BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT (PART 3)

One of the things that the Holy Spirit will do for you is that it will enable you confront people with contrary spirits as He did in the days of the Apostles. You will find people with contrary spirits everywhere, even in the Church occupying positions and climbing the ecclesiastical ladder. We must be very careful to ensure that we have the infilling of the Holy Spirit on a regular basis. For every fake, there is an original and for every original, there are many fakes. Satan specializes in producing counterfeits. When Moses threw down his rod and it became a serpent, the magicians in pharaoh’s court did the same but the original serpent of Moses swallowed the fake serpents. The rod of Moses you have today is the word of God inside of you. The word of God will swallow up every spirit of deception. The difference between magic and miracle is in the spirits. Magic is performed by contrary spirits while miracle can only be performed by divine intervention through the Holy Spirit. That is why people who get carried away by manifestations of anything everything will be corrupted by flatteries; they will fall.

Acts 8:9-24 – notice that in verse 8, Phillip brought joy to the city of Samaria. Why? Because he was filled with the Holy Spirit who led him to do signs, wonders and miracles. Every child of God must have a rod. The Holy Spirit is a healing spirit; he is the spirit of total liberation, he is the spirit of deliverance. Wherever the Holy Spirit is in operation, there will be deliverance. Anywhere the fire dimension of the Holy Spirit is in operation, every strange fire will be put off. A lot of strange fire is burning today even in many Churches, a lot of prophecies and words that are given today are given by strange fire; many manifestations are by the spirits that ought not to speak. Unfortunately, many people celebrate these spirits because they lack discernment. Where there is no pure fire, anything goes.

Simon the sorcerer was able to hold the entire city of Samaria to ransom. It is also possible for one man to hold a nation to ransom through the power of bewitchment. In the final analysis, there are two classification of spirits in the world. The Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of Christ, the spirit of the Most High, the spirit of truth, the spirit of holiness, the spirit of our adoption, the spirit of grace, the spirit of sanctification and other spirits. These other spirits are classified under the spirit of witchcraft. God gets His job done on earth through righteous authorities empowered by the Holy Spirit, the devil gets his job done on earth through unrighteousauthorities empowered by the spirit of witchcraft. Simon the sorcerer turned the city of Samaria upside down and held them in bondage of captivity for a long time. When people are bewitched, they find it impossible to choose right. Anyone who is bewitched is in a very serious mess. If you don’t allow yourself to be filled with the Holy Spirit, sorcerers will take over; they will seat upon the throne, begin to control and manipulate things. God said you should be filled with the Holy Spirit because He knows that you need the filling to be able to walk in dominion. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of comprehensive dominion, without him, there can be no dominion. Moreover, for you to walk in dominion, all sorceries, witchcraft, dagon, ancestral spirits and all manner of evil spirits must bow.

The world is upside down today because the Church has failed to exert its authority. You don’t negotiate with evil, you must dominate evil. That is why the Church today is losing its relevance. A compromised Church is good for nothing. The city of Samaria enthroned Simon the sorcerer. When you enthrone a sorcerer, you have enthroned witchcraft. Who is on the throne of your family that you send money to? Anyone who is not in the Lord is a witch and your number one responsibility is to get him converted and be filled with the Holy Spirit before he converts you with sorceries. Do you know that to whom you submit, you become slave to?

Today, so many Pastors have compromised with sorcerers who brought money. Simon got converted and was baptized yet he offered money to the Apostles in order to receive power. One peculiar thing about people who have tasted negative power is that they know the value of power so much so that they are ready to offer anything to get it. The people who don’t value power are Christians. Peter discerned the spirit immediately. Although Simon was converted and baptized, the spirit inside him was still crooked and perverse, a wrong spirit. Peter judged that spirit. Many people label some preachers as judgmental today, but it is better to judge sin than to allow it to destroy you. Peter addressed the spirit and Simon bowed and begged Peter to pray for him. Many ministries have been ruined because of money collected from wrong people.

When the fire of the Holy Spirit is burning inside of your bones, it is not for ceremony, it will propel you to confront issues head on. However, you cannot properly confront issues until you learn to confront spirits. And when you do, you must be watchful to hear because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. How did Peter discern that Simon had a bad spirit? Through Simon’s statement. We must be very careful about the spirit of merchandizing; a lot of things are being merchandized now from anointing oil to mantles and all other manner of things. Anointing is not for sale. You cannot buy it with money. Anointing is priceless. We need to understand this so that we can place value on what we have. If you don’t place value on what you have, it will take a walk from you.

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you don’t say things that are politically correct, you say things that are spiritually correct. One of the ways to know those who are not filled with the Holy Spirit is when they become political. The greatest thing you can be is to be like God. How much of the Holy Spirit do you have in you and how much of the Holy Spirit are you allowing to flow through you?

We must recognize that there are three powers vying to control us.

1. The world around us. Rom. 12:2. We must recognize that though we are in the world but we are not of the world. To be conformed is to surrender to other wills; it is to surrender to the will of another man; it is to surrender to the spirit of the world around you. To be conformed is to be corrupted. Don’t speak their language, break away from Babylon! Flee from every appearance of evil. There is no meeting point between light and darkness; they are mutually exclusive. A lot of Christians join those who crack dirty jokes in teir offices while some Pastors even pay jesters to come and desecrate the altar of God forgetting what the Bible says in Eph. 5:4. There is so much compromise. This is a direct violation of the word of God. Trying to conform when the Bible says be not conformed. You are either a transformer or a conformer. If you are a conformer, you cannot be a transformer. Be not conformed is not a suggestion, it is a command. The first thing you should do when in a ‘strange land’ is to declare your stance as a child of God. People might laugh at you but you have made your point. They will then start watching to see if you will conform. You must learn to stand for Jesus; learn to lift the banner of the Lord. Heaven takes note of what you do under pressure. It is better to be spiritually right and socially incorrect than to be socially correct and spiritually wrong. It is better to be spiritually right and be politically wrong than to be politically right and spiritually wrong. Look at your life. Where have you conformed? You must learn to say ‘no’ to Ismael. The child of expediency will always be an Ismael but Isaac will come at God’s own appointed time. Wait for your Isaac!
2. The flesh – self-dependent living. Everything is about ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘myself’, ‘my thing’. What is pride? Pride is simply the idolatry of self. Gal. 5:16-17 enumerate the works of the flesh. What is God’s prescription for dealing with Mr flesh? The Cross. It is at the cross that Mr flesh is judged. The crucified life. You crucify the flesh. For every work of the flesh, there is a spirit. You must cast out the spirit. A pastor friend once confided in me that the reason why he does not get involved in deliverance is that after going through the deliverance sessions, the people concerned still manifest the same spirits. I told him the reasons why it is so. Firstly, one person can be occupied by a legion, which is 6000 demons. So, it will take a while to expel them all. Secondly, when demons leave for a season and come back to find their former places of abode garnished and conducive for them, the Bible says they will go and get more wicked spirits and take possession of the person, the person’s case will then become worse. Thirdly, if you are dealing with the works of the flesh and you cast out only the spirit without dealing with the works of the flesh, the person concerned is predisposed, the habits that made the demons to come in in the first instance are still there, they have not been crucified. This is why a lot of issues linger and that is why every deliverance minister must be a good teacher. Many people in dire need of deliverance do not even understand why they behave the way they do. Don’t spare the flesh, crucify it. Unfortunately, the message of the cross is not well emphasized anymore. Messages are now more motivational. They teach grace in isolation of the cross. Meanwhile, the greatest display of God’s grace is the cross. Grace is not a licence to sin. Grace is an enablement to say ‘no’ to sin. That was the grace that Daniel had when he purposed in his heart that he was not going to be defiled. That was the grace that Joseph had when he said ‘no’ to the seductive overtures of Potiphar’s wife. Receive grace to say ‘no’ to every appearance of evil to be a worthy ambassador of Jesus Christ, in the mighty Jesus name.
3. The devil who is always against us. Many times, Christian forget that there is war raging over them; a war that is not fought with rubber bullets. The devil hates you. He is evil. That is why Apostle Paul gave us the prescription in Eph. 6:10-11 “finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”. If you are not strong in the Lord, there is no way you will not live a compromised life. You must also be strong in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour. Stop being a civilian.

The worst thing that can happen to anybody is to be at the centre of a raging battle unprepared. That is exactly what is happening to the Church in Nigeria. Never you follow a leader who has derailed. Apostle Peter almost derailed but Jesus prayed for him. The most important aspect of leadership is all about direction and it is the spirit that is leading you that will give you the direction.

Anyone who is not connected with the Holy Spirit is going down and that person will end up in hell. You must desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Put on the whole armour of the Lord; don’t go to war like a bloody civilian. Until we stop having dancers in the corridors of power, Africa will continue to be a laughing stock in the comity of nations.

P R A Y E R

Thank God for the  many provisions He has made for our well being here and hereafter.

Ask God to roll away all your transgressions and blot them out with the precious blood of Jesus.

Rededicate your life to Jesus.

Pray:- I use the precious blood of Jesus to overcome the power of sin, self and satan, and all his principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this world. I overcome them by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony in Jesus Name. Amen

Dear Heavenly Father, fill me afresh with life and power of the Holy Spirit to overflowing and grant that out of my belly shall flow rivers of living water in Jesus Name. Amen

TO BE CONTINUED.