God's Holy Spirit, Part 1

A few years back, my wife and I were on one of our anniversary trips. We were in the Cayman Islands, and we were staying at a timeshare off on a rather remote part of the island, one of the islands. And I rented some dive gear, some scuba tanks, because we've been certified since before we were married, and we did a beach dive. Just pulled up somewhere along the coast and put them on and went off, headed out for the breakers. An interesting thing happened that we had never seen before or since. On our way back, we noticed that there were some strange objects in the water. On closer inspection, they were squid, and the squid were as interested in us as we were in them. Kind of an interesting animal that sort of looks like it swims feet first. It's got a big eye looking at you. But as we watched the squid, they changed colors from purple to green to blue to red. It was such an amazing sight to see something that was essentially, you know, jelly changing colors in the water. You know, God has created some very interesting things that are perplexing the mankind. Now, science likes to think it has it all figured out, but there are some things that just stumped science as well. There's a set anophoria, and this particular animal is of, you might say, the jellyfish family because it's made up of a lot of jelly. But it's not part of the jellyfish family. In fact, it's not part of any family. It's an animal that lives in the water, has many varieties, and it's not related to anything. People who, like evolution, can't attach it to anything or figure out where it came from or where it's going. It's just one of those things that's on its own. It's part of the things called comb jellies or sentinophora. They live in the vast oceans of water. The interesting thing about this thing is it also produces some interesting light. Only it produces light in little strings that rotate, kind of like one of those banners that goes around an old movie thing. But it's in colors. Orange and blue and red and yellow and they zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing of lights. Just the thing lights up. But on closer inspection, it's comprised of only two layers of cells. Cell on the outside, cell on the inside, and jelly in the middle. There's not much there. It's very, you might call it, simple. Let's look at how simple this animal is. Well, first of all, it goes forward and it kind of has something like that. It's a mouth. And inside the mouth, there's a stomach. And there's a port for stuff that it eats that disposes of. It also has a nervous system. It has membranes. It has muscles. It has sensory organs to detect things. Like you and I have sensory organs of various types. Now, this little simple thing that produces all these strings of lights going around produces a mucus that coats its skin on the outside that protects it from other predators. Makes it unwanted. So it just happens to be coating itself in this mucus, which I think also helps it slip through the water very easily. It captures its prey by shooting glue onto them. And then it inhales them. And then it has enzymes within its system and its stomach that dissolve these organisms. Now, you might think this animal doesn't do anything relevant. Oh yes, it does. It eats plankton. It eats little tiny eggs and small larva of fish that otherwise would get out of their population size. And in fact, when these little centiphoras find so much food, they multiply rapidly. How do they multiply?

Well, this is an interesting thing. The centipora are all hermaphrodite. They're both male and female in the same animal. They produce eggs and then they fertilize them with sperm. So when there's a lot of food available and things are getting out of balance in the environment, the ocean environment, they simply multiply and clean it up. Now, another interesting thing is they grow in size to adulthood. But if the food supply wanes, they grow themselves smaller. Until the food supply returns, then they grow themselves back large again. These things can be up to three feet long or a meter long. Oh, there's more. These little simple creatures have eight rows of what scientists call swimming plates. These things that sort of hang off and then they have cilia. You know, these little cilia running up and down them. And the cilia is what wiggles kind of like that and propels them. They can go forward, pushing that open mouth. They can also go backward if they need to. If they come under attack from a predator, they can go six times their normal speed just by moving all those little cilia. They have no eyes. They have no ears. They have no brain. It's a very interesting thing that God made. Scientists have not only been able and not only not been able to put them in with any species, they can't figure out how they achieve buoyancy. How do they go up? How do they go down? How do they remain flat? They can't figure that out. It's quite an enigma. Of the 125 types of this particular animal, which is called an animal, they've only identified a hundred and the rest they're not even sure what to do with. But these things inhabit the oceans of the world. We look on another level, we go out at night, and we look up in the heavens, the pinprick holes in the color of the sky. And there in the heavens you see many things that are far away and they look small to us. We call that outer space. I don't know why somebody called it space. We tend to say space and we know what we're talking about. The space race, the outer space, I'm going to space. Space man, space cadet. Once you leave the atmosphere of the earth, space contains 99.9999999. 9999 percent. Nothing. There's nothing out there. In 99.999999 percent of space, all there is is space. Now some scientists will argue, well that's true for physical matter, you know, for any type of elements, there's nothing there. You know, when you go to space, if you want a molecule here, you've got to go like 12 feet in every direction to find another molecule, let alone anything. Some argue, though, that it's, well at least it's filled with radiation or some sort of radio waves might be flying around there. Or since you can see stars, there's obviously light flowing through it. But as far as particulate matter, there's nothing there in 99.99999999999 part of space. There's just space, room. Now the ocean is quite an interesting place where these sentinophora live. Ocean waters, if you go to the ocean, there's a lot of stuff there. How many of you like to go to the beach? Like to see the waves? Like to get on the water? Like to go to a lake? We're very intrigued by water. Water is the stuff of life, they say. Can't live without water. You've got to have water. Water is actually two invisible gases, oxygen and hydrogen. It's an odd thing when you think about the ocean. We're watching the ocean. The oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface. What is it covered with?

Really two gases that are combined. One large oxygen molecule that's six times larger than the amount of hydrogen, which is comprised in two small hydrogen molecules. The hydrogen molecules are actually a little denser with components and elements, so there's a lot of energy stored within them. But somehow you link up one... six to one ratio is what water evidently is. Six would be the water part, the one would be the hydrogen part, and yet we take water for granted as really being there. Space sort of is 99.99999% not there. The water is two gases that we kind of think is reality, don't we? Water is something that covers three-quarters of our planet. It's not something that we can say, well, I can just disregard water. Three-quarters of the planet, almost, is covered in this stuff here, and yet is this reality? Hydrogen and oxygen clear gases that, in fact, are so inert they don't really do anything, but we think of it as life-giving somehow, and we can't live without it, and yet there's no life in it. It's just water.

Water that if you put in, guess what? Comes out. Comes out through your pores. Water is an interesting thing. Your body is comprised of 60% water as you sit there. You think of yourself as the real deal. You have in your life all these expectations and goals and plans and things that are immediately important, and yet how real are even you if you're comprised 60% of oxygen and hydrogen that's in a solution that can be broken apart into two clear gases? You know, all of these things that I've mentioned can disappear in an instant. Whenever God so chooses, they can disappear in an absolute instant. If you think about your body, you are the most real thing you know, but are you really as real as you think you are? 99% of you that's listening to me right now, 99% of you is constructed of only six elements. I know we think we're very complex, and God has fearfully and made us very wonderful, but He's comprised you out of six elements to make up 99% of what you are. Those six elements are, drumroll please, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen. Your main components can be converted into gas. That's the bulk. Those are the largest. Oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The other three are carbon, calcium, and phosphorus. Now how complex do you feel? You know, when we think of the importance of your life, my life, the relevancy of where we are and what we're doing and our being, and the long-term, all the issues that we deal with, here we are as oxygen, hydrogen, some nitrogen, some carbon, calcium, and phosphorus. And that's what God has made us out of. The rest, 0.85%, less than 1%, 0.85% contains only five more elements. And they are potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. And you're done. You and I really aren't who we think we are. If you consider that 99.85% of you is made up of 11 components, most of which can be converted into clear gas that is unseen. Consider that your vision is an electronic illusion. You've heard this before, I told you this before, but we tend to think of our vision as the reality. It's not. Your vision is an electronic illusion that your entire brain cortex is working to produce and then somehow interpret by that brain. The vision process is so intensive that one part of the brain can't do it, like the hearing. The vision has to use all of the brain. It has to use all the random access memory RAM available. It has to multitask in order to produce that vision. But in order to do that, it takes the optics of the eyeball, which are painted upside down on the back, as you go through the optics, they're reflected on the back of your eyeball upside down. It then doesn't even see that. Those are transmitted into, you might say, pluses and minuses, dots and dashes, little bits of impulses that are sent throughout the brain and then are interpreted as to what is going on.

In real time, thankfully, instant time, no delay.

Hearing is somewhat similar. We have these very low mechanized catchers right here, they're just sort of a hang-on device.

They kind of channel the sound waves down into a little drum, an eardrum, and a little wafer thing, and something's down there going on and on and on. Which then, on the other side, has some kind of an electronic device that once again takes the dots and the dashes and the electrical impulses and signals and runs them to some part of the brain that then decides and interprets, Oh, this is sound, this sounds like this, it sounds like that.

And somewhere in here, the goo that you and me, the goo, thinks we see and that we hear and that we are.

You know, you and I are not really, in a sense, the individual that we think we are. Consider this, that your thought and reason is not even inherent to this right here.

If you look at what happened to Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, God simply removed the miracle of the spirit and man. And we saw that with some other, perhaps, input from God, He got out on the ground on all fours that looked like and ate grass like an ox. And afterward, His reason returned to Him, that the spirit was given back to Him. It says in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11, The point here is God has created an environment that's very complex, and He's created you, which is very complex.

At the same time, we are not the reality. We are a construct, as it were, or a construction and assembly of elements that are able to accomplish what we need to accomplish the purpose of God. Let's go to 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 5, and see this explained to us. In 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 5, He made that substance by which the world that then existed perished.

He is also able to let it be destroyed. Verse 7, But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same logos, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. There is a time when the elements are going to come apart, when this physical realm will no longer have its purpose. You and I should realize and recognize that this is not reality in the sense of any kind of permanence.

What we are, what we're created to be, what we're allowed to do here for a short time, is have a glimpse of real reality and develop a desire for real reality. To get our focus on to the reality of what the unseen world is, the elements that we cannot perceive of and by ourselves, and to strive to be part of it. We've celebrated the one-day festival of Pentecost, or the 50th day. It arrives quickly, doesn't it? Suddenly it's there. Wow, it's Pentecost. And then it's gone, just as quickly, a 24-hour period.

That particular festival won't be back for another year. We could just sort of say, okay, we'll did that. And then move back into our pseudo-reality and dig back in and forget the lessons of the spring festival season. What remains of the Feast of Pentecost? What remains of the festival of the harvest of firstfruits? The New Testament calls it the 50th day, the untranslated word from Greek, Pentecost. It's the completed plan of salvation as far as you and I are concerned. That is the terminal point. That is the jump-off, as it were.

That's the elevation into reality for the firstfruits of the family of God. It would do us well not to look forward and put all our focus on other festivals that pertain to other peoples in different times and forget that which pertains to you and me. Namely, the Passover that God lived and died so that we are freed from slavery. We're unshackled to bondage to this physical, temporary, unrealistic, corruptible universe and its terminal end.

We are freed from that. We can move from there if we choose to. Feast of Unleavened Bread reminds us that we are to follow. We should get up and follow God and His righteousness. Move with Him. The 50th day reminds us that God wants us to transform.

He wants us to upgrade into the firstfruits. And He has the Holy Spirit, which was given on that day, to help us through all the levels of transformation to make that happen. In other words, the spring feasts invite you to reach for reality and be a part of reality, something that we really do not have a part in as physical human beings.

This is going to be a multi-part series entitled, God's Holy Spirit. Today is Part 1, The Reality. I envision this going into three parts. First of all, today, take a look at the reality and what is real. Then, next time, we will come and examine how oneness with the family of God gives us the connection, the opportunity, the assistance, the relationship to then move forward. Part 3 can talk about the processes, the powers, the various things that God's Holy Spirit can be doing in you and me to advance us to the point where we can be part of reality one day, as God would lift us up at the return of His Son, Jesus Christ.

So let's take a look today at this first part, the reality of God and His Holy Spirit. Our temporary temporal universe environment exists simply because the unseen God makes it so. It is totally dependent upon Him being its creator and its sustainer. And when He ceases to be that, it will be gone in a flash. He is real. His power is real. His kingdom is real. That unseen kingdom that is right now of heaven, and we tend to think of heaven as a destination. Let me try to put in your mind heaven as a dimension rather than a destination.

If you always think of heaven as a destination, you'll always point north and you'll think something's going on up there, rather as a dimension of things that are unseen, that are made of spirit, things that are real, as opposed to the things that look real to a human being. To humans, things that are unseen are unrealistic. That's unrealistic to believe in something that is unseen. That is not credible, or it's incredible.

That's nonsense. Thus, let's get rid of God, humanity says, and believe in things which can be seen. It says in Romans 1 and verse 20, if we want to turn there, it talks about the unseen things of Him. That's reality, but we don't, again, perceive that as humans, but we are taught that by God. For the unseen things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen to us, being realized by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.

Now, that whole statement right there, that's mystifying to any human, probably including you and me, if it's not for faith. We can all walk out and look at the animals under the sea that glow, the stars in the air, the human body, water, and see different things. People can glorify themselves or glorify the creation, make a God out of it, nature. Or we can glorify God. But it takes faith for us to really then link up and then God open our mind and make a connection with the reality that right now is invisible. Go to verse 28, Romans 1. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, I don't want to use this to point a finger at anybody, let's point it at me.

Even as though I don't want to retain God in my knowledge so much as I want to go out and trim the trees in the yard, change the oil in the car, go out to dinner and eat something. And in my day I can just fill with something other than God, because that's the reality. Okay, I prayed to this God, he's unseen, I read a little Bible, now I'm going to have a real day, I'm going to go to work, I'm going to make some money, I'm going to construct something, build something, and that's our reality.

So you and I tend to not retain God in our knowledge at all times, as we go on here in verse 28. God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, to be filled with all unrighteousness.

So there's the key, you see, when we get into the materialism, physical realm, the one that's not the reality, we are not doing right. We are not associating ourselves, our minds, our deeds with the unseen reality of God, with his agape mind of love, and serving, and sacrifice, and putting those things first.

You can see the types of things that we would get ourselves into, and do get ourselves into. You can go down that list, and is there one there that you've never been guilty of, or not even maybe now, having a little trial with, a little trouble with, you see?

Verse 32, who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, that's why we're created in this particular virtual reality that we live in, so that we can die.

God is created in a type of a state, of an environment, that he can simply pull the plug on. Just pull the string. You want to know how easy it is? Water, this, all the oceans of the world, constructed out of water, have essentially the same composition of the rocket fuel that NASA uses to send missiles into space.

Six to one oxygen to hydrogen is what's in NASA rocket fuel. Six to one is the ratio of oxygen to hydrogen in water. All God has to do is pull the link and strike the match. 75% of the Earth would turn into rocket fuel. 70% of your body would turn into rocket fuel.

When you think of a lake of fire, it makes you wonder, this is temporary. However, he plans to do things. Very, very temporary.

So why are we here? Why are we really here? We are, the Bible says, like a vapor.

You know, when your body dies, immediately, 60% of it will just go into thin air because it's just water. It's going to just be dry.

We do have issues when it comes to anything of permanence. So why are we here in a state that is somewhat virtual in its reality?

Consider this. You are made up of atoms. The atoms are 99.9999999% empty. There's nothing in them.

An atom that made up all those elements that are you, again, is 99.9999999% empty. Just like space.

And all of the atoms and the particles of the atoms don't like each other in the sense that the forces repel each other so they stay apart. So there's space. You are 99.9999% space. There's not really that much there. In fact, the atoms never touch. For instance, those of you who are seated right now are not actually touching the seat you're seated on because the atoms are holding you apart. Of course, you have clothes on, which means you're also not touching your clothes between you and the seat.

When you look at the molecular world, you find there's just lots of holes in space. And we are futile in a sense. You know, the book of Ecclesiastes talks about vanity of vanities. Well, the word vanity, it's an old, old, old English word that means futility.

Futility upon futility, all is futility. That's what Solomon was saying. Or uselessness upon uselessness. Or worthlessness upon worthlessness. There's just nothing more to this human life than the opportunity to have an opportunity to think like God, participate, and be part of a reality where He lives.

Beyond that, there's just nothing there. In Romans 8 and verse 20, Paul says this. Let's move over just a few chapters here. Romans 8 and verse 20.

I'm going to read this from the King James Version. I've told you before that cotesis, the creature or the creation, is the same word here.

And I think every translation, the translators decide which is which. The King James Version, the authorized version, gets it a lot closer, in my opinion. So I'll read it from that.

Romans chapter 8 and verse 20. For the creature, the human, was made subject to futility.

Not willingly, but by reason of Him who had subjected the same in hope. You and I were created subject to futility.

This ain't it, folks. This is not it.

But we have been subjected into futility in hope.

Verse 21. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

That's why we're here. That's why we're here in such a limited form. Because we will be liberated from this state into a permanence, the children of God, into the real world.

God has made you a temporary reality. Yes, you're real. You can pinch yourself and check.

But as we've discussed, there's a certain amount of virtualness to it.

It's not all it seems. And it's that way for a purpose. It permits our existence on a plane that allows us to interact with God.

To sample Him without actually becoming Him at this point.

We don't actually go into reality. He's not stuck with us. We're expendable if we don't want to really be there.

There is something more real than our world, more real than your own life.

And it's a force of power that's infinite, it's eternal, it's the Godhead in a different dimension.

And it's one that that loving Godhead wants to upgrade us to.

It is, in 2 Peter 3 and verse 8, it is an opportunity that we have.

And each of us has to decide whether we really want it.

Let's notice just how unreal this experience is compared to the reality that God is offering you and me.

And we'll ultimately offer all humans.

In 2 Peter 3 and verse 8, But, beloved, do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.

You see, time is even an illusion. It's something that exists only for you and me. Time as we understand it.

In the real world, a day is like a thousand years, or a thousand years is a day, but for us, check the watch, check the TikTok. We think we have the reality. Mankind is being blinded from seeing this powerful reality. If we look back in verse 3, knowing this verse, That scoffers will come in the last days. There's no God. There's no other dimension. There's no higher power. They'll be walking according to their own lusts. We see full evidence of that. We can be one of those if we're not resisting that all the time. And saying, where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.

Therefore, this is the reality. This is it. This is truth. This is the real thing. Really. Well, that's a little bit short-sighted. Because as we look into the Word of God, we find that, as it says in verse 5, They willfully forget that by the logos of God, the heavens were of old and the earth was standing out of water. In verse 7, the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, same logos are reserved for fire. Wow. Things are going to change.

Things are going to move along. Mankind is blinded, but God has created an opportunity for each individual to live forever in the true reality if they want. Look in verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish. That's where this environment, that's where the physical world is going. It's going to perish. You see, there's no real reality to space.

It's empty. There's no reality to molecules that are empty. There's no reality to you. You're mostly empty. And we're going to die, and then we're going to rot, and we're going to be so much powder before it dissolves away as well. So what's the reality? Well, verse 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise. There's not much up there when you really think about it. Man's very interesting. Man has the Big Bang Theory.

The Achilles heel of the Big Bang Theory was and always will be the fact that it started from nothing and became all the universe that's out there. And science knows that's impossible. So they come up with other theories as well. There have been theories in the 90s that try to work around that with some type of a string force theory of various other elements and forces at some point. But then it ends up having the same problem.

How do you get all of this from nothing? Well, the Bible reveals a God who created everything from nothing. And this God is also going to undo this. As we see, the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, there goes our reality. Hey, somebody stole my reality! Poof! This went up like a lake of fire.

The whole thing. Gone. I don't know if you ever... Back in about 1968, the FBI came to Ambassador College and gave a demonstration. It was following the capture of one of our military ships over, I believe it was, by the North Koreans. And on that ship were a lot of documents. Lots and lots of documents.

And as the ship was being commandeered by enemy forces, all these secret documents, they had to do something with them. Well, they couldn't. They're shredding them, they're cutting them, they're trying to burn them. And what do you do? Guys are coming, they're boarding the ship. They got the documents. So the CIA and the FBI started developing some way they could get rid of documents real fast. They tried just making paper you could throw overboard in the water and it kind of dissolved.

And it came in with this one piece of paper. I had a few copies of it for years. The presenter gave me a few of them. But you could light it. You could light it and you could watch this thing burn. And as it burned up to your finger, you just threw it in the air. And it burned and disappeared. There wasn't an ash. There was no trace.

It just, it was fun to just, poof! Gone. Now, when you think about what we're seeing here, since all these things will be poof! Like, where'd our reality go? What manner of person ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. There is a coming. And people say, well, where is the promise of His coming? So I won't prepare. Because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, the elements will melt with fervent heat.

Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. I'd just like to point out over in Revelation, chapter 21, that there's a statement here in verse 5 that looks like it's from God the Father. I keep reading this passage. He sees the new heaven, verse 1, new earth coming down, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no more sea. You know what's interesting about this? God is going to change what's in the other dimension.

We're not just going to go and habit the old places, as it were. Right now, God has a throne. 24 elders, bow over the throne, sea of glass. That's been established for some time, right? Ever since He created angels and the 24, I don't know what's there. When we come here to Revelation 21, we don't see that anymore. In chapter 22, we see the throne of the lamb, the river, the streets.

It's a new place. Here in chapter 21, I see a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem. God is going to, looks like, by all appearances here, recreate where He is, what His throne is, what His house is, what His dimension is, how it's structured, and invite us into something that's very, very new. Now, here's the interesting thing. You know, Jesus Christ is the one who made all the physical realm.

But in verse 3, a voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.

In verse 5, Then he who sat on the throne, wasn't on the right of the throne, wasn't on the portable throne, he's the Father sitting on the throne, said, Behold, I, I make all things new. Here's my new Jerusalem. Here's the new heavens and the new earth. How much can we depend on that? Verse 5, Behold, I make all things new, and He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. That is reality. That you can take home. That you can believe in.

We don't know all the things that God has in mind, but evidently, the reality that He's creating for us is going to be very, very, very special.

It's up to us, though, if we really want to do it. Like Peter said, what kind of person do we want to be as we look forward to that?

You know, the distractions of our modern life draw us away from the reality of God. Connect us with something useless. Vanity. It's really not that helpful.

I told my wife this week, we're kind of encumbered with some things that are broken and need fixing and getting ready for summer camp and some other things. And I told her, I said, you know, these things are taking me away from that which I want to do.

You know, something breaks. Oh, I've got to go fix that. Figure out what that thing is. Or this thing needs fixing. That. I said, we've got these things. We've got trees. They need trimming. Now stuff's falling down outside. We've got ticks in the yard. We've got feral cats bringing ticks around. It seems like if it's not one thing, it's another thing. It just felt like moving to, I don't know, some condo somewhere. So I don't have to do all of this stuff. Because, you know, it's uselessness. I told her, it's going to burn up! And beside, you know, the car or the vehicle you're changing the oil in, it's not going to last anyway. And when God gets back, he says, what were you doing? But how do you get away from that? I mean, we have certain responsibilities. Like she said, you know, Adam and Eve, we're putting the garden to tend the garden. We've got the garden. So we do have to find a balance, and we do have to work within this realm that we have. But we ought to recognize how temporal it is, and how temporal we are.

The Logos provides us with the real facts. That's what brought us here today, the real facts. That's why we're here on the Sabbath. We don't see the holiness of the Sabbath. We know it because the Logos has put it. The Father and his Son, through the Holy Spirit, have given us a passion for the Kingdom of God.

But all this stuff can just disappear. You know, the time's going to come, and boom, the bridegroom will be here at a time when no one expects. And where will we have put our energies? Where will we have put our treasure, as it were? I know the theme for the Phoenix Women's Weekend this year is going to be about that. And I think it's a very, very valuable topic for all of us to consider. If we go to Romans 8, verse 1, Romans 8, verse 1, Spirit's reality and what it stands for, what it symbolizes, and what it's involved in is reality. The fact that it's spirit, that it's enduring, it's forever, it's eternal. That's reality. You and I are not. For the law of the Spirit of life and Christ Jesus has made me free from the penalty of the law, sin and death.

You and I have been given a wonderful opportunity here to move away from that burning up, staying here on earth, getting stuck here. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, it could not give us eternal life, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, not as a sinner, but in the likeness of sinful flesh.

Verse 4, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

We can then, through God's connection with God and through His Spirit, have a connection with reality and walk in that direction. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Is that my reality? Is that your reality? Sure seems real. Sure seems important. Sure seems like the thing we ought to really be focused on.

But those who live according to the Spirit, real, permanent, eternal things, they deal with the things of the Spirit. For to be physically minded, physics minded, you know, physical earth minded, is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Because the physical mind is enmity against God, for it's not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.

So then those who are of the flesh cannot please God. But you are not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

So we can actually be moving into a reality and as children of God, baptized sons of God, who are living in the Spirit, we are attaining reality. Even now, we have a part of our life, part of our structure, is the reality of life in the kingdom of God.

Verse 10, and if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

That is a huge gift for you and me to have this connection.

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, which dwells in you.

Therefore, brethren, we are not debtors to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

We are children of reality, and we are progressing toward the ultimate reward, goal, gift of that reality in the family of God.

Verse 15, For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by which we cry out, Abba, Father, sonship.

You were created in the image of God. You were created by God. You were placed here by God. You are of God.

You are in the likeness of God, in the image of God. And you are to be a child of God.

And God wants to bring us sonship.

And we cry out to Him, Father, in a very familiar term.

The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit. We are children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, you might say, heirs of the Elohim family, though that's Hebrew, and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Bright! Bright and shine like the sun. That's reality. Live forever. Be forever in the real new world, the new creation, which we can't see. Which seems a little bit unreal to us as human beings.

You know, the Spirit of God cannot be understood in the physical realm. In John chapter 3, verse 3, Jesus tells us about that.

John chapter 3, verse 3. Now, if you happen to be sitting here today and thinking, you know, I don't fully understand the Holy Spirit exactly, exactly what it is. I mean, I think I pretty much know, but I don't...

I mean, to put it actually into a definition. Could you write a definition of what the Holy Spirit is? We'll talk about that in a minute. But let's see what Jesus says about this. In John chapter 3, in verse 3, Jesus said, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. I think we can understand that. We can't go into that other dimension unless we're born into the divine family of God in that spirit form. Jesus answered, verse 5, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

So there's a process involved. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. We've already talked about what flesh is, what it's made of, where it's going, the pseudo-reality of our body. That's flesh. And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Verse 8, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.

How up-to-date are you on the wind and what's going on in the clear wind? I'm not. I'm surprised by it. I was out at Fenwick's here recently, and the wind was blowing this way. We got to depend on it. Next thing you know, it's still. Oh, well, that's different. Now it's blowing the other way. What's it going to do? I don't know. It's a clear day, sun's shining. We can't see the wind. We don't know what's going to happen next. Next thing you know, I had a ladder out in the yard. The ladder's spinning on one leg, doing pirouettes.

You know, what was clear air? I don't know. It was one of those dust things. It spins in the air without dust. It just had this eight-foot ladder going, vrrr, caught across the yard. That's interesting. So, if you don't understand the spiritual realm, being a physical person, there's probably a reason why. It's what Jesus is telling us here. So, everyone who is born of the Spirit is different than we are.

In verse 12, if I have told you earthly things, I have told you things from your own sphere that you think are real, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? So, right there, we begin to learn that the things of reality are not things that are going to come easily to us. They're going to have to be told to us. We're going to have to trust.

We're going to have to have faith. We're going to have to believe. We're going to have to take it as, well, I don't live there, so I take what you tell me as truth. I trust. Going into that really is possible only through a link with reality. We can't just be over here. In reality, God's family is kingdom over there. We have to have a connection. We actually have to establish a direct link with a username and a password. Think about that. This connection has to be secure. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 2, 6-16.

However, Paul says, We speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. This reality isn't real. We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, in the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew.

For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. Two totally distinct separate dimensions. Imperceptible from the human physical side. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. There is the connection. God has your name. You have a user name with a family of God.

You have a connection through the Holy Spirit. You have a password. You can go straight into the throne of God. You are part of the family. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of man except the Spirit or the man which is in him? That's the physical realm. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. We have a link with reality, a strong link. If we'll use it, it's here, it's here, it's in prayer, it's in faith, it's asking God for more of his Spirit.

For the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. So here's a question for you. Get ready with your definition. What is the Holy Spirit? Do you have an answer for that? What is the Holy Spirit? Well, is it this or is it that? Let's go to John 3, verse 6.

Once again, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, That which is born of the Spirit is spirit, You and I are not born of the Spirit, Therefore we don't know, We don't see the Holy Spirit. We are touched by it, we're impacted by it, But it's something that is not in our ability to be aware of by our five senses. It's difficult to define. In fact, God doesn't have in here a definition of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is, here's the definition.

Because first of all, it's holy, Which means it's of God. And secondarily, it's spirit. Two things that really are unique. So it's going to be very, very difficult. Somebody obviously is going to have to explain to us in human terms What the Holy Spirit is.

It's something of God and non-physical. We read in John 3, 6. Verse 8, The wind blows where it is, again. We can't really see it, so how are we going to define that? God doesn't even really define it. Rather, He uses many descriptors and metaphors To convey some of the properties of the Holy Spirit. I've gone through and tried to create a list Of some of the things that God uses To try to teach us humans what the Holy Spirit is, At least in part. And here's the list. The Holy Spirit contains, associated, or is described as Power, inspiration, light, a dove, Wind, water, oil, fire, life, breath, truth, love, A mind, the helper, the source of wisdom, The source of knowledge, and a transformer.

Was that your definition? I'm kind of saying that foolishly because I myself heard a member of the council at one of our meetings say I don't fully understand what the Holy Spirit is. I thought, whew! Glad to hear that! Glad to hear that! Because in reality, we won't and don't, But God uses all of these various things, analogies, statements, types to convey to us A sense of what the Spirit is, or at least it does. God's Holy Spirit is a very powerful source. And one thing that we saw on the day of Pentecost Was an expression of that power that was available to the apostles.

That worked in them on a physical, then spiritual level, spiritual way. Very, very powerful thing. In fact, you'll remember that in Acts chapter 8 When Simon Magus saw the power, the potential that the Holy Spirit had He offered Peter and John money and said, Hey, I want to buy this power. Question. Do you recognize that power? Have you ever wanted to buy some of it? Have a little more of it? Or do we just say, oh yeah, Pentecost came, yes, about the Holy Spirit. Now I'm moving back into my reality, I'm back to changing my oil in my old car. I'm going to, you know, blog my old body.

Do we ever really get to not only have the connection with the reality, but to use that? In Micah chapter 3, verse 8, there's an interesting statement. Micah chapter 3, verse 8, let me read that to you. But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

Here's an individual commissioned by God to do something, and he had the power from God to get that done. The apostles had the power from God to get done what they needed to get done. And then they began to tell us, hey, you've got to tap some of this power. You've got to have the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. Jesus told the apostles after his resurrection in Acts 1, verse 8, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Paul told the brethren, actually he told Timothy, he told Timothy, who was a minister, that God has this Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Do we just let Pentecost and the Days of Unleavened Bread slip away, or do we say, hey, there's a lesson here. I need to really clear the works of the flesh and really go for the works of the Spirit. I need more of God's Spirit. I need to listen to that Spirit. I need to have God engage in my life, really up this reality, and prepare to be part of the first fruits harvest at the return of Jesus Christ.

There are so many things that God does and can do through people. Even after the physical universe is gone, the Holy Spirit, God the Father, and His Son, will still be there, and so will the family be there. God and His kingdom is the ultimate reality. The Holy Spirit allows God to be in us. Of all things, you think about... You probably tend to think of God as on His throne in heaven.

We get on our knees, our Father, which is in heaven, Jesus taught us. We tend to think of Jesus Christ there on the right hand of the throne. Well, through the Holy Spirit, actually, you're the temple where they're living. But how at home are they? What are they doing? Are you following their lead? Are you listening to them? David said in Psalm 139, verse 1, You have searched me, and you know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up.

You understand my thought far off. That can be put to use. That is a real tool right there for a God who can sort of slice and dice us. Let's go to Hebrews 4, verses 12-13. I want to show you something here that really is a Pentecost type or a Pentecost induced resource. A little bit uncomfortable for some, but wow, what a resource. Hebrews 4, verses 12. For it says, the Word of God is not talking about the Bible.

Verse 13 is going to be very, very, very, very clear. This is not the Bible. This is the Logos of God. The Logos of God who said, I will not leave you orphans, but I will come to you. My Father and I will dwell in you, and make our abode in you, through the Holy Spirit. This Logos is living and powerful. Now, is that a resource that you would like?

It's possible it was enacted, implemented, with the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. In other words, it can lay you right out on the table, and it can go find any hidden sin. It can slice and dice you all the way up, exposing every little part. Piercing even the division of the soul and the spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Sorry, but this book can't do that. God does. He discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart. Now, verse 13, And there is no creature or person hidden from his sight. This is God.

But all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him, to whom we must give account. You and I have to stand before Jesus Christ and give account. And, if you looked at all that negatively, well, stop thinking that way. Think, Oh, cool! God lives in me, and He can slice and open me up and discern my thoughts, and nothing's hidden from His sight. Everything's naked and open to Him. The guy I have to give account. So, show me. Show me my sins. Help me work on things I need to grow in, so that when you come back, you'll say, Well done! Inner into eternal life. Inner into reality. That's a really, really great opportunity right there.

He said in John 14, verse 15, If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray to the Father, and He will give you a helper, that it may abide with you forever. There's some permanence. There's some reality. The Holy Spirit of God isn't just a short-term thing. It's not just a helper when we pray in the morning. It's not going to go anywhere. It's always going to be part of us. God and Jesus Christ were linked when He was on earth through the Spirit. They are one. Next time, we'll talk about oneness.

The Spirit of Truth, verse 18, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. The reality is, you might say, on the other side. It's not someplace you want to point to and get out your telescope and try to see. It's in a different dimension. It's imperceptible. But it's real. It is the permanent reality.

In conclusion, the purpose of your physical life is to sample and then choose the type of reality you want to have forever. And you get either one.

You can have this reality forever, or you can have the Spirit-Realm-World-Reality forever. This reality is going to be like that piece of paper I told you. It's going to zzzzzz, throw it in the air and boop! Gone! You can have that forever, and so can I. As it's called one place in the Bible. I believe it's Jude. The blackness of darkness forever. It just is nothing there. Nothing left. Zero. Or we can choose a different type of reality. Let's go to Galatians, chapter 5, and we'll conclude.

The one Jesus tells us is very easy, broad highway to that virtual reality that isn't really reality at all.

The other one is quite challenging.

Quite challenging. Galatians, chapter 5, verse 16.

Galatians 5, verse 16.

Here's an interesting point I'd like to make before reading that. If you pursue one reality, you avoid the other.

Pick your reality. Like the physical cosmos reality? That avoids the spirit reality. You pursue the spirit reality? That avoids the physical reality. Because there's two destinations here. One avoids the other.

He says in Galatians 5, verse 16, I say then, Walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Yes, it's a challenging thing. Challenge is good, but it's challenging. So that you do not do the things that you wish.

Verse 18. And that's a good thing because, you see, it makes us build character. It makes us really decide we really, really want the right way. And if we push hard enough and we overcome, then that really shows God that this physical creation and this temporal body and this short-term virtual reality was very well worth it.

Going on.

Verse 18. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under sentence to the penalty of the law. You're not under sentence to the lake of fire. One avoids the other. If you pursue the spirit, you're not under sentence to the lake of fire. You're not going where that's going. It's a wonderful thing.

Your body won't remain 60% water, flash into a hydrogen-oxygen mix, and get ignited.

Sorry. I like that.

Go off like rocket fuel. Big display of heat and light that Peter talks about and then nothing.

Alright. So let's go to chapter 6 and verse 7. Cross the page here. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. In other words, you can be sure that if you sow to one of these, you're going to reap. He who sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life.

Let's grasp the lessons of the Spring Holy Day. Grasp them like hang on to them. Don't just say, oh, next year we'll do it again. No, no, no. Hang on to the fact that Jesus Christ has liberated you. Hang on to him being the bread of life, that unleavened bread, and pursue it every day. And get him involved in your life.

And look at the opportunity that the Holy Spirit gives to be connected with the real reality.

We can be a first fruit in that reality. Next time, let's talk about oneness that comes through the Holy Spirit with that reality, with the family in the Kingdom of God.