Ministry of Spirit: Cleansing Your Life

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

We’ve broken loved ones for a few weeks from the study of Romans to talk together a little about the
Holy Spirit and the baptism with the Holy Spirit. And last Sunday you remember, we talked about
those moments, which I think all of us have experienced at some time or another, when we just don’t
think it’s worth going on. That’s about how we feel. We just don’t think it’s worth going on. And
those moments can come after we’ve lost a job, but strangely enough they can also come after the
house is paid for, and the children grown up, or after some professional or academic goal has been
achieved. We end up sitting there at home and we think, “Well, there must be a good reason for
going on but I can’t quite think of one at the moment.”

I think all of us know that feeling and it seems to come when all our own goals have been either
knocked out of us or have been achieved. And we suddenly wonder, “Well, what should we do next?”
Or, “Why should we go on doing anything next?” And usually we try to pull ourselves out of it; we
try to life ourselves out of the indolence, or lift ourselves out of the depression by pulling
ourselves up by our own bootstraps, that’s really it. And you know what we do, we try to set some
other goal, some pleasure goal, or some new professional goal, or some new domestic goal because
we’ve been taught since we were children you need goals, you need goals, and that’s what keeps you
going. We’ve been told that unless you have something to aim at there’ll be no point in life,
you’ll just synch into nothingness.

So we manfully or womanfully get up there and we bravely set another goal and we head out after that
new goal. But inside we have a feeling that this is a purely temporary thing. It’s kind of futile,
what’s the purpose of it anyway? We’ll run out of gas before we get to it, or when we get to it
we’ll find it wasn’t worth achieving in the end, or that it’s purely a passing thing. And deep,
deep down we all feel there’s a vacuum there, there’s a lack of drive deep down within us, an
emptiness that exists in every human being on the earth.

And loved ones, it does. It’s just there because the fact is we weren’t made self dependent
autonomous entities who could direct our own self sufficient lives. We weren’t loved ones. We’re
abjectly utterly dependent on whoever keeps this earth in orbit. Whoever keeps the protons and the
neutrons spinning around, whoever keeps the old heart ticking, whoever keeps the earth at a constant
distance from the burning heat of the sun. We’re abjectly dependent on that being whoever, or
whatever he or it is. And it’s obviously to all of us we are not self dependent creatures.

That’s why we have such trouble keeping ourselves going. We’re really almost in the same situation
as the little dew drops and the little daffodils, if they hadn’t some built in program they’d just
wither and fall and drop. And we’re really in the same boat. We’re made by the same Creator who
made us not to decide what our own purpose was going to be, not to find a purpose, but for a
definite purpose. He made us for a definite purpose and he has provided a dynamic that will keep us
going not in that manic way, you know, that we ourselves can keep going, that manic drive that keeps
us going for money or success, or for happiness, but this dynamic can keep us going gently and
beautifully as a sailboat simply skims across a surface of a lake.

So this dynamic that the Creator has provided for us fills the emptiness and the vacuum inside our
lives so that when we come to those moments when we’re sitting on our own, the last child has been
married, the last payment has been made on the mortgage, we’ve at last gotten on to the faculty,

those moments when the goals that are purely temporary seem achieved, we find there’s a life within
us that still is filled with purpose and that gives us a sense that we’re going somewhere and
directs us what direction we should head out in.

And that dynamic loved ones, is not an overwhelming force to which we submit as robots. It isn’t,
really. That dynamic is a dear person that the Creator has made available to all of us with whom we
can cooperate. You can cooperate or you can refuse to cooperate but it is not an overwhelming
dominating force to which you respond as robots. It’s a dear person, a dear friend whom you can
cooperate with who will suggest to you moment-by-moment in your life, “Head out in this direction.”
You can either head out or you can refuse. And that dear person is the Holy Spirit.

Now loved ones, that’s the whole reason Jesus had for coming here to earth. You remember, that old
John the Baptist said to his disciples, “Do you see that man?” And he pointed to Jesus, “Well, I am
not the Messiah but the Father of the whole world told me that he on whom you see the Spirit descend
and remain like a dove, he it is who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” And John said, “That man
there will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” And Jesus himself gathered the disciples together in
Jerusalem and it’s recorded in Acts 1:4, he charged them, “Wait in Jerusalem until you’ve received
the promise of the Father which will come to you because John baptized you with water but there is
one who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” And that one of course, was himself. And the
whole purpose of Jesus coming to earth at all was to baptize us with this Holy Spirit.

Now loved ones, you may say, “Well, why could we not have been baptized with the Holy Spirit before
Jesus came?” Loved ones, because of our own self oriented personalities. They are so self oriented
that if the Holy Spirit had come into your personality the way it was at that time you would simply
have crucified this dear Holy Spirit within you because he is a sensitive gentle person and the
strong drive for security, and significance, and success that governs so many of us would simply
have throttled that sensitive spirit within us. It would be like someone playing one of the studies
of Chopin and somebody else coming in with the 1812 concerto with Canon.

It would have been that kind of situation, the gentle sensitive little sound would have been utterly
overwhelmed by chaotic cacophony that was produced by our drives for security, and significance, and
success. And so God could not make available the Holy Spirit to us until that self oriented
personality of ours was placed, you remember, into Jesus and in a cosmic act of annihilation and
recreation on Calvary, God destroyed that self oriented personality in his son Jesus and from that
moment on God was able to make available the Holy Spirit to us. And so the Holy Spirit really is
the purpose for which Jesus came. He came to give us the Holy Spirit.

Now loved ones, I think you see a lot of us don’t really face that. A lot of you have listened
maybe for months, and years to this truth that your old self oriented personality was destroyed in
Jesus and you’ve entered into a kind of mental assent to that and you’ve said, “That’s good. I’ve
been looking for a solution of years. That’s good. That’s the solution. Now, I just have to
believe that and I have to go out and live it.” Loved ones, that is compounding the independence
that you’ve already shown towards God. The truth is that the only purpose of your old self oriented
personality being destroyed in Jesus was so that you at last, could submit to the Holy Spirit. And
this Holy Spirit is the only one who can actualize in you that cosmic act that took place on
Calvary. He is, really loved ones, he is.

Now, I really sympathize with those of you dear brothers and sisters who have tried to make the
miracle on Calvary real in yourselves. I know why you’re doing it and I tried it too. You just

keep thinking, “If I can believe it enough. If I can believe it enough it will happen.” And many
of you have got yourselves into just the power of auto suggestion, you know, “I’m dead, I’m dead
with Jesus. I’m crucified I don’t exist any longer as I used to be. I’ve to think positively and
if I can somehow will my mind to believe this strongly enough it will become real in me.” Loved
ones, don’t you see you’re taking the same line as all the heretics? Really.

That’s the way the heresies run. They say, “The work was done on Calvary all I have to do is make
it real in myself by believing it.” And you know what it produces. It produces lots of people who
run around saying, “Ah you’re not believing it the right way. Come over – there was a fella that
came down to us and he showed us the way to believe this. Now, a lot of us gathered together, and
many of us in Utah, and we’re gathered together and we know just the way to believe this. Now,
you’re doing the best you could with the revelation you’ve got but if you believe it our way it will
become real in you.”

And loved ones, there are hundreds of sects that are built on that corner on truth heresy and it
comes from thinking that by simple believing we can make the miracle on Calvary real in our own
lives. Loved ones, it isn’t so it really isn’t. And you know, lest you cast your eyes to Salt Lake
City and forget our own mistakes, don’t you see that that is present throughout Christendom. “If
you can only look at it our way, if you can see it our particular way. If you can grasp the corner
on truth that we have. If you can believe what happened on Calvary just as we do, it’ll take place
in your life.” And it has spawned the power of positive thinking, it has spawned Christian science,
it has spawned so many of us who are just hard, hard, fundamentalist in our minds but it has never
come to touch our lives and we are simply mental believers.

You hardly dare call us Christians, we’re mental believers. We know what to believe, we know which
party we should vote for in politics, we know which Bible we should believe, but there’s little of
the fragrance of Jesus or the evidence of the cosmic act on Calvary having been made real in our own
lives. And of course loved ones, the truth is that you do have to believe that we were destroyed in
Jesus on Calvary and that our old personality was completely recreated there. You do have to
believe that. But, the only way for that to be made real in us is by submission to this dear Holy
Spirit.

Truly loved ones. Honestly, you do have to go to the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit, I believe
this and I believe that it happened on Calvary but my life is as if this has never taken place in
history. My life is filled with self. My life is filled with self orientation. I am not different
from what I was when I first heard of this. Holy Spirit, will you lead me into the reality of
this.” And loved ones, only the Holy Spirit can do that.

That’s why the song goes, “Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust
and obey.” You trust, you believe with your mind that the work took place in Calvary but then you
begin to obey this dear Holy Spirit inside and to do what he tells you and then he makes the cosmic
objective miracle real in your own subjective personal life. And that’s the way it works loved
ones. And of course, there are heresies that have confused and perverted that obedience and you
know those too. There are those who come along and say, “Now, if you’ll do what we do, or if you
live the Christian life as we say you should live it, then it will be real in you.”

And so that has spawned thousands of heresies who are bound by shear legalism but it has also
brought about many of us inside Christendom who say, “If you behave the way I behave this will be
real in your life.” Or, we do it even with the spirit filled meetings, “If you speak in tongues the

way I speak in tongues, then it will be real in your life. If you experience the same thing as I
have experienced, then it will be real in your life.” And we make the obedience, obedience to a set
of standards or norms.

Loved ones, the obedience is to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a dear blessed person and he
knows each one of you individually. Loved ones, he does. I – I love you and I think you do know
that, but I don’t know you the way he knows you. He knows you better than your wife, or your son,
or your daughter knows you. The Holy Spirit knows you intimately and loved ones, he is going to
customize the deliverance that took place on Calvary to you personally and for you personally.
Really. Really.

That’s why the Bible says you know, “No one can judge the spiritual man.” Really, no one else can
judge you. No one can say, “Ah, you want to be real in Jesus then you ought to do what I do.
You’re not doing what I do so you mustn’t be real.” No, no one can say that. No one can come along
and say, “You must be this way or you must be that way.” The Holy Spirit will individually apply
the cross of Jesus to you in ways that he will not apply it to anybody else.

So just to tie it down loved ones, somebody here – let’s take a crude example, two people here could
be smoking. Really, there’s nothing terribly wild about smoking, it’s just dumb. Well, I think
that’s right, isn’t it? It’s just dumb physically and loved ones, I sympathize with the loved ones
here that are just under the smoking thing because it’s one thing to laugh at it but it’s another
thing to just stand by your brother and sister and say, “Oh, loved one I know it’s hard for you.”
But there’s nothing terribly sinful it seems about smoking except it’s a sin against your own body
presumably. But let’s say there are two people here this morning who smoke. The Holy Spirit could
very well deal with one person on the smoking issue and deal with the other person on the gossip
issue because the gossip thing is what is holding the Holy Spirit out of making Calvary real in that
person’s life. But it’s the smoking issue that is declaring the rebellion in the other person’s
life.

Now, that’s what it means loved ones. The Holy Spirit is able to make Calvary and the miracle, and
the deliverance of Calvary real in your life individually. So really the important thing in
receiving this dynamic of the Holy Spirit into your life is obeying that Holy Spirit, whatever he’s
telling you. Joe Novak (member of the audience), I think I’ve quoted the quotation so often that he
thought I’d made it up and it wasn’t in the Bible. It is in the Bible Acts 5:32, “God gives the
Holy Spirit to those who obey.” That’s in the Bible and is a verse. Acts 5:32, “God gives the Holy
Spirit to those who obey.”

Now loved ones, that’s true. That’s true. Despite all of you who are looking up the Bible now, but
that is really true. The Holy Spirit comes into your life if you begin just a little bit, just a
little bit to respond to him. And the important thing is to respond to him about our own life. So,
I really appreciate you loving me and trusting me but really, after my words are all said you have
to go to the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit, you alone can make the cross of Christ real in my
life. Will you do it? I can’t take what that man said, or what this woman said, or what my mother
said, or what my roommate said, Holy Spirit, will you show me where you want me to begin to obey.
And then Holy Spirit, will you begin to make the miracle that took place on Calvary where my old
self was destroyed and was completely recreated, will you make that real in me at this moment.”

And that’s loved ones, honestly the way to go. Really. And for any progress in the Holy Spirit you
simply need to continue that. And so I would really encourage you by all means to check what the

Holy Spirit is saying to you against the Bible so that you don’t end up following some spirit of
error. By all means, check. The Holy Spirit who wrote this word is the one who is speaking to you.
But above all, begin to commune with the Holy Spirit. And don’t be afraid loved ones, the Bible
says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Really. The Lord is the Spirit.

It might be good for some of you to look that up because – it’s 2 Corinthians 3:17, because it is
very easy for some of us to misunderstand the doctrine of the trinity so that we think in some way
we’re being distracted from Jesus when we’re told to attend to the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:17,
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” “Now the Lord
is the Spirit.” And you can see that the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus, they are
interchangeable terms.

You’ll find that in Acts, if you’d like to look at it, Acts 16:6, because you’ll realize very
quickly loved ones after reading a little of the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit was the dynamic
person who led the early church and told them what to do. After Jesus had left the earth the Holy
Spirit became their master here on earth. Acts 16:6, “And they went through the region of Phrygia
and Galatia, having been forbidden by the,” headquarters, or by the conference, or by a telegram?
No, “Having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit guided them each step, “To speak
the word in Asia. And when they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but
the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” And obviously, there’s no difference made between the Holy
Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus, the two phrases are used to designate the Spirit, the third person
of the trinity. But wherever the Holy Spirit is of course, Jesus is because the Holy Spirit takes
of the things of Jesus and makes them real to us. And that was the position that Jesus gave to the
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ successor.

Now, you remember that occurs in John 16 loved ones, if you’d like to look at it so you’ll receive
it in Jesus’ own words. He implied he was going to dwell now with his Father in heaven and that the
Holy Spirit was going to be him to us here on earth and so he says in John 16:12, it’s recorded, “I
have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes,
he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he
hears he will speak.” So you have the picture of Jesus telling the Holy Spirit what to say to us
and the Holy Spirit coming down and saying it to us. “And he will declare to you the things that
are to come. He will glorify me.” Jesus assures us if we look to the Holy Spirit you won’t find
the Holy Spirit drawing attention to himself. That’s why when you get groups that are all
preoccupied with the mighty works of the Holy Spirit instead of with Jesus, you know that a spirit
of error has crept in there because the Holy Spirit where he is followed and not an evil spirit, the
Holy Spirit himself always draws attention to Jesus, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is
mine and declare it to you.” And, “He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

And the Greek verb means to share, “He will take what is mine and he will share it with you.” So
loved ones, the only way you or I can ever experience the reality of God inside our own lives is to
begin to listen to the Holy Spirit. And you remember, that last Sunday I was protesting against
many of the mental conversions that we have produced ourselves. We’ve produced them just by the
exercise of our minds and our wills, independent of the Holy Spirit himself.

In other words some of us you remember, I’ll just throw it on the screen very briefly, but some of
us have looked to the truth that came to us with our minds and we’ve said, “I believe what happened
on Calvary.” With our wills we’ve tried to obey the things that we received through our minds
either from the Bible or from other people, or through our bodies from the people that we’ve met.

So, we’ve heard of God through a certain group of people and they’ve feed us in these thoughts and
they’ve said, “If you want to be real with God then you must behave as we behave.” And so we’ve
received all this information and we’ve exercised our minds about it and we’ve exercised our wills
and so you get that hard kind of mental believer that has little of the fragrance of Jesus or the
dynamic of the Holy Spirit inside.

So, of course when they come to the blahs, there is nothing they can do. They’re in the same
position as the rest of mankind trying to pull themselves out of their indolence or the depression
by their bootstraps, because really they’ve experienced nothing super natural because the work of
the new birth and being baptized with the Spirit and filled with the Spirit occurs here in our
spirits. And the only way for that to happen is for us to allow our conscious, which is part of the
spirit within us, to direct us. That’s where the conscious may say to one person here, “The
smoking, that’s the problem.” The conscious may say to another person, “The gossip, that’s the
problem.”

And if you respond with your will to that voice loved ones, then you begin to experience the reality
of God’s Spirit and his dynamic within you. But if you start responding with your will to what all
your friends think you should do, or what you’ve read in books, then you’ll experience nothing but a
mental conversion or a reformation of character which really will not last and will have nothing
real inside it. That’s why some of us, do you see, who have become Christians run out of gas after
three or four months, or two years. Or, the whole thing gets very dry and very hard because we
either have not obeyed the Holy Spirit at the beginning, or as the Galatians did, we started with
the Spirit but we ended with the flesh and we started listening to the Holy Spirit but now we’ve
read so many books, and we’ve gone to so many meetings, and so many conferences, that we’re
listening to everybody’s opinion of what we should do and long ago we’ve given up listening to this
dear, gentle counselor who says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice
and opens the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me.”

Loved ones, that’s always it. That’s always the way to the peace that God has for us, listening to
that dear counselor. And before you can listen to him you must believe that he is. Loved ones,
just very briefly I’d like to show you some of the realities of it. And some of you know the old
house from last year perhaps. And normally, the Holy Spirit begins this way; it’s a very gentle,
very natural thing.

The Holy Spirit stands here, Revelation 3:20, and stands at the door and knocks and normally to
anybody here who has not experienced anything of the dynamic of the Holy Spirit within them, he
normally knocks on your door and inquires about some of the actions and words that that self is
producing. And he points to some of the actions in your life that are not right or some of the
words. And he points out, “Alright, I want you to deal with those.” And loved ones, if you do deal
with those then the Holy Spirit comes into the house of your life.

Now, if you don’t deal with them, loved ones, there will be no entrance of the supernatural Spirit
of God into you and you’ll be left simply with that old human reformation problem that is heavier to
carry on your back than anything else. But if you do begin to deal with these actions and words
that the Holy Spirit is pointing out then he comes in and he opens up another area of your life.
And he begins to point to some attitudes in your life, and he begins to deal with those.

Now loved ones, if you continue to let him deal with those attitudes you’ll find that the Holy
Spirit will fill more and more of your life. And as you walk in the light, that’s what’s called

walking in the light, you know, the Holy Spirit shines light down on attitude says, “Will you deal
with that? Will you allow that to be crucified on Calvary?” And you say, “Yes.” That’s walking in
the light. Turning against the light is turning around and saying, “I don’t want to hear it. I
don’t want to recognize it.” And once you do that you fall back into the flesh again and into
unreality.

So, he deals first of all in the office and he comes there and he points out some of the things that
are there in your attitude to people in the office. And it varies with all of us, but the Holy
Spirit will most certainly point to some of these things deep within and he’ll point to some of your
pride in your work, or that shows itself when anybody ever dares to criticize your typing, or
criticize your decision. Or, he’ll show you your love of praise when the boss forgets to thank you
for a piece of work and you’re all cast down and you see that you do think that there’s something in
you to be praised and you do see that there’s something in you that is not willing to be crucified
on a cross and to be ignored and despised and neglected and the Holy Spirit will deal with those
things.

And then he begins to come into the life that you have with your friends and comes into the entrance
hall and begins to deal with some of the selfishness and some of the fear of people that’s there.
And he points out to you that if you’re crucified with Christ and you’ve died to what people can do
to you why are you afraid of people? And you begin to sense, “Yeah, I am afraid of people because I
do think they have power over me. I do think they can affect my job and I am afraid to lose my
job.” And then you begin to find that anything you’re afraid of losing is a master and a
domineering power over you and the Holy Spirit begins to show you that, that there can be no freedom
until you have really died to everything you have, until you’re afraid of nobody and you’re afraid
of what no man can do to you.

He comes into the bedroom and begins to deal with some of the attitudes that are there. And notice
loved ones after you are born of the Spirit normally it’s an attitude problem. Not many of you, if
you claim to be born of the Spirit at all, not many of you came in here swearing at everybody else,
you know, and not many of you came in tearing up the song books. No, most of us are very gentle,
sophisticated creatures, once we’re born of the Spirit we have at least enough power to keep those
things down and so normally it’s the attitude life that the Holy Spirit deals with and of course,
that’s where thousands of us have missed the boat. Because we think, “Well, outwardly in our acts
and words we’re like Jesus. Well, this other thing, this will be dealt with over a long period of
time.”

No loved ones, no. After you clear out the dirt, and the wrong, and the evil spirits in the house
then you have to fill it with a beautiful spirit and then that beautiful spirit has to spend 30, 40
years developing and growing. That’s the growing part of Christianity. You don’t grow out of this
stuff; you are delivered out of this by being filled with the Holy Spirit and cleansed by the Holy
Spirit. You do grow into beauty. You grow in beauty and Christlikeness. You grow in new ways of
showing patience. You grow in finer ways of showing gentleness, but you don’t grow out of these
things. These things you have to deal with honestly in the Holy Spirit in regards to Calvary and
the Holy Spirit deals with these things.

Deals with the worry, “Why are you worried?” “Well, I’m worried because I don’t think things will
turn out right at the job tomorrow.” “Well, why do you not think that?” “Well, I’m in charge of
that job and I don’t know exactly what to do.” “You’re in charge?” “Yeah, I’m in charge.” “Not
God?” “No, me.” “Oh.” “Yeah.” And then gets down another level and says then, “Are you satisfied

that God will bring it out right?” And you say, “Well, yeah, yeah I am.” “Well, then why are you
still worried?” “Well, I’m not sure that his right will be the same as my right.” And the Holy
Spirit will take you down deeper loved ones and be content to go with him. Be content to travel
with him.

This is a dear friend, a dear counselor that will do a better job with you than Freud could ever do
because the Holy Spirit can see underneath the depths that you and I cannot get to with all our
introspection. And so he begins to deal, you know, with the family room. Brings us in there where
we live, because you’re getting near the heart of the problem when you begin to deal with the people
you live closest to, that’s where the self shows itself most. And the Holy Spirit begins to show
you some of these things. Point out to you that there’s a real sense in which you’re very concerned
with yourself. You’re very concerned what way they treat you. You’re very concerned with getting
your way in things.

And the Holy Spirit begins to point out to you that all anger had been cleansed from Jesus when he
hung on the cross and they spat at him and insulted him and are you willing to drink of the same
cup? Are you willing to stay there on that cross with no anger? So the Holy Spirit begins to deal
with these things and begins to go into the chapel or the prayer room, begins to show you the
deadness, and the dryness, and the lack of power there. You begin to sense, “Yeah, I’m still
running a self managed, self initiated, self directed religious life. I can see that the Holy
Spirit is always new, he’s always bringing new flowers in in the spring time. He’s always bringing
clean rain down the streets. He’s always bringing brightness and light every morning when we get
up. The Holy Spirit is always bringing cleanness, and brightness, and joy, and happiness. Where
there is deadness and dryness I know he is not having his way.”

And the Holy Spirit begins to show you that. “Yeah, you don’t pray when I want you to pray, you
pray when you want to pray. You don’t read the Bible when I want you to read the Bible you read
when you want to read the Bible. This part of your life is no longer under my control.” And then
he begins to go into the lounge and begins to deal with some of the things that show themselves
there in ordinary conversation, you know and begins to deal with that love of ease. That feeling
of, “If I just could rest. If I could just relax.” And the Holy Spirit beings to show you that as
Jesus walked down the Via Dolorosa there could be no feeling of if I could just relax, if I could
just back off for a short time to get ready for this.

But when the Holy Spirit is in charge of your life it means that you must be prepared to do what he
tells you to do when he wants because that’s loved ones, going to be the crucial thing when we are
used by God to redeem the whole universe. Then when God tells you to go to Mars you’ll have to go
like that. You won’t have a lot of time to think it over and consult with your friends. God has a
lot of work, and a lot of responsibilities for us after this life and he’s training us for that and
that’s why he wants us to be absolutely obedient to him.

And then loved ones, the Holy Spirit, and you know those of you who have watched it before, seems to
have dealt with the whole deal and then he starts knocking on a little door back here. And he
knocks again and says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” And you say, “What more Holy Spirit
could you want? I’ve given you everything.” And then he says, “Now, where did you put all that
stuff that you took out of these rooms?” And he discovers you have a back closet and you just moved
all the dirt and all the old furnishings right back into the back closet.

And loved ones, that closet is exactly that, it’s the feeling deep down, “Well, I’ll let my anger go

today but I have the right to bring it back if I want to. Well, I’ll let them despise me today and
I’ll let my pride be cleansed from me today, but I reserve the right to bring it back when I need
it.” That’s it loved ones. That’s self. Self is not even all these attitudes, self is the cause
of all these attitudes but at the heart it’s self’s rights and self’s ways that have to go to the
cross and be destroyed. And the Holy Spirit is so good he will never destroy them until you are
really willing. Until you really say, “Yes, I’m willing for my rights and my own ways to be
destroyed. I’m willing to be treated like Jesus on the cross.”

When you say that honestly, deep, deep down loved ones, then the Holy Spirit cleanses your heart by
faith and cleans your inside heart so that when it comes to those moments when you feel the blast
coming, you know they’re coming from outside and they’re not coming from inside, and you find from
within rises up a beautiful spirit of dynamic power and life, that is the real you, because the old
you has been crucified with Christ and you can say, “I was crucified with Christ and I live but not
I but Christ lives within me.”

And loved ones, for most of us when that happens, when that closet is taken over, the Holy Spirit
fills us, or baptizes us with himself and then life in God under the control of his dynamic person
the Holy Spirit, begins. And that’s the plan that God has for us. Loved ones, it’s for you to deal
with the Holy Spirit. Don’t look at all this stuff and say, “What a mess. You mean I’ve to be
cleaned of all that before I go anywhere?” Yes, but you don’t do the cleaning you just provide the
willingness. You just say, “Holy Spirit, yes.” And if you’re not sure what it means, you say,
“Holy Spirit, what does it mean to let go of my self indulgence?” And he explains, “Well, it means
the next time you think you have a right to lay in bed a moment longer, you have no right. You
accept that you have been crucified with Christ, you have no right to lay a moment longer.”

He’ll explain it to you loved ones. That’s what Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit will lead you into all
truth.” And the way into freedom and liberty is by listening to that Holy Spirit. So you know,
even looking at this today even forget that. That’s not important. It’s not important what this
poor little creature here puts on an overhead. What is important is the Holy Spirit, what he is
saying to you personally because as you willingly allow him to come in and fill you, he will provide
a dynamic in your life that will deliver you forever from that moment when you wonder, “Why bother?”

Really loved ones, it is possible to come to the ground of that miserable old heart of yours. It
is.