(The Ministry of the Spirit) in the Gospels — Zac Poonen

The Ministry of the Spirit in the Gospels

Bow our heads and open our hearts to God this evening and be still in his presence. Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes and concentrate on the Lord who is in our midst. Let's turn our attention away from ourselves to the risen Lord Jesus.

Reaching Out to Jesus by Faith

The woman said that if I can only touch the hem of his garment, I know I will be healed. Many crowd around him, a few touch him by faith. Let's reach out to him tonight and say, Lord, I want to touch you by faith.

I want to come into a living contact with you. It's like getting an electric connection where the contact is broken, but it's reconnected and the power comes flooding back. Our Father as we come before you, we want to lean upon you, Lord Jesus, and seek for a manifestation of your power in our midst.

We don't want to live in words, we want to live in the reality of the power of the Gospel. Hear us, O God our Father, we pray that every heart here receives something from you tonight according to their need and go back, having met with you, having experienced something of your Spirit working in their life tonight.

Lord, we pray it will be so. Your Spirit be upon me as I speak. Give me words to speak according to the need of those who are here, Lord. Grant the word to be prophetic. Let your name be glorified in our midst this evening.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Yesterday, if you remember, we looked at the Holy Spirit's ministry in the Old Testament. And today we want to see the ministry of the Holy Spirit as we see it in the Gospels. We really need to look at only two of the Gospels, Luke and John, because they mention more than Matthew and Mark, and some of it is repeated in Matthew and Mark.

The Kingdom of God Coming With Power

But I'll begin with the verse in Mark, and that's in chapter 9 and verse 1. In chapter 9 and verse 1 in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus was saying to them, Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.

Now Jesus meant what he said, that at that particular time there were some people standing in front of him who would not die until they saw the kingdom of God coming with power. And many Christians who have read that verse have speculated, what does that mean?

Is that referring to the final establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth? Well, there's certainly nobody standing there who is alive today, and the kingdom of God has not covered the earth yet. Some people say, well, it's referring to what it says in the next verse, that six days later they went to the Mount of Transfiguration and they saw Jesus in all his glory, but that was not the coming of the kingdom of God with power either.

And I don't know how many people died within those six days, because Jesus said, some of you who are standing here will not taste death. So it's not referring to the future establishment of Christ's kingdom.

It's not referring to the Mount of Transfiguration. Then what is it referring to? The word power gives us some understanding, and the word kingdom of God. And when you search through the New Testament and look for these two words, you first come to Acts of the Apostles in chapter one, and verse six where you read about the disciples asking Jesus, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now, the kingdom of God?

And Jesus said, no, that's not for you to know. And then he said in Acts 1 .8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And later on in Romans 14 .17, we read the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So when you put Romans 14 .17 and Acts 1 .8 together, you realize that the kingdom of God coming with power is what took place on the day of Pentecost. And between the time when Jesus spoke and the day of Pentecost, some people who were standing there had died.

But a number of them had not died. And they saw, so how did Jesus describe the day of Pentecost? It's very important to see that. He described it as the kingdom of God coming with power. So do you know what you and I are supposed to experience in the church?

The kingdom of God in power. A power which no Old Testament saint ever experienced. A kingdom which no Old Testament saint ever experienced. The kingdom that they experienced in the Old Testament was an earthly kingdom.

And many people who don't have the slightest clue concerning the difference between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant, and they talk about the Holy Spirit and get all confused. Please remember, my brothers and sisters, I have labored in teaching this for 25 years and more in many parts of the world.

I rarely come across someone who has a clear understanding of the difference between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant. They all think it's the same thing. I say, if it is the same thing, in Hebrews 8 .13, why does it say God abolished the Old Covenant?

Is British Raj the same as India being a republic? Is it the same thing? Who was our head? I remember I used to live in Delhi in 1947 when our head was King George VI. I'm not under King George VI or his daughter Queen Elizabeth today.

No. It's gone. That old regime is gone. I'm not under the Old Covenant. It's been abolished. It's obsolete. It says, God himself found fault with it, it says in Hebrews 8. The distinctive word of the Old Covenant was the law, the Ten Commandments.

The distinctive word of the New Covenant is grace or the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Grace. So you cannot de-link the Holy Spirit from the New Covenant. If you connect the Holy Spirit with the Old Covenant, then you have what we studied yesterday.

That is, the Holy Spirit clothed Gideon. Shirt. You can change your shirt when you go home. Take it off. Samson would take it off when he went to Delilah. He would take it off. When he faced the lion, he would put the shirt back on again.

When he faced the Philistines, he'd put the shirt back on again and when he went to some prostitute, he'd take it off again. That was Old Testament Holy Spirit and that's exactly what you see in today.

A lot of people, charismatic, speaking in tongues, great preachers who preach to millions, all of a sudden you discover they've been going to prostitutes. Yeah. One of the greatest preachers in America.

In fact, I heard that on Canadian television, some of the secular TV programs brought a prostitute onto the screen, onto the program, waving dollar bills and telling the Christians, the money you gave to the preacher, it comes to me finally.

These are supposed to be great preachers. But God used them. Didn't God use Samson? How many of you can kill 1 ,000 people with a bone or tear a lion to pieces? So all Christians who think of being used by God, a lot of people say, I want to be used by God.

Well, Samson was used by God and a lot of preachers today who are used by God, so what? I don't want to follow Samson and I don't want to follow any of those preachers. I want to follow Jesus and people like Paul who can say, follow me as I follow Christ.

There are very few who can say that today. I believe that every elder brother in our churches should be able to say that to his flock. Follow me as I follow Christ. Otherwise you're not really fit to be an elder brother.

Otherwise you're fit to be an elder in Babylon. In Babylon they don't say, follow me as I follow Christ. They say, don't look at me. My life is not very good, but listen to what I say. Listen to me. Come and hear.

Come and hear is the great word of the old covenant. The great word of the new covenant is come and see. In John chapter 1 when people asked Jesus, where do you live? He said, come and see. Today when people ask Jesus, Lord Jesus, where do you live?

Come and see. Come and see in this church, in that church, that's where I live. Come and see how they live in their home. Come and see how they live with one another. If you cannot invite people to come and see, you're not a new covenant church.

You're not a new covenant home. You're not a new covenant elder. Whatever doctrine under the sun you may preach, whatever pattern you have in your church, if you cannot say, come and see, if you cannot say, follow me as I follow Christ, it is not a new covenant church.

It's not a new covenant home. It's not a new covenant elder. We can only say, come and hear. We got a great preacher coming from somewhere. Come and listen to him. Is that all we've got to say? That was old covenant.

Possessing the Promised Land Through the Spirit

So the kingdom of God coming with power. In the old testament, they had a kingdom of earth. Earthly. It was Canaan's land. Today for me, Canaan's land, the promised land is in the heavenlies, in Christ.

The promised land is my body. My body, like your body, has been ruled by giants of anger, bitterness, jealousy, love of money, selfishness, pride, lying, hatred. Many, many giants have ruled this land of Canaan for years.

God brings us to the borders of the promised land through this pillar of cloud, the Holy Spirit and says, go in and possess it. Kill the giants and occupy their territory from Dan to Beersheba. That's how they said it in the old testament.

Today we say from head to foot. Occupy it for me. And people look at the giants and say, we are like grasshoppers compared to these giants. We cannot occupy it. But two people filled with the Holy Spirit like Joshua and Caleb will say, let's go in.

If God helps us through the Holy Spirit, we will possess this land. We will drive out the giants and we'll occupy the land because this land belongs to God. Canaan belongs to God. This is the body God has given us.

So this is where the kingdom of God has to be manifested first. Jesus said, don't look here and there for the kingdom of God. He said in Luke, the kingdom of God is within you. And the kingdom of God coming with power, power to drive out these giants and to occupy the land for God.

And you know the miracles God did in the book of Joshua to defeat those giants. And I tell you, God will do miracles for you to drive out the giants that have ruled your body forever. So remember, Jesus described the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost as the kingdom of God coming with power.

And the kingdom of God, he said, is within you, inside you. Don't say it's here, there or coming here and there. It is within you, he said. And when the kingdom of God is within me, in power, the giants cannot rule the land.

I want to say to you in Jesus' name, to everyone sitting here who is born again, my dear brother and sister, that is your birthright. Don't allow those giants of anger and bitterness and grudges and all that to rule your land.

He's destroying you. How many years are you going to let those giants live and control Canaan's land? God told you years ago, get rid of them. The day you were born again, he said, get rid of them. Be filled with the Spirit and get rid of them.

The kingdom of God coming with power. And when you have a number of people who are living this life, coming together, you have a church where the kingdom of God has come with power. And the devil is always trying to neutralize that church and make that church weak by bringing in, into that church, all the riffraff of people who are not serious disciples.

Somebody's brother, somebody's sister, somebody's aunt, somebody's uncle, whole lot of people come in who are not at all interested in being disciples and the devil has compromised the church. What shall we do?

Shall we drive them all out and say, get out all of you fellas? No, let them come. The way I have come to see it is, let them sit there. Like the Gibeonites, they can sweep the floor, they can arrange the chairs, they can arrange the song books, they can do so many things like that.

We need Gibeonites to do things like that. But the real church won't be those people. They can live there. They can come to all the meetings. The real church will be the core of disciples. In other words, if you have a church of a hundred people, let them all sit there.

Ninety percent of them are not serious. They are just coming to listen to a message or something. But if you can get ten people there in that church of a hundred, who are a core, who are determined that this church is going to be run by the Holy Spirit, that must be the central core of the leadership of that church.

The others can come and sit in the meetings and have lunch on Sundays and come for the picnics and play games and come for the conferences and nod their heads in the meetings. And if they want, they can put some money in the box.

We don't stop those things. But they are not going to fight the battle and win the battle in the kingdom of God. They are coming for fun, games. They have got other interests in life. Their job is more important for them.

Their boyfriends and girlfriends are more important than them. Their fashion and their style and their new new dresses and high heel shoes and latest fashions and all, these are much more important to them than building the kingdom of God.

Let them do it. Let them do it. Don't get disturbed by them. Let them sit there forever. They are not going to build the kingdom of God. Let them sing the songs. Let them sing in the choir and all that.

Okay. But those who are going to do spiritual battle are those who are wholehearted, radical disciples of Jesus, who are determined that Jesus is going to be first in my life. God is going to be everything in my life.

I have got nothing, no interest on earth except God. I have got nothing to look forward to in heaven but God. Full stop. Period. It's the end. And my whole life is going to count for God's kingdom. And if you young brothers are like that, get married to a sister like that.

If you young sisters are like that, get married to a brother like that. Not everybody is like that. Not even in our churches. Don't think everybody who comes to our CFC church is a disciple. I tell you, I have travelled around.

I have discovered they are not. Many of them are interested in other things on earth. But the kingdom of God coming with power, that is the New Testament church. And that is what the Holy Spirit came to do on the day of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit in Luke's Opening Chapters

Okay. That's an introduction. Now we go to the Gospel of Luke and John just to look through and see a number of references to the Holy Spirit in these Gospels and see what the Holy Spirit did from the beginning, from the time of John the Baptist, whose birth is first described as the beginning in the Gospels because he was the forerunner of Jesus Christ.

Luke chapter 1, the angel came to Zacharias, the father of John, who was going to be the father of John the Baptist and told him, your prayers have been heard. Luke 1 .13. And your wife Elizabeth is going to bear you a son and you are going to give him the name John.

You will have great joy and gladness and many people will rejoice at his birth because he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while he is still in his mother's womb.

That's why I am against abortion. Something in the mother's womb. He is a human being, you know. If somebody can be filled with the Holy Spirit in the mother's womb, it must be a human being. I mean if God fills somebody with the Holy Spirit in the mother's womb, when it's a small little embryo, when John the Baptist was about this size, can you see that?

When he was about this size, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. You believe a person this size can be filled with the Holy Spirit? You think you have to be this size to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Who said you have got to be at least 17 years old before you were filled with the Holy Spirit? Who said our little children cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit? Here is someone who is this size who is filled with the Holy Spirit.

Be encouraged. That's the first person filled with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Nobody in the Old Testament was filled with the Holy Spirit when they were this size. Are all of you bigger than this size?

Yes you are. Once upon a time you and I were this size. And isn't it interesting that the whole New Testament begins with somebody being filled with the Holy Spirit when he was this size, when you could see a microscope to see him.

That's why I am against abortion, killing a human being. Amazing. The New Testament begins with a reference to the Holy Spirit filling an embryo, an embryo, which there is a lot of debate today in the world as to when does life begin.

I suppose it must have begun for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't fill flesh. I mean if it is just some meat. The Holy Spirit doesn't come upon meat. It's a human being. That little embryo is a human being, filled with the Holy Spirit from the mother's womb.

He was conceived supernaturally. Well I mean supernaturally because Zachariah and Elizabeth were old, but in a normal way. And as soon as he was conceived, the Holy Spirit filled him. So don't any of you young children think I can't be filled with the Holy Spirit till I wait for some more years.

Little children, if you love Jesus and you want to live for Jesus, I am speaking to children now, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years old. If you love Jesus and you want to live for Jesus and you want to glorify him in your life, please tell your children that.

That they can be filled with the Holy Spirit because it's God's work. He didn't become a great preacher when he was in his mother's womb. When he came out he had to learn ABC just like all other children.

Don't think when people are filled with the Holy Spirit they suddenly know all lot of things. They know maths and English and physics and all. John the Baptist knew nothing. But it's a great encouragement to know that the Holy Spirit can fill a person when the person is hasn't even prayed.

I mean when he became an embryo he was not praying. It's amazing. Do you think God can do that for you? That's how the New Testament begins. This is not like the Old Testament. This is much better news.

Don't miss your birthright. You little children you can be filled with the Holy Spirit. When you are very very young just open your heart. In fact it's easier. Because little children the smaller they are the less they have grudges and bitternesses.

You look at all the older people. They got so many bitternesses, grudges, worldliness, so many things. But you little children are so free from that. It's much easier for you to seek God to be filled with the Holy Spirit and ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit.

That's the best life you can ever live. Tell your children at home if they are not here. You little, my little boy, my little girl. Ask Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit. Never mind if they don't understand.

John the Baptist when he was this size what did he understand? He could not explain anything. But he got filled with the Holy Spirit. And all of you who are bigger than this size. You don't have to understand.

It's not understanding. It's God doing a work upon you. Okay that's the first thing. Then we go to the next reference to the Holy Spirit is verse 35 of Luke chapter 1. Where we read about the angel telling Mary.

She said, how in the world can I have a child? I mean the history of the human race since Adam. Nobody has ever had a child who is a virgin, who is not known a man. And Mary said in verse 34, how can this be?

When you say I am going to have a child. You are going to bear a son. The angel told her in verse 31. He said, how can this be? You are going to name him Jesus. Verse 31. He is going to be great. And Mary said, how can this be?

It's the same question we ask. When we are aware of our terrible sin and failure and defeat and helplessness and impotence, powerlessness. And you get a message. You are going to be like Jesus. And you say, how can this be?

Me become like Jesus? How can this be? Same question that Mary asked. How can this be? I am such a wretched child of Adam. I see so much of sin in my life which other people cannot see. How can this be?

And here is the answer. The same answer for you as it was for Mary. The Holy Spirit, verse 35 will come upon you. And the power. Always the Holy Spirit is linked with power. Please remember that. Not tongues, not miracles, but power.

Power right from the beginning. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. You will dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. That is the Holy Spirit. And then from your nature will come forth the nature of the Son of God.

That's the only way to do it. It's not by, God, Angel didn't say, Mary just grit your teeth and do some physical exercises and take these tablets and somehow or the other you will get a child. No, it doesn't work like that.

And neither does the Holy Spirit tell you, grit your teeth and get up at 4 .30 every morning and read the Bible and you are going to be like Jesus. No. The Holy Spirit doesn't say that and I am not going to say that either.

What shall I say? Let the Holy Spirit come upon you. Let the power of the Almighty overshadow you. And supernaturally, that which is impossible, is there anything more impossible in the world than a virgin having a child?

The impossible will take place and Jesus will be born in you, will come forth from you. It will take time. It won't happen overnight. It took nine months for Mary. It will take many years for you, for Jesus to come forth fully, but it will happen.

Little by little by little that baby will grow. Little by little she is changing me. I am not the same as I used to be. That's what Mary said as her stomach became bigger, I am not the same as I used to be.

Bigger and bigger and bigger. I am getting a little more like Jesus. And one day He was born. And one day I will be like Him completely. It's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. No man can take the credit for it.

Joseph could not take the credit for it. Mary could not take the credit for it. It was 100 the work of the Holy Spirit and you will not be able to take the credit when Jesus comes forth in you, in your life or in your ministry.

If you have a longing and Mary's and then the angel said another wonderful word in verse 37, nothing is impossible with God. You wretch, you wretched woman, you wretched man, God can make you like Jesus.

Nothing is impossible with God. But there is one requirement. You have to submit and you have to believe. That's all that Mary did. What did she say? Behold verse 38, the born slave of the Lord. That's submission.

Let it be done to me according to your word. Whatever you want. Mary, hang on. Hang on Mary before you say that. You know what's going to happen? The whole of Nazareth will accuse you of being immoral.

You will lose your reputation in a few months when your stomach becomes bigger. Everybody will say this is an immoral woman. This is the child of some Roman soldier. They say it even today among the Jews.

Imagine how much more they said it 2000 years ago. You will lose your reputation. Even your marriage may break up. Joseph may forsake you. Just think about it before you say behold the born slave of the Lord.

Don't be in a hurry. So many thoughts must have gone through in Mary's mind in that fraction of a second. What will happen now? What will people in Nazareth say? What will Joseph say? Will my parents understand this?

When you follow Jesus, you got to forget about what your parents think. You got to forget about your boyfriend, girlfriend, potential marriages. Everything has to disappear. You must be willing to lose everything.

Willing to be misunderstood. Falsely accused. Falsely accused for 2000 years. Mary is falsely accused even today. Did you know that? There are multitudes of people who don't believe in the virgin birth.

Even among people who call themselves Christians. Are you willing? Behold the born slave of the Lord. I hope there will be many people like that here in our midst who say Lord I am ready. Let your spirit come upon me.

I am willing to face rejection by parents. Rejection by everything. I am willing to lose everything. I am willing to lose my reputation. I want Jesus to come forth in my life. I want to fulfill the ministry for which you called me.

God's Purpose Before Birth

When Mary was born as a little baby, God had his eye on her. And when she was conceived in her mother's womb, before her mother knew that she was pregnant, before her mother knew that she was pregnant, God said, as a little conception taken place in that woman's womb, that's going to be a little girl, Mary.

I am going to watch over her and she is going to grow up and be the mother of Jesus. Can you imagine how God cared for that Mary? I want to say to you, listen, before your mother, are you listening? Before your mother, think of it now, you know who your mother is?

Before your mother knew that she was pregnant with you inside her womb, before she knew that, she knew it only a few days or weeks later, sometimes weeks later, but God knew it long before your mother knew that a conception had taken place, God knew that you were one day going to be his child.

Before your mother knew about you, and he knew that one day you will accept Christ, you will be born again. And he made a plan for you, just like he made for Mary. And he knew that one day the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary and fulfill that plan.

And God knew that one day he would offer you the power of his Holy Spirit to come upon your life to fulfill that plan. Do you want it? Wonderful. I believe it. More than 65 years ago when I was conceived in my mother's womb, God knew me.

And he knew that one day I would give my life to Christ when I was 19 years old. And he knew that one day he would put his Spirit upon me and fulfill a plan through my life. It's not only for me my brother, sister, it's for you.

But you got to submit. You got to say, Lord, really, it astounds me, Lord, before I was in my mother's womb, you had a plan for me? Yes. He wants to fulfill it, but he'll never be able to fulfill it without the power of the Holy Spirit.

There was absolutely no way, no matter how many Bible schools Mary went to, how much she studied the Bible, how many conferences she went to, there was absolutely no way of God's plan for her being fulfilled without the Holy Spirit.

So one answer, she had to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then it all took place. And you know what you need, my brother, sister? You don't need words. We have had enough words. We have a lot of creatures who get forth and give us words and words and words and words.

I'm sick and tired of words. I don't want any more words. I've got enough words for 10 lifetimes, leave alone one lifetime. What I want is power. What Mary needed was power. And what you need is power.

And that's what God offers you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. Imagine if the power of the Most High overshadows me, what's the devil going to be? The devil's going to be like a little ant under my feet.

That's why it says the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly, just like a little ant. Are you going to be afraid of a little ant crawling on the ground? I mean, you may be afraid of rats and lizards, but I've never heard of a person who's scared of a little ant crawling on the ground.

The power of the Most High will overshadow you. My brothers and sisters, the devil has robbed you of your birthright, which is the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. He's robbed most Christians of that by getting them all involved in theological arguments.

Did you receive it when you were born again? Do you need to have it again? I said, brother, I'm sick and tired of these arguments. I'm not interested in theological arguments. And then he's got other people who seek it and get all worked up in some emotional frenzy.

And the devil says, you got it, you got it, you got it. And they haven't got anything. How do I know? Jesus is not coming forth in their life. What's the use of Mary going around saying, hey, I got it, I got it, I got it.

And 10 years later, no, Jesus comes forth from her life. Mary, don't fool yourself. That is just excitement. How do you know whether Mary is the power of the Most High overshadowed Mary? Jesus came forth from her life and Jesus will come forth from you.

The second thing she had to do was believe. Verse 45. Blessed is she who believed that there will be a fulfillment of what has been spoken to her by the Lord. There's only two things, submission and faith.

The Lord has said it. It will take place in my life. I may be the greatest wretch on earth. But, verse 37, nothing is impossible with God, even with a wretch like me. I believe that. Okay, we go on now to verse 67, another reference to the Holy Spirit.

This is all in Luke chapter 1. We haven't got past Luke chapter 1 yet. This is the beginning of the Gospel and it's just Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit. Zachariah, it says here that Zachariah was dumb for so many days because he didn't believe what the angel told him and for nine months he was dumb.

And then he had a child and the moment he did what the angel said, call him John, they asked him and it says he didn't even speak it. Verse 63, he asked for a slate and he wrote on the slate, his name is John.

And they were astonished. And as soon as he did it, his mouth was opened. And that's usually what happens when a man is filled with the Holy Spirit. Dumb mouths become open and when they open, they stop gossiping and stop backbiting, they begin to speak in praise, verse 64, of God and verse 67, Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and he prophesied.

Isn't that wonderful? Dumb people, dumb for so long, dumb because they don't believe, suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit and beginning to prophesy. This is not a gradual growth into prophecy after ten years of spiritual growth or any such thing.

No. Immediate. It was always like that in the Acts of the Apostles. Here too, dumb fellow living under the Old Testament, suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit and begins to prophesy and begins to say all types of things there concerning the future, about John, you child, verse 76, you'll be called a prophet and you'll go on before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins because the mercy of our God and so on.

And you're going to, the Lord has come to teach us, verse 74, to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. Boy, can you be filled with the Holy Spirit like that? Dumb people, people who are scared to open their mouth for Jesus.

Can the Holy Spirit fill you that suddenly you become bold and talk about Jesus? It can happen. The first chapter of the Gospels teach that. Okay, let's go to chapter 2. In chapter 2 we read about Simeon.

He was another old man, a godly man in Jerusalem. He was a man who was righteous and devout, verse 25, waiting for the coming of the consolation of Israel, that is the Messiah. And it says here in verse 25, the Holy Spirit was upon him.

You see how many references there are to the Holy Spirit even before we begin with the Gospels. Luke 1, Luke 2, men filled with the Holy Spirit, women filled with the Holy Spirit, Mary. And it says here also, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit in verse 41.

I didn't show you that, Luke 1, verse 41. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. There is another person filled with the Holy Spirit. Women, Mary filled with the Holy Spirit. It's very interesting to see that the first people mentioned here who are filled with the Holy Spirit are Mary and Elizabeth, two women.

And John the Baptist and Zachariah, right in the first chapter of Luke, you have two women and two men, it's equal. Mary and Elizabeth and John the Baptist and Zachariah. It's going to be an age of equality for men and women to be filled with the Holy Spirit.