Monthly Manna Revelation: November 2023

Apostle Dr. James Brewton

 Plug-in to Kingdom Power: The Holy Spirit  

Your spiritual life won’t work unless it is plugged in to Holy Spirit power. The Holy Spirit supplies all you need to live a lifestyle compliant with the principles of the kingdom of God.

Romans chapter 14, verses 17-18 (NKJV, emphasis added) sets the tone for this message:

17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

When God saved us, He gave us all the component parts necessary for us to experience a life of victory. Among these component parts are righteousness and peace and joy. Serving Christ or living a Christ-like lifestyle in righteousness and peace and joy is acceptable to God and approved by men.

But only as we are empowered and supplied by the indwelling Holy Spirit will we produce what our lives are supposed to produce in order to experience the kingdom lifestyle at its very best. Born-again believers should always rely on that power because it is the power that has sealed us and is the guarantee of our kingdom inheritance.

Let’s read that from Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13-14 (NKJV):

13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

The Holy Spirit is God’s supernatural gift to make experiential and real, the new beings we have become. Holy Spirit is the heart and soul of a growing, spiritually mature Christian life, and if we don’t get plugged in to Him, we will continue to stagnate and remain stunted in our spiritual development, which of course grieves the Holy Spirit. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30 (NKJV) says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

However, once we are plugged in to the Holy Spirit, we will experience the supernatural wonder of a life in which the power of God’s grace flows through the conduit of our new nature, keeping our spiritual lives tuned-in to the frequency of heaven, where we give no place to the devil (see Ephesians 4:27).    

The Holy Spirit is God’s great gift to his sons and daughters. The Holy Spirit is a Someone, a Person—the Third Person of the Godhead—and not a something or an it. Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit and the abundant, flowing life He would bring as a gift, which took place on the Day of Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension. The Holy Spirit came to indwell the followers of Christ and empower them to do the work of Christ. This same promise is made real to each born-again believer since Pentecost, at the moment of our salvation in which we are baptized by the Spirit into Christ.

Unfortunately, to many believers today, the Holy Spirit is the forgotten member of the Trinity. They know He is there, but they don’t know what He does or why He is important. Yet the Holy Spirit is the most active member of the Godhead when it comes to the matter of spiritual growth. That’s why I refer to Holy Spirit as my most treasured, best friend. He is my daily companion. He is the Master teacher of the Bible.

The Holy Spirit is the power supply of the Christian life—the pump that makes sure the water of new life within us does not stagnate, but continues to flow. Stagnant Christians don’t grow, but Christians in whom the Holy Spirit is allowed to flow freely will grow and flourish in ways they never thought possible.

The Holy Spirit is not an attitude, atmosphere or environment. He is a Person who talks, thinks, plans and is incredibly brilliant and articulate. He is the voice of the Godhead to us. John chapter 16, verse 13 (NKJV) says, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

Holy Spirit is much more than a presence, although His presence is evidence of His Person. He simply uses various pictures of Himself to reveal His workings, his nature and various qualities about Himself. In other words, Holy Spirit can enter your life like water—refreshing you. He can enter your life like fire—purifying you. Holy Spirit can move suddenly and quickly in your life—like wind. He’ll come to you the way you need Him most—Nurturer, Advisor, Healer, Financier’, whatever it is you need. The Holy Spirit is a Person.

Instead of relying on the power of Holy Spirit, many believers tend to make the carnal mistake of taking the do-it-yourself approach to acquiring the things that they want and desire. On the contrary, we need to learn that the Holy Spirit only enables us when we give up our own efforts and realize how disabled we are without Him.

The do-it-yourself approach doesn’t work in the kingdom life, because if you could make your own inner being flow with living water, you wouldn’t need the Holy Spirit. But when Christ saved us, He gave us the Holy Spirit to lean on, who has the strength to hold us up. Holy Spirit is the divine enabler for spiritual growth. This is why born-again believers need an infilling of Holy Spirit power. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18 (NKJV) says, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.”

What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Spirit, who takes over the command center of your life and calls the shots. This is crucial to successfully living the Christian life. Unlike the indwelling of the Spirit, filling is a repeated experience. This is underscored by the use of the present tense—“be filled”—as well as by biblical examples of Christians who were filled more than once. Yes, the apostles were filled many times after the initial filling at Pentecost.

After Peter and John were put into custody for teaching the gospel of the kingdom and preaching in Jesus the resurrection from the dead, the Sanhedrin severely threatened them, commanding them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus (see Acts 4)  Then Acts chapter 4, verse 31 (NKJV) says, “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”

Listen, no number of programs or religious activities can substitute for the filling of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the more of His filling you have, the fewer programs you need. So if you’re tired of trying to make your spiritual life work, if you are weary of trying to grow and gain victory only to keep tasting defeat, your problem may be a power shortage. You need to plug-in to the real power.

The Holy Spirit lives in every believer, but not every believer allows Him to express the fullness of His power. This comes through the Spirit’s filling, which opens up the fountain of living water that He wants to send flowing through us, and into our situation, for a Holy Spirit solution.

Another important question is, “How can someone be filled with the Spirit?” The prerequisites are simply confession of sin and yielding to God. The former means to agree with God about your sin; the latter means primarily dedication of yourself to God. The believer who chooses to obey in these areas is filled with the Spirit and enabled by the Spirit’s power to manifest Christ-like character.

The certainty of being filled with the Spirit may be confirmed by the believer’s faith and lifestyle. The believer must, of course, believe God’s Word that meeting the conditions will result in the filling. The Spirit-filled person will exhibit the Christ-like character described as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5, verses 22-23 (NKJV).

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Included in that list are all the vibrant, attractive qualities desired by all true Christians. The Bible makes it very clear that even though every Christian possesses the Holy Spirit, it is possible to experience very little of His power and influence in our everyday lives. The issue is not how much of the Spirit we have, but how much He has of us.

The purpose of the Holy Spirit’s filling is that He might control our lives. But Satan also wants to control us. The devil wants to rule our emotions and our passions, just as he wanted to dominate Apostle Peter and turn his betrayal of Christ into a permanent failure. Satan wants to set the agenda for our attitudes and actions, so we have to replace the wrong control with the right control. Don’t ever buy into the illusion that you are in total control of your own life. If you aren’t yielding to God, you are giving Satan permission to influence you.

So then, to be filled with the Spirit is a continuous process. In other words, keep on being filled. Just as you don’t resist Satan one time and then you are done with him for the rest of your life, so the filling of the Spirit is not a one-time event that sets you up from then on. The filling must be constantly and continuously renewed day by day.

More Christians need to understand that the filling of the Holy Spirit brings power for kingdom living—strict adherence to the laws, principles, and rules of the kingdom—that is beyond anything many of us have ever experienced. When the Holy Spirit takes control people who had no control over their passions will be able to say, “No” to immorality. When our lives are filled with the Spirit, we can witness to that unsaved friend or neighbor, and spending time with the Lord in His Word and in prayer becomes a delight instead of a duty.

The Holy Spirit is the enabler of our spiritual growth. That’s why it is important to walk by the Spirit and not according to the flesh. In Galatians chapter 5, verses 16-17 (NKJV), Apostle Paul stated the case this way:

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

While the issue in Ephesians chapter 5 is who will be in control, the issue in Galatians chapter 5 is who will win the battle. One way to know that you are a true Christian is that you feel a battle raging within you between your sinful flesh and the purity of the Holy Spirit. If you don’t feel the struggle, you had better check your spiritual pulse, because the only people who don’t have the Spirit warring against their flesh are lost or spiritually stagnant people. The Bible tells us repeatedly that the flesh is opposed to the Spirit and the Spirit is opposed to the flesh. They are diametrically opposed to each other.

It’s not that if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will never have the desires of the flesh. It’s that when the Spirit is in control, the flesh won’t have the last word in our lives. We walk in the Spirit, which gives us power to have victory over the desires of the flesh.

Walking by the Spirit is a daily process. The concept is similar to being filled with the Spirit—“in consistency lies the power.”  Physical walking is something we do every day. And there are three components to walking that we never think about.

First, walking involves a destination. Likewise, when you walk by the Spirit, you’re going somewhere. The flesh is always seeking to move us in the other direction, toward that which pleases self in opposition to that which glorifies God, so it’s important that we watch where we’re walking.

Second, walking requires dedication. Most people don’t just take a few steps and then quit for the day. Walking must continue if we are to make progress. It’s like the Holy Spirit’s filling, which must be renewed regularly. It is an ongoing process.

Third, walking requires dependence. You have to put your weight down on one leg and then another to walk. Or if your legs aren’t working properly, you have to depend on something or someone else to get you where you’re going.

What I’m saying is, when you come to this point of walking by faith and by the Holy Spirit, like your physical walk, your spiritual walk also has a destination, requires dedication, and dependence. When you learn to depend on God, you get stronger and not weaker. The Holy Spirit gives you the power to say no to Satan and the flesh when they try to trip you up or lead you astray. You discover that you don’t have to carry out the desires of the flesh and the devil because you are strengthened by the Holy Spirit’s power. Your growth will show when you walk by the Spirit.

It’s no accident that Galatians 5:16-17 about walking by the Spirit instead of the flesh is followed by verses 22-23 (NKJV), which describe the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit describes the character of God. And so, the fruit of the Spirit is not just for us to enjoy ourselves, but to give to others as well.

One of the wonderful things about staying plugged-in to the kingdom power of the Holy Spirit is that it produces immediate spiritual growth and there is no restriction on how fast you can grow or how far you can go in living the kingdom lifestyle. The Holy Spirit will take you as far and as fast as you are willing to depend on Him and willing to give up trying to live the Christian life on your own.

The faster you walk with the Holy Spirit, the faster you will grow in your kingdom lifestyle by the power of the Holy Spirit—righteousness and peace and joy are yours. This is the culture of the Kingdom. Plug-in to where the real power is, stay tuned-in to the frequency of heaven and enjoy kingdom living right here on earth!