Does that mean that God only gave you half of it the first time? The first time you had this so-called unction, you only got half, now He's given you a double portion. So because what He gave you first wasn't enough, is that what you're telling me? Because there's no such thing as a double unction of anything, not in the spiritual realm. If God gives you something, He's going to give you enough of it. So, we're talking about a person. We're talking about a person who lives in each one of us, as Jesus made it very clear when He said, for example, "He'll be in you, with you and upon you." He says "clothed," for example, "with power from on high." So all the evidence makes it very clear that the Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity. So remember this, wherever you are, whatever you're facing in life, here's who you have on the inside of you. Once you receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior, the Bible says He came to indwell you. Romans chapter eight, if He's not indwelling you, you're not a believer. If He's not indwelling you, you're not a Christian. Somebody said, "Well, I don't believe all that stuff." I want to tell you my friend, according to the Scripture, if the Spirit of God doesn't indwell you, you're not one of His. Now, if you've trusted Him as your savior, He's there to guide you, lead you, help you, strengthen you, enable you in every aspect of your life. That's who the Holy Spirit is. He is a person of the Trinity. Have you got it? Say "Amen." All right, now listen to this. Here's the second thing I want you to know about Him and that's this: The Holy Spirit, listen, the Holy Spirit is God's seal of ownership on you. He's God's seal of ownership on you. Turn if you will to Ephesians chapter one, and let's look if you will at just a couple of verses here. He's God's seal of ownership. Because you... listen, once you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you are owned by God. Somebody says, "Well, I... listen, I'm my own person." If you're a Christian, no you're not. He says, "Listen, you've been purchased with a price. You've been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. You are not your own. You don't have the right to do as you please, when you please, how you please, with whom you please. You belong to God." Now listen to what he says in Ephesians chapter one, and let's look if you will, as we said, in verse 13 here. Notice what he says. He says, "In Him," that is in Christ, "also after listening to the message of truth," what's that? The gospel of your salvation, "having also believed, you were sealed in Him," that is in Christ, to be a part of Him, He in you, "with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory." Now, what's all that means? Means simply this: When you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, that's what He said, after listening, you believed, you were sealed. You were sealed in the person of Christ. That is, you are sealed as a child of God till the moment God takes you home. You're not sealed till you sin, sealed till you make a mistake, sealed till you this, sealed till you that. Sealed under the day of redemption till God takes you home. Now it's very evident... listen, who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity. He is God the Spirit, like God the Son, God the Father. When He comes into your life, He seals you forever as a child of God. Listen, He's omnipotent. He sealed you, He says, under the day of redemption. That is, He's sealing you, listen, your inheritance is sealed. He's sealing you for that moment when He takes you home to be with Him. Child of God, that's part of who the Holy Spirit is. So when somebody says, "Well, you know, I just... you know, I believe in some things in the Bible, but this all this stuff about the Holy Spirit that I don't really understand, I don't believe in all that." Well, you know what? Here's what you're saying. You don't believe in the Trinity who lives within you, who has sealed you as a child of God under the day of redemption. If He hadn't sealed you, you could be saved today and lost tomorrow. Forever and ever a child of God. That's part of who He is. But listen, He's more than that. And if you'll think about what Jesus said, for example, He said that the Holy Spirit is our helper. If you go back to John 14:15, and how many times does He speak of Him of being our helper? He says, for example, in the 14th chapter of John, verse 16, "I'll ask the Father, He'll give you another helper that He may be with you forever." 26th verse, "But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He'll teach you all things, bring all things to your remembrance." And on and on He goes about the helper. Think about this. What does that mean? This is why you can't ignore Him. Because the Father sent Him to do what? He called Him our helper. How many of you have ever needed help? Absolutely. Well, what did you do? Tell your friends? Call the doctor? Go to the bank? Or did you cry out to the Holy Spirit who is within you to help you? "Help me at this point." There are times when nobody can help you and me but Him. There are times when we're in circumstances, nobody's help will work. There are times when we hurt so badly, nobody else can help us. There are times when the sorrow is so deep and so overwhelming, no one can drag us out of that but Him. He is our helper. Now, when does He help us? Anytime, every time you and I are willing to call on Him. If I am not aware of who He is, if I'm not aware that I have living on the inside of me an omnipotent, omniscient helper... He knows all the circumstances of what I need. He knows all the circumstances of where I am. And He knows exactly what it'll take to help me at that moment. I don't know about you, but I don't want to live without Him. For the simple reason, listen, you're not going to make it. Now you may make it in the eyes of the world, but you're going to die. You're not indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you're not going to heaven. He says only if we are indwelt by Him. That's the promise of the Father. He sent Him to indwell us to give us absolute assurance that no matter what happens, and here He is, our helper. And the Holy Spirit is your helper if you will call on Him. If you don't like what's going on, call on somebody who can change it. He may change you before He changes the circumstance, but He will get busy working on you. That's part of His work. That's part of His work. Then, for example, He said He'll not only help us, but He'll guide us. Every single one of us needs guidance. He said that when He comes, He will, listen, He will guide us into all truth. And the 13th verse, "But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He'll not speak on His own initiative. He won't talk about Himself. Whatever He hears from the Father, from Jesus, He will speak and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me. He will take from me and disclose it to you." He's our guide. For example, more than likely tomorrow, or maybe before this day is over, you're going to need a sense of direction about something. What you should say to this person, what decision you should make. We all need guidance. Well, we have the guide within us. Listen, watch this. We have a divine compass within us. We have a divine director within us. He's the Holy Spirit. One of His responsibilities is to guide us into all truth. What's the truth about this situation? And sometimes you and I have to make decisions in circumstances we don't know all the facts. Watch this. We don't know all the facts. Most of the time we don't know all the facts. But we know somebody who does, and that's the Holy Spirit. Now watch this. Sometimes He's going to tell you to do something that you're going to think, "That couldn't be God. There's no way that could be God." Remember who knows all the facts and you don't. When the Spirit of God gives you direction, it'll always be the right direction, the right time, the right thing, no matter what. Because He's omniscient. He knows when we need direction and He knows which direction we need to move in. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways," listen, "acknowledge Him. He says He'll guide you, He'll make your path straight." The work of the Holy Spirit. He said, "I will teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye." How does that matter? Because that's the work of the Holy Spirit living within us. All these verses, these promises that you and I claim... listen, the Father sits in heaven reigning upon His authority. The Lord Jesus sitting at the right hand, making intercession for us, doing His work. The Holy Spirit living within us doing what? Enabling us, empowering us to live out this godly life that He wants us to live. So, He certainly wants to guide us to make the right decisions in life, whatever that might be. Now there's a lot of other things, for example, we could say, but certainly He is... listen, He, one of His responsibilities is to be our teacher. Now watch this carefully. I'm not the teacher, I'm a mouthpiece. I'm a mouthpiece. The Holy Spirit is the teacher. And so He said, "He will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance." For example, let's say that I preach this message and all of you listen carefully so you get it all. Now, let's say that I take the first row here, preach this message and I say, starting on this end, "Tell me what you heard today." I guarantee you everybody on the front row and every row is going to hear something a little different. And here's the reason: Because the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and interprets to the heart of the hearer on the basis of what they need to hear and what they can understand. I'll give you an example of that. Sometimes I've preached and somebody will come to me and they'll say, "Oh, Dr. Stanley, that was such a fantastic sermon. I was so blessed. I mean, God spoke to my heart. I just love you." I'll say, "Well, what did He say to you?" This is the truth, so help me. They'll tell me something that's fantastic that I never said. In fact, I wish I had! Let's put it that way, I wish I said that. You know who that is? That's the Holy Spirit. I'm the mouthpiece, the Spirit is the teacher. You have inside of you the one to teach you the truth. Now let me say this. If you start coming up with something that contradicts the Word, you're not listening to the Holy Spirit. You're just coming up with your own stuff. And the Spirit of God, listen, the Holy Spirit will never teach you something that is a contradiction to the Word of God. Now there are interpretations of the Word, I understand that. Interpretations of the Scripture, but He's not going to interpret it and contradict Himself. Therefore, even though you and I have the teacher within us, we are still open to be taught. Listen, we're open to hear the truth of the gospel. Now, how much do you want to learn? How much do you want to know? That is up to you. Because if you ask the Spirit of God to teach you the truth, "Lord, not only let me hear what this man's saying, but I want you to teach me. What is it you're saying to me, Lord?" And so all of us need the Word of God. I need it. I love opening the Word of God to see what He's going to say to me. I'm always learning something new. And if you think you have arrived, that you know it all, then you know what? You are totally deceived. Until Jesus comes, and if He doesn't come for a thousand years, every time we open this book, we'll see something we've never seen because the mind of God is infinite. And listen, our circumstances change. Things change in our life and so what does He do? He interprets the Word of God according to what you and I need. Now that doesn't mean that He's going to give somebody a misinterpretation, but it means that when you hear the truth, you will hear what the Spirit of God wants you to hear. Now if you have your blinders down on, or you have your wall up and you've already decided before you get here that "Don't get into that subject, I don't want to hear about that subject, don't tell me anything about that," you know what? Then you just walk away deceived. Watch this carefully. You want to open your heart to the truth of God's Word. You better be careful who you listen to. Because there are people who will tell you things that absolutely is not true of the Word of God. And that's how you get deception, division and all the rest. Now let me just mention one other thing here that tells us who the Holy Spirit is and what He's up to in our life and that's this: And that is that He's the source of our spiritual power. Now what is the power of the Holy Spirit? It is God's power, it is God's energy. And listen, God's energy and God's authority. So how would we define it? We would say that the power of the Holy Spirit is God's divine energy and authority. Listen, energy and authority released in the life of the believer for the purpose of godly living and fruitful service. And it's a simple definition, but I think it's a good definition. It is God's divine energy and authority, divine energy and authority released in the life of the believer for what purpose? Not for boasting, but for what purpose? Godly living and fruitful service. The power of the Holy Spirit, living in this power. And what we're going to be talking about is living in this power, living in the authority and the energy and the wisdom and the guidance and the strength and the help of the Holy Spirit. The awesome promise of God. The promise of the Father, Jesus said. So I simply ask you this question: What about your Christian life? Do you do a little bit more mumbling and grumbling than you do praising God? Do you have needs and you wonder why God doesn't meet them? Do you wonder why your life's not fruitful, why there's no peace and love and joy in your life when that's all the work of the Holy Spirit? It's not what we... it's not what we work up. It's what He releases within us. When we say, for example, He releases His energy and His authority, there's so much involved in that. His peace, His joy, His goodness, His self-control. It is God working in every single one of us every day. And He will work, listen, He will release in you all that is needed in proportion to your release to Him, the full surrender of your life.
Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. God gives the Holy Spirit to every believer, but His power operates only when you let go of your need to be in charge. It's always to your advantage to willingly surrender to Him. But how do you surrender to Jesus? And what might He ask you to do? Find biblical answers to questions such as these at intouch.org. To go back through this lesson, follow the link to Today on Radio. And if you'd like to have a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, you can order at the store. The title is "The Promise of the Father." Or order the entire teaching set, "Living in the Power of the Holy Spirit." Our web address again is intouch.org. Call or text to 1-800-INTOUCH. If you prefer, you can write to us at In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Without the Holy Spirit, Christians would be poor followers of Christ. Today's Moment with Charles Stanley is coming up. In Touch Plus is streaming on Local Now, featuring all the best of Dr. Charles Stanley. We want to have strong convictions based on the Word of God. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future. In Touch Plus, your streaming network for quality Christian programming 24/7. Now watch this. In Touch Plus, streaming free on Local Now. There is an inexplicable joy that comes from understanding Scripture and learning how to apply it in our own life. The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible includes 30 foundational truths that Dr. Stanley has learned from over 60 years of ministry. It's available in the New King James Version, New International Version, the King James Version, and New American Standard Bible version. To order, call 1-800-INTOUCH or go to intouch.org/store. You're listening to In Touch. In spite of following Jesus for three years, His disciples needed something else to be fully equipped to follow Him. Here's a Moment with Charles Stanley.
Dr. Charles Stanley: Why did He say to them, for example, "Wait in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high"? Here's the reason: Because even though they had walked with Him for three years, listened to Him, watched the miracles, watched them heal, watched Him walk on water, in spite of all those things, He says, "You're not ready. You're not ready." He says, "You wait." In spite of the fact that you have seen me, seen me crucified, resurrected, in spite of all of that, you are not ready, listen, to live out the life I've called you to live. You are not ready to carry out the work that I've called you to do until the Holy Spirit comes into your life, clothes you, enables you with supernatural power to live it out and to perform the work that I've called you to do. Now, we read those verses and say, "Well, that was for the apostles." Listen to this. Any person who thinks that he or she can live the Christian life apart from the Holy Spirit is absolutely doomed to failure, disappointment, and despair because God never intended for it to be that way. He said to them, "You're not ready to live it, you can't live it apart from the Holy Spirit, you can't do the work that I've called you to do until the Holy Spirit comes." Somebody says, "Well, now in light of that, does that mean, for example, that I have to wait?" No, you and I don't have to wait because the Holy Spirit has already come. In the New Testament, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to indwell the church, not talking about buildings but the believer. Every single believer, every single person who's ever trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Somebody says, "Well, I don't feel that." Has nothing to do with feeling, it has to do with truth. You can learn more about how to live for God when you visit us at intouch.org. Has the good news of the gospel changed your life? If this program has been part of that journey, please let us know. When In Touch continues next time, we'll hear about the three main facets of the Holy Spirit's mission. That's on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.