10 best ways to know the Holy Spirit. In this video I'll share with you some of the practical
things you can do today to get to know the Holy Spirit who lives with us as Christians,
takes residence in us. Your partnership, your relationship with the Holy Spirit
is going to be life changing. It's going to be transformative, to your ministry, your family,
and so I want to share with you that today. Now I just released a book called "Host The
Holy Ghost," where I dive in a little bit deeper and equip people to get to know the Holy Spirit,
as a Person, to have a relationship with Him. You know I've struggled with that personally.
I grew up in a Pentecostal home, and I knew about tongues but I didn't know about the Holy Spirit.
I didn't have a relationship with Him, and though I read some books, heard some messages
but it wasn't real to me until it was. And about 9 years ago, things just changed, and so my desire
is that you experience the same thing and go even further for the glory of God. So let's dive in.
First don't use the Holy Spirit as a power, seek Him as a Person. John 16:7, Jesus says:
Jesus already presents the Holy Spirit as a Person.
He speaks of Him as a He. He speaks of Him as a Helper. He speaks of Him as somebody who will take
the place of Jesus. So in your world view, remove the idea that Holy Spirit is someone you use. No.
The Holy Spirit is someone you know. It's someone that you can have a relationship with. Now does
the Holy Spirit have power, gifts and anointing? 100%. But He's a Person. He's a divine Person you
can have a relationship with, and so don't chase the gifts, get to know the Holy Spirit. It's good
to desire gifts. The Bible says these signs will follow you. But when you begin to seek power,
you can miss the Holy Spirit because you will see the Holy Spirit as a means to an end instead of
the end goal. To know Him, to be led by Him, to be filled by Him, to be convicted by him. That's
the whole point of the Christian journey. The second thing how to know the Holy Spirit better,
is remember that the Holy Spirit wants to have a relationship with you, more then you want to
have a relationship with Him. This is such a freeing thought but it's not just the thought,
it comes from the Scripture, 2 Corinthians 13:14. So Jesus has grace, God the Father, we see has
love and the Holy Spirit offers us communion. Meaning He wants to have this fellowship. He
wants to have a relationship. He is the initiator, not you. He wants that. He waits to be wanted,
He longs to be desired and He wants to have that with you. That's so incredible. Now you may
disqualify yourself right away, and say, "But I'm not good enough. I'm not holy enough. I'm just a
human. I'm just like you know an average person." But the Bible says, "with you all." That's you
and I included, and that's so encouraging because this relationship we want to have with Him, when
we realize He wants to have that with us more, He desires that. It's so encouraging. Number three.
Feed yourself on the holy Scriptures if you want to know the Holy Spirit. 2 Timothy 3:16, it says:
The Holy Spirit, He moved on the holy men, as they gave prophetic words, as they wrote the Scripture.
So if you want to know the Holy Spirit more, feed on the holy Scriptures. You know sometimes when
people want to get to know how I think, what I believe in or how you know my world view
operates. All you have to do is read my books, and watch my videos and you'll pretty much have
me figured out. Now God is bigger than that, you know God is more than the Bible. He doesn't fit,
you know universe can't fit, He's so big and so great. But you can know His ways, you can know how
He thinks, you can know what He values. He clearly discloses in the Scriptures what frustrates Him,
what grieves Him and what brings Him joy. What He delights in. God doesn't hide that. He's not
some distant clock-maker God who set the world in motion and removed himself from the world,
watching it from a distance or busy with something else. He wants to be known and the way you know
Him is by prioritizing daily diet of reading, meditating, memorizing and studying the holy
Scriptures. Number four communicate with the Holy Spirit In your heart. Proverbs 20:27, it says:
Every day talk to the Holy Spirit. I like to say like this. If you want to
walk in the Holy Spirit, talk to the Holy Spirit. You don't have to do it verbally,
you can do it in your heart. When you wake up, as you go throughout your day, ask for help,
call on Him. He is your Friend. He is your Helper. He's the one alongside. He's your Advocate,
family lawyer. That's the word for the parakletos in that worldview, in that time. That's somebody
who shows up in the courtroom and takes your case and fights your case. So you can ask Him,
and you can do that in your heart. You know why? Because He reads your heart, He understands your
heart, He understands your thoughts, He reads your mind, He reads your desires,
He sees all of that. Everything is bare before Him, so why not send Him those messages? Why not
call for help? Why not talk to Him every day? That's how you can get to know Him, by spending
time and communicating with Him. Number five, keep your heart soft toward God. The Bible says
God blesses those whose hearts are pure for they will see God, Matthew 5:8 in an NLT translation.
David knew the secret to knowing the Holy Spirit is your heart has to be soft,
your heart has to be clean. Like Keith Green would say, baby skin heart. A heart that is sensitive,
a heart that responds, a heart that takes God seriously but doesn't take yourself seriously.
You know it speaks of David, that he was a man after God's heart, and then it speaks of David,
that he was a man who had integrity in his heart. In Psalm 78:72, New King James Version, it says:
A man in pursuit after God's heart will sooner or later have the heart of God,
have the heart of integrity. A heart that's not broken. A heart that's whole. A heart that
doesn't leak. See some of us, we want to increase the presence of God in our life, but some of us,
if we only decrease the leakage, those holes in our heart, and how do we do that? Keeping a soft
heart toward God. When He convicts you, be quick to respond. When you notice that your heart is
drifting, getting callous, hard. It doesn't respond anymore to God. Retreat to be with Him,
repent. Do whatever it takes. Pray the prayer, create within me a clean heart O God. Whatever
you need to do, do so that your heart stays soft before God. Contrary to popular opinion,
the secret to your intimacy with God, with the Holy Spirit, is not long prayer,
and it's also not spending five, six hours in the Bible. Though that's good, and sometimes we have
the time that it allows for that and we need to do that. Nor is it long fasting. Fasting is good.
All of those things are Christian disciplines but they're all meant to help our heart stay
connected to God. You can do all of that and still have a heart that's far from God. The Bible says,
these people draw near to Me with their lips, they honor Me with their mouth but their heart
is far from Me. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 3 is you know, if today if you hear His voice, do
not harden your heart. It says, for these people, their hearts are far from me. In Matthew, it says
that they teach their own traditions as doctrines of God, but their heart is far from Me. So if you
really want to have a close relationship with the Holy Spirit, care more about your heart, than the
length of your prayer, how much you give and how much you fast. Number six, don't take yourself
seriously. In Ecclesiastes 7:16-17 has this verse that I found it very interesting. It says:
And that's in NLT translation. In other words, don't be super spiritual, don't take yourself
too serious. You're not the belly button of the earth. You're not the king of the universe. You
are not a big deal. I like to say this about myself. I am nobody, trying to tell everybody,
about Somebody, who can save anybody. God one time rebuked Saul and said, "When you were small
in your eyes." Meaning there was a time Saul was small in his eyes. But he became famous,
he became big, responsibilities, titles, positions, honorariums, likes and clicks,
invites. You know pressures of life, all of that, and he became too big, inflated self-esteem,
and God didn't like that. And Saul started to take himself too seriously. They were singing
a song and gave more numbers to David than to Saul. David killed tens of thousands and Saul
killed his thousands, and Saul just couldn't take that, why? Because he took himself too seriously.
Spent the rest of his life chasing David. I wonder what would happen if he would chase God like that,
instead of chasing David for 20 years of his life. I don't think he would end up like he
ended up. Many times when we take ourselves too serious, we don't take God seriously,
and what begins to happen is we end up chasing wrong things, we begin to be jealous, entitled,
easily offended, too sensitive. Not toward God but just kind of so sensitive, develop such a thin
skin but thick skin in our heart, and easily offended, easily hurt, and that's a very bad
characteristic. If you want to develop a closer relationship with the Holy Spirit, number seven,
pay attention to how you treat people. Ephesians 4:30, it says: And that's in NLT translation,
meaning don't bring God's Spirit sorrow. How can you bring sorrow to God's Spirit? By the
way you live. If you read down few verses, verse 31 and down, and if you read few verses above,
you will see that Paul is specifically referring to us being tenderhearted, forgiving and kind
to people. Us not lying, not stealing, not being harsh, mean, not being rude to people,
why? Because how you treat people directly affects your intimacy with the Holy Spirit. In fact you
can bring sorrow, you can grieve, you can hurt His feelings, if you intentionally hurt other people's
feelings. Number eight, close the gap between your sin and repentance. 1 John 1:9, it says:
We all sin. He who says that he never sins is a liar or self deceived. We all fall short.
It's not always the sins that will disqualify us from ministry, disqualify us from serving.
Sometimes it's sins that just stain our conscience. Sins that give us this thing
where we feel like we're far away from God. And the Bible says to run quickly to Him and repent,
confess it and to deal with our sin. If you bridge the gap between your fall, your sin, your mistake,
you grieving the Spirit and your repentance. Your intimacy with Him will grow. We are not
perfect but we are being perfected, and that happens when we choose to repent and bridge the
gap between our sin and repentance. Don't wait too long to come to Him. Don't punish yourself
or don't promise yourself, "Oh I'm just going to change. I'm going to do better. I'm going to
undo all the bad I did with some good, extra points, good that I'm about to do. I'm going
to go and fast. I'm going to go pray more and all of that, so I can undo the bad." There's only one
thing that can undo your bad, and that is Jesus's forgiveness, and you don't earn that forgiveness,
you receive that forgiveness. The longer you lay in your mud, in your guilt,
in your condemnation. The longer you lay in that sin, the longer you wallow in all of that,
the more time you give to the devil to gain hold of you and bring you back and make that sin to
become a cycle. But if you get up, righteous man falls seven times and he is still righteous,
and you run to God, you confess, you repent, you forsake that sin, your intimacy will be restored.
Number nine, walk in the revelation God gives you. 1 John 1:7, it says:
Walking in the light is walking in the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanses us from all
sin. Walking in the light is walking in the revelation God is giving you,
walking in the truth of His Word, but also in the truth He's highlighting to you. And
sometimes we enter into difficult seasons where we begin to question in the dark,
what God revealed in the light. Walk in that light. Sometimes God gives you that,
illuminates your path for you to do this particular thing. If you do that you will sense
a fellowship with Him. You will sense a grace. You will sense Holy Spirit not being grieved.
But when you walk away from that revelation, you walk away from that light, you walk away from that
specific instruction, and you follow the crowd, you start doing what everybody else is doing.
You try to fit in and you try to make your life be a reflection of what everybody else is doing,
you will find yourself out of loop of intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Number
10. Replace grumbling with gratitude, and fighting with fellowship. The Bible says:
Philippians 2:14. I found out what sometimes causes the heavenly dove to depart is when we
fight brothers and sisters, instead of developing fellowship with them. We will not agree with every
person who acknowledges Jesus as Lord, and with whom we agree on the basic tenants of Orthodox
Christian beliefs. We will not agree, because there's as many people, there's as many opinions.
But if we choose to still have fellowship with people who love Jesus, who love God's Word, who
believe in salvation by grace through faith, and people who walk in repentance. We will see that
the Holy Spirit will be pleased. Also if we choose to maintain an attitude of gratitude, instead of
grumbling and complaining. It honors the Holy Spirit. He likes that. If we choose to constantly
complain, constantly grumble, play the victim card and all of that. The heavenly dove will depart.
I'm not saying you will lose the Holy Spirit. You will lose the sweetness of His presence, the ease
of mind, the joy, a sense that He is aiding your way, He's favoring your path. All of that will
be gone. Anger, irritation, grumbling, constant fighting, lack of peace. You'll still operate in
your calling. Most likely even in your gifts. God doesn't take them away when we trip up but that
sweet presence, that peace of mind, that guidance, that leading of the Holy Spirit, that friendship
will be gone and you will know it. It will affect you inwardly. It will affect your ministry. It
will affect your family, and it can expose you to heavier demonic attacks because with the Spirit is
grieved, you're exposed and vulnerable to demonic attacks. The same portion of Scripture that talks
about grieving His Spirit is also talking about open doors to Satan, and so both are not very
far from each other. You grieve the Holy Spirit, It's a matter of time. You can potentially open
yourselves up to demonic spirits, and the best way to keep yourself closed to demonic spirits is to
keep the Holy Spirit ungrieved. Replace grumbling with gratitude. Walk away from fighting, always
bickering, going into drama with other believers, disputing, constantly arguing, winning arguments.
Especially this is happening online today. Walk away from that nonsense and that childish carnal
behavior, and focus on the Lord and focus on the Holy Spirit. And you will see, you will live your
life filled with Him, led by Him and empowered by Him. Thank you for watching this video. If
you would like to learn more on how to grow in the Holy Spirit and this was helpful to you, consider
getting my book called "Host The Holy Ghost." You can get it as a free download if you can't afford
to buy one on Amazon, or if you live in the parts of the world where Amazon doesn't ship. You can
go to hosttheholyghost.com and get that book today. You can also get it in audio, Kindle,
electronic version or paperback, hard cover, in Russian language or in Spanish, and more languages
are being added. Thank you, God bless you and may the Holy Spirit be your closest Friend.