If You Only Watch One Holy Spirit Video, Make It This

You can read the Bible every day, sit through 100 sermons on the Holy Spirit, grow up in church, and still, if you're honest, you struggle to say who he actually is or what he's doing in you right now. I've spent the last 24 years preaching the gospel and watching the Holy Spirit move in healing services, conferences, and churches around the world. And in all of that time, I've watched the same few misunderstandings keep ordinary believers stuck, and the same few changes open everything up for the ones who finally I got it. So give me the next few minutes and I'll walk you through who the Holy Spirit actually is, what almost every teaching on him misses, and what changes the moment you stop relating to him the way that most Christians do. This is the one teaching I wish someone had handed me 24 years ago, and the one I would hand to a friend if I only got to tell them one thing for the rest of their life about the precious Holy Spirit. First and foremost, the Holy Spirit is God. When I say that the Father is God, people accept that. When I say that Jesus is God, of course, true Christians accept that. But there seems to be this hesitation when I say that the Holy Spirit is God. Some Christians sort of cringe. They're slightly uncomfortable with that idea, but the Holy Spirit is no less God than the Father and the Son. Think of Luke 1:35, where an angel is delivering a message to Mary, About the fact that she would carry the Messiah in her womb. And in that message, the power of the Most High is equated with the presence of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is all-powerful. The Holy Spirit can do everything that God can do. In 1 Corinthians 2:10 and onward, we see that the Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God. He knows the mind of God. The nature of God, the will of God, the power of God, everything that God knows, the Holy Spirit knows. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is all-knowing. In Psalm 139:7 and onward, we see that there's nowhere that you can go to escape the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is everywhere present or omnipresent. So everywhere that God is, the Holy Spirit is. So the Holy Spirit is omnipotent, that is all-powerful. He's omniscient, that is, he's all-knowing. He's omnipresent, he's everywhere at all times. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is God. He's not a lesser God. He's not a junior God. The Holy Spirit is an equal member of the Trinity, distinct from the Father and the Son, but equally divine. The Holy Spirit is God. God. When I say that the Holy Spirit is God, most believers will agree, but then they get this impression of God as if he's a million miles away, or he's some mysterious force that they can't really define or relate to. Maybe you picture the Holy Spirit as like a mist floating above your head, or an electric current on the ceiling during a church service, or maybe a sensation that you get during powerful moments of worship. But the Holy Spirit, isn't just a force or a feeling. He could be known as a friend. Paul the Apostle in 2 Corinthians 13:14 makes mention of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. He's not just divine, he's personal. And many Christians struggle with that gap. They struggle going from acknowledging him as God to knowing him as that personal friend. To fellowshipping with him on a daily basis, to knowing that intimacy with the Holy Spirit. I'll never forget years ago when the Holy Spirit revealed himself to me as a wonderful friend. You see, for several years, I struggled with severe anxiety. I was having panic attacks all the time. My mind would go to the worst-case scenario in almost every situation. And I remember this was during a time of ministry where we weren't seeing much fruitfulness. My marriage was strained because I was so anxious all the time. I was, again, always thinking of the worst-case scenario, interpreting everything through the most negative lens. So it was during this time that I was scheduled to preach in North Carolina, and I had a flight scheduled for very early in the morning. Now, for me, the anxiety would intensify in the early mornings. And so I remember waking up at, like, I want to say 4 o'clock in the morning to be driven to the airport to take this very early morning flight. I'll be honest with you, I didn't want to wake up that early. I didn't want to drive to the airport. I didn't want to get on that plane. And I didn't even feel like preaching. But I dragged myself out of the bed, got ready, got in the car, and on our way to the airport, I'm sitting in the passenger seat. I have a friend driving me, another friend asleep in the back. As we're driving, I noticed this vehicle off to the left, a few lanes over in front of us. The car begins to veer out of its lane, and it begins to swerve across several lanes right in front of us until it hit a center divider right at the exit that we were taking. The car hits the center divider, Flips over, lands on its top right in front of us. And as my friend is braking, we are moving along with this car in front of us and sparks are flying. I could see papers and items from this person's luggage flying all over the road. I saw their silhouette being tossed around in the driver's seat. And I'll never forget that right at that moment, my friend in the backseat— What did he say? Wakes up, looks at what's happening, and the first words out of his mouth were, oh my goodness, he's dead. He has to be dead. I told him, be quiet. Like, let's, let's, let's call for help. So we call for help. We did everything that we were able to do, but then we had to continue on to the airport. And so as I'm checking in at the airport, my hands are shaking. I can't even really work the machine to do the self-check-in. I'm trying to still process everything that was happening. And it was like, The culmination, everything that I had experienced from the failure that I perceived in ministry to the strained marriage, to the strained friendships, all of it was just coming to this intense culmination where I just, I was done. I was internally, I'm just saying, Lord, I don't even wanna be in ministry anymore. And so we get on the plane the next morning. I wake up, And I am just saying, Lord, I don't, I don't know. I don't know what to do here. I feel just empty, lost, tired. I feel like no matter how many times I pray and ask for help, nothing is changing. And right there in that moment, at my absolute lowest, the presence of the Holy Spirit came over me. And what did he say? like a gentle wind blowing through the room, showed up. And the Holy Spirit begins to ask me questions. I almost felt like I was being interrogated. I'm staring at the ceiling. And the Holy Spirit asks me, do you remember when you were a boy and it was your first day of school and you were so anxious, you were so afraid because you worried that the other kids might make fun of you? Or that they wouldn't accept you? And I said, yes, Lord, I remember. He fast forwards a little more. He says, and do you remember when you used to go on vacation with your family and you would begin to become real anxious, even at theme parks where you should have felt carefree, you began to feel anxious and you had trouble on the rides and you had trouble walking around because you were just imagining all the worst case scenarios that could happen. And I said, yes, Lord, I remember. And he begins to ask me this about all phases of my life. From when I saw demonic powers to dreams about hell, dreams and visions of hell, even to when I was afraid of failing in ministry, to being afraid of failing in marriage, and just on and on, begins to question me. And it was like the Holy Spirit was showing me that it was the same anxiety, the same lie, just manifested through different scenarios in different phases of my life. And the Holy Spirit said this, and it cut right to the issue. The Holy Spirit said, why don't you believe that I love you and that I plan to do good things in your life? When the Holy Spirit asked me that, it was like a flood of emotions just broke, and I could feel tears just flowing down my face. And there was a real breakthrough moment for me because there the Holy Spirit demonstrated his true friendship to me. The Holy Spirit is not just a distant force. He's personal. Acts 8:29 reveals that the Holy Spirit has a voice. He speaks. 1 Corinthians 12:11 reveals that the Holy Spirit has a will. Ephesians 4:30 makes it clear that the Holy Spirit has feelings. He has a voice. He has a will. He has feelings. He is personal. When I say that the Holy Spirit is a person, I don't mean that he's human or fallible or mortal. I mean that the Holy Spirit is personal. He can be known as a friend. And he's a friend above all friends. When others reject you and misunderstand you, he abides and he accepts you. When others overlook you, he notices. In moments of victory, he rejoices with you. In moments of pain, he comforts you. In times of confusion, he speaks with great clarity in his voice. In times of fear, He gives you peace, assuring you that he is in charge. Don't forget the friend you have. The Holy Spirit knows everything that God knows, and he guides you. The Holy Spirit can do everything that God can do, and he loves you and wants to do good things for you. The Holy Spirit is everywhere that God is, and therefore you're never alone. So the Holy Spirit is divine and the Holy Spirit is personal. Additionally, the Holy Spirit is with you and the Holy Spirit is within you. The Holy Spirit will not abandon you. He abides as a faithful friend. Even when you make a mistake, even when you feel like he's at a distance, we don't go by feelings. We go by faith. We can know, we can trust. that the Holy Spirit abides. He does not come and go. Jesus said, I'll send another, and he will never leave you. Paul the Apostle writes in 1 Corinthians 6:17, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. So the Holy Spirit doesn't abandon you. The Holy Spirit, who is God, the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, the Holy Spirit who is that personal faithful friend, doesn't just dwell with you, He dwells within you. You are already one with the Holy Spirit. This is where many believers make their mistake in their thinking about the Holy Spirit. They think that the Holy Spirit is someone whose presence they have to earn, that his presence depends upon their performance, that his nearness, that his faithfulness depends upon their faithfulness. Listen, if his nearness, if his presence in our lives depended upon our faithfulness, All of us would lose the Holy Spirit every single day, but he abides. He doesn't just come for those moments that you need him. He's not just there in those key instances, but he abides faithfully, thoroughly, continuously, all throughout your life, in every moment of every day. And consider this also. This is another area where Christians miss it. He's one with you. You already have him. Amen. It's not a matter of you getting more of the Holy Spirit. It's a matter of the Holy Spirit getting more of you. You experience more of the Holy Spirit, not in getting more from the Holy Spirit, but in surrendering more to the Holy Spirit. Stop acting as if you need to get more of him. You weren't given a baby Holy Spirit, a portion of the Holy Spirit, a junior Holy Spirit. Romans 8:11 says that the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. Remember, he is God and he dwells in you. He is God and he dwells as one with you. You already have union with him. You're not working for connection. You're working from connection. Stop living with the fear that he might abandon you at the next mistake. Stop striving and start surrendering. I'll never forget, I was in Kansas City, Kansas, ministering at a service there. We were doing 2 nights. The place was packed. People were lined up hours before the service to get into the building because the presence of the Holy Spirit was so powerful in these meetings. Usually in these meetings, as I pray over people, people report feeling like heat come on their body, or they feel like electricity move through them. And it wasn't manifesting like that necessarily. The power of God was there, the presence was there, but we weren't seeing that flow. And I was just speaking with the Holy Spirit internally saying, Lord, what is this? What is this? So a young man comes up onto the platform. I go to pray for him. And as I placed my hand on his face, he just tenses his whole body, almost as if he was testing what was there on the platform. And to me, it's not really all that important if they fall over or they don't when you pray for them. That's not really the, Big issue. I just wanna know that the people are open and that they have faith to receive whatever it is that God does wanna do for them in that moment. So directed by the Holy Spirit, I stop and I could see that this guy was just very tense. His hands were lifted, his eyes were squinted very tight. It's almost like he so badly wanted an encounter that his emotions were stirred, his thoughts were racing. And so he was distracting himself from the moment. and not really able to receive. I instruct him by the Spirit. I begin to tell him, listen, you receive by faith. Don't overthink. Don't fight. Don't resist. Don't say, if this is really God, I'll do this. If God really wants this, this will happen. Don't, don't set those expectations. I told him, just, just trust that the presence of the Holy Spirit is here. Trust that he wants to touch your life. And so he went from this very tense posture of like striving and struggling to just this relaxed faith, ready for whatever the Holy Spirit wanted to do for him. And I'll never forget it. I went to lay hands on him. And when I went to lay hands on him, I felt like an electric sensation move through me. The power of God comes in on him. He goes out under the power, goes onto the floor. And you could see the power of the Holy Spirit on him. When the power of the Holy Spirit touched that man, the atmosphere in the building shifted. And from that moment on, for the rest of the service, the power moved and flowed with great intensity. This is something I've learned, that some people, when they have an encounter with the Holy Spirit, their encounter with the Holy Spirit is almost like a conduit of faith for the rest of the people who are there To have encounters with the Holy Spirit. So whatever God did for him, it broke through into the atmosphere and the power of God began to flow with great ease. And I believe that God transformed him in ways that we won't even begin to understand until even years from now. So we as Christians need to recognize, we need to rest in the fact that the union is complete. We don't pray to connect with God. We pray from connection with God. We don't read the Word of God to get closer to God. We are close to God. And because we're close to God, we can have revelation of the Word. We don't worship to bring the presence of God down. We worship and we become more aware of the presence that's already there. The Holy Spirit abides now in fullness and in oneness with you. This is the key thought here, that we don't have to strive for more. We simply have to surrender more. Amen. 1 Corinthians 3:16 makes it clear that the Holy Spirit dwells within you. So if we all have the Holy Spirit as believers, what then is there left to do? How then do we experience more of the Holy Spirit's influence in our lives? And if we all have the Holy Spirit, then why does it seem like some Christians don't? Why does it seem sometimes like other believers have more of a measure of the Holy Spirit's power than we do? Well, it comes back to simple surrender. Obedience is not transactional. In other words, obedience isn't the key to receiving more of the Holy Spirit. Because you have the Holy Spirit, that is the key to obedience. And as you obey, you become more aware of the Holy Spirit, thus inviting his influence into your life. At one point in my Christianity, I felt like the Holy Spirit was really far away from me. And so I determined in my mind and heart, I'm gonna have an encounter with the Holy Spirit, no matter what it takes. I shut myself in my room. I locked my door. I turned on my ceiling fan to keep it nice and cool. I turned on the light so that I could read my Bible, which was open on my desk. And I began to play worship music and seek the Lord. This was my protocol. This was my system for encountering the Holy Spirit. So I prayed for 1 hour, nothing happens. And because nothing happened, I grew a little frustrated. I knew I wanted an encounter with God, but to be honest with you, I don't even know what that looked like at the time. I said, I want an encounter with the Holy Spirit, but had you asked me, well, what does that look like? I wouldn't have been able to answer you. So hour 2 now, I began to become emotional. I start to cry before the Lord, plead with the Lord, beg. the Lord for an encounter in his presence. I tried to guilt God into a response, but emotion failed. So that second hour passes, nothing happens. The third hour now, I reach for spiritual warfare techniques. I thought, I'm going to become aggressive. I'm going to begin rebuking demonic powers. And so I did. I prayed for the blood of Jesus to cleanse my room. I rebuked demonic beings that may or may not have been there at that time. I began to use every spiritual warfare technique that I was taught, but the aggression, it failed. And so 3 hours had gone by, nothing happened. The 4th hour comes, and now I'm gonna think my way into the presence of God. I began to look back on every prayer technique, every scripture I knew about the glory, original languages, certain dates of the year. I mean, you name it. All of that study about the presence and the glory of God, all of the study about encountering the Holy Spirit, I applied everything that I knew, but that likewise failed. And then 4 hours had— I applied everything that I knew, but that also failed. 4 hours had gone by. Nothing had happened. Emotion failed. Willpower failed. Aggression failed. Intellect failed. It's not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. So finally, I lift my hands and I said to the Lord, I don't know how to pray. I don't know how to find Jesus. Please help me find Jesus. And at that moment, the Holy Spirit gave me simple instructions. Turn off the ceiling fan. The noise was distracting. Turn off the light. I turned off the light. For now, close the Bible. Now, I'm not saying that the Bible keeps us from experiencing the Holy Spirit. In fact, the scripture is the foundation upon which he moves. But at that point, I had read dozens of chapters, and it was then time, just for that moment, to close the book. And so I did, though I hesitated. And then the Holy Spirit said, turn off the music. And in my religious reaction, I said, but you can't move without the music. Or so I thought. I turned off the music and I just stood there desiring the Holy Spirit, desiring his presence. And I expected, I moved from begging and pleading and striving to just a simple childlike trust. And he helped me to get there, childlike trust and obedience. If desire is an action, that's all I was doing was desiring and expecting. And then the presence of the Holy Spirit filled my room. I thought perhaps that my room had been lifted to a heavenly place. The plain, ordinary settings of my room became filled with the glory of God. Even the color tone of the room had shifted as if even the light was responding to the glory of God, to the weight of his presence. I began to feel bursts of joy and peace and love and acceptance. I felt like an electric pulse moving up and down my body. I was trembling, I was crying, and I was so aware of the presence of Jesus that I thought if I opened my eyes, I would see him staring right back at me. I didn't wanna move my hand because I thought if I moved my hand, I might feel it brush up against his robe. And then I would distract myself out of whatever encounter this was. And it lasted for maybe just a few minutes, but had I sought it for 100 years, those few minutes would have been worth it. Now, When believers hear me tell this story, they're inclined to think that I'm giving them a formula. Oh, so if I go and I pray for 4 hours, that's the key to encountering the Holy Spirit. No, I am not saying that because I prayed for 4 hours, God rewarded me with his presence. I'm saying to you that it took me 4 hours to get over myself. It took me 4 hours to get past my own ego. It took me 4 hours to have my pride broken. Because I thought it depended on me when it all depended on him. I thought his presence was something I had to earn, as opposed to something I already had. Remember that thoughts are the actions of the mind, so you can obey God's word even in your thinking. Here's what I want you to do tonight. I want you to go before the Lord. I want you to set aside all distraction, and I want you to begin to talk to God with this mindset. I want you to see the presence of the Holy Spirit as near, not far, as permanent, not temporary, as already one with you, not something that you have to earn. The Holy Spirit is God in the fullness of his power. The Holy Spirit is personal, so God abides with you. The Holy Spirit is one with you, so God Abides within you, precious Lord. I pray in the name of Jesus that you would help them to recognize the nearness of your presence. Help them to not think of you as being far away, but as a close friend, as united with them in spirit, as the source of strength and peace and love and power. Precious Holy Spirit, let them become so aware. of your presence, that your presence becomes more real to them than life itself. Let them be raptured in who you are. Capture their attention and their focus. Teach them to walk in closeness with you. Teach them to, with childlike faith, acknowledge that you are near, to move from striving to surrender. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. I want you to say it out loud if you believe it. Say amen. Hey, listen, if this ministry has been a blessing to you, I want to invite you to help me out on my mission to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ all around the world in the power of the Holy Spirit through media like what you're watching now, events that we host around the world, and through church planting. Your support It matters. I don't want you to count yourself out. I don't want you to say some other time, or maybe someone else will do it. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you. Partner with me today as this ministry continues to grow by going to davidhernandezministries.com/partner. Consider a gift of $30 a month, or whatever the Holy Spirit puts on your heart. You can also give a single gift by going to davidhernandezministries.com/donate. Resist that urge to hold back. You may be experiencing that, that slight hesitation. There's a part of you that wants to support, but then there's that other part. Maybe you're resisting because of fear about the future, or maybe you're just holding on because that's just sometimes what our human nature likes to do. Say yes to the Holy Spirit. Sow into this ministry. It's good soil. And as you plant that seed, I know God will bless you and it will help us on our mission. So now you know who the Holy Spirit is. The very next thing most people want to know is how to actually hear him. That is, how to know his voice when he speaks. So click this video here because in it, I walk you through exactly how to hear the Holy Spirit with absolute clarity, even if you've never been sure that you've heard him before. I break down what his voice actually sounds like, why most believers miss it, and how to tell the difference between him and your own thoughts. If this teaching opens something up for you, this next one will take you to the next step. I'll see you there.