Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Claude Stauffer: Is The Holy Spirit Igniting A Revival?

Transcript

Claude Stauffer: Is The Holy Spirit Igniting A Revival? · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

• 0:00
  Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
• 0:10
  defending biblical Christianity.
• 0:13
  No topic, off limits.
• 0:16
  And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
• 0:20
  Friends and family in Christ, thank you so much for tuning in, watching, listening,
• 0:25
  and sharing the podcast.
• 0:28
  I've got my brother Claude Stoffer from Calvary Chapel of Hope, and also Shepard of Hope
• 0:33
  if you want to check out his blog, ShepardofHope.org.
• 0:38
  Great writing, and he is pretty consistent with putting up new content.
• 0:43
  And I just appreciate this guy's voice, even though he sounds like a New Yorker.
• 0:47
  East Coaster.
• 0:48
  Brother, thank you.
• 0:49
  Thanks for your time today.
• 0:50
  Good to see you.
• 0:51
  So good to be here, David.
• 0:53
  Yep, and I want to remind everybody, hey, this is a brand new book from Claude,
• 0:57
  and I got my hardcover.
• 1:00
  So you can get this.
• 1:01
  It's called Have You Heard of the Holy Spirit?
• 1:04
  This is available on Amazon, a study of the Holy Spirit in life and service.
• 1:10
  So guys, you can check that out.
• 1:12
  And I wanted to start off the Claude by asking you about what's going on in America.
• 1:18
  How should we look at it?
• 1:20
  Generation Z, Gen Z Men are returning to church in surprising numbers.
• 1:27
  So it seems like there's a faith resurgence.
• 1:30
  Next article, there's Bible sales have increased 41.6%.
• 1:37
  Spiritual app downloads are up 79.5% and Christian music streams up 50%.
• 1:45
  Now, this is not to say that everything is biblical or biblical based.
• 1:50
  I mean, use the word spiritual or music or whatever, but Bible sales, that's a good sign.
• 1:55
  Question is, are they going to read it?
• 1:57
  And who's going to teach it to new people who are just now reading their Bibles?
• 2:02
  What church are they going to be going to?
• 2:03
  A lot of questions to be asked, but Claude, are these signs of revival?
• 2:10
  They could be.
• 2:11
  It definitely is a positive turn.
• 2:14
  I think a lot of this is going to be interested to see how those upturns were affected by the
• 2:19
  assassination of Charlie Kirk.
• 2:21
  I think that really woke up a lot of woke people to see the consequences of what's the
• 2:31
  negativity that has been preached.
• 2:36
  As far as whether or not people who buy Bibles are going to read Bibles,
• 2:41
  well, in this modern day and age, the Bible isn't so many formats.
• 2:45
  If you don't want to read it, you can listen to it.
• 2:48
  And you can watch it.
• 2:50
  I mean, there's so many ways, the Bible.
• 2:52
  Now, as you said, a lot of times things are not accurate and you have falsehood.
• 2:59
  We know that in the latter days, Jesus wanted in the latter days there would be false
• 3:05
  Christ's deceptions.
• 3:07
  I mean, a New Testament warns about that.
• 3:09
  It says that before the end there would be a greater pause to see.
• 3:13
  There's always that danger, but even when we go back in history and look at the first
• 3:19
  great awakening, the second great awakening, these revivals that moved empires, that moved nations,
• 3:27
  there was always that threat.
• 3:29
  You know, the enemy, he's not going to take a revival laying down.
• 3:33
  So he's going to try to warp it.
• 3:35
  He's going to try to distract us from the truth.
• 3:38
  But that's where the Holy Spirit comes in.
• 3:40
  The spirit of truth, if people are turning to Jesus and people relying on the Holy Spirit,
• 3:47
  hopefully the sword of the Spirit will cut through the dense darkness of the lies and falsehoods
• 3:55
  that are the alternatives being presented.
• 3:58
  So before we get to your brand new book, I want to go back and talk about your greatest patriotic
• 4:04
  duty and the book you wrote, because there's some points we need to continue to talk about.
• 4:11
  You say I'm paraphrasing you that our greatest opportunity in this country for America
• 4:19
  is for us to be truly great.
• 4:22
  You know, we here make America great again is a spirit empowered revival.
• 4:29
  So there's a lot of talk now about revival.
• 4:32
  So in your book, your greatest patriotic duty, by the way, friends, you can bring that up.
• 4:38
  If you go, if you want to hear that conversation, go to worldviewmatters.tv and just type in
• 4:44
  Claude C-L-A-U-D-E and that podcast where we talked about your greatest patriotic duty will come
• 4:52
  up and you'll hear our whole conversation about that. But we're just going to go back and very
• 4:56
  briefly review because in light of what happened to Charlie Kirk, we were talking before we got
• 5:01
  on the podcast and we believe the same things. If you have a true biblical worldview and are
• 5:09
  willing to stand on the Bible, what it teaches about God, creation, male, female, gender,
• 5:17
  marriage between one man and one woman, family, the importance of family,
• 5:22
  family defined by God and not by LGBTQ or the left. And civil government and what we believe
• 5:29
  is good for a healthy, righteous government, righteous nation. You are going to be hated by the
• 5:34
  left and they're going to accuse you, me and you and whoever else believes this, as hateful
• 5:42
  for basically believing what the Bible teaches. That's where we're at right now. Claude,
• 5:46
  would you care to speak to that briefly? Well, you know, if the enemy was attempting to
• 5:54
  muzzle or stifle the message of truth in the gospel by assassinating Charlie Kirk,
• 6:02
  it's had exactly the opposite effect it really has. I mean, really back, it really was a stupid
• 6:11
  strategy because Charlie Kirk, you know, he was bold. He went where a few others would dare to go
• 6:21
  and he went not in a belligerent, not with a belligerent attitude, but with a very spirit-filled
• 6:27
  loving attitude. He had a heart for his opponent. You know, he often said to
• 6:33
  call people to pray and his wife has testified that he prayed not just for his followers or for
• 6:41
  turning point, but for those who opposed him. And that's really a spirit of, that's a Christ-like
• 6:50
  spirit. And Jesus said, love your enemies. That's what Charlie was doing out there, putting his
• 6:55
  life on the line and ultimately across his life. But, you know, the Lord really, the Lord has
• 7:00
  really taken it. You know, the day that Charlie died was on a Wednesday. I have a Wednesday midweek
• 7:05
  service. And, you know, I was so shocked. I couldn't believe it when my wife told me they shot
• 7:12
  Charlie Kirk. And I was holding out hope that, you know, he was not a, you know, a fatal wound.
• 7:19
  But, as I was, as I was just, you know, pondering, learning the bad news. And the Lord just put on
• 7:25
  my heart, John, chapter 12, where Jesus is talking about how, you know, a grain seed needs to be
• 7:33
  planted in the ground, buried in the ground, you know, and die in order for it to bear fruit.
• 7:39
  And when we look at what's happened with Charlie Kirk, we see a parallel inscription in the book
• 7:45
  of Acts that the martyrdom of Stephen preceded this persecution, but then the spread of the gospel.
• 7:53
  Big time. And, you know, and, and this whole, you know, this idea of martyrdom, you know,
• 7:58
  Tertullian said that the blood of the martyr is the seed of the gospel. You know, so
• 8:06
  and in Romans chapter 12, the Lord says, don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
• 8:13
  Amen. You know, and, and we see this to that script, even in the Old Testament in, in,
• 8:17
  in Genesis chapter 50, when, when Joseph is confronting his brothers and, you know, they think
• 8:22
  he's going to lay that put the hammer down on him. He says, no, you meant it for evil, but God
• 8:27
  used it for good. So, you know, it's really, you know, the enemy who's behind all of this,
• 8:34
  whether we're talking about a physical enemy and politically or a spiritual enemy, you know,
• 8:40
  the, the dark fort, the forces of darkness, and they really can't win because even, even when
• 8:46
  they do evil, God can take evil and produce good from it. How many parts were moved? Did you see
• 8:54
  that memorial to Charlie? When was the last time you saw not only the president, but his almost
• 9:00
  his entire cabinet, sharing the gospel. Now, sometimes it wasn't an accurate presentation,
• 9:08
  but for the most part it was. I mean, Pete Hegsith, I mean, you know,
• 9:12
  Mark Alrube, yeah, it was Mark Alrube. Jesus glorified. Yeah. Think of the, you know, you talk
• 9:20
  about free air time for the gospel. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's really incredible how the Lord is
• 9:26
  using this and, and you know, I wonder in retrospect if Charlie could look down on what's happened
• 9:36
  as a consequence of his assassination. I wonder if he would have just, you know, a smile come,
• 9:42
  a smile comes to his face and a warmth to his heart. How, how this, how his seed having been buried
• 9:50
  and died is now birthing so much. I mean, there are, there are turning point USA groups.
• 9:58
  They're just overwhelmed with the applications. I have young men in my own church that are,
• 10:03
  are looking to, to start in their own colleges where they're attending. Wow. These turning point USA
• 10:09
  in groups. And, and that's wonderful, you know, so, so this is not, this is really hasn't deterred us.
• 10:17
  It's, it's invigorated and inspired. And yes, it could be, it could be a genuine revival.
• 10:24
  Well, you say it may serve as a segue to true revival. And then that Jeremiah 18 shows us
• 10:32
  God's willingness to be merciful to any nation that would repent. And let's talk about that and we
• 10:37
  will segue into your brand new book on the Holy Spirit because it needs repentance. Church needs
• 10:43
  to repent. There needs to be a true spirit of, of humility and, and, and confession of our sins.
• 10:50
  And even our past apathy or general overall lukewarmness in America, we've been so spoiled with
• 10:56
  the religious freedoms we have here and have not been faithful to the gospel. And now we're in
• 11:01
  this moment catapulted by that memorial service where the gospel was broadcast globally and hundreds
• 11:09
  of millions heard the name of Jesus exalted. Now, I've heard a lot of criticism because of the
• 11:15
  different people, a Mormon or a Catholic or someone else who was maybe a charismatic, sharing the
• 11:21
  gospel. But doesn't it say something like that like that Pastor Claude and Philippians chapter 1
• 11:25
  that I don't care. I just, that's important that the gospel is preached. I don't care who does it.
• 11:29
  The name of Jesus is getting out there. Could you comment on that before we go forward?
• 11:36
  You know, exactly the, the gospel was preached. Jesus was exalted in my, and my, the other book that
• 11:42
  we're going to talk about, Jesus said in John 1526 and in John 16 verse 14, so the main role of
• 11:51
  the Holy Spirit is to testify to him and to glorify him. Now, I don't think anybody, you know,
• 11:58
  regardless of who the instruments were, could look at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk and say
• 12:04
  that Jesus wasn't lifted up. I think it was Jen, Jen, you know, it wasn't, you know, just Charlie
• 12:09
  Kirk was, was memorialized, but it was more the God of Charlie Kirk, you know, and the spirit with
• 12:17
  which he, with which he, he lived. Yeah, didn't that say something interesting about
• 12:24
  a lot of these political figures, important, you know, men of God, men and women of God,
• 12:30
  or men and women in politics, they wanted to honor Charlie, so they exalted Jesus and they
• 12:37
  shared the gospel because they knew that's what Charlie was all about. And I've heard criticisms
• 12:43
  that, you know, he, he was too political or he was ecumenical or he, anyway, this is just
• 12:49
  things that have disappointed me. So friends, he wasn't perfect. And I'm sure you could find
• 12:54
  little clips if you take them out of context. By the way, you could look at Pastor Claude Sermons
• 12:59
  or you can look at my podcast and you can find a little clip of something we said if you take it out
• 13:03
  of context, it's going to sound like we weren't biblical, but come on. I don't want to beat that
• 13:08
  drum again. I don't want to do that because I want to focus on, have you heard of the Holy Spirit?
• 13:12
  So Claude, let's move on to the Holy Spirit's role. You mentioned it a little bit earlier,
• 13:18
  the prime role to testify to Jesus, glorify God, glorify Him, Jesus. And let's talk about how
• 13:26
  in America it seems like we glorify and lift up pastors and personalities. And you know,
• 13:33
  if we hear a Hollywood actor that says he, God bless you or says maybe something about Jesus,
• 13:41
  we don't even know he's a Christian, but we kind of elevate the, oh, why am I goodness,
• 13:44
  did you hear that? So and so my favorite actor and we kind of go, wow, or athlete. So speak to
• 13:51
  that for a moment. Well, you know, the Lord can work through such instruments, but here's the
• 13:58
  issue a lot of times in that the church is guilty of this. And you know, by the way,
• 14:03
  you know, all the state of our nation to this point in history, you know, just prior to
• 14:10
  Charlie Kirk and just, you know, recently things have been turning around, but prior to that,
• 14:16
  you know, the abortions, the same sex marriage, you know, all of these things which are contrary to
• 14:21
  God's truth, this, you know, the Christian church to a great extent is culpable for these things
• 14:28
  because it's been asleep. It's been more of a laodicean church that has, that has disengaged
• 14:35
  from, from the public square and, and, and opted for this, this kind of, it's almost an arrogance
• 14:42
  or a resistance to being involved. And in my, in my book, your greatest patriotic duty, one of
• 14:49
  the things I say is, is, is that, you know, to love our neighbor as ourself means to be involved.
• 14:59
  And there's no facet of society, no area of society, no nook and cranny of society,
• 15:04
  that's off limits for, for a Christian, right? And that's the thing. And as soon as we begin to
• 15:11
  remove ourselves and isolate ourselves from certain certain areas of society, then we remove
• 15:18
  the light of the gospel from there and an opportunity for the gospel to be glorified and the Lord
• 15:24
  to be glorified as he changes lives with the powerful gospel. Now, it's through the empowerment
• 15:31
  of the Holy Spirit that we have wisdom and how to do that and that we have the power to do that.
• 15:37
  And see, this is this, this, this second book is actually an outgrowth of the first book
• 15:44
  because I, I really felt the Lord speak to me about had people even heard of the Holy Spirit.
• 15:51
  That's a good point. And a lot of, and a lot of times what people, what people are proclaiming
• 15:57
  about the Holy Spirit or acting supposedly in the power of the Holy Spirit are demonstrating
• 16:02
  as far cry from what the Bible speaks about in terms of what, what the ministry of the Holy Spirit is.
• 16:08
  If the Holy Spirit's ministry is to testify to Jesus and to glorify him, then how come in some
• 16:15
  churches that are so-called Holy Spirit-filled churches? How come Jesus is kind of in the background
• 16:23
  and personalities are pushed up front? Well, I'm glad you brought that up. Can you, can you speak
• 16:29
  to that for a moment when the, when the Spirit is poured out? Because we've, there are some,
• 16:36
  we might want to call them hyper-charismatic churches or movements that, I mean, they think,
• 16:42
  you know, someone's shaking and rattling off some, some stupid, whatever they're saying or shouting
• 16:47
  or acting weird and they say, oh, that's the Holy Spirit. And I'm going, well, I'm not sure
• 16:52
  that is the Holy Spirit. So I know discernment is a big part of that, but do you get into that in
• 16:57
  the book, Claude? Oh, yes, absolutely. I talk about spiritual gifts. I believe that the spiritual
• 17:04
  gifts are valid for today. But what I don't believe in is I don't believe in a lot of the
• 17:08
  a lot of the weirdness and a lot of things. I try to live my life and and and do ministry
• 17:15
  within the parameters of Scripture. If it's if it's seen in Scripture and seen in context in
• 17:22
  Scripture, then we're pretty safe in pursuing something. But if we see these other things, you know,
• 17:28
  I mean, you know, they're just and I don't want to I don't want to pinpoint certain churches
• 17:36
  that do certain things. But I don't see anybody in Scripture overcome by the Holy Spirit,
• 17:43
  bark on like a dog and cluck on like a chicken or act more like a wiggly worm on the ground.
• 17:49
  Then then someone that's, you know, the true evidence of being baptized and empowered with
• 17:55
  the Holy Spirit is the is the is the love of the Lord. It's the love of Jesus, a sacrificial love.
• 18:01
  You know, and we need that love because the Bible says that the love that the Spirit puts in us
• 18:08
  enables us to fulfill the law because we're loving our neighbor as ourself, right? And so
• 18:15
  this is these are all things that the Holy Spirit does. So I just think, you know, I don't want to
• 18:20
  get out on a tangent on the weirdness because it's just given a more attention that they don't need.
• 18:25
  But I think when the Holy Spirit comes upon a people, they're bold, they're empowered,
• 18:34
  they're loving, they're motivated, right? You know, they have a desire to reach the lost
• 18:40
  all people that they have a sense of faith like the spiritual gift of faith to move mountains
• 18:49
  in the power of the Holy Spirit. I think that's that's when we're really going to see a nation,
• 18:54
  not just a nation, but a world made as great as it can possibly be. So I think I don't remember
• 19:01
  if we said this early on in this podcast or if you and I were talking before we got on,
• 19:06
  but I think I might have said something like you, we cannot, people cannot manipulate the Holy
• 19:13
  Spirit and force a revival. Can you speak to us about that and how true revival will happen and
• 19:21
  the lack of maybe emphasis on the Holy Spirit? Well, there's two, when we look at revival,
• 19:27
  there's really kind of two views. There's one view that says that a revival is the sovereign
• 19:34
  action of the Lord, right? So the other view is more like Charles Finney. Charles Finney felt
• 19:41
  that there were certain principles of revival that if you did them, revival would come, right?
• 19:47
  I think that the truth is a little bit in the middle, right? I believe that any revival is a
• 19:53
  sovereign move of the Holy Spirit, right? That's what I believe, but I also believe that, you know,
• 20:01
  if you seek the Lord in prayer, you know, if you repent before the Lord, if you humble yourself
• 20:07
  before the Lord as we, as you mentioned earlier in the other book, you know, Jeremiah chapter 18
• 20:12
  versus 5 through 11, any nation that would repent and turn to the Lord, the Lord would relent
• 20:19
  of the judgment that he is pronounced on them. And I think that, you know, when you look
• 20:24
  historically, the evidence would be that people were convicted of their sin, you know,
• 20:32
  another ministry of the Holy Spirit, John 16 versus 8 through 11, Jesus said when the spirit comes,
• 20:40
  he'll convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment of sin because they do not believe in
• 20:46
  me of righteousness because I go to my father and of judgment because the God of this world has been
• 20:52
  judged, right? The blasphemy or the only unforgivable sin is not to believe in Jesus.
• 20:59
  The righteousness, the only righteousness, if you're going to try to work your way to heaven,
• 21:05
  the righteous standard you'll be held to is the sinless righteousness of Jesus. And then if you,
• 21:13
  if you don't turn to the Lord and don't trust Jesus as your Savior, then you will be, right?
• 21:19
  The Holy Spirit will show you and the Holy Spirit will convict you that you will be have the same
• 21:25
  fate as the God of this world who will be judged. What I'm also thankful for, Claude, is that
• 21:31
  promise that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth. So Christians who have
• 21:37
  believed in Jesus and have the Holy Spirit in us, that deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance,
• 21:43
  guaranteeing what is to come, we have that wisdom from God, that guidance into the truth so we
• 21:50
  can be more discerning. But I think there's a way to block it or grieve the Holy Spirit too. But
• 21:57
  we don't need, we don't need to get into that. But I do want to ask you about one of the chapter
• 22:00
  titles. What's porcupines all about? That's one of the chapters toward the end of the book.
• 22:07
  Well, porcupines, the chapter on porcupines is, you know, in the book, I speak a great deal
• 22:13
  about baptism with the Holy Spirit, the second work of grace. And I, I think that there, for some
• 22:19
  people, there is a, there is this second work of grace where the Holy Spirit is poured out on them.
• 22:24
  But it's not so much, it's not that we're getting more of the Holy Spirit. It's that the Holy
• 22:29
  Spirit gets all of us. I think that's really what happened on the day of Pentecost, that those
• 22:34
  10 days, that those 100 or so people were waiting in the upper room for this baptism or empowerment
• 22:41
  by the Holy Spirit. They were going through their minds, you know, that their fears, all of the things
• 22:46
  that Jesus had spoken to them about. And they finally got to a point where, where they, where
• 22:51
  they just surrendered to the Lord and repented. And I think that's when the Holy Spirit was, was
• 22:57
  poured, was poured out on them. But, but there's also, for instance, in Acts chapter 10. So that look,
• 23:05
  that's like a second work of grace, right? Because the apostles and the disciples were saved
• 23:10
  prior to Pentecost. And then they were empowered. So two words. But then when you get to
• 23:15
  Acts chapter 10, it seems like it's almost concurrent that they received Christ as Savior
• 23:23
  in response to the Gospel. And the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. Now, there are some people
• 23:28
  that take very staunch views on this. Their cessation is they deny spiritual gifts, they deny
• 23:34
  the baptism of the Holy Spirit, baptism with the Holy Spirit. And the point of that chapter
• 23:41
  is that some people have so many doctrinal points that they can't get close to anybody and
• 23:49
  no one can get close to them. You see? So the point, the point I'm making is not to, to, to be,
• 23:57
  to disregard doctrine. But, you know, for anyone to claim that they know everything about the Lord
• 24:04
  about the Holy Spirit, I didn't write the book as a no all. I mean, the book is a couple hundred
• 24:10
  pages. I mean, you could, the volumes of the earth probably couldn't fill. You know, you're talking
• 24:15
  about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Triune Godhead. How are you going to write everything
• 24:20
  about him? You know? And so it's, it was just kind of, it was a chapter calling people to be more
• 24:27
  humble and more open. Not to the point of heresy, not to the point of wrong,
• 24:34
  doctrine. Right. But to be more open, even people, you know, these people in Pentecostal
• 24:40
  circles that are very much more feeling and emotional oriented, they need to be open to and
• 24:47
  ask themselves, you know, through the lens of scripture is what I'm doing justified. Yes.
• 24:53
  Great question. Is it scripturally sound? Or am I like a porcupine? He said, no, no, don't touch
• 24:59
  that man. I know what I felt. Right. And so it can go both ways. Great question. I think it's
• 25:06
  a, also a reminder just to that the Holy Spirit is continuing to sanctify us. It is a process
• 25:12
  of trying to be more like Jesus, trying to be more holy, not in our own flesh, but just as
• 25:18
  obedience, being obeying the word of God and trying to be better every day. And that's, it's
• 25:24
  hard. It's not impossible. Or the Bible wouldn't instruct us to do that. But we are to be set apart.
• 25:30
  And that's, that can get difficult. I will only have a minute left. But thank you for the book.
• 25:36
  Friends, you can get the paperback or hardcover. Correct. On Amazon?
• 25:41
  Yes. Paperback Kindle version and an audio book of the book. Wow. Okay. Great. We appreciate your
• 25:49
  voice. You have a minute left. Any last encouragement on this topic of believers and the Holy Spirit
• 25:55
  cloud? I would just say seek the, seek the empowerment of Holy Spirit. You might have, might not be
• 26:02
  completely clear on what it is. But you know, the Bible does speak about the empowerment of the Holy
• 26:08
  Spirit and the necessity of the Holy Spirit. Jesus wouldn't let his, his followers go out and
• 26:14
  try to fulfill a great commission until they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. So even if you
• 26:19
  don't understand everything about it, seek it and receive it by faith. All right, friends. Again,
• 26:26
  the website shepherdofhope.org. That's Claude's blog site shepherdofhope.org. And he is at
• 26:34
  Calvary Chapel of Hope in New York. Brother, thank you so much for your time again. It's been too
• 26:39
  long. We're going to have to reconnect a little bit sooner now. We'll be in touch, okay?
• 26:44
  Absolutely, bro. All right. God bless you and friends. Share the podcast. Another good one. We
• 26:48
  appreciate you so much. God bless you. And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that