You are a minister of the New Covenant. You are to minister life by the power of the Spirit. You are to offer the hope of faith-righteousness through Christ. Being a minister of the New Covenant doesn’t mean you only read or minister out of the New Testament books of the Bible, it means you minister to others out of the promises inherited through the finished work of Jesus.

The work of Jesus in His sinless life, as well as His death, burial, and resurrection, are the sureties of the eternal covenant we have with God in Christ. Ministering to others out of the authority and victory of Christ can only be done by the Spirit of God who dwells in us.

When you pray in tongues, your brain enters a state where your sense of self, who you think you are, is open to suggestion. In this time of prayer, the Spirit of God himself will bear witness with your spirit that you are His child and a joint heir with Jesus. As you prime your physiology with the gift of tongues, you can become rewired to transform into the image of Christ. It already happened on a spiritual level at your new birth; it occurs in the rest of your being as you pray with your spirit in an unknown language.

I believe this is true because life and death are in the power of the tongue. You are yielding your authority to God and are allowing Him to establish His will in you, which is to be conformed to the image of Christ.

How do you operate in the gifts of the Spirit? Rest in God’s love until it becomes an intimate experience for you. Experiencing His love for you will manifest as love for others and you will walk in power toward them. The gifts are not special anointings, they are expressions of our love and God’s love for people.

The Spirit pours out of like water, that wellspring of life that Jesus described in John 7:38. That water pours out of us and seeks the dry places in people’s lives. The Spirit becomes what is needed for people. We do not have to try to operate in a specific gift, our task is to be motivated by love for people, then notice what the Spirit is trying to become for that person. It may be a word of encouragement, it may be a healing, it may be a word of correction, it may be a Bible passage, it may be insight about the future, it may be many things.

The more sensitive you are to God’s love for yourself and others, the more sensitive you’ll be to what the Spirit is trying to become for others.

Being baptized with the spirit and being filled with the spirit are two different things. When you hear the Gospel and believe, the Spirit baptizes you into the body of Christ and Christ immerses you in His spirit who lives in you from then on, never to leave you. You receive the Holy Spirit when you are born again. To be filled with the Spirit is when that indwelling Spirit comes upon you to empower, strengthen and lead you. The spirit never leaves you but His empowerment may not always be resting upon you. Let’s chat about how to yield to His influence by grace through faith.

When does the baptism with the Holy Spirit happen? Can you be born again without this baptism? The truth is, when you hear and believe the Gospel, the Spirit baptizes you into Christ and Christ puts His spirit in you, of baptizes you with the Holy Spirit, they happen at the same time. You don’t have to wait to receive the Holy Spirit. From then on you can be filled with the Spirit or influenced by the spirit. Today we discuss these topics, we pray the create a firm foundation in the finished work of Jesus.

One of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to baptize people into the Body of Christ. He does this when someone hears and believes the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible authors use a few phrases to describe this event; being born again, made a new creation, going from death to life in Christ, are made new, undergo a circumcision made without hands, washed in the blood of Christ, and probably a few more.

When the Holy Spirit baptized you into the body of Christ, you are sanctified (cleansed of sin), given a new heart, and are indwelt by God’s spirit. The Holy Spirit cleanses you with the blood of Christ, which leaves you in a spiritually holy state, able to house God’s spirit. This cleansing also places you in a right state before God, he gives you the gift of righteousness.

All of this happens when the Holy Spirit baptizes you in the name of Jesus Christ, which happens when you hear and believe the Gospel.

We hear lots of sermons on what we should do and believe but we also need practical instruction on how to cultivate the word of God for real life. This exercise and conversation will help you transform your responses so you choose the fruits of the spirit rather than the works of the flesh.