Manifesting Presence of the Holy Spirit

 

In warfare, a good commander studies his enemy enough to know where the greatest, most effective targets of opportunity are. When the commander finds these targets, he prioritizes them with highest effort. As the Christian church is at war against the powers of evil, the church filled with the Holy Spirit is such a place. For, if by the Holy Spirit, 3000 souls can be saved in one day, such a place is of great importance to the Kingdom of God.

It is for this very reason that there is so much confusion as to the modern day workings of the Holy Spirit on earth. If the enemy of God can convince the church that there is no longer a need for the full manifestations of the Holy Spirit, he succeeds in rendering the church mostly ineffective. Sadly, satan has been very successful at doing so. But this is changing.

 

Power of Perfect Love

 

1 Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.

Love is a thing to be experienced in as full a measure as we can hope for here on earth, by faith. In Heaven we will literally be surrounded by this love that is so strong that no evil thing could possibly reside in such a place. Love is the power behind the light. As it is this light that chases darkness away, so it is that Perfect Love destroys all works of evil. Jesus is the Light of life. He is God’s greatest manifestation of love. Today, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. He comes to us by way of the Holy Spirit.

Here on earth we reside in a place mostly devoid of Kingdom perfect love. At best we express a partial love, for lack of a better term. For if the fullness of love were to be expressed on earth, everything evil would be utterly destroyed.

When Jesus came to earth, it was the greatest expression of love right in our presence. He lived and expressed the Father’s heart directly to man for a short period of time. He paid our price for sin and then returned to the Father. But, He made a promise for all mankind all thru the ages who would love Him from the heart:

John 14:16-18 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. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Why did Jesus identify two manifestations of the Spirit? Why did He say, “with you” (current tense), “and will be in you” (future tense)?

Jesus said to the apostles, paraphrased, “I have been God right in your face. I have told you the truth in simple words. But I have to go now and die on the cross. Then I will go back to my Father’s side. In a little while you will no longer see me. But I will not leave you as orphans. I will not leave you alone without a way to be connected to me, or to the Kingdom of God. I will give you the Revelator who will express our hearts. He will lead you into all truth.”

Acts 1:8-9 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.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Jesus said that we would be His witnesses. What would we witness to the world? What is it that Jesus would empower us to do… miracles, signs wonders? Yes… but far greater than that, Kingdom manifested love! The radical manifestation of signs, miracles and wonders follow the manifestation of love. They testify to love. The focus of our seeking of this Holy Spirit truly is the seeking of intimacy. How could we witness to this love but by the outward manifestation of the Holy Spirit upon a people who have the Holy Spirit within. Love therefore is the primary ministry of the Holy Spirit. And true love comes only through revelation and then a release of it.

This is why Jesus asked us to pray:

“Our Father, who is in Heaven. Holy is your Name. Your Kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!”

Jesus directed us to first acknowledge God as a Father. Second to praise His wonderful Name. Then to make the first request of Him, “Father God, bring down here to us your Kingdom… as it is where you are in Heaven!”

The Kingdom of God in nothing like the Kingdom of this world. God’s ways are so much higher, radical and different than our ways! Therefore it must be brought to us through revelation if we are ever to understand the ways of God!

How do we gain the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven? How do we gain this love revelation? The Holy Spirit upon us.

 

In and Upon

 

There are critically important differences between the Holy Spirit within a person and the Holy Spirit upon a person. Of all the understandings of theology, this very issue might well be the most important understanding of all.

If this understanding is not understood and enacted upon, the result will be religious lifelessness within the Body of Christ. The devil knows this well. For, the Holy Spirit is the power that destroys his works on earth. This is why he targets these issues with great effort.

Most every church understands what it is to have the Holy Spirit in a person. But there is a great misunderstanding of the ongoing need for the Holy Spirit manifestations upon the person. An argument needs to be developed in order to understand this issue.

Consider some scriptures that identify the works of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Notice very closely the disposition of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in each of these Old Testament passages:

Num 11:17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. (As a result…) They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.

Num 11:25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirit on the seventy elders. (As a result…) When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied…

Num 11:29 But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

Num 24:2-3 When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him and (As a result…)  he uttered his oracle: “The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly…

Judg 3:10 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him.

Judg 6:34 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.

Judg 11:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah.

Judg 14:6 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat.

I have done and exhaustive word search in the Old Testament to see if there is any place that the scripture identifies the manifestation of the Holy Spirit within a person. I found NO scripture, besides in Ezekiel that prophesies to the Spirit’s works after the completion of Christ’s cross, which indicates the manifestation of the Spirit within a person:

Ezek 37:13-14 “Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'”

What I found in every Old Testament reference was that when the Holy Spirit came down to people, He manifested upon the people rather than within them. The result of this manifestation of the Holy Spirit upon them was a previously unattainable increase of effectiveness and victory along with a revelation of intimacy with God. The result was a supernatural measure of newfound effectiveness, a release of a supernaturalanointing, or an effect that no one could muster of themselves. God came down in the form of the Holy Spirit upon a person to see something done that no one could possibly do in the natural.

In Old Testament days and as it is today, it is the Holy Spirit upon a person that leads to increases of effectiveness that gets the physical and/or spiritual job done.

But how is it that there is no evidence of the Holy Spirit ever residing within a person prior to Jesus death upon the cross?

Scripture makes it clear that God cannot nor will not reside in the presence of sin.

 

First and Second Adam

 

Man became unclean because of the “Adamic flesh curse” inside. Because of the first sin Adam and Eve committed, sin was now in the world, and which has become the ultimate flesh curse that we all bare. Jesus made it clear, “No man is without sin, not one.” The fact is that because sin was now in the world, and prior to the death of Christ on the cross, there was no way into the Presence of the Father. There was no complete and effective means of cleanliness that would allow man to enter into the inner court Presence of God.

Scripturally, the only person to enter into His Presence was for the Chief Priest, and then only once per year, even then only by the express mercy of the Father to allow Him in. Even in this case, the Priest came into only a portion or representative measure of the Father’s Presence.

Even when Moses asked the Lord to show Him His glory, Moses was not allowed to see the Face of God and live.

In the Old Testament, the closest any man ever got to the literal Presence of the Father was the manifestation of God’s great Representative, the Holy Spirit upon man.

Moses asked the Lord, “Show me your glory.”

Exod 33:17-23 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

The Lord said, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” But the Lord did allow a measure of His glory to pass by Moses. However, Man could not enter into the full glory Presence of the Father and live because he was unclean with sin. Had man been without sin, he might be able to enter in, as was the case with Adam before the fall when Adam literally walked with God. However, because the Lord is perfect and without flaw, no flaw could then nor can sin now reside in His Presence and live!

This is why sin grieved the Lord so much. He wanted so much to be with His beloved and favorite creation. But our Adamic sin separated us. He is perfect, and our sin brought imperfection into His dwelling. But then came the Cross. In that, we became clean even in our flaws.

The manifestation of the glory of the Lord will not nor cannot reside in the presence of sin. Since man was flawed and in sin, the Spirit could not yet dwell in man.

 

Holy Spirit In Us

 

The Holy Spirit within man began on the day of the fullness of Jesus Christ death on the cross. It was brand new. It was to be the mark of eternal life:

Eph 1:13-14 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession– to the praise of his glory.

John 14:17-18 …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. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Here Jesus was yet to die. He said the Spirit lives with you (present tense) and will be in you (future tense). He was saying that the Spirit would come into them in the days ahead so that they would not be left as orphans. The cross was yet to have happened. The infilling Spirit would be the mark of a persons salvation and an act that was previously unavailable until the finished work of the cross.

Before I accepted Christ, I was in line with Adam, and the curse he established for himself was established upon me. I wasn’t being bad… I was bad by nature. But through Jesus Christ death and resurrection, I took on His righteousness through the Power of Grace and became righteous in Him. Once again, not by anything I have ever done, but by my act of faith. To say I do bad things that lead me to hell, is an incorrect understanding. I was, by the nature I inherited from Adam, condemned. It is just as wrong to say that by my righteous acts, I establish salvation for myself.

The fact is, through Jesus Christ, I am made righteous by a new inheritance that completely trumps my old inheritance. My identity changed away from the first Adam, to the second Adam… namely Jesus Christ. Upon my acceptance of Christ as my Savior, that became my new inheritance given to me directly by the Holy Spirit’s act within me. The old Adam was the inheritance which lead to death. The new Adam, Jesus Christ is my new inheritance that leads to life eternal. And which can only be activated upon acceptance of Jesus Christ. See all of Romans 5.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit in us references the mark and guarantee of salvation. Below, Paul is speaking to those Roman’s who were already saved:

Rom 8:9-11 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

The Spirit in me marks me as righteous in the eyes of the Father. Now I can enter right in to the Holy of Holies where before I could not. Now grace covers my mistakes. What an amazing gift, this Spirit in me!

1 Cor 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

 Col 1:27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 I Jn 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

How the Holy Spirit operated and manifested in the Old Testament changed radically the day Christ completed His work of the cross.

The fullness of Christ’s work of the cross could not have come about without the actions of the Holy Spirit. For, it was the Spirit who impregnated Mary with Jesus. It was the Spirit that came down on Jesus when John baptized Him, and not until then did Jesus begin His three years of ministry.

It was the Holy Spirit that led Jesus to be tempted by Satan. It was the Holy Spirit who enabled Jesus to endure the cross. It was the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, and it was the Holy Spirit that reseated Him in His place of Glory.

Jesus declared that the Spirit will not speak on His own but only what is from the mind of Jesus. Jesus also said that He (Jesus) does nothing but what is the will of the Father. We can say that this great mystery of the Trinity is fully unified, fully authoritative and fully submitted one to another. From Him comes all power and everything created.

By the Holy Spirit within me, I am saved and market for Heaven. But, it is through the Holy Spirit upon me that all the power moves of the Lord come forth on earth as it is in Heaven! Our agreement with the works of the Holy Spirit lead to a unified understanding of Kingdom theological truth here on earth.

Matt 22:29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

Jesus sacrifice made the way. But the Holy Spirit was the power behind His sacrifice. Jesus makes it clear; we need to be revealed to the will of God (Father’s Heart) the word of God (Jesus Heart) and the power of God (Heart of the Holy Spirit). Something magnificent occurred when the fullness of the Father’s plan came to pass thru Jesus Christ at the cross.

Today’s church reveals very well the fact that Christ’s death resulted in our salvation and the hope of our future. When someone gets saved, there is nothing the devil can do to change it. But the church is very week in the understanding of the power of the cross for the here and now. This the devil CAN change by the workings of religious demonic spirits within the church. Satan could care less if you are saved. What he cares about is you being filled to the fullest by the Holy Spirit, by which you can save thousands in a day.

 

Drawing Near Through the Torn Curtain

 

Christ’s finished work of the cross established a new and magnificent work of the Holy Spirit beyond that which was experienced in the Old Testament.

Here is a key scripture:

Matt 27:50-52 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.

The shedding of Jesus blood made the way for us to enter into the inner court of the Father’s Presence in Heaven where before there was no way at all to do so. Now we can come in where before we could not.

We see here that the bodies of many holy people came to life at the point of His death. Before this point, they rested in waiting. Ezekiel saw this event prophetically:

Ezek 37:13-14 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live…

They were loved of by the Lord, but there was yet to be a way for those beloved of the Lord to enter into His “Inner Court” Presence. There needed to be the completed work of the cross. When that was done, they came forth and were now able to enter into the Lord’s Holy of Holies, namely Heaven.

The blood of Jesus is like a veil of protection between us (our uncleanness) and the Father’s Face. Though we have sinned in our lifetime, and though our punishment should have been death, Jesus took all our punishment. Therefore, His shed blood has become our shield, a crimson red veil that forever stands in place between me and my beloved heavenly Father which allows me to come into His very Presence.

The Father looks at me thru the veil of His Son’s shed blood and sees me white as snow. This then is the only way I have been given right to enter into Heaven. Before His shed blood, there was no way for any man to enter into the Inner Court of His Holy Presence. But now because of His sacrifice, there is a way. Before Christ I could not enter into His Presence and live. Now, based upon my choice to agree in Christ, I can now do so, even in my flawed state.

This clearly explains why we must choose Christ as an act of our will in order to be saved. How marvelous and unspeakable is this gift!

Heb 6:19-20 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.

Heb 10:16-22 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart infull assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Through Christ we have been given permission to enter into the most Holy place of the Father’s dwelling, even in our flaws, to be loved to the fullest. Before Christ, we could not. After Christ, we are! Oh this is love manifested in Christ’s sacrifice so that we can enter into the inner courts of Father to be loved on in His glory! All provided for by the works of the Holy Spirit in us and then upon us.

Because of the complete work of Christ, there is a new manifestation of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit within us, marking us as righteous. For those that love the Lord, there is now a means to identify them, or mark them as saved. That is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This work of the Holy Spirit inside a person was nonexistent prior to Christ’s death.

For the same reason that I was unable to enter into the inner courts of salvation, the Spirit would not, could not come into my sinful inner being without this amazing process of atonement.

In the Old Testament years, there was no scriptural statement of the Holy Spirit within a person. This, therefore, was never the case. No man was able to carry the Holy Spirit within him because the fullness of Christ death had yet to happen. No one was saved before Christ because the fullness of Christ had yet to happen.

The tomb’s bursting forth the former saints makes clear this point. Before Christ’s death, every man died. When sin was made known in the earth, we all died! But for those that loved the Lord, though they did not know Christ, there faith and love in God was credited to them as righteousness for the day of Christ’s finished work. God knew their hearts.

Truly… it is what is in the heart that saves a man. Only by a heart of love in God is a man saved. For faith births out of a revelation of love.

So, of those who lived in Old Testament times, those who acted under the unction of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit did so with the Spirit upon them. That portion of the function of the Holy Spirit did not change by way of the cross. However, I do personally believe that it was increased. After the cross, we saw more people filled with the Holy Spirit upon them. The stories of the book of Acts and beyond testify to this increase. And the result of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost raised such a ruckus that the church was born with 3000 people saved in one day. That occurred by the power of the manifest Presence of the Spirit upon those saints on that day.

 

Why is this so important?

 

Why am I making such ado about the difference between the Holy Spirit in us as compared with the Holy Spirit upon us? I tell you, this is of critical importance to the Body of Christ today!

The manifestation of the Holy Spirit in a person can be easily explained when looked at by the natural eyes of man. We can easily classify the works of the Spirit as some unknown mysterious undefined entity that works unseen and spiritually within to ensure our salvation. That is all well and good, and can easily fit neatly into the box of man’s limited ability to understand in the spiritual until we begin to talk about the manifestations that pour out the radical and the miraculous! That is when things become misunderstood.

The religious church has so fallen away from the manifestations of the Holy Spirit upon us that they have, by in large, defined all works of the Holy Spirit only as a work that occurs within a person, neatly tucked away until the day heaven is gained.

The church has all but rejected the idea that the Holy Spirit can come upon a person and manifest forth into the natural world. But this is beginning to change under the move of the Father upon the church to squeeze out the old things and bring in the new. The new thing requires the manifestation of the Spirit upon the church, not only to be understood but also to be accepted. The revelation of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit upon man is rising and being restored to those that have eyes to see it.

There is a huge difference between the works of the Spirit within a person’s spirit (inner man), and the works of the Spirit upon his soul and body (outer man). The church needs to understand this difference and embrace the radical and new moves of the Lord that come by way of the Spirit upon man in the days ahead.

John 16:13-14 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.

If all knowledge comes by the Holy Spirit, if anything new of the Lord comes forth by revelation of the Holy Spirit, how then can any fresh and new thing of the Lord come if the Holy Spirit is not welcome to manifest upon the believer or upon the church Body? It becomes clear then why the enemy of God is always at work putting such flames of God out when they appear! It is why revivals die…

The church that is moving in the manifest Presence of the Holy Spirit will be God’s end time church, both of the cross and the power of the cross. As a result, though they stumble from time to time, they will not be in error, but in grace!

They will be the ones that will see signs miracles and wonders that will testify Jesus Christ to a dieing world. They will be the ones with the Father’s revelation love and with great unity. They will go forth healed and in great joy even though they witness great atrocities. The church with the Spirit will see many souls won in a day.

The church that rejects the Holy Spirit upon people will remain the church that is dead and ineffective. Though they be large, they will be filled with people who have spoken to them what they want to hear.

2 Tim 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Doctrine, or theology, was never meant to be people’s interpretation of the word of God! It was always meant to be an establishment of truth expressly given by the Holy Spirit in times of loving intimacy with the Father! This is what we get when the Holy Spirit manifests upon us.

The church without the Holy Spirit in this way will be the ones whose love has grown cold, and which will be filled with disunity and judgments. The church without the Spirit will put salve on the wounds that do nothing to heal and will see much strife and turmoil both inside and out.

The church without the Spirit in this way might see a few salvations in a month. I don’t deny that the Lord can work in such places as these, but where does man want to know the Lord? Will it be within a place locked in the tiny box of man made thinking, or from a place that is free from religious thinking by the revelation of the Holy Spirit unto the fullness of their individual and corporate call?

There is much argument that says that we need to not be interested in the “feel good” manifestations of revival. I have heard it said many times that we should not be seeking revival. How wrong and deadly is this statement! Such a statement borders on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

There has been so much criticism against the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in places of revival. The fact is that those who criticize do not understand the purpose by which Jesus would bring the Holy Spirit upon man. They don’t understand that the Spirit upon man will always offend the natural senses. They don’t understand that the Lord just wants to love on His beloved in this way. They don’t understand that people get healed and delivered in this way. They don’t understand that this is how He manifests!

There is a mentality of the necessity for “control” in the church, worldly contrived submission to authority. Submission to authority is absolutely the right way, only when such authority is submitted to the Holy Spirit upon them.

When some people see the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, they fear, “This is out of control. What will people think of this?” But who is it that is in control? Is it the mind of man, or is it the mind of Christ directly delivered into the church by the Holy Spirit upon man?

We must know that what seems out of control in the natural is quite in control in the spiritual. When I am shaking on the floor under the weight of His wonderful Presence, shaking… crying…laughing… I am being loved upon and healed! But for those who are witnessing it, they are being tested. The Lord is testing their faith. The flesh is being offended. The Lord is asking two questions. “Do you think that is me? Will this be my thing or man’s thing?”

If the devil is a created being by God, does not God have all authority and power over his works? The fear of the devil is a religious argument. For in the natural, we have no authority over his works and should fear him greatly.

But in the Spirit of the Spirit, the devil is dealt with easily and with all the backing and authority of Heaven. Therefore when the scriptures tell us to be wise against the wears of satan, the answer is not of the flesh but to be filled with the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth! For all wisdom comes from the Holy Spirit alone.

Some also say that it is by sacrifice that the Holy Spirit manifests. Though there is some truth in this, it is really only in the sacrifice of time and of intimacy that the Holy Spirit responds to. The problem is that many go beyond that and imply that it is by some amount of work that brings any measure of the Lord’s attention. This is just not true.

If it were by works, how much work then would be required? How much effort, how much sacrifice? How long do we need to pound on His door? Would any father imagine withholding his love to his son until a prerequisite amount of effort or crying outside his door has been done? Would he not rush to the door and open it in love? This is exactly what the story of the prodigal son was about. The father charged him nothing to be fully recovered to him.

I hear the Lord saying that the time is now to choose which way the collective church will go. The time is short because the harvest is at hand. Will it be man’s religious way or the radical spiritual fullness of Jesus’ way thru His ongoing manifesting Holy Spirit?

 

How He Will Come?

 

The Father simply wants our love and attention. That is what this is all about. Like any lover, He comes when He knows He is wanted. He comes when He knows He is believed upon. He comes when we are out of His way, and He stays when we stay out of His way.  In a word… dependence.

This is all He seeks in order to come with His Spirit upon us in power. I have personally experienced Him in this way too many times to believe anything different of Him! I have seen it in Toronto. I have seen it in Brownsville. I have seen it in Odessa, Ukraine and the northern boarder cities of Mexico. I have seen it in Oklahoma City. I have seen it in Central California. I have seen it in Portland, Oregon. I have seen in Boise, Idaho and Spokane, Washington. I have studied it in revivals over the last 300 years. It always happens the same way. God comes when a people are hungry for Him. He stays when the people give Him control.

His love is withheld when we do not express our desire for Him. His love is withheld when our minds remain un-submitted. This is the only reason the Spirit has ever been out of the church in power.

But even our expression of love can become legalistic. The question remains, what does the Father want in our meetings and will we give our meetings to Him in entirety? The answer in a word… intimacy.

Some cry out against the experience of Him. They say, “I am not interested in an experience”. For the life of me I cannot understand this statement! This is like saying, I want to love on my lover from far away! Goodness what error!

I want to experience Him again and again and again! Like Moses, the Presence faded upon Him. Like a suntan, it fades. Same thing with the Holy Spirit, I need Him, then I need Him again, then I need Him again and again and again! Like a lover in the intimacy of touch and contact, I want to love on my lover in His Presence time and again!  Are we not the Bride of Christ?

Like a baby that needs the touch of a mother in order to survive, I need the experience of the Presence of the Holy Spirit to know I am loved. I need that touch! We were made to be touched in intimacy. We were made to need the experience of love!

Faith without experience is a dead faith.

The argument against the desire for experience almost always includes the idea that if we are stuck on seeking the experience we defocus on the need to do the hard work. There is a mentality that the manifest Presence is not on the mission field, nor in the places of the harvest, but only in the church.

It is true that there are some who live for the experience and shun the work, but we cannot throw out the baby with the bath water. We limit the purpose of His Presence if we say that the Spirit does not manifest in the hard works of the Lord. I can testify, this is not true. If this is all we believe, that the Spirit manifests only on certain divine occasions or locations, this will be all we will be able to see.

It’s true that the harvest will be reaped in the fields of harvest. But how is it that we can say that the Holy Spirit will not be with us in the “hard works of the Lord.” Some say, “You need to come down off the mountain to do the hard works of the Lord.” “It’s not about the experience, it’s about the sacrifice.” We’ve been warned in the Word that in this world we will see troubles of every kind. But the heart of it is this, we don’t have to go it alone in the sacrifice! The Holy Spirit will be with us in the doing, even with us in that place of sacrifice, if we believe He is willing.

I think that there will be a way of going that we will be so filled with His love that He will literally be all over us as we go out into the fields. I know this is the very fact with Heidi Baker in Mozambique. 8000 church plants, thousands of salvations, thousands of confirmed healings and over 100 raised from the dead at last count.

Heidi would say, as I have heard her personally say many times, it all has been done in the joy of His manifested Presence right in the garbage dumps of Mozambique. Right there in the poorest spot in the poorest city in the poorest nation in the world, and she has seen the literal glory cloud of the Lord hover in that place with her own eyes time and time again!

How can one limit God by saying that the Holy Spirit is an experience that is and should only be in the church but by a heart that will not believe? How can one declare against the experience of the Holy Spirit in our meetings but from a cold heart that has not experienced the revelatory touch of intimate Kingdom love in this way?

Heidi and her husband Rolland Baker are where the church is going in the days ahead. And how they are doing it is ten times more simple than even many of today’s Charismatic churches are making it. They truly are simply obedient hungry and thirsty lovers of the Lord. And that is all it takes to go all the way with the bridegroom.

Did not Jesus say that His yoke would be easy and His burden light? By the mind of man, these things are impossible. But through Christ gift of the Holy Spirit, all things become possible.

Conclusion

Father God wants to express His heart in the manifestation of the Holy Spirit upon man. This is 100% about intimacy. Then the intimacy results in an outward expression of love and power into the harvest fields. Love in the church, which is perfect love cannot be contained, it will not be contained. It will burst forth outside the church to a dying world who are hungry for spiritual truth. The result will be a harvest reaped in love and in power.

As in all things of the Lord, faith must be expressed first before we ever see a spiritual thing from the Father. And so it is with this understanding of the Spirit in and upon man. No one will see Him who will be in the way of Him.

We must therefore understand who the Holy Spirit is and why He now comes upon the church. He comes into a person at regeneration. He comes upon those who have eyes to see and ears to hear for the purpose of effectiveness in the here and now.

The Holy Spirit in a man gets the man home. The Holy Spirit upon the man allows the man to bring many with him. The Spirit in a man is for then. The Spirit upon a man is for now!

Jack Hayford said, “ If we think that the “hope of heaven” is the sum of Christ’s gift, we will live out a spiritually juvenile experience, pointed toward heaven but pointless on earth.”

It’s no wonder then why it is that the enemy of the Lord fights so hard against any understanding of the Holy Spirit upon man. It is why there is so much judgment against He the Holy Spirit by those who either do not or willfully will not understand. For the Holy Spirit is the testimony of the Father’s heart of unconditional love. Holy Spirit is the great revelator of Kingdom wisdom and knowledge. He brings faith as a gift to those who have faith as small as a mustard seed. He is the power of the cross for healing, deliverance and new life, the very Spirit of revival and renewal.

He is the very Presence of the Father and of Jesus in our person, upon our person and within our meetings. He is the very great representative of the Father’s will and of Jesus word. Whenever the Lord manifests upon a place, it is the Holy Spirit who is doing it.

We must now understand who He is and why He must manifest in our churches in this hour. It is time for us to be restored to His Presence in the same way as when He came on the day of Pentecost. In so doing, the church will rise up to its rightful place in the world with authority and power rather than worldly submission and irrelevance.

This is the call of the Lord in this hour. “Be restored to my Presence by waiting. And I will come to you again in power. For the harvest is ready but the workers are few.”

T. Scott Morton

tscottmorton.wordpress.com