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Dec. 1, 2025 - Jim Bakker Show
28:27
The Jim Bakker Show with James Tan
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From Genesis to Revelation 00:12:59
Welcome to the Jim Baker Family Show.
Today, Dr. James Tan talks about understanding the Holy Spirit from Genesis to Revelation.
Our co-host today is Reverend Mondo de la Vega.
And now here's your host, Pastor Ricky Baker.
Hello, friends.
You're watching the PTL Television Network.
We have with us today Dr. James Tan.
You're not going to want to miss this episode.
We're going to be talking about seeing the Spirit, a new book by Dr. James Tan.
Friends, look at this on the screen.
I want you to be able to see this because it's going to be revealing the Holy Spirit in every book of the Bible.
That's from Genesis to Revelation, friends.
This is a critical work.
And Dr. James, I want to say thank you for being on the broadcast with us today.
Oh, listen, I've missed you guys.
We were just joking around before this, the cameras were turned on and everything.
And we were talking about how a lot of what I do now started out here, this platform with Pastor Jim, Pastor Laurie, and all of you.
So good to behold you.
You're the only guy that recognizes that.
Him and Rabbi.
Wait a minute.
You and Rabbi are the only ones.
I knew you got successful when the book got thicker.
Hard copy.
Hey, when they switched to the copy.
When they switched to the hard copy, I knew he made it.
I knew he had made it.
There we go.
Oh, boy.
I'll tell you what.
Before the show began, you were saying that this was a book that you were hoping would really be for this generation and the next generation.
Explain that.
Well, you know, part of how I write and why I write is because you and I are now at a time where there is a generation among us that has a lot of verbiage about the Holy Spirit, but doesn't have a scriptural grasp of the Holy Spirit.
That's good.
And can I tell you that the best way to know the Holy Spirit isn't by walking through the woods hoping to hear his voice?
The best way to know about the Holy Spirit is to actually know about him from the word.
That's right.
So this book here, seeing the spirit, brings us through Genesis to Revelation.
And it's not as thick a book as it sounds.
Yes.
It isn't, right?
It's a short read.
Somebody once told me, they said, if you want to hear the voice of God, open up your Bible and read it out loud.
Would you agree with this?
That's right.
Because if you're going to ignore God's original word, which is the Bible, why would you then go on and ask for a secondary word?
That's right.
When we have a more sure word.
A more sure word.
That's right.
And I think that when people don't have a grasp that God's word is actually God's word, then they start looking for every other place for a word.
And again, I'm not suggesting that God cannot speak through dreams and visions and prophecies.
He gave us the blueprint.
It gave you the blueprint.
It hasn't changed.
It hasn't changed.
Now, I like to say it this way.
Consider this.
For us Pentecostal tongue-talking spirit-filled folk, Acts 2 is the epitome of all that happened.
It's the start point of all that happened, right?
But when you go back to Acts 2 and look at what happened there, immediately after the upper room was filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke in tongues.
People on the street heard them.
The first thing that the Spirit of God inspired Peter to do was bring them back to Joel.
Yes.
And say, look, here's what happened.
Here's what was spoken of in Joel.
Here's what's happening now.
In other words, the Holy Spirit brought the people back to the word to demonstrate what the Spirit of God was doing.
It's a divine cycle.
The word, the spirit, the word, the spirit, the word, they go round and round.
The word defines the spirit.
The spirit demonstrates the word.
We have to start having books and teachings, broadcasts like this one, shows, conferences like you're doing out here, that start bringing people back to God's word so that they be established firm.
Amen.
So what inspired you to do the old and the new testament at the same time?
We see a lot of the times when people do these types of books, they'll say, I'll do the New Testament when it's demanded, then I'll do the Old Testament.
You said, let's go from Genesis to Revelation all at one time in this good work.
Well, so here's, and I get where people who say that say that from.
Yes.
Right?
Because New Testament starting book of Acts, outpouring of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God is just everywhere.
Yes.
But the truth of the matter is because he is God, the Holy Spirit, he isn't just a force.
He isn't just a warm, fuzzy feeling.
He isn't a goosebump on your goosebump.
Because the Holy Spirit is God himself.
Truth is, he's always been.
Now, he functioned, operated, and manifested different in the Old Testament than in the new.
But that's because in the Old Testament, he mainly landed on the prophet, king, and priest.
And he landed on temporarily, he would lift off.
But in the New Testament, I like to say this way, the blood cleansed us so the spirit could fill us.
So we have a fuller understanding, a fuller expression, a fuller grasp of the Spirit of God.
But in the Old Testament, he moved in types and in shadows, and you just see him everywhere.
So there is a confidence that's built on what we as New Testament believers are and stand for when we see that from the very beginning, he was there, he was active.
He was just as powerful then as he is now.
That's right.
So I want to break this down because I want people to really understand what you did here in this book.
This is quite literally Genesis to Revelation.
You go book by book showing where the Holy Spirit is really in word and in action.
Yes.
Here.
Yes.
This is an incredible work, Mondo.
This is, I think, a preacher's best friend, a Bible commentary to see where the Holy Spirit's been active.
Because a lot of people think, you know what?
The Holy Spirit started moving when Jesus started ascending and the Holy Spirit descending.
And that was the beginning of the Holy Spirit's work.
But James, you're saying the Holy Spirit's been active since moment one.
Right.
And my goal of this book, Mondo, and you'll appreciate this, my goal of this book was to be scriptural, but also spiritual.
In other words, it isn't just a theological tomb where you go in there and you get the Greek, the Hebrew, and nothing else.
It's to bring the Spirit of God alive.
Amen.
More than anything else, Jesus said, I'm sending you another helper.
And you know what I love about that, Mondo?
When he was talking about over there, Jesus said, John 14, I will send you another helper.
John 14, 15, 16, I'll send you another helper.
He never bothered asking the disciples if they needed help.
And by saying, I'll send you another helper, the implication was you need help.
You will need help.
You need help.
Whether you acknowledge it, whether you recognize it or not, you need help.
And I'm so good, I'm not even going to bother asking you because you're going to say no.
Wow.
How did we miss the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament?
I think we miss, well, in some of my previous books, I had said that the Old Testament was a season of the Father.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, a season of the Son, because he's in prominence.
But from the New Testament onwards, Acts onwards, it's a season of the Spirit.
He came into full fruition in our midst, right?
So I think it's easy to see him because Jesus said that the Holy Spirit, he doesn't self-promote.
He doesn't put himself up front and center.
And so we don't see him in the old the way we see him in the new, but his activity, his ministry, his force, his anointing.
Show us in Genesis, for example.
Can you do that?
Let's go to it.
Because when you, the moment you get this book, it's going to be a companion to the Bible.
And let's go back to Genesis because you write about bringing light into darkness.
Oh, I love that you start with Genesis because Genesis is the easiest one.
So in Genesis 1, it is easy to throw a softball.
All right, Revelation.
Revelation.
All right, here's my Genesis is the easiest one.
Think about this.
Genesis 1, 1 says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
When I preach from this, you know what I like to tell people?
I like to tell them, I said, consider this.
The dark, unformed, undefined areas of your life now, the dreams that you haven't seen come to pass, the visions you haven't seen come to pass.
Can you consider that the Holy Spirit is hovering over that, waiting to bring life to you?
That means that all the books that Mondo has on the inside of him that are not yet formed, not yet written, the Spirit of God is hovering over his books.
The Spirit of God is hovering over the dreams and visions you have for this ministry and this outreach.
He's hovering over that.
Now, what activates him?
Verse 3 says, Then God said, Let there be light, and light immediately became.
So the Spirit of God, hovering over darkness, was waiting for a spoken word to act and manifest that work and bring it into fruition.
So consider this.
Consider this.
When we understand that there might be unformed areas in my life right now, dark areas in my life right now, areas that are not developed, that are not in the fullness of the light of God.
But the Spirit of God is still hovering over them.
Consider this.
That's good.
The darkness in my life doesn't scare the spirit away.
Wow.
Praise God it doesn't.
And praise God it doesn't because that's my hope.
That's what will change dark into light.
Okay, this is powerful, right?
Because now, I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm about to tell you.
But a lot of people are oversensitive when it comes to the Holy Spirit.
They're easily offended by it.
Right.
Yet, the Holy Spirit is not that sensitive because he dealt with darkness.
And we make it out to be where.
Oh, no, you can't do that.
You can't.
No, no, no, no.
Wait a minute.
That's right.
There's only when you start damning the Holy Spirit, now you got in trouble.
Right.
But we're talking about something that the strength of the Holy Spirit in the middle of darkness can create light.
If my disobedience drives away the Holy Spirit, what do I think can bring me back to God?
I'm then left to my own defenses.
I'm left to my own strength.
And it was my own strength that got me in the mess I was in to begin with.
So I put to you, the Holy Spirit doesn't leave you in your weakness.
He stands with you, in you, through you, your weakness.
So your weakness can be turned into strength.
So I'll then ask, how can someone discern between emotional experiences and the true leading of the Holy Spirit?
The true leading of the Holy Spirit on this side and my emotions on this side.
My emotions on this side always soothe me, satisfy me, uplift me, and maybe at the expense of someone else.
Wow.
But when the Spirit of God is leading, moving, speaking, number one, it always is in line with the Word of God.
That's right.
Number two, it always uplifts Jesus.
And number three, it costs me faith to obey God.
It cost me taking a step out into something, somewhere, someone that I'm not maybe the most comfortable with.
That's right.
You know, I grew up, now I found out.
When I grew up, this was before the time when they had all the fancy testing and everything.
I grew up.
Now, when I look back, I realize that as I was growing up, I was what they would now call dyslexic.
Back then, they didn't have all the fancy tests.
They just told me I was slow and stupid.
That was what they were telling, you slow and stupid.
Live with it.
That's what it was.
This was before we had all the fancy testing.
Now we got to test for everything.
That's right.
This was then.
So for me to love books, writing, teaching, speaking the way I do.
And all of my books are written, are actually written.
They're not transcripts from other messages.
Forgive me, preachers, if your books are transcripts.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Praise the Lord.
Good, i'm just telling you mine, aren't you know?
God took that and turned it around, because if you had gone back then and seen this dyslexic kid who didn't know he was dyslexic that's, that's even sadder didn't even realize it right, no word.
It's one thing to be dyslexic bless you but it's another thing to not know you are and you know um and and to see what god can do with that.
Yeah, see how see, god can take your, your brokenness, and cause wholeness and healing to come to you.
There's something powerful about recognizing the Spirit of God in on and among us that empowers me for every good thing.
So when we're weak, he is strong.
Oh.
When you don't have the means, he is the means.
That's right.
I think we Ricky, over the years, there's a lot of denominations that have exited the Holy Spirit out of their churches, their theological ideologies, their writings.
Control vs. Spirit 00:07:51
And you know why?
Why?
Because they're not in full control anymore.
Oh, there's that word control.
Because the second that we allow the Holy Spirit to say, have your way, we no longer are in control of our services, our sermon times, the music.
The Holy Spirit has full control.
And we want control more than we want the Spirit moving.
And that's the danger of that.
Because if I take control, that would also mean I take responsibility for.
And I don't dare take responsibility for the church that Jesus said he was building.
This is why I love the scripture.
The scripture says that which is born out of the flesh, the flesh has to maintain, but that which is born out of the spirit, the spirit of God has to maintain.
You know, I like to say it this way: Jesus is Lord of the church, but the Holy Spirit is Lord in the church.
And you go over there, you know, those of you who watch this show a lot know we talk about end times a lot.
Revelation 3, verse 20, familiar passage of evangelistic scripture, Jesus standing at the door knocking.
He's locked out.
You look at it in context.
He's actually locked out of the church, which is in itself a tragedy and a shocker, right?
But consider this.
If the church successfully locked Jesus out, there is no way they would have kept the Holy Spirit in there.
Because Jesus and the Holy Spirit go together.
So if they locked Jesus out, they must have locked the Holy Spirit out.
That's right.
So in a sad twist, there is an aspect of the end time church that seeks to lock the Holy Spirit and Jesus both out of its meetings, gatherings.
So then what we have left is we have a powerless, transformationless, Jesus-less gatherings.
We might as well be some social something-something.
So we become more about information than transformation.
Yeah, motivation, inspiration, all of which are good things, but they don't speak to the heart of man.
And the heart of man is spirit, and God is a spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the bridge between God, the Spirit, and me as a spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the bridge between that that connects me with God.
I have to have the Holy Ghost, not because I'm a Pentecostal spirit-filled tongue-talking charismatic.
I have to have the Holy Ghost because Jesus said, you need another helper.
I'm sending him to you.
It's to your Jesus said, John 14, 15, 16.
Hear me.
Go read John 14, 15, 16, and let that cook into you.
Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit, right?
Jesus said, it is to your advantage that I go away.
That's right.
For someone who's feeling maybe dry or they feel like they're distant from God, they said, you know, I've done too much.
I feel like maybe I have seared my relationship with the Holy Spirit through my actions, through my rejection of him.
How can they come back into a relationship with the Holy Spirit?
It starts exactly with what Pastor Ricky was just talking about, you acknowledging that I've done something to sear my relationship.
You know, I've come to understand that repentance precedes faith.
So outside, and again, repentance doesn't mean beat me up.
That's right.
Repentance means I'm turning around.
I'm recognizing that this direction is not where I need to go, should go.
I'm going that other direction.
I've been telling our church, we've been rebuking too often what we should be repenting.
Oh, my Lord.
See, that's good.
That same ideology that I'm rebuking, I'm binding, I'm casting out, it has its place, but the enemy flees from you only as you submit to God.
That's right.
Resist the enemy and he'll flee from you.
I think we've got the he'll flee from you part down pad.
We want that.
But it's a submitting to God part that.
So if anyone's out there feeling dry and feeling like, where is my relationship with the Holy Spirit that I used to have?
It starts with you recognizing, God, I let this slip.
It wasn't you that let this slip.
It wasn't God that moved away.
I moved away.
Now, from wherever I've moved away to, find me here.
Meet me here.
Meet me here.
Restore me here.
Because in my own strength, I don't have the wherewithal to move back towards you.
Yeah.
I want to talk about this in Leviticus, if you don't mind.
We can go there.
Sure.
I'll give you time to switch over your Bible to Leviticus.
You say the presence and the power of God can flow through us.
How can ordinary believers experience this?
And how is this revealed in the book of Leviticus?
Now, in Leviticus, you see a type and shadow of what would ultimately become the Levitical priesthood.
And in the Old Testament, you had to be of a certain tribe to be in the Leviticus, right?
But in the New Testament, we are all prophet, king, and priests.
We are a royal priesthood, a unique and special breed of people.
You have, I have, as New Testament believers, every aspect of the Old Testament anointings, prophet, king, and priest, because there were only three in the Old Testament.
You have every aspect of that available to us today.
It starts with recognition.
The Spirit of God spoke this to me one time and said, the anointing requires recognition because the anointing requires cooperation and you cannot cooperate with what you don't recognize.
Wow.
I had the Lord speak.
You cannot cooperate with what you do not recognize.
There is no way for you to cooperate with the move of the Spirit of God, the unction, the urgings, and the promptings of the Spirit of God outside of your purposeful yes.
And outside of a purposeful yes, my immediate answer is a no.
I have no want to, no willingness, no ability to flow with you.
It starts with recognizing.
And see, that's why when you read there in 1 Corinthians, and the Corinthian church was a unique church because they had all the gifts of the Spirit in manifestation.
But boy, they had some problems.
Boy, they had, I mean, boy, they had, if there was ever a prototype of proof that fruit and gift are not the same thing, that you're looking for fruit, not just giftings, it was the Corinthian church.
And Paul, in writing to correct the excess and the error of the Corinthian church, he didn't say shut everything down.
He didn't say no more prophesying, no more tongues, no more healing, shut all that stuff down.
What he did was he wrote to instruct them.
So 1 Corinthians 12 starts off with, now concerning spirituals, I would not have you ignorant.
Pastors, the way you have the spiritual manifestations in your church, in your congregation, is to teach about them.
Believers, the way to have spiritual manifestations, spiritual operations in your life is to learn about them.
The more we hear, Romans 10:17 tells us so, then faith comes by hearing.
In other words, the implication is: if I don't hear, I don't have faith for.
If I don't have faith for, how do I take a hold of?
So, programs like this, books like these, teachings like you all put out here.
Something powerful happens when we hear God's word because now it becomes a possibility for me.
Praying for the Holy Spirit 00:08:05
I have faith for that.
Amen.
I think about how lifeless we have become.
Our prayer life is lifeless.
Right.
A whole generation of it.
Generation lifeless.
Our family lives are lifeless.
We live to survive.
We don't live to live life.
Could it be that we're missing the Holy Spirit to give us life?
Totally.
How does that work?
Totally.
I mean, and Pastor Ricky, I know you are a fiery evangelist.
I was just saying that in the green room, that as long as I've known you, salvation is the message of salvation is right on top for you.
That's your main thrust, right?
But consider this.
It's not how eloquently either of us speak.
It's not how intelligently we speak.
It's not how much information we put out, how many scriptures we cram down someone's throat.
It takes an act of the Holy Spirit.
That's right.
If the Holy Spirit's not there, it's just words.
Then it's just words.
I like to say it this way, and please hear my heart with this.
I'm in hotel rooms a lot.
And a lot of times when I'm in hotel rooms, right by the nightstand, there's a Bible in there.
And I'm so thankful for every organization that puts Bibles in hotel rooms.
I'm so thankful for them.
I love them.
If I had it my way, every nightstand across America would have a Bible in them.
But you and I also know that just because there's a Bible in the nightstand doesn't mean the person sleeping on that bed is going to get born again.
That's right.
Truth be told.
Truth be told, right?
Now it's good that the Bible's in there.
I'd rather have the Bible in there than any other book.
But it's not just the Bible.
It's a breath of the Spirit of God that makes the word come alive to me and speak to me.
See, that's why you could, and we've had people in our day and age, they take an intellectual, critical approach to the Bible.
They study it, they dissect it, they tear it up, they rip it up, they cross out what they don't like, they add in what they feel ought to be in there.
They go through the thing and they have so much hidden knowledge about it, they do nothing but argue, but their heart remains unchanged.
See, the heart remains unchanged part, that's the realm of the spirit.
Outside of hearing God from the Bible, it's just ink on paper.
Now, that sounds blasphemous to even say that, but think about this.
But outside of the spirit.
But again, if I cut the spirit of God out of this, I'm assuming that my intellect and my intellect alone is good enough to understand God.
What a scary thought that is that my intellect can understand God.
That's right.
How do you expect people to use this book when they get this?
Scholarly and devotionally.
Even though this book goes through all 66 books of the Bible, it's an easy read.
Yes, it's an easy read because I wrote it as if I was talking to you.
That's right.
And with all of my books, when I write them, the way the Lord had me do them, I imagine sitting in front of someone and having a conversation with them.
So it would, you reading the book would sound like me doing this broadcast.
You can hear me in it.
With the accent and all?
No, you got to pay extra for the accent.
That's the audio book.
That's the audiobook.
That's the audiobook.
You got to pay extra for that one.
Oh, you know what I love about this?
And I wrote an endorsement.
Yes, you did.
And let me read a little bit about it.
I'm still waiting on my check, by the way.
Keep waiting.
It's called waiting on the Lord.
Come on.
I wrote this.
In seeing the Spirit, Dr. James Tan uncovers what many people miss, the Holy Spirit's presence and power moving through every book of the Bible.
This isn't just a study.
It's a divine unveiling.
Each page invites you into deeper intimacy with the Spirit, revealing his movement, his voice, his purpose in places you've likely overlooked.
And I wrote all this stuff, but don't miss the Holy Spirit.
Ricky, I don't think you and I can go one moment without having the Spirit of God be involved in decision making.
And if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit moving you, you wouldn't support this program.
And we pray for the Holy Spirit to speak to you to stand with us, not only through prayer, financially, but to continue to watch and spread the word about this program.
If it wasn't for the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, I don't think you and I would be here right now.
That's right.
Yeah, there's a lot of spirits moving nowadays.
You got to make sure you have the Holy Spirit.
You got to make sure you got the Holy Spirit, the Holy One, you know?
That's funny.
But I think it's critical.
I think it's important to continue to have works like this done so that not just you and I could read this, but this is something that you could easily hand off to the next generation and say, do you want to understand where the Spirit has been active and moving from the beginning of time until the end of time?
Well, this will be that answer.
This is really like a key unlocking the door for someone.
And that was meant to be how it was written.
I see a whole generation of Holy Ghost hungry.
Amen.
People who want the word and the spirit in operation in their lives.
Amen.
Friends, I want to encourage you, get this book.
Our number is 1-888-988-1588.
Or you can go to our website.
It's going to be there on the screen.
You can scan the QR code, whatever you want to do, by Dr. James Tan, seeing the Spirit, revealing the Holy Spirit in every book of the Bible.
Dr. James, if somebody goes off today and maybe they're watching this and they're saying, you know what?
I have been encouraged by the word.
I want to start building that relationship with the Holy Spirit again.
Tell them, where would they start?
It would start with your place of repentance and contritement.
Amen.
And moving on and saying, Holy Spirit, help me recognize your presence.
He isn't going to come to you.
He's already there with you.
That's power in recognizing the Holy Spirit never left you to begin with.
The very fact that you could even think I need more of God is because God's moving you.
Allow your wooing to lead you.
He leads you by hunger.
He leads you gently.
He leads you by beckoning you to a relationship with him.
Amen.
Friends, the most important decision you'll ever make in your entire life is giving your life to Jesus.
It is the most critical thing you'll do.
It doesn't matter what you do from when you're born to when you're dead.
That is the most important decision.
If you need help praying that salvation prayer, call our number.
It's 1-888-988-1588.
A member of our pastoral staff will call you.
We'll pray the salvation prayer with you.
We'll help you find a good Bible-believing church in your area.
Friends, if your pastor is preaching the full word of God, then we want you to be a part of that church.
If you're looking for a church like that, we can help you with that as well.
Or you can go to the website as well and submit a prayer request and we'll reach back out to you.
But friends, that is the decision that affects all of eternity.
There's a doctrine going around right now that says, you know, it doesn't matter whatever you do here on earth, everyone will go to heaven.
It doesn't matter.
Hell doesn't exist.
And friends, I want to tell you right now, I'll never mince my words.
It is a real place, and we want you to spend eternity in heaven with Jesus.
And that's just as simple as saying yes to what He has for you, saying yes to the Holy Spirit, and saying, God, I no longer want to be the king of my heart and rule the throne of my heart.
I want you to do that.
And friends, I want you to pray that prayer today.
Call our number again.
It's 1-888-988-1588.
We'll have someone pray that prayer with you right now today.
It'd be the best decision you ever made.
Dr. James, I want to say thank you for being on the broadcast with us today.
Thank you.
We'll be back with a day two with Dr. James Chan as we dive deeper into this book.
Friends, go get this.
And remember this.
Never forget it.
God loves you.
He really does.
Bye-bye for today.
Thank you.
God bless you.
Remember, God loves you.
God loves you.
He really does.
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