INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PRAYER UNIVERSITY – MIKE BICKLE

GROWING IN PRAYER (PART 2)

Session 5 Fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit

I. INTRODUCTION
 
This is session five of Growing in Prayer, part 2.

A. Paul wrote of the blessing of fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1).
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May the…love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor. 13:14, NIV)
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…if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy… (Phil. 2:1)

Paul wrote of the blessing of fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit. In 2 Corinthians 13:14, he said, “May the
grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.” In Philippians 2, he
talked about the “fellowship of the Spirit,” or as one translation says, “fellowship with the Holy Spirit;” it is
the same reality. The Holy Spirit is a dynamic person who lives inside of our spirit. I know we all know that, but
sometimes we end up reducing the Holy Spirit to a power source or an influence. He is a very powerful,
dynamic, eternal person. He is as much God as the Father and the Son are: one God in three persons.

B. The Holy Spirit is a dynamic person, who lives inside our spirit. We are to fellowship, or commune,
with Him by talking with Him often. We must value and cultivate our friendship with the Spirit in
an intentional way. One way to do this is by speaking to Him as the God who dwells within us.
Now just to be very simple, the point I am going to develop throughout this session is that we fellowship with
Him simply by talking with Him. It does not end there, but that is the core reality. We talk to Him, and He talks
back to us or inspires ideas into our heart. The point I want to emphasize tonight is that we want to value our
relationship with the Holy Spirit so much that we cultivate it in an intentional way. We cultivate a friendship
with Him. We do this by speaking to the God who dwells within us. We pray, “Our Father who art in heaven,”
but there is a time to actually talk to the God who dwells in us. If this is a new idea to you, you will see it more
clearly as we unfold the Scriptures. I know to many of you this is a familiar idea, but it is one we need to be
constantly reminded of and called back to doing.

C. Some refer to this activity as abiding prayer, contemplative prayer, communing prayer, centering
prayer, or the prayer of quiet. There are other names for this type of prayer in various traditions.

D. A vibrant walk with the Spirit is essential in our quest to experience more of God. It is futile to seek
deep experiences with God while neglecting the Spirit’s leadership and relationship in our lives.
We cannot go deep in God with a dull spirit. It is a glorious privilege for every believer to be able to
fellowship with the Holy Spirit to the degree to which He desires.
A vibrant walk with the Holy Spirit is essential to experiencing more of God. Everybody wants to experience
more of God. I do not know of any believer not saying, “Oh, I want to go deeper! I want to experience more.” A
vibrant walk with the person who dwells in us is critical to that. It is easy to overlook that relationship with Him
while seeking a deeper experience.
The Holy Spirit could say, “I am the escort who leads you into the fullness of God’s heart.” It is futile to expect
deep experiences while we neglect His leadership in our life or our relationship with Him.

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E. Our greatest destiny is to grow in intimacy with God through the indwelling Spirit and thus share in
the “family dynamics” of the Trinity. God has so opened His heart and family life to His people that
we may have deep fellowship with Him. This is the essence of Christianity and of true prayer.
Our greatest destiny is to grow in intimacy with God through the indwelling Spirit. Even our fellowship with the
Father and the Son is through the agency and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I call Him “the Great Escort” to
help us encounter the Father and the Son. Thus our destiny is that we would share and participate in the family
dynamics of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell together in perfect love. They have beckoned the
people of God, the Body of Christ, to be His family, far beyond what angels are called to. We actually
participate in some of the dynamics of the fellowship, the love, and the enjoyment of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. God has so opened His heart to share with us some of the deep parts of His family life, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. Again it is one God in three persons, the great mystery of the blessed Trinity. This is really the
essence of Christianity–fellowship with God.
Christianity is so much more than getting out of hell, though I always appreciate that. It is so much more than
getting our circumstances blessed, though I really like that, too. It’s so much more than having a powerful
ministry and impacting people, though I like that. The essence is that as human beings we interact and
participate in the family dynamics of God forever. Beloved, this is awesome that we are called into this kind of
relationship with Him. The very first priority and call of prayer is communion with God. Yes, we release His
power. Yes, we release blessing, but communion and interaction with Him is the very first call of the subject of
prayer. We do not limit it to that, but we do not neglect it either.

F. Many think of prayer only in terms of seeking God’s help to solve their problems and gain blessings
in their circumstances. Prayer is first a call to communion with God by the indwelling Spirit.

G. I want to be a “person of the Spirit”—to know the Spirit in my interior life as well as in my exterior
ministry. Walking in the Spirit involves much more than prophesying, healing the sick, or praying
in faith to release God’s blessing on others. I also want to be a “man of the Spirit” in my inner life.
I want to be a person of the Spirit; I want to be a man of the Spirit. This involves knowing the Holy Spirit in my
internal life as well as my external ministry. Some people talk about this, saying, “Oh, she is really a woman of
the Spirit” or “He is a man of the Spirit.” What they mean is that those people operate in the prophetic; they
see visions, they pray for people, and dynamic things happen. I love that. I want to be a man of the Spirit by that
definition, but being a person of the Spirit is not limited to operating in the gifts of the Spirit.
I want to be a man of the Spirit in my interior life. I want to know Him. I do not mean just obey Him. I do want
to obey Him, but I mean more than that. I want to interact with Him, I want to enjoy Him, and I want Him to
enjoy talking with me. That is what I mean by being a man of the Spirit, as well as then releasing His power and
being a vessel of His glory to other people.

II. GOD CREATED US WITH THREE PARTS

A. God created every human being with three parts: a spirit, a soul, and a body. One man summarized
this reality: “We are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body.” Our soul is our personality,
which consists of our mind, emotions, and will—sometimes referred to as our “heart” in Scripture.
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And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord.
(1 Thes. 5:23)

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To understand fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit, it is important we understand how God created us in three
parts. This is very, very, very simple and fundamental. We are spirit, soul, and body. One man said that we are
a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. I like that; it is a bit simplistic, and there is more to it than that,
but I think that is just a good grid or framework for thinking about this. We are a spirit. When you live forever
in eternity, you will not have the same body; you will have a resurrected body. You will have the same DNA, but
it will be resurrected with a supernatural dimension to it. You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a
body.
In popular language the soul is our personality. It consists of our mind, emotions, and will. Sometimes the
Scripture refers to this dimension of our human makeup as the heart. Sometimes the mind, sometimes the heart,
sometimes together, it is all connected together. Paul calls it the inner man. So it is not like one verse says it all
in a really systematic breakdown. Often when the Bible is talking about the heart, it combines the mind and the
will in the idea of the heart, and sometimes they are distinct. The heart would focus on the emotions versus the
mind focusing on the thinking, etc.

B. At the new birth our spirit is joined to God so that we are one spirit with Him (Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor.
6:17). The reality of the new birth is that the Spirit comes to live in our born-again spirit. Salvation
involves more than being forgiven. We have a new connectedness with God by the Holy Spirit.
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But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him…19Or do you not know that your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? (1 Cor. 6:17-19)

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:17, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with God.” I mean that is amazing.
I read that and think, “Oh, Paul, that is dramatic!”
I think Paul would say, “That is my point.” He goes on, “Do not you know”—the context of this is when he was
calling them out of immorality, the different ones were stumbling in immorality—“do you not understand that
your physical body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” It was like he was saying that the Holy of Holies is inside
of you. I mean that is not a complete statement but in that dimension of the Shekinah glory, the indwelling God,
is actually in you, so you are a temple.
The reality of the new birth is much more than that we are forgiven. I love the truth of being forgiven. The
reality of the new birth is God dwelling forever in the human spirit. Our born-again spirit has received the
righteousness of God in Christ, the very righteousness of Christ, because the Holy Spirit could not live in our
born-again spirit. He could not live in our spirit if our spirit was not made righteous, because God cannot dwell
in darkness. It is in our mind and emotions that we struggle with the darkness and the desires in our body. Our
human spirit is the place where God the Holy Spirit lives in us.
Now we cannot measure our human spirit by our five senses, though I would like to get a handful of my spirit
and analyze it, but we cannot discern the human spirit. We cannot measure it; we cannot evaluate it by our five
natural senses. We can feel the impact of the Spirit inspiring our mind and emotions, but God the Holy Spirit
lives in your spirit. Not just a little touch of God, I am talking about the fullness of God dwelling in our spirit in
the sense of the fullness of what God has ordained for the human spirit to have. The point I am making is that in
the resurrection your spirit man does not receive more of God. Your mind and emotions are more inspired, your
body reflects the glory of God more, but your spirit man already has as much of the fullness of God as God has
ordained for the human experience to ever have, even in the resurrection. You have it right now, from the day
you are born again. We have this new and deep connectedness with God.

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C. The Spirit flows from our spirit, which is translated as “belly” in the King James Version, and, more
accurately, as “innermost being” in the New American Standard Bible.
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“He that believeth on Me…out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (Jn. 7:38, KJV)
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“He who believes…from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” (Jn. 7:38, NASB)

The King James Version says, “He that believes on Me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living waters.” The
New American Standard—which is probably arguably the most accurate or one of the top most accurate
English translations. It is number one or two or three. Some say another one is, whatever, but it is right at the
top—it does not use the word out of your “belly,” but out of your “innermost being,” in other words, the human
spirit. Notice the word that Jesus used is flow. There is a flow, a progressive, sustained release of His presence.
It flows like a river. That is an interesting. Forever it will be flowing in you. Not “it,” He the Holy Spirit will be
flowing in you like a river.

D. The Holy Spirit springs up from our spirit to impact our heart, i.e., mind and emotions (Jn. 4:14).
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“The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into
everlasting life.” (Jn. 4:14)

In John 4, Jesus refers to the same reality but says it differently. He says, “The water I shall give him shall
become in him a fountain of water springing up.” In John 7 He says it is like a river flowing. In John 4, it is like
a fountain springing up because the Holy Spirit dwells in your human spirit, and His influence springs up to
inspire your mind, inspire your emotions, and to release the power of God through you to bless others.

E. Jesus promised that the Spirit would flow like a river springing up out of our spirit to inspire, direct,
and transform our mind and emotions and minister through us to others. He lives in our born-again
spirit in fullness at the new birth, yet the measure with which He expresses Himself in our mind and
emotions grows progressively. The more we engage our mind with the indwelling Spirit, the more
our mind and emotions are renewed; thus we are transformed by renewing our minds (Rom. 12:2).
The more our minds and hearts are renewed, the more God expresses Himself in and through us.
Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would flow like a river and spring up out of our spirit. Again He dwells in our
born-again spirit, but we want Him to inspire, transform, direct, and mold our mind and our emotions, our
thinking and our feelings. It is very simple; the more we engage our mind by talking to the Spirit, the more our
mind and emotions are renewed by His influence. Again He dwells in our spirit. I do not know of a perfect way
to say where the location of our spirit, but I like the King James term, out of your belly. When I think of God the
Holy Spirit living in me—this is an imperfect analogy and an imperfect picture but—I think of the Shekinah
glory of God dwelling in my spirit, my belly, not my physical man, but my born-again spirit like the Holy of
holies in the Old Testament temple. The more we engage with that Person who dwells in our spirit, the more
this impacts our mind and emotions.

F. Because the Scripture describes God as light (1 Jn. 1:5), we can think of light as being inside our
born-again spirit where the Spirit dwells. I think of the Spirit as the Shekinah glory of God dwelling
in my spirit. When I talk to the Spirit, I picture Him as a glorious light—a bright, diamond-like,
glorious person shining in my spirit. (That is not exactly how it is, but this helps me to focus.)
The Scripture describes God as light. So I think of the Shekinah glory of God. The Shekinah glory of God is a
term that they used in the Old Testament. In the temple they had the outer court, the inner court, and they had

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that little room about the size of this platform—not exactly but I mean it was not really big, a little bit bigger
than this. In that room there was one place on the earth where the Shekinah glory dwelt. I think of Moses seeing
God in the burning bush. That manifest glory was literally residing in that little room called the Holy of holies.
Now He dwells like that in our spirit. It is an imperfect description of how to say it, but God the Holy Spirit
dwells like light, like the Shekinah glory, literally dwelling in our spirit. When I talk to Him, I picture this
glorious, diamond-like, radiant being, God the Shekinah glory, God the Holy Spirit dwelling in my spirit and I
talk to Him. Now that is not a perfect explanation; that is not exactly how it is. I do not know of a perfect word
picture or analogy, but that kind of gets you into the right framework. I think we are talking to a real Person
who is bigger than our descriptions.

G. Focusing on the Spirit will always lead us to glorify and obey Jesus and His Word (Jn. 16:14).
Some false religions speak of gazing into an internal light; they present a counterfeit, because they
neither possess the indwelling Spirit nor lead people to love and obey Jesus.
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“He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” (Jn. 16:14)

Whenever I talk about fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit, some people get all worried, which I actually
appreciate. I do not want to get so into the Holy Spirit that I forget Jesus. I think, “Good! I like that.” Believe it
or not, it is the Holy Spirit who is the Author of that zeal in you. There is nobody more zealous and loyal to
Jesus than the Holy Spirit. I promise you that if you talk to Him, He will be leading you into greater
understanding of Jesus’ glory and greater embracing of Jesus’ leadership and Word in your life. You will not
be led astray if you get into a conversation with God the Holy Spirit.
Now the reason some are worried when they first hear this is because some of the false world religions talk
about God as light dwelling in the human frame, every human frame. No, there is no light dwelling in a person
who is not born again. The light is only by the person of the Holy Spirit. Before the Holy Spirit comes to live in
us at the new birth, there is no light. There is no inner light to connect with; that is a counterfeit, and that is a
deception. Those religions do not have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not live in people in context to
those religions. The Holy Spirit is not leading people to Jesus in the theological framework of those false
religions. So we are not into that at all. That is not what I am talking about, and that is not what the Bible talks
about.
Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “I assure you, He will glorify Me. He will take what is Mine, He will take what
pertains to Me, and He will lead people to Me. He will only reveal what makes people more loyal to Me.” So we
are in good hands.
But I like it when people are a little nervous at the front end. I say, “That is good. Good, that is a good heart.
Holy Spirit is already working that in you.”

III. WALKING IN THE SPIRIT

A. Paul exhorted us to walk in the Spirit, promising that, if we do so, we shall not end up yielding to
the lustful desires of the flesh (Gal. 5:16).
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Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh [sinful desires]. (Gal. 5:16)

Galatians 5:16 is one of the great verses where there is a condition with a promise. The condition, walk in the
Spirit; the promise, you will overcome sinful desires. It does not mean they will all go away, but they will not
overcome you, they will not ensnare you, and they will not bring you into bondage.

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B. Walking in the Spirit is the primary way to walk in victory over our flesh. We are to put more focus
on walking in the Spirit than on denying sinful desires. The way to walk in freedom is by walking in
the Spirit, not by focusing on the desires themselves as we grit our teeth seeking to resist them. We
overcome darkness by turning on the light—focusing on Christ in us, our hope of glory (Col. 1:27).
Now what happens is there are a lot of people are very zealous for the Lord. They want to overcome. They do
not want to fulfill sinful, fleshly desires. Whether it is in the realm of immorality, or various things they put in
their body, or just different worldly values and experiences that are related to them, they do not want to fulfill
these desires. They do not want to walk in those actions; they do not want to be overcome by those desires.
What they do in their sincerity is put their energy and their focus into stopping the desire. So you know it is
almost like they are gritting their teeth and focusing on, “No! No, I am not going to do it… I am not going do
it…I am not going to do it… Ugh! I did it again.”

1. Paul did not promise us that all fleshly desires would be gone; he said we would have the
power to avoid yielding to them. The way to overcome the power of sinful desires is to grow
in our relationship with the Spirit by being actively engaged with Him.
Paul did not state the equation as “If you deny fleshly desires, you will not walk in the them.” There is a place
where we do deny them; that is a part, but that is not the primary thing. He says, essentially, “You walk in the
Spirit, and that is your focus, you will find yourself experiencing an influence on your mind and emotions that
will affect your body.” I do not mean all of your sinful desires will go away and you have no more temptation.
That is not what I am talking about. Paul says that if you walk in the Spirit, you turn your attention away from
trying to only resist bad desires, turning your attention to talking to the Spirit, interacting with that person who
lives in you, then you will find that His inspiration on your mind and emotions will effect what you do with your
body. Again it does not make every negative desire go away, but it gives you an inspiration, a motivation, and
an empowering to resist and overcome it.
You know the old analogy. You have probably heard it over the years, that if you have a room that is full of
darkness, you can’t open the window and take a bucket full of darkness and pour it out. The way you get
darkness out of a room is to turn the light on. The way you overcome darkness is to focus on light.

2. We walk in the Spirit to the degree that we talk to the Spirit. It is as simple as can be and is
accessible to every believer. We set our mind on Him and speak to Him (Rom. 8:6).
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The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life. (Rom. 8:6, NASB)

This is one of the most important practical statements in this particular teaching: We will walk in the Spirit to
the degree that we talk to the Spirit. If you will talk to the Holy Spirit, I mean in short, intermittent
conversations throughout the day, little phrases, just short little sound bites of conversation, you will increase
walking in the Spirit more and more. There are times you will talk to Him for sustained periods for five or ten
minutes or maybe for an hour. I am talking about lots of little ten- and twenty-second exchanges of you talking
to Him. It is as simple as that.
Yes, there is more that we walk out. We obey Him. We believe His Word, but it begins with talking, and that is
the core reality. I want to say it again. We will walk in the Spirit to the degree that we talk to the Spirit. Do you
talk to the Holy Spirit in a conscious, intentional way? You might answer, “No.” When was the last time you
talked directly to the Holy Spirit dwelling in your spirit? This is something you want to build a lifestyle around.

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Romans 8:6 in the New American Standard, the NAS: I remember in my early days how this verse just riveted
me. Paul talked about that the mind that is set on the flesh is death. The mind set on the Spirit—this is more
than just thinking about the things of the Spirit, though that is certainly included—it is the mind that is actually
set on a Person who dwells in you. I mean, yes, we set our mind on Jesus, and yes, we set our mind on the
Father who art in heaven who dwells on His throne in heaven. It is not like one is competing with the other.
God the Holy Spirit is always leading us to Jesus and to the Father, always. I remember how it was like the
light went on when I saw that verse in my college years. I remember I told everybody about the mind set on the
Spirit. I did not fully understand it, though actually it was more simple than I had thought. I asked everybody
what this meant. I was on a real search. I read commentaries, but nobody would talk about it; nobody
addressed it in the commentaries. I read many commentaries on Romans and asked a lot of people. Then after a
while I just concluded it meant the mind that is set on the Spirit; it meant just that. I thought, “Oh, okay. It’s just
that simple. Okay, got it.” It had seemed more complicated to me.

IV. TALKING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

A. In prayer we can focus our mind on God in two ways—on the Father, who sits on His throne
(Rev. 4), and on God the Holy Spirit, who lives in our spirit (Rom. 8:9).
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“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven…” (Mt. 6:9)
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The Spirit of God dwells in you…10If Christ is in you…the Spirit is life… (Rom. 8:9-10)

We focus our mind on God in prayer in two ways. One, we focus our mind on the Father who sits on His throne.
As we are worshipping Jesus, obviously we focus our mind on Jesus, but my point is that in prayer we are going
to God in heaven and we are also talking to God who dwells in us. There are two different directions. When I
dwell on God who is in heaven and the Son at the right hand, and I worship the worthiness of the Son at His
right hand, my mind is going out and up. There is other times my mind is going internally, not to myself, not to
some human thing, but to God the Holy Spirit who dwells in my spirit. I am talking to the Holy Spirit in prayer.

B. The Spirit longs for us to talk with Him, but He will not force conversation or friendship on those
who are not interested. When we talk to Him, He will “talk back” to us. Once we begin the
conversation, He will continue it as long as we do.
The Holy Spirit longs for us to talk with Him. Here is the deal. He will not force the conversation. If you do not
talk to the Holy Spirit today, then He is not going to force you into a friendship. As long as you talk, He will
keep the conversation going. As long as you are interested in the conversation, He will keep it going. You will
talk to him, He will be attentively listening, and He will be intermittently inspiring thoughts and touching you. I
do not mean that every time we quiet ourselves and talk to the Holy Spirit we feel it, but He is always attentive
is what I mean. He is engaged with us.

C. Often when He “talks,” He does not use audible words but gives us impressions, sensitizing our
emotions so we can feel His nearness, or speaks through His Word. He gives subtle impressions that
release His power on our minds and hearts. God leads us by the still, small voice in our inner man—
the still, small voice He used to speak to Elijah (1 Kgs. 19:11-13).
Often when He speaks He does not use audible words. Every now and then He may, but that is very rare.
Rather, He gives impressions, He sensitizes our emotions so we feel His nearness, or we feel inspired,
emboldened, resolved to obey. He speaks through His Word. So we are reading His Word, and the Word seems

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alive to us; that is God the Holy Spirit talking to us through the written Word. He gives us subtle impressions
that release power on our mind and our emotions. Beloved, the power that touches your emotions is God the
Holy Spirit. Even though it is a small measure, it is God at work in you.
Elijah was talking to the Lord, and the Lord spoke to him. He said, “Elijah, I am not in the storm or the
earthquake.” He said, “I speak to you in the still, small voice.” Now God does speak in the earthquake and the
storm sometimes, but the norm is the whisper, meaning the inspiring of our mind and of our emotions that is
gentle but distinct. It is not all the time, all day, but those moments when we feel tenderized or resolved to obey
or resolved to believe or emboldened.

D. Augustine testified that he lost much time seeking the Lord outwardly instead of turning inward.
I like what Augustine said. He was called one of the greatest teachers in church history and lived in the 400s.
Augustine said he lost much time seeking the Lord outwardly instead of turning inwardly. I am sure he would
have more to say than that. I think there is a lot to be gained by worshipping the Lord out and up at His throne.
I love that “Revelation 4 throne of God” coming before Him, and that is biblical and that is glorious. I am sure
that Augustine would affirm that, but he is making a powerful point here about seeking the Spirit within.

V. GET STARTED

A. I suggest being intentional about talking to the Spirit—start by setting time aside three to five times
each day, aiming to speak to Him directly three to five minutes each time. If we talk to the Spirit
only when we are tempted, rather than as a lifestyle, then we will not sustain our dialogue with Him.
How do we get started? I suggest that this is just a framework. Don’t pull out your stopwatch and time it or
anything. I encourage people to be intentional about this. Take a couple times a day, two or three times a day,
three, four, or five times a day, whatever, and take two, three, four minutes each time. I mean don’t start at two
hours; that is the real point I am making. Do not just let it happen when it happens. Say, “I am going to do this
a couple times a day. I am going to stop what I am doing for a couple minutes, and I am going to turn my
attention inwardly, and I am going to talk to a person. I am going to share my heart with Him and ask Him to
touch me.”
Often when I am driving back and forth from the Red Bridge Center to here, five minutes driving by myself, I
talk to the Holy Spirit, just in little five- and seven-minute time frames. I engage in my F-E-L-L-O-W-S-H-I-P
prayer, those ten prayers to strengthen our inner man, or the five letters of the acronym T-R-U-S-T that we are
going to look at in a moment. It is so simple. That is why we are not spending a lot of time on it; there is not
much to it. It is quite simple to do it. I take just that five minutes, and I talk to the Holy Spirit.

B. At first it may be difficult to bring your mind to focus on the indwelling Spirit. As you do it more
often, you will become accustomed to withdrawing inwardly to speak to the Spirit. If your mind
wanders, simply turn it back to the indwelling Spirit again.

C. We practice the presence of God, knowing that it takes time to grow in our sense of connectedness
with the indwelling Spirit. The more I speak directly to Him in private, the more I sense His
presence in my public life with others.

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D. Linger in God’s presence: In dialoguing with the indwelling Spirit, take time to linger, speaking
slowly to Him. Include declarations of your love for Him. Speak slowly, with occasional whispers
of “I love You, Holy Spirit,” while gently and intermittently praying in the Spirit. Do not rush, and
do not be wordy. He enjoys us when we recognize His indwelling presence. I know this, because I
can feel His pleasure when I acknowledge Him. I linger with my attention turned inward to Him.
I encourage people: when you do this, linger in His presence. When you are talking to the Holy Spirit, do not
get in a hurry. As you are speaking to Him, and you are speaking specifically to Him—which we are going to
get to in a moment—just every now and then occasionally whisper statements of affection. “I love You, Holy
Spirit. I enjoy Your presence. I love Your leadership.” So as you are asking Him to release His glory or to teach
you, just every now and then express your affection for His leadership and His very presence in you. Then just
gently and intermittently pray in the Holy Spirit when you are doing that, just mixing it all up together. Do not
be in a rush; do not be wordy. He enjoys it when we recognize His presence.

E. As I speak to the Holy Spirit, I do not fire off my prayers in rapid succession; I speak short, simple
phrases to Him, slowly and softly. It is important to wait with a listening heart. Sometimes I will
gently sigh as I pray with subtle “groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26) in between
moments of total silence. I do this much more than I speak words.
When I speak to the Holy Spirit I do not do rapid-fire prayer. “God-Holy-Spirit-release-Your-glory-blah-bah-
dah-blah-bah-dah.”
The Holy Spirit would say, “I am with you. I can talk faster than you.”
The reason I encourage people to dial down is because you will feel a lot more, you will feel a whole lot more
when you do not have so much traffic going on in your soul. You are not so expressive, but you are more
receptive. I find it best when I am just whispering intermittent phrases to Him, short simple phrases, slowly,
softly, where I am not stirring my soul up in a really over-aggressive mode. I can hear and receive far more in
the other posture of being dialed-down. Sometimes I will just gently sigh. In Romans 8, Paul calls it groaning
that cannot be uttered. Sometimes there are those groans or sighs that come out. I talk softly and slowly, with
short phrases. I do that much more than lots of words and lots of talking.

F. One of my favorite prayers—the one I use most often—is asking the Spirit to let me see what He
sees and feel what He feels about my life, my family, and other people, as well as what He sees and
feels about Jesus, the Church, the great harvest, the nations, the end times, and so on.
One of my very favorite prayers, at the very top of the list—I have shared it many times over the years—I love to
ask, “Holy Spirit, let me see what You see and let me feel what You feel about…” and you could put one of a
thousand subjects in there. I love to ask the Holy Spirit, “Lord let me see what You see and let me feel what You
feel about the students at IHOPU, about my neighbors, about the world economy, about my adversaries. How
do You feel about them?” He feels a lot more generous than we do about that person who is bothering us or
blocking our goals or the person who is stepping in line to take our position. The Holy Spirit feels a lot
differently about those kinds of people than we do. “What do You think about Europe? What do You think about
the police force in our city? What do You think about” any subject? He knows everything about everything.

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VI. T-R-U-S-T

I use a five-letter acronym, T-R-U-S-T, to help me focus. I try to pray through this on a daily basis.
You do not limit your talking to the Holy Spirit to these five, but they are just a good jumpstart; it is a good
place to start you off. I do not by any means limit myself to this, but often when I start my prayer time, it is like
Smith Wigglesworth said—he was a famous healing evangelist in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s—he would say,
“I begin in the flesh, and I end in the Spirit.” What he meant by “I begin in the flesh,” is that I begin without
feeling anything, without a sense of inspiration.
I just start talking to the Lord, and over a little bit of time I feel inspired, though not every time. So I begin
without inspiration, and then a few moments later, not every time but sometimes, I feel inspired. I begin in the
flesh and end in the Spirit. I have heard that quote from Smith Wigglesworth many times over the years.
Well, this five-letter acronym, T-R-U-S-T, helps me to focus. I try to pray it on a daily basis, try to pray it a
couple of times. I can pray it in five minutes, a minute for each one. You do not have to wait for two hours, but
you may get focused on one of the letters and you do not have to finish the list. The Holy Spirit just loves talking
to you. He does not care if you finish the list; He does not care if you get off the subject. He really likes you, and
He has a lot to say to you, but He will not force you to talk to Him.

T: Thank You

The first thing is to turn our attention inward to recognize the Spirit’s presence and simply thank
Him for His indwelling presence. I say, “Thank You, Spirit, for Your presence in my spirit.”
Occasionally add affectionate phrases like, “I love You, Holy Spirit, and I enjoy Your presence.”
First I start with “Thank you.” I turn my attention inwardly—we are going to do this in a moment for our short
ministry time—I turn my attention inwards, and I recognize, acknowledge, His presence. Again—I mean it’s an
inadequate picture, but it is the best way for me to describe it—I picture that glorious, diamond-like radiance of
God, like the burning bush of Moses, dwelling in my belly, in my human spirit. I do not mean in my physical
part, but am talking about in my human spirit. I turn my attention inward, and when I first begin to do this it
was a little awkward. I could not really connect with it, but I found if you stay with it the sense of
connectedness, the sense of feeling the inspiration, will grow. It will grow if you stay with it, because the Holy
Spirit wants to help you do this.
I have talked to the Holy Spirit a number of times. I would say, “Holy Spirit, teach me how to fellowship with
the Holy Spirit, really.”
He would say, “Oh, I am really good at that! I can tell you a lot about how to do that.”
I say, “I want to know how to fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Would You show me? Would You take me by the
hand and lead me?”
Anyway, back to Paragraph, T., thank you. So I will just turn my attention—and I do not get in a big hurry—
“Thank You, thank You that You are there.” Again, in the imperfect way, I am just gazing into that Shekinah
Glory, and just intermittently, just every now and then, I will just say a phrase, “I love Your leadership.” “I
love Your presence.” “I enjoy You, thank You, God the Holy Spirit.” “You are in me. Wow, thank You!” I know
He likes it because just in my human senses when I do that, not every time, but sometimes, I feel His presence. I
think, “Oh, what is that?”
I am just imagining He is saying, “I like you talking this way. I like it when you talk to Me this way.”

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I encourage you to do this. I love just to lock into the first T, the “Thank You.” Just stay there for a while; pray
in the Spirit a little bit; just be kind of quiet; again do not kick into rapid fire, but just kind of linger there. Stay
there a minute or two, stay there three or four minutes, or maybe stay there five or ten minutes. Sometimes you
will stay there for long periods of time. I do not want to put out some big number and then that is the new “gold
standard” to reach if you are really deep. Forget all that! Just start. Start little, and some seasons you will
sustain it more, and then other seasons you kind of lose your grip on this. Then you recommit, go back and sign
up again. At least that has been my experience.

R: Release revelation of Your glory

Paul prayed that the Father of glory release the spirit of revelation to His people (Eph. 1:17). Moses
prayed, “Please, show me Your glory” (Ex. 33:18). Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to see the
realm of God’s glory, that you may encounter more of His glory and heart.
R, I ask Him to release the revelation of His glory, that whole realm of His glory. The Holy Spirit is our escort
into the realm of the glory of God. I want to see the heavenly, supernatural realm. I mean only God the Spirit
can bring you into that realm in a right and a godly way. I know there is the demonic counterfeit, but I am
talking about in a holy, biblical, wholesome way. So I ask Him, “Let me see Your glory. Let me encounter Your
glory.” I mean there are so many ways that believers have encountered the glory of God in direct, supernatural
encounters. I say, “I do not care how, I just want more of those. I want little ones, big ones, dramatic ones, and
subtle ones. I want more of the realm of Your glory. Father of glory, let me have revelation of You, and
encounter You. Open my eyes in dreams and visions and dramatic encounters. I will trust Your leadership. If I
do not have them very often”—which I do not—“then I trust Your leadership, but I want them.”

U: Use me

Paul exhorted us to seek diligently to be used in the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1). The
Spirit promised to release His gifts through every believer (Acts 2:17-21; 1 Cor. 12:7). Thank the
Holy Spirit for His gifts and ask Him to release them to you in a greater measure. Ask Him to give
impressions to you to bless people, that you may be a vessel of His presence to glorify Jesus.
U, use me. The Bible tells us that we are to seek diligently the gifts of the Holy Spirit. People have said, “We
are suppose to seek His face and not His hand.” That is not true. We are to seek His face and His hand, and we
are to seek His face first. The statement, “Seek His face, not His hand” is not a biblical statement at all. We
seek His face first, but we also seek His hand diligently.
Paul said to diligently seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit and desire them. One of the most diligent ways is by
asking. I ask the Holy Spirit, “Give me impressions. Give me impressions, subtle impressions.” That is the
foundational way the gifts of the Holy Spirit operate, not the only way, but the day-in, day-out, core,
foundational way.
He will give you an impression. You will be talking to your friend, and you will just have, not even necessarily a
whole sentence, but a phrase or an impression, a picture. You will say it to them. You do not even have to say,
“God showed me…” As a matter of fact I encourage people not to say “God…” but just say it to them, “You
know I am going to pray that the Lord is going to have a breakthrough in this area of your life…”
They reply, “Hey, that is the very area I am praying for.”

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I mean you do not have to say, “God showed me this is the area.” Just tell them, “I am going to pray for that
area.”
They may say, “How did you know? That is the very area…” It’s okay if then you say that God showed you, but
you do not have to say that.
If you say, “God showed me” too many times, people quit listening to you. You can do it supernaturally natural.
You can ask for impressions and phrases and just put them into the conversation. Say, “Hey, I want to pray this
over you.” You can say that this is something that you believe the Lord is going to emphasize in their life or He
is going to show them more of.
They may say, “Wow,” not always, as sometimes it will not mean anything to them, and other times it will mean
something to them later. You flow in the gifts by starting off saying those phrases and then more happens if you
stay with it. That is why I encourage people in ministry time just to come up and try it, not just in friendship
groups or home groups or just in social events, but anytime ask the Holy Spirit for impressions.
I say, “Holy Spirit, use me. Let me see what you see, feel what You feel.” For the leadership meeting I am going
to go to in a few minutes, right before I go I will pray, “Just give me a phrase, give me a feeling, give me a
picture.” I do not have to verbalize to everyone exactly what I saw, but I operate on it. I will say something
related to it.
Again I will say something like, “I think the Lord wants us to highlight this.” Or often I will just pray it over
people, or I will inject an idea into the conversation.
Sometimes people say, “Well, that is the Lord,” and other times they say, “That was really dumb,” and
sometimes it was dumb. I want to keep growing in it; I want to keep doing it. I ask the Holy Spirit, “Use me. I
want those impressions.”

S: Strengthen me

The Spirit will strengthen our inner man by touching our minds and emotions with the might of His
presence. We can draw on His strength by thanking Him for the reality of His power that is already
in our born-again spirit. Because the Spirit lives in us, the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, and
so on—is in our spirit now. We can experience more of the power of this fruit by thanking Him that
it is already in us.
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…to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. (Eph. 3:16)
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The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
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gentleness, self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23)

S, strengthen me. In our last session we talked about ten prayers using the acronym FELLOWSHIP, in session
four of our Part Two series on Growing in Prayer. I gave ten prayers related to the acronym FELLOWSHIP. So
when I get to “S” here, and I ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen me, I might go into a few of those ten prayers
related to the acronym FELLOWSHIP or maybe I will just say, “Holy Spirit, strengthen me with might.”
Galatians 5:22-23 is not just about doing, but also asking for the strength that is in our spirit to inspire our
emotions and our mind. That is what we are asking. We are asking Him to strengthen our inner man; we are
asking for the power that is already in our spirit to impact our emotions and our thinking. In Galatians 5:22-23,
Paul says that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, etc. These are nine different results of the Holy
Spirit.

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Beloved, all of those nine virtues are already dwelling in your spirit from the day that you were born again, the
fullness of them. The power to love and the power for peace are already fully in your spirit man. The problem is
you want that power to touch your mind and emotions. It is not enough that it is in my spirit; I want it in my
mind and emotions. One way we do this is we thank the Holy Spirit for the strength that is in us. I do not mean
it is the strength that is in my mind and emotions; it is the strength that is in my spirit. I say, “Holy Spirit, thank
You for strength, thank You for love, thank You for peace.”
You will be in a disturbing situation where your mind is troubled and your emotions are starting to get in a
storm. Just retreat inwardly. Say, “Thank You for peace.” Just by thanking Him for the peace, the strength that
is already in your spirit will affect your soul, your mind, and emotions.

T: Teach me

The Spirit is the Teacher who leads us into God’s will and ways so that we are able to live in
partnership with God. We ask the Spirit to teach us about God’s Word, will, and ways by giving us
wisdom and creative ideas for every area of our life, including how to steward our money, excel in a
career, manage our time, prosper in relationships (in our family, church, workplace, etc.), function
in ministry, and walk in purity and health (physically and emotionally). He will guide us in ways
that help us walk in holiness, have health in our bodies, and so on.
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“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit…He will teach you all things.” (Jn. 14:26)

T, teach me. The Holy Spirit is the teacher who leads us into God’s ways, God’s Word, and God’s will, all of
those things. The Holy Spirit came to teach us. Again I love to say this: He knows everything about everything.
He has created ideas for you, for every area of your life. He can teach you how to steward your money better.
He can teach you how to excel in your career and how to manage your time. Ask Him how. Say, “Holy Spirit, I
want wisdom in my relationships”—whether in the home, in the office, the school just all of your relationships,
the hard ones, the easy ones, the new ones, the old ones—He knows about all of your relationships.
Say, “Teach me, tell me how to walk in purity. Tell me how to walk in health.” He knows about your diet. He
knows about your exercise. He knows about your sleeping patterns. You know people say that their sleep is all
messed up. Ask the Holy Spirit. I mean I am all for searching out what science and natural facts are, but ask the
Holy Spirit. Say, “Give me a phrase, give me a key about why I cannot sleep, and why I do not have energy.
Speak to me.”
Again, there are physical and natural laws that are good to know and follow. I mean they are very important to
know and participate with, not just good to do. The Holy Spirit often will give you a phrase. He may not give it
to you right away, but He will. Sometimes it is through the lips of somebody else, sometimes it is through a book
you are reading, and there it is. You say, “Thank You, Holy Spirit.”
Amen, let’s stand. We are going to talk to the Holy Spirit for a just a few moments, just for two or three minutes
here. I like looking out there because a bunch of you are smiling right now. No, actually smiles. There you go,
good, good. “Holy Spirit, we are going to do it,” that is how I interpret that smile. Some of you might be
smiling as in “We are finally done” but anyway…just kidding! No, I can see some of you have that anticipation,
“I want to do this. I want to do this.”
Let’s just close our eyes for a moment. I mean, you don’t have to close your eyes to do this, but I find it
sometimes good just to get rid of the distractions. But that is not good when you are driving; keep the eyes open
when you do this. When I drive home, I keep my eyes open when I do this.

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Okay now, just focus your mind inwardly; you are talking to God the Holy Spirit, that burning bush that Moses
saw, dwelling in your spirit, right in your belly King James says. Again that is not perfect language, but just
lock in there. There is radiant, glorious being.
So we are going to do T, start with the first T. “Thank You, Holy Spirit.” Just kind of whisper it. Do not say a
lot of words at once, just, “Thank You, Holy Spirit, You are there…I love Your leadership…I love Your
presence.” Some of you just want to go like, yeah. Go ahead, you can do that. When I kick into that, I mean go
into that mode, that “Ohh,” even just those short little sighs, sometimes it is just the Holy Spirit connecting with
you as Paul talked about in Romans 8. “Thank You, Holy Spirit, You are here.”
There is R, the revelation of His glory. “Escort me into the experiences of glory of God. Holy Spirit, lead me,
lead me, lead me into all truth,” That is the T at the end of TRUST. Right now I am talking about wanting
encounters with the angelic realm, the glory of God, the throne realm. “I want to see the angels ascend and
descend as Jesus said.” Again I am talking way too much. If I were talking to the Holy Spirit, I would speak
way less than that, way less than that. “I want to experience Your glory. Usher me in.”
The next one in TRUST is U: use me. “Holy Spirit, give me impressions. Let me see visions. Let me be a
blessing to speak those phrases that unlock the power of God in people’s lives. Use me in the gifts. Lord, You
said that the sons and daughters will all see visions; give me those short, mental visions or those open visions,
either one. Let me operate in the gifts of the Spirit.” Again, I would speak way less if I were talking to the Lord.
I would pause in between each one of those phrases.
Now we are at the fourth letter, S: strengthen me. “Thank You for strength in my spirit. Thank You. Strengthen
my inner man. Cause my mind and emotions to be inspired by Your strength. Strengthen me.” Again at this time
I might go into a few of the acronym phrases for FELLOWSHIP, a few of those. “Unite my heart to fear Your
name. Strengthen my inner man.”
Every few moments you might just say, “I love You, Holy Spirit. I love Your leadership. I want to feel Your
presence.” Just those words of affirmation. Every now and then you pray in the spirit a little bit and just be
quiet for a moment, you know, thirty or forty seconds or longer. Those little sighs that you feel like, “Oh,” those
groans that are just very subtle. Many times they are subtle; sometimes they are far more overt.
Then T: teach me. “O teach me about the Word! Show me the Word. Teach me about Your ways for my body,
for my schedule, my time, my money. Teach me.” Again that is too many phrases in one sentence when you are
talking to Him. “Teach me, Holy Spirit.” Amen and amen, and just do that over, thousands and thousands of
times over the next years.

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