Manifesting Presence of the Holy Spirit

Ep 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

If this Ephesians scripture true, it references a power that we are supposed to be strong in. But what power does the world see in the church today? Why is there but little evident power in the church today?

In order to answer this question, we must first understand what and who this power is.

The power of the Christ, who also is the same power that is supposed to manifest in the church is he the Holy Spirit.

All power belongs to God and is given to us to use according to his desire and purpose. We can do nothing in our own power because right power is only his to give. The war we fight is spiritual and which then requires spiritual supernatural power to be successful in the fight. Therefore in order to succeed, we must appropriate the ability to do so. We must then understand that of our own we are unable. Of our own, we will lose the fight.

We own or possess no power. But we operate in God’s power as a willfully submitted conduit according to his will and timing. Therefore any release of power from the Father into us by the Holy Spirit occurs in those who are furthering his Kingdom purpose only when he chooses to anoint or endue us with power. The key then to right release of power within me is to know his will and be in submission to every authority that he has given me. The basis behind this authority and the essence of which this authority resides is love. Love is the very fullness of everything in the Kingdom. The revelation and manifestation of love then is the root of all power in heaven and on earth.

Holy Spirit

Rev 19:1b Salvation and glory and power belong to our God…

1Co 12:11 All these (supernatural gifts) are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

The power of the Holy Spirit is the power that was clearly evident in the first church. He is the power of Pentecost, the power of the cross. In him is the power by which we are supposed to be able to:

Mt 10:7-8 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

When the Holy Spirit shows up in power, the Kingdom of heaven has come near. When the Holy Spirit shows up, the mind of Christ is made known. When the mind of Christ has been made known, the will of Father God has been revealed. They are each God and they are all as one. This is the ultimate demonstration of the authority of the Kingdom, that three parts of God can be one in unity and submission. The fullness of the Kingdom of God is dependant on this chain of authority between Father, Son and Spirit.

Interestingly though, because they each prefer each other, that authority is not vertical, it is lateral. Even more, one might see that this authority can be seen as vertical in the reverse! Since the Spirit does nothing but what the Son says, the Spirit has lowered himself below Christ in humility. Since the Son does nothing but what the Father says, so it is that he has lowered himself for the same purpose. In reality, there is no one of the three above the other. They are the perfect personification of love that prefers the other over themselves. The end result is a moving wheel of love that is not lopsided at any part. None of the three take a greater position than the other.

True love operates in this way. And so is it that true authority should. We prefer each other above self. Therefore true authority looks up to those we serve, unlike the world that condescends. The result is the power of perfect love. The result is a manifestation of the heart that releases anointing to do what no person can do of their own.

True power absolutely requires the power of perfect love.

So it is with us. When we are under this kind of authority, the Kingdom comes near, power is released, and love is made known. And again, love is the start and finish of it all.

I am convinced; this is the hour that Father God is renewing the mind of the church by the Holy Spirit. He is restoring us by instilling in leadership a consciousness of need for this power to be restored back into the church. He is causing church leadership to be curious, hungry and thirsty for deeper intimacy with the Lord. He is doing this because he wants his church to know of his love the way he meant for us to know him since the first church. This restoration of the revelation of the Father’s heart of love leads to a byproduct of power. In such a way, power is not the focus, Jesus becomes the focus. Why? In a word, love. He loves us. The power of love has the ultimate result of revealing this great love in revelation form.

Love leads to anointing and power. Power produces revelation knowledge. The revelation leads to love. So the fullness of love is manifested and revealed in power. Without the power, it must stand to reason then that there is a great measure of loving missing.

Talent or Anointing?

There is such an evident fear that manipulates the church away from these radical spiritual miraculous things.

However, perfect love casts out all fear.

I Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

All power is released by the Holy Spirit. But because the church is all but devoid of the Holy Spirit, there is little or no power in the church. In such a place, fear runs rampant.

In such places, what remains is only the best man can do by talent alone. There is little or no anointing to empower the call. Our love becomes the love of man, which is at best flawed.

Paul told the Roman Gentiles:

Ro 15:18-19 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit.

How could Paul have convinced anyone about anything spiritual without the power of the Holy Spirit to make him able? And we’re not talking about just the revealed word here; we are talking about signs and miracles!

Again Paul says:

1Co 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

And Paul again says:

1Co 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 men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

The church is strongly exhorted in the following words:

1Co 4:20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

Why is Power Missing?

So why then is power all but missing from the church? One very important issue is a lack of faith that is based in fear. We tend to fear failure. We tend to fear what people think of us. We tend to fear that we are in error by moving into a former unknown thing. We fear change. We fear the devil. We fear the Lord even in unrighteous ways.

There is a great balance to fear. We are not to fear a thing in the world. But we are to fear the Lord. There is a point of balance between gripping fear and godly fear. We are not to have any gripping fear, but we are to be in fear of the Lord.

But perfect love casts out all fear. What fear? Gripping fear. Perfect love also makes way for the righteous fear of the Lord. For it is true that the basis for “the fear of the Lord” is not found in a cowering fear, but in an intimate love relationship that causes me to so love the Father and the Son that I fear him in love. So perfect love casts out all fear and sets me up in the fear of the Lord, which is love! Perfect love brings into balance the issue of fear in line with Kingdom truth.

Kingdom Balance

Perfect love manifests in the church a restoration of “balance” in all ministry works within the Body.

Now I understand that the term “balance” is a four-letter word to some spiritual leaders, but read carefully how I define Kingdom balance below before you shut down on this point?

Perfect love reveals Kingdom truth. Kingdom truth has nothing to do with the world and its physical laws. Therefore it has nothing to do with worldly reason. This revelation of Kingdom truth sheds light on God’s points of truth in whatever areas the Lord wills to show it. We come to a place of understanding any point of Kingdom truth and how radically different it is from the ways of the world. Therefore, the definition the Lord establishes for any point of truth is radically different from the world’s point of truth. The world calls it’s point of truth balance. The Lord calls his point of truth “truth”. The Lord’s truth is always different from the point of balance that the world has defined. So as the world defines a point of balance, that point rarely if ever is identical to God’s point of truth on the same issue.

In the world, balance is compromise. It is Yin and Yang. It is a half way between two extremes. It accepts the good with the bad. It is ungodly. But God’s balance is like a pinpointed lightning strike! It is always radical and Kingdom spiritual, and which can only be revealed, not concluded. Kingdom truth has no connection to worldly truths. In fact the worldly mind cannot comprehend Godly truth. The worldly mind is incapable of understanding Kingdom truth. It must first be yoked to the Spirit and dead to self before revelation can be made. Independence causes blindness to Kingdom truth. Dependence opens the door to Kingdom truth.

Why is this discussion so important? Because in order to be restored to the power moves of God in the church, we must first be revealed to how important it is for us to succeed by way of new and fresh revelation. We must be revealed to God’s point of truth regarding this power of which I speak. We must have a paradigm shift in the knowledge of God’s points of truth as they relate to the manifestation and purpose of the Holy Spirit in the church!

We must come to an understanding that this love is far more powerful that the world thinks or even can comprehend. We must come to the understanding that this love is the root of all deeper wisdom, knowledge and power; the very Kingdom of God manifesting in and upon us in the church and which is available for us here and now.

Faith

In the revelation of this great love, each person is revealed to his or her place. Manifested perfect love, as revealed into the church by the Holy Spirit reveals the fact that no one is disqualified to either give or receive out of the abundance of it. Therefore the one and two talent people in the church should not be held back, but encouraged to express their anointing as revealed by the Spirit in the church.

However the reality in today’s church is that perfect love is not yet fully manifested. And so we deal with the flesh in our members and in the church Body. The result is that we all struggle with measures of fear both in our lives and in the church.

As a child, there was a covering over me. I loved easily and without a fear of man. The days were endless and there was no anxiety. But as an adult, I came out from under my generational coverage and into a place of responsibility to accept Christ of my own volition. It became incumbent upon me to have faith in all things. The depths of my spiritual understanding became a matter of my own right choices. As well, the measure of my error manifested by my wrong choices.

I needed to find the Holy Spirit just as I needed to find Christ. As with my necessity for faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit required also my faith in him to reap from him. I came under the effects of my flesh and unbelief that we all deal with. I was faced with the choice to accept the supernatural or not.

John 14:16-17 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever– the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

As an adult, I not only needed Christ, I needed the Spirit both in me and with me for both salvation and effectiveness in the here and now. Jesus became my all in all. But the Spirit became my power and revelator for the here and now. As it was in the first church, so it is today. As if Jesus was standing before us in the flesh, he asks each of us today, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you first believed?”

Acts 19:1-6 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

When they heard of the need for baptism into the Holy Spirit, they believed and then were baptized. Faith for the Spirit was born in them. Only after did they receive the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.

Rom 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

So therefore, all thing overcoming and all things regarding my growth in the here and now require me to accept in faith, to receive and then to flow in the River of the Holy Spirit. He brings to me the manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth.

John 16:13-15 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

Without him, I am unable to move into spiritual maturity. Without him I am unable to overcome the flesh within me. Without him, I am unable to enter into a state of effectiveness in this world. Without him, I am left with the far inferior mind of man within me to decide what is right and true. Without him, I can never hit the benchmark of spiritual truth in any Kingdom understanding. Without him, I am like a dart thrower who has been blindfolded. Imagine the mess I make when I start to throw the darts towards what I think is the center point of truth!

Mercy and Grace

God is not asking for perfection in us regarding this way of independence. Even with the Holy Spirit, I cannot enter into perfection in these things while in this world. For still, while in this world, we will be dealing with troubles of every kind. As the word says, there is no one who has not sinned, no not one. And we have all fallen short of the glory of God. Praise God for the sacrifice Christ made for me! Oh how I need him daily!

The gap between perfection and our individual way of life is called “mercy.” The power of repentance and restoration for our imperfections that was born on the cross for us is called “grace.” And so as in Nahum Chapter 2, we the warriors of God stumble along the way. That is OK with God. He just wants us to get up, dust off and in repentance move on.

2 Cor 6:4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses…

Phil 4:13-14 I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.

So as to fear, we will never be perfect in the overcoming of it. Yet in all things, I can do anything in Christ who strengthens me. We are perfectly loved and perfectly saved, and perfectly covered… in an imperfect body that is in an imperfect world. The result will be troubles. Though momentary and meaningless, we deal with them. How? By perfect love.

Included in this perfect love is mercy for mistakes and powerful grace to overcome.

Oh how great is the need to the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in all we do today! Now not only do we need the Spirit to manifest revelation knowledge of Christ, but also to overcome our momentary troubles to remain free and in joy!

When I surrender my all in faith to Jesus and in the Holy Spirit, these things are revealed to me. But the flesh curse I deal with that came to me from Adam, the knowledge of good and evil, that thing that works in my members and wars against me, constantly attempts to minister fear into my soul. It is by this that I fear in an ungodly way. But praise the Lord for the manifestation of the River of God! In the Spirit, I am constantly renewed day by day in my mind by the revelation of joy and love and the mind of Christ given me by the Holy Spirit.

2 Cor 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Fears have to flee in the River of God! Perfect love is manifested in his Presence! Perfect love casts out all fear.

In the River I am shifted and aligned. In the River I am healed and restored. In the River all things are made new. In the River I am given unto the power of perfect love upon me. In the River the Kingdom of God comes near me.

It’s like a wheel. I go round and round. I go into the Presence, then into the world. I get knocked around a bit by the world, certain ungodly things stick to me. Then I come in again, as an act of my will, back into His Presence. I get cleaned up, re-revealed to his love, and anointed anew. Then I go back into the world, back into the Presence, back into the world, then into his Presence and then back into the world once again. Round and round I go in the great circle of life as a man of God. I move from freedom to freedom, from love to love, from glory to glory, in the ever increasing revelation of Father God upon me and within me that sets me up to overcome and reap! Faith, hunger, love, power, then ability. Then it starts all over again. Surrounding all of this is love.

In the River of God comes the revelation of love. The revelation of love casts out all fear. In such a way of going, in all things I am able in Christ, who by the Holy Spirit just then made me able in all things. If I don’t go in again and again, I will miss the new release I need desperately.

So then all things of the Holy Spirit are first a revelation of love. Everything of the Kingdom manifests from this benchmark of revelation truth. This is why the greatest commandment is to love. If I am ever to understand anything of the economy of the Kingdom of God in this lifetime, it first requires a healthy revelation of perfect love. Now I know that contrary to the voice of the world that say either “you can’t” or “you can but in your own power”, I can! And that not of my own, but based upon a dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God, that River to which I must return again and again.

Faith without works is dead. Works without Kingdom power is meaningless. Kingdom power without love is unavailable. As such, we are called to do the work. But the road to supernatural Kingdom success can only be seen or known through one’s eyes of love.

Self Death (Dependence)

In speaking of the end times, the Lord warns us about residences of faith without power:

2Ti 3:5 …having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

We are told of the Spirit by whom we have the following:

2Ti 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Like the author of Philemon, I want to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection!

Phl 3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…

I want to be so dead to self that Christ can be alive in me in power. Power then manifests from a place of submission. Submission manifests from a heart that is faithful and a mind yoked first under the authority of the Father and Son, second to the church and then to those in the world to whom the person serves. All these things require selflessness. They require that I be emptied of my will.

Kingdom revealed authority releases power (not authority as man defines it). The willingness to submit to authority is found in a heart of love and then obedience to Father God. The fullness of such submission is found in selflessness.

1Jn 2:1-5 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him…

Perfect love is a supernatural supply of “life essence” from heaven. There is no natural perfect love. The only place perfect love is made, established and released from is in the Presence of the Lord. It comes to us from the Kingdom of God. This is quit possibly the very reason God asks us to pray this in the first sentence of the Lord’s Prayer. God takes measures of it from up there and gives it down here into the world through his church.

Ep 3:17b-18…And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…

Love is revealed in the power of the Spirit.

Col 1:8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Paul is complimenting the love of the Colossians by stating that their excellence in love as having come “in the Spirit”.

Why did Paul say, “your love in the Spirit?” Why did he not simply commend them on their “love”? Why did he add the words “in the Spirit?” Could it be that the primary place to remain in right love is in the presence of the Spirit? Could it be that for love to be rightly expressed, the Spirit is the key? I am certain this is true.

Any form of “love” outside of the presence of the Holy Spirit can only be lacking at very best. In fact the world really does not know love outside the revelation of the Father’s heart for mankind. The farther away from godliness it goes, perversion sets in. In reality, any form of love that is not in perfect love is perverted to one extent or another.

Perversion is defined in Webster’s like this:

1a: to cause to turn aside or away from what is good or true or morally right : CORRUPT
b: to cause to turn aside or away from what is generally done or accepted : MISDIRECT
2a: to divert to a wrong end or purpose : MISUSE
b: to twist the meaning or sense of : MISINTERPRET

This is the very language of the enemy of God. It is the very purpose of the devil to take what is so important to the Father and to falsify it so as to disqualify it. We have an enemy that wants to cause us and the world to be lost in false truth. How does he do this? He works to cause the church to take what is so important to God and cause the church to believe that it is not important, even worse, not right.

If perfect love casts out all fear, then the enemy is going to do everything he can to cause perfect love to be misunderstood. If where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom, then the enemy of God will do whatever he can to put the fire of the Spirit out in the church to establish bondage.

It is for this reason that the revelation of perfect love is so come against in the world and in the minds of people. Perfect love releases the power of the Lord. The release of Kingdom love into the world brings the fullness of God’s Kingdom power into the world. The devil gets forcibly displaced when perfect love manifests into the world! Manifestations of evil is directly come against. The result is a step closer for the enemy towards the lake of eternal fire.

Kingdom wisdom starts with revelation love. By this wisdom the enemy will be defeated every time. Though we deal with troubles of every kind, in reality, the enemy is forced out of the way or backwards as we supernaturally reap a harvest for Jesus Christ!

As such, perfect love is our sacrifice for him!

Conclusion

The closer we move towards perfect love in these last days, the closer we come to literally touching the face and heart of the Father. In such a place, the power of the Kingdom begins to manifest on earth. This whole thing is all about intimacy! In such a place, no fear may reside!

This is what the Lord wants of us. This is the progression. Be thirsty and faithful that there is more. Seek the Presence, and wait for him to come. Become filled with his Spirit. In that place of wonderful joy, become revealed to the fact that he first loved you with an unfailing love. Be made known to what he thinks of you even in your flawed state. Be made known to the revelation of grace. Love him in return with the sacrifice of you flesh and soul. Die to self. Submit to the authority of the Father and then of the church. Then start it all over again by returning to the River again and again.

If it is true that “of the increase of the government (Kingdom) of God there is no end” (Isaiah 9:7), then enough is never enough! There will always be more to be had.

Certainly it can also be said that no man has seen all there is of God. If the greatest a person has ever attained is a grain of sand, then the greatness of God through us is like a beach full of sand, the grains of which cannot be counted.

Who then is any person to think that he or she has attained to the fullness of all knowledge? The point is that there will always be something to be revealed to. We will always need to go back into the River to gain the new thing, the next thing. This is so very important.

If it is true that the body requires regular hydration, then so it also is that the soul and the church Body requires regular spiritual hydration found only in the River of living water. Lest I go spiritually bone dry, I must come back to the River again and again to drink.

Wait for him by worshiping in love until the presence falls? Soak in him until he is thru? Don’t look at your watch as you seek the Father? Then move out in power, under the authority of the call and under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Reap your harvest.

If perfect love casts out all fear, then no worldly thing can possibly stand against a Kingdom warrior such as this!

Ep 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

The power of perfect love…