God Breath

Join us as we explore God's Word, providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you're about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning gathering. If you'd like to know more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.org. We hope that you're encouraged by today's message.

Thank you, all five of you. Hallelujah! I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's just a great, great series. If you want to go and further study, a lot of the stuff that I brought into this was some of my own ideas and thoughts, but a lot of it is from the book written by Chris Hodges.

You can pick that up on Amazon. And there's a lot of different principles in this book that you can go with, and we just chose a few of those principles to teach on. But each week we've been leaving you with one fresh air principle. And the idea is, from this theme verse, Deuteronomy, which I think is just an incredible teaching, it really is about a choice that we make. Fresh air is a choice that we make.

In fact, Deuteronomy 30.19 says this, This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you. I've given you a choice. I set before you life and death. So he lays life and death before us, and he tells us blessings and curses.

Now choose life. Now choose life. God wants you to choose life. He wants you to have a breath of fresh air. And we've been, and my job has been to try to help you discover what that choice is and how to reach that choice of breathing in the fresh air that God has for us.

And week one, it really came down to one thing when we laid out the choice. You need to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. You need to fall in love with Jesus. He is the breath of fresh air. It all starts there.

It all starts from that standpoint at the cross where God, where Jesus took our burdens and laid them on the cross. And we can have not a religion but a relationship with God. Not just a rule that we need to follow or I want to get right type thing. It's actually a relationship. Jesus desires to know you and have a relationship with you, to walk out life with you.

So we need to fall in love with Jesus. And then we had principle two the next week where we talked about attitude. And we learned about having a Christ-like attitude really does affect everybody around you, including yourself. And amen, I'm glad that some of you are taking that principle because I want to be in an atmosphere where attitude is good. And it's infectious, it's contagious, if you want to call it that.

Having a Christ-like attitude. We can choose to have a Christ-like attitude. And then principle three was last week. And we so neglect that one commandment. We honor all the other commandments.

We know we don't murder. We know we don't commit adultery. And we're really good at following those things. We stay away from those things. But there's one commandment that's the most neglected commandment in the Big Ten.

And that's the Sabbath, honoring the Sabbath and learning how to rest. We don't know how to rest. We ignore God at this. So the principle was slow down. Slow down.

Things will get done. Things will happen. If we learn to stop and sharpen our axe, it gives us a boost of fresh air in order to move forward and do things effectively and efficiently and in God's way. Because God's pretty smart. He knows what he's talking about.

We think we know more than God. I don't need the rest. Yes, you need the rest. And God desires you to rest. He even rests.

Jesus rests. We need the rest. Today is the last principle. I think it's the magnum opus of all of this. When we look at this principle, when we look at this point, this really pulls it all together.

Because we can go on talking about all the principles that we talked about the last few weeks. These practical kind of external things that we can do to help gain breaths of fresh air. God gives us these things. We can go on. If you read the book, it talks about finances.

It talks about family. It talks about all these different things that we can improve on. But the idea of the book really shifts into this one thing. Because what happens is if we focus on the external, if that's our only focus, then we'll end up dry again and stagnant and into doldrums once again. Because, you know, the external, if I just shift my life, if I put my life in order, if I honor the Sabbath, if I do things with that family, you know, eventually you're going to come back to this.

You're going to get a boost of energy, but eventually the wind's going to dry out and we're going to be right back where we were before. So the question is, how do we gain a breath of fresh air and keep a breath of fresh air? This is what we need to first understand. We are not physical beings with temporary spiritual experiences, okay? We think of it as, you know, we're just physical beings and we get these spiritual thoughts and spiritual experiences, but we are not physical beings with temporary spiritual experiences.

We are actually spiritual beings having temporary physical experiences while we're here on the earth. So we are actually in the crux of everything. We are spiritual beings with temporary bodies. We have an eternal... This is just a passing...

All of you know this. Deep down inside yourselves, even if you're very... People that focus on the physical and everything that's going around you and it's hard for you to see the spiritual, you know deep down inside yourself, whether you're a follower of Christ or not, you know there's something spiritual. There's something beyond who you are. We are spiritual beings having temporary physical experiences.

So if that's the case, it starts from a spiritual place, right? We need to start this breath of fresh air from a spiritual place, if we want a breath of fresh air that is a continual breath that keeps us moving and keeps us going. And it's a lifelong solution is what this is. When we focus first on the spiritual rather than the physical, we can actually have a lifelong solution to the dryness. and we can observe the spiritual things you need to get back We need to get back.

Thank you. And the doldrums that we often face in life, when we become very stagnant, we can always dip into this. There is a continual power source that is available to us. Not only is it a power source, it's a best friend, it's a trail guide, it's a direct link to God, even. And He never intended for us to go through life alone.

We were never meant to be alone. It's an ongoing breath of fresh air that is available to us at every moment. Are you ready for it? Are you ready for it? Here's the reveal.

It's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. In the King James days, we called it the Holy Ghost. You know, the Holy Ghost. And a lot of people, when they heard that word ghost, it kind of like freaked them out a little bit, to say the least.

And this is a hard area for us to venture into, I think, as human beings, when we talk about spirit, we talk about ghost. It just, you know, God the Father, that's kind of, we can kind of connect with that, can't we? Because a lot of us have earthly fathers, or we understand what it means to have a father. And we can kind of connect with God the Son, because we can see the cross, and we can actually see him. We kind of watch movies, and we kind of get ideas, even though they're not necessarily accurate.

We can kind of get an idea. But this ghost thing is a whole different story. The Holy Ghost. And this is probably the most misunderstood, neglected, misrepresented, and often minimized part of the Godhead, or person of the Godhead. And a lot of times, because we don't understand it well, we like to skip over it, or kind of change our theology on it, or just kind of, we just don't talk about it.

Let's just be honest with you. And it can be, the problem with that, it can be our greatest source of fresh breath. It could be, it gets us through. It's a continual source that we can dip into. And when we neglect it, we mess out on so much that God has for us.

So here's the road, man. I want to talk about what that really means. What is the Holy Spirit? What is, who is the Holy Spirit? I should say it that way.

Because we have those it conversations a lot. But who is the Holy Spirit? And we want to break down some of those misconceptions and then show you some steps of how to have an actual relationship with Him. So let's deal with the Holy Spirit first. Let's move with the word Spirit first.

Spirit is mentioned over 800 times in Scripture. And in biblical interpretation, Jeff can back me up on this, brother. If it's mentioned a lot, it's pretty important. We don't want to neglect it. And through the Old Testament and the New Testament, we see the Holy Spirit mentioned.

And what's interesting about this is this is the English word. The Holy Spirit is like the English word to describe this. But I want to take us back to the original language because Spirit was kind of the word they had to use within the context of how the original language was used. And it was the only thing that kind of made sense within. But if we go back to the original language, we can really understand what this means.

So there's this word in the Old Testament, the original language was Hebrew. And if we go back to the original transcripts, we see a lot of things. We see that it's written in Hebrew because it was written by the Hebrews, right? Hebrew people. And the Jews, if you want to call them that today.

And the word for spirit was, let me say this right, ruach. Ruach. You have to go. I mean, if we pronounce it our way, it would be ruach. But it's ruach.

And that's how you pronounce it in the original Hebrew. You get kind of hock-a-loo-gee. They get it out just right. And the actual meaning of it is a wind, a breath, a violent exhalation, a blast of breath. It's air.

It's breath. And it's found in the second, the very second verse of the Bible. Genesis 1-2 says this. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep.

And the spirit, the wind, the breath, the exhalation of God was hovering over the water. So when God said, let there be light, it wasn't like, you know, Charlton Heston, let there be light. You know, we think of, you know, God with that kind of like awesome voice. If you haven't heard many of my sermons, I will mention Charlton Heston and the recorded Bible by him. And I love his voice.

And I could listen to him all day long. But God was actually speaking and things were leaping into existence. And it wasn't just he was speaking, he was breathing. He was like, let there be light. And the God breath would breathe over and things would come to life.

Isn't that amazing when we see it that way? That God's very breath breathes life. And then we see it in the New Testament. The New Testament word for spirit is pneuma. The P is silent.

So we don't come around. So pneuma, P-N-E-U-M-A if you're following your notes, is the word for spirit. And what does it mean? A current of air, a blast of breath, a strong breeze. So what can we conclude?

So every time we see the word spirit, it really means breath. It means air. It means a violent exhalation. It's a strong wind that comes through. And we could see it through scripture when we see in the, just as an additional note here, when we look at Acts 2 and they waited in the upper room for the Holy Spirit to come in.

The Holy Spirit showed up. What did he show up as? A violent, rushing, like a violent, rushing wind. He was a wind. They felt his presence and a wind blew through.

So why all the mystery? Why is it so hard for us to relate to the spirit? Because spirit kind of freaks us out a little bit. But when we understand the spirit as wind and breath and the person of the Godhead that gives us the ability to move forward and to gain strength, it changes everything. And there are some characteristics of wind and breath and the spirit that make it very difficult.

Think of it this way. Think of it. When we're trying to explain spirit, when we're trying to explain the spirit of God, or never mind that. If when we try to explain wind, wind, and if you know somebody who hasn't experienced, Have you experienced wind before? How do you explain it to them?

You know, you're like, well, you can't see it, but, you know, it feels like this. Well, you know, I don't get it. Well, you know, it blows, and, you know, it...and sometimes, wind is hard to explain if somebody hasn't ever experienced it before. Obviously, we don't have that problem because everybody's experienced wind, but if somebody never experienced it before, it is kind of hard to explain, and the Spirit's kind of the same way.

If someone hasn't experienced the Spirit of God, actually experienced God's Spirit, then it's really hard for us to understand it. So, today, it's important for us to go and look at this and kind of explain it a little bit and help you understand His nature. So, there are a few things we know about the Spirit. We can understand when we think about wind. The Spirit, or wind, in the first section of your note here is wind is unseen.

The Spirit is unseen. The Spirit is unseen. Wind is unseen. Wind, you can't see it, but you know it's there, right? The trees move.

Leaves fall off the trees. When the fan cuts on, you know, on a hot day, you know that there's wind there. There's something happening there. It stirs up water. And the same is true of the Holy Spirit.

It's as if you have to experience it to really know. What it's like. And I can tell you over and over again, you know, being a pastor, and even from the beginning of Salt Church, we've actually had people come out of the service and walk up to me. And man, that was a great service. I don't know what's going on in there, but something's in there.

Something's happening in there. It's the Spirit of God. They experience the Spirit of God. But because it's hard to explain, so many reject the Holy Spirit because they can't really see it. And we feel comfortable as human beings dealing with things we can see.

We want to be able to touch things, and we want to be able to know they're there. I remember a guy I used to work with back when I was a teenager. I worked construction, and I would always, you know, we'd always have those spiritual conversations. And he was not a believer, and he was like, I just can't. I don't believe God until I see him.

He's got to show me. I've got to see him. I won't believe him until I see him. And so many of us are like that, you know, like, you know, I'll believe God when he reveals himself to me. I've got to see him.

I've got to touch him. I've got to see those nail-pierced hands he talks about, right? Well, the same is true of a man named Thomas in the Bible. After Jesus was resurrected from the dead, he walked the earth for many, many, many days and revealed himself to people. And one of those groups were the disciples.

And many of the disciples, a group of the disciples saw him, and they carried it back to the other guys. And they're like, hey, man, we've seen Jesus. He's risen from the dead. Man, we even saw, like, his hands and his side and all that. And he was talking to us, and he was hanging out with us.

Man, he's alive. And Thomas comes around the corner, and he's like, I just don't believe it. I saw him. I saw he died. He's dead.

He's gone. And until I see those hands and I see that side, that pierced side, I'm not believing it. I'm not going to believe it. I've got to see it. But can any of us relate?

We're that way, right? We've got to see it. I've got to see it. And Jesus shows up, and he says, here I am. He's like, my Lord, my God, it is you.

And what was Jesus' response to that? He says, touch my hands. Touch my side. It's really me. It's really me.

And he makes this profound statement in John 20, verse 29. He says, because you have seen me, you have believed. But blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed. Who's he talking about there? He's talking about us.

We haven't physically seen the resurrected Jesus, but we have experience. We have the ability, we have the availability to experience the unseen. Because he sent someone to us, the Holy Spirit. And we can experience a breath of fresh air, but it requires, it requires faith. It requires faith in the unseen.

And you've got to be okay with experiencing him without seeing him. You've got to be okay with that. There's times, yes, we have everything we need right here in Scripture to help support us. To know more about God. And we can always go to the Word of God to validate.

But we've also got to be comfortable in experiencing, having an experience with God alongside of it. To help us. To empower us. To let us know. God wants to let us know that he's there.

We've got to be okay with not seeing him. Secondly, wind is unpredictable. Wind is unpredictable. The reason I love surfing so much, the sport of surfing, is because it's probably the most challenging sport in the world. Because in every, it's a lot like golf, you know, based on the wind conditions.

And what the waves are doing that day. Some days the waves are blown out. Some days the waves are glassy. Some days they're big. Some days they're small.

And you have to adjust all the time, right? Because the wind is unpredictable. The ocean is unpredictable. And it's really difficult to dial in the art and the science of surfing. It actually, in some ways, is a very intelligent sport.

Because you've always got to be thinking and moving and looking. And it's just unpredictable. The wind is unpredictable. Based on what the wind is doing, we're always trying to do, to change it up. And use different equipment.

And the Holy Spirit, in the same way, is unpredictable. Like the wind that moves the ocean. The Holy Spirit is unpredictable. In fact, in John 3, 8, Jesus answered, The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it's going.

So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. Born in the wind. Born of that breath that comes from God. But the problem with us is that we like to standardize everything. We like to put things in systems, which I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

It's a good thing. Systems are good. But we like to put everything in systems. And if it doesn't work that way, it must not be God. But the interesting thing is that God never did anything twice the same way.

God, all the time. God, all the time. God, all the time. He always did things in a different way. It was only once He showed up in a burning bush.

The burning bush experience only happened once. And if it happened today, we'd have people creating denominations called the burning bush, the holy burning bush of this, that, or whatever, you know. Because if God doesn't appear through a burning bush, it must not be through God. It must not be God. It must not be real.

But God never did things the same way. He parted the Red Sea once. He had prophets used to heal people by having them duck in water to kill the leprosy. He did all these amazing things in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus never did things the same way either.

At one instance, He spit in mud. He spit in dirt and made mud and put it in somebody's eyes. And then on another instance, He just said, hey, go. Let your family member be healed in the name of Jesus. By the time they got home, they were healed.

He just had to speak the word. He only had to speak the word. Yet, He never did anything the same way. If you like things orderly, I get that. I like things orderly too.

But if you focus too much on the orderly, then you're going to miss out on what God has for you. If He's going to be your breath of fresh air, you've got to be comfortable with unexpected things. And thirdly, the wind is powerful. Now, wind is powerful. This is probably my favorite piece about the Holy Spirit.

He's powerful. Wind can generate electricity. Wind can steer ships. Wind can also destroy cities. And we've noticed that in countries.

I was just having a conversation with somebody this morning about Puerto Rico and how that entire island's been devastated by the Category 5 hurricane that went through there a few weeks ago. Wind is powerful. Wind is powerful. And I like to know that I serve a very powerful God. I don't serve a limited God.

I serve a limitless God. And at the heart of it, the Holy Spirit is about power. That's why we call it supernatural. It's supernatural. He's super.

He's powerful. And I have a God that can do anything and cause anything and speak things into existence. He's a powerful God. Wind is powerful. The evangelist Charles Finney said this.

And if you don't know anything about Charles Finney, he was an evangelist. A major part of the Great Awakening. The revival. A great revival movement that took place. Almost half a million people were saved under Charles Finney.

He was studying to be a lawyer. A very intelligent person. Knew a lot about a lot of things. But he was struggling with this idea of the Holy Spirit. And just kind of seeking God.

You know. And what it really means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And he wrote this. In one of his memoirs. He said this.

But as I turned and was about to take a seat by the fireplace. I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me. Body and soul. I could feel the impression like a wave of electricity.

He could feel it. Going through and through me. And indeed it seemed to come in waves. I love this. Waves of liquid love.

Waves of liquid love. For I could not express it in any other way. Because he couldn't express it. He just experienced it. Right?

It seemed like the very. Get this. The very breath of God. Do you know God wants to do the same thing in your life? He wants you to experience him.

He wants you to have a breath of fresh air. But most would rather serve God on an intellectual level. And please don't get me wrong now. Okay? I'm all about intellectual understanding of things.

And understanding of scripture. Anybody who's planning to go into ministry. Or lead. Or teach. I encourage them to know their word.

To take classes. To go to seminary. Or whatever it is that they need to do. To be prepared for ministry. I'm not bashing intellectualism.

But what happens is. We get so intellectual. Because we're human beings. And we think we know it all. And our minds.

You know. We want to put God into our box. And we want to understand him. Right? But our God is limitless.

And God. I mean. He wants to do things beyond what we understand. Because he knows beyond. And we lack our box gods.

I want to intellectualize God. I want to put him in a system. As I mentioned before. I want to figure him out. And we have.

And we put him in this format. When he really wants to break open. And do something powerful. He wants to empower us. He wants to use us beyond what we understand.

Because he's the intellectual one. He understands it all. He knows it all. And I'll be honest with you. I'd rather serve a God like that.

That I don't have his unlimited understanding. Because my limited understanding. Is going to fail every time. Because I have no clue. I have no clue.

I'm figuring it out as I go. That's why I have to depend on the power source. To bring clarity to me. And understanding. And empower me at the next level.

To be able to even serve you. To know what to say. And what to do. And Jesus was having a conversation with his disciples on this same manner. And he's trying to tell me.

He says. I want to give you power. I want to give you power. He says in Acts 1. And if you're looking at your notes.

Or in your Bible. Acts 1, 5, and 8. He says this guys. I want to give you power. For John baptized with water.

But in a few days. You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when they met together. They asked him. And this is kind of.

Kind of hilarious in a way. You know. He's talking about power. You're going to have power. You're going to have the Holy Spirit.

You're going to do things that you've never seen before. And never knew that you could do. By the power of the Holy Spirit. And they say. Well Lord.

Hmm. Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel? Because they were thinking. You know. Everything that they've learned.

Everything that they know about God. They had no clue what was getting ready to happen. They were getting ready to launch the church movement. The largest movement that's ever happened in the history of the world. That's actually still going today.

They had no clue. Is this. Is this the time Lord? And he said to them. It's not for you to know the times or dates.

The father has set. By his own authority. You don't. I need you to know that stuff. I need you to listen to me and just listen to what I have said, but you will receive power.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And what happens, the danger of an intellectual gospel, an intellectual gospel that's all intellect and nothing else, is always in danger of creating a God that looks like us. And I don't want a God that looks like us. I don't want a one-size-fits-all God. I have no interest in a man-made God.

I have interest in a powerful God. A God with power. A God with unlimited understanding that knows all. And we need more than human effort and ability. We need a breath of wind from God.

The power of God that blows on us. So I titled this message, God Breath. And it's not bad breath. It's good breath. It's powerful breath.

Romans 8-11 says this in the NLT. It says, the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And just as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, just that same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ, this is, you gotta get this, that same Spirit lives in you. And just as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, He will give you life in your mortal bodies, your limited bodies, by the same Spirit living within you. He's the only source of fresh air.

He is the source of fresh air. All the external things that we can do in our lives, yeah, they give us a little breath here and a little breath there, because they're from God too. But really, the continual source is Him. The breath of fresh air. So, in conclusion, I want to give you just a few things, about three things here, real quick, that will help us, just some points that perhaps could help us kind of break some of those things so that we can truly experience the Holy Spirit.

First of all, we need to get past our misperceptions. Our misperceptions. Because debates, church splits, issues of the Holy Spirit have happened throughout decades. And we all come from different perspectives, different denominations. I'm proud to present us as an inter-denominational church, but we also preach the Bible as well, and we look at the scripture here, and we know what God tells us about the third person of the Godhead, and we need to break down those misperceptions and stop having the it arguments.

Well, it. You know, it. I don't know about it. And that's what churches would do. They would have business meetings.

They would literally have business meetings because something happened. God showed up and did something. Let's have the it conversation. What did it do? And where did it go?

And how do we deal with it? It. And if you're like a lot of people, and especially even me, there's a lot of misconceptions, and maybe there's some bias that makes it difficult for you. Maybe you were raised in a place, and we call these presuppositions about what we believe. We've allowed a theology or denomination to determine what we believe about the Bible and about the Holy Spirit and about all the things that we believe.

And we need to be very open-minded and look in Scripture and really, really, and I can tell you there's a lot of reasons, even on the other end, on the other side, the disbelief in the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of reasons why we wouldn't want to believe that because there's a lot of crazies out there that have done really bad things with Scripture and done things that aren't God. They become emotional. They become, you know, and legalistic about it in some cases. It has to happen this way, and it has to, you know, you have to have this tongue, and you have to do this this way, and it has to happen this way, and we become legalistic about it.

And then we become weird about it. And honestly, sometimes the Holy Spirit is kind of weird. He does weird things, but sometimes it's just us being weird because we're weird. People are weird. People are strange, right?

So we formed misconceptions and misinterpretations and presuppositions, and all God wants to do is touch you so that you have an experience with Him. And most people understand God the Father. Most people understand God the Son. But man, when it comes to Holy Ghost, I don't want to talk about a ghost. We don't want to ghost in our church.

It's Halloween. You know, we're trying to keep the ghost out, right? But this is one ghost you want to introduce yourself to. And you may just think it's just safer to not talk about it. And that's what's happened.

We've had entire chapters, entire scriptures kind of bounced over, and then you formulate this preconception about the Holy Spirit based on one scripture. Well, it says this, so it must not exist today. You know, it, and we're using the it word again. It must not exist today. But the fact is, He exists and is very real today.

And He wants you to know that He loves you. And He's there for you. Psalm 34, 4 says this. I can talk all day about this, so I got to move on here. It says, I sought the Lord, and He answered me.

So I don't, so let's just stop there. I sought the Lord. If you have any pre, or misconceptions about the Holy Spirit, don't, don't go to man. Go to God. I'm not saying that man doesn't help us and give us wisdom through God, by way of God.

You know, God uses man to, to help us understand. But, it says, I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and He delivered me from all my fears. So if you have any fears of the Holy Spirit, go to God. Don't allow man to define what God wants to do in your life. He wants, the Holy Spirit wants to do something that you haven't experienced before.

He wants to take you to places. He wants to fill you, and fill you, and guide you, and lead you. So don't seek man, seek God. Seek the Lord. Number two, you've got to pursue Him wholeheartedly.

You've got to pursue Him wholeheartedly. Jeremiah 29, 13 says, you will seek me, and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. You've got to seek Him with all your heart. If you really want all that God has for you, you are going to have to, Not just dabble your toes on the edge and kind of like a little bit, maybe I'll just slide in. You need to be like, God, I want all of you.

I want everything. Lord, Holy Spirit, show me. Reveal yourself to me. Fill me. And then number three, you got to develop an intimate friendship with Him.

See, this is what it really comes down to. If I can have the band, the worship band come up. Develop an intimate friendship with Him. 2 Corinthians 13, 14 says this. The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, that's the Father, and the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit be with you, with all of you.

Great paraphrase from the message. Because what we see here is we need a relationship with the Father. And it all starts with Jesus, the cross. The cross is where it begins. That's where it starts with Jesus Christ, the one who left the Holy Spirit with us.

But notice in this benediction, it says we need a relationship with not only the Father and the Son, but the Holy Spirit. An intimate friendship with the Holy Spirit. And it all starts there because it's a unique relationship. We need His friendship. We need it to live out our daily lives.

But the intimacy we can know through Him. Isaiah 30, 21 says whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ear will hear the voice behind you saying this is the way. Walk in it. What is that telling us? God wants to speak to us.

And Jesus says, I breathe on you, disciples. I breathe on you as I leave this world. I breathe on you. I breathe the breath of the Holy Spirit with you. And this is going to be the one to guide you.

This is going to be the friend that you can go to anytime you need help. When you've lost your direction, He can actually guide you. He can actually ensure you that you're doing the right thing or you're doing the wrong thing. The conviction of the Holy Spirit. He's your friend.

In Ephesians 4, 30 in the message it says, Don't grieve God. Don't break His heart. His Holy Spirit moving and breathing in you is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for Himself. Don't take such a gift for granted. Don't take the Holy Spirit for granted.

Don't leave Him out. Allow Him to develop a relationship with you. So here's our final point in this series. Get to know the Holy Spirit. Get to know the person.

He, the person of the Holy Spirit. I invite you to know the person of the Holy Spirit. If we could bow our heads for a second. And let's just, let's take this moment very seriously. Some of you today, you know, you've heard this message and something kind of struck out to you.

And you're like, look out. It's just there. That makes so much sense. But I don't have that, Leon. I don't have that, Pastor.

I don't know anything about that intimate relationship that you're talking about. I go back to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. The one who loves you and pursues you and left the Holy Spirit here for you to know and here to guide you. If you're here today and you're ready to make a decision for Jesus.

I mean, I'm not talking about doing the right thing. I'm talking about actually knowing God. Do you want to know God? A God of love. A God who cares for you deeply.

Who wants to rescue you. He doesn't care where you've been or where you're going even after you leave this service. He just cares about right now. He wants to have a relationship with you. And some of you, your heart strings are being pulled.

That's called the Holy Spirit. He's pulling you and saying, come on. Come on. Be my friend. I love you.

I'm going to guide you. I'm going to give you experiences that you've never experienced before. I'm going to help you out through the hard times, the difficult times. We're going to ride this together right into eternity. And we're going to live eternity celebrating the joy of Jesus Christ.

So if that's you today, if you want a relationship, guys, if you would just boldly lift your hand. I want to pray for you. Come on. Lift your hand. Say, I want to.

I want to. Amen. I see that hand. Anybody else? Anybody else?

You want to have a relationship? Another hand. Hallelujah. If you'll pray this with me, just pray this with me. This is what it takes.

You've got to believe it. You've got to receive it. Say, Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. That you died for my sin. Come into my heart.

Come into my life. I walk with you from this day forth. Change me from the inside out. In your name. Amen.

Amen.