The 5 D's Of the Holy Spirit

The 5 “D’s” Of the Holy Spirit
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

When we hear about living an “alternative lifestyle” today, what comes to you mind? Years ago when we heard this term, “alternative lifestyle” our first thoughts would have been of a person that wanted to live out in the woods as a hermit, or maybe a person who wanted to live as a hippie during the 60’s and 70’s. But today when we hear the term “alternative lifestyle” the first thing that jumps to the forefront of our minds is the homosexual or lesbian living arrangements that are so prevalent in our society. If we pay any attention to the main sources of our news media, the newspapers, or the national and local television news broadcasts, the pages or airways are filled with stories about same sex marriages and the “rights” of the homosexual person. How they are demanding that the entire nation bend to their will and give them what they deem is their constitutional right of being able to live any lifestyle as they so desire. And you do know what? They are right! Within the twisted interpretation of our constitution, they can live anyway they want. It’s not what the Founding Fathers of this great nation ever envisioned happening but like it or not it’s the laws of the land … for now. Since the writers of our constitution didn’t take into consideration ever little nuance of absurdity and perversion, in not doing so and they left open holes in this great document that the founding Fathers of this nation never thought would be manipulated in such a manner. The “alternative lifestyle” of today is not what God had in mind for his creation when he made them male and female. And it sure isn’t what God had in mind when he gave his creation the institution of marriage. Marriage is now and always will be the union of a man and a woman, one of each with no deviation in any way shape or form. Amen! Never has marriage been anything but one man and one woman and never will be. Amen! Do the homosexuals and lesbians have rights? Yes they do. Can they live any way they desire? Yes they can, our constitution says so. But can or should they try to force their lifestyle on me or you or anyone else to satisfy their own personal desires? No, I have just as much right to exercise my “rights” to live a godly lifestyle as they do to follow an ungodly lifestyle. That’s where free will comes into play and it’s has nothing to do with our government, God said it, God instituted it and I’m going abide in it. Like it or not friend, when God gave man free will he gave us the ability to make decisions and choices. Granted for some people the decisions and choices they are making is not within the will of God but that’s the way God made us and that’s the way we are. And so with this thought in mind allow me to say that should a homosexual or lesbian person or couple to walk in the door of any church I pastor I’d love them as I would love anyone else. But I would also tell them that they are walking a pathway to disaster if they don’t change the way they are living. If God can love the sinner but not the sin so can we. And why not? Are we not all sinners? We just do it in different fashions. Some of us select other methods of sin, abuse, be it physical, mental. Drugs, alcohol, or some other form of chemical addictions, some of us use as our weapon of choice gossip, lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, lust and all those other things that God calls sin and we know that the list goes on and on and we know that it is always the other guy does these things … but surely we don’t.
And now we are getting to the crux of today’s sermon. If we really look at the term “ alternative lifestyle” and then place it in juxtapose or comparison to the “Christian lifestyle” we have all been called to live it would be fair to say that any lifestyle that is following a way of indulgence or the way of man’s sin nature is contrary to God and is an “alternative lifestyle”.

Indulgence, now here’s a term we don’t hear much any more. In years past it was used in sermons and conversations but we don’t like to acknowledge that we as a society follow a life of indulgence to anything, much less a life of sin. What exactly is indulgence? With in the framework of which I’m talking it’s “the act of indulging oneself or giving way to one’s own desires”. So it’s when we indulge in something or partake in some action that brings pleasure to the flesh or the humanity of man. It’s when we yield ourselves to what on the surface seems to bring about pleasure or is enjoyable. Mind you now, not all indulgences are ungodly or are adverse to our well being. We can indulge ourselves in worship; we can indulge ourselves in family time or even food in moderation. Note I said in moderation, that’s something I need to make note of or be aware of more closely myself. We can indulge in many things and not offend God. God enjoys watching us indulge in the good things he’s given us; he likes to bless his children. We run into problems when we overindulge.

God has given us food to eat, we need it to live; it’s that overindulgence that makes us fat. God has given us sunshine, it’s a natural source of vitamin C, but too much and we get burned by the sun’s rays or even suffer sun poisoning. Or worse yet now skin cancer since we’ve screwed up the natural order of things in the ozone layer that used to protect us from the harmful rays of the sun. Between over use of aerosol cans of hairspray, deodorant and the vast array of other items that has long last been banned we’ve messed up what God had perfected. Sometimes just the thought of that boggles my mind, how many cans of product did we have to use to open the very layer of protection God placed over this planet? And if you ever get the two cans before mentioned screwed up at home you’ve really got yourself into a mess. Your hair will not offend the most tender of noses and you won’t be able to get your arms down to your sides.

Look at the marriage covenant, God’s gift to man was sex with-in the boundaries of marriage, but we can get out of balance even there. Too much leads too addiction, and to little can be just as harmful. Water, we need to indulge in drinking water, it’s a life sustainer. But it is possible to drink to much water, a few of the doctors I’ve had may not agree with that but it appears that we can die from drinking too much water. We can take it right down to being around family members too much. Family involvement is wonderful, but there’s a reason why God told us that a man shall leave his mother and a woman leave her home. Overindulgence with the in-laws leads to discord in the marriage. Yours, theirs or everyone’s!

It’s the negative indulgence and overindulgence we are talking about today. That short-term pleasure that has the long-term pain and suffering attached. Drugs, alcohol and of course sexual sin and adultery, the scourge of our society … and just about every society before us. Once sin was released into the world it went crazy with this group of activities I’ve just mentioned. All of these things may appear pleasing to the flesh on the surface, but the long-range consequences can be devastating. Destruction of trust, destruction of relationships, destruction of family and homes. Or worse yet destruction of self through death from any one of these activities. Addiction and overdose from drugs, sexually transmitted disease, destruction of body organs from the alcohol, in particular the mind and kidneys and liver. Anyone of these can lead to death, physical or spiritual or both.

Now if you thought my choice of the word “Overindulgence” was strange for this morning’s sermon, you’re going to love the next one. Because the opposite of “Overindulgence” is “Mortification”! Now there’s a word you really don’t hear much, if ever unless you read the King James Version Bible. It’s in there twice as to “mortify”. The word mortification has more than just one meaning. When we first hear it we often thing of it as used in a sentence such as “I was mortified to hear that” meaning to express shock or surprise. “I was astonished by that”. But mortification can mean “to put to death, the meaning as used in Romans 8:13 admonishing us to put to death, to mortify our desires. It also means the control of physical passions and desires by fasting and self-denial done to excess as a form of self-punishment. To put to an end. To mortify oneself much like self-humiliation, self-induced injured pride or injured self-respect.

Overindulgence is on one end of the spectrum and mortification is on the other end, neither is healthy or beneficial for the body or the soul. To bring us into balance, good godly balance, we need the assistance promised by Jesus when he promised us the Holy Spirit. “But when he, the spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you”. (John 16:13)

You see my friend if we want a well balanced life, if we want a spirit filled life rather than an “alternative lifestyle” life we can’t and won’t obtain it on our own. Try as we may, it usually doesn’t work. We end up going to one of the two extremes, overindulgence or mortification. We will either throw all care to the wind and say the heck with it, following a lifestyle of indulgence and over-indulgence. Or bury ourselves in mortification, and self-imposed futile works. Unhealthy self-denial and unhealthy self-humiliation. I think we have all seen examples of these two extremes. The person who over overindulges in food, drugs, sex, greed, lust of the flesh or for the worldly things that really don’t bring about any degree of true happiness. If you know anyone that is over indulging in any of these or other desires in an un-healthy fashion you know that they aren’t happy. I’ll use the entertainment industry or sports figures as my examples. They have everything the world can offer and yet they are never really happy if they aren’t in proper relationship with the Lord. They marry over and over again looking for the right mate when most of the time the problem is with-in self. I worked with a man once when I was in the maintenance department of Orleans County. He was 28 years old and already divorced 5 times. We were talking once and he said he hoped he could find a good wife the next time. Needless to say he got a bit perturbed with me when I told him that most likely he was the problem if he had gone through that many marriages.

And on the other end of the spectrum we see people that deny themselves everything “trying to be holy”. “I can’t laugh, it’s not Christian”, or “I can’t go to a party and enjoy myself, it’s sacrilegious”. “I must spend my time crawling through my house on my hands and knees showing everyone how devote I am as a martyr ”. Get over it and get a life! God wants us to enjoy ourselves, that’s why he wants to bless us and see us happy. Going back to the entertainment industry and mortification, one of the worst examples I can think of was Karen Carpenter, she had all the talent in the world, and all of the luxuries as well, beautiful and rich … and she starved herself to death. Anorexia or bulimia this is a pure curse of Satan that is on our nation today and in particular young girls although it’s not limited to just girls, guys do it as well but not nearly as much. In a totally unbalanced mindset they force feed and vomit or just don’t eat at all until their health is destroyed. The answer my friends is God and his Holy Spirit. Fill up on him and the rest will come into balance.

When we are in proper balance and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us we will have the right mindset to do the things of God. Our God looks at the heart of man and it’s what is in the heart that dictates to our will what we are going to do and how we are going to conduct ourselves. If our heart is hard or callused toward the Spirit and the will of God, we run to the two extremes and we suffer for it. But when our heart is in the right balance and following the will of God … allowing the Holy Spirit to influence us in every matter, then we will find peace and contentment. What we need is the fulfillment of the promise found in the Holy Scriptures: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws”. (Ezekiel 36:26)

And just what is God saying here? If we look at this pericope we can see that God is telling us that he can remove the stone heart that is hard and callused and crusted over with the cares of the world and replace it with a new heart. A heart that is soft and warm and loving and beating in time to God’s voice. Jesus told us in the book of Luke “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings out the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks”. (Luke 6:45)

In the second half of this pericope from Ezekiel which we used above we see God is saying to us that he will pour out His Spirit, that God’s Holy Spirit will indwell us. It says; “ I will put MY Spirit in you”. And friend notice that that S is a capital S on the word Spirit. That Spirit God is talking about is the same Spirit Jesus promised to give us and then did on the day of Pentecost. And to get this new heart and this new Spirit promised by our Lord we need to look at the five D’s of “The Holy Spirit”. If you’re a note taker you might want to write these down. They’re DISCERN … DISTINGUISH … DESIRE … DETERMINE … and DO.

Our first “D” is Discern … the Holy Spirit will enter our body, soul and spirit. Scripture tells us that the Spirit of God will dwell with-in us. When we allow the Spirit to enter our thoughts, our mindset, the area of our body where we reason and evaluate every thought, word and deed we are capable of. When we allow the Spirit access to this area of our “self”, He will transform our entire life. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. (Romans 12:2) The Apostle Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 12 that one of the gifts of the Spirit is the discernment of spirits, by the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit we will look at the options and choose the one that is pleasing to God. If we jump back to the Romans 12 verse and read the next line it says; “ then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will”. When the Spirit indwells in our mind, when he takes up residence in our conscious self and we start to allow God’s Spirit to direct our spirit in all decisions then we will start thinking on the things of God and the things that are pleasing to him. When we get to this level we won’t have near as much trouble in controlling those thoughts that run parallel to the alternative lifestyle. When we get to that level of mind set in the Spirit we will have thoughts that run opposing to the things of the world and worldly ways and those thoughts that lead to destruction and spiritual death.

The ways of the world run, as Paul said, to pride, greed, impurity, lust, covertness, and I believe most of us know or have heard the rest of the list if we have spent any amount of time in the Scriptures. But the ways of God and the godly-minded run toward humility of spirit, mourning over sin, meekness, righteousness, being merciful and pure in heart. Remember the Sermon on the Mount? These were the words of Jesus himself. And when this horizontal motion of God’s words coming down to us, and this vertical motion of our lifestyle on this earth intersect with each other, we’ve reached the atoning cross of Jesus Christ. And it’s at his cross that the Spirit and the mind converge and this glorious transforming of the mind takes place.

Our second “D” … is distinguish. When godly thoughts are replacing the worldly thoughts, when the mind set is moving away from the mentality of the world and toward the mentality of God. “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5)When we start to move from the Genesis 6:5 mind set and start to develop the Psalm 1:1-2 mentality, it being “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night”. When this starts to happen; then we will start to distinguish; we develop the ability to be able to distinguish between right and wrong. It’s at this point that we will start to see things in the light of God and start to live by the direction of the Spirit. When the true light of God illuminates our lives the darkness will run in another direction. The darkness is from the enemy and God destroys his work. “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other”. (Galatians 5:16-17)

We can see by this reading that the Spirit led mind and the mind of carnal knowledge will not mesh or blend together. It’s the Holy Spirit and His indwelling in us that will be the deciding factor in what and how we think, act and react to ever life situation. Scripture tells us that we cannot walk in light and in darkness at the same time. (1st John 1:5-7) says “ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you; God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin”. The Spirit allows us to see with new eyes and we will be able to distinguish with wonderful clarity the pitfalls we need to avoid as we continue through this adventure that we call “life”. What was once looked upon as pleasing when we were in the world is viewed through different glasses after we allow the Spirit control over us. With a new and Spirit led mindset we now want to avoid what was so desirable at one time. Paul lays many of these things out for us in (Galatians 5:19-21) “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious; sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry, and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of heaven”. He then goes on to tell us the opposite of this, which is what we will talk about in our next segment.

With “DISCERN”, our first “D” imbedded in us through the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to discern the good and perfect will of God for us. This led us to the 2nd “D”, that being “DISTINGUISH”. Once we discern what God’s will is we can distinguish the difference between right and wrong. And now we move on to the third “D”. “DESIRE”

As the Holy Spirit’s influence grows with-in us, as we become more Spirit filled, our desire to do the will of God grows as well. Should we read the rest of Paul’s thoughts following the list of “what not to do” things as found in Galatians 5:19 we find the list of what we should want in our lives to fill the void of loosing the “Not to do’s”. Scripture tells us, “Behold, all things are made new”. And these new things that will fill us are the nine items know as the fruit of the Spirit. We find a listing of this fruit, this nine item listing but one single fruit to be “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23) Our desires of the flesh will dwindle and at the same time our desires for the things of the Spirit will grow. We’ll desire to spend more time in worship and less time in gossip. We’ll desire to spend more time in prayer and less time in meddling in others affairs. We’ll desire to spend more time being a witness of Jesus Christ and less time in following the world. We’ll desire to live more in purity, to serve more and be served less, to meet the needs of others and spend less time in worry about our own needs. To share more of what we have with others and to covet the things of others less. To have fruitful and honest fellowship and to edify His church rather than to tear down and hurt His church. We’ll desire to look at ministry as just that, ministry and not a social outlet to satisfy our own egos. We’ll be doing ministry for the sake of the gospel rather than feeding a personal agenda. We’ll desire to bless for the sake of blessing rather than looking to see what can come back to us in return.

When the desires of the heart are in alignment with the desires of God our life can be filled with joy beyond measure and the unsaved that are everywhere around us will wonder why? The cares of the world melt away and we are happier for it. We’ll find that contentment and peace that the Bible talks about, that peace that transcends all understanding, and at times it will even amaze us it will be so beautiful.

When we allow the Holy Spirit to enter us he comes with tongues of fire. He ignites a flame that sears into our soul. It’s a holy fire like no other, it’s the fire that burnt in the bush but didn’t consume it. The heat is intense but not consuming. The light is brilliant, but not blinding, just illuminating. Every missionary who has ever gone to a strange or foreign land has felt this Holy Fire. Every minister of the Gospel who has preached the word’s of God without conviction and in truth has felt this Holy Fire. Every youth leader who has seen a young person snatched back from the pitfalls of the world and brought to the saving grace of Jesus Christ has felt this Holy Fire. Every Sunday school teacher who has seen the light go on in the eye of a student has felt this Holy Fire. And all of these people have felt in their heart that this is real, that this is alive and it’s wonderful and rewarding to the soul. It’s the reason we do what we do. That Holy Fire is our reward while we are here until we go on to hear “Well done my good and faithful servant”. If the Holy Spirit is your true motivation, he’s the reason we go into ministry. It’s not for the glory or self-edification, it’s not for the money or the title. It’s not for the friends or the following you’ll develop. If your motivation is the Spirit your reward is the Holy Fire.

The natural progression of things leads us from desire to the next “D”, DETERMINE. When the previous “D’s” are in place and working we determine that comes what may, by the unction of the Holy Spirit we’re going to follow God’s will. When the world says it’s impossible, we respond back from scripture and quote Jesus who said; “with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”. When others say “the cost is to high or it’s not worth it” we’ll respond with Paul’s words of “Remember this; Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man [and woman] should give what he [or she] has decided in his [or her] heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver” (2nd Corinthians 9:6) note the words in brackets are mine. When others say, “you’re not going to make friends that way”. We can tell them what (Galatians 1:10) says; “Am I trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ”. When others tell you that you’re the wrong sex for that ministry you will tell then to take it up with God because his word says, (Galatians 3:28)“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heir according to the promise”. When others say you don’t have the stamina to carry on you can tell them to look at (Galatians 5:7-8) “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who called you”. When others say that you’re not equipped for that ministry or you’re not smart enough go to (1st Corinthians 1:20) “Were is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than mans wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than the man’s strength”. And finally when others tell us that God’s love isn’t strong enough to love us after all we’ve done we can proudly proclaim, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loves us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. And you’ll find that in the book of (Romans 8:37-39).

Because you see once you determine to follow God’s will, once you determine to take the stance of Isaiah as found in (Isaiah 50:7), “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and know I will not be put to shame”. Once you determine that you won’t be embarrassed or you won’t be ashamed, won’t be ridiculed and won’t quit regardless of the circumstances. From that point on you will be unstoppable. You’ll be able to sing the words of that powerful Bill Gaither song, “I’ll rise again, ain’t no power on earth can hold me down”. When Jesus defeated death and sin he opened doors for us like nothing ever seen before and Jesus said not only would we do as he has done, but even more! Once we make this determination, by the power of the Holy Spirit, there is no power on earth that can stop or even slow us down. Remember the words of Paul in (Romans 8:31)? “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

And this brings us to the final “D”. Do! If you’ve accepted the first “D” – to discern, and you’re working through the power of the Holy Spirit to discern God’s will in your life, do say “Amen” and go forward without looking back. If your conscience is clear and the Holy Spirit has enabled you to distinguish between right and wrong, do say “Amen” and go forward in His Spirit. Allow the Spirit to direct as God wills and just go along for the ride for he will surely use you in a mighty way. If you are determined and won’t step backwards or look backwards regardless of the circumstances or the consequences, I encourage you to say “Amen” and do go forward. There are rewards to be found in service to our Lord that come with “heavenly “ results and it’s worth every thing you can give to obtain them.

Discern, distinguish, desire, determine and do. The five “D’s” of the Holy Spirit. My friends there is power in the Spirit, discover that power, allow the Spirit to use you. It will change your life forever. You will be the person you never dreamed you could be and you’ll love the change.
Grace & peace