Spiritual Life #56 The Laws of the Spirit Summary

The Laws of the Spirit Summary

What we’re studying loved ones, especially for those of you who might be here for the first time this evening, in these evening sermons, and what we’ve been studying for probably 10 and some of us 13 years here in the evenings, is the deeper Christian life, the life of the spirit, the inner life. And we have been following a series that we go through every three years usually. And we’ve been so long on this particular one that I don’t know which year we’re in now, but we’re trying to deal at this time, with our spirit.

I could illustrate to you what your spirit is or something of what it is, if I ask you to think for a moment, of what happens in your personality when you sing, maybe a little more on tune that I sing, but you sing, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound.” Sarah, I was on tune. Your tongue is singing, your voice, your body, so your body is involved. Your mind is involved too because you’re thinking of the words, and it’s your mind, or your intellect that thinks and remembers, and judges, and reasons. And I think you’d agree that your emotions are involved too, because you can think of the old bagpipers, if you think of nothing else, you can think of that old Scottish bagpipe music in the background and all the influence, and the emotion of the tune.

But you can also think of many old saints that have sung that down through the years. You can think perhaps of moments in your own life when you say, “Through many dangers toils and snares I have already come.” And so your emotions can be involved. Now, that’s your body, and your mind, and emotions are what the Bible calls your soul. But deep, deep down loved ones, there’s the real you and that’s your spirit. Now, the real test is after you’ve stopped singing that song, and after your home in your own bed tonight, what is your spirit doing?

That’s the real test. Is your spirit filled with that same elation, and that same sense of thanksgiving to God? In fact, could you almost burst out singing that tonight in bed? Or, is your spirit kind of blah? Now, that’s that real you loved ones. That’s what you’re really like. That’s why that dear guy, you remember he’s involved in Gospel Light publications and he wrote the book “Sometimes I feel Like a Blob”. Because, I think a lot of us at certain times at home on our own, or in the middle of the day in our office, we feel like a blob because inside, deep down where the real us is, there’s nothingness. There’s just often emptiness.

Now, that’s your spirit. Your spirit is the real you. And it’s your spirit that people really eventually touch. You can do a whole lot of things with your face, you can do a whole lot of smiles, a whole lot of sunny faces and everything, a whole lot of handshaking, a whole lot of backslapping, and loving, and embracing. You can do a whole lot of things with your mind, saying a whole lot of clever little things, all of the good, intelligent, diplomatic little things. With your emotions you can show a whole lot of love, a whole lot of excitement, but a person is really looking for what is at the center of you, the real you.

As a man or a woman is when they’re alone, that they are and nothing more. That’s your spirit. And of course, that’s why Jesus, you remember, once took a little child and maybe you’d look at the situation, its Matthew 18:2. He took a little child and put him in the middle of the crowd you remember, so I’m sure he was holding his hand tight so that he’d feel okay. Matthew 18:2, “And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.””

And Jesus said that because, most of us remember, what our spirits were like when we were little children. And most of us remember the freedom and the liberty that we sensed inside. We didn’t have to be told to laugh, and to enjoy ourselves. We did laugh and we did enjoy ourselves. We just had a great sense that our fathers loved us, our mums loved us, that the people who cared for us were taking care of things, and all we had to do was delight in this dear world around us. And that’s what Jesus meant when he said, “We’ve to be as little children.”

Our spirits are meant to be like that, light, and joyful, and airy, and free. And when your spirit is like that, of course, you can be a blessing to everybody around you. And of course you can meet all the problems of life with ease. You hardly pause in your stride. That isn’t the case with most human beings in the world. Most human beings in the world, soon after they’re seven, eight, or nine years of age begin to get concerned about who cares for them. And that’s because they lack the sense that there’s a great Father who cares for them and they begin to wonder does anybody care for them?

And they begin to be concerned about their own welfare. And most human beings from nine or 10 on begin to try to find love, and find the attributes, and the qualities that love gives you. Love gives you a great sense, we’ve shared before, of security, and it’s not long before all of us become little gibbering neurotics as far as security are concerned, really. After we miss our first lunch at school we begin to be concerned, “How do you make sure you don’t miss your lunch?” And after we find ourselves without enough money to buy the ice cream that we want, we begin to wonder, “How do you make sure you have enough money?” And after we begin to feel that we would like the clothes that somebody else has, we begin to work out, “How could we? Maybe a paper route, we could do that and we could get the clothes.”

And it’s not long before we begin go to be concerned with getting the things that love used to give us, and that we felt we could depend on love for. So it’s not long before we begin to be little snatchers after our security. And it really isn’t long before, oh this old world begins to find that this is you, believe it or not, and me. And it begins to find that it’s got ties. We put a peg in there and we tie ourselves to the world for our security. We tie ourselves to the paper route, and then we tie ourselves to our first job, and then we tie ourselves to our first employer. Then we tie ourselves to the stocks and shares that we buy. It’s not long before in order to get the love that we need we find we’re tying ourselves to this world.

It’s the same with the sense of identity and we’ve shared that before. It used to be, did a little child care about his identity? No, his dad thought the world of him that was okay for him. He didn’t care, as long as his dad smiled that was everything. That’s the way God wanted us to live in his regard and in his love. But it wasn’t long before we forgot him and we wanted other people’s love, and other people’s approval. And we tied ourselves to our friends. One friend praised us, we accepted the praise and then we found we were addicts to the praise. Then, we had to praise them back, and then they praised us. And they scratched our backs and we scratched theirs.

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves with a tent peg in the world as far as our significance and our identity is concerned. It was the same with emotion; God meant that we should enjoy the world. Walk through it and enjoy the trees, and the sunshine, and the rivers with the Father in our hand right beside us, walking through his world. That was joy and delight, that’s all we needed. But it wasn’t long before we weren’t satisfied with that and we wanted the excitement, and the thrill of other things, the exhilaration of certain relationships, the excitement of certain experiences. And it wasn’t long before we tied ourselves.

It’s strange, really the inside started to dry up. The spirit inside started to dry up. The body was pretty active, the soul was pretty active, but the spirit was dried up inside and we depended on these crude things, and we found ourselves bound to the world. That’s the situation with most of us. That’s why the Bibles says “We’re dead, we’re dead. Our spirits are dead towards God.” That’s why many of us say that we feel like a blob, because we are governed by all these outside things for the real love that we’re meant to get from God.

Now loved ones, what is the problem? The problem is that our personalities are now so enslaved to these things that we can’t get clear of them. How many of you feel that? How many of you want to be free but you think, “How’s the economy doing?” You think, “They’re taking away my MasterCard.” You think, “They’re putting up the interest rates.” You think, “I want to be free, I want to be happy as you say, but my job. What about my job?” “I want to be joyful about the future but what about my future?” “ I want to be happy whether I have anybody or nobody except God, but what about my marriage?” Isn’t it true that we find our dear old personalities make it impossible for us to live with a light spirit?

Our personalities seem tied to these things. And isn’t it true that often many of us go out on a Monday morning with heavy hearts. And many of us live through the week with heavy hearts, worried about this, anxious about that. And the truth is that the world is our God. We may say we’re Christians, you know, I understand that and we have our words that we use with each other, and we say we’re children of God. But really, the world is our God. Not in that we’re gambling, or drinking, or running out with prostitutes, or all kinds of big worldly things that we think are worldly things, but just the world itself. The security that the world gives us, the recognition that the world gives us, the happiness and enjoyment that the world gives us the world is our God. Loved ones that’s why we’re so heavy in our spirits. That’s why our spirits are so dead. That’s why they don’t rise with joy and with lightness.

Now, there’s only one person that can change that. There’s only one person that can cut those bonds, and that person is God. And that’s what he did in Jesus. And that’s the basis of any victory that we can have, that God took you, alive to the world and bound to the world, and he crucified you with his Son Jesus. He crucified you with Christ. And that’s the basis, Romans 6:6, our old self was crucified with Christ. If that hasn’t happened, if you weren’t separated from the world by God, if he has not been able to change your personality in a mighty eternal act in Christ, there’s nothing you can do.

But loved ones that has happened, that’s a fact. That’s what the Bible says, when Jesus died you and I died. Our old self that is bound to the world was crucified with Christ. Loved ones, you’ll never get free from that worrying about the Master charge, you’ll never get free from being anxious about your marriage and your future, you’ll never get free from being concerned about your security, unless God has done something to cut that dear old bound personality off from the world. That’s what the Bible means when it says, “We were crucified to the world and the world was crucified to us.”

Loved ones that has happened; that has happened. And not only that has happened but Ephesians 2:6 has happened. God has raised us up who were dead in our trespasses and sins and has made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That’s the truth, that’s reality. Look at it, if you would, it’s Ephesians 2:6, and you can see the past tense in the Greek. Ephesians 2:6, “And raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” God has done that in eternity, beyond time and space, God has severed the chains that attach you to your boss. That’s right.

There are unseen spiritual chains that attach you to your boss. That’s true. So that he comes into the room and your wee eyes go up to see if he’s smiling at you. God in Jesus has severed the spiritual chains that bind you to your bank account. That’s right you’re bound to your bank account. If it’s up, you’re free and light. If it’s down, you’re depressed and insecure. God has severed in Jesus those chains. Loved ones believe it, believe it. It’s not your bank account, that’s the strange thing it’s not your bank account. It’s not the boss, it’s not the experiences either of vacation, or of sadness, or of death, or of loneliness. It’s not.

It’s a whole spiritual shackle system that binds you to those things. Those things have no power actually. Those things will die in a moment. But there’s a whole spiritual imprisonment that you’re evolved in and that’s what God destroyed in Jesus. That’s why you’ve such trouble getting rid of those things. You know, with the books on the power of positive thinking, “Oh well, don’t think about your bank account.” “Okay, I won’t think about my bank account. I won’t think about my bank account.” And you think about your bank account. Or, “No I won’t care what people think of me. I won’t care what people think of me.” And you care what people think of you.

You keep trying to overcome those things but do you see it’s a whole spiritual imprisonment. It’s not the things that are the problem, it’s not the people, it’s not the experiences, it’s the spiritual enslavement that your personality has become involved in, and that’s what God destroyed in Jesus. He did it. It’s done. Oh, a dear guy came up here four or five weeks ago and said, “You know what I suddenly realized? I have been crucified in Christ whether I feel it or not. I don’t have to get crucified with Christ, I have been. It has been done. God has raised me up and made me sit with him in the heavenly places.” And loved ones, that’s the basis of victory, believing that and submitting to the Holy Spirit is the basis of victory.

Believing that you have been raised with Jesus and that you sit at the moment with God in the heavenly places far above every rule, and authority, and dominion, and power not only in this world but in that which is to come, that’s the basis of victory. And that’s how your spirit can be maintained light, and joyous, and victorious. But loved ones, first of all it is believe, believe Ephesians 2:6, that you have been raised up and made to sit with God in the heavenly places. Then second one is, James 4:7, submit to God you remember. In fact, you might want to look at it, it’s James 4:7. Because, the basis of all victory is trust and obey and the first part of trusting is the believing Ephesians 2:6, and the second part is the obeying which is James 4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Loved ones that’s the basis of a light spirit.

Now, what we’re talking about in these evening services is the laws of the spirit. And loved ones, as long as you will hold to that position your spirit will remain that of a little child. But as you go along, you remember, we shared in these past Sundays that Satan is able and other people are able to put weights on your spirit. So you waken up in the morning, and your spirit is not light, and it is not rising up to God in joy and delight. And many of us accept those weights and we say, “Well, that’s normal.” No, that isn’t normal.

The normal life of a spirit, of a man or a woman under control of the Holy Spirit, is that that spirit is lifting with the trinity. That’s where the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is with God the Father and God the Son, and believe me they are having a ball in heaven. Really, that’s what the teaching is, that God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are rejoicing at this moment. The beautiful things we see in the world, the birds singing, the sun shining, the breezes in the springtime, those are just little signs of the rejoicing, and the delight that is in heaven and we are in heaven by faith. And we are able to experience the joy of heaven; our condition can be made to match our position by the Holy Spirit, if we believe that we have been raised with God, and with Jesus, and if we submit ourselves to God.

Loved ones, when you get up in the morning and there are weights on your spirit, resist them. Ask the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit, why is this? I know it’s not normal, why is it? Show me why there are heavy weights on my spirit.” Often, it’s a matter of resisting Satan. Sometimes it’s a matter of submitting to God. Sometimes, you have resisted God in some area of your life and that’s why Satan has been able to put a weight on your spirit. But loved ones weight on your spirit that is not normal. That’s one of the things, you remember, that we dealt with. We’ve been dealing with some other things. You remember we dealt with the whole truth of blockage of the spirit. Pointed out, you remember, oh it’s the verse in John 7:38 and you might want to look at that. John 7:38, some people think that it’s a matter of the spirit being present in you and of course, that’s not true. John 7:38 is the truth. Jesus, you remember, speaks about the Holy Spirit. John 7:38, “He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive.”

And you see what Jesus says, “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” And you remember we shared how it’s the flow of the spirit that enables us to experience God’s presence. In other words, God is there and Jesus is there at his right hand, and Jesus – here are you, here and me, and Jesus instead of loving God directly loves God through the Holy Spirit, through us. And we take part in the flow of love that goes in the trinity family and God gives back the glory to Jesus.

You remember we shared how you experience the joy and the delight of God’s love by the spirit flowing through you. That of course stays you from the whole idea of getting something for yourself. It’s the flow of Jesus love through the Father that you experience. And some of us at times experience blockage; that is our minds or emotions are out of sorts, or our body is sick, and the Holy Spirit within us wants to show joy or delight to somebody, but our body is kind of heavy and we can’t do it. Or, our emotions are out of sorts and we know we sense within us the Spirit wants to express something to somebody else, but we don’t do it. Or, the Spirit wants to express delight to God in song and we don’t do it, and we block the Spirit.

Now what you do you see, is when you block the spirit coming out of you, you block the spirit coming into you. So loved ones it is important to be sure that there is no blockage taking place inside you. That’s why you remember, we shared that your body should be in good shape. Often, many of us let our bodies get badly out of shape and the physical body presses down upon our spirits and suppresses or spirits. It’s important for our bodies, and our minds. That’s why you should exercise your mind, do you see that? That’s why you should come to classes, and you should read, and stimulate your mind so that it is a lively, submissive servant to your spirit. Otherwise, you’ll begin to block your spirit.

And I do think a lot of us find deadness coming into our lives because we block our spirits, really. There is a deep way in which the spirit of a prophet is subject to the prophet. In other words, there’s a deep way in which you can control your spirit but there is also a deep way in which the spirit possesses you and if you don’t allow him to posses you, and you don’t allow him to do freely in you what he wants, you’ll in fact grieve him and you’ll block him in your life. So you remember we talked blockage.

And then loved ones, you remember, we talked about the truth, that the Holy Spirit brings you close to God. That’s of course, what he does. Takes the things of Jesus and he imparts them to you. He reveals to you the mind of God. You remember, who knows the mind of God but the spirit, and the spirit reveals to you the mind of God, and he enables you to see things as God sees them. He enables you to see your father, and your mother, and your relatives, and your colleagues at work, and at school, as he sees them. And then gradually he shows you what he wants for them.

And you remember we shared that those are called burdens of the spirit. They are delightful things because they are given often to provoke you to pray for a person, sometimes, to provoke you to speak to a person, sometimes to provoke you to do something for a person. But the burdens of the spirit are the reflections of God’s care and concern. And you remember we shared how that was the way our lives were meant to be lived. Our lives are not meant to be lived looking out with our binochs to see, “Who should we help? Ah, there is somebody caught in a thicket. I will help them.” No, that’s not the way God’s children work, they are preoccupied with their father, and with his dear son. They’re talking things over and they sense what the concern of the Father is. So the Father says, “I’m concerned about that person.” And it just rises up in your heart.

And it’s vital you remember to pray according to the burdens that God puts on your heart. Usually, a natural thing, usually not a sensational thunder striking thing but a natural concern that comes up in your heart because you care about the same things as your Father. So you remember, we talked about burdens and then loved ones, you remember after that we talked about a miserable experience that many of us have when we allow a false spirit of Satan to come into us. And you remember, we shared how some of us become concerned about, “Well, we must be honest you know. We must be honest with this person. I must speak the truth in love.”

And somehow we let come in to our tender yielding spirits, a spirit of judgmentalism and criticism. And we begin to concentrate on putting everybody right. And we let a satanic spirit begin to poison our spirits. It’s important loved ones, to know where you’re receiving spirits from. A loved one shared with me, oh a few Sundays ago I think, that she found that in certain situations she went into her spirit became tainted with the spirit of those with whom she was present. And she was asking me, “Well, should I keep clear of them?” And I said, “Well, really if you find you can’t retain your position in Jesus above that poison, yes you should keep clear of them.”

And you should watch that you don’t let your spirit become poisoned with other spirits. The way to do it of course is always to be in touch with the Holy Spirit. “Holy Spirit, am I what you want me to be? Am I doing what you want me to be? Am I praising God and loving him the way you want me to?” So we talked loved ones about the poisoning of the spirit. And then you remember, we shared also about the thinking of the spirit, how many of us by beginning to concentrate on our own personal experience, found that our spirits instead of rising up to God in joy and delight, began to sink down.

And usually, that comes when we begin to do what you remember, C.S. Lewis talked about, we begin to try to examine our own prayers. See, are we praying right? Are we praising right? Are we loving God right? Are we experiencing victory right? And C. S. Lewis points out that the moment you turn your eyes in upon yourself, that moment you’re no longer experiencing a spiritual reality of worship. The worship has now ceased and all you’re examining is the mental track left in your own mind and emotions of the worship that was formerly going on.

And so, when you begin to look into yourself, and feel, “Do I feel Jesus presence? Do I feel like Jesus? Do I feel the love I should feel for these people?” That moment you’ve ceased to feel that love because you’ve become preoccupied with yourself and your spirit will sink. And really, the truth is, the Holy Spirit moves your spirit up. He is a good friend; he is a good protector of your spirit. If you concentrate on believing Ephesians 2:6, and submitting to God and resisting the devil, the Holy Spirit will take care of your spirit.

Your spirit is the lamp of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit will keep that lamp bright and shining if you preoccupy yourself with God. But loved ones, as soon as you look into yourself, the spirit begins to sink. And then you remember, we talked a little, well in fact we didn’t touch much upon it, but we talked about how many of us experience not a sudden depression which is sheer emotionalism. You know things that happen sudden like that, that’s just emotion and that’s something to be simply ignored. So sudden changes are just emotion, but some of us don’t experience sudden changes, we experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit and then we experience a gradual withdrawal of the full fervor and enthusiasm of our first love.

And then we meet somebody and we tell them that and they say, “Oh, yeah that’s just the ebbing of the spirit. That’s natural.” No, I mean, I’ll show you that it’s unnatural if you look at James 1:17, because you can be sure that heaven is constant. In heaven they’re not up and down. James 1:17, “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,” then these great words, “With whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” God has no variation. The sunlight that comes from God does not shine periodically, or off and on, or inconstantly, it shines continually.

The flow of Jesus’ Spirit is continuous. There is no ebbing of the spirit. And loved ones resist that belief that Satan would thrust upon you that, “Oh, it’s very natural to experience an ebbing of the spirit.” No it isn’t. The spirit continues to flow all the time. So if ever you sense an ebbing of the spirit, ask the Holy Spirit to show you, “Holy Spirit am I failing to submit to God in some way? Am I failing to cooperate with him in some way? Or, have I yielded ground to Satan through some deception?” And the Holy Spirit will show you. You don’t need to get all caught up in yourself, just ask him and he is your counselor and he will lead you into all truth.

And the last thing loved ones, that really we need to just mention, is irresponsibility of the spirit. Where some of us find our spirit acting outside the control of the Holy Spirit, and acting without really the constancy and the sense of discipline of the Holy Spirit. And here’s the way Nee puts it. He says, “Now these phenomena cause the spirit to fail in its responsibility of cooperating with the Holy Spirit. As long as it is irresponsible, victory remains impossible.”

Suppose a person rising in the morning feels as though he has lost his spirit. The enemy will perhaps induce him to think it is due to physical weariness lingering from yesterday’s overwork. Sometimes we do that, waken up, we don’t sense the spirit within us rising to glorify God and we think, “Oh yes, yes, it’s due to purely a natural cause, and of course, by doing that we accept it. If he takes the enemy’s suggestion without question, and allows his spirit to become irresponsible, he shall be stripped of all his strength to repel that day’s temptations as well as to accomplish that day’s work. He should search right away for the real cause for the spirit ought to be active and powerful enough to regulate the body and not be adversely affected by it. He should acknowledge that the spirit, having been assaulted by the enemy has become irresponsible. He must seek immediate recovery or else he shall be defeated the moment he meets anyone. Never permit the early irresponsible state of this spirit to continue until mid day for this is a sure way to defeat.”

And you know it’s just good, it’s good to see that God’s word teaches us that we are at the right hand of God and there is constancy. And if our spirits are in cooperation with the Holy Spirit we are experiencing the constancy of heaven. And if we ever fail to experience it don’t let’s get all worried, don’t let’s start charging and accusing ourselves, that’s what Satan wants us to do. Let’s simply go to the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit, have I failed either to believe my position at the right hand of God? Am I in some way not doing that? Is there some way in which I have not allowed myself to be crucified with Christ? Is there something of Christ’s death and resurrection that I’m not willing for? Show me that. Or, am I not believing this? Am I taken up with my own experience and not believing the fact of my crucifixion and resurrection and ascension with Jesus? Or, Holy Spirit is there some way in which I’m not cooperating with God, not submitting to God? Is there some way in which I have yielded ground to Satan, and deception, or lies?” And the Holy Spirit will show you loved ones. It is possible to have victory, it really is.

Now, questions loved ones because what I wanted to do was try to summarize what we’ve been talking about for maybe five or six weeks and then give you an opportunity to ask questions. You cannot change your spirit, only the Holy Spirit can, but you can fulfill the conditions for him to change it which is belief and obedience.

Question from the audience:

When you are with another person, and you sense Jesus’ Spirit moving within you in love, or even in words to the other person, but they are not willing to receive, their spirit is resisting what do you do?

Response from Pastor:

Well, it seems to me you do what Jesus himself did in different situations, you minister what is appropriate to the person at that time and you minister what they are able to receive. Sometimes, we bring in an overdrive over the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit often, in a situation like that, just wants to express love to the other person, wants to ask them how their job is going, or how their family are, wants to be interested in them. But, we often let our mind come in with an overdrive thinking we ought to witness to them in some way and so sometimes what we’re feeling is the pressure of our mind, or our soulishness on top of the spirit of Jesus. Jesus’ Spirit himself is always as Jesus was in physical body. He came to the woman, “Do you want water?” That’s what you want. He talked to her about water and then he went on to deeper things.

So usually Jesus’ spirit within us guides us to minister, to minister what we’re able to receive. Now, you are right, I think there are times when the spirit of Jesus will meet the repelling and the withdrawal that his own spirit met in the Pharisees and in others. And that is part of what we have to do, and that is part of what the spirit is able to bear in us. But I would say loved ones, more often than not we are not free enough about witnessing, we’re not free enough. We don’t see that often it’s enough just to be with another person. Often it’s enough just to be with them in joy and delight.

And many times we’re so burdened with what are we going to say to them, that our spirit is suppressed under the worry, and the anxiety that we feel. And so the very thing that we would witness to them, a joyous, liberated spirit is suppressed under a heavy, anxious soulishness. So really, there’s a lot to be said for being free and seeing, “Even if I never mention Jesus to them, if I am at this moment in the flow of God’s Spirit, if I’m loving God, if I’m conscious of my position in him, probably some of that is getting through.” And of course it is. That’s what loved ones want to see.

Question from the audience:

Often we have a something in our own spirit that doesn’t allow any freedom when we are with others.

Response from Pastor:

Because you remember, he said, “I notice you have a statute to an unknown God.” And then he went in on that issue. Often in our offices, if we were just abiding in Jesus, if we were just enjoying him, often the loved ones in our offices that’s what they want to see. They cannot believe that happiness is possible. The dear souls can’t, not constant happiness. They can believe that there are periodic moments, but they cannot believe that peace, and rest is possible. And there nothing witnesses like a person at peace and rest, really.

There’s a great line in a poem by Rupert Brooke and he says, “And gentleness in hearts at peace under an English heaven.” And gentleness in hearts at peace, there’s no witness like that, you know. People are so anxious for rest and peace, yeah. Anything else loved ones?

Question from the audience:

How do we prevent the heaviness of other people’s spirits from affecting us?

Response from Pastor:

Well it seems brother that, you remember, the teaching of Jesus wiping the disciples feet, washing the disciples feet? The teaching there is not that he was washing them from sin, but he was washing them from some of the dirt, and some of the taint of the world that they got as they walked along the world’s roads. And it seems we can do that, as we walk through the day in the office, or we walk through the day at school we’re meeting all kinds of spirits, and often the heaviness in another person’s spirit can come in. Because we have an empathy and a love for people, it can come in and we can let it in upon us and that’s why you often have to guard your spirit actually, because it’s good to empathize with people but there’s a sense in which you can empathize with them soulishly and then in that case you open what should be a check valve, or a one way valve which allows your spirit to come out but doesn’t allow other spirits to come in.

But at times we are not at that place of discipline, or of wisdom and we allow something to come in from another person and so we come home and we wonder what this weight is. And it’s interesting sorrow can often be like that. It’s very important when you go to a funeral to go to it filled with Jesus, to go to it with a high pressure system inside not a low pressure system. If your spirit is at a low pressure, the high pressure from the other people’s grieving unto death will come in upon you and you can often walk away from your funeral with a sinful heaviness in your heart.

But, oh you know, what we all need to see is it is possible, victory is possible. It is possible to live in peace and joy. And of course, one of Satan’s tricks that I’ve noticed him playing upon us is, when some of you hear that you take it as a burden and you say, “Oh, oh, I’m not living that way.” Well, that is not meant for that. If you’re not then see that it’s possible, see that the Holy Spirit can bring you into it but don’t get all uptight about it. Just go to him and say, “Holy Spirit, I’m glad that there’s joy and delight there for me and oh, I want it. I want you to show me how to live in it day-by-day.” And he will. He wants you to be in it, and that’s what heaven is. Let us pray.

Dear Father, we thank you for the position you have given us at your right hand. Lord, we thank you that it’s in your word, solid, solidly in your word in black and white, then welded into history in the death of Jesus and his resurrection. That those of us who are dead in our trespasses and sins have been raised up and made to sit with you in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Thank you Lord. And thank you, dear Holy Spirit, that you are able to make us live in the reality and the actuality of that day-by-day as we submit to you, and we resist this devil. Thank you, thank you Lord.

Pray for each other Lord, pray for tonight down in restaurant, there’ll be a good time. Pray for the musicians, that there’ll be cleanliness in the air, delight, and joy that is coming from your presence. Pray that you’ll use us to give somebody else delight and joy, and touching you through our lives tonight. And then pray for those who are going home tonight. Pray Lord, that we’ll be a delight and a blessing to our loved ones, and that we’ll live above the world tomorrow morning. That we’ll go out a foot off the ground, because of our position in you and throughout this week that we’ll meet Satan in you far above every rule, and authority, and dominion, and power. Lord, that you’ll use us this week to reveal to others what heaven is like. And we ask this, because you’ve put us there. That’s where we are at this moment. We only appear to be here on earth. This appears to be the truth, but real truth is we are in heaven with you at your right hand. Thank you Lord. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each us now and throughout this coming week. Amen.