The Power of the Holy Spirit: Joint Blog

Hello, Everyone:

Today, me and my Auntie (Apostle Kanya from our WatchLetter Blog) are tag-teaming for an important message!

- Youth Pastor Amaya

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From Amaya:

You are not your own master. We can’t save ourselves! And things and other people can’t save us. The only way we can be saved is through choosing Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit. We can only serve one master, not two, and the master you should choose to serve is God. We must search ourselves to see where we are not putting God first and where we are letting sin take over.

For example, a fire will keep spreading and spreading until someone puts it out. Sin will keep spreading and spreading unless we put it out through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will help us make the best decision to put out that fire and Jesus gives us the power to put out the fire.

It’s the same principle with sin. The Holy Spirit helps us to avoid sin and shows us how to defeat sin, and Jesus gives us the power to rebuke sin and to fight against it. We can’t build a house full of sin. We need to build a house filled with Jesus. Our bodies are supposed to be God’s temple, but he can’t dwell in us if sin has taken over.

Luke 6:46-49

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

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From Apostle Kanya:

Amen, Pastor Amaya! You are on it! Young people and adults, the Lord has been dealing with ensuring that we are living by the spirit - not just any spirit - but the Holy Spirit. In fact, God told our Pastor, Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn, that he had marked May 23, 2021. Then we found that May 23 was the calendar day for the celebration of Pentecost (the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus - Acts 2).

I did not know what Pastor Amaya was going to write, I told her to take the lead and I will follow behind her, and we will see if God gave us the same thing, and he did. Chief Apostle Gunn always reminds us of 1 Corinthians 1:10 - to teach/preach the same thing so there is no division, and that we be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Earlier today, during our family prayer and Bible study time at home, I shared the testimony of Pastor Amaya’s younger sisters, Alexandria and Jennifer, who are also teenagers, and were filled with the Holy Ghost this week working with Auntie/Apostle Angel Lewis and Pastor Amaya. If the children are heeding the call to not just be church-goers, Christians, or even saved, but to be on fire for God by being baptized and refilled in the Holy Spirit, then how much more is the Lord urging the adults to do the same?

During our family prayer and Bible study time, I shared this from John 4:

“23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

We cannot follow and love God with just our flesh, with just our minds, or just our hearts (because the heart is deceitful). We cannot maintain our salvation with mere words, songs, and repetitions. We need to be operating and living in the spirit in order to truly fellowship with and know God. When we find ourselves struggling to change or believe, it's usually because we are lacking the power to do God’s will and that power comes from the Holy Spirit. When God’s spirit is operating in us, we can hear Him more clearly, we can see him more clearly, we can recognize him more clearly, and stay consistent in our commitment to him in various areas of our lives, which helps us to ensure we are doing his will and not our own.

Ephesians 3:16-20

“16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us…”

You can not work out your salvation without choosing to live by the spirit and not in the world.

Galatians 5:16

“16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh."

There is an urgency in the atmosphere. The disciples had to go beyond just answering Jesus’ call. They had to receive the Holy Spirit to be empowered to carry out his plan after his death and resurrection in order for the whole world to hear and read the gospel. We can’t go another day without calling on Jesus and inviting the Holy Spirit in to live in us forever. If you need help in receiving the Holy Spirit, reach out to your pastor or those who have a witness of walking in the spirit for help. You can always send us questions via our website.

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by! Listen to "God Happened to Me" from our 2019-2020 FORREAL Radio Broadcast Playlist by Chief Apostle Gunn here: https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/listen-in?wix-music-track-id=4747220060471296&wix-music-comp-id=comp-jyc7a8to

P.S. Today, May 28, is Youth Pastor Amaya’s 18th birthday! We are so proud to know that she chose to walk with God and be filled with his spirit at such a young age. Happy Birthday!!!!!