The Supernatural Life

“The Supernatural Life” was preached by Pastor Mike Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Sunday morning, 12/5/2021.

If you have your Bibles, let’s open them please to the book of Galatians in the New Testament. Galatians 5. And I want to speak this morning on this subject: The Supernatural Life.

The supernatural life. As we think of Jesus and His life, we think of everything He did was supernatural. He raised the dead. He multiplied lunches, He healed the sick, He changed people’s lives, He called the common to be very special and unique. What a supernatural life! Now, He’s up in Heaven. It’s too bad we can’t see that anymore…but maybe we can. The supernatural life.

Look down here please in Galatians chapter 5. To our Bible college students and especially our RU students, you should be very familiar with this passage. In Galatians 5, notice, God gives us two choices of what our lives can be.

Starting at Gal. 5:19: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21. Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.” Skip down to verse 22: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.”

Notice Gal. 5:22 starts with “But the fruit of the Spirit…” (capital “S” for Spirit). I want to talk a little bit about the Holy Spirit after we pray, and then we’re going to talk about our choices to live natural lives or supernatural lives and how that is possible In the day in which we live.

Heavenly Father, we ask for Your help today. Help us to understand the Scriptures. And Lord, I pray in our hearts each of us could say, “I could do that. I can be that. I could have that life.” I pray for Your help now. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Fruit of the Spirit. So, Who is this “Spirit” mentioned here and all throughout Scripture? We’re reminded of the fact that God is three Persons in one. Hard to understand; harder to explain. There’s the Father, there’s the Son, and there’s the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus was baptized, He was the Son being baptized. His Father in Heaven said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased.” And then the Holy Spirit made a physical manifestation by having a dove land on His shoulder. Father, Son, Holy Ghost — they were all there at the same time. Explain it? I can’t. Not three gods. One God, three persons in one.

But what’s that mean? The Father we will never see. Scripture in the book of Revelation says He’s a spirit. The Holy Spirit also is a spirit. We will never see the Holy Spirit either. Jesus we will see. Here is God Who took on human flesh, and so forever we will get to see Him in Heaven, and I’m glad about that.

And so, Who is the Holy Spirit? Is He an “it”? Is He a “force”? Is He a “thing”? No. He’s a person.

We’re not going to take time to turn to all the Scriptures on this subject. But I’ll mention by way of introduction, He is called the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. That means this: He is separate from sin. He cannot be around sin. He hates sin. He does not hate people, but He hates sin because sin separates people from God. He hates sin. Like a gardener hates weeds, He hates sin. Like a baseball player hates strikeouts, He hates sin. Like… we could go on and on.

He is unseen but present with us. Jesus promised when He ascended (after Jesus rose from the dead and 50 days later went to Heaven to start preparing mansions), He said the Holy Spirit would come down next. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer. So, the moment you received Jesus Christ as your Savior, God in the Person of the Holy Spirit entered into your body. So, he can actually say, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So, a Christian does not have to live life and go through tragedies alone. The Holy Spirit Himself is with us helping us, and I love that right there.

He is also called the Comforter (John 14:26). When you blow it, He’s there to put His arm around you. When you’re discouraged, He is the One Who’s there to hug you when you are grieving. He’s the One Who says, “I understand,” and He is the great Comforter. No one can ever look at you and truly say, “I understand everything you’re going through” because they’re not omniscient, but God Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit can.

He is the One who calls to service every missionary who has ever left America to become a foreign missionary. He’s the One Who dealt with their heart and prompted them to do that. Anyone called in a ministry, anyone who has felt like “Man, I need to teach, I need to teach a Sunday School class,” that was the Holy Spirit prompting you to service.

He teaches us the Bible. As you read the Bible and you say, “I never saw that before,” that’s Him teaching the Bible. How come? Because He’s the one Who wrote the Bible. The Holy Spirit inspired holy men of God, word for word, what to write. So that’s why as we yield to the Holy Spirit, this book becomes our book, and we understand it.

Not only that, but He also helps us pray. He empowers us when we witness. And we could speak for days on Who the Holy Spirit is.

Now, that’s what He does and that’s Who he is, but we want to focus on this today: What does He do in our life when we let Him control it?

We just read the passage of what comes naturally. Someone says, “Pastor, I just kind of do what comes naturally. I hope not, because we are called — before we become a Christian — we’re called a “natural man.” And what that means is we do what comes naturally. People curse us out, we curse them out. They make an obscene gesture, we make that gesture back. They hurt us, we hurt them. They say something to hurt us, we say something to hurt them. They post something, we post something. That’s what comes naturally.

Listen to the list just for a moment. (And by the way, that’s why it’s so important to get saved and accept Christ, because without Jesus Christ, the best you can have is a natural life.) Notice what comes naturally. Listen to the list.

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Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.