The Relationship With God

Let us read 1 Cor. 2: 4-5: ”My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

What Paul is talking about here is that we can’t build our Christian faith on human understanding. What we need above all is a life-changing experience of God's Spirit and power, of God's presence. That's what Paul says, we read again:

”My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

If you and I as Christians do not have a life-changing experience and relationship with the Spirit of God the Christian life becomes a lifeless tradition and a religious philosophy. We need to learn to daily walk in and cooperate with the Holy Spirit. When you read the Bible you will understand it in the right way when you read it together with the Holy Spirit who reveals the truths in God's Word and guides and gives life to what you read. If you don´t have the Holy Spirit you can enter into liberal theology and other heresies because you don´t read the Word in the Holy Spirit.

Our preaching, our testimony should not be "human wisdom", that is, all that so human eloquent and rhetorical speech that only partially is Bible-based and often in a vague manner. No, preaching and testimony should be according to the Word of God, and also a demonstration of the Spirit and Power. Jesus and his disciples acted like this, and it has been in the same way in all revivals for hundreds of years. God confirms His Word with signs and wonders, with the Spirit's presence and power. Marc.16:20: "Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.”

In a revival meeting actually it is the best time in the end of the meeting when it´s time for people to  finally experience the living God, help and healing, be filled with the Holy Spirit, have peace, joy and new strength, meet the love of God, be transformed. Perhaps many after the meeting leaves the stuff that blocks the fellowship with God, like rocks in a well that hinders the healthy spiritual flow. Lukewarmness, worldliness, false doctrine, you can leave it all at the Cross and Jesus, He cleans and sets you free when you confess and leave the sins. And the Spirit of God comes and fills you with His glory and holiness, God's presence, which is absolutely wonderful now and forever. It was the power of God, the encounter with the living God who made me, an intellectual to surrender to Jesus and receive Him and His salvation, to meet and be filled with the love of Jesus' presence. The Spirit's life convinced me completely, yes, I also understood the meaning of the Gospel, but it was something that the Spirit of God revealed to me.

When you let your faith be both an understanding in your mind and a daily experience of the Spirit's life and power you do not need to live in the sinful nature, in the flesh. Let's read Romans 8: 5-9, 12-14: ”Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ…Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”

The Word explains it clear, that it is by God's Spirit, the Spirit's life and power that we can live in purity and holiness, obedience and in surrender to God.

One of the last things Jesus said before He left the earth life and ascended to heaven was that the believers would receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon them, let us read Acts 1: 4-5, 8: "On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command:“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  

When you accept Jesus and salvation you will be like the Bible says spiritually "born again" and a "new creation in Christ" where the old has gone and the new has come. This is your new identity as saved: You are forgiven and reconciled with God, you are in the right standing with God, you are a child of God, loved and accepted, Jesus has removed your sin and destroyed it on the Cross, you are acquitted and pardoned and have eternal life in Heaven…It is a wonderful new start of your whole being, and your eternity, this is the basis of salvation.

But, then we will continue with our life with God. You are a disciple of Jesus and you need to follow Jesus and let Him take care of you and your life. It is here you need to receive the Baptism of the Spirit, as we read about.

The difference between being only spiritually "born again" and "baptized in the Holy Spirit" is like receiving a brand new car. You have received the car as a gift freely by God's grace; it shines and smells good, leather upholstery, a V8 engine, all new technologies. You sit in the car and enjoying, you turn the key to take a turn, and nothing happens! You stand still. The car might as well stand there parked for good. You have no petrol in the car but instead of filling the car with petrol you ask some friends to push the car but not much happen ... When you are baptized in the Holy Spirit and  filled with the power of God the presence of God give you strength to resist temptations and you can preach and testify no longer in your own ability, but in God's ability…You will then have Holy Spirits “petrol”…

If you already are baptized in the Holy Spirit you need to be filled with God´s Spirit every day, you need a daily "Filling". In Acts 4:31 and 13:52 it says that the disciples also were "filled with the Holy Spirit" again, that is long after the day of Pentecost. When we drive a car long enough it need to be filled with petrol again. Eph 5: 18 says: ”Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,”

Now this is an article and you are reading sitting at a computer, maybe at home. But, God is omnipresent, and you've read a sermon that should have brought your faith to life, for "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ," as the Bible says. Now we can pray together, open your heart to God and we pray together: "God Father, I have read and understand that your will is to baptize me in the Holy Spirit, and to fill me with Your presence, with Your Spirit, with Your Glorios and life-giving presence... I love you Lord Jesus, You are my life, I hunger and thirst for you, Jesus, I want to be close to you and see and hear you in my innermost. I want to be led by your Holy Spirit and go and live in your power, so that I can live in purity and holiness before You my God. Saturate my innerbeing Lord with the presence of your love, Your peace and joy so I can serve the people around me, in the life and power of the Spirit. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, and I receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in faith right now, in Jesus' Name, Amen. "