Discover the Jesus pattern and how to apply it to your life part 4

Welcome to episode 133.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 133. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to continue to talk about the Holy Spirit, and this is step 2. And I know we're getting into our 4th episode, and I thought I'd be done in a week, and I don't know if God's gonna let me get done with this teaching in 6 days. There's a lot here, and it's always the case whenever I think I'm gonna just do something a little simple teaching and some little lesson, that we're just gonna all sit around this little campfire and we're gonna talk for 10 minutes and then we're all— everybody's gonna have it. God has a totally different plan for me on this teaching thing because I'm telling you, I wasn't even going to talk about the Holy Spirit. I have in my notes all of these little things that I was going to mention and it was like, well, how are we going to do this without the Holy Spirit? Well, we're not going to do it without the Holy Spirit. Well, I really don't want to open that can up and the Holy Spirit, start talking about the Holy Spirit because you know there's a lot of people that are a little bit nervous about the Holy Spirit. And I'm talking to myself and I'm thinking, "Sel, why are they nervous of the Holy Spirit?" And so then I— the conversation going on my head, "Just be thankful you're not up there because there's a lot going on up there and most of it's rattling around." When I think about the Holy Spirit and when I think about all the things that the Holy Spirit has done for me, I cannot think of a better person to have in your car when you're by yourself. I cannot think of a better person to talk to when you have a problem. Any kind of question or any kind of decision that's coming up, I cannot think of a better person. Like, if you called me up and said, "Greg Ryan, who do you know that knows this?" And if you had the same relationship that I have with the Holy Spirit, I would say, did you talk to the Holy Spirit? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I talked to him, I did that. But who do you know? The best answer I could give you is the Holy Spirit knows everything. I think we just need a, a refresher course on God is all-powerful, God is all-knowing, and he's omnipresent. He's everywhere. So let's just think about this. If God knows the end from the beginning And God is everywhere. He is in Korea. He is in Haughton, where I'm at. He is in Colorado. He is in Hawaii. He is in France. He is in Germany. He's in Russia. He's everywhere all the time, and he's just sitting there. He's patient. He's kind. He's gentle, and he's waiting. For you to have a conversation with him. I'm telling you, it is incredible when I start thinking about how wonderful the Holy Spirit is, and then I think about the punk. And I just want you to ponder this for a minute, but if you could do one thing to limit God's power— because Satan can't— Satan is a punk, he is a liar, he is a deceiver, he has absolutely no power. The only power Satan has is the power that you and I give him. Knows he cannot close to even lifting a finger to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wore him out at the cross, and at the resurrection he is defeated. He has not been banished, so he's still around to deceive you and I. And I think one of his biggest deceptions is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and to get in the church fighting against itself and saying, oh, that's a bunch of fake, or that's went out with the apostolic period, whatever that is. And so we're arguing amongst ourselves, and he's not having to fight the Holy Spirit. So I think if you have any opposition to this message, picture the punk is trying to say, oh, that's just a bunch of garbage. Oh, you know, that's just this, or that's just that. Just tell him to shut up and then just listen and ask the Holy Spirit, is this right, or is this guy a yahoo? And after you hear my testimony, you may be able to decide on your own. But let me tell you how it all started. When I got into the Assemblies of God, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into. My wife was a— she grew up Southern Baptist. So when we got into the Assembly of God way of doing things, I mean, she was like, "Are you kidding me?" Because it was a lot louder, there was a lot more hand-raising, there was a lot more talking, there was some talking in tongues and all of that stuff. And I don't want to freak you out, but I mean, I was just like, "Wow, what is this?" because I didn't know. I'm like a little kid. I'm like, I don't know what's going on here. And my wife's thinking, this isn't church, because she had been to church. She grew up in church, and I hadn't. I didn't have any idea. I thought, you know, because if— again, when I talked about the empty cup and then a cup with something in it, it's easier to fill up an empty cup with something than it is to take a cup full of something and dump— you got to dump it out and then fill it up. Because my wife— and I, I'm not picking on her because this is just her experience— But she had gone— she had grown up Southern Baptist, and the Southern Baptists didn't really raise their hand. The Southern Baptists didn't have drums at this time. They didn't have drums and guitars, and, you know, they had hymns and hymnals and things like that. And nothing against any of that, that's just the way she grew up. As the husband or the leader, I'm going— this is where I feel like God has led us, is this Assembly of God. And she was subservient and said, if that's what you think, that's where we're going. But I know she was uncomfortable for a minute at these services. But she— you could feel the love. You could feel the love of God. You could feel the love of people. But I've got to get into this. There was a little bit, and I talked to— I kind of opened it up a little bit yesterday, but there's, you know, there's people are a little bit strange. I don't know if you've been around a lot of people, but when you get a couple hundred people in a room, you know, there's a few people that are a little bit different. And I don't want to say weird because I told God I wasn't going to pick on his kids, and I'm not picking on them. But I, I've got to put a label on them so that while you're sitting there working out or whatever, you're like, yeah, I've seen those kind of people, but they, they just act crazy. I mean, they don't act— they just— and when I say crazy, they act like I wouldn't act. Anyway, all of that said, when the Holy Spirit gets on people, the only representation you have of the Holy Spirit is how this person acts. And so you're like, ooh, I don't want to act like that. And the, the most loud and boisterous, it was the people that I didn't want to act like. So the people that were quiet and reserved and those people, you know, the Holy Spirit was on those people as well, but they weren't making a scene. So then I, with my eyes, I make a judgment decision on the Holy Spirit, and I say, I don't want to act like that. And so me and God are talking, I'm praying, I said, God, I, you know, I've heard about this Holy Spirit and being endued with power. And Luke 24:49, he said, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. And Luke also wrote Acts, and I'm sure you probably knew that, but in Acts 4— Acts 1:4, and being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they have come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know times and seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And I've told you that I had no idea anything. I didn't know the Assembly of God was a full— and I'm putting up air quote— Full Gospel or Pentecostal. I had no idea, didn't even know what those words meant. I joined that church because of the worship, because of the band, to be quite honest. God deals with you where you're at. I mean, he knew, he saved me, he got me saved, he had me reading the Bible. The instructions, he said, find a church that believes the Bible and find a church that you're comfortable in, where you fit in. Well, I was comfortable with that music because I'd just come out of the bars, so I'm liking the drums and I'm liking the horns and I'm liking the guitars. And so I'm comfortable here. Now, some of the people, I've, you know, my eyebrow went up, my head kind of kicked to the side a little bit, but I'm like, well, I just want to tell you where I'm at, where I was at. I had absolutely no idea about any of this stuff. And, and I told you before that it seemed like every service I was going up to the altar because God was cleaning me up. And my pastor, one of the coolest things that he's— Pastor McMahon— one of the coolest things he told me was God never cleans his fish before he catches them. He was cleaning me up every week. And I'm— so I'm going up there, and so I'm learning about this Holy Spirit. And so I'm thinking, you know, it's a free gift. And that, you know, the longer you stick around something in a group, the more you kind of want to be like that. And so they're telling me, look, this is a gift, it's free, it's yours to take, you just go ask for it. So I would go up to the front and I would go ask the Holy Spirit, baptize me in the Holy Spirit. But in the back of my mind, I just got to tell you what was going on in Greg Ryan's mind. I'm like, but I'm not going to be weird. I'm not going to do none of that crazy stuff, and I'm not going to have none of that gibberish stuff coming out of my mouth. Holy Spirit, you're going to talk.

If you—

if there's a language that you want me speaking, you're going to have to be the one speaking it. And so I'm standing up there and I'm crying and I'm begging and I'm trying, and I'd walk back with my tail between my legs and I'm like, you know, nothing happened. And so I did that 3 or 4 times. I'm telling you, over the years I went up trying to receive, and I'm putting air quotes, receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And again, I had absolutely no idea about any of this stuff before I entered this church. And now I'm years into this journey and I'm learning about it and I'm understanding some of it. I'm getting to know the personalities of some of these people that I cocked my eyebrow up and thought they were a little bit weird. I understand because I'm in sales. I understand people. Not everybody's the same. And so all of that said, I'm wanting this gift. I'm trying to figure this thing out. But the last time I went up to the altar and I'm crying, tears, tears coming down, I'm begging God, God, please give me a gift. And so I walked back, didn't get it. And I walked back and I said, God, you know, I've heard people talk about getting baptized in the Holy Spirit while they're driving their car, under their coffee table, or in their prayer closet. I— and this is me talking to God, and I know you're probably thinking, I wouldn't talk to him like that. But God and I, we talk just like this all the time. And you know, I don't always do it right. But I said, God, I'm not going back up there. I'm not going back up to the altar and beg you for the Holy Spirit. If you want to give me the Holy Spirit, you can baptize me in my prayer closet. You can baptize me under the coffee table or under— and while I'm driving down the car. I don't care how you do it. I'm just not going back up to that altar and beg you to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Might be a little prideful, might be a little hard-headed, but that's where I was. And so that went on, and we switched pastors. Pastor McMahon went to Dallas, and we got a new pastor. Pastor Eden came in. One Sunday evening service, he said, "You know, it's just dry out there. It's just dry and dusty world we're living in. Who wants to just come up and get a drink of living water? I mean, we're just gonna come up here, and we're just gonna get a drink of water." And I'm like, "Yeah, I'll take a drink of living water. Why not?" And he said, while we come up here, he said, we're going to enter his gates with thanksgiving and we're going to enter his courts with praise. And I just want to go on a side note because that is where on my 5 prayers, that's really where I was introduced to this thanksgiving and prayer, where we walk into God's presence being thankful and praiseful. And so I— this was the first time I was introduced to this, and I just— he said, look, when you get up here, just thank God for everything that he's done for you. I started doing that, and he said, when you finish thanking him, when you run out of things to thank him for, just start praising God for who he is. So being obedient, and I was doing that, I was standing up there and I was thanking, I was praising, and I, you know, and all of that stuff. Well, then Pastor Eden came by and put his hands on me, and I've got to tell you, this old boy dropped like a bad habit. I mean, it was kind of the weirdest and coolest thing that ever happened to me in my Christian walk. Is that, you know, I guess people would call that— and I'm putting air quotes— slain in the spirit. I don't know it. I'd seen people fall out before, and again, Greg's going, that ain't gonna happen. But anyway, I fell, and I could tell where I was. There was just a calm, and the only way I can describe it is there was just this peace, this calm that kind of came over me, and I was just sitting there. And I don't— I mean, I was on the ground, but I didn't know. I still had my hands up and I knew where I was, but there was just this peace, calm that came over. I don't know if I was there for 50 seconds or 5 minutes, but I knew where I was and it was just, it was very calming. And then when I got up to sit down, you know, and again, I've told you, in Assembly of God, at least at our church, the first couple rows were empty. So the first row, when I was there at the altar, I got up and I sat down on the front row. I was trying to gather my thoughts, what just happened. I was thinking that was cool. I'm going to talk to myself out loud. I was sitting there on a pew by myself, and I went to say, man, that was something else. And when I said— when I went to say, man, that was something else, different words came out of my mouth.

My—

I was like, what? And so then, of course, being the guy that I wanted to take it for a test drive, so I was like, oh, this is a— this is a prayer language. So then I started— I mean, I started praying in my little prayer language right there on the front pew real low. I didn't want anyone to know, but I was praying in tongues, and it was the coolest thing. But I didn't even tell my wife. I went back to my seat and sat down, and from then on I was baptized with the Holy Spirit. But it took me years to get that. And in the next episode, I'm going to talk about different things in Acts. But I just wanted to give you my testimony. I want to tell you, if you have not had the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that scares you. I mean, it scared my wife. If the only thing you have to go by is some strange person that was loud and didn't act like you would act, and you associate that with God, I just got to tell you, God is not going to make you jump pews or scream and holler or anything like that. He hasn't had— he hasn't made me do that, and he's had me do a lot of things that I normally wouldn't have ever done, but he's never embarrassed me, and he is, he's incredible. I'm telling you, he's the best friend I've ever had, and he is— I just want to let you know that, that he is so cool. And Jesus was correct, it is to your advantage that he sent the Holy Spirit. And I just want you to just embrace— if you've ever been a little bit nervous or a little bit anxious about the Holy Spirit, I want to take away any of that with my testimony, because you can argue with somebody's opinion You cannot argue. I don't care what you say. You can never take away what God did for me. And this is my testimony, and I'm telling you, this is exactly how I remember it happening. And I'm telling you, my life has never been the same since I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. And it took me years to get to that place. I mean, it took me a long time to get there. Now that I'm here, I'm not going back. So I just want to encourage you. I, I'm This is going way longer, but I wanted to get all this out, and I was not prepared. My notes have nothing to do with this, but it— I was gonna do the testimony, and that's what it is. And God, I thank you so much for everything you've done in my life. Lord, I thank you for everything. I thank you for all my friends, all my family. But Lord, I thank you mostly for sending your Holy Spirit. And Holy Spirit, I thank you for leading me into all truth. And I thank you for motivating me to love on people and to love you, God. And I thank you for getting me into this podcast world, and I thank you for what you're going to do next. But I pray in Jesus' name, Holy Spirit, that if there's somebody listening to this that's just a little bit nervous, Lord, I pray that you would just give them the peace that surpasses all understanding and let them dig into the word for themselves and let them just get to know you and let them know that you are Wonderful. And I pray, God, that you would just inspire them to keep searching for answers themselves and not take what someone else says, but search for themselves to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. And God, I thank you for opening up this lesson for me. This is not what I expected, but Lord, you very rarely do what I expect you to do. Your ways are not my ways, but I love your way.. And I thank you, Lord. We love you, and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.