UNDERSTANDING THE

HOLY SPIRIT

WHAT MOST CHRISTIANS DONT KNOW ABOUT HIS CHARACTER, FRUIT, GIFTS, POWER AND MORE

I S T O C K P H O T O / I R O C H K A

2013

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T.D. JAKES: WHAT THE

SPIRIT IS SAYING

S P E C I A L H O L Y S P I R I T I S S U E

L I F E I N T H E S P I R I T

SPECIAL HOLY SPIRIT ISSUE

33 THINGS THE HOLY SPIRIT DOES What Scripture says about the Spirit of Gods divine actions

WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT? Knowing the Trinitys third Person starts with recognizing Him as just thata Person who wants to be intimately known | By Clive Calver

THE CODE OF THE DOVE AND THE HOLY SPIRIT Why is the Spirit represented with a dove? The answer could unlock one of the deep mysteries of our Divine Helper. | By Perry Stone

A PARALLEL CREATION Surprising dovetails between creation and the flood | By Perry Stone

RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT The truth about the baptism in the Holy Spirit that most believers dont know | By Robert Morris

HOW TO PRODUCE DIVINE FRUIT Jesus call to abide in Him reveals the keys to yielding the fruit of the Spirit By Fuchsia Pickett

NO GIFT STANDS ALONE Why its important to identify your spiritual gifts and exercise them within the church | By Ron Phillips

10 REASONS FOR SPEAKING IN TONGUES Explaining the Holy Spirits most misunderstood gift | By Bill Hamon

SENT BY THE SPIRIT Ten keys to sharing your faith with supernatural power By Chris Overstreet

SUPERNATURAL MYTH-BUSTERS Debunking the 10 most common myths about living super naturally in the Spirit By Michele Perry

WHEN THE DOVE FLIES:Perry Stone reveals the

mystery behind the dove and

the Holy Spirit

C O N T E N T S

I S T O C K P H O T O / J A C K Q Charisma (ISSN #0895-156X) is published monthly by Strang Media Group, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, FL 32746. Nothing that appears in Charisma may be reprinted without permission.

COLUMNS

YOARS TRULYGod is calling the church back to the basicsincluding a true understanding of the Holy Spirit | By Marcus Yoars

THE STRANG REPORTWhy we must do more than just remember Pentecost By Steve Strang

STRAIGHT TALKThe anointing of the Holy Spirit is meant for youbut you have to be ready for it | By Joyce Meyer

WHAT THE SPIRIT IS SAYINGGod is giving His people an opportunity to multiply as never before | By T.D. Jakes

FIRE IN MY BONESLessons we can learn from Pope Francis about walking in the Holy Spirits power By J. Lee Grady

Click to contact Charisma

SPEAKING TRUTH:Robert Morris explains the truth about the baptism in the Holy Spirit that most believers dont know

C O N T E N T S

I S T O C K P H O T O / K H Z ; P R O X Y M I N D E R ; I R O C H K A _ T

S E A N R O B E R T S

Yoars Truly BY MARCUS YOARS

M rs. Sunday. Mr. Newman. Mrs. Kuhn. Mr. Ewing. These were some of the

outstanding teachers who shaped my life. Their words and actions in the classroom planted seeds that still bear fruit today. I doubt theyll ever know how much of an imprint they left on me.

You likely have similar teachers to creditthose who had a pro-found impact in steering your life in a certain direction. Even if wed rather forget our school years, theres usually a teacher or two well always remember because of what they said or did

to help guide us along.Teachers hold one of the most

important positions on the planet. They guide, counsel, explain, show, encourage, reprove, help, correct, empower the list goes on. Though other factors cer-tainly play a role, students tend to succeed or fail based upon how good their teacher is. Thats why every summer, long before the first bell rings to usher in a new school year, parents across the nation jockey to get their kids in with the best teachers possible. They know the lifelong effect a great teacheror a lousy

onecan have on their child.So what if you had the chance

to receive one-on-one tutoring from the greatest teacher on the planet? Better yet, what if you could call on that teacher anytime, anywhere, with any question?

Jesus was the greatest teacher to ever walk the earth. Yet He said that after He left, the Father would send another Helper, that He may abide with you forever (John 14:16). Later, Jesus explained that when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth (16:13). To top it off, this Counselor would help us do even

BACK TO SCHOOL: HOLY SPIRIT 101God is calling the church back to the basics of our faithincluding a true understanding of His Spirit

greater works than what Jesus did (14:12). Thats some teacher!

If youre a believer, youve already been given the awesome gift of the Holy Spirit, the Teacher like no other. Yet tragically a huge segment of the church never raises their hand to ask Him a question. Some sit in the classroom of life doubting if Hes relevant enough today or even necessary anymore, while others would prefer to act as if He didnt exist.

Because youre reading this magazine, I doubt youre in any of those classes. But its possible to look like a tongue-talking char-ismatic and still not truly know the Holy Spirit. Thats because not only is the Holy Spirit easily the most misunderstood Person of the Trinity, people continue to have many foundational miscon-ceptions about Him. Here are four

fundamental lessons that many Christians either missed or need to re-learn:

1) He is not an it. An it doesnt whisper, sing, speak, cry, convict, dance, hover, burn, wash,

free, anoint, empower, quicken, reveal, teach, lead, supply, strengthen, enable, move, com-fort and a million other things the Holy Spirit does. Like the Father and the Son, Gods Spirit is a person. As long as we see Him

as an it, well fail to know Him as He desires.

2) He always glorifies Jesus. This is where many Spirit-filled believers get derailed, because often the unspoken rule is that the goofier we act, the more the Holy Spirit must be moving in us. Want a full-proof test to know if some-thing is truly of the Spirit? Ask if Jesus is being glorified. The Holy Spirit never stops pointing toward Christ. His No. 1 delight, passion and purpose is to bring Jesus glory. Just as the Father glorified Jesus in heaven, the Spirit glo-rifies Jesus now on earth (John 16:14-15).

3) He doesnt show up in part. When my sons, who are 7 and 3, encounter God, theyre not expe-riencing a kid-sized portion of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit who works in me works in them.

What if you had the chance to be

tutored by the greatest teacher

on the planet?

John 3:34 is clear that God gives the Spirit without measure (NASB). Lets stop acting like He comes in varying degrees.

4) He wants to help you. The word for Holy Spirit in John 14-16 (parakletos) means Comforter or Counselor. He was sent to

lead you to truth, to guide you on your journey. He wants you to suc-ceed by Gods standards. Why not ask Him for help?

This issue of Charisma is entirely dedicated to exploring the many facets of the Holy SpiritHis character, baptism, fruit, gifts, etc.

We can only scratch the surface with these teachings, but I hope youll use them as a launching pad for the Holy Spirit to teach you more about Himself as only the great Teacher can do.

MARCUS YOARS is the editor of Charisma. Check out his blog at marcusyoars.com or connect with him via Twitter @marcusyoars or facebook.com/marcusyoars.

T I M K E L L Y

The Strang Report BY STEVE STRANG

This issue on the Holy Spirit embodies what Charisma is all about. Sure, we cover

many things about the church, Christianity and the culture. But at our core, its all about the Spirit.

Sadly, many Spirit-filled churches, in an effort to be seeker sensitive, no longer invite people to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Thats why it was refreshing when I attended a recent Perry Stone conference in Deland, Fla., to hear him minister the baptism in the Holy Spirit to more than 100 people. Perry says he does this in at least one service during his

prophetic conferences and, almost without exception, 100 to 300 will receive itwith most of the people coming from non-charismatic churches!

God says Hell pour out His Spirit on all flesh, Perry told me. People are ready to receive. All they need is an atmosphere to receive.

Perry believes too many pas-tors fear the unction of the Holy Spirit will turn off people in the church, yet just the opposite is true: People are hungry for Gods power. Its as if the pastors dont trust Him to do His work, Perry

said, or even that He knows what Hes doing.

Jack Hayford makes a similar point when speaking of the seeker-sensitive movement, where the emphasis is on making sure cor-porate worship services appeal to visitors. If youre looking for church growth, Hayford says, look no further than the day of Pente-cost, when 3,000 were added to the church at one time!

If you watched the powerful TV miniseries The Bible (which we wrote about in our March issue), you were likely as amazed as I was at how powerfully it portrayed

THE REAL POWER BEHIND PENTECOSTWhy we must do more than just remember the day of Pentecost

the day of Pentecost. Though the series producers took some lit-erary license (there was wind but no tongues of fire), it stuck close to the biblical account, and the power and anointing of a modern Pentecostal service was there. It certainly didnt seem like just acting!

This was the first time Id seen an attempt to portray Pen-tecost on television or film. That doesnt surprise me, however, since the church in general pays little respect to Pentecost today. Though Pentecostals remain the largest segment of the evangelical church, weve neglected many of the fundamental aspects of being Spirit-filled that began with Pen-tecost. Because of this, a handful of leaders and organizations in recent years have urged churches around the world to set aside

Pentecost Sunday to highlight the Holy Spirit.

This issue intentionally coin-cides with Pentecost Sunday, which this year falls on May 19. And as youll see, we do more than just highlight the Holy Spiritwe

tackle everything from receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, to who the Holy Spirit is, to being empowered to be witnesses ... and more. In our nearly 38 years, weve never done a more extensive issue

about the Holy Spirit.Youll especially want to read an

excerpt weve included from Per-rys new book, The Code of the Holy Spirit. Jentezen Franklin, Perrys longtime friend, says this may be Perrys most important book ever. (Franklin says all his children received the baptism in the Holy Spirit under Perrys ministry.)

Its an issue you can share with friends who have questions or are seeking the Holy Spirit. Get the dig-ital version at charismadigital.com and share it through social media. Were posting articles, teach-ings and other resources about the Holy Spirit daily on our social media outlets, including my public Facebook page (facebook.com/stephenestrang). Were also partnering with Billy Wilsons Empowered21 movement to get the word out about Pentecost

Many pastors fear

the unction of the

Holy Spirit will turn

off people, yet the

opposite is true.

Sunday. Go to charismamag.com or get our Charisma News app (charismamobile.com) to learn moreincluding how you can download an Empowered21 course on the Holy Spirit for free.

It doesnt take long for mis-sionaries in rough areas of the world to discover that they cant

minister effectively without the Holy Spirits power. This includes those from denominations that downplay or even oppose the work of the Spirit. Thats because those missionaries cant con-front the powers of darkness without the infilling and power of the Holy Spirit.

We think of America as a Christian nation, yet the powers of darkness are such in our own land that like those missionaries, we can confront them only with the power and infilling of the pre-cious Holy Spirit. We need another Pentecost today!

STEVE STRANG is the founder and publisher of Charisma. Follow him on Twitter at @sstrang or Facebook (stephenestrang).

the Holy Things33

I S T O C K P H O T O / D R P A S

Spirit Does

Though many Christians overlook

the importance of the Holy Spirit,

Scripture is clear about not only His

vital role, but also His divine actions.

Here are 33 of the countless things the

Spirit of God continues to do today.

I S T O C K P H O T O / L I N C O L N R O G E R S ; A M P H O T O R A ; F R A N C K R E P O R T E R

1 He helps us (Rom. 8:26)

2 He guides us (John 16:13)

3 He teaches us (John 14:26)

4 He speaks (Rev. 2:7)

5 He reveals (1 Cor. 2:10)

6 He instructs (Acts 8:29)

7 He testifies of Jesus (John 15:26)

8 He comforts us (Acts 9:31)

9 He calls us (Acts 13:2)

10 He fills us (Acts 4:31)

11 He strengthens us (Eph. 3:16)

12 He prays for us (Rom. 8:26)

13 He prophesies through us

(2 Pet. 1:21)

14 He bears witness to the truth

(Rom. 9:1)

15 He brings joy (1 Thess. 1:6)

16 He brings freedom (2 Cor. 3:17)

17 He helps us to obey (1 Pet. 1:22)

18 He calls for Jesus return (Rev. 22:17)

19 He transforms us (2 Cor. 3:18)

20 He lives in us (1 Cor. 3:16)

21 He frees us (Rom. 8:2)

22 He renews us (Titus 3:5)

23 He produces fruit in us (Gal. 5:22-23)

24 He gives gifts (1 Cor. 12:8-10)

25 He leads us (Rom. 8:14)

26 He convicts (John 16:8)

27 He sanctifies us (2 Thess. 2:13)

28 He empowers us (Acts 1:8)

29 He unites us (Eph. 4:3-4)

30 He seals us (Eph. 1:13)

31 He gives us access to the Father

(Eph. 2:18)

32 He enables us to wait (Gal. 5:5)

33 He casts out demons (Matt. 12:28)

I S T O C K P H O T O / S M A L L _ F R O G

Knowing the Trinitys

third Person starts with

recognizing Him as just

thata Person who wants

to be intimately known

B Y C L I V E C A L V E R

Who Is This HoIy Spirit?

As a relatively young

Christian, I began to

wonder why so many

other Christians seemed

to know more of the indwelling love

of Jesus than I did. Why did their

lives display the fruits of His grace

and demonstrate His power at work

within them in ways that seemed

sorely lacking in my life?

I became deeply troubled at the

poverty of my spiritual walk with

God. So much of what I knew was

mere information about God without

much of a direct relationship with

Him. My heart longed to have an

experience like that described by

Scottish philosopher Thomas Car-

lyle, who spoke of what it meant to

know God other than by hearsay.

It was also hard for me to fathom how some Christians

could be so different from others. Some overflowed with

love and compassion for their neighbors, while others

cloistered themselves away from the world, apparently

fearful of contamination. Some seemed to exude a deep

sense of inner joy, but others looked as if they had just

received a death sentence rather than the blessing of

eternal life. Some were on fire with expectancy that

God would do great things in their lives; others seemed

content to make survival their primary objective.

In all of this, the biggest struggle I faced as a young

Christian was determining what I believed about the

Person and work of the Holy Spirit. I began to encounter

Christians for whom this Person was a vibrant reality

in their livesa Person to know and to love, not some

vague, generic force.

Watch Reinhard Bonnke use Acts 2 to refute bad teachings about the Holy Spirit

I eventually came to see that all my concerns about my faith and the faith of others had to do with answering this central question about the Person of the Holy Spirit.

Discovering the SpiritIf we want to discover who the Holy Spirit really is,

then individual human experience is not the right place to start. When God intended to reveal His nature, will and identity to humankind, He determined to do so supremely in His Son. When He wanted to record His activities with the inhabitants of this planet, He chose to do so in a divinely inspired Book. And so, if we want to know what the Spirit of God is like and how He oper-ates within the lives of the people of God, then it is to the pages of the Bible that we must first turn.

Throughout the pages of the Bible, it is assumed that the Holy Spirit is no more and no less than God Himself. He is called the Spirit of the Lord (1 Kin. 18:12, NIV) and the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7). In Luke 11:13, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the gift of the Father. Paul announced that the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). When Peter rebuked Ananias for attempted deception, he boldly announced, You have lied to the Holy Spirit ... You have not lied just to human beings but to God (Acts 5:3-4). On the occasion that Jesus spoke about the unforgivable sin, He described it as blas-pheming, which means speaking against or rejecting not the Father or even Jesus Himself but rather the

Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:31-32).It is because the Holy Spirit is God that Scripture

describes Him as possessing all the essential charac-teristics that are the sole privilege of God Himself. He is:

Holy. God cannot deny His own character; there-fore, in the same way that God is completely pure and totally unblemished, so must be the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).

Eternal. If God were limited by time and space, He could not, by definition, be God. The Creator can neither be limited by His creation, nor can He die or face extinction. To be God, He must always have been God and must inhabit eternity. When Scrip-ture says that the Holy Spirit is eternal (always was and always will be), then it is affirming that He is God (Heb. 9:14).

Omnipotent. The Holy Spirit is all-powerful, an attribute that is the sole province of God Himself (Luke 1:35-37).

Omnipresent. The Holy Spirit exists everywhere simultaneously. There is no place in heaven, on earth or anywhere else in the universe that is not inhabited by the Holy Spirit (Ps. 139:7).

Omniscient. The Holy Spirit knows everything there is to know (1 Cor. 2:10-11).

These supreme qualities of the Holy Spirit are neatly summarized in Isaiahs prophecy of the anticipated Mes-siah: The Spirit of the Lord will rest on himthe Spirit

of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord (Is. 11:2).

God is personal. He neither rules nor communicates by remote control, and He possesses personality. So it is with the Holy Spirit. It would be wrong to view this third

Person of the Trinity as an indefinably nebulous force. He is not an it! To reinforce this point, the apostle John referred to the Holy Spirit by using a masculine pronoun (ekeinos, He) with a neutral noun (pneuma, Spirit). This may seem like bad grammar to us, but it is superb theology. He does this to show that the Holy Spirit is a He, not an it. (See John 14:26; 15:26; 16:8-14.)

The Holy Spirit is the breath or wind of God (Is.

40:7). In this sense, it might be easy to picture the Holy Spirit as something broad and vague. Yet this phrase in Scripture often brings into grammatical play a definite article; instead of a breath or a wind, He is called the Spirit or the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirits personhood is also affirmed in that He can be grieved, He comes upon individuals at par-ticular times, He is the means by which God fills His people, and He can even be withdrawn from people under exceptional circumstances (Eph. 4:30; Judg. 14:6; 2 Kin. 2:9; Ex. 35:31; Mic. 3:8; Ps. 51:11).

The Holy Spirit is no mere arm or leg of God. He is a Person in His own right and exists as part of the Godhead. He is not remote but actually dwells in Gods people and is therefore personal to each one of us.

The Personality of the Holy SpiritLet us take this one step further. The vivid imagina-

tion of George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, conceived of a vast force that could empower us and be used for either good or evil. This force was personal, in that it was available for use by the human personality, but it lacked personhood in itself.

That is precisely how the Holy Spirit differs. He is not here for us to use, but we are here for Him to use to bring glory to Jesus through our lives. Furthermore, He possesses a unique personality. The three basic char-acteristics of personality are the capacities for feeling,

The Spirit is no mere arm or leg of God.

Hes a Person in His own right and exists

as part of the Godhead.

Clive Calver

knowing and doingand you may be surprised to learn that the Holy Spirit is actively engaged in all three! Scrip-ture affirms that:

He feels (Eph. 4:30). He knows (John 14:26). He does things (John 16:8-11).

While the Holy Spirit is like us in that He has a per-sonality, He is also unlike us in that He is holy. The Greek

word used to describe this reality is hagios, the root meaning of which is different. In this sense, the Holy Spirit can never be as we are, and yet by the grace and mercy of God, the Holy Spirit dwells in unclean human beings. The very title Holy Spirit indicates this Spirit is different from us because He is, in fact, divine.

In the book of Revelation, the apostle John begins his letter to the seven churches in an unusual way, with a greeting that places God the Father first, God the Spirit second and God the Son third (Rev. 1:4-5). While this

order might seem unusual to us, the phraseology gives the standard implication that these three are inextri-cably intertwined and always co-equal.

Furthermore, Jesus revealed this supreme mystery of the Christian faith when He declared the name in which His followers should be baptized. The word used by Jesus for name is singular, indicating there is only one God, but this name is also tri-personal because each one of us is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).

God in Action

Because most Christians find it difficult to visualize and personalize the Holy Spirit, they often overlook the amount of work in which the Holy Spirit is engaged. He is very busy indeed! The Holy Spirit definitely understands the concept of multitasking, for while He is the corpo-rate Holy Spirit of the universal church, He is also the One who dwells in the life of every individual believer (1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 8:9-11).

The Holy Spirit is always busy. He works within us to bring about the conviction of sin, the recognition of the need for righteousness and an awareness of impending judgment long before we come to the point of conver-sion and surrender our life to Jesus Christ (John 16:8). We may not have realized it, but quietly and invisibly the Holy Spirit was already at work in our lives, preparing us to be confronted with the reality of Jesus Christ.

Because most Christians find it difficult

to visualize and personalize the Holy

Spirit, they often overlook the amount of

work in which the Holy Spirit is engaged.

He is very busy indeed!

In the New Testament accounts of the conversions of Zacchaeus, Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch to whom Philip witnessed of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit was actively at work preparing the ground for their moments of truth. In the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, the Holy Spirit even called Philip away from a revival and into the desert to explain the Scriptures to the eunuch at just the right time.

When we come to Christ, the Holy Spirit makes His home in our lives. He is the giver of new life, and He becomes the seal and evidence of our salvation (John 3:5; 2 Cor. 1:22; Titus 3:5; Rom. 8:9-11). It is the Holy Spirit who then takes on the raw material of a new con-verts heart and begins the often lengthy process of transforming it into the image of the Lord Jesus.

This whole idea of an indwelling Holy Spirit who

inhabits the life of every believer introduced to the world a concept unknown in other major religions. For the first time, God was not just out there somewhere, but He could be intimately known, loved and served. Christianity offers not a religion about God but rather a relationship with Him. This is what creates that vibrant, loving, compassionate and fruit-bearing existence in the life of all believers. 3

CLIVE CALVER is senior pastor of Walnut Hill Community

Church, a network of five charismatic evangelical churches

serving more than 3,500 people in western Connecticut.

He previously served as president of World Relief, general

director of the Evangelical Alliance of the United Kingdom,

program director of Billy Grahams Mission England and

national director of Youth for Christ in Britain.

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HOLY SPIRIT

O F T H E D O V E A N D T H E

T H EB Y P E R R Y S T O N E

WHY DID GOD CHOOSE TO

REPRESENT HIS SPIRIT WITH

A DOVE? THE ANSWER

AND ITS MULTILAYERED

APPLICATIONSCAN UNLOCK

ONE OF THE DEEP MYSTERIES

OF OUR DIVINE HELPER.

CODE

I S T O C K P H O T O / J A C K Q

In biblical theology, we often consider a concept known as the law of first mention. It teaches that when a person, animal, color, metal or number is first men-tioned in Scripture, it often sets the theme of that

particular item throughout Scripture.This is why the serpent that appeared in Genesis 3 as

the tempter of Eve became the symbol of Satan or sin throughout the Bibleeven in the Apocalypse, where the seven-headed dragon that gets hurled down is also referred to as a seven-headed serpent (Rev. 12:3-9). Its why the symbol of a lamb, based on the Passover nar-rative in Exodus 12, in the New Testament becomes the symbol of Christ, who is identified as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) and referred to as such 26 out of 27 times in the book of Revelation.

Another significant symbol is the dove, the gentle creature that represents the Holy Spirit. By applying the law of first mention, we can unlock many revelations about the Holy Spirit and His ministry to us who belong to Christ.

The First AppearanceIn the law of first mention, the dove is one of the

two birds mentioned in the story of Noahs flood, which begins in Genesis 6. More than likely youre familiar with Moses account of righteous Noah and his three sons who built a floating zoo and rode out a universal deluge.

As the waters began to slowly recede, Noah sent two birds out of the ark: a raven and a dove.

Not only are these two birds totally opposite in nature, color and eating habits, but also there is pro-phetic insight encoded within the story.

First, the differences. Noah sent a raven from the window in the ark, and the raven flew back and forth until the waters were dried up, never to be seen again.

He later sent a dove, but the dove returned to the ark after finding no place to rest its feet (Gen. 8:7-9). Whats worth noting here is that a raven will eat carrion (the bodies of animals killed by other animals), but a dove will not. It has been said ravens will often follow packs of wolves to gain access to the meat the wolves tear apart. But when the dove went forth from the ark, it returned because doves will not rest on a carcass or eat decaying flesh, as 99 percent of their diet is seeds.

Eventually the dove brought an olive leaf back to the

By applying the law of first mention, we

can unlock many revelations about the

Holy Spirit and His ministry to us who

belong to Christ.

ark (v. 11). This is unique because the olive became a sacred fruit for the priestly ministry. Crushed olives produced olive oil, and the first pressing of oil was used in the temple menorah. Olive oil was also used in the ceremonial anointing of kings, priests and prophets (Ex. 30:25, 31). The olive leaf in the mouth of the dove speaks to us that out of the crises and storms of life, the Holy Spirit will bring us an olive branch, todays universal symbol of peace, in the midst of our conflict.

Jesus and the Dove

At age 30, Christ was baptized at the Jordan River by his cousin, John. We read: When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him (Matt. 3:16). This account of the Holy Spirit descending as a dove upon Jesus was so important that it is men-tioned in all four Gospels (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32).

I believe one of the reasons the Holy Spirit assumed the form of a dove is because a dove has characteristics similar to those of the Holy Spirit. Doves are commonly white in color, and white in the Scripture represents purity or righteousness (Rev. 19:8). A dove expresses its affection by stroking its young and cooing in a soft tone. Spiritually, the Holy Spirit causes believers to be caring and loving for one another and even for those

who are lost. The dove is a gentle creature and never retaliates against its enemies, while believers are told to turn the other cheek, to pray for our enemies and those who spitefully use us (Matt. 5:39-44) and to never retaliate. When the young of a dove are attacked, the dove will not attack but instead will cry out in distress. This concept is also seen in the words of Romans 8, as Paul wrote that when a believer does not know how to

pray, the Holy Spirit will make intercession for her with groanings (vv. 26-28).

The parallels between a dove and the Holy Spirit continue when we understand that a dove can easily be spooked by strange noises. It is said that a dove will return to the same spot a couple of times when hearing a strange noise but will not return a third time to the same location. Similarly, God said to Noah, My Spirit shall not strive with man forever (Gen. 6:3). The Holy Spirit can be vexed, grieved and even blasphemed (Eph.

The dove is a gentle creature and never

retaliates against its enemies, while

believers are told to turn the other

cheek, to pray for our enemies and those

who spitefully use us.

4:30; Mark 3:29). When the Holy Spirit is purposely offended, He can eventually depart from a person, as He did with King Saul (1 Sam. 16:14).

It is also interesting to note that when most birds hover in the air, their wing tips point toward the back, in

the direction of their tail feathers. On a dove, however, the wing tips point toward the head. This is unique when we consider how the anointing oil was poured upon the heads of the kings and priests in Israel. The oil was poured from one ear, across the front of the head, to the other ear. It was poured in the form of a Hebrew letter kuf, whose shape is similar to a doves wings when it is hovering and its wings are opened. Just as the oil descended upon the heads of priests, the Holy Spirit manifested as a dove at Christs baptism and descended upon His head.

Years ago, the great evangelist Leonard Ravenhill noted that there are nine main feathers on the left and right wings of the dove. He pointed out that there are

also nine gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:7-10) and nine fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). There are also five main tail feathers on a dove, which can represent the fivefold ministry gifts of apostles, prophets, pas-tors, evangelists and teachers (Eph. 4:11). The tail feathers of a dove are like the rudder of a shipthey assist in balance and direction in flight, just as the fivefold ministry gifts in the church bring balance to the body of Christ.

A Code in the CoveringReturning to the story of Noah, the ark was prepared

with a special upper window. This window is mentioned twice in the flood narrativeonce before and once after, when the waters were settlingand two different Hebrew words are used and translated window.

Before the flood, the window is called tsohar, a word meaning light or illumination. This was a literal window in the ark where light could stream in from the outside world and allow Noah to see out. This window was not glass but would have been an opening on the top level of the ark, most likely protected by wooden coverings.

After the flood, Noah opened the same window. How-ever, the Hebrew word used in this instance is challown, which refers to the covering over the window rather than the window itself. The challown would have been made of wood and been designed to keep the rain out. When Noah opened the window, the light and illumination

Just as the oil descended upon the

heads of priests, the Holy Spirit

manifested as a dove at Christs baptism

and descended upon His head.

poured into a dim ark, and the dove had an opening to flow in and out.

Studying this many years ago, I realized the ark was a picture of safety and security in a time of distress and trouble. This man-made window not only kept the rain from getting in, but it also prevented or withheld the dove from being free to get out and fly.

I cant help but compare this to some churches that place man-made barriers inside the congregation to protect the people but which often lead to man-made control, such as when the rain of the Holy Spirit is falling in locations other than their church and the leadership closes the window to prevent anyone from seeing or experiencing these outpourings. These barriers prevent the Dove, the Holy Spirit, from having free access to the face of the waters where new life will soon burst in the light of the Son of God.

There are so many spiritual hindrances, including the traditions of men, that can stop the flow of the Spirit. We must remove denominational coverings that have separated the outpouring on the outside from the people on the inside. Spiritual veils must melt from the eyes of our understanding, and this is accomplished through deeper illumination and understanding of the Word. According to Paul, when these spiritual veils are removed, then the Spirit is free to work, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor. 3:17).

I S T O C K P H O T O / L O P U R I C E

THE END-TIME FLOODSThree floods will unleash

the fullness of time

Rain and water were central features in the

flood story of Noah, and the outpouring of the Holy

Spirit is compared to rain being poured out (Joel

2:28-29). But did you know three types of floods

will mark the end times, according to Scripture?

The future Antichrist will arise when the trans-

gressors have reached their fullness (Dan. 8:23).

The end shall be with a flood, and terrible wars

will be a sign of the time of the end (Dan. 9:26).

A flood of spiritual knowledge of Gods glory will

cover the earth as the waters cover the sea

(Hab. 2:14).

Time to Free the DoveYoull remember that in the New Testament, men

served as money-changers at the temple. This is because the Roman government was in charge of the currency, but only Hebrew coins were permissible to pay the temple taxthus the need for money-changers who set up tables in the court of the Gentiles and exchanged the Roman coins for local coins. Those attending wor-ship from other nations often brought with them coins affixed with the faces of men, gods or animals, which also were exchanged before entering the temple. These exchanges provided oil, salt, wine and animals for the various sacrificesall purchasable for a price.

Money-changing had become a very profitable busi-ness, as the exchange rates went as high as 300 percent. And on the particular day Christ entered the temple, He would have first passed by the court of the Gentiles, where the tables of the money-changers were set. While passing by, Christ would also have observed doves being kept and sold in the area. According to Leviticus 12:5-6, the doves were a special offering after a woman gave birth to a child, and the offering was for purification.

At the moment He saw all this activity, Christ set His heart on purifying the temple compound, and He began overturning the tables of the money-changers and those who sold doves: Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the

money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves (Matt. 21:12-13).

We can assume that when the fragile wooden cages of the doves struck the floor, they broke, and suddenly the doves were loosed and began to fly. Imagine those freed white birds seen by casual observers from any high hill, such as the Mount of Olives. In my mind, I see many individuals who needed healing or a miracle watching the commotion from afar. As they came to the temple to seeor perhaps were carried there by othersnotice what occurred next: Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them (v. 14).

When the house of God is cleansed from selfish, greedy and carnal leaders and the church no longer sits in its seat and attempts to control the movement of the Dove, releasing Him instead within the body of Christ for ministry, then we see sinners converted, the depressed released, the sick cured and the people rejoice.

An Anointing of the MouthOut of the flood waters, the dove returned to the ark

with an olive leaf in its mouth. Of the hundreds of pos-sible tree leaves to reappear after the earth was covered with water, the dove found the leaf of a tree created by God to produce olives. When crushed, the olives from the olive trees produce thick yellow oil, which weve noted

was used to anoint the national and spiritual leaders of Israel. This is the leaf that came back in the mouth of the dove.

The anointing of the Holy Spirit is not a cloud, a fire or even a dove, but rather a divine presence whose authority is released through the mouththrough preaching, teaching, singing and prophetic utterances flowing like oil from the lips of those upon whom the Spirit has rested.

The prophet Zechariah described two olive trees on the left and right side of the menorah whose olive branches are like pipes pouring out golden oil. They are identified as the two anointed ones standing by the Lord (Zech. 4:11-14).

Thus, the dove represents the Holy Spirit and the olive leaf the anointing that flows through the spoken word He gives. He is still like unto a dove! 3

PERRY STONE is the best-selling author of numerous

books, including How to Interpret Dreams and Visions and The Code of the Holy Spirit, from which this article is adapted. He directs one of Americas fastest-growing

ministries, the Voice of Evangelism, and lives in Cleveland,

Tenn., with his wife, Pam, and their two children.

When a rabbi in Jerusalem told

Perry Stone that, according to

Jewish tradition, speaking in

tongues was

something the

high priest did in

the holy of holies,

Stone set out to

discover lesser-

known details

and insights con-

cerning the Holy

Spirit. The result

of that journey

is his latest rev-

elation-packed book, The Code of

the Holy Spirit, available online or

in bookstores across the nation.

A PARALLEL CREATIONSurprising dovetails between creation and the flood

Many end-time signs are encoded in the days of Noah, just as Christ reminded His followers: As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man (Luke 17:26). Often overlooked, however, are the parallels between the original creation account and the new creation established after the flood. Take note of these similarities and see that the flood was actually a re-creation of Gods original plan.

During the first act of creation, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2, KJV). At the re-creation after the flood, The ark went upon the face of the waters (Gen. 7:18).

In Eden, God blessed the first couple and com-manded them to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth (Gen. 1:28). After the flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply,

and fill the earth (Gen. 9:1, NKJV).In the original creation act, God made the beast of

the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind (Gen. 1:25). In the Noah account, we read God instructing him, Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing (Gen. 8:17).

Gods plan for mankind was for him to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing (Gen 1:26).

God gave a similar promise to Noah after the flood: The fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea (Gen. 9:2).

I S T O C K P H O T O / J G R O U P

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I S T O C K P H O T O / K H Z ; P R O X Y M I N D E R ; I R O C H K A _ T

RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRITTHE TRUTH

ABOUT THE BAPTISM

IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

THAT MOST BELIEVERS

DONT KNOW

B Y R O B E R T M O R R I S

Many people think Jesus final words of instruction to His disciples are found in the final two verses of

the book of Matthew, when He said, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations ... teaching them to observe all things that I have com-manded you (Matt. 28:19-20).

However, these words were not the last Jesus spoke to His disci-ples. His final word of instruction to His followers was not go. It was wait.

We find this command recorded in the final chapter of Luke and again in Acts 1: And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, which, He said, you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now (Acts 1:4-5, emphasis added).

Jesus final instruction was to wait. Wait for what? The promise. What promise? The baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told His disciples to wait before they go change the world. He knew if they went without the

empowerment of the Holy Spirit, nothing would happen. He was telling them, Dont try to do anything Ive instructed and called you to do until youve received this additional baptism. Youll only be striving in your own natural ability, and nothing of lasting spiritual value will be accomplished. Wait! Wait for what I promised youa Helper.

If youve been born again, the Holy Spirit baptized you into Jesus at the moment you were saved. But let

Watch as Robert Morris explains the difference between the Holy Spirit baptizing us in Jesus and Jesus baptizing us in the Holy Spirit

me ask you: Have you asked Jesus to baptize you in the Holy Spirit? If not, in whose power are you attempting to live the Christian life?

The Three BaptismsMany Christians are unfamiliar with the baptism in

the Holy Spirit. In fact, most believers only know about water baptism. We can easily deal with this baptism because the Bible depicts it clearlytake John the Baptists activity in the Jordan River, for example. If you attend a church that practices water baptism, you see it with your own eyes all the time.

Still, the Bible mentions two baptisms you cant see with your physical eyes; you can only see the after-effects of them in a persons life. Lets explore all three to understand the differences.

1) Baptism of the Holy Spirit. You probably already know about this baptism, but you might know it by a different name: salvation. First Cor-inthians 12:13 says, For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one bodywhether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.

Who is doing the baptizing in this verse? The Holy Spirit. When you and I experienced salvation, we were both baptized into the same bodythe body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the agent who did the baptizing. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but its not the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

2) Water baptism. If we are obedient to the commands of Scripture, we choose to experience a second baptism, this one in water. This type of baptism is what Jesus had in mind when He said, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). This baptism symbolizes our new life in Christ.

3) Baptism in the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist refers to Jesus, saying, I indeed bap-tize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Johns statement here is one of just a handful of statements or accounts present in all four Gospelsyou can find the other three versions of this verse in Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16 and John 1:33. Youll also find accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus in all four Gospels, as these events are obviously central to the gospel story and explain vital truths believers need to understand. I believe its significant that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is in all four as well.

Scripture clearly shows us Jesus is the one who performs this baptism, immersing us in the Holy Spirit. Yet because this baptism has been harmfully mis-represented, countless Christians avoid it. How could Jesus baptizing us in the Holy Spirit possibly be a bad

thing, thoughespecially when its so plainly present in the Bible?

Peters Pentecost SermonThis promise of the baptism in the Holy Spirit came

powerfully to the disciples in Acts 2. Peter delivers a sermon immediately after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. In response to Peters preaching, a number of his Jewish listeners fall under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:37 tells us, Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

What shall we do? Thats a pretty broad question. How does Peter respond?

Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your chil-dren, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call (vv. 38-39).

Notice that in the active verbs in these verses, Peter outlines three baptisms. He says:

1) Repent. This is the vital primary step in the bap-tism of salvation.

2) Be baptized. Peter urges his listeners to follow Jesus example by submitting themselves to water baptism.

3) Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the third baptism. As Peter indicates here, the Holy Spirit will not force Himself upon anyone. He must be received.

From here on out, the third baptism continually fol-lows the first two as an essential, critical part of the Christian life.

Great Joy in SamariaFor example, in Acts 8 we find the evangelist Philip

preaching and teaching in Samaria. After a revival breaks out, many people are healed, delivered from demonic oppression and saved. Then, verse 12 tells us, But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.

Two of the three baptisms are found in this verse. They believed means the people received the baptism of salvation. Then they were baptized in waterthats two. What about the third baptismimmersion in the Holy Spirit? Lets keep reading:

Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus (vv. 14-16).

Notice what this passage doesnt say. It doesnt tell

G A T E W A Y C H U R C H

us that when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John, who gave these new believers the right hand of Christian fellowship because they had everything they needed.

In the early years of my Chris-tian walk, this is precisely what I was taught. I was told that once I was saved and water-baptized, I had everything I needed

to live the Christian life. Of course now I know that without receiving the Holy

Spirit, I was living a powerless and defeated life of min-imal effectiveness in Gods kingdom.

Peter and John didnt dare do that kind of disservice to the new believers of Samaria. They were happy these folks had received the first two baptisms. But the first

thing the disciples asked was whether or not the new believers had received the third one.

When the answer came back no, the apostles imme-diately addressed the situation: They laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit (v. 17).

Only then were these new Christians fully equipped to be all God called them to be.

Ive heard people argue that the baptism in the Holy Spirit only occurred on the day of Pentecost, yet these events in Samaria occurred months or even years after those of Acts 2and this isnt the last time we see people experiencing three baptisms in the Scriptures, either.

The Pattern Continues in EphesusMany years after the Pentecost outpouring, we hear

about the apostle Pauls ministry in Ephesus, recorded in Acts 19: And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? So they said to him, We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit (vv. 1-2, emphasis added).

Interestingly, the people Paul encountered were disciples who already believed, meaning they were followers of Jesus Christ. Now notice Pauls question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Paul doesnt seem to have any doubt in his mind that

Without receiving the Holy Spirit, I was

living a powerless, defeated life of

minimal effectiveness.

Robert Morris

someone can come to saving faith in Jesus Christ yet not receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. In other words, Paul knows that a person can be baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ (salvation) yet not be baptized by Jesus into the Holy Spirit.

By the way, I love the response of the believers: We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. Maybe these people went to the same church I attended as a boy! Someone told them enough about Jesus so they could be saved, but they hadnt even heard of the Holy Spirit.

Paul found this so puzzling that he decided to check and make sure these people were actually saved: And he said to them, Into what then were you baptized? (v. 3).

When they said, Into Johns baptism, Paul explained what they were missing: Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after Him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied (vv. 4-6).

Notice what happens when the Ephesian believers receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit: they spoke with tongues and prophesied. We see this pattern again and again throughout the book of Acts.

Three Witnesses in Heaven and on Earth

Now lets look at 1 John 5:7: There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. Of course, the Word is a reference to Jesus. But do you believe what this verse saysthat the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one? In other words, do you believe in the Trinity? I suspect you do.

This verse says that these three all bear witness in heaven. Of course, we arent in heaven right now. Were on earth. So who or what is bearing witness here on earth?

The next verse tells us: And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one (v. 8).

Here we have the three baptisms in reverse order! The three witnesses on earth are the Holy Spirit bap-tism, water baptism and salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Each one of these baptisms represents a distinct work of grace God wants to do in our hearts and lives. Salvation is a miraculous work of grace upon the heart. Water baptism is a work of grace in and upon the heart of man. And a believers baptism in the Holy Spirit releases within us the supernatural empowerment to do all that God calls us to do.

As weve seen, Jesus commanded His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the promised Holy Spirit came.

Why? Because in Jesus own words, they would be clothed in heavenly power (Luke 24:49), receive empow-erment to be witnesses for Him all over the world (Acts 1:8) and do even greater things than He had done (John 14:12).

Let me condense and summarize these three wit-nesses in a personal way. When I was saved, I became a new person. When I was baptized in water, the old person was cut off. And when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I received the power to walk in the new. That third baptism makes a huge difference! For years, I tried to live in victory, power and purity. However, I experienced little but failure and frustration.

After I received that third baptism, everything changed. The wonderful intimacy with the Holy Spirit that I began to enjoy became so precious to me that I would shrink back at the thought of doing anything that would grieve Him. Because Gods Word was now alive to me in new ways, I suddenly found Scriptures coming to mind at critical times of need or temptation. That sense of anointing I had frequently experienced in the pulpit quickly came to be a part of my daily lifeat the grocery store, on the golf course and, most important, inside the walls of my home.

What About You?

I want you to ask yourself an important question: Have I experienced only two baptisms?

Have you ever experienced an immersion in the Holy Spirit that brought supernatural power and help into your life? Jesus wants to baptize you with power from on high. Why in the world would anyone say Thanks, but no thanks to that?

Many Christians are living lives of defeat, frustra-tion and failure, as I did before I opened my heart and mind to this third baptism. Ive tried living without the Holy Spirits power, but I wouldnt go back to that way of living for all the money in the world. Its too wonderful to have God the Holy Spirit as a best friend.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you (Acts 1:8). Thats the biblical truth that can transform your life. Will you pray and receive the Holy Spirit today? 3

ROBERT MORRIS is founding senior pastor of Gateway

Church, a multi-campus, evangelistic, Spirit-empowered

church in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. He is featured

on the weekly television program The Blessed Life, broad-cast to approximately 90 million homes in the United States

and more than 200 countries around the world. He is the

best-selling author of 11 books including The Blessed Life, From Dream to Destiny and The God I Never Knew. Robert and his wife, Debbie, have been married 32 years and are

blessed with one daughter, two sons and three grandchil-

dren. You can follow Robert on Twitter @PsRobertMorris.

Straight Talk BY JOYCE MEYER

DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH POWER IN YOUR LIFE?The anointing of the Holy Spirit is meant for youbut you have to be ready for it

T heres nothing more valuable than Gods presence in our lives. That presence is often

equated with the Holy Spirits anointing, which increases our desire to completely and promptly obey God. Because the more we love, trust and obey God, the stronger His anointing will be in our lives.

Now, Gods love for you is per-fect, complete and unconditional. He couldnt love you any more than He does right now, and His love for you never changes. But we can grow in our love for Him.

And as this love grows, it causes more of the anointing of the Holy Spirit to work in and through us.

The Anointing Abides in You

Jesus Christ is the Anointed One, so when we are born again, His anointing abides in us. The word anoint means to smear or rub all over. Its wonderful to think about how in Christ, we are rubbed in and smeared all over with the Holy Spirit.

First John 2:27 says, But as for you, the anointing (the sacred appointment, the unction) which

you received from Him abides [permanently] in you (AMP). Notice how this Scripture says the anointing abides permanentlyit wont go away.

I also like that word unctionits like having Holy Spirit umph! or power to do what God is calling us to do. When we follow the anointing, we make wise decisions.

Pay the Price to Have

More Power

In one way, the anointing is a free gift from God that comes by His grace and mercy. But in

another way, there is a price to pay for it. While the anointing abides in us through our salvation, it cant come through our lives until we are broken before God. Thats when the oil of the Holy Spirit in us is poured out and can be a ben-efit to others.

So what is it that needs to be broken in us?

Things such as rebellion, stub-bornness, pride and a spirit thats independent from God are a few areas of disobedience that can keep the anointing from working through us.

You see, the vehicle that car-ries the anointing is the soulour mind, will and emotions. And when we are led by our natural, carnal or fleshly impulses, we arent being led by the Holy Spirit. We need to protect the anointing.

Its Not Just for Spiritual Things

We need to understand that we dare not do anything without Gods anointing and that theres an anointing for everything we need to do. Its not just for ministers or for spiritual areas of life.

The anointing is what enables and equips us to do what God asks us to do. You have an anointing to be a parent, spouse or business person. Whatever you are gifted to do, you have an anointing for it. Its

amazing when God uses someone to do something that they dont have the ability to do on their own. Thats the power of the anointing!

Jesus Is Our Example

Philippians 2:10 says, (At) the name of Jesus every knee ... (must) bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. He is God, and He is all-powerful! Yet He is also our example in humility. Verses 5-8 in this same chapter tell us we are to have the same attitude He demonstrated. Although He is one with God, Jesus stripped Him-self of all privileges and became a servant. He humbled Himself and was obedient even to death on the cross.

Power is connected to obedi-ence, which means the anointing is released when we get rid

The anointing

is what enables

and equips us

to do what God

asks us to do.

of our selfish, self-centered,

independent attitudes and humble

ourselves before God. As you

choose to be radically obedient

to God, you will have the same

power that raised Christ from the

dead working in youand youll

be amazed by the anointing of the

Holy Spirit in your life!

JOYCE MEYER is a New York Times best-selling author and founder of Joyce Meyer Ministries, Inc. She has authored

nearly 100 books, including her latest, Making Good Habits, Breaking Bad Habits. She hosts the Enjoying Everyday

Life radio and TV programs, which air on hundreds of stations worldwide. To read past columns in Charisma by Joyce,

visit charismamag.com/meyer.

Jesus explicitly described what happens when His disciples

fail to bear fruit. But in calling us to abide in Himlike branches

to a vineHe also revealed the keys to yielding the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

How to ProduceDivine Fruit

B Y F U C H S I A P I C K E T T

I S T O C K P H O T O / T I L O ; B R A S I L 2

It might surprise you to learn that receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit doesnt automatically result in the fruit of the Spirit being formed in our lives. One who has yielded his life more fully to the

Holy Spirit in receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit will obviously have the divine enabling to develop more fruit, much fruit and fruit that remains. But how much fruit we bear has to do with how closely we abide in Christ.

Because fruit-bearing is a direct result of abiding in Christ, this means there are deeply spiritual and fruitful Christians who have never displayed evidence of having received the Pentecostal experience of Holy Spirit bap-tism. On the other hand, it is sadly true that there are Spirit-baptized Christians who have not developed the fruit of the Spirit to any degree in their lives through con-sciously abiding in Christ. Both cases prove the reality that fruitfulness is not a result of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit but is a result of abiding in Christ.

It remains, then, that the key to the quantity and quality of fruitfulness in our lives is abiding in Christ, the Vine, in obedience to His commands. Lets explore this abiding principle together.

We Bear Fruit by AbidingPerry Brewster makes this observation regarding

fruit-bearing Christians in his book Pentecostal Doctrine: Our likeness to Christ is definitely not something applied from without, as a cosmetic transformation produced

by a formula of some religious make-up department. It is a genuine likeness produced by an intimate relation-ship with Him. Christs own analogy of the vine and the branches upholds this (John 15:1). The branches are not merely vinelike; they are a part of the vine. Likewise the fruit does not merely resemble grapes, but possesses their inherent structure and taste.

Fruitfulness is the principal purpose for the existence of a tree. Jesus taught His disciples that fruitfulness was His purpose for them as well. He told them, You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain (John 15:16). In this great teaching, Jesus called Himself the true vine and His Father the vinedresser (v. 1). He called the disciples branches (v. 5) and told them to abide in Him so they could bring forth fruit (v. 4). He warned them, Every branch in Me

Because fruit-bearing is a direct result

of abiding in Christ, this means there are

deeply spiritual and fruitful Christians

who have never displayed evidence

of having received the Pentecostal

experience of Holy Spirit baptism.

that does not bear fruit He [the Father] takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit (v. 2).

Jesus cursed the fig tree because it did not bring forth fruit, and in the morning the disciples found the tree had died (Matt. 21:18-20). Does He not have the right to expect to find fruit on His tree of life in His garden? Thus, fruitfulness is a result of a relationship that is carefully cultivated. Jesus taught His disciples they could only be fruitful by learning to abide in Him.

The Role of the Holy SpiritIt is no accident that the Word calls the third Person of

the Godhead the Holy Spirit. Holiness characterizes His divine nature. One of the supreme mandates of the Holy Spirit is to impart the holiness of God to us, to change us from glory to glory, giving us His divine nature and His character. As the Spirit works in each believer, He develops within us His character, which is identified by the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 describes this fruit as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Ephesians 5:9 says the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. And Romans 6:22 says, But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

I used to think the fruit of the Spirit was produced

just like the gifts are: by the Holy Spirit. But then I real-ized it is not the Spirit Himself who bears the fruit but the Christ-life within us that produces the fruit of godly character in us. The Holy Spirit produces the Christ-life in us as we obey Him, causing the holiness and divine nature of our Lord Jesus to be manifest through us.

The fruit of the Spirit, then, is the true character of the Christian life that replaces the self-life, or old man, as the Scriptures label our sin nature. It is the fruit of the Tree of Life, Christ, who lives in the garden of our spirits.

Fruit Can Be SeenThe more one abides in Christand is therefore

filled with the Holy Spiritthe greater the manifesta-tion of the Spirits fruit in that persons life and work. Only when a believer is full of the Holy Spirit, continually yielding to Him, can he exhibit the full fruition of Chris-tian virtues.

When Christ is formed in the believer through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, true Christlike character will be as natural a result as pears growing on a pear tree. The fruit of the Spirit is produced automatically when we are yielded to the Holy Spirit and walking in obedience to Him.

Spirit-filled men and women can be distinguished by their fruit in the same way that a carnal person can be identified by fleshly works. If we are abiding in Christ, the

fruit of the Spirit will be manifest in our lives; it cannot

be hidden. So also are the works of the flesh manifest

in one who is not abiding in Christ. A carnal person is

one who is not governed by the indwelling Spirit of God.

This egocentric, self-centered life manifests the works

of the flesh, while a Christ-centered life will manifest

the fruit of the Spirit.

Works of the Flesh vs. Fruit of the SpiritThe principle of fruit-bearing is literally a life principle.

Life develops from a life source; it cannot be manufac-

tured. Fruit is not made; it grows as the requirements

of the life principle are met. Therefore, fruit is born in

our lives as we are connected to our life source, which

is Christ.

In contrast, the works of the flesh as described in the

Scriptures are a negative result of human effort without

the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:19-23 describes the striking

contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of

the Spirit.

The early 20th-century Methodist minister Samuel

Chadwick referred to this passage in his book The Way to

Pentecost: Work belongs to the workshop; fruit belongs

to the garden. One comes from the ingenuity of the fac-

tory; the other is the silent growth of an abounding

life. The factory operates with dead stuff; the garden

cultivates a living force to their appointed end. Works

are always in the realm of dead things. Every building

is built out of dead material ... Fruit does not come of

mans labor. It requires his diligence, but it is neither his

invention nor his product. He does not make the flowers.

No skill of his brings the golden harvest of the fields or

the lush fruit of the trees. When man has done all he

can do, then God begins and life proceeds. Fruit is Gods

work. The phrase fruit of the Spirit assigns the graces

of the Christian character to their proper source. They

are not of mans producing.

The Scriptures clearly teach the life principle involved

in bearing fruit. The flesh can produce nothing but evil

works, while the Holy Spirit produces Christ-life fruit.

The former requires self-effort and results in death;

the latter requires obedience to the Holy Spirit and pro-

duces life and peace.

Not Our WorkSuppose we were to ask a branch on a grapevine,

How do you grow luscious fruit? If the branch could

talk, it probably would say, I dont know. I dont grow

any of it; I just bear it. If you cut me away from this vine,

I will just wither away and become useless.

Just as without the vine the branch can produce

nothing, so it is in our Christian lives. If we strain to

work to produce the fruit of the Spirit ourselves, we will

find ourselves fruitless and frustrated. But if we abide

in Christ, maintaining a close, obedient, dependent

relationship with Him, the Holy Spirit can work in us,

creating and producing the fruit of the Spirit. This doesnt mean we instantly become mature,

bearing all the fruit of the Spirit fully and immediately. Even after fruit appears on the tree, it takes timeduring which the elements of wind and rain and even storms bring the fruit to maturity. This desired maturity is impossible without our continually abiding in the Vine.

Producing FruitHow, then, does the Holy Spirit work in our lives to

produce the fruit of a Christ-life character? Allow me to highlight at least five ways.

1) Through Gods Word. The psalmist described the blessed man as a tree planted by the river of water that yields its fruit in its season (Ps. 1:3). He declares of this fruitful life that his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night (v. 2). The place we give the Word of God in our lives will deter-mine our degree of fruitfulness.

For example, I knew a woman who was a faithful reader of the Word, and her life evidenced it by the fruit she was bearing. But for some reason she neglected her study of the Word for three or four days, and she began to be irritable and impatient. Her little 4-year-old daughter observed her mothers reactions for a day and then said to her, Mother, why dont you get into the Word? That 4-year-old understood this principle of

abiding in the Word better than most of us. As we learn to abide in the true Vine, His life flows into us, producing the fruit of the Spirit to the Fathers glory and to the blessing of others.

2) Through meditation. David doesnt say this blessed man simply reads the Word. He meditates on it as well. The word selah, found throughout the Psalms, means to meditate, to stop and think about what has been said. A word picture of selah is the cow chewing her cud after eating to assimilate all she has swallowed.

As we read and meditate on the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit can convince us of sin that needs to be purged and can direct us to Gods standard of holiness and righ-teousness for our lives. Apart from applying the Word of God, there can be no lasting spiritual growth and no fruit-bearing in our lives.

3) Through spiritual disciplines. Jesus said that abiding in Him was a prerequisite for bearing fruit; there-fore we need to give ourselves to spiritual disciplines in our lives that will help cultivate this abiding relation-ship. These disciplines include not only giving ourselves to searching the Word of God, but also hearing the Word via anointed preaching, as well as spending much time in prayer and worship in the Spirit. These help us feed our inner man on Christs life and help grace us in our relationship with Him. Fellowship with other believers is

also an important spiritual discipline because it allows us to commune with Christ and to participate in His life indirectly through each other.

4) Through obedience. Obedience is almost an obso-lete word in Christendom. We hear much about faith but so little about obedience. But Jesus said, If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love (John 15:10).

The secret to abiding in Christ is to believe in our spirits, obey in our souls and yield our flesh to the power of the Holy Spirit. This abiding obedience involves every aspect of our person. Obedience brings maturity and develops the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

5) Through pruning. If we do not abide in Christ, we cannot bear fruit and, according to Jesus teaching, such believers will be cast away (v. 6). If a branch does bear fruit, the requirement made of the fruitless branch is that it endure pruning. Listen again to Jesus words: Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He [the Father] takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit (v. 2).

Leaves and foliage can be very beautiful. In the spring I can look out in the yard and the trees are verdant, lus-cious and lively. However, it is only by pruning that such foliage continues to flourish. The primary purpose of pruning a branch is to remove the wood that produced fruit in the last season in order to force the vine to grow

new wood that will produce new fruit in this new season. God does not perpetuate the old; He prunes to force new growth.

If we have experienced some pruning in our lives, it is not because God is mad at us or that there is neces-sarily sin in our lives. It is that the Father is pleased we are bearing fruit, and He knows that to increase the quality and quantity of that fruit, we need to be pruned.

Abiding in the VineIf abiding is the primary condition God sets before

us to bear the fruit of the Spirit, then why do we seek to be fruitful in other ways? Why is it that the simplicity of Gods way is always the way that seems so difficult for the flesh? It is, according to the Scriptures, because our spirits and our flesh are at war. Our flesh opposes the desire of the Holy Spirit to make us holy because it does not want to die.

Yet as we cultivate a fruitful relationship in Christ by spending time reading and meditating on Gods Word and in prayer, the Holy Spirit continually reveals truth to us. Then, as we walk in obedience to that truth instead of obeying our fleshly desires, the Holy Spirit transforms us and we begin to bring forth His fruit by the power of the Spirit.

Every believer must have an unbroken relationship with Christ sustained by obedience. In unwavering faith in what Christ has done, we must acknowledge Him

as the Vine and His Father as the Husbandman, the

divine Pruner.

God has preordained, foreordained and predestined

us to bear fruit. As we consciously and continuously fel-

lowshipabidewith our Lord, we will become fruit-

bearing trees. Let us therefore be diligent to yield to the

Holy Spirit, obey His commands and walk in His will so

we may be fruitful. 3

FUCHSIA PICKETT , who passed away in 2004, was

miraculously healed of a genetic, life-threatening disease

in 1959, was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to min-

ister the Word of God worldwide. Known for her remarkable

insight into Scripture, she was a Methodist professor and

pastor for more than 50 years. She also wrote the best-

selling book The Next Move of God, as well as other classic

works such as Receiving Divine Revelation and Stones of

Remembrance.

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT ONLY THE GIFT TO EVERY

BELIEVER, HES ALSO THE BESTOWER OF MANY

SPIRITUAL GIFTS. HERES WHY ITS IMPORTANT TO

IDENTIFY THOSE GIFTS AND EXERCISE THEM WITHIN

THE BODY OF BELIEVERS.

ALONE

GIFTSTANDS

NO

B Y R O N P H I L L I P S

A young man in my last church cut off

three of his fingers while cutting a

piece of paneling in a van custom-

izing shop. As he was being rushed

to the hospital, he was asked, Where are

the fingers? A man rushed back to the shop

with a bowl of ice, grabbed the three digits

and then rushed them to Birmingham in the

ambulance along with the young man.

Nineteen hours of microsurgery reat-

tached those fingers to the young mans

hand. Had they been left in the sawdust of

that shop, the fingers would have been use-

less. They were only good to him if they were

attached to his body.

Its the same way when it comes to our

attachment to the body of Christ, both glob-

ally and locally. We are members of the

bodywhether a finger, an ear, an eye or a

spleenand we need the rest of the body in

order to live. We cannot make it on our own.

Whats more, being a member of the body

of Christ means we have a unique gifting

the rest of the body needs too. We need one

another and the giftings of the Spirit we

each bring to the thriving of the body. Lets

explore why.

The Singular GiftFirst, its important to understand

the difference between the gift of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. Much confusion abounds in many churches because of a failure to understand the difference.

The gift of the Spirit to the church was given after the ascension and glorification of our Savior. (See John 7:39.) The Holy Spirit had been in the world before then, but now He had come to live in the hearts of His people in a new and special way. He came to dwell permanently within us (John 14:16-17, 26).

In Acts 2:38, the sinner is com-manded to repent, after which we are told the gift of the Holy Spirit is given. The word is singular here: gift. In Acts 10:45, this gift is discovered to be given to non-Jews also.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is given to every believer at the moment of conversion. In that moment, you are baptized by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 1 Cor. 12:13). This means that you are immersed in the Spirit and He in you.

Once we are saved and have the indwelling Spirit, then we may be filled with the Holy Spirit. The filling of

the Spirit is Gods controlling presence in our lives. He will fill only what we yield to Him. This means we may have the Spirit and yet not be filled with Him.

The Multiple GiftsNow, all of this so far has to do with the giftsingular

of the Spirit. He comes into our lives to save us, sus-tain us and strengthen us. But the Holy Spirit is also the bestower of giftspluralto the believer (1 Cor. 12;

Ron Phillips shares how to understand and activate your spiritual gifts

Rom. 12). These spiritual gifts are endowments of power from God given so that we might fulfill the calling of God on our lives.

To understand the importance of these spiritual gifts, we must first understand the church as the body of Christ. Paul describes and compares the unity and diver-sity of the human body to the church body in explaining the purpose of spiritual gifts. Through this metaphor, we learn three important truths:

1) They are divine gifts. The gifts of the Spirit come from the same source. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, we see the source as the triune God. Verse 11 sets forth the fact that these gifts are sovereignly bestowed. God not only gives the gifts, but He also decides who gets which gifts. Verse 18 supports this by declaring that God sets the members into the church as it pleases Him.

Spiritual gifts are not natural talents or abilities that you are born withthose are your natural gifts. Rather, spiritual gifts are the supernatural gifts of God.

2) They are different gifts. The New International Versions translation of 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 uses the word different three times. In the verses that follow, three categories of gifts are listed: motivational gifts, ministry gifts and manifestation gifts. The important thing to note is that different gifts are given to different people.

The symbolism of the body holds true here. Every member of the body is different. Paul uses the foot, the

hand, the ear, the eye and the nose as examples. How ridiculous it would be if we were all one foot, eye, ear, hand or nose! A body is made up of different members, and God has so designed the human body that each member is necessary for it to function properly.

Each church, then, has different members with dif-ferent gifts. When will we learn that we are not all alike and that it is in that diversityboth in our spiritual and social abilities and strengthsthat we are best able to function as the body of Christ?

Most church problems come because we are intol-erant of others who have a different motivation than we do. Many quit the church because they cant respond to the differences of others. But we must learn that all should not be alike. God made us and gifted us differ-ently on purpose.

3) They are dependent gifts. Christs body is uni-fied but not uniform, and the value of a member is in its attachment to the body. First Corinthians 12:25-26 describes this dependence we ought to have on each other.

Suppose my stomach sends a signal to my brain of hunger. My feet carry me to the place where my eyes and nose tell me there is food. My hand grasps a fork and a knife when I see that steak. My hand carries a piece of that steak not to my ear or foot or eye, but to that convenient opening in the middle of my face called the mouth. There, enamel grinders called teeth chew

the food and keep me from choking to death. Glands provide liquid so the food can be conveyed safely to my stomach, where the bloodstream will carry the foods nutrients to the rest of my body.

Just as the body cares for itself, so church members are to care for one another, hurt with one another and rejoice with one another. We are the body of Christ, and He is our head. We must move as He directs us. We are

not to be divided but unified.

Dangers Associated With the GiftsWhen it comes to the church and its exercise of the

Holy Spirits gifts, I see some interesting but dangerous trends in our day. Let me list them for you and explain. They are:

1) The neglect of spiritual gifts. God has provided

THE GIFT LIST 25 gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in ScriptureMost Christians are familiar with the nine gifts of the Spirit that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12:4-10. But did

you know there are many more? Though the exact number is debatable, here are at least 25 spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit gave to the early churchand continues to give today.

1) Word of wisdom (1 Cor. 12:8; Luke 6:9)2) Word of knowledge (1 Cor. 12:8; Luke 18:22)3) Faith (1 Cor. 12:9; Acts 3:6)4) Gifts of healing (1 Cor. 12:9, 28; Acts 28:1-10)5) Working of miracles (1 Cor. 12:10; Acts 6:8)6) Prophecy (1 Cor. 12:10; 1 Thess. 5:20-21; Eph. 4:11)7) Discerning of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10; Luke 8:29)8) Tongues (1 Cor. 12:10; Acts 19:6)9) Interpretation of tongues (1 Cor. 12:10; 14:13-33)10) Helping (1 Cor. 12:28)11) Administration (1 Cor. 12:28; Acts 6:2-3)12) Ministry/service (Rom. 12:7; 2 Tim. 1:16-18)13) Teaching (Rom. 12:7; Eph. 4:11-14)

14) Encouragement (Rom. 12:8; Heb. 10:24-25)15) Giving (Rom. 12:8; 1 Cor. 13:3; Acts 4:32-35)16) Leadership (Rom. 12:8; Acts 13:12)17) Mercy (Rom. 12:8; Luke 5:12-13)18) Apostleship (Eph. 4:11)19) Evangelism (Eph. 4:11; 2 Tim. 4:5)20) Pastoral guidance (Eph. 4:11)21) Grace (Rom. 12:6; Eph. 3:7; 4:7; 1 Pet. 4:10-11)22) Willingness to face

martyrdom (1 Cor. 13:3)23) Intercession (Rom. 8:26-27)24) Hospitality (1 Pet. 4:9)25) Celibacy (1 Cor. 7:8)

gifts so His church will grow, yet very few churches operate on the basis of Gods gifting. This neglect is one cause of the anemic growth of the Western church.

2) The fear of spiritual gifts. Some are afraid of the gifts, especially the manifested gifts such as tongues, healing and miracles. This fear is rooted in control issues. Certainly excesses can be dealt with in love, but the church must not fear the graces of the Holy Spirit.

3) The clustering of like gifts. Many churches have incomplete ministries because they have attracted those with like gifts. For instance, a pastor with a strong teaching gift attracts others with the teaching gift. You can end up with a group of well-fed, well-studied teachers while other ministries go neglected.

While were on the subject of like gifts gravitating toward like gifts, you may need to hear the following: It may be time for you to share your gifts with the greater body of Christ. If you are constantly complaining of not being fed, you may actually be a teacher who needs to be teaching. Babies need to be fed, but mature Chris-tians should be feeding themselves and others.

4) The lack of balance in the body of Christ. Sup-pose my hands suddenly grabbed a pencil and wrote my eye a note and said, I am cutting myself off. I am tired of you sitting up there in the head. Why, it would mean

a crippling of the body and the death of the hand, just like in the example of what could have happened to the young man from my church.

Instead, we must learn some practical facts about the body of Christ. In summary, these facts are:

One part cannot function as the whole (1 Cor. 12:14).

The task of one cannot be given to another (vv. 15-17).

There are no self-made members (vv. 18-20). All members are to be directed by the head, which is Christ (Col. 1:18).

That is why you, as a Christian, need to be in a local body of the church. You need to be exercising your gift to the glory of God and the benefit of believers. I encourage you to get and stay connected to your local body today. 3

RON PHILLIPS is senior pastor of Abbas House in

Chattanooga, Tenn. His weekly television and daily radio

programs are broadcast worldwide and available on the

Internet. He is a sought-after speaker and the author of

numerous books, including the four-part Foundations on the Holy Spirit, Our Invisible Allies and his latest, A God-Sized Future.

I S T O C K P H O T O - O L L Y Y

10Reasons for Speaking in Tongues

Most Christianscharismatics includeddont understand the true benefits of speaking in tongues, nor why this gift is so valuable. Here are 10 reasons to prove why we need this wonderful gift.

B Y B I L L H A M O N

1The manifestation that came with

the gift of the Holy Spirit was

speaking in tongues. It wasnt the wind, fire, noise or feeling of Gods pres-ence that was evidence of the gift being received but a spirit languagebelievers began speaking lan