The Holy Spirit accomplishes God’s purposes.

Steve Brown:
The Holy Spirit accomplishes God’s purposes. Let’s talk, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
God’s grace changes everything. How we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize, purchase, and worship. This is Key Life, with practical Bible teaching to get you home with radical freedom, infectious joy, and surprising faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you’ve been listening this week, we’ve been talking about the Holy Spirit and power. And I suggested at the beginning of the week that you’re a lot more dangerous than you think you are. I really think that’s true of most Christians. We’re in a culture that intimidates us into silence. We are a part of a group of people who have been taught wrongly that the essence of being a Christian is being nice. We’ve been conned into believing that preachers and missionaries are very powerful spiritual beings. And we’re just common lay people that sit in the pew and nod and say Amen. That’s not, none of that’s true. Let me tell you what is true. You have the availability of the power of the Holy Spirit in you. I personally believe, and I’m not going to go down a side road with this, but I personally believe that the Holy Spirit is willing to do things in our churches that are even miraculous, to answer prayers in surprising ways, to heal people in surprising ways, to make people articulate in surprising ways, to teach them stuff that other people haven’t taught them in surprising ways. Because that is the business of the Holy Spirit. Now, if you’ve been listening and you never listen to me, I’ve said that the first thing you ought to know about the Holy Spirit is, and power, is that there’s enough, that’s Ephesians 1:18 through 19. And then we saw that there is enough of the Holy Spirit’s power when you need it and you know you need it. Have you ever been in trouble? I mean really in trouble and have no idea how you got out of it. I’ve been there several times and I’ve learned to know that was the Holy Spirit. Have you ever been reading the Bible and thinking, I don’t understand a word of that? And then you did. That was the Holy Spirit’s power when you needed it. Have you ever been witnessing and your tongue was tied and you didn’t know what to say and then you did? That was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s power that is given to you when you need it. Have you ever thought, I can’t get through this? What the doctor said has devastated me and I simply can’t make it, and then you did. How did you do that? That’s called the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is given to the believer when the believer needs it and knows it. I have faced a thousand, I’m old, and I used to say to my students when they got arrogant, you haven’t lived long enough, and you haven’t sinned big enough to even have an opinion on that. Well, I’ve lived long enough, and I’ve sinned big enough, and been in so many dark places that God pulled me out of, and that was the Holy Spirit that was given to me when I knew it. Now, let me show you something else and then we’ll finish up. I want to talk next week, maybe we’ll get to a little bit of it today, but I want to talk to you about not just the power of the Holy Spirit, but the love of the Holy Spirit. But there is one more point. Not only is the Holy Spirit’s power enough, and is given when you need it, there’s enough power when God wants it, John 16:14. Jesus has just spoken of the coming Spirit who will guide us. And then he says this.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

In other words, Rick Warren is right.

It’s not about you, it’s about him.

I’ve never read The Purpose Driven Life. I don’t read books with purpose and driven in the title, but I know that he said that in the introduction, and I know that that’s a great book, and I also know that it’s not about us, it’s about God. God gives you what you need when you need it. Let me tell you a great story, and this is about all the time I’m going to have, I think. I was flying between Miami, where I was living at the time, and a pastor, to Los Angeles, where I was speaking, and we had a layover in Dallas / Fort Worth Airport. There was a man in my church, and his name was Maynard Watkins, and I loved him a lot. He was the chief pilot of the old Pan Am Airlines, and he even tried to get me over my fear of flying. Gave me a night of flight training. He said, doesn’t that help? And I said, no, Maynard, doesn’t help a bit. I never knew so much could go wrong with an airplane. Well, at any rate, so I’m in this Dallas / Fort Worth airport and a message comes over the speakers. Would Steve Brown please report to the desk? And I thought, nobody knows I’m here, what’s this about? And so, I started making my way to the desk, and you know what happened. I ran into Maynard Watkins, and he looked like he had seen a ghost. I said, what in the world are you doing here? And he said, my father just died. And I said, really? I’m so sorry. And he said, and I’m just coming back from the funeral. And I was sitting here and I was praying and I said, Lord, you know, Steve’s my pastor. I wish there was some way that I could talk to him right now. And he said, I looked up from my prayer and you were standing there and I can’t believe this. That really happened, by the way. Blew me away, blew him away. And if I could have told the crowd that had gathered around that gate, they would have been amazed too, because it was an amazing and miraculous story. Where did that come from? That came from the power of the Holy Spirit, who ordained the circumstances. And can you imagine how complicated to put all of that together? Who arranged the circumstances, probably before the foundation of the earth, so that Maynard Watkins and Steve Brown would meet in a particular airport at a particular time when the need was there. That, dear friend, is the Holy Spirit. I one time on a broadcast in the early days of Key Life, they used to take sermons that I preached and cut them up and put them on the air and they got a sermon that was almost 15 years old. And in that sermon, and the editors failed to take it out, I had asked for a prayer for a woman by the name of Holly who was going back in those days through a really difficult time. And so, they let it go and people all over the country who had the radio program near them stopped and they prayed for Holly. And the day after I got a call from her husband Griff. And he said, Steve! Who told you? I said, who told me what? And he said, Holly’s sick again. And I haven’t told anybody. And she’s going through a really hard time. And I’m starting getting calls from everybody telling me that they’re praying for Holly because you asked them to pray for Holly. And I said, Griff, I did that 15 years ago. That is not fresh. That didn’t happen yesterday. 15 years ago, when Holly was sick, I asked for the people in our congregation to pray for her. And God knew what she would be going through right then, and made sure that was included in the tape of the sermon that was broadcast on Key Life. You know, I could go on and on and on. I think more of those kinds of things happen in our lives than we know, but we’re just not sensitive to them. We’re not aware that God is operating in our lives in supernatural and miraculous ways. And you say, yeah, but you’re ordained. God treats you, no, he doesn’t. In fact, in fact, maybe just the opposite. If you’re ordained, you better be very careful cause we’re sinners just like you, and God doesn’t like us any more than he likes you, and he does stuff for you just the way he does stuff for us, and maybe more for you. My friend, the late Addison Leach told me he thought that somebody, someday, would understand all that’s in the Book of Revelation and everybody else will say that’s it, he or she has got it. And then Ad would laugh and he would say, and that person won’t be a preacher, and that person won’t be a professor in a seminary, that person won’t be a Christian leader of any kind, that person will be a man or a woman or a child who sits in the pew of our churches, and they get it. God doesn’t just do great stuff with preachers. He does it with his people. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
And with that, we wrap up this week’s study of the Holy Spirit here on Key Life. Thanks for being here with us. And remember, if you missed any episodes or maybe you just want to share it with a friend, you can always stream our content for free at keylife.org and do join us tomorrow for Friday Q&A, that’s when Steve and Pete answer this question. What is with Job and his friends? Speaking of questions, here’s one. Who is the Holy Spirit? What does he do? What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Does God still do miracles? Okay, that’s actually, that’s actually like four questions. But listen, if you have any of these questions, you may want to get our free booklet, it’s called Questions About the Holy Spirit. Just call us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that booklet or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the U. S. and Canada. Again, just ask for your free copy of the booklet called Questions About the Holy Spirit. And finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your financial support? You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or now, you can give safely and securely through text. Just pick up your phone right now and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950 then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.