The Lord Within-old1

I'd like to begin by reading from the Book of Acts, chapter 1, starting at verse 4. And while staying with them, Jesus charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me. For John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father has fixed by his own authority.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up at a cloud, took him out of their sight.

So they did what they were told. They waited in Jerusalem. Ten days later, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, filled with power from on high.

We know that this thing which happened to them then brought about a direct change in the way these people function. They came out of hiding and became public. Their shyness and self-consciousness fell away like dead skin.

They spoke with power. Their word was confirmed with signs of the kingdom. They had a sense of direction.

They knew what had to be done, and they did it. There was more genuine love among them, and more joy than they had ever known. And most important of all, they kept their commitments to God and to each other.

But consider what it was that happened to these people on the inside when the Spirit came. As Jesus had promised, the Spirit came to them as power from on high. But who controlled this power? Did they control this power? Or did this power control them? Did they decide which moves to make and then command this power to go and clear away the obstacles? Or did this power decide which moves to make and command them to go and clear away the obstacles? Now, we have to have that clear in our minds because multitudes of people in the professing church today, particularly the charismatic part of it, and many of us are in that, seem to be facing their lives on the assumption that when the Holy Spirit comes to us, He is at our disposal.

Now, if the Holy Spirit is at our disposal, then we can pretty much order our lives the way we want to. Staying inside the confines of morality and decency, we can select a road that's going to be relatively safe and free from shock and disruption. And along the way, we can command the Holy Spirit to heal this one and drive out that demon as we choose.

But if the Holy Spirit is not at our disposal, if He comes to us as Lord, then He orders our lives as He chooses and He puts us on the road He wants to place us on. And He may put us on a road that has some rough stretches and some surprises. He decides which demons we cast out, who we heal, and whether the word coming out of our mouths in the name of Jesus is going to be a word of grace or a word of judgment.

Listen to Jesus speaking at the Last Supper, John 16, 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.

When He comes, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they do not believe in Me, of righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see Me no more, of judgment because... Here Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit certainly not as someone who comes to be at our disposal, but as one who comes as Lord. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own, He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.

The Holy Spirit as described by Jesus here doesn't come to us as the genie of Aladdin's lamp to answer our beck and call or to turn us into little spiritual supermen. The Spirit of God described by Jesus in this passage comes to us as Lord and He comes to rule our lives. That's how it was with Jesus Himself during His earthly ministry.

The Spirit of God came on Jesus at His baptism and He came down upon Jesus bringing the direct heavenly rule of the Father into Jesus' earthly life. And we are told immediately He was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He came out of the wilderness in the power of the Spirit.

Everything Jesus did, every word that He spoke was at the command of the Father through the Spirit. The Spirit led Jesus to the cross to lay down His life. The Spirit raised Him from the dead.

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies by His Spirit who dwells in you. In other words, we live in the power of the Holy Spirit when we submit to the Spirit, which means, first of all, the Holy Spirit is the one who establishes the Lordship of Jesus over our individual lives when we submit to Him. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3 Therefore, I want you to understand that no one, speaking by the Spirit of God, ever says Jesus is Lord.

And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. No one can understand what that means, Jesus is Lord, that that is the rock-bottom foundation of reality in this world.

Nobody can know that except by the Holy Spirit. I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit calls me to the Gospel and likens me by His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who opens my eyes to see who Jesus is.

I'm blind until He does this. But He only does this when I submit to His Lordship, when I, with an act of my will, place myself under His rule. The Holy Spirit is not like a horse that I can ride, like the Lone Ranger.

The Holy Spirit is not like a car that I can drive. He is not some force that I can control and manage like water coming out of a hose. He is Lord.

He rules. When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He can only guide me when I follow His leading, when I listen to His speaking, when I submit to His direction, when I take off my shoes and worship His glory.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit is the one who establishes the Lordship of Jesus over the body, over the church, over the assembly, when we submit to Him. He does not do it against our will. He does it when we submit to Him.

Reading from Revelation, chapter 1, excuse me, verse 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write what you see in a book, and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamon, to Thyatira, to Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed in a long robe, with a golden girdle round his breast, his head and his hair like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars. From his mouth issued a sharp, two-edged sword.

His face was like the sun, shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, and I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore.

And I have the keys of death, and by the Spirit, enabled John to see who Jesus is. John showed to John Jesus as Lord of the church, standing in the midst of these lampstands. He is Lord.

Each lampstand is a church. To each lampstand he has a word. If the lampstand listens to the word, if the lampstand ignores the word, it is out of its place.

Now the Lord over this assembly is the Holy Spirit. The one who makes it possible for us to know who Jesus is, to see, to hear who this is, is the Holy Spirit. He's not here to do our bidding.

We are here to do his bidding. When we submit to his Lordship with our hearts, open our hearts to his light, he fills this assembly with the life of God and causes the word that God speaks to us to be confirmed with power. Corrupted lives are made straight.

Sick minds are made whole. Weak bodies are made strong. And we see this.

But we need to remember, never forget, understand, that if we don't call the shots, he does. And he is giving to this church the same vision he gives to John back in the book of Revelation. He shows us Jesus as he is now.

The lamb that was slain becomes Lord, Lord of Lords and King of Kings, calling us to repent of our petty, shallow, time-wasting lives and commit ourselves to him and walk in his way. And finally, the Holy Spirit is the one who establishes the Lordship of Jesus over the earth. Soon the earth will submit to that Lordship, whether it wants to or not.

And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because they do not believe in me. Of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no more.

Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. He convicts the world of the sin of unbelief, of seeing Jesus hanging on that cross and failing to fall on their faces and repents before that. He convicts the world of righteousness, the righteousness which is revealed as Jesus the Son, the Lamb, hangs on that cross for us.

He's back with the Father, ruling at the center of the universe, but the vision of the cross is kept alive by the working of the Holy Spirit. And he convicts the world of judgment, the judgment which is falling even now on Satan and everything that belongs to Satan, every lie, every illusion, every delusion, every system of Babylon. And that judgment is falling because of the cross.

Now the Holy Spirit is able to do this because he's Lord. He moves over the face of this earth as Lord. But the Holy Spirit moves over the face of the earth in only one way, through the body of Christ.

Through men and women who are in submission to his Lordship, the Holy Spirit is preparing this earth for the day when every knee will bow at the name of Jesus. He's preparing the earth for the day of the King's return. He is stirring among the nations.

He is awakening and warning the multitudes. He is calling out the faithful. He is leading the poor in spirit into the ark before the flood of fire falls.

And he is doing this through a human vessel, through the body made up of men and women who are in submission. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

You shall receive power. You. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you anew and afresh, as he needs to constantly, but his question to us is this.

Are you willing to submit to his Lordship? Are you prepared and ready to open your heart and let the Spirit come in to rule it? If we can say yes to that question, and if we will live that yes in the days ahead, the Spirit will guide us into all truth. He will cause the word of the Lord Jesus to come directly down among us and burn with light. He will show us things which are still to come.

And he will glorify Jesus among us to such an extent that our hearts will beat over the fire of God. Let's wait upon him now in silence for a minute.