The Holy Spirit Poured Out – How God Gives us the Ability to Time Travel

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Teaching Shabbat Shalom, everybody. We have a very special guest teacher today, and many of you already know him. He's an amazing teacher, an amazing friend, and I cannot wait for you to hear what he's going to be presenting today. He's getting his master's in biblical studies at Charlotte Christian Theological Seminary. And not too long ago, he was awarded the Zonderman Award for his studies in Greek, biblical Greek. And so I would like to introduce you to an amazing friend, an incredible teacher, someone that you already know: David Wilber.

A Teacher's Introduction

Well, Shabbat Shalom, everyone. Can you hear me okay? All right, I am honored to be up here and to teach from God's Word. As Matthew just introduced me, most of you already know me, but my name is David Wilber. My family has been attending here at Founded in Truth for about five years or so now, and I am just so grateful to be part of this community that loves the Bible and which orbits Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah, as Pastor Matthew likes to say. I just love that metaphor of orbiting Yeshua. I'm a husband and father, I'm an author, and I work full-time in ministry, particularly in the areas of apologetics and theology.

I'm excited to share with you guys today, but before we begin, if you don't mind, join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this holy convocation that you created, where we can gather together to worship you, to unite around who you are and what you've done for us. And Lord, I just ask that the message that you've given me to teach today would be edifying and encouraging to your people, that lives will be transformed, that you will be glorified. I pray this all in your son Yeshua's name. Amen.

Shavuot: The Completion of Passover

I was excited when Pastor Matthew asked me to teach today because I get to talk about one of my favorite holidays—the holiday that we are going to be celebrating together tomorrow. That is the Feast of Shavuot, or Pentecost. What is Shavuot or Pentecost? Well, it is the completion of the Passover season. The Passover season, of course, as we know, is when we celebrate God delivering Israel out of slavery in Egypt. And traditionally, Shavuot is when we celebrate the giving of the Torah, God's law, at Mount Sinai. In the New Testament, like Passover, Shavuot also takes on an even deeper layer of meaning. It reveals an even deeper, impactful event: the giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. And so God's mission to rescue the nations in fulfillment of his promise to Abraham was initiated through this event 2,000 years ago on Shavuot. And that mission to rescue the nations continues to this day. And also, God gave us the ability to time travel. So I'm going to be talking about that a little bit later.

The Spirit's Role in Creation and Restoration

But first, to recap before I get there: As you guys remember, over the past few weeks, Pastor Matthew has been teaching about the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit, and what is his role in the universe, in our personal lives? We've learned how the biblical authors saw the Spirit as being intimately connected with creation. He was there in the beginning, and he played a part in that. He is also involved in the sustaining of creation and our lives. We learned that the Spirit empowers people. It gives them, for instance, wisdom on how to rule, like we see with Joseph. It also produces creative skills and action within individuals, like we see with some of the people that helped construct the tabernacle.

The Spirit came upon them and empowered them to do the various things that they were doing. We've learned that God's Spirit has an influence on our spirits. We have spirits too—our emotions and motivations—and God's Spirit impacts those. The Spirit guides us and influences us. We've also learned that the Spirit was active in the Messiah Yeshua's ministry. And what was his ministry? He is the culmination of God's rescue mission. That rescue mission was first introduced in Genesis 2 with the promise to Abraham: "In you, all the nations shall be blessed."

The Curse and the New Creation

So that rescue mission was introduced because in the beginning, as we know, humanity sinned. Humanity brought evil, suffering, and death into God's good creation. And so Yeshua came to reverse that curse. He was the seed of Abraham that came, and it's in him that all the nations are blessed. He came to reverse that curse, to bring about a new creation of life and blessing, to rescue mankind from that curse of sin and death. And so just as the Spirit was intimately involved in bringing about that first creation, the Spirit is also involved in bringing about this new creation that is ushered in through the Messiah's work. And that new creation is being birthed right now. How? It's being birthed through us. Yeshua poured out the Spirit upon his followers 2,000 years ago on the day of Shavuot, Pentecost. And this event launches the new creation that is still going on today.

Yeshua's Commission to His Disciples

Listen to what Luke writes in Acts chapter 1. This is just before Yeshua's ascension into the heavens, and he's talking with his disciples. His disciples ask him a question. This is what they asked him, Acts chapter 1, starting in verse 6: "So when they came together, they asked him, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?'" This is a very logical question because throughout Luke's gospel—remember, the book of Acts is the second volume to Luke-Acts—Yeshua has been teaching his disciples about the Spirit. He's been teaching them about the kingdom, and they're connected. And the disciples were also familiar with the prophets.

They read the Hebrew prophets in the Old Testament. And often the prophets connected these prophecies about Israel's restoration and the kingdom with the promised Spirit. So the Spirit was connected to Israel's restoration. It was connected to this future age to come, heaven on earth. So their question is perfectly logical and biblical. Yeshua was just talking to them about the Spirit, right? So, okay, well, the Spirit's coming, so that means the new age is here, right? But Yeshua basically tells them not to worry about that right now. They ask, are you going to restore Israel at this time? He basically says, don't worry about that right now.

That is still future, but there is something else I want you to focus on. And so here's his response to his disciples in verse 7: "He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.'"

So he kind of talks about something different, right? Basically, what he's saying is, don't worry, fam, I got you. It's going to happen. The prophecies about Israel's complete restoration, they're going to happen in God's timing. God has fixed this by his own authority. It's going to happen. But right now, don't even worry about it. Right now, get ready for all this other stuff that the prophets spoke about—the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the ingathering of the nations. But wait a minute, that's in the future. That's related to the future age to come. So right away, we are confronted with a tension. The future age is here, and also it isn't. This future age is here, and also it isn't.

Pentecost: The Last Days Arrive

In the next chapter, we read that the disciples were gathered together celebrating the Feast of Shavuot, like we're going to be gathered together celebrating it tomorrow. And this outpouring of the Holy Spirit that Yeshua was just talking to them about—it happened. The Spirit descended upon them, and it caused them to start speaking in other languages. It was a reversal of the Tower of Babel. And so they start speaking all of these other languages. And people from all over who were in Jerusalem for the feast days, they started hearing the disciples proclaiming the gospel in their own languages. And listen to Peter's explanation of this event.

This is how he explained what was happening. Acts 2, starting in verse 14: "But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed to them, 'Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.'" Because people were accusing the disciples of being drunk because of everything that was going on. He says they're not drunk. But this is what's happening: "This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days, God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy." Notice that Peter identifies the events at Shavuot with the last days. He says, this is what was happening, what was prophesied to happen in the last days. And he quotes this prophecy from Joel. He indicates that this prophecy was being fulfilled at that moment. He says, this is what's happening right now. So from Peter's perspective, the last days have entered into reality at that moment. And so from this point forward, a new age is dawning. And we already see the effects of this new age.

People are being healed. We read in the next chapter in Acts, in Acts chapter 3, that you had the person that couldn't walk. He was at the temple. And Peter showed up and the man was healed, and he was leaping and praising God, and he went to the temple with the apostles and praised God. And that's what's going to happen in the age to come, the future age to come that's prophesied. People are going to be healed. There's going to be no more sickness, no more death, no more pain or crying. That was happening. People were being healed, saved, transformed. The Spirit was being poured out. As Isaiah and Micah said would happen in the last days, the word of the Lord is going forth from Jerusalem.

It happened in Jerusalem. The Spirit was poured out. Jews from all over the world were gathered together. They heard the message. They were being saved. They were going back to their own countries. The word was going forth. So the future age to come that the prophets spoke about is here. The future age to come that the prophets spoke about is here.

Already But Not Yet

And this is key because, again, this future age is already but not yet. We still live in the present age. We still live in a fallen, broken world full of sin and death. In the future age, there will be no more death. But there's still death right now in our present age. But even though we still live in the present age, we have access to the future age right now in the present age. How does that work? In Hebrews 6, it says that those who, quote, share in the Holy Spirit currently experience, quote, the powers of the age to come. So those who share in the Holy Spirit experience the powers of the age to come.

Somehow, through the Spirit, we are able to experience the future age in our present age today. In other words, God has given us the ability to time travel. We don't need a flux capacitor, right? We don't need to reach 88 miles per hour, right, to be able to access the time, the wormhole or whatever, right? God has given us the ability to time travel through the Holy Spirit. The future age, the restored Eden, somehow overlaps our present age through the Spirit. Another way to think about it is this. Because of the Messiah's work, the power and blessings of that future age are released into our present age.

The spirit is the down payment, if you will, which guarantees the future age to come, and it gives us access to that future age right now. It's kind of like when you put a down payment on a house, right? You don't own the house yet. You haven't paid the house off yet, but you have access to it. It's not a perfect analogy, but you kind of get my reasoning here. Listen to what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5. He talks about looking forward to the future age and the hope of eternal life. 2 Corinthians 5, starting in verse 1, he says, He's talking about mortality, our present bodies, our present age. For if we know that the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. If indeed by putting it on, we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed. so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So, as we look forward to this future, as we're in this present age and we're groaning because we long to be further clothed with life, death swallowed up with life completely, As we look forward to that time, in the meantime, God has given us a guarantee through the Spirit.

The Greek word translated guarantee there is aribon. And this is a Semitic loan word, which basically means it is a Greek transliteration of a Hebrew word. And it's a legal word. It basically means down payment or pledge. So from Paul's perspective, believers already have access to part of the future age, but that future age is still future. Scholars commonly refer to this tension as the already, but not yet.

What It Looks Like to Live in This New Age

So today, I want to talk about what it looks like to live in this new mode of existence, if you will. What does it look like to live in this new mode of existence that is connected to the future age in our present age? How do we live in this new age of the spirit, the future and the present? Well, I'm going to mention six things. Okay, so are you guys ready to time travel? All right, great. What does the age of the Spirit look like for believers? Number one, the age of the Spirit is for believers. The age of the Spirit is for believers. In other words, you have to be a believer to experience this new age of the Spirit.

In John chapter 14, starting in verse 16, it says, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. So here we see a contrast between the world and believers. The world cannot receive the Spirit because it doesn't know Him, okay? So if you want to be able to time travel to the future, you need to know Yeshua. You need to know this spirit because the future age is not going to have any unbelievers in it. There's no one going to be sitting in the New Jerusalem looking upon the glorious face of Yeshua in his kingdom and then say, I don't really believe in you.

That's impossible. So it makes logical sense that our experience of the future age right now through the spirit is reserved only for believers. So if you're not a believer, become a believer. This is your invitation. If you don't know Yeshua, you are invited into the time machine. You are invited to be part of what the Spirit is doing in this world. Yeshua has made a way for you to be free from sin and death so that you can be part of His kingdom.

Being Uncomfortable With Sin

All right, speaking of sin, the second way that we experience the future age right now is by being uncomfortable with sin. The second way that we experience the future age right now is by being uncomfortable with sin. In Revelation chapters 2 through 3, Yeshua, he's talking to the seven churches, and he's repeatedly admonishing these believers in these seven churches. He says, hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And so the Spirit is speaking to these churches. And one of the things the Spirit says is this, Revelation 3, verse 9, "'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, "'so be zealous and repent.'" Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.

So the Spirit, He reproves us. He convicts us of sin. Why? So that we would be zealous and repent. If we have the Spirit within us, we will feel genuine sorrow for our sins. This harkens back to Joel's prophecy. In Joel 2, starting in verse 12, the prophet, he's calling on people to repent of his sins because the day of the Lord is drawing near. And he says, "'Yet even now,' declares the Lord, "'return to me with all your heart, "'with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, "'and rend your hearts and not your garments.'" "'Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, "'slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, "'and He relents over disasters.'" So this is right before the passages that Peter quotes on the day of Pentecost.

He's saying this is happening right now. The Spirit is reproving people. The Spirit is convicting people of their sins today. And the word of the Lord through Joel is to weep, it's to mourn, it's to rend your hearts and not your garments. In other words, God is not interested in a mere outward display of sorrow and just pretending. He's not interested in a religious mask that you wear. He wants honest, genuine conviction of the heart. And that is what the Spirit produces. That is what the Spirit is producing in these last days. Listen to how the people responded to Peter's proclamation of the gospel on Shavuot.

In Acts chapter 2, starting in verse 37, after Peter preached the gospel, he proclaimed the gospel to the people. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart at Peter's message and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Cut to the Heart

So Luke says that they were cut to the heart. If you are not cut to your heart over your sins, you might need to examine your life. The future age does not contain people who are comfortable living in their sins. I mean, could you even imagine that? Could you even imagine living in the new Jerusalem where God's presence dwells among his people in fullness? Could you imagine anyone in that moment, in that time, in that place being comfortable in their sin? While sitting in God's presence, Isaiah wasn't comfortable. When Isaiah had his temple vision in Isaiah chapter 6, he was shown the vision of the Lord and he was in the Lord's presence.

What did he say? He says, woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips and I live in a land of unclean lips. He could not bear his sin. He was cut to the heart in light of God's presence, in light of seeing the sheer holiness of the Lord. So if that is what the future age is going to be like, if no one is going to be able to be comfortable in their sin, how could anyone who has the Spirit today be comfortable living in their sins? They cannot. It is impossible. God's Spirit within you will convict you of your sin. You will not be comfortable. Now the question comes down to this: What will you decide to do with that conviction?

I mean, you could try to ignore it. You won't be able to if the Spirit is within you. You could try. Or you could do what the purpose of that conviction is for. The purpose is what? It's to cause you to be zealous and to repent. That is the purpose of the reproof and the conviction of the Spirit within you. It's to lead you to genuine repentance. The Apostle James writes in his epistle, in chapter 4, starting in verse 8, he says, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." This is right, by the way, this is right after he was rebuking the community that he was writing to, saying, "You're messed up.

You have all of the selfish ambition. You're leading people astray. You're sinning. You're committing adultery with the world." He's rebuking them, and this comes at the end of that.

The Purpose of Conviction

He says, James is talking to believers here. He's talking to believers. If the Holy Spirit is convicting you of sin, repent of it. And what does that look like? It looks like what James is describing here. You will be sorry. You will rend your hearts and not just your garments, as Joel says. Accept God's invitation to transformation. When you humble yourself, when you express genuine repentance and sorrow, he will exalt you.

And this leads to the third way that we experience the future right now. That third way is that God gives us a new obedient heart. We will be empowered to obey and to be transformed. Pastor Matthew touched on this last week. But listen to what the prophet Ezekiel says about the promised spirit. Okay, this is what the prophet said, what life is going to be like when the spirit comes. Ezekiel 36, verse 35. So what's going on here? What is Ezekiel saying? He's saying that the spirit that God will put within us on that day that the spirit comes, it gives us a heart transplant. He transforms our very character. He changes us and causes us to be obedient to God's laws. Another way to think about this is he makes us a new creation. We're part of the new creation that God is bringing about, that God is birthing in our world through the Spirit. We're part of that new creation. We become new creations.

God Gives Us a New Obedient Heart

The Apostle Paul, he alludes to Ezekiel's prophecy in his book of Romans. Remember, what does he talk about in the book of Romans? What's his big complaint? He's describing this frustrating struggle that he has within himself—the struggle between his mind's desire to obey God's law and his flesh's desire to sin. And he's saying, I do the things I don't want to do, and I don't do the things that I know I should do, and I just have this struggle. He describes it as a literal war within himself. And at the end of the chapter, he cries out, "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?"

How does he overcome this war? And he answers his question in the next chapter, Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 3, he says, "By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh himself, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit." So what is Paul saying here? He's connecting this back to Ezekiel 36.

He says, Yeshua's work on the cross has set us free from sin and death, and the spirit that is given us, it helps us to fulfill the Torah's righteous requirements. It helps us to fulfill God's laws. That is Paul's solution to the sin problem. That is Paul's solution to the war raging within himself. His solution is walk according to the Spirit. You can overcome the desires of your flesh to sin. You can be transformed. You will never be perfect in this age. Remember, the future age is already, but not yet. But you can have victory over sin through the Spirit, and you can be gradually transformed as the age to come draws near.

Walk According to the Spirit

What might this look like practically, by the way? How do we actually experience this transformation in the Spirit, this heart transplant, this change of our character, because it sounds like nice theology, but so often I think it just kind of stays in our head, right? It's just theoretical. It's like, yeah, okay, God changes us. But what exactly does that look like? How do we take those steps? And I say that intentionally, because Paul says we must walk according to the Spirit. That implies that there's something we do as part of this transformation process. We have to walk according to the Spirit.

Well, I want to give you a number of things. One thing, you know, we got to press into the Spirit. We have to get into the Word. We have to commit ourselves to the Lord and following Him and set time apart to really be discipled. But I want to give you one other thing you can do, one other very practical thing you can do to overcome sin by the Spirit. Yeshua says in John chapter 16 that the Spirit, quote, will guide you into all the truth, okay? And all the truth, I think, can include the truth about you. Why do you do the things that you do? Why do you struggle with the things that you struggle with? Because so often, our current struggles with sin are because of things that have happened to us in the past.

Healing the Wounds of Your Past

Your anger and hatred might be because of the abuse that you suffered in your past. And so what do you do? You don't know anything else but to lash out because you're trying to regain some sense of control and security deep down inside. You're trying to regain something that you lost when you were eight years old. Your sexual addiction might be due to feeling rejected or unwanted as a child. So what do you do? You look at porn because the people on the screen can't reject you. You are trying to satisfy that profound loneliness that you feel, that profound insecurity that you have in who you are because of being unwanted.

Of course, those outlets like pornography, they never help. Giving into sin just leaves you worse off than before. You feel more angry. You feel more insecure. You feel more alone. So here's what you can do. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you those moments from your past. He's going to lead you into all the truth. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you those moments from your past that set the trajectory of sin in your life. The Spirit will reveal those moments. And so we're taking it back to time travel, right? Time travel comes back into the picture. Just as the Spirit takes us into the future, He also can take us into the past.

He can redeem our past, right? Try to remember the first time you felt the way you feel when you give in to those sinful behaviors, when you act out. Because there's a deeper feeling behind that. There's a deeper hurt behind that. And ask the Holy Spirit to take you back to that moment and heal you in that past moment. Ask him to be the person you needed in that moment—the person your father wasn't in that moment that he should have been, the person your mother wasn't in that moment who she should have been. Ask the Holy Spirit to take you back to that moment and to be who you needed when you were being abused or rejected.

Ask him to comfort you in that past moment, who you were as a child. He is the comforter after all. He's the one who brings comfort. And when you do that, when you ask the Holy Spirit to heal you in the past, that will reset the trajectory of your life. Suddenly, it will become easier to walk according to the Spirit instead of the flesh.

The Spirit Empowers Believers to Be Witnesses

Okay, number four of how we experience the future age right now. The Spirit empowers believers to be witnesses to the nations. We read this earlier, Acts 1, verse 8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And so throughout the book of Acts, the apostles were empowered to do what? To proclaim the gospel and to do miracles. And they were doing this and the nations were coming in. The nations were being saved. The word of the Lord was going out from Jerusalem to the end of the earth.

The nations were coming in to worship the Lord. And again, this inbreaking of the age to come in the present age, people were being healed. There are miracles. The age to come will have no more sickness and death. So in the spirit, in our present age, people were being healed. Sickness and death was being eradicated. So as we live in this age of the spirit, we ought to pursue and expect those things. This does not mean that everyone we pray for will be healed, but it does mean that God's healing power has been released. The healing power of the future age to come has been released into our present age, and we can expect to see miracles in our communities.

Not just physical healing, by the way. Emotional healing, spiritual healing.

Unity With Other Believers

The fifth way that we experience the future age right now through the Spirit is by having unity with other believers. 1 Corinthians 12, starting in verse 12, it says, so the Spirit will unite believers in the Messiah.

And this is important because this is part of the future age to come. In the age to come, believers will be fully united. There will be no selfish ambition or jealousy among us. The future unity is what the Spirit is producing in our present communities right now. So I want to challenge you. Is that what you're pursuing in the Spirit? Because if you find yourself repeatedly stirring up strife among believers, repeatedly causing disunity among believers, if you are seeking to build up yourself at the expense of the unity of the body, you may need to examine yourself and ask if you're really being led by the Spirit.

Because that's not part of the age to come. The age to come, we're going to be united again. This doesn't mean that we can't disagree about things, of course. I disagree with a lot of my friends, a lot of my other Christian friends. Pastor Matthew and I, we have debates about theology from time to time, and that's okay. Totally fine to disagree. What it does mean is that if we are led by the Spirit, we should still be able to get along in spite of our disagreements over minor issues. Right. Because that's true unity. True unity is not agreeing about everything in theology. True unity is loving each other, even though we don't all agree on everything.

Unrestricted Worship

All right, and the sixth way we experience the future age today is by being unrestricted in worship. The Spirit empowers our worship and our prayer. In Romans, Paul says that the Spirit helps us and intercedes for us in our prayers. In the future age to come, we will not be able to stop ourselves from worshiping the Lord. We will not be able to resist that urge to proclaim His holiness, His glory and majesty. But in our present age, if we're honest, sometimes it's hard to want to worship him. Sometimes we are just so distracted and so burdened by the trials of life. Life can be hard. I was part of a panel discussion a couple nights ago.

It was for a Shavuot event conference. One of the questions that came in was: one of the commandments for Shavuot is to rejoice. We're commanded to rejoice during Shavuot, but I just lost someone that I loved that was very close to me, and I am just so overcome with grief. How can I keep that command to rejoice in light of this profound loss? A few of us were talking about this question, and I made a point. I said, joy is deeper than a feeling. Joy is deeper than whatever you may be going through. A Christian Holocaust survivor is Corrie Ten Boom. I don't know if you're familiar with her, but she experienced a lot of suffering.

She was in a lot of crazy circumstances, loss and death. And she said, 'No pit is so deep that he is not deeper still.'

Joy Deeper Than a Feeling

So even in the depths of your pain, he is there. He meets you there. And joy is deeper than a feeling. You can still rejoice. You can still offer up your lament, your pain to him. What does David say? He says the sacrifices of God are a crushed spirit, a broken heart, God, you will delight in that. We can offer those up to God as offerings upon his altar. And we can worship even in those moments. And the Spirit helps us get there. How do I worship God when I don't feel like I can because of everything that's going on? Paul says in Romans 9 that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. He intercedes for us in our prayers. So God's Spirit can enable you to time travel to that age to come where you cannot resist worshiping him. Even in that moment of despair, even in that moment of heartache and grief, God can meet you in that moment. The Spirit can bring you to worship.

Six Ways to Experience the Future Now

And I'm going to close here, worship team, if you want to come on back up. So we talked about six ways that we can experience the future right now through the Spirit. Number one, by being believers. As believers, we already have access to that age to come. Number two, by being uncomfortable with sin, the Spirit convicts us and leads us to repentance. Number three, by having a new obedient heart. God transforms our character in the world to come and helps us to overcome sin, and that is something we have access to right now. Number four, by being empowered to be witnesses to the nations. Number five, by having unity with other believers.

And number six, by being unrestricted in worship. So I want to encourage you guys today, if you find yourself too weak to pray, ask the Holy Spirit to help you in your weakness. Ask the Holy Spirit to meet you in that weakness, in that moment. If you find yourself struggling over sin, ask the Holy Spirit where you might need healing. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal those moments to you. He will. Ask Him to transform you. That's what He does. The invitation is open. We have some people down here that are ready to pray with you. If you need some extra help praying, the Holy Spirit is working through them to pray with you.

And you can experience genuine transformation in the Spirit. You don't have to wait until the future age to come to get started. You can experience new creation right now. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your Spirit, for this gift, for the Comforter that you have given us. And I ask, Lord, that everyone here who may be hurting, who may need healing, Lord, I ask that you would release the power of the age to come right now in our present moment, Lord, that you would meet them, that you would heal them, that you would cause them to be unrestricted in their worship of you, Lord, that they would experience your presence in a deeper and profound way, that they wouldn't leave here the same, but that you would change them and transform them, God.

That is what your spirit does. We love you, Father. We thank you and we praise you. In Yeshua's name. Let's sing the Shema with one voice. Shema Israel Ukshem Ketov Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. Yahweh, the Lord is one. Blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all eternity. May the God of patience and encouragement grant you to be like-minded with one another in the manner of Messiah, so that together with one voice, you glorify the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. And may God bless you and keep you. May he make his face shine upon you and give you peace. Be gracious to you.

May the Lord lift up his countenance toward you. Fill you with his perfect peace today. We ask in Yeshua's mighty name. Amen, amen, amen. Shabbat shalom.