The Same Spirit

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon's captions — published in summary form; watch the full sermon at the source.

Diversities of gifts, the same Spirit

He greets friends in the house — Brother Stephen Carson, a fellow evangelist ("known him a long time... he's been doing it a lot longer than I have, but he's a good man"), and Brooke, a friend from his youth in Milton, Florida — then reads the text at length: "First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 4. The Bible says: 'Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit' — somebody shout, the same Spirit. 'And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit' — say it again: same Spirit — 'to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit' — say it again: same Spirit — 'dividing to every man severally as He will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.' Man, if God will help us tonight, we want to extract this from the teachings of Paul. I want to preach to you just for a little while, a very simple thought: The same Spirit. The same Spirit." The backdrop is Corinthian competition: "Paul is writing to an incredibly talented bunch of people that sometimes have trouble with their talents overcoming them, and they misuse the spiritual gift that God has given them. And with that in mind, it's easy to see how talented people would get into some kind of competition of sorts, to see who has the most powerful gifts. That's probably the reasoning for Paul's writing just two chapters later, when he said, 'I speak in tongues more than you all' — because at Corinth it got so out of shape that it's almost as if they were having the speaking-in-tongues Olympics, just seeing who could talk in tongues the most. But my subject matter tonight isn't as much the content of what Paul is saying, as much as it is the theme of what Paul is saying. There are schisms in the church, and he is referring all throughout this chapter to the church as the body of Christ... The body cannot prophesy on its own, but the body needs the Spirit to prophesy. The body cannot heal on its own, but the body needs the Spirit to heal. The body cannot work miracles on its own, but the body needs the Spirit to work miracles. I'm telling you tonight, that's why it's so important that we're a Spirit-filled church... There ain't enough smoke and mirrors to make somebody believe in the God that died and rose again. But when the Spirit gets involved — when the Spirit comes down, and regardless of administration it begins to work — somebody can then be healed. Somebody can then be delivered. Somebody then can be set free by the power of the Holy Ghost. And understanding that God is not divided — He is one. 'Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD.' Seeing that He is one, we understand that He is one Spirit. And so this Spirit that is in the church is the selfsame Spirit that delivered you from depression. It is the selfsame Spirit that delivered you from addiction, and your marital struggle, and your financial crisis. I'm telling you tonight: if we don't have the Spirit, we don't have anything. If we don't have the power of the Holy Ghost— preacher, I want something a little bit deeper than that. Honey, if you can't get excited about the Holy Ghost, then you got bad problems. Because it's the Holy Ghost that'll keep you. It's the Holy Ghost that'll change you."

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12:4-13

The Spirit will quicken your mortal body

"So when Paul is writing to the church at Rome, he says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 11: 'But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.' Notice, we're still talking about the Spirit of God being in the body of Christ... Understand: the Spirit is going to quicken you. The Greek word here for quicken is zao — it means to produce life. It means to beget, or bear young, living. That's the offspring. That's revival. And so what he's saying is, your mortal body will be quickened. And when it's quickened, it will command a response that demands revival to be had in your immediate vicinity. When the Spirit gets inside of you, it will cause you to do things that will attract revival. When the Spirit gets inside of you, it will cause you to say things that will cause revival. It will quicken you. It will bring you to a place to where you see through the eyes, not of the flesh, but of the Spirit... Have you ever been sitting in church, and all the weight of the day is sitting on you — and I know you have, because if you say no, you're a liar, because we've all been there — and then the Spirit starts moving, and when the Spirit starts moving, you don't really feel like running, but the Spirit says run? You ever felt that? You know what that is? That's the quickening. That's God saying, 'I'm trying to put something in you that's going to cause revival to explode out of New Life. I'm trying to put something in you that's going to attract somebody to the goodness of God. I'm trying to put something on the inside of you that's going to cause somebody to be saved, and somebody to be healed, and somebody to be delivered by the power of the Holy Ghost. I'm going to quicken your mortal body. I'm going to raise you up out of your pew. I'm going to raise you up out of that dead place that you're in.'... You don't need a shrink. You don't need a psychiatrist. You don't need another medication to tell you when to get up. You need the Spirit living inside of you to quicken your mortal body... What we need is a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost. What Birmingham needs is a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost. What our world needs is a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost. 'Say, well, they're crazy.' No, they're not crazy. They just need the Holy Ghost. 'They've lost their mind.' No, they haven't lost their mind. They just need the Holy Ghost. 'Well, they're acting in ways that they shouldn't act.' Maybe so. But the reason is, they don't have the Holy Ghost. They need the Spirit of God. And who better to take it to them than somebody that's full of it?... You ought to be so full of the Holy Ghost that when you walk by somebody on the street, they turn and look and say, 'There's something different about them.' You ought to be so full of the Holy Ghost, when you pick up the phone and say hello, that the telemarketer says, 'Hey, there's something different about that number. They ain't like everybody else. There's something different about their voice. There's joy in that voice. There's peace in that voice.' I'll tell you what it is: it's the power of the Holy Ghost." Jerusalem is the warning: "As I was studying, I found that the word quicken is mentioned nine times through the Book of Psalms, chapter 119. And believe me, that's for a reason — we'll come back to that here in a little bit. But the number nine in the Hebrew language is a number of visitation. And we see in Luke 19, we find the story of Christ's triumphal entry. Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem on the back of an unbroken colt. The people begin to worship Him, and wave olive branches and palm branches, and they begin to say, 'Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna.' Some of the Pharisees — aka the church folks — who says 'it don't take all that shouting and dancing,' said, 'Would You tell them to be quiet? We're trying to be dignified around here.' The moment we become a dignified church, we're headed down the wrong road... And Jesus says, 'If these are quiet, then I'm going to cause the rocks to take their place.' And when He leaves, the Bible tells us in Luke chapter 19 and verse 44: 'And they shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.' So here is what's happening: Jesus is speaking through the language to us. Jerusalem could not recognize the quickening of the Spirit of God. Jerusalem could not recognize that God was there. And because He was there, He demands a response. God forbid that in this church we don't let the Spirit of God quicken us, and we miss our hour of visitation. Because while Paul is writing, he says: some prophesy, and some heal, and some work miracles, and some have the word of wisdom, and some have the word of knowledge — but it's all the same Spirit. And so here is the conundrum. This is what we start thinking: 'Well, I don't prophesy, so how can the Spirit quicken me? I don't give tongues and interpretation, so how can the Spirit quicken me? How can the Spirit operate in me?' Understand that He said, those that work miracles, it's all in that same Spirit. 'I've never healed anybody, Brother Phillips, so how is the Spirit in operation through me?' Well, I'll tell you exactly how: it's because you may not prophesy, and you may not ever preach, and you may not ever lay hands on somebody and them get healed. But John 4 and 24 says that God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Do you understand that when you get in a spirit of worship, it's the same Spirit as the prophet? It's the same Spirit as the miracle worker? It's the same Spirit as the one that laid hands on the sick, and they recovered? And so everybody might not do that stuff. But let me tell you something now: everybody can be a worshiper. Everybody can operate in that Spirit... I don't ever want God to come into my midst and me not worship Him. I don't ever want a moment to go by that I don't have my hands lifted up, and I don't have my voice lifted, and there's not a cry that comes out of my spirit... Don't cry when your world comes crashing down now. I get it — I'm not going to change some of your outlook on worship in 30 minutes. Pastor Sutton's been preaching for 30 years to some of you, and you still don't want to do it. I love y'all. I'm telling everybody: it's time to get on board. I don't care if you've been in church five minutes, five years, fifty years — it don't matter to me — but you need to get in the spirit of worship. It's the same Spirit. You understand what you do when the prophet is in the pulpit and you worship? You're linking up arms in the same Spirit as the prophet in the pulpit, and you're saying, 'I might not be the one that's speaking the word, but with my worship I'm getting in the Spirit. With my praise I'm stepping into the same Spirit. I'm stepping out of carnality, and I'm going to step into worship. And as I begin to worship, I'm opening up the door to the heavenly realm, and I'm stepping into the things that are unseen. And I'm going to see miracles happen because of my worship.'"

Scriptures: Romans 8:11; Luke 19:44; John 4:24

The six-year-old stands in the same line

The youngest worshipers make the doctrine visible: "I see these young'uns running around here, five, six years old. Do you understand — if Paul, when he wrote what he wrote, if he was correct (and guess what, it was the Bible, so it is — all Scripture is given by inspiration of God) — if he was being inspired of God, and I tend to believe that he was — when that little six-year-old that's got the Holy Ghost begins to worship, do you understand they're not standing behind Brother Paul? They link arms with Brother Paul, and stand in the same line of defense against the enemy, and the same line of defense against what's coming against our churches, and our schools, and our country. They step into the same line, and they let the devil [know]: it may be incoherent as a six-year-old kid, but when they worship, they're worshiping in the Spirit. And when they're in the Spirit, it's the same Spirit that the prophet wrote with. It's the same Spirit that the apostle wrote with. I'm telling you, if you want a job in the church, be a worshiper. You don't have to have anybody to know who you are, honey. All you got to do is lift your hands, and lift your voice, and step into the spirit of worship, and things will happen. Wonder all the time, 'I don't know why it's going this way.' I understand bad things happen to worshipers too. But I'm going to tell you, it makes it a whole lot easier, when you know how to worship, to go through the stuff you got to go through. It makes it a whole lot easier to find joy in the middle of the trial, when you know how to say, 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.' When you know how to close the door on your job, when all hell's breaking loose, and just go in your office and lift your hands and say, 'This isn't good to me, but I'm going to praise You anyway' — because I know that when I get in the Spirit, things begin to happen that my carnal eyes cannot see. When I worship in the Spirit, I'm not even praying about it, but my family starts getting healed. When I worship in the Spirit, I might not even be thinking about it, but my body gets healed."

Don't touch dead stuff

The typology turns practical: "If Paul writes and says that the church is the body, and understanding how the Old Testament and New Testament work hand in glove, it would be easy for us to assume — and I would dare even say I'm comfortable in assuming — that we can find the body as a type of the church in the Old Testament. Let's go to Numbers chapter 19 and verse 13. The writer's writing here, laying out some laws for the children of Israel, and it said: 'Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.' Now what's happening here is, he's telling us: you can't be touching dead stuff. I'm about to preach now — I'm just getting warmed up now, I promise I'm almost done. He says you can't be touching dead stuff, and come in here and think that you're not spreading the uncleanness. See, we live in a sinful world, and all of that stuff — and let me put it to you like this: you wouldn't want to hinder the Spirit of God from moving in this house, would you? So why would you come to church with a dead church attitude? Help me, Jesus. Why would you want to come to church and be upset about everything that's going on in your day? Let me tell you something, honey: all of that's going to fade away. Every bit of that's going to be gone one day, and you're not going to even have to worry about it no more. So why would you let all the junk that's going on in the world around you stop you from getting into the Spirit of the Lord? Hey, that's what the water of separation is. Understand, that's the type of the Spirit of God. You see water in the Old Testament — it's a type of the Spirit of God. He said, if the Spirit of God has not been applied to him, then you're going to be cut off from Israel. And I'm not telling you that you can't be a part of the church if you're not wild like everybody else. I'm not asking you to do backflips. I'm not asking you to run the backs of the pews. What I am telling you: you got to do something. We used to sing an old song when I said, 'You got to move. When the LORD gets ready, you got to move.' I'm telling you, that's a law: when you come into the church, you got to get the Spirit on you, and get the Spirit in you, so that you can throw out all of the dead church mentality, and get rid of all the junk that's been trying to hold you back." His own conviction story follows: "I'll be honest with you — I think I shared this here not too long ago with the Bishop. I was going through something one time. And I understand the sanctuary, how it works, and all of that stuff. We are the sanctuary. We are the body of Christ. We are the church, and all that stuff. But it's just how I was raised, to reverence and respect the house of God. My daddy would snatch my head off if he seen me walk into a sanctuary of a church with a ball cap on. It's just how I was raised. I'm not telling you it's a sin. I'm just telling you, I was raised to respect the house of God. And so I made it a practice in my young years, from the time I was probably 16, 17 years old: every time I would come into the church, when my hand would touch the door, Bishop Sutton, I would say, 'Lord, I'm entering in with thanksgiving, and I'm entering in with praise.' And one day I was mad. Somebody made me mad, and I was really — I'll be honest with you, I was really mad. It was one of them good old-fashioned mads, where I'm about to say something — y'all better look out, but I'm going to tell you what I'm really thinking. And so I walked into the church, and I told the LORD, 'I'm going to the church, and I'm mad.' I walked in, and I didn't say nothing to God. I just kept walking. And I sat down on the altar, and I said, 'God, I'm mad. And I'm not moving until I'm not mad anymore.' And God spoke to me — and if God ever spoke to me, He spoke to me that day. And He said, 'What do you think you're doing?' Well, God starts saying something like that to me, I get nervous. 'Well, I'm here, and I'm mad.' And God started reminding me of every time that I'd walked into the house of God, and I'd always give Him thanks and praise, coming into His presence. And I said, 'But God, I'm mad.' And God's saying, 'When has worship ever been about you, to begin with?' See, if you're not careful, you'll start touching all the dead stuff out there, and you'll bring that into the house of God. And you will sit through a service and miss your miracle, because you're so worried about what's going on in your world, and in your kingdom, and in your little empire that you've built. When all the while, coming to church, and praise and worship, has never been about you. And it's never been about your kingdom. And it's never been about your empire. And it's never been about what's going right and what's going on. When you come in here, honey, it's to get in the Spirit, so that that Spirit can come down and can change. Worship was never designed to be about me. It's always been to lift Him up. Let me lift Him up. Let me magnify Him. Let me exalt Him. For He alone is worthy of my praise. He alone is worthy of my worship." Aaron is the pattern: "Let me take you very quickly — I'm trying to hurry — Leviticus chapter 16, verse 24. 'And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place.' Did you get it? Did you see it? He's got flesh, and there's Spirit here too. There's water, there's Spirit. 'He shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place.' So when you come in, start taking all of that off — because you can't put on the garments until you take off the other garments... I want you to get all the carnality out. I want you to forget about what's been going on. You and your wife had an argument before you got to church — but forget about all that. Kids are acting crazy — but forget about all that. You ain't got enough money to pay the bills — but forget about all that. Get in here and wash your flesh. Wash your carnality with the Spirit of God in the holy place. And then put on your garments. I think you already know where I'm going with this: put on the garments of praise. Put on the garments of worship... this is the thing that's going to get you to the next level. This is the thing that's going to keep you in the house of God... You need to come to church, and wash your mind in the Spirit of God, and put on some garments of praise, garments of worship, put on some garments of thanksgiving. Put on some garments that say, 'I should be dead, but God made a way where there was no way.' Look at your neighbor and say: the same Spirit. Shake them a little bit and say: the same Spirit."

Scriptures: Numbers 19:13; Leviticus 16:24

Follow the quickening

He finishes with Psalm 119's acrostic turned into a demonstration, the bishop as his visual aid: "I told y'all tonight I'm going to jump around a lot... I want to take you back very quickly to Psalms chapter 119, where the Bible says it separates all of the different letters — and you can go, and I don't have time to teach you all this, you probably already know all of it — but it separates eight verses at a time in Psalms 119. And the quickening — the word 'quicken' that God is going to quicken you — it's mentioned throughout this: 22 groups of eight letters. The first time it's mentioned, it's in the group of Scriptures where the letter is Dalet, and the pictograph, the Hebrew picture, is the door. It means the entrance, the portal that we preached about this morning. The second one is the Hebrew letter He — it's the picture of a man with his arms lifted, and it means 'look.' [To the bishop:] Would you help me real quick? Would you come up here? Would you run up here real quick? Give Bishop a hand. I'm fixing to teach you. You ready? I'm fixing to teach you how to know when the Spirit is quickening you to worship. You ready? So when they go through Psalms 119, and they put the word 'quicken' in there — there's one, again, it's mentioned where the picture is a man with his hands lifted. Would you lift your hands? Now, I don't have time to preach them all — I wish I did, but we'd be here all night. But you can go to the last time — and let me get it for you — I think it's the Hebrew letter Kaf, which, if you'll turn around, Bishop, and face that way, it's the picture of a back of a man's head. And so when the Spirit is quickening you, you'll know it, because you'll see somebody in front of you with their hands lifted. Who knows who the leader of this church is? Say, 'Well, I don't know if the Spirit's quickening me to worship.' If you see him doing that, then the Spirit is quickening you to worship. If you see him dancing, that means the Spirit's quickening you to dance. If you see him running, that means the Spirit's— it's the same Spirit. The same Spirit in him is in you. And when he moves, it's a sign it's time for you to move. When he dances, it's time for you to dance. Somebody ought to take 30 seconds and just follow the quickening... He brought me out because I followed. He brought them out because they followed. Follow the leader. Follow the man. Follow the quickening of the Spirit of God. 'I don't really think that's what he meant by it.' Well, you've been wrong before. It won't be the first time. Because when God set up His church, He set up a man. And we believe in pastoral authority. We believe, and follow him — 'Follow me, as I follow Christ.' And so if we really believe in him, then we'll believe in the message that he preaches. Say, 'Well, preacher, how do I know that I'm supposed to be teaching a Bible study?' Let me teach you really quickly how to know if it's time for you to teach a Bible study. Bishop, lift your hands. 'How do I know that God's quickening me to outreach?' Do you see him doing it? Then follow the leader. Because you got the same Spirit. I know he believes this doctrine — you got the same Holy Ghost that he's got. And God put him in front of you to say — He did not command you, but to show you — this is how it's done. This is how you teach. This is how you worship. This is how you grow. This is how you have revival. This is how you bless." The close is osmosis: "You want to know why this church is here? Because God sent a man, and somebody bought into the vision. And they seen him teaching, so they taught. And they seen him dancing, so they danced. And they seen him jumping, so they jumped up. Let me tell you: you don't get this by yourself. You get it by osmosis. You get it by somebody putting it into you. And so: you want your convert to be a deadhead? Then be a deadhead. You want your children to sit there like a bump on a log? Then, honey, you do it. But if you want your children to be children that worship — that'll be children that dance, that'll be children that know how to love Him — then, honey, you ought to step out: 'Hey, baby, this is how we praise Him. This is how we shout. This is how we dance.' Somebody ought to just step out in the aisle and have yourself a Holy Ghost fit right now."