The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

Want a fresh start? Learn how the Holy Spirit can transform your life in Billy Graham’s 1978 message from Kansas City, Missouri. Watch more #MondayNightClassics​ weekly at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week.. Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

From our archives, the Billy Graham classics.
Tonight, I want you to turn with me to the 14th chapter of John.
And uh I want you to turn to the 16th verse. Now I have several scriptures.
I’d like to read, but I’m just going to limit myself to this particular scripture.
The 14th chapter of John, beginning at verse 16, if you love me, keep my commandments and I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever.
Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him, not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwell with you and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you.
Pope John was once asked what the greatest need in the world was.
And he said, the teaching and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
My wife and I took a brief vacation several years ago with the great Swiss theologian Karl Bart.
And I asked Doctor Bart, I said, what is going to be the next theological emphasis in the world?
And that was before the Charismatic movement had come to bloom as we know it today.
And Dr Carl Bart with great prophetic insights said the emphasis is going to be on the work of the Holy Spirit.
And the Apostle Paul said in first Corinthians 12 1.
Now concerning matters pertaining to the spirit, I would not have you ignorant.
Now, it’s impossible to understand the Bible Christian living the structure of the church to understand your own relationship to God without the person and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now, we have what is called today the Charismatic movement. And I see it throughout the world.
I see it in all sorts of phases.
I’ve been to some countries where they say that the Charismatic movement is moving so great in the Roman Catholic church.
And I find that those people have never spoken in tongues at all.
They’ve just had a new experience with Christ and yet they call themselves charismatic and they are right?
Because every true Christian is Charismatic. Every true Christian is charismatic.
It’s the word where we get our word charisma from.
And that is the plural for which means gift, a gift of grace.
Now they are 20 or 21 or 19, no matter how you count them in my book, I say 20.
But I think it’s only a sample list of the gifts of the Spirit.
But every true believer has a gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of administration, the gift of help the gift of knowledge, the gift of wisdom, the gift of an evangelist, the gift of a pastor, the gift of a teacher, whatever the gift is, it is given by the will of the Holy Spirit.
It’s a gift from the Holy Spirit to you, to help you, to guide you, to lead you, to strengthen you, to edify, to build up the body of Christ and to witness for Christ to the world round about us.
And so in that sense, every true believer is Charismatic.
Now, let’s look a little bit at the word, the work of the Holy Spirit.
First of all, he’s not a, he is not an it. I hear people talk about, I want it.
He is a person. The Bible says that He’s not something, he’s someone, he is God.
There are three persons in the Trinity, God, the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Spirit.
You say, I don’t understand that. Neither do I.
I’m not going to try to explain it at least at this point except by faith that there’s one God expressed in three persons, God, the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Spirit.
Now, the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is all powerful.
Micah 36 says I’m full of power by the spirit of the Lord.
The Bible says He’s present everywhere, no matter where you go. He’s there.
Whether shall I flee from thy spirit or whether shall I flee from thy presence. Psalm 1 39 7.
That is one of the reasons that Christ went away.
He went to get out of a human body because Christ could only be in one place at one time, he was confined to his body.
He went away so the Holy Spirit could come in his place and be everywhere.
At the same time, the Holy Spirit can be in your heart and my heart and we may live 1000 miles apart.
He said, it is expedient for you that I go away.
And if I go not away, the Holy Spirit will not come.
He said, so he said, I have to go away so that the Holy Spirit can come and do his great work throughout the history of the church.
Now, he also has all knowledge, the Bible says, but God has received them unto us by his spirit for by the spirit, for the Spirit searches all things yay, the deep things of God.
It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us and takes us deeper and deeper as we go along in our Christian life.
Now, in our Christian life, we are to grow in the and knowledge of Christ.
But we can only grow by the help of the Holy Spirit because the moment that you receive Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live in your heart, your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is there to help you live the Christian life.
There’s not a person in this audience that can be a Christian.
Without the Holy Spirit, there’s not a person in this audience that can follow Christ without the help of the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit is extremely important, all important in our lives.
The Bible also says that the Holy Spirit has all knowledge, but God hath revealed unto them by his spirit for a search all things yay, the deep things of God.
But in the book of Revelation, it says that He has seven eyes.
The word seven is the word of perfection in the scriptures. He has seven eyes, perfect eyes.
He sees everything that goes on. He knows what goes on in your heart.
He knows what goes on in your mind. Nothing is hidden from Him.
The searching probing power of the Holy Spirit with those seven eyes that see in every direction.
He has perfect knowledge. And then the Bible says He’s eternal in Hebrews 9 14.
We have the phrase the eternal spirit.
He is the co eternal with God, the father and God, the Son to explain the Trinity again, I do not know how.
But let’s say you take an apple, you have the peeling on the outside, you have the meat and then you have the core, but it all makes up the apple or you have uh ice and water and vapor, they’re all the same.
But they take different forms. Those are poor illustrations of the mighty Trinity God, the Father God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit.
Now, he’s called Holy 100 times.
He’s referred to as the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost is the old English translation.
And the Bible says God says, be ye holy, even as I am holy, the Holy Spirit’s job, one of his jobs is to help make you holy.
And we ought to be more holy today than we were yesterday.
We should always be growing more into the image and conformity to Jesus Christ.
And it’s the Holy Spirit that helps us in this growing process.
Now, the Bible also teaches that where he is, there’s liberty.
Our brother a moment ago talked about liberty, the liberty that he has in Jesus Christ.
He gives us liberty out of the bondage of the law and out of the bondage of legalism because you see, even though you may be a slave to sin, to drugs, to alcohol or whatever it may be, you’re a slave of sin.
Jesus said, but Jesus Christ comes and liberates us because of his death on the cross.
And the Holy Spirit also liberates us and there’s liberty where the spirit is.
And I can go into a service and tell you in five minutes in that service.
If those people have been liberated by the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit, what is the work of the Holy Spirit?
The work of the Holy Spirit. First of all, is to convict, he convicts us of sin.
And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
In John 16, he uses a mother’s prayers as our brother a moment ago said, or a tragic experience or a pastor sermon or some other experience.
Maybe this telecast he will use to convict you of your sin and of your need of turning your life over totally to Jesus Christ.
That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. And many times he disturbs you.
I’ve had people get up out of their seats and come and stand in front and shake their fist in my face.
They were so disturbed by the spirit of God, but they’ll come back.
One man came back the next night and accepted Christ.
One man came at five o’clock in the morning to our hotel to receive Christ.
The Holy Spirit sometimes makes you angry. He disturbs you.
You don’t like for people to point right in your direction and say, I’m a, you’re a sinner.
The Holy Spirit points right at you.
He puts a dagger in your heart and he says, you’re a sinner, you need to repent.
We don’t like to hear that. But that’s the work of the Holy Spirit.
And without the work of the Holy Spirit, you could never go to heaven.
You could never have your sins forgiven. You could never be saved.
And the Holy Spirit has been working with some of you all week, whether you’ve been here, I haven’t been here.
And then secondly, he gives new life.
You see, the Bible says that we are dead in sins and trespasses our spirit within us, made in the image of God is dead toward God.
And what does mankind need tonight? Mankind needs life, all have sinned.
Therefore, all are dead toward God and a dead man needs to life.
And the Holy Spirit comes to give us that new life.
In Jesus Christ, Bertrand Russell once wrote to a friend, I could think of nothing but suicide for over man and his works.
He said, night falls, pit and dark is that the way you feel, night is falling pit and dark for you.
You see man without God is dead. But Jesus said, except a man be born again.
He cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again.
And the Holy Spirit is the one that does the work of making you a born again person.
It’s a supernatural act not by works of righteousness which we’ve done.
Not all your good works and all the good things that you’ve done are going to save you.
Titus. Paul said the Titus, but according to his mercy, he saved us.
We’re saved by the mercy of God, by the grace of God. I don’t deserve heaven.
I don’t deserve to have my sins forgiven. I don’t deserve to be saved.
I don’t deserve to have this peace in my heart.
I don’t deserve this deep seated joy that I have. It’s by grace, by mercy.
Something I didn’t earn something I didn’t work for.
I just received a gift, the gift of God, the gift of salvation.
But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
It’s the Holy Spirit that does it.
And then thirdly, as I’ve mentioned already, he in the well, many of you are spiritually dead and surfeited with the issues or with the life in which we live today in our hedonistic culture, the Holy Spirit can come into you and indwell you right now, you can start all over again, brand new life, the life of the spirit, the Holy Spirit in dwelling you the Holy Spirit pulsating spiritual light through and in you.
And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.
Says Ezekiel 36 think of it. God said, I’ll put my spirit in you. I’ll come to live in you.
Think of your body housing God. And that’s what happens.
Your body becomes the temple where God dwells by his Holy Spirit.
That’s the reason we should never take anything unclean into our bodies.
That’s the reason we should discipline our bodies.
That’s the reason we should watch our bodies because it’s the temple of the Holy Spirit. God loves your body.
He doesn’t want it polluted and fouled up by fleshly lust and things that you give yourself to.
He dwell with you and shall be in. You said Jesus, in our text.
No, ye not that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwell in.
You said first Corinthians 3 16 and then fourthly, the Holy Spirit gives you power to serve Christ.
But ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me.
I can’t do the work I can do. I’m doing without the power of the Holy Spirit.
People always, you know, bless their hearts. I love newspaper reporters.
Some of them are my best friends and uh but many of them who do not know Christ cannot possibly understand what it’s all about.
They study and they try to penetrate and they try to figure it out.
They think it’s advertisement, they think it’s promotion. They think it’s uh something else.
One fellow said that he knew the secret of, of why the crowds came to these meetings.
He said it was my eyes. Well, you can’t see my eyes four rows back.
No, I’ll tell you the secret.
It’s the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God where Christ is exalted.
I don’t claim to be a great preacher. I’m just a communicator of God’s message.
He called me and gave me that gift.
He gave cliff his gift, he gave Ted his gift, he gave Bev Shea his and John his and all these team members, he gave them separate gifts he gives as he wills.
There’s some of the the team members here that we have with us and some of the people here that can do things I would give anything in my possession to be able to do by way of organization, by way of music.
I wish I could sing like some of these people. I can’t sing a note.
In fact, I don’t even sing when I’m standing beside somebody because I throw them off.
And I’m not the greatest organizer in the world, but God gave me my little gift, the gift of communicating the gospel.
And the thing that counts is the message that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture that he rose again, according to the scripture that he’s coming back again and that he’s ready to come into your heart right now by the Holy Spirit and make you a new person.
That’s the gospel. That’s the one message Christ gave me. That’s the one message God gave me.
I was reading about something in Wakefield England the other day and a woman had tried her driver’s test for the 38th time and failed 38 times in failure.
Perhaps you’ve tried that many times for a license spiritually to sit in the driver seat of your life.
But it hasn’t worked. How many people come ha have gone to meetings and you’ve rededicated your life and you’ve come forward or you’ve gone out of there and said I’m gonna live different or I’m gonna do better.
It, it just hasn’t worked. This may be the 38th time and tonight it may work because you’re going to turn your life over to Christ in the right way by repentance of your sin and by faith in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is going to come supernaturally and renew you and give you a new nature.
And then the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the spirit. What are the fruit nine of them?
But the fruit of the spirit is love and joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness and temperance that’s produced by the Holy Spirit.
There are people that you may not be able to love.
Normally, they’re just not your kind, but the Holy Spirit will give you the power to love them and the greatest thing in the world.
What is it? Love? The greatest evidence that you know, Christ is love and you can’t love that person.
Well, I know there are some people that are just hard to love, but the Holy Spirit can love through you.
He can love through you and then you, you don’t have joy.
There are a lot of times that I feel that I don’t have joy and I get on my knees and I say, Lord, where is the fruit of the spirit of joy in my life?
And the joy is there down deep, it’s a deep river, whatever the circumstances, there’s a river of joy.
And then the peace that passive understanding comes from the Holy Spirit, whatever the circumstances let the world fall apart.
I have peace in my heart. I know where I’m going.
I know where I’ve been and I know where I’m here by the Holy Spirit. Do you know Christ?
You see the Holy Spirit comes to do this?
He comes to magnify to glorify and exalt the Son John 16 13 says he shall not speak of himself.
The Holy Spirit shall not speak of himself.
In other words, we’re not to go around saying the Holy Spirit, this the Holy Spirit, this the Holy Spirit that and ignore Christ.
He came to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ.
He came to glorify Christ and the Holy Spirit is pleased when you glorify Christ in your life.
Now, the Bible says that you can sin against the Holy Spirit. The Bible says you can anger the spirit.
The Bible says, you can grieve the spirit. The Bible says you can lie against the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says you can tempt the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that you can resist the Holy Spirit.
And if you resist the Holy Spirit, there’s no forgiveness because you see, it’s the Holy Spirit that draws you to Christ.
It is the Holy Spirit that convict you of your need of Christ.
And if you resist him, keep resisting your heart, getting harder and harder all the time, then there’s no more repentance, no more salvation.
There’s only one way of salvation. And that’s Christ, a solemn thing to resist the Holy Spirit.
You detect his voice and yet you deliberately refuse. It’s a dangerous thing to resist the spirit.
He that despise Moses law die, died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorrow punishment, suppose ye shall be thought worthy who have trodden underfoot, the Son of God and have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith He was sanctified and unholy thing and had done despite under the spirit of grace, I’m asking you tonight to give in to the call of the Holy Spirit.
I’m asking you to come by the hundreds and say I want Christ in my life to be my Lord and my savior.
And I want to be sure of it.
You may be a faithful in the church, but you really don’t know Christ or you may not have any religion.
You may be Catholic or Protestant or Jewish or no religion at all.
I don’t know who you are, what you are, but I would assume that the majority of the people here tonight are church gods.
And I know thousands of churchgoers that need to come to Christ in a new way and have a new experience with the Lord Jesus Christ led by the Holy Spirit.
Because you see, there’s many people that need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
I don’t have time to go into what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit or to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
All that’s in my book because I’m here tonight to talk to you about what the Holy Spirit can do for you right tonight, right here and now, and I’m going to ask you to get up out of your seat.
Hundreds of you. As we’ve seen night after night, I want you to come and stand here in front of the platform and say by coming, I want Christ in my heart.
I want to know I’m going to heaven. I want my sins forgiven. I want to start a new life.
If you’re with friends or relatives, they’ll wait.
If you come from that top balcony up there, it’ll take you about two minutes.
So start now you can bring your friend with you.
And there are thousands of you here tonight that God has been speaking to. You.
Get up and come right now quickly and say by coming, I want Christ in my heart.
I want the Holy Spirit to come into my life tonight. I want Christ to forgive my sins.
You get up and come quickly. We’re going to wait on you men, women, young people.
You come right now. You’re watching the Billy Graham classics.
Please call the phone number on the screen right now for spiritual help and guidance.
Yeah, you that have been watching by television can see that there are scores and scores of people that are coming here to make their commitment to Christ tonight.
They want their sins forgiven, they want a new life in Christ and the Holy Spirit is the one that can perform that supernatural act in your heart or theirs.
It can happen right now to you, wherever you are, I’m going to ask you to say yes to Christ.
Receive him into your heart.
Let the Holy Spirit come to dwell, to give you supernatural power to produce the fruit of the spirit that is so desperately needed in your community and in your family and in your own life, you come and make this commitment in your heart.
God help you to make that commitment.
If you just prayed that prayer with my father or if you have any questions about a relationship with Jesus Christ, I would just call that number that is on the screen.
There’ll be someone there to talk with you, pray with you and answer those questions and remember, God loves you.
If you would like to commit your life to Jesus Christ, please call us right now.
Toll free at 18777724559. That’s 1877772 45 59.
Or you can write to us at Billy Graham one, Billy Graham Parkway Department C Charlotte, North Carolina 28201.
Or you can contact us on the web 24 7 at peace with God dot TV.
We’ll get the same helps to you that we give to everyone who responds at the invitation on behalf of Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Thank you for watching and thank you for your prayers.
The Bible says, seek the Lord while he may be found, found, call on him while he is near the Bible says without faith, it’s impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek him.
You come to Christ tonight, you’ve got to be willing to turn your back on your sins.
You call upon his name. Will you seek him tonight?
It’s Ann, she’s in trouble.
And if you don’t take it to the edge, every chance you get, you’re dead already, baby, I was in trouble and I didn’t know what to do.
Well, the juice I knew that I could take on the world.
It’s like you’re in a dream but not really a dream. This is a reality.
I don’t really believe in all this, but I know something crazy is happening right now.