The Holy Spirit, Longing for Jesus Return, and Night and Day Prayer

Transcription

1 The Holy Spirit, Longing for Jesus Return, and Night and Day Prayer I. INTRODUCTION A. Right now we are seeing houses of prayer emerge across the earth. The expression of these houses of prayer varies from places set apart for citywide prayer to more intentional prayer expressions in local churches. One of the characteristics of this prayer movement is the joining together of worship and prayer. Prayers are not longer only being spoken, they are also being sung. B. At the same time we are beginning to see a growing longing throughout the earth for the return of Jesus. The church is slowly returning to the desire for the return of Jesus that we see in the New Testament. Both the dramatic increase in houses of prayer in the earth and the growing desire for the return of Jesus are the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in the earth. C. Much of the church has carefully studied the glory of Jesus in His first coming, but we need revelation of all the Scripture says about Jesus. 1. There are aspects of the glory of Jesus that are only revealed in His second coming. If we neglect this subject we do not know all there is to know about Jesus. This is why the Bible gives us information on this subject. 2. Night and day prayer is part of the Father s desire to make the beauty of Jesus known and the Father s plan is to use human beings who agree with Him about the beauty of Jesus to declare that beauty in the earth. 3. We need revelation and insight into the beauty, glory, and majesty of Jesus so that we can declare His beauty. D. In John 16, Jesus gives a prediction about the work of the Holy Spirit that is often overlooked. He predicts that the Holy Spirit will give the church insight into the beauty and majesty of Jesus related to His second coming. This insight will fuel night and day prayer in the earth. II. JOHN 16 A. In John 16, Jesus describes the work and activity of the Holy Spirit. In this passage He highlights specific aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit that strength us to build the House of Prayer.

2 1. This passage occurs just before Jesus crucifixion. In this passage, Jesus is preparing the disciples for what will happen after His suffering, death, and resurrection. PAGE 2 2. Jesus pours out His heart as He thinks about all the challenges the disciples will face as they seek to build the church and accomplish the mission the Father will give them in the nations. 3. As Jesus thinks about His disciples, He begins to describe the work of the Holy Spirit that will strengthen the disciples and enable them to overcome after He leaves. B. First, Jesus tells the disciples that something powerful is coming. He suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension is going to release something powerful and special for them. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:7 ESV) 1. After Jesus ascension, the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out on the church, and the gift of the Holy Spirit is so powerful that Jesus tells the disciples that life after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will be better than what they experienced ministering with Jesus without the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 2. What will be available for the followers of Jesus after His ascension is more powerful than what Jesus disciples experienced during this time with Jesus. This is an incredible promise for the church because it means the power of God is available in every generation. C. After promising the Holy Spirit, Jesus begins to describe the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 12 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 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. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:12 15 ESV)

3 PAGE 3 1. Jesus promises us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. He will not speak on His authority, but whatever He hears He will speak. In verse 14 and 15 we are told that the primary thing the Holy Spirit will speak about is the beauty and majesty of Jesus. 2. Jesus tells us the Holy Spirit will speak whatever He hears about Jesus. We know that Jesus does not glorify Himself (John 8:50), so the things that Spirit hears are the things spoken by the Father about His Son Jesus. The Holy Spirit listens carefully to everything the Father says about Jesus and then speaks that to us so that we can have revelation about Jesus. 3. We can see here that the Father loves to talk about the return of His Son. It s one of the main things He talks about. This is the same thing we see in Revelation 1:1: 1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, (Revelation 1:1 ESV) a. Revelation 1:1 tells us that the most dramatic events in history, the events of the end-times, are ultimately all about the revelation of Jesus because this is the Father s main objective. b. The events of the end-times are actually a gift from the Father to the Son and the book of Revelation tells us that the Father wants to share information about those events ahead of time with the church. c. How is that information shared? It is shared primarily in the Word of God, but we need the work of the Holy Spirit to hear and understand what God has spoken. d. The Holy Spirit takes what the Father has spoken in Revelation 1:1 and makes it come alive in our hearts. e. The Father speaks it, the Holy Spirit hears it, and it is given to the church. He releases revelation of the Word of God so that we can hear what the Father is saying about His Son. 4. The Holy Spirit brings us into the Father s conversation about Jesus future. He gives us a seat at the table. We are invited into a holy conversation in the Trinity. We are treated as part of the family of God by hearing the conversation that the Father is having with the Spirit about the future of His Son.

4 5. Jesus tells us specifically that the Holy Spirit will also declare to us the things that are to come. One of the main activities of the Holy Spirit is giving the church insight and revelation into what is to come. He does this because the things that are to come will end up glorying Jesus. 6. The Holy Spirit takes all the things that belong to Jesus and declares them to us. The Bible tells us that Jesus will rule the nations. It tells us that every knee will bow to Him. We are told that He will judge all the nations. These are all aspects of who Jesus is that we want to be familiar with and so the Holy Spirit will reveal this to us. PAGE 4 7. By speaking about Jesus future, the Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus. As we better understand the end time plan, the more glorious Jesus is to us because it is ultimately the day of His revelation and His glory (Revelation 1:1). D. Jesus knew that the church would need revelation of the things to come in order to survive and thrive. There are at least three key reasons the church needs that revelation: 1. The revelation of what is to come in God s redemptive plan gives the church courage to persevere even in the fact of persecution and oppression. 2. The revelation of Jesus return is a core component of the gospel message. The gospel without the return of Jesus simply does not make sense. The gospel is a message that God has a King and that King is coming to transform the earth. 3. Without the revelation of Jesus and the glory of His return, we cannot know all there is to know about Jesus. There are parts of who He are that are only revealed in His second coming. III. THIS IS A POWERFUL MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WE DO NOT WANT TO OVERLOOK. A. The foundation of the end-time prayer movement is the beauty and majesty of Jesus. Because of this we need the ministry of the Holy Spirit to reveal to us every aspect of Jesus beauty. We need to the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what the Father says about Jesus. We need the Holy Spirit to give us understanding of the things that are to come.

5 PAGE 5 B. When we think of the ministry of the Holy Spirit we tend to think about supernatural miracles, healing, and other works of the Holy Spirit. These works are all powerful and all important for the building of the church, but we when Jesus was facing the cross and thinking about His disciples the activity of the Holy Spirit that He emphasized was giving the church revelation of the things to come. C. Sadly we tend to completely overlook this ministry of the Holy Spirit and we have very little expectation that He will speak to us through the Scripture and reveal to us the things that belong to Jesus and the things that belong to Jesus future. D. As we labor to see night and day prayer and worship established in the nations, we must make room for this ministry of the Holy Spirit to be restored in the church. Jesus specifically emphasized it because He knew that we would need it. It will be critical in the days ahead. E. We need a fresh commitment to pursue all the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. In John 16 Jesus tells us that we need revelation of the end of the age and of His return. Jesus knew we needed this information. The Father knows we need it, so He speaks about it to the Spirit, and the Spirit knows we need it, which is why He is so eager to give it. If it is this important to the Trinity then it should be important to us as well. 1. For the church to come into maturity we cannot neglect any aspect of the Holy Spirit s work in the church. We need power for preaching. We need power to heal the sick. We need miracles and all the gifts of the Spirit. We need the Spirit to release conviction on human hearts at the preaching of the gospel. 2. We also need the Spirit to reveal what the Father has to say about the second coming of His Son. Jesus knew that we would need this and we need it far more than we know. A few have promoted this subject in an unbiblical way, but that should motivate us to pursue this subject in a biblical way for the strengthening and maturity of the church. F. Our pray should be Holy Spirit empower me for ministry; empower me to heal the sick; empower me to preach the gospel, but most of all reveal the beauty of Jesus to me. Tell me what the Father is saying about Him and reveal to me the things about Him that are to come. Let me see what the world has not yet seen so that I can prepare for that day.

6 PAGE 6 G. The Bible predicts that the Lord is going to fill the earth with singing about the return of Jesus before Jesus comes (Isaiah 24:14-16; 42:10-12). These singers are going to take what the Father has spoken about Jesus and sing about it. The Holy Spirit will release revelation so that they can sing the new song (Isaiah 42:10; Revelation 5:9) and declare what the Father is going to do in the earth. The Lord is also going to anoint these singers with power to declare the things that are on His heart. 1. The Holy Spirit shares this holy conversation between Father and Son with the church so that the singers can proclaim it in the earth through anointed songs. 2. These songs will touch the hearts of men and women and bring them into agreement with what the Father thinks and feels about the Son before the Son returns.