Acts 1:8 (NIV)

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

CONSIDER THIS

Today’s Holy Spirit Story comes to us from Paul and Lisa Ellis of Houston, Texas. It is a story of unthinkable tragedy and yet exudes the remarkable grace of God through the church of Jesus Christ. You will appreciate and be moved by the candor and faith represented here. I thank them on behalf of us all for their courage to share this with our Wake-Up Call community. You will read it below in their own words and, if you listen, you will hear it in their own voices. 

Hello, our names our Paul and Lisa. We have two sons, William and Matthew, and are both native Houstonians. Lisa and I have considered ourselves to be Christians all of our lives. We both were raised in church, attending on most Sundays. I would listen to sermons about having a relationship with Jesus but it seemed so unobtainable and, to be honest, I enjoyed going to church one day a week and being the same sinful person the remaining six days. Well, all that was about to change.

On Monday morning, November 13, 2017, while I was working from home like any other day, I heard a loud knock and went to see who was at the door. I opened the door and a Harris County constable was standing there. I asked him what was wrong and he asked if he could come in. He preceded to tell me that my son Matthew who was twenty years old, passed away from alcohol poisoning at a fraternity event the night before. The tragedy was very public and the story hit the national headlines. To say that we were devastated is an understatement. We questioned everything about our faith. At the time, our relationship with Jesus was very shallow. After the tragedy, there was no more pretending to be Christians. We contemplated leaving Christianity altogether. How could God allow this to happen? Does God even exist? We wrestled with so many questions.

We received support from family and friends at the beginning and even went to private counseling. We also started noticing the loving hands of Jesus Christ in our lives through a local church community where both of our sons, William and Matthew, served in UMArmy (a youth mission). We would receive frequent visits from people we didn’t even know. We just remember the hugs, tears, and comfort they were providing at the time. We were invited to go to a Sunday school class, so we decided to really lean into what was left of our faith. Not just be the check-the-box-on-Sunday Christians, but truly seek him, hear from him, learn to have a relationship (whatever that meant), and depend on his promises. The pain was too great, too real to be superficial anymore. We were seeking shelter, healing, and spiritual truth, not the truth the world has to offer.

A few months after Matthew’s passing we were asked to join a class meeting small group, so we did. Everyone accepted us with open arms. We shed tears at every meeting for the first six months or so, sharing our struggles, grief, and pain. Through the months, we started building a spiritual foundation through a true community of believers. We had a prayer journal in our small group and could see where prayers were being answered. It built up our faith and we started experiencing healing and the redeeming love of Jesus Christ. After spending a year in that group, we felt prompted to lead a new class meeting, so we did. We had several people over our house once a week for about a year and grew even deeper in our faith. We could feel God calling us into something more, a life of prayer.

Our pastor, Jeremy, joined us one night during our class meeting and offered prayer in a way we never experienced . . . very intimate as if Jesus was in the room. Lisa and I felt like Jesus was calling us and several others in our group into the prayer ministry. We joined our church prayer team and started praying on a regular basis. Soon afterward, our church started a Healing and Prayer Service and we started attending, receiving prayer, and also receiving healing from the grief we experienced. Jesus began healing us from the inside out! We decided to attend prayer training and became prayer intercessors at our Healing and Prayer Service. I also trained to be a spiritual care volunteer at Texas Children’s Hospital serving in the NICU, using my experience to comfort others. We are also blessed to serve in Hope Family Care, a ministry that helps parents who have lost children (hopefamilycareministries.org).

We miss Matthew so much and would not wish our pain and suffering on anyone. What we really want everyone to know is that Jesus truly does love us and desires to heal our sufferings, no matter what it is. His Spirit and strength are more than enough to cover our sufferings and give us the ultimate peace, comfort, and healing we truly desire. We’ve learned that it requires trusting the people that God puts in our paths, being vulnerable, and opening our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit. We know that part of our faith journey is to reach out to others who are hurting, grieving, and struggling with their faith. If you would like to be in touch with us, you can do so here.

THE PRAYER

Father, how we thank you for the life of Matthew Ellis; for the difference his faith made in his life, and for how his faith continues to ring out through his death in the life of his family and now to us. We bless Paul and Lisa and William as they continue to suffer this loss. We thank you for the way you have met them through your church and for the way you are bringing good and blessing to others in similar situations from something so devastating and bad. Jesus, thank you for the gift of eternal life, our great hope in life and in death. We especially pray for other families who are suffering such situations today, for this story to find its way to them. We pray in Jesus’s name, amen. 

THE JOURNAL PROMPTS

Have you gone through such a tragedy as this or do you know others who are going through it? Would you be willing to reach out to them with this story as an act of faith and encouragement?  

THE HYMN

Today we will sing our Saturday song: “Sanctuary.” We will sing it through twice. 

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

P.S.  Holy Spirit Stories Welcome

I would love it if you would send a story of faith from your life we might use on a Saturday in the future. We will be glad to attach your name or a pseudonym or anonymity—it’s up to you. It can be a story of coming to faith, a story of transformation, a story of healing, deliverance, suffering and sufficient grace, family reconciliation, prodigal returns, answered prayer, and so forth. A word count of 500–800 words works well. We can’t guarantee publication, but we assure you of our prayerful discernment. You can reply to this email with your story and it will come to me.

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