He Did It All For You (2 page)

by Gloria Copeland

God’s Will Is the Holy Spirit

You have been involved with the Holy Spirit since you first heard the good news that Jesus took your place and bore the penalty for your sins. It was the Holy Spirit, through the Word, who made the truth that Jesus was raised from the dead a reality in your heart.

Romans 10:9 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” First Corinthians 12:3 says that no man can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus came to make it possible for man to receive the nature of God—eternal life (John 10:10). A man could not be born again while Jesus was on the earth. He had power to forgive sins, but there could be no new creatures until He paid the sin price at Calvary and became the firstborn from the dead.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you…. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you (John 16:7, 12-15).

Jesus told the men who walked by His side for three years that it was more profitable for them if He went away and sent them the Holy Spirit.

It was the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit that made you a new creature. When you made Jesus Lord over your life, the Holy Spirit came on you and overshadowed you, just as He did Mary when there was conceived in her a “holy thing” (Luke 1:35).

You were born again to a new life, a new spirit. Spiritual death was eradicated from your spirit. You were literally born of God. “Beloved,
now
are we the sons of God” (1 John 3:2). “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1). God became your Father by spiritual birth.

The miracle of the new birth should never become commonplace to you. It is not a theological idea, but a fact. The Holy Spirit personally carries out this miracle when you make Jesus Christ your Lord. He takes a sin-ridden, selfish man and re-creates his spirit in God’s image. This change in a man’s nature is a great, miraculous and supernatural event in the realm of the spirit causing all of heaven to rejoice (Luke 15:7, 10).

The Spirit Within

After you make Jesus Lord, the Holy Spirit comes to live in you. Jesus told the disciples: “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit had been working
with
the disciples as they had been preaching, healing the sick and casting out devils. But Jesus said when the Holy Spirit came to abide forever, He would live on the
inside
of them.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is not only to impart the nature of God to the spirit of man, but also to live in the new creature and to reveal to him the exact knowledge of God. The Spirit within enables the new creature to walk in newness of life. One writer said that the Spirit that gives us life must also sustain that life.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 says, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
within
you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

After Jesus had been raised from the dead, He appeared to the disciples. They were born again as He breathed the life of God into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (Compare with Genesis 2:7.) Eternal life came into them. They could not have been born again until after Jesus paid the price for sin. As they received the life of God, the Spirit who gave that life began to dwell in them.

The Spirit Upon

From that moment they were changed. They were no longer troubled, afraid or sad. Luke’s account lets us know of the change: “And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen” (Luke 24:51-53).

Where there had been sadness, now there was great joy—fruit of the spirit. Where there had been fear and confusion, now there was continual praise and blessing of God. And they were obedient. They went to Jerusalem and waited for the enduement of power from on high expecting to receive the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4-5).

This promise was for yet another wonderful event to come. Just before Jesus blessed the disciples and was carried into heaven He gave these instructions: “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The account of this event in Acts says:

And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence…. Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:4-5, 8).

He said they were to be baptized with the Holy Ghost and receive power! They had already received the Holy Spirit within. Now Jesus was instructing them what to do to receive the power of God
upon
them. Acts 10:38 says Jesus was anointed with the Holy Ghost and power. The disciples were to receive that same power of the Holy Spirit!

Jesus said in our everyday speech, “Don’t leave town without it!” This enduement of power was necessary in order to carry out the work Jesus set before them. (See Mark 16:15-20; Matthew 28:18-20.) Nothing has changed. The Body of Christ today is still under the same mandate.

Jesus had taught them about these works in John 14, talking to them about the Holy Spirit. He said,

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works…. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father (John 14:10, 12).

The disciples were to continue doing the same works Jesus Himself had been doing. It would take the same power and anointing of the Holy Spirit that was on Jesus Himself. (See Acts 10:38; Matthew 3:16-17; John 14:12; Luke 4:18-21; Acts 5:12-16.)

This power came on the Church on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is still assigned to the Church to help us fulfill our commission. Didn’t Jesus say He would abide with us forever?

Jesus said it was not Him but the Father in Him who did these works. When He said, “But
ye
shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you…”
(Acts 1:8), they knew what He meant!

The Greek word
dunamis,
translated
power,
means “ability and might.” When you receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, you receive the ability of God to do His work on the earth. The Spirit within is for fruit bearing—for your own personal life (Galatians 5:22-23). Jesus talked about this in John 4:14. He called it: “…a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” But the Spirit
upon
is for service. Jesus talked about this in John 7:38-39. He described it as rivers of living water. The well is for your own life and the rivers flowing out of you are for others.

The dictionary says a
witness
is “evidence or confirmation.” This power of the Holy Spirit living in you can transform your life into evidence for the world that Jesus has been raised from the dead and is alive today. Jesus said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me…” (Acts 1:8).

The traditions and doctrines of men have robbed many believers of this power to be a witness with evidence that Jesus has been raised from the dead. The world is not only supposed to hear words but see proof that Jesus is alive today. New converts should be taught to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit—the enduement of power to reveal Jesus to lost humanity.

Many believe He is automatically received at the time of salvation—that there is nothing more. It is certainly true that if you are born again, the Holy Spirit has come to live in you and endeavors to work in your life. I had been born again and the Holy Spirit lived inside me, but the power Jesus spoke of was not evident in my life until after I received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. I wanted to do right, follow God and be a strong Christian, but outwardly I didn’t change much until after I received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. Then, the combination of the power of God upon me and the Word of God in my heart began to change weakness to victory. As I learned truth from God’s Word and acted on it, the Spirit of God upon me enabled me to overcome in my own life and to help others overcome.

Learn to continually pray this prayer from Ephesians for yourself:

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant [me], according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in [my] inner man; that Christ may dwell in [my heart] by faith; that [I], being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that [I] might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that [I] ask or think, according to the power that worketh in [me], unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen (Ephesians 3:14-21).

According to the power that worketh in us! His unlimited ability to work in your life is according to the power working in you. God designed that He would abide continually inside your spirit and then come upon you in power to carry out His work.

In the early Church, much of the time people were born again and received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit at the same time. In Acts 8, however, we can clearly see the two separate experiences. It tells us that Philip, while in Samaria, preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus. Verse 12 says they believed, and both men and women were baptized. These people were believers.

Later, Peter and John came to pray for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. “(For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost” (Acts 8:16-17).

The term “receiving the Holy Ghost” is also correct in speaking about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Later, in chapter 19, Paul asked men at Ephesus, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost” (verse 2).

These men had been baptized into John’s baptism. Paul told them that John had said to believe in Jesus. “When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied” (Acts 19:5-6). In this instance they were baptized in water and then Paul laid hands on them to receive the Holy Ghost.

From these references we can see that the apostles laid their hands on men who were already believers to receive the Holy Spirit. These scriptures reveal that the enduement of power called the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is not the same experience as the new birth. In these two examples, this enduement of power came as hands were laid on them.

On the Day of Pentecost, however, at the house of Cornelius, the Spirit of God came on the people and they began to speak with other tongues. They received the new birth and the enduement of power simultaneously.

The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is received by faith the same way you receive Jesus as Lord (Galatians 3:14). Christians should be taught to believe for and to receive it. The disciples in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost had already been taught about receiving the Holy Spirit by the Master Himself (Luke 24:49; John 14-16; Acts 1:1-9).

The entrance of God’s Word gives light or understanding (Psalm 119:130). The disciples knew that they were waiting for the Holy Spirit to baptize them with His power and were expecting it just as Jesus had told them.

We receive blessing from God by believing what we hear from Him. That is faith. For example, healing belonged to you the moment you were born into God’s family, but if you never get into the Word and see that divine health is yours, you will continue to be sick.

To walk the faith walk and be pleasing to God, His Word must be the authority in your life—not what men or traditions say!

Learn to Depend on the Holy Spirit…He Will Guide You Into All Truth

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

Who can know what is on the inside of a man except the man’s own spirit, and who can know what is on the inside of God except the Spirit of God? (verse 11). The Spirit of God living within your spirit can reveal to you the inside of God—the heart of the Father. The Holy Spirit, who knows all the deep things of God, desires to come and live in you to teach you the profound and unsearchable wisdom of God.