Once again, I want to welcome you to the quality
Christian living podcast. I am your host David
friend today We're going to continue our series
on the Holy Spirit and today's title is Experience
the Holy Spirit now before I get into that we
better pray because I think we need the The Lord
to direct us and we do invite the Holy Spirit
in to guide and direct everything we do heavenly
father I thank you for your goodness. I pray
you would bless this podcast and Holy Spirit
I pray you would come in and take control for
those who are listening in father I pray they
would Experience what you want them to experience
father and they will hear what you want them
to hear I pray you would bless it now and anointed
I ask for these things I ask in Jesus name. Amen
Well, today we're going to talk about the experience
in the Holy Spirit. So what do I mean by that?
What am I trying to tell you when I'm telling
you how to experience the Holy Spirit? Well,
the Holy Spirit dwells in us. In 1 Corinthians
6 19, it says, our bodies are the temple of the
Holy Spirit. So therefore, He's there. Now, most
of you who've heard me speak on this, you already
know that, but there are always new listeners.
So from time to time, we need to get down to
some of the real basics to be sure everyone understands
that we're all on the same page. the Holy Spirit,
we need to be careful in our thought life by
speaking the truth, by living in peace. by being
joyful. You know, the Holy Spirit is here to
bring us love, joy, peace, patience, goodness,
kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self -control.
That's the fruit of the Spirit. He's here to
help us and be our comforter and our advocate
and the one that's on our side and the one who's
got our back. So if we are followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ, therefore we then automatically
have the Holy Spirit living and dwelling inside
of us. So in order to experience the Holy Spirit,
though, we need to have the right attitude. We
need to have the right mindset. We need to think
about those things that are good and true. Philippians
chapter 4 and verse 8 talks about thinking on
truth and honesty and pure thoughts and just
thoughts. These are the things I believe that
trigger the Holy Spirit to move in our lives
and to have a greater experience with Him each
and every day. Now what is the spiritual condition
of our thoughts? We might want to examine that
for a second. Just just take a second here and
think maybe you might put this on pause or something
and just think about what is your thought life
like? What do you think about it? Is it wrapped
up with only things that are dealing with you
and maybe not with other people? Is it something
that you think about all the time? Is it how
to be entertained? Or do you think a lot about
how to help other people? Whatever your thought
life is, it's going to have a great impact on
the relationship that we have with the Holy Spirit
and how we can learn to experience the Holy Spirit
in a greater way than we can even imagine, even
think. You see, we experience the Holy Spirit
by making Him comfortable with our thoughts.
One thing we certainly don't want to do is to
grieve the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians chapter
4 and verse 30, it says, don't grieve the Holy
Spirit. So that means He must have feelings.
He must have emotions. He must have those things
that mean a lot to us as human beings. It means
a lot to Him. Whatever concerns us, we need to
understand it concerns God. Whatever we're happy
about, it impacts our relationship with the Lord.
Whatever we're sad about, it impacts our relationship.
So therefore, if we have the Holy Spirit living
and dwelling in us, which we do, then we need
to understand that our thoughts, our actions,
our reactions to things, whether we're at peace
with other people, whether we can make up, you
know, with people and apologize and ask for forgiveness
and move on with our life, these are all things
that help us experience the Holy Spirit the way
God intended us to experience Him. So... I guess
maybe I should just take a second and say, how
do we grieve him? You know, that's a pretty heavy
statement in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30.
How do we grieve him? And we grieve him by being
unpleasant, to be unkind, to be sarcastic with
people, to have pride in our life, to have those
things that are opposite of what the Holy Spirit
brings. So we want to get that stuff out and
move it out, and we can, but we can only do it
through the strength and the power of the Holy
Spirit. Bible says, greater is he that is in
us than he who is in the world. He who is in
us is the Holy Spirit. He who is in the world
is the devil himself. And so we want to... please
the Holy Spirit. We want to make him happy and
comfortable being in our side of us and dwelling
in us and therefore we will have a greater experience
than what we might thought was possible. Now
there are many ways to experience the Holy Spirit.
He is interested in every area of our life. He's
interested in our health, our physical health,
our emotional health. He's interested in our
finances, in our family relationships, in our
marriage. Every part of our life the Holy Spirit
is interested in and wants to have some action
with us in every single part of everything that
we do. He is the Comforter. That means He's there
to bring that comfort when we need it. If you
have someone pass in your life, the Holy Spirit
then can bring comfort to you. When you're going
through a challenge or a difficult time, a difficult
circumstance, He can bring comfort to you. He's
our advocate. That means He's on our side. He
defends us. He's the one... Now obviously, if
we do something wrong or we say something wrong,
then He's going to chastise us, which is what
He's supposed to do, because He's God. And God
doesn't just constantly dwell in... happiness
and joy and peace for people who then are frustrated
and angry and upset and bitter and unforgiving
people God can't deal with those people and his
spirit can't deal with those people so the Advocate
the Holy Spirit the Comforter the Holy Spirit
is there to comfort us but also then to be on
our side if we are lining up according to the
will of God if we're following the Word of God
the instructions, if you will, the manual that
God made for us to live our life. If we follow
that, that's the Word of God, then we can have
the right relationship with the Holy Spirit.
We need to let the Holy Spirit comfort us. That
means we got to yield to Him. We need to surrender
to Him. We can't just say, well, I'll do it my
way. My way is the best way and I'll just do
it this way and whatever. If we do that, we are
then robbing the Holy Spirit of the opportunity
to give comfort and direction for our lives.
And we need to let Him protect us. That means
don't put ourselves in situations like for example
a Christian you know shouldn't not necessarily
run around constantly with people who are angry
and upset and bitter and swearing and angry people
that that hate God and all that if you're around
those people it's gonna wear on you and the Holy
Spirit then can he can help us in the middle
of that Jesus obviously he interacted with good
people and bad people but then that's Jesus now
we as individuals need to guard ourselves around
the company that we keep, the people that we
spend time with can have a great impact on us.
Let me give you an example of that. For many
years, my wife and I went to church together,
and we still do, of course, but for many years
we went together and we'd meet people and friends,
and there was one particular fellow that I got
to know, and he was kind of a negative guy, and
kind of a guy that was always finding the negative
side of things. He was a nice fellow in a lot
of ways, but he just seemed to always drift towards
what's wrong, what's wrong, what's wrong, rather
than what's right with things. My wife could
always tell when I had been around him. I'd come
home from work, and maybe I'd had lunch with
him, and I might make some comment or say something.
She'd say, oh, you've been around this gentleman.
I won't say his name. I could tell you've been
with, what's his name? And let's say his name
is Mike. It's not, but let's say his name is
Mike. She'd say, I see you've been around with
Mike. Evidently, you know, I can tell that you're
just a little short with things, maybe, and you
seem to be bothered about some things, and you
seem to be a little cantankerous. And I would
tell her, really? Is that obvious? And she'd
say, no question about it. Well, that's what
I'm referring to. We've got to avoid being around
people like that, who draw from us and draw us
into their way of thinking. And the Holy Spirit
will help us with that. We grieve the Holy Spirit
when we put ourselves in the presence of negative,
hateful people, and angry people. but we certainly
don't grieve him. We make him pleased and happy
with us when we're around people who are filled
with joy and filled with the love of God in their
life. So anyways, enough said about that, but
I just think it's important we need to understand
that we need to experience the Holy Spirit, but
the people we spend time with will have a great
impact on that. To experience the Holy Spirit,
we must expect and anticipate with expectations
good things are going to happen. to experience
the Holy Spirit, we need to believe in the scripture
where Paul, the apostle Paul says that he calls
forth those things that are not as though that
they are. Instead of looking at the negative
things, the things that are not, Paul looks upon
those things that are. Paul likes to look at
the answer to prayer rather than the challenge
we're going through. Now Paul prayed for people,
he anointed people, he had the gift of healing,
and people were healed, and all these wonderful
things, but he knew that he knew that he knew
that we needed to expect, to anticipate that
God's Word was true, it was real, and that Jesus
the Healer would show up, and that the Holy Spirit
would be there to help each and every one of
us. So we must expect and anticipate. good things
are going to happen to us. And I think that was
an evangelist one time, that was his slogan on
TV. As soon as he'd come on the TV, he'd say,
something good is going to happen to you today.
And what a wonderful, positive way that is, and
to influence and help the Holy Spirit, and to
help us have a better experience with the Holy
Spirit. Now, to experience the Holy Spirit, we
must encourage Him. Now you say, how in the world
do I encourage? The Holy Spirit. Well, we need
to think good thoughts. We need to think about
what he provides. Love, joy, peace, patience,
goodness, kindness, gentleness. When we... Demonstrate
love and joy and peace and goodness and kindness
and gentleness and faithfulness and self -control.
When those things are operating in our life,
then we are encouraging the Holy Spirit. And
some people might say, well, you can't encourage
the Holy Spirit. Oh, yes, you can. If you can
grieve Him, you can also encourage Him. And I
believe in that. I think we can do that. To experience
the Holy Spirit, we must delight ourselves in
Him. The Word of God tells us if we delight ourselves
in the Lord, then He'll give us the desires of
our heart. On the other hand, the Word of God
is basically saying there that if you delight
yourself in your desires, things aren't going
to work out well. But Scripture says, delight
yourself in the Lord, and then God, the Lord,
will then give you those things. All these things
will come to you. The Bible says to seek ye first
the kingdom of God in his righteousness, and
then all these things shall be added unto you.
This is the way we experience the Holy Spirit,
seeking God, delighting ourselves in God, and
the Holy Spirit will operate with that, work
with that, and it will increase our relationship
with the Holy Spirit and we'll experience Him
in a greater way than we thought was even possible.
Matter of fact, let me read that scripture to
you that I just quoted. It's in Psalms. chapter
37 verse 4. Delight yourself in the Lord and
he will give you the desires of your heart. So
maybe somebody needs to know where that particular
scripture is, so I figured I'd better just go
ahead and read that to you. Let's continue on
now. To experience the Holy Spirit, we need to
ask Him for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Yes,
you can. You can ask Him for the gifts of the
Spirit. You can ask the Holy Spirit for the fruit
of the Spirit. You can ask the Holy Spirit to
baptize you with the Holy Spirit to receive your
heavenly language that you can pray in the Spirit.
And when you're praying in the Spirit, you're
praying the divine will of God. Now the baptism
of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of your
prayer language is opposite of the gift of tongues
with interpretation. The gift of tongues and
interpretation is a gift from the Holy Spirit
to help us with a group. But the baptism of the
Holy Spirit where we have our prayer language
where we have this time where we don't know how
to pray and don't know what to pray about and
we can get along with the Lord and be meditating
on the things of God and reading the Word of
God and the Spirit of God can come out upon us
and then we start praying this heavenly language.
You don't need to know what the words are because
those words are the divine will of God. So I
believe we experience the Holy Spirit if we ask
Him for and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Now, let me give you the story. I probably have
given it to you in the past on a prior podcast,
but it's always a good story about my experience
being baptized in the Holy Spirit. My wife and
I got saved. We both were found in Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior. I was a few months after
her. I was a little slower than she was in turning
her life over to the Lord. But after she got
saved, then she desired to have the baptism of
the Holy Spirit. So she received her prayer language.
And I would hear from time to time, she'd be
praying and I'd hear her praying in this language,
just foreign language. And I would talk to her
and say, well, what's that? And are you going
to do that a lot? And she would show me in the
Bible where it was. And I thought, well, that's
real then. I said well that's good for you, but
I think maybe I'll hold off so she started praying
and she said I prayed and I prayed that God would
fill you with the Holy Spirit in a big way and
that you then would understand and then we would
be in agreement on this so she would pray about
it and pray about it and had other people praying
about it and then one night in the middle of
night I woke up and I felt the power of the Holy
Spirit all over the house and so I walked down
to the living room and I got on my knees and
say God I want whatever you want for me. Whatever
you have for me, whatever you desire for me to
have in my life, I want it. I want to get closer
to you. I need the Holy Spirit. As soon as I
said I need the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit
just fell all over me. And I was what they call
slain in the Spirit. I literally fell down by
myself in a very gentle way on the carpeting
in our family room. And I laid there and I started
praying in my heavenly language. And I prayed
and I prayed and I prayed. It was not screaming
or loud or whatever. It was just simply a wonderful
time where the Holy Spirit was filling me with
the baptism and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed
and it went on and on and on and I think it went
on for quite a while maybe an hour or so because
all of a sudden I it was like I woke up from
this dream it wasn't a dream it was reality and
I walked back into bed and went back to sleep
and thought that was wonderful and the next morning
I didn't say anything to my wife and I didn't
say anything for a week or so went by and but
I would be by myself and I would be praying and
then one time in church we're in church and we're
worshipping the Lord and all of a sudden I started
praying quiet to myself but to where my wife
could hear it and I was praying in the spirit
and after church she said you didn't tell me
and I said tell you what well that you got filled
with the Holy Spirit that you received your prayer
language the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I
said no I just didn't think that I should." And
she said, well, she said, tell me the story.
So I told it to her and she said, you know, thank
you, Lord, that you answered her prayer. But
that was my experience in it. And some people
have various other ways. My wife was filled with
the Holy Spirit with her heavenly prayer language
while she was driving down the freeway, just
listening to Christian music. And as she's driving
down the freeway, our little four -year -old
son was sitting beside her and she started praying
in the Spirit. And she said, when she started
praying the Spirit, all of a sudden she thought
her son, our son is sitting beside her and he's
looking at her and his His eyes are wide open,
his mouth's kind of open, and she said, Ed, are
you okay? And he says, oh yes, Mommy. He says,
I know it's the Holy Spirit. He's all over you.
It's Jesus. It was so wonderful to see he, the
Holy Spirit, gave him comfort. Now he's four
years old. and he knew this was a good thing
and he knew that mama was being blessed. So those
are two of our experiences. And matter of fact,
some of you who've been baptized in the Holy
Spirit and you have this beautiful prayer language,
you should let someone else know how it happened
and why you desired it and why and what it has
done for your relationship with the Holy Spirit
and experiencing the Holy Spirit in a greater
way. Now experience the Holy Spirit, experiencing
Him is God's will for us. Amen? It is. It's God's
will for us. Jesus said in Acts chapter 1 verse
5, be baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Apostle
Paul wrote in Galatians 5 16 in the New Living
Translation. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide
your lives. Then you won't be doing what your
sinful nature craves. So the Apostle Paul talked
about it. Jesus talked about living in the Spirit,
walking in the Spirit, and experiencing a greater
depth of our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
To experience the Holy Spirit daily, we need
to seek Him daily. If we want to sense that His
power is operating in us, then we need to be
aware of Him, and we need to invite Him into
our discussions. Now, I've said this before several
times, I don't even like to have a podcast that
I do unless I invite the Holy Spirit to come
in and take control. I like to surrender what
I've done, my preparation, to Him, and I want
Him to guide my life. I don't want to drive out
of the driveway without saying, Holy Spirit,
direct me and take me in the direction that I
should go. Obviously, I know I'm going to drive
somewhere, but sometimes I want the Holy to tell
me if I'm supposed to drive a certain place or
drive by a certain place or by driving down a
certain street I might think of a person who's
living there that needs a call that I should
call them I believe the Holy Spirit is directing
that so we need to ask him so experience the
Holy Spirit is God's will for us but we have
to experience him daily and seek him daily We
experience the Holy Spirit through the gifts
of the Spirit. I've talked a little bit about
that today about the fruit of the Spirit, but
all the gifts of the Spirit, the power gifts,
the tongues and interpretation of tongues and
prophecy and healings and miracles, all those
powerful, wonderful gifts are available to us.
And we can experience the Holy Spirit through
these gifts. If you have questions about them
and you need to know where to read, I would encourage
you to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And if
you read that and study it and read and study
it and pray about it, then the Holy Spirit, then
you'll be opening yourself up to receive what
the Holy Spirit has for those. And the Holy Spirit
is the one that gives the gifts out. He's the
one that gives the power gifts according to whom
He chooses and when He chooses. And so you'll
find that in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. So with
that, we need to experience the Holy Spirit by
seeking Him. You know, in the world today, there's
a lot of stuff going on, a lot of confusion,
a lot of dissension, a lot of political parties
fighting with each other. There's a lot of sickness
and disease, just so much turmoil going on in
the country today. And as Christians, as followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to rely upon
the comforting strength of the Holy Spirit. And
we've got to find it somewhere. And the best
way I know of finding it is through prayer and
seeking the Lord and reading the Word of God.
Paul wrote about this in 2 Corinthians chapter...
1 verses 3 and 4 and when he wrote about this
he's given us a definition an explanation of
how to receive comfort in times of difficulties
and trials listen to these words blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father
of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts
us in all listen that all our tribulation that
we may be able to comfort those who are in any
trouble with the comfort which we ourselves are
comforted by God. Listen to that. With the comfort
with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
So God's Word offers comfort. The Holy Spirit
is comfort. Yesterday, I went to visit someone
in a hospital, a good friend, and he's really
going through a lot of physical problems, an
extremely challenging life he's having right
now with physical issues. Prior to that, he wasn't
unhealthy, he was doing really well, but he started
having physical issues, and started having strokes,
and started having seizures, and all types of
things, and it just kind of continued on. And
as I was with him, talking with him, he said,
you know, this is difficult, I've never experienced
anything like this. And I said, well, that's
when we need to call upon the Lord, call upon
the Holy Spirit to bring comfort. And I said,
because Jesus said that he would send the Comforter.
And he's here. He's in this room right now. He's
living inside of you, I was telling the fella.
And when we prayed, I asked the Holy Spirit to
come and give comfort and give peace and give
him the peace of God that passes all understanding.
And that peace would guard his heart and his
mind in Christ Jesus. Anytime we're going through
troubles and trials, there's a battle over our
mind. There's a constant battle going on. The
devil's trying to confuse us and put doubt in
our mind and make us feel uncomfortable. We're
gonna die, or we're gonna lose this situation,
or we're gonna lose this battle, or whatever,
we're gonna lose our finances, our marriage is
gonna go under, or whatever it might be. The
devil's always on that side, but the Holy Spirit's
on the other side. He's saying, no, I'm a very
present help in times of trouble. I'll never
leave you, and I'll never forsake you. In the
words of Paul that said, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies, and the God of all. Comfort. Those scriptures
bring forth, I believe, an anointing from the
Holy Spirit in us to deal with all the challenges
we face. My friend and I was talking with him
and we were praying together. I could just see
a change in his face. You could just see that
he was, that a lot of the trouble was being removed.
Oh, he still had his physical problems and he's
still going through the challenges and he's probably
going to be in the hospital for quite a while
yet. But bottom line, he started to feel that
comfort. It wasn't from me, it was from the Holy
Spirit. It was from speaking the word of God
in praying and calling upon the Holy Spirit to
help and give that comfort. We need to know in
our walk with God and trying to experience the
Holy Spirit that we need to allow the Holy Spirit
to cover us, to overtake us, to surround us,
to encapsulate us if you will, to be every part
of what we have in our life. He needs to be there
and we've got to surrender to him and yield to
him and ask for him to come in because we need
to experience the Holy Spirit in a greater way
than ever before. Allow me to start to close
this podcast now by basically looking at just
a few more suggestions to experience the Holy
Spirit. Read about Him in the book of Acts and
in chapters 1 and 2 and in 1st Corinthians chapter
12. We need to understand that He lives in us
right now, right where He is. Think about that.
We need to be still and wait upon the Holy Spirit.
We need to expect the gifts of the Spirit. the
fruit of the Spirit to operate in our life. We
need to acknowledge Him as our source for wisdom
and for knowledge. When we speak on the Holy
Spirit, you know, when I make a comment or I
teach a class or I speak to a group, they want
to hear about all the nine power gifts and they're
wonderful. No wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing,
miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues,
interpretation of tongues, all those gifts they
want to hear about. And that's wonderful and
that's good. The power gifts are amazing and
I've been blessed with several of them in my
life, how the Holy Spirit Spirit has given me
those at moments at certain times. But experience
the Holy Spirit daily should be our priority,
daily through his peace, daily through his comfort,
daily with our interactions with him. We need
to seek the giver of the gifts, not the gifts,
as much as the giver of the gifts. That's God
the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy
Spirit. With that, I know that we can experience
a greater walk with God. We can experience a
closer relationship to the Holy Spirit, and He
will manifest in our lives and make a radical
change in everything that we do. So with that,
let me just close by praying. Heavenly Father,
I pray, Lord, that you would bless those who
listen to this podcast. A little unusual, a little
different type of podcast than I normally do.
Lord, it's been kind of like just a fireside
chat. But Lord, I hope that you will use this
and that it has gone into the hearts of those
people who have And I pray, Lord, that we will
all grow in our walk with you. We'll grow in
as we experience the Holy Spirit, as we build
a relationship with the Holy Spirit, because
only good things can happen from that. And I'll
thank you for it, and I'll be careful, give you
all the praise and glory for it now. In Jesus'
name I pray. Amen. Well, I hope this has been
a blessing to you. I've thoroughly enjoyed doing
this today. And if you'd like to know a little
bit more about the Quality Christian Living podcast,
you can do that by going to my webpage at davidcfriend
.org. when you get there you'll see the front
page shows a link to all my podcasts so if you'd
like to know more about what we do and what the
podcasts are about there's a list of some 360
podcasts in there and lots of topics various
topics that I hope be a blessing to you in addition
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an individual you could just Scroll down on my
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I think would be a blessing to you So I hope
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so once again I hope that this has been a blessing
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It really does help us to make connection with
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Network, or just give us a star rating on Spotify.
So if you do that, whatever you choose to do,
it'd certainly be appreciated and thank you once
again for your support. You know, kind of look
to the future. I've got a number of podcast topics
that I've been thinking about. and so just to
kind of plant a few seeds in your mind. We're
going to talk about in future podcasts how the
Holy Spirit brings strength and the Holy Spirit
brings joy. He helps us leave a great legacy.
He helps us in making the right decisions. He
helps us in our finances and the Holy Spirit
helps us to set goals in our life and then helps
us to accomplish those goals that he's given
us. And he also defeats fear and he brings the
promises of God to us and all and on and on I
could go on and on I'm just gonna stop right
there so I hope that that will spark some interest
in your in your thoughts and about the Holy Spirit
and if you have some friends or family members
that would like to maybe join us I'd like to
have you invite them to be a part of the Quality
Christian Living podcast and I pray that the
Holy Spirit will direct you and bless you and
help you in all that you do so with that I'm
just gonna wrap this thing up and pray a blessing
over you is what I do at the end of each podcast
because I believe that's the Holy Spirit wanting
us to lead people with a blessing and lead people
with hope. So I pray that the Lord will bless
you and keep you and that he'll make his face
to shine upon you and that he'll be Generous
to you and prosper you and that you'd be in good
health and that your soul would prosper and that
he would give you peace That God's grace would
be sufficient for everything that you need. I
just pray that'll take place in your life So
once again, I want to thank you for tuning in
to the quality Christian living podcast I am
your host David friend. I look forward to upcoming
podcasts dealing with the Holy Spirit May God
richly bless you in all that you do. Thank you
again for listening in