42. Prayer Filled with The Holy Spirit

42. Prayer Filled with The Holy Spirit  

 

Acts 2:1-4

 

1 On the day of Pentecost[a] all the believers were meeting together in one place.

2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty

windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.

3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.

4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

 

▣ After Jesus ascended into heaven, when the disciples gathered in Mark's upper room prayed with all their hearts, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) (Romans 8:9)

 

Christians must always be filled with the Holy Spirit.

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you become a powerful person.

The Christian's power is 'filled with the Holy Spirit'.

 

28 But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will. 29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. 30 Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:28-31).

 

3 And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. 4 Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” 5 Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). 6 These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. 7 So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too. (Acts 6:3-7)

 

17 So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. 19 Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.  Saul stayed with the believers[a] in Damascus for a few days. (Acts 9:17-19).

 

1. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you can obey the Lord's work.

 

If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you can obey the Lord's work.

Philip heard the voice of the Holy Spirit telling him to go down the road into the

wilderness of Gaza and obeyed.

There he meets an Ethiopian eunuch and preaches his gospel.

The gospel is spread to Africa through the eunuchs who have been saved.

 

29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”

30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. (Acts 8:29-31).

 

Peter also heard the word of the Holy Spirit and obeyed it and went to Caesarea.

There, the Holy Spirit came to come to the Gentiles as well by preaching the gospel.

 

19 Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have come looking for you. 20 Get up, go downstairs, and go with them without hesitation. Don’t worry, for I have sent them.” (Acts 10:19-20).

 

Paul went to Philippi to preach the gospel because the Holy Spirit did not allow him to go to Asia and Bithynia.

Because of Paul's obedience, the words of Acts 1:8 that the gospel will be preached from Philippi to Europe and become witnesses to the ends of the earth are fulfilled.

 

6 Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. 7 Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. (Acts 16:6-7)

 

If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you will be able to pray more actively.

Negative prayer cannot produce positive results.

 

Some people take prayer only as a 'consent of the head'.

This is like praising the Word with only your lips.

If you do not pray, or if you do not pray in anticipation of an answer positively, you will never know that God's answer will come.

No matter how much you profess to believe in God's Word, if you don't do it, your faith is dead.

 

Answered prayers cannot be supplemented with excuses or rational interpretations.  Jesus also devoted himself to prayer.

 

44 He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. (Luke 22:44).

 

Like Jesus, when our prayers are actively changed, we will see the work of God.

 

2. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you will overcome evil spirits.

 

16 One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit that enabled her to tell the future. She earned a lot of money for her masters by telling fortunes. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.” 18 This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her. (Acts 16:16-18).

 

The prayers spoken of in ordinary religions and the prayers offered by the Spirit of the Lord are completely different.

Ordinary religions quiet their inner self through prayer.

It is said to go deeper into the inner world.

But, to be precise, it is not that we go deeper into me, but that the spirits of the world come into us.

 

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit to overcome the evil spirits of the world.

Man is a spiritual being.  So it is sensitive to spiritual influences.

If we are spiritually weak, we are afraid of strangers.

As you grow spiritually, you will gradually overcome such influence.

Only when we are filled with the Holy Spirit can we overcome the evil spirit and hear and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit.

 

The watch always turns with the same sound.

But in the middle of a busy day, the clock is hard to hear.

Because the sound of the world coming from outside is much louder.

But on a quiet night, the clock is loud.

It is the same with the voice of the Holy Spirit who is in us.

Only when the voice within me is quiet can the voice of the Holy Spirit be heard loudly.

 

3. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, the power of the Lord is revealed.

 

10 This went on for the next two years, so that people throughout the province of Asia—both Jews and Greeks—heard the word of the Lord. 11 God gave Paul the power to perform unusual miracles. 12 When handkerchiefs or aprons that had merely touched his skin were placed on sick people, they were healed of their diseases, and evil spirits were expelled. (Acts 19:10-12).

 

Where the Holy Spirit is filled, the Lord's power is also manifested.

Even if several churches lead the same meetings, the work of the Holy Spirit is different for each church.

Even though we preach the same message, the results of the meetings are different for each church.

In some churches healings and gifts of the Holy Spirit are manifested in fullness.

But some churches stop at just listening to the Word.

A church that prays more and cries out earnestly during the meetings will show more of the work of the Holy Spirit.

 

Even in athletics, a team that runs, runs, and does its best has a higher chance of winning. In a church that prays a lot and is filled with the work of the Holy Spirit, a lot of work will surely happen.

 

Even if we pray in the same way, power will be shown to those who pray more actively and earnestly.

There is definitely a reason why we need to pray in tongues a lot.

If you pray in tongues a lot, the power of the Holy Spirit will be manifested a lot.

There is a clear reason for this.

Human consciousness develops with language.

As language grows, consciousness deepens.

The same is true of the spiritual world. The spiritual language is prayer.

As prayer deepens, spiritual consciousness deepens and spiritual power increases.

Amen.