To Dust
The Collection

There is so much emotion, lack of knowledge, and abuse of Scriptures when discussing the Holy Spirit, which is a major ploy and victory for Satan when people shy away from trying to learn more. The Spirit is our greatest Advocate, Source of Power, and Comfort today; we must know Him intimately.
Before we go into detail about how the Spirit works in us—we first need to see just exactly what Scriptures say about how and when the Spirit comes to live in us. There are two seemingly very different views about how and when the Spirit of God begins to work in a believer's life: 1) Many believe that the Spirit is a part of our Salvation, and that He comes to dwell inside of us at the moment Christ's forgiveness makes us a clean vessel 2) Others believe that the Spirit fills us as in a second experience, and even then only certain people according to their closeness and desire to be used. Both have truth to them; both have been taught an abused as the only truth. These two views, when seen Biblically, are simply two different levels of intimacy we can have with the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 4:6, John 7:38-39, Romans 8:9: If you do not have the Spirit of God, you are not His. To have more of the Spirit in your life is a choice God gives to you. Ephesians 5:17-18: we are receiving a command to follow His desires—would God command you to do something that happens automatically? Acts 2:4, Acts 4:7-8, Acts 4:31: ‘baptized’ and ‘filling’ of the Spirit are just two words to express different levels of our surrender to Him. Baptism happens once, filling can happen many times. Baptism for all believers, filling for obedient believers. Baptism never commanded - just an event talked about, filling is a command to be followed. Baptism places believer in body of Christ, filling enables believer to live for Christ. Baptism -Holy Spirit resides in life, filling - Holy Spirit presides over life. Baptism is an instant action at salvation, filling is a repeated action as believer yields. Baptism - finished work, filling - continuous improvement of the product. Most will end our adventure with the Spirit at the indwelling or His first entrance into our hearts at conversion—He is with you, He indwells you, but He is not filling your mind, your soul, your life with His fruits, knowledge and power. God Himself indwelling you, but He’s still giving you the freedom in love, to choose how much control to give Him. There is a whole new world of intimacy, strength, guidance and comfort as we simply surrender more of our lives to the Spirit that already dwells in us.
What are we doing that keeps the Holy Spirit from filling and using us? 1 Kings 19:11-13. God Himself, lives inside of us, and His Voice is knowable. But we must be listening for what He is saying, not what we want to hear about. Therefore, we must be desirous of just knowing Him more, and wanting His will, wherever that takes us, above seeking blessings and power. And we must be removed from the desires, thoughts, lusts and distractions of other things, long enough for Him to speak to our hearts. He will not compete, and jockey for position against the world. The Spirit will speak clearly and softly to our hearts; whether we hear or not, depends on our attention and desire. 1 Thessalonians 5:19: quench. Every time we know we are called to act, pray, give, forgive, love, worship, fellowship, and we simply disregard that Voice, until it goes away, we throw water on the Spirit speaking inside of us. Then, as we continue to say no, justifying why God would be better served another way, another time, by other people, we let the glowing ember fade slowly; and our hearts get harder and harder, until the heat is all but gone. Hard to reignite. Matthew 25:21. Why would God continue to speak, at our command; why would He give more of the most precious, intimate Gift He could give—His Spirit inside of us, when we trample what He already gives? When we, "Quench" the Spirit, by ignoring Him entirely, we break His heart by purposefully choosing to do the opposite of what He says. Ephesians 4:30-32: the very essence of this verse show the personality and intimacy of the Holy Spirit living inside us. Grieve: This pain is out of love and fear for us; not Himself-- He is God. He loves us so much, that it hurts Him to see us lose the love, and joy we could have; that is why He grieves. What He sees—what He grieves, is that we miss all of the joy, and adventure, and excitement, and meaning we could have in life when we put Him aside in selfishness. He is the One living life to the fullest, and wanting us to join in the journey.
While we hide inside the rooms in which we don't want Him to have access, He lives, loves, and changes the world, grieving that we can't experience real life—our real calling. Song of Songs 5:2-6, Song of Songs 6:2. Every one of us already has all of the Holy Spirit in us that we could ever have; but just because He is with us, does not mean that we have His fellowship, peace, or power in our lives. As you give more of yourself purposefully to Him, and especially, as you become faithful to the little things you do hear Him tell you, He will entrust you with more—with more righteousness, more love, more power—so that you can dance with Him outside your door. Psalm 30:11.

Part two of our series on the Holy Spirit is here!  Pastor Doss begins this sermon by answering a few common question: WHEN does the Holy Spirit indwell a believer?  Is it when he/she first surrenders their life to Jesus, or does it happen at a later time?  Does the Spirit only enter a select few, or is He a helper for all believers? Can we get more of the Spirit, and if so, how? 

If you have ever hungered for a Spirit filled life, you won't want to miss this sermon.  Listen online at the link below, or right click and choose "save as" to download and listen later.

The Holy Spirit...just what is it?  Why is He important?  And what do we do with it?  These are a few of the questions that Pastor Doss addresses in this, the first part of a series on the subject.  Listen at the link below.

Holy Spirit, Francesca Battistelli
There's nothing worth more
That could ever come close
No thing can compare
You're our living hope
Your presence, Lord
I've tasted and seen
Of the sweetest of loves
Where my heart becomes free
And my shame is undone
Your presence, Lord

Holy Spirit, You are welcome here
Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere
Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for
To be overcome by Your presence, Lord
Your presence, Lord

"Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right... we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world -- No, YOU move."  (Amazing Spider-Man #537, December 2006, written by J. Michael Straczynski)
We are so saturated in our actions and opinions with how the world views gender roles (or lack thereof); not just the gender confusion, but, the blurring of roles, and lost uniqueness of how men and women see one another; we have literally watched the world's opinion destroy this country. We've let it shape our worth, create our goals, and form our identities—instead of God's Plan. We've let it take away our admiration and appreciation for one another in God's design; we've let it cause unending strife in our homes; competition instead of cherishing and honoring; resentment and divorce; gender and self-esteem issues; poorly raised children; and most importantly, we've let it greatly affect our view and love for our God.

This Mother's Day we take a Biblical look at the role of motherhood and compare it to societies views.  Please join us for a salute to mothers, and a call to action.

We are a society that is overrun with worry, anxiety and depression. Luke 12:25-26. Unfortunately, we the "Christian" world are never any different than society in most areas of living and thinking today. A number of recent studies have produced similar numbers concerning the amount of time we spend worrying as Americans averaging: 14.31 hrs a week—744 hrs a year—5.2 yrs of your life. Does this sound like God's purpose for us? Does this sound like we are living as He intended? Matthew 11:28-30; John 16:33; John 14:27. How can Scriptures so clearly say that we should have peace and rest in our souls with Jesus, and yet, the vast majority of us are so overwhelmed with stress and worry?

Today Pastor Doss addresses a growing problem in today's world, depression.  Why, despite all our efforts to have more, be more, do more, do we find ourselves still lacking joy?  The answer just might surprise you!