The Essential Holy Spirit by pastor Brent Lokker

We are in the midst of something profoundly special! This past Saturday I was going to take some time to talk about how essential Holy Spirit is in our journey as followers of Jesus. What happened instead is Holy Spirit took over (which we always want) and ushered us into incredibly deep places in God’s heavenly, spiritual realm. There were tears, laughter, prophetic insights, and probably a thousand more intricacies into the hearts of those throughout the room.  After lingering for a very long time in this profoundly beautiful and holy place, I did end up sharing for a short time about the Essential Holy Spirit by reading through Acts 1:1-11.

Click to listen: ESSENTIAL HOLY SPIRIT

Holy Spirit’s nearness on Saturday night was one more answer to our prolonged heart cries for more of the Lord and it didn’t happen by accident. Our heavenly Father places a longing in our hearts for Him, but our responses to that longing are a significant reason why He chooses to interact with us as He does, just as would be true with any of us with those we dearly love. But do we have something to do with the outpouring of God’s Spirit? We get a clue to the answer when Jesus told his followers to wait for the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4). Waiting, it turns out, is an active longing, not a passive twiddling our thumbs. To “wait on the Lord” actually means to be entwined or braided with His heart. Knowing that, here are a few reasons we experienced this delicious feast of Holy Spirit’s outpouring last Saturday… Deep intercession took place before the service. I cannot underscore how important our agreement is to God. And then God responds to our heart cries! Our worship leaders have allowed their hearts to be tenderized, which is why they can lead us into such intimate encounters with the Lord. This past week Todd and Damali were the ones to do so, and we are so appreciative! Those of you who came ready to give whole-hearted worship and devotion to our heavenly Father became a magnet for His tender interactions with us. This springs forth from our own daily moments of intimacy with the Lord. Collectively, our desire for closeness with Him and our experiences of closeness with Him spill over into experiencing Him together as followers of Jesus in deeply profound ways. Our good friend Jo Moody just shared this word that struck a deep, deep chord in my spirit:  “I had a vivid vision of what the Lord is doing in this Isaiah 61 time:  I saw an elephant. The sound coming forth was out of its trunk and not an angelic trumpet. The elephant was blasting the sound and it was so loud. I asked the Lord for understanding and he led me to learn that the deep wells had been uncapped and the sound had been released to come to the water and drink. When one elephant finds living water in a season of drought and stagnant water (and there is only a small watering hole) the elephant send a trumpet blast so loud that it can be heard 28 miles away by other elephants. They know to come running because of the sound. They come in droves to gather with the single elephant. Because the watering hole is not large enough for all of them, they begin to stomp their feet until the ground is broken up and shaken so much it releases the well of water below. This stomping group allows the water to flow so that all who are thirsty can come and drink. Our longing for the depths of the Lord is not for us alone.  Others are coming! This watering hole is about to open into dimensions we never dreamed possible!                                                                               Love, Pastor Brent