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The actual word "attraction" is not found in the Kings James Version Bible. In the Greek, the word for attraction is "helkuo" which is always translated in the KJV as "draw" or "drew." It means "to draw closer to with the implication to attract." Anyone that has ever been "in love" has felt what it was like to be "drawn" toward someone. I took the time to study the word "helkuo" out this week and would like to start tonight by the most famous scripture that uses the word:

We use this verse and talk about how that Calvary has the effect to draw people to Jesus Christ. That is still true today! There is not a sermon that I can preach that has the drawing power of preaching about the Cross! There is something about the Cross and the story of Jesus Christ who loved us enough to die for us that when a preacher or saint begins to praise Him for it, that an attraction takes place. Even if a person is not familiar with the scriptures and perhaps has never heard the story before, there is something within them that draws them to the story. That's why I found it very interesting in my study that the same word "draw" here is also the one that is used in John 21:6 where the disciples tried to "draw" the nets full of fish onto shore. A fish is attracted to the water because it is there it is comfortable and in it's natural state that it has been since it has been born. We have an expression to denote someone in a situation that they are not naturally comfortable in; we call them a "fish out of water." I find it highly interesting that Jesus called Peter, James, and John as they were cleaning their NETS and told them, "follow me and I will make you fishers of men" because there is no accident that Jesus used the analogy of fish being caught in a net and dragged to shore to represent a lost person coming to God.

When you were born, you were born into sin. It is your natural surrounding within which you are comfortable. People grow up thinking that their lives of unfulfilled dreams and disappointments, and hurts, and emptiness and heartache is normal. When you first came into the house of God and felt His presence, you felt like a "fish out of water!" It was all a little strange and perhaps a little different from anything that you had ever experienced. But thank God that there was a man or a woman who heard the call of Jesus to "throw out the nets" that allowed the Spirit to move within the service! Thank God that the Spirit of the Lord began to draw you. That's why Jesus used the same word when He said:

As a man of God obeyed the call and through out the net of the Spirit, you felt God began to draw you. It was a strange attraction. There was something within you, later you found out that it was your spiritual man that had been dormant and unfulfilled for your entire life, that was attracted to the calling and drawing of the Spirit of God! God changed your life forever! Gave you a new name and a new life! Now you are the fisherman reaching out to others! Now you are the one that throws out the net of the Spirit through your testimony and witnessing and lifestyle! Thank God that although we may have been comfortable in our sins that there was something within us that was attracted to the things of God! Our salvation all started with us responding to a spiritual attraction within us! The fact that you are here tonight proves that your human spirit has the power of attraction. It responded to the drawing and attracting power of the Holy Ghost.

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I want to tell you that we cannot afford to ever lose that spiritual attraction for the things of God! In our text, we read of the Christmas story and Mary being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. Mary did an interesting thing that I have always wondered about. The very instance that she knew that she was pregnant, she did not go tell Joseph. She didn't even tell her parents. But something drew her to her cousin Elizabeth's house! She got up and went to stay with her cousin in the country for three months! Elizabeth had recently been touched by the Holy Ghost and had conceived in her old age. She was carrying a baby that was sixth months old that would eventually be named John the Baptist and who would be greatest prophet that ever lived and whose bold preaching would pave the way for the Messiah to come! When Mary arrived at the door, and she called out to Elizabeth in the house a phenomenal thing happened:

There were three things that happened to Elizabeth when Mary walked into her house with Jesus in her belly. The first thing that happened was that the baby in her womb, John the Baptist, leaped for joy. There was a spiritual attraction there. Jesus and John had not even been born yet, and yet the baby knew that he was in the presence of the King of Kings. And Elizabeth said that the baby, when it knew Jesus was in the room, "leaped for joy!" Even in the womb, it could not help but worship because of the spiritual attraction! We need to have that same spiritual attraction to the things of God that John the Baptist had even as an unborn infant. That when we feel the presence of Jesus come into the room, that we cannot help but leap for joy. That we cannot help but worship Him! That we are drawn to Him so much that even if we are in a seemingly dark place where our movement seems limited, that we are trying to push out of any hindrance and kick beyond our normal limits, trying to get to Jesus Christ! That baby leaped in that womb, because it knew that Jesus Christ was in the room! It wasn't time for that baby to leave the confining limits of that womb, but that baby was sure trying! I wish we would get a spiritual sensitivity about us that is so attracted to Jesus Christ that when we are in a dark and bound situation or circumstance, even if it isn't time for deliverance, we are kicking and jumping and doing everything that we have to get to Jesus Christ! That's the kind of desperation that Jesus Christ has always responded to!

It would be 30 years later before the two babies would meet again, this time as grown men. When Jesus appeared in the crowd at that place where John the Baptist was baptizing, He didn't have to announce Himself. There was something in John that recognized Him in the spirit even if he had never met him in person! That spiritual attraction was still there!

Jesus later said that John the Baptist was the greatest prophet that ever lived. Yet he never performed a miracle. He never cast out a devil. He never prayed anyone through to the Holy Ghost. So what made John the greatest prophet? Because there was something inside him that was attracted to Jesus Christ! It didn't matter what the circumstances or who was around, John was drawn -- no pulled -- to Jesus Christ!

The second thing that happened to Elizabeth, I really cannot explain. The scriptures say clearly that "she was filled with the Holy Ghost." This verse puzzles conservative commentators because it breaks the rules. John chapter 7, verses 37-39 clearly state that the Holy Ghost was not poured out until Jesus was crucified, and resurrected so we know that she didn't receive the Holy Ghost in the exact way that we do today. Yet the scriptures say that the attraction between the babies was so great that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost! I don't know what exactly happened to Elizabeth, but she was forever changed from that day! She was changed by the attraction of the baby within her to Jesus Christ! Could it be that God let this happen to teach the church about something? Could it be that Elizabeth is a type of the church? Maybe the lesson here is that the church which is supposed to be the spiritual mother to people being born again is represented here. If that is so, then whether or not the church is filled with the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost is determined by how much the people inside her are attracted to Jesus Christ! Whether this church is Apostolic or not is determined not by God, but by us, the people born into it! What is your inner most being attracted to? Is it the things of this world? Is it money or power? Or does your soul burn within you with an attraction when Jesus Christ walks in the room!?

The most powerful, life changing force in your life is to be attracted to Jesus Christ! When Jesus comes into the room, there ought to be something within us that leaps with joy! We ought to be filled with the Holy Ghost every time we feel His very presence. We ought to be attracted to righteousness and the principles of His Word! When you are attracted to Jesus Christ and His righteousness, then you cannot help but be forever changed! And the third thing that happened was that Elizabeth began to prophesy about Jesus to Mary! When there is something inside you that is attracted to Jesus, it will ALWAYS give birth to a proclamation of who Jesus Christ is! You can't help but reveal His identity to someone else. Elizabeth looked at Mary and said these immortal words which are my favorite in the Christmas story:

When there is an attraction to Jesus Christ within you, your life will be changed and transformed! When your life is transformed, then you can't help but proclaiming to somebody else: "hey, if you'll step out and believe the word of God, then He perform the same thing in your life also!" The flame of Revival stems from being attracted to Jesus Christ! It is the most powerful and life-changing force in the world!

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In contrast, the most devastating force in your life is an attraction to sin. Jesus came to teach us that we could escape this attraction before it became fatal. He told his disciples immediately before His death on the cross:

There was no response in Jesus to the Satanic draw of sin. When He walked the earth, He refused to respond to the call of sin. When He went to the cross, His flesh died and He became alive to the Spirit! Jesus taught us how to live without giving in to the pull and drawing of sin. Our other text proves that sinners attract evil to them. There is an attraction in the spirit:

A large part of being a Christian is resisting the attraction between our flesh and evil. We must resist the temptation to live against God's Word because doing so makes us attracted to the wrong things! Paul said "I die daily!" In other words, I everyday must place my flesh upon the altar and crucify it's desire. If I leave my flesh alive and feed it, then it will respond to the pull of sin in this world! It will become attracted to things that God is not attracted to! Our problem in the spirit is that we are "too alive!" We are too attracted to the pleasures of this world and it is that attraction that causes us to fail God. Eve would have never eaten the fruit if she would not have been near it! And she would not have looked upon it and desired it if she had not given into the attraction of the forbidden! She was hungry and needed nourishment but she went to the wrong tree to find her fulfillment. I can't find Eve ever hanging around the tree of life, even though God said that she could eat freely from that tree! We only have a record of her hanging around the forbidden!

What's the point preacher? Before you came to God, you were attracted to certain things in the world that you needed God to deliver you from. But you will never be completely delivered from the forbidden until you REPLACE it with something of God! The only way to avoid eating from the tree of the forbidden is to be full from the tree of life! The alcoholic doesn't stop drinking when they come to God, but they just begin to sip from the Holy Ghost wine! But to stay delivered you've got to drink from the Holy Ghost as faithfully as you did the booze!? The drug addict will never be happy until they have replaced their source of "highs" with the ultimate high: winning somebody to God! The fornicator will never be satisfied until they let God become their source of fulfillment. The gossiper doesn't stop talking when they come to God, but to stay delivered they must replace it with prayer! If you are having trouble staying delivered from something in the world, then you are not replacing it with something from God! We still party but it's at a different club! What a difference the Holy Ghost can make, if you will let it change your spiritual attractions!

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But when you sin, not only are you attracted to evil, but our text said that evil is attracted to you. The more you sin, the more you attract wickedness. Turn with me to an interesting scripture:

The spirit walks through dry places when it loses it's home. If you are spiritually dry, then you make yourself attractive to the evil spirits. The word for "rest" here literally means in the Greek "recreation." The spirit departs from a man and begins to seek for a home where he can wreak his havoc and bring his unclean spirit into. He is attracted to dry places!

If he cannot find a resting place, then he comes back to the place from which he was cast. If that spirit finds the place clean but EMPTY, in other words, God has cast out the spirit but the person has not replaced it with the Holy Ghost and something in the kingdom of God, then the spirit will move back in and this time take 7 other spirits with him causing the end result of the person to be worst than the first! And after teaching this, Jesus tells us that "so shall it be also unto this wicked generation!"

This scripture teaches us the importance of people receiving the Holy Ghost after they are delivered from devil possession, but I think the principle in the Spirit goes beyond devil possession. All of us have responded in some ways to the spirits of this world and so there are spirits that we have to be delivered from. Maybe it's the spirit of addiction. Maybe it's the spirit of unforgiveness. Perhaps you've had to be delivered from the spirit of bitterness, or gossip, or murmuring, or deceit, or murder, or sexual immorality, or even homosexuality. Most of us have to be delivered from the spirit of pride and trusting in ourselves. Whatever spirit that was attracted to your sin that you had to be delivered of, you MUST make sure that you replace it with a spirit of God! If not, then not only will your deliverance fail, but it will bring seven other spirits with it. This is why backsliders always fall further away from God than they were before God saved them! Because they have 7 times the amount of spiritual wickedness attracted to them!

Perhaps no story in the Bible illustrates this like the story of Cain and Abel. They were Adam and Eve's first two sons. They had been commanded by daddy to bring a blood sacrifice to God once a year. We find that they both brought a sacrifice, Abel's an acceptable one from his flock of sheep. Cain, disregarded the commandment of God and brought that which was convenient: fruit from his harvest. I believe Cain was sincere but he failed to understand the importance of why God demanded a blood sacrifice. You see the scripture clearly states that the wages or penalty of sin is death. That is, because Cain and Abel were born into sin, they deserved to be put to death. But God in His mercy allowed them to bring a blood sacrifice of an animal to "take their place" and allow them to continue to live. The sacrifice had to have blood because it was representative of their own lives that were being spared. A bloodless, non-breathing vegetable was a poor representative of Cain's life! God accepted Abel's lamb because it was a perfect type or shadow of the Lamb of God who would one day die to remove man's sin.

Understand that God did not hate Cain or discriminate against him. Actually God realized that the bloodless fruit could not take Cain's place and so would cause the effect of sin to come upon him. God was trying to help Cain and trying to save Cain by rejecting his sacrifice. God did not tell Cain "you've failed and are lost." But God gave Cain another chance:

God was correcting Cain so that he could offer a correct sacrifice and have his life saved! But Cain did not respond with the attitude that God was giving him a second chance, but instead got mad and depressed. Cain had been attracted to a sacrifice of convenience and his sin was that he refused to replace it with the will of God! God forgave him of the bloodless sacrifice and gave him a second chance but Cain refused to replace it with the direction of the Spirit of God!

We know that in the physical, Cain got mad, killed Abel, and then was driven from ever being in the presence of God. I want you, though, to look at this story through the eyes of Jesus' teaching on the spirit that returns with seven spirits stronger than he. The spirit originally attracted to Cain was doubting the exactness of God's Word. All Cain had to do was replace it with the spirit of faith in the exactness of God's Word. But when doubt came back, after God's offer of mercy and he found the "house empty," then he moved back in with seven of his worst friends.

Doubt came back and then brought in anger. Anger brought in a worse spirit, Bitterness. Bitterness came in with an even worse spirit, Hatred toward God and his brother. Hatred brought in an even worse spirit, Revenge. Revenge brought in the fifth spirit, Murder and Cain killed his brother in his rage. Murder brought in Guilt, and Guilt brought in Condemnation. Cain died far from God and worse than he ever dreamed that he could be simply because he refused to replace a spiritual attraction of the world with an attraction to the things of God!

But I am here to preach to you tonight good news: Seven is the number of God's completion, not Satan's. And Satan is at best a copycat of God's plan. If that law of the Spirit applies to those who are attracted to evil spirits that do not turn to God, then it also applies to those who are faithful! When a person DOES replace their fleshly attraction with the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God comes into a house that has been washed clean through baptism in His name and true repentance, then the Spirit of salvation or regeneration also brings with it seven other aspects of the Spirit of God!

Remember the story of David and Bathsheba? How that he committed adultery then murder? We can certainly see the law of the unclean spirit working in this story as well. David's first spirit that he was attracted to was not fulfilling the call of God in his life. David should have been at war but he stayed home. The spirit of disobedience found that David did not correct it by allowing the spirit of obedience to come in so it brought the following seven spirits: lust, adultery, deceit, murder, lying, self-righteousness, and then guilt. But thank God that David did not allow the guilt to become condemnation, but rather responded by asking God to forgive him! He allowed the spirit of repentance to come in and take charge! That's the spirit that Cain should have allowed himself to be attracted to! We must never lose our attraction to repentance! Repentance must never become something that we dread! Because it is repentance that changes God's judgment towards you and transforms you from an object of wrath to an object of grace!

The spirit of repentance brought a spirit of forgiveness. The forgiveness brought a spirit of prayer and fasting. The spirit of prayer and fasting brought a spirit of mercy in the form of another baby was born to the couple named Solomon! The spirit of mercy brought the spirit of anointing and the spirit of anointing brought the spirit of God's blessing upon David's son and his offspring! Even so much that the Messiah was born from Solomon's lineage! Maybe this attraction was what David had in mind when he penned the last words of the 23rd Psalm:

How could David be so sure that goodness and mercy was attracted to him? Because when you allow a spirit of repentance and praise to fill your life, then you can't help but attract goodness and mercy! There is a spiritual attraction there! And that is why in our text, that after mentioning the attractive qualities of evil spirits, the writer also finished with:

There is not an evil spirit in the world powerful enough to keep you from reaping good things, if you will allow the Holy Ghost to be everything in your life! There's not a spirit from the past that can stop the blessing of God if you will allow a spirit of Repentance into your soul! I challenge somebody tonight, allow the spirit of God to come in and take everything and cleanse every heart and allow the holiness of God to fill every corner! And see if the spirit of peace will not come into your situation. See if the spirit of miracles will not flow through you. See if the spirit of healing will not sweep into your situation! Throw away the spirit of doubt, because you do not want to have deal with his friends, but you should welcome the spirit of faith right now into your heart! And of course the scriptures declare that all good things come from God, so all of these things are a result of allowing the Holy Spirit to fill your life!