Heavenly greetings in Jesus' mighty name.
Yes, the Lord be with your spirit
wherever you are.
With your spirit, what does that mean?
Yes, today we are actually going to talk
about what it means to worship God in spirit and truth,
which is the fundamental commandment
that Jesus Christ actually revealed
to the Samaritan woman in that book of John 4.
And this is central to the University of God.
This is actually why we started the foundation series,
which is 'Stepping into the spiritual.'
Why?
For how long will we stay in the natural
without stepping into the spiritual?
Because it's in the spiritual that we see, hear,
and communicate with God.
Yes, God would not have commanded us
to walk in the Spirit if He not designed us
to walk in the Spirit.
We read that in the book of Galatians 5:25.
So today we want to break down these key Scriptures
and really ask God for revelation knowledge,
because many people might have knowledge of the Bible.
Even from Sunday school,
many people have knowledge of Bible stories,
have knowledge of Bible history, even have knowledge
of memorising Bible verses.
But that's completely different to having a revelation
of the living Word of God in the midst of your heart
that will change your life
and be a point of contact between you and the Almighty God.
So are you ready?
Let's get stuck in.
Racine, what can you say about spirit and truth?
Thank you for your brilliant introduction!
So why are we here?
That's the question.
What's the purpose of this journey - The University of God?
Knowledge of the Bible is everywhere.
The question is, Christianity is all about
relationship with God and with others.
Relationship with God is by faith.
Relationship with others is love.
That's why we said,
we relate with God by faith
and we relate with others by the love of God in our lives.
- That overflows from God to others. - Absolutely.
Absolutely - God being the source of everything.
We are not talking about the love of man, but the love of God.
As Romans chapter 5:5 says,
'The love of God is poured in our heart by the Holy Spirit.'
We all, including I, and Ruth I suppose,
we have read the Bible many times in our lives.
There was a time I read the Bible roughly every year,
but something was lacking.
I went to church like everybody,
I read the Bible.
There were some vital questions
that I could not understand,
because Jesus used parables.
Many times He spoke using figurative language.
And in the Old Testament we have many Prophets
that spoke about the coming Messiah,
and we realise that the revelation of God
from the Old Testament to the New
is one continued stretch of the same truth,
and there is a link between the two.
Saul understood the Old Testament.
He preached it, right?
I would ask myself, why did he fight
the knowledge of Christ and the Gospel?
And he was at the feet of Gamaliel.
He knew the law of Moses very well in the letter,
but he was absolutely sure that this new law
is not of God, and he fought it,
and later he embraced the Gospel
and became an Apostle of Christ.
When Jesus came, what did He say?
"I did not come to abolish the law, but to"?
- "Fulfill it." (Matthew 5:17)
But to fulfill it. It means there is a link.
And Jesus went on to say in Matthew 5:17
that not one Word of the promises in the Old Testament
will fall to the ground.
He came to fulfill it.
This means there is a relationship between the two.
Now, when we talk about God,
we start in the Old Testament, right?
We say Old Testament.
If Jesus came to fulfill and He quoted the Scriptures,
why do we call it Old?
Why, if it's the same promise of hope?
Religiously we say Old, we say New.
But when Jesus came, He said, "I'm not coming
to break the law but to fulfil the law."
The question I'm asking to myself and to others,
do we really know who Jesus is?
Do we really know His message?
Do we have maybe an intellectual,
religious way of approaching Jesus?
Or do we know who Jesus is, who God is?
Ruth has mentioned the Samaritan woman, right?
And the Jewish people were there in the temple,
and the Samaritans said, 'We worship in this mountain.'
But they were worshiping the same God.
But some say we are the truth, you are not the truth -
and they were fighting.
Jesus, being a Jew, went to her
and spoke to her as she said and told her
that you worship what you do not know -
God is Spirit.
This is the core of the programme today.
Jesus has come to tell us, to teach us what is necessary
and essential - that God is Spirit.
And we must worship Him in spirit and in -
- truth.
This means whatever we do to receive approval from God
must be in spirit, and in?
- truth.
This means if it is not in spirit,
it is not in truth.
- And so it is all or nothing.
So what is the difference between spirit and truth?
What I realise from this is that spirit and truth,
they go together.
If it is just spirit without the truth, it is not from God.
If it is truth without being spirit, that's not the truth.
Why am I saying this?
Let me give an example.
There was a man called Cornelius, right? (Acts 10)
He was praying earnestly,
because he wanted to know the God of the Jews.
He was not a Jew, he was a Roman person.
He was praying, giving alms to the poor,
and one day a spirit being, called an angel, appeared to him
and told him, all your prayers and alms
have been approved by God.
I said to myself, this is a spirit being right?
Why didn't the angel preach the Gospel to him?
Ruth, I'm asking you a question.
Why didn't the angel, a spirit, preach the gospel
to the house of Cornelius?
Do you have any idea?
I'm asking the question to you, viewers watching me.
Well, because it was in God's plan that Peter was the one.
Jesus said, it must be in spirit and in truth.
This means not just because something is spirit
that we should accept it.
There are different types of spirit.
It is not enough to be only in spirit.
What kind of spirit is speaking?
What kind of spirit is operating?
Jesus said to be of God, it must be in spirit
and in truth.
The two must go together.
So, not anyone who speaks in the spirit is of the truth.
That's what it means for me.
When satan tempted Jesus in the book of Matthew;
when he took Jesus on top of the temple,
what did he say?
- he said, "It is written." (Matthew 4:5)
'If you are the Son of God, jump.'
- 'And the angels will.'
- Angel will what?
- 'Will catch you.'
He quoted the letter of the Bible.
It is in the Bible.
- Psalms 91.
Absolutely, but spoken by who?
Which spirit spoke it?
The lying spirit, not the spirit of truth.
The lying spirit of satan.
You can quote it, you can say it.
Why did the angel not preach the Gospel to Cornelius?
But the angel said, call one man called Simon-Peter.
When he comes, he will tell you -
God used a human being.
Who was Peter?
A man like you and me.
But what makes Peter special was what?
Peter was born again.
At Pentecost, he received the Holy Spirit.
At home you can read Acts 10,
You can see, the Spirit of God told him -
'Go to this house, I am sending you.'
When he came to the house of Cornelius, what did he do?
He simply began to preach the Gospel of truth.
Paul called the Gospel, 'The Gospel of truth.' (Ephesians 1:13)
Which kind of truth was he preaching?
- Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6)
Natural truth or spiritual truth?
Spiritual truth.
That's the question.
We have facts in nature,
and we have truth, spiritual truth.
Remember what Jesus said?
I will pray to the Father,
He will give you another -
- Comforter.
The Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot receive.
He neither sees Him, nor knows Him. (John 14:16-17)
And Jesus further says in John 16:13,
that when the Holy Spirit comes,
He will guide us into the fullness of the truth.
Guide us in all truth.
- 1 John 5:6 says,
"It is the Holy Spirit who testifies
because the Spirit is the truth."
This being said, let's go back
to what we call the Old Testament,
to talk about that wilderness.
In the beginning, God revealed Himself
to the people of Israel
when they were journeying in the wilderness to the promised land.
Why does God allow us to be in the wilderness?
Hosea 2:14.
God said, "I will take you to the wilderness
and there I will speak to your heart."
Take note of that.
Can you read it for us, Ruth?
That will help us to set the message right.
"Therefore, behold, I will allure her
and will bring her into the wilderness
and speak comfort to her."
I will take her what to what?
To the wilderness and speak comfort to her.
The next verse.
"I will give her her vineyards from there
and the valley of Akor as a door of hope.
She shall sing there as in the days of her youth,
as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt."
Why does God sometimes have to take us to the wilderness to speak to us?
That's the question.
Yes, and we all want an encounter with God.
We all want to hear God's voice,
but we don't often realise
that God gives us an appointment in the wilderness.
Why?
Because in the rush of everyday activities,
it's difficult for us to still our spirit
and pay attention to the Spirit of God talking to us.
I think one of the greatest hindrances is our senses.
One of the greatest hindrances
to perceive the truth from God is our natural common sense.
Because we are always focused on the natural, what we see,
what we hear, what circumstances look like.
It's the greatest temptation actually
to see everything in the natural.
The battle we fight each day is with our senses.
True. So if God wants to draw me to a place of fellowship
to draw my attention,
He will cut me off from the noise
and destraction of this world.
Now you understand sometimes God can use circumstances,
difficult circumstances,
to separate you from the noise of this world.
God often works through the circumstances of life.
When you are alone in your wilderness.
Wilderness means no friends, no people to talk to you.
Not a place you would naturally want to go or be.
In the wilderness, there's nothing that will comfort you.
Your money cannot comfort you, people cannot comfort you.
You are alone, left to yourself.
God said, "I will take you to the wilderness,"
Hosea 2:14-15, "And I will comfort you."
None of us are ready to encounter God when everything is fine.
Nobody comes to the knowledge of Jesus in comfort.
Trouble, difficulty brought us into God's presence.
Questions, challenges.
Just look back at your life and you will see.
Examine your own journey of encountering Jesus.
When God rescued them from the land of ancient Egypt
and God opened the Red Sea, Ruth, honestly speaking,
I'm talking to you.
Listen to me.
If you witnessed God opening the sea,
and you passed on dry ground -
you saw the water separated.
I think no miracle is greater than that one.
No, I think it is the greatest miracle.
Can you experience that, and later doubt God?
That's the question.
Well, anything is capable of the human heart.
The question is, no matter how big the miracle is,
human beings always forget.
Why?
Because it does not affect the heart.
The purpose of miracles is to affect us in the outward first.
Miracle healing, miracle deliverance, miracle breakthrough -
but the greatest miracle the Bible is talking about
is not on the outside,
it's inside of you.
- Salvation.
Why is it there?
That's the question.
God said, I took them to the wilderness for one purpose.
Deuteronomy 8:2, 'I took you to the wilderness,
where you suffer hunger and thirst
to teach you that man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every Word that comes.'
- "From the mouth of God."
- From the mouth of the Lord.
In the beginning, in the wilderness.
Now you can see the parallel -
immediately Jesus came out of the baptism,
He went to the wilderness,
the same satan met Him there in the wilderness.
'If you are the Son of God, turn this stone to bread.' (Matthew 4:3)
When God took them to the wilderness,
the Bible says the presence of God was visible.
Am I right?
Yes, it was a pillar of cloud by day
and a pillar of fire by night
that they could visibly see and experience.
They saw the pillar of cloud by day
and the pillar of fire by night,
that represented the presence of God physically.
They saw physically the presence of God, of His glory.
That's not all -
He asked Moses to build a tabernacle
in the wilderness where there was no food.
Am I right?
They cried out, and the Bible says, manna came from Heaven.
Manna to feed them.
When they were thirsty, they cried out.
God made water to come from the rock itself.
Even their shoes, their clothes, they never wore out.
They saw all these things -
they saw these great miracles,
they saw how God rescued them from Egypt.
That's supposed to be enough to build their faith forever.
And that is not all.
In Exodus 19, God said to Moses,
'Prepare the people.
I'm going to speak to every single person.'
This has never happened in history.
Prophets heard from God,
but God said, I'm going to speak to everyone.
Every member of the congregation will hear My voice.
That's what happened.
And God said to Moses, sanctify them three days.
Deuteronomy chapter 4.
Ruth, can you help us?
Deuteronomy 4:12, let's listen.
"And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire.
You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form.
You only heard a voice."
What strikes you there?
Well, many things strike me.
But the first thing is that God spoke
from the midst of the fire.
Yes, God spoke through the midst of the fire,
and He said, You heard the sound of His voice,
but you saw no face, no image.
- No form.
The same God will say in His 10 commandments,
'Thou shall not make any image of anything
in Heaven, on earth or in the earth,' meaning don't make any idols.
'I am not visible - don't worship them.'
This is what I'm coming to.
'Don't make an idol and don't worship them.'
And now you remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman,
John chapter 4:24 -
yes, God is Spirit.
God is Spirit, this means you don't need to see Him.
But those who worship Him must?
Worship in spirit and truth.
In spirit and in truth.
That's where we are going today.
They heard the voice of God - no image.
They saw the miracles and everything in the wilderness.
Until today, you know humankind,
we continue to try and put an image
to something that we worship,
which is distracting from the real place of worship,
which is in our heart -
our spirit that communes with God.
The question fundamentally is not God -
God cannot change.
The question is we, human beings.
Relationship with God is deep, deeper.
- Deepest.
Some people say, I don't believe in God.
I'm not interested in God.
They have no relationship with God.
That's their choice.
Some people say, yes, I believe in God.
I go to church every Sunday.
They go to church every Sunday.
Every Sunday they go to church and listen to the message.
Some people say,
I want to have a relationship with God -
daily, every single day of life.
They read the Bible to live it,
and to walk with God - to build relationship
with the Holy Spirit daily.
My daily bread.
And that's the will of God for everybody -
to have a relationship with God every day.
We saw that God spoke to everybody.
His will, His mind is to speak to every single person,
but you must follow His ways.
This means knowing God is not to see miracles,
is not to see a great cloud, but to learn His ways.
It's true because, if you think about it,
the pillar of cloud by day and the fire by night
was to lead them through the wilderness.
But they were never meant to stay in the wilderness forever.
They were meant to get out of it, to go to the Promised Land.
Thank you for saying that.
They were in the wilderness
where they saw the visible signs of God,
but they themselves were in the natural.
God is Spirit.
God is in the spirit.
Nobody can see His face, but we can hear His voice -
the Word.
But they themselves, they were in the natural.
So at that time, God knew the weakness of their status
and God allowed a visible presence to tell them God was there.
So they wouldn't doubt.
God tried to start to build their faith
so they would know that the mighty God is with them
so they can fear Him forever.
All the nations around who heard what God did in Egypt
were afraid of them.
If they looked, they saw the cloud -
God is there!
When they saw the cloud, God was there.
The Bible said every day that God spoke to Moses face to face,
like a man speaks to his friend.
But the others, when God descended.
God wants to speak to you, wants to speak to me -
to every one of us.
That's the will of God.
But when God called them
in Deuteronomy 4:12 you just read, what did they say?
'Lord, let God not speak to us again.
We are afraid of hearing His voice.'
That's what they said.
Choose somebody, choose a Prophet to speak to us.
And that's what they said.
So on the journey in the wilderness, God tested them.
God allowed thirst to come.
Every time they were thirsty, what happened?
What did they do?
They complained.
They complained to God.
They forgot everything God did.
'There's no water.'
God said to Moses, speak to the rock, or hit the rock.
Water came out.
God did that in their presence.
When there was no food, the manna came.
Even when they were tired of the manna,
God actually brought them meat.
But now the question, where was their heart?
Jesus said, where your treasure is,
there is your heart.
Take note of your heart.
What is your heart?
Your heart means your spirit.
Zachariah 12:1 says,
"God formed the spirit of man within him."
1 Thessalonians 5:23 says that
man is spirit, soul, and body.
The hindrance is from our side.
We are so much drawn away by the natural, by our senses.
They wanted to see a sign to believe.
So when they were in the wilderness,
in Numbers 14,
do you know what happened?
When God wanted them to enter the promised land,
they sent spies - 12 spies.
They went to spy.
What happened when they came out?
Well, they all had a negative report
about the giants in the land, that filled people with fear,
except Joshua and Caleb, who actually maintained
the faithfulness and testimony of what God had done for them
in the past and said that, no, they shouldn't be afraid.
Why were they afraid?
Afraid of who?
They were afraid of the people inhabiting the land -
the giants.
Take notice of that.
Giants.
They said, 'These people were giants.
We were like grasshoppers
in their sight and in our sight,' it means they confirmed.
- They saw themselves as small
just as the giants saw them as small.
They didn't see themselves as God saw them.
When those people that came gave the negative report,
the Scripture says, everybody, all the congregation
bega n to cry, begin to murmur,
and they wanted the stone Moses.
'You brought us here to kill us.
It's better for us to go back to Egypt, to slavery.' (Number 14:1-10)
That's what they said.
But we have just said that the presence of God was visible.
The cloud was on top of their head, visibly.
Why could they not see it?
The presence of God was visible.
It was visible.
Why did they allow what they heard
to overwhelm them to such a great extent
that they lost focus on God's presence, which was there?
If they, that had the physical presence of God
above their head as a constant sign
could be distracted and overwhelmed by their situation,
it really shows us that the battle is of the senses.
This means you can never know God by sight.
You can never know God by miracles.
To know God is to know His ways.
And because it was so unfamiliar to them,
that's why they were thinking of the familiarity of Egypt,
what they remembered, what they knew,
what they were comfortable with
because they were familiar with it.
That's why their hearts kept going back.
Rather than trusting in what God said, the promise for them.
This simply means to know God is to know His Word.
That's the only sound they heard, the voice of God.
To know His ways, you must learn His Word
and obey His Word.
His ways are in His Word.
God is in His Word.
The knowledge of God is in His Word,
but they remained in the natural,
and they went back to the wilderness.
So we are saying, as long as you stay in the natural,
you will remain in the wilderness.
Think about that for a moment.
Just let that sink in.
As long as you are in the natural,
you will remain in the natural.
You can just remain going round and round the wilderness.
Many people that left the slavery of Egypt -
so many, in fact, a whole generation
never entered the promised land.
Why?
Because they chose to stay in the wilderness.
As long as you are in the natural,
you can go from churches to churches,
You are still in the wilderness.
You can go from experience
to experience, to experience,
spiritual experience, watching this,
watching that, feeling this, feeling that.
As long as you are still in the natural,
you have not yet grasped that revelation truth,
that to worship God is in spirit and truth -
you remain in the wilderness.
I can worship God in the natural with a beautiful voice.
I'm still singing in the wilderness.
I can pray mighty prayer points in the natural -
I'm talking to the air in the wilderness.
We can use beautiful, eloquent words,
have ability to inspire people,
but many of our our words - they can entertain men,
but do they really reach God?
Do they really reach the heart of God?
You heard that I can have a beautiful voice - mighty song,
singing and tears will come emotionally.
If it is not in spirit, if it is not in truth,
then it is all nothing.
But don't forget, Jesus said in Matthew 15:8,
'These people come to Me with their lips,
but their heart is far from Me.'
When I come to God to raise my hands in worship,
God is looking at my heart first.
Are you such in heart?
When I come to give my offering - God looks at my heart.
Is it my heart giving in spirit for God's sake, or me?
Moses was called by God, who spoke to him.
He heard the voice of God clearly.
He learned the ways of God, took His commandments,
and wrote them on tablets of stone
to give them to his people - to not to forget it.
Moses fulfilled his assignment by bringing them out,
but what happened?
In the wilderness God took Moses.
That's where they had to now rely on God,
they couldn't rely on Moses.
When God took Moses, they could not see Moses anymore,
but Moses gave them the Word he left behind.
Joshua came, a young man.
God spoke to Joshua in chapter one,
who was afraid because he saw the mightiness of what God did,
and God said, "As I was with Moses,
so shall I be with you." (Joshua 1:5)
- The Spirit of God was with Joshua.
What took them to the promised land was God -
through His Word, by His Spirit.
Today we are so much conditioned by the symbols,
by the signs, by the letter,
that we forget things in the spirit.
That's why people say, I go to church every day, I do this.
Why can't I hear God? Why I can't this, why this, why this?
Is it in spirit and in truth?
It is our heart, our spirit that is connected to God in the spirit.
The only part of us that can receive inspiration,
revelation, fellowship with God is the human heart -
our spirit.
Romans chapter 1:9 -
We serve God with our spirit.
We have to understand this.
We have to understand relationship with God -
deep, deeper, deepest.
Some are in the letter but not in the spirit.
What do I mean by that?
It's not just about confessing the Word with your mouth,
but you have to believe in your heart.
The confession of my mouth, my songs, my prayers
must be in spirit and in truth from my heart,
from my mind - and spoken by faith.
So the question is, how do we enter God's presence?
That's my question.
We said the pillar of cloud
was symbolising the presence of God.
To be in the Spirit is to be in the presence of God.
And it's sometimes when we are in the midst of a rock
and a hard place that we sense the presence of the Lord
most clearly in our lives -
that we hear the voice of the Lord most clearly,
that we see the need to depend on Him alone.
What you said, that's very true,
but to be in the Spirit is to be in the presence of God.
The question is, how do I know I am in the presence of God?
That's my question, Ruth.
How do I know I am in the presence of God?
That's a good question.
That's the question.
How do we know the reality of God?
How do I know I'm in God's presence?
How do I know that what I'm hearing
is from God or not from God?
That's the question.
Your spirit must testify.
To what?
If you can't distinguish between right or wrong,
how can you testify?
The devil can speak, God can speak.
How do you know the difference?
And that's the question.
I can give you one hint.
Paul said in Romans 9:1,
'I speak the truth. I am not lying.
My conscience is bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.'
I'm coming to Him, Holy Spirit - the Spirit of truth.
How can I be in God's presence?
The Bible says simply,
how can I be in God's presence, Ruth?
- Spirit of truth. - Can you see God?
It has to be in spirit,
because you can't see him - by faith.
Thank you.
Now you are talking by faith.
That's the word I wanted you to say, to be in the Spirit
is simply by faith.
Because the Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7,
2 Corinthians 4:18 says,
'We look not at what is seen, but?'
- 'What is unseen.'
'Because what unseen is.'
- 'Is eternal.'
'And what is seen is temporal' - by faith.
So we walk by faith, we live by faith
when we are able to recognise our union with Jesus,
with God in the Spirit, heart to heart,
Spirit to spirit. They were in God's presence,
they saw the outward signs,
but their heart was not connected to God.
Moses' heart was connected to God, to hear His voice,
to mark His voice, to discern His voice.
- To obey His voice.
- Absolutely.
You said at the beginning,
God wouldn't have asked us, commanded us
to walk in the Spirit if He had not designed us
to walk in the Spirit.
This means I have a spirit.
Zachariah 12:1, Job 32:8, 1 Thessalonians 5 -
I have a spirit.
So the question is,
how can I identify that it is God speaking to me?
We said in the Old Testament, they were walking by sight.
They saw physically God's presence,
but they never knew the way of the Lord.
No matter how big the miracles are,
that can never anchor your heart
and bring it to God's presence.
Only the Word of God can do that.
The only way to know God is through His Word, by His Spirit.
Not every spirit that speaks is from God.
How do you see the truth?
How do we know the truth?
By the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth.
You must be led by the Spirit of God to walk in the Spirit.
That's why the Bible says in Roman 8:14,
those who are led by God are what?
- The sons of God.
Sons of God, led not by their emotion,
but led by the Holy Spirit.
So we have to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us.
Absolutely.
But how do we recognise that?
The Bible calls it the gift of righteousness.
Can you go to John 16:10?
Let's listen.
"Of righteousness because I go to My Father
and you will see Me no more."
When the Holy Ghost comes, He will convict you,
convict me, everybody - of righteousness.
'Because you will see Me physically no more.
I'm going to the Father.'
What does this mean?
When the Holy Spirit comes,
He will convict you of righteousness.
He will reveal to you who Jesus is.
Philippians 3:7,
let's go to Philippians 3:7
to take an example of what we are saying.
How the Holy Ghost convicted Saul
of righteousness in Christ and to bring him to Jesus,
to the knowledge of Christ.
"But what things were gain to me,
these I have counted loss for Christ.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss
for the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things
and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ."
Start for verse seven.
"But what things were gain to me,
these I have counted loss for Christ."
What were those things he considered gain?
Verse five.
"Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews
concerning the law, a pharisee."
- A pharisee, concerning the law of Moses.
Concerning the symbols, the outward form of worship.
- Religion.
You say all this now I consider as
- rubbish.
- Rubbish and loss.
Why?
Because he received a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Romans chapter 3:20-22.
"Therefore by the deeds of the law
no flesh will be justified in His sight,
for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God."
Let's take note, what he said.
The Holy Ghost will convict us of righteousness.
Go ahead.
"But now the righteousness of God,
apart from the law is revealed."
- Is revealed by who?
- By the Spirit.
- "Being witnessed by the law and the Prophets.
Even the righteousness of God,
through faith in Jesus Christ to all
and on all who believe."
Through faith in Christ Jesus, it is revealed.
This means we live by faith
when we recognise our union with God, with Jesus Christ,
in the Spirit.
When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour,
we have the very presence of God in our heart
through the person of the Holy Spirit,
and when the Holy Spirit comes,
He will bring the conviction of righteousness.
He will show us what is to come.
He will guide us into spiritual understanding of God.
He will teach us His ways and then we will walk in the Spirit.
That's why we say we walk in the Spirit,
we worship in the Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit.
How do you worship in spirit and in truth?
Romans 2:28, let's go there.
Romans 2:28-29 - key verses.
"For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly,
nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;
but he is a Jew who is one inwardly;
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit,
not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God."
Do you hear that?
Circumcision of your heart, of your spirit,
not done by man, done by God.
The praise and worship of that person comes from God,
the Holy Spirit who inspired it.
That's why when Jesus came to fulfill the law,
the people could not understand.
They so much believed in the symbol, in the ritual,
in the natural things,
and they forgot that these were just shadows.
What is the purpose of a symbol?
The reality is found in Christ.
The substance is in Christ, reality in Christ,
but the symbol was - what is a symbol?
The symbol is only a sign of something in the natural
that will remind them of their relationship
with God in the spirit.
When they saw the Ark of the Covenant, it was to remind them
of their relationship with God in the spirit, in their heart.
It means the purpose of the law was to bring their heart to God.
And Paul said, 'No man is justified by the law.'
Despite the presence of God,
their heart went away far from God
and they erred in the wilderness.
The Bible says, 'We are in the world.'
- 'But we are not part of it.' (John 17:16)
As long as we live in the natural, we are in this world,
but as long as you are born again,
as long as you are led by the Spirit to walk in the Spirit,
you are in this world physically,
but not a part of it in spirit.
When you worship God, you worship God in spirit and in truth,
led by the Spirit of God,
right from your heart.
To know God, to know His way, you must be in the spirit,
led by the Spirit of revelation.
Let's talk about Jesus and Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was a teacher of the law
who knew the law of Moses perfectly.
He was teaching the people,
guiding the people in the principle of the law of Moses as he received it.
But one day he heard there was one man called Jesus.
When they reported to him what this man was doing,
he came to see Jesus to inquire, to find out the truth.
What I want to say, the Holy Spirit always gets
into the heart of the matter.
To get into the heart of the matter is to find out the truth
from God's perspective.
And that can only happen if you enter the spirit,
not in the natural.
So when he came, he said, 'Rabbi, no one can do
what You are doing unless God is with Him." (John 3:2)
Jesus said, 'Unless a man is born again,
he cannot see the Kingdom of God.'
Now, Nicodemus - we find out by the question he asked Jesus,
that despite all his knowledge, he was in the natural.
He said, how can this be?
How can a man be born again?
How can an old man enter his mother's womb?
That's what he said.
He was just looking at it in the natural.
And Jesus said, 'You are a teacher of Israel
and you do not know these things?
Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless a man is born of water and the Spirit
you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.'
What is water and the Spirit?
Unless the man is born of the Word,
and the Spirit of the Word in truth -
the Word and the Spirit - they cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of flesh is flesh,
that which is born of Spirit is spirit.
Nicodemus was absolutely in the natural.
Ruth, can we go to John 3:13-16?
Let's listen.
"No one has ascended to Heaven,
but He who came down from Heaven."
No one has been to Heaven except Me who came from Heaven,
Jesus is saying to him.
"That is the Son of Man who is in Heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness."
Now, another parallel, as Moses lifted up the what?
- "The serpent in the wilderness."
- The serpent in the wilderness.
You know what happened in the wilderness?
The Bible says there was a time
the people began to murmur against God,
and God allowed serpents -
snakes to come everywhere as judgment. (Numbers 21:4-6)
When the snakes began to bite them, they were dying.
They cried out and Moses interceded.
God said, make a pole,
and make an image of a snake and attach it to the pole.
Everybody who looks at it will save his life.
Now, that pole was a symbol of Jesus on the cross.
The substance of that symbol is in Christ.
Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent..
..so the Son of Man must be."
- "Lifted up." (John 3:14)
That was a symbol.
The substance of it is Christ on the cross -
that everybody who puts their faith
in what He did on the cross
receives salvation and everlasting life.
He was teaching Nicodemus
of the purpose why He was coming.
You have read that Moses had this -
I am this.
I am more than a pole.
If you look at Me, you will lift me up; you will know I am the Saviour,
that's what I came for, to save human beings.
"That whoever believes in Him should not perish,
but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son."
- Another symbol.
- "That whoever believes in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life."
The most famous Word of the Gospel.
- John 3:16.
Another parallel symbol -
He mentioned the snake.
This is what Abraham did.
Take your only begotten son, Isaac.
Genesis 22, 'Go and sacrifice him for me.'
He's saying Isaac was spared,
but I'm coming to give My life,
I'm the promise of Abraham,
I'm the seed of Abraham,
through which the promise will be fulfilled.
If Nicodemus was led by the Spirit of God,
he would have perceived and understood this thing,
but he was listening to it in the natural.
Who is Jesus?
That means we can only know Jesus in the spirit.
You can only know Jesus in the spirit,
led by the Spirit of God.
Thank you for what you are saying.
Go to 1 Corinthians 12:3.
"Therefore, I make known to you that no one
speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed,
and no one can say that Jesus is Lord
except by the Holy Spirit."
No one can say Jesus Christ is Lord.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is the Lord God Almighty,
without the help of the Holy Spirit.
It takes revelation to know that in the spirit and in truth.
Now, for something to be in spirit and in truth,
it must be in the spirit by the Spirit of truth,
the Holy Spirit.
The Word you hear must be sanctioned
by the testimony of the Holy Spirit to say it is true.
The Bible says the Spirit joins Himself with our spirit
to testify that we are sons of God. (Romans 8:16)
When He comes, He reveals the truth.
He leads us into the spiritual understanding of the truth
and gives us conviction and gives us faith,
and we know God is speaking to us clearly through Him.
Now, let's see another example I want to take,
between the natural - from the natural
to the spirit, to know Jesus.
Let's see Jesus and His disciples.
Jesus had disciples, we know Peter very well.
Let's go to Matthew 16:13
Listen to what Jesus said.
"When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi,
He asked His disciples saying,
'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?'"
Can you imagine?
Jesus wants to know your opinion about Him.
He wants to know, Racine's opinion, Ruth's opinion, your opinion about Him.
- Who is Jesus to you?
That's life's most important decision.
What you do with Jesus Christ.
What did they say?
So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah,
and others, Jeremiah or one of the Prophets."
- They were still in the symbol of the old Prophets of history.
Elijah, John the Baptist, one of the Prophets -
some of them looked at Jesus on the outside.
Go to Mark 6:3.
"Is this not the carpenter,
the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon?
And are they not his sisters here with us?"
So they were offended at Him."
- They were offended.
'Is it not the son of the carpenter we know here?
We know His brothers and sisters.'
They were offended.
John 7:12, some say He deceives people.
Some say He's good.
They did not know who Jesus was.
They only saw Him in the body.
The child they knew, the son of Joseph, the carpenter.
That's all they knew about Jesus.
They were in the natural, completely in the natural.
But some people say He's good and they even followed Him.
Let's go down to John 6.
Now, Jesus went and did a miraculous thing.
He multiplied the bread and the fish
just like the manna that fell in the wilderness,
and they ate and they said, what kind of miracle is this!
Is this the Prophet that is supposed to come? He gave us food -
manna came - and they followed Jesus.
The question is, why did they follow Jesus?
What's the purpose of following Jesus?
Because they wanted Him to give them natural blessing
like the food being multiplied.
It is like Jesus was in a period of fame,
so many followed Him because they saw -
wow, He can multiply food!
He can do miraculous things,
and they were amazed and wanted more of that.
They came to Jesus in the natural.
Anytime we come to Jesus, to God for selfish reasons,
for classic or material reasons,
we are bound to come in the natural,
led by our circumstances.
Because I face financial difficulty, I pray for breakthrough.
Because I have sickness, I pray for healing.
Because of this, I ask,
without knowing the will of God in the matter.
So let's start from John 6:30.
Let's just start to break it down.
"Therefore, they said to Him,
'What sign will You perform, then,
that we may see it and believe You?'
What work will You do?"
Why did they ask for a sign?
Because they related to the visible,
they wanted to see to believe like Thomas.
Yes, because they saw the visible sign
in the Old Testament, of the cloud,
of the presence of God visibly, to believe.
They said, 'Why can't You show us a sign for us to believe?'
What did Jesus say?
"Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as is written,
'He gave them bread from Heaven to eat.'
Then Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly I say to you,
Moses did not give you the bread from Heaven,
but My Father gives you the true bread from Heaven.'"
Now, Jesus knew they were following Him
because of the miracles, but Jesus wanted to take them to the spirit.
He said to them, 'Moses gave you the manna,
but My Father gave you the bread of Heaven.'
"For the bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven
and gives life to the world.
Then they said to Him, 'Lord, give us this bread always.'"
Do you notice something?
Jesus said, 'For the bread of Heaven is' -
- "He who comes from Heaven."
- He, and what?
- "Gives life to the world."
Nobody wants to die - life.
Remember what He said to the woman -
the Samaritan woman, "He who drinks this water
will never thirst again."
He said, 'He will give you life.'
They said, "Give us this bread."
What did Jesus say?
Jesus said, "I am the bread of life."
"He who comes to Me shall never hunger,
and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."
- Go to John 6:35.
It's what Jesus said.
"But I say to you that you have seen Me
and yet do not believe.
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me
and the one who comes to Me, I will by no means cast out."
Jesus said, 'You see Me, but you don't believe.'
"For I have come down from Heaven not to do My own will,
but the will of Him who sent Me."
The will of the Father - 'I came to do the will of God in your life.'
What is the will of God?
"This is the will of of the Father who sent Me."
This is the will of the Father -
"That of all He has given Me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up at the last day.
And this is the will of Him who sent Me,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him
may have everlasting life." (John 6:39-40)
This means, when you see Me, you have to believe in Me,
and I will give you everlasting life.
That's what Jesus Christ came to do.
It's a spiritual thing.
"And I will raise him up at the last day."
That's the Jesus we are looking for.
Do I believe in Jesus because of miracles?
Or do I believe in Jesus for everlasting life,
for salvation and for eternal life?
Are we in the natural or are we in the spiritual?
Let's continue - see what happens after.
"The Jews then complained about Him,
because He said, 'I am the bread
which came down from Heaven.'
And they said, 'Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?'"
Did you hear that?
Now they went into the natural.
'Is this not the son of Joseph?' - in the natural.
How can He say, I came down from Heaven?
We know you here.
They were in the natural.
"Whose father and mother we know."
We know Your father, Your mother.
"How is it then that He says,
'I've come down from Heaven?'"
How can He say He come down from Heaven?
"Jesus therefore answered and said to them,
'Do not murmur among yourselves.
No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him.'" (John 6:41-44)
Praise the Lord.
Take note of this verse.
Read it again.
"No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him."
No one can come to Me
except the Father Himself draws him to Me.
Meaning, no one can come to Me,
unless the Father opens your spiritual understanding
to be in the spirit to know who I am.
You see Me in the natural.
I'm more than the natural you see.'
Let's continue and then we will go back.
What happened next?
"It is written in the Prophets,
'And they shall all be taught by God.'
Therefore, everyone who has heard
and learned from the Father comes to Me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father,
except He who is from God;
He has seen the Father.
Most assuredly, I say to you,
he who believes in Me has everlasting life." (John 6:47)
- Verse 60.
"Therefore, many of His disciples, when they heard this,
said, 'This is a hard saying; who can understand it?'"
Read it - many of His disciples who followed Him for natural things,
they said, it is hard to hear this.
When He said, he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me.
'How can we eat His flesh?
This is hard to understand.'
This means, no one can believe what he has not understood.
And no one can understand unless the Father opens your heart
to spiritual revelation of who Jesus is.
And they were offended because they were in the natural,
and many left Him.
They turned away and left and said, this is too hard -
we don't understand.
So what happened?
What happened next, when they left?
"When Jesus knew in Himself
that His disciples complained about this,
He said to them, 'Does this offend you?
What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend
where He was before?
It is the Spirit who gives life.'"
"The flesh profits nothing."
"The Words that I speak to you."
"Are Spirit."
- Oh my Lord.
- "And they are life."
Spirit and life means, in spirit and in truth.
The Word I speak, when the Holy Spirit of truth speaks
and testifies - you know the truth, not just words -
Spirit and life Words.
The Word that God speaks Himself through His mouth -
Words that come from the mouth of God, mouth the Holy Ghost,
the Word of truth from the Spirit of God.
Next verse (John 6:64) - let's listen.
"'But there are some of you who do not believe.'
For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him."
"And He said, 'Therefore, I have said to you
that no one can come to Me
unless it has been granted to him by My Father.'
From that time, many of His disciples went back
and walked with Him no more."
No one can be in the spirit
without the Spirit of the Father, the Holy Spirit.
No one can be in the Spirit in Christ
without the Holy Spirit.
That is why it is the narrow way.
That is the narrow way of faith.
Not everyone will go that path.
Not everyone will go down that path.
Without the Holy Ghost, we are natural.
Without the inspiration of the Holy Ghost,
we can't see the truth in the spirit.
Without Him, no faith.
Without Him it is faith in faith -
faith in the Word.
We quote the Word in our mouth.
Without Him, nobody can believe in the heart
and be convicted of righteousness in your heart,
it takes the Spirit of truth.
Let's continue.
"From that time many of His disciples went back
and walked with Him no more." (John 6:66)
They went back to the wilderness.
They went back to the natural where they came from.
And they were actually on the way to the Promised Land,
but they went back.
They were on the way to the Promised Land
and they went back to the wilderness.
And they never got out of the wilderness.
They never got out of the natural -
they will remain in the natural forever.
"Then Jesus said to the twelve,
'Do you also want to go away?'"
Now Jesus said to the twelve disciples,
'You, do you want to go away?'
What happened?
"But Simon-Peter answered Him,
'Lord, to whom shall we go?'"
'Where do we go?'
"You have the Words of eternal life."
Now we can go back to Matthew.
Let's go back to Matthew 16,
to talk about Peter - he has one gift.
Peter was in the spirit with the help of God.
When he said, "You have the Words of eternal life,"
what is Peter saying?
The manna You are talking about is not natural food,
but spiritual food -
the Words of Your mouth give me everlasting life.
Who revealed that to Peter?
Holy Spirit.
Let's go to Matthew 16 now.
That means that he was with Jesus,
not because of the miracles He was doing,
but because of the change that had been wrought in his heart.
Called by God.
That's why deep, deeper, deepest.
The first people came to Jesus
because of natural want, as we come to church for blessing,
but Peter was on the deeper side,
he served God with his life, heart to heart with God,
and God revealed to him he believed for everlasting life.
Now, let's go to Matthew 16:16.
"Simon Peter answered and said,
'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.'
Jesus answered and said to him,
'Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah.'"
- Did you notice that?
In John 6, when everybody left,
Jesus said, 'You - why you don't go?'
Peter said, 'You have the Words of everlasting life.'
This time Jesus said, 'Who do they say I am?'
'Like Jeremiah...'
'And you, you who know Me, who are with Me - what do you say?'
Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."
He spoke the Word of revelation of who Jesus was.
He said it.
Why?
Let's go next verse, what did Jesus say?
Listen.
"Jesus answered and said to him,
'Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,
but My Father who is in Heaven.'"
Understand what Jesus said in John 6 -
'Nobody comes to Me except the Father draws him.'
No one knows who I am
unless the Father reveals to him whom I am.
The Father revealed to Peter, who said,
You have the Words of everlasting life.
To speak the same Word in the power of the Holy Spirit -
to know who Jesus was.
Peter was in the spirit to receive that revelation.
He must be in the spirit.
To be in the spirit, you must believe for salvation's sake,
for God's sake, for Heaven's sake, not for classic reasons.
- For the sake of eternity.
Now, Peter was in the spirit,
but something happened after.
Go to Matthew 16:21.
"From that time, Jesus began to show to His disciples
that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things
from the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed, and be raised the third day.
Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying,
'Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!'"
What happened here?
When Jesus told him, they will kill Me, I will die.
On the third day, I will resurrect, what happened?
Peter went back to the natural immediately - in his emotions.
'Ah, I know you -
Lord, this will never happen to you!
Never, ever, God forbid!'
It was his flesh talking.
The flesh was talking, he was in the natural.
What Jesus said to him, verse 23.
"But He turned and said to Peter,
'Get behind Me, satan!
You are an offense to Me,
for you are not mindful of the things of God,
but the things of men.'"
He meant - you are thinking like a natural man.
You are not thinking like a spiritual man must think -
like God thinks.
To think like Jesus is to think like God,
is to think like the Holy Ghost.
To have the mind of Christ is to have the mind of God.
That's the Holy Spirit, the mind of God.
Romans 8:37.
How can we have the thoughts of Christ, the mind of Christ -
to think the way God wants me to think?
That is - in the spirit.
How to be in the spirit, that's what we are talking about.
How can I be in the spirit?
Now, let's listen to Roman 8:26.
"Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses."
- Oh my God, listen to that.
What can you say about it?
Oh, this is really what we need.
This is the meaning of the comforter that Jesus left.
Thank you very much.
The Spirit helps us.
What are our weaknesses?
We are natural.
We are in the natural.
We are in the flesh.
We know nothing in the spirit.
We need help in our natural weaknesses,
in the ability to see in the spirit,
so the Spirit can take us there in the spirit.
Say it again.
"Likewise, the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses.
For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered."
Good, we do not know what we?
"We do not know what we should pray for as we ought."
What do you understand by that?
We do not know.
We pray - we don't know what we are asking.
- We don't know what we need.
We know what we need! I'm hungry - I need food.
But am I asking the right thing?
Do I know the will of God on the matter?
That's the key.
To pray in the spirit, we need help of the Holy Spirit.
We must pray according the will of God.
You are asking, God heal me.
Is it the will of God to heal you?
That healing might be for a purpose.
Is it the will of God for you to go there,
where you are asking?
You want to have a vehicle.
Is it the will of God for you to have a vehicle,
at that moment?
We do not know what to ask for.
The Holy Ghost will help us now to enter the spirit,
to know the mind of God in the matter,
so we can ask in accordance to the will of God.
Continue. (Romans 8:27)
"Now, He who searches the hearts
knows what the mind of the Spirit is."
Say it again, you are making me do it.
"Now He who searches the hearts
knows what the mind of the Spirit is,
because He makes intercession for the saints
according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good
to those who love God, to those who are the called
according to His purpose."
Come back to verse 27, that's the key now
that puts things bare and open to the eyes of everybody.
"Now He who searches the heart."
Who searches the heart?
Do you know what is in the heart of a person?
- The Spirit.
- Only the Holy Spirit.
He who searches the heart knows what is the mind of what?
The mind of God.
It means He knows what is in the mind of God for you.
He know the thoughts of God for the situation you are in.
And God, He -
makes intercession.
He intercedes -
for the saints according to the will of God.
What is intercession?
I don't know God -
I need somebody to help me, to take me to God,
to intercede for me.
I cannot hear from God.
I need a mediator, an intercessor.
The Holy Spirit will take my prayers
and intercede in the presence of God and pray for me.
So I can know the will of God in the presence of Father.
Without Him, our voice will never go beyond the ceiling.
He's the one that carries our prayer to the presence of God.
He intercedes according to the will of God, He searches the heart.
What does it mean, He searches the heart?
Let's go - this is a repetition, a reminder.
Let's go to 1 Corinthians 2:9-13.
"But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
nor have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'"
This means the things of God,
no human eye has seen, can see.
"But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit."
God revealed the things of God to us by His Spirit.
He revealed His ways.
He revealed His mind.
He reveals His will to us by His Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:14.
"But the natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God."
The natural man does not receive the things of God.
The natural man will always go by what he sees,
what he hears, the symbols, the signs.
He does not know the things of God.
When we are in the natural, we don't know Jesus
in spirit and in truth.
We don't pray in spirit and in truth,
we don't worship in spirit and in truth.
Now, let us see the spiritual man, verse 15.
"But he who is spiritual judges all things,
yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
For who has known the mind of the Lord,
that he may instruct Him?
Known the mind of God, that he may instruct Him -
"But we have the mind of Christ."
The mind of Christ is meant for those
who have the Spirit of Christ.
When we have the Spirit of God,
He will intercede for us according to the mind of God.
While I'm praying about my message, when I pray
He will tell me - this is the mind of God for this truth.
Something will tell your heart,
this is the will of God.
What happened to you, God allowed it for a purpose,
and He will tell you.
That's what happened to Paul, He speaks to the saints
through His Word, by His Spirit in our heart.
That's why we are in the Spirit led by the Holy Spirit,
to know the mind of God, to know the heart of God,
to know the will of God.
He supplies the inspiration to pray,
what to pray for, how to worship God
in spirit and in truth.
And He reveals to us the ways of God.
Are we such?
Are we led by the Spirit?
Are we inspired by Him?
Are we seeking for Him?
Are we waiting for Him to guide us in our actions and deeds, every day?
When we are in a situation, do we allow Him to come to inspire?
Do we wait upon Him?
Do we pray to receive revelation, guidance from Him,
before we do anything?
As long as we are in the natural, we are in the wilderness,
without direction, without purpose.
But when the Holy Ghost comes, He will lead you -
with purpose, with direction to the right place to be.
So when Jesus was saying -
eternal things He was speaking about,
things of Heaven, not things that are natural.
It takes a spiritual man to understand this.
So now, what is the heart of the matter,
the lesson we learned from all this?
Ruth, what lessons can we learn from this?
We live in the spirit when we recognize our union
with Jesus Christ in the spirit.
To be in the spirit is to be in God's presence.
Who can take us to God's presence?
The Holy Spirit.
When He takes us into God's presence,
His Word, His revealing Word will inspire us
and tell us God's mind, God's opinion,
and give us utterances, to speak words,
inspire us to speak the heart of God,
the mind of God in the presence and in our prayers.
The question is now,
for how long are we going to stay in the natural?
What you were saying - when are we going to get out of the wilderness?
What does it take to get out of the wilderness
and into God's promises?
What does it take to get out of the natural,
to be in the spirit and to hear God clearly?
To be led by the Spirit of God?
It's a heart decision.
Meaning - engage your heart.
Your body can never be in the spirit,
but your heart can, your spirit can.
It's your heart, your spirit, that receives inspiration,
revelation from the Holy Ghost, from the mind of Christ
to know His will, His ways.
He will inspire us to act faith on His revelation -
to go to the right direction.
So to walk in the Spirit
is to walk in accordance to the Word of God.
And that Word of God is Spirit and life.
When the Holy Ghost reveals that Word,
you know the will of God.
It's not quoting the Word.
The will of God comes when the Spirit of God reveals it to you.
When satan used Psalm 91, it was not the will of God for Him to jump.
But Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit of truth -
He recognized his (satan's) voice.
The Word and the Spirit must come together to become the truth,
in spirit and in truth.
The Holy Ghost will take you to the spirit,
and He will reveal the truth of the mind of God -
of the will of God.
Once He reveals it to you,
He will guide you to understand it.
Once you understand it, you will be convinced
by faith and act faith.
That's the highway to enter the promised land,
to be in the spirit and to enter the promise of God.
Revelation from the Holy Ghost, spiritual understanding,
Job 32:8 - where understanding comes, conviction comes.
'This is from God in my heart.'
And you act faith, and you walk with God in the spirit.
So walking in spirit does not mean you open your heart
to any kind of spirit.
Be careful - not every spirit is from God.
To know the truth now,
everything must be done through His Word, by His Spirit.
You can't separate the Word from the Spirit.
That's why Christianity is not mysticism.
It's not any kind of spirit we welcome.
Not every spirit that speaks is from God.
We have Balaam, we mentioned Balaam last time in the book of Numbers.
It was a divination spirit.
He was doing things - sacrifices, but it was not of God.
The Spirit of God never came because of Balaam,
He came because of Israel, for God's sake.
He turned that curse to a blessing.
To turn the curse to blessing.
The same way the Holy Ghost came
and opened the mouth of a donkey to speak words of man.
The only way to know God, to know Jesus,
is through the Word of God and by the Holy Spirit.
The two have to go together.
It's not about confessing,
it's about believing in your heart
led by the Holy Spirit to be in spirit and in truth.
So if you hear this in spirit,
is it in truth? We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
He's the one that will tell you,
'This is from God', 'This is not from God.'
That's the testimony of the Spirit in our heart, in our mind.
He will guide us into the understanding of the truth.
So if you are wondering if this from God or not from God,
what to do - go to the closet and pray to your Father.
Ask the Holy Ghost to reveal to you, who is this person?
What is this situation?
What is Your mind? What is Your will?
And pray as Paul did in 2 Corinthians 12:7-12,
until God gives you a revelation of His mind and purpose -
then you will know His will.
You will know what to do.
The believer who walks in the natural has no strength.
If we want to know Jesus,
we need to know Him in spirit and in truth.
Whatever we do must be done in spirit and in truth.
We can see the importance of the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our life.
And the Holy Ghost does nothing
without the Word - the Scriptures.
That's why the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God
to bring peace into our hearts,
to bring joy into our hearts,
to bring faith into our hearts.
The Word must go along with the Spirit.
Moses and the Prophets, they heard His voice
directly in their heart, and then God instructed them
to write them on the pages.
This is the letter,
but they heard from their heart directly from God.
First in the heart.
So this Word must come to the same heart,
to be processed, to become spirit and life.
And that's the faith you are talking about.
Not faith in faith by confessing,
but real faith that comes from your heart,
hearing and obeying from your heart
the instruction of the Holy Spirit -
that's Divine faith.
That's why when Peter said to Jesus,
"Where should we go? You have the Words of eternal life."
He was not talking about the letter alone.
The Words of eternal life are the Words,
the living Word of God - Spirit and life.
That's why Jesus said, in John 6:45,
"No one comes to Me except the Father draws him."
And what part does the Father draw?
Your heart.
No one comes to Me - the Father draws him.
They will be taught by God.
No one can say, 'Jesus is Lord' in spirit and in truth
without the Holy Spirit.
So it's time for you to develop your own relationship with the Holy Spirit
to get out of the wilderness in your life.
So now, this Holy Bible is the Christian's guide
for belief and practice, and contains the truth.
When you read this Bible, ask the Author of the Bible,
the Holy Spirit, to guide you.
That's the secret God gave to Joshua,
and we told you last time, we repeat it again -
Joshua 1:8, "Keep the Words in your mouth.
Meditate on this Word, day and night."
And do what it says.
Do what the Word says.
Meditation is not incantation, we don't call any spirit.
We meditate on the Word of God, the promise of God in here.
This Word, we meditate on this Word, day and night.
And then the Spirit of God comes,
and will give you spiritual understanding
and strength in order to obey this Word
and to put it to practice.
God said it, not me.
Walk in the spirit led by the Spirit.
What do we do?
Engage your heart, not your eyes, not your brain, to God.
Seek His face.
Ask for guidance from the Holy Ghost.
Ask God to pour out the Spirit of revelation -
Ephesians 2:17.
"Ask Him to guide you, and the Lord will guide you,
and you will be in the realm
where you will be able to discern His mind in your life."
So please, we give you the grace.
Go and read and study the book of Romans 8:1-end,
and the book of 1 Corinthians 2:1-end.
Every Christian who wants to be in the spirit
should know these two chapters.
Write that down, Romans 8.
- Romans 8:1-end.
- And then 1 Corinthians.
- 1 Corinthians 2:1-end.
Read it.
Ask God to give you spiritual understanding of it.
How to become spiritual, how to walk in the spirit,
how to allow the Spirit of God to take us into God's presence.
And then you will get out of the wilderness.
Then the Word will become a lamp to your feet and a guide to your path,
you will never miss a target.
A guide to your path to get out of the wilderness.
To get out of the wilderness, to get out of doubt.
Amen.
To get out of lack and want and to know God's way.
Thank you.
God bless you, we can't wait to hear your testimony of how the living Word
has really been a light to your feet and a lamp to your path.
And we are excited to hear what God is doing in your life,
through His Word and by His Spirit.
Remember, this is the purpose and vision of the University of God -
to step into the spiritual.
Through His Word, by His Spirit, in spirit and in truth.
The Word and the Spirit must go together.
It is important to store this Word of God
and to walk according to this Word,
that's the safety net.
And the Spirit of truth will guide you
and lead you into the fullness of that truth.
Amen.
Amen, God bless you.
The Lord be with your spirit.