Pastor Benny Hinn Teaching: The 7 Keys to an Intimate Relationship with the Holy Spirit
Four days before Christmas 1973, I went with a friend of mine, Jim Poynter, on a charter bus trip from Toronto to Pittsburgh for a Kathryn Kuhlman meeting. It would be a day that would change my life forever!
I knew very little about her ministry, yet when we arrived at the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Pittsburgh, hundreds of people were already there, though the doors wouldn’t open for several hours.
As I stood in line, I suddenly began to quiver. Nothing like that had ever happened before. It didn’t stop. I was too embarrassed to tell Jim or anyone around me. Even when we got to our seats on the third row in the auditorium, the shaking continued. The longer it continued, the more beautiful it became.
Then Kathryn Kuhlman appeared on stage. The atmosphere in the building changed immediately. Everyone began singing, “How Great Thou Art.” Tears gushed down my face. It was a feeling of intense glory. I was literally singing the words from my soul.
In my young Christian experience, God had touched me before, but never as He was touching me that day. It was as if the waves of a gentle breeze were flowing around me.
As the evangelist began ministering to the crowd, I was so lost in the Spirit that all I could whisper was, “Dear Jesus, please have mercy on me.” I felt so unworthy. Again and again, I said the words. During the next three hours, the service may have seemed long to some, but it seemed like a fleeting moment. I saw the deaf hearing, people rising from wheelchairs, and so much more.
Then everything stopped. I prayed silently, “Please, Lord, don’t ever let this meeting end.”
I suddenly noticed that Kathryn was burying her head in her hands, sobbing so loudly that everything came to a standstill. Then, standing just a few feet in front of me, her eyes seemed aflame as she took on a boldness I had never seen in anyone before.
She began pleading as she looked out over the audience, “Please, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit.”
Even today, more than 43 years later, I can still see her eyes. It was as if she was looking straight at me.
Then she said, “Don’t you understand? He’s all I’ve got!”
I thought, “What is she talking about?”
She continued speaking, “Please! Don’t wound Him. He’s all I’ve got. Don’t wound the One I love!”
I will never forget those words. I can remember the intensity of her breathing when she said them. Those moments are etched permanently into my memory. Then she pointed her finger down at me and said with such powerful clarity, “He’s more real than anything in the world!”
At that moment, I cried and said, “I’ve got to have this!”
Within moments, the service was over. I was shaken to the core. God had used that service and that mighty evangelist to reveal His power that day. All the way back to Toronto, I kept thinking, “What did she mean? What was she saying when she talked about the Holy Spirit?”
I was totally exhausted when I arrived home, but I couldn’t sleep. As I lay on my bed, I felt as if someone was pulling me off the mattress and onto my knees. It was a strange sensation, but I didn’t resist. I had never spoken to the Holy Spirit before. I didn’t know He could be addressed that way.
Finally, I prayed, “Holy Spirit, Kathryn Kuhlman says You are her Friend. I don’t think I know You. Now, before today I thought I did. But after that meeting, I realize I really don’t. I don’t think I know You.”
Then, like a child with my hands raised, I asked, “Can I meet You? Can I really meet You?” A few brief moments passed, then like a jolt of electricity, my body began to quiver all over again, exactly as I had experienced at the church in Pittsburgh.
I was afraid to open my eyes. I felt like a warm blanket of God’s power was wrapped all over me. That continued until I finally dropped off to sleep that night. Even then, I still didn’t realize all that had happened to me.
The next morning, three days before Christmas, I awoke, and the first words I spoke to my newfound Friend were, “Good morning, Holy Spirit!”
At that instant, I knew He was there with me. As I opened my Bible, He was there sitting beside me. From that moment, everything about the Bible, my prayer life, my worship, and my relationship with God took on an entirely new dimension.
For the next eight hours I had an incredible experience with the Holy Spirit that changed the course of my life forever. Tears of wonderment and joy coursed down my cheeks.
I had just turned 21. Christmas was approaching, yet I had already received the best present ever!
Less than a year later, God would open the door for me to step behind a pulpit to preach for the first time, and in that moment He would simultaneously heal a life-long stuttering problem and give birth to a ministry that would eventually reach around the globe.
That’s why, more than four decades later, I can tell you with every fiber in my being that the Holy Spirit desires to have an intimate relationship with you. It’s possible! And it begins with a hunger to know Him—to really know Him!
Walking intimately with the Holy Spirit is not something unique to only a few passionate believers. Far from it!
In fact, I truly believe that every Christian is to be thirsty and hungry for God’s presence and power. The psalmist wrote, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God” (Psalm 32:1-2).
We must be thirsty and hungering for Him, knowing that only He “satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (Psalm 107:9). Unfortunately, we often try to fill that longing with substitutes.- Believe that the Holy Spirit Himself desires to fellowship with you. Jesus promised, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16-17). God loved you so much that He gave His Son, then sent the Holy Spirit to dwell with you!
- Accept that only God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—can satisfy your hunger and thirst.He created each of us with this longing, and He is the only Answer for that desire. Jesus Himself spoke of the first and greatest commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37). This is as it was meant to be, and this is why the Holy Spirit was sent to us. We were made for God and created with a continual longing to be with Him.
- Avoid putting barriers between you and the Holy Spirit. We are told, “Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). We are also warned to “grieve not the holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30). This means more than just avoiding a sinful life, but also means to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Romans 12:1). He is holy. The vessel that seeks to be filled with His holiness must be presented for cleansing by His shed blood continuously.
- Ask, seek, and knock. Jesus said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Luke 11:9-10). He then asks, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13).
- Experience the Lord’s goodness. “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). How can anyone develop a taste for anything—food, drink, music, conversation—if they don’t experience it? One delicious taste leads to a meal, then becomes a banquet. The same goes for “tasting” our Lord. A little develops into a desire for more, and the hunger grows ever greater. You get to know Him as you spend time in His presence. You receive more revelation of His Word as you practice His presence hour by hour, day by day! God promises to satisfy, yet each taste should lead to a greater desire for more of Him, to feast at His table!
- Welcome the Holy Spirit into your life. This goes beyond simply asking. He promises to go where He is specifically invited. In our crusades, services, and broadcasts, we sing. We consciously and purposefully invite Him. We welcome Him. And He is faithful, again and again.
- Pursue the Holy Spirit. This requires a conscious and ongoing decision to “yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:13). Many are the gifts of God, but none is greater than the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through pursuing Him, we have access to our Comforter, Helper, and Counselor. This requires an active desire to pursue Him.
Do you hunger and thirst for more of the Holy Spirit? Do you sincerely desire to be controlled and empowered by Him? Then welcome and pursue Him!
The Lord is our pattern for total dependence on the Holy Spirit, and the Lord promised that we would receive the same Holy Spirit that had empowered Him:
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:37-39)
He is our limitless resource. Consider John 7:38: “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” “Out of his belly” refers to your innermost being. The Holy Spirit is your limitless resource, an everlasting fountain. All you will ever need will be completely fulfilled and satisfied by the Holy Spirit—every longing and every desire in your life.
Jesus was anointed by and dependent upon the Holy Spirit. God the Father was with Him by the Spirit. This is crucial for us to understand. The apostle Paul preached that message, and the known world was revolutionized. Even during my lifetime, I have seen with my own eyes how Kathryn Kuhlman preached the message of utter dependency on the Holy Spirit, which is why God used her so dramatically. David Wilkerson preached that same message, and that is why God shook New York City to its core. Ralph Wilkerson preached that message, and God used him to reach Southern California. I could go on and on.
If you ever get away from depending on the Holy Spirit, you will die. Without His power, you cannot do it. You will not do it. You will fail and fall back into bondage, just like you were before you were saved. We know this because the Word of God tells us that where the Holy Spirit is (not was) “there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Only the Holy Spirit can draw you into His presence, fill you with God’s power, and guide your steps. That is why God the Spirit is here on the earth. That is why we must seek Him.
We must also seek to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others, wherever they are, whenever they are ready to receive Him.
As a crucial part of this, just before the start of the New Year, we launched Phase 1 of our new 24/7 network, which includes streaming and on-demand play of our This Is Your Day programs on our website and our mobile app. We’ve also been broadcasting live events on the network.
We are receiving heartwarming reports from people around the world who are thrilled with this new outreach, many from places where there are no churches or Christian television stations! And the testimonies of healing and salvation are pouring in.
Now get ready for Phase 2! We’ll be launching our programs soon on YouTube, Periscope, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
And in the coming weeks, we’re planning to unleash our programs on platforms such as Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire, App Store, and more!
At no time on earth has more information, content, and entertainment been available at the touch of an iPad, mobile device, or computer, and I am certain that nothing I’ve done in my past ministry—not even preaching the Gospel face-to-face and through television to an estimated 1.5 billion people—has the potential of our new Atmosphere for Healing Network as we share the Good News of salvation and the visual demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s power!
It’s not too late to be an Atmosphere for Healing Network Founders Club Member. Go to www.MyHealingNetwork.tv for details about joining your faith with mine and others around the world who are taking the healing and saving message of the Gospel to the nations.
Whether you desire to be one of the AFHN Founders or not, I’m asking you to plant your most generous seed into the fertile soil of this ministry.
Today, as never before, act on your growing hunger to have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit and to be all God wants you to be, do all He desires for you to do, and as you grow in Him, reach out to the lost and hurting around the globe with the life-saving, miracle-working message of the Gospel!
Thank you for standing with me at this crucial hour. I look forward to hearing from you today!
For the glorious and eternal cause of our precious Lord Jesus Christ,
Pastor Benny Hinn Teaching: The 7 Keys to an Intimate Relationship with the Holy Spirit
Reviewed by Muyiwa Abodunrin (Muyilight)
on
January 26, 2020
Rating:
Reviewed by Muyiwa Abodunrin (Muyilight)
on
January 26, 2020
Rating:
No comments: