Manifesting Presence of the Holy Spirit

John 3:1-12 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

Here was a man, this Nicodemus, who was trying to figure it out. He was thinking. Nothing wrong with thinking, but he was thinking with an earthly mindset which was incapable of understanding heavenly things. He was seriously trying to grasp with his own mental ability the answers to who Jesus was and how one can be reborn.

Conclusion or Revelation

Nicodemus was incapable of hearing as God defined hearing. Hearing and seeing the Kingdom of God is a supernatural ability, not a natural ability. To see and understand the things of the Kingdom of God requires Kingdom knowledge through the revealed Word. Kingdom knowledge only comes by way of Kingdom revelation.

Kingdom revelation comes only by the manifest Presence of the Holy Spirit who comes and brings such knowledge. The Holy Spirit testifies revelation of the Word, who is Jesus. Only those born of the Spirit and baptized into the Spirit can understand it. Only those moving in the manifest Presence can comprehend Kingdom stuff. This is why Jesus speaks of the Spirit before making this statement. Everyone born of the Spirit must move in the Spirit.

The only way to gain spiritual Kingdom truth is to be revealed to it by the Holy Spirit. I cannot conclude Kingdom knowledge by reason, I must be revealed to it.

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.

The definition of “all” is all! What then does this say of anything that is concluded outside of revelation? If the Holy Spirit is the one who brings all truth, then there is no truth of any Kingdom value at all that has not first been revealed. This is a critical understanding for the days we are in.

We must cease trying to figure God out in our own thinking and let the Revealer of mysteries bring us the truth that Father wants us to understand and that Jesus speaks.

One can read the Bible all day long and gain nothing. One can ask questions all day long, get good answers, and never gain God’s key point of value. One can even see the miraculous of God and reject it. In such cases is what God means when He says,

Deut 29:2-4 Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Your eyes have seen all that the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders. But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.

So it was with Israel, so it is with all who love the Lord today. We must be given the ability to understand Kingdom truth.

Dan 2:26-29 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?” Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed are these: “As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen.

The Kingdom of God is a mystery. The Holy Spirit is the great revealer of it. And Jesus’ complete work of the cross made the way for us to gain it.

Who can understand it of the human mind? It’s up there and we’re down here. What is real up there is so vastly in excess or superior to what we know down here. But Christ died on the cross so that we would be given the Holy Spirit, the Councilor who would lead us into all truth.

Understanding does not bring faith. Faith brings understanding. The mind, rightly used must first be in submission, and then comes revelation. This is what Christ meant when He said to take on the yoke whose burden is easy. Revelation knowledge leads to an understanding that Kingdom things are easy…

Matt 11:29-30 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I can read the word of God and still completely miss what God is trying to say to me. Even the devil knows the word of God. Rather, it is by faith and revelation that I can understand what the Lord wants me to know. It is by faith I can heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead. It is by faith that we can see thousands of souls saved in a day. It is by faith that we gain revelation of the Kingdom of God and then move in it. None of these things happen by the works or effort of the human mind.

It is by faith that we give God control of our meetings. It is by faith that we let Him lead without fear of the enemy or the flesh and without fear of loosing control. It is by faith that we fall to the floor in His Presence and receive. It is by faith that the joy of the Spirit is released in a place.

But now I hear the Lord saying it again and again, “Why do you not believe?” Today, He speaks this same question to church leadership. Is it not true that the church can only go as far as a leadership has faith?

Faith in works is a dead faith. Faith without works is a dead faith.

Rom 10:17-18 …faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

1 Cor 2:10-16 …but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

The word revealed results in a faith that justifies outside of works. It is from this position that faith results in amazing deeds! Everything depends on revelation knowledge and then agreement with it.

Right faith, in alignment with God’s radical ways and supernatural truths, is the only way to reap a supernatural reward. These are the radical men and woman of God that are being forged in this hour. It is a leadership like this that will lead their people into amazing exploits. Stories that will be told throughout the ages will come from a people such as this!

Will we believe for the radical harvest? Will we believe for the sick made well, that demons will flee, and that dead people will come to life? Will we believe that we need the Presence to do these things so that Jesus gains great glory? Or, will we continue in our own thinking and our own dead religious meaningless ways? Will we interpret the sign of the time with our own thinking or by revelation?

God says, “Will it be us apart, or us together? Do you believe?”

For many who are in Heaven and all who are in hell, the answer to this very question will most likely be answered as follows: “I didn’t know. No one told me.”

God’s answer might be, “No, you were told. You just did not have ears to hear.”

For those in hell, how tragic is this error!

But for those in Heaven who did not have ears to hear beyond their salvation, how great was that loss as well! Yes, they had a faith that gained them a home with the Father. But they had no ears to hear the deeper things of God. They never graduated off the baby’s bottle. They did not understand that they could have reaped a great harvest. How great is the loss when God wanted them to go deep into the radical things of the Holy Spirit when they had no ears to hear!

Now here we are on earth, between Heaven and Hell. In a period of time that is as short as a grain of sand is small. It is our hour. It is our time. How will we respond? Will we lay it all down, or will we proceed in the pride of our own thinking?

So What Does it Look Like?

Here is a prophetic word that I know is true and correct:

Miracles are coming, healings are coming, and joy is coming. The dead will be raised, and for those who believe, they will see thousands of souls saved in a day. But what does that all look like? What does the Kingdom of God look like with our natural eyes? No one can see the Holy Spirit. No one can see a cancer or a demon come out of a person. No one can see the inner workings of the Spirit in a dead body that causes it to come back to life! All we see are a people drunk on the new wine of the Holy Spirit! Consider Peter’s response to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost:

Acts 2:14-17 “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

But then we will be confronted with the question, especially those in leadership positions: “Well, what do you think about this manifestation? Do you believe this is me? Do you believe I am doing a radical work or do you just see the outward offensiveness of one who seems drunk?”

God is always in the business of testing our senses and offendability. He is always one to use those most unlikely to be used and to do other than what we might think! But He does this for a very important reason. Among many other issues, Father is checking the leadership to see who is in control.

We have a fleshly brain in our natural body, given to us as a part of our soul. God gave it to us to be used for His purpose. We have been given a freedom to think as we see fit and choose as we see fit. And God never violates this liberty. Oh how critical our choices in this life are! By our choice, we can either invite the Holy Spirit or reject Him.

But God has asked us to yoke our minds to the mind of Christ. We connect our natural minds to the supernatural mind of Christ. It is only then that we can see supernatural things. It is a state of complete dependence. It is a way of doing without an agenda and without the need to be in control. Independence is a deadly lifeless way!

Mark 8:22-25 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

There is such wisdom in this scripture! Jesus saw fit to open this man’s spiritual vision before healing him of natural blindness. How much more important it is for us to be revealed to supernatural Kingdom things rather than to base what we know upon what we see in the natural!

God has called us into a state of complete dependency. Independence is what got Lucifer kicked out of heaven. For the very root of independence is pride.

Why then do we have to figure it out? If I have the answers, I have put God into the little tiny box of religious fleshly conclusion. I have based my conclusions on earthly experiences of what I see, taste, touch, hear and smell… or in the vain imagination of what I presume.

Revelation is of the Spirit through my spirit and then into my brain. That is upright man. Earthly knowledge is of the flesh through my flesh and of my brain, and that is man out of order. Therefore earthly conclusions have no connection to the spirit and thus His Holy Spirit.

We are supposed to be supernatural beings. When we give our minds over to Christ, He starts to show us wonderful things supernaturally. We then gain supernatural revelations and experiences. We then have testimonies that we can speak before the spiritually hungry and thirsty that release power. They receive it in the same way I got it… namely revelation knowledge through the Spirit.

We start to overcome the world so that Jesus can have His harvest; the reward for His sufferings. We start to see miracles, healings and radical understanding that so far exceed the smallness of what we think! God gains glory in ways that we can never muster of ourselves.

God is the revealer of all mysteries.

So then how will we respond to Father God when He asks us, “Why did you not believe?”

Today, there stands before us a choice. God never overrides our right to freely choose. What is before us today is a harvest of one or a harvest of thousands, a hospital of dieing people or an empty hospital, and demonic spirits of death going around making a mockery of God or them fleeing from our cities in seven directions under the power of God’s Presence. What stands before us today is despair or joy…. division or peace…..anger or love….. fear or hope. We have a choice today to live in the poverty of the intellect of the world, or the riches of the knowledge of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Stands before you is your choice, will you believe in faith for these radical ways or question in doubt?

How great is the loss when we in the church silence the supernaturally radical for form of worldly protectionism and order.

How great is the loss when our disbelief results in little real Kingdom understanding and little earthly fruit. How great is the loss when our failure to listen and trust in the supernatural results in a tiny harvest.

How great is the loss when our failure as a church to hear the deep things of God means that many who might have been saved languish in hell as a result.

A Last Thought Regarding Lazarus.

When Jesus was crying at the tomb of Lazarus, I am convinced he was not crying for Lazarus. Jesus was about to restore Lazarus back to life. So for Jesus, there was no loss regarding this Lazarus whom He was about to restore. No, I think Jesus was crying for a different, far more serious reason. I believe Jesus was crying because this dead Lazarus was symbolic of the dead church all down through the ages.

John 11:38-40 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

Jesus restored Lazarus because many wanted him to be alive, not the least of whom was Jesus Himself. They grieved over their loss. Lazarus’ work on earth, though, was yet to be done. But Jesus grieved over the far greater loss that He foreknew. I believe that Jesus was crying for all the lost souls all through the years that could have been saved that were not because of generations of dead, Spiritless, lifeless, religious and ineffective church. “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

This is a heavy word. But now is the time to die to everything we hold dear… to all that holds us back. Now is the time to wipe the slate clean and start afresh. It is NEVER too late.

Now is the time to do away with the age old religious chains whose name is engraved on every link…. “OUR YESTERDAYS.” Now is the time to be made hungry and thirsty again for the fresh waters of life that satisfy our thirst and then their thirst.

You know we must be filled first before others can be filled.

We have nothing to fear if the Holy Spirit is leading our meetings. Then we will know where to steer the church God has given us. Then we will know where the attacks are coming from. Then we will gain the anointing power to be used of by God to do great exploits.

There will be thousands of arguments against letting go. The devil is fast at work against the Spirit filled church because he knows that these are God’s greatest weapons against him. Every good sounding argument will be leveled against the radical ways of the Spirit. But just how big is the devil anyway against the power and fierce zeal of our God?

If God is really in control of our meetings, by what power can the devil override God? (Likewise if we are in control of our meetings but God is not, which scenario is the devil more likely to be in control of… God’s meetings or ours?) If God created satan, what of anything might the devil try to do that we should fear? Perfect love casts out fear, and perfect love is supernatural.

Should we not reconcile ourselves to this issue now rather that in Heaven when it will be too late? The final question is this: “Will you choose to have faith for this new thing?”

Submitted with heartfelt humility and love,

T Scott Morton
tscottmorton.wordpress.com
tscottmorton@hotmail.com