The Holy Spirit Manifests

Today I want to talk about how God does things.

We are talking about the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is present future,
forward looking.
This is in contrast to the religious grid,
that is always backward looking,
obsessed with the past
either history,
or sin,
or tradition.
The Kingdom is always looking at new creation.
The Kingdom is always becoming.

We see this in the readings near the end of the Easter season.
The readings are now looking forward to 
the Ascension of Jesus
and the Day of Pentecost.
Jesus
on the night before he suffered
was not looking at the past,
or even the events about to happen.
He is talking about after the resurrection.
And in this reading from John 14,
we see a basic principle that exists all over the Bible.
The Father speaks,
the Son does what the Father speaks,
and the Holy Spirit manifests it into reality.

The Father spoke creation,
the Son did the creating,
and the Holy Spirit breathed the breath of life.

And we see this here.
Jesus says if you love me,
the word here is "agapao,"
Agape.
You will keep my word.
Jesus defines "Agape" in this teaching,
and he says that agape is when someone lays their life down for another.
So to love
is to lay your life down.
And Jesus says,
if you are going to lay your life down for another,
you must lay your life down for the Word.
His word.
And if you love his Word,
you love him.
And then Jesus says,
the Word is not his.
The Word is the Father's word.
The Father Speaks.
The Son does,
the Holy Spirit manifests.

And so the Father 
calls a new creation.
He sends his Son.
And what does the Son do?
The son only does what He sees the Father doing.
The Father initiates,
and the Son administrates.
The Son carries out the word of the Father.
And so the Son
becomes sin for us.
The son empties himself and becomes a servant.
The Son becomes the word made flesh.
The son conquers death
and rises from the dead.
But these things are limited by the physical reality
that Jesus is one person.

The Father has spoken,
the Son has done his work,
but the Holy Spirit must bring it into manifestation.

You cannot know God,
or the Word
without the Holy Spirit.
You cannot love Jesus or keep his words without the Holy Spirit.

Jesus knows this,
so he tells them,
I am going away.
And if I go away,
I will send you
"The Spirit, the Holy."
It can be translated
"The Spirit Who is Holy."
This Spirit is not like any other spirit.
This Spirit is holy.
This Spirit is the power center of the Holy Trinity.
This is the emotional center of the Holy Trinity.

And this Spirit who is Holy has no name.
This Spirit is a mystery--
represented as seven lamps
in the temple.
This Spirit is the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.
There is only one name, the name of Jesus.
There is only one name by whom we are saved,
only one name we call upon.
And if we call upon this name
the Name of Jesus
we have an encounter
with the Holy Spirit.
Paul says you can only say "Jesus is Lord" by the Holy Spirit.

What Jesus says in the Greek is difficult.
I will send you a "Parakletos." 
In the ancient world, 
if you were brought on charges,
a Paracletos
would argue and defend you in court,
but also take care of your physical needs and well being,
before and after the trial.
This was an advocate, helper, support, and comforter.
We don't have an equivalent in our world,
part lawyer, 
part social worker,
part emotional support,
so this word gets translated,
Helper,
Counselor,
Advocate,
Comforter,
and Paraclete.

What it all means is this:
You cannot do the word or love Jesus
or even follow Jesus in your own strength.
You need help.
Anytime you do try in your own strength,
you will eventually go off course.
You will miss the mark.
You cannot understand God's will
or God's word in your own human way.
The only way
is through the help of the Holy Spirit.

The Word you have heard
from the Father
that you received through the Son,
and desire to surrender to 
in love,
can only be manifested in your life
by the Holy Spirit.

In February,
right before Lent,
I heard Benny Hinn preach on this theme.
He put it this way:
the Father operates,
the Son administrates,
and the Holy Spirit manifests.
And I began to go over the words 
that we have received as a community.
And I began to ask the Holy Spirit
to manifest the words.
You would think that things would get better.

Things have gotten worse and worse.
And honestly,
I feel like a caterpillar,
who although I may crawl along the ground,
and only munch the edges of leaves,
and spend a lot of my time avoiding 
being eaten or being stepped on,
I at least understand what I am doing.

I asked the Holy Spirit to manifest
and things have gone off script.

When you go into the cocoon,
nothing you knew before makes sense,
and you become a lot of green goo
as God transforms you from a slug
to a creature that can fly.

When you pursue a word from God,
the Lord will often take you down a trail and you will learn something new.
On this journey 
the Lord began to mess with my head about Jesus.
He started highlighting evidence from scripture
that supported the idea that Jesus
was rich in his life,
not poor.
If you want to see religious demons manifest,
start telling people that Jesus was a wealthy man.

For instance:
Jesus owned a house in Capernaum.
In fact the text says it was his roof that was destroyed
when they lowered the man into the house.
Jesus owned a cloak that was worth a year's wages.
Jesus had his own traveling accountant.
And Jesus was probably the owner of the building
that contained the upper room,
because he is referred to as the "Master" of the house.
And after the resurrection,
they were able to wait and pray there until Pentecost.
Who owned it?

There's mind blower.

Then God started speaking to me about the temple in Ezekiel,
the body of Jesus in John 18,
and the City of God in Revelation 21.
Jesus said out of our bellies
will flow rivers of living water,
and all these descriptions 
have a river of water flowing out of them.
You are the temple.
You are the city.
You are in Christ.
Christ is in you.
This is the mystery.

But you cannot experience this mystery,
or it's meaning
without the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the river in you.
The Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit 
is the wealth and inheritance of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is the Promise of the Father.
And only the Holy Spirit can teach you
and lead you into all truth.

Every word that God gives you cannot be manifested,
until you are flowing
in the Holy Spirit.
This is not stagnant.
It is moving.
This is the living water,
promised by Ezekiel,
and Jesus,
and John.
This is the river teaming with fish,
that gives life where ever it flows.
This is the water
that flows to the trees
that produce leaves that heal the nations.

So we have a lot of words:
That we would have a house,
that there would be an army of artists
that would strike fear into the enemies of God
during a global war,
that we would feast on the wealth of nations,
and become a global movement.

These are words we have carried
and we have tried to walk in,
but we cannot go any further,
unless we receive the Holy Spirit.
We need you Holy Spirit
to manifest and breath on the words,
that these promises would manifest 
and glorify Jesus.
O Holy Spirit, come like a mighty rushing wind
and blow on the promises,
and activate the dried mud we have formed
and transform them into a living being.
Only you are the Lord,
the giver of life.
Only you are our Advocate,
our help,
our support.

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