 Have you ever been to the place in life where Jesus felt distant, where God seemed to be a million miles away? And it can seem in these seasons that our faith is causing us to pray prayers that reach heavens that are brass that are shut. I want to encourage you today to know that He who formed the ear can hear and He who formed the eye can see. The Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus more real to you than you've ever known possible. The Holy Spirit wants to bring Jesus to life. The Holy Spirit brings the Son of God alive. And He can cultivate this closeness that you sense with His presence, where the Lord will seem as if He's standing right here in front of you. I'm David Diger Hernandez and you are watching Spirit Church here on Encounter TV. This lesson is going to be a little bit longer than usual. And I want to say this, it's for those of you who are especially in your hearts in this season saying, Lord, I'm hungry for more of your presence. Lord, I want more of the substance that is you. I know that we often go through lessons that are in depth about the Holy Spirit, the presence and prayer and all sorts of those topics that are hallmarks of this ministry. But today, something special I believe is going to happen. As you watch this, I truly believe that that distance that you sense between you and the Lord is going to vanish and that you are going to experience the reality of Christ like you never have before. Stephen Moctezuma is here with me as usual. He's going to lead you in some worship. And then we're going to get right into this lesson. Here's Stephen Moctezuma. The nails in your hand, the nails in your feet, they tell me how much you love me. The thorns on your brow, they tell me how much you love me. We sing the nails, the nails in your hand, the nail, the thorns on you in the heavens. So I want to say, it's your, it's your, we sing forever, forever. You have written to us about how you've attended our miracle services and experienced the presence of Jesus like you never have before. I remember one time I was preparing for one of those miracle services with my team. And we're standing there in the venue that the service was to be held. It was empty. Nobody was seated in their seats yet. It was just myself, the worship team, a few ushers and my brother was with me also. And we were standing around in a circle preparing for what God was going to do that night. Outside there was a line of people waiting to get in. And we began to pray over that venue. As we do at every one of our events, we pray over the seats. We anoint the room. We walk around making declarations of faith. And in that moment with my team, I began to pray and I was, I believe, inspired by the Holy Spirit to pray differently than I had until that point, not prayed before. When we were gathered around, we began to seek the Lord, asking Him to do miracles, asking Him to save souls, asking Him to do as He would will in that service. But then out of nowhere, this passion rose up within me and I began to sense the Lord really near to me. My eyes were closed. My hands were firmly gripped with those next to mine and were praying. And I began to declare, Jesus is here. And every time I spoke that, those words, Jesus is here. The presence of the Lord would become more manifested intensely around me. I sensed Him stronger and stronger every time I made a confession that Jesus was there. And I emphasized it again. I said, Jesus is here. And I began to get the typical amens from the group. And I said, guys, no, you don't understand. I said, Jesus is here. And I began to speak that again and again and again. And each time I declared it, not only did the presence of the Lord intensify where I was able to sense it, but my team began to sense it. Some of them began to tremble. Some of them began to weep. Some of them began to fall on their knees and worship. One of them even started walking around the room. They were so excited and so inspired by what God was doing in that moment. And the presence of Jesus had become so real, so intense, so vivid that we sensed Him near to us. It was as if He was standing in the room with us. And that's how the Lord wants you to experience His presence. Now, I acknowledge there are times when God can seem great distances away. But I encourage you in those seasons not to judge your relationship with the Lord by what you feel, but rather by what the Word of God says. Our faith is based on fact, not filling. Facts don't change. Fillings do. And so we have to, in those seasons, seek Him. But I believe that there are special moments that you can experience the manifested presence of Jesus to where you can physically sense Him. But then I also believe that there is a truth to walking in a constant 24-7 awareness with power by the Holy Spirit with Jesus. Now, there are times in the services, there are times in my own prayer life, where I sense the Lord so near to me, I don't even want to move. And I'm telling you there are times where I have my eyes closed and I can sense Him in the room with me, I sense His glory. And I don't even want to move. Everything in me freezes because I'm afraid that I might do something that would disrupt the moment. I don't even want to move my hand. There have been times when I said, Lord, I don't even want to move my hand. I thought that if I did, I might sense it brush up against His robe. And in that moment, be so distracted by it that I would disturb everything that God was doing. But the truth is that the Holy Spirit makes Jesus come alive. He reveals Jesus. He glorifies Jesus. He magnifies Jesus. He puts the substance of Christ before you. Now, the Holy Spirit is Jesus everywhere. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit of Jesus. When Jesus walked the earth, he was limited to a physical body and he could only touch certain people at certain intervals. I think of Jairus when he came to Jesus and he pleaded to the master on behalf of his daughter. He said, Lord, my daughter's at home. She's dying and I need you to come. I need you to come heal her. And the woman with the issue of blood is watching this. And perhaps that's why she didn't approach the Lord verbally. Perhaps that's why she didn't command his attention. Instead, she goes up behind him and touches the fringe of his robe because possibly she did not want to distract from what Jesus was going to do for that little girl. Nonetheless, the little girl dies and one of the servants comes and says to Jairus, don't bother the master anymore. Your daughter's dead. Now, in that moment, I can't imagine what Jairus was feeling. Perhaps he was angry with that woman with the issue of blood for having disrupted Jesus, for having distracted him. I would have thought you waited 12 years. Could not you wait another hour to give Jesus the time to come and heal my daughter before she died? We know the end of the story. Jesus resurrects this girl and everything is well because Jesus is a miracle maker. But that story reflects a limitation that Christ had while here upon the earth. He was limited in physical body. He could not reach beyond his body. Sure, he could send forth his word. But even when he sent forth his word to the servant of the centurion, he had to have personal one-on-one interaction first and then he sent forth the word. This is why people would come for miles just to touch him, just to speak with him. If it were true that Christ had no physical limitations, then the moment he came to earth, all would have been healed. But the truth is he had to travel. Why did he have to travel? He had to travel to accomplish his purposes. And if he had to travel to accomplish his purposes, it means he was limited by a physical body. But the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is Christ returned unto us in spirit. And he is the one who removes the veil that causes us to be blind to the Spirit. There is a veil that rests between our world and the realm of the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the one who removes that veil and causes us to see. Clearly into the Spirit all that God is doing and all that God wants to do and all that is made available to us. So the Holy Spirit is the one who reveals Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the one who glorifies Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the one who makes Jesus real to us. That distance we fill with the Lord, that disconnection that we sense between us and God is fixed, is aided by the Holy Spirit. All spiritual matters, every single one of them, can only be known and received by the Spirit. This is an important first point. All spiritual matters, all spiritual blessings, all revelation, all gifts, every promise can only be received and understood by the Holy Spirit. The scripture says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 10 through 15. But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. Verse 11, no one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own Spirit. And no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. And we have received God's Spirit, not the world's Spirit, so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. Everything in the Spirit is by the Spirit. Your salvation was by the Spirit. Your justification by the Spirit. Your sanctification is by the Spirit. Your glorification will be by the Spirit. Every step of your journey, including the initiation of your spiritual life, was by the Holy Ghost. Everything that's ever been revealed to you, everything that you've ever received spiritually was given to you by the Holy Ghost. When we worship, it's by the Holy Spirit because all worship is a response to revelation and revelation only comes by the Spirit. Your prayer life is sustained by the Spirit. Your prayer life is inspired by the Spirit. Not only can you not be spiritual without the Holy Spirit, but you can't even desire to be spiritual without the Holy Spirit. He changes our nature. He transforms our hearts. He works with us to conform us to the image of Jesus. We know and experience the depths of Christ by the Spirit. We understand the Word by the Spirit. We carry out our ministries by the Spirit. So this knowing of the depths of Christ is no different than any spiritual matter. The Holy Spirit must reveal Jesus if we are to know Him. The Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real to you. The scripture says in John chapter 15 verses 5 through 15, Now I am going away to the one who sent me and not one of you is asking where I am going. Instead you grieve because of what I've told you. But in fact, it is best for you that I go away because if I don't, the advocate won't come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. The world's sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged. There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can't bear it now. When the Spirit of Truth comes, this is speaking of the Holy Spirit verse 13, When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine. This is why I said the Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me. The King James version puts it as, He shall glorify me. The Holy Spirit is not self-centered. The Holy Spirit works to reveal Jesus. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus. He reveals the truth that Christ has given to us. He reveals the Word as we read it. He reveals the Son of God to us. The Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real to you. He draws all of our attention to the Master. He pulls us into fellowship with Christ. He beckons us to come and to know Christ in greater depths. And when we by the Spirit begin to set our minds on Christ and set our hearts on him, and when we find that stillness, when we find that silence, when we come into that peace, the Holy Spirit begins to do his work. And he begins to take the Word and make it flesh. He begins to take what was spoken of God and cause it to become creation. The Holy Spirit vivifies Jesus. John chapter 15 verses 26 to 27. But I will send you the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry. The Holy Spirit is the Advocate, the Helper, the Teacher. The Scripture calls him the Spirit of Truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify about me, not about himself. He'll testify about Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Jesus is the Truth also. John chapter 14 verse 6 says this. Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Jesus is the Truth, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit reveals Truth. When the Holy Spirit reveals Truth, He is revealing Christ to you. Again, the Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real to you. No one can come to the Father except by Christ. But no one can come to Christ except by the Holy Spirit. I'm going to say that again because I want you to get it. No one can come to the Father except through Christ. And no one can come to Christ except through and by the Holy Spirit. There is no one more passionate about Jesus than the Holy Spirit. Any love that we have for Christ is not our own. We've been given that love by the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 5 verse 5 says that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit is the one who cultivates within us this passion, this love, this obsession with the person of Christ. What do you think it was that caused the martyrs to stand in the face of death and declare their love boldly for Christ? What do you think it was that caused the early church to with power stand against oppressive governments and kingdoms? What do you think it was that caused men and women of God all over the world throughout history to lay down their lives for the one we call Master? It was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit kindles within us a fiery passion for the Lord. The Holy Spirit stirs the love of God within us. The Holy Spirit sheds the love of God in our hearts. He cultivates within us a connection with Christ. He cultivates within us desires for the Lord. It is by the Holy Spirit that we love Jesus. It is by the Holy Spirit that we know Jesus. It is by the Holy Spirit that we experience His presence. The Holy Spirit reveals truth. He emphasizes Jesus. The Holy Spirit emphasizes the Lord. The scripture says in John chapter 15 verses 26 to 27, I'm going to read it again and I want you to really concentrate on what the scripture is saying here. But I will send you the advocate, the spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify about me. Really think about that. He will testify about me. The focus of the Spirit is Jesus. And when we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit, our focus becomes Jesus. You know, the Holy Spirit sees Jesus perfectly clear. The Holy Spirit never doubts His connection with Christ. They're one and the same. And when we spend time with the Holy Spirit, we are allowing Him to cultivate that same reality in our hearts. In fact, the emphasis of Jesus, and I want you to get this, the emphasis of Jesus is how we know a message is truly of God. Read this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 1 through 3. Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us, I don't want you to misunderstand this. You know that when you were still pagans, you were let astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now, Paul the Apostle is writing to the Corinthians, explaining to them about the spiritual gifts. He of course goes on to describe the many functions of the spiritual gifts. And that is a very famous portion of Scripture. But Paul in his letter to the Corinthians is talking to former pagans. And paganism has within it a form of power. Sure, it's demonic power, but demonic power is real. And so Paul the Apostle, what he's telling them here, as he's saying, look, I want you to understand the spiritual gifts. But because you're pagan, because of your past, because of that witchcraft, because of the demonic power you once possessed, I want you to understand the spiritual gifts. I'm going to read verse two again to make some emphasis here. The Scripture says you know that when you were still pagans, you were let astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. Verse three, so I want you to know, why does he want them to know? He wants them to know because in the past they were swept away by idols. They were swept away into paganism. They were let astray by demonic power. That's why he wants them to know. What does he want them to know? I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. He's not saying that no one can pronounce that phrase Jesus is Lord unless they have the Holy Spirit. He's saying that nobody can truly declare that message with authenticity without the Holy Spirit. Why? Because it's the Holy Spirit who ultimately declares the message of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is heaven's greatest evangelist. He is the one who most perfectly declares the message of Christ. He is the one who most perfectly reveals the image of Jesus. The Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real to you. And we see in that context that Paul is saying if someone is truly a believer, if someone is truly of God, if someone is truly a messenger of the gospel, their emphasis will be Jesus. Their emphasis will not be money. Their emphasis will not be paganism. Their emphasis will not be idolatry. It will not be miracles. It will not be healing. It will not be prophecy. The emphasis of someone who is truly a messenger of God will always be Jesus. I'll put it this way. If someone's flowing in the gifts, they're prophesying and healing the sick and you never hear them mention Jesus, disconnect from that ministry. If you're in a church and all they ever talk about is the blessing of God or the miracles of God or the power of God or the gifts of the Spirit and they don't mention Jesus, get out of that church. I don't care if I defend anybody. You can tell them I said it. Get out of that church if they don't talk about Jesus. Jesus must be the emphasis. If it's not a church or ministry or person who emphasizes Jesus, then it is not a church, a ministry or a person who is spirit filled. Only those who have the Holy Spirit declare Jesus and those who declare Jesus will always have the Holy Spirit when that is their emphasis. Sure, there are some who can declare the gospel as false preachers but that's another message for another time. What I'm talking about is the pure message, the pure messenger. And Paul the apostle is saying that nobody can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes upon your life, when the Holy Spirit has truly filled you, when you surrendered to the Holy Spirit, Jesus becomes the emphasis. Not your struggles, not your sin, not your need for breakthrough, not demonology, not miracles, not prosperity and finance. Jesus becomes your message. Jesus becomes your obsession. Jesus becomes your focus. Why? Because the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus. He emphasizes Jesus. He magnifies Jesus. He glorifies Jesus. And the Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real to you. I remember I was in a service where a man was ministering in the prophetic. He was prophesying and he was dead on accurate. He was praying for the sick and people were getting healed. But there was not one mention of Jesus in that service. And I sat there in my seat. I'm watching this guy. And I said, Lord, why isn't he saying anything about the Lord? Why isn't he presenting a gospel message? And I understand we can't always give evangelistic messages in every setting. I know I don't. Sometimes I'm edifying the body. And other times I'm evangelizing lost. But something was odd about this service. And I said, Lord, it seems to me that the message here is miracles. I've not heard one mention of God. I've not heard one mention of Jesus. And I felt in my spirit, I'm very disturbed, a very dark heaviness was sensed about the room, at least for me. And I knew in my spirit that the Holy Spirit was grieved. Why? Because he loves the name of Jesus. Because he gives his gifts. Why? So that we can declare the name of Jesus. And here he is trusting us with the anointing, trusting us with the gifts, trusting us with the power. And he hands it over to us. And some of us take it and we build our names. We build our ministries. We build financial bases. And the Holy Spirit was grieved because he's so jealous for the name of Jesus. He's so passionate for the name of Jesus that he wants us to use what he gives us to further the name of Jesus. And I sensed in my spirit, he was grieved. And I knew it. And I was hurting because I sensed that someone had hurt the Holy Spirit in that room. And I'll never forget what the Holy Spirit spoke to me. I said, Son, when you demonstrate my power without declaring my message, it's borderline witchcraft. That shook me. I said, Lord, that's a very intense statement. But the Lord spoke it so clearly to me. Let me tell you something. There's some ministries and churches and people who their lives revolve around charismatic witchcraft. Their emphasis is miracles. Let me tell you something. The Holy Spirit's emphasis is Jesus. And as he emphasizes Jesus, as we get our eyes off of all those things, you don't need healing. You need the healer. You don't need deliverance. You need the deliverer. You don't need peace. You need the prince of peace. You don't need a new life or a changed life. You need life itself. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. Jesus must become our focus. And the Holy Spirit helps us to bring our attention back on him whenever our minds have drifted. And as he's doing this, he's revealing Christ. One of my favorite scriptures you often hear me say it is John chapter one verse one and John chapter one verse 14. The scripture says in John chapter one verse one, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And then John chapter one verse 14 says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory full of grace and truth. It was the Holy Spirit who conceived Jesus. It was the Holy Spirit who took the word and made him into flesh. I want to go to Genesis, Rukka. I want to show you something. You're going to love this. This is beautiful. Genesis chapter one and I do pray you're enjoying this. I know I so enjoy our time together and I'm glad that I can be a part of your spiritual journey. I want you to know I love you and I'm praying for you and everything we do together for the Lord. I'm thankful for it. I know that we're impacting lives, but I want to read this scripture here. Genesis chapter one verses one through five says this. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty and darkness covered the deep waters and the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, let there be light and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness night and evening passed and morning came marking the first day. Now the scripture says, and the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. So get this picture. We see God the Father in the beginning God. You can't even get to the fourth word of the Bible without faith. In the beginning God and God created. How did he create? He spoke. So we see God, we see the Holy Spirit, but where is Jesus? Or remember John chapter one verse one, we just read it. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. This same word became flesh in verse 14 of John chapter one. This word is Jesus. When God spoke what came out of the mouth of the Father was the Son. This is not the creation of Jesus. Christ existed always with the Holy Spirit and the Father. But this is the first manifestation that they created that we can see in scripture that they created something. God spoke a word and the spirit breathed upon it and creation happened. In the beginning was the word and the Holy Spirit took the word and he fleshed out the Son of God. He brought him into the flesh. He took the word and made him a reality to us. He took the word and made him tangible. He took the word and made him real. He took the word and manifested it. That's the power of the Holy Spirit that could take God and as Colossians describes it, put him in the fullness, the fullness of God dwelling in the Son. Everything that God was, is or ever shall be was completely formed in the Son of God. Everything about God was in Jesus. There was not one thing missing, not one thing lacking. And the Holy Spirit caused what could not be comprehended to be created. Think about that power. This is the power that the Spirit has to take the word and cause creation. In the beginning it was so and in the conception of Christ it was so. At creation it was so and at the incarnation it was so. This is the power of the Holy Spirit that he can take the word of God, breathe upon it and create. The Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real to you. When the word and the Spirit are present together, creation happens. The word without the Spirit is information. The Spirit without the word is inspiration. Together the Spirit and the Word are revelation. I'll say it again. The word without the Spirit is information. The Spirit without the Word is inspiration. But together they are revelation. We must give the Lord something to create with in our lives. When we read the Word, it's as if we're taking building materials in the Spirit and depositing them into us. And the Holy Spirit takes what we give them through the reading of the Word and builds upon it in our lives. I've been preaching to Gospel now for almost 15 years. I know I'm 27, preaching for almost 15 years. Can you guys believe that? 15 years. It's ironic today, we have two people here behind the cameras that have been with me literally from the beginning of it. And I said, Lord, you know, I've been to services where I pray for people and I'll pray for someone and they'll get slain in the power of God. They'll be on the floor trembling, crying. I'll move on to the next person. That person gets touched just in the same way, in the exact same way. They're both on the floor under the power of God, both on the platform with me. People see, they get a prophetic word. And then one will get up and go and live a transformed life. And then another will get up and go and live exactly the same way that they came in. I said, Lord, how is it that they can encounter your Holy Spirit and not experience transformation? The Lord spoke to me because there's no word in their life. One of them who was slain in the Spirit had the word in their life. So that when the Spirit breathed upon them, it gave him something with which he could create. The other did nothing with it. There was no substance to be worked with. The word is the substance, but the substance cannot form without the Spirit. They need each other. Substance and creation and the power to create have to come together at once. And so the Holy Spirit needs something to work with. He needs something to breathe upon. So it was in the beginning. So it was at the incarnation of Christ. And so it is with you. The word became flesh. That flesh might become the word. And it's by the Spirit. They are one. The Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real to you. Acts chapter 16 verses 6 through 8. Scripture says this. Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. Then coming to the borders of Mycia, they headed north to the province of Bithnia. But again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. So instead they went on through Mycia to the seaport of Troas. Now here we see that the Holy Spirit prevents Paul and Silas from traveling to Asia. Follow this. That's verse 6. But did you catch that? In verse 6 the Scripture calls him the Holy Spirit. But did you catch what it said in verse 7? Look again in verse 7. And by the way it's Bithynia not Bithnia. But again the Spirit of Jesus. The Bible calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is Jesus unlimited. The Holy Spirit is Jesus without boundaries. The Holy Spirit is Jesus everywhere. I want you to think about that. So then each of us can connect with Him personally. Before He was limited in a physical body. He couldn't touch us each individually. But now because He is everywhere by the Spirit we have a connection with Him. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. And everything that Jesus... I want you to hear this. If you hear me say anything at all during this lesson, what I'm about to tell you will sum this up and I want you to hear this. If you hear anything that I say today, hear this. Everything that Jesus would do for you if He were standing in front of you in physical form the Holy Spirit will do for you today. I'm going to say that again because I want you to get it. Listen, I know sometimes these things are hard to believe because our faith is at different levels at different points in our lives. We all go through ups and downs in our faith. But the Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real to you. Not later, not 10 minutes from now, right now. Think about this. I want you to catch this revelation. Listen to what I'm saying. Everything that Jesus would do for you if He was standing in front of you in physical form the Holy Spirit will do for you today. He will not reject you. He will not turn you away. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. Jesus was the bread of heaven that came down. In John chapter 6, I've done a lesson on this. It's called Jesus on the Cloud. I recommend you go and listen to that where I talk about the revelation in John chapter 6 that Jesus gave us concerning His spiritual journey. But in that context, and I won't read it for the sake of brevity, we see that Jesus describes Himself as the bread of heaven. He talks about His incarnation. He talks about His crucifixion. He talks about His crucifixion when He said that the flesh and blood must be taken in communion. That's the symbol of His crucifixion. He talks about His resurrection. He talks about being raised at the last day and being one with us upon that resurrection when we're resurrected in Him. It's a beautiful story and it's a beautiful narrative and wonderful teaching from Jesus. The revelation in there is just, I recommend Jesus on the Cloud. Look it up after this video. Go watch that one. But then Jesus goes on to say, what will you think again? He talks about His ascension. And then He goes on to say that the Spirit alone gives life. He's talking about Himself for several verses, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension. It's all there. Once it's pointed out, it's very clear to see. And then He goes to talking about Himself to immediately switching and saying, the Spirit alone gives life, the Spirit alone gives life. And I thought, why was it, Lord, you said the narrative of your journey and then suddenly go on talking about the Holy Spirit. Well, the scripture says in John chapter 16 verse 7, but in fact, it is best for you that I go away. Because if I don't, the advocate won't come. If I do go away, then I will send Him to you. Now, why was it that Jesus had to wait to go to heaven before He could send the advocate? It's because the journey that Jesus went through was incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, translation. Jesus is the Holy Spirit. When He was glorified and went unto the Father, yes, I know they're each distinct persons, but they're also one and the same. This is a great mystery. Perhaps I'll do a teaching on the Trinity sometime in the future. But the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit of Jesus. He had to go so that He could be translated and now return to us. Jesus went up and then Jesus went everywhere. I'll say that again. Jesus, when He ascended, He went up and then He went everywhere. Now He resides in us. The Word became flesh. That flesh might become the Word. I'll show you in Scripture. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 45, the Spirit tells us the first man, Adam, became a living person. But the last Adam, that is Christ, is a life-giving spirit. The Holy Spirit, again, is Jesus without physical boundaries. He's removed that veil. We can behold Him now face to face. That veil, it's on the hearts of men. Many people have that over their hearts even Christians sometimes. I don't think they have that primary veil of which the Scripture speaks. But Christians do have, at times, a difficulty seeing the reality of Christ as a present reality in their life. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 12-18 says this, But their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament. Which veil is done away in Christ? But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. And then verse 17 ties this all together. Now, the Lord is that spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face, that means face to face. Beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord. What is the glory? Who is the glory? It was in John 1 verse 14, it's Jesus. We are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. There's so much in here. First, we see the veil is over the heart. Not over the physical eyes, it's over the heart. We see Jesus with the eyes of our heart. And the Holy Spirit wants you to see Him that same way. And then it says that we all, with open face, beholding, we're seeing Him face to face in the spirit. Face to face is still a literal reality, even though it's not a physical one. In the glass, the glory of the Lord. Who is the glory? It is the person. And we are changed into the same image, from what? From glory to glory. From glory to glory doesn't necessarily mean from blessing to blessing. From glory to glory means from Christ's likeness to more Christ's likeness. Glory to glory to glory is a description of our progress of becoming more and more like Christ every day. The Holy Spirit does His best work in you when He every day makes you more like Christ than yesterday. The Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real to you. And the Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real through you. Scripture says we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. When the Holy Spirit creates with the word and causes the Lord to become a vivid and intense reality before the eyes of our heart, some of you even have had visions of the Lord. When the Holy Spirit does such things, we're being transformed for every moment we're looking at the Lord in our heart, every moment we're looking at the Word, every moment we spend in prayer, every moment we spend in worship and adoration of Christ. We are being transformed. Now, we can experience this reality of Christ by the Holy Spirit. The apostles did Mark chapter 16 verse 20. The Scripture says and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following, amen. Now, the Lord went with them, but this was after he had ascended. How did he go with them if he had ascended? It was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Jesus everywhere. And he wants to make Jesus real to you. What Jesus did in physical form, he continues to do in the earth today through the Holy Spirit. There's peace, there's healing, there's deliverance, there's joy, there's salvation, there's life, there's truth, all of it, and the person of Jesus. And the Holy Spirit wants to reveal all of this to you. You need the substance of who he is, his presence. And God wants to give it to you. I believe right now. Right now, the Holy Spirit wants to make Jesus real to you. Stretch your hands toward mine, let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, Lord, I lift that one watching right now. And I pray that by your Holy Spirit, you would make Jesus real. Lord, I pray that by the Holy Ghost, your presence would surround that one watching right now. I thank you, Lord, for what you're doing. Cover us, Lord. Cover us in the shadow of your wings. We thank you, Lord, for your presence. Precious Jesus, we love you. Let our hearts so burn for you, Lord, that you would become our one and only obsession. Jesus, we love you. And I pray, wonderful Holy Spirit, that you would begin to form Christ as a reality. Jesus, we thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. You can walk in an awareness. Remember, you don't have to feel anything. You can walk in an awareness of Jesus 24-7. And I'm so blessed that you tuned in. I want to know how we always transition. I don't know. We have to do it. I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you. We are praying for you. Thank you for joining the Spirit Church family. If you would like information on how you could join the Spirit Church family, just go ahead and click on the link that's just about to appear over my head. If that link does not appear, it means you're not watching the YouTube version of this video. Simply use the information at the bottom of the screen to manually find how you could become a member of Spirit Church and receive these teachings every single week on Sunday morning in your email inbox. It's free, but we do ask Spirit Church members, we request, but it's not a requirement for membership. We request that you become a monthly ministry partner. Help us to sustain what we're doing. Go ahead and do that today. I want to read now your comments. These comments come from the video, a costly anointing, which was our last Spirit Church teaching. Sarah Hernandez writes, Thanks for your prayers, Pastor David. As you were praying, I felt heat through my hands. Well, you know, Sarah, we really do believe that God touches people through this ministry. And one of the distinct things about this ministry is that people can sense the presence of God while watching the teachings, while watching the miracles, and while watching other people experiencing the slaying power of the Holy Ghost. And so we are so appreciative when we get testimonies like this, because we celebrate with those who experience the presence of the Holy Spirit while watching EncounterTV. Melanie Marquez, one of our regular commenters writes, God bless you, Pastor David. I'm so thankful and blessed by every teaching. And we're blessed by you watching Melanie. Felicia Jackson writes, Thank you for this message. Can you please pray for me to be patient and for my family to get saved? Well, let's all agree for Felicia that her family will come to the Lord in Jesus' name. We declare it by faith. We agree with you in Jesus' name. This next commenter writes, This message is life. Thank you, Jesus, all glory belongs to you. Another commenter writes, This series on the anointing is truly a blessing to me. Faithful John writes, Pastor David, I thank God for a very rare opportunity to know the Holy Spirit more when you're preaching. It helps me in a lot of various ways, improves my life, my relationship and intimacy with God. And the final comment we're going to read here, Literally, I accidentally pressed this video, but instead of turning it off or finding something else, I thought to myself, maybe there's a reason I pressed it. Maybe I'm supposed to hear this. Then what do I hear? I don't believe it's by accident. That's awesome. Thank you, God. Well, I guess sometimes the Holy Spirit will speak to me to say those sort of things, and I'm glad that you had a divine appointment. And these really are blessings to me because I love to see how you guys are being impacted by these videos. Go ahead, leave your comment here on this video. Don't forget to also subscribe. Leave your comment here. And I may read it on the next edition of Spirit Church. A little tip for you. You want me to read it. Be succinct. I'm not going to read entire chapters of books, so just be succinct. Maybe three or four sentences, and it's more likely to get onto the comment section. Don't turn off the video. I want to talk to you for a second. Yes, I know. I say this is the end of a very broadcast, and maybe you've turned off the video at the end of every teaching, and you've not known what is past this point. Maybe you've watched it many times. You know where I'm going with this. Still, I want you to watch because I want to talk to you. I've got good news. We told you we needed $1,000 new, $30 a month partners in order to get to the next phase of ministry, which includes our new facility, new television studio, which means we can start doing live broadcasts, 24-7 prayer room, more events all around the world, and on larger scales with those events. And there's so much more we have planned for this ministry, but just it's just resources, guys. There's vision. There's excellence. There's people here who do quality work. And we're ready. All we need is the support to expand our reach. And here's our why. Here's our why. Our why is souls. We do this 100% so that Jesus can reap the reward of his suffering. Now, I told you we needed those thousand new $30 a month partners and we're about halfway there. That doesn't mean we only have 500 ministry partners total. It means that we've added in the last four or five months 500 new $30 a month supporters. And we need 500 more to get that extra monthly. Right now we have enough to do what we're doing. But this income, as it comes in, we can expand our reach. We believe in being good stewards with God's resources. And so what we do is we expand our donor base and then we begin to fill that out with doing things that the Lord has called us to do. But again, this includes our outreaches, worldwide television, international events, and global discipleship media, such as Spirit Church as you're watching now. But I want to really expand our reach. We're going to get that new facility. Why? Not only can we I forgot to mention this, that new facility listen, that new facility will give us the ability to do Sunday night meetings every Sunday night. That means every Sunday night we can gather together in person and those of you who are on the internet watch us live and I'll be able to teach. Stephen will do the worship. You can come and see that in person and we'll have our own gathering Sunday nights. It won't be a church. I'm not starting a church, but it will be gatherings that we do on Sunday nights. And so there's so much we can do, so much we want to do, but primarily the goal, guys, we want to win the lost and build the church. Help us do that today. Become a $30 a month partner. Don't wait. Don't say some other person. Don't say some other time. You've been watching this. You've been blessed. You like our books. You like our events. You like our television broadcasts. Now is the time to do it. Sign up today. If you say, you know what, I can't be a $30 a month partner, but I could do $5 a month. I could do $10 a month. Do what you can. If you can do $30, do $30. If you do anything else, do something else. Some people sign up to become a $100 a month partner. Some people will say, I can't partner monthly, but right now things are good for me. And I could sell a one-time gift of $1,000 or $500. Do what you can the day. Both one-time and monthly gifts help us tremendously. So do that now. Click on the link, like I said, that's about to appear over my head. I always say that. And if you're not watching this on YouTube, that link's not going to appear. Instead, use the information at the bottom of the screen so that you can go and contribute to the ministry. And I thank you for it. I want to thank those of you who are ministry partners. I want to be honest with you during December and the winter months, donations start to dip because people buy gifts and whatnot. But the truth is, guys, the last thing that should go when we're in a financial crunch is our giving to the gospel. Our giving to the gospel should be the last thing we cut. You should cut the gym membership and Netflix and cable before you cut your giving to the gospel. So I want to challenge you. Give. Continue to give. You're my partner. Thank you. I appreciate you. And we're doing wonderful things for the kingdom of God all around the world. Well, that is it for this edition of Spirit Church. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. Thank you.