Treasures of the Kingdom

Divine words require a divine teacher for the message to be revealed in our spirits (1 Corinthians 2:14). Without the Spirit’s work of revelation among believers, the truth crumbles into facts, figures, and academic pursuits — the letter without the Spirit. But the Holy Spirit, our Divine Teacher, breaks through to the very soul of man, overcoming these limitations to teach us in our heart of hearts. Christian professors can train and equip you to teach, but you need more than Jesus University. It is the Holy Spirit who gifts and empowers a teacher with life giving Living Water flowing out from the depths of his soul. This is the work of the Holy Spirit and this can only happen by the power of the Spirit. Without the anointing and empowering work of the Holy Spirit, your ministries and service come to little more than a puff of smoke from an expiring candle.

After Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, He sent the promised Holy Spirit to finish the work He began. The Holy Spirit taught them from the inside out. He caused the Word to take root in them; He drenched their hearts with remembrances of what Jesus taught, and by the power of the Holy Spirit for the first time the Word came to life, poured into them like springs of Living Water. And the rivers flowed out of them by the same power of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit gifted and empowered them for the ministries in His Kingdom and the church.

Take hold of what you have, treasure it and build on it. Move forward. If your faith begins and ends with Christmas, I encourage you to treasure this miraculous time, build on it and go forward. If you’re still walking with Jesus of the Gospels, I say, “Amen.” You treasure Christ’s redemptive work on the Cross? I say, “Hold fast.” Grasp hold to what you have and go forward. If you glory in the power of the resurrected Christ, I encourage you to cherish this promise, rejoice and be glad. Now step up to more of what Jesus calls you to. If you delight in the power and authority of our Ascended Jesus, I say, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Yet He holds out to you even more than this for He sends His Holy Spirit to gift and empower His people for the strengthening and building of His church, for the advancing of His kingdom one soul at a time until every tribe, nation, people and tongue sees His glorious salvation and glorifies His Holy Name. We cannot understand or attend to all that we are called to do, using all the good gifts the Bridegroom has for His bride, until we move forward into all that He holds out to us in His open hands. He longs for us to take hold of these precious gifts and promises by faith and move forward in Him to reach new heights. “He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze” (Psalm 18:33-34).

This is the work of the Holy Spirit! This is God manifested throughout all the earth, alive and actively ministering through His people — the church — TODAY! Although we don’t bump into the man who was a carpenter from Nazareth on our hometown streets, we have His Holy Spirit indwelling us, gifting us, empowering us, and demonstrating His active, living presence in real and tangible ways, in every sense as real as if Immanuel stood among us in bodily form ministering in power and might. He is as close to us as the air we breathe, the very “glue” that holds our being together.