So, what is our spirit? If we’re going to look at building our spirit, then it’s really important that we know what it is. You know, what is it? Where does our spirit come from? What is our spirit made of? Where is our spirit? What does our spirit do? And how do we engage our spirit? And they’re all questions that we need to have answers for, because if we don’t know any of those answers, it’s very difficult to actually really fully embrace who we really are as a spirit being. 1 John 5.5 says this is the message that we’ve heard from him and announced to you that God is light. So God is described in the word of God as light. Now there’s two sorts of light. There’s creative light, that God has created everything out of himself as light. And that is faster than creative, created light. So he is creative like the sun, the moon and the stars and everything else that we see and we see because of light is bouncing around and reflecting off things and we capture it in our eye. But there is a creative light that goes faster than that. John 4.24 says, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. So God describes himself as spirit. So if God is spirit and God is light, then we are spirit and our spirit is light because we’re made in the image of God. So we pre-existed basically in eternity as thoughts within the heart or mind of God and God vocalized those thoughts and created us. So we were created in spirit before we were created in flesh. And when our flesh or our mother and father’s seed comes together, a human being forms. But Psalm 139 verse 13 says, for you were formed, you formed my inward parts, you wove me in my mother’s womb. So He was involved in the creation process, but it also says, your eyes have seen my unformed substance. So there was a substance that existed in eternity which was unformed in the natural realm. And in your book or scroll were written the days, all the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. So all this occurred before there was not a physical day on the earth. It all happened in eternity. And it’s an amazing place to go back to the heart of God and engage there. Because I’ve been back to that place a few times recently. And it’s an amazing, amazing place where light and activity is going on in the heart and mind of God. And that’s where we were conceived. That’s where we were released. So it’s important to know that our spirit didn’t just occur when we were born. When we were actually conceived, there is a flash of light that occurs and our spirit comes into the cells of our body at that point. So our spirit really is our eternal essence. It came from eternity and will return to eternity. Now the words for spirit in the Bible, in the Greek pneuma and in Hebrew ruach, really talk about wind or breath. And so the life, our real life is contained within the spirit. We have a soul and a body, but the life that we really are is maintained in the spirit, and that actually is eternal. So our spirit really is the centre of our being, our innermost being. That’s how it’s described, our innermost being. Our spirit is really the purest representation of our true self. So we need to engage it if we need to know who we are. Because when God spoke us into creation and God wrote that book about our lives, he ordained us with redemptive gifts, with spiritual gifts, with abilities and callings. All those things are contained within our spirit. So if we’re identified, we get our identity from our soul alone, then we will have been shaped by what the world has brought to us or from our parents or through situations in our lives. So our soul is shaped through nurture, nature and trauma. But our spirit pre-existed all that and comes directly from the heart of God. So it’s really important that we understand ourselves. Our spirit is not limited by time and space. So our spirit can engage in the spiritual realms and go back in time and forward in time, that’s where prophecy comes from. And it’s like the TARDIS, as you know Doctor Who, it’s bigger on the inside than it appears. Because you’d think, if it’s contained within our body, it must be really small. But the reality is my spirit and my heart are not small at all because they are dimensional places that we can grow and engage. If you enjoy these videos, would you please take a moment to like, comment and subscribe? It really does help. Thank you very much. So where is our spirit? Well, it’s in our body, but it’s not contained just within our body. Our actual spirit dwells in the brain and spinal column cavity and is separated from our blood. And it’s really important to understand that because our blood contains the record of our natural genetic makeup and generational line. The spinal column and the cerebrospinal fluid and the brain cavity are not connected directly to the blood. They just receive oxygen from the blood. So when you have an injury, when I used to work in the laboratory, I used to do tests on cerebrospinal fluid. And if there was blood in the cerebrospinal fluid, you knew there was a problem because they had crossed the blood-brain barrier. So our spirit is separate and it’s deliberately separate so that it can actually engage the rest of us and bring us from what God said into the now and then. So our spirit can engage our soul and heart and body via the nervous system. That’s why it is very sensitive to vibrations and frequencies and changes, because it picks up all that information from our body. Now, it says in the Bible, in Proverbs, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So what we think about ourselves, what is programmed into our subconscious mind, which then triggers into our conscious mind, determines how we are and who we are. So we need our spirit that knows who we are, pre-existent from God, in God, to inform our mind and inform our subconscious mind. And that’s what it does if we engage it. So the heart literally programs our blood, which goes to our brain and informs our conscious mind of who we are. So our spirit needs to engage our heart. That is why the river of life flows from our spirit into our heart. And that’s why the chambers of the heart, which we’re going to explore on this journey, are part of the process of reprogramming us to knowing who we are. Now, the field of sort of science that they’re developing around this thing is called epigenetics. In other words, things outside of the DNA can program the DNA. And literally, our marrow provides our red blood cells. And when we take communion, if you look at the sheet there, it talks about speaking to our marrow to have our marrow transformed with the truth that comes from our spirit. So red blood cells actually contain no DNA. So if you leave red blood cells, then you can’t be traced. But of course you have white blood cells as well. So the red, the actual nucleus Doesn’t exist. Why? Because it needs to contain oxygen. So it’s filled with oxygen so it can go to the brain and give us life. And that’s exactly the same if you think of our spirit, which is the breath of life contained with the connection with the Spirit of God, actually goes to our heart with truth and revelation, and our heart then transfers that out to the rest of our whole body. and it’s actually received into the brain across that barrier. So information is carried that way. And you find some very interesting subjects when you look at epigenetics and what happens, what is translated through the eyes of a mother to a baby. And literally the baby receives revelation from the mother through their eyes. And we know the Bible says that the eyes are the windows to the soul. And literally they’ve been studying what happens to information that actually programs who we are in those first times when our mother looks into our eyes and what they carry and what they contain is transmitted through our eyes to actually bring information. And I’ve got a really interesting article about it. It’s a fascinating thing to see. So it’s really important that we understand how we are formed And the spirit has an active role to playing that if we want to be shaped after what God says rather than what everyone else says. And it’s really important that we do that. So our white blood cells contains the record of our 22 autosomes from both parents, so 44 autosomes, which contain the record of all our genetic material. And that determines what we look like physically. and all the other things that are passed on within that genetic material. And of course, there are also 1 plus 1 chromosomes that determine whether we’re male or female. That makes up basically our genetic makeup. So we can program our DNA by frequency light on sound and trauma and nurture can program it. Now people used to think that it would take millions of years for our genetic material to mutate over long periods of time to produce change. Now they know it can happen in one generation and they can see the result in the next generation of what is past. So it’s really important if we want to be who God created us to be that we get reprogrammed by the Spirit, our spirit and the Holy Spirit bringing the truth of who we really are. the truth of how God sees us, what God says about us, what our identity is in God. Because when we believe that, there are no limits to what we can do, because God has given us creative abilities within our spirit to transform and change things around us and within our lives. So our spirit really is a dimensional place that God dwells in, because we know God dwells in there, and can dwell in God. which is why this stuff is quite difficult to fathom out, because how can something be in something that’s in that? If you follow what I’m saying. Seems quite complicated, but we only think about it, of course, because we think of a physical thing and it isn’t physical. So it’s not contained by that. John 14, 16 says, I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper. That is the Spirit of Truth. He abides with you and will be in you. This is before Jesus went to the cross and he was basically saying, after I’ve come back from resurrection, then the Spirit is going to be in you. John 14, 20, in that day you will know that I am in my Father and you’re in me and I’m in you. And in verse 23 it says, we will come to him and make our abode or our home with him. So God dwells in us. He lives within our spirit. in an area in our spirit called the Kingdom of God. So we are a spirit, we have a soul that lives in a body. We are spirit, the eternal essence of God, which receives spiritual revelation. If we want to understand anything about God and anything about the realms of the spirit, you cannot do it by intellect. It has to come by spiritual revelation. So our spirit makes us conscious of God and the spiritual realms. We have a soul that makes us self-conscious and makes us a human being. But when our spirit and soul are come back and brought back in harmony, we become a living being. And that takes on a whole different life, an abundant life that Jesus promised us. In Adam, the spirit was outside of the body. Now, I used to wonder about this because I know Ian Clayton spoke about this. So I went back and actually had a look once and then I talked to Adam about what it was like. And it was that he described an amazing relationship with God, which was not hindered by anything. And it was pure intimacy. Now, that means that if we become like Adam, because we’re supposed to be restored into the image that God created things, then as a being of light, we can travel in the spiritual route. And I mean physically travel as well as spiritually travel, because my spirit can go to the spiritual routes any time. But trans relocation, where people are moved from a physical place into another place, happens very often because God does something. and he envelops us and takes us through that realm. But actually we need to learn how to do it ourselves and we will learn some of these things. Psalm 8.4 says, what is man that you have thought of him and the son of man that you care for him, yet you have made him a little lower than God and crown him with glory and majesty. Adam was crowned with glory and majesty. That glory was the radiant light of his spirit connected with God. And then it says this, you make him to rule over the works of your hands, you have put all things under his feet. That is our destiny. That is what God’s called his people to be, ruling with everything under their feet. Mike Parsons’ new book, Unconditional Love, is out on July 20th, 2025. Order it from your favorite local or online bookseller today. More details at eg.freedomark.org slash books. Now, as a diagram, just to explain this, we have a person with a brain. Now, the spirit is contained around there and in the spinal column, and within our spirit there is a door. Our door, that door, is the door into the realm of the kingdom on the inside of us. Revelation 3.20, Jesus said, Behold, I’m standing at the door and knocking. Open the door, let me in. So that’s in our body, the kingdom within us, and that door or gateway is the first love gate. And that is the prime place of engagement with the Spirit and with the Holy Spirit, within us, within our spirit. It’s also the seat of government in our life. It’s what rules. Now when we surrender the seat of government to God and we invite him to be Lord of our lives, he then empowers us. While we keep control of ourselves, then we have to do it ourselves. So when we surrender, it’s not giving up, it’s embracing a whole new power to change, to be transformed, to be who we were created to be by the Father in eternity. So then our heart, our subconscious mind, the garden of our heart, our scroll is contained within that, connects with our spirit and just draws life from the spirit. So that our heart then is programmed by the truth that’s contained within God’s thoughts for us and what he says about us and what our identity is in God. And then that can then detect, determine what our mind thinks. Because as we think in our heart, we will then begin to consciously become aware of, and that will determine how we live. Because you live by the conscious choices you make every day. If they are programmed by your past, then you’ll keep making the same choices, usually the wrong ones, every day. If they’re programmed by your future and your eternal past, then you can begin to make the choices which line up with God’s destiny for you and the things that he’s created for you to do. And that can program how you think. So you can begin to do the things that God showed you. This is how Jesus lived every day, only doing what he saw the Father doing, connected with his spirit to the realms of heaven and God, and actually making the choices that enabled him to fulfill his destiny. And then We can have flowing out of us rivers of living water. The spirit, the anointing, the power, the authority of God is not supposed to be stored up on the inside. It’s supposed to flow out. Just like in the Garden of Eden, you had Eden, God’s garden, you had the garden that was Adam and Eve’s, and the river of life flowed from God’s garden into their garden and then flowed out to water the rest of the earth. That is now a picture of what happens in our life. We have the garden of God within us, in our heart, and then our spirit flows into our heart and then out around us to create an atmosphere of the spirit around us, which amazing things will happen when we learn to grow our spirit so it’s bigger than our body and creates an atmosphere around us where God rules and we rule. That’s why Peter’s shadow could heal people. because his spirit was active around him. That’s why people could touch Jesus and draw life and power for healing out of his physical body, because they were touching the realm of the spirit that was around him. So that’s just a simple picture to explain it, but we’ll learn how to do that. So what is spirit? Well, the definition of matter says that out of which, or from which, any being Existence or entity is formed. That’s the usual scientific gobbledygook as a definition. Literally, matter makes up everything we can see. But it comes from energy. It didn’t exist as matter. It actually existed as energy in the thoughts of God, and God spoke it into being and it became a physical thing. Now, literally, you have to observe energy for it to become matter. And God’s observation and his words created everything that we see. Every material thing is made out of some material substance. Most of it is actually apparently empty. So if you took all the empty space out of every atom that existed in this whole world, it would be the size of a football. So most of what seemingly is within us and everything is actually not empty, is the vibrating strings connected to the spiritual realm. So everything comes out of that substance. That substance matter can be changed, but it cannot be destroyed. So you can burn a piece of wood and turn it into ash and smoke, but it still exists as ash and smoke. And it’s really interesting that people are learning how to call those things back into actual existence, because we should have the power of a creativity in matter. And there are miracles taking place, both positive and negative, in changing matter right now in the spiritual realms. People are getting their hair back, because when your hair goes down the plug hole and disappears somewhere, It is not lost. Even if it dissolves, its atoms exist. And if you have faith and you understand how to do it, you can call those atoms back into being on top of your head. And literally, this is happening in places around the world. People are getting their hair restored supernaturally. For those of you who want a bald head, that’s fine. You don’t have to do that. Spirit, therefore, is a substance. Everything, therefore, which is a spiritual existence is formed from some spiritual substance. Just as matter that we see comes out of material substance, actually spiritual substance also exists. Now human beings are spirit as part of who they are, and therefore that is formed of that spiritual substance. And we’ve talked about it as being light. So the spiritual substance also has forms, Qualities, modes, established laws of existence relatively the same as matter does. They’re just slightly different. Spiritual substances bear the same relation to each other. There are solid, fluid, gas, spiritual substance. When you go into the realms of heaven, you’ll see that there are all sorts of different things. So spiritual objects can be hard, soft, fluid, hot, cold. When you get into the river of life in the realms of heaven, Although it’s not water per se as H2O, it is a substance that actually is fluid. Now all those things in the realm have color and shape and different things, but so much more in the realm of the spirit. So spiritual substances have many qualities which are impossible for material subjects or things to have, altogether superior realm, because the spiritual realm actually is the thing that keeps this realm into being. We’ll see that. So the spiritual world is somewhat similar to this one because this is patterned after it. That’s why you see rivers and things like that. So where is that world? Where is that spiritual world? Well, actually it’s here, right around us. It’s everywhere because we are within that material, spiritual realm now. We just can’t recognise it. We are actually connected to the spiritual realm right now, but we’re usually not conscious of it because our spirit has not told our mind about it because we’ve not learned how to connect. But actually when we do, we’ll realize that we can move in and out of that realm simply because literally every atom or every particle, every string gets its energy from that realm, from the realm of zero point energy. that connects to this, at Planck’s constant, which is the smallest point of time that can exist where something then becomes non-local. You’re either here or there. Now, when we learn how to actually engage this, we’ll learn how to walk in the realms of the Spirit really easily. And we can learn how to do it, which is a good thing. Now, there are many instances in the Bible where people saw the realm of the Spirit and they describe what they saw. So how did they do that? they must have seen it with their spiritual eyes. Therefore, it requires our spiritual eyes to see spiritual objects, because that’s how God designed it to work. So the spiritual world is present within this material world and maintains it in existence. And you see that in Hebrews 11.3. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God Now he’s talking about worlds, not talking about Mars, Jupiter. He’s talking about the worlds, the dimensions, the spiritual world, the physical world, the different dimensions that were created. That was all made out of that which is not visible to us. In other words, spiritual. And Hebrews 1.3, he holds all things by the word of his power. So everything we see now stays in existence because of God’s observance of it. And, by his words, still vibrating within the fabric of space. So why is the Spirit so important? Proverbs 20, 27, the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts of his being. So if you really want to know anything about who you are, and you want that light that comes from God, then we need to understand how we flow in the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2.14, but a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. for they are foolishness to him. Many people try by intellect to study and to understand theology. We don’t want to understand theology. We want a personal relationship with the person of God, not the knowledge of God. And we can only do that through the Spirit. It says he cannot understand the things of God because they are spiritually appraised, spiritually understood. but he who is spiritual appraises all things. So when we understand our spiritual nature and the nature of the Spirit within us, everything can become understandable because we’ve got access to the mind of God, which is an amazing thing. 1 Corinthians 2.9 says, just as is written, things which eye has not seen and ears have not heard, which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him, that was what it was like before the Spirit came. Before our spirits were made alive, that was what it was like. We couldn’t see, we couldn’t hear, and we didn’t have in our hearts the revelation of who we were. But verse 10, for to us God revealed them through the Spirit. So now God reveals so we can see, so we can hear, and so we can have that which in our heart, which actually programs our life according to His truth about us, not our own. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. So the deepest things in the heart of God, the Spirit can access and make known to us. So all those vast sum of the thoughts He has for us can be made known to us in the Spirit. Verse 11, whom among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of a man which is in him? Our spirit is what understands us. Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. So everything that was part of our destiny, everything that God has ordained for us, everything He has for us, we can now know. But we know through the Spirit. So our spirit has eyes, ears, emotions, and has eight different senses or abilities or gateways that we need to learn to develop. They are the fear of God, reverence, prayer, faith, hope, revelation, intuition and worship. Our spirit can engage those things when we learn. And so we’re going to engage in our spirit and understand those things within our spirit on this journey. If we don’t use any part of us, it atrophies or wastes away. So when someone has a physical injury and they’re bedridden for a long time, their muscles waste away because they’re not being used. Physical exercise that works with our muscles. Brain exercises. You know, you get these little brain programs now on your phones or on your laptops and that sort of stuff that challenges you to get your mind working and literally gets our synapses firing. But we need also spiritual exercise so that our spirit can grow strong, to learn, to build up our spirit, to grow our spirit so our spirit is not this weedy little thing on the inside of us, but actually is around us. Hebrews 5.14. Solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. So we can train all those spiritual senses. We can train all the senses of our soul to be directed from our spirit so that we just know and can discern the realms of the spirit. Training exercises. Now you cannot grow your spirit without actually training it. There are no shortcuts. I cannot lay hands on you or nor can anybody else. to get your spirit to grow. So training exercises are really, really important. A friend of ours who used to be here in the band, mentioning no names, wanted to grow a six-pack. He wanted big, strong abdominal muscles. He decided to buy one of these newfangled pieces of kit that meant he could sit and watch TV. and have these little electrodes onto his stomach. And so he could sit there watching it and grow this massive six-pack. Guess what? It didn’t work. And he wasted his money. When I was a kid, it wasn’t that, it was a bull worker. You know, you could use this bull worker to get your muscles strong. The reality is, you have to train. If you want to grow big muscles, you have to lift heavy weights. It won’t grow much better than that. You can get strong muscles or muscle by doing lots of repetitive things over and over again to get stamina in your muscles. But if you want it to grow, you’ve got to exercise them. And in fact, you tear them down so that they grow stronger. That’s what happens when you actually exercise. You tear your muscles and then they build stronger and stronger and stronger. So we’re going to do lots of exercises to build our spirit. Now, it’s like These exercises are not an end in themselves. They’re just to get our spirits strong. It’s like when you build a house, you need scaffolding to get the roof on and to build the walls higher. When you’ve finished building the house, you don’t leave the scaffolding up. You take it down because then you live in the house. So a lot of the exercises we’re doing are just the scaffolding to help us have a strong spirit so that we can have a spiritual lifestyle developed. So we will practice lots of things, and as you practice some, your spirit will get stronger, but the purpose is not just for the exercises, it’s what happens as a result of the exercise, which is a strong spirit, which is going to grow. So how do we develop our spirit? Well, fellowship, spending time with God in our spirit, so we absorb God. Through omosis, our spirit is like a sponge that sucks up the truth of God. When we’re around the light, light gets transmitted to us. It’s just being around God is a fantastic thing to do. Speak, pray, sing in tongues. One of the absolute keys to spiritual growth is that. And we’re going to spend some time on that. Meditating on the Word of God, actually allowing the Word of God to transform and change how we think by meditating around it. meditating visually. What you behold, you become like. So let’s fix our eyes on Jesus. Let’s fix our eyes on those things that are abut. And we will begin to become like that which we look at. If you look at negative things all the time, then you will become negative. If you focus on the truth and the positive things, then that will have a positive change in your life. Wait on the Lord. This is a difficult one for a lot of people. Be still and know heck. which means you’ve got to stop trying and striving and struggling to do it. Relax. Because when you relax, your spirit is active and can connect up with all your senses much easier. We’ll look at that when our brain waves slow down to alpha from beta, then our spirit can connect and understand. When we shut our eyes, all our cognitive senses begin to slow down so that our spirit can engage. So developing the right side of our brain is the key, the creative part of us where tongues and other things happen. Praise, worship, adoration. That’s a spiritual exercise. And when our spirit releases worship and praise and thanksgiving and adoration to God, it gets stronger. Now you have to persevere. You know, when you go to the gym for the first time and you haven’t been for a long time and you begin to push some weights or use the machines, the next few days, you actually feel it. And a lot of people think, that was flipping hard work and I felt like this and they give up, thinking, is it always going to be like this? Every time I exercise, I’m going to feel so wretched for three or four days. Well, the reality is when you get used to something and you get used to a regime of exercise, then your body accommodates it and you learn to grow through it. And so don’t give up the first few times you practice some of these exercises, you have to keep at it. Because the desire that you have needs to become discipline. And discipline, oh, discipline. Do we really have to be disciplined for this? Well, I’m afraid so. But actually, actually it becomes a delight. Once you’ve gone beyond the getting over, the stuff, then you actually find it’s a delight to be in the presence of God and worship Him and you’re spirit connected and you’re drawing from the life of God in the spirit. It’s a wonderful thing. The question is, are you willing to cultivate the desire? Because a desire is not just a wish. If you wish you had a strong spirit, it’s a good start. But desire means that you really want it and you’ll do anything to accomplish it. And so how you get a desire is you’ll have to think about cultivating that thought. What will it be like if I had a strong spirit? What would I do with a strong spirit? How would a strong spirit working me? How would a strong spirit affect how I lived every day? How would a strong spirit mean what I could do in the realms of heaven? I could go through the realms. I could be transported. I wouldn’t have to use airplanes. You start to meditate about what it would be like to have a strong spirit and it will create in you such a desire that you’ll do anything to get it. Seriously, because what you fix your thoughts and intentions and you begin to cultivate and nurture and you begin to think about the benefits of it, once you realize all the wonderful benefits of a strong spirit, you will be willing to put in the discipline to get one. If you just think, a strong spirit, or maybe I’ll be able to speak in tongues for a few minutes longer every day, and that’s all the good it is, well, you won’t be very inspired to pursue it. So you need to think, what is my spirit going to do when it’s got this? What am I going to be able to do in transforming matter, in be able to bring in healing and wholeness and miracles, and actually creating things out of nothing, calling them out of the spiritual realm, into the natural realm? All those amazing things that Jesus did, and he talked to us about doing, we need to fix our eyes on that and be willing to say, yeah, I’m going to pursue that with whatever it takes. Now the Spirit has a language. The language is called tongues. Praying in the Spirit, praying in tongues. It’s the language that the Holy Spirit uses to communicate through us at times, because there are diversities of tongues, and we’ll look at this next week. It’s a spiritual gift. It can be received through laying on of hands. And tongues is a gateway gift for the other gifts. It builds you up to engage. 1 Corinthians 14.2, for the man who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. For no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. So there are things your spirit is speaking which are mysteries to your mind, but actually will be revealed. Because God only hides things in mysteries so we can discover them. But then it says this, The one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, builds up his spirit. Paul said, now I wish you all spoke in tongues. So he saw the importance of this gift. Verse 14, I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, and my mind is unfruitful. Now actually our mind doesn’t like not being in charge, so that’s why it’s a good thing to put our spirit in order to be ruling. But what it says is, what is the outcome? I pray with the spirit and I pray with my mind. I sing with the spirit, I sing with my mind. So we can do both. And both are good. Speaking with other tongues is designed to equip us from the inside out. It affects the part of us from which all permanent change comes, our human spirit. So we need to let that flow. Tongues is an activation gift that activates the other gifts and the other abilities of our spirit. 1 Corinthians 14, 1 says, pursue love. Now, a lot of people say, well, I just want love. Well, it’s wonderful to have love, and it’s wonderful to have the love of God, and it’s wonderful to feel loved, but actually we’re supposed to do stuff. So just enjoying love is a bit selfish, because what does love do? Give. God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. So once we’re filled with love, we will want to give to other people and bless and to serve and to minister and to empower and to encourage, and we need the Spirit to do that. So it says, pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts. So again, you have to cultivate the desire earnestly. And in the amplified version it says, eagerly pursue and seek to acquire this love. Make it your aim, your great quest. Which is wonderful. But we also need to do exactly the same for spiritual gifts. Earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual gifts. So we need to perceive them. Now, remember, the focus is always on the giver and not the gift itself, because it’s the spirit that we’re looking to engage with and to have a flow of not just the gifts that he gives. 1 Corinthians 13.1, if I speak with the tongues of men and angels, So there are tongues which are human languages, there are tongues which are angelic languages. Now John 2020 says this, and this was after Jesus had come back from the resurrection and he’d met with his disciples, and it says this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. So Pentecost was not when the disciples were born again. They’d already received the Holy Spirit because Jesus breathed on them. So they received the spirit that was within them that brought their spirit to life at that point. But Jesus said, Luke 24, 49, Behold, I’m sending forth the promise of my Father upon you. Notice it wasn’t in, it was upon. But you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. So it’s not just that we receive the Spirit that comes to live inside us, we also have an encounter with the Spirit which clothes us with power. It shows us what it’s like to have the Spirit around us to be enveloped, to be baptized in the Spirit so that we will have power. Now once we’ve engaged in that, then it’s our Spirit and the Holy Spirit that comes around us by flow from the inside. Acts 1.5, Jesus said, you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Now I can just imagine what those disciples felt and they waited in the upper room for a number of days waiting for that. Wow, what is going to happen? What’s this going to be? What’s being baptised in the Spirit mean? And I would imagine that they were thinking and anticipating and calling out on God and saying, God, do it. Pour it out from heaven. Clothe us with power from on high. And by the time that God opened up heaven and poured it out, they were really, really hungry and waiting for it. Now, we need to be that hungry for the presence of God and for his power. And so if you’ve not been baptized in the Spirit or you’ve been baptized in the Spirit, but you’re not speaking in tongues, then I encourage you to be hungry, to be anticipating that God is going to do that this morning for you, because he wants to meet you with it. Acts 2.1, this is what happened, and then we’re going to go into experiencing this. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. and there appeared to them tongues of fire distributing themselves and they rested on each one of them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was given them utterance. Now who wants that? Now if you’ve had that experience before but not in all its fullness and you want more then be hungry for more because we’re going to just invite God to do that. Now I was in the realms of heaven looking and seeing what picture that God wanted to use to illustrate what he wanted to do this morning. And this is what I saw, the windows of heaven open and the Holy Spirit, the presence of God being poured out like a waterfall. Now what I encourage you to do right now, if you want to receive this, if you want to allow that Spirit to come around you, to empower you, to fill you, to restore you, then just close your eyes and picture that window, that doorway open. The open windows of heaven, now pouring down out of heaven over your life. is a flow of the Spirit of God coming around you right now as a cloud, as a waterfall. Begin to sense his presence around you, enveloping you. filling you. Draw it into your innermost being. Breathe it in deeply. Drink it in deeply as it clothes you with power from on high. Feel the power coming out of an open heaven over you right now. Feel that. Become sensitive to it. You may feel hot. You may feel electricity. You may feel vibration. You may feel overwhelming peace around you and love and joy around you. For those of you who need physical healing, just feel the sense of the healer surrounding you right now. Surrender that physical part and allow the healing presence of God to restore and make you whole. For those of you who want the gifts of the Spirit to flow, just reach out, pursue, open up your heart, the desire of your heart, and allow the Spirit to fill you. Let the language of tongues just begin to flow out of your spirit. Just begin to worship, praise, speak to God in tongues. that the words form within your spirit and be released into your mind or out through your mouth. Just looking in the realm of the spirit, I can just see what’s being poured in and around you. It’s an amazing sight in the spiritual realm. The angels are being released. The fragrance of God’s presence Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. That refreshing shower cascading over you, deep calling out to deep, calling you back into intimacy. Calling you to be still and to know that He is God. To sense that refreshing, that garland of praise, instead of the spirit of heaviness. Feel the heaviness just lift off. as he places around you a garland around your neck, fragrant, refreshing, welcoming you. Just prepare, just to take what you’ve received today as a testimony you can enter into day after day after day. In your own time, you can sit under an open heaven, you can engage that which is poured out of heaven, you can begin to flow in your spirit. Just use this as a doorway into your personal time with God, to know Him and to know yourself.
Experiencing God through personal encounter