Giving Holy Spirit Acces by Pastor Russ Fochler

By Pastor Russ Going through the Book of Acts, we're now in the story of Stephen — a man full of the Spirit.  I entitled last Saturday’s talk “Stephen’s God Adventure Part 1”.  You can listen to it here.  This coming Saturday July 20th, we’ll continue exploring what Holy Spirit was doing with Stephen and through Stephen when he was falsely accused and faced the Great Sanhedrin for their judgment. When Jesus walked the earth, he spoke a great deal about Holy Spirit.  He was excited that by his work on the Cross, the gift of the Holy Spirit would be given.  So now, when we find ourselves in high pressure situations like Stephen found himself - the Holy Spirit will give us what to say.  “And remember this: When people accuse you before everyone and forcefully drag you before the religious leaders and authorities, do not be troubled. Don’t worry about defending yourself or be concerned about how to answer their accusations. Simply be confident and allow the Spirit of Wisdom access to your heart, and he will reveal in that very moment what you are to say to them.”  Luke 12:11-12 The Passion Translation “Simply be confident and allow the Spirit of Wisdom access to your heart."  Jesus and Holy Spirit long to have full access to our hearts.  Giving Holy Spirit access to our heart opens the gate for rivers of living water to flow from our innermost being into the world.   Our capacity to trust Holy Spirit with full access to our heart grows as we gaze into Jesus’ eyes of hesed love for us, and as we experience His goodness and faithfulness in our daily lives.  "Hesed" is a Hebrew word that means “lovingkindness, steadfast love, secure attachment, tender mercies”. David wrote about this: Because Your lovingkindness (hesed) is better than life, My lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. Psalm 63:3-4 NKJV We see Stephen literally live this out — experiencing Jesus’ hesed for him while being stoned to death.  And Stephen lived out Jesus’ call to love his enemies — the ones who were furiously killing him. We’ll hear this Saturday night from Matthew Guillot about a brief but very powerful experience of God’s love. "Holy Spirit, strengthen our inner being so we can be yielded to Abba’s love for us and so Jesus’ life can be revealed through us every day!   May we hesed our enemies -- so they too are restored to Father God’s family." With Love, Russ Fochler