The Holy Spirit in You

Well, thank you, and good morning to all. Thank you. At least there’s one person out there wishing me a good morning.

So, I hope you’re all ready. What I’m going to speak about, some of you will probably say, “Oh, I know that.” Well, pretend like you don’t, maybe. But I want to talk a little bit about the Holy Spirit today.

From Pentecost to today

Last week, Pastor Jay spoke about Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit. He was given to those in the upper room. They went outside, they started speaking in tongues, and all the people around there came out and said, “What’s going on?” And 3,000 came to the church. Pentecost back then was the birth of the church.

And let me tell you, since that time we’ve had 2,000 years — roughly, let’s see, 1,994 years, I think, something like that — since the birth of the church. Once this happened, the Holy Spirit was given at that time. Then we have the book of Acts. It goes through a number of years, and if you include Revelation, it goes through 90, almost 100 AD. And during all this time, the Holy Spirit is operating through those people. Operating through Paul, operating through all the disciples, operating through others — Priscilla and Aquila, for example. And so the Holy Spirit was very much in operation during that time.

Did the Holy Spirit operate after that? He continued to operate throughout the history of the church. There were some before — St. Francis of Assisi, St. Patrick. These were a few along the way. But a great outpouring occurred in the 1900s — Azusa Street was 1905, the Azusa Street Revival. And that started something that the Holy Spirit, God, wanted to do specially in this time period. Since that time, the baptism of the Holy Spirit spread. There were events before that in the ’40s and ’50s. In the 1960s the charismatic renewal kind of started, the Jesus Movement and so on, as it was called. Then we come to Lutheran, Catholic, other denominations in 1967, independent charismatic churches in the 1970s.

That’s the end of history. And you sort of say, “Well, where’s the Holy Spirit now, in you?” So that’s what I want to talk about today. Where is the Holy Spirit now? And who is the Holy Spirit?

Do you know Him?

Do you know Him? Do you know Him? He’s part of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Okay, we always say that. We serve the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We talk about Jesus. And Jesus considered the Holy Spirit very important. Do you know Jesus? Do you know the Father? Do you know the Holy Spirit? We serve this God, but do you really know Him? I hope your answer is “of course,” but consider it for a bit. What is the Father in your life? I’m sure all of us could say, “Well, I know who Jesus is. Yes, I know Jesus.” Do you know the Father? Do you know the Holy Spirit?

Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Then verse 7 says, basically, if you know Jesus, you know the Father, because the Father operates as Jesus did. I can also say, if you know Jesus, you know what the Holy Spirit does. How is the Holy Spirit interacting with you today? Rhetorical question.

So, just a sidelight — this goes along with it, but think about it. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk with Jesus as the disciples did? Three years of walking with Him, listening to Him, seeing Him doing miracles, doing all these things, and saying, “Wow.” Well, I was reading just a while back — I don’t know, maybe it was a week ago — about Jesus’ resurrection. After His resurrection, He spent 40 days teaching the disciples. I thought, wow, what did He teach? What were those 40 days like? Man, it would have been nice to be there and hear what He was saying, what He taught them.

And then the Lord caught me up short. He said, “You have a teacher, the Holy Spirit. You want to know what He taught? Ask the Spirit.” That kind of cut me up short. Wow, okay. Am I really relying on the Spirit to teach me? That’s one of the promises He gave. That’s why the Holy Spirit came for us.

It is to your advantage

So in John 16:7–8 — and if you have your Bibles, you can turn to John 14 through 16; that’s where Jesus deals with the Holy Spirit — it says, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”

What? Wait. It’s to our advantage that Jesus leaves us — well, leaves the disciples? “But if I don’t go away, the Holy Spirit’s not going to come.” Realize what this promise is for you. The Holy Spirit came because Jesus sent Him. The Holy Spirit is God with us today.

Who is the Father? He’s loving. He cares for you. He wants to be with you. He wants you to interact with Him as a son or a daughter of God. That’s what the Father wants. Who is Jesus? He said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” So Jesus is the pathway. He came to teach us, to help us understand. He was there to do all the things, to say, “I am the Messiah. I am the One who will give you the way to God. Know Me.”

Then we come to Jesus saying, “I go away because it’s for your advantage, so that you can receive the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit will be with you. Who is the Spirit? He’s in you. He is there showing you who God is. You want to know God? Look inside. “Holy Spirit, reveal the Lord to me.” That’s a great prayer. “Holy Spirit, be there. Show me who God is.”

It’s to our advantage. Interesting that Jesus said that. In other words, “I’m not going to stay here.” I suppose Jesus could have lived to be 2,000 years old or whatever, but the point is that it’s to their advantage, our advantage, that the Holy Spirit comes.

So who is this Holy Spirit, really? What does He do? He’s a being. He’s the third part of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We say that too quickly. You want to know who God is? Look within, at what the Holy Spirit has given. He is there. That’s God. All of God. He is like Jesus. He is like the Father. The Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all represented by the Holy Spirit. He’s the One who helps us in our operation, in what’s going on.

He dwells in you

So let’s see what Jesus says about this. John 14:16–17. Jesus is saying — I’m going to read it directly — John 14:16: “And I will pray the Father…” In other words, “I’m going to ask the Father in all seriousness.” “…and He will give you another Helper” — a paraclete, a comforter; we have different names for it — “that He may abide with you forever.”

Notice that last word: forever. He’s with you forever, with His people. He’s there. “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

Consider that. Jesus is saying that the Holy Spirit is in you. You have God within you. I don’t know how many times we — well, we don’t think about that, I’m sure. God is in you. The Holy Spirit is in you. God, the Holy Spirit, is in you.

So, the Spirit of truth — He’ll lead you into all truth. Boy, does the world need truth today. How does this operate, the Spirit of truth? Well, if it’s a religious thing, you can say, “I don’t know if that’s true. Let me find out. Spirit, what are You indicating to me?” That I should look at the Word. Let’s find out what the Word says. Maybe it’s something from a news article. “I don’t know if that’s true. Where’s that coming from?” God is saying, “Hey, shape up here. Take a look. Dig down. Dig deep. See what’s going on. Does that agree with My way?” That’s the Spirit of truth indicating things to you. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free — another quote.

So He’s with us forever. We’re not losing Him. It’s not here today, gone tomorrow. Forever. Once you receive — and you must receive; it’s not just automatic, there’s a reception that has to go on here: “Holy Spirit, come. Come within me. I receive You” — once you do that and He comes, He’s with you forever. When you get up to heaven, you’ll say, “Hey, Holy Spirit, You’re here too?”

But He’s with you. Why? So you can bear fruit, so you can live this life and walk as God would walk, let’s say. As I brought up, what do you think about walking with Jesus like the disciples did? Well, today we walk with the Holy Spirit, and it’s the same sort of thing. We receive what God wants through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus our example

So you say, “How does this work out?” Well, we can look at Jesus as our example. Acts 10:38 — and by the way, this verse parallels Isaiah 61:1–3. It also parallels Luke 4:18. Luke 4:18 is when Jesus is in Nazareth. He comes into the synagogue, opens up the book of Isaiah, and reads chapter 61: “Today this has been fulfilled in your hearing. The Spirit of God is upon Me.” And so in Acts, it sort of summarizes this whole thing: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Wait a minute. Jesus is God, right? “God was with Him”? In other words, Jesus is operating through the Holy Spirit. He is doing the things He’s doing because of the Holy Spirit. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. All the healings of Jesus were done by God, the Holy Spirit, through Him. And that’s who He said would come and be in us.

It’s not us that does it. It’s not Larry. It’s not my wife. It’s not a person. It’s the Holy Spirit operating through Larry, operating through my wife, operating through each of you. God wants to work in you and use you to operate for His purposes.

The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus with power — power to heal and power to do these things. He did this through the Holy Spirit. He received the Holy Spirit. He was baptized by John in the Jordan, and the Spirit came upon Him. So Jesus, in all of His operation here as a human, as a man, was operating through God, the Holy Spirit, within Him. And of course, He was fully God too. But He was operating because of the Spirit.

Many times you see, especially in the Gospel of John, that Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing. He only said what He heard His Father saying. How did that happen? “Well, He’s God.” Well, wait a minute. How did that happen as Jesus, a human? He only did what He saw His Father doing — well, He saw it through the Holy Spirit. He only said what He heard His Father saying — He said it through the Holy Spirit. That’s who Jesus provided to you. That’s why it’s to our advantage that He went away, so He could send the Holy Spirit: God here on earth, through the Holy Spirit in you.

Do you realize what a gift — I’ll call it a gift — God gave to you? We are not lost, wandering about. The time we begin wandering about is when we try to use our mind instead of relying on what the Holy Spirit is saying to us.

So, Acts 1:8: the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Jesus said before that, “Don’t leave Jerusalem until you get the Holy Spirit.” Ten days they sat there doing nothing, so to speak — except praying, of course. Acts 1:8 says, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Now, please don’t get off on some kind of weird thing here: “Oh, power, I want power.” That’s not what it’s about. What’s the power about? Power to go forth and witness for Jesus. The power to go about and pray for healing, ask for healing through Jesus. The power to bring the Word forth through Jesus. The power to pray as you should when you don’t know how to pray, through Jesus and through the Holy Spirit. The power to live with the Holy Spirit. That’s the power that you shall receive. And then of course the Day of Pentecost comes after this. That’s what they received. It was called the baptism in the Holy Spirit, because it requires receiving from the Holy Spirit. You have to be immersed into the Holy Spirit.

A Holy Spirit prayer, not a mind prayer

The trouble with us, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us, is we get distracted. We get distracted by our mind and our thoughts. So I have to give you an example of how I was distracted.

My wife and I went to Israel. If you haven’t been to Israel, I suggest you get there — maybe not now, but get there sometime. Anyway, my wife and I were in Israel. It was the second day that we were there. The bus dropped us off, we get out of the bus, we’re walking around, and my wife — I’m not sure if she sprained or broke her ankle. She was in great pain, more than just a sprain, or it was a severe sprain at least. I’m not a physician to take an X-ray or whatever.

So anyway, she’s in great pain, and she said to me, “Oh, pray for me.” And my mind is thinking, oh yeah, let’s see this part of Israel here, and then we’re going this way — my mind’s going a mile a minute. And I said, I’ll lay hands on her: “Heal her, Lord, in the name of Jesus.” She said, “Come on, really pray.” It’s like, oops, I didn’t go to the Spirit here. My mind says, just pray for her. Well, okay, fine, I prayed for her, right? No, that’s not it.

So I went and asked the Holy Spirit. I got down on my knees, put my hands on her ankle, and really prayed: “Lord, heal her, in the name of Jesus.” I call it a Holy Spirit prayer, as opposed to a my-mind prayer. Not that my mind was bad or anything like that, but I wasn’t dealing with it through the Holy Spirit. I prayed for her ankle. She was still in pain. So then she started walking back to the bus that we were on. And you can ask her about this if you want: each step was less pain. Less pain, less pain, less pain. Fifteen steps later, no pain. She got on the bus.

Our next stop was up in the area of Dan, where the idol worship was going on and all that kind of thing. We had to walk up a riverbed with rocks and all this kind of thing to get there. No problem. She walked just fine. No pain. Walked the riverbed, all that. She gave testimony that night, or sometime anyway, about this. God healed her miraculously. Whether it was broken, whether it was a big sprain, whatever, the pain was gone. The healing happened. She could walk. A miracle.

Obviously, it was when I went to the Holy Spirit, not my mind. It wasn’t me. It was God who was doing the healing. I just had to bring God into it. And the Holy Spirit was there, ready and willing. But not through my mind — not just “heal her,” but “Bless her. Heal this ankle in the name of Jesus.” The Holy Spirit operating to bring healing.

It’s so very easy for us to get our mind in the way. We deeply desire healing or whatever — it doesn’t have to just be healing — but we desire, “Oh God, interact here.” And we think about how it’s going to happen. We pray a perfect prayer. All of that is hitting us. We’re doing it through our mind, instead of saying, “Holy Spirit, how do You want me to pray? How should I approach this? What do You want?” I only do what I see My Father doing. We need to keep that saying of Jesus in our mind: I only will do what I see the Holy Spirit leading me to do. I don’t want to do what I think. Thinking is fine — great. But get God involved. That’s the important thing. A total healing for my wife when we involved the Holy Spirit.

There are several reasons for the Spirit to be with us. I mentioned some of them already. The Spirit of the Lord dwells in us; He is there. He’s going to keep us from fear, because we will behold the glory of God. There’s no fear in beholding God. The Holy Spirit searches all things and will bring things to you. You will understand the Scriptures. You’ll understand what He’s doing. He helps you. He’ll teach you all things. The Holy Spirit will help us to know what God is doing — to find out what the Father wants done. The Holy Spirit provides courage, boldness. All these are Scripture verses that I’m not reading to you. He helps us in our weakness, when we don’t know how to pray. He’s there in so many ways for us. He’s ready and willing.

We can pray for the mind of God: “Holy Spirit, help me to have the mind of God in this situation.” What God provides through the Holy Spirit for us is the same thing He provided for Jesus. So you can walk — understand what I’m saying here, no weird stuff, okay? — you can walk as Jesus walked. The Holy Spirit’s there to lift you up, to be present, to bring forth God’s will. We are just an instrument of the Lord.

Now, don’t say, “Oh, well, I’m a worm.” We had a youth back in Seattle, and we were talking to him. This guy loved to call himself the worm. He would draw pictures of a worm: “Because that’s me.” I said, “You’re more than a worm.” You can consider yourself very humble that way. That’s fine, but you’re more than a worm. You are a representation of God, of the Holy Spirit. Not a worm — a flaming angel, if you want. However you want to look at it, the Holy Spirit’s there.

Your body is a temple

And here’s an important verse I want you all to remember: 1 Corinthians 6:19–20. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” Verse 20: “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Let’s go back to verse 19 and take it apart a little bit. In verse 19 it says, “Do you not know?” Understand this. Come on, understand what is going on inside of you. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. What’s a temple? Well, a temple is where God dwells. That’s the easiest definition of it. Look at the Old Testament. Why did they build a temple? So God could be there with them. It was His house, His dwelling place. Even Jesus said that. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” It’s a temple of God.

So what happens in a temple? Sacrifices — daily sacrifices. We have in 1 Peter 2:9, in case you need to know it, that we are a royal priesthood. And then in Hebrews 13 it says what sacrifices we are supposed to offer. We are a living sacrifice — that’s in Romans 12:1. And Hebrews 13 basically says that we, the church, during this time offer praise, a sacrifice of praise, doing good, et cetera. You can read Hebrews 13.

So in our temple of the Holy Spirit, we are to offer a living sacrifice. That means get up on the altar and don’t crawl off. And offer praise — praise to God. On a Sunday morning we come here and we praise the Lord. It’s great. Are you praising Him as part of the temple? Are you bringing praise from the temple, bringing it out from within, the Holy Spirit there guiding your praise?

It’s just so important to understand what a temple is. The temple is not a church. The church is made up of a number of temples. Got it? The temples of the Holy Spirit are sitting out here, and we’re all in a church building. We are all the church. Make sure you know the difference. You’re a temple of the Holy Spirit, so you bring forth worship and praise from within the temple, from the Spirit that’s there. And we join together with other members of the church, other temples, and we worship together. We praise together. That’s what church is all about. Do not neglect assembling yourselves together. Be with it.

So, the Holy Spirit — when you get to know Him, He’s inside of you. He’s working with you. He’s in the temple. You’re the temple for Him. So just as they would go to the temple and see God there, so to speak, we go to the temple of the Holy Spirit within. We are the temple. We’re the walking temple, to bring forth what the Spirit wants. We walk with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. We are the temple for all of God. God is within us through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is totally God, just as the Father and the Son are. This brings forth an intimacy with the Holy Spirit. We are intimate with God Himself in our temple.

So we go forth in the world. Be aware of what the Holy Spirit may be indicating to you. What’s He saying? “Oh, here, there’s something I want you to be aware of. Go there.” You go there, and God says, “Speak My Word.” And who knows, somebody comes to the Lord because you spoke the Word. That’s a made-up example, but the Spirit is there daily, moment by moment, second by second, whatever you want. He is there so we can be intimate with the Holy Spirit and know what God wants done. Let us join with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to do what They want, to say what They’re saying. What the Father wants, you can do through the Holy Spirit.

Led by the Spirit

Unfortunately, today too many people — first off, even outside the church — have no idea what Christianity is about. You hear some really weird things out there. They think Christians are some kind of — I don’t know. “You do this, and you’re a Christian.” It’s very strange. We are to bring the truth. So when you hear things like that, depending on the situation, bring forth the truth through the Holy Spirit. You’ll know it, because it’ll be within you.

It’s interesting: the Pew Research Center found in 2024 — that’s two years ago — that self-identified Christians, whatever that means, make up 61% of Wisconsin. So 61% of the population of Wisconsin will self-identify as Christian. Okay. 62% of the U.S. population does the same — self-identifies as Christian. If you go to the East Coast and West Coast, we’re down to 50%. So the East Coast and West Coast are less Christian-self-identifying than the Midwest, let’s say.

So, okay, how does this work out? They also found that fewer than 50% of adults pray daily. So even though they self-identify as Christian, they don’t necessarily pray. 30% seldom pray. 40% of adults still consider religion to be very important in their lives. But what does that mean? Where is the Holy Spirit in all this? Are they really working with the Spirit? What’s the Spirit within?

Sometimes the Spirit within will cause you to pray when you’re not even wanting to pray, so to speak. Your mind says, “Oh, I’ve got other things to do.” No, you take time out and you’ve got to pray. “Really, Lord? Yes, now? Okay, Lord, You know better than I do.” So you pray. Or whatever it is. And sometimes it’s the other way. “Oh, Johnny needs my prayers, needs my help.” “No, don’t go to him.” “What? You don’t want me to talk to Johnny?” It’s not time, or whatever. “Okay, Lord, whatever You’re doing, that’s what I want to do. I won’t go to Johnny.” Or we could go there and do it in our mind: “How’s it going?” Blah, blah, blah.

Be led by the Holy Spirit. It’s so important for Christians. God is within us. And if you’re not led, you’re just doing your own mind. Well, fine, but what does God want? This is what I want to encourage you so strongly on: that you look to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus promised us a Comforter, a Helper. I read the verse there. It’s called a paraclete — that’s the Greek word. It’s one who comes alongside to give aid. It used to be that in kingdoms, kings would go forth to encourage or comfort their troops. They called it comfort. What they would say is, “You can do this. You can do this.” That was comforting their troops. They were the paraclete, coming alongside. Well, the Holy Spirit can do the same thing: “You can do this. You can go forth. You can pray. You can do this.” You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He’s echoing it throughout the halls of the temple.

So one of the great, essential gifts that God gives is basically to live a Spirit-filled life. He gives us the gift of Himself. We all say that about Jesus: Jesus gives the gift of Himself. That’s true, but it’s evident in our lives through the Holy Spirit. That is how it works in our life. We are His temple. Always ask God first, “Is this what You want me to do? What’s going on?” We know who Jesus is. But the Spirit will guide us, just as He guided Jesus into the things He did.

So I want to encourage you: Pentecost is not over. We live with it. We live with the Spirit. That’s what Jesus gave us, to be with Him.

So if you would join me in prayer for a minute. Lord, I just ask Your blessing, the blessing of the Holy Spirit. So, Holy Spirit, come. Just be so evident in our lives that we truly would be one with You. Lord, that You would guide us and show us what You want in every way. Bless each one here. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Could I ask the worship team to come forward? I pray that you understand what it means to have God in you. God is in you. God is there. God will bless you. That’s what He wants to do. “I have not left you alone. I have given you the Holy Spirit.” The Lord be with you. Praise God.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.