[06]

V Indicates Scripture or other reference inserted at the end of this chapter.

 

Chapter 6       How the Holy Spirit of God draws us to JESUS.

No man (or woman) can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
                                       John 6:44

Heaven and hell are at war over your immortal soul.

The forces of hell are massive, ruthless, and destructive. Hell’s forces include the world, with all of its lies, deceit, distractions, and seductive voices that have a million ways of telling you, “If it feels good, do it.” They include your own flesh, which will choose sin over God every time – simply because “it feels good.” And they include the devil, who has no purpose in life except to turn people away from Jesus. The devil knows that God is going to send him to hell on Judgment Day; and when he looks at the human race that God created, the only thing he has to say about all those babies and grandparents and honest workers and loving parents is, “I’m going to take every last one of them with me!”

Heaven, despite its far greater power, speaks to you in a still, small voiceV1 – the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit always speaks calmly and quietly, because God does not want to force you or mislead you or stampede you into His Kingdom. Just as God desired to have Adam’s and Eve’s voluntary love and worship, so He desires a two-way, loving relationship with you. Make no mistake: God does want you to live with Him forever – but He also wants you to want Him.  

If you have never placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then hell is winning the war for your soul. Jesus came into this world, in the flesh, to destroy the works of the devilV2 – and, because He went through everything we must go through, He understands how much of a battle it is for us to come to Him. No wonder He said, “No one can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw(pull) him.” Jesus also understands that anyone who does come to Him will have to give up all the distractions of the world, all the lusts of the flesh, and the false friendship of the devil – which is why, in John 6:44, He adds this promise to everyone who does give up everything for Him, “And I will raise him up at the last day.”

You can come to Jesus, because the Father will draw you by sending His Holy Spirit to you. And that is when you must choose to ignore the world and the flesh and the devil, so you can hear His still small voice as He speaks to your spirit. Your spirit is the only part of you that is not contaminated by earthly DNA; it can still recognize the God who created it, because it still retains its original Godly image. And that is why, if you will keep your flesh still as the Holy Spirit speaks to you, then you will know that He is God.V3

The Holy Spirit of God will surely come to you, just as He came to us. And when He does come, He will find you just where He found us: dead in sin. Oh yes; all the people in this ministry, who may look so “holy” as we explain the Truth of God to you, were once devoted to our selves, our careers, our political ideals, our religious traditions, you name it. We thought we were doing fine on our own – and we surely didn’t understand why we needed to be “saved” from anything.

But if you will hear His still small voice, the Holy Spirit will show you, just as He showed us, everything you must be saved from. He will take you through the same kind of soul-searching He took us through. You’ll begin to question your personal, social, intellectual, and even religious values. You’ll wonder if the goals you set for your life are worth striving for. You may lose a lot of  sleep at night, and dream away a lot of days. You’ll feel like you’re wrestling with yourself – and you won’t be satisfied with any of the standard excuses the world uses to explain away the call of the Spirit. Even your family and friends may tell you, “It’s just a teenage crisis!” “It’s just mid-life crisis!” “It’s just a death-bed crisis!” But none of those cock-sure explanations will satisfy you. You’ll know there’s something strangely wrong deep inside of you – and in your spirit, you’ll know there’s nothing that you or anyone else in the world can do to put it right.

Now this is a perfectly normal way for you to feel. This is the way all sinners feel between the moment the Holy Spirit first comes to them and the moment they make their final, Heaven-or-hell decision here on earth. Yes, it will disturb you – but it will not destroy youV4 – because you will be in the hands of God, not the hands of the destroyer. Your spirit will be in the loving hands of the Holy Spirit, who was sent by God the Father to draw you to the Savior – His Son, JESUS!

And that is when the devil is sure to come after you. When the devil sees he might lose his chance to destroy you, he’ll send a demon (or a herd of demons) to tell you some version of the same lie he told Eve: “Yea, hath God really said....?” Even while the Holy Spirit is speaking the Truth of God into your spirit, demons will be saying to your flesh, “This is not what God wants you to do! It has nothing to do with anything you ever wanted to do before. It doesn’t fit in with your values ... it doesn’t tie in with your plans ... it just isn’t you! Get rid of this ‘Gospel’ stuff so you can get on with your life!”

It won’t be a one-day battle. It may go on for months. You may begin to feel like the comic-strip character who has an angel perched on one shoulder and a devil on the other, pulling you in opposite directions. You may say to yourself, “I need to think about all this.” And that is when you’ll see how the Holy Spirit and the evil spirits of hell operate. God’s Spirit will continue His quiet appeal to your spirit; while the demons will scream and shout to the worldly part of you, “You want to think? No no no! You’ve got to act ... now! You’ve got to get rid of Jesus before He ruins your life! Look at all your plans and dreams. Look at all the work you put into getting where you are today. Look at everything the world has to offer you. And now you want to lose everything just so you can  take a ‘leap of faith’ into something you don’t know anything about! Are you really that dumb!”

Now that is a lie of the devil. He wants you to think you “don’t know anything” about the God who created you. But the Truth is, you can know everything you need to know, every time you need to make a Heaven-or-hell decision in this world. God revealed His side of the story, and exposed the devil’s side, in the Bible. And God will confirm His Word, by sending you witnesses who have survived the lies of the devil and learned how to live by His Truth.

As you wrestle with the conflicting promises of the Holy Spirit in your spirit and the evil spirits on your shoulder, new people will begin to appear in your life. People who went through what you’re going through, wrestled with the same questions you’re wrestling with, and saw God produce evidence in their lives that Jesus Christ is Lord. People who placed their faith in the Son of God on the basis of that evidence and, by faith, entered in to the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son. People who will not hesitate to tell you, “This is what God has done for me – and He has promised, by the blood of His Son, to do the same for you!”

Yes, you can know. God will make triple-sure you know – by His Spirit; by His written Word; and by the witnesses He sends into your life. And then, on the basis of what you know, you must choose where you will spend eternity.

Yes, you must choose. Because, if you fail to make any choice after God does so much to reveal His heart to you, that’s really the same as telling God that you don’t want a Godly life here on earth ... you don’t want Heaven ... and you don’t want Him.

V1 1^st Kings 19:11,12

And he (God) said (to Elijah), Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

 

V2 1^st John 3:8 

He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

 

V3  Psalm 46:10

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

 

V4  2^nd Corinthians 4:6-10