David Diga Hernandez - The Holy Spirit: Stillness and Power

Father, in Jesus' name, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for Your revelation. I thank You for Your confirmation, and I thank You, Lord, that You are now ready to reintroduce the Holy Spirit to this present generation. I thank You, Father, that You have given us Your Word by which we come to understand the deeper truths over which we have become stewards. I thank You, Father, for a church that has an ear to hear. I thank You, Father, for giving me the ability to speak. I thank You, Father, for the privilege of being able to communicate heavenly truths. I believe, Lord, that You are stirring something in our day even now; the Holy Spirit Himself is making a reintroduction, and we thank You, Father, for this.

Lift your hands all across this room and say, «Jesus, I love You. Jesus, I adore You.» Father, I am so sorry for anything You’ve been working with me on. Father, thank You for Your love, thank You for Your patience, and thank You for Your mercy. I adore You; I love You. Church, He’s looking at you right now. Lift your hands; His eyes are on you. He’s watching you at this very moment; He can hear every word that comes from your mouth. His attention is on you. Just begin to lift your voices all across this room and let Him know how much you love Him. Let Him know how much you adore Him. Jesus, You are the object of our affection; You are the pursuit of our passion. Lord Jesus, You are our all in all; You are everything we need and more. Holy Spirit, we ask that You would reveal Jesus to us in a fresh, tangible, intense, magnificent way. We thank You, Father, for the Holy Spirit, and we promise to welcome Him; we promise to obey Him; we promise not to grieve Him. We love You, Lord. In Jesus' name, we pray, and everybody said, «Amen, amen.»

I remember the first time I met the Holy Spirit. I had given my life to Jesus when I was 11 years old, and I was coming out of a very severe battle with depression and anxiety. I had struggled with it for as long as I could remember. I think the first time I remember having something akin to a panic attack was when I was 7 years old. I had this cloud over me, this heaviness, this fear, this anxiety, and over time, it developed into a stronghold that took deep root in my life. I remember everything I did for God, and I put that in air quotes; everything I did in ministry and out of religious expression and ritual was done out of fear instead of love. It birthed religion but did not produce a passionate relationship with God. You see, that’s what ritual is: it’s spiritual minus spirit; it’s just ritual. I went through those motions—just the monotony of church services and ministry, committing scripture to memory. Although there was some power in that, I was getting to know the truths of the Holy Spirit, learning the truths of scripture, but it wasn’t until I gave my heart to Jesus that all of that heaviness was broken and replaced with ecstasy, joy, peace, love, and serenity. Every weakness I had was strengthened by God, and I remember thinking, «Wow, I’m actually meeting Jesus! I’m actually meeting the one who in scripture walked around and touched the sick, and they were healed; who, with one word, spoke freedom to demonic beings.» Just one word, and they would be set completely free in an instant. There was no back and forth—what’s your name? How did you get here? How old were you when you arrived? What’s your favorite color? He just spoke a word and cast out the demon. This person whom I knew historically, philosophically, and socially I now came into contact with personally, and it transformed my life. However, it wasn’t until 2 or 3 years later that I experienced something I didn’t know was available to me. It was something more, something beyond my salvation. Yes, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a separate experience from salvation. I’ll give you just one example: the scripture says that when the disciples were with Jesus before he ascended, what did he do? He breathed on them and said, «Receive the Holy Spirit.» Now, if Jesus breathes on you and tells you to receive the Holy Spirit, you will receive the Holy Spirit. He is the baptizer; He is the one to whom heaven has bestowed the authority to baptize people with fire and the Holy Ghost. So, Jesus breathes on his disciples and says, «Receive the Holy Ghost, ” yet these were the very same disciples who had to wait until Acts chapter 2 to be baptized. The scripture says that if you are a child of God and are not filled with the Holy Spirit, you are not yet a child of God. Luke tells us that if we, as children, ask our Father to give us the Holy Spirit, He will not give us a stone; rather, He will give us a piece of bread. He will give us what we request, what we ask for. But wait a minute—if I need the Holy Spirit to be a child, how can I then, as a child, ask for the Holy Spirit? It seems like a catch-22, until you realize that the reception of the Holy Spirit is different from His indwelling in you at the beginning of salvation. We look at Paul the Apostle, who was originally Saul. He was on his way to murder Christians, destroy the church, and martyr people for preaching the Way, preaching Jesus. Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus; he was knocked off his horse and experienced the glory of God. He asked, „Who are you, Lord?“ I love that he didn’t know who He was, but Jesus carried such authority that even though he didn’t know, he still recognized Him. He bore the weight of glory; the authority of heaven rested on Jesus’s shoulders. So, Jesus touched Paul’s life. Then, Ananias had a dream where God said, „Paul, or Saul, who is now Paul, is coming to you.“ He had scales on his eyes, and Ananias gave him the whole rundown. When he came before the prophet, Ananias introduced himself and greeted Saul by saying, „Brother Saul.“ So, if Saul was a brother, then he was a child of God. If he was a child of God, then he was filled with the Holy Spirit; yet, verses later, Ananias lays hands on him to receive his sight and tells him to receive the Holy Ghost. I don’t want to delve too deep into the study of why it’s a separate experience; I just wanted to survey that idea because I want to talk more about this person. Why would anyone not want to receive all that Christ died to give us? If Jesus was willing to die to give it to me, who am I to reject it? Remember, Jesus says, „The lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and blessed is the one who is not offended on this account.“