Sid: My guest John Bevere and you’ve probably read his bestselling book that’s 20th year anniversary “The Bait of Satan.” Well over a million of “The Bait of Satan” have sold. And John on yesterday’s broadcast we had to stop you were talking about your son worked with you on this book on “The Holy Spirit” and you were telling me a story about it.
John: Well I asked my son to help me write this book because I look at the young generation. They young generation many of them back away from the Holy Spirit. And Sid I think it’s because some of the strangeness that occurred when he was you know 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 years old and all of them and what happened was he saw things that disturbed him. And I want to make very clear is… and let’s just be honest we’ve got listeners right now that are like “Oh, I’ve seen weirdness.” Now let me make this statement “Nobody can detect weirdness better than a little child. I remember my kids we’d go into some churches and they’d be 5 years old and their leaning in as far as they could into their mother because of the person sitting next to them that was just doing something really really strange. And when it’s God it’s not strange, and so my point is this “Nobody yielded better to the Holy Spirit than Jesus, nobody fully allowed the Holy Spirit to express the will of God better than Jesus. Yet kids jumped in Jesus’. Yet mafia invited Jesus to their parties because tax collectors were the mafia of the day. If you look at businessmen and the leaders sought out Jesus. So in other words Jesus wasn’t weird and yet he gave full expression to the Holy Spirit. So my statement to these young people, I said “Wait a minute if you saw things that you knew were not right, weird strange
I said “Chances are good that it was the person they might have been strange if they were playing cards or playing tennis,” but if you see somebody whose completely yielded to the Holy Spirit no matter what the manifestation and there are some; there are manifestations that are amazing that the Holy Spirit will do; spitting on somebodies eye to get them healed but it’s not…. But when He’s in it it’s never perceived as weird or strange or repulsive. And so I had a great burden because this young generation has a deep deep desire to reach the world. I’ve never seen a generation that wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves more so than this generation. I’ve never seen a generation that want to be so much a part of a team. I know that their intentions and their compassions are good to help the needy, the poor, those that are victims of social injustice. But if they don’t have the power and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and they aren’t friends with Him, intimate with Him, they’re not going to be able to fulfill what God had put in their heart for their generation.
Sid: But I don’t care if whether you are a young person or you’re in your 80’s there is a depth of fellowship. As a matter of fact we didn’t finish that. John the other day we were talking about the word communion and the personality of the Holy Spirit and you started with fellowship.
John: You know I look at the way… fellowship means to interact; it means to companionship. I know that none of us would jump in a car and not speak to somebody for 20 minutes. Well how many times do we do that with the Holy Spirit; sometimes I think that He’s the most ignored person in the church. So if you look at the apostles in the Book of Acts; if you look at Christians the leaders you will find out that they have interaction with the Holy Spirit. I mean Paul says in Acts chapter I think it’s 20 he said “The Holy Spirit has told me in city after city.,..” So you see that there’s an ongoing interaction there. If you look at Philip when Philip was in Samaria conducting some service and Samaria is getting saved and there’s miracles and healings. The Bible says that an angel spoke to him; it doesn’t say “That an angel appeared.” Now it says an angel appeared to Mary; an angel appeared to Joseph; an angel appeared to Zechariah; an angel appeared to John. It said an angel spoke to Philip and said “Go to the desert.” So Philip listened to the angel and three verses later he’s out in the desert he’s been there a couple of days; he sees a royal Ethiopian chariot. And the Spirit then said “Go and join this chariot.” Sid Philip, these guys knew the voice of the Spirit so clearly they could differentiate between His voice and the voice of angel. Now that sounds weird and strange to some today but I don’t think it is because let me give you a natural example. If I’m in a room and I’m talking to you Sid and there’s a couple a couple dozen people in the room and my wife is sitting across the room and she’s talking to your wife she may make a comment and I’ll hear her voice above all 2 dozen of those people in that room. And I’ll say “There’s my wife’s voice and I’m not looking at her; I’m not seeing her.
Sid: Absolutely, but if you had never heard her you would not know it. If you have never realized the Holy Spirit’s talking to you you’d never know His voice.
John: Correct, so just as I know each of the voices on my team, I have 30 team members. If I call my office I’ll know which one answered the phone, I know their voices. So the early church they could tell; think about it; when Philip was sitting there with Dr. Luke, and Dr. Luke is writing the book of Acts and Philip says “Now wait a minute Luke; it was not the Holy Spirit spoke to me in the city of Samaria it was an angel. Now when I got out into the desert that’s when the Spirit spoke to me. They could tell the difference, that’s how well they knew the Holy Spirit.
Sid: Tell me about partnership with the Holy Spirit.
John: Oh, I love partnership. If you look at partners, partners develop what I call a ebb and flow. In other words they know what each others going to do. I played Varsity Tennis at Perdue University I was paired with the #2 singles and we were the #3 doubles team for the Varsity Tennis Team. And I remember that we were a bit awkward because balls were going between us and I’m thinking that he’s going to get it and he’s thinking that I’m going to get it. But after a few matches we developed a flow and we were very tough to beat we really operated as one man on that tennis court. We knew what each other was thinking. Well the first time that I spoke I told you on the first program I put Lisa asleep. Now I speak in front of 5000 people and 10,000 people and 20,000 people and they don’t go to sleep when I speak, why? Because I’ve learned how to yield to my partner. I’ve developed that flow with Him. So when I was with Lisa I was speaking out of my head, I’m bound to my notes. Now I’ve learned how to listen for what He’s leading me to do in my heart when I speak. And so there’s an ebb and flow that has developed. The first book I wrote it took a year and it really wasn’t that good. Now He tells me to write a book and I crank it out in a couple of months. So I’ve learned how to partner better. Because Paul made the statement “We are fellow workers for and with God” in 1st Corinthians chapter 3. If you look at the Apostles in the book of Acts they said “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” You can see His representation and their representation so it definitely means partnership.
Sid: And the third thing you talk about is intimacy with Him.
John: That’s the best, that’s the best. I could talk about that for hours so I have to be really careful. (Laughing)
Sid: You have to we only have a couple minutes left. (Laughing)
John: Well intimacy is fellowship but it goes deeper than fellowship; it goes to the thoughts to the secrets the desires of the heart. Intimacy is a sure avenue to a deep friendship. If you look at that Message Bible it says “May the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit be with you.” He desires to be our friend, in fact if you look at James chapter 4 verse 5 it says “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns.” Now the word yearns means He longs for intensely and consistently. What does He yearn for? He yearns for our friendship. But the thing you’ve got to remember is James said “He yearns jealousy.” What does jealousy mean? It means that just as Lisa wouldn’t share with me secrets and desires of her heart in intimacy if I was pursuing a relationship with another girl. Even so the Holy Spirit will not share with us the secrets and the desires of His heart if we’re pursing a relationship with the world. That’s exactly what James meant when he said 3 verses earlier in James chapter 4 verse 2. He said “You’re seeking a friendship with the world and you’re an adulterer. An adulterer is one who has a covenant relationship with one but violates that covenant to pursue that relationship with somebody else. So if you want to have intimacy with the Holy Spirit you have to make sure you’re not pursuing a relationship with the world.
Sid: And speaking of that very briefly it was amazing that you decided to fast TV and then you just walked by a TV and all of a sudden you felt something you didn’t feel when you had not fasted TV. What was that?
John: Well it’s interesting, it wasn’t a really particular bad program it actually was nothing. You know some programs today, I don’t care if you don’t fast for 3 years you can’t watch them if you really are a follower of Jesus. But this one was not particular bad one but it was just actually policeman that had to use a gun to take somebody’s life okay. And remember what happened on the inside of me I was so sensitive to it I had to walk back out of the room. I like “Oh my gosh I’ve been in the presence of God for all of these days and yet now I just get out and I get exposed to this and I was like “Ah uh, I don’t want this.” So I find what happens is if we don’t spend that time with Him like you were talking about we get a little dull. We get dull in our spirit, you know just like… you know I go to the gym 3 times a week at least. Why, because I want to keep my body in shape. If we’re not praying in the Spirit and we’re not in the word of God and spending time with Him in intimacy we get a little dull in the spirit.
Sid: John, we’re out of time I’m so sorry… I want you to develop such a friendship with the Holy Spirit….
