Brethren, I want to talk to you today about the greatest promise Jesus ever made, and why most Christians never experience it.
Jesus declared in John 10: 10 I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Abundant life, the abundance of God Himself, His presence filling you, His power flowing through you, His victory over sin and death manifested in you.
The majority of believers are living far beneath this promise. They’re saved, they’re heaven-bound, but they’re living like spiritual paupers.
And do you know why? Because they don’t understand the secret that unlocks this abundant life. That secret is being clothed with the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5: 4 – 5 reveal this mystery: For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
Listen carefully. The abundant life doesn’t come through better circumstances. It comes through being clothed with the Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit clothes you, your mortality is swallowed up by life, and that life is the abundant life Jesus came to give.
But most Christians want the promise without the process. They want abundance without the clothing, and it cannot be done.
There are two streets in the spiritual realm.
One is Doubting Street, where Christians groan under burdens and wonder why the abundant life seems far away.
The other is Faith Victory Street, where believers walk clothed with power, and abundant life flows like rivers of living water. The difference?
One is where people try to live the Christian life in their own strength.
The other is where people have been clothed with the Spirit and are living in divine abundance.
Jesus didn’t just promise abundant life and leave you to figure it out. He provided the Holy Spirit as your guarantee. God has given us the Spirit as the very means by which mortality is swallowed up by life.
The Holy Spirit is the abundant life of God, flowing into and through you.
2 Corinthians 5: 1 tells us, For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
This earthly tent, your natural man, your carnal mind, your human limitations. This is what keeps you from abundant life.
But when you’re clothed with the Spirit, everything changes.
Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And beloved, the enemy has stolen the abundant life from the majority of Christians because they’re walking around spiritually naked.
They’ve never understood that God’s abundance isn’t adding more to your natural life.
It’s being clothed with his supernatural life. This abundance is God filling us with his own personality and presence, making us salt and light, being with us in all circumstances.
But you can’t access this abundance in your natural state. Your human depravity must be covered. Your carnal mind must be destroyed. Your mortality must be swallowed up by divine life.
And this only happens when you’re clothed with the Spirit.
Now let me tell you the uncomfortable truth. A man may be saved and still be carnally-minded.
You can be heaven-bound and still be operating from your carnal nature rather than being clothed with the Spirit.
And when you’re carnally-minded, you cannot access the abundant life.
Paul explains in Romans 8:7 The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. The carnal mind cannot submit to God. That means it cannot receive the clothing of the Spirit. It cannot experience the abundant life. It fights against the very thing that would bring abundance.
When people hear about being clothed with the Spirit, their carnal minds immediately arise against the truth.
They argue, they question, they doubt. They want the abundant life Jesus promised, but they reject the Holy Spirit clothing that makes it possible.
Think about the disciples. They walked with Jesus, saw miracles, were saved.
But when a Samaritan village didn’t welcome Jesus, they wanted to call down fire from heaven. And what did Jesus say?
You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. Even saved men can operate in the wrong spirit.
When you live from your carnal nature, beloved, you miss the abundant life completely. You’re spiritually naked, trying to experience spiritual abundance, and it’s impossible.
But here’s the glorious truth. God has provided the clothing. The question is, will you put it on?
Now here’s where the abundant life becomes real and accessible. When we are clothed with the Spirit, our human depravity is covered.
Everything contrary to the mind of God is destroyed. And the result? Mortality is swallowed up by life.
That abundant, overflowing, victorious life. That’s what Jesus came to give you. And it comes through being clothed with the Spirit. You cannot separate these two things.
You cannot have abundant life without being clothed with the Spirit. The abundant life is the result of being clothed with the Spirit. They are inseparable.
God must have people who are being clothed with a heavenly habitation, perfectly prepared by the Holy Spirit. Why?
Because the Holy Spirit is taking out of the world a church, walking in the fullness of the abundant life. Jesus died to provide. But to walk in this abundance, you must have perfect yieldedness. Every desire must be subjected to Him.
The Holy Spirit has come to reveal Christ in you, so that the glorious flow of the abundant life may pour out of you, bringing rivers of living water to this thirsty land.
Paul makes this clear in Romans 8: 10: If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
The Spirit is life, not gives life, is life. The Holy Spirit clothing you, is the abundant life flowing through you.
When you’re clothed with the Spirit, abundance isn’t something you chase, it’s something you wear.
2 Timothy 1: 9- 10 tells us, God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Death has been abolished. Life and immortality have been brought to light.
Brothers and sisters, the abundant life isn’t waiting for heaven. It’s available now through being clothed with the Spirit.
The debt of sin was settled, our redemption secured. Death lost its power. When you’re clothed with the Spirit, that mortality is swallowed up by life. Death no longer has power. Sin no longer has dominion. You reign in Christ.
This is the abundant life, and it comes through the clothing of the Spirit.
But most Christians spend weeks groaning and travailing for abundance when God has already provided the means to access it.
Jesus said, only believe. Believe that the Holy Spirit is your guarantee. Believe that when you’re clothed with him, you’re clothed with abundant life.
Don’t fight to get some special blessing from God. Only believe that being clothed with the Spirit gives you access to every blessing. It is according to your faith that you will receive. God blesses you with faith. Jesus said, Have faith in God. But what do we see?
Christians on Doubting Street, spiritually naked, wondering why they can’t access the abundance Jesus promised.
Believers who have the Holy Spirit as their guarantee, yet living in poverty, sickness, defeat, and fear, because they’ve never let him fully clothe them.
Colossians 3: 1 commands us, If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
If you were raised with Christ, and you were, then you’re already positioned for the abundant life. But you must be clothed with the Spirit to walk in what you’ve been positioned for. You have been planted with Christ in the likeness of his death, and you are risen with Christ. You are seated with him in heavenly places. God credits you with righteousness through faith in Christ. You have been given everything you need for life and godliness.
But all of this abundant provision requires one thing: being clothed with the Spirit. Without that clothing you’re like a king wearing rags you’re like an heir living like a beggar you have access to everything but you’re experiencing nothing because you’re spiritually naked.
Why do you doubt that the Holy Spirit can clothe you with abundant life faith reigns God makes it possible but people receive the Holy Spirit and Satan immediately gets a doubted he whispers this abundant life isn’t for you you’re not worthy Stop it.
Don’t doubt. Believe. The abundant life comes through being clothed with the Spirit, and the Spirit has been given to you as a guarantee. There is power and strength in him.
Leave Doubting Street and move to Faith Victory Street. This is where you live, clothed with the Spirit. This is where mortality is swallowed up by life. This is where the abundant life flows. Jesus sent the seventy disciples out, and they came back in victory. Why?
Because they were clothed with his authority and power. When you’re clothed with his Spirit, dare to believe until there is not a sick person around you.
Dare to believe until everything that is not of God withers, and the abundant life of Jesus flows through you like a river. Now, I’m going to tell you why most believers never experience the abundant life Jesus promised.
This is uncomfortable, but it must be said. Most Christians will never fully yield to being clothed with the Spirit. They want the abundant life, but they won’t surrender to the Holy Spirit’s clothing process.
They want the promise without the process. They want abundance while staying carnally minded.
To experience abundant life, you must be clothed with the Spirit. But to be clothed with the Spirit means your human depravity gets covered. Your carnal mind gets destroyed. Your desires get subjected to Him.
And most Christians aren’t willing to pay that price. The majority of believers want abundant life on their terms.
They want health but won’t surrender their bodies to the Spirit.
They want financial blessing, but won’t let the Spirit govern their finances.
They want powerful ministry but won’t yield to the Spirit’s authority.
They want the abundant life without the clothing, and it cannot be done.
God is calling for people who will be fully clothed with His Spirit, so they can fully experience His abundant life. He’s looking for believers who understand that you cannot separate these two realities. The abundant life is being clothed with the Spirit. When you’re clothed with him, you’re clothed with abundance. Are you that person?
Will you stop trying to access abundance through your natural efforts and allow the Holy Spirit to clothe you? Will you let your mortality be swallowed up by his life? Or will you stay on Doubting Street with the majority?
Here’s what it requires. You must believe God’s word about both the promise and the provision.
When John 10:10 says, Jesus came to give abundant life, believe it.
When 2 Corinthians 5 says, The Holy Spirit is your guarantee and will swallow up your mortality with life, believe it.
When Acts 1: 8 declares, You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, believe it.
We must all have one thought to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be clothed with God Himself.
The Holy Spirit has sent His Word to free us from the law of sin and death and bring us into abundant life.
But except we die, we cannot live.
Except we cease to be, God cannot be.
Your natural man must decrease so the Spirit can clothe you.
Your carnal mind must be destroyed so the abundant life can flow.
Your mortality must be swallowed up by his life. This isn’t optional.
This is the requirement for experiencing what Jesus died to give you. Brothers and sisters, you have a guarantee from God himself.
The Holy Spirit living inside you is the guarantee that the abundant life is yours, but you must let him clothe you.
God has given you his Spirit as a guarantee that mortality will be swallowed up by life
That’s the abundant life. When you’re clothed with him, you’re seated with Christ in heavenly places. That’s the abundant life.
You reign in Christ. That’s the abundant life.
Sin has no dominion over you. That’s the abundant life.
Death has been abolished. That’s the abundant life. Do you see it?
The abundant life isn’t something separate from being clothed with the Spirit. Being clothed with the Spirit is the abundant life. They are one and the same reality.
So, why are you still living defeated? Because you’re trying to live the abundant life without the Holy Spirit’s clothing.
Why are you still groaning under burdens? Because your mortality hasn’t been swallowed up by His life.
Why are you still walking in poverty, sickness, and defeat? Because you’re spiritually naked when God has provided divine clothing.
The abundant life Jesus came to give you isn’t some far-off heavenly reality. It’s for now. It’s for today.
Luke 6: 38 promises full measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. That’s abundance.
But it comes through being clothed with the Spirit who produces that abundance in and through you. You must move from doubt to faith. You must leave Doubting Street and relocate to Faith Victory Street. You must stop trying to manufacture abundance through your natural efforts and start believing that being clothed with the Spirit is your abundance.
You must stop living like a spiritually naked pauper and start wearing the divine clothing that brings abundant life.
The Holy Spirit is preparing a perfect bride for Christ, a bride fully clothed with His presence, walking in the fullness of the abundant life.
He must find in us perfect yieldedness, with every desire subjected to him. Why?
Because this is the only way we can be fully clothed. And being fully clothed is the only way we can fully experience the abundant life Jesus died to provide.
This means your thoughts must line up with his thoughts. Your words must align with his word. Your actions must reflect His abundant life flowing through you.
No weakness, no failure. Just Christ, the abundant life personified, manifested through you, because you’re clothed with His Spirit.
Our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3 verse 3 declares this truth: And verse 4 promises that when He, who is our life, is manifested, we will appear with Him in glory. He is our life, the abundant life.
But until that day, God is clothing us with His Spirit. He’s covering our depravity so abundance can flow. He’s destroying everything that blocks the abundant life. He’s swallowing up our mortality with His overflowing life. He’s making us vessels of His abundance.
The question is, will you let him? Will you surrender to being fully clothed? Will you stop trying to access abundance through your natural strength and let the Holy Spirit be your abundant life? Will you believe that mortality, swallowed up by life, is the abundant life Jesus promised?
Most Christians will never answer yes. They’ll stay on Doubting Street, spiritually naked, complaining about not experiencing the abundant life while rejecting the very means God provided to access it. They’ll keep their carnal mind in control and wonder why abundance eludes them.
But you don’t have to be like most Christians. You can let the Holy Spirit clothe you. You can let your mortality be swallowed up by His life. You can experience the abundant life because they are the same thing. When you’re clothed with the Spirit, you’re clothed with abundant life.
God’s word is a tremendous word, a productive word. It produces what it is, power. And that power is abundant life flowing through you.
If you’re saved, it’s because God’s word says so. If you’re baptized with the Holy Spirit, it’s because Jesus said you would receive power. If you have abundant life, it’s because you’re clothed with the Spirit who is that abundant life.
Beloved, I’m calling you today to understand this glorious truth. The abundant life comes through being clothed with the Spirit, and being clothed with the Spirit is the abundant life. You cannot have one without the other. Stop trying to separate them. Stop living on Doubting Street, spiritually naked, wondering why you can’t access what Jesus promised. Pack up your unbelief, your carnality, your self-effort, and move to Faith Victory Street, where believers are clothed with the Spirit and walking in divine abundance. Stop groaning under burdens when God has given you His Spirit as a guarantee that your mortality will be swallowed up by life. Stop living defeated when being clothed with Christ means you’re clothed with victory. Stop begging for blessings when being clothed with the Spirit means you’re clothed with every spiritual blessing. You don’t need to fight for seven days to get abundance. You simply need to believe that being clothed with His Spirit is your abundance. Faith reigns. God makes it possible. The only question is, will you let him clothe you?
The Holy Spirit is clothing you right now. He’s covering your human depravity. He’s destroying everything contrary to God’s abundant life. He’s swallowing up your mortality with divine, abundant, overflowing life. He’s making you part of Christ’s perfect bride who walks in fullness. But you must yield to him completely. This is not optional for serious believers.
This is the call of God on your life. This is what it means to live the abundant life Jesus died to give you. This is what it means to be clothed with the Spirit. And this is why they are one and the same glorious reality.
Will you answer the call? Will you leave Doubting Street? Will you let the Holy Spirit clothe you with the abundant life? Will you dare to believe that when your mortality is swallowed up by His life, you’re experiencing the very abundance Jesus came to provide. The choice is yours.
But remember, most Christians will never make this choice. Don’t be like most Christians.
Let’s pray. Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, I thank you for the abundant life and for clothing us with your Spirit to access it.
I declare over every person hearing this message that the Holy Spirit is clothing them right now with abundant life.
I speak to every carnal mind and command it to bow so the abundant life can flow.
I declare that mortality is being swallowed up by life, that human depravity is covered by your glory, that every believer is being dressed in the garments of abundance Jesus died to provide.
Holy Spirit, clothe us fully. Swallow up our mortality with your overflowing life. Make us vessels of your abundance.
We refuse to stay spiritually naked any longer. We refuse to live beneath the abundant life Jesus promised. Clothe us with your power, your presence, your abundant life until we appear with him in glory. In Jesus’ mighty name, amen.
I believe with all my heart that as you’ve learned how being clothed with the Spirit unlocks the abundant life today, you’ve been activated into a new dimension of divine abundance.
The understanding you’ve gained, that these aren’t two separate things but one, glorious reality, is already transforming your walk with God and swallowing up limitation with overflowing life.
Comment below with, I am clothed with abundant life. and share one area where you’re letting the Holy Every morning this week before your feet hit the floor declare out loud Holy Spirit, clothe me with abundant life today. Let my mortality be swallowed up by your life. I refuse to walk spiritually naked. I receive your divine clothing and the abundance that comes with it.
Speak this until you sense him covering you with his presence. You’ve learned how being clothed with the Spirit is the abundant life, but here’s the question that will determine your destiny.
Are you going halfway, or are you going all the way to the end? What if I told you that most Christians are dying of spiritual thirst while standing in the middle of a river of plenty? How does someone move from receiving a thimbleful to experiencing floods of God’s presence?
What kind of holy determination refuses to leave until complete satisfaction comes?
God is longing for you to have such a desire for more that only He can satisfy, the difference between those who settle and those who persist until filled, and how refusing to go halfway unlocks dimensions of God’s fullness most believers never experience.
By Smith Wigglesworth