Hans Hopgood teaches on the Holy Spirit as God's presence and helper on earth
A sermon and communion service at Rivers Apostolic Centre, featuring a teaching by Hans Hopgood on the Holy Spirit, followed by a farewell interview marking his gradual transition to full-time ministry in the north Brisbane mountains.
Summary
This episode opens with a communion service led by the host, Rory, drawing from Isaiah 53 to invite the congregation into soul healing through the cross. Rory then leads the offering with a reading from 2 Corinthians 9, emphasising generous and cheerful giving. A significant portion of the episode is an interview with Hans Hopgood, a long-serving member and worship leader at Rivers Apostolic Centre, in which Rory draws out the story of Hans and his wife Naomi's calling to establish an altar and missional community in the mountains north of Brisbane — a journey that began with a prophetic encounter around Ezekiel 40–47. Hans then delivers a substantial teaching on the Holy Spirit, arguing that the Holy Spirit is God's present-day presence on earth, the sustainer of all life and breath in creation, and the appointed helper — the ezer — given to humanity to fulfil its mandate to govern the earth as the Father governs heaven.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Opening Prayer and Communion
Rory: We are not alone. Thank you, Jesus, that you are our comfort. Thank you, Jesus, that you always hold us close. We thank you for the writings of David, Lord — Psalm 23 — that you are with us, that you are for us, that you are our shepherd, that our cup overflows. We walk in victory because of what you've done for us, and we worship you and we glorify your holy name this morning. We exalt you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord, that you are our victory, that you are our strength, that you are our fortress, you are our strong tower. And because of you, our cup overflows.
What a beautiful presence of God this morning, and just a real strong action from the Lord to bring some scriptures around the way that he loves us and the way that he comforts our souls.
In the Word, in Isaiah 53 — we were in Isaiah 54 last week — you might want to just rest and close your eyes and hear the Word this morning instead of looking it up. It says this:
"Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been disclosed? For the servant of God grew up before him like a tender plant and like a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected, forsaken by men, a man of sorrows and pains and acquainted with grief and sickness. And like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we did not appreciate his worth or have any esteem for him. Surely he has borne our griefs. He was oppressed, afflicted. He was submissive and opened not his mouth — like a lamb to the slaughter, and a sheep before her shearers is done, so he opened not his mouth."
And then skipping down to verse 11:
"He shall see the fruit and the prevail of his soul and be satisfied by the knowledge of himself with which he possesses and imparts to others. Shall my uncompromisingly righteous one, my servant Jesus, justify many?"
Such a powerful scripture — a prophecy of the Lord to come. The one who would present before his disciples a table for them to remember who he was and what he did, and what his body and his blood did.
I felt very strongly from the Lord in the last few days that the Lord wanted to remind us that the cross brought us right standing with him. But he also died that our souls might be healed and saved. While there is absolute precedence in the Word of God — and we've seen this over and again — for physical healing, these verses pertain to the healing of the soul. And he alone brings healing to the soul.
Our bodies can be in a not-great shape. We think of Joni Eareckson Tada for those who are in the older spaces, and then we think of Nick Vujicic — a young man who has no arms and no legs — and yet his soul prospers. His soul prospers.
I really felt this morning there was an invitation from the Lord to say: is your soul prospering? In the book of 3 John, there is a message of encouragement, a letter of encouragement, and he says, "I pray that you would prosper in all things as your soul prospers." And these verses of prophecy in Isaiah 53 are about a man who came and chose to die that our souls may prosper. Our souls may prosper.
There is healing to be had in our souls. There's a shift, there's a change, there's a prosperity that can happen in our souls that we as believers get to have that other people don't get to have. And it's a great privilege for us to be able to be healed internally — that we might prosper regardless of the state of our bodies.
So today I thought that the invitation from Jesus was to remind you — and to remind us personally — that he was bruised, that he was broken, but that he identifies with every soul pain that anybody on the planet has ever had. He desires that as your soul prospers, all should prosper. So pain, or rejection, or grief, or shame, or offense, or barrenness, or bitterness, or any other thing that comes our way — Jesus died for that. He died that you may be free from all past pain, all past hurts.
I stand today as probably somebody who can very much testify to that. And what cannot be achieved in a therapist's, a counsellor's, or a psychologist's office for the rest of your life can be achieved in a few short hours in dealing with the Holy Spirit of God. So I want to encourage you that anything — it doesn't matter what somebody's done to you or what you've done to somebody — it can all be healed. It was all taken on the cross. And as the Word said to us this morning, even the consequences of the sins were taken by Jesus.
So let's stand together this morning. I'm going to ask Dave to come and break the bread. And Malcolm and Graham, if they could break the bread — these men are elders in the house. And as you come forward this morning, I'd like to invite you to really accept the invitation of the cross, which is that your soul would be healed.
We as Christians can get past this a little bit and say it doesn't matter about soulish things. It matters a lot about soulish things. The way your soul is, is the way that you respond to God, the way you respond to yourself, and the way you respond to other people. And we have this opportunity to be free. To be free.
So let's come forward and let's take this bread and drink of the cup. And let's remember that there is a way for our souls to be healed and to be free from all pain, all grief, all insecurity, all past wrongs — whether it was you or somebody who did that to you. We have freedom on this table. A table of freedom. Thank you, Jesus.
Let's just take this as a holy moment. Allow people to have dealings with the Holy Spirit. You can take this on your own today. Our souls are our responsibility before the Lord. So let's just quietly take our elements and head back and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work that he would like to do, and give him room to do that. Thank you, Jesus.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows and pains. Yet we considered him stricken and smitten and afflicted by God. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities. The chastisement needed to obtain peace and wellbeing for us was upon him. And with his stripes, in him, we are healed and made whole. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.
Offering — 2 Corinthians 9
Rory: Good morning, church. How are we doing today? Good to see you. I'm going to read the Word. Everybody lift up your Bibles, and if you've got a phone, go to a Bible app so you don't feel the need to text or check emails in the middle of the scriptures.
I'm reading from 2 Corinthians. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. He had a few issues with them, but he got over them because they did what he said. So regarding the offering — I'm not taking this out of context, but I am starting with a "therefore." And every time you see a "therefore" in the scriptures, you've got to look and see what it's there for, because it's context and it will help you understand whatever passage it is. So when you see a "therefore," never start at a "therefore" — except for today we will.
2 Corinthians 9, verse 5:
"Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation."
Not grudging obligation — "We gave last week, we gave at that missions thing, they're not going to do it this year." Let's go on.
"But this I say: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver."
A cheerful giver. Have you ever fallen over laughing bringing down your offering? God would love that. It's here in the book.
"And God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written, he who disperses abroad, he has given to the poor — his righteousness endures forever."
"Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for the eater..."
So don't eat your seed and sow your bread. Eat your bread, which is your source of supply, and sow your seed. Throw your bread upon the waters, Ecclesiastes says, and after many days it will come back to you — I imagine very soggy. However:
"May he who supplies — this is God — seed to the sower and bread for your food, may he supply and multiply the seed that you have sown."
God is into multiplication. That's the name of the game. Each generation. He is a bountiful, amazingly abundant God who is well able to increase your fruit of righteousness.
"So while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God."
And Paul goes on writing about the importance of a generous spirit.
I've got to say, this church is extravagantly generous. So this word is in no way a rebuke or a manipulation or a hint or any such thing. It's just the Word of God, that you might be blessed and that you might recognise that what you sow will return unto you every time. But God's not in a hurry, because he is the Ancient of Days. So he can take all the time he wants, but he's never late. He's never, never late. When the person is ready, the multiplication arrives. Hallelujah.
So with that, I'm going to take up tithes and offerings. That passage that I just read was about ministering into the hearts and lives of others as a matter of generosity, not grudgingly. If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. So let each one give according to the purpose in his heart, not grudgingly, but cheerfully. Let the Lord speak to your soul. We're not coming to your house to knock on your door to make you give, because we don't even know who's giving.
Father, we have cause to give you great thanksgiving over the missions giving in this house, over tithes and offerings and first fruits and alms to the poor and missions giving that has been extravagant from this number of people. And we bless your name and we thank you, Lord. I pray that according to your Word — Lord, this is your Word, that you have said that if we sow bountifully we will also reap bountifully — so Father, I ask for a bounty to come into this house. For individuals, for families, for needs to be met, that you would increase exponentially businesses in this place. Father, I thank you and I give you praise in Jesus' name.
You have no idea where your coin ends up. You have no idea where it goes around the world, who it blesses, and it comes back to you multiplied according to God's economy. It's amazing.
Interview with Hans Hopgood — His Calling and Transition
Rory: Hans is going to bring the word today. I call him Hunzi. His real name is Hans. But I do understand that you would be Lord Hans Hopgood. Is that right? Because you bought a bit of dirt. A little piece of land in Scotland, so you can put Lord on your passport. Lady Naomi is around here as well. That's awesome. So what about Matilda? Does she get a title? Princess? We're watching her.
I'm just going to do a brief interview with Hans today before he brings us the word. I'm kind of a watcher. I watch a lot. And I've watched you over the last few years. I see God has done an amazing work in your life — and that's not just over the last few years, we've heard your testimony, it started some time ago. But would you care to make a few comments on some of the things that the Lord's been doing in your life, apart from what we can see here and your great contribution to the house?
Hans Hopgood: I've been sharing a bit of our journey woven in and out of the preaching I've done here before. So I think there's also a sense that you guys know that we live on the north side, about an hour and a quarter away from here. Four and a half years ago, we moved up. We received a commissioning word from the Lord out of the book of Ezekiel — Ezekiel chapters 40 to 47 — which is the vision that Ezekiel has of the temple. That's his commissioning word. And we received that commissioning to our spirits whilst we were living in Wynnum, having our first child, thinking that we would be living in Wynnum forever, learning how to be parents for the first time.
We received an encounter where the Lord spoke to us really stirringly about Ezekiel. Ezekiel gets commissioned from a whirlwind from the north that comes, and he commissions him as a prophet. And then he has this incredible vision. We received that as an encounter whilst we were living in Wynnum. And then not long after that, we came into this house and Rory was preaching. This is 2020. She was preaching a three-part series — a corrective word on the prophetic — because we all know that 2016 to 2019 to 2020 in the world of the prophetic in the charismatic church was just wild and out of control. And so Rory was navigating all of that and bringing us back to the Word and how prophetic the Word is.
In one of her sermons, she said, "Let's get back to the basics. Let's forego all the subjective prophetic stuff and take the scriptures, because they in themselves are prophetic." And so at the end of that preach, as a tongue-in-cheek prophetic act, she goes, "Who wants a prophetic word then?" And a bunch of hands go up and my hand goes up. And she walks over to me and she rips out pages of the Bible to enforce her point — "This is your prophetic word, get in the Word." And we're all laughing, and it was a great day if any of you remember it.
And to my amazement, as I look down, I'm holding not a page more, not a page less — Ezekiel chapters 40 to 47. And I have them here. We framed them because they were commissioned. They're hanging on our wall. And it was such a powerful moment.
Like I said, we were just about to become first-time parents. We were in Wynnum. And the Lord, through a whole bunch of signs, wonders, and miracles, led us up to the north side of Brisbane into the mountains, far away from anyone — even from people who live up in north Brisbane. And we thought, what on earth are we doing here? And we bought a house that I didn't like, and it had a tractor shed on it, and you've all heard the story. And we started with an altar in the tractor shed right there.
We had dreams, we had encounters, we had all kinds of things whilst we were there. But we started this altar not knowing what the Lord was going to do. And slowly, people just started coming and worshipping with us. And that small altar — as happens when you start an altar — people gather around it. And people have been gathering, and over four and a half years we've watched what is a tractor shed now growing. We have a significant number of young people and families who are watching us as well, who are looking to us, who attend faithfully, families who are now saying to us that they'd like to jump on board. We've wrapped an entity around that. We are now a charity with an ABN and we are signed up and ready to go. And so the Lord has just been slowly growing this work up our way.
Rory: So you've been doing that as well as being here — like almost if the doors are open, you're here. Well done, Hans. There's an inevitability that you can't sustain coming down here for an hour and a quarter if the traffic's good. There's an inevitability that as the Lord has led you there, he's going to continue to bring you there and you're going to be spending more time there than down here.
I'd like to remind you that when you first came here — how many years ago?
Hans Hopgood: Eight.
Rory: Eight years ago. I was watching Hans and I saw the anointing on his life. As I watched him, I knew that there was an anointing on his life to lead worship. And the more I watched and listened and chatted with him, I understood there was also an anointing for preaching the Word. And so I wanted to give a space for that. But I didn't know him, and I didn't know he was living down in Wynnum at that stage and thinking about going further on.
I thought I'd like to do that, but you know what — you can sink a lot of time and effort and it doesn't actually help in building the church. It builds the kingdom, and that's always good. So it's never wasted, never wasted. But there are times when you've also got to focus on what's happening in the locality. You'll understand that for those of you who are in leadership.
And so I talked to Hans over coffee. I said, "Hans, I want to have a chat with you, mate. I'd really like to give you the opportunity to preach because I think you're carrying something good. But I don't want to open that up and you preach so well that it draws people to you, and we end up with half the church going up wherever." So I had this conversation — I'm pretty upfront with things. And I said to Hans, "How long can you see yourself with us for? Would you give us two years?" He said, "Oh, yeah." And so now you've stayed for?
Hans Hopgood: Eight.
Rory: Eight? So what, can't you find your way home?
Hans Hopgood: Well, we didn't know what was happening with what the Lord was calling us to up there. It was as much a surprise to us as it was to anyone. And as we went up there, your logical thought is, "Well, I guess we're there. I guess our time at Rivers is going to come to an end because we can't sustain that." So we went up there, we started doing what we were doing. And it never made sense to let go of this community. We just had no peace about it. The whole scenario didn't make sense, but it didn't make sense to let go here either.
And then as we've journeyed on — pioneering, and just the dryness and the "get your pitchforks out and strike the ground" kind of work — it has made total sense to be here. Because this is a place of strengthening, this is a place of refreshing, this is a place of solid ground. And anyone who is going to be missional, or is going to go out, or is thinking of starting something, should build from a base that is supportive and refreshing. A place where you can get filled up, a place where anyone can get counsel, have people watch over them. When you walk in the doors and you don't look right, someone to say, "Are you okay? Is everything going okay up there? Do you need some prayer?" And yeah, we need that kind of thing.
So it has made total sense to hold the tension of the two — to grow in our gifts here, grow in teaching. I knew I had somewhat of a teaching gift, maybe more prophetic leaning, but in this house the teaching gift has just come alive. And I didn't even know I had that in me. And that's what happens when you're in environments with other people — other gifts, other anointings start to come up to the surface. And it's been a joy to watch how the Lord has equipped us now to continue to build and grow what we're doing up there.
Rory: So, Hans, last question, because I know you want to preach up a storm. What does it look like for us going into the future — your connection here as well as increasing up there? Because the anointing that's on your life and what you're building up there is going to become significant. It's actually past the north side of Brisbane, and there's going to be a great significance on that, I feel. And it just so happens that we love you, and I'm a bit pipped in the best possible way, because we do love you but we also release the gift that God has put there. We see that as the kingdom moving, and so we release that gift. You can't possibly sustain all that you're doing now. But I know that our connection will go on forever — till we kick the bucket or Jesus comes back or whatever. So what does it look like, gradually perhaps removing some of your responsibilities from here so that you can continue to build? What does that look like?
Hans Hopgood: You'd all know that our posture — even our theology, even the way that we view God — has come out of what we've learned from Ezekiel 47, the river that flows from the temple. I've taught it here a bunch of times. I believe strongly in the very slow and purposeful movement of God in building very, very slowly. And we've allowed the Lord to do that. We've certainly had times of rushes of favour up there where people come because there's something. But the Lord allows us to sift that down, and slowly things come to the ground again. The seed settles and you find that you still just have a really slow and purposeful walk.
So what we're going to do up there — we've felt from the heart of the Lord that we're going to establish missional community to Woodford. I've shared some stories about how we went to the Woodford Folk Festival, saw all the New Agers that we knew and even had at our birthday parties down in Byron — the shamans and all that kind of stuff. We're like, "Oh, these are our people." We always knew that being close to Woodford, a gateway town to the north and all those New Age towns up the coast, there might be something there for us. And so we're feeling that that's the case.
We're going to move into more of a missional community thing. We're going to adopt a model where we start holding some public meetings fortnightly, perhaps by the beginning of next year. We're going to do some monthly stuff in the interim. And in the meantime, I'm on the leadership team with everyone, and I'll step back. By the end of this year, I won't be on the leadership team anymore. I'll maintain my position in leading worship. But I think the model that's going to sustain us is a fortnightly model of public meetings, giving us the opportunity to still come down here and get refreshed — because we still so believe in having a well that we can drink from. Anyone who's done pioneering work will know you'll get the snot beaten out of you and you can't do it on your own. And so we will be thirsty for support, thirsty for connection. We have friends here. We love you guys. We're not leaving — we're just simply obedient to what we're hearing the Lord do.
Rory: Thank you, Hans. At a given point at some stage, we will formally pray and release Hans. That's not today, or even for a little while — we're still nailing his feet to the floorboards a bit. But it's a joy. It's a joy to hear all that, Hans, and to hear your pilgrimage. And we are so for you, man. So you might understand if Hans is around less — we haven't had a falling out in leadership or something like that. This has been the progression of the work of the Lord, and we delight in what he does. So thanks, mate, for sharing. You've got 45 minutes to bring the Word of the Lord. Knock yourself out.
Hans Hopgood: It's a good thing I have a 35-minute message. I kept it short. But I hear some of you laughing — can Hans keep to 35 minutes?
Teaching on the Holy Spirit — Who Is He?
Hans Hopgood: I'm going to teach this morning because I think teaching is a good way to go. So I'm going to read out a lot of Scripture. I want to teach on the Holy Spirit. We've heard some great preaching. I think it's Aaron's favourite topic. Rory preaches on the Holy Spirit every time she shares. The Holy Spirit arrives in great fanfare towards the end, and we just love speaking about the Holy Spirit. So I'm going to teach.
I want to give credit to a theologian that I follow — Tim Mackie. Some of you might know his name. I really love him. He does the legwork for lay preachers like us. He's the one who reads the ten thousand books that I will never, ever get to read, and he shares them in podcast form. And we as lay preachers just get to reach out and go, "Oh yeah, I'll use that." Tim Mackie and the Bible Project give everything away for free — all their resources — so that lay preachers like me can plagiarise without apology and go, "This is my stuff." I'm drawing heavily from a teaching I heard from him on the Holy Spirit. I loved it. Obviously I've got my own flavour to it and I've added my own thoughts.
Because he's such a great theologian, he is able to traverse the landscape of Trinitarian theology and modalism and all these terms that I have no idea what they mean. So as I try to traverse some of that, please hold your stones in your bag and don't stone me for being a heretic. And please don't write emails to me afterwards saying, "Oh, we've discovered you — you're a modalist." And I'm like, I don't even know what that means. Maybe some of what I'm sharing is fodder for the cows, but a lot of it is just great teaching on the Holy Spirit. And I want to teach on the Holy Spirit. I love the Holy Spirit. Who here loves the Holy Spirit? Awesome. All right, let's go.
Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is God. And the Holy Spirit is a person within the Trinity of God. He is God and he is his own person of God. Trinitarian theology has been discussed since the early church, and I don't think we've yet nailed it down. Paul even calls it a cosmic mystery. It's a mystery. There are analogies that try to explain it, and all of them fall short. They don't make sense. How can you visualise a God who is one and three persons at the same time? It's a mystery. There is no appropriate way to describe the Trinity. We've tried, but you're supposed to enjoy the mystery of the Trinity of God and enjoy the personalities and the persons of God as he introduces himself to us in those three.
So we know that God is three distinct persons. There is God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Spirit. And the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit of God.
The Father, the Son, and the Domain of Heaven
As three distinct individual persons of God, they all seem to have a different personality and a different function within the cosmic story. So, for example, the Father — where is he? The Father who is in heaven. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he said it this way: "When you pray, pray like this: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." There is a sense here that the Father has a whole domain and kingdom that he rules called heaven. That's his domain. It belongs to him. It's called the kingdom of God, and it is in heaven, and that is the Father's domain.
As I share all of this, I just want to step back and make some disclaimers again. There is no straight line you can draw where it's like, "The Father is only in heaven." Because when Jesus comes, he says, "Well, the Father's in me. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." And we can't say the Holy Spirit only operates in this way because the Holy Spirit is also in heaven — the seven spirits of God burn before the throne of God. There's all this just meshing grey area. But somehow it is useful to us to see the persons of God and how they function in our lives.
So, the Father is in heaven. Now, obviously the earthly domain is his too, but the psalmist says that the highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to us. The earth is our domain. Adam was given the keys of the kingdom. He slipped up, and for a time Satan had the keys to rulership — he was the ruler, the prince of the power of the air on this earth. And thank be to Jesus — Jesus has retained those keys and given them back to us. The highest heavens belong to the Father, and the earth he has given to us. That's our domain. This is our domain. And we've been mandated to govern it. How's that going? What score would you give humankind for governance on the earth? Room for improvement — that was probably the most gracious assessment. We're doing not so good. Good at times — tree of knowledge of good and evil, sometimes do good, sometimes evil.
So the Father, it suggests, resides in heaven. Jesus also said to his disciples on the night that he was betrayed, "I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world to go back to the Father." Again, there's this sense that the heavens belong to the Father, and it's the place that is separate from the earth.
When Jesus was raised from the grave and he met Mary in the garden, he said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God." Talk about paradox — Jesus saying, "I'm going to my God." What? It's crazy. I love it. And to your God.
So, point driven home — God dwells in heaven. Most of us in our relationship with God as a whole get stuck here, and we think that all of God is just in heaven, and there's such a separation between the two. When I pray, I'm towards heaven. When I interact, when I call upon the Lord, I'm thinking that he's only in heaven, that he's not here, that he's there and I need to get there. Thinking that God only lives in heaven and we live on the earth and that our connection with God is somehow separated in that way. This is not the case, as we will see.
Jesus as the Intermediary — The Temple Between Heaven and Earth
Hans Hopgood: There is Jesus. Jesus is also God. He is God the Son, but he has a different function. Jesus is in between heaven and earth — suspended between heaven and earth. Jesus is the connection between the two. He is the intermediary between heaven and earth. He is our high priest. No one on earth can get to the Father except through the Son. There is no getting to heaven without a connection point, something in between heaven and earth, and Jesus is in between heaven and earth.
Temple theology. He is the temple. He said of himself, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three days. I am the temple." Where do you go to meet God? You go to the temple. If I want to meet the Father, I need to go to the temple. Jesus is the temple. The temple is the intermediary place between heaven and earth, the connection point.
Jesus is the connection between heaven and earth because Jesus is 100% God, and through the incarnation he is connected to the earth. He was born of flesh. He is actually now part creation. He is 100% human and 100% God. He came and indwelled the creation that he himself made. That's what makes him the connection. He married earth. He made his vows. He shed the blood. He married us. He's like, "My bride, I want to be not just connected to the earth, I want to be part of it and indwell it. I want to be part of flesh and blood." He's the connection between heaven and earth.
He made a way for us to have communion with the Father. He is the way to the Father. Nobody can get to the Father except by the Son. That's John 14, verse 6. There is so much more to say about Jesus, but I want to move on to the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit — God's Presence on Earth
Hans Hopgood: There is the Holy Spirit. And we love the Holy Spirit. Well, the Holy Spirit is everywhere. Everywhere. The Holy Spirit is everywhere. The Holy Spirit is in the heavens. And the Holy Spirit — get this — the Holy Spirit is the presence of God on the earth right now. We have the most to do with the Holy Spirit than any other person of the Trinity. You might think that you have more of a relationship with Jesus than with the Holy Spirit, but you cannot see Jesus except by the Holy Spirit. You cannot see Jesus except by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God on the earth. Emmanuel — he's the one who is with us, and he is absolutely everywhere.
Psalm 139, verses 7 to 12 says, "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I were to ascend to the highest heavens, there you are. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and flee to the north of Brisbane and mount me, you are there." If you go to the outermost parts of the sea, you are there. Even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night" — even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
There is nowhere that you can ever go that the Holy Spirit is not. The Holy Spirit is absolutely everywhere in creation. The Father is in heaven. The Son is currently in heaven also and is coming back soon. But the Holy Spirit is God here right now.
Let's get to know the Holy Spirit. Of the three persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the one who is with us here on the earth. And the Holy Spirit has a lot to do with the earth. Whether we realise it or not, we have a lot to do with the Holy Spirit — more than we could ever realise. The majority of the role of the Holy Spirit is to be our helper here on the earth. To help us with the earth. Because we all know that the earth is so difficult to navigate. So the Holy Spirit is the earthly helper. Heaven is easy. Earth is hard, and we need a helper, and the Holy Spirit is that helper.
The Holy Spirit and Creation
Hans Hopgood: The Holy Spirit's domain is very creation-centric. From the beginning of time, the Holy Spirit had a lot to do with the earth. Genesis 1, verses 1 to 5: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the earth. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light." All three of the persons of God involved in creation — the Father speaking through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 33, verse 6 says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the Spirit of his mouth all of their hosts." The word is Spirit — Ruach. So the Holy Spirit was intimately involved in the creation of the world.
But it gets even more intimate than that. And I love meditating on this next section, because it should change our relationship with the way that we see all people. All people. Everyone. Not only does the Holy Spirit hover over creation, but he animates everything in it. Once God finished creating the heavens and the earth, God breathed his Spirit into creation. He started with the animals. Genesis 1, verse 24 says, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kind, livestock and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to their kind."
And the psalmist picks up on this moment and goes on to say about the Holy Spirit's relationship to them. Psalm 104, verses 27 to 30 says, "These all look to you." This is a scripture that comes straight after talking about donkeys and ostriches and animals. All of the creatures of the earth — they all look to you. He's not talking about humans. He's talking about animals. "They all look to you to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open up your hands, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed. When you take away their spirit, they die and return to the dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground."
The Spirit created them and also gives them their breath. If the Holy Spirit were to say, "Breath, return to me," the animals would just pass away. There is some sort of connection there — the Holy Spirit supplying even the very breath to creation.
And he did this with us also. Genesis chapter 2, verse 7: "Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath, the spirit of life, and the man became a living creature." God the Father and God the Son formed us out of the dust, and he took of his Spirit and breathed into us, and we came alive. Who knows what the spark of life is other than a portion, a gift, a part of the gift of the Spirit that he gives to us — that we're alive?
Do you think we are sustained by our own breath? To quote the Matrix — "Do you think that's air you're breathing?" I'm going to make the very clear distinction between the fact that we are not the Holy Spirit and that he has created us as total individuals, but he has given us a portion of this gift that belongs to him. And if he wanted to retract it, we would fall to the ground.
In fact, Job 34, verses 14 to 15 says this: "If he, God, should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together and man would return to dust." If the Holy Spirit were to decide it and return his breath to him — what hope do we have? Would we be like, "Oh, we're just going to start a new colony on Mars and we'll be fine, we don't need the life breath anymore"?
What a scandalous gift life — even breath, life itself — is. And he gives that to us and he gives that to everyone. Everyone. I'm pretty sure that if I were God, there would be people who I would maybe withhold a little bit of breath from — a bit like Darth Vader. No, God is generous, as we just heard. He just freely supplies free will and breath to everyone. "You here — go and do whatever you want with it." He grieves and moans and groans in the ways that we use that gift, but he doesn't withdraw, doesn't withhold, doesn't take back. What a generous God the Holy Spirit is.
We are alive because of the Holy Spirit. Now, the important distinction to be made — we are separate from the Holy Spirit. We also are our own person, our own personality. But the Holy Spirit gives all humankind the free gift of life, the gift of the Holy Spirit's breath.
The Holy Spirit's Relationship with All of Humanity
Hans Hopgood: So there is nowhere that I can go that the Holy Spirit is not. There is nowhere the unbeliever can go where the Holy Spirit is not. Whether they know it or not, they are intimately connected to the Holy Spirit — simply through what the Holy Spirit gives. Their spirit is dead. They do not know God. And yet they have an intimate connection with the Holy Spirit through creation, through the very breath they breathe.
There is nowhere I can go from the Holy Spirit, but there is also no way I can exist apart from the Holy Spirit. Creation is sustained by God. So creation already has an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit, whether we know him or not. He is everywhere and holding all life together, and most people won't even realise that they already have a relationship with the Holy Spirit — just not where it matters the most, in the spirit of their heart.
And the Holy Spirit wants a personal relationship with us so that we can know God. The Spirit who reveals God to us. The Spirit of revelation. Who bears witness to Jesus. Who is always at work in the lives of all of us — in unbelievers and believers alike. Always at work revealing Jesus to us, in as many ways as he possibly can, that our hearts would come alive to God.
The Mandate to Rule — and the Helper Given
Hans Hopgood: The Holy Spirit wants a personal relationship with us also for a specific reason. Humankind received an incredible mandate to rule over all the earth. Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 to 28: "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'"
Our mandate, as I said before, was to rule and have governance over the earth. The highest heavens belong to the Father, and the earth he has given to the sons of man. We are to govern the earth as the Father governs the heavens. In the same way that the Father governs the heavens, we are to govern the earth.
Jesus said, "When you pray, our Father who is in heaven, your kingdom come, your will be done on this earth exactly as it is in heaven." We have the template in heaven. We're supposed to pop our head up and look around and go, "Oh yeah, I see how it goes" — come back to earth and go, "Love, peace, joy, patience — that's how he rules in heaven. Humility, gentleness, kindness — that's how he rules in heaven. I saw it — laying your life down for one another." We come back down to the earth and we announce it, and people go, "Who has believed the message that the Lord would rule through laying his life down?" No one believes the message. Back into heaven — are you sure it's laying your life down that rules and succeeds? Is patience and gentleness and kindness really the way that we're going to succeed on the earth? Maybe we should do power and might. And you look around heaven and you're like, "Nope, it's still gentleness, patience, kindness, love, peace, joy." You pop back down, you announce it — peace, patience, kindness, gentleness. As it is in heaven.
Oh, how peaceful it must be in heaven. Do we not yearn for the joy and the peace? It's raucous joy and just peace that surpasses our understanding. Joy unspeakable. And we're to rule on the earth as the Father rules in heaven.
How are we to do that? Well, the Father gives us his wisdom in the form of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is how we rule on this earth. He positions the Holy Spirit as our helper to help us govern over creation in the same way that the Father is governing his kingdom in heaven. How do we govern on the earth? In the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the only way that we can create on earth as it is in heaven — in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's role is to have an intimate relationship with us to help us in our mandate, which is that the will of the Father be done on the earth. We need a helper.
The Ezer — Helper as Covenant Partner
Hans Hopgood: Let's take a look at this idea from Genesis 2, verse 15. After God had created Adam, he put him in the Garden of Eden to start ruling, to start keeping it. Genesis 2, verses 15 to 18: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of all of the trees of the garden. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.' Then the Lord said, 'It is not good that man should be alone in their governance. I will make him a helper fit for him.'"
It is not good for Adam to be alone. In Genesis, Adam is given a helper — an equal, a partner, someone who can enjoy life on earth with him and who is able to help him fulfil his mandate. The word for helper in this portion of scripture is the word ezer. The word ezer means an equal, a partner, or a mirror image. And the word ezer is attributed to Eve — who is the equal partner to Adam.
But the word ezer goes on to be used throughout the Bible to describe God himself in many ways. God adopts that word for himself — helper, ezer. Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse 26: "There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens as your ezer, through the skies in his majesty. The eternal God is your dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms."
Deuteronomy 33, verse 29: "Happy are you, O Israel. Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your heart?"
Hosea chapter 13, verse 9. Now the Lord is angry with Israel through a prophet named Hosea. "Don't you want my help?" God is not a destroyer. He probably just steps back. "You don't want my help? Fine." Assyrians, Babylonians. "Would you like my help?" "Yes, please."
Psalm 20, verses 1 to 2: "May the Lord answer you in the day of your trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help." And our shield.
Psalm 121, verses 1 to 2 — we all know this one so well: "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my ezer come? My ezer comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth."
God has wrapped this word around himself — a word that was attributed to Eve when Eve was given as a marriage covenant partner to Adam to rule and reign. God takes that word and goes, "Yes, that is a great description of a servant. I'm going to wrap servanthood around me. I'm going to be your help and your ezer." God paints a portrait of himself as our ezer. God is our helper. The Lord is our helper.
This then gets taken to another level when Jesus is speaking to his disciples. Jesus came to the earth to start a new creation. He was the second Adam. He was busy fashioning disciples out of the dust. He breathed his spirit into them, conforming them to his image. And then he gives them the same mandate the way that God gave Adam the first mandate: "Go and baptise the whole world in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Go and make disciples." And in order to accomplish that, Jesus says that he will send them a helper.
Now we're in the Greek, so we can't take ezer and put it over there, but the same imagery is just being married together. John chapter 16, verses 5 to 15: "But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you ask me where are you going. But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth — it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you."
The imagery of Jesus as the Adam who gets laid into the ground — unless I get laid into the ground like Adam did in a deep sleep, when I get pulled up, there's this beautiful helper.
John chapter 14, verses 16 to 18: "And I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever — forever. There is nowhere you can go, there is no time frame that you could ever have where the Holy Spirit will not be with you. Forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and he will be in you." On the day of Pentecost. "I will not leave you alone. It is not good for you to be alone. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you."
John chapter 14, verses 25 to 27 — I'm landing the plane now: "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all the things that I have said."
Wow, that's a helpful thing. The helper will bring to remembrance all the things that Jesus had taught them in order to release the kingdom of heaven and fulfil their mandate. We have a helper. Can't remember what Jesus said? Don't worry. In the moment that you step into that position, the Holy Spirit will be there to quicken to you — "Oh, I remember. I remember what Jesus said. I remember this scripture."
So the Holy Spirit is our helper. I can feel that cut across some people as if it's like, "Oh, it shouldn't really be that way. How can the Holy Spirit be our helper? Certainly not our equal." But the Holy Spirit is our partner in covenant forever, because we are married to God. The Holy Spirit comes and indwells us and we are one with God in his Spirit. We are literally one with the Spirit through the marriage that Jesus did on the cross. The Holy Spirit is everything that we need to govern on the earth.
The Gifts and Fruit of the Holy Spirit
Hans Hopgood: Looking briefly — and it has to be super brief, because this could be one of those sermons that Paul preached where the guy fell asleep in the window and fell to the ground and died and Paul had to come and raise him from the dead. Can you imagine Paul getting on a roll like this? Just endless revelation. "Oh yeah, and then there's Isaiah. Oh yeah, and then there's Jeremiah." Everyone's just so tired, so hungry, just want to go home. "Paul, will you just let us go?" "Oh, wait, one more point. Everyone stay. Sit down. Wait, I just released you, but I was just thinking of one more thing. It's so important that I tell you all this because I'm going to go and you're going to have to rule and reign in the Roman Empire." I want to be like Paul — preach till people fall asleep.
Isaiah chapter 11, verses 1 to 6: "He shall not judge or rule by what he sees with his eyes or decide disputes by what he hears with his ears, but with righteousness he shall serve the poor." He doesn't see the way we see. He judges with a different — slain lamb-like judgment. That's a whole rabbit hole.
Paul picks up on this in his prayer to the churches — rule and reign, power towards those who believe, a glorious inheritance in the saints, a vast inheritance of riches that are all stored up within the Holy Spirit. Gifts of miracles, healings, words of knowledge, prophecy — anything you like, anything you need to get the job done is found in the Holy Spirit. All in the same Spirit, according to the same Spirit. One is given a measure of this and a measure of that. We have everything we need to accomplish great community-building, lights-on-a-hill type communities that can rule and govern as a light to the world. The Holy Spirit is building these communities everywhere.
So we have all of this provision from heaven. We have our helper. We have our ezer. We are promised that as we have relationship with the Holy Spirit, we will bear incredible fruit. Because wherever the Holy Spirit is and wherever the Holy Spirit goes, there is evidence that he has been there. What is the evidence that the Holy Spirit has been somewhere? The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control — against such things there is no law.
I should have given this microphone to Matilda. She can quote them all. She just walks into the room and says, "Mum, Dad, the fruits of the Spirit are love, peace, joy, patience..." We're like, "Thank you. It must have been the Holy Spirit trying to remind us. We'll stop arguing now."
You can tell when the Holy Spirit is present because there is love and there is joy and there is peace. If these things are not present, then the inference is that the Holy Spirit is not amongst us. If what remains is just idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies even — these are the works of the flesh. People who are not intimately engaged with the Holy Spirit. It is not good for man to be alone. Left to our own devices, we just end up in this mess of controversies.
When the Holy Spirit is present, he bears fruit. Fruit that remains and fruit that testifies to Jesus. "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." That's how they're going to know. That's how the world is going to know that God is real. They're going to look at us and go, "They are of a different spirit. They are connected to something that is not of this world." Love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control.
Should we just lift up our hands right now and ask for a double portion of self-control for the church at large? Lord, self-control. Just when you're about to press enter and send that text or send that meme, you're just like, "Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." Lord, we cry out. Even if we don't know how to pray, the Holy Spirit knows how to pray with us. And he's just bursting forth going, "Let's pray for self-control right now." Lord, self-control. The groan that the sons would manifest self-control and kindness and gentleness and patience — the fruit of the Holy Spirit is so important because it is what bears witness to Jesus.
Closing — The Holy Spirit Empowers the Mandate
Hans Hopgood: Tying this all together — it is wild to think that the person of the Trinity that we are most engaged with is the Holy Spirit. That was a bit of a mind bender for me. In all these ways, we're engaged with the Holy Spirit more than we even realise. The Holy Spirit is God present on the earth right now. We don't have to look up to heaven. We look into the Holy Spirit and we see Jesus and the Father. He's God's presence on the earth. He is the Father on the earth.
So, like I said, I didn't have a landing for this one. But I feel like the main part that was coming through was that the Holy Spirit empowers us for the mandate — for the work of God on the earth. And we need the Holy Spirit to fulfil the mandate. And inside of each and every one of you, God has put a dream, a vision, a task for this next season — a something to do within your families, within your relationships, within the wider church, within the church. And we need the Holy Spirit to empower that work because we cannot do it on our own.
And we posture ourselves in humility to say, "Lord, send your helper once again." He's here, but Lord, fill us to overflowing once again. Fill us to the point where we are speaking in other tongues spontaneously because we're being filled with the Holy Spirit, singing songs to one another in psalms, singing melodies in our heart to one another because we're overflowing with the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit more than we could ever imagine in this day. And he's so available to us and so accessible to us. He's here right now. He is God empowering us in his small and gentle ways.
I know that the Holy Spirit is at work in this church. He's just been growing in his gentle strength and expansion of his strength here. We've got all kinds of things that are bursting out of this church. I think of Evan, who's just started a prayer and worship meeting in his school, faithfully just putting a flag in the ground. He is obviously filled with the Holy Spirit in this season and overflowing, and says, "I want to do this in my school." And there are other people who are just finding that the life that was nowhere is coming out of somewhere and is bursting visions into your heart and is empowering you to go and do them.
So please stand with me. I'm going to pray, and then we can worship. If you, as we worship, would like prayer just for a fresh touch from the Holy Spirit — to be filled for even just the next day, even for tomorrow — if it's as much to get through tomorrow as it is to do anything, then please come forward, because tomorrow is in the hands of the Holy Spirit as well. And we want to just empower you. I feel the grace of the Holy Spirit to empower us — not just for tomorrow, but for the future, for the great plans that he has for you.