Holy Spirit is not an it. He is not mystical, but He is a mystery. We seem to have forgotten Him, maybe even left Him out of our Christian lives. But Holy Spirit infilling is part of God’s end time strategy to energize and equip believers to live victorious, influential l lives in troubled times.
Catch the wind of the Holy Spirit? Why would I want to catch the wind? And, what do I mean when I say “catch the wind of the Holy Spirit”? The Greek word used for spirit is pneuma which simply means wind, breath or spirit. Many of the attributes of the wind describe what Holy […]
Spirit Filled Living is living all of life empowered by God’s Spirit. It is a life empowered by Precious Holy Spirit. It’s more than trying harder or gaining the right information. It means we allow God’s power to flow through us giving us the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. (Philippians 2:13) […]
Where do I begin? How can I use words to describe the scope of what I experienced in Guyana? I’ve wrestled with it for days. Waiting until I had a beginning point—a place to dive into all that I experienced. I still don’t have that point. I want to share the stories of committed, faith-filled […]
I finally have an Internet Connection! I have to make this quick everyone is waiting. No time for pictures. Just a quick hello. I wrote the blog early Pentecost Morning. This is the first time I have been able to post. Thank you for your prayers. We have felt them! God has done awesome things. Tell […]
Pictures of Holy Spirit? Let me explain. I am an official, picture-carrying member of the “Grandma Club.” Have been for years. I know I look much too young to be a member. LOL Nuff said! I love being a grandma. I’ve had two of my grands this weekend. It was awesome! Ashlyn got sick–that was […]
Purposeful Plan to Produce Fruitful Maturity—not just maturity but fruitful maturity. My little grandson, Kayden is growing! And He is such a doll baby! I think he is going to look like his daddy. And Keira is turning into such a big girl! I still remember the overwhelming responsibility I felt when Jason was born. […]
Wayne and I love trees. When we built our home, we were careful to leave every tree possible on the lot. We wanted lots of trees and we got them! Huge live oaks, bay trees, I hate those huge rubbery leaves, loquat, fig, orange, lemon, pine, hickory and scraggly scrub oaks. But what we […]
You might be surprised if you know me personally, because I’m so energetic and passionate, (that’s a nice way to say I’m loud and crazy)–but I was a very compliant child. I was content to stay home. I made mud cakes in a little muffin tin and baked them in the sun. I danced and […]
Extraordinary! NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope let’s us glimpse and enjoy extraordinary sights. But the sky isn’t the only place you find extraordinary examples of God’s creation! Let me tell you of an extraordinary little girl in our School of Holy Spirit. You never know when you’ll meet one, those extraordinary people disguised in the ordinary. […]
The river rocks that I stopped to gather were smooth in my hand. I’m sure they started out jagged and rough. But the swift current of the cool mountain stream changed that. The strong current, relentlessly shoved the rocks downstream, pushing and tumbling them up and down, around and around, bumping and scraping them against each other until their rough edges were ground smooth. The stones that lay all around my feet had experienced the power of the water, had been shaped and honed by its prodding, pushing and shoving. Now–the water was gone. All that remained of the stream that had once coursed through this valley was a dry river bed of smooth, dry rocks and gravel. The stream was gone. And so were the raccoons, and the deer.. the bears and …the skunks and the coyotes. They were all gone. Oh, they all came when there was water, but when the water dried up, they quit coming.
And so did the human visitors. A few like Wayne and I, all non-residents, that didn’t know the stream was gone, came looking for water. Only an occasional visitor crunched down the path on the way to somewhere else. We and a few birds, flittering from tree to tree, were the only visitors that day.
When the water was depleted everyone left, everyone except the stone stackers, they stayed. They had memories of way back when, of when there was water. It’s both surprising and amazing how quickly you get used to things. They missed the water at first, but then there were so many stones to stack. And the stacked stones were beautiful. All the colors, and sizes and shapes. Beautiful stones, not that they were valuable, but they were fascinating. Stacking stones is captivating you know. I had to stop and stack a few myself. Amused and interested, I found just the right color and size to stack one on top of the other until it was sufficiently tall to stand impressive without tottering and tumbling to the ground.
The stone stackers, didn’t start out as stone stackers. They came for the water. They came thirsty. They started out as water drinkers, but when the river dried up they stayed. At first they longed for the water, they even prayed for rain, but after a while they got so busy stacking stones, they hardly missed the water at all. The stone stackers didn’t nourish life, they only left one more stack of stones. The stone stackers didn’t give water. They didn’t nourish life, they just left stacks of stones that dotted the dry river bed.
How like stone stackers the traditional Christian has become. They’ve allowed the stream to dry up in their lives because of sin, rebellion, disobedience and unbelief. It’s not that the stream was never there, it flows from the well of salvation, but neglect has damned the flow of relationship with Him into their lives. I don’t want you to miss this, indifference, neglect and sin stops the flow of the waters of relationship with God into our lives.
It’s a gradual thing. At first, the change is hardly noticeable. It happens when a believer ignores the still, small voice calling them to surrender their will to His. They hardly notice that the sin that once grieved their hearts, doesn’t really bother them anymore. Modern Christian culture has bought into the lie that conviction makes me “feel” bad, so I will ignore it. They turn up the volume knob on their entertainments. They ignore the warnings and invitations of their loving Father to spend time with Him, to read the Bible, and to obey what it says, with excuses and complaints. The water level gets lower, but they don’t notice cause they are so busy. They are doing beautiful things, churchy things, stacking stones is spiritual you know. Meanwhile, the water of God’s presence in their lives dries up—and they continue to stay where they are spiritually. At first they missed the refreshing, cleansing life-giving waters. But, they got so busy building a church and doing good stuff–stacking stones, that they forgot all about the water. They forget they were called to be water drinkers and water carries– and become satisfied just stacking stones.
Stacking stones is exhausting.
Oh, but there’s hope for dry riverbeds and stone stackers.
Elijah was a stone stacker in a time of terrible physical and spiritual drought. There’s a place for stone stackers. But the important issue here is, he didn’t stop with stacking stones. His stone stacking was an altar, a place of repentance…a place of surrender to God. A place where God responded to Elijah’s obedience with fire. It’s important that we notice Elijah didn’t stop when the fire came. He persisted until God sent the rain. Elijah was a stone stacker and a water drinker. He drank from God’s supply. Because he drank from God’s supply, because he wasn’t content to stop with stacking stones, he became a water carrier. His obedience and prayers brought water to a nation. You can read the story in 1 Kings 17.
I’m committed to be a water drinker and a water carrier that stacks a few stones when necessary! How about you? I’d love to hear from you.
Think MISSIONAL. If you know someone that would enjoy this blog, please pass it on!
Additional Link: Experiencing the Glory
We were going to cook out with Kimberly (my daughter) and her family. She’s a great cook! (Does that get me invited over again soon?) I was excited to get with them because we’ve been on a book tour for several weeks. There’s just nothing like getting all those slobbery kisses from the grandbabies! I […]
It is important to recognize that every believer desperately needs precious Holy Spirit. He is the Gift that Jesus promised he would send when he ascended to the Father. We must remain committed to helping them receive all God has for them, so they can be what God has called them to be. Here is some information […]