Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Costi Hinn - Knowing the Spirit - Pt. 03 - Walking By The Spirit

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

Jonny Ardavanis is the Lead Pastor at Stonebridge Bible Church in Franklin, TN and the President of Dial In Ministries. He formerly served as the Dean of Campus Life at The Master’s University and as a Camp Director at Hume Lake Christian Camps. Jonny’s heart is to see people understand and love the Word of God and more so, to love the God of the Word. Jonny is married to Caity Jean and they have two precious daughters.Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis: Big Questions, Biblical Answers, is a series that seeks to provide biblical answers to some of the most prominent and fundamental questions regarding God, the Gospel, and the BibleIn this episode Costi Hinn from For the Gospel and Shepherd's House church discusses Knowing the Spirit - Pt. 03 - Walking By The SpiritWatch VideosVisit the Website Pre-order Consider the LiliesFollow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey folks, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. In this episode, I continue the series that I started with my friend Kosti Hinn a couple weeks back. If you haven't already listened to those episodes, I would encourage you to go back and do so because we're walking through really a progression as it relates to our understanding of the role and function of the Holy Spirit. In this episode, Kosti and I sit down and discuss how the Holy Spirit can transform your life. If you're a Christian, the will of God for your life is that you become continually conformed into the image of Jesus and you cannot become like Jesus apart from Jesus's Holy Spirit and so we're going to But let's dial in. Kosti, I want to talk a little bit about how the Holy Spirit continues to work in the life of a believer.

Sometimes we pray things in Christian jargon like, Dear God, would you please fill us with your spirit this morning? And then if we were going to think about that, we would be kind of like, wait a minute, I'm already filled with the spirit, right? Because I'm a temple of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 6. So what does that even mean? I've grown up praying, Father, would you fill us with your spirit this morning? And then you kind of go, wait, have I been praying a contradiction for the last 30 plus years? So what does that mean when we pray, God, would you fill me with your spirit? What are some maybe abuses of even that idea that we need to have like a, an additional exposure and encounter with the spirit. And then I'm going to add another one. Here's a lot of coming on you. Boom, boom,

boom. What does it mean to walk by the spirit? So that's basically the platform for Christian growth is a reliance and a walking by the Spirit. So what do those things all mean? I'm a Christian. I know the Holy Spirit lives within me. What now? Okay, let's do two passages and kind of live in two compartments for each, but build a bridge from this to that.

First, the filling of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5, 18, Paul says, and do not be drunk with wine for that is dissipation, the filling of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5.18, Paul says, and do not be drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Then he goes on to say, singing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs in your heart, to one another, to the Lord, always being thankful, always giving thanks in all things. So let's do that one first. Paul is contrasting influence and control. Do not be under the influence of alcohol, drunkenness, a substance that takes over your mind, your body, your actions.

Do not be under that influence, however, but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. Be under the influence and the control of the Holy Spirit. And the verb that he uses is very interesting. It is a present active verb. It's be being kept filled. That would be like a direct English translation that for us doesn't make much grammatical sense. But if we were to say it that way, it helps people go, okay, so be being kept filled. Yeah, be continually filled with the Spirit on and on, day by day, every hour hour you need him every minute every second be ongoing filled with the spirit a very interesting aspect to it too there's two sides to it it's a passive

yeah so it gets done to us and we're like okay great i'm glad because uh i can't fill myself but it's also an imperative so it is something a command. All right. So I got to be filled with the Spirit ongoing continually, but it's done to me. Well, my wires stop firing and I go, well, how? Okay. Who is it and who does it and how? So we want to kind of look at this and break this down. The idea of be being kept filled, that it's going to be done to you, is that the Holy Spirit is the one who fills. He is the one who does it to us. The command to be being kept filled is attached to this idea of being yielded. We are in control of this submission, my yieldedness, my bowing down of my life, my submission to the Lord, my willingness to come under and trust him completely. It's a yieldedness. If I had to give somebody a short, simple,

working definition of what it means to be filled with the Spirit, I would say him, to be controlled by him, or shortest of all, to be yielded. It is my life as a sort of yellow light mentality. And I don't want to put like an insecure, timidness in people. What I mean is it's not red light, full stop, slam on the brakes. It's not green light. I just go as I go and flow. It's this thoughtfulness. You want to know what light is flashing yellow and we're approaching it. What do we do? We go slower. Why? Because we're going to be conscious of what's around us. Why? Because there are factors at play and we become more in tune and more intentional. A red light, you already know, I just need to stop at the white line. A green light, you're just flying. A yellow light gives pause and thought to where I am. It's a yieldedness. I'm aware. In the same way, take that and apply it to the filling of the Holy Spirit. I am each day definitely going all out

living for Christ. I'm doing that with a bit of a yellow light intentionality. I'm looking around. Lord, what would you have me do? How are my emotions? How are my ambitions? How are my decisions? How's my family life? How's my marriage? How's my mouth? How's my mind? How are my affections and my pursuits? When I grab my phone, what am I looking at? What am I thinking? It's a yellow light mentality. I'm just aware of what's going on around me, and I'm yielded to the Holy Spirit. I want to be filled and controlled by him. Why did I bring up then the other compartment of walking? I love that you asked that, and I want to build a bridge.

The way to be being kept filled is certainly attached to a different command Paul gives in Galatians 5.16, and the passage stretches all the way to verse 23, because 22 and 23 are the fruit of the Spirit. But let's talk first. Galatians 5.16, Paul says, and I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the deeds of the flesh. It's a big promise. Oh, huge. I'm like, okay, I want to get some of that. I don't want to be carrying out the deeds of the flesh. To walk by the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit,

to be yielded to the Spirit will produce something. And I would say I don't know about you, but I do know about you and I know about me as believers and every believer. I want that. I want to walk with it. Well, the Greek word gives us a big clue. That's why sometimes it's good to study good Greek grammar. We don't need to be nerds about it and kind of make too much of things or just be like, wow, I know the definition of a word. Like that's a Bible study. No, we want to apply it.

And so let's do that. Let's define and apply. Peripateo, the Greek word for walk. I say walk by the Spirit. The word means to be totally preoccupied. It's one of my favorite Greek words because I'm kind of an all-or-nothing guy. It's like walk or kill. It's zero or ten. When I was all in on the world, my oh my, I was all in. I lived completely for the world and just followed after the lusts of my flesh, the pride of life. Whatever I wanted, I just did it. It was all in. I'm going to do me. I get saved and it's all in on Christ. Well, the reason I love the word peripateo is it's this idea of all in, in the way you live, in the way you walk, in the way you talk, in the way you make decisions, in the way you think. He says, walk by the spirit. What does that mean? Be

preoccupied with, be obsessed with, overly concerned with, so intentional, I am going to go about my business doing nothing but thinking and living as though what the Holy Spirit wants is what I want. That's the way we've got to approach life. Paul says, if you do that, you're not going to carry out the deeds of the flesh. In a very kind of short, pithy descriptor of that, if you are so full of the Holy Spirit and you're so focused on what the Holy Spirit wants you to do, there is so little, if not no room for the flesh. Does that mean you're going to be perfect and never sin? No. But even in those moments of fleshly weakness, you are going to go, I need to go to the Lord on that. Lord, I'm sorry.

That thought I just had, that attitude, that flippant word, and all of a sudden there's this humility and submission and yieldedness. So to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be yielded and controlled by Him all the time. He does it to us, and also we are commanded to be that, which means we need to be submissive and focused on walking, concerned with, obsessed with, constantly intentional about what the Holy Spirit wants. Walk by the Spirit. So can you... What does he want?

So then let's get practical with me because, okay, I'm in. I want to walk by the Spirit. I heard the promise, and you will not grat want to walk by the spirit. I heard, I heard the promise and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. I need to obey and be filled with the spirit. How, how do I do that? I mean, I'm already a Christian. He's already living inside me. Right. Um, how do I do that? Maybe just, if you're going to write down, like, you know, talk to me like I'm five, you know, everything. If you were five years old, if you were my five-year-old, I would just bring up the illustration of a filter. A filter is something that kind of sifts

through. And if we're using water as an example, if you're filtering water and my kids know what a water filter is because there's one in the fridge and you have this jug that is a filter. Smart five-year-olds. They want their water. It's Arizona. It's hot. Who is this guy? You know, and I would use this idea of a filter or we have a drain on our street. Okay.

And there, okay, there you go. You want more? I'll give you all the illustrations for five-year-olds. You got filters. When we go fishing, there's a net, Johnny. Okay. I got it. You got it.

Oh, I got that one. Yeah, there you go. Now it clicks. So I would say when you want to walk by the Spirit, you want to look at everything through the filter of the Holy Spirit's will and desire. We are now kind of talking a little bit about God's will for us is our sanctification, 1 Thessalonians 4. You got to look and go, all right, is this holiness? Is this righteousness? Is this truth? Is this truth? Is this loving?

But also, look at the fruit of the Spirit. So we can go Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23. And all that I do is this reflecting love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. That last one right there might solve 99% of our sin problems. Self-control. Pause there for a second though, because that's the fruit of the spirit. Yes. So that is going to be the byproduct of walking by the spirit.

Yes. So I'm taking those, that analysis of my behavior and saying, am I being love, joy, peace, patience, you know, peace, patience, kindness. Yes. But when I'm asking you how I walk by the spirit, so you're saying it is the filter, but it's how I filter. But what is, if I'm going back to your analogy of a net, what is the net? Well, the net would be the word of God.

Okay. Yeah. So this is what I'm asking. Oh, that was too easy for a five-year-old, John. I'm just kidding. That, okay. Because you can't walk by the Spirit if you're not walking in the Scripture, walking with His people, walking in worship.

And so I think sometimes people just assume like, oh, I'm going to wake up in the morning and say, God, would you fill me with your Spirit this morning? I should be filled, right? No. So I'm making no assumptions that, you know, because you're only going to produce the fruits of the Spirit if you're walking in His Word, which the Spirit is going to take and make you more like Jesus.

Totally. And that's helpful. I'm using the Word of God to sort of define all this without in between going, and by the way, you need to be in the Word of God. Because I think that's, I would not assume someone has the concrete conviction, oh, if I want to be Spirit-filled today, I need to be scripture-saturated. Got it. Then we got to talk Colossians 3.16. Okay, go. So let's do this.

Ooh, I got it. Here we go. Ready? Be filled with the Spirit. That's kind of A. Yeah. Walk by the Spirit is C. B, the bridge between the two of them,

is Colossians 3.16. Yeah. Let the word of Christ dwell within you richly. You be filled, you need to be yielded. To walk, you need to be totally concerned with, intentional, and thoughtful about what he wants. To know what he wants, you got to know the word. So that saturation becomes the key. You want to filter everything through the word of God. Is this what scripture says? You go, I don't know. Well, then you need to study the key. You want to filter everything through the Word of God. Is this what

Scripture says? You go, I don't know. Well, then you need to study the Bible. You need to look at Scripture. You need to go, what does God say about this decision? What does He say about this emotion? What does He say about this activity? What does He say about this relationship? And here's where I think it's the command part. It's our part to be yielded, that is submissive. It's our part to be yielded that is submissive. It's our part to be intentional. And we're doing that in response to what? God's Word and His commands and what He calls us to. And that's where everyone has a choice. Whose authority will you come under? Who will you submit to? What will you submit to? Yourself and your own desires or the will of God. Because you can only be as spirit filled to the degree that you're filled with scripture. And you mentioned even like that,

there's this competition in the morning for our phones and where are we going to place our minds, our hearts and our eyes? And so to walk by the spirit then means that that's gonna have everything to do with the way that we shape our calendar, right? So even just talk about that because you got A and C, but I'm still on this B plane because I want to eliminate the mystery out of what it means to be filled with the spirit.

And obviously there are different ways. Like you can, we're filled with the spirit by the mutual fellowship that we share in the local church, right? But even in the local church, one of the chief functions, as you mentioned in Colossians 3, is to pray the scripture, read the scripture, sing the scripture, and communicate the scripture one to another. And that's why it says teaching one another, because in every healthy church, there's not one teacher. There's a body of believers that teach each other the word of God, which, you know, someone would say, well, no one had a Bible until the printing press. No, but they were teaching each other the word of God, which, you know, someone would say, well, no one had a Bible until the printing press.

No, but they were teaching each other the scripture. So even if sometimes we can do the, I want to be filled with the spirit as a solo project, which is unbiblical and dangerous. So even talk about that element of Colossians 3 in regards to, hey, you want to be filled with the spirit? I want to be filled with the spirit. What's my job to you and your job to want to be filled with the spirit? I want to be filled with the spirit. What's my job to you and your job to me

in being filled with the spirit? And why, if I have a disconnected relationship from the local church or even other believers with that level of intentionality, why can I never be experienced what God has offered to me in the body of Christ and his spirit? So good. All right, so I think we've got the what down.

We kind of got our little graph or a little analogy. Maybe you can get someone to make a cool visual with our- Get on that. Yeah, yeah. Let's go. Walk, or sorry, be filled and walk. And in the middle of that, scripture ties all that together. That's all our what.

We kind of got a good working handle on what it means to be filled with the spirit, yielded all of those things. Now the how. Paul, in both passages, Colossians 3 and in Ephesians 5, attaches certain things as both the means and the evidence. The evidence and the means. You look at what he says. Singing, thankfulness, praising God to one another and to the Lord.

All of these things are both means and both evidence. Why? God never gives a command without showing us how to do it. He never gives us a command without showing us the evidence of living that out. And one of the things that I always try to tell people, and I put this in the book, I've shared this far and wide, is you need the local church. He attaches personal and corporate worship, Paul does, in verses 19 to 21, right after the command to be filled with the Spirit. And it's personal and corporate worship, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs to one another, making melody in your heart to the Lord. There

is this horizontal aspect and vertical aspect of the Spirit-filled life. So I always want to tell people, you don't go to church to be a good little Christian. You don't go to church to be saved. You go to church to be Spirit-filled and to exemplify the evidence of being Spirit-filled. I'll give you an example. Everyone's experienced this at some point or another. You drive to church, and you're kind of complaining, like, I don't want to be there. I didn't even want to go today. You know, you're complaining, and you're all frustrated and moody. And you get to church, and maybe two songs in, and then halfway through the sermon, you just, you feel weight kind of fall, the encumbrances, you know, what Hebrews talks about. You're just laying aside these things that you've been carrying,

these heavy burdens, a lot of just selfishness and pride, and complaining and disputing and grumbling, and all of a sudden you're driving home from church a little differently than you drove to church. And let's say it's us, it's a husband, you look over at your wife, sorry we're not in Europe, I'm looking over here, you look over at your wife and you go, I needed that.

And she's like, yeah, I know. And why do we feel different? Because we got spirit filled. We got saturated with the word of God, saturated with singing about God. We were fellowshipping with people. We were serving. We are a part. We're around the local church. And when you see a people singing and giving thanks to God and praising and serving and loving the Lord and their affections burn for him, you are seeing spirit-filled people. Because we're all filled by the same spirit. That's evidence.

And he works in our lives that way. When you're empty and you need to be filled in that sense that you just go, I just feel spiritually depleted. I feel anxiety in my life. I feel depression. I feel confusion. I'm just kind of like, go to church. Be around the people of God. Get in a small group.

Walk with people who are walking by the Spirit, and all of a sudden, your life will change. Let me give you one more. Paul says, always giving thanks in all things. I would argue exegetically that thanksgiving, thankfulness, gratitude is a spiritual discipline. Why? It goes against my feelings. It goes against my circumstance and what I see. And it goes with what I know.

I know that God is good. Therefore, I will thank him. I know that's the evidence of the spirit more than walking by the spirit. No, I would say it's both evidence and means. Once again, when you choose gratitude, you are going to experience an uplifting in your heart. You're going to experience a renewed mind. Think about this. When we walk around complaining, we walk around just being negative and criticizing and having a bad attitude, we are only continuing to walk down a path that affirms our own selfishness, our own

view, our own frustrations. It's kind of all about us. When you choose to thank God and praise God in the midst of everything, that lifts up the inner man. That is a filling mechanism. When we get in the church and we see people praising God for no reason except that He's good, and we know what they're going through. That does something. That encourages. It's the same kind of mechanism as singing to other people about God and declaring the praises of God. It's also the evidence of being Spirit-filled. So if you are a complainer, if you're going around criticizing, if you're being very negative, you need to spend some time in prayer. You need to spend some time in the Word,

and not to do your reading plan and say, oh, my box i'm fine but genuinely to be convicted by the reality of the gospel and of christ and to be one last thing on this the mind is the key when we get our mind renewed and we dwell on what's above it changes the way we think a lot of people today like instagram types and these influencers they talk about the mind you You got to get your mind right. You need to have good self talk. Look in the mirror and tell yourself how successful and awesome you are and all this stuff. What are they tapping into in the flesh? They're tapping into the reality that if I can get my mind to think differently, then my reality will change. God already gave us this truth and this key that if you want to have a renewed mind,

you want to be filled with the Spirit, go to the Word of God, fill your life and your mind with that. It will change your attitude. It will breed gratitude and your perspective. And you'll walk, you'll begin to walk and be intentional about the Spirit and what he wants. So then even, I think even going back to why I said it was part of the evidence and the means maybe is you said it's decision, but it's a spirit empowered decision.

So we're relying upon the spirit for the decisions that we make that further, you know, produce and perpetuate our walking by the Spirit. So even the decision or the prayer to walk by the, you know, walk by the Spirit is something that the Spirit produces in us. And then we continue to lean on that. Now, I think we probably would be missing something significant if we didn't include prayer in this element of, you know, Paul says, be filled with the Spirit in Ephesians five and Ephesians six, he does the armor of God. And then he concludes that section by saying, and praying at all times in the spirit. So the only way that we can walk by the spirit is by begging the spirit

to keep us in step with himself. As we do make decisions like tether our life to the word of God, to the people of God. And then even when we're amongst the people of God, we say, Lord, I could be, I could still be in a church and be devoid of the spirit's power. So that's why we pray on the way to church. God, please show me, you know, show us Christ, show us yourself. Talk just, I guess, finally about what the role of prayer is. Nothing is possible without prayer. I would say prayer is our power source. We talked about it and we have ad nauseum together as preachers and pastors is I don't want to preach a sermon without prayer.

I don't want to counsel someone without prayer. I don't want to lead a team meeting without prayer. And I don't want my staff or my ministry partners to be doing that either. I need, we need prayer. I think of the H.P. Charles book, It Happens Through Prayer. That idea that it happens, just picture that as everything good that you want to happen in your life and ministry for the glory of God and for your own good, that it does not happen without prayer. Prayer is dependency. Prayer is confession. Prayer is adoration. Prayer is supplication, asking God to do what only he can do. And if you don't pray, that's why I said earlier, if you're having

an inner kind of angst that is leading to complaining, criticism, cynicism, all of those negative things. Your mind is not dwelling on what is above. You're in great need of prayer. You need to slow down, yellow light, get yielded to the Spirit of God. You're not walking by the Spirit or in the Spirit. You're not being kept filled. You have focused now on yourself. How do you get out of that? Well, what do I do, Kosti? Okay, you need to get to church and be around people. You need to get in the Word and have it saturate your life. And in all those things, prayer. Pray at church with others. Have other people pray for you. Pray. Your time in the Word should be preceded by, Lord, lead me today in your truth.

Help me to walk in the truth I'm about to read. And Holy Spirit, fill me and guide me. Bear your fruit in me. Change me. Sanctify me. It's a prayer of dependency, which basically says, God, I need you. It's like the song we sing, Lord, I need you.

I need you every hour. I need you. My's like the song we sing, Lord, I need you. I need you every hour. I need you. My one defense, my righteousness, oh God, how I need you. That's how we should pray. It will lead to the filling and the walking in and by the Spirit. So to wrap the bow, to pray, God, fill me with your Spirit, but to live a life that is divorced from the people of God, the word of God, and even our prayers to God is really an empty prayer. Unless, unless we're walking in those main three veins, I would say of how, how, um, so that's so good because I want to be a spirit filled believer. It's a command, it's a privilege and it's power. And so thank you, Kosti.