The Power of the Holy Spirit

Ps Koay Kheng Hin

If you remember, the years in TOP I have not preached on the power of the Holy Spirit. Today I am led to teach on this. It will not be something that covers everything on the Holy Spirit but have taken snippets out on what I think the Lord wants us to be aware of.

As the church prepares for 2018, there is this consciousness or awareness of the reality of the person of the Holy Spirit. I know there is the Holy Spirit but I want to go a step further. That he is working in you and the church on a daily basis. He is there all the time even if you cannot see it. Even as I sat there and asked the Lord to anoint me, he is there in our midst.

We serve one God but in the Bible, we know that God is three persons. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. How do we square all this? I've been working at this for a long time. I rest on the fact that there is one being of God but there are three persons of God.

My mum asked me and I tried to explain to her in Hokkien. After one hour she looked at me and said she's more confused.

Acts 1:8 (NIV)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

All of you will know this verse as a cardinal verse for the Assemblies of God.

Acts 2:4 (NIV)

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

The Holy Spirit is a person and not a force. The Jehovah Witnesses will tell you the Holy Spirit is a force and not a person. I want you to think. The Bible describes to us that the attributes of God is present in all three persons. There is no lack of holiness in all three persons. But having said that, we have to understand that in each of these person there is a focus on their attributes.

When we think of God the Father, what do we see? What comes out is what we call the transcendence glorious majesty of God. The almighty comes to the fore. Transcendence means there's an otherness to it.  He is the infinity of God and beyond comprehension.

What about Jesus? When we look at God the Son, what comes into focus is the imminent agape love of God. In him he exhibits and expressed in Romans 5:8. He is incarnate to be a man and we can relate to him. We sense and become aware of the imminent agape love of God. What about the Holy Spirit? When you read and look at the Holy Spirit what do we see?

It's in Acts 8:1. It says you will receive power. It did not say you will see love or the perfect glory of God. He is meant to manifest to us the dunamis power of God. When we say anoint us we are looking at the power of the Holy Spirit.

What power is in the Holy Spirit? It's not a natural but a supernatural power of God. It is spiritual power of God. And this is what TOP needs for 2018.

I want to look at this supernatural power. In the Old Testament it's been expressed in so many ways.

Judges 14:6 (NIV)

The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done.

The Bible describes the lion as a matured lion. A strong lion. But the Bible wants to give us this impression that this lion was being torn apart with his bare hands as if it was a goat. In those times, the lion was seen as a powerful beast.

Today when you pray to the Holy Spirit, I don't think you'll pray to be like Samson as you can just use a gun. So how do we get empowered through the Holy Spirit?

This scripture talked about Peter and John.

Acts 4:8 (NIV)

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people!

Acts 4:13 (NIV)

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

In verse 8, Peter talked to these religious leaders who are daunting during those times. These leaders saw the courage of Peter and John. He saw them as unschooled ordinary men yet they saw him talk with boldness and that they had been with Jesus.

I had been asked by this nephew of mine. I had a good time with him. I told him that in my years in working with the word of God and have been asked so many questions there is nothing new under the sun. The one question I've been asked on and off is how to have the power of the Holy Spirit in my life.

Verse 13 is the answer. That this man has been with Jesus. This is the first insight I want to impart to all of us. If you have really spent time with Jesus that power of the Holy Spirit will grow in your life. Jesus works in tandem with the Holy Spirit. As a man spend time with the Lord, and we all do it differently. If you ask Alvin, I think he'll say he play the guitar and spend time with God. Some like me will be in the word. And for others it will be in prayer.

If you spend time with the Lord the power of the Holy Spirit will be in you.

Acts 4:31 (NIV)

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

It is manifested in boldness. If you look at me up here you think I'm confident. But I want to tell you I'm not a bold or confident person. Every time I come out, I always tell myself Jesus must become greater and I must become less.

The other is Moses. The Lord has sent me up here. It gives you a sense of boldness. To all the cell leaders, do not think you don't know the Bible enough or you are not good enough. On Friday, just say the Lord has sent you. The power of the Holy Spirit will rest upon you with boldness.

Now let's talk about this little monk called Martin Luther. He was speaking against the Roman Catholic Church. Going against the church means he was also going against the Roman emperor. He was summoned and all they wanted him to do was to say he was wrong. The Pope and the Roman emperor agreed to this. History tells us that Martin Luther was a great man of God. His answer was barely audible. All those who went against the church was burnt at the stake or killed. He asked to be given more time and the emperor gave him 24 hours.

Something happened that night. The next day he came and there was a supernatural power. He confronted the emperor and the whole assembly. Finally he said, my conscience is kept intact and I cannot recant and unless you can show me in the word of God that I am wrong. Here I stand I can do no more. God help me.

There is a supernatural boldness that will come upon you. You need to spend time with Jesus. No short cut.

Number two, you may think you are not good enough, or afraid. Look at Peter, he also denied Christ. But he was a changed Peter and by tradition, he asked to be crucified upside down because he said he was not worthy to be crucified like Christ. Something must have changed for someone who denied Christ.

Let's look at Paul. His is a little different. Paul talked about the power of the Holy Spirit as in what he does in you.

Galatians 5:16 (NIV)

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Paul says you will bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit by being empowered and transformed by the Holy Spirit. It's not about changing their character.

I'm a man who from young has not been very ambitious. A man of small dreams. I just want to be able to work and not see my parents work hard or my father have to ride the trishaw or my mother iron clothes till late at night. A man with small dreams.

Years pass and they are in heaven in the Lord. My youngest brother is the father of two children. I sometimes ask how's he doing. One fine day I realised they have all grown up and learnt to let go of my brothers.

If you ask me now that I'm retiring at 60 years old what's on your mind? My siblings are doing quite well. Financially better than me. So what's the next task? I believe maybe you all think I'm taking the church to the next level.

I wake up and I ask the Lord to be a better person. I was very blessed on Friday. I was blessed at cell. There have been instances when words that came out of my mouth has not been wise words, not perfect. I told myself this area I have a lot of work to do. You may be wondering why I feel that, thinking that I'm actually okay and not a troublesome person.

I think it's because when you read Galatians 5:22, the natural man will refer to the person next to you. You will think you have more patience or more loving than the person next to you. That's because you compare yourself with man. People will always compare with people worst themselves.

But if you spent time with God and no man to compare then you realised that there is so much that the Lord can empower us. The pursue of your character into more like Jesus, there is blessing. When you ask the Holy Spirit to work in you it doesn't take very long. Give yourself three months and you will realise many things.

There is a certain rest in you as God change you. And you don't realise the change and is happier today. You see things differently around you. How can you be happy if you only look into what's not right but don't want to change.

The second blessing is in that we try to bring the good news to our friends. When you manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit, your evangelistic effort begins to bear fruit. When you asked them to come to church but they refused but now as a change man, your message is only as effective as the messenger.

One of the gifts that I have is that I can relate to a lot of people. One day this young man told me, he said my advice cannot pakai wan. But when I come and talk to you, I go back, I feel very nice, relaxed and joyful. I thought about it and it's impartation. We impart the peace. The person feels good because you are imparting the peace of God. The joy in your heart will affect those around you.

If you are papaya face but you tell them about the joy of the Lord it won't work. The message is as good as the messenger.

You will receive power. You can see it individually and you can see it corporately. As a believer the Holy Spirit will empower you with boldness and empower you to have the fruit of the Holy Spirit and you will be blessed.

When you ask a person if he wants to be holy, often they'll said not for me, maybe you leaders only. But if you ask them if they want to have more peace. Be more loving, be more patient, they'll say yes. That's being holy.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 (NIV)

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

That gift is given to the church as a steward. It does not belong to you. When a person say I have the gift of prophecy, they see it as their gift. Like me, I've the gift of teaching but this gift used to be for myself. It's a gift to edify and build the church. And it's important. So Important that a whole chapter is given to it. It's gifts from the same spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:12 (NIV)

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

There is no one person with all gifts except for the perfect man Jesus. The fundamental truth is that we have only three perspective.

The church that do not manifest the power of the Holy Spirit because they have not spent time with the Lord.

The second one is they spent time with the Lord but they are not surrendered and no unity. The church has their own area of dominion. That church will not be edified and build up.

The last is that the gift has been poured out. We just need to exercise it as the church, one body.  But it must be with love or it's nothing.

How did Samson turned out? Very very sad. Someone that had the anointing in his life.

Judges 16:19-20 (NIV)

19 After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.

20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”

He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

What was wrong with Samson? Did he exercise his gift? Yes. Did he had the power? Yes. So what happened. Samson forgot God. Previously the Bible showed Samson mentioned I love you to God but later it was to Delilah.

John 16:14 (NIV)

He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

The Holy Spirit will always glorify Jesus.

Acts 1:8 (NIV)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

That's why this verse says we will be witnesses. Witnesses of who? Jesus.

The problem is that when we receive the power and we focus on the power and not Jesus, it will not last. We may have the power but we need the love of Jesus in our hearts. We need to be very Christ-centred people.

I want to encourage the church that in 2018, we want to ask of the Holy Spirit for that anointing of power upon the church. Upon you and me individually. And as the church we will have a supernatural working of the church and the church will never be the same again.

Whatever ministry you are in, it's the gift of the Holy Spirit and it's given to you to build the church and not just to empower.

Not by might and not by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord.