Fire On Your Head

“For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.” (1 John 5:7-8)

“We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” (John 9:4, ESV)

Before proceeding in the direction I’d like to take us in our considerations, let’s take a look at a few things about the Word of God: It is forever settled in heaven (Ps 119:89-92), therefore it is also forever settled on the earth (Matt 6:10) when it is acted on and enforced. According to the Psalms, it will never change. What God said thousands of years ago, will still be true thousands of years from now. Isaiah 55:11 states that God’s Word goes forth and doesn’t return void, but accomplishes what it is supposed to do.

Science has determined that the smallest known particle is that of light, but they have also determined that the particle is composed of two smaller components, which is believed to be what we would call sounds, or waves. Is it possible then, that these components are indeed sounds, and they are the words the Lord spoke in creation when he said “let there be light“? Genesis 1:3 states that the Lord spoke light into existence. The original Hebrew literally would translate as “light, be!” Hebrews 11:3 and 2 Peter 3:5 further state that with the [spoken] word of God the universe was created. We will look at the Spirit’s role in that in a moment.

Science also tells us that the universe is continuing to expand in every direction. It’s my opinion that if man were to go to the very edge of the universe–past where light has reached so far–there would come a time where you’d experience a wall of light passing around you as it traveled to that point, and in that moment you’d hear the Lord saying “light, be!” God’s word, though spoken once, and settled forever, is still going forth. God spoke only once, it’s settled, however God doesn’t get up every morning and ‘re-tell’ the light to come out upon the earth. He doesn’t tell the earth to go around the sun again. It’s happening just as He once spoke it to. As Christians, we enforce and establish His will and what He has spoken every time we preach it, cast a demon out on the authority of that Word, heal the sick, and so on.

The Light Shines In The Midst of Darkness

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said,”Let there be light,” and there was light.” (Gen 1:2-3, emphasis mine)

Notice how the Holy Spirit of God was hovering over the darkness, but didn’t do anything until the Lord spoke. We know from New Testament Scripture that by Christ, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible (1 Col 1:16)–yet the Son is not mentioned in Genesis by name or role. But the opening verses of John elaborate more:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5, emphasis mine)

John later mentions in chapter 9:4 “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit would do the mighty works of the Lord, such as miracles, healing the sick, setting the captives free. Jesus would do the work that He saw the Father doing (John 5:19-20). He did the will of the Father, but it is the role of the Spirit to carry it out.

Jesus stated in Luke 22:53 when his captors came to arrest Him, that “this is your hour, when darkness reigns.” Until His crucifixion, darkness reigned.

That being said, we can see moments in the Gospels, where during the night–the Holy Spirit hovered over the darkness until God’s will was declared and spoke forth something the Spirit was to administer. He didn’t raise Jesus up a moment earlier than planned, but yet the Holy Spirit was still there hovering over the tomb.

The Spirit Follows the Word

^“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:13-15)

Jesus told his disciples in John 16:7 that it was a good thing that He ascend to heaven, because if He didn’t the Holy Spirit–the helper–would not come. This is because prior to his death and resurrection, the Spirit only showed up and moved where Jesus, the Word was, but now, He–the Spirit–is indwelling a whole people! From just a numerical and practical standard, a large group of people demonstrating the power of the Gospel, and doing the works Jesus did is exponentially greater than just one man doing them. Until the day of Pentecost, there was no Holy Spirit in the world except when and where the Word was preached by Jesus. Then in Acts chapter 2 after the upper room experience, Peter was the first man endued with the Spirit to preach the Gospel message to any hearer and a large number of people were saved and added to the collective Body of Christ.

But yet most of the Church gets the role of the Spirit backwards. We wait to do things until we have some special feeling or validation as to what God’s will is, and call that ‘being led by the Spirit.’ However, most Christians fail to realize calling it ‘being led by the Spirit’ is just spiritualizing their own laziness, because we’re not actually told to “be led by the Spirit”–this idea is taken from only one Scripture verse in the New Testament (Romans 8:14) that many are taking out of context when they quote it. It is encouraged that one listens to an old episode of our podcast for further discussion on what being led by the Spirit truly is. Instead, we find instructions in Scripture telling us to have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16), and to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly (Col 3:16)

The Holy Spirit accompanies the Word and bears witness with it; Mark 16:17-18 states that signs (miracles) would accompany (read, FOLLOW) them that believed, not the other way around like most of us think. Holy Spirit helps YOU, you don’t help Him. It would be cliche to say that many charismatics are chasing after signs and wonders, chasing after moves of God–when those rivers of living water should be springing out of us (John 7:37-39) and aiding us as we preach and proclaim the Gospel. The power of God is intended to be a proof that the Gospel is true.

The Spirit As Our Helper

One thing I like to do when teaching on divine healing, is have a volunteer or my interpreter play the role of my ‘helper’, and act out that I’m a painter or carpenter or some kind of profession like that. A helper in this context is not someone who does the work, but helps the one doing the job. A helper for our intents and purposes would be like an apprentice or a handy man. If this helper is a good worker, he’ll know to anticipate what tools I’ll need. If I’m standing on a ladder, he may be holding my tools for me, and seeing a few steps ahead of me, knowing and anticipating what tool I’m going to need next, and provide it for me before I even have to ask for it. He follows me, and gives me what I need to get the job done. Similarly, though He’s God Himself and not any less than the Father or the Son, the Spirit deserves our utmost respect and reverence all the same. He is this role of a helper to the Bride of Christ, the Church. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what is needed in a particular moment or situation, and pulls out of His tool belt either the healing, prophetic Word, knowledge of Scripture, or whatever you need to help you proclaim and advance God’s kingdom.

Remember when Ezekiel spoke to the dry bones; the Spirit acted and did the work. The Spirit didn’t move first, and then Ezekiel “followed” or was “led by the Spirit” and merely verbally repeated the obvious. Ezekiel spoke the words of God, and the Holy Spirit energized and activated them. He spoke, and the Spirit of God brought the life–created living organisms afresh as the bones connected, and flesh appeared on them and created a new living army! But alas, the Holy Spirit can only confirm HIS word, not our ideas, opinions and certainly not our bad theology. Take note of how Job’s friends waxed eloquent and told him all sorts of pious theological sounding words about why he was going through the trials he was going through. But when Elihu spoke the truth, God showed up in power and spoke! Likewise, the Holy Spirit can’t anoint something that’s not true–He can only agree with the Word. This is why there’s so many ‘dead churches’ preaching a basic Gospel message, and getting what they preach for. Since they don’t believe in, or preach and teach in the power of God or miracles, consequently they don’t see them either.

Check this quote from Reinhard Bonnke:

“Prayer is not enough to rouse a dead church. It needs the power of the Word imbued with the life of the Spirit. Life comes from the living Word. What we can do and what we should do is preach the Word. Praying for God to work is fine, but praying for Him to do what we should be doing is pointless. We cannot send his Spirit anywhere. He moves with us, and he is where we are. We cannot pray for God to save souls and bless people and then wait for something to happen. He sends us with the Word and the Spirit awaits us. It is our privilege to work for him, save souls for him. For anyone who thinks they do not have strength or power, the Word is their strength and their power. There are two important things to note: Holy Spirit meetings without the Word are human meetings, and prayer is not a substitute for the Word.” Reinhard Bonnke, Holy Spirit: Revelation & Revolution: Exploring Holy Spirit Dimensions p. 129

The Spirit answers prayer in the name of Jesus because He is the Word. As Bonnke goes on further to phrase it, “The will of the Father is written and is spoken by the Son, the Word, and performed by the Spirit.”

Truly, truly, I say to you,whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

(John 5:24, 6:63 emphasis mine)

In conclusion, allow me to encourage you to let the Word dwell richly in you (Col 3:16)

For more reflections and meditations on this subject, it is highly encouraged that you give some time to read articles in our series on the ‘seed of the Word of God’, especially the article “The Image Inside The Seed“