POTF #4
SPIRITUAL DYNAMICS
RECAP
March 4th - Phil shared on the “ultimate gift of the father”. God, he is a father, an awesome father and has gifted us with His Holy Spirit
March 11th - Caleb shared on “Glory to Glory” and asked us some great questions: are we living a life of power, what ceilings do we want to become our floors? Going from glory to glory requires transformation.
March 18th - Esther shared on “The acceptable year of the Lord” – the tribe of Issachar understood the times they lived in. Great nugget I got out of it was about we being in the “Acceptable year of the Lord” vs the “Day of vengeance”! She talked about the progression of the Holy Spirit, how Jesus experienced the Dove descending on him at Water Baptism – of his cuzz John, being filled with the Spirit at that time and then after temptation in the wilderness he came forth in the Power of the Spirit and began His ministry – healings, miracles etc.
Let’s move on to Spiritual Dynamics!!
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
DICTIONARY MEANING:
Spiritual – relating to our human Spirit (add Biblical meaning in here)
Dynamics - the forces or properties that stimulate growth, development, or change within a system or process. Dynamics in music, Dynamic personality. The Word Dunumus – Greek for Dynomite
APPLIED MEANING:
To quote Phil “Spiritual dynamics is as aerodynamics to gravity, so spiritual dynamics to depravity” (moral corruption, wickedness). Huh? To break this down for you it means that as we apply the principles of living a life where we function in the supernatural is a life where we do overcome depravity, just as aerodynamics allows an aircraft to overcome gravity. Spiritually every day as that is what we are called to engage in, going from glory to glory, functioning in the spiritual dynamics of living a supernatural life overcoming our circumstances. Not in our own strength.
Cast your mind over so many of the movies in the last years from Harry Potter, the twilight vampire series, to Spiderman, Batman, terminator, Superman, Thor series, Divergent, The Maze Runner, Wolverine, X Men, Shanara, and now of course Black Panther …. What do they all have in common? People who have special powers. Well guess what? When we are baptized in the Spirit we have access to the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit which is greater than them all combined.
HOLY SPIRIT JESUS DYNAMICS
But first lets talk about dynamics in our great example Jesus…
Holy Spirit moved dynamically in the life of Jesus
Matthew 4: 1-10; Jesus was tempted physically, mentally and Spiritually – and he overcame Satan by the Sword of the Spirit – the Word of God
John 1 – 2:10 turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana,
Matthew 4: 24 –Jesus healed them all, sick, tormented, those possessed with devils and lunaticks,
Also instances of feeding the 5000, on more than one occasion, cleansing lepers, giving sight to the blind, getting money out of the mouth of a fish, raising the dead, he was taken up in a cloud, appeared in the upper room where the disciples were praying in locked rooms, walked on the water, calmed the storms and waves, the boat was teleported to land, word of knowledge for the woman at the well, words of wisdom in dealing with the Pharisees on many occasions, …
HOLY SPIRIT EARLY CHURCH DYNAMICS
Acts 1:4-5: 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.”
Acts 2:4 “they spoke with tongues” - THEN went on to preach the gospel of Jesus boldly where many thousands were saved
Acts 3: 2 - 11 “A certain man lame from his mothers womb…” “took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his ankles received strength, 8: leaping up, stood and walked into the temple”
Acts 5: 15 and 16 “they brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. 16: there came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits; and they were healed EVERY ONE”.
HOLY SPIRIT NOW DYNAMICS
Some modern day examples : Reinhard Bonnke, Heidi Baker to mention a couple
Romans 8: 11 “If the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you He will quicken your mortal bodies”.
Acts 1:8: 8 "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.”
Acts 2:38: “and Peter said “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
HOW?
1. RECEIVE
John 3: 1- 5 - You must be Born Again
1 Corinthians 2:9 - eye has not seen, neither has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” …only by the Spirit
Acts 2: 38 “Repent and be baptized every one of youin the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”
SEEK AFTER THE GIFTS
Luke 11:11 -13 “.. how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
1 Corinthians 14:1 “and desire spiritual gifts.”
1 Corinthians 14:40 “let all things be done … decently and in order”.
For more info on the gifts we have this in our foundation series.
I am saying that if you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues then that is just the beginning. You have been given gifts.
1 Corinthians 12:11 “But all these work that one and the same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will”.
It may well be that you have these gifts, but you haven’t opened them yet or recognized them.
RECOGNIZE THE GIFT
God knows we are mere mortals and I have experienced some kind of physical manifestation often which you come to learn and know in time as you exercise the gift.
Examples of physical manifestations:
Healing – heat in your hands, or on a part of the body that the Holy Spirit wants to heal
Compassion – feeling of wanting to cry, pain / burden – for me this is a sign to pray most often, God may reveal more for you to pray about and then maybe to look for His opportunity to share and encourage that person
Demonic – Freezing cold, sometimes a crash or sense of cold wind, sense that something is not right
Prophecy - a quickening of the Spirit, heart beat speeds up, a feeling of boldness may come over you
Visions - usually come on without warning and are vivid. I can clearly recall some of the good – and bad visions I have had years ago
Faith - a download of KNOWING God will do something. Your perspective changes in an instant of time from “ God please do this ” to “God I KNOW you are going to do this”.
Dreams – sequential, clear, concise, the right people at the right place at the right time
Gift of Tongues – often a quickening , sudden change in tongues and a realization /understanding of the words in English provided (interpretation)
Word of Knowledge and words of wisdom- words may pop into your head and seem to be ‘louder than usual self talk’ and they repeat themselves until one realizes it may just be God!
RELEASE
Takes listening, being bold, moving out in faith.
The Baptism in the Spirit is a real key to releasing the power of God in our lives.
While there are different teachings about the gift of tongues what I see in the Bible is that when folks (Jews and gentiles) were baptized in the Spirit they ALL spoke in tongues.
When we pray in tongues, we are building ourselves up.
1 Corinthians 14:4: He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edified himself;
Now we have this interesting aspect of release, releasing the Holy Spirit into the atmosphere. Remember, we are working with spiritual dynamics, as we saw in Romans 8: we are in the law of the Spirit of Christ Jesus, that means we have overcome depravity: that moral corruptness, wickedness that the law of sin and death held us to. We can overcome that because we are releasing the gift and power of the Holy Spirit into every aspect of our lives, every nook and cranny of our hearts, taking captive every thought, feeling, and habit.
When we receive a gift, we don’t usually hide it away, we are so excited about the gift, that we want to share it with others, we want to show everyone “look at this amazing gift that I received”, having the mindset, “let me tell you about this amazing gift I received”, that’s one aspect of releasing.
How do we release the Holy Spirit, how do we function in the power of the Holy Spirit?
-- Living a life of worship: Romans 12:1 NLT: And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be living and holy sacrifice- the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him John 6 v 63? God’s word is Spirit. .
Fasting: Luke 4:1-14: Power of the Holy Spirit. Christ spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness being tempted by Satan. After those forty days and nights, verse 14 says “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside”
As Esther reminded us, fasting can be a powerful tool for us to function and release the power of the Holy Spirit, we have to remember that we must have a purpose in the fast, we read in Luke that Jesus entered his 40 day/night fast FILLED with the Spirit, but finished the fast with the POWER of the Spirit. Fasting is used to empower us because it’s reminding us that we need to rely on God, always, we are called to deny ourselves because we don’t have the power to overcome sin, God does, through Christ's death on the cross, we receive the Holy Spirit so we can overcome our sin with God and get filled with the POWER of the Holy Spirit.
To exercise spiritual dynamics, we need to develop our capacity to function in the operation of
the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11 "The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all. To some people the Spirit gives a message of wisdom. To others the same Spirit gives a message of knowledge. To others the same Spirit gives faith. To others that one Spirit gives gifts of healing. To others he gives the power to do miracles. To others he gives the ability to prophesy. To others he gives the ability to tell the spirits apart. To others he gives the ability to speak in different kinds of languages they had not known before. And to still others he gives the ability to explain what was said in those languages. All the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives gifts to each person, just as he decides."
1 cor 14 - for believers and unbelievers
Ephesians 5:18: And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;Singing songs, hymns, prophesying, praising God. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Colossians 3:16: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
REST
As we rest in God, powerful dynamic resting in the Lord rather than our own strength. It is God who does the work. Let Him do it!
Acts 5:1-10 Story of Peter and Ananias and Sapphira. This is the story of Peter preaching the word into a situation. The Holy Spirit did the conviction and response.
CONCLUSION
- If you are not born again now is the time to ask Jesus into your life
- If you are born again, then you are born of the Spirit, the next step is to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 6 : 1-3 “the doctrine of baptisms”)
- If you are already a tongues talking Christian, then you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit! Woo hoo!! That means God has given you some gifts. If you are not operating in any of them then I hope this has helped you to get a hunger to step into the supernatural! Seek after the gifts, listen, expect to receive, boldly release and rest to see what God will do.
- If you do move in the gifts, you can ask for more. Jesus said “Greater things than these shall you do, because I go to the Father!!