Hi, I’m Lydia Marrow and I serve at Shake the Nations Ministries and this is God Today. I’m so glad to be able to take just a couple of moments with you. I want to talk about the Holy Spirit. You know, most people know me and Shake the Nations from the Bay Revival. And I grew up going to the Brownsville Revival. And let me tell you, friend, I love the Holy Ghost. I’m not one bit ashamed of Him. I love when He moves. I don’t think we ought to put Him in a side room. I think He’s for the main service. I think it’s His church in the first place, but I want to talk about something that maybe you haven’t considered.
Most of us who have encountered the Lord in some kind of revival setting – we’ve sensed the Holy Spirit, we love the feeling of His presence, but let me tell you, the Holy Spirit always comes with a purpose. He didn’t just come to see that we have chill bumps, or even just to speak in tongues, although I thank God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. I love speaking in a Heavenly language. I think it’s wonderful. But let me tell you when the Holy Ghost comes, He’s not just a feeling. He’s not just an essence. Friend, He is the third person of the Trinity. He is the Spirit that proceeds from the Father. The Holy Spirit always comes with purpose and it is not a mystery as to what He would like to do.
I’ve heard people say, “Holy Spirit, we don’t know what You want to do, but do whatever You want to do.” That sounds great. But let me tell you, we know exactly what the Holy Spirit wants to do because Jesus told us specifically. In John 16:7, He said, “But I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you, but I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” He said in chapter 15, verse 26, “When the Helper comes, Whom I will send you from the Father, that is the spirit of truth Who proceeds from the Father. He will testify about Me.”
So let me say this to you, friend. The Holy Spirit doesn’t come just to be an atmosphere in the room. The Holy Spirit comes to magnify Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has one purpose and it is to reveal the person of Jesus Christ. He does not come to endorse a ministry. He does not come to prop up an individual, but He comes to make Jesus obvious in the lives of those who have been washed in Jesus’ blood.
Let me tell you when you pray for the Holy Spirit to come, this isn’t just about chill bumps or an atmosphere. This is about an invasion of Jesus Christ. This is about the reality of Jesus becoming crystal clear. If you have a Jesus that only causes you to speak in tongues, you haven’t yet been baptized in the real Holy Ghost, because the real Holy Ghost will keep you from being able to be quiet about Jesus Christ.
If you say “Lydia, I need help being a witness for Jesus. I want to be a witness for Jesus, but I just don’t have the courage.” Let me tell you, it’s time to go back to the prayer closet and ask for a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. The initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is tongues, but the continual ongoing evidence of the Holy Spirit’s baptism is that you can’t shut up about Jesus. If you’ve got a Jesus that you only testify about in church, then you need to seek God until you get a real infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes like a great big magnifying glass to magnify Jesus in our everyday ordinary lives.
So let me pray for you for just a moment, because I want you to encounter the Holy Spirit right where you are. I don’t care where you’re watching from right now, wherever you’re watching the Holy Ghost wants to encounter you and make Jesus real to you. So Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask You over every person who’s watching me right now, everyone under the sound of my voice – I’m asking You for a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit to encounter their lives right now. Oh God, I’m asking You. Holy Spirit, make Jesus obvious in our lives until we cannot stop testifying about Jesus in our jobs, in our offices, in our schools, and yes, even in our churches. We ask you, Holy Spirit, to magnify Jesus in our lives, in Jesus’ name. Friend, we love you so much from Shake the Nations to GOD TV, the nations of the world. God bless you richly in Jesus.