All right, Revelation chapter five and look at verse number six.
Revelation chapter five and look at verse number six for me.
It says, and I beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in
the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seven
eyes which are the seven spirits of God set forth into all the earth.
Okay?
One thing that when I would read the book of Revelation that would stand out to me and
I always wanted an answer to this were the seven spirits of God, right?
So you see the lamb there has got seven horns and seven eyes.
Of course the lamb, he is Jesus Christ and he doesn't literally have seven eyes and seven
horns, okay?
So this is an illustration, this is figurative of something and it says that these horns
and these eyes represent the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
I don't know if you've ever wondered about that.
I have been wanting to preach about this but I wanted to think about it a little bit
more.
So the title for the sermon this afternoon is seven spirits of God, right?
Seven spirits of God.
So I thought there was one Holy Spirit, well there is, okay?
And I'll cover what that is shortly but go back one chapter, go to Revelation chapter
four and verse number four, Revelation chapter four and verse number four.
So we see these seven spirits, there is a strong connection to Jesus Christ, to Jesus
Christ.
It says, and round about the throne, that's God's throne, were four and twenty seats and
upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment and they
had on their heads crowns of gold and out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings
and voices and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which are the seven
spirits of God.
So hold on, wasn't that the eyes and the horns, yeah?
But also these seven lamps that are burning around the throne of God, they also represent
the seven spirits of God, all right?
Go back one chapter, go to Revelation chapter three and verse number one, Revelation chapter
three and verse number one, we're looking at the seven churches once again here but
specifically the church inside us and these are the words of Jesus to the church, in verse
number one it says, and unto the angel of the church inside us write, these things save
he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know thy works that thou
hast a name that thou livest and art dead, okay?
So Jesus Christ he has the seven spirits of God, all right?
So again that's strong correlation to Jesus Christ.
Now go to chapter one, Revelation chapter one and verse number four, Revelation chapter
one and verse number four and we have John the apostle speaking about how he received
this revelation directly from God and it says in verse number four, John, to the seven churches
which are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and
which is to come, of course Jesus was, he died and he came and is still coming and from
the seven spirits which are before his throne, okay?
So you can't miss it.
You're reading the book of Revelation chapter one, chapter three, chapter four, chapter
five, seven spirits of God and I remember just reading my Bible and scratching my head
about that and going I want to one day understand what those seven spirits are.
And if you sort of look online, you look at different YouTube channels and preaching,
you're probably going to find a variety of explanations of what the seven spirits are.
I think you guys know the kind of preacher that I am.
If I'm going to preach on something, I don't want to just give you my strong opinion about
something.
Now in times, you know, as I'm preaching something, yeah, you know, I will give you my opinion
from time to time but you know, 99% of my sermon is based on the word of God, something
that we can read clearly, right?
And so I don't want to just give you my, I don't want to just come up with crazy ideas
and it could be this, it could be that but you know what, I don't think God puts these
things in there for not like, just so you can wonder what they are.
There's got to be an answer to these somewhere, you know, in the Bible and if you can, please
now go to Isaiah chapter 11, chapter 11, Isaiah chapter 11 and what we're going to see in
Isaiah 11 are the seven spirits, okay?
The 11 spirits of God in Isaiah chapter 11 and verse number one, you say well, all the
way to Isaiah, Pastor Kevin, you know, we're going to some random passage in the Bible
just to find where seven spirits might be mentioned, well no, actually you'll see that
it ties in neatly with how we saw that strong correlation to Jesus Christ in the book of
Revelation, it says in Isaiah chapter 11 and verse number one, and there shall come forth
a rod out of the stem of Jesse, hey, that's a prophecy of Jesus and a branch shall grow
out of his roots.
Now look at verse number two, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, okay?
That's spirit number one.
The spirit of wisdom, that's two, and understanding, that's three.
The spirit of counsel, that's four, and might, that's five.
The spirit of knowledge, that's six, and of the fear of the Lord, that's seven, okay?
So you've got these seven spirits mentioned here in Isaiah chapter 11 verse one in context
of a prophecy speaking of Jesus Christ and how the spirit of God was upon him, okay?
So just as a reminder, those seven spirits that are mentioned, the spirit of the Lord,
number one, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel, the
spirit of might, the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord.
Now you say to me, what are the seven holy spirits out there, Pastor Kevin?
Is that what you're saying to us?
Well, can you now go to the book of Luke?
Go to Luke chapter four.
So it is a bit of a Bible study today, okay?
So what do we see?
We see that Jesus, when he came on the earth 2,000 years ago, that the spirit of the Lord
shall rest upon him, including all these other spirits will be upon the Lord, okay?
You say, well, where in the Bible in the New Testament does it say that Jesus was walking
around with seven spirits?
Well, it doesn't say that, okay?
Luke chapter four verse number 16, Luke chapter four and verse number 16, remember we're looking
at Isaiah there, and I could have gone to another passage in Isaiah, but I just wanted
to show you this.
In Luke chapter four verse number 16, famous story of Jesus going into the synagogue, he
opens up the scriptures in Isaiah, and he starts reading, and he starts to read about
a prophecy of himself.
In verse number 16 it says, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and
as his custom was, and that's what I love about Jesus, his custom was to go to church
basically, okay?
To hear the word of God.
His custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
Hey, so he was involved in his church, all right?
He wasn't just a spectator.
He didn't just sit there, or who can serve me, he goes, no, I'm going to go serve others.
I'm going to go and be the Bible reader.
Praise God for all of you guys that get involved in different ministries of the church, but
look at verse number 17, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet, Isaiah,
and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the spirit
of the Lord is upon me.
Okay, so that's kind of what we saw in Isaiah 11, but this is a different passage in Isaiah
11.
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor.
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord.
So you can see the ministry of Christ, he was able to accomplish his ministry by the
power of the spirit of God that came upon him.
Okay, the Bible doesn't tell us that the seven spirits came upon Jesus.
We just see the spirit of the Lord came upon him, and then when we look at Isaiah chapter
11, yeah, that spirit of the Lord actually has seven attributes to it, okay?
And then it says here in verse number 20, and he closed the book and gave it again to
the minister, and sat down, and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened
on him, and he began to say unto them, this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Okay, so big news.
He speaks up this prophecy of Isaiah, speaking about himself, how the spirit of the Lord
will come upon him, okay?
Now if you can, also same chapter, go to verse number one.
Look at verse number one.
Because before this event, we see in Luke chapter four verse number one, it says, and
Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the spirit into
the wilderness, okay?
So Jesus, not only was the spirit of the Lord upon him, not only was the Holy Spirit allowed,
given him the power to do the ministry of his work, okay, remember when the Lord, when
Jesus Christ came to this earth, he emptied himself of all his power and his authority,
and look, he had a reliance on the Holy Spirit, you know, he came to set an example for us,
as we also need the Holy Spirit in our lives to do, to be able to accomplish works for
him, and so we see in verse number one that Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, okay?
So not only can we be people that have the Holy Ghost in us, but we can also be people
that have the fullness of the Holy Ghost in our lives, okay?
The fullness of the Holy Ghost in our lives, and so what I'm trying to teach you guys Brethren
is this.
There are not seven Holy Spirits.
This passage is not telling us that there's God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy
Spirit, God the Holy Spirit number two, God the Holy Spirit number three, God the Holy
Spirit number four, wait to number seven, no, no, no.
The Bible tells us in 1 John 5, seven, for there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one, okay, these three
are one.
Oh man, seven, three, one, which one is it, Pastor Kevin?
It's all of them, okay?
It's all of it, but the seven spirits of God is the one Holy Spirit, okay?
It's the one Holy Spirit, and as we saw Jesus Christ being a fool of the Holy Ghost, our
commandment in Ephesians chapter five verse 18, it says, be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, okay?
So what does God want for us in our Christian life?
To be filled with the Spirit, you know what that means?
That means we can go about our Christian life not being filled with the Spirit, okay?
So we can actually fill ourselves with more Holy Spirit, with a greater power, with a
greater measure of his Spirit, you know, we've been commanded to be filled with that Spirit,
all right?
Not to give in to things like alcohol, hey, if you start to become addicted to stuff like
that, substances like that, that's going to remove that great measure of the Holy Spirit
that you can have in your personal life, okay?
So what is the seven spirits then?
Well, I believe, based on all of this that we can see here, being filled with the Spirit,
Jesus having the fullness of the Spirit, Spirit of the Lord coming upon him, these kinds of
things is that the seven, you know, number seven in the Bible many times represents completion,
okay, represents perfection.
I believe what we're seeing with the seven spirits of God there is the fullness of the
work of the Holy Spirit that God can do in your life, okay?
And so what I believe we can get out of this is that, yes, you're saved, yes, you have
the Holy Spirit in you, but you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, okay?
The Holy Spirit can do seven times as much in your life if you're filled with the Holy
Spirit than just having a single measure of the Holy Spirit in your life, okay?
Now, if you can now turn to, go to Exodus 31, please, go to Exodus 31, verse 1.
This afternoon's sermon is going to be, like I said, a bit of a Bible study, okay?
We're going to be looking at a few things here.
Exodus 31, verse number 1, because what I want to show you now, you know, even though
I want to just basically remove any thought in your mind that there are seven individual
spirits, okay?
No, all seven spirits are, is the Holy Spirit, okay?
It's the fullness of the work of the Holy Spirit that it can do in your life, because
when you look at Exodus 31, verse number 1, we're going back to the time when God instructs
the Old Testament Israelites to build the tabernacle of God, all right, and he's given
instruction of how to do things, and you know, God gives us very detailed instruction of
how they were to build things, but it's not enough in the Bible.
Like, you couldn't take everything that you see in the Bible and build your own tabernacle.
You're still going to have to come up with your own opinion, your own thoughts, how something
needs to be understood in light of the instruction that God's given us, how you're going to design
certain things.
That still comes from the mind of a man that God has put into place to build this, and
in verse number 1, it says, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by
name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of her, of the tribe of Judah, now notice this, and
I have filled him with the Spirit of God, praise God, how has he filled him?
Look, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.
And so what we see there, this man being filled with the Spirit of God, also had the Spirit
of wisdom, also had the Spirit of understanding, also had the Spirit of knowledge that we saw
in that list of seven spirits of God, okay?
And so you can see, it's just the one Spirit of God that gives this man the ability for
all these other things, and of course to accomplish the work of building the Tabernacle.
So you know, Bezalel was like a site supervisor.
He was overseeing the construction of the Tabernacle, and the Lord was empowering him
to come up with the minor details of constructing that Tabernacle.
Now if you can please turn to, I'll get you to go to Ephesians chapter 1, go to Ephesians
chapter 1, and so the rest of the sermon, we're going to be looking at the seven spirits,
the seven spirits, because I want you to be filled with the Spirit of God.
I want you to experience the fullness of the Spirit of God, okay?
I want you to be able to accomplish great works.
I want you to not just be satisfied with the measure of spirit that you have today, but
desire the fullness of the Spirit of God in your life, because you'll be able to do more
for the Lord, all right?
And so in Ephesians chapter 1 verse number 12, let me just remind you what the first
spirit is, the Spirit of the Lord, you know, the Holy Spirit.
So we have this very, sorry, general explanation of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord,
but let's understand that when you are saved, you have this first measure of the Spirit
in your life already, okay?
Because it says here in verse number 12 that we should be to the praise of his glory who
first trusted in Christ, okay?
So if you believe the Gospel, you've trusted the Gospel, you've trusted in Christ, verse
number 13, in whom you also trusted, after that you have heard the word of truth, the
Gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed you were sealed with the
Holy Spirit of promise, okay?
So you're saved, you know what?
You're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
You cannot lose the Holy Spirit out of your life, okay?
You've been born of the Spirit and the Lord dwells in your body through that Holy Spirit,
okay?
That first measure, every saved person has this measure of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
Look at verse number 14 which is, that's the Holy Spirit, which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession and to the praise of his glory, okay?
So the Lord's going to leave the Holy Spirit, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit and that's
the earnest of your inheritance.
What that means is that's the down payment.
That's the deposit that God's put into your spiritual life, okay?
He's deposited the Holy Spirit, that's the down payment and then at the rapture you're
going to have the completion, you know, the complete salvation that you can experience
with those new resurrected bodies, okay?
So the first thing I want you to understand is that every saved person has this measure
of the Spirit of God at bare minimum, okay, at bare minimum.
In Romans chapter 8 verse 11 it says, but if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus
from the dead dwell in you, wow, the Holy Spirit dwells in you, dwells like he lives
in you, okay?
The Lord lives in you, the Holy Spirit.
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken or make alive your mortal bodies
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you, okay?
And so that's the promise, the promise of the resurrection, that first measure of the
power of the Spirit of God in you is that you're sealed, that you're promised eternal
life, resurrected bodies and you can have that immediately as soon as you're saved,
you get that, okay?
Immediately as soon as you're saved, you get that.
Now unfortunately that's where a lot of Christians stop, okay?
You might go door to the soul winning, you get someone saved at the door, hey, they're
saved.
They believe the gospel, they call upon the name of the Lord, they're saved.
That means they're sealed with the Holy Spirit, okay?
But as we saw in our first Peter chapter 2 that when you're saved you're a baby in Christ
and you need the sincere milk of the Word of God.
But here's the thing, if somebody gets saved at the door and they don't read their Bibles,
they don't come to church, they don't listen to good preaching, you know what?
They're saved, they're going to heaven but all they're ever going to experience in life
is that first measure of the Spirit.
They're not going to be able to accomplish great things for God, okay?
They're not going to be able to do more things for God until they start to fill their lives
with the Spirit of God, all right?
Now if we can now look at the next Spirit, Spirit number 2, the Spirit of Wisdom.
What book are you guys in?
Ephesians?
I'll get you to turn to, yeah, go to Luke chapter 2, go to Luke chapter 2 and verse
number 40.
The Spirit of Wisdom.
Now what is wisdom?
We've seen a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of knowledge and a spirit of, what was the other
one?
Understanding, that was the other one, yeah, understanding.
Now when you read your Bibles and I understand this because I do it as well, many times you'll
see these words, understand, especially in the book of Proverbs, wisdom, knowledge, understanding
and you're just going to, you know, think it's all one and the same but they actually
play different parts in your spiritual growth, okay?
They play different parts in your walk with the Lord.
What is wisdom, okay?
Someone that is wise is someone that not just has knowledge but puts it to use.
He exercises that knowledge that he has, okay?
Have you ever met people that are very knowledgeable?
They might know a lot of facts, they might know a lot about history, they might know
a lot about economics but they're like a bum, they're like a waste, okay?
I mean they've got so much knowledge, they've learned so much, you know, I remember going
to high school and there were certain people that just, you know, killed every test, you
know, 100 out of 100, A plus every time but when you talk to them, it's like how are you
so smart?
You know, you seem to be making stupid decisions all the time.
You seem to just not understand the real world.
You have no street smarts about you.
You know, somebody can be full of knowledge but not have wisdom because they've never
taken that knowledge and put it to use.
They've memorised, you know, all the history, all the kings, exactly when they rained, they
smashed all the tests, wow, this guy's going to be so successful in life but in life they
just, they don't do anything, they don't accomplish anything in life.
You know, it's like when you go door to door sewing, you know, people will say to you,
I'm educated, I can't, I don't believe in God, oh why, oh, you know, I've got four degrees.
You're not wise.
Yeah, great, you have knowledge, you've learnt something but you're not wise.
Wisdom is putting that knowledge or exercising the knowledge, all right?
Now in Luke chapter 2 verse 40, I love this about Jesus, okay, because it says he and
the child grew, speaking of Jesus, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the
grace of God was upon him.
Did you know Jesus had to fill himself with the spirit of God as a child and learn, gain
knowledge, understand and also have wisdom, okay, to the point where we know he gets to
a point where he's 12 years old and he's able to show his wisdom with the lawyers and
the doctors of the law in Jerusalem, okay?
So what do we learn there?
That Jesus, even he as our example, had to be someone who was able to have that spirit
of wisdom in his life, a greater measure of the spirit of God upon him, hey, we need that
as well.
If you want to be successful, if you want to put into practice the things that you learn,
you have to, that's how, that's wisdom, you know?
And the way you do that is ask God to give you that spirit of wisdom.
Lord, I've learned so many things, I go to church, yes, I see, I know the gospel, but
I haven't given the gospel to anybody yet.
You know what you need?
You need wisdom.
You need God to help you put that knowledge to use.
The Bible says in James chapter 1 verse 5, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him.
Listen, God wants nothing more than for you to have wisdom, for you to take the knowledge
that you received and know how to apply it in the real world, know how to apply it in
the spiritual warfare that you're warring.
In James chapter 1 verse 23, it says, for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer.
And that's Christianity, so many Christians are like that, full of knowledge, okay?
They're a hearer of the word, yes, they have absorbed, they've heard, wow, I know so much.
But then they don't use it, they don't show it, they don't do the works of God, all right?
They don't teach other people, they don't go soul winning, they don't sing praises
to God, they don't offer their sacrifices to God, they've learned so much doctrine,
but what purpose if you're not going to use it?
You know, using that knowledge is the wisdom that God wants you to have.
You know, we ought not to be hearers only, but doers of the word.
And brethren, if you need wisdom, ask God, okay?
I think if you've been coming to this church almost three years, I think you've got a lot
of knowledge, okay?
I think you've been learning a lot of things.
I just don't know how often you guys are putting it into practice.
I tell you why, because I don't always put it into practice, all right?
I have the same failings as you guys sometimes, and I don't always put everything into practice.
But listen, putting it into practice is the spirit of wisdom that God wants to give you.
And so in order for us to have the fullness of the Holy Ghost in our lives, we need to
have some wisdom, put that knowledge into practice.
The third spirit is the spirit of understanding.
The spirit of understanding.
Well, this is a little bit different, right?
Before you can exercise that knowledge, you need to gain that knowledge, okay?
And the spirit of knowledge is coming.
But before you have that knowledge, you must have the spirit of understanding, okay?
Understanding is the comprehension of information.
The comprehension of information.
And listen, brethren, you need to understand when you go, you're going to somebody that
probably has never heard the gospel before, they're not familiar that salvation is by
grace through faith alone, not of works, okay?
And you, you need the spirit of God.
This is why you need to go and praise the Lord.
This is why you need to, before you go so, when you ask God, give me your spirit.
You know, give me the fullness of your spirit, because you are going to be used by God to
help somebody understand.
That person also needs a spirit of understanding to help them comprehend what it is that you're
teaching, you know?
And you need to be able to understand, hey, this person is lacking in this area, I'm not
going to skip over, I'm going to park right now on that point because they haven't fully
understood it.
Before we go on, we're just going to make sure that's clear, oh, now he gets it, I'm
going to move on.
You also need the spirit of understanding of how other people are responding, and that's
why we need the fullness of the Holy Ghost in our lives, you know, understanding, you
know?
And here's the thing, brethren, you know, I can read my Bible, many times I'm reading
through things in my daily Bible reading, and I'm like, I don't get that right now.
I can't understand that right now, you know?
And for whatever reason, at that point in time, God has not given me the spirit of understanding.
The Holy Spirit has not given me that measure at that point, okay?
But what I find quite often, especially when I'm going to get up to preach, I get that
spirit of understanding.
I ask God, God, listen, I'm going through a difficult chapter right here, I don't fully
understand it right now, but Lord, I need to prepare, I need to feed the people of God,
can you help me understand?
Can you help me understand so I can help others understand what's in that passage?
And you know what, when the Lord steps in and does that, he gives me another greater
measure of the spirit of God in me, where I can understand and I can then share that
information with others, alright?
Now if you go to, well I'm just going to read one Psalm, actually go to Psalms, go to Psalm,
we'll turn to a few Psalms now, go to Psalm 32, Psalm 32, so it's still on the spirit
of understanding, which was the third spirit mentioned, the spirit of understanding, which
is the comprehension of information.
Psalm 32 and verse number 8, it says, this is God speaking to us, he says, I will instruct
thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye.
That's awesome, God's going to help us along, but look at verse number 9, be not as the
horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bits and
brittle, lest they come near unto thee.
You know what he's saying, don't be a dumb animal, I want to help you, I want to help
you understand.
Brethren, listen, when you're reading your Bible and you're struggling with some passages,
just ask God, can you help me understand?
Can you help me comprehend what it is that I'm reading?
Don't let me be this dumb horse or this dumb mule, right?
Because listen, the dumb animal, which doesn't understand, it needs to be directed by a man
and also it can be dangerous, lest they come near unto thee, it's kind of like the idea,
you know, these are big creatures, if they come near, they can hurt you, they can bite
you, they can kick you, okay, because they lack understanding, right, they're a dumb
animal.
And brethren, I don't want you to be a dumb animal, I want you to have the spirit of understanding.
And there's something about being ordained, I've shared this before, where all of a sudden
I had a greater understanding of the Scriptures, I can't even explain it to you.
You know, when I was sent to start this church and I was ordained as a pastor and I sat down
in my Bible to prepare my first sermons, I'm like wow, this is a lot easier for me to understand
than it was before.
It's not that I didn't have the understanding before, I was still preaching, I was still
learning things, but all of a sudden, the Bible's clearer to me, okay?
And I know this sounds some crazy Pentecostal, you know, miracle that took place, I'm just
telling you the truth.
I could open my Bible, I could understand it so much better somehow, okay?
And I truly believe God gave me that spirit of understanding, you know, since becoming
a pastor.
You know, a greater measure of that spirit, you know, we're commanded to be filled with
the spirit of God.
Yo, in Psalm, please go to Psalm 1, Psalm 1, we're going to move on to the next spirit,
spirit number four, which is the spirit of counsel, the spirit of counsel.
Now what is counsel?
Counsel is advice or an opinion or an instruction requested from another.
So if you have knowledge in one area and I'm kind of lacking a bit in that, I'll go to
you, hey, can you help me, can you explain this to me?
If I do that, I'm seeking your counsel, right?
I'm trying to dig into the information that you have to help me along.
And of course, the Holy Spirit is the source of counsel, right?
The spirit of counsel, that is something that the Holy Spirit can do for you.
You know, you need some help in life, you're struggling with some area, you need some counsel,
maybe you don't have somebody that you can turn to, hey, you go to the Holy Spirit.
You ask God to counsel you.
Look at Psalm 1, verse 1, Psalm 1, verse 1, it says, blessed is the man that walketh not
in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of the sinners, nor siteth in the
seat of the scornful.
So listen, you know, one thing that we can do incorrectly is that when we need help in
life and we need some to overcome certain difficulties, what we should not do is go
and seek counsel of the world, okay?
The world doesn't even know how to get saved, okay?
You know, the counsel that you should be seeking from is coming from his word.
Let's look at verse number 2, it says, but instead of seeking counsel from the world,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Listen, brethren, if you need counsel, before you ring me, now I don't mind if you ring
me, I don't mind, you know, I honestly don't mind, but before you do, please open your
Bible, okay?
Ask God, God, I need counsel, Lord, I need understanding, and just open your Bible and
start reading, okay?
Just start reading, you know, not just your normal, you know, five minutes a day or whatever
it is that you're doing, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, you know, spend some time, dedicate an hour
of your time in the Bible and say, Lord, I need some help, can you give me a message
that I need from your word?
You know, go and delight yourself in the word of God, alright?
Please go to Psalm 119, Psalm 119, and while you're turning to Psalm 119, I'm going to
read to you from Acts 20, verse 26, which says, Paul speaking here, wherefore I take
you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men, why is he pure from
the blood of all men?
He says, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
What?
All the, you know what, this book, it's all the counsel of God.
You know what that means?
Any counsel you need is going to be here, it's all of it, okay?
You're not going to get some additional extra biblical counsel, and if you do, if it's extra
biblical, it's not counsel that you find from the Bible, let me tell you straight away,
that's not counsel from God, okay?
That's counsel from man or counsel from some devil, who knows potentially what it might
be, okay?
But the Bible is telling us very clear that his word is all his counsel, okay?
And my job as a pastor is to preach all the counsel of God.
Pastor, do you do counseling?
Yes I do, okay?
Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, midweek service, I'm doing counseling.
I'm doing counseling right now, okay?
You need some counseling, brother, I'm right here for you.
Let's preach the word of God, let's preach the counsel of God, and you're going to find
the answers that you need from his word, okay?
The counsel of God.
Here in Psalm 119 verse 24, Psalm 119 and verse number 24, it says, thy testimonies
also are my delight, and my counselors, Pastor Kevin, do you have counselors?
So many, so many, I've got six and six of them right here in my hand, okay?
You know, six, six, is that what the Bible says?
I need a counselor, you know, pastor, can you be my counselor?
Man, you've got so many counselors right here.
Open the word of God, spend time in his word, see if you can find the answer there.
Don't you think God wants to help you along as a Christian?
And if you have doubt, God will not do that for me.
God won't help me if I just start reading his word and give me the answers, then he's
not going to give it to you, because you're not asking out of faith, okay?
God can step in and give you the counsel that you need.
The Bible says in Proverbs 11, 14, where no counsel is, is the people fall, but in the
multitude of counselors, there is safety.
So there is safety in the multitude of counselors, but what did we read?
That hey, his counselors is the word of God, okay?
So look, I'm not against you going to someone, like I said, with more knowledge, maybe more
experience and asking for help, but I honestly feel like you're doing yourself a disservice
if you haven't first gone to God.
You first haven't gone to the word of God, you know?
If you're having problems with your children, go wives to your husbands, husbands to your
wives and say, honey, let's just open the word of God, let's see what he says, maybe
the instruction is here, the counsel is here, yes it is because it's all the counsel of
God, and listen, if you've gone through the whole Bible, I'm not going to be able to give
you anything else, right?
I mean, anything that I could potentially give you would be of a lower quality than
what you could have just found in the word of God, okay?
The counsel is in the word of God.
Now listen, brethren, if you're still struggling, yes, go to somebody that has the knowledge,
go to someone that has the experience, but don't forget the first step, go to your many
counselors that you have in the word of God, alright?
Proverbs 19 verse 21 says, there are many devices in a man's heart, nevertheless, the
counsel of the Lord, that shall stand, that shall stand.
So what happens if you go and you speak to somebody in this world or even to a fellow
Christian and they give you counsel, and the Bible says, you know, they give you counsel,
yeah, divorce him, and the Bible says, don't get divorced.
Okay, what are you going to do then?
It says there, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.
You're always going to be better off following the counsel that God has in his word.
It's always going to be better off for you in the long run, okay?
Can you please turn to Romans chapter 8?
Go to Romans chapter 8 and verse number 26, Romans chapter 8 and verse 26, the spirit
of counsel.
I love how the Holy Spirit is our counselor, you know, and one of my favorite passages
in the Bible is Romans 8 here in verse 26, which says, likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities, for we know not wish, for we know not, sorry, let me just start again,
verse number 26, likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what
we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered.
Okay, this is what's wonderful, that we don't know what necessarily what we should pray
about, we don't always know what we should ask of God, so I need a counselor to help
me.
Yeah, the Holy Spirit's that counselor.
He's going to help you ask in the right way, okay, verse number 27, for he that searcheth
the hearts knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God, okay?
So the Holy Spirit steps in and he counsels our prayer, he intercedes in the prayer, he
makes sure that what we're requesting is correct in the eyes of God, it's amazing, it's amazing.
He can't mess up prayer, if you're praying in faith, if you're praying in sincerity,
you're praying in the Holy Spirit, he will counsel you, he will guide you, and even guide
your prayer if it comes wrong out of your lips, okay?
And then look at verse number 28, and we love verse 28, but it's together with what we just
read, right?
It says, for we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to his purpose.
So what things work together for good?
The Holy Spirit as your counselor, stepping in, making sure you're getting exactly what
you need out of your prayer, okay?
So we have number four, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of counsel.
Number five is the spirit of might, the spirit of might.
Now if you can please go to Ephesians, go to Ephesians chapter three, the spirit of
might.
Now the first thing I thought of when I thought about the spirit of might, I thought of a
Bible character.
Can someone answer who that might be that I was thinking about?
Samson, immediately, right?
The spirit of might, right?
I'll just read to you a couple of passages in Judges, Judges 14 verse 5, it says, then
went Samson down and his father and his mother to Timnath and came to the vineyards of Timnath
and behold a young lion roared against him.
Oh man, how would you go against a lion, all right?
Verse number six, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he rent him as
he would have rent a kid and he had nothing in his hand but he told not his father and
his mother what he had done, okay?
So the spirit of the Lord came upon him, specifically the spirit of might, okay?
He was able to mightily defeat that lion and said he just tore that lion apart, just like
a kid, like a lamb or something like that, like a young goat that was destroyed, you
know?
The fact that it was a lion meant nothing to Samson if he had that spirit of might from
him that comes from the word of God.
Later on in Samson's life in Judges 15 verse 14, it says here, and when he came unto Lehi,
the Philistines shouted against him and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,
there it is again, and the cords that were upon his arms became his flax that was burnt
with fire and his bands loosed from off his hands, so he just burst out of the bands that
were holding him down.
And then it says in verse number 15, and he found a new jawbone of an ass and put forth
his hand and took it and slew a thousand men therewith.
That's impossible, absolutely.
It's impossible in the might of men, okay?
But he was given the spirit of might, okay, Samson.
He had a great measure of the spirit of God, all right?
And you're wondering, man, yeah, I can't wait, Pastor Kevin.
You know, when is it that I can take on the lion?
When is it that I can take on the jaw of the, what is it, yeah, the jawbone of an ass and
slay a thousand men?
When can I do that, Pastor?
Well, I mean, we're here for the first sermon, all right?
We're not soldiers fighting this government, right?
We're not trying to take down some foreign nation here, brethren, all right?
But we've got a spiritual warfare, right?
So we learn these lessons about Samson.
We see the spirit of might.
We can see how effective it was.
You know, he was able to do the impossible.
He was able to do more than what a man could do, you know, because he had the spirit of
might upon him.
Now, you're in Ephesians chapter 3.
Look at verse number 6.
Ephesians chapter 3 and verse number 6, well, if you have the spirit of God at a full measure,
you will also have the spirit of might in you.
Verse number 16, it says that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory,
to be strengthened with might by his spirits in the inner man.
Okay, now, yes, Samson was given the spirit of might in the outer man, right, in his flesh.
In his strength, he was able to defeat the enemies.
Well, you know what?
We can be little Samsons inside in the inner man.
God wants to give you that same strength, the same might in that inner man.
Drop down to verse number 20.
Look at verse number 20.
It says, now, unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask
or think.
Now, can God do exceedingly abundantly more than we ask?
Yeah, God can do that.
We know that.
We know that God can do great things, but how does he do those things?
According to the power that worketh in us.
Okay, so how can God do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think?
Well, through you, through the power that God gives you, through the might of the Holy
Spirit that comes in that inner man.
You can accomplish great things.
You can be a powerful warrior for God, spiritually speaking, okay?
You can go to heaven one day and just be just as strong as Samson, but on the inside, okay?
Accomplishing great works for God.
And then it says in verse number 21, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ
throughout all ages, world with that, and amen, okay?
So that power is available across all ages.
You know, in the time of Samson, yeah, that same spirit, the same spirit of might is available
to you in 2020.
And brethren, I'm going to read to you from Micah chapter three, verse eight, okay?
Micah chapter three, you know, if you can, I'll get to turn to, go to Colossians for
me.
You go to Colossians.
Micah chapter three in verse number eight, and Micah, of course, a prophet of God, a
preacher of God, and it says, but truly, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord
and of judgment and of might.
He says, look, I've got that might.
I've been given that strength by the Spirit of God, and then it says this, to declare
unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
So when Micah was given power, was given might by the Spirit of God, you know, he didn't
go out and slay a thousand men, okay?
He didn't go and destroy a lion, you know, tear that lion to pieces.
The strength that came upon Micah, the might that came to Micah was to preach to Israel
to show them their transgression.
So what do you learn there?
So as a preacher, and preachers, remember this, when you get behind the pulpit, I want
you to have the fullness of the power of God.
I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with his power, to fill you with his might,
so you can be a powerful preacher, okay?
So you can preach to the people of God here, you know, and expose the sins that we struggle
with, yeah, preach the truth, you know, you can do that in the might of God.
That's how God's might can work in your life today, okay?
Now in, you guys are in Colossians, Spirit number six, the Spirit of knowledge, the Spirit
of knowledge.
So you have the Spirit of wisdom, which was the exercise of that knowledge that you've
attained.
You have the Spirit of understanding, which is to be able to comprehend and gain knowledge,
okay?
But now we have the Spirit of knowledge, which is the attainment of truth or facts, okay?
So you've attained truth or facts, things that you've learned, that's now knowledge
that you have, okay?
That's knowledge.
And I'm going to read to you from Proverbs 18 verse 15, it says, the heart of the prudent
getteth knowledge, then it says, and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge, okay?
So of course the wise needs knowledge, he seeks out knowledge, right?
That's what wisdom is, it's the exercise of that knowledge, right?
You want to keep, you know, living as a wise man, but it says the heart of the prudent
getteth knowledge.
The prudent is someone that is, prudent means to be careful, you know, and you know, we
ought to be people that desire knowledge.
We ought to be people that want to get some smarts into us, okay?
You're in Colossians chapter 1 and verse number 9, Colossians chapter 1 and verse number 9.
You know, I don't believe in this, you know, we homeschool our kids, alright?
We homeschool our kids, and I think homeschooling is wonderful.
I think you can give your children so much knowledge, but you know what else is out there
that kind of competes with homeschooling?
It's called unschooling, unschooling.
You know what that is?
I don't teach my kids anything actually, alright?
They don't go to school to get knowledge there, which is good, okay, I understand.
I don't teach them anything, I just let them run around in the backyard, alright?
And if they play with a caterpillar, they might be interested in the caterpillar and
they can read about the caterpillar if they want to.
And they can look at the stars and they can, wow, look at the stars, and if they're interested
in getting knowledge of the stars, they can get, listen, that's not how kids work, okay?
Kids need a parent to give them the knowledge, so hey, sit down and learn something, okay?
Look, yes, kids are also inquisitive and yes, they'll do their extra learning and the things
like that, but you know, unschooling basically teaches you, hey, you can just be as dumb
as you want and just learn the things you want as you go along.
You know, God does not want us to be dumb people.
God doesn't want us to just waste our time.
He wants us to use our time to gain knowledge, alright?
Look at Colossians chapter 1 verse number 9.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire
that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
We see all the spirits there, the understanding, the wisdom, the knowledge.
Look at verse number 10.
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
You know what?
God wants us to increase in knowledge.
That's for the rest of your life.
Keep learning.
You know, keep getting some smarts.
Go to the Bible and learn some new things.
You know, retirement age isn't the time for you to stop learning.
Retirement age isn't really even the time for you to stop working.
You're going to destroy your body and your mind by just giving up.
Alright, cool, I can enjoy the things I have.
God wants you to keep learning, okay?
Christianity is not about being a country bumpkin.
Not knowing, I don't know, you know, I know God saved me.
You know, I know I'm on my way to heaven.
I don't know anything else in my life.
Hey, we ought to be people that love knowledge.
You know, God's given us a world.
He's given us the environment.
You know, he wants to learn about his creation.
The more we learn about his creation, the more you're going to learn about him.
Hey, the more we learn about the Bible, we're going to learn about him.
All knowledge that we gain, all true knowledge that we gain helps us understand God even
more, helps us to get close to God even more.
We should not be ashamed of knowledge, okay?
It's something, in fact, that God wants us to have.
We should be smart people.
Christians should be the smartest people.
I mean, you should be the smartest people in this world, you know?
We should have more.
We should understand more, you know, than what this world is able to offer.
You know, a Christian homeschooling mum with a spirit of God, you know, she needs a spirit
of knowledge.
She needs a spirit of understanding.
She needs a spirit of wisdom to be able to teach her kids and train them to be, you know,
a godly seed, to be a generation that can serve God with their lives, you know?
It's not just for men.
It's not just for preachers.
It's for all of us.
We need to gain knowledge.
The last thing I want you guys is just to be this dumb, I don't know, who cares, you
know, life, you're wasting your life.
You're not having that fullness of the spirit of God in your life.
Now, if you can please turn to Ecclesiastes, turn to the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old
Testament chapter 12, and spirit number seven is the spirit of the fear of the Lord.
The spirit of the fear of the Lord.
And I didn't, you know, growing up as a Christian, I just, I didn't understand the fear of God.
I didn't understand what that meant.
I was like, well, we can't feel, you know, fear is a sin.
So I thought, right?
And we can't really fear God.
Maybe that just means obey God.
I don't know.
I'm just trying to come up with answers, right?
Because I had bad preaching, I had bad teaching.
No, fear in God is fear in God.
Fear in God is trembling before God, okay?
And it's wonderful.
I can't believe that I neglected this part of my life for so long.
I'm glad God has given me now a spirit of the fear of the Lord, okay, because it's so
useful.
But what I'm going to read to you is in Luke 12, chapter four, sorry, Luke chapter 12,
verse four, the words of Jesus, he says, And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid
of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that, no more that they can do.
But I will forewarn you, whom you shall fear, fear him which after he have killed have power
to cast into hell, yea, I say unto you, fear him.
So what's the benefit of fearing God?
You're going to stop fearing man, okay?
You're going to stop fearing death, people that can hurt you, people that can harm you,
people that can even push you to death, you're going to lose that fear because you have a
greater fear for the God that cannot just, does not just put people to death, but can
cast that soul into hell.
There's a healthy fear of God.
I'm going to one day stand before God with my sins, be cast into hell.
I don't want that.
That will drive you to salvation.
I need a saviour.
And brethren, I'm telling you, when I get up behind the pulpit to preach, I don't know
if I have experienced more fear in God than I do.
And I think you should too.
I think you should have a great fear of God and say, God, I'm scared, I'm afraid, I tremble
that if I preach wrongly, I'm going to be feeding the people of God some misinformation,
you know, some bad food.
I don't want to do that, Lord.
Please help me.
Give me that fear of God because I'd rather fear you than fear man, you know, I'd rather
fear you, Lord, than worry about offending a man.
And so, you know, the fear of God motivates us to walk in his ways, to please him, to
serve him.
You're in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 13, Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse number 13.
And if you know this book, this book was written by King Solomon, right?
King Solomon had it all.
He had all the riches, he had all the powers, king of a great, rich, powerful nation.
They had basically a time of peace, there was no war.
This guy took a thousand wives basically, right?
Seven hundred wives, three hundred concubines.
I mean, he had it all, he had everything that a man may think he wants in life, okay?
And then he writes this at the end of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12 and number 13, and again, very
famous words.
He says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
So once I've worked out what life is all about, you know, was it about the riches,
was it about the possessions, was it about the prestige, let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Boy, if you can just start there, fear God, if you fear God, you're going to keep his
commandments, okay?
That is the whole duty of man.
Verse number 14, for God shall bring every work into judgments with every secret thing,
whether it be good or whether it be evil.
And so this is of course the Bema Seat, the judgment seat of Christ, when as Christians
we stand before God and we're judged by the works that we did for the Lord.
That ought to bring a little bit of fear into you, to stand before Jesus and if you've done
nothing for him, you've not even preached the gospel once to somebody, you know, you've
not made an effort to get somebody saved, you know, you've been skipping out on church
and you're not given the best that you can for God.
It ought to bring you some fear that you're going to be able to stand before God and not
have the works to show him, right?
He's going to judge you every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.
Now some people misunderstand that, they think that evil there is sin, sin is evil but not
all evil is sin, you know, evil is also things that are harmful or just bad, not productive.
And so all of us basically, you know, whether, you know, I'm not talking about sin here because
sin has been paid for in Jesus Christ on the cross, paid for in his body, but hey, there
are works that we do that have eternal lasting consequences, you know, eternal value laying
up in heaven.
There are other works that we do that just have no value, things that we waste our time
on, you know, things that, you know, we chase hobbies or, you know, just things that really
just do not matter in the scheme of things, they're not going to matter in eternity.
Those things are just, you know, you're going to be bringing those things before God and
he's going to send his fire, judgment of his fire upon those things.
Hopefully you have plenty of precious stones left, plenty of gold and silver in heaven
for yourself.
Hey, but if it's wood, hay and stubble, it's going to be burnt up by those fires, okay?
Those things that were evil.
And so listen, just the, just a thought here, you know, King Solomon, who was a powerful
man with great riches, everything you think a man would want and he says, you know what,
I worked it out, you got to have a fear of God and what drives me that fear is knowing
that one day I'm going to stand before judgment, before Jesus Christ and, you know, give an
account of the works that I did for him.
And so that is the spirit of the fear of the Lord.
And so I hope that's given you an understanding of what the seven spirits of God are.
Let me just go through them once again.
Number one, the spirit of the Lord, two, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding,
four, the spirit of counsel, five, the spirit of might, six, the spirit of knowledge, seven,
the spirit of the fear of the Lord.
And I want you, brethren, to experience the fullness of the spirit.
I want you to be filled with the spirit.
I would love nothing more than for you to be able to experience all of these things
that we just covered in your walk with the Lord.
Hey, but you need to ask the Lord, you need to serve him, you need to come to church,
you need to learn, you need to read your Bibles, you need to pray, you need to do all those
foundational things that you know you need to do as a Christian and ask the Lord, petition
him to give you the fullness of the spirit.
You know, Jesus Christ came, he set that example, he had a fullness of the spirit, yes, he had
to grow in wisdom, he had to grow in some of these things as well, he set us that example
that we should follow after him.
Let's pray.