The Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit — Michael Koulianos

All right, are you ready for the Word? Help me Joel, just fill the room up, we'll pray. All right, bring your heart to the edge of its seat right now, like a little child sitting at the feet of Jesus, like Mary of Bethany, just sitting at His feet, seeing something about Him that nobody else could see.

Just feasting on every word, taking in His breath, that's what she was doing. Father, in Jesus' name, we come to the feet of Jesus, whose voice is bread, whose breath is spirit, and we sit here, Lord, like hungry children, and we say, feed us this morning, the bread of life, Jesus Himself, open the Scriptures, and let the oil flow, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Thank you, Joel. All right, take your Bibles, I'm going to need help on this one because my heart is full and burning. I want us to begin in Romans chapter 8, and I'll begin in verse 12, I'm doing it again, we're going to verse 11, because I love it too.

Verse 11, Romans 8, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

I believe that is a future promise and a current. It is a current promise, I believe, for healing and vitality. John 10 .10 says, I have come to give you life and life more abundantly. That all takes place by the Spirit.

But this is also a future promise that speaks to the resurrection of our bodies. That's a big deal and something we don't focus on enough. We will all receive a new body. Say thank you, Lord. You won't have to tweak it.

You won't have to spend any money on it. It's just going to look great forever. And this is the promise of the Lord redeeming the body. That's why death is the last enemy that will be destroyed. This is awesome.

Verse 12, Therefore, and now again, whenever we read therefore, what do we ask ourselves? What's it there for? It has to do with what we just read. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh.

In other words, we owe the flesh nothing. To live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit, that's very important, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

I could teach on this for five years, no joke. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. So Lordship is actually a marker for sonship and identity. You don't get to lead him and say that you're a son.

You don't get to tell him what to do. And we don't get a vote. Let me keep moving. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, so powerful, but you received the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. That simply means that once you're born again, you know it and you know it by the Spirit and you're willing to die for Jesus in a moment.

You understand that. That's why I say to you on Sundays, if you're wondering if you're born again, come to Jesus today. Do you understand? The Holy Spirit's job is to bear witness to us that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. This is loaded. I just don't have the time this morning to really go into this. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

This is incredible. For the sake of time, I want you to skip to verse 27. No, verse 26. No, we can't skip. I can't. I can't. You're going to have to find another church. I'm not doing it. I can't do it.

It's just too good. Verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. He's speaking of the resurrection. For the earnest expectation of creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

Creation itself is groaning for the day where men and women will stand on the earth resurrected, shining like the one who purchased them. For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.

Because of the creation, itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Here we go now. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together until now.

The creation is still groaning, by the way. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

You say, I thought we were already adopted. We are, but Paul is talking about the fullness of our salvation manifesting in our body. He also said it this way, I have this craving that my mortality will one day put on immortality.

I'll teach on that another time. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. So he's saying if you could see it, you would not be hoping for it. For why does one still hope for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Whoever told you that waiting for the coming of Jesus was escapism and not faith is just simply wrong. It is so natural for the bride to long to see the bridegroom.

The day where hope manifests with a capital H as our beloved bridegroom. It is completely natural. Likewise, verse 26, the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought or as we should.

But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. So if you can utter them, they're not them. Some people grunt and groan going, these are them. No. You're uttering them.

They're deeper than sound. There's no words for them. You know, Madam Guion actually said there are two types of people that are quiet. Some who have nothing to say. Some who have too much to say. That's what Paul's addressing here.

Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Here we go. What is the will of God for you? And this is what I want to get to when it comes to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. We quote that so often. But what is the context? Paul is saying this salvation is so great, it's mystery so vast and so deep that for us to even pray into it on our own is a joke.

So we need the Spirit and we have the Spirit. And when we are praying in the Spirit, we're not, I don't mean this being limited to tongues, I mean trusting the Spirit and the depths of his silent work in our hearts.

We are going to need to trust in something that no matter what comes our way, God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. This is not a promise for everyone.

This is only a promise for those who love him. This is a promise for the church. We tell everyone, oh don't worry, God will just work it out. No, he won't just work it out. This promise has to do with the church, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Okay, so maybe you're wondering right now, what is his purpose? Here we go. You ready? For whom he foreknew, he also predestined. Jesus said, you didn't choose me, I chose you. And the scripture says, before I formed you, I knew you.

He predestined, look at this, unto what? To be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Okay, everybody look up at me, would you please? If you are wondering what God's will is for you, you just read it.

God has one main goal for you. The Holy Spirit has one main assignment in the life of a believer, and it is this, to get you to be like Jesus, period. Now maybe you say, I'm already like Jesus. I know, but you snipped at your wife this morning, do you understand?

Or you held back on your tithe, I'm joking, but if you did. Or we had anxiety, Jesus is never anxious. Or we become jealous and competitive, Jesus doesn't, he was at the throne of God when the church was really birthed on the day of Pentecost, he was very secure.

He wasn't in there micromanaging, do you understand? So, there is much about us experientially that is not like the Lord, we just have to be honest. True or not? If you really know you, you'd admit that.

I can say that about me, very quickly. I have a long way to go. But by the Spirit, when we yield to the Spirit, that's what I'm going to get into here. He begins to form Jesus in us. Say this out loud.

The goal of the Holy Spirit, the main mission of the Holy Spirit, is to conform me into the image of Jesus. This is awesome. You can say that part too. Now, I've got so much I want to give you, I need to just follow the Lord.

Take your Bibles to Ezekiel 36, 26, and 27. I think the Lord was speaking to me this morning. I'm going to teach on how to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and then pray over many of you in the next few weeks, and believe that many of you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

I do feel like there's a great culminating moment for this teaching. Ezekiel 36, 26, and 27. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

He tells us how this happens. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. If you grew up in a religious atmosphere, and what I mean by religious is trying to please the Lord without the Lord, it's literally impossible and will drive you crazy.

When I think of the stuff we did growing up, oh my word. If I had gum in my mouth in church, like I needed to go to confession, you know? And then you couldn't chew gum, and you talk to people, their breath's dank.

And you wonder to the Lord, Lord, do you have a bigger issue with gum or their breath? What does this have to do with our eternal salvation? Yeah, or a suit or whatever. No. What Ezekiel is saying here is this, that the day will come where God will remove the stony heart.

And when we think of a stony heart, we typically think of a mean heart. But there's much more to it than that. It's speaking of hardness, callousness. Been there, done that. Immovable. Mature. That's the big one.

In fact, if you lose your childlikeness, it's not maturity. It's not. It's backsliding. The further you go with Jesus, the more childlike you should become. Not childish. Childlike. Okay? Ezekiel is saying here that the day will come when we receive the gospel by faith, that God will remove the heart of stone, take it out of us, and give us a new heart of flesh.

A tender heart. A soft heart. A pliable heart. A moldable heart. A humble heart. A correctable heart. All of that will happen by the Holy Spirit and by the Spirit alone. Then he says that obedience will be birthed in us.

Look down. Look down at verse 27. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. I have a quick question. Did Jesus come to abolish the law or fulfill the law?

Say fulfill. That means this. Since Jesus fulfilled the commandments of God, I begin to fulfill the commandments of God as I fellowship with Jesus. Does that make sense to you? I cannot fulfill the commandments of God without the Lord.

I would say if you looked at your life, if you could look at time during the day where you sin the least, it's probably when you're worshiping. Right? I mean, if any of you run out of your prayer closet repenting to a family member for something you did to them while you're—no, there's something that happens in worship that liberates us from the bondage of sin.

Does that make sense to you? Why is that happening? Because as I'm fellowshipping with Jesus without knowing, I am fellowshipping with his victory and his righteousness and his achievement. Does this make sense to you?

So bringing somebody to the Lord Jesus is to bring them to the one who has obeyed the Lord perfectly. In fact, many times, as I said a couple weeks ago, being free from bondage, it happens in a way that we least expect.

It actually happens by forgetting about the bondage because I am so fixated on Jesus. Isn't that right? Whether it's perversion, lust, confusion, anger, pornography, whatever it might be, we are telling people actually in the church to go to war with their weakness rather than telling them to look at Jesus who has conquered the power of this sin.

It kind of works like this. The old Pentecostals would say it like this, starve the sin tree by feeding the life tree. Does that make sense? So the soul, listen carefully, just a side note, the soul, we are spirit, soul, and body.

I am a spirit. I have a soul. I live in a body. Does that make sense to you? Okay. The soul stands in the middle. The bullseye of the soul is my will, and that's what God is after. It's heaven's bullseye.

It's like God has this little dot, and it's the throne of the soul, and it's the will, and he's got an arrow at it, and he wants that bad boy, and he's going to fire his love at it and fire his anointing and fire his process right there.

He wants the soul. He wants the will, I should say. It's the bullseye of the soul. The soul is how I make my decisions. That is why our soul will be judged. One day we'll give an account for everything done, the Bible says, in the body.

Does that make sense to you? So you will be judged even if you're a believer, not as a matter of heaven or hell, righteous or unrighteous, but it really will address the motives of why you did what you did, Paul basically says.

Only that which is silver, gold, and precious stones will pass through a holy fire. Anything we do that looks Christian for the wrong reason, oh, I feel the power of God on this one, will not make it.

I cannot believe some of the stuff we put our focus to and say it's okay because it's ministry. It's a demon. That's what it is. Sorry, I told you I felt the anointing and that's when I lose my filter.

It's not even okay. It's just demonic. It is Babylon to the core. We have deified influence and called it God. Who gives a rip how many followers or subscribers you have? Do you think that moves heaven?

For a moment? Do you think God is up there going, yes, great job, God, it's not even on his radar. Who cares how many streams we have on our songs? It doesn't matter. You say, well, every stream is a person.

Not if you can buy it. Purity is piercing. Purity speaks so loudly. This is what the Holy Spirit spoke to me this morning. You might want to put a Kevlar jacket on because you're about to get smacked right in the heart.

Or a helmet or a mouthpiece. We'll leave it there. All right. This is what the Holy Spirit said to me this morning. If only one thing is needed, why do we focus on other things? You're dismissed. Have a wonderful Sunday.

No, no, no, really. I'm being serious. I mean, those are words in red. For you theologians? People say, well, that's old covenant because he didn't die. No, no, Jesus is the covenant. He transcends timelines.

Psalm 22 is as new covenant as it gets. So is Isaiah 50 and 49 and 51 and 53 and 54 and 55. Jesus is the covenant. He can say whatever he wants in whatever time period and it transcends and still matters.

He's the covenant. So Jesus said in a ministry setting, only one thing is needed. Are you ready? And Mary has chosen the better part. That means you get to choose it or not. It's a choice. First love, bridal love, sitting at the feet of Jesus doesn't just fall in your lap.

You have to choose it. You have to choose it. And to choose this, you have to choose not to do other things because you can't bring your mistress into bed with Jesus. Oh, I know. I know. I was quite balanced five minutes ago.

But this is the truth. One day I'm going to teach on the Prince of Tyre, who is the devil. I'm not going to glorify him, but I'm going to show you what he gave Tyre. Fame, an economic system, influence.

It doesn't even list when Ezekiel is describing him. It doesn't even list. Deficient, tumors. While those are all demonic and from the devil. I have news for you. The devil can shine beautiful things into the eyes of your heart that he knows are temporal.

Help me home, Lord. I went way off the plank. But it's true. It's true. So you have this seat, this throne of the soul, the will. And God will one day judge the will. The will has more to do with the why than the how much.

Eight of you got that? Can I shake this and just spray you down? All right. The will is all about why we just did that Christian thing that isn't Christian to God, but because it's done under a ministry umbrella, it's Christian to us.

No, if Christ isn't fueling it and it's not unto him and birthed by him, that task, that deed will burn. And now sitting here, I understand we're in Maitland. I mean, that may not mean a whole lot. You're in a padded seat, but when you stand at the throne, it's going to matter a lot.

I promise you, the scene will not... It smelled like fish and chips this morning walking in here into the lobby. Thank God for it all. Our building is coming in Jesus' name, but you're not going to be up there.

It's not going to smell like fish and chips. And you're not going to be in a ballroom. You're actually going to be standing, listen, on a sea of glass, not a ballroom floor of glass, a sea. You ever seen a sea?

It will be made of crystal glass, perfection, and it's not going to be mingled with little white cappy frosted little waves that you can go lay out next to. It's going to be mingled with fire. Imagine a sea of glass with waves made of fire.

Imagine angelic beings covered in eyes inside and out. You're like, yeah, totally, man. Are you hearing me? You've never seen anything like that. With a rainbow around the throne, with 10 ,000s upon 10 ,000s of heavenly hosts, they're witnessing the work you are bringing to the moment.

Now, if you don't live with this in mind, you will build with wood, hay, and stubble. You will because it'll just seem right. It'll just seem smart. It's un-too-good. No, we don't employ demonic ways to glorify Jesus.

You say, it's not demonic. Nobody's foaming at the mouth. I know, but you just juiced something to make it about you and called it influence. May influence die in our hearts. If I'm not influencing the bridegroom, I have no desire to influence people.

If I can't move him, I don't want to move you. Does this make sense to you? I know this ain't Sunday morning talk, but it actually is. It needs to be again. So the Holy Spirit's after this throne, the will.

So here's my will in the middle. And then I have my body over here. My body, it's weak. Well, not as weak as most 43-year-olds. But it's, okay, here, you know what I mean by weak. All right. All right.

I love reminding all the young golfers how short they really hit the ball. All right. I just played a 29-year-old guy, professional tour guy. They made me play him one-on-one in South Carolina a while back, and I just embarrassed the guy.

I said, man, I'm just a preacher. I don't think you, I mean, I'm not ready to play this guy. They're like, no, no, you'll do fine. And I'm like, guys, I'm a pastor. See, you got to learn how to hustle.

And they're like, okay, well. I'm like, no, no, no, I don't want to do that. I'd rather play with you. They're like, well, no, no, it's fine. And then I heard the guy on 17 when the head pro came out, the head pro, he didn't know I could hear him.

He goes, are you killing this guy? The young professional goes, this guy's good. And he crushes the ball. And I'm like, thank you, Jesus. So here's the body. All right. Here's the body that is slowly going to dust.

All right. The will stands here. And then over here is my spirit that is one with the Holy Spirit. You got to get this. If you want victory, if you want to be transformed, you got to get this right here.

The Holy Spirit and your spirit are united at a level you will never, you can never imagine. The Bible says he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. You are one with Jesus in the spirit already.

It's a waste to not experience the oneness, which we call bridal love, intimacy, union. The two become one. That's the whole point of marriage, by the way. That's why biblical marriage between a man and a woman, intimacy inside that context is the greatest way God, well, I should say one of the greatest ways that God reveals his nature, even how the gospel advances in the earth.

Are you following me? For instance, your intimacy with God actually triggers a harvest in other people. They are drawn to Jesus. When a husband and wife come together, they fill the earth and subdue it.

So never shortchange your intimacy. There is an evangelistic nature to intimacy with God, whether we know it or not. People are drawn to a heavenly father when we experience the oneness. It's the way children in the spirit are actually birthed.

Jessica and I never sat down, we want to be spiritual moms and dads. Oh, that one freaks me out. When somebody shakes my hands and goes, my spiritual mom and dad is so and so, I go, what's your name? Do you know what I mean?

I'm not saying we ever came and we're like, hey, we need to be a mom and dad or do all this. But I did realize early on that sons and daughters were gathering, not around us, around the presence of Jesus that we had devoted our lives to.

Do you understand? Okay. Give me 10 more minutes. So here is the soul. The soul is the decision maker, the will. I have a choice to make. When I say I, I mean the soul. The soul can either look to this tree over here that is filled with the weakness of our carnality, promotion, lust, needs that are not spiritual needs, lies, porn lives there, adultery lives there, confusion lives there, anger, it all lives right here, especially self-promotion and pride.

They live right here. Right here you have the ways of the Lord, the Spirit himself united with yours. The only way, and everything good is here, the only way to get this tree out of your life according to the Bible, and I'm going to teach on this for a couple weeks, is to not go to war with this tree.

All you're doing is taking a big bucket of Miracle-Gro and throwing it on that tree. Even if you're binding it and loosing it, you don't know what you're binding and loosing. Most of us don't even know what that means.

We bind and loose and it works against us because we're loosing the wrong stuff and binding the wrong stuff. So when I say, I rebuke you, I go to war against you on my spiritual warfare, prayer, all this, all you're doing is going, Miracle-Gro, grow baby, grow, produce fruit.

Because even in your warfare, listen, you're still giving attention. You can march around it, you can get real holy, take your shoes off, that's a new thing in the prayer environment, shoes off. I get it.

Okay, you do all that stuff, prayer shawls, all of it. You can do whatever you want, that tree just sits there and continues to grow. The only way, listen up, to kill that tree is to starve that tree.

But not aimlessly. Your attention is Miracle-Gro. Please don't post that. Please don't post that. I had a lot better stuff to say today than that. Do not do quotes, your attention is Miracle-Gro, at Michael Koulianos.

Don't do it, alright. This is for the house, this is for family. You know what I'm saying. Gosh, I'm teaching on union with Jesus and you're going to talk about Miracle-Gro. Alright, so I want to take my Miracle-Gro, my attention, starve this tree by turning away from it in worship and adoration and connecting with the Holy Spirit, who lives in me, who turns my affection to Jesus.

At that moment, without knowing, I am dumping Miracle-Gro into my spirit. My spirit continues to grow, now this thing begins to die at the root. You can't trim a tree back enough to kill it at the root.

You kill something at the root by starving it of what it needs, and what it wants most is your attention. So I turn away and spend hours and hours and hours in the Scriptures, worshiping the Lord, and all of a sudden my spirit becomes much stronger than this weak body, at which point a habit sets in.

We call this holy discipline, beautiful discipline I should say, presence-filled discipline, where my default button goes, if I hear that whisper, have a second look, my head turns this way, Jesus. You're not good enough, Jesus is good enough.

You're going to die of that sickness. By His stripes I am healed. Are you following me? You should be here by now at this point in your life. Before I formed you, I knew you. This is what it begins to look like.

As I begin to worship Jesus and meditate on the Scriptures, my spirit gets strong. And all of a sudden I look back after a year and go, oh my God, that thing died. I don't even think about it anymore.

It died without attacking it, because Jesus destroyed it already. You see, fellowship with the Lord, listen carefully, help me Joel, is much deeper than singing or praying. It is an actual oneness, listen carefully, with the person of Jesus, I hope you're getting this, because you will walk in victory if you get this.

It is an actual union with the person of Jesus and the accomplishments of Jesus. What do I mean by that? The moment I begin to commune with Him, experientially I step into everything He has paid for. And that's what it means to have His righteousness.

Does this make sense to you? So Paul writes this, Paul says this, Paul says, there is righteousness available, peace and joy, but it's found somewhere in the Holy Spirit. That in, that in, that word in, is all about the will.

Because there are many Christians who do not live in the righteousness they should be living in, experientially, they have it. They do not live in peace, though it belongs to them, and they do not have joy.

In fact, some of the meanest humans I have ever met were people who said they loved Jesus. It's quite mysterious. How is that? It's because they are not in the Spirit. You cannot, you know, when we talk about the armor of God, what do you think is going on up there?

Lord, I'm a helmet of salvation. Do you think there is a conveyor belt of helmets in heaven? Kathleen just asked for the breastplate. There is no actual helmet. There is no storehouse. There is none of that.

But we actually fall into this stuff. Oh my gosh, I forgot the breastplate today. I only want helmet and shoes. My belt, I'm girded, my chest is, quick, quick, throw the breastplate down. That's not how, what are we doing?

What are we doing? Read the rest of the chapter. It is all in the Spirit. It is a Spirit armor that is actually the person of Jesus that you are clothed with, and that's why Paul said this, put on Christ.

If you put on Christ by the Spirit, you don't need to worry about your helmet. You can pray it. That's fine. But there is no helmet production plant in heaven that the angels distribute. It is the very clothing of the Lord Jesus.

Amen? All right.