God's Fire in Your Life — Erlo Stegen

We thank you, Lord, for this wonderful opportunity to meet together. We pray that you'd work mightily through your Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. If you have your Bibles with you, in our Bibles, it's the second chapter of Joel, Joel chapter 2, verse 28.

In German, it's 3, verse 1. In English, it's 2, 28, as well.

The Promise of the Spirit and the Day of the Lord

And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. And also on my men servants and on my maid servants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.

Firstly, I'd like to touch upon this prophecy by the prophet about the Holy Spirit. Jesus had said to his disciples, I shall not go and leave you orphans, but when I go, I will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I will not forsake you and leave you deserted, but you will be filled with the Holy Spirit. To the extent that he said, you people who are of an evil generation or you are carnal, but you know how to treat your children properly, how much more so, if you can do that as being sinful, how much more so you are heavenly father, won't he give you his spirit if you ask?

And he says in our text, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.

Know that this isn't the prophet saying his thing, it is God himself speaking through his prophet.

Realize that it's not the prophet's opinion, but God himself who addresses us, saying I will pour out my spirit. That same spirit at work in David, Moses, Abraham and the prophets, he said he will pour out upon his people.

Jesus also said that he hadn't poured out his Holy Spirit because he was not yet glorified. That he was saying with regards to his church. Not that his spirit had been absent, not that his spirit hadn't been there, he had been working from long ago in his people.

The spirit has always been there, like at the creation it says, and the Holy Spirit brooded upon the face of the earth. And upon the face of the waters, so it's not that God, his Holy Spirit has been absent, he has been there always in his creation through all of history, but this relates in particular to the church which he established.

Yes he had been at work in the creation and right through the Old Testament era. But let's pass on from that point because I make haste. Let's look more closely at the word to pour out.

In Isaiah 44 he says, I will pour out my Spirit. He will come down as rain.

I will pour out my Holy Spirit upon the dry earth, upon the soil that longs for rain. And in the desert and wilderness I will cause rivers to spring forth. And I will pour out my Spirit upon your offspring.

When I was...

When I was a young man and pondered upon this and I wondered how to be possible for I wasn't yet married, I got married older on, like innocent. And I pondered upon this, it's a pity by the way that young men they just get married because they lack self-control.

Ezekiel 39 I will pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel. And Acts 10 verse 45 He speaks in that context about pouring his Holy Spirit out like water. The symbol of water being an illustration of the Holy Spirit.

Water as a Picture of the Spirit's Life-Giving Work

Water was of great importance, is of great importance, it brings forth life. If the heavens don't rain, even what you've planted, that good seed comes to nothing.

But if it rains, there's blossoming, growth, life comes forth. All earthly life comes forth from water, through the Holy Spirit. Without him there's no life.

Everything on earth is dependent upon water, upon rain. It brings life, that's the only way things can survive. And so too with the Holy Spirit, breathing life into us. And so the letter killeth, but the Spirit brings life.

And God said after these things I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. After what? After Jesus had died on the cross, dealing with sin. You cannot receive the Holy Spirit if sin hasn't been dealt with in your life.

There can't be an outpouring of the Spirit if God hasn't dealt with sin in your life. You can pray till doomsday, you won't receive the Holy Spirit. Unless the cross does its work and you are at peace with your brother.

If you still get irritated, if you still get annoyed, if you still get angry, forget about praying for the fullness of God. The fullness of the Holy Spirit. And if you live at Kosis Abantu and you get annoyed and irritated and there's friction, I pray if you're a man that your wife will influence you that you leave this place.

Make room for the next man. We don't want people here at Kosis Abantu who can't live in peace, who get irritated, annoyed. We don't want you here, you're a curse in our midst.

It is a waste of time to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. If sin hasn't been dealt with in your life, you're still troubled by the lusts of the flesh, irritability, impatience, and all these things, you just playing around, allowing sin under your own roof.

Your children to mess around with sin, you're playing around if you're asking for the Holy Spirit to be poured out.

Holiness as the Evidence of the Holy Spirit

He is the Holy Spirit, and hear that properly.

He is the Holy Spirit, for He is holy and not a spirit of wickedness and evil, being on the level of a dog messing around sexually. And you're speaking about the Holy Spirit.

Don't waste God's time in praying to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And you can't even live with your brother in peace. And if things don't go as you think, as you like, you get upset. You can't bow under the mighty hand of God.

You want your way. You're a curse and a disgrace in the kingdom of God. Confess your sin. Go to your brother, to your sister. Repent. Bring forth fruit of repentance. Satan should not have his throne here.

He should have his lazy way here. This place should be like the tent, holy to the Lord. It needs to be a place holy unto the Lord.

Then the Spirit of God can work.

Then one can reckon with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Then the desert places will turn into a garden and the glory of the Lord will be seen.

Prophecy as Speech Guided by the Spirit

Let's look at the fruit of the Holy Spirit, what He does when He works. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, it says at the end of verse 28. It says they will tell forth.

Weisssagen in German, it's not prophesy, weisssagen. When He stands here on the preaching chair, He speaks wise things, wise things that lead to bliss. And when He works, wise things. Away from the preaching chair.

Wise things, good things, not lazy. And it's dirty stuff. But in English, to prophesy is to publicly expound the word of the Lord. But I love the German word, weisssagen. Weisse handeln, weisse reden.

Das Rechte sagen. Und der Mensch braucht nur seine Schnauze zu öffnen. Denn weisst du, ob er den Heiligen Geist empfangen hat oder nicht.

I love the expression in German for it means that He speaks forth whatever He opens His mouth to say. You can sense that this is of the Holy Spirit, wisdom. You should learn some German. I said schnauze.

That's the mouth of a pig. Speaking about the snout.

The German describes various types of mouths.

If you want to know whether a person has received the Holy Spirit, let him just open. Whether it's the mouth of a human being or a dog or a pig. By his grunting you'll know if it's the Holy Spirit or not.

If you want to know whether a person has received the Holy Spirit, let him just open.

If you want to know whether a person has received the Holy Spirit, let him just open. If you want to know whether a person has received the Holy Spirit, let him just open.

Discerning the Spirit by a Person's Speech

One can sense just by conversation, even if you're in the next room, the conversing of people among each other, whether they have the Holy Spirit among them or whether it's the spirit of the devil.

Even if you're a blind man, you can see it with your blindness. This man has received the Holy Spirit. That's why in Acts of the Apostles, Paul asked those disciples, have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?

They said, we didn't even know. Oh, that's why you talk like that. That's why you can speak like that. That's why you can act like that. But if you received Him, it won't be like that.

Paul asked those disciples, have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? Paul asked those disciples, have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? Those disciples said, we didn't even know.

We didn't even know. We didn't even know that we received the Holy Spirit. In German, the emphasis is of prophetical utterance, a pouring, outpouring of wisdom on their mouths. And it's noticeable among your children whether they've received the Holy Spirit or not.

If they're speaking about the opposite sex, flirtatiousness, things of the world, then you know that they are only carnal, they only have the things of the world, not the Lord. They can only speak about football, only speak about rugby, and you notice they are incapable of speaking about the things of the Lord.

One who has the Holy Spirit stands out in the crowd. Even if it's a million people you notice, this one has the Spirit, this one not. This one just speaks about spooks and ghosts.

Or this person only knows the things in the media.

He can only regurgitate the things said in the media. It's not the things of the Holy Spirit. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

The Spirit's Work Among Young and Old

Oh, sons and daughters.

And your old men shall dream dreams. And your young men shall see visions. And also in my men servants and maid servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days. Noteworthy that when the Holy Spirit works, there's no differentiation between young people and old people.

He works.

He works. He works among...

He works among the young and the old. There's no discrimination. Don't say, well, we just need our young people's services. We can't really understand the services if they're old people around. No, God doesn't discriminate.

He is at work among all of the people. Among the great and those who are not known. Among the young and the old. The owners and those who are laborers. Among the maid servants and men servants.

They're the ones who are not complaining about their wage and they're busy with. What type of car does my boss drive. What do I have.

No, God doesn't discriminate. They are filled with the Holy Spirit. The have and the have-nots are all filled.

With the Holy Spirit and yet you find so-called tour of God being upset. He can drive in such a car. I haven't got a car. You know why? The blatant lie is this that you call yourself a Christian and you are not and you're not filled with the Holy Spirit.

That doesn't matter to you. Riches, earthly things, position is just a rubbish box for you, a rubbish bin. The main thing is that your spirit filled and that's heaven in your life. The rich are burned by the fact that it's difficult for them to enter into the kingdom of God.

That you should call yourself blessed in your poverty being spirit-filled and haven't got all the worries they have. If you want equality, go to the communists because as you are, you've got a communistic heart.

Amazing that the Holy Spirit does not discriminate for he works in every level. He doesn't choose but he works among the young and the old, the rich and.

Poor, the menservants and the maidservants all. If I think of the outpouring, I'm reminded when God did that in 1966 there at Mapumulo. These days.

There was the funeral of Uncle Bill Larkin. I remember him contacting me and saying the people are streaming down from the hills and the mountains with conviction, repenting, crying about their sins. He was there in the Tugela Ferry area speaking about those people coming down from the hills.

I think of Uncle Hogarth Houston in that fire area speaking about the same thing, people wanting to get right with God.

At that time Uncle Hein was still there. Then a phone call at Kingscliff, then from Kingscliff them phoning us and saying the Lord is at work so mightily, oh the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, what an awesome event.

For young and old, for.

Grandfathers, grandmothers, children, for young people, for all people. You find other outpourings, there can be the outpouring of promiscuity, that's from another spirit. I don't know what you people from the Nongoma area, you've come for the engagement, what it's like over there, but we find in these areas that people not even in puberty yet are discussing their girlfriends and boyfriends.

Still at school. Troubled by the opposite sex, they're just at school or just at college and in these things they're troubled by sin.

Testing Dreams, Visions, and Revelations

And where it says giving dreams and visions to old people, young people, and that is what happened as he poured forth his spirit there in the beginning of the revival and until today we have cupboards full of, because then we ask them to write down dreams and visions, revelations from the Lord, some not coming to fulfillment, realizing that some is just chaff.

And so we said rather make a note of it so that it's not just a mention, not that it's rumored around because sometimes if a person hears who it's from they say oh it must be that and they make connections which is a satanic type of thing but rather it stays anonymous.

And we see where that comes into fulfillment. How wonderful, how awesome when God comes down, when he pours out his spirit, why do you waste your time with the things of the spirit? Why do you waste your time with this world bound by this world when there's this heavenly life which he pours out?

He said after these things I will pour out my spirit. After which things? After Jesus came into this world, suffered, died, rose again, ascended into heaven, he poured his Holy Spirit out.

Signs, Wonders, and the Coming Day of the Lord

He said I will show wonders in the heavens and the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke and the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

There are miracles which God does and signs and wonders, he speaks here of pillars of smoke in the heavens, in the skies. What is it in English? Pillars of smoke. Pillars of smoke, have you seen that?

If a jet passes by you see a pillar of smoke.

Things never seen in the skies above, Joel says. He said when you see these wonders happening in the skies you know that my coming is soon. The moon turned into blood. Hasn't blood been on the moon? Our flesh and blood.

Humanity has been to the moon, defiled. Humanity has been to the moon already?

The sun has turned dark, remember also at the death of our Lord Jesus how it became dark upon the earth and other times when there has been darkness during the day. God was a real thing.

But when the real thing happens, when he comes, the day of wrath comes, when there is the literal fulfillment of these things, when the sun and the moon and the stars are burned and the elements are burned, and everything is finally wrapped up for it has beheld the sun and the heavenly bodies have looked down upon the sin and depravity of this earth and they must go too.

For it says here, In our text before the coming of the great day of the Lord, remember that when you are busy with your drunkenness and revelries and immorality that the day of wrath comes, then it will be true fire.

Including you children.

Every day that you do not repent, that you store for yourself judgment and the anger of God, and when the anger of God, this great and awesome day of the Lord will come, it will be spectacular. Nothing like bush fires and forest fires, that is nothing.

You will be burned in your sin and your parents who allowed them to continue in their sin.

When the ungodly will be like a piece of wood, one upon the other, you will burn, you will burn, you will burn. And you remember I was at Kosisabantu, they preached to me, and I was like a goose or a duck and the water just rained down.

And you will be reminded of those opportunities that you did not repent. And of this day, at the engagement service of Innocent and Jabu, where you heard the truth, you refused to respond, and it will be an awful day of anger and the wrath of God, where you are burned.

Spirit-Filled Witness and Holy Living

But those who receive the Holy Spirit, those who are filled with the Spirit become messengers of the Gospel, bringing the truth of God into every nation.

Let the Gospel go forth, for it must be preached to the uttermost parts of the earth. The sound has gone out. What sound goes out of your life? Or are you like a dead stone? Is there sound going out? And great is the company of preachers.

In Hebrew it says, lady preachers.

A throng preaching the Gospel, preaching His message, female preachers speaking the good news. Read also in the epistles of Peter how the Spirit burned, how the fire burned. And of what he says, that since the elements are to be burned up in this manner, how we ought to live.

Blessed is the one who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. Cursed is the one who does not. Blessed is the one who hears, and listens, and does, and is obedient. Cursed is the one who refuses to obey.

Let's bow our heads and stand to our feet.

Lord, I ask that this service would not be in vain to everyone here. The first part, the second part, and the final part. This day where we have witnessed young men saying, I want to serve the Lord, I want to grow and mature in Him.

Seeing their engagement of innocent in Jabal in this service of the Holy Spirit, so that your Holy Spirit is poured out coming forth out of heaven.

Lord, wouldn't you work so that the day of that great anger would not come. Amen.