A Conversation on The Holy Spirit.

Lucky day. You don't get just one of us. You get two of us again this Sunday. We're back for another conversation. So we're excited to wrap up our sermon series on the Holy Spirit.

We have done a lot of heavy teaching. If you've missed any of it and you're like, I have no idea what you're talking about, good news. You can listen to the podcast and catch up. But essentially, we have spent the past few weeks talking about the Holy Spirit. We've been talking about the Day of Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, prayer, and prophecy.

So we just thought that we would wrap it up with some Q&A. But one of the reasons that we always, as a church, take time to go deep through talking about the Holy Spirit is because we truly believe what scripture says. God created the heavens and the earth and when sin entered the world there was a separation between us. We needed Jesus to come die on the cross to pay the price for our sins, and then when Jesus left us his Holy Spirit it wasn't just by mistake, it wasn't just like hey in case you want it. It's so intentional and so powerful for us to truly grasp who the Holy Spirit is and the empowerment that that offers us.

Pursuing the Holy Spirit in daily life

The Holy Spirit brings us greater access to the Father. He's all about revealing the Father's heart to us, gives us access to greater intimacy with the Father, and that's what we're after. We want to be intentional about teaching about that, because not only do we believe that the Holy Spirit gives us access to greater intimacy with Jesus, but also empowers us to go and to represent him in every single space that we get to step into.

Looking around this room, I have no idea where each and every one of you has been this week. I have no idea how many rooms that you've walked into, the people that you've sat next to, but each and every one of them is a child created in the image of God and someone that we get to represent Jesus to through the power of his Holy Spirit every single day. That's a gift that we have scripture that gives us this roadmap of who the Holy Spirit is, his role in our lives, and how we truly can be empowered individuals to go and share the love of Jesus.

So what does it look like to live as an empowered believer? We've talked about what being an empowered believer is, what it means to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, but now how do I do that? Keep asking those questions. One of the things about the Holy Spirit is this is a work that we're never done with. This is a work that we're going to keep growing in.

For us, this sermon series has been cool from the perspective of, yeah, it's been fun to dig into it and whatnot, but there have been a couple times where we show up on Sunday before service and one of us comes to the other and is like, so what's your personal theology on this? And the other responds, hey, I actually had this question while I was prepping the sermon. What do you think about this? It's given us an opportunity to grow and continue seeking the Holy Spirit and learning more about who the Holy Spirit is in our lives.

So as we continue to do this and we're wrapping today, keep doing that. That's the point of us doing these questions. They're your questions. We put them on our Instagram page for you guys to submit some questions that you still have about the Holy Spirit. Some of them are questions that we were just like, I want to know what you think about this. So just continue doing that. We're going to catch our breath and jump into it.

How do I intentionally engage with the Holy Spirit in my day-to-day life? What does living as an empowered believer, pursuing the Holy Spirit, look like in your daily rhythms? Well, when it comes to engaging with the Holy Spirit in everyday life, I think the key word there is like, what are the intentional things that you're doing? Because we always have choices to either live proactively or reactively. Either we show up and we're like, this is who I'm going to become. I'm going to become someone that looks like this or talks like this. And so I'm going to intentionally set up things and disciplines to get me there. Or we just wake up one day and we're like, oh, I guess this is who I am.

So I would say for sure, growing up in church culture, having an intentional relationship with the Holy Spirit has been something that's been really intentional for me. I believe in the power of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I believe in the gifts of the Spirit. So how do I grow in that? Even as a pastor, like I had a few years ago, where I woke up and I was like, I think I'm kind of like this, like a secret Pentecostal. Like I believe in all these things, but I don't really talk about it because it's weird. And what are people going to think of me? It was fun. This moment was like, I think I need to be a little bold here. It's time to be like, this is who I am.

So practically, we all have daily habits and rhythms, right? As a church earlier in the year, we talked about establishing a rule of life, which essentially is like, what are the things that you're going to do every single day? What is your rule of life that you're going to follow these rhythms so that you're intentional about the seeds that are taking root, the direction that they're growing. Part of my rule of life is starting my day with scripture and prayer.

Sometimes I'm just laying in bed and I'm just like, Holy Spirit, would you open my eyes to see you today in places that I don't expect you? Sometimes it's the same thing every day. A lot of times it's starting with just the Lord's Prayer and just being aware and making myself aware. Every day starting in some sort of like, Lord, Holy Spirit, you know, come.

Because I find if I don't do that, I just go throughout my day and I'm like, where was God working and moving that I didn't even see him? Even in a rule of life, we kind of sent out a church rule of life, which we still have copies of at the welcome table if you want to see that. It talks about the importance of taking breaks throughout our day, and that's something that I really intentionally do. I start to think through, okay, when am I going to have drive time? And for me, I do drive back and forth a lot. So I use my car time to just talk to the Holy Spirit. That is where a lot of times my prayer language comes in. I sometimes find myself praying in tongues more than I'm praying in English.

I love how James talks so much about the importance of the tongue. I think that's so special because the tongue is so powerful. When I'm praying in tongues and I'm praying in my spirit language it's like I'm submitting everything to him and it's like I'm surrendering one of the most powerful parts of my body, which is my tongue and the words that come out. I also end my night by asking the Lord's questions and having him help me see things throughout the day. That's the practice of examine, going and saying, Lord, will you show me where you were at today? Will you show me even things that I missed?

The art of question asking is so important in engaging with the Holy Spirit. I think one of the simplest ways that I could put it is when Paul talks about pray without ceasing, sometimes it's like, okay, every single moment of every day, are we supposed to be just like, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus? Like, what does that actually look like? I think of it like this. I have so many friends that live all over the place. Now, the friends that I'm not super close to, I usually set up a time where I'm going to call them and I'm going to talk to them. But the friends that I know super well, I know when their schedules are and when they're free, but they're also the type of people that I can pick up the phone and call whenever. Either they're going to answer and it could be a five-minute phone call. It could be, hey, I just saw this guy trip and fall at Walmart and it was hilarious and I had to tell someone. Or it can be a like, hey, I had the worst day of my life. Can you pray for me?

And if they can't pick up, I know they're going to call me right back. And you know that God's like that, where he's always there for us to call on. And sometimes it might be you setting aside these long times and being like, hey, can we actually get together and process this one thing? And then there's other times it's just like a quick text. So engaging through the Holy Spirit looks a lot like that, where there are practical things of in the morning, I'm either going to listen to my Bible app, a passage of scripture. I'm either going to read something or I'm just going to have those moments.

Experiencing the gifts of the Spirit

I've shared this story before in Follow, if you've taken Follow. But if I'm honest, I think that the story really starts like when I first got saved, like the night I gave my life to the Lord. Somewhere in me being at the altar, praying and receiving the Lord as my Savior, I sprained my ankle. Somebody was really excited, long story short, landed on me and sprained my ankle. So I had to hobble back.

We're in this giant convention center at a hotel. I had to hobble back for liability purposes. The hotel security had to wheelchair me back to my room. I was up all night in a lot of pain. I kept everyone in my room up all night because I was in pain. And the next morning it was like the final service and I'm sitting in a row with my foot propped up and then I was worshiping and my sister was next to me and she tapped me on the shoulder and she's like, you're jumping on your foot. My foot that was swollen and bruised and in pain when I walked into the sanctuary had been completely healed. That was this insane supernatural experience that I had less than 24 hours after giving my life to Christ.

Then fast forward four years, I am on a missions trip with somebody. The leader of that trip was someone that I grew up with and knew me really well. And he's on the altar with the microphone and he's preaching, he's doing the thing. And he's like, there are two girls in the room that I brought on my team and they have the gift of healing and you're going to come up to the altar if you want healing today.

I'm looking around at the team like which one of you is it and he's like it's Emily and, you know, me. I was like, oh the audacity of this man to do that to me. And I'm going to be honest in my brain I was like, okay, like you probably called me up there because Emily definitely does. But Emily is this really sweet girl from Pensacola. She doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. And we're in Cuba. So I assumed I'm being called up there to translate for her, which was silly because like half the time she was praying in tongues. I don't know what I was going to translate.

But the first night happens and some people did get healed. And I absolutely was like, wow, great job, Emily. Praise God. And then the second night comes and he does it again. And this time I'm hyped. I'm ready. I'm like, I'm Emily's wing woman, you know? And then Emily was like, you stay here and pray with this person. I'm going to go over there. And I was like, no, the power has left me. And I was so scared.

This guy comes up to me and you can see that like his bone, his hip bone, is not where it should be. You can see it on his body. And he's asking me to pray for him. All I could think was in Isaiah, it says, Lord, if you heal me, I will be healed. All I could think was like, I am like pretty much 100% positive I can't do this. But it says that if you heal, they'll be healed. So okay, Holy Spirit, let's do this thing. I had a little moment where I was like, all right, Holy Ghost, all right.

And I remember I put my hand on him and I did not know what to say. So I just said the only thing I could think of. I said what I saw in scripture, that the name of Jesus did things, and I touched his bone that was in the wrong spot. I said, in the name of Jesus, be healed. And I felt his bone move in my hand. And I screamed. I literally went, ah! I did not know what was going on, but he was jumping, and he was crying, and I was crying, which is not a shocker.

It was like this insane supernatural experience. By the grace of God, that's an experience that was the first time, and there have been really cool occurrences after that that are 100% the Holy Ghost. That was the first time I experienced that, and that was four years after having received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit before I saw that gift be made manifest in my life.

So with that being said, this question I think specifically coming off of talking about I experienced like if four years later after being empowered by the Holy Spirit. What piece of encouragement would you have for somebody who's just now learning about the empowerment of the Holy Spirit who maybe just recently experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit? What encouragement would you have for them in this kind of learning what this looks like, how do I do this phase, and where do they start?

Childlike faith and surrender

I think some of the first things that came to mind with this question was surrendering expectations and embracing childlike faith. I think there's so much to operating in the gifts of the Spirit and experiencing the Holy Spirit that is just so, in a lot of ways, out of control. But I also want to preface with that, you're also fully in control, you know? So it's like you have to choose to submit to not being in control.

I wanted to read a scripture. Jesus says in Matthew 18:3, truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

This is when a child was coming to Jesus and people were kind of going like okay who's the greatest. And he's turning to the children he's like this is what you need to be like. This is the example of greatness. Which is kind of crazy because even at that time it's like children weren't worth much in that moment.

I always love the way that Jesus talks about this and childlike faith. I think of when you're starting to experience the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and operating the gifts of the Spirit, pursuing this, we need to embrace childlike faith. So much of childlike faith is surrendering our control and giving up our right to fully understand the why. I think that's just like being a child in general. Like you think of that as a child, you're submitting to your parents every single moment of every single day. You're getting in the car and you're trusting they're going to get you where you need to go. You're sitting down hungry and you're trusting they're going to put food on your plate.

I think sometimes for us that's the type of faith it requires for us as we continue to stay curious to be learners of the Holy Spirit. It's to live in that type of way where we're saying okay we might not always understand what's happening. I love that story where you're like wait me. You're never going to feel ready. You're never going to feel like okay now I'm mature. I'm ready for the Holy Spirit to use me. There's not like this certain mark you have to hit.

So I think remembering that, stay curious, keep asking questions and just embrace that you're not going to fully understand what's happening. And sometimes maybe not for like years to come. There's so many moments where it's like you're kind of just experimenting. Getting used to that is so good.

Embracing that just kind of unknown aspect of it and knowing that you're not alone in that. Nobody that's being used in these supernatural ways is all knowing about what's going to happen. Because again, like we've talked about, it is supernatural. So there's a weird element to it that we don't understand in our human flesh. Continuing to remind ourselves, I think, can give you some confidence that like, okay, I can do this.

And so then with that, I think just the simplicity of like starting somewhere. Don't keep waiting until like someday you're going to arrive. Cause you won't. That can be today that you start to step out in faith. I believe that God honors that, like the more that we surrender to him.

So another question that we had come in that's kind of like, we're talking about childlike faith, and now this is about like, children and talking. Like, how do we teach children about the Holy Spirit? I'm going to let you take this one. What would you say to people that are asking that? I think this is because not everybody here is parents, but I also think this is really good to think of, of the children that we are around. Like, how do we continue to disciple like everybody around us in this type of way.

Teaching children about the Holy Spirit

How do we teach kids about the Holy Spirit and how to connect to the Holy Spirit? Part of my love for that is I grew up in a context where I never thought I couldn't hear the Holy Spirit. I was really fortunate to grow up in a church that had a really strong children's ministry and that had us as like little girls in prayer vigils. They taught us how to fast. They taught us how to pursue the Holy Spirit. They encouraged us in those ways. So I never had the perspective that the Holy Spirit is beyond me or is for someone older than me or whatever that is.

I think the Holy Spirit is so accessible to children. I think children are better at accessing it than we are. I think they don't always know and like call it but I think that's our job to say like wow like look at you praying right and to call those things out but kids have a really special connection with the Holy Spirit and with God.

One of the things that I think of right away is I used to work with middle schoolers at a church. I was like their weekly counselor and we did like chapels every single week and then we'd break up into small groups and I had the girls and my co-teacher had the boys. I remember sitting with my small group girls and we were talking, and they were like really confused about like being able to hear the Holy Spirit.

So what we did, which I think is an amazing practice to do as adults, but I literally gave them all a box of crayons each, pieces of paper, and we split into far areas of the room so nobody was anywhere near each other. And I told them to just ask God to speak to them. If it was a picture, to draw a picture. If it was words to write the words out. If it was a song, like whatever it was, to just ask the Holy Spirit to speak to them. I gave them some time, and we all came back together.

And each of these girls, which were aged like 10 through 14, came back, and one of them had written out basically a description of the picture another girl had drawn. And two of the girls had really similar images. One girl had a song, and they were all kind of in the same theme and same rhythm. It was this really cool confirmation of the Holy Spirit speaks to you. Here's this really cool thing that God was flexing and being like, hey, you know what I'm saying? God is capable of speaking to kids, little tiny kids.

I've worked with kids from infant all the way to 18, either in professional capacities or in church capacities. My 10-month-olds that I used to work with, they could identify which cubby was theirs. I promise you, they can hear God. It's not going to look the way that it does when you and I do it, right? They're not going to pop out with some crazy word. But there's a reason that scripture tells us we have to have the faith of a child. They want to hear God. I think as adults and as believers, it's our responsibility to teach them you can hear God. Not make it this inaccessible grown-up thing.

When they tell you, like, I want to pray about this or whatever it is, to take that seriously and to put weight on that. Because they're hearing from God. And they 100% can.

I think another example I think of that's really great is modeling. One of the most amazing things I can think that you can do when it comes to teaching your kids about interacting with God is let them see you interact with God. Keep the door open when you're having your quiet time. One of the most impactful things in my life, when I came to Christ at 15, I didn't know what to do, and the first thing I did was go, okay, I should read my Bible. The only reason I thought of that is because when I was little and would sneak out of my room at night when I wasn't supposed to, I'd see my dad reading his Bible.

Model what you want them to have. Model that you live the values you teach them. Let them see, I pray in the morning. Let them see, like, I'm reading my Bible. Do you want to go get your Bible and you can come sit down? Or mommy's journaling right now. Do you want to go get your journal and you can write some stuff down?

Talk to them about what you learned at church. Share those moments with them. I think the same thing I tell people all the time, like, I don't want to get emotional in front of my kid. Well, teach them how to be sad, right? Like, teach them how to cope with those emotions. I think it's the same thing. I'm having a hard time right now, and this is what I'm praying about. Ask your kids to pray for you. You'd be amazed what they say when you ask your kid to pray for you. They pray some good prayers.

I got a little cousin. He was like four when I decided I'm going to him every time I need someone to pray for me. A little prayer warrior right there. But like doing things like that, I'm teaching kids that being a grown-up is not a prerequisite to being used by God or being in relationship with God.

Operating in the gifts of the Spirit

So with that being said, I wanted to ask you to share a time you were on the receiving end of someone operating in the gifts of the Spirit. One of the things that we talked about is that the purpose of the gifts of the Spirit are to build up the church. So how has somebody operating in those gifts of the Spirit built you up?

A couple things come to mind, some of the bad and some of the good. One that I wouldn't even say is the spirit, but it's more so like how I received it. Classic camp story, guys, of waking up to like everybody kind of like looking at me when I walked in the cafeteria and like whispering. And like I went to church with like a big youth group. It's like everybody's staring at me. It was like, what happened? Someone got a prophetic word that they were supposed to marry me.

It happened, it happened and clearly did not happen, right? Like, was not from the Lord. So there's that where I'm like man, like, we must be talking to different gods up there, because I don't know what you're hearing but we talked about last week like, when I talked about prophecy, of the kind of like, acronym of REET, of receive it interpret it, test it and then apply it so that I'm like, honestly I didn't even receive that one, I was just like, no that is not of the Lord.

But I would say, like, that's something that I have been on the receiving end a lot. And even recently when I was in, at one of my pastor's gatherings for the cohort I was in, we were finishing a Mary gathering in February and I didn't even go forward for prayer, but I had one person come up to me and they said something so specific that I was like, wow, I don't know again if like, did I need to hear that? And so like I received it and it was very scriptural and I knew like, okay, like I'm testing it. Like, yeah, this is definitely God's heart for me.

And it was one of those words that I'm like, I kind of hope it's for me, you know? And then, and then another person came up that didn't know me at all. So the first person was someone that like knew me. So I was like, maybe it's because like they know me that they're receiving this word, you know? And this next person, like I had never met him before. And he came up to me and had a very similar word. And he's like, I don't know who you are. Like, is it okay if I share this with you? And then can I pray for you? And I'm like, sure.

You know? And so in those moments, it's still kind of going through my head of like, I'm receiving it. But while I'm receiving it, I'm like testing it. And knowing that like, I still at the end of it have the choice of like, am I going to receive this and apply it? And so that was some of the recent ones. But I would say like, I've had a lot of those moments of people having kind of like prophetic words that I then kind of take.

And usually I'll kind of keep quiet for a little bit, but also like let people close to me in on that. Like as I do that, like not everything I'm like, the Lord just spoke this and it's going to happen. But I have that close circle of like friends and mentors that I'll let in and be like, hey, this happened. You know, will you just like know this with me and be aware of this with me?

Discerning God's voice

So then another question for you is when we're talking about the Holy Spirit and we're talking about like, how do we know when we're supposed to like give a word to someone? How do we know when we're supposed to like pray for healing? How do we know really the biggest difference like between our voice and the voice of the Holy Spirit? So I would love for you to talk with that as the worship team, if you guys want to come up as we get ready to close. But yeah, I would love for you to just maybe explain, like, for yourself. And I think with that, again, everybody knowing, like, we're all different. And so I think of, like, for myself, I, like, very rarely know that I know that I know something. I'm always, like, I have to process it with like five people. I have to pray about it. Process with two more people. Pray about it again. And then maybe I know.

So knowing, like, your personality is huge when listening to this. But would you share with us, like, how do you know when it's the Holy Spirit or your voice?

Okay. I think that's a big question. It's super important. Because if we're talking about learning to live guided by the Holy Spirit, it's kind of important that we know when it's the Holy Spirit and when it's us, right? Because that's going to take us in two different directions if we confuse that a few too many times.

I think the first thing I want to say is you're going to confuse it a couple times. It's not a formula. I think that's the thing about the Holy Spirit is if you tend to live in the black and white, like it's this or it's that, this is going to be really hard for you. Because it's not that simple. It's not a formula. It's not if I pray three times and then read this scripture verse four times, I will know exactly what the Holy Spirit said. It doesn't work that way.

So starting out, having that grace with yourself. You're not always going to get it right. I think the second thing would be to talk to the Holy Spirit all the time. We talk about this in relationship. We always talk about it with Jesus, but it is the same thing with the Holy Spirit. You do not learn to recognize something that you do not spend a significant amount of time with. You have to gain a familiarity for what it sounds like when the Holy Spirit speaks to you. Because it is going to be different for all of us.

I've had moments where I kind of like reiterate something. I felt like the Holy Spirit spoke to me the way I felt like the Holy Spirit spoke it to me. And people are like, God talks like that? And I'm like, he does to me. That's how he said it to me. I know some people, they hear from the Holy Spirit really clearly, really just from other people in conversation with people, right? Then you get with like the person that's maybe a little bit more skeptical and has a hard time hearing from God through other people because they're not the most trusting of the people around them, right?

So it is really dependent. You have to learn how God speaks to you. It's one of my favorite parts about God. He's big enough for all of us and he's small enough to be so individual and so specific to you and how you hear from God and how you're going to respond to him. So it's about learning how to do that. I think part of that, I talked about this a couple weeks ago, but if you think you hear God say something, write it down. Write it down. Test it. There are a lot of things I've written down that I look back on and I'm like, thank you, Lord, it wasn't you. He knew better than I did. That was my desire that I made God.

There are moments when we do that where you have that moment where you're like, I think God is telling me to end this relationship when really you're just mad. I think we have to learn, maybe in this hyper-emotional state, I shouldn't be saying, this is what God said. Those tells, I need to stop, I need to pause, and is this my emotion or is this God? Maybe I need to process these feelings with God and then say, so now what do I do?

Learning how to do that, learning how to distinguish that. I know for me personally, I'm hyper decisive. Like once I've made a decision, I've made the decision. And that can get you in trouble, right? It's gotten me in trouble when it comes to hearing the Holy Spirit. Because I'm so in rush to make a decision, I'm so in rush to make a choice that I miss what God said in the urgency for me to do what I felt like I wanted to do.

So for me, it's been learning how to slow down. It's been learning who are these select people that I trust that hear from God. Do you have someone in your life that you trust hears from God? Maybe you need someone that can discern that with you. I've had moments where I pick up the phone and I call my friend and I'm like, hey, I think I hear God saying this. Can you pray with me? Can you discern this with me? I've done it with Abbie. I've done it with different people. But having that circle of people that I'm like, hey, I think this might be God, but I don't know.

I think especially when you hear God saying something you might not like, or that might scare you a little, God saying go here, or maybe saying stay here. I think that's God, but my flesh is telling me it's not. So let me go discern this with somebody else.

A community of believers. It all comes back to that. The Holy Spirit is meant to build up the church. It all comes back to being the church and being in this unit and in this community together. You can't do this, yourself, and I. You can't. We weren't designed for it.

Learning how to live empowered by the Holy Spirit is learning how to live in community. There's no point in having the gifts of the Spirit if you are not pouring them into the church. There is no point in being a believer empowered by the Holy Ghost to not be pouring it into the kingdom.

Seeking the still, small voice

The Holy Spirit is about what? It's about access. Access to the presence of God, access to the power of God. And what is the point of having access to the power of God? It's to build his church. So how do I hear the voice of God? I do it with the church.

I spend time with him and I spend time in a body of believers until I learn to recognize what that means. As a community, we've been doing this for over a month now. We've been talking about the Holy Spirit. One of the things we've been doing this summer is our prayer and worship nights. That's been a space where we have created space for you to seek God, whether that's journaling, standing, moving, on your knees. They've been really special and powerful times.

As we're wrapping this up and we're not going to be talking about just the Holy Spirit for another eight weeks I think just to reemphasize the importance. Spend time in his presence if you want more of him, right? If you want to hear the voice of God, you want to learn what he sounds like, seek him out.

The people in my life, there are some people that I ask them a question and I know the answer when I asked it. I already knew what they were going to say. Why? Because I know them. And there are people in my life that do the same thing. They say something to me, and the second I answer, like, yeah, I knew you'd say that. Why? Because they know me. They spend time with me. They know my heart. I don't even have to tell them what I think, and they know what I think.

That's the relationship and the state we should be in with the Holy Ghost. Where sometimes we're like, no, I'm not going to do that. Well, did you pray about it? Actually, I don't have to. I know the Holy Ghost, and I know that right now this feeling in my chest is the Holy Spirit telling me no. Or the opposite. Actually, logic is telling me this is silly, but I feel the Holy Spirit right now, and so I need to give money to this because the Holy Spirit is prompting me to do that. It's silly to go lay hands on that person and expect them to be healed, but I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to do it, so I'm going to go put my hands on them, and I'm going to expect them to be healed.

I have this prophetic word, and I think I might have pulled this out of my armpit, okay? But I feel the Holy Spirit, so I'm going to go give this prophetic word. So we're going to spend some time right now, not one final time, because we do this all the time anyway, but one final time for this sermon series. Whatever you walked in with, whatever your expectations are, wherever you're at with this whole Holy Spirit thing, we're going to seek him today, and we're going to spend some extended time after service right now, listening for that voice.

Before we do it, I just want to read this scripture to you guys. In 1 Kings chapter 19, verses 11 through 13, it says, He was not in the fire, and after the fire, a still, small voice. So it was when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah?

And then in Acts 7:31, it says, when Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight, and as he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of God. The earthquake came and it was a sign of the presence of God. The wind came and it was a sign of the presence of God. The bush was on fire and it was a sign of the presence of God. But the voice of God came when they came close enough to hear it.

So we're going to spend some time right now and we're going to get close. And we're going to listen in for that still, small voice. Lord, we thank you because the fact that you hear us when we pray is a guarantee. We thank you because when you speak to us, every single promise is a guarantee. Because no word comes out of your mouth and returns void.

Lord, I pray that as we take this time now to center in, to focus, that you would remove every distraction. God, that you would come in and provide comfort and confidence where there is doubt. Lord, that for the person who is wondering why you haven't spoken yet, that you would quiet every anxious thought, that you would quiet every fear, and that you would speak clearly, Lord.

Lord, for the person who has been wondering why you haven't used them in the way they've seen you use others. Lord, that you would first of all come and remind them that they are uniquely made, that you have called them, chosen them, and anointed them for something unique, and that you would come and just give them a fresh anointing and a fresh outpouring of your Holy Spirit. Lord, I pray for the person in the room who's been longing for you and longing for this empowerment and hasn't had it yet. Lord, I pray that you might open their mouth even now and that they might receive the Holy Spirit in this time, Lord.

Lord, I pray for the person that is a little nervous and a little weary of all of this and has spent the past couple weeks with us and still isn't quite sure. Holy Spirit, reveal your character to them because you are trustworthy and there's nothing that's too much when it comes to you. So Lord, I pray that you might make yourself so clear to them and that your Holy Spirit might be made manifest in us tonight and going forward, that you would give us hearts that seek you more and more and more.

Lord, we thank you and I pray right now for that still small voice for each and every person in this room. It's in your holy name we pray. Amen.