Just How Much Spirit Does God Give? ~ Kay Arthur

Life in the Spirit Series - part four

Just How Much Spirit Does God Give?

Have you ever looked at another Christian and maybe had a little bit of, what shall we call it, holy envy? Because you looked at them and you thought God, they have more joy than I have, it seems that You.re working more in their lives than You.re working in my life. What is going on? Does God give the Spirit in portion to people? Oh no, Beloved; He pours Him out lavishly on all who will believe in Jesus.

Some times we do look at other, don.t we Beloved? And we think God, You.re partial, God, You.re playing favorites. Beloved, it.s not that God is partial. It.s not that He plays favorites. Rather, do we know and do we give our whole selves to God or do we just give ourselves partially to God? Have we surrendered to the Holy Spirit? Have we asked the Holy Spirit to fill us? You say, “But how does that happen?” Well, that.s what we.re looking at as we look at life in the Spirit.

Now remember, we.ve been in the Old Testament and we saw in Genesis, chapter 1 how the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. We saw that the Holy Spirit is energy. We saw that when man sinned God left man, so to speak. He came out of man and man became a sinner and he was unable to be all that he should be.

But then we saw that God made promises. First of all He made a promise that Jesus Christ would come. And when Jesus Christ would come, the Holy Spirit of God would rest on Jesus. Then we saw in Isaiah, chapter 44 that God would pour out His Spirit on His people. Well we.ve seen that now. And we.ve gone to Jeremiah 31 and we.ve looked at the new covenant. We.ve gone to Ezekiel, chapter 36 where God has said that He would put His Spirit within them, and that he would cause them to walk in His commandments and to keep His statutes.

But now what I want to do is I want to take you from Jesus and the Jews and the promise that He makes to Israel, I want to take you to the promise that He.s going to make to all mankind. And do you know where you find that? You find it in the book of Joel.

Now the book of Joel is a very very interesting book. In that we don.t know exactly when it was written, but we know that it happened after a plague. So there was a locust plague and then God told them that they were to fast and they were to call a solemn assembly and they were in essence, to get their hearts right with the Lord. Then we move to Joel, chapter 2 and in Joel, chapter 2 he tells them about another judgment that God is going to bring, either literal locusts, or an army that in a sense has that destructive effect of locusts. And he tells them again to fast and to pray and to seek the Lord. He tells them that the day of the Lord is coming.

But then before he goes on, he gives them an awesome incredible promise. And that awesome incredible promise is the promise of the Holy Spirit. I want us to go to Joel, chapter 2, Joel, chapter 2, verse 28. And it says, “And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind.” (Joel 2:28a)

Now that is good news because that means that God is not going to just give the Holy Spirit to the Jews, to His chosen and elect nation, but He.s gonna pour the Holy Spirit out on all mankind. And all mankind includes you and includes me. Now remember we.re marking the word Holy Spirit. Like one side of a triangle with the base and then coming up and then putting a cloud around it. And we.re doing that all the way through all these scriptures that we.re looking at, so that when you look down you can spot and see if the Holy Spirit is mentioned on that page.

Well let.s read Joel, chapter 2:28-32. And you want to listen very carefully. We.re going to come to a time phrase. When we come to a time phrase you wanna put a clock around it so that you can see God is telling you when something is going happen. All right now, verse 28: “And it shall come about after this.” Is that a time phrase? Yes, so you would put a clock there. “…that I will pour out My Spirit,” God is speaking, “…on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy…,” (2:28)

And this is very very exciting and different, because this wasn.t happening in Old Testament days. It was just the kings that would sometimes prophesy. It was the just the prophets that would sometimes prophesy. But he.s saying hey, something new is going to happen; your sons and your daughters are going to prophesy. Now prophesy does not mean, hey, I.ve got some word from God that is contrary to this word, or different than this word and I.m going to give it forth.

Basically, when you go through the scriptures and you study it carefully, you see that prophesy means to speak. You see in 1 Corinthians, chapter 14 that when a person prophesies they speak to edification or exhortation. In other words, they build you up or exhortation, they.re saying now listen, you better do this, you better go forward, let me come along side and tell you; or they speak to edification, exhortation or they speak to bless a person. And so let.s look at it, because I think it.s very important for you to see. 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 3. But it says, “He who prophesies speaks to men for edification, exhortation, and…,” what, “…consolation.”

In other words you come along and because the Holy Spirit is a Paraclete, because He comes along side another person, then He.s always there and He.s known in John, chapter 14 as the comforter. So He comes along and He consoles you, and He warms you, so to speak and He says it.s all right, it.s going to be okay, I.m gonna to take care of you. Now can you imagine having a person like this inside of you that is going to do these things for you?

Well, when the Holy Spirit comes upon mankind, then the young men and the young women or the old men and the old women will be able to speak for God, to say, hey, this is what God says. All right now, he says, “…your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions and even on the male and female servants….” (2:28) In other words, there.s no class distinction. And listen; there is no distinction with God. God is not a respecter of persons. It.s not male versus female with God. There is neither Jew, nor Greek. There is neither bond, nor free. There is neither male, or female when it comes to God and His Spirit and what He wants to do in our lives.

And so he says, “…even on your male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” (2:29) So once again you want to mark Spirit. You want to mark, with a clock, “in those days.” So there is a time frame. There.s an expanse of time when God is going to pour out His Spirit. And then it says, “And I, God, will display wonders in the sky and on the earth…,” He says, “…blood, fire and columns of smoke.” (2:30)

Now these are very important things that you don.t want to miss, “blood, fire, columns of smoke.” Now He.s giving this, along with these days when He.s pouring out His Spirit. He says, “And the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and awesome day of the Lord.…” (2:31) Before, hey, you.re right, put a clock there. It.s a time phrase.

So He.s saying this is what I.m going to do. Now all the way through Joel, he.s been talking about the day of the Lord. In chapter 1 he mentions it. In chapter 2 in several places he mentions it. And so he.s saying the day of the Lord is coming. But before that day of the Lord comes what I.m going to do is I.m going to pour out My Spirit on all mankind. And then he says, “And it will come about …,” and this is so important, “… that whoever calls upon the name the Lord will be delivered; for, on Mt. Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape.

So he says if you cry out to God then God is going to pour forth His Spirit. It.s going to happen in Zion. It.s going to happen in Jerusalem. Now Zion is Jerusalem. So it.s like repeating it. It.s in this area. And he says, “And there will be those who escape….” (2:32) Now he.s talking about those that escape because in the day of the Lord there.s going to be judgment that.s going to begin with the house of Israel. There.s going to be judgment upon all the nations. And Joel goes on to talk about that in chapter 3, but we.re not looking at that. But I want you to see the timing of this prophecy.

And then he goes on to say, “There will be those who escape, even as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.” (2:32) Now this is a passage that is going to find fulfillment in the New Testament. But I.m not gonna tell you that yet, because we need to see okay, how is this gonna be effected.

We see that man who was made in the image of God. Who was filled with the Spirit of God, now, when he sins is devoid of the Spirit of God. And God.s image in man is distorted. But God wants to come back in and God wants to dwell inside man. God wants to give man power. God wants to give man the ability to live the way God ordained for man to live. God wants to take man and form him again into His image. Now how is He going to do that? Well the Holy Spirit, who is the energy, is going to affect that. Now, how is it going to happen? Well this is what we want to look at, when we come back after this important announcement.

Welcome back my friend. Now what we.re going to do is we.re going to Luke, chapter 1. In Luke, chapter 1, and remember Luke is the chronological gospel, Luke is writing to Theophilus and he says, “It seemed fitting for me, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write out for you in consecutive order, O, most excellent Theophilus, so that you might know the exact truth about the things that you have been taught.” (Luke 1:34)

And see, that.s what this program is about, helping you to discover the exact truth about the things that you.ve been taught so that you can sift them through the Word of God and see, hey, are these true, or are they not. So now he.s going to tell us in verse 36, it says, “Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph.” (1:26) And you know that the angel of God comes to tell Mary that she.s going to conceive a child. So she says, “…How can this be since I am a virgin?” (1:34) How can I be pregnant I.m a virgin? I.ve never known any man. And then the angel explains it. In verse 35 and, “The angel answered and said to her, „The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God..” (1:35)

So how is she going to conceive the Son of God? We don.t know any details except we know that it.s through God.s Spirit. We know that God.s Spirit is energy, that God.s Spirit is power. And so the Spirit is going to come upon her. She.s going to conceive a child. That child is going to be the Son of God. Now, I want you to go to chapter 2, verse 4. And in chapter 2, verse 4 this is what we read: “Joseph went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David.” (2:4) Now what to we know about Joseph?

Well we would go to Matthew, we would know that Joseph was skittish about this and so the angel came to Joseph and explained to him, hey, the child that is in Mary.s womb is from God. And this is the Son of God and this is what you are to name Him; Immanuel, God with us. And so now Joseph has taken Mary, but they have not consummated their marriage. A decree has come along for the people to be taxed. In order to be taxed they have to go back to their city of origin. So now he.s taking Mary back to Bethlehem, to the city of David.

Now remember in Isaiah, chapter 11 we saw that a stem will come from Jesse, a branch will come and that branch is coming from Jesse through David and it is Messiah. And so they come down to the city of David. And in verse 7 it says, “And she gave birth to her first-born and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (2:7) So we have now the birth of Jesus Christ. But just before Mary gets word that she.s going to have a child, that she.s going to bring forth the Son of God, her cousin Elizabeth, who is an older woman, hears that she is going to have a child. She has been childless all these years. It.s been a reproach to her. So the child that she is going to bring forth. He.s the one that.s going to come and announce that Messiah is coming. We call him in the scriptures John the Baptist.

All right now, we want to go to Luke, chapter 3. Moving through Luke, this chronological gospel, and in Luke, chapter 3, verse 1 it says, “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch or ruler of the Galilee and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene.” (3:1) What is God doing here?

God is saying, listen; this really happened and it happened in a specific place and it happened at a specific time. And it happened when all these men were ruling in these various areas. “In the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John. Now this is John who is the son of Elizabeth and Zacharias.” And it says “…it came to him when he was in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (3:2-3)

In other words, he.s saying to them, you.re a sinner and you need to repent of that. And to show that you are repenting, that you.re recognizing that your sin is sin in the eyes of God, I want you to come and be baptized. And so he was going around, doing this because, “… it was written…,” now listen to this, I love it; “…it was written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight.” (3:4) And so he.s quoting Isaiah, chapter 40.

All right, now you come down and you find him baptizing and these different people and classes of people coming to him. And one of „em asked whether he was the Christ. Are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah, the One that we.ve been waiting for, the One that Isaiah talked about, the One on whom the Spirit of the Lord was going to rest, the One who was going to give us His Spirit and pour it out on us, are you the One? See they knew Messiah was coming. They knew the Anointed One was coming, that the Promised One was coming and they were looking for Him. And so, “John answered and said to them, „As for me, I baptize you with water, but the One who is coming is mightier than I. I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire..” (3:16)

Hey, there.s One coming and that One that.s coming is going to baptize you, unite you with, identify you with the Holy Spirit. Baptize means to take a cloth and dip it into dye and when you pull it out the dye has been absorbed in the cloth, so it.s a picture of identification. It.s a picture of uniting two things. And so he.s saying that the One that.s coming is going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Now go to Luke, chapter 3, verse 21. And it says and it came about, “When all the people were baptized by John, that Jesus also was baptized. And while He was praying heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove. And God said, „Thou art My Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased..” (3:21-22)

Well what happens next in Luke? You find in, chapter 4, Jesus full of the Holy Spirit. Do you know, Beloved that there.s a command in the scriptures, it.s found in Ephesians, chapter 5 and it says, “Be filled, keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit?”

You say how do I get the Holy Spirit? Well, we.re going to talk about that in the next program. But what I want you to see and I want you to understand is this: that God does not give the Spirit by measure. He gives the Spirit fully to all of us who believe, who receive Him, who act upon that promise in Joel. And we.re going to see that as it.s fulfilled. But He gives the Holy Spirit to each believer.

Now what we do with the Holy Spirit, if we.re filled with the Holy Spirit, then we.re going to see that power, then we.re going to see that joy and that love and that gentleness and that faithfulness and that goodness, all the fruit of the Spirit. We.re going to see God using us. We.re going to see God directing us. We.re going to see God moving us, not because He.s a respecter of persons, because He gives the Holy Spirit to us in abundance, in fullness.

But some of us, what we do is we squelch the Holy Spirit or we grieve the Holy Spirit. And that.s why some people seem to have more power and more of the fruit of the Spirit than others. Oh, Beloved, I.m so excited about what is to come. Read through Luke now, and then we.ll talk about it.