Oral Roberts - The Holy Spirit in the Now II

The Holy Spirit In The Now 2

By Oral Roberts

Copyright 1974 By Oral Roberts University Tulsa, Oklahoma Revised 1981 All Rights Reserved

My Personal Word To You

Friend, I believe you are in for another spiritual learning experience that will enhance your relationship with Christ in a way you have never dreamed possible. This study on The Holy Spirit In the Now II comes out of my personal experience and many years of prayer and study of the Word. Before you begin to read these lessons, I would like for you to get your Bible. I believe you can more successfully study this series of lessons with your Bible at your side.

And as you study, keep in mind that this series of lessons was taught to a class of approximately 2,500 people. These lessons are stenographically reported and only slightly edited in some instances to make a thought clearer, or to put it in more logical sequence for the person who was not there to hear it, but will be reading it. This is volume two of a three-volume series.

I would like to tell you about the miracle that brought this class about because it is now a part of the established curricula at Oral Roberts University.

It was through the generosity of my good friend, the late J. Arthur Rank, outstanding British businessman, member of the Parliament, and Methodist layman, that the Oral Roberts Universitys first endowed academic chair on the Holy Spirit was established in the fall of 1972.

I first met Lord Rank in 1967 while speaking at a luncheon of leading Christian laymen and businessmen in London. At the end of the session, as I was shaking hands with various individuals, I was introduced to him. Although I had heard his name many times and knew of his Christian witness, this was my first time to see him in person. At that time Lord Rank was in his late seventies but he stood tall and straight, with a clean look in his eye and strength and character stamped upon him. I knew I was in the presence of a man of God. I took his hand and said, "Lord Rank, Im honored to meet you. Then a curious impulse came upon me and I added ... "I pray that God will fill you with the Holy Spirit.

Two years passed before I saw Lord Rank again, at which time I learned he had received the Holy Spirit. He then shared with me how this had transformed his Christian life and how Jesus Christ had become so real to him through the Holy Spirit. He said, "I feel as though Jesus were walking by my side.

Because of his great interest in the Holy Spirit, Lord Rank determined to establish this chair at ORU. However, on the day he was to sign the papers, he passed away. The trustees of his estate honored his desire and set aside a generous sum for the next five years for this purpose. I am honored to be the first professor of this course on the Holy Spirit.

As you study these lessons, I pray that God, through the Holy Spirit, will reveal Jesus to you in a way more real than you have ever experienced before.

Chapter 1, You Can Have Gods Power In You

Suggested Scripture reading for this lesson: Acts 2

Have you ever crossed the Continental Divide in the United States? Its located in the Rocky Mountains. When the rain falls at that precise spot one part falls on the western slope and goes downhill to the western part of the United States. The rest falls on the eastern slope and goes downhill to the eastern states. The Continental Divide physically divides the continental United States.

This is a term that I think of in reference to the Day of Pentecost. The Day of Pentecost is the great "Continental Divide of the New Testament. On the one hand we have pre-Pentecost and on the other hand, post-Pentecost.

Before the Day of Pentecost we have the life of our Lord in the flesh. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, by a miraculous conception, and anointed by the Holy Spirit at the River Jordan under the ministry of John the Baptist (Matthew 1:18; Matthew 3:13-17). There we see the holy dove coming and lighting upon Jesus head. Then He is both led and driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness (Matthew 4:1; Mark 1:12). There He enters a terrific struggle with the devil, a conflict with satanic forces that continued throughout His life and throughout the life of the Church, even today.

Our Lord went through this tremendous struggle and conflict which ended in the devil offering Him three great temptations. He overcame these temptations with the same things He gives to you and me today:

(1) The Word of God

(2) His faith in God

(3) The power of the Holy Spirit

Our Lord was in the flesh. He was born of a woman. He received His humanity from her body, but He received His divine nature from God. This is what we call the mystery of the Incarnation God in the flesh. God came down in the form of a human being. JESUS CHRIST WAS SO MUCH MAN IT WAS AS IF HE WERE NOT GOD YET HE WAS SO MUCH GOD IT WAS IF HE WERE NOT MAN.

You see, Jesus was so much God it was, in a sense, as though He were not human. Yet He was so human He entered into our humanity so deeply it was as if He were not God. He was God-man and He called himself Son of man, Son of God. These were the dual natures, yet the divine part was extremely limited in our Lord. The human part was brought out much more. Why? Because for Jesus to relate God to us He had to enter into our humanity. He had to sit where we sit. He had to feel what we feel. He had to experience what we experience. He had to know what it was like.

Also, as we look at Jesus in His human form we really see God. We cannot see God with the naked eye but as we study the Bible particularly the four Gospels and the book of Acts which are the sources of original information about the earthly life of our Lord we see that Jesus is trying to reflect God. He is trying to show us what God is like so that we dont have to be scared and frightened of God as so many were in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ in a sense, took God and brought Him down on a human level. He brought Him down on a sense level so that we who are born and live on a sense level can better relate to God.

Jesus Christ voluntarily limited himself. That is...

He laid aside His original glory and power which He had with the Father before the foundation of the world.

He laid aside His eternal riches.

He became subject to time, to space, and to death.

Our Lord voluntarily limited himself to time to about 33 years.

He limited himself to space ... to a certain geographic area on the surface of the earth around Palestine. Jesus could only be in one place at one time, the same as you as a human being are subject to being in one spot at one time.

He limited himself and became subject to death, the same as we are, that He might look it in the eye, meet it face-to-face, submit to it, conquer it, and take away its sting. He arose from the dead, and He shows us that we too will be resurrected and will live forever.

Jesus entered human flesh. He did that by the Holy Spirit. He said that He did nothing except by the Holy Spirit. He didnt come in His own name. He said He and His Father are one (John 10:30) and that He could do nothing of his own self (John 5:19,30). He did all that He did all of the miracles by the Holy Spirit.

Near the end of His earthly life Jesus began to talk a lot about the Holy Spirit, saying:

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you (John 16:7).

Jesus said, "Its better for you ..Those disciples, having lived on the sense level of being able to see Jesus with the naked eye, to hear His word, to touch Him with their hands, to live with Him on the sense level, were distraught. They had built their lives around the physical, outward being of our Lord. They had never fully grasped the Christ-nature of Jesus Christ.