Fruit of the Spirit and Holy Spirit Q&A| Let's Talk Biblical

If you love talking about the Bible as much as I do, then I think you'll really enjoy this show. Welcome to Let's Talk Biblical, the podcast where we dig deep into the heart of scripture, explore timeless truths, and have real conversations about what the Bible says and how it applies to us. My name is Lex and I want to thank you for joining me on today's episode. So, grab your Bible, get comfortable, and let's talk biblical. All right, guys. Welcome back. Um, tonight we're going to be doing two things. So, I want to talk about the fruit of the spirit and then we're going to have a Q&A where we are just answering any kind of questions you have related to the Holy Spirit. And so, the last few weeks we've been talking about the Holy Spirit. We started off talking about who is the Holy Spirit and then we talked about the gifts of the spirit and then now tonight we're talking about the fruit of the spirit and then next week we're going to be talking about Pentecost. And so this whole month basically is devoted to the Holy Spirit. And so tonight after we talk about the fruit of the spirit, uh the majority of the the hour I'm hoping we can dedicate to questions. So if you have questions related to the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit, anything uh along those uh along those lines in that realm of of uh conversation, go and post those questions in the chat and then we'll start looking at those questions um here in just a little bit after we get done uh talking about the fruit of the spirit. And so let me just go ahead and jump right into the topic at hand, the fruit of the spirit. And so we can look at Galatians chapter 5. And I want to start in verse 16. Uh because we're seeing uh what Paul is setting here is he's setting up a contrast between uh the spirit and the flesh and the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the spirit, which could also be called the works of the spirit, I think. Um and so he says um I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And so he's giving us um a resource, a tool to help us fight the battle against the flesh. And so this is a very important tool resource for us to understand. Uh because if we're walking in the spirit, we are not going to be walking in the flesh. uh we're not going to be falling prey to the lust of the flesh. We're not going to be falling prey to uh the temptation of the flesh when we're walking in the spirit. Now, when you fall prey to the flesh, that's a clue to you that you're not walking in the spirit. And so, if you're if you're constantly battling with the flesh, then that means you need to learn how to walk in the spirit more because when you walk in the spirit, you're not going to be fulfilling the lust of the flesh. And so those two uh as we read throughout the the New Testament, those two are at war with one another. And Paul talks about this in several of his epistles. He goes on, he says, "For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish." And this is actually similar to what Paul talks about in Romans uh where he's talking about Romans uh 56 and 7. and he's talking about how um the spirit and the flesh are at war with one another. And he talks about how um he does the things he doesn't want to do and the things he wants to do, the good things he wants to do, he doesn't do. And there's this constant battle within himself. He's describing this this battle between the flesh and the spirit. And uh he goes on and he says, you know, if we walk in the spirit um then we're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. And we may we may jump over to Romans here in a minute, but I want to stick with Galatians for right now. And so he says, "The spirit of the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh." So they're they're fighting against each other. They are um at war with one another. If you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now, this is oftentimes confusing for people. What does he mean under the law? And um when you think about what does under the law mean? uh think about what does it mean to be above the law. We talk about criminals oftentimes being above the law. So someone who is like an alapone um someone who is a uh very rich uh influential person often times they seem to be above the law. They seem to be able to commit crimes and get away with it. And so is Paul saying we're above the law? No, I don't think that's what he's saying. that we are somehow above the law that we can sin and get away with it. I don't think that's what he's trying to say. Um if you're under the law, you're someone who is being um punished by the law. You are under the condemnation of the law. You are feeling the weight of the law upon you. And so if you are feeling the weight of the law, that means the law is coming down on you. It is pressing down on you. You are under the law. You are being punished by the law um because you're a lawb breaker. And so he says, if you're led by the spirit, you're not going to be a lawb breaker. If you're led by the spirit, you're not going to be under the law. You're not going to be under the the weight of the law, under the punishment of the of the law, under the um uh the force of the law. Um so you'll be what would you be then? You'd be a lawabiding citizen. You would be in line with the law. You would you would not be under the law being a lawb breaker. uh you would not be above the law being a lawb breaker who gets away with it. The under the law is a lawb breaker who is punished above the law is a lawb breaker who gets away with it. You would be walking in line with the law. You would be a lawkeeper. So you would be a law-abiding citizen. And so if you're walking in the spirit, you are not breaking the law. Um now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lwdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, realies, and the like. of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Okay, so now he's listing things that the law forbids us from doing. He says these are evident. And so the idea is that you should know better anyway. You shouldn't have to have the law tell you not to do these things. Um and so they they should be evident. So the works of the flesh are evident. Verse verse 19, the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery. You should understand that adultery is wrong. You know, adultery is violating the covenant that you've entered into. You've entered into a marriage covenant with your wife or you're violating the the marriage covenant somebody else entered into by uh committing adultery with that married person. Um, fornication. Okay. Fornication is uh being involved sexually with somebody outside of marriage. And so having some sort of uh illegal sexual relationship with somebody, something that is not permitted. You you have not been granted access to that person in that way. That's what marriage does is it grants you permission to enter into sexual covenant with someone. And if you're not married to that person, you you have not been given legal access to sexual covenant with that someone. And that's the problem with fornication. Uh marriage gives you legal access to that fornication. You are stealing that without having legal access to it. Um uncleanness uncleanness can cover all kinds of different things. Um but the idea of being unclean is is we want to be clean. We want to to be clean so we can come into God's presence. And when you're unclean, you're unable to come into his presence. And that's illustrated throughout the Old Testament in numerous ways. And so, um, you know, things like a woman on her monthly cycle is unclean. Um, you know, an emission of of fluid from your body makes you unclean, whether it be blood or semen or some other sort of emission, you become unclean. Touching a dead carcass, you become unclean. uh touching someone else who is unclean makes you unclean. Um uh leprosy makes you unclean. There's all kinds of things that can make you unclean. And as you look through uh the Old Testament, there's so many laws devoted to clean and unclean. And learning how to avoid what makes you unclean is important. And and Paul is illustrating this here that that this is the work of the flesh is is doing things that make you unclean. And that's a fleshly thing. And you know, and there's some things you can't avoid, right? You can't avoid like women, you can't avoid your monthly cycle. That just that's part of life. That's something that happens. You can't avoid that. You're going to become unclean during that period. Um, but there's things that you can do to prevent that from spreading and things that you can do so that when the uncleanness is over, you wash and then you're clean again. Um, and so there's there's certain types of uncleanness you can avoid and certain types of clean uncleanness that you can't avoid. Um, but the idea is you want to try to remain clean and avoid uncleanness when whenever possible. But that again that's illustrated throughout the Old Testament. Lwdness. Okay, this lwdenness has to do with indecent exposure. Um, it has to do with um, uh, immodesty and showing parts of your body that shouldn't be shown. Um, and even also there's lewd behavior, lewd acting, lewd speaking. Um, you know, people have lewd conversations that they they're talking about things they shouldn't talk about. Um, and viewing lwdness is also would be included in this. So looking at things that are lewd, looking at um you know movies and TV shows and and uh pictures on the internet and whatnot, things that are um when people are being immodest and when people are doing things that are um lewd and and uh inappropriate and looking at those things, you are involving yourself in lwdness. You are being exposed to lwdness and you shouldn't do that. You should try to avoid that. Um then we have idolatry. Again, these are supposed to be things that are obvious. These things are apparent. Obviously, idolatry is wrong. We're supposed to worship one God and not worship many gods. We're supposed to worship the one true God of the Bible, not other gods and idols and things like that. Um, sorcery, you know, again, this should be apparent. We shouldn't be consulting witches, shouldn't be consulting um evil spirits. We shouldn't be consulting astrology, uh, horoscopes, um, things like that that would be considered in the realm of of sorcery. Um, hatred. We shouldn't be hating one another. Hatred is something that's a work of the flesh. And we shouldn't be given to hatred, given to anger, given to outbursts, uh, to wrath, things like that. And so, it should be obvious to us that that is a work of the flesh, not a work of the spirit. um contention. That's just fighting with each other. We shouldn't be fighting and bickering. We're supposed to be peace. We're supposed to be people who have peace known by our our love for one another and to walk in peace with one another. Jealousy um you know jealousy is you know you're you're jealous of somebody for some reason. They have something you don't have. Um, and it's it's jealousy and covetousness are closely associated and they're also closely associated with theft because often times when someone steals something, it's because they see something that you have that they want and so they covet it and they're jealous of it and then they go and take it. And so you have to be jealous of it first for you to covet it and then you have to covet it before you take it. And so it's it's kind of that trail of theft. And so it starts with jealousy. And so you're jealous of that that thing that person has or the you know whatever jealous of that person for some reason and that makes you want what they have and that causes you to covet it. And then when you covet it then you seek to get it from them. And you know often times that even causes you uh if you're jealous of somebody maybe you'll try to hurt them uh because you're jealous of what they have or what you know what what you don't have. Um and so those are uh they lead to other sins. Um, outbursts of wrath that again is connected to hatred, is connected to anger and and so outbursts of wrath are just where you just lash out at somebody. Um, you're not being self-controlled. You are letting your temper get the best of you. Um, selfish ambition. And so this is you're seeking for yourself. You're not seeking to benefit somebody else. You're not seeking to help somebody else. You're seeking how can I benefit me? You're being selfish. Um, and so you have ambitions to try to help yourself, to um exalt yourself, to make yourself rich, to make your yourself look better to somebody else. Um, to uh to have a better uh reputation, to um have a better job, to have whatever, you know, you're you're seeking for yourself. You're not seeking to help others. And so selfishness is a flesh motivated thing. Um, dissensions. And so this is uh this is causing division. It's causing um separation. It causing contention. It causes one person to be pitted against another. Um and so you're you're basically inst instigating um contention. You're instigating division. You're instigating strife. Um you're not causing unity. You're not causing love. You're not causing harmony. Um you're causing problems. Okay. Heresy. Heresy deals with um your theology. And so it deals with your, you know, are do you have right thinking on this matter? Do you have right uh the right mindset on this thing? Do are you thinking clearly? Are you thinking biblically? Um and so heresy comes from the flesh, not from the spirit. And so right doctrine comes from the spirit. Heresy comes from the flesh. And if we look through history, um many of the the heresies throughout history have been motivated by the flesh and and you can trace them back somehow to get back to the flesh. And um but that that's uh you know it should be apparent. It should be obvious. envy. Uh, you know, envy again is is back up there with jealousy and um it's up there with uh um covetousness, you know, and and it would be related to lust as well, but you're envying somebody for something. You're you're wanting something they have. Murder. Uh murder obviously it's associated with hate and anger and outbursts of wrath. So these are all kind of interconnected things. Um, but obviously murder is like the step further from hatred and a step further from outburst of wrath. And so some of these are kind of intermingled and and similar. Um, drunkenness. Okay, here's one that is is a little different than some of the others, but drunkenness has to do with um you're not being sober. you are um you're you're letting chemical, you know, whether it be alcohol or drugs or something inhibit your thinking and you're you're not being soberminded. You are being drunk. You are being um misled. You are letting your your mind be affected and deteriorated from what it should be. And that is motivated by the flesh as well. So people who are drunk, uh, that's not the spirit motivating you to get drunk. It's your flesh motivating you to get drunk. And when you're drunk, you make bad decisions and you do stupid stuff. And so, you know, to be spiritually minded, we need to be people who avoid drunkenness. Um, and so, you know, I'm not saying don't ever drink. Um, I think it's fine to have have a drink once in a while if you want to have a glass of wine with dinner or something. I'm not saying you don't have to ever drink. You can never drink again. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is uh we need to be people who are um seeking to be sober minded, not drunk. Um realies, okay, this has to do with fighting um and the like. And so anything like this, anything like any of these things listed above, these should all be obvious. These are the works of the flesh. The flesh wants to cause division. It causes chaos. It causes fighting. It causes strife. It separates people. Um it it it uh destroys peace. Um it causes um just all kinds of problems. The flesh is is what's causing problems in your marriage. The flesh is what's causing problems at work. The flesh is what's causing problems in your home. The flesh is what's causing problems within yourself. Um and so it's it's the flesh that's the problem. And the enemy likes to use your flesh against you. And so the enemy will come with temptations to try to tempt your flesh to get you to say or do something you shouldn't be doing. And um and so it's it's that's how the enemy gets you is by um appealing to your flesh. And if you can uh resist if your flesh can resist the temptation, then you won't fall into those snares. And so that's why the flesh and spirit at war with one another because the spirit is trying to um conquer the flesh. The spirit is trying to lead the flesh in the right direction and and keep the flesh from uh doing what the flesh wants to do. And so it's about your flesh submitting to the spirit. Okay. Um now then he then he shifts gears and he talks about the fruit of the spirit. Verse 22. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering or patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law. So now he's he's telling us, you know, against the works of the flesh, there's all kinds of laws, right? God has given us all kinds of laws set to show to to fight against the flesh, to show us these things are wrong, to tell us this is not correct, this is incorrect behavior. Uh but against the the fruit of the spirit, there's no law to limit the fruit of the spirit. There's no law to limit your um love. There's no law to limit your joy, your peace, your patience, your kindness, your goodness, your faithfulness, your gentleness, or your self-control. The the the law is not given to limit the fruit of the spirit in any way. Um there's no law against it. You can do all these things without limit. Okay? And so there's no law opposing the fruit of the spirit. There's no law opposing the spirit of God. And that's something we have to understand. The law opposes the flesh. The law does not oppose the Holy Spirit. And so when we're walking in the spirit, we're not going to be doing anything contrary to the law. We're not going to be opposing the law in any way because we're walking in the spirit. And so if we're walking in the spirit, we're going to be walking in love. And and the Bible says we know we're going to be known by our love for one another. Uh we're going to be walking with joy. And this is um joy. You know, we're we're told to rejoice even in suffering, to rejoice even when things are not going well. And um you know, James talks about when you face trials of many kinds, count it as joy because you know the testing of the faith develops perseverance and perseverance character. And so you know that through these trials and tribulations and testings that that is for your benefit. And so you can rejoice even in those hard times, even when things are bad. you can still have joy and that is a fruit of the spirit. And so when the spirit is working in your life, it produces that fruit. And this um one thing we have to to differentiate here is that it's not something you produce. Okay? You don't muster up joy. It's the fruit of the spirit being in you. So if the spirit is in you, you are joyful. If the spirit is in you, you are love. You are loving. If the spirit is in you, you produce peace. You you are peaceful. Um if the if the spirit is in you, you have patience. You are able to suffer long uh through difficulty um and through difficult people and having patience with other people. Um if the spirit is in you, you have kindness. And so when people talk about the evidence of the Holy Spirit in someone's life, I think the fruit of the spirit is more evidence of the spirit in your life than the gifts of the spirit. Because as we talked about last week, the gifts are manifestations of the spirit. Okay. Uh 1 Corinthians 12 it these are the manifestations of the spirit. This is how the spirit is manifesting in that moment at that time. So he manifests in healing. He manifests in a word of wisdom or word of knowledge or a word of tongues or a prophecy. That's the Holy Spirit manifesting and becoming evident and apparent in that situation. But the evidence of the spirit in your life, the evidence the Holy Spirit has transformed your heart. The evidence that you are walking in the spirit, the evidence that you're being led by the spirit is these fruit. You're going to see these fruit in your life. You're going to have love. You're going to have joy. You're going to have peace. Okay? You're going to have patience. You're going to have kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Um, and self-control, I think, is a big one that if we have self-control, that is huge. Um because self-control limits the flesh in so many ways. Um but love is opposed to hate. Love is opposed to lust. Love is opposed to envy. And and so we can go through all these works of the flesh and see how love is contrary to the works of the flesh. Joy contrary uh if you have joy then you are content and you don't you don't uh you're not jealous and envious. You don't covet. And so if you have joy um you are content with with how things are and you don't you don't seek to um have what someone else has. Peace. If you have peace in your life, you're not being contentious. You're not being divisive. You're not um causing problems. You're not causing strife. You're not, you know, so peace conquers those areas of the flesh. Um patience, patience is so huge. If you have patience longsuffering in your life, then you are able to um deal with so many difficult situations, so many difficult people, uh so many stressors, you have that patience to endure. Kindness um kindness goes a long way. And kindness is is something that we we need more of in the world is just being willing to be kind to somebody um even when they're not kind to you. you know, somebody's mad at you and yelling at you and and trying to pick a fight with you and you're just return kindness to them. And you know, the Bible says you're you're heaping coals on their head uh when you when you uh return kindness instead of anger in in favor of anger or in in when they when they give you anger and hate and come against you as an enemy and attack you, excuse me. If you pour kindness over them, love and kindness, um it's like putting hot coals on their head because they they don't know what to do with that. They're treating you horribly and you're treating them good and they don't understand that. They don't know how to reconcile. Well, I'm you know, I'm I'm being a horrible person to you. I'm treating you terribly. I'm yelling at you and cussing at you and saying horrible things about you and you're being nice to me. Why are you being nice to me? They don't know how to handle that. They they can't reconcile that. And often times that'll get them to to take a step back and look at their own behavior and say, "Oh, I'm being kind of kind of a jerk here. Why am I acting this way? This is a nice person." And oftentimes that'll diffuse the com the the heated situation. Goodness. Um just being good, being good to people. Um you know, and God is good and and when we are being good, then we are being like God. Same all these things. These are all characteristics of God. God is love. God is joy. God is peace. God is is is patient. God is kind. God is good. God is faithful. You know, so we get to faithfulness. And and faithfulness has to do with um you know, this this is conquering the lust of the flesh. This is conquering adultery. This is conquering fornication. We're being faithful to our our husband or our wife. We're being faithful to that other person's husband or wife by not causing adultery, by not causing problems. we are being faithful to our future husband or wife by not having fornication with this person illegally. Um and so faithfulness comes in against those works of the flesh. Um gentleness and and so many times just being gentle in a situation, speaking gently to somebody instead of harshly. Um, and you know, we we had some things in there about your language, about having harsh language and um outbursts of wrath and things like that. And so, this is um opposed to those things, right? Um, and then self-control. And like I said, self-control could be overarching of of so many of these works of the flesh and having the self-control to to just resist to the temptation for any of these things. You know, yeah, you're angry, but you control your anger. Yeah, you're you're um you have a fleshly lust after someone, but you control that fleshly lust with self-control. Um yeah, you have whatever, you know, you you have a a covetous thought or a jealous thought or an envious thought and you control that. You you control that thought with self-control. Um it doesn't mean you're never going to be tempted in any of these ways. It means you are able to control your flesh. And so when that temptation does come, you can say, "No, I'm not going to I'm not going to give into that temptation. I'm going to resist that temptation." And that's the Holy Spirit working in you, allowing you to have that self-control to resist those things. And again, these are things that the spirit is producing in you as you're walking in the spirit. These things are being produced inside of you. And so, um, it's not that you are producing them. It's not that you are, um, conjuring them up in some way. is that the spirit is producing them in you. Um, all right. So, uh, I want to go ahead and look through the questions now. Um, let me go ahead and transition to the questions and I'm going to start looking through the questions and and find some. So if you have a question about the Holy Spirit, you have a question about the gifts of the spirit, uh a question about the fruit of the spirit, a question about Pentecost, about anything related to the Holy Spirit, uh post your questions in the chat and we will start looking at those in just a second. Hey friends, if you've been enjoying the show and you want to help keep the conversation going, then we'd love your support. Let's Talk Biblical is a listenerup supported podcast and we couldn't do this without you. Your support helps keep this show running. For more information about how you can support this ministry, visit unlearnthees.com. And thank you so much for being a part of let's talk biblical. Now that we've explored the depths of today's topic, it's time to hear from you. Welcome to the Q&A portion of the show where you can ask questions about today's topic. So post your questions in the chat and let's talk biblical. All right. So, first question we got in here is Tracy at Thinking Kingdom Thoughts, and she says, uh, question, do you mind sharing a time when the Holy Spirit spoke to you in your life? How were how were you able to determine it was the Holy Spirit? Um, and so really that I'm going to look at that as two questions. So, um, how are you able to determine it's the Holy Spirit? I'm gonna answer that part first and then we'll go to your first one about giving an example of a time when that happened. And so I think um there's several ways you can know if it's the Holy Spirit speaking to you. Um one is it's it's not going to um align with your flesh. And so, um, I've heard people say things like, "Well, the Holy Spirit told me to divorce my wife and to marry this this other younger, prettier girl." That wasn't the Holy Spirit. That was your flesh. The Holy Spirit is not going to tell you to divorce your wife and marry somebody else. Um, that is contrary to scripture because God wants us to be faithful to our covenants that we make. You made a covenant with your wife, you're supposed to be faithful to that covenant. But I've actually heard people give that as an example of sometime when the Holy Spirit spoke to them. That is not the Holy Spirit. That is your flesh speaking to you. And it is um deceiving you. You're being deceived by the flesh. And we're we're told that we're supposed to have a discerning of spirits and and to discern what's the Holy Spirit and what's not the Holy Spirit. And so having that kind of discernment is very important. And so I I would encourage you first off pray for discernment. pray that you could recognize and discern the voice of the Holy Spirit. Um, but the Holy Spirit does not contradict the scripture. Um, you'll never find uh the Holy Spirit telling somebody to do something contrary to scripture. So, for example, um the uh trying to think of a biblical example, we've got um Daniel. Okay, Daniel was in Babylon and the king said, "Uh, well, you're not supposed to pray to any other god um but the gods that we tell you to pray to and if you're caught praying to some other god, then we're going to throw you in lion's den." Well, Daniel um you know could have said, "Well, the Holy Spirit told me uh I better not be caught praying um publicly." so uh so that I didn't get thrown into the lion's den. So he decided to um to close all his doors and windows and pray privately so that nobody can see him. Okay, he could have he could have said you know the Holy Spirit told me this and um you know that you know it's possible that the Holy Spirit might have said something like that to him maybe. Um, but what ended up being the case is he prayed with all the doors and windows open. And he prayed out in public view where anybody walking by could see him praying. And he did it three times a day, every day. And some people walked by and saw him praying. And they went to the king and they said, "Hey, this Daniel guy, he's praying. Uh, we've seen him praying multiple times a day to this other god. Uh, you need to throw him in the lion's den." They were out to get him. And someone could come along and say, "Oh, well, see, he should have he should have hid and not prayed." But we we we know through the rest of the story that he did exactly what he was supposed to do. And he was supposed to be thrown into the lion's den so that God could show his power and stop the mouths of the lions and uh show the king that the God that Daniel prays to is is the real God um and not the idols of Babylon. And so as you know hindsight in that scenario we see oh well Daniel did he was doing what he was supposed to do. He was being led by the spirit. He prayed with his doors and windows open so that they would catch him so that he would be thrown into the lion's den so that he would show the king that God is the true God. That the God of Israel is the true God. Um, and so we have scenarios like that sometimes in our life where either way, you know, you say, "Well, I'm I'm praying I'm praying privately, and that's a good thing." Or, "I'm praying publicly, and that's a good thing." And which is the Holy Spirit saying? That's where the discernment comes in is well, is it is it wise and prudent to pray in a way that you're not going to get caught and thrown in jail or thrown in the lion's den? Yes, it's wise and prudent. And so, it's possible that the Holy Spirit could have told him to do that. Um, is it uh is it brave and bold um to pray publicly in the in the face of threat of his own life and standing up for his faith and standing up for his God? Yes, it is brave and bold in that situation. And so maybe the Holy Spirit was leading him that way. And so in that situation, you could see both possibilities. And so you have to have the discernment to know which is the right approach. What is the Holy Spirit saying in this situation? Um whereas you know the example I gave earlier about uh divorcing your wife and marrying the the beautiful younger woman um because you're tired of your wife. Well that's not the Holy Spirit. That's your flesh. That's that's the lust of the flesh. That's not the Holy Spirit. Um stealing something. You know obviously the Holy Spirit is not going to tell you to steal something. Um, you know, you say, "Well, I'm starving and and I have no money and and I need something to eat, so I'm going to go steal a loaf of bread." Stealing is still wrong. Stealing is still even even if you are starving to death, to steal a loaf of bread is still wrong. It's still a sin. You've still committed a crime, that is not the Holy Spirit telling you to steal. The Holy Spirit would give you some other option. And so, for example, we have the widow, the poor widow who um her, you know, she she has enough bread for one loaf of bread or enough enough uh dough for one loaf of bread. And uh Elijah comes along and he says, "Hey, make me a loaf of bread and you know, make yourself a loaf of bread and uh your dough is going to last." Well, that's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is is the one enabling Elijah to come and and tell her to to go ahead and use the dough and it's going to keep lasting. It's going to keep growing. It's going to keep multiplying. Um, you know, if if if uh Elijah was not being led by the Holy Spirit and he said, "Hey, make me a loaf of bread first and then you know you'll you'll have plenty for yourself." And she made him a loaf of bread and he's like, "Haha, now you're going to starve because you have nothing." Well, obviously that wasn't the Holy Spirit. that was him being selfish and um leading her astray. And so we see often times that um the evidence of the Holy Spirit after the fact. Um and so we have to be again discerning. Um but you know the the situation let me let me go ahead and give a situation in my life. um a a time in my life when the Holy Spirit spoke to me and I knew and was able to determine it was the Holy Spirit. Um there have been lots of times in my life that I could give as examples. Um and oftentimes knowing it's the Holy Spirit is you you find out later for sure. And so it's not maybe not even that you know for sure when it happens but you follow and you find out yes it is the Holy Spirit. So, for example, um when I was I was probably pre-teen, you know, 12, 11, 12, 13 years old, you know, I was a young kid. Um I had a Swiss Army knife and um it was winter snowing and uh lost the Swiss Army knife somewhere in a 5acre pasture in the middle of winter with a foot of snow on the ground. We were out riding sleds and um my neighbor's dad had a uh hood off of a car that he'd strapped to the back of a tractor and we sat on that that hood and he drove us all over that pasture and somewhere on that 5acre pasture I lost my pocket knife and I prayed because I knew there's no way I could find that walking around in the snow looking over five acres to find a tiny little pocket knife. So, I prayed. I went home and prayed and just asked God to to help me find it. And I mean, we looked we we spent hours looking for it and couldn't find it. And so, then that night I prayed. And then I had a dream. And in my dream, I walked out to a certain place in the pasture, looked down, and there was my knife. And so, the next day when I woke up, I remembered that dream. And I got up, got dressed, walked out to that exact spot in the pasture, looked down, and there was my knife. And so I was able to know that was God speaking to me in my dream. That was the Holy Spirit speaking to me in my dream. And so he spoke to me through my dream and I knew exactly what to do. And I did it. And the result was I uh you know that exactly what the dream said would be the result, right? And so I knew that that was the Holy Spirit speaking to me in my dream. It wasn't just a weird crazy dream. If I'd have gotten up and walked out to the pasture and looked down and there's not a pocketk knife, um then I'd be like, "Oh, well, I just had a had a dream. Wasn't the Holy Spirit. It was just me hopefully wishing that I'd find it." But, you know, I didn't, so whatever. But the fact that I found it exactly where I saw it in my dream means that it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me in my dream. Um, you know, I've I've uh when I was younger, um, high school and college, I I dated different girls. And there were times when I thought, "Oh, maybe she's the one. Uh, maybe this is the girl I'm going to spend the rest of my life with." And I'd pray about it and and ask the Lord, you know, is this the girl I'm supposed to marry? And something would happen and I would know, well, she's not the one. And so, we'd break up and and go our separate ways. Um, and then when, you know, when I met Amanda, um, I prayed, you know, is this the one I'm supposed to marry? And I instantly felt confirmation. Yes, she is the one. And she felt the same way. She felt confirmation, too. And so we dated um like two weeks and then we got engaged. And then we're engaged for 6 months and we got married. And we've been married 23 years now. And we have three wonderful kids. And um I you know, I know that she is uh she's obviously the one that God chose for me. She is a a wonderful wife, a wonderful partner. Um, you know, and when it comes to ministry, she is exactly what I need in a wife for ministry and and everything she brings to the marriage and she brings to the ministry. Um, she she balances me out. Like the things I'm good at, uh, there's things I'm good at and there's things she's good at. And the things I'm not good at, she is good at. And and so she brings balance, uh, to my ministry. And so, um, you know, looking back on 23 years of marriage, I know that, you know, I I followed the the Holy Spirit in choosing to marry her. That that was she was the right one that she was the one that the Lord had brought into my life. Um when when we were uh when we were pregnant uh for the first time uh before well when when she was before she got pregnant before she got pregnant with our firstborn um I again I felt like the Lord was saying we're going to have two boys and um so when she got pregnant I said oh it's a boy and she's like how do you know? I was like, "Well, because God told me we're going to have two boys." And um sure enough, she had had a boy. And then she got pregnant again. I said, "Well, there's the second boy." And sure enough, we had another boy. And then she got pregnant a third time, which and I was like, "Well, I don't know about this one. I just know we're supposed to have two boys. This one might be a girl." Um, and sure enough, it was a girl because I felt like the Lord had spoke to me. We're going to have two boys. And so I didn't know if that was only two boys or if that was um you know at least two boys. And so I wasn't sure about that, but I knew we were gonna have two for sure. And we had two two boys for sure. Um and so I I believe that was the Holy Spirit speaking to me and telling me we're going to have two boys. Um when we moved out of the city out to the country, uh we prayed and we prayed for specific things. We're like, "Lord, we, you know, this is this is the kind of house we want. Uh, you know, we want to have a wood burning fireplace. Uh, I need a a little shed or something for me to have for an office, for a studio, for for doing videos and teachings and things like that. Um, like to have uh a little bit of land so that we have some space to uh to do stuff on and to have some chickens and a garden and things like that. And we had a list. We had, you know, we put together a list of everything that we were dreaming of, everything we wanted. And but we weren't we weren't crazy with it. We weren't like, "Oh, we want, you know, 16bedroom mansion with, you know, 6,000 square ft, you know, like we weren't dreaming big." We were being reasonable. And we said, "Within reason, what can we afford and what do we want it to look like?" And, you know, all that kind of stuff. And so when we when we found this place um you know we're looking at we're like man it's got everything we were looking at you know everything we wanted all the things we were looking for. It's it's further out than what we were wanting. We wanted something closer to the city. This is much further out but that wasn't like on our list. And we're looking around at this place and we're like man everything on our list is here. We've got the wood burning fireplace. Um you know it's the same type of house that we wanted. It's got a, you know, the shed here that I'm in right now that that I have for my office has a garage area where I can do um woodworking and things. Uh we've got three acres. You know, it's it's it's basically it's everything we we put on our list. And in the by the front porch there was a rock and it has James 117 on it. And that's just what it said on the rock, James 117. And the guy who lived here before had etched that into the rock. And I saw that and I and I looked at a man. I was like, "Do you see this?" And she's like, "Yeah." And she started crying. And James 1:17, let me go ahead and just read that to you. I'm going to pull that up. Okay. Uh, here we go. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. And so it's like God just stuck this rock here just as a assurance to us that this is this is a gift that he's giving to us. And um so when we got this house, we we asked the the the previous owner who was selling it, hey, can we have this rock? And he's like, yeah, I'll you know, yeah, you can have it. I'll leave it here for you. And so it's still sitting uh in up by the front porch in the garden uh right there in the front of the house. Um, and it was just it was just like this extra confirmation that yeah, this is this is what I have planned for you. This is um this is where I want you to be. And that caused uh a lot of other things to happen. So, you know, because we moved here, we were able to find the land for the church, which is, you know, like a mile away from our house. We we drove by and there's a for sale sign on it. we stopped and called the number and and were able to to start the process of buying land for the church. And if we weren't here, we wouldn't have been able to find that land. We wouldn't have probably ever been able to build the church here where we are. Um and so it just kind of started this um this cascade of things showing us this was God's plan. Uh this is where he wanted us to be. And so um discerning God's will in your life sometimes like that example, you know, Well, it's not you can't say, well, it's contrary to scripture or it's not because it's not really related to scripture. You know, it's we asked him what we should do about moving. We asked him to lead us in in that what what we should do and where we should go and he led us to it. Um, he helped us find this place and helped us get it for a price we could afford. and um he kind of gave us that extra uh you know the little extra nod that yeah this is where I want you. And so we were you know both of us knew instantly I mean when we before we even got here we were like this is the place we're going to buy. We had this conversation. We looked at the pictures online. We're like this is perfect. This is exactly what we want. It's in our price range exactly what we're looking for. um we were ready to buy it without even coming out to visit it. We we knew this was the place we were supposed to be at. And both me and Amanda both had that confirmation that this is where we're supposed to go. And then once we got here, um it was just even more confirmation that yeah, this is where we're supposed to go. And you know, we were talking to the people who owned it. They built the house and when they had it built, they wrote scriptures on the on the post of the walls before they put the sheetrock up. And they had um they had this notebook where they showed us where which scriptures were in the house and where they were. and sweet couple and um you know they love the Lord and and we know that you know they they they prayed over this land and they blessed this land and it was just you know obviously this is where God wanted us uh for multiple multiple reasons. Um another you know another example of of when the Holy Spirit spoke to me and and I knew it was the Holy Spirit. Um we were at a restaurant one time and I was talking to Amanda. It was just me and Amanda. We didn't have kids yet and uh there was a group of people sitting behind me. I couldn't see them. Um couldn't, you know, wasn't able to hear their conversations or anything like that. And they were just sitting behind me and I was talking to Amanda. I was involved in a conversation with her and I just all of a sudden felt like the Holy Spirit stopped me uh mid-con conversation with Amanda and I felt like the Holy Spirit said, "You need to turn around and and speak to this certain person." And there was like six people in the in the booth and I knew exactly which one to say to speak to and turn around and speak to him and say, "You used to be a pastor, but you're not anymore." And I thought, "That is the weirdest thing to say to a complete stranger. Um, I don't know what to do with this, but I'm going to be faithful. I'm going to obey." So, I turned around and I said, "Hey, um, I know this is weird, uh, but I feel like the Holy Spirit just told me to say to you, you used to be a pastor, but you're not anymore." And he said, "Yeah, that's true." I said, "Okay." And I turned back around and finished my conversation with Amanda. I said, "I I don't know why I'm supposed to say that to you, but uh, that's that's all I was given." So, and I turned around and and continue my conversation with Amanda. And so his confirmation that that word of knowledge that I shared with him was true, you know, because I I had a word of knowledge about him, somebody I didn't know, to total stranger. I I was given a word about him that he was a pastor, but he's not anymore. Turned around, said that to him. I wasn't given anything else to say, so I didn't say anything else. I felt like I did what I was supposed to do. He confirmed that it was true uh by saying, "Yeah, you're right. That's true." And so I know that was the Holy Spirit speaking to me. I don't know why. I still today don't understand why God had me do that. Um, you know, maybe God was saying something to him that he needed to hear, uh, you know, he needed to hear somebody say that to him to get him to do whatever God was wanting him to do. I don't know. Um, I will probably never know what that was about. Um, that doesn't matter. I don't need to know what that was about. All I need to know is that I was doing what the Holy Spirit asked me to do and then it's in his hands to take care of the rest. and he's going to do something with that. And um I just trust that he did do something with that and that it was great. Um and so there's so many examples in my life where I could I could show you um the Holy Spirit speaking to me uh in a situation or or something. Um and and you know, sometimes it it makes sense, sometimes it's odd. Um, and so there's it can happen all kinds of different ways. Um, we we were praying with somebody one time and the this this person was dealing with um a mental disorder. They they had uh bipolar and um they were having um schizophrenic voices in their head and they were diagnosed bipolar schizophrenic and they were asking for prayer for healing and to have us um cast these cast demons out because they thought they were uh demon possessed. And so we had a group of people go over and pray with them. And um as we're praying for them um I had a word from the Lord that said, "You need to stop looking at pornography." I told, you know, I told that person, uh the reason you're having these issues is because you're looking at pornography. You need to stop looking at pornography and your mind will be set free. And they broke down and cried and and he started saying, "Yeah, I've been looking at pornography since I was like eight years old." And um I said, "Well, that's that's the problem is it's just it's destroying your mind. You get rid of the pornography and you'll be healed." Um I don't know if he ever got rid of the pornography or not. I don't know if that if he ever got the healing he was looking for, but the the Lord gave me the answer and the Holy Spirit gave me the answer for him and what he was supposed to do and it's up to him whether he did it or not. Um so there's so many ways that the Holy Spirit can speak to you in different scenarios. Um there was um uh for example like the discerning of spirits. Um you know there have been times when we we when we were looking for a house, this was years ago. We were looking for a house and we went into this house and when we first got there me and my wife both thought something's not right. This is weird. um this house feels um not right, like something's wrong here. And we just felt like there was this like a darkness there and like it was like wickedness, evilness was in that house. And we we we continued the tour, started looking around the house, and I went into one of the closets, opened the closet, and I saw that there was a little hole in the wall in the closet, and I thought, "Well, that's weird. What's that?" And I saw a light coming through, and I thought, "Huh?" And I put my my eye up to the hole and I looked through and it was looking into the bathroom into the shower. And I went around the door and I went in the bathroom. I looked there was a mirror and the hole was behind the mirror and they scratched off the back of the mirror in the corner and they had a hole in the closet so they could peek into the into the shower in the bathroom. And so somebody was hiding in the closet peeking into somebody else in the shower. And I thought, "Wow, that's why this house feels weird." Um, I mean, we felt it when as soon as we got to the house, we felt it. And but it wasn't until I found that hole in the wall where you could see into the shower when I realized that's why this house is is unholy. That's why something's wrong with this house. But the Holy Spirit gave us that discernment to sense to sense that. Um, and you know, so obviously we didn't buy the house. Um, because that that house was defiled. The house was unholy. Um, and there was wickedness being done in that house and who knows what all wickedness was being done there. Um, but we we said this is not the house for us. It was a beautiful house. Um, but we're like this this house is has got a darkness in it and we don't want to deal with that. Um, and so it's discerning of spirits in that situation. So there's there's so many examples that a person could give of how how you know it's the Holy Spirit. And I think the best example is when you have confirmation um either from someone or something that confirms the word that you heard or the the sense that you have um the direction you're feeling. You're going to have some kind of confirmation of that usually. Um so uh that would be uh my second part is you know first part is it's not going to contradict scripture and the second part is is God gives you some sort of confirmation so you know it's from the Lord. But sometimes that confirmation comes after you act. And so, uh, like for example, when when I felt the Holy Spirit told me to talk to that guy and say, "Hey, you used to be a pastor, but you're not anymore." I didn't get the confirmation until I acted. And so, I acted first and I I acted in faith believing that it was the Holy Spirit. And, you know, here's the thing. If it wasn't the Holy Spirit and I turned around and I made a fool of myself and said, "Hey, I feel like the Holy Spirit's saying, um, you used to be a pastor, you're not." He's like, "What are you talking about? I have never been a pastor in my life. I've never been a believer in my life. Um, I'm not a Christian at all. I've I've never wanted to be a Christian. You're completely absurd. I'm I'm a rich businessman and and you're just a fool for saying it. Well, that would have told me two things. One, um, it would have told me, well, you you weren't hearing the Holy Spirit right on that one. And two, I would have, you know, felt like a fool and made a fool out of myself. But it's a stranger, so what's the big loss? He has no clue who I am. Um, I made a fool in front of him and he's no better. He's no worse off for it. I'm no worse off for it. Um, so, you know, acting in faith didn't hurt me in that situation. Um, but the confirmation of knowing that that was in fact true and the Holy Spirit confirmed it by him replying and say, "Yeah, you're right." um that gave me uh the confir confirmation and assurance that I was hearing correctly from the Holy Spirit so that later when I hear from the Holy Spirit in other ways I can know that it is the Holy Spirit speaking. Um I don't always get those confirmations though. And so there are times whenever um you know I'm praying with somebody or speaking with somebody and I feel like the Holy Spirit has me say something and I say it, I just trust that it's the Holy Spirit. And um sometimes I get confirmation, sometimes I don't. U but even when I don't, I feel an assurance within myself that I was doing uh the best with what I was given. I was I was saying what the Holy Spirit told me to say. And the more you get familiar with the voice of the Holy Spirit, the easier uh it is to know when it's the Holy Spirit and when it's not. Um and so that's it's one of those things it's like uh the more experience you have with hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, the more you recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit, the more easily you recognize it. Um and so for someone who is new to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, there's some un uneasiness, some awkwardness about it, and you it takes some some time to learn. Um, just like when you're a kid, learning to walk, it takes time to learn to walk. Learning to talk, it takes time to learn to talk. Um, but the more you do it, the better you get at it. And then then you get to the point where you can walk and talk at the same time without even thinking about it. And it just comes second nature to you. It's just part of who you are. And so that's that's part of it as well is the more you walk in the spirit, the easier it is to walk in the spirit. the more you hear from the spirit, the easier it is to hear from the spirit. And so, um, and I think that knowing his word is a big part of that. So, if you know the word, you're going to know the voice of the spirit more easily. Um, all right. Next question says, "Is it possible to just receive the Holy Spirit and not yet be filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts two, like in Acts 2:4?" Okay. So, um that is a wonderful question and um I'm not sure I have a a clear answer for you. Um but we see examples in the Bible of people like for example the apostles when they were disciples Yeshua um breathed on them and he they received the Holy Spirit but then later he said wait for the uh the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And so they they received the spirit already once uh but then they received the Holy Spirit more at Pentecost in a different way. And so I think it's possible that yes, it's possible to receive the Holy Spirit uh but not to be um completely filled with the Holy Spirit. But I don't think it's necessary that that has to happen that way. I think that someone could like we see examples in Acts where someone who uh receives the the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit all at once. they get saved and are instantly baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit and they are um already have full access to the Holy Spirit in every way. Um and so we see examples of that as well. And um we also see examples of people who are baptized uh for for the remission of sin but they were not baptized in the Holy Spirit. And then then when they receive the baptism of the holy spirit then they are you know start seeing manifestations of the spirit such as speaking in tongues or prophecy or things like that. And um but it seems like they can be separate events and they could be the same event. Um, so if you know I guess if the question is is it possible that you may have received the Holy Spirit when you came to faith but you've not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit um in the sense that you are filled with the Holy Spirit and walking in the spirit and uh allowing the gifts of the spirit to uh be active and manifesting in your life. I I think that's possible. And so if if you feel like um you would like more of the Holy Spirit in your life, I would I would ask you to, you know, tell you to pray for it. Uh because the Bible encourages that. The Bible says seek uh seek the Holy Spirit. And you know, if those who ask for the Holy Spirit, God will give it to you. Um Yeshua said, you know, you're you're evil and you give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give you the Holy Spirit to those who seek it, to those who seek after it. Um and uh you know and in 1 Corinthians 12 he says earnestly desire the the gifts and you know especially the the better gifts and you know the gifts that are more useful. Um and so we're supposed to be seeking after gifts and and also in in um Galatians where we're talking about the fruit of the spirit. We're supposed to be seeking after the fruit of the spirit. We're supposed to be walking in the spirit. We're supposed to be living our life following the spirit and so we're supposed to be doing that. So, you know, if that's something you feel like you'd like to see more in your life, I would encourage you to pray for that. Seek it and, you know, ask the Lord to to give you more of his Holy Spirit. Um, and I I I believe according to his word that he will he will answer that prayer. Um, but I I want to give you an example in my life as well though. um for years. I grew up in the Nazarene church and um the Nazarene church didn't believe in uh the gifts of the spirit and so I didn't really know anything about them. And then I married a woman who was assembly of God and they talked about the gifts of the spirit all the time and it made me desire to have the gifts of the spirit working in my life. And so I you know every time they had an altar call, every time somebody would say, "Hey, you know, if you want to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, come up." I was there. And uh I was like, "Yeah, I want I want baptism of the Holy Spirit." I I got prayed for probably 40 times to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and never spoke in tongues. And so because the Assembly of God believed that you have to speak in tonesues as the proof that you have the Holy Spirit, I was so confused because I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit or prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit 40 times, never spoke in tongues. And they kept telling me, "Well, if you don't speak in tongues, you don't have the Holy Spirit." And so I was I was just kept thinking, "I don't have the Holy Spirit. I don't have the Holy Spirit." Because what they were saying was a lie. They were telling me I didn't have the Holy Spirit when I did have the Holy Spirit. I just didn't speak in tonesues. And they were misunderstanding the gift of tongues. They thought the gift of tongues is the evidence, the only evidence that you have the Holy Spirit in your life. You have to speak in tonesues to prove that you have the Holy Spirit. That is not what the Bible says. And once I realized that, then I was able to start realizing and start seeing, oh, the Holy Spirit has been working my life all this time. And it's obvious that the Holy Spirit is manifesting my life in different ways. I've received gifts of knowledge. I've received gifts of um prophecy. I've received uh word of wisdom, word of knowledge, word of prophecy. I've I've received, you know, I've prayed for people and they've been healed. Um, I mean, I've seen all the gifts working in my life except tongues and interpretation. And um, but you know what's funny is there was actually a time um, when Amanda was sick and she was actually she was sick because of uh, demonic um, attacks that she was receiving. And it it's a long story. I don't have time to get into all of it, but we we lived in a place that was really bad neighborhood. Um the women across the street were lesbian witches and we think they were cursing us and um Amanda had these horrible nightmares where these little children would come and torture her in her sleep and there's demons looking like little kids torturing her in her sleep. And we went to bed praying every night and reading scripture every night. And um there was one night she um she woke up and I I had I was asleep. I was dead asleep and I had my hands on her and I was praying for her in another language and she said she recognized that it was not English. Um, and she thinks it was Hebrew. She thinks I was praying for her in Hebrew, which is really interesting. Um, because I didn't speak Hebrew at the time. I I didn't know any Hebrew at the time, but I was praying for her in what she thought sounded like Hebrew. And she uh after she woke up and heard me praying for her, she went to sleep and was peacefully asleep the rest of the night. And so she thinks I was praying for her in tonesues um in my sleep. And so it's possible that my conscious mind has not allowed me to speak in tonesues because it doesn't make sense to my conscious mind and maybe I'm holding myself back. You know, maybe my my mind is is preventing me from being able to speak in tongues. I don't know. Um but my unconscious mind when I was sleeping might have allowed me to. And so I think that's really interesting. But um you know I I can't explain a lot of the things I've I've experienced and seen and done and heard and felt um but I I can tell you that the Holy Spirit has definitely been active uh throughout my life. Um and it it is confirmed in numerous ways. Um, I'm looking for another question here real quick. Uh, okay. Uh, this is not a question related to the Holy Spirit, but um, I'm going to go ahead and look at it. Uh, Ali says, "Josie, you are okay to congregate with fellow believers while unclean. If we had an actual temple and a Levitical priest, that would be an issue. They cannot be unclean while they minister to Yahw." So, I know it's not exactly a question for me. It's a conversation that somebody else is having. Um, and uh I'm going to go ahead and weigh in on this. The and I think you you know, I don't know the whole conversation. I'm guessing this may have something to do with um like uncleanness. A woman in her minstal cycle is unclean to go to the temple. Does that mean she's unclean to go to church? And I think that's a good question. we should probably wrestle with. Um, and I know people who fall on both sides of that conversation. I know some people who say, "Well, you know, when she's in her monthly period, she doesn't come to church." And I know other people that say, "Well, you know, it's not the temple, and so it's okay." And I can see good arguments for both in that. Um, one thing that I would I would lean more towards I think right now uh lean more towards the side that it's not the temple. Um, and so the level of cleanness is not as um necessary as it was for the temple. Um, and so it has to do with the decrees the degrees of separation of holiness. And so when you know within the temple, the holy of holies is the most holy place. Only the high priest get in there once a year on the day of atonement. He had to be um you had to go through this intense ritual to make sure he was clean before he went in and all kinds of things. And so that level of holiness for the Holy of Holies was intense and very extreme because he was coming into the the the presence of God in the Holy of Holies. uh the the ark of the covenant was in there and and um that was just the the most holy place on earth at that time. Well, then you have the the holy place which was the tent around the holy of holies and uh that you know the priests could enter there, other priests could enter there and that was you know a regular occurrence for the priest to enter that place. um they still had a level of holiness they had to meet to get go in there but it wasn't the same level as the most holy place. Well then outside that you had the outer court and the priests and Levites were regularly there and other people were able to come there and so just regular people were able to come to the outer court and they had to have a certain level of holiness to enter there but it wasn't the same level of holiness that they have in the inner court or in the holy of holies. And so there's these degrees of separation as holiness is is applied. And I think this question has to do with the uncleanness in the the thing earlier with the works of the flesh. That's why I'm addressing it. Um and then we have well then we have synagogue and that's where church is more like a synagogue in that sense. Um synagogue oftentimes in in Jewish synagogues they'll have separation. So the men sit on one side, the women sit on the other side. Churches don't typically have that. Um there's some churches that do, but most don't. Uh most, you know, husbands, wives sit together with their kids in the same same row. Um but in synagogues, they'll have the women sit on one side of the room, the men sit on the other side of the room, and there's a wall of partition between them. And this prevents the women from being able to uh pass along their uncleanness to the men. So they're not going to be sitting in the same chairs. they're not going to be touching each other, things like that. So, they they're keeping their distance. Um, and you know, often in Jewish synagogues, the men will not shake hands with the woman. They don't touch a woman other than their wife. And this, you know, is partly for that uncleanness. They don't want to become contaminated from the woman's uncleanness, menstrual cycle. Um, but I think also in synagogues often times women will abstain from going to synagogue when they're on their menstrual cycle. Um, but I don't know if it's necessary. I haven't looked into it too much. Um, but uh within churches typically that's not the case. They don't typically require women to abstain from church uh when they're on their cycle. And um they uh typically don't separate men and women. Um, and one thing to consider is with um, in the book of Hebrews, it talks about how um, Yeshua washes away our uncleanness and that we don't need the same rituals for cleanliness um, that was required in the temple because all of that cleanliness comes from Yeshua. now. And I I think there's a good argument to be made uh from that uh from that the book of Hebrews in regards to that. Um but I would still encourage people to maintain cleanliness in their life. Uh regular baths, regular showers, regular washing your hands, um things like that to maintain cleanness and um because cleanness is important. U physical cleanness of your body is important. But the defilement of uncleanness that affects your spirit and your soul, that is taken care of by Yeshua. And he cleanses us from all those things that make us unclean. And so that the inner cleanliness comes from Yeshua, not through rituals of the the priesthood now. And uh but the physical cleanness of our body still needs soap and water. And so you still need to bathe and wash your hands and things like that. So I would I still encourage physical cleanness um even though it may we don't have uh avenue for the spiritual cleanliness that they had in the temple uh through the same ritual washings and sacrifices and things like that that was done in the temple. Like for example, with a woman's menstrual cycle, she had to go uh mikvah um and offer sacrifices after certain things. Like if you had, you know, she had a child, um she had a certain waiting period, she had to mikvah a certain way, she had to offer certain sacrifices for a boy, different sacrifices for a girl, different waiting periods for boys and girls. Those kind of things are not really possible uh without a temple. And uh so the best we can do is say okay you need to take a bath, you need to bathe because we don't even have the proper way to do mikvah um in that sense. And so we would say well you know you if you you've had your period take a bath and make sure you you maintain proper hygiene and cleanliness um so that you're not spreading contamination. But the spiritual cleanliness of that is, you know, it's is about Yeshua and what he did for us and he has cleansed us spiritually. Um, and so his sacrifice is uh greater than all sacrifices, not just sin sacrifices, but all of them, including the ritual uh cleanliness sacrifices uh that were done throughout the Old Testament. And so we rely on Yeshua as our source of cleanness, as our source, as our source of holiness, as our source of righteousness, as our source of salvation, as our source of forgiveness, as our source of atonement. Yeshua is our source for all of those things. And so his blood is is greater than all sacrifices. His sacrifice is greater than all sacrifices. His priesthood is greater than all priesthood, all other priesthoods. Um, and so we go through him for our cleansing and our healing and our wholeness and our um, forgiveness in all those ways. But I think it's still good to take a bath. So um, all right. Uh Ali says, "I believe tongues should be an actual language, not gibberish." Um and I agree with that. Um I think that tongues is an actual language. I don't think that it is gibberish. I think that sometimes people speak in gibberish and claim it's tongues. Um I think there is a lot of fake um gifts of tongues happening. And I think it's sincere in in many cases. I think it's sincere. Um I think there sometimes it's not sincere. here. I think that there are cases where it's um uh deception. And so, for example, um Kenneth Copelan, I think he is I think he's very deceptive. And I think that, you know, when he speaks in tongues, it's not sincere. I think it's deception. And he may be speaking in tongues, but I think he's speaking in demonic tongues. Um because I think he's I think he's being led astray by dece deceiving spirits. He's teaching heresy. He's teaching lies. He's prophesying falsely. Um he is uh getting rich off of his lies and deception. I think he is outright a deceiver and he is not led by the Holy Spirit. Um and and I I'm pretty careful uh in saying something like that about someone. Um there, you know, there's a lot of guys that I'm like, I don't trust that guy. Um I have a bad feeling about that guy. I I don't want to listen to that guy because I don't agree with his teachings. But with Kenneth Copelan, he's one of those guys I'm like, he is absolutely a false teacher. He is absolutely uh being led by some other spirit, not the Holy Spirit. And I'm I'm very hesitant to say that about people, but I'm not hesitant to say that about him. Um he is a false deceiver. And um people need to avoid him. Uh, and there's some other guys that I, you know, that I would probably put on the same level with him. Um, but, uh, he he's a good example of someone speaking in tongues that I believe is not the gift of the spirit. Um, that it is a a uh, deceptive thing. And, um, I think he's I'm giving him as an example of of someone who is falsely speaking in tongues, um, that is not being led by the Holy Spirit. Um, but I think that there's a lot of sincere Christians who uh are speaking in tonesues or speaking gibberish thinking they're speaking in tonesues and they they don't know what they're saying and nobody knows what they're saying. They're just making words come out of their mouth, but they're doing it with sincere heart. They they want to um they want to obey the Lord and and they they're trying and and doing what they think they're supposed to be doing. And I don't fault them for that. Um, but I think when you know what the Bible gives us is the examples we see like from the book of Acts, they were speaking in tonesues and everybody understood them in their language. And in 1 Corinthians uh 14 where he says that you know if you speak in tonesues that there should be someone who interprets and so there should be someone there who can interpret what's being said. And so if you if you if there's no interpreter then speak in tonesues to yourself. don't don't do it publicly. And so if there's not anybody who can interpret, then you just say, "Okay, well, this wasn't for everybody else. This is just for me." And leave it at that. Um, and so I think we've got to be careful. Um, a lot of people want signs and wonders. A lot of people want um, hypers spirituality. And I think what we've got to realize is sometimes uh these things happen very subtly and it's not a big show. It's not a big production. It's not um a spectacle. And usually with the Holy Spirit, it's not a spectacle. Usually it's pretty subtle and um and it has purpose. And if something's a big show and a big spectacle and it has no purpose, then it's probably not the Holy Spirit. Um, and so, for example, whenever, um, you know, if you're praying for somebody and and, um, you know, you pray for healing and they're healed, um, it doesn't need to be a big show and you don't need to parade them around in front of everybody and and, uh, make them dance on stage and stuff like that, you know. Um, it doesn't have to be a big spectacle. It could be, well, praise God. All right, next. You know, who who else needs prayer? you know, it doesn't have to be a big show. Um, and you know, when there's a a word uh of knowledge or word of of prophecy or something like that, it doesn't have to be a a big um a big display, a big public thing. You know, it could be, hey, you know, come here. Um, I have a I have a word to talk to you. Let's go talk in private. I have a word I feel like the Lord has wants me to say to you. Let's go have a private conversation. Talk about this. we don't need to make a big spectacle in front of the whole audience. Um I just need to have a conversation with you because there's something I'm supposed to tell you. Um and you know and even sometimes it's even more subtle than that. You know, you're um there have been times whenever um you know, I'm doing counseling with somebody and uh something comes up in the counseling session and the Holy Spirit just puts something into into my heart to say that they need to hear. And I don't say, "Oh, the Holy Spirit told me to tell you this." oftentimes I'll just say it, hey, this is this is something I think you need to consider, something I think you need to do. Uh because the Holy Spirit put that thought into my mind. Um I'm not being deceptive about it, saying, "Oh, it's not the Holy Spirit, it's me." That's not what I mean. It's just I'm not being making a big show of it. I'm not saying, "Oh, the Holy Spirit's telling me you need to say this or do this or or whatever." It's not necessary to have to always preface it with the Holy Spirit told me this. Um, you know, and I've I've seen preachers do things like that. They make a big show of it and they're, you know, they're preaching a sermon and then they're like, "Oh, hang on a second. The Holy Spirit's talking to me. Oh, what is it? Oh, the Holy Spirit told me I need, you know, that that's not necessary. That's you're making a spectacle. It's stupid." Um, you know, you're you're preaching your sermon and the Holy Spirit gives you something to say and you just say it and then later you're like, "Wow, that was that was cool." um the Holy Spirit told me to say this and somebody came up to me later and they confirmed it and they said, "Man, that was exactly what I needed to hear." And you're like, "Well, great. Then that means I was listening to the Holy Spirit. That's awesome." Um, you know, it doesn't have to be anything fancy. You know, it doesn't have to be some some epiphany moment. It it can be subtle and it can be uh seamless, you know, that it just happens and you you know, people don't even sometimes realize it's the Holy Spirit working, but it is. You know, oftentimes with counseling that's happens. You know, you you give good wisdom, good knowledge, good advice, good counsel, and it's the Holy Spirit speaking through you, and it's coming straight from the Holy Spirit is exactly what they need to hear, but it's not a big spectacle. It's very casual, very um unassuming, very humble, and um very gentle. And that's been my experience with the Holy Spirit is that's often how it happens is it's not a big spectacle. Um it it's not something to draw attention to me. It's the Holy Spirit is doing something and using me as a vessel to minister to somebody else. And I don't need attention for it. And it doesn't need to be a big uh a big spectacle, a big deal. It doesn't need to draw attention to me. All eyes on me. Hey guys, I'm hearing from the Lord having an epiphany. It doesn't need to be that. Um it's just you say what needs to be said in the in the moment it needs to be said and very subtle, very simple. And um that's typically how I've seen the Holy Spirit work most frequently in my life. Um and I would I would assume it's probably the same way for most other people. Um let's see. Let's see. See, I'm looking if there's any other questions. I want to try to go. We're already past our time, but I'm just looking here real quick and see if there's any other questions about the Holy Spirit. Um, okay. I don't see any. I I I'm looking for the qu word question in big bold letters. That helps me find it quicker so I don't have to read through every comment in here. Um Robert says, "The the fruit of the spirit is essential, especially in today's world." Uh absolutely. The fruit of the spirit is essential and uh all believers um need to be walking in the Holy Spirit, being led by the spirit and um following the leading of the Holy Spirit and and working in the Holy Spirit and making yourself accessible so the Holy Spirit can use you. Um and and that's just to touch again on on last week about the gifts of the spirit. The manifestation gifts is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in in a certain situation. And so you're praying for healing and the Holy Spirit manifests healing. Um you're you're speaking to someone and the Holy Spirit manifests by giving you wisdom. Um you're you have a situation the Holy Spirit manifests by giving a word of prophecy. um you know whatever it is you know gift tongues interpretation uh healing miracles prophecy knowledge wisdom all those it's the Holy Spirit manifesting in that moment in that what needs to be done at that moment um and so if you need a word of wisdom the Holy Spirit brings that word of wisdom um if you need uh you know healing the Holy Spirit brings that healing whatever it is and it's the Holy Spirit manifesting in that moment as he sees fit, the Bible says. And so it's not it's not that you're going to be always working in all the gifts at all the time. You know, you're not going to see it all always. It's as it's needed. And if it's not needed, you're not going to see it. And if healing is not needed, you're not going to see he healing. Um but you know, when when healing happens, we know it's the manifestation of the spirit healing. And so I I heard this preacher one time um he said, "I'm I have the gift of healing and everybody I pray for for healing, they are always healed. If if you need healing, I'll pray for you and you will be healed because I have the gift of healing." That is bunk. Um I you know that you don't have the gift of healing. The Holy Spirit is the healer. The Holy Spirit is the one who heals through you. If someone has received healing through your prayer, it's because the Holy Spirit gave them healing. It's not because you are a healer. And that's that's where people get it all backwards. They think, "Oh, I healed somebody, so I'm a healer." No, you're not a healer. The Holy Spirit's the healer. You're just the um you're you're you're like Balam's donkey. Um you're the tool he used to communicate what needed to be communicated at that time. Um, Balam's donkey was able to speak to Balam to get him to stop. Uh, so that the uh the angel who was standing there with a sword didn't cut Bum's head off. Um, you know, he the donkey, there's nothing special about that donkey. It's the Holy Spirit using that donkey to accomplish his his desire. That's what we are. We're just like Bam's donkey. Um, the Holy Spirit just uses us to say or do what needs to be said or done at that moment when he wants it said or done. We are his tool. We are his his we are useful in his hands. And that's what we want to be. We want to be a tool in his hands. We want to be useful to him. And if we're not useful to him, then he'll find somebody else who's useful. And so, we should make it our desire to be useful to him, to be used by him in the ways he wants to use us. um and not to try to manipulate and not to um try to be be or do something that he doesn't want said or done. Um and so we've got to be obedient and we've got to listen and um be willing to obey. Um that's that's really what we've got to do is learn how to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and obey him. Um, that's what walking in the spirit looks like. And it's very simple. It's very humble. And um, it's not that you're going to have a life full of spectacular, miraculous things all the time. You know, I when I when I was given examples, I gave examples of things that have happened over the last 30 years. And there, you know, maybe 10 10 examples over the last 30 years of things that I would consider um amazing things that the Holy Spirit has done in my life. I could maybe list 10 or 12 things in the last 30 years. It doesn't happen all the time. It doesn't happen every single week. Doesn't happen every single month. Doesn't happen every single year, but it happens when the Holy Spirit wants it to happen. And so, you know, I we we've had times where um you know, we we we were praying for people and you pray for one person, they get healed. You pray for the next person, nothing. Why? It's because the Holy Spirit chose to heal that person at that moment, but didn't choose to heal that next person at that moment. Um and he has sovereignty to do that. He has um he has his reasons. And maybe he chose not to heal for a good reason. And we just have to trust that if they didn't get healed, then it wasn't the Holy Spirit's time to heal him. It wasn't the Holy Spirit saw it was not the right time for that healing. And maybe there's something else that needs to happen first. Or maybe um maybe he's trying to accomplish something through this situation um and they they can't be healed yet because they need to get through this for some other reason. Um Paul, you know, he says he prayed three times for this thorn in the side to be removed from him. And God said, "My grace is sufficient for you." Whatever that thorn in the side was, there's a lot of debate about what that meant. Whatever it was, though, Paul wanted it gone and God told him, "No, I'm not going to take it away. Um you just need to depend on my grace." And so there may be times in our life where we're praying for something and God says, "No, um I'm not going to take that away from you. um my grace is sufficient. And we need to be good with that answer and say, okay, I'm okay with not having what I want. I'm okay with not having the healing. I'm okay with not having the um whatever situation change. I'm okay with that because I trust God and I know that his his ways are higher than my ways. His plans are better than my plans. And um I'm going to trust him to do what he thinks is best, not what I think is best because I don't know as well as he does. I don't see as well as he sees I I don't understand as well as he understands. And um we have to trust him. And that's where faith comes in is we trust him through the hard things. And we trust that he is in control and he is sovereign. He has a reason uh for everything. And he works out bad things for good. Um, but we got to trust him for that to happen. So, anyway, um, I hope this has been a uh, a beneficial Q&A. Um, there wasn't as many questions as I thought there'd be, honestly. I thought we'd have more questions about the Holy Spirit, more questions about the gifts of the spirit. Um, so I'm I'm actually surprised, but I'm glad because um, if there's not questions, that means you have good understanding of it. And that means that the past couple weeks when we're talking about it um that maybe the topic maybe I covered the topics well enough that you don't have a lot of questions. So I'm glad um and you know I would encourage you if you do have questions that you know maybe to go back and and rewatch um the last couple weeks where we talked about who is the Holy Spirit, what are the gifts of the spirit and maybe that'll help understand some of the questions you might have. Um, next week we're going to be talking about Pentecost. And so we're going to be talking about what is Pentecost, both the biblical holiday uh of Pentecost and what happened at Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And we're going to kind of weave all this stuff together and make sense of it because Pentecost is right around the corner. And so we're going to be talking about Pentecost next week. Um, and so I'm looking forward to that and I hope you guys are as well. Um, until then, we'll see you next time. Thank you for joining me on Let's Talk Biblical. If you enjoyed this episode, then share it with your friends and keep the conversation going. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss anything. And I look forward to chatting with you again next week. Until next time, keep talking biblical. Shalom.