Come, Creator Spirit

This past week I found myself in the office of a pastor in Germany, and on the wall I saw a prayer in Latin, a very famous Latin prayer which begins with the words ?Veni creatos spiritus?, which means, “Come, Creator Spirit.” And I felt that that would be a good theme for this conference. We don’t merely wish to celebrate harvest or Pentecost as a historical event, we don’t merely wish to preach or talk or even pray about the Holy Spirit, but I believe it’s the desire of many of us to experience the Holy Spirit in a new measure.

And so, I’d like to suggest that you signify your desire to the Lord, who is the only one who can satisfy it, by repeating those words as a prayer after me. I’ll spare you the Latin and we’ll do it in good old English. The words are, “Come, Creator Spirit.” Can you say that with me? “Come, Creator Spirit. Amen.”

I felt that it would be appropriate in that context to talk a little bit about the Holy Spirit as Creator. A theme that I think isn’t often dealt with in the contemporary church but was very prominent in the mind of the man who wrote that Latin prayer—and I don’t know who he was.

First of all, I want to give you my own definition of what it is to create. You often hear people say that to create is to bring into being something that did not exist out of non-existent material. Actually, that does not answer the general use of the word create in the Bible. So, I’m offering you my alternative suggestion.

To create: Is to bring into being something different in kind from that which previously existed, by a process which only God can carry out.

Maybe I should say that again.

To create: Is to bring into being something different in kind from that which previously existed, by a process which only God can create.

Then I’d like to take you briefly through an outline of the work of the Holy Spirit in creation up to the historical day of Pentecost. We begin with what I call the original creation, which is succinctly summed up in one verse of the psalms, Psalm 33:6:

“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.”

But where the English translations mostly say “breath,” the Hebrew word is ruachwhich, as we all know, is the word for spirit. So, it is really by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their host by the Spirit of his mouth. I think the word breath has a beautiful suggestion because if you or I speak and utter a word, inevitably our breath goes out with that word. We cannot speak without emitting breath. The suggestion is that whenever God speaks a word, His breath, His Spirit goes with it.

So you may say there are two divine agents of creation: the Word of God and the Spirit of God. And that is an exciting thought for us, if I can jump ahead for a moment in my outline, because you and I as believers in Jesus have been created anew by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Which means that the same agents that brought the universe into being are at work in our lives. In other words, it is impossible to exhaust the power that is potentially available to us through our relationship with God in Jesus Christ. The same forces that brought the universe into being are working in the lives of each one of us.

If you go back to the opening of the Bible, to Genesis 1, you find, I think, that this historical record is in line with Psalm 33. First of all, in verse 1:

“In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth...”

And I think that corresponds to Psalm 33:6. The second verse says:

“...the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep.”

I’m one of those people who hold a theory that was not the original condition of the earth. Something had happened between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 to plunge the earth into darkness. Now, there’s no need to go into that theory in detail, I’m not standing on it. But, if that were true, it would mean that Genesis 1:2 is really a work of recreation rather than original creation. And I think that’s important for us because, really, everything we deal with in our lives and every need we have in our lives is a need for recreation. And the Bible is a very practical book, it doesn’t tell us everything that God knows or did but it tells us the things we need to know for our well-being.

At any rate, in verse 2 it says:

“The Spirit of God [ruachElohim] hovered on the face of the waters... [and in verse 3 it says:] God said...”

His Word went out. And the Word and the Spirit again produced creation, or recreation, whatever you want to call it.

And then you go on to chapter 2 of Genesis, and you get to something of tremendous personal importance for all of us: the creation of Adam. Or, of man. And having been a philosopher and having studied people like Emmanuel Kant—who wrote one sentence that extended for more than two pages without a period—I appreciate the succinctness of the Bible. And I think Genesis 2:7 is a masterful example of this. It tells us how man was created. It says:

“The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground...”

The word form is the same word that’s used of a potter molding a vessel. And it says in the previous verse that a mist went up from the face of the earth and watered the ground. So, it wasn’t dry dust, it was damp clay. The Lord molded man. And at the end of that there was the most perfect piece of art that the universe has ever seen. Even Michaelangelo never produced anything to be compared with it, it was a perfect body. But it was just clay. And then the second half of the verse tells us one of the most amazing acts of God.

“...God breathed into the nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

I can never preach on this without pausing to make some comments. I don’t know why, but the Lord has made this particular scene so vivid to me.

First of all, let me point out that every time God deals with man, He has to stoop. And in creation He stooped and molded a body of clay. He must have been on the surface of the earth. But it still was clay. And then He stooped lower and He put His divine lips opposite the lips of clay, His divine nostrils opposite the nostrils of clay; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Those of you who know Hebrew—and some of you know it better than I do—will know that Hebrew is one of those languages where the words carry the sounds of the act. And so, the word for “He breathed” in the form in which it occurs, is viapach. And phonetically, the sound “p,” or the “p” sound is called a plosive because it comes only with an explosion. You have to make a little explosion to make a “p.” I don’t know whether there’s enough air in here, but if you look at me say pepper, can you see, I blow the paper away. So, first of all, you have the plosive and then you have the long, drawn outgoing guttural “hhh.” And you get viapach. And to me, that means God breathed all of Himself into man. He didn’t breathe a little languid sigh, but He summed Himself up and put all of Himself into man. A miracle took place. The body of clay became a living human being: thinking, speaking, acting, reasoning, feeling. What did that? What was the actual creative force that produced it? It was the inbreathed breath [Spirit] of God.

So, what brought the human body into being? It was the Spirit of God. That’s a very important conclusion because it makes divine healing totally logical. After all, when your watch goes wrong, you don’t take it to the bootmaker. And when your body goes wrong, the most logical thing to do is take it to the body maker. Believe me, He is still in the business of recreating.

And then in the psalms again we have a picture of God continuing to recreate. I prefer to say recreate. If you look in Psalm 104 for just a moment, there’s a beautiful picture of the Lord dealing with nature, the animals and man. It speaks about God’s manifold works, the great and wide sea in which there are innumerable living things, the ships that sail there. And then it says in verse 27:

“These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. What you give them they gather in; you open your hand, they are filled with good. You hide your face, they are troubled; you take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. [But then it says:] You send forth your Spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth.”

So in a certain sense, there is a continuing process of recreation taking place by the Spirit of God sent forth. So that is the original creation and the recreation.

Now I want to turn to the new creation. I want to start with a rather unfamiliar passage in Jeremiah 31:22, a passage about which there have been many different theories. So I’m going to take the liberty of offering mine—which, I believe, was held by many of the early church fathers. This is essentially a redemptive passage. Those of you who are familiar with the prophet Jeremiah, 31 is the chapter where he’s really dealing with the redemption and restoration of Israel. Then in the middle of it you get this cryptic verse addressed primarily to Israel.

“How long will you gad about, O you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth—a woman shall encompass a man.”

So there is a new creation. And it’s very simply stated, “a woman shall encompass a man.” I personally believe that refers to the incarnation of Jesus, which was totally new, never had it happened before and never did it happen again that a woman would conceive from within herself by the Spirit of God. But when Mary asked the angel Gabriel how such a thing could be, his reply directed her to the Holy Spirit. In Luke 1:35, first of all, Mary said,

“How can this be, since I do not know a man? The angel answered, and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.’”

So his answer was “the Holy Spirit within you will do it.” I believe that’s what was predicted in Jeremiah 31:22. The word for “a man” in that passage is ?gever? which is essentially “a mighty man, an outstanding man.” Not just an ordinary man.

At any rate, the result was predicted in Isaiah 7:14:

“A virgin shall bring forth a son, and shall call him Emmanuel [God with us].”

And I believe that’s the new creation, Emmanuel: God and man united in one person. Something totally new which had never taken place in the universe before. We sang one of the songs of Graham Kendrick, but there’s another one which Ruth and I play very often, which contains the statement “the man who is God.” That’s the new creation. God and man perfectly combined in one person.

I’m aware that theologians have speculated for a long while and used a lot of words to find out the exact proportions. I’m really not concerned about that. When I got out of philosophy, I got out of theology, too. I’m just satisfied to know that it happened. And it is something totally new. And it’s the beginning of the new creation.

However, for you and me to take part in the new creation, something else had to happen. There had to be a death and a resurrection. Without the resurrection, the new creation would never have been completed. And the power that brought about the resurrection is what power? The Holy Spirit, that’s right. You see, I’m trying to show you that I believe in every creative act of God, the agent is the Spirit of God.

We’ll look just for a moment in Romans 1:4. It says of Jesus, verse 3:

“He was the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

You notice there he’s declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness. Now, those of you again who are familiar with Hebrew will know that the Hebrew phrase for the Holy Spirit is “the spirit of holiness.” Ruachacordesh.My opinion about Paul in Romans—and I’ve spent a lot of time studying Romans—is that he wrote in Greek but thought in Hebrew. I mean, there are many examples of this in Romans. For instance, he frequently misses out the verb “to be.” He simply says such and such is but doesn’t put in the “is.” Which is normal Hebrew but abnormal Greek. And so I just believe the spirit of holiness is his way of saying the Holy Spirit.

So, it was the Holy Spirit that vindicated the claim of Jesus to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. It was the Holy Spirit that raised the mutilated body of Jesus from the tomb. And incidentally, raised Him to the throne of God.

Now, in Romans 6:4, taking that as parallel, we have:

“Therefore we were buried with him [Jesus] through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life.”

So there Paul says it was the glory of the Father that raised Jesus from the dead. I believe the glory of the Father is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Wherever it speaks in the Old Testament about the glory of God, I believe that is a statement about the Spirit of God. Wherever it came down and filled the temple or the tabernacle so that the priests could not stand, that was the Spirit of God that came and made God’s presence very, very real, very powerful.

I thank God that it has not ceased. We can still experience that today. We can experience not just God’s presence by faith but we can experience God’s presence in such a way that we can feel Him and that He affects our physical bodies, and in many cases, that we can no longer stand up in His presence.

Now, going on with the resurrection, in Colossians 1:18, we’re told, in a sense, what the resurrection means for us. Speaking about Jesus it says:

“He is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first begotten from the dead; that in all things he may have the preeminence.”

That’s an exciting statement. It tells us two things about Jesus: He’s the head of the body, the church; and he’s the firstborn from the dead. You see, in order to redeem us, Jesus had to identify Himself with us in death before He could bring us into resurrection. But as you all know, in a natural birth, the first part of the body that normally comes out is the head. And when the head comes out, the midwife knows the body is going to follow. And so, when Jesus the head came out of death and resurrection, His resurrection was the guarantee that we, the body, would follow Him. But, it was by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And then in 1Peter 1:3, Peter says:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

The fact that we can be begotten again depends on the fact of the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus had not been resurrected, we could not be resurrected. We as the body can only follow the head. But because of His resurrection, we can be born again. In essence, the key word is identification. We are identified with Jesus—or rather, He was identified with us. First of all, in our sin. Then in the penalty for sin: death. Then in burial and then in resurrection and ascension. If we accept our identification with Him in His death for sin, we are entitled to follow Him in all the successive stages.

The next thing after death is what? Burial, that’s right. Don’t miss out the burial. It’s very improper not to be buried. How are we buried? Buried with Him by baptism, that’s right. That’s why that’s such a vital step, because that’s where you are visibly identified with Jesus.

Then when you’re identified with Him in burial, you have the right to be identified with Him in resurrection, you see? If we have been buried with Him in the likeness of His death, we also in the likeness of His resurrection.

So, when we are begotten again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are brought into what Paul calls the new creation. 2Corinthians 5:17:

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation...”

“He is” is put in by the translators. What Paul says is “a new creation,” it’s much more dramatic. It really should be “a new creation!”—exclamation mark. It’s exciting, it’s revolutionary.

“...a new creation; old things have passed away; all things have become new [and never stop at the end of that verse]. All things are of God...”

The new creation is totally of God. There is nothing left in it of the old creation. It’s a total transition from one order to another order. It hasn’t been completed yet with you and me, but it’s going to be completed.

Now I want to compare the transition into the new creation with the creation of Adam. I want to show you that there’s a very exact parallel and a very vivid one. The first people, as I understand it, to enter into the new creation were the eleven apostles of Jesus. Perhaps also the women, I don’t know about that. And on the evening of the resurrection Sunday, this is what happened in John 20, beginning at verse 19:

“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, `Peace be with you.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”

That’s always seemed to me to be an understatement. Why did He show them His hands and His side? What was the reason? He wanted to convince them that the body they had seen expire on the cross was the same body that He was in then, but it had been gloriously transformed, but it was still the same body.

“Then He said to them, ‘Peace be with you; as my Father has sent me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them [or breathed into them], and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

Actually, there’s no article. What He said was “receive holy breath.” Of course, it is the Holy Spirit but it’s very exact.

Now, you consider the first creation, God knelt beside that form of clay, put His lips against the lips of clay, breathed in them the breath of life and he became a living soul. But, through his transgression he became dead in trespasses and sins. So he had to be brought to life again by a new creation. Just to make the contrast so vivid, the Lord ordained that the same person that breathed into the nostrils of clay in the garden of Eden should stand opposite His eleven disciples and breath into them.

Now there are some things which are not explicitly stated but the Greek word that’s used for “to breath into” is used for a flute player breathing into the mouth of his flute. I won’t say more than that, but it’s possible that Jesus did not just stand and breathe at them collectively. Somehow to me it’s more likely that He went up to each of them individually, breathed into them the breath of God, the Holy Spirit. And they were born again, created anew. They passed from the old creation into the new creation.

You see, that’s a pattern for us. That’s the way it has to be. Not that every one of us will personally stand face to face with Jesus—although it could happen—but we are begotten again by two powers: the Word of God which represents Jesus, and the Spirit of God which is the Holy Spirit.

I’d just like to say this to all of you, I don’t know what church background you’re from, what experiences you’ve had. But it’s possible to join any church and go through any religious ceremony and never be born again. But, it’s impossible to meet Jesus without being born again. And it’s impossible to meet Jesus and stay the same. You can sign a membership card, you can do all sorts of things and be the same person at the end as you were at the beginning. But believe me, and I speak from personal experience, if you personally encounter Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, you will never be the same again.

This happened to me approximately 48 years ago. It didn’t happen in a church, I wouldn’t have gone to a church. It happened in an Army barrack room about midnight. I didn’t know what had happened to me. My other soldier friend said I’d become religious. It wasn’t true. I had been born again because I met the living, resurrected, victorious Christ of God. That’s the new birth, that’s the way into the new creation—and it’s the only way. My dear friends, don’t be satisfied with a literal religion. Meet Jesus. He’s waiting to meet you. He loves you, He’s interested in you. In fact, He’s probably arranged for you to be here tonight because He wants to meet you.

Now let me take you a little further and we’ll come back to that thought. It was still not the end of the dealings of the Holy Spirit. Even after they had been born again and gloriously transformed, Jesus said, as you know, in the book of Acts, “Don’t leave Jerusalem. Stay in the city. John baptized with water but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence.” Then He said in Acts 1:8:

“You will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Do we have anyone here from New Zealand tonight? Well, welcome from the uttermost parts of the earth! You know that, don’t you? You’re just about as far away as you can be from Jerusalem. The only place that’s further away is the ?Coca? Islands. So, you’re evidence it got to the uttermost part of the earth. Welcome back again here.

Now I’d like to give you a little brief picture of the difference between Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost Sunday. You know the description, they were all gathered in one place, there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind. There appeared to them cloven tongues of fire, it sat upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit—and went to church, sang hymns. No! They did the controversial thing, they all spoke with other tongues. Not some of them but all of them.

It’s very interesting because I didn’t plan it but we had a statement here today that Pentecost, or Shavuotwas the birth of Judaism. I believe that. Interestingly enough, it’s also the birth of the Christian church. And that’s no accident. God planned that.

And so, the first time the Christian church appeared in public—and God must have ordained this—they were all doing one thing, what were they doing? Speaking with tongues. Was God embarrassed? Not the least bit. And He never is embarrassed. But, generally speaking, before any significant experience He puts a stumbling block. And you either get over the stumbling block or you fall over it. And tongues is a notorious stumbling block. What’s the use of speaking with tongues? It’s interesting they said that in the day of Pentecost. “What’s the meaning of this?”

Let me tell you three good uses of speaking with tongues. This is not part of my message but why should I withhold it from you! Number one, you’re speaking to God. Number two, you’re speaking mysteries. Number three, you’re edifying yourself. That’s true whether you feel it, think it, wish it; it just is so. So there are three good reasons to speak in tongues.

And if you want to edify others, why not begin with yourself?

Now let me briefly in a few words depict the difference between Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost Sunday. I’ll use my left hand for Resurrection—I object to using the word Sunday but there’s no way around it, that’s the way we are. I object to it because it’s really an idolatrous word—and Pentecost Sunday. Okay?

Resurrection Sunday was the resurrected Christ. Pentecost Sunday was the ascended, glorified Christ.

Resurrection Sunday was the inbreathed Spirit. Pentecost Sunday was the outpoured Spirit.

The result on Resurrection Sunday was life. The result on Pentecost Sunday was power. They’re not interchangeable. Everybody needs both. And God will never withhold either from those who sincerely seek Him.

The result, as I believe we’ve already seen, was a new thing, something that had never existed before. The body of Christ on earth. And Paul says in 1Corinthians 3:16:

“You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

1Corinthians 6:19, He says:

“Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

So there’s the collective temple, the collective body of Christ, in which the Holy Spirit dwells. But each of us has an obligation to present to Him our physical body to be the individual temple of the Holy Spirit. Have you done that? If not, I can’t think of a better season of the year to do it or a better place than Jerusalem.

Now, I said we should consider inviting the Holy Spirit to come as Creator, ?Veni creatos spiritus?, “Come, Creator Spirit.” Let me suggest to you four things that the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit alone can create for us. They’re all important.

The first is in Psalm 51:10. Psalm 51 is the famous penitent psalm of David after he had committed the two sins of murder and adultery. When he was awakened by the ministry of the prophet Nathan to the reality of what he had done, he cried out in agony to God:

“Create in me a clean heart, O LORD.”

Only God can give any one of us a clean heart. The ravages of sin are so extensive, so deep, that nothing but a creative act of God can restore purity to any one of us. Do you need that tonight? Would that be your cry? “Create in me, O God, a clean heart.”

And then very appropriately in Isaiah 57:19, the Lord says through the prophet:

“I create the fruit of the lips...”

I say it’s appropriate because Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So when the Lord has cleansed your heart, then it’s appropriate that He should give you a corresponding fruit of the lips. The fruit of thanksgiving, praise and worship. And truly, only God can enable us to praise Him and to worship Him the way we ought to. God is the one that creates the fruit of the lips. Human effort cannot do it, theology cannot do it, religion cannot do it. It takes the Holy Spirit.

And then in Psalm 102, which is one of my favorite psalms, the psalmist has been in deep depression. He makes one of the most terrible statements about the Lord, he says, “Lord, you lifted me up and then you’ve cast me away.” What a terrible situation. He sees no hope. But then in his deep depression he turns his eyes to the Lord, starts to speak about the Lord, and his whole attitude changes. Then he says in verse 18:

“This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.”

So, the Lord can create a people to praise Him. He has to do it because we don’t do it enough. I think the Charismatic movement has as many problems as I have hairs on my head—perhaps that’s an understatement! But I do believe it was brought into being by God. I believe on supreme purpose of God to which He is working is to create a people to praise Him. It’s like He looks down about 18 centuries of church history and says, “They’ve never praised me the way I ought to be praised. So before this age closes, I’m going to create a people that will praise me the way I ought to be praised.” And I would love to be one of that people.

There’s just one more creative act of God in Isaiah 43, the opening verses which are this glorious picture of the regathering of the Jewish people in their own land, especially from the north. Verse 6:

“I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’”

My opinion is when the Lord says, “Give them up,” they have no alternative, they have to give them up. I think this is very relevant to this present situation.

“And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back.’ Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory.”

So the Lord creates sons and daughters to glorify Him.

Let’s just mediate on that for a moment or two, the four creative acts of God that I’ve mentioned. Of course, they’re by no means all. Created a clean heart, I create the fruit of the lips, I’m going to create a people to praise me and, when I bring Israel back, I’m going to create sons and daughters for my glory. Isn’t that wonderful?

But brothers and sisters, all that is only by the Holy Spirit. There is no other creative act of God apart from the Spirit of God. So as we gather here for this special season of the year, and in a sense, to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, let’s be open to what He wants to do. Let’s not just have a series of meetings but let’s encounter God. Let’s let the Holy Spirit have His way. He’s usually unconventional. He will do things that we didn’t expect Him to do. So let’s not be picky, let’s not set limits and tell the Holy Spirit, “You can be respectable but if you do anything that’s unusual, we will get offended.” That’s not my attitude. I say, “Holy Spirit, you know best. Do it your way. Come amongst us, set us free, create in us whatever needs to be created. Lord, I could do with a new vocal apparatus. Amen. Thank you, Lord Jesus.”

There are many of you here that have physical needs. I thank God for doctors, I thank God for the advances of modern medicine. But remember, there’s only one body maker. That’s the Holy Spirit. And in the last resort, He’s the one who does it when no one else can.

Some of you are here with conditions that are incurable. But you don’t have to live with them forever. God can cure the incurable. You see, I just didn’t say this but it comes to me now, when you are born again and Jesus breathes into you, you don’t just get the same life that Adam had in the garden, you get a life—listen—that has triumphed over sin, death, hell, the grave and Satan! And John said whatever is born of God overcomes the world. The life that’s born in us by the new creation is undefeatable life, it’s incorruptible life, it’s indestructible life. It cannot be defeated, there’s nothing Satan can do that can defeat the new creation. Amen!

How many of you here tonight say, “God, I need a creative move of the Spirit of God in my life.” Stand up wherever you are. The leaders of the meeting, if you’d come up on the platform, please. Now, I’m not going to lay hands on anybody. If the others want to lay hands, they can. But I want to believe tonight that God can stretch forth His finger which is the Holy Spirit. Can you believe that? Can you accept that tonight? Don’t look at me, don’t look at the leaders on the platform. We’ll pray with you and for you, collectively. But we’re going to turn it over to the Holy Spirit.

“Come, Holy Spirit, we pray. We honor you, the third person of the godhead. The Creator, the one to whom we owe our life: natural and supernatural. Come in the name of Jesus whom we honor and proclaim as Lord and Savior and King here tonight. Lord Jesus, stretch out your finger which is the Holy Spirit, and touch those who are standing now, in Jesus’ name. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.”

Begin to thank Him, begin to praise Him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen.”