KNOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT – PART 1: DR. MENSA OTABIL – SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE, 29TH MAY, 2022.
SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE BY DR. MENSA OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)
TOPIC: KNOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT – PART 1
DATE: 29TH MAY, 2022
TEXT: ROMANS 14:4
Let’s rise up together as we take our DECLARATION OF INCREASE in this Year of Increase:
Are you ready? Say with me:
I confess today that Jesus Christ is my LORD and Saviour. In Him I have life, His Abundant Life.
The Lord is my Light and Strength. As He is, so has He made me. By His Spirit I Increase in Word and in Wisdom. In Faith and in Favour.
The Lord has said: “In Blessing, I will bless you. In multiplying I will Multiply your Seed.”
So, I can boldly say: My God shall Increase me more and more. What I Place in God’s Hands grows into Overflow.
Though I begin small, my end shall Greatly Increase.
In this Year of Increase, I grow in Grace and in Strength. To be all that God wants me to be.
In Jesus’ Name – AMEN!
I am going to Preach on the Topic: KNOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The Holy Spirit is Somebody we hear about; we hear His Name used a lot. But many times we are not too sure who He is, what He is doing in our lives, and how we respond to Him.
… So, this is Part 1 of KNOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT”.
And in this Part 1, I am going to focus on Three (3) Important Aspects of the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives.
So we’ll start from Genesis 1:1-2 – The Portion of the Bible where everything begins. It establishes the most important Principles of our Christian Faith.
Genesis 1:1-2:
1 In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.
2 The Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
That is how we got to know that there is a Spirit of God. Later on that Spirit of God is called the “HOLY SPIRIT”.
So, the Holy Spirit did not come on the Day of Pentecost; the Holy Spirit was there right from the beginning and He had never left!
There are few things we want to look at concerning the Holy Spirit:
- The first important Point we want to recognize concerning the Holy Spirit is that – HE IS THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
He is the Spirit of God and He Signifies the Presence of God.
So, if you look at the Passage it says: “… And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God.
I. And because He is the Spirit of God, THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD.
He is God! He is not less God – He is God.
The Spirit of God and God are one – My Spirit and myself are one.
God and His Spirit are one – You cannot be separated from your Spirit. You and your Spirit are one!
So, the Holy Spirit is God. He is Divine, He is Unique.
II. And the other thing about the Holy Spirit is that: HE IS PRESENT.
… He is Present, He is always there.
So, when we are introduced to the Holy Spirit for the first time, He is Present on the Earth. He is Present!
If you want to experience God, you experience God through the Holy Spirit.
Because He is Present; He is the Manifestation of the Presence of God.
He is Present in the midst of darkness, He is Present in the midst of chaos, He is Present when there is no Light, and He is Present when there is no form.
Because that is how the Passage (Genesis 1:1-2) describes the Earth – “The Earth is without form, darkness is upon the face of the deep; AND THE HOLY SPIRIT IS PRESENT.”
So, the Holy Spirit is Present at all times – Even when you think things are not working, He is Present. When you think there’s too much darkness, there’s so much chaos in your Life, He is Present. He is Ever Present and He is there at all times in the lives of the Believers.
… So, the Holy Spirit is Present!
III. And the other thing you’d notice about the Holy Spirit is that: HE MOVES!
He moves, He is not Stationary – He is constantly walking.
So, the Spirit of God is Present in a chaotic world; and the Spirit of God is Moving.
You know, many times when we go through difficulties in Life: there is trouble, there is chaos, and some bad things have happened to us. We wonder – Where is God? Where is the Sprint of God? He is Present!
What is God doing about this? He is Moving.
What is the Holy Spirit doing when the whole world is in chaos? – He is Present.
You know, People sometimes, because of cares and worries, they wonder – Where is God? He is where He’s always been – He is Present by His Holy Spirit.
… And His Holy Spirit is not imprisoned – The Holy Spirit is moving.
Even if you don’t feel Him, He is Present. You don’t see Him, He is Present. You cannot see what He is doing, He is Present.
He is always Present and He is always moving!
In this Auditorium and right where you are reading this Message on the Label of DMC, He is Present and He is moving.
You may not feel anything, but He is moving. You may not have goosebumps, but He is moving. You may not fall on the ground, but He is moving. You may not scream and shout, but He is moving.
… The Holy Spirit is always moving and He’s always moving.
If there is anything you want to learn about the Holy Spirit from the first two (2) Verses of the Bible (Genesis 1:1-2) it’s that: “He is always Present and He’s always moving.
And He is Present when we don’t see Him, we don’t feel Him, we can’t appreciate Him – He is Present!
This morning, remember He is Present in your Life and He is moving in your Life; He is Present in your Marriage and He is moving in your Marriage; He is Present in your Home and He is moving in your Home.
You say, “But there’s too much chaos in my home!” He is Present and He is moving.
Don’t ever forget that – He is Present and He is moving.
So, that’s the first thing we see about the Holy Spirit – That He is the Spirit of God: He is God Himself, He is always Present and He is always moving.
And when you read the Bible, there are many ways in which the Holy Spirit is described – And the first and Primary way is what we have talked about – The Spirit of God.
But that is not the only way the Holy Spirit is described. The Holy Spirit has other descriptions:
- HE IS ALSO THE BREATH OF GOD.
He is the One Who inspires us, awakens us and brings Life to us.
The Holy Spirit is The Inspirer – The Breath of God who inspires us.
Genesis 2:7, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life; and man became a Living Being.
The Breath was the Holy Spirit activating us, animating us. As, the Holy Spirit is our Life Giver, He gives us Life and helps us to awaken to God’s world.
In the Passage, the Bible clearly teaches that God made man from the dust of the Earth. The dust of the Earth was inanimate like the dust of the Earth we have now.
But God formed man out of already existing Material – The Dust of the Earth.
But man is not the only Being that came from the dust of the Earth – The animals also came from the dust of the Earth; the trees came from the dust of the Earth.
So, at a certain level, man shares Commonality with trees, with animals at the Biological Level, at the Cerullar Level – The same cell in the sand, in the trees, in the animals, are the cells in your body.
So how different are we from all of that?
Because God did something Special when He was creating man – He breathed into man the Breath of Life and that awakened the man.
So the Life of the man is based on the Breath of God – God breathed in!
That breathing in is Inspiration.
To Inspire is to breath in – Inspiration; God gave His Life to us. He inspired us.
But if you know anything about Life; if you breathe in and never breathe out, you will die.
So, God gave His Life to us – That is Inspiration.
But we must give back our Life to Him, to complete the Circle of breathing in and breathing out.
There are People who have breathed in, but they haven’t breathe out! And the Bible says “they are dead in sin.”
The day they learn to breathe out – Take the Life that God gave to them and give it back to the Giver of that Life, at that time they complete the Circle of Inspiration, Expiration; breathing in and breathing out.
Our Life came from God, but our Life must be given back to God, to Complete the Circle.
Your Life is not your own, your Life depends on God; and you must give it back to Him.
The Holy Spirit is the One Who awakens us! And that is one of the Unique things that the Holy Spirit does for us. And when He awakened us, He made us aware of ourselves.
… The Holy Spirit makes us aware of ourselves.
The Passage (Genesis 1:2) says: “… And man became a Living Being (or a Living Soul).”
God’s Breath does not just impart Life to us; but we become People of reason, conscience, awareness.
That is why God is able to communicate with us because He has given us reason by which He can make Himself known to us – He makes us aware of ourselves!
You can never know your true self without the Holy.
You can know about your father, about your mother, about your Tribe, about your Ancestors; you can know the food you like. But your true self, who you are – You can only know through the One Who gave you full awareness. That’s the Holy Spirit.
In Job 32:8, it says: But there is a Spirit in man: and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them Understanding.
The Breath of Life that was breathed into us is what makes us “Reasonable People”.
That is why we can reason, think, have arguments. We can go on Radio and debate.
Horses cannot go and debate on Radio; Crocodiles cannot go to Parliaments and write Bills.
Why is it that of all of God’s creation we are the only ones who know who we are – That we are human being?
We are aware of other People as well, and we can reason, we can remember, we can know what is happening now and most importantly, we can imagine what has not happened?
… Animals cannot do that. They can’t imagine what has not happened!
And the reason we can do that is because God breathes something into us – He is the same Yesterday, and Today and Forever. And He gave us the ability to think of Yesterday, Today and Forever.
The ability to remember and to imagine; that is the work of God in you. And that is the work of the Holy Spirit. He gives us Understanding of ourselves; and beyond that, He make us aware of God.
The Inspiration of the Holy Spirit is what makes us aware of God – There is a God Awareness in every Human Being.
I have said, and I believe with all my heart that there is no real Atheist in this world. It is impossible for a Human Being to be an Atheist.
Why? – Because the Knowledge of God is instinctive to man.
That is why you have to go to School for a long time; and develop a very, very, very strong argument, to convince yourself there is no God.
You would hardly find an Uneducated Person who don’t know God and acknowledge Him.
You’ll find out that the only People who do that are People who have to make Mental Effort to try to deny something they know without any Shadow of doubt; within them, that it is.
And that is why Atheists spend a lot of time arguing against God. If there is no God, you shouldn’t even bother. Is that not so?
I mean, I don’t spend my time arguing whether there is Ghost or not. I don’t bother.
But for somebody to write Books – “There is No God.” Writing Books – Philosophical, Biological and all of that, “There is No God.” And developing all these arguments.
You know he is arguing against something inside him, which he knows is there, which he cannot deny. Because God breathed into him, he has been inspired. He only hasn’t given back his Life to God.
But that Knowledge of God is deep in every Human Being – No Human Being can be an Atheist.
That’s why the Bible says in Psalms 14:1 – The fool has said in his heart, ‘?”There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.
The fool has has said to himself. What does it mean?
He has convinced himself – When you convince yourself, then it means there is something inmate inside of you that you are trying to use external argument to overcome.
… The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
He knows there is God, but he has to debate that.
You know Why? – Because if he accepts that “there is God” then he has to be accountable to God and his Life will now be regulated.
When God says: “Don’t do that”; he has to obey.
People don’t want to do that! They want to have a “Free Life”. So they say: “There is No God.”
But I have to guarantee you – No Philosopher: All of you who hear these People with great arguments. I have read most of their Books. They are just convincing themselves!
Most People who say there is no God, say that because they are angry with the Pastor, the Church, with the Religious Institutions. They are angry with Somebody who hate them when they were Young.
They are just breathe. But inside them, they are Atheists; but their mind tells them: “There is God.”
It is impossible to be an Atheist. You can’t be. You don’t have the Capacity to. It’s like a Human Being who says, “I won’t be a Human.”
You don’t have a Capacity to be Non-Human. You can say: “At this Point, I identify myself as a monkey or as a dog; I identify myself as this or that.” But you don’t have the Capacity to.
In the same way, you have no Capacity to be an Atheist. But you can convince yourself that there is no God – That’s your matter.
And why am I saying all of these? It’s because of the Holy Spirit. He is God’s Witness to our Conscience; God’s Witness inside of us because God in breathes the Holy Spirit in us.
And He constantly convinces us of sin, of God,of Judgement; and some Voice inside of us always reminds us that we owe account to someone. We may deny it, but we know it deep inside.
So, the Holy Spirit is the Breath of God. He makes us aware of God; He makes us aware of God’s Creation – Isn’t that amazing?
I mean, the awareness Human Beings have – That we can get up and Somebody says: “I’m going to look at a Mountain; I’m going to look at the Sun set.
What is it that drives us to do all of that – To admire beauty? Do you think an antelope will get up one day and say “I’m just going to admire the grass on the other side?” No!
But God has made us, not only aware of Him and aware of ourselves, but also aware of His Creation.
The Holy Spirit is the Breath of God. And He is working on you – Whether you acknowledge Him or not, He is working on you! When you do the wrong thing, He will tell you: “You have done the wrong thing”.
Even without any Bible, you know what is right and wrong: because the Holy Spirit is His breathed into all of all.
… The third and final thing we want to talk about the Holy Spirit is that:
- HE IS THE WIND OF GOD.
The Executor of God’s Word and God’s Will.
A Wind is like breath, but it’s forceful breath.
Just like the wind is air, but it is air with force.
So, when we say, “The Holy Spirit is the Wind of God” at one level He is Breath – Gentle. But at another level, He is forcefully: and carries out the Will of God and the Word of God.
Two (2) Passages I want us to look at, to see how that works:
I. Exodus 14:21 – This is when Israel was in front of the Red Sea. And it says:
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a Strong East Wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.
II. Then Ezekiel 37:9-10: Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, Prophesy, Son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I Prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly Great Army.
You know, we are familiar with the concept of the Trinity. And sometimes it’s very difficult to explain the Trinity.
But I want you to think of the Trinity as – WILL, WORD, WORK: “I will, I say it and I do it.”
So there is ‘I’ who has a Will – We call Him the FATHER.
“Who says it” – We call Him the Word; later called Jesus Christ.
“And Who does it” – We call Him the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit takes the Word from the Will and makes the Word and the Will Manifest.
… Are you following me?
For example, when you read Genesis 1, it says, And God said “Let there be…” That is the Word.
“And there was” – The Word is not the One who made it to be! There’s something else who took the Word and made the Word be.
And that is the work of the Holy Spirit – He executes the Will of God; He Executes the Word of God.
So when God says something to you, or God has an intension for you; the One who makes it happen is the Holy Spirit.
Without the Holy Spirit, we only have the Will, the Word but no Manifestation!
The Holy Spirit is the Executor of God’s Will and God’s Word – He works out God’s Will and God’s Word.
When you look through the Bible, many times you would find that when God is Performing something, making things happen, you will see frequently, Wind involved in it.
So, Moses lifts up his hand over the Red Sea, something must happen – Wind opens the Red Sea.
God tells Moses, “I am going to bring in quail to feed you.” What happens? – Wind brings it in.
The Holy Spirit as the Wind of God is the One who manifests the Will of God and the Word of God.
What is God’s intension for you – When God says: “I know the Plans I have towards you?” – That’s Will. And he says it – That’s Word. Now it must come to Pass – That’s the Holy Spirit.
And that is why He is always Moving and He is always working because the Holy Spirit is the “Chief Executor” of the Purposes of God.
He is the One who brings every Will and Word of God into Manifestation in your Life.
And when you know Him well, then you will see Fulfilment of God’s Will and God’s Word in your Life.
The degree to which you know the Holy Spirit is the degree to which you will receive the Manifestation of the Word and the Will of God in your Life.
Without the Holy Spirit, you will have the Word, but there will be no Manifestation. Without the Holy Spirit God has good intentions for you, but there will be no Manifestation.
But with the Holy Spirit, God’s intention and God’s Word always get manifested.
May He work in your Life! May your Spirit be open to Him. May your Mind be open to Him – Amen!
May we get to the Point where He works Supernaturally, in every areas of your Life – Amen.
And I believe there is a working that is working in your Life right now.
… And He (the Holy Spirit) enables us to be what God wants us to be.
In Ezekiel, we see similar to what happened in the Garden of Eden – Dry bones Prophesied on, muscles, skin. The bones come to come together and it has flesh, it has muscles, skin, everything but it’s not alive!
And God says to Ezekiel, we have to bring breath. But He says, speak to the Wind to bring the breath.
You wonder – Why Wind to bring breath?
Because the first time there was only one man – Adam’s breath. But this is an Army. It needs far more than one breath. It needs a massive force to cause an Army to rise up.
So, when God wants to do something Powerful in your Life, He will release His Wind in your Life – A rushing Mighty Wind in your Life; It would move every obstacles in it’s way. It would divide every Red Sea. It would shake every Mountain in your Life.
Because the Wind of God would shake your Foundations; would shake the Foundation of Earth; would cause every System to quake.
And this week, may there be a Wind; may there be a Shaking in your Life – Amen.
And every Systems that is resistant to God, will experience the Moving Wind of God – Amen.
The Moving Wind of God, normally they would say in the Old Testament, it was like Earthquake – The Mountains shook! They would say, it was Thundering, it was Cloud.
It’s all the Wind activities of the Holy Spirit, shifting things on behalf of God’s People.
May the same Holy Spirit touch your Life today; touch your circumstances today, touch your situation today – Amen!
May everything that has stood in opposition to God’s Will in your Life, to God’s Word in your Life; may the feel the effect of the Executor of the Wind – Bringing things to Pass, moving Mountains, closing Valleys, opening Red Seas!
May you experience Him Supernaturally, in Jesus’Name – AMEN.
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