Faith with the Help of the Holy Spirit
Bible passage: Matthew 3:11-12
“11. "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. ”
Dear believers, today is Pentecost Sunday.
It is a Sunday that commemorates the incident when the Holy Spirit, God, first came to believers. I hope this will be a great blessing as I speak today under the title ‘Faith with the Help of the Holy Spirit.’ The reason why the Holy Spirit came to humans is as follows. At the Last Supper with His disciples, Jesus said to them that He would soon go to the Father’s house and prepare a place for them.
Then the disciples began to worry because they did not understand where Jesus would be going. Knowing the hearts of His disciples, Jesus comforts them by saying that He will not leave them like orphans. Then He promised to send the Holy Spirit, another Helper as written in John 14:16 which says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” In obedience to Jesus' words, about 120 believers gathered in Mark's upper room in Jerusalem and prayed when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, came upon them. After the Holy Spirit came, believers were able to lead a passionate life of faith, and an explosive revival occurred in the early church. If we live a life of faith with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can live a life of faith as fully and fervently as the believers of the early church. If you look at the Bible, you will find many pioneers of faith who did truly great things.
There are many times when I feel envious and wonder, ‘How did they do such amazing things?’ But in fact, it is not difficult to do so with the help of the Holy Spirit. Workers who clearly receive the voice and guidance of the Holy Spirit do everything with the help of the Holy Spirit, so even things that seem difficult to a natural person can be done without difficulty.
Therefore, even though the Holy Spirit is within us and helps us, I hope that there is not a single believer who says, ‘The life of faith is difficult.’ Now, please confess, “I can do it because the Holy Spirit is within me.” At this time, I will tell you what you must do to have faith to receive the help of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. First, in order to have faith to receive the help of the Holy Spirit, you must believe, trust, and rely on the Holy Spirit within you. First of all, you must believe that the Holy Spirit is within you. In John 1:32, John the Baptist testifies, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.” In reality, the Holy Spirit does not have a shape similar to a dove.
However, in order to let us know that it clearly exists, God opened John the Baptist's spiritual eyes and allowed him to see it. You can call Jesus Christ ‘Lord’ and God ‘Father’ because the Holy Spirit is within you. In the second half of 1 Corinthians 12:3, it says, “And no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Coming before God to worship, pray, and praise is possible because the Holy Spirit within you gives you faith. God originally created Adam as a ‘spiritual being’ so that he could communicate with God and live happily.
However, when Adam sinned, his spirit died and he could no longer communicate with God, so he lost all happiness and became a cursed life. Human beings, descendants of Adam, are also born with original sin, so although they have a spirit, they are wrapped in a soul and become dead spirits that cannot function. However, when non-believers break their doubts about God, open their hearts, confess that they are sinners, and believe that Jesus is their Savior, God sends the Holy Spirit into their hearts. When the Holy Spirit comes in this way, new life is received and the dead spirit is revived. Such a person is said to be ‘a person born again of the Holy Spirit,’ and the event of receiving the Holy Spirit in this way is called ‘Baptism of the Holy Spirit.’ Regarding this, Acts 2:38-39 says, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off - for all whom the Lord our God will call.” So, what changes will occur when the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts, that is, when we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit? First, you become a child of God and can call God ‘Father.’ Galatians 4:6 says, “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ” Since you have become a child of God, your name will be recorded in the book of life in heaven, just as your name is listed on the family register.
And when the Holy Spirit, who is God, enters and dwells in our hearts, we become a spiritual family with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells and lives in our hearts, and as the Word says in Hebrews 1:14, He sends angels to serve the saved believers. Since the Holy Spirit is within us and angels are by our side, please believe that we are not alone and that the three of us live together. From now on, if someone asks you who live alone, “How many people do you have in your family?”, please answer “I live alone, and we live three people.” When you receive the Holy Spirit in this way, you become one spiritual family with the Holy Spirit and angels, and from then on you begin to believe the words of God. When you pray, you pray with faith.
So, you are thankful for being saved, thankful for being given heaven, and whenever you go to a worship service, a praise session, or a place of grace, you are moved to tears. Since I believe that this world is an illusion and heaven is the reality, I focus on ‘how can I be faithful’ and ‘how can I bring glory to the Lord’. Also, John 16:8 says, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;” If you receive the Holy Spirit in this way, the Holy Spirit will enable you to discern what sin is, so you will not live in sin, and you will have to take off all of your old self and live according to God's will. This is a life of faith. However, as you live your religious life, you sometimes encounter things you cannot do and encounter difficulties.
At times like this, you must not only believe that the Holy Spirit is within you, but also trust in the Holy Spirit and always rely on the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, as the one who helps you. Just as you ask your family to help you when something difficult happens physically, you have become a spiritual family with the Holy Spirit, who is God, and the angels sent to you to serve you; you ask the Holy Spirit to help you do what you cannot do and to overcome the difficulties you face. You have to trust and rely on them to help you. Even if your physical parents and family are powerless to help you, the Holy Spirit can solve your problems, and angels can also help you. However, many believers are unable to do that and they instead rely on themselves.
If you decide and act according to your own thoughts, you will not gain the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but the fruit of your fleshly thoughts. So, it is difficult to bear good fruit. Therefore, I hope that you will not go down a difficult path relying on yourself in everything, but that you will go through your journey of faith easily by relying on the ‘Holy Spirit who always helps you.’ So, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will prosper in all things. Second, in order to live a life of faith with the help of the Holy Spirit, we must not ignore the ‘words of goodness’ that the Holy Spirit enlightens us. The ultimate purpose of God sending the Holy Spirit into our hearts is to bring about ‘goodness’ in our hearts. Because the Holy Spirit is a holy Spirit and a good Spirit, He wants to lead the believers' lives to holiness and goodess.
The Holy Spirit enlightens us about ‘goodness’ through the words testified at the altar or through the voice of the Holy Spirit. However, even if you are enlightened in this way, if you close your heart and say, ‘These words do not apply to me,’ you will not be able to understand, you will not be able to develop a good heart, and your faith will not grow, so you will just remain stagnant. For example, you are hearing a lot about the spiritual mind that must be achieved in your heart, such as ‘spiritual love’, ‘goodness’, and ‘fruit of the Holy Spirit’. And through the Word, the Holy Spirit always enlightens us on the way to achieving the greatest goodness and full-grown faith. He guides us on the path to New Jerusalem, the most beautiful place in heaven. So, do you receive all these words as words addressed to you? Or do you give up and conclude with yourself, ‘Such a high-level goodness is not something I can achieve’ or ‘I cannot yet do such acts of faith with my own ability’?
However, Father God always looks at you with eyes of faith and goodness. 6 Please look upon Him with faith so that you can achieve the greatest goodness and have great faith like forefathers of faith did. And through the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit enlightens us on what we need to realize and what we should do at each stage of faith. For example, the Holy Spirit always reminds us how great the love of God the Father is. In Romans 5:5 He said, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” It is good to believe in God's love according to the teachings of the Holy Spirit. However, some people ignore the Word, saying, ‘I cannot love God because I have not yet felt or experienced God’s love.’
This is an action that ignores the Word of goodness by mobilizing the thoughts of the flesh, which are hostile and enemy to God. If you continue to ignore the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit like this, you will not be able to receive good thoughts controlled by the Holy Spirit. Also, we cannot feel God's love nor receive the grace that God pours upon us. Then how miserable must such a heart be? To take another example, the Holy Spirit teaches us the way to New Jerusalem through the Word. However, some people think, ‘I have committed such and such a sin in the past, so this has nothing to do with me.’ Even if the Holy Spirit reminds us that we need to repent thoroughly and run only with our eyes set on New Jerusalem, we do not break our negative thoughts. When the Holy Spirit gives you words of goodness, I hope that you will only say ‘Amen’ and receive them as your own.
I hope you will always live a happy religious life by realizing the goodness of God and feeling the love of God the Father with the help of the Holy Spirit. And I pray in the name of the Lord that the Holy Spirit within you will perfect your heart of goodness so that you can always be happy with the scent of goodness you give. Third, in order to have faith that receives the help of the Holy Spirit, one must receive the baptism of fire of the Holy Spirit. In verses 12-13 of the scripture, John the Baptist testifies saying, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” John the Baptist baptized with water, but Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. And this word tells us that the wheat and the chaff are determined depending on whether we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire. Therefore, through the words of this hour, I hope that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is basic and that you can become a person who receives the baptism of fire every day and come out as good grain before God the Father. Even if a person who did not believe in God repented and accepted Jesus Christ and received the Holy Spirit, this does not mean that all sins and all diseases are immediately cured.
When you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you become aware of Jesus Christ, sin, righteousness, and judgment, and receive the grace to live more according to the Word of God. However, in addition to this, if you receive the fire baptism of the Holy Spirit, you will have the power to burn away even your sinful nature and illness. The work of burning away diseases and germs is not accomplished through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but through the baptism of fire of the Holy Spirit. If anyone repents of his sins and accepts Jesus Christ by faith, God will forgive all his sins because of the one fact of believing in Jesus Christ. Although we have been forgiven for all our sins, we still have a sinful nature that allows us to sin again. 8 Since there is still a possibility of sinning again, we must cast off that sinful nature itself. However, getting rid of the sinful nature itself is not possible through our own efforts.
How can we get rid of even our sinful nature? This is only possible through baptism of fire. It is true that it is only through baptism by fire that all the attributes of sin, namely the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, can be consumed. So, when you pray, pray like, “Please burn me with the fire of the Holy Spirit.” “Please protect me with the fire of the Holy Spirit.” As it is said in Hebrews 12:29, “Our God is a consuming fire,” the power of fire to burn and destroy belongs to God. One more thing you need to know is that this fire of God, the fire of the Holy Spirit, is powerful, so it not only burns the sinful nature, but also burns away diseases. Also, when this fire comes upon the powers of darkness, the enemy devil, and demons or ghosts, their abilities are lost.
In Genesis 3:24, the ‘flaming sword’ that guards the path to the tree of life on the east side of the Garden of Eden likewise possesses the ‘power of annihilation.’ The flaming sword is shaped like a pinwheel, the outside of which is covered with the fire of the Holy Spirit, and the sword spins rapidly inside it. This sword contains the power of God, so when evil spirits touch this sword, they immediately lose their power. The sound of the sword spinning and the sound of the fire of the Holy Spirit are also so majestic that evil spirits tremble in fear at the power and majesty just by hearing these sounds. Since receiving the fire of consuming power is baptism by fire, we must always receive the baptism of fire of the Holy Spirit repeatedly until we achieve complete sanctification. 9 If you receive this baptism of fire, the enemy devil will not be able to work, and you will always live a victorious life.
The fire of the Holy Spirit burns away diseases, so even if any infectious disease germs take advantage, they are destroyed before they can cause any harm to the body. Therefore, most of our believers who stay awake and pray do not get colds or flu even during the change of seasons or weather. Before coming to this altar, there will be many people who confess, ‘I suffered from many diseases, big and small, but now it doesn’t matter.’ Also, if the baptism of fire comes to your family, the enemy devil and Satan will not be able to work, so there will be no discord and your children will not go astray. If your business and workplace are always protected by the fire of the Holy Spirit, you will be protected from accidents and disasters and will be protected from disadvantages. As such, fire baptism is a great power of God, so it is absolutely necessary for God's children and must always be sought with longing. However, among those who believe in God today, we see that many people lead an intellectual and practical religious life. They are good at observing the Lord's Day, making donations, and doing volunteer work, but they don't know how to get rid of the sinful nature in their hearts, and even if they know, they don't do it.
THIS IS NOT A TRUE RELIGIOUS LIFE. Also, no matter how much you know the Word and are in a position to teach, if you sin willfully and do not pray, you will turn into chaff. If we are truly grateful that we have been forgiven of all our sins through the blood of Jesus, then we must strive to never sin again. To do so, we must completely rid ourselves of the sinful nature of our hearts and find the lost image of God. THIS IS A TRUE LIFE OF FAITH. 10 It is true that believers who have rid themselves of the sinful nature of their hearts are the “grain” that God desires. God wants to bring into heaven's treasury grains that have no sin in their hearts and are filled with truth, goodness, and spirit. Where is the heavenly treasury where these grains go? This is the 3rd heavenly floor where New Jerusalem is located. What our Father God originally wants is to be grain believers who can enter the New Jerusalem on the 3rd heavenly level. However, fruits that are a little weaker than that but are somewhat filling are taken to the 2nd heavenly layer, fruits that are a little more stale are taken to the 1st heavenly layer, and fruits that are too poor but not worth throwing away are taken to paradise. In contrast, what do farmers do with tares or empty chaff that have the appearance of fruit but contain inedible substances inside? Just as we burn up chaff in fire because there is no need for it, it is true that believers who do not become grain are thrown into the unquenchable fire of hell.
Therefore, God's children who have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit must undergo fire baptism and cast off their sinful nature to become the grain that God desires. However, since not all sinful natures are burned in one baptism of fire, we must pray without ceasing, and we must not just pray, but cry out with all our heart. Even when singing, if you put your heart into the lyrics and praise passionately with faith, God will give you a baptism of fire. So, you receive healing even while praising. Also, things that are difficult to throw away or quit on our own can be easily thrown away and quit through the baptism of fire.
For example, quitting drinking and smoking is very difficult if one tries to force oneself to persevere. This is because the sinful nature that wants to smoke and drink is burned by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and that heart itself disappears. Also, if you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and remain filled with the Holy Spirit, you can control your mind and heart. There are many people who are unable to achieve the goals they set for themselves. It's because they can't guard their heart and thoughts. However, if you maintain the fullness of the Holy Spirit, you can keep what you have decided, change your bad habits, and become an upright and diligent person. Above all, when you receive fire baptism, the desire to sin disappears, making it very easy to live according to the word of God. You want to read the Bible, you want to pray, the words during worship service are right in your ears, and they feel sweeter than honey. If you receive this baptism of fire and live a life of faith filled with the moving and influence of the Holy Spirit, you will be able to receive answers to your prayers very quickly.
In this way, the fire of the Holy Spirit must always be burning brightly in your heart. It should not be a weak fire, such as attending a hot prayer meeting, being temporarily baptized in fire, being filled with the Holy Spirit for a short time, and then cooling off again. Some people are filled with the Holy Spirit, but after a while, they stop praying, look at the world, and the light goes out. If you repeatedly light and extinguish the fire like this, your faith will grow slowly. How foolish is this person? If you pray with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, you will receive fire baptism, and if you receive fire baptism, your sinful nature will disappear and you will be even more filled with the Holy Spirit. If this mutual synergistic effect continues, sanctification can be achieved quickly. <Conclusion> Dear believers, today’s scripture says that when our Lord comes again, “He will gather the wheat into the barn and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Therefore, you must become grain believers who live according to the will of the Lord, and not chaff. To live a life of faith with the help of the Holy Spirit First, you must believe, trust, and rely on the Holy Spirit within you. Second, we must not ignore the words of goodness that the Holy Spirit enlightens us, but instead practice goodness in our hearts and lives. Third, we must receive not only the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but also the fire baptism of the Holy Spirit. However, in order to receive this baptism of fire, it is important to follow your habit and cry out in prayer.
Through GCN broadcasting, we can join in the fervent prayers of the director of the prayer center and pray together with the senior pastor. You also pray with the Holy Spirit who dwells in your heart; So, you are not alone. I hope that all believers will quickly burn out their sinful nature through the fire baptism of the Holy Spirit, practice goodness and truth, and become the best fruits and grains.
I pray in the name of the Lord that by always praying full of the Holy Spirit, you will be baptized in fire, burn off diseases, quickly resolve all problems, give glory to God the Father, and prosper until you reach New Jerusalem, where there is complete peace and greatest joy. - END -
