Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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Paul said that "The Lord is that Spirit." In other words, Jesus is where the Spirit is. The Spirit of God is the way that Jesus is present on earth. He is here in spirit now, and he has promised to come to earth again in person.
Whoever enjoys the joy and liberty of God's Spirit when it falls in power in the assembly of saints truly desires to be in God's presence. The holy Ghost is God's presence, and the man who despises the holy Ghost when it falls on God's people despises Jesus. How do you feel when you see someone roll across the floor under the power of God? How does it make you feel to see a child of God weeping and dancing for joy under the power of the holy Ghost in the midst of the congregation? How does it make you feel to see an entire congregation of saints on their knees seeking the face of God? When Jesus heals a person, do you rejoice or do you suspect that something else really happened? If you enjoy the things God's Spirit does, then you really love what God does because "the Lord is that Spirit". The Spirit is the presence of the Father and the Son.
When the holy Ghost shows up, righteous people melt before the mighty presence of our holy God. The holy Ghost causes men to feel their smallness and their need, and it magnifies God's greatness so that even blind men can see it. It causes men to weep and to laugh, to fall on their faces and to leap for joy, to shout, to dance, to worship aloud, to raise holy hands toward heaven. The holy Ghost empowers man to speak in languages he has not known, to heal the sick, to prophesy, and to do many other miraculous things that man cannot do in himself.
Do you love the things that the holy Ghost does? If so, then you love God. On the other hand, if you do not love the things the Spirit does, then you really do not love the true God. Billions of people on earth today claim to love God, but they hate what the holy Ghost does when it falls upon men. In truth, they do not know who God is and what He is like, and what most people really love who say that they love God is a god of their own imagination.
Suppose someone told others that they loved you, but they avoided you whenever possible. Would you believe that they loved you if they hated to hear your voice and hated what you did when they were in your presence? If you were God, would you believe that people love you if they hated your presence? Could you trust that they loved you if they hated everything you did when you were near them? Would you think that people loved you who dreaded the thought that you might come to where they are and who ridiculed those who did enjoy your presence? What if they told everyone, when you were not around them, that they loved you dearly and longed someday to see you, but whenever they saw you coming, they always went out the back door? If they loved you, wouldn't they love something about you?
The truth is, as I said in that long-ago sermon, "If you are ashamed of the holy Ghost, you are ashamed of Jesus." And if you love the holy Ghost, then you love Jesus. It is that simple. It has to be that way because "the Lord is that Spirit." How can you love Jesus and reject his Spirit? Give up the vain thoughts of the flesh. We cannot have one without the other. The people who really have God are the people who really have the holy Ghost. God has no other people. Jesus dwells in no one but those in whom His Spirit dwells.
There are no options. If you have the holy Ghost baptism, you have Christ in you. If you do not have the holy Ghost baptism, then you do not have Christ in you. And since "Christ in you is the hope of glory", then if you do not have the holy Ghost, then you have no hope of eternal life. You must remember that "The Lord is that Spirit." As much as vain man would love to have the blessings of Jesus without submitting to the power of the holy Ghost, there is no such thing. There is no family of God where there is no holy Ghost. There is no new birth where there is no holy Ghost. There is no hope of salvation where there is no holy Ghost. There is no sanctification, there is no access to the Father, there is no knowledge of God, and there is no fellowship in the light, where there is no holy Ghost. In short, there is no true God without the holy Ghost.
Claims of men are meaningless. Forsake them. God is where the holy Ghost is, and nowhere else. Find out where the people are who have the holy Ghost and who do not rejoice in the flesh. Go there and stay there. If you love God, you belong nowhere else.