Thursday, September 27, 2007

Rob Rufus - "Knowing the Person of the Holy Spirit" 2

Here are my notes from the 2nd in Rob Rufus's sermon series - "Knowing the Person of the Holy Spirit - His Names, Titles and Operations". The notes from the first sermon are here. I know that I am not the cautious type and verge on the waxing lyrical about anything that excites me - but I am not underestimating how the first sermon has changed my life and my relationship with God. Once again I am typing notes as I listen.

"The enemy wants us to focus on what God hasn't done instead of what God HAS done".

Lying spirits want to use behaviour modification to change externally instead of changing the heart and that is a religious spirit.

"Why does that which started in revival end up in most churches end up defending and protecting their brand of religion? Church history shows us that what starts in life ends in death all too often".

The transformation of your heart is the greatest legacy of the prophetic statement to come of external transformation. God says; "Tell the people they have changed!". Should we try and make others conform to what we want them to be? No!

"Condemnation is a lie from the devil - if you believe that lie even though there is NO condemnation, then condemnation will become an illegitimate reality in your life because you lend credibility to a lie".

80% of the mornings I wake up, the thing that gets me out of bed is the fact that the Holy Spirit wants to fellowship with me today. Personhood does not refer to having a body but having intelligence, a will. Those people who seek Him only for the power will be disappointed - when you seek Him for Who He is then you will have much power in your life - but it is a fruit of knowing Him as a Person.

You will never hear the Father or Jesus Christ speak in your heart without the Holy Spirit. Most Christians have a false Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Bible. You can know the Bible back to front but it won't help you unless you know the One who breathed it. Many people say to me, "Rob I have never heard God speak". What they are telling me is that they do not know the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives inside your re-born spirit. The devil speaks to your head and tells you to do stupid things.

The Holy Spirit is so awesome and lovely - He is just like Jesus in His nature. The Holy Spirit provides the power to administrate the plan of the Father. Every good gift comes from the Father through the Son's sacrifice at the Cross. It must come through Him but you can only receive it if you know the Holy Spirit.

"Under the Old Covenant if you touched a leper then you were unclean. Under the New Covenant if you touch a leper then they are healed".

Demon power that promises you much always comes with a price tag that will mean without a doubt that you will end up being destroyed. Around the world where people are listening to the voice of God -

"I have never known such a hunger for the authentic supernatural of God today in my 30 years as a Christian".

The new generation represented by young men in their 20's and 30's are seeing arms growing and miracles happening!

A new generation is rising in the earth saying; "We know there is a power encounter coming" and that generation will stand on Mount Carmel like Elijah and call down - not right doctrine, not right theology - but fire from heaven.

The disciples walked and talked with the Master Coach - Jesus Christ - every day and showed them the miraculous. They did it and they failed and He helped them. Every single day they walked with the Top Coach in the Universe yet they still made mistakes! For 3 and a half years they got taught on signs and wonders. Yet it was on the Day of Pentecost that they could finally step out in faith and see it happen.

I get 30 hours a year with you. Don't let the spirit of disillusionment kick in because we haven't raised the dead yet. We are in the New Covenant era. The Gospels were under the Law. People say that Jesus was preaching the New Covenant then they need to cut hands off and pull eyes out. He was preaching the Law at it's highest level to convict the Pharisees of their self-righteousness. He was introducing the coming of the New Covenant. When the Day of Pentecost came - that was the beginning of the New Covenant!

"Recently in Brighton, I went to 4, 500 people who were in a disposition and ready to respond. Most of them were leaders and they had been crying out to God for years. They lifted their sails and it was the easiest thing in the world!".

You can get stuff off CD's but you can never replace being in the room when the anointing is in the room. Isi de Gersigny (who will be speaking at our Glory and Grace Conference) goes up to heaven regularly and sees things in the Spirit. I want you to be exposed to her so that we can lift our level - lift our standard. Let's be so aware of what the Holy Spirit does that we can discern His movings. You can be in a move of the Holy Spirit but if you don't lift your sails and be being filled with the Spirit then you won't move.

"God wants to give us new sails - faith that you fan out in the glory of God - that we can fan out and receive the blowing of the Holy Spirit".

"A yachtsman is hunting the wind and constantly making sure his sails are at the right angle so he catches the wind".

We pray "Come Holy Spirit - blow" but we don't realise He is blowing 24 hours a day! We need to extend our faith and catch Him. Your life may be without form or void and has no shape but the Holy Spirit of God is hovering over every believer and when God says "Let there be light" - the Holy Spirit leaps into action and brings form and beauty. (Romans 8:14) "Led by the Spirit of God they are Sons of God".

"You can all the gifts and talents in the earth but if the wind does not blow on your talents then your talents will only take you as far as human ability. Human ability can take you as far as the moon but it can't raise the dead or open blind eyes or death ears or mend marriages".

Light can have healing properties! Laser light can do surgery. The Spirit of God seperates light from darkness. The Spirit of the Lord comes on us and we can stand there with a feeling of complete failure and then He comes and it all changes! If an unsaved person resists the Holy Spirit pulling them to the Saviour then they can never be forgiven because the Holy Spirit leads people to the Saviour! That is blaspheming the Holy Spirit - but the day you give in to the Holy Spirit and allow yourself to be led to the Saviour, you are forgiven. The Holy Spirit is indeed with you all the time but that isn't the issue!

"The issue is are you lifting your sails so the Holy Spirit can blow upon those outstretched sails of faith?"

The Spirit came on Gideon and this weak man who was hiding took an army of 300 and defeated the Mideanites. Don't take on insurmountable odds until He is moving in that way! Pick your battles! When the Spirit of the Lord comes then the trumpets can be blown and lights can be shone. There are a lot of Christians today in graves because they thought they could boss the devil around without the Spirit of the Lord. (Isaiah 59, 2 Cor 3:17).

"How do we know a church has got their sails up and are open to the moving of the Spirit? We can know that in seconds of walking in if that church is filled with a whole load of self-concious people who are critical, analytical, cerebral, formal and conservative and frightened of men then I know that we have got the operating of a religious demon here that has lied to these people and they have leant credibility to the lies and empowered those lies because they are believing a lying spirit and they are not operating in the Spirit of the Lord because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty".

Open your eyes and think about average churches and what goes on in their Sundays! Some are brilliant - the Spirit of the Lord is moving all over the earth today - but for some they are so loyal and faithful that they won't admit that there is a control spirit here. You can't do cartwheels there and you can't do a thing!

"You will never get miracles in a conservative, formal atmosphere because people are too self-concious to be God-concious for the God of miracles to do things. But where the Spirit of the Lord is - there is freedom! There is liberty!"

The Spirit of the Lord is blowing on our sails and when He blows on our sails He raises the standard to the enemy! We can blow a trumpet and overcome insurmountable objects!

"We were created with a destiny to invade the realm of the impossible and demonstrate that all things are possible to them that believe! We were called to challenge these things!".

The mystery and the tenderness of the nature of God in the Trinity is an awesome truth. There is tenderness in the Trinity. The Father refers to the Spirit as "My Spirit". (Joel 2:28). "I will pour out My Spirit on ALL flesh". This dear Person has not yet been poured out on all flesh. On the Day of Pentecost Peter stood up and showed the 120 and the 3000 that received the Holy Spirit. 3000 are in the Kingdom of Heaven because the Father poured out His Spirit on them.

"The Day of Pentecost wasn't "all flesh" - it was 3000 but the day is coming when ALL FLESH will receive this pouring out of the Spirit and billions will come into the Kingdom of God".

The Greek word for "pour" is a word that a lover would use for their lover. "Pour out all my affections upon you". In the last days God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh. (Zech 4:5). "By My Spirit says the Lord of hosts". We can't win China by ourselves - but by My Spirit it can be done. Your Spirit can do all things. The Spirit of the Living God (2 Cor 3:3). We are a letter from Christ in the earth not with ink but by the Spirit of the Living God. That letter says something to the world! The Corinthians got things wrong but Paul says that they were a letter from Christ! "Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me".

The Power of the Most High. We will see this in Luke 1:34-35. "You will be with child who you will call Jesus". Mary said "How will this be?". The angel replied; "The power of the Most High will overshadow you". The Most High God will bring His power to overshadow Mary and she would conceive.

"The power of the Most High will come on us and in the womb of our spirit we will see dreams and visions conceived. We will see millions and millions of people saved. We will see stadiums packed with people. We were raised to bring a revolution in the earth. The power of the Most High will come on us and effect the social climate of Hong Kong - prisons, education, the poor, China! Nations!".

"Church is not just a church sitting in a building but a people called to change society - "Let Your Kingdom Come - Let Heaven come into the earth realm". The only way that can be done is through the Holy Spirit".

Christians want to be equipped to do the job. One can coach us every day and He is called the Holy Spirit. He can coach us like Jesus coached the 12 disciples.

"The more miracles you get - the more dissatisfied you are going to be! What is a miracle? A miracle is a sign to the earth that we aren't just good people. The Gospel isn't about making bad people good but dead people alive. When you see cancers disappear and dead people get up then the world know that you are operating with something that is transcendent above the natural order. The reality of God cannot be dismissed!".

Society need a line drawn in the sand and they have to make a choice. Let your heart be naked before the Holy Spirit. The trouble with Adam and Eve eating from the tree - a cherubim came and stood before the tree of life and would not allow them to enter.

"You cannot enter the cloud of glory if you are self-righteous".

The reality of the Cross means I am righteous in the Father's eyes for ever and ever and my disobedience cannot disqualify the eternal sacrifice of the Son of God. The Father wants to give new sails here and take away old rigid canvas! We need new sails that capture the wind more effectively. Cry out to God for new sails of faith today!

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