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 Andrew Roth. He lives outside of Asheville, North Carolina, and goes to church in Boiling Springs, South Carolina. I love the texture of this story. It is all at once ordinary, honest, and supernatural. I see it as a twenty-first-century picture of first-century life in the presence of the outpoured Holy Spirit. Notice the “words” and “dream” and his pastor’s sensitivity to the Spirit and the immediate obedience to the Spirit’s promptings. Friends, all of this is happening all over the place all of the time. Are we tuned in? I believe this story will both encourage and challenge us today. Below you will read it in Andrew’s own words and, if you listen, you will hear it in his own voice.
God has been working in my life mightily over the past year. I have been a believer for years, but I was asleep living in my own comforts and daily life. A friend called me and told me in so many words that God had more for me and needed me. He sent me a sermon to listen to. I’ll be honest I had eight other tabs open and was kinda sorta listening. At one point the man speaking started to pray in tongues. Suddenly the Holy Spirit flooded me and I started weeping, overwhelmed with God’s love and presence. It had been years and years since I had felt God in that way. I responded to my friend’s invitation and attended church with him multiple times and continue to do so. The Holy Spirit has renewed and refilled me in such a dramatic way. My spirit is so alive in him.
As I walked out this journey, my wife had a dream, which told her to share with me that as I walked out this renewal in Christ I needed to bring my sons (ages 13 and 15) along with me.
At church on a Friday night, the minister was speaking on the Holy Spirit—teaching on his role and his gifts in our life. As he was finishing speaking, I went to go find my wife who was with our two-year-old daughter to switch so she could participate in the service. As I got up, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and reminded me specifically of that dream my wife had shared with me and said: “Go back and be with your sons.” So I turned around and stood next to them. The minister was laying on hands and praying for people. He prayed for me and when he was done he asked me, “What has God told you just now?” I replied, “To go and pray for my sons.” So I prayed for my older son to receive the infilling and gifts of the Holy Spirit. I then prayed and asked my younger son if he wanted to give his heart to God and he said yes! We continued to minister to him and ask him if he received Jesus’s forgiveness for his sins. Again he said yes! This is such an answer to prayer as he had been resistant to God until this time. I turned to go find my wife and share this good news with her. As I came back and stood next to my son I could see the Holy Spirit bathing him in his presence, I asked him, “You feel his presence?” He replied, “Yeah!” I told him that was God’s gift to him and he loved him. I then got to baptize him Sunday in the lake!
My family continues to seek God earnestly. I have continued to read and pray with my boys. My wife and I pray together, and God has brought much healing to our marriage. Our lives are on a different path—the path that is seeking God and how we can serve him with our lives.
THE PRAYER
Father, thank you for Andrew and his family and for the ways you have been at work in, among, and through them. Thank you for his honest confession, “but I was asleep living in my own comforts and daily life.” Thank you for his friend who heard a word from God for him and had the courage to call him and share. Thank you for breaking in through that sermon while eight other tabs were open on his computer. This is us, Lord. We all have many tabs open and lots of channels are streaming into our attention at any moment. We want . . . no, I want to hear from you. I say yes to whatever you will say even before I hear it. Forgive me for coasting and living off of my past relationship with you. Holy Spirit, would you bring the presence of Jesus into my present and reignite my faith and life? Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
THE JOURNAL PROMPTS
How many tabs are open on the browser of your soul about now? Are you encouraged by how the Lord speaks and gets people’s attention like this and unfolds new possibilities? Are you hungry for this in your own life? Will you make an altar of invitation even now?
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.
2 Responses
I was amazed to read in today’s Wake-Up Call:
“I was asleep living in my own comforts and daily life. A friend called me and told me in so many words that God had more for me and needed me. He sent me a sermon to listen to. I’ll be honest I had eight other tabs open and was kinda sorta listening. At one point the man speaking started to pray in tongues. Suddenly the Holy Spirit flooded me and I started weeping, overwhelmed with God’s love and presence. It had been years and years since I had felt God in that way.”
I wrote this before I saw Today’s Call:
Tongues isn’t about self. It’s about surrender, brokenness, and humility. There’s nothing prideful about it. There’s no point to prove. Tongues isn’t about the mind; it’s about surrender of the heart and the will to the direct control of the Holy Spirit and letting Him freely flow from within with Spirit-given utterance. Testifying about gift of tongues is no different than testifying about salvation. They are both supernatural works of God that we need to shout from the housetops so that people trapped by hopelessness and despair can hear and see the reality and power of the living, resurrected Jesus.”
I loved the Holy Spirit story and the reawakening for Andrew and his family.
I particularly tuned into Andrew’s wife’s dream to share the awakening with his sons. The number one prayer request in my current Bible study is to pray for the member’s adult children who have not come along in the faith. They have a deep longing for their children to know Christ.