 If you're struggling to find your identity, then I want you to watch this broadcast today. Not only that, I want to show you through the Scripture today how to walk in the Spirit. We often hear that, but did you know that there are three realms of the Spirit in which we are to walk? I'm going to show you that today on Spirit Church. But first, as usual, Stephen Mockezuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in some worship. We're going to come right back and get into this lesson. I'm telling you, if you're struggling in your walk with God, this one is really going to bless you. I'm going to show you how to walk in the Spirit. So what we're going to get into today is your identity in Christ. Now, firstly, I want to read the Scripture to you in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 23. The Bible says this. Now, may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. So in this Scripture, we see the acknowledgement of each trait of man, each expression of man's existence. Now, just as God exists in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, so man is also expressed in three ways. Now, man is not three persons in one. That is reserved for God. He's the Trinity. But man is expressed in body, soul, spirit. Now, the body is your flesh. It's what's referred to as your earth suit. Often this can get confusing because when Paul the apostle writes about the flesh, sometimes he is writing about your physical body, and other times he is making a subtle reference to the sin nature. So especially reading the Scripture in the New Testament where Paul is writing, you have to make sure you understand whether in that context he's talking about the flesh, which is the body, or the flesh, which is the sin nature. Second, we have the soul. This is your mind, your will, your emotions, your personality. This is what makes you unique. The soul is the realm of decision. The soul is the place of choice. The soul is how we make our decisions, whether those are good decisions or bad decisions. And many people live in the place of the soul. Now, most people don't realize that if your spirit is dead, that you have no connection with God. Often it is said that we are all children of God, but Romans makes it perfectly clear that only those who have been brought to life again through the second birth experience are considered children of God. Now, onto the spirit. This is your identity. Now, if you can picture body, soul, and spirit, the threefold man, the body is the outer man, the soul is inward, but the spirit is the most inner place, just like the Holy of Holies. There was the outer court, the inner court, and the Holy of Holies. So now we see threes beginning to start to appear in the Scripture. Even in reality, you have time, matter, space, and in each one of those places time is past, present, and future. Matter is solid liquid gas. In space you have the three dimensions. So there's something to this three and the existence of three that we have to pay attention to in Scripture and in everyday life. But the body is decaying. The body is dying. The body is how you experience the world around you. It's what is affected most by the earth. Now, your spirit is your identity. Now, this is what the Scripture says about your spirit. Listen to this. This is so powerful. And this is one of my favorite portions of Scripture in the entire New Testament. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 10 through 12. This is what it says. 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 spirit. So we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. So there's this fellowship that takes place. And you know, when the Scripture says, pray without ceasing, it doesn't literally mean every single time or every single moment of every single day. But in fact, some people have asked the question, well, how am I supposed to pray 24-7? Even though that's not what was meant in that Scripture, the reality is that you actually are praying. You're communing, you're fellowshiping with God spirit to spirit every day. So the Scripture is talking about how nobody knows God except God's Holy Spirit. Nobody knows God in the way that the Holy Spirit knows God. The Holy Spirit has the best revelation. The Holy Spirit has the best understanding. The Holy Spirit has the best wisdom because he is the very depth, the very core, the very essence of God. And he's the one who helped God form Christ into a flesh. The word always existed, but the Holy Spirit took that word and made him flesh. And the Holy Spirit was the one who raised Christ from the dead. So the Holy Spirit has all sorts of different positions and jobs, so to speak, that He does that just allude and give us an idea of just how powerful He really is. So the Scripture talks about this connection that happens spirit to spirit. And it goes on to say that man's spirit knows men like nobody else does. So your spirit knows you better than anybody else knows you. So the spirit of man communes and fellowships with the spirit of God. Now this is interesting. When someone doesn't know Jesus, when someone isn't saved, before they come to Christ, their spirit is dead. The Scripture often describes people who are not serving God, who have not been brought to life again through the second birth, as dead, dead in their trespasses, the Scripture describes. Now why would a man be considered dead when he's still animated and walking around and making decisions here on the earth? Well the truth is that man is a spirit. That's your identity. Man is a spirit who has a soul that lives in a body. You are not your body. You are not your soul. You are your spirit. The spirit is the place of identity. Now when someone doesn't know Christ, when someone isn't saved, that spirit is dead. But when they receive Jesus, when they confess Him as Lord and they turn from their sins and they repent and they turn to Him, and they work out their salvation with fear and trembling, you know the Scripture says it teaches again and again and again. Read all of Romans. Again and again and again we are given instruction for salvation and if you are to be saved, you must have faith. Now the Bible does not consider faith as a work. In fact works as referenced to the law as people understood it in the Old Testament. Now though faith is not a work, it is still an act of the will. So you're not just saved just because Christ said it is finished. That's not what the Bible teaches. In fact you have to respond in faith. Read Romans and you'll see that again and again and again. Now before someone does that, their spirit is dead. And so they, because they are identified by their spirit are considered dead in their trespasses. This is why they can still trespass with the body, with the decisions of the soul without being alive in their true identity. This is why Jesus said you must be born again of the spirit. When you're born again of the spirit, your spirit is brought to life and that connection now is there. You can commune with God because God only communes with spirit. Now when you are in the spirit, you're communing with God. And the truth is that every believer 24-7 has some connection or another with the Father. But you notice that Jesus, when he said, don't fear the one who could destroy the body. But fear the one who could destroy both the body and soul in hell did not mention the spirit. That's because there are no spirits in hell, not man's spirit. Because those who do not have the spirit go to hell and those who do have the spirit go to heaven. So this is why he talks about the destruction of the body and the soul in hell. Now I was talking about that fellowship that you have. This doesn't take place in the body. This doesn't take place in the soul. That fellowship can affect the soul and affect the body, but it doesn't take place there. Now this is the choice we are faced with. This is the choice we have to make on a daily basis. Do you live from the outside in or from the inside out? You see, when you live from the outside in, circumstances affect your soul while you ignore what's going on in the spirit. When you live from the inside out, God affects the spirit and doesn't allow anything to affect you outwardly. So for example, many of you are troubled now. You have no peace in your mind. You're worried because of things that are going wrong in your relationships. Maybe there are things going wrong in your finances. Maybe there's something wrong with your health. Maybe there's something wrong with a circumstance you're faced in your life. Maybe you don't like where you live. Maybe you don't like how you live. Maybe you don't like where you work. Maybe you don't like the people around you and you're frustrated. Now as Christians we are to love everybody, but it's true that some people just bother us. And that's the reality. That's part of being human. But the truth is that if you live from the outside, you allow what's happening in the physical realm to affect your soul and you begin to become depressed. You begin to become fearful. You begin to become frustrated. You begin to become angry. And all of those things start to happen inside. Now maybe things are happening positively outside. Everything's going well. Well now this gives us sins like pride and arrogance. And all of these things start to well up within us from the soul because we allow what's outside of us to affect us inwardly. So no matter what's going on in the spirit, in the spirit peace is available to you. Joy is available to you. We're talking love. We're talking grace. We're talking spiritual strength is available to you. But you can't receive it because you're too focused deciding to live from the outside in. So the world affects the soul and causes you to cut off your reception of what God is doing in the spirit. But there's another way to live. You have the choice to also live from the inside out. Now this is where you choose to allow yourself to only receive and see what's happening in the spirit. And those things that are happening in the spirit don't affect you outwardly. Those things that are happening in the spirit don't cause things to damage you outwardly. So your spirit is receiving good things. It's affecting your soul. And no matter what happens in the natural realm, you can't be shaken. So the spirit affects the soul bringing about joy and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and meekness and self control the fruit of the spirit. You notice this is how the Christian is supposed to live. Why is it then that most Christians are defeated? You know we have this reality that can impact us. This is why Paul the apostle wrote, I'm pressed, in other words you can press me in my body, but I'm not crushed. You can persecute me. You can persecute me while I'm here on the earth, but I'm never abandoned because the fellowship takes place inwardly. And you can strike me down. We're talking about the body. But I can never really be destroyed. My spirit can never really be destroyed. And so this powerful truth is yours for the taking. You don't need a major breakthrough. You're praying, God change my circumstances. God change everything around me. God help me with everything that's happening outwardly. And he's saying, I'm not going to change your circumstances necessarily. And you don't even need that to have joy. Many of us put our joy on hold until our circumstances align with what we think they should be. And we say, God please help me with this person. Help me with this situation. Help me at the job. Help me in my ministry. Help me in my relationship. Help me in my finances. Help me in my emotions. And we're begging God to change something outwardly when our victory is already accessible inwardly. If we would choose to live from the spirit, nothing that's taking place on the outside would affect us. So it's not about receiving this major breakthrough, but about making a small shift in our thinking. Don't look for dramatic change. Instead embrace a small shift in your thinking. And the moment you begin to go from looking outwardly to looking inwardly, where you have that eternal sustenance, that eternal fellowship, everything begins to change. You say, Brother David, you don't know what I've been through. It doesn't matter. I'm not trying to be insensitive, but it really doesn't. You talk about Jesus. Look what he faced. Paul the apostle, look what he faced. Look what some of the martyrs in the church face. They still had joy. They still had peace. You know, I've met people who are suffering. I mean truly, truly suffering. And they got joy. Why? Because they live from the inside out. And so this is the work of the Holy Spirit. So the scripture says in Romans chapter 8 verse 15, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption. Whereby we cry, Abba Father. So it is by the Holy Spirit that we cry, Abba Father. This is why we need to learn to identify in the spirit and not in the flesh. You see, many people, when say, for example, somebody leaves the church or ministry, the moment that person leaves a church or ministry out of bitterness, guess what they begin to do? That's right. They begin to gossip. They begin to talk. They begin to tear down the church that they once called great. So they call a pastor wonderful. They'll call a pastor great. They'll call, they'll call a ministry wonderful. They'll call the minister great. But the moment they leave it, they start bad-mouthing it. Why? Because they're thinking negatively. I'm going to show you why I'm bringing this up in a moment. When you have a good friend who is by your side, they've done nothing but good to you, and they make a mistake or an error. Isn't it funny how once they make the error, we're very unforgiving, and they go, oh, well, see, I thought they were my friend, but now I truly see that they're fake. No, they're human. But the even bigger problem is this. We identify reality with the negative instead of the positive. Why is it that when someone does years and years of good things and then suddenly they fail? We go, aha, that's who they really are. I knew it. Why is it that we are looking to point out the flaws in our brothers and sisters who do well for the most part, but when they make a mistake, it's, oh, I knew they were fake? Why is it we deem people fake? Because we, I'll tell you why. It's because we identify them with their mistakes rather than with who they really are. So you may look at your friend. You may look at yourself even. You may say, I'm a fake. I have no place in church. I have no place in ministry. I have no place in the kingdom of God. I keep sinning. I keep messing up. I keep thinking wrong. Well, the truth is when you sin, you are a fake, but you're not a fake Christian. You're a fake sinner. You're not a wolf in sheep's clothing. You're a sheep in wolves clothing. So the truth is that we need to learn to identify not with what we do wrong, but with what Christ has done right. The scripture says in Romans chapter 7 verse 17, this is Paul the Apostle talking. And he's talking specifically about sin. He says, so I am not the one doing wrong. It is sin living in me that does it. That's Romans 7 17. Now Paul the Apostle here is not by any means saying that he's not to be held responsible or that he doesn't deserve to face any consequences for his sin. Rather, he is saying here that he does not choose to identify with his mistakes. He chooses rather to identify in the spirit. And this is the Holy Spirit's greatest work. It is whereby we cry, Abba Father, the Holy Spirit's greatest work in you other than the transformation that took place at salvation is convincing you to think and live according to the truth. This is why, listen to me, this is why believers who are frustrated, who are constantly talking negative, I mean people who are saying I just don't have this or I just can't do that or I just can't succeed or I can't connect with God. I can't hear God. I don't have any gifts. All of that negativity, all of the things that you've convinced yourselves of come from the place of not identifying in the spirit. When you begin to identify with the truth, it changes everything and this is why it can be frustrating for some because they get frustrated with themselves. They say why am I not doing this? Why am I not experiencing that? Why do I always feel this? Why do I always feel that? Why is it just when I think I'm going to do good something comes and knocks me down? Why is it that when I try to connect with God it seems he ignores me? Why is it that God seems to be using everyone else but me? Why is it that God gives gifts to everyone else but me? Why is everybody blessed but me? Why am I not always feeling joy? Why am I not feeling peace? Why am I always struggling? That thinking is rooted in not knowing your identity and when you don't know your identity you walk into defeat because Christ said it is finished. Now this is not, I'm not talking universalism. I have a video on that. I don't believe in universalism. It's heresy and there's no debate about that but the truth is that what Christ has done can be accessed through faith and when you choose to live and think according to what Christ has done instead of what you do it transforms your world. So this negative thinking you have to learn to allow the Holy Spirit to convince you of the truth. Well I'm all alone. No you're not. The truth is God is with you. Well I am sinful, that's true but you say oh I'm not forgiven. Well the scripture says you are forgiven. I can never do anything right. The scripture says you're empowered to do right by the grace of God. So if we can learn to identify by what the Holy Spirit is speaking to our hearts instead of what we speak to our mind through emotion based on circumstance we begin to see real breakthrough. Let me tell you something. Many of you this is why you're struggling. This is why you're having a hard time. This is why you can't seem to find the breakthrough. It's because you deflect anytime the Holy Spirit or a brother or sister tries to bring truth to your mind you instantly deflect it and say well this or well that or well my circumstance or well the way I feel or well how I grew up or well what I'm struggling with you need to break from that and choose rather to grab hold of what God is saying. This is how you live in the Spirit. You allow the Holy Spirit to wrestle with your doubts to wrestle with your insecurities and defeat those doubts and insecurities with his truth. The Holy Spirit within you is constantly trying to convince you whereby you cry Abba Father. He's trying to convince you that you're no longer who you were. He's trying to convince you that you're a new creation. He's trying to convince you that you're forgiven. You're empowered. You're loved. You're not alone. And at the same time we're fighting the Holy Spirit. Why? Because it's spiritual warfare. Some people they're comfortable with identifying in the negative because it's easy to do. They look at all the circumstance all the circumstance of life through the negative lens of self-doubt through the negative lens of self-hate. And we need to learn to let the Holy Spirit strip us of those things and allow us to think soberly. Now what happens here is when we begin to surrender to the Holy Spirit remember he's with you at salvation and this is according to Romans chapter 8 verse 9. The scripture says you however are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ they do not belong to Christ. Why? So what am I bringing this up for? There's salvation. These are the different realms of the Spirit. Number one there's salvation. This is the Spirit with you. Now the Holy Spirit is present at the very moment of salvation otherwise salvation cannot occur. People say well why then do I need a second experience? I'll show you why. This is the second experience called baptism I refer to as immersion. So the first one is salvation the Spirit with you. The second is immersion the Spirit in you. This is why we need the second experience. Acts chapter 8 verse 14 through 17 says this when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message they sent Peter and John there verse 15 as soon as they arrived they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. Verse 16 the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and they received the Holy Spirit. What did the Bible call them? Believers they're counted among the flock. Acts chapter 19 verse 2 the scripture says this did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? He asked them? No they replied we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. So there is a second experience that we are to accept and embrace from God. And so number one salvation the Spirit with you. Number two immersion the Spirit in you. And number three transformation the Spirit around you. You see at salvation and an immersion the Spirit is in you. Now any immersion the Holy Spirit floods you deep from within. Remember Jesus said out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. So life and that power is flowing from deep within you and deep within your spirit the Holy Spirit starts to flow and he baptizes you by filling you inwardly and that is what immersion means inwardly and outwardly being filled. So he baptizes you and he goes from affecting you in the Spirit to touching your soul to touching your body. So from the spirit realm he starts to affect your emotions your will your personality then he starts to touch your actions your thoughts everything about you he begins to touch from the inside out that's baptism. So number one salvation the Spirit with you. Number two immersion the Spirit in you and he flows inwardly that's an inner flood he floods your inner being and then third transformation the Spirit around you. The first two salvation and immersion though immersion is a flood from within and it's greater levels of release. So I like to say at salvation you receive the Holy Spirit at baptism you release him that's still an inner reality. So at salvation and at baptism the Spirit is in you but then it goes to greater deaths at transformation you go in the Spirit you move in a different realm. Now it's not just God living within you it's you living in a new reality. This is why you can be forgiven and think like you're condemned. This is why you can be a saint and think like you're a sinner and think like you're a sinner. This is why you can be a victor and think like a victim because we have the reality in us but we ourselves never enter that reality. We don't speak according to it we don't think according to it we don't act according to it and it's not that we need to act a certain way to bring about that reality it's that we need to believe a certain reality and that reality in which we embrace all that God has for us brings about transformation of the actions and so this takes place in a whole different area this is not even in our physical world this is in the Spirit this is the difference between sipping from a cup and diving in a river when you're sipping from the cup you're in control when you dive in the river you got to go according to what the Spirit wants to do I want to read this to you this is from my book Carriers of the Glory it says this at salvation the Holy Spirit becomes one with the believer's spirit at baptism he floods the believer's soul and body so at that point of the believer's life he could rightfully say that he is filled with the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is in the believer however there is yet another dimension in which you can live at an even higher plane of existence at this point you might be wondering how can this possibly get any deeper but it does indeed go even further all Spirit-filled believers have the Spirit in them but not all believers very few believers are in the Spirit notice that I did not capitalize the word Spirit there that's because I am not writing of a person but of a realm I am writing of the Divine dimension the reality of God it's possible to have your Spirit resurrected at salvation you're being transformed at baptism and yet neglect to think and live in the Spirit living in the Spirit is the practice of your new reality and the acceptance of what the Holy Spirit is doing within you you can be forgiven and live like you're guilty you can be loved by God and live like you're a reject you can be a new creation and still identify with your old self you can have the fruit of the Spirit within and never let them see the light of action you can be free from sin and live like the cage is still locked in other words you can but you won't it is but you don't think it is living in the Spirit is about thinking according to a greater reality when what is in you becomes what is around you you're in the Spirit and that concludes this teaching for Spirit Church I want to take a moment now to pray with you and let's believe God that He would help you overcome whatever it is that's stopping you from identifying as He would have you identify come on stretch your hands toward mine let's believe for God to touch you so Holy Spirit I pray with that one watching and I thank you Father for your anointing that's now flowing I pray Lord that you would bring about a fresh revelation who we are in you Father I pray that you would help us to think soberly Lord I rebuke condemnation right now in Jesus name I rebuke frustration right now I come against every lie every power of hell and I declare that every power of hell must bow and confess Jesus as Lord and I come against every lie of the enemy He has tried to get people to think according to the flesh I break the power of that lie right now in Jesus name and I declare your truth to take precedence to take power over that lie I pray God for joy for peace and our refreshing and your anointing in the Holy Spirit in Jesus name we pray you agreed I want you to say amen well what you heard was a little bit of what you heard was from the book Carriers of the Glory which is now available from our ministry so the shipment is in these are no longer pre-orders you order this today it's going to get sent out to you go to davidhernandezministries.com slash shop to get a hold of your copy today and I will send my staff will send these to you right away now for those of you who consider this your church I do want to tell you there has been a dip in donation let me just I'll level with you I'll be completely honest the ministry has no debt the ministry is in great financial standing however because of the nature of how finance is coming into this ministry we get about I would say 50 to 60 percent of our income is from monthly partners these are monthly donors so that much of our income we can predict is within a 8 to 10 percent margin of error so we can really budget with that the rest that comes in is one-time donations and sometimes those one-time donations are way up and sometimes they level out not necessarily way down but they level out to just regular givers and so what we need is people who will consistently sew on a monthly basis and people who will give large one-time gifts now I know this is a challenge for many of you but we're asking you to consider signing up to become a monthly partner for $10, $20 or $30 a month or giving a one-time gift of $10, $20 or $30 a month also I want to do this challenge for those who can or those who feel led to do give a gift of $100, $500 or even $1,000 some of you could even do more than that and let me tell you something everything you give we're going to put it to good use it's not like you're going to sew it and we just squander it in fact we've found that for every $1 this ministry spends about 30 people hear the gospel and I'm telling you that number is going to grow our efficiency is going to grow but we need your help to do it let me tell you something God is opening major doors you look at many ministries that God has used on national and worldwide levels and you say wow I wonder how God raised that ministry well this is how it's people like you seeing the big vision and let me tell you something God is just getting started with this ministry many people think this ministry is big I guess relatively speaking it can be considered big in some circumstances I truly believe that God is just getting started we're not even scratching the surface of where God is taking this ministry and there's evidence of that because major doors are opening right now I'll be announcing more later this year but I need your help to walk through those doors if we're going to do big things we need big support we need people who are going to go you know what I was going to give $100 but I'm going to sacrifice I'm going to sew big I'm going to give $1,000 maybe someone said I was going to give $10 but you know what I'm going to sacrifice I'm going to sew big I'm going to give $50 maybe someone said I was going to give $1 but you know what I'm going to sacrifice I'm going to sew big I'm going to give $5 and the reason I'm challenging you to do this is because I need people to come and support what we're doing because we need to get the gospel out there let me tell you something I've used to be very apologetic for raising money I'm not apologizing to anyone anymore you can call me whatever you want the truth is the gospel is free we need to get the gospel out and the only way we're going to do that is by funding the ministries that are doing that so if you want to make a difference you look around this world and you say man people need to hear the truth or maybe you look at the political problems the economic problems the social problems the moral problems you're saying Lord there's so much to do no there's not there's only one thing to do and that is to preach the gospel when you preach the gospel all of those things are affected by it crime rates go down divorce rates go down abortion rates go down the moral decline begins to reverse all of that begins to change when we preach the gospel and you can help me reach my generation you can help me reach your generation you can help me reach the next generation with the gospel and we can make an impact and changes I'm telling you the world is not as big as most people believe it to be and the gospel is more powerful than most people believe it is we can we will transform the world through the preaching of the gospel but I need your help to do it I'm challenging you now stand by my side help me do this let's get the gospel out there you can so you're one time our monthly gift now I want to know before I forget welcome the new members of spirit church there you are up on the screen you signed up this week and we're so grateful that you did thank you for joining the spirit family we love you we are praying for you as I always say and we bless you in the name of Jesus now if you want to join the spirit family go ahead and click on that link that just appeared over my head if you're not watching this on YouTube or on my website for watching this on the app or maybe the Facebook version of this video then just stick around until the end of the broadcast you should see something appear on the screen on Facebook and if you're watching this on the app you can go and sign up to spirit church at the link that's listed below well that is it for this edition of spirit church until next time remember nothing absolutely nothing actually no there's somebody watching I was going to close it right now there's somebody watching you just got done saying lord I don't know how I'm going to make it and you're looking at your circumstance right now you're saying I have no idea how God is going to get me through this one let me tell you something he's going to get you through it I promise you count on his word it's his promise his word we believe we trust in him don't quit keep going God's going to use your life now that is it for this edition of spirit church until next time remember nothing is impossible with God of sin justice is the one who depends on you and it is heaven's agenda that you fulfill what God has placed in you Jesus