(The Mission and Ministry of the Holy Spirit) the Power of the Holy Spirit — David Wilkerson

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771 or by calling 903 -963 -8626.

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The Holy Spirit as the Wind That Blows Where It Pleases

John 3, 3rd chapter of John. This is the fourth in a series on the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. Such power. Such awesome power He has. The 8th verse, chapter 3 of John. John 3rd chapter, verse 8.

The wind bloweth where it listeth, or where it pleases. And thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

The wind blows. That's the Holy Spirit. He blows where He pleases. He goes where He pleases. We're going to talk about that power, liberating power of the Holy Ghost. Let's pray. Spirit of God. Holy Spirit.

Divine Spirit. We acknowledge You. We recognize You. We worship You. We thank You for bringing Jesus to us. We thank You for magnifying the Father. You have been sent by the Lord Himself to minister to us, to bring us to Jesus on that great marriage supper day.

Hallelujah. Spirit of the Lord, we recognize Your power tonight. We acknowledge Your might. No other power like You. No other might like You. Open our eyes, Holy Spirit. Come upon me. Possess me. Let me speak beyond my ability.

Let me speak and glorify Your mission on earth. We glorify Christ through that mission, we pray. God, give us ears to hear. We didn't come just to play church tonight. We didn't come to be entertained.

We came to have our hearts moved and changed by God's power. God, smite us if you have to. Wake us up. God, get a hold of us tonight. Demonstrate Your might and Your power through us. In the name of Jesus, we take authority over the demonic spirit of evil spirit.

There is no spirit, there is no power on this earth that can hinder the working and the moving of the Holy Ghost tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. The Holy Spirit in this verse is like into the wind. You don't know where it's coming from, you don't know where it's going.

You can hear the sound, but the wind goes where it pleases. It blows away all opposition. There's another verse in the Bible that is much misinterpreted, very familiar to all of us. You don't have to turn there, but 2 Corinthians 3 .8.

Liberty Where the Spirit of the Lord Is

Now, the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. Now, when I grew up in early Pentecost, years ago, we interpreted that verse as liberty of the Holy Spirit.

Where the spirit is, there's liberty. It meant there was freedom in the meeting, there was freedom to worship, it was flowing, it was easy, people were happy. In other words, the devil didn't oppose us.

And we would go home from church, and I'd hear dad turn to mom and he'd say, boy, we had a lot of Holy Ghost freedom there, a lot of liberty there tonight. That meant it was easy to preach, and it was just easy to worship.

But folks, that is not the truest meaning of this text. It goes much deeper than that. In the first place, there's not always a lot of freedom and ease when the Holy Ghost is at work. Try lying to the Holy Ghost, like Ananias and Sapphira, and see how much liberty there is.

They dropped dead on the spot, so much so, in fact, I don't know what kind of worship service it was for a week or so. That Holy Hush that fell over the people because the Holy Ghost was telling the people, I will not be lied to.

I am an awesome power, you cannot lie to me. You cannot keep part of the price back. You can't lie to me. And he had the whole church thinking to themselves and saying among themselves, what kind of power is this?

Especially now that he abides in us. Trying to take away the frivolousness and the frivolity away from the ministry of the Holy Ghost. Folks, I see in charismatic circles, I would be, I don't like the word charismatic.

It sounds like a disease, asthmatic, charismatic. But we're strapped with that. But I would say, yes, I am one of those. But you see, I see a lack of dignity and respect for the Holy Ghost. I've been in meetings where they go along, passing along the Holy Ghost, and people would dump it on the next, and go like this, dumping the Holy Ghost, and everybody laughing, we're passing the Holy Ghost on.

And there's something inside that says, you can't toy with the Holy Ghost. You can't toy, this is an awesome thing, and this line to the Holy Spirit. What about Stephen? When he turned to the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin and the Spirit of God came on him, he said, you crucified the Son of God.

How would you like to be told you crucified God? And there was no freedom. There was no liberty for Stephen. In fact, they gnashed on him with the teeth, and they lunged at him, and dragged him out of the city, and stoned him to death.

You see, there's something beyond this. There's liberty where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. We're talking about the liberty of the Holy Ghost Himself. Not of the people first, but the liberty of the Holy Ghost.

And what this Scripture means is, wherever the Holy Ghost is, He does as He pleases. Wherever He is, He takes His liberty. He will move, and nobody can stop Him. Now, the President of the United States, we had one that was impeached.

He was driven out of office, President Nixon. Bush, we can vote him out, and if he doesn't do something about the economy soon, we will. He'll be voted out. There's no question about it. But my point is, I'm not politically mighty here tonight, but my message is saying that these physical powers that we endure today, that exist among us, can be overruled.

Gorbachev was almost kicked out by a coup. You can veto the government. You can overrule the government. You can test it out, but you can't veto the Holy Ghost. You can't stop the Holy Ghost. You can't vote Him out.

You can't touch His power. There is no other power in heaven or earth, anywhere in the universe, that can challenge the Holy Spirit. Now, I want you to listen very closely. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

We're speaking of, listen to it now, we're speaking of unlimited, unchallenged power. Unlimited, unchallenged power. We've got people who believe that the Holy Ghost is locked in a life-and-death struggle with the devil, a battle with the devil.

No, He is not. The Holy Ghost is not here on earth fighting the devil. Jesus already defeated Him before the Holy Ghost came down. The Holy Ghost is not going to try to fight an enemy that has no power.

There's no challenge. Now, I'm going to show you where the arena of battle is. It's not out there somewhere, it's right in here. I'm going to show you where the Holy Ghost is really fighting, where the battle of the Holy Ghost really is.

The Holy Spirit’s Unchallenged Power in the World

But see, He goes absolutely unchallenged. You have got to get your mind focused on this tonight. Focus on it. There is within me a power. There is a power resident here on earth. The Holy Ghost is not just in heaven.

He is here on earth. He's got an address. It's wherever I go, wherever you go. He lives in your heart and in your home. If you're a child of God, if you're walking in the love of Jesus, the Holy Spirit abides.

He's resident here, but He's resident with unchallenged, unlimited power. Right now, the Holy Ghost is blowing all over this world. The wind of the Holy Ghost is blowing, and He's not being challenged.

Nobody. He's never lost a battle, but more than that, He's never been challenged. He is an absolutely unchallenged, unlimited power. Let me tell you, I believe that the Holy Ghost can blow up and down the halls of Congress at any time He chooses.

I believe He can go right through the walls and pass the guards of the White House. He can go right into the President's bedroom and wake him up in the middle of the night and show him the Holy Ghost mirror and say, take a look at it, and just create a hunger and a thirst for Jesus in his heart.

I believe He can go right into a Congressional session and just bring a blanket of guilt and fear and shame and make congressmen everywhere tremble in their knees. Why not? Who's going to challenge Him?

He's at liberty to do as He pleases. He can go anywhere, anytime, and there's no guard, there's no Congress, there's no power in Washington, D .C. that can stop the Holy Ghost. I wish you knew how many wives of officials in Washington, D .C. are godly, spirit-filled Christians who are on the telephone with a number of people that are praying all over the country for the Holy Ghost to start blowing in the halls of Congress.

If any place needs a Holy Ghost revival, wind to the Holy Ghost, it's our Congress. How many believe the Holy Ghost can go there and blow away all the opposition? I believe that with all my heart. Why not?

Who's going to stop Him? He's an unchallenged power. He can go right now, while we're standing here, and blow right through the Kremlin. He can go right into Gorbachev's private chambers. He can go into Yeltsin's private chambers.

He can go into the private chambers of those scheming generals with all of their lapels, ribbons, and all of the paraphernalia about these generals. And He can blow right through the walls. He comes walking in as He pleases.

Nobody sees Him. But all of a sudden, He can take one of those hardened old generals and talk to them about eternity and just whisper, Man, you're going to hell. Man, you are lost. Oh, folks, I've sat down with communist leaders in Poland, and I've heard hunger for God.

I've heard men that were heart-bitten communists confess that they had times when they cried when they thought of God. They weren't supposed to, but they confessed it when there was nobody around. Why not?

He can go anywhere He chooses. He's an unchallenged power. Hallelujah. Watch out, Castro. There are eight, listen to me now, I know it because even though it's closed, there was a delegation sent here two weeks ago to share this with me.

There are eight pastors and lay people who've shut everything down. A few have quit their jobs. They've been a whole year, I think it's a whole year now, locked in a cabin on a hill on a mountain in Cuba.

And they've been fasting and praying that God bring down Castro and send a mighty revival. And the wind is blowing already, and watch what happens. Holy Ghost is going poof, and Castro's gone. And they believe a Holy Ghost revival's coming.

In fact, they've invited us to come down in the pastor's church and the choir to come down and hold a crusade in Cuba, be one of the first crusades in Cuba. I've been praying for Cuba. Cuba's going to have a revival.

There's going to be a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Cuba. Because the Holy Ghost is unchallenged. Why not? Who's going to stop it? Who's going to stop the Holy Ghost from moving in Cuba? Castro?

He's not even going to be able to hold on to the little thing he has. The Holy Spirit's going to blow. The wind blows where it pleases. Wherever the Holy Ghost is, He takes His liberty. There is liberty, unlimited power.

Right here in America, who do you know that has the power to stop the Holy Ghost from moving into our schools and doing whatever He pleases? Do you know of any power? Do you think the devil has the power to stop the Holy Ghost at any time now and answer to the prayers of God's people to come right in?

Do you think the chancellor of our schools in New York can stop the Holy Ghost? He'd stand up there and say, wait a minute, Holy Ghost, this is my territory. These are my students. I'll pass out all the condoms I want to.

In Seattle, they're even passing out, they're wanting to pass out oral damns, they call them. I can't even, I don't want to get to it in public, but it's so evil. It had to come out of the very pits of hell.

It's almost as if the devil's saying, this is my territory, Holy Ghost, you can't do anything about it. The devil surely must know that he can't challenge the Holy Ghost. The only power he has, I'm going to show you, is in people who have surrendered it to him.

He has no power allowed by God other than that which is taken by cheating and lying. Whatever we yield to him becomes his. He's a usurper and the only power he has is a usurping of the power that is yielded to him by believers who don't trust the power of the Holy Ghost.

But one of these days, the Holy Ghost is going to say, that's enough. He's going to hear the cries of his people, and suddenly in one of these schools, the wind's going to start blowing. Hallelujah. And there are going to be students in Seattle stand up and take a stand and say, this is enough.

There's going to be a holiness group stand up somewhere that walks with Jesus and says, you can take that whole doctrine, you can take all of that. We believe in abstinence. We believe the Holy Spirit has told us to take a stand.

And I'll tell you what parents can't do, what the government can't do, a dozen little Christian young people can do by the power of the Holy Ghost when he begins to breathe. Unlimited, unchallenged power.

The Holy Spirit’s Power to Reach the Most Sinful Places

Do you know the Holy Ghost can't be kept out of any little sex club here? The Holy Ghost went into a sex club down in... You say, oh, the Holy Ghost wouldn't go into places like that. Oh, yes, he does.

He's unlimited, he's unchallenged. The devil doesn't have any circle around any place, anywhere, that says, Holy Ghost, you can't come in here. The Holy Ghost goes anywhere, he chooses, the wind blows where it pleases.

The Holy Ghost went into a Sadomasochist club down in New Orleans and found a performer who had once known Jesus as a boy. While he's there performing the conviction, the Holy Ghost hits him. And the Holy Ghost drives him out the back door and he falls on his knees and cries out to God.

That's the Holy Ghost. I read his testimony, he's preaching the Gospel now. He was a cross-dresser, what do you call him, a performer. And the Holy Ghost can go into any one of these homosexual act-up groups where they're planning to disrupt things and saying, we're going to take over, we're going to do this.

And the Holy Ghost goes in and he listens, just like he did. The Holy Ghost walked right into an abortion clinic here in New York this week. And I'll tell you what the abortionists have been telling us.

We've got to have doctors do it, it's got to be legal, or they're going to get hacked up in the back alleys and the babies are going to have their arms ripped off, the very thing. And so the Holy Ghost goes right into where a doctor took an eight-month baby last week and in an abortion attempt ripped off its arm.

And the baby came out in pieces. And it was in the front pages, the Holy Ghost exposed it. The Holy Ghost did it. Who's going to keep him out of the abortion clinics and blow it all away? He is unchallenged.

Glory be to God. Oh, when do the Holy Ghost blow through the abortion clinics? Expose it for what it is, hallelujah. The Holy Ghost blew right into the home of the president of the Atheist Society of America, Madeleine Murray O 'Hara.

And while she is out saying there's no God, there's no Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost blew right in her living room and saved her son. Last I heard, he's preaching. She drew a line and said, I don't believe there's a God.

I don't believe there's a Holy Ghost. He went, poof, right into her house, saved her own son. Let me tell you what he's doing in New York. Do you know there's not a prison that can keep him out? Oh, there's not a prison anywhere.

There's not a bar. There's nothing. There's unlimited power, unchallenged power. That has to sink in tonight. The Holy Ghost who abides in us is unchallenged. The devil can't hinder him. If Gwen were here tonight, she'd say, quit yelling.

I can't help it, Gwen. I'll tell you why I can't help it. I got a call this week. Bless my heart. A few months ago, a family from Provo, Utah, came for a tennis tournament. Remember? A young Brian Watkins was murdered in the subway.

A brutal murder. One of the young men indicted for this murder, his name is Gary Morales. The family came from Guatemala. They're from Queens. Good, upstanding Catholic family. They couldn't begin to explain the terror of hearing the news at first.

The son indicted for this murder. It splashed in the paper, faced the neighbors. They thought at first they would move. They didn't want to go out of the house. The father called me this week. Talked to him Friday.

He said, Pastor Dave, my son in prison has read Cross and Switchblade. And he read Nicky Cruz's book, Run, Baby, Run. He said, I'd like you to visit him and have your prison people visit him. But he said, I've got to tell you, store of a miracle.

Because you see, the Holy Ghost blows where he pleases. He said, Pastor David, in our despair, God sent somebody to us who knows Jesus. And we got saved. We have been genuinely saved by the power of Christ.

Have been transformed. He said, we're holding prayer meetings in our house now. And our neighbors, God has changed the hearts of the neighbors. They've rallied behind us. We've got support and the love of a lot of people.

He was just overflowing. But he said, the best news, I started praying for my son, Gary. Sitting in jail, his trial comes up probably in February. He's facing life imprisonment. But he said, I prayed for him that the Spirit of God would do for him what he did for us.

And I walked into prison and I told my son that we gave our heart to Jesus. And he started to cry. He said, I want you to know Gary's been saved by the power of Jesus. He gave his heart to Christ. Marvelously saved.

He's not trying to get out of his sentence. He's not trying to get out of it as if, well, I get religion, I'll get a lesser sentence. No, he knows he's going to face it. But now, he said, I want to minister for Jesus while I'm in prison.

And we're going to be visiting him on a regular basis, our prison department. And we hope that we can get in contact with the Watkins family. And I hope they would, it won't ease their pain perhaps, but at least let them know that there's a young man in prison who now through the power of the Holy Spirit feels the grief for his sin.

And he has godly sorrow that only the Holy Ghost can put there. Folks, who can do that but the Holy Ghost? He has absolutely unchallenged power and might. All right. Secondly, the arena of the warfare of the Holy Ghost is not out on the streets.

The Battle Between the Spirit and the Flesh

It's not with the devil primarily. It's not in city halls. It's not in Congress. It's not in the pleasure dens and lust dens of our cities. The battlefield is in our flesh. And my Bible says this,. For the flesh lusteth, or wars, against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

And they are contrary or in opposition to one another. Galatians 5 .17. Now, I say it again. The Holy Ghost battle is with flesh. Now, flesh is not just skin. No, it's more than that. It is a body. It is the members of our body under the control of the enemy, under the control of Satan.

Flesh, listen to me now, flesh cannot be sanctified. Flesh cannot be transformed. We've got a lot of people trying to turn over a new leaf, trying to transform their flesh. Now, let me tell you where the flesh gets its power.

The flesh gets its power when the enemy comes in, and through the lust of the eye and the pride of life, this lust that is in human nature, we inherit it from Adam, and it's called flesh. Not just skin, but it is a spirit that controls the skin, that controls the members of the body.

And when you yield, when you yield to that sin and to the temptation, the enemy has grounds. And that's where, he's been stripped of his power legally, and the only power he has is that which you yield to him and give to him, and he has a right when you yield to that power, you give him the right, you give him the authority to direct you.

And it's very, very clear in the Scripture that there's a warfare. We fight not against flesh and blood, but against principles and powers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places. Now, where are those high places?

Those high places are not out there, not up in the heavens, but in the temple. The high place is always in the temple. Where is the temple of God? Know you not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost?

There is a place inside our heart that is supposed to be holy, our hearts are to be yielded to the Holy Spirit, yielded to Christ. And when we do not yield to Him, when we still have the remains of the flesh, the old desires that have not been dealt with, we submit, we surrender authority and power to the devil himself.

And what the Holy Ghost is, after what the warfare is, is the Holy Spirit coming against that flesh. That flesh has to die. It can't be converted. Your flesh cannot be converted. God doesn't build with renovated flesh.

The flesh has to die. It has to be crucified with Christ. It has to be done away with. Absolutely done away with. You say, well, how can that happen? Well, we'll discuss that as we go on in the message here.

But the Holy Ghost has declared war on flesh trying to be spiritual. Flesh trying to offer itself in the services of God. We've got young singers that have never been truly converted. They're half in the world and half in sin.

And they bring their ungodly, unsanctified music right into the house of God. And they want their flesh to be sanctified. They want their flesh to be accepted by a holy God. And God says, no, flesh is flesh.

It's at enmity with God. My Bible said the flesh is at war with God. It can never be at peace with God. I'm not out to see anybody's flesh changed. I'm out to see flesh killed, destroyed, crucified with Christ.

Flesh, all the flesh that's in the house of God today. Didn't I say the devil was defeated? Well, then where does he get the power to come and rule in the flesh? The Bible says they that are in the flesh cannot please God because the carnal mind is enmity against God.

For it is not subject to the law of God. Neither can it ever be. It can never be subject to the law of God. If you're just trying to suppress your sin, your lust, you're trying to get your teeth and dig it down so deep it can't find its way out, trying to submerge it deep into the flesh, it never works.

It'll work its way out. The deepest burial ground you can find, the flesh will always surface. No, God says that's not the way. You don't try to convert your flesh. That yielding spirit that you have to the enemy, that is flesh.

Let me read it to you. First of all, No, you're not, that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey, His servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin to death or of obedience to righteousness. Now, I want you to hear this very well in your inner man.

There are people that have been coming to this altar week after week. In fact, almost every service, especially on Sundays, this whole front is filled with people. They come up to say, I want Jesus. And after we have them repeat a prayer with us, and more and more I'm wondering if that's going to do any good at all, unless what I tell you now happens.

I don't think it has any meaning unless this happens. And after we pray with them, people will clap, say, thank you, Jesus. We all praise the Lord and thank Him. I'm not putting that down. But a lot of people walk right out that door, we never see them again.

A lot of people come here and they go back to their sins. It's just like a young man. Last night I was in Long Island preaching. A young man had been on drugs. Stopped me. He said, Brother Dave, I was saved about five years ago.

He said, but I keep falling. I keep going back. I'm never really fully on fire for God all these years. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. And he said, there's a difference tonight. He said, I'm leaving this service tonight without a fear.

He said, I know something's been released in me. I'll tell you why. All those times I went forward, all those times I said, Jesus, come into my heart. I never really gave Him all my heart. I held something back.

It never really dawned on me that God would take it off. I didn't see the seriousness of it. He said, Brother Dave, were you talking about the Holy Ghost? He said, I see how serious it is. Tonight I gave Him my heart.

But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin. That you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. You heard a message. You heard something that pricked your heart.

And you let it have its works in you. You said, yes, Jesus. And the scripture says, you obeyed from the heart. It has to come from the heart. There has to be, when you come to Jesus Christ, up at the front of this church, we've been saying to you, give your heart to Jesus.

The devil's too big for you to fight on your own, and the Holy Ghost will come and give you strength to do the battle. But listen, that's been a half-truth. Not everybody that's up here saying, Lord, Lord, enters in.

Not everybody that says, Jesus saved me, is saved. Not everybody that comes up here to be saved and get converted, walks out with the Holy Ghost working in them. The Holy Ghost will commit himself only to those who give the whole heart to Jesus.

Now, it's his work to convict you. But in spite of his awesome power, in spite of the fact he can go and do what he pleases, he will not come like a steamroller and steamroller over your will. You have a will in you.

You have something in you that has the right to yield to God, your heart.

This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two.

Yielding the Whole Heart to the Holy Spirit

Church of Jesus Christ, in these last days, we have created a whole body of people that are weak and frail, waiting for God to come down, waiting for the Holy Ghost to do the work they're supposed to do.

And we have created weak people sitting around, wanting to take it by faith. They don't want to fast, they don't want to pray. They won't pray because they say, I'm waiting for the Holy Ghost to come on me.

You will never pray if you wait for the Holy Ghost to come and fall on you. You will never pray. You pray because, like Daniel, you chase in your soul. You get yourself by the nape of the neck and say, pray.

And God sees that in you. He sees that fight. He sees that chasing. He came to Daniel and said, from the moment you chased in your heart, I heard you. But we've got Christians now who say, I can't fight this battle.

I'm sick and tired of hearing preachers say, well, I can't leave this woman alone. I've had it in the last three weeks coming out my ears. I can't help it, I'm a womanizer. There's something that's got a hold of me and I can't stop it.

No, that man's never given his heart to God. He's never surrendered his soul to Jesus. The Holy Ghost is not with him. The Holy Ghost can never be with him. That power can never be released. The only way that power can be released is when the heart is fully obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then the Holy Ghost comes sweeping in all the power and the glory you need. Oh boy, I need to settle down just a little bit here. We want forgiveness. Scripture said, you have not resisted against sin to blood.

You have not resisted. We don't have a handful of people who want to fight sin. They want some preacher or prophet to come down and say, it's all over, just believe. No. I give you a scripture and I want you to hear it.

For as you yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness. Neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead.

Do you know what the scripture said? Do you know what the word of the Holy Ghost is? Now yield. Hear it again. And don't let any preacher say, well, sin's too big for you. You can't fight it. You had better fight it.

You had better take a stand. God would not tell us to do something we were not able to do. He would not lay an impossibility upon us. He said, you yield to the Holy Ghost. You yield your members as righteousness.

You did it for the devil, do it for me. You yielded it for sin, now yield it for righteousness. Yield. That means give up, surrender, lay it down. You're committing adultery, lay it down. And not to fear God, get a hold of your heart.

You're a fornicator, you're picking up adulterous books, or you're looking at filthy magazines or movies, is there something got a hold of your heart? Is there pride? So now yield. So now yield. We've got it all wrong.

We've become little weaklings running around, being chased. Everywhere the devil chases us because I can't help myself. Why can't you? You're full of the Holy Ghost. God sees him fighting you, he sees you.

The Bible said resist the devil and he'll flee from you. I'll tell you what, that doesn't sound like a potentate to me who runs every time you resist it. Doesn't sound like a great power to me. It sounds like a stripped power to me because you just stand up and resist him.

He runs, he flees, he's running. Glory be to God. You're going to fight or you're not going to make it. Sure, you walk out of this church tonight and that spirit comes on you, that old thing stirs up, the flesh starts wanting to kick up again.

Because you see what's going to happen, the devil goes to the graveyard, he'll pick up that skeleton that you buried and he'll just wave it out there. Sure, you got in church that old skeleton of your old flesh is there.

How anybody could want to go after a skeleton, I don't know. But you say, oh, I just can't help it, here I go. And I'll tell you why you do it. You don't have the fear of God in you. You don't have the fear of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is standing right there as if you're going out and sinning as though he's not there. You say, by the way, if you're having an affair, you sure wouldn't say, meet me at Times Square Church.

You say, I would never do that in church. You wouldn't, if you have a habit of cursing once in a while, you wouldn't do it here during the worship service, would you? But you sure do it in the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Because wherever you go, that's where the church is. You're still sinning in front of the Holy Ghost. So now yield, surrender your members, your body, your mind, your spirit. Yield it to the Holy Spirit.

And when you say, Holy Spirit, here I am, take me. And when you feel the enemy coming in like a flood, say, Holy Spirit, come, I yield to you. And let the Spirit of the Lord come upon you. Hallelujah.

He will. He will. He'll give you all the power you need. If you yield, surrender to this great power of the Holy Ghost. Here's the problem. The Holy Ghost has been at liberty everywhere He is in the world, except in you and me, at times.

He's had liberty everywhere, but you see, He does not have liberty to work because we tie His hands. His power cannot be released in us because we are yielding our members as instruments of unrighteousness.

And we tie His hands. He's not at liberty. Now, let me tell you, in closing tonight, the power of the Holy Ghost can be released in us, first of all, by yielding to Him, resisting the devil, yes, and fighting.

Why does, all through the Bible, fight the good fight of faith. Fight. You say, oh, that's the Holy Ghost doing the fighting. Oh, yes, He does. But only through those who yield to Him and to His righteousness and the power of the Holy Ghost, unlimited, unchallenged, is released in the believer by faith and no other way.

Only by faith is the Holy Spirit released, the power of the Holy Spirit released in us. The Holy Ghost, by the way, you know He's never lost a battle. He's not going to lose any of your battles. You're not going to lose it either if you walk with Him.