When the Lord said this to me, it changed my life. I could relate to what He was saying because not too long ago, Carolyn and I had the honored privilege of having Brother Oral and Evelyn Roberts stay a few days in our home. They were very honored guests to us.
I consider Brother Roberts to be my spiritual grandfather. I heard the call of God to preach while I was watching Oral Roberts on television when I was 12-years-old; therefore, I honor him because he has made a tremendous impartation into my life. So there are several reasons why I was very careful how I acted and how I talked with these people in my home because I wanted them to feel comfortable. But, there is One holier than him who goes home with me every day. His Name is the Holy Spirit.
I was studying this and a friend of mine, Pastor Robert Cruz, of Memphis, Tennessee, said that He always had a problem with the phrase "Holy Ghost." He didn't mind the word "Holy Spirit," but he had a problem with "Holy Ghost."
He began doing some research into old manuscripts and found that the old English word was "Holy Guest" rather than Holy Ghost. And when he said that, it really ministered to me because that's what God was telling me. He said, "Learn to honor the presence of the Holy Spirit like you would a very special guest in your home."
Well, when you think of the Holy Ghost as a Holy Guest in your home, is it going to affect the way you talk? Is it going to affect your conduct? Is it going to affect the way you treat your spouse? We keep wanting to hear the voice of the Lord and experience the manifestations of the glory of God but are we creating an atmosphere that He is comfortable in?
Brother Roberts got so comfortable in our house that we saw a side of him that most people will never see. He began sharing intimate things with us about his personal life as well as his ministry. He shared these things because he was comfortable in our presence. Wouldn't it be awesome if the Holy Spirit got so comfortable in your home that He began sharing secrets with you?
Romans 8 (The Message translation) says, "But if God Himself has taken up residence in your life, then you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him. Anyone of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive and present God Who raised Jesus from the dead moved into your life, He'll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus.
When God lives and breathes in you, and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus, you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's. So don't you see, that we don't owe this old, do it yourself lifestyle, one red cent. There is nothing in it for us. Nothing at all. The best thing to do is to give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit. beckons. There are things to do and places to go.
What's He saying? Let's get on with being led by the Holy Spirit. There are places to go and things to do. This resurrection life you have received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant. Greeting God with a child like, "What's next, Papa?"
Carolyn's mother has been a great intercessor ever since she was filled with the Holy Spirit many years ago. She prayed the entire family into the kingdom of God. She told me that when she wakes up in the morning, before actually getting out of the bed, she'll take her pillow and prop it up against the headboard and lift her hands and begin to praise God and say: "Jesus, Your Word says I am to give my body to You as a living sacrifice. Today, these eyes are Your eyes, this mouth is Your mouth, and these ears are Your ears, these hands are Your hands and these feet are Your feet. Where do You want Your feet to go? What do You want Your hands to do and what do You want Your mouth to say?"
Throughout the day, she'll be led by the Holy Spirit. God will lead her to different people to minister to and she'll just flow in the Spirit. That's adventurous! And once you've experienced it, then your attitude is, "What's next, Papa? What else do we get to do?"
It takes fellowship with the Holy Spirit to become sensitive to His leadership and to hear God's voice clearly. Within the Spirit of man is the God given ability to flow with Him. This shouldn't be something foreign to a believer. It should be the most natural thing to the believer, because we've been recreated in the image of God. We have His divine nature. We have the very same Spirit in us that raised Christ from the dead. We've been careful to feed our body and build it up. We've been careful to train our minds and build them up, but the spirit man we've left almost totally undeveloped.
The reason we aren't seeing any more action in our lives from the Holy Spirit is because, for the most part, our words have bound us and snared us.
There is no telling how many Christians go around saying, "God never talks to me." Those words are snaring you. Proverbs 15:4 says, "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life but perverseness therein is a breech in the spirit. Words affect your spirit." The mind can cast them aside but the spirit absorbs them.
I will never forget the day I heard Kenneth Copeland say, "You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body." That was the first time I realized that I was three parts. Nobody had ever told me that. And then, things in the Bible started making more sense.
I just thought, "What you see is what you get." But, the real me was on the inside. Our spirit has been recreated in the image of Almighty God and the spirit man craves to follow God. But it will not reach the place of ascendency if you don't train it, develop it, feed it, and exercise it. And that comes from feeding on the Word of God, and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit.
Success in our lives hinges on our ability to flow with the Spirit of God. The Lord said to me one time, "All it takes is one idea from God to change every negative situation in your life. Begin confessing throughout the day, 'My spirit attracts God ideas.' One God idea can turn little into a fortune."
Can you imagine that? Your spirit was created to hear God's ideas! Your spirit craves fellowship with God. Your body may not. Your body may not want to get up early to pray and read the Word. Your body may not want to stay up late. But you'll just have to tell your body what to do instead of your body telling you.
Your mind may say, "We've prayed for an hour and we haven't heard anything." Tell your mind to shut up. Tell your body to shut up. Your spirit man is willing, but your flesh is weak. The more you train yourself to be diligent about your time with the Lord, then the more sensitive you become to God's voice and you'll attract God ideas. They'll begin to come to you.
You could be driving down the freeway, and a God idea will come to your spirit. In the middle of the night, you could hear the voice of the Lord giving you a God idea. You could be eating breakfast and suddenly something will "dawn" on you. The Bible says, "The entrance of God's Word brings light." A God idea! Your spirit was designed by God to attract God ideas.
When you become sensitive to God's voice, you're going to hear counsel that you've been needing. You're going to hear the wisdom of God that you've been needing. You're going to get God ideas for your business or ministry. You may even be awakened in the middle of the night with the answer that you've been needing for the last six months! You're going to become more sensitive to God's voice and to the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Before you turn that television on, ask yourself, "Would my Holy Guest watch this with me?" Before you get so eager to get into strife with someone, just stop for a moment and say, "Would my Holy Guest engage in this conversation?"
You are going to find out that acting on this revelation is going to change your lifestyle, and it's going to be a blessing to you. Begin honoring the Holy Spirit like you would a very special guest in your home through your conduct, your speech and your lifestyle. I like to call it "Practicing the Presence of the Holy Spirit."
Always be aware of His presence with you, and endeavor to make a comfortable atmosphere for Him. Then, you'll be sensitive to hear God's voice clearly and receive the God ideas you've been needing.
Dr. Jerry Savelle was an average, blue-collar man who was struggling and needed God's help. While he considered himself a "nobody," when he became a believer God told him not to worry about it because He was a master at making champions out of nobodies. God has since taken Dr. Savelle from being a constant quitter to a man who knows how to stand on the Word of God until victory is experienced. Because of the life-changing combination of God's faithfulness and Dr. Savelle's "no quit" attitude, his life is totally different than it was thirty-eight years ago.
