UNDERSTANDING
THE
HOLY
SPIRIT
WHAT MOST CHRISTIANS
DON’T KNOW ABOUT HIS
CHARACTER, FRUIT, GIFTS,
POWER AND MORE
© I S T O C K P H O T O / I R O C H K A
2013
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO CHARISMA DIGITAL
T.D. JAKES:
WHAT THE
SPIRIT IS SAYING
S P E C I A L H O L Y S P I R I T I S S U E
SPECIAL HOLY SPIRIT ISSUE
33 THINGS THE
HOLY SPIRIT DOES
What Scripture says about the Spirit of God’s divine actions »
WHO IS THE HOLY
SPIRIT?
Knowing theTrinity’s third Person starts with recognizing Him as just that—a Person who wants to be intimately known | By Clive Calver »
THE CODE OF THE DOVE
AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
Why is the Spirit represented with a dove? The answer could unlock one of the
deep mysteries of our Divine Helper. | By Perry Stone »
A PARALLEL CREATION
Surprising dovetails
between creation and the flood | By Perry Stone »
RECEIVING THE HOLY
SPIRIT
The truth about the baptism in the Holy Spirit that most believers don’t know | By Robert Morris »HOW TO PRODUCE
DIVINE FRUIT
Jesus’ call to abide in Himreveals the keys to yielding the fruit of the Spirit
By Fuchsia Pickett »
NO GIFT STANDS ALONE
Why it’s important to identify your spiritual gifts and
exercise them within the church | By Ron Phillips »
10 REASONS FOR
SPEAKING IN TONGUES
Explaining the Holy Spirit’s most misunderstood
gift | By Bill Hamon »
SENT BY THE SPIRIT
Ten keys to sharing your faith with supernatural power
By Chris Overstreet »
SUPERNATURAL
MYTH-BUSTERS
Debunking the 10 most common myths about living super naturally in the Spirit
By Michele Perry » WHEN THE DOVE FLIES: Perry Stone reveals the mystery behind the dove and the Holy Spirit
C O N T E N T S
COLUMNS
YOARS TRULY
God is calling the church back to the
basics—including a true understanding of the Holy Spirit | By Marcus Yoars »
THE STRANG REPORT
Why we must do more than just remember Pentecost
By Steve Strang »
STRAIGHT TALK
The anointing of the Holy Spirit is meant for you— but you have to be ready for it| By Joyce Meyer »
WHAT THE SPIRIT IS SAYING
God is giving His people an opportunity to multiply as never before | By T.D. Jakes »
FIRE IN MY BONES
Lessons we can learn from Pope Francis about walking in the Holy Spirit’s power
By J. Lee Grady »
Click to contact Charisma
SPEAKING TRUTH: Robert Morris explains the truth about the baptism in the Holy Spirit that most
believers don’t know
C O N T E N T S
S E A N R O B E R T S
Yoars Truly
BY MARCUS YOARS
M
rs. Sunday. Mr. Newman. Mrs. Kuhn. Mr. Ewing. These were some of the outstanding teachers who shaped my life. Their words and actions in the classroom planted seeds that still bear fruit today. I doubt they’ll ever know how much of an imprint they left on me.You likely have similar teachers to credit—those who had a pro-found impact in steering your life in a certain direction. Even if we’d rather forget our school years, there’s usually a teacher or two we’ll always remember because of what they said or did
to help guide us along.
Teachers hold one of the most important positions on the planet. They guide, counsel, explain, show, encourage, reprove, help, correct, empower … the list goes on. Though other factors cer-tainly play a role, students tend to succeed or fail based upon how good their teacher is. That’s why every summer, long before the first bell rings to usher in a new school year, parents across the nation jockey to get their kids in with the best teachers possible. They know the lifelong effect a great teacher—or a lousy
one—can have on their child.
So what if you had the chance to receive one-on-one tutoring from the greatest teacher on the planet? Better yet, what if you could call on that teacher anytime, anywhere, with any question?
Jesus was the greatest teacher to ever walk the earth. Yet He said that after He left, the Father would send “another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16). Later, Jesus explained that “when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” (16:13). To top it off, this Counselor would help us do even
BACK TO SCHOOL:
HOLY SPIRIT 101
God is calling the church back to the basics of our
faith—including a true understanding of His Spirit
greater works than what Jesus did (14:12). That’s some teacher!
If you’re a believer, you’ve already been given the awesome gift of the Holy Spirit, the Teacher like no other. Yet tragically a huge segment of the church never raises their hand to ask Him a question. Some sit in the classroom of life doubting if He’s relevant enough today or even necessary anymore, while others would prefer to act as if He didn’t exist.
Because you’re reading this magazine, I doubt you’re in any of those classes. But it’s possible to look like a tongue-talking char-ismatic and still not truly know the Holy Spirit. That’s because not only is the Holy Spirit easily the most misunderstood Person of the Trinity, people continue to have many foundational miscon-ceptions about Him. Here are four
fundamental lessons that many Christians either missed or need to re-learn:
1) He is not an “it.” An “it” doesn’t whisper, sing, speak, cry, convict, dance, hover, burn, wash,
free, anoint, empower, quicken, reveal, teach, lead, supply, strengthen, enable, move, com-fort … and a million other things the Holy Spirit does. Like the Father and the Son, God’s Spirit is a person. As long as we see Him
as an “it,” we’ll fail to know Him as He desires.
2) He always glorifies Jesus. This is where many Spirit-filled believers get derailed, because often the unspoken rule is that the goofier we act, the more the Holy Spirit must be moving in us. Want a full-proof test to know if some-thing is truly of the Spirit? Ask if Jesus is being glorified. The Holy Spirit never stops pointing toward Christ. His No. 1 delight, passion and purpose is to bring Jesus glory. Just as the Father glorified Jesus in heaven, the Spirit glo-rifies Jesus now on earth (John 16:14-15).
3) He doesn’t show up in part. When my sons, who are 7 and 3, encounter God, they’re not expe-riencing a kid-sized portion of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit who works in me works in them.
What if you had
the chance to be
tutored by the
greatest teacher
John 3:34 is clear that God “gives the Spirit without measure” (NASB). Let’s stop acting like He comes in varying degrees.
4) He wants to help you. The word for Holy Spirit in John 14-16 (parakletos) means “Comforter” or “Counselor.” He was sent to
lead you to truth, to guide you on your journey. He wants you to suc-ceed by God’s standards. Why not ask Him for help?
This issue of Charisma is entirely dedicated to exploring the many facets of the Holy Spirit—His character, baptism, fruit, gifts, etc.
We can only scratch the surface with these teachings, but I hope you’ll use them as a launching pad for the Holy Spirit to teach you more about Himself as only the great Teacher can do.
MARCUS YOARS is the editor of Charisma. Check out his blog at marcusyoars.com or connect with him via Twitter @marcusyoars or facebook.com/marcusyoars.
T I M K E L L Y
The Strang Report
BY STEVE STRANG
T
his issue on the Holy Spirit embodies what Charisma is all about. Sure, we cover many things about the church, Christianity and the culture. But at our core, it’s all about the Spirit.Sadly, many Spirit-filled churches, in an effort to be “seeker sensitive,” no longer invite people to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. That’s why it was refreshing when I attended a recent Perry Stone conference in Deland, Fla., to hear him minister the baptism in the Holy Spirit to more than 100 people. Perry says he does this in at least one service during his
prophetic conferences and, almost without exception, 100 to 300 will receive it—with most of the people coming from non-charismatic churches!
“God says He’ll pour out His Spirit on all flesh,” Perry told me. “People are ready to receive. All they need is an atmosphere to receive.”
Perry believes too many pas-tors fear the unction of the Holy Spirit will turn off people in the church, yet just the opposite is true: People are hungry for God’s power. “It’s as if the pastors don’t trust Him to do His work,” Perry
said, “or even that He knows what He’s doing.”
Jack Hayford makes a similar point when speaking of the seeker-sensitive movement, where the emphasis is on making sure cor-porate worship services appeal to visitors. If you’re looking for church growth, Hayford says, look no further than the day of Pente-cost, when 3,000 were added to the church at one time!
If you watched the powerful TV miniseries The Bible (which we wrote about in our March issue), you were likely as amazed as I was at how powerfully it portrayed
THE REAL POWER
BEHIND PENTECOST
the day of Pentecost. Though the series’ producers took some lit-erary license (there was wind but no tongues of fire), it stuck close to the biblical account, and the power and anointing of a modern Pentecostal service was there. It certainly didn’t seem like just acting!
This was the first time I’d seen an attempt to portray Pen-tecost on television or film. That doesn’t surprise me, however, since the church in general pays little respect to Pentecost today. Though Pentecostals remain the largest segment of the evangelical church, we’ve neglected many of the fundamental aspects of being Spirit-filled that began with Pen-tecost. Because of this, a handful of leaders and organizations in recent years have urged churches around the world to set aside
Pentecost Sunday to highlight the Holy Spirit.
This issue intentionally coin-cides with Pentecost Sunday, which this year falls on May 19. And as you’ll see, we do more than just highlight the Holy Spirit—we
tackle everything from receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, to who the Holy Spirit is, to being empowered to be witnesses ... and more. In our nearly 38 years, we’ve never done a more extensive issue
about the Holy Spirit.
You’ll especially want to read an excerpt we’ve included from Per-ry’s new book, The Code of the Holy Spirit. Jentezen Franklin, Perry’s longtime friend, says this may be Perry’s most important book ever. (Franklin says all his children received the baptism in the Holy Spirit under Perry’s ministry.)
It’s an issue you can share with friends who have questions or are seeking the Holy Spirit. Get the dig-ital version at charismadigdig-ital.com and share it through social media. We’re posting articles, teach-ings and other resources about the Holy Spirit daily on our social media outlets, including my public Facebook page (facebook.com/stephenestrang). We’re also partnering with Billy Wilson’s Empowered21 movement to get the word out about Pentecost
Many pastors fear
the unction of the
Holy Spirit will turn
off people, yet the
opposite is true.
Sunday. Go to charismamag.com or get our Charisma News app (charismamobile.com) to learn more—including how you can download an Empowered21 course on the Holy Spirit for free.
It doesn’t take long for mis-sionaries in rough areas of the world to discover that they can’t
minister effectively without the Holy Spirit’s power. This includes those from denominations that downplay or even oppose the work of the Spirit. That’s because those missionaries can’t con-front the powers of darkness without the infilling and power of the Holy Spirit.
We think of America as a Christian nation, yet the powers of darkness are such in our own land that like those missionaries, we can confront them only with the power and infilling of the pre-cious Holy Spirit. We need another Pentecost today!
STEVE STRANG is the founder and publisher of Charisma. Follow him on Twitter at @sstrang or Facebook
the Holy
Things
33
© I S T O C K P H O T O / D R P A S
Spirit
Does
Though many Christians overlook
the importance of the Holy Spirit,
Scripture is clear about not only His
vital role, but also His divine actions.
Here are 33 of the countless things the
Spirit of God continues to do today.
© I S T O C K P H O T O / L I N C O L N R O G E R S ; A M P H O T O R A ; F R A N C K R E P O R T E R
1
He helps us (Rom. 8:26)2
He guides us (John 16:13)3
He teaches us (John 14:26)4
He speaks (Rev. 2:7)5
He reveals (1 Cor. 2:10)6
He instructs (Acts 8:29)7
He testifies of Jesus (John 15:26)8
He comforts us (Acts 9:31)9
He calls us (Acts 13:2)10
He fills us (Acts 4:31)11
He strengthens us (Eph. 3:16)12
He prays for us (Rom. 8:26)13
He prophesies through us(2 Pet. 1:21)
14
He bears witness to the truth(Rom. 9:1)
15
He brings joy (1 Thess. 1:6)16
He brings freedom (2 Cor. 3:17)17
He helps us to obey (1 Pet. 1:22)18
He calls for Jesus’ return (Rev.22:17)
19
He transforms us (2 Cor. 3:18)20
He lives in us (1 Cor. 3:16)21
He frees us (Rom. 8:2)22
He renews us (Titus 3:5)23
He produces fruit in us (Gal.5:22-23)
24
He gives gifts (1 Cor. 12:8-10)25
He leads us (Rom. 8:14)26
He convicts (John 16:8)27
He sanctifies us (2 Thess. 2:13)28
He empowers us (Acts 1:8)29
He unites us (Eph. 4:3-4)30
He seals us (Eph. 1:13)31
He gives us access to the Father(Eph. 2:18)
32
He enables us to wait (Gal. 5:5)33
He casts out demons (Matt.© I S T O C K P H O T O / S M A L L _ F R O G
Knowing the Trinity’s
third Person starts with
recognizing Him as just
that—a Person who wants
to be intimately known
B Y C L I V E C A L V E R
A
s a relatively young Christian, I began to wonder why so many other Christians seemed to know more of the indwelling love of Jesus than I did. Why did their lives display the fruits of His grace and demonstrate His power at work within them in ways that seemed sorely lacking in my life?I became deeply troubled at the poverty of my spiritual walk with God. So much of what I knew was mere information about God without much of a direct relationship with Him. My heart longed to have an experience like that described by Scottish philosopher Thomas Car-lyle, who spoke of what it meant to know God “other than by hearsay.”
It was also hard for me to fathom how some Christians could be so different from others. Some overflowed with love and compassion for their neighbors, while others cloistered themselves away from the world, apparently fearful of contamination. Some seemed to exude a deep sense of inner joy, but others looked as if they had just received a death sentence rather than the blessing of eternal life. Some were on fire with expectancy that
God would do great things in their lives; others seemed content to make survival their primary objective.
In all of this, the biggest struggle I faced as a young Christian was determining what I believed about the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. I began to encounter Christians for whom this Person was a vibrant reality in their lives—a Person to know and to love, not some vague, generic “force.”
Watch Reinhard Bonnke use Acts 2 to refute bad teachings about the Holy Spirit
I eventually came to see that all my concerns about my faith and the faith of others had to do with answering this central question about the Person of the Holy Spirit.
Discovering the Spirit
If we want to discover who the Holy Spirit really is, then individual human experience is not the right place to start. When God intended to reveal His nature, will and identity to humankind, He determined to do so supremely in His Son. When He wanted to record His activities with the inhabitants of this planet, He chose to do so in a divinely inspired Book. And so, if we want to know what the Spirit of God is like and how He oper-ates within the lives of the people of God, then it is to the pages of the Bible that we must first turn.
Throughout the pages of the Bible, it is assumed that the Holy Spirit is no more and no less than God Himself. He is called “the Spirit of the Lord” (1 Kin. 18:12, NIV) and “the Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:7). In Luke 11:13, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the gift of the Father. Paul announced that “the Lord is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17). When Peter rebuked Ananias for attempted deception, he boldly announced, “You have lied to the Holy Spirit ... You have not lied just to human beings but to God” (Acts 5:3-4). On the occasion that Jesus spoke about the unforgivable sin, He described it as blas-pheming, which means speaking against or rejecting not the Father or even Jesus Himself but rather the
Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:31-32).
It is because the Holy Spirit is God that Scripture describes Him as possessing all the essential charac-teristics that are the sole privilege of God Himself. He is: » Holy. God cannot deny His own character; there-fore, in the same way that God is completely pure and totally unblemished, so must be the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).
» Eternal. If God were limited by time and space, He could not, by definition, be God. The Creator can neither be limited by His creation, nor can He die or face extinction. To be God, He must always have been God and must inhabit eternity. When Scrip-ture says that the Holy Spirit is eternal (always was and always will be), then it is affirming that He is God (Heb. 9:14).
» Omnipotent. The Holy Spirit is all-powerful, an attribute that is the sole province of God Himself (Luke 1:35-37).
» Omnipresent. The Holy Spirit exists everywhere simultaneously. There is no place in heaven, on earth or anywhere else in the universe that is not inhabited by the Holy Spirit (Ps. 139:7).
» Omniscient. The Holy Spirit knows everything there is to know (1 Cor. 2:10-11).
These supreme qualities of the Holy Spirit are neatly summarized in Isaiah’s prophecy of the anticipated Mes-siah: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit
of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord” (Is. 11:2). God is personal. He neither rules nor communicates by remote control, and He possesses personality. So it is with the Holy Spirit. It would be wrong to view this third
Person of the Trinity as an indefinably nebulous force. He is not an “it”! To reinforce this point, the apostle John referred to the Holy Spirit by using a masculine pronoun (ekeinos, “He”) with a neutral noun (pneuma, “Spirit”). This may seem like bad grammar to us, but it is superb theology. He does this to show that the Holy Spirit is a “He,” not an “it.” (See John 14:26; 15:26; 16:8-14.)
The Holy Spirit is the “breath” or “wind” of God (Is.
40:7). In this sense, it might be easy to picture the Holy Spirit as something broad and vague. Yet this phrase in Scripture often brings into grammatical play a definite article; instead of “a breath” or “a wind,” He is called “the Spirit” or “the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit’s personhood is also affirmed in that He can be grieved, He comes upon individuals at par-ticular times, He is the means by which God fills His people, and He can even be withdrawn from people under exceptional circumstances (Eph. 4:30; Judg. 14:6; 2 Kin. 2:9; Ex. 35:31; Mic. 3:8; Ps. 51:11).
The Holy Spirit is no mere arm or leg of God. He is a Person in His own right and exists as part of the Godhead. He is not remote but actually dwells in God’s people and is therefore personal to each one of us.
The Personality of the Holy Spirit
Let us take this one step further. The vivid imagina-tion of George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, conceived of a vast “force” that could empower us and be used for either good or evil. This force was personal, in that it was available for use by the human personality, but it lacked personhood in itself.
That is precisely how the Holy Spirit differs. He is not here for us to use, but we are here for Him to use to bring glory to Jesus through our lives. Furthermore, He possesses a unique personality. The three basic char-acteristics of personality are the capacities for feeling,
The Spirit is no mere arm or leg of God.
He’s a Person in His own right and exists
as part of the Godhead.
knowing and doing—and you may be surprised to learn that the Holy Spirit is actively engaged in all three! Scrip-ture affirms that:
» He feels (Eph. 4:30). » He knows (John 14:26).
» He does things (John 16:8-11).
While the Holy Spirit is like us in that He has a per-sonality, He is also unlike us in that He is holy. The Greek
word used to describe this reality is hagios, the root meaning of which is “different.” In this sense, the Holy Spirit can never be as we are, and yet by the grace and mercy of God, the Holy Spirit dwells in unclean human beings. The very title Holy Spirit indicates this Spirit is different from us because He is, in fact, divine.
In the book of Revelation, the apostle John begins his letter to the seven churches in an unusual way, with a greeting that places God the Father first, God the Spirit second and God the Son third (Rev. 1:4-5). While this
order might seem unusual to us, the phraseology gives the standard implication that these three are inextri-cably intertwined and always co-equal.
Furthermore, Jesus revealed this supreme mystery of the Christian faith when He declared the name in which His followers should be baptized. The word used by Jesus for name is singular, indicating there is only one God, but this name is also tri-personal because each one of us is baptized in “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19).
God in Action
Because most Christians find it difficult to visualize and personalize the Holy Spirit, they often overlook the amount of work in which the Holy Spirit is engaged. He is very busy indeed! The Holy Spirit definitely understands the concept of multitasking, for while He is the corpo-rate Holy Spirit of the universal church, He is also the One who dwells in the life of every individual believer (1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 8:9-11).
The Holy Spirit is always busy. He works within us to bring about the conviction of sin, the recognition of the need for righteousness and an awareness of impending judgment long before we come to the point of conver-sion and surrender our life to Jesus Christ (John 16:8). We may not have realized it, but quietly and invisibly the Holy Spirit was already at work in our lives, preparing us to be confronted with the reality of Jesus Christ.
Because most Christians find it difficult
to visualize and personalize the Holy
Spirit, they often overlook the amount of
work in which the Holy Spirit is engaged.
He is very busy indeed!
In the New Testament accounts of the conversions of Zacchaeus, Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch to whom Philip witnessed of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit was actively at work preparing the ground for their moments of truth. In the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, the Holy Spirit even called Philip away from a revival and into the desert to explain the Scriptures to the eunuch at just the right time.
When we come to Christ, the Holy Spirit makes His home in our lives. He is the giver of new life, and He becomes the seal and evidence of our salvation (John 3:5; 2 Cor. 1:22; Titus 3:5; Rom. 8:9-11). It is the Holy Spirit who then takes on the raw material of a new con-vert’s heart and begins the often lengthy process of transforming it into the image of the Lord Jesus.
This whole idea of an indwelling Holy Spirit who
inhabits the life of every believer introduced to the world a concept unknown in other major religions. For the first time, God was not just “out there somewhere,” but He could be intimately known, loved and served. Christianity offers not a religion about God but rather a relationship with Him. This is what creates that vibrant, loving, compassionate and fruit-bearing existence in the life of all believers. 3
CLIVE CALVER is senior pastor of Walnut Hill Community Church, a network of five charismatic evangelical churches serving more than 3,500 people in western Connecticut. He previously served as president of World Relief, general director of the Evangelical Alliance of the United Kingdom, program director of Billy Graham’s Mission England and national director of Youth for Christ in Britain.
Are You Our Next
Best-Selling Author?
—PEGGY JOYCE RUTH Best-selling author of Psalm 91
“I feel as though they adopted me into their family. It is obvious that each team member at Creation House has gone overboard to help make my book a success, and it worked. Thank you, Creation House,
for a job really well done.”
I HAVE LOVED WORKING
WITH CREATION HOUSE.
Creation House has been an industry leader for more than 40 years with world-wide distribution and reputation for quality and integrity. We
invite you to show us your work and let us explore book and e-book publishing options with you.
To submit your manuscript
,go to www.creationhouse.com and follow the simple guidelines.
Visit us at: www.creationhouse.com
HOLY
SPIRIT
O F T H E D O V E A N D T H E
T H E
B Y P E R R Y S T O N E
WHY DID GOD CHOOSE TO
REPRESENT HIS SPIRIT WITH
A DOVE? THE ANSWER—
AND ITS MULTILAYERED
APPLICATIONS—CAN UNLOCK
ONE OF THE DEEP MYSTERIES
OF OUR DIVINE HELPER.
CODE
I
n biblical theology, we often consider a concept known as the law of first mention. It teaches that when a person, animal, color, metal or number is first men-tioned in Scripture, it often sets the theme of that particular item throughout Scripture.This is why the serpent that appeared in Genesis 3 as the tempter of Eve became the symbol of Satan or sin throughout the Bible—even in the Apocalypse, where the seven-headed dragon that gets hurled down is also referred to as a seven-headed serpent (Rev. 12:3-9). It’s why the symbol of a lamb, based on the Passover nar-rative in Exodus 12, in the New Testament becomes the symbol of Christ, who is identified as the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29) and referred to as such 26 out of 27 times in the book of Revelation.
Another significant symbol is the dove, the gentle creature that represents the Holy Spirit. By applying the law of first mention, we can unlock many revelations about the Holy Spirit and His ministry to us who belong to Christ.
The First Appearance
In the law of first mention, the dove is one of the two birds mentioned in the story of Noah’s flood, which begins in Genesis 6. More than likely you’re familiar with Moses’ account of righteous Noah and his three sons who built a floating zoo and rode out a universal deluge.
As the waters began to slowly recede, Noah sent two birds out of the ark: a raven and a dove.
Not only are these two birds totally opposite in nature, color and eating habits, but also there is pro-phetic insight encoded within the story.
First, the differences. Noah sent a raven from the window in the ark, and the raven flew back and forth until the waters were dried up, never to be seen again.
He later sent a dove, but the dove returned to the ark after finding no place to rest its feet (Gen. 8:7-9). What’s worth noting here is that a raven will eat carrion (the bodies of animals killed by other animals), but a dove will not. It has been said ravens will often follow packs of wolves to gain access to the meat the wolves tear apart. But when the dove went forth from the ark, it returned because doves will not rest on a carcass or eat decaying flesh, as 99 percent of their diet is seeds.
Eventually the dove brought an olive leaf back to the
By applying the law of first mention, we
can unlock many revelations about the
Holy Spirit and His ministry to us who
belong to Christ.
ark (v. 11). This is unique because the olive became a sacred fruit for the priestly ministry. Crushed olives produced olive oil, and the first pressing of oil was used in the temple menorah. Olive oil was also used in the ceremonial anointing of kings, priests and prophets (Ex. 30:25, 31). The olive leaf in the mouth of the dove speaks to us that out of the crises and storms of life, the Holy Spirit will bring us an olive branch, today’s universal symbol of peace, in the midst of our conflict.
Jesus and the Dove
At age 30, Christ was baptized at the Jordan River by his cousin, John. We read: “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him” (Matt. 3:16). This account of the Holy Spirit descending as a dove upon Jesus was so important that it is men-tioned in all four Gospels (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32).
I believe one of the reasons the Holy Spirit assumed the form of a dove is because a dove has characteristics similar to those of the Holy Spirit. Doves are commonly white in color, and white in the Scripture represents purity or righteousness (Rev. 19:8). A dove expresses its affection by stroking its young and cooing in a soft tone. Spiritually, the Holy Spirit causes believers to be caring and loving for one another and even for those
who are lost. The dove is a gentle creature and never retaliates against its enemies, while believers are told to turn the other cheek, to pray for our enemies and those who spitefully use us (Matt. 5:39-44) and to never retaliate. When the young of a dove are attacked, the dove will not attack but instead will cry out in distress. This concept is also seen in the words of Romans 8, as Paul wrote that when a believer does not know how to
pray, the Holy Spirit will make intercession for her with groanings (vv. 26-28).
The parallels between a dove and the Holy Spirit continue when we understand that a dove can easily be spooked by strange noises. It is said that a dove will return to the same spot a couple of times when hearing a strange noise but will not return a third time to the same location. Similarly, God said to Noah, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever” (Gen. 6:3). The Holy Spirit can be vexed, grieved and even blasphemed (Eph.
The dove is a gentle creature and never
retaliates against its enemies, while
believers are told to turn the other
cheek, to pray for our enemies and those
who spitefully use us.
4:30; Mark 3:29). When the Holy Spirit is purposely offended, He can eventually depart from a person, as He did with King Saul (1 Sam. 16:14).
It is also interesting to note that when most birds hover in the air, their wing tips point toward the back, in
the direction of their tail feathers. On a dove, however, the wing tips point toward the head. This is unique when we consider how the anointing oil was poured upon the heads of the kings and priests in Israel. The oil was poured from one ear, across the front of the head, to the other ear. It was poured in the form of a Hebrew letter kuf, whose shape is similar to a dove’s wings when it is hovering and its wings are opened. Just as the oil descended upon the heads of priests, the Holy Spirit manifested as a dove at Christ’s baptism and descended upon His head.
Years ago, the great evangelist Leonard Ravenhill noted that there are nine main feathers on the left and right wings of the dove. He pointed out that there are
also nine gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:7-10) and nine fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). There are also five main tail feathers on a dove, which can represent the fivefold ministry gifts of apostles, prophets, pas-tors, evangelists and teachers (Eph. 4:11). The tail feathers of a dove are like the rudder of a ship—they assist in balance and direction in flight, just as the fivefold ministry gifts in the church bring balance to the body of Christ.
A Code in the Covering
Returning to the story of Noah, the ark was prepared with a special upper window. This window is mentioned twice in the flood narrative—once before and once after, when the waters were settling—and two different Hebrew words are used and translated “window.”
Before the flood, the window is called tsohar, a word meaning “light or illumination.” This was a literal window in the ark where light could stream in from the outside world and allow Noah to see out. This window was not glass but would have been an opening on the top level of the ark, most likely protected by wooden coverings.
After the flood, Noah opened the same window. How-ever, the Hebrew word used in this instance is challown, which refers to the covering over the window rather than the window itself. The challown would have been made of wood and been designed to keep the rain out. When Noah opened the window, the light and illumination
Just as the oil descended upon the
heads of priests, the Holy Spirit
manifested as a dove at Christ’s baptism
and descended upon His head.
poured into a dim ark, and the dove had an opening to flow in and out.
Studying this many years ago, I realized the ark was a picture of safety and security in a time of distress and trouble. This man-made window not only kept the rain from getting in, but it also prevented or withheld the dove from being free to get out and fly.
I can’t help but compare this to some churches that place man-made barriers inside the congregation to protect the people but which often lead to man-made control, such as when the rain of the Holy Spirit is falling in locations other than their church and the leadership “closes the window” to prevent anyone from seeing or experiencing these outpourings. These barriers prevent the Dove, the Holy Spirit, from having free access to the face of the waters where new life will soon burst in the light of the Son of God.
There are so many spiritual hindrances, including the traditions of men, that can stop the flow of the Spirit. We must remove denominational coverings that have separated the outpouring on the outside from the people on the inside. Spiritual veils must melt from the eyes of our understanding, and this is accomplished through deeper illumination and understanding of the Word. According to Paul, when these spiritual veils are removed, then the Spirit is free to work, and “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17).
© I S T O C K P H O T O / L O P U R I C E
THE “END-TIME
FLOODS”
Three floods will unleash
the fullness of time
Rain and water were central features in the flood story of Noah, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is compared to rain being poured out (Joel 2:28-29). But did you know three types of floods will mark the end times, according to Scripture? » The future Antichrist will arise when “the
trans-gressors have reached their fullness” (Dan. 8:23). » The end “shall be with a flood,” and terrible wars
will be a sign of the time of the end (Dan. 9:26). » A flood of spiritual knowledge of God’s glory will
cover the earth “as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14).
Time to Free the Dove
You’ll remember that in the New Testament, men served as money-changers at the temple. This is because the Roman government was in charge of the currency, but only Hebrew coins were permissible to pay the temple tax—thus the need for money-changers who set up tables in the court of the Gentiles and exchanged the Roman coins for local coins. Those attending wor-ship from other nations often brought with them coins affixed with the faces of men, gods or animals, which also were exchanged before entering the temple. These exchanges provided oil, salt, wine and animals for the various sacrifices—all purchasable for a price.
Money-changing had become a very profitable busi-ness, as the exchange rates went as high as 300 percent. And on the particular day Christ entered the temple, He would have first passed by the court of the Gentiles, where the tables of the money-changers were set. While passing by, Christ would also have observed doves being kept and sold in the area. According to Leviticus 12:5-6, the doves were a special offering after a woman gave birth to a child, and the offering was for purification.
At the moment He saw all this activity, Christ set His heart on purifying the temple compound, and He began overturning the tables of the money-changers and those who sold doves: “Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the
money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” but you have made it a “den of thieves” ’ ” (Matt. 21:12-13).
We can assume that when the fragile wooden cages of the doves struck the floor, they broke, and suddenly the doves were loosed and began to fly. Imagine those freed white birds seen by casual observers from any high hill, such as the Mount of Olives. In my mind, I see many individuals who needed healing or a miracle watching the commotion from afar. As they came to the temple to see—or perhaps were carried there by others—notice what occurred next: “Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them” (v. 14).
When the house of God is cleansed from selfish, greedy and carnal leaders and the church no longer sits in its seat and attempts to control the movement of the Dove, releasing Him instead within the body of Christ for ministry, then we see sinners converted, the depressed released, the sick cured and the people rejoice.
An Anointing of the Mouth
Out of the flood waters, the dove returned to the ark with an olive leaf in its mouth. Of the hundreds of pos-sible tree leaves to reappear after the earth was covered with water, the dove found the leaf of a tree created by God to produce olives. When crushed, the olives from the olive trees produce thick yellow oil, which we’ve noted
was used to anoint the national and spiritual leaders of Israel. This is the leaf that came back in the mouth of the dove.
The anointing of the Holy Spirit is not a cloud, a fire or even a dove, but rather a divine presence whose authority is released through the mouth—through preaching, teaching, singing and prophetic utterances flowing like oil from the lips of those upon whom the Spirit has rested.
The prophet Zechariah described two olive trees on the left and right side of the menorah whose olive branches are like pipes pouring out golden oil. They are identified as the two anointed ones standing by the Lord (Zech. 4:11-14).
Thus, the dove represents the Holy Spirit and the olive leaf the anointing that flows through the spoken word He gives. He is still like unto a dove! 3
PERRY STONE is the best-selling author of numerous
books, including How to Interpret Dreams and Visions and The Code of the Holy Spirit, from which this article is adapted. He directs one of America’s fastest-growing ministries, the Voice of Evangelism, and lives in Cleveland, Tenn., with his wife, Pam, and their two children.
When a rabbi in Jerusalem told Perry Stone that, according to Jewish tradition, speaking in
tongues was something the high priest did in the holy of holies, Stone set out to discover lesser-known details and insights con-cerning the Holy Spirit. The result of that journey is his latest rev-elation-packed book, The Code of the Holy Spirit, available online or in bookstores across the nation.
A PARALLEL CREATION
Surprising dovetails between creation and the flood
Many end-time signs are encoded in the days of Noah, just as Christ reminded His followers: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:26). Often overlooked, however, are the parallels between the original creation account and the new creation established after the flood. Take note of these similarities and see that the flood was actually a re-creation of God’s original plan.
During the first act of creation, “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2, KJV). At the re-creation after the flood, “The ark went upon the face of the waters” (Gen. 7:18).
In Eden, God blessed the first couple and com-manded them to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth (Gen. 1:28). After the flood, “God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply,
and fill the earth’ ” (Gen. 9:1, NKJV).
In the original creation act, “God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind” (Gen. 1:25). In the Noah account, we read God instructing him, “Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing” (Gen. 8:17).
God’s plan for mankind was for him to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing” (Gen 1:26).
God gave a similar promise to Noah after the flood: “The fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea” (Gen. 9:2).
WELCOME TO CHARISMA MAGAZINE’S WEB SITE. LOOK AROUND, CLICK ON THE LINKS AND WHEN
YOU’RE FINISHED JUST FLIP THE PAGE TO CONTINUE READING THE DIGITAL EDITION.
© I S T O C K P H O T O / K H Z ; P R O X Y M I N D E R ; I R O C H K A _ T
RECEIVING
THE
HOLY SPIRIT
THE TRUTH
ABOUT THE BAPTISM
IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
THAT MOST BELIEVERS
DON’T KNOW
M
any people think Jesus’ final words of instruction to His disciples are found in the final two verses of the book of Matthew, when He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations ... teaching them to observe all things that I have com-manded you” (Matt. 28:19-20).However, these words were not the last Jesus spoke to His disci-ples. His final word of instruction to His followers was not “go.” It was “wait.”
We find this command recorded in the final chapter of Luke and again in Acts 1: “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’ ” (Acts 1:4-5, emphasis added).
Jesus’ final instruction was to wait. Wait for what? The promise. What promise? The baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus told His disciples to “wait” before they “go” change the world. He knew if they went without the
empowerment of the Holy Spirit, nothing would happen. He was telling them, “Don’t try to do anything I’ve instructed and called you to do until you’ve received this additional baptism. You’ll only be striving in your own natural ability, and nothing of lasting spiritual value will be accomplished. Wait! Wait for what I promised you—a Helper.”
If you’ve been born again, the Holy Spirit baptized you into Jesus at the moment you were saved. But let Watch as Robert Morris explains the difference between the Holy
me ask you: Have you asked Jesus to baptize you in the Holy Spirit? If not, in whose power are you attempting to live the Christian life?
The Three Baptisms
Many Christians are unfamiliar with the baptism in the Holy Spirit. In fact, most believers only know about water baptism. We can easily deal with this baptism because the Bible depicts it clearly—take John the Baptist’s activity in the Jordan River, for example. If you attend a church that practices water baptism, you see it with your own eyes all the time.
Still, the Bible mentions two baptisms you can’t see with your physical eyes; you can only see the after-effects of them in a person’s life. Let’s explore all three to understand the differences.
1) Baptism of the Holy Spirit. You probably already know about this baptism, but you might know it by a different name: salvation. First Cor-inthians 12:13 says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.”
Who is doing the baptizing in this verse? The Holy Spirit. When you and I experienced salvation, we were both baptized into the same body—the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the agent who did the baptizing. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but it’s not the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
2) Water baptism. If we are obedient to the commands of Scripture, we choose to experience a second baptism, this one in water. This type of baptism is what Jesus had in mind when He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). This baptism symbolizes our new life in Christ.
3) Baptism in the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist refers to Jesus, saying, “I indeed bap-tize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
John’s statement here is one of just a handful of statements or accounts present in all four Gospels—you can find the other three versions of this verse in Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16 and John 1:33. You’ll also find accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus in all four Gospels, as these events are obviously central to the gospel story and explain vital truths believers need to understand. I believe it’s significant that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is in all four as well.
Scripture clearly shows us Jesus is the one who performs this baptism, immersing us in the Holy Spirit. Yet because this baptism has been harmfully mis-represented, countless Christians avoid it. How could Jesus baptizing us in the Holy Spirit possibly be a bad
thing, though—especially when it’s so plainly present in the Bible?
Peter’s Pentecost Sermon
This promise of the baptism in the Holy Spirit came powerfully to the disciples in Acts 2. Peter delivers a sermon immediately after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. In response to Peter’s preaching, a number of his Jewish listeners fall under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:37 tells us, “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ ”
“What shall we do?” That’s a pretty broad question. How does Peter respond?
“Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your chil-dren, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call’ ” (vv. 38-39).
Notice that in the active verbs in these verses, Peter outlines three baptisms. He says:
1) Repent. This is the vital primary step in the bap-tism of salvation.
2) Be baptized. Peter urges his listeners to follow Jesus’ example by submitting themselves to water baptism.
3) Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the third baptism. As Peter indicates here, the Holy Spirit will not force Himself upon anyone. He must be “received.”
From here on out, the third baptism continually fol-lows the first two as an essential, critical part of the Christian life.
Great Joy in Samaria
For example, in Acts 8 we find the evangelist Philip preaching and teaching in Samaria. After a revival breaks out, many people are healed, delivered from demonic oppression and saved. Then, verse 12 tells us, “But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.”
Two of the three baptisms are found in this verse. “They believed” means the people received the baptism of salvation. Then they were baptized in water—that’s two. What about the third baptism—immersion in the Holy Spirit? Let’s keep reading:
“Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” (vv. 14-16).
Notice what this passage doesn’t say. It doesn’t tell
us that when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John, who gave these new believers the right hand of Christian fellowship because they had everything they needed.
In the early years of my Chris-tian walk, this is precisely what I was taught. I was told that once I was saved and water-baptized, I had everything I needed
to live the Christian life.
Of course now I know that without receiving the Holy Spirit, I was living a powerless and defeated life of min-imal effectiveness in God’s kingdom.
Peter and John didn’t dare do that kind of disservice to the new believers of Samaria. They were happy these folks had received the first two baptisms. But the first
thing the disciples asked was whether or not the new believers had received the third one.
When the answer came back no, the apostles imme-diately addressed the situation: “They laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit” (v. 17).
Only then were these new Christians fully equipped to be all God called them to be.
I’ve heard people argue that the baptism in the Holy Spirit only occurred on the day of Pentecost, yet these events in Samaria occurred months or even years after those of Acts 2—and this isn’t the last time we see people experiencing three baptisms in the Scriptures, either.
The Pattern Continues in Ephesus
Many years after the Pentecost outpouring, we hear about the apostle Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, recorded in Acts 19: “And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ So they said to him, ‘We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit’ ” (vv. 1-2, emphasis added).
Interestingly, the people Paul encountered were “disciples” who already “believed,” meaning they were followers of Jesus Christ. Now notice Paul’s question: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Paul doesn’t seem to have any doubt in his mind that
Without receiving the Holy Spirit, I was
living a powerless, defeated life of
minimal effectiveness.
someone can come to saving faith in Jesus Christ yet not receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. In other words, Paul knows that a person can be baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ (salvation) yet not be baptized by Jesus into the Holy Spirit.
By the way, I love the response of the believers: “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” Maybe these people went to the same church I attended as a boy! Someone told them enough about Jesus so they could be saved, but they hadn’t even heard of the Holy Spirit.
Paul found this so puzzling that he decided to check and make sure these people were actually saved: “And he said to them, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’ ” (v. 3).
When they said, “Into John’s baptism,” Paul explained what they were missing: “Then Paul said, ‘John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after Him, that is, on Christ Jesus.’ When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied” (vv. 4-6).
Notice what happens when the Ephesian believers receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit: they spoke with tongues and prophesied. We see this pattern again and again throughout the book of Acts.
Three Witnesses in Heaven and on Earth
Now let’s look at 1 John 5:7: “There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.” Of course, “the Word” is a reference to Jesus. But do you believe what this verse says—that the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit “are one”? In other words, do you believe in the Trinity? I suspect you do.
This verse says that these three all “bear witness in heaven.” Of course, we aren’t in heaven right now. We’re on earth. So who or what is bearing witness here on earth?
The next verse tells us: “And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one” (v. 8).
Here we have the three baptisms in reverse order! The three “witnesses” on earth are the Holy Spirit bap-tism, water baptism and salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Each one of these baptisms represents a distinct work of grace God wants to do in our hearts and lives. Salvation is a miraculous work of grace upon the heart. Water baptism is a work of grace in and upon the heart of man. And a believer’s baptism in the Holy Spirit releases within us the supernatural empowerment to do all that God calls us to do.
As we’ve seen, Jesus commanded His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the promised Holy Spirit came.
Why? Because in Jesus’ own words, they would be clothed in heavenly power (Luke 24:49), receive empow-erment to be witnesses for Him all over the world (Acts 1:8) and do even greater things than He had done (John 14:12).
Let me condense and summarize these three “wit-nesses” in a personal way. When I was saved, I became a new person. When I was baptized in water, the old person was cut off. And when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I received the power to walk in the new. That third baptism makes a huge difference! For years, I tried to live in victory, power and purity. However, I experienced little but failure and frustration.
After I received that third baptism, everything changed. The wonderful intimacy with the Holy Spirit that I began to enjoy became so precious to me that I would shrink back at the thought of doing anything that would grieve Him. Because God’s Word was now alive to me in new ways, I suddenly found Scriptures coming to mind at critical times of need or temptation. That sense of anointing I had frequently experienced in the pulpit quickly came to be a part of my daily life—at the grocery store, on the golf course and, most important, inside the walls of my home.
What About You?
I want you to ask yourself an important question: “Have I experienced only two baptisms?”
Have you ever experienced an immersion in the Holy Spirit that brought supernatural power and help into your life? Jesus wants to baptize you with power from on high. Why in the world would anyone say “Thanks, but no thanks” to that?
Many Christians are living lives of defeat, frustra-tion and failure, as I did before I opened my heart and mind to this third baptism. I’ve tried living without the Holy Spirit’s power, but I wouldn’t go back to that way of living for all the money in the world. It’s too wonderful to have God the Holy Spirit as a best friend.
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). That’s the biblical truth that can transform your life. Will you pray and receive the Holy Spirit today? 3
ROBERT MORRIS is founding senior pastor of Gateway
Church, a multi-campus, evangelistic, Spirit-empowered church in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. He is featured on the weekly television program The Blessed Life,
broad-cast to approximately 90 million homes in the United States and more than 200 countries around the world. He is the best-selling author of 11 books including The Blessed Life, From Dream to Destiny and The God I Never Knew. Robert
and his wife, Debbie, have been married 32 years and are blessed with one daughter, two sons and three grandchil-dren. You can follow Robert on Twitter @PsRobertMorris.
Straight Talk
BY JOYCE MEYER
DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH
POWER IN YOUR LIFE?
The anointing of the Holy Spirit is meant for
you—but you have to be ready for it
T
here’s nothing more valuable than God’s presence in our lives. That presence is often equated with the Holy Spirit’s anointing, which increases our desire to completely and promptly obey God. Because the more we love, trust and obey God, the stronger His anointing will be in our lives.Now, God’s love for you is per-fect, complete and unconditional. He couldn’t love you any more than He does right now, and His love for you never changes. But we can grow in our love for Him.
And as this love grows, it causes more of the anointing of the Holy Spirit to work in and through us. The Anointing Abides in You
Jesus Christ is the Anointed One, so when we are born again, His anointing abides in us. The word anoint means “to smear or rub all over.” It’s wonderful to think about how in Christ, we are “rubbed in and smeared all over” with the Holy Spirit.
First John 2:27 says, “But as for you, the anointing (the sacred appointment, the unction) which
you received from Him abides [permanently] in you” (AMP). Notice how this Scripture says the anointing abides permanently—it won’t go away.
I also like that word unction— it’s like having Holy Spirit “umph!” or power to do what God is calling us to do. When we follow the anointing, we make wise decisions. Pay the Price to Have
More Power
In one way, the anointing is a free gift from God that comes by His grace and mercy. But in
another way, there is a price to pay for it. While the anointing abides in us through our salvation, it can’t come through our lives until we are broken before God. That’s when the oil of the Holy Spirit in us is poured out and can be a ben-efit to others.
So what is it that needs to be broken in us?
Things such as rebellion, stub-bornness, pride and a spirit that’s independent from God are a few areas of disobedience that can keep the anointing from working through us.
You see, the vehicle that car-ries the anointing is the soul— our mind, will and emotions. And when we are led by our natural, carnal or fleshly impulses, we aren’t being led by the Holy Spirit. We need to protect the anointing.
It’s Not Just for Spiritual Things We need to understand that we dare not do anything without God’s anointing and that there’s an anointing for everything we need to do. It’s not just for ministers or for spiritual areas of life.
The anointing is what enables and equips us to do what God asks us to do. You have an anointing to be a parent, spouse or business person. Whatever you are gifted to do, you have an anointing for it. It’s
amazing when God uses someone to do something that they don’t have the ability to do on their own. That’s the power of the anointing! Jesus Is Our Example
Philippians 2:10 says, “(At) the name of Jesus every knee ... (must) bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” He is God, and He is all-powerful! Yet He is also our example in humility. Verses 5-8 in this same chapter tell us we are to have the same attitude He demonstrated. Although He is one with God, Jesus stripped Him-self of all privileges and became a servant. He humbled Himself and was obedient even to death on the cross.
Power is connected to obedi-ence, which means the anointing is released when we get rid
The anointing
is what enables
and equips us
to do what God
of our selfish, self-centered, independent attitudes and humble ourselves before God. As you
choose to be radically obedient to God, you will have the same power that raised Christ from the
dead working in you—and you’ll be amazed by the anointing of the Holy Spirit in your life!
JOYCE MEYER is a New York Times best-selling author and founder of Joyce Meyer Ministries, Inc. She has authored nearly 100 books, including her latest, Making Good Habits, Breaking Bad Habits. She hosts the Enjoying Everyday Life radio and TV programs, which air on hundreds of stations worldwide. To read past columns in Charisma by Joyce,
Jesus explicitly described what happens when His disciples
fail to bear fruit. But in calling us to abide in Him—like branches
to a vine—He also revealed the keys to yielding the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
How to Produce
Divine Fruit
B Y F U C H S I A P I C K E T T
I
t might surprise you to learn that receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit doesn’t automatically result in the fruit of the Spirit being formed in our lives. One who has yielded his life more fully to the Holy Spirit in receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit will obviously have the divine enabling to develop more fruit, much fruit and fruit that remains. But how much fruit we bear has to do with how closely we abide in Christ.Because fruit-bearing is a direct result of abiding in Christ, this means there are deeply spiritual and fruitful Christians who have never displayed evidence of having received the Pentecostal experience of Holy Spirit bap-tism. On the other hand, it is sadly true that there are Spirit-baptized Christians who have not developed the fruit of the Spirit to any degree in their lives through con-sciously abiding in Christ. Both cases prove the reality that fruitfulness is not a result of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit but is a result of abiding in Christ.
It remains, then, that the key to the quantity and quality of fruitfulness in our lives is abiding in Christ, the Vine, in obedience to His commands. Let’s explore this abiding principle together.
We Bear Fruit by Abiding
Perry Brewster makes this observation regarding fruit-bearing Christians in his book Pentecostal Doctrine: “Our likeness to Christ is definitely not something applied from without, as a cosmetic transformation produced
by a formula of some religious make-up department. It is a genuine likeness produced by an intimate relation-ship with Him. Christ’s own analogy of the vine and the branches upholds this (John 15:1). The branches are not merely vinelike; they are a part of the vine. Likewise the fruit does not merely resemble grapes, but possesses their inherent structure and taste.”
Fruitfulness is the principal purpose for the existence of a tree. Jesus taught His disciples that fruitfulness was His purpose for them as well. He told them, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16). In this great teaching, Jesus called Himself “the true vine” and His Father “the vinedresser” (v. 1). He called the disciples “branches” (v. 5) and told them to abide in Him so they could bring forth fruit (v. 4). He warned them, “Every branch in Me
Because fruit-bearing is a direct result
of abiding in Christ, this means there are
deeply spiritual and fruitful Christians
who have never displayed evidence
of having received the Pentecostal
experience of Holy Spirit baptism.
that does not bear fruit He [the Father] takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (v. 2).
Jesus cursed the fig tree because it did not bring forth fruit, and in the morning the disciples found the tree had died (Matt. 21:18-20). Does He not have the right to expect to find fruit on His tree of life in His garden? Thus, fruitfulness is a result of a relationship that is carefully cultivated. Jesus taught His disciples they could only be fruitful by learning to abide in Him.
The Role of the Holy Spirit
It is no accident that the Word calls the third Person of the Godhead the Holy Spirit. Holiness characterizes His divine nature. One of the supreme mandates of the Holy Spirit is to impart the holiness of God to us, to change us from glory to glory, giving us His divine nature and His character. As the Spirit works in each believer, He develops within us His character, which is identified by the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23 describes this fruit as “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Ephesians 5:9 says the “fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” And Romans 6:22 says, “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”
I used to think the fruit of the Spirit was produced
just like the gifts are: by the Holy Spirit. But then I real-ized it is not the Spirit Himself who bears the fruit but the Christ-life within us that produces the fruit of godly character in us. The Holy Spirit produces the Christ-life in us as we obey Him, causing the holiness and divine nature of our Lord Jesus to be manifest through us.
The fruit of the Spirit, then, is the true character of the Christian life that replaces the self-life, or old man, as the Scriptures label our sin nature. It is the fruit of the Tree of Life, Christ, who lives in the garden of our spirits.
Fruit Can Be Seen
The more one abides in Christ—and is therefore filled with the Holy Spirit—the greater the manifesta-tion of the Spirit’s fruit in that person’s life and work. Only when a believer is full of the Holy Spirit, continually yielding to Him, can he exhibit the full fruition of Chris-tian virtues.
When Christ is formed in the believer through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, true Christlike character will be as natural a result as pears growing on a pear tree. The fruit of the Spirit is produced automatically when we are yielded to the Holy Spirit and walking in obedience to Him.
Spirit-filled men and women can be distinguished by their fruit in the same way that a carnal person can be identified by fleshly works. If we are abiding in Christ, the
