 I truly believe that you're going to have an encounter with the power of the Holy Spirit. As you approach with sincere faith, I know that God will be faithful to demonstrate his power in your life. I believe in supernatural encounters with the precious Holy Spirit, and I believe that you are going to experience something that is life-transforming if only you will respond with faith and sincerity. Now, I don't know how the Holy Spirit is going to move in your life right now. I can't make any promises as to how exactly he'll demonstrate his power or make his presence known. But I do know that the Scripture declares in Acts 17-27 that they should seek the Lord if perhaps they might fill after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. The Lord is closer than you realize. And especially if you're a born again believer, you know that the Holy Spirit dwells within you. You, as a born again believer, have the special privilege of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. He's in the room with you right now. He's looking at you right now. He's listening to you right now. He's attentive to your needs right now. He's not far from you. God's not a million miles away, though it might fill that way sometimes. He's closer than you realize. In fact, I want you to write that by faith in the comment section. Write, closer than I realize. And I want you to write that because I believe that's an exercise of faith that you are committing to that belief that God is near. Now, it's my prayer that you come into an encounter with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. As you hear the word Psalm chapter 103 verse seven says, He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. Now, here we see something that really distinguishes those who understand the presence and power of the Holy Spirit from those who hesitate and keep their reservations. God made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. In other words, one group knew Him by what He did, by His actions. Moses understood the nature of God. One understood what He did, another understood who He was. And so when we begin to understand the nature of the Holy Spirit, we don't criticize moves of the Holy Spirit by saying, well, I never saw that before, or I've never seen this specific demonstration of power mentioned before. Instead, we say, this looks like something God would do. The question is not, have I seen God do this exact thing before? The question is, is it in His nature to do it? Those who understand His nature can look with eyes of faith and see when the Holy Spirit is moving and discern when the Holy Spirit is truly moving. They'll see the beauty of the Holy Spirit's power. They will see the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit's power. They will see the Christ-centeredness of the Holy Spirit's power, and they will say, this looks like the work of God. When you just know His hand, and you don't know His heart, yesterday's revival can become today's ritual. You can miss what God is doing now because you expect it to look exactly like what God has done then. Let me show you a few examples in Scripture of various different expressions of the Holy Spirit's power, and I want you to notice that each one of these are very different from the other, though they come from the same source. Second Kings chapter 13, verses 20 and 21, then Elisha died and was buried, groups of Moabite raiders used to invade the land each spring. Once when some Israelites were bearing a man, they spied a band of these raiders, so they hastily threw the corpse into the tomb of Elisha and fled. But as soon as the body touched Elisha's bones, the dead man revived and jumped to his feet. Here we see a resurrection, of course, not performed by a corpse, not performed by a man, but performed by the power of God. God in his sovereignty decided to move in this way to demonstrate his resurrection, life-giving power in this very unique way. Now, we of course look at these expressions or demonstrations of the Holy Spirit's power, these encounters with the Holy Spirit, and we don't necessarily create doctrines around these specific moves of the Holy Spirit, but they do indicate to us that there is a variety to the way that God moves. There is a creativity to his power. Could God do this again? Absolutely. Would God do this again? Sure, why not? But does this mean that therefore we form a doctrine around it and try to cause this exact thing to happen again and again? Of course not. There's a balance to this. This simply means that God, according to his nature, can move in a similar way. We see another miracle in Acts chapter 5. Go now to Acts chapter 5, verse number 15. As a result of the Apostle's work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter's shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. Now, it wasn't necessarily that Peter's shadow had healing properties to it. I believe that Peter carried the glory and presence of the Holy Spirit in a way that was tangible because of his surrender to the Lord, and in so doing, when people were brought near to him, they of course were healed. They experienced that miracle-working power of God, so it wasn't the shadow, it was the proximity to the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit. So in one instance, we see God decided to use a corpse to cause a resurrection. In another instance, we see that God used the proximity of one of his servants to bring healing and deliverance. Now, of course, we understand that we cannot make God move any way that he doesn't desire, but we must be open to the ways that he moves when he moves in those ways. Acts chapter 19, I'm going to read verses 11 and 12. Acts 19, 11 and 12. God gave Paul the power to perform unusual miracles. When handkerchiefs or aprons that had merely touched his skin were placed on sick people, they were healed of their diseases and evil spirits were expelled. Now, I want you to notice something interesting about each one of these demonstrations, and I'll read about a few more in just a moment. I want you to notice that there was a tangible quality to the power of the Holy Spirit as revealed by these demonstrations. And what I mean by that is that people were able to feel the power or the power was able to move through physical objects. There was another clue as to the nature of the Holy Spirit's power. In Mark chapter 5, please turn there. Mark chapter 5, I'll read verse 21 and onward. Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. Then a leader of the local synagogue whose name was Jairus arrived when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet pleading fervently with him. My little daughter is dying, he said. Please come and lay your hands on her head. Heal her so she can live. Jesus went with him and all the people followed crowding around him. A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them. She had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. Immediately the bleeding stopped and she could feel in her body. She had been healed of her terrible condition. Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him. So he turned around in the crowd and asked who touched my robe. So Jesus could feel the healing virtue flowing through his physical body. Then we see in James chapter five, James chapter five, I'll read verse number 14. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. We'll read verse 15 as well. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Second Timothy chapter one, verse six, another different way in which God moves. This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. So there we see that there was an impartation that took place through the laying on of hands that had a supernatural element to it. Now we understand that though the power of the Holy Spirit moves in a variety of different ways, and though the power of the Holy Spirit can often be felt tangibly, we understand that God is sovereign and that we must submit our lives to his will. You see, if you view the Holy Spirit as an it, you'll want to use it. But when you recognize that the Holy Spirit is a person, you'll say, Holy Spirit, use me. Now throughout the years I've experienced various different encounters with the Holy Spirit's power. And we have to ask ourselves when it comes to the demonstrations of his power, is this in the nature of God to do it this way? Because as you look throughout Scripture, and these are just a few examples, and there are many examples of various different demonstrations of God's power all throughout Scripture. And I think holistically we see a clear message being spoken to us that God moves in a variety of ways. So how do we ground ourselves when it comes to moves of the Holy Spirit? Well, I want you to go now to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I'm going to read verses one and onward. Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us or the spiritual gifts, I don't want you to misunderstand this. We'll read a couple verses more in just a moment. The context here is that Paul the apostle is writing about the spiritual gifts to the Corinthian church. But one of the principles that we can take away from this with the context considered is the way in which we ground ourselves when it comes to supernatural power. How do you prevent yourself from receiving of just good showmanship? How do you prevent yourself from receiving of demonic power? How do you make sure that what you are witnessing, what you are experiencing is truly of the Holy Spirit? Well, again the context here, Paul the apostle talking to the Corinthian church about the spiritual gifts. And by the way, he's addressing former pagans, people who believed in supernatural power, people who many of them likely operated in that supernatural power in the manner of witchcraft. And so he's talking to these individuals who believed in paganism, who believed in demonic power, who believed in supernatural demonstrations of power outside of the Holy Spirit's power, and many of them even walked according to those ways. So he's addressing these people not wanting them to confuse the beauty of the Holy Spirit's power with the power of their former pagan lives. He writes in verse two, you know that when you were still pagans, you were led 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. To be clear, Paul is not saying that anyone who can pronounce the phrase quote, Jesus is Lord end quote, is automatically to be considered a Christian or a true believer. In the same way, we must look at the message behind the power. Methodology is one thing. I've heard of methodologies being criticized with really no biblical basis. And many who are closed off to the moves of the Holy Spirit do so because of a commitment to a very rigid perspective that actually has no foundation in biblical framework. They're just uncomfortable with certain demonstrations of the Holy Spirit's power. And that discomfort is the source of their rejection of that power. And what they do is retroactively try to find a biblical framework which confirms their preconceived notions. So they're uncomfortable with the power. And so they look for a biblical reason, there are none, to reject the Holy Spirit's power. But we also, even though we mustn't be people who stifle the work of the Holy Spirit, we must be committed to being discerning. Now there are different degrees that you can see in demonstrations of power. For example, there are demonstrations of power that are blatantly demonic. They come from demonic power. And you'll recognize these because the source of this power is never Christ. They never point to Jesus as Lord. Again, Paul is not just talking about, can you say the phrase Jesus is Lord? No, he's talking about a lifestyle and a message that ultimately point to Jesus collectively. And so we deny demonic power. We recognize demonic power because it doesn't point to Jesus. It's not founded upon at least biblical framework. And ultimately it glorifies man and makes people celebrate man instead of looking at God. Now let me throw in this caveat because there are times when people who demonstrate Holy Spirit power are looked to as spiritual, just like the apostles who were very much bothered by the fact that people worship them because of the demonstration of power on their life. And they said, no, don't worship us. We're just mere men. So yes, you can use godly power and people still misunderstand and they try to credit you with that power, but ultimately demonic demonstrations of power will point to man. Not to Satan, they point to man. Why? Because that's why man gets mixed up in that power in the first place because they want to be celebrated. I think of Simon the Sorcerer found in Acts chapter eight. You read about him and he wanted to buy the Holy Spirit's power to add it to his collection of powers so that others could continue to see him as great. That was ultimately his reason for wanting it. He was filled with bitterness and jealousy as the Scripture reveals. So there's that demonic power, which does not point to Jesus, which does not glorify God. Then there's the Holy Spirit power, which, yes, can be a little strange sometimes. I've heard people say things like, well, God is a God of order. And yes, it's true God is a God of order, but that doesn't mean that there'll never be a demonstration of his power that doesn't offend you. That doesn't mean that he's always going to go according to what you think is order. He's going to go according to the heavenly order. And sometimes the heavenly order disrupts religious order. And then in the middle, you have acts of the flesh. Now I've seen it done at times in our services where when people are receiving touches of the Holy Spirit's power, for example, as we're laying hands, people will experience the power of the Holy Spirit sometimes like electricity, sometimes like heat. Others testify to like a weight coming upon them. I don't teach that you have to experience that to experience the Holy Spirit, nor do I even teach on that at all. Really, it's not the focus. That's just the byproduct of what happens sometimes when the Holy Spirit moves. But I've seen it done where people exaggerate that where the power of the Holy Spirit is truly moving like a river that power is flowing. Someone receives a touch of the Holy Spirit's power. And then as they're receiving of true spiritual power, they react in the flesh. They exaggerate what they're feeling. So then you have that mixture. And that mixture can be offensive, of course, because when you're discerning, you can see that. So there can be a mix there between Holy Spirit power and exaggerated reactions in the flesh. And this is why you don't want to react in the flesh to a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. But still, as we look again at the Scripture as a whole, we see that there is a variety to the way that God moves. So we can't fit God into this neat little box. We can't say to the Lord, Lord, you have to move in this way the way I want when I want you to move to the degree I want you to move with the intensity I want you to move. And if you move outside that box, Lord, I'm going to reject your power. No. That is not intellectually honest. It is not biblically based. It is not scholarly to reject the power of the Holy Spirit based upon your own preferences. It is not a good idea to reject Holy Spirit power because of personal discomfort. I've seen this done often. The power of the Holy Ghost is moving and born-again believers will look at that power. They will experience personal discomfort because it's different to them. And then they will say things like, well, I don't know. This just doesn't sit right in my spirit. What they're really saying is I'm uncomfortable with this, and I'm trying to blame it on the Holy Spirit. Now, I understand that sometimes people who do say that phrase, this doesn't sit right with my spirit. Sometimes they are correct in discerning, but we mustn't mistake our own emotions and personal preferences for Holy Spirit discernment. Discernment is not the gift of criticism. Discernment is not cynicism. Discernment is not the rejection of Holy Spirit power. Don't stifle the Holy Spirit. Don't stifle his work. Sometimes as we would do a flame, we quench that through our cynicism, through our rejection. I'm not saying be open to anything and everything. I'm saying as you discern based upon the word, recognize that you have your own personal biases, you have your own personal preferences, and sometimes moves of the Holy Spirit are going to contradict what you're used to. They're going to contradict what you believe about how things should be done. I know in my own life I've experienced this. I remember one time, I was listening to a preacher and he was saying some things that were convicting me, and I knew he was touching on some points that I needed to repent of. I believe he was touching on things like excellence, and this was before I had developed the mindset that the Lord has given to me now about excellence and pushing for greatness in terms of honoring God. That's what I think greatness is, obedience to God, honoring God, and doing things with reverence and excellence. And so I'm listening to him, and I'm just getting convicted, and I'm in the car on the way home after he's done preaching, and I'm saying to the Lord, Lord, I don't know, that just doesn't sit right with me, Lord. I'm discerning some things off, and the Lord had to rebuked me. He said, no, you're just convicted. And so I said, okay, you got me. I repented, and the Lord did a work in my heart, but we have to humble ourselves before him. We have to humble ourselves before the precious Holy Spirit, and we mustn't reject his power just because of personal preference. And by the way, we ought not to reject his power simply because we had a bad experience with people who claimed to be operating in that power. I understand, I've seen it done before, exaggerations, things that were not of the Spirit. Now this doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit's power won't be exciting. There's an excitement to the Holy Spirit's power. There's a sensationalism to the Holy Spirit's power, but not everything that's sensational is showmanship. Not everything that is exciting is fake. Think about the Book of Acts, chapter 2, like a mighty rushing wind, the Holy Spirit shows up. But you have to use discernment, proper discernment based on the Word. Does this point to Jesus? Is this bringing transformation? And really, in most cases, only the individual experiencing that power can testify of whether or not that brought forth transformation, even if it's just a small change within their heart, God's doing something in them. And so I want to challenge the body of Christ to approach the power of the Holy Ghost soberly. And as I said, I believe that you're about to experience an encounter with the Holy Spirit. I believe God's guided you to this video, and I'm going to pray with you in just a moment. That encounter may be a demonstration of tangible power where you sense the power of God physically. That encounter may be simply a shift in the mind. That encounter may be simply being convicted by this message, realizing that maybe you have been a little bit cynical toward the power of the Holy Ghost. Whatever that encounter, whatever form that encounter takes, just receive that. Ask the Lord to do it. And I pray he doesn't now. In fact, I was going to finish this, but I sense a flow right now. I want you to begin to lift your hands right where you are. Close your eyes if you can. Closing your eyes is simply to remove the distractions around you. And I pray the power of the precious Holy Spirit would begin to touch your life in a fresh way. Holy Spirit, help us to be open to moves of your power. You're watching this right now because you desire that encounter. You can identify with the psalmist as the dear pants for the water. So my soul longeth after thee. There's a spiritual thirst. There's a spiritual hunger you carry. Say welcome Holy Spirit. To speak that out loud, say welcome Holy Spirit. Now Father, I pray that healing virtue would flow, delivering power would flow. Precious Holy Spirit, draw them closer to Jesus than they've ever been. Higher heights and deeper depths. Make them aware that you are indeed in the room with them right now. Thank you precious Holy Spirit. Your power is coming upon them in a fresh way. Just receive, lift your hands receive right now. Thank you precious Lord. Don't rush this moment. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Don't rush this moment. Thank you Jesus that you're touching lives. Thank you Lord that you're placing mantles on people. Let us be more like you Jesus. Let us be honoring of your presence. You know this is a holy moment. This is a sacred thing. Honor the moment now with faith. Honor the moment now with faith. Lord whatever it is that you want to do, we ask that you do it. However it is that you want to transform us, we ask that you transform us. We receive of that power. Say it again. Say welcome Holy Spirit. Father, let that power begin to flow. Be the praise, the glory and the honor. I want you to type it in the comments if you receive it. Type amen. In fact, in the comment section, I'd like to know what you experienced right now as we began to agree the touch of the Holy Spirit's power on your life. Remember, you have the Holy Spirit, whether you feel them or not, that encounter you just had can take the form of really many different facets. There's the tangible touch of his power. Maybe he did something in your emotions. Maybe in your mind, maybe simply a mindset shift, whatever it was, just receive what he did and be thankful and be confident that he is with you. If you think others need to see this, make sure to leave a like. Also subscribe to my channel so that you can continue to receive my teachings on the Holy Spirit. If you want to get involved with something bigger than yourself, bigger than all of us, and I want you to consider becoming a monthly ministry partner right now. You can sign up to become a monthly supporter of this ministry by going to davidhernandezministries.com. If you've been blessed by this ministry, you've received from the ministry. Your life has been impacted in some way. Help us reach even more. Pay that forward. Become a monthly supported today. You can also give a single gift by going to davidhernandezministries.com. Whether you sign it to become a monthly supporter or give a single gift, it all counts. Those single gifts help with the surplus at the end of the month so we can put that toward events and other projects and general expenses. The monthly partnership really is key because that helps us to plan month over month, helps us to project into the future, what projects we can take on, what events we can host, and so forth. Get involved today one more time. Davidhernandezministries.com slash partner to become a monthly supporter slash donate to give a single gift. Everything counts. Just open one of those web pages right now. I'm going to challenge you here. Open one of those web pages and just say, Holy Spirit, what would you like me to do? And then listen to his voice. Obey what he instructs you. And I know the Lord will increase your resources. That is the law of stewardship. As you sow into ministry, as you sow into the gospel, the Lord takes notice of that and he increases your resources not so that you can consume it for yourself, but so that he can continue to produce a harvest of generosity in you that the kingdom might continue to expand. Do try that website. We accept currencies from all different countries, even cryptocurrency. If that's something you would like to give, try the website first. If that doesn't help or if that doesn't function properly, you of course can try YouTube and Facebook giving options. Well, I love you. I appreciate you. I pray for you. And until next time, remember nothing is impossible with God.