Holy Spirit In Our Weakness

On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit filled many believers, moved through signs and wonders and many were set free! When we say "yes" to Jesus, we receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit TODAY and have access to His authority, power, and freedom! How amazing! In addition to all of these wonderful things, Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit as our friend and Advocate. This life God has given us on earth is a gift, but it is not always easy. Holy Spirit guides us and reveals Himself to us not only when we feel powerful and strong, but also when we feel weak and vulnerable.  Peter, the man who preached the Gospel in front of thousands of people on the day of Pentecost, did not start off as a "strong" disciple of Jesus. He came to Jesus, in the Gospels, with many questions and internal conflict before he was a foundational leader in the building of the church. Time and time again in the Word, we see Holy Spirit come and meet people in their weakness. In that place of great need he is more than ready to be the fulfillment. Holy Spirit does not shy away from the things we struggle with but welcomes us to come to Him in the midst of these challenges. Our weaknesses create an opportunity to experience the goodness and strength of God. We get to give our weakness to Holy Spirit as an invitation for Him to speak and move in our hearts and through our lives. Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 12:10b: "For my weakness becomes a portal to God's power (TPT)." We then welcome His power in our weakness and vulnerability!  To be transparent with you, this season of life has been wonderful, yet challenging for us. We've had a lot of time to grow in our relationship with one another and with Jesus, which is awesome, but we also have been challenged with the disappointment of our plans not falling into place at the time we expected them to and other hardships. Instead of trying to move on from our emotions or avoiding God in the midst of the disappointment, we have been able to be real and vulnerable with Him in the middle of the challenges and struggles. We have been learning so much about who we are and who God is as Holy Spirit has walked with us and spoken over us in our weakness. We still do not have it all together, but Holy Spirit has really shown His power and His perspective to us through being vulnerable and honest with Him.  We pray that in the middle of whatever you are going through, whether it is physical pain, sickness, depression, anxiety, loss, or disappointment, that Holy Spirit reveals Himself to you and reminds you that you can talk to Him and lean on His power in you. May you unashamedly be open with Him and receive victory as you journey with Him through the process in Jesus' name!!   And now we are brothers and sisters in God’s family because of the blood of Jesus, and he welcomes us to come into the most holy sanctuary in the heavenly realm—boldly and without hesitation. For he has dedicated a new, life-giving way for us to approach God. For just as the veil was torn in two, Jesus’ body was torn open to give us free and fresh access to him!  And since we now have a magnificent High Priest to welcome us into God’s house, we come closer to God and approach him with an open heart, fully convinced that nothing will keep us at a distance from him. For our hearts have been sprinkled with blood to remove impurity, and we have been freed from an accusing conscience. Now we are clean, unstained, and presentable to God inside and out! (HEBREWS 10:19-22) Love,  Elijah and Sierra

From Dry Bones To Faith In Believing

During my quiet time I was pondering the highly anticipated great outpouring of the Lord’s Spirit where we were going to see many miracles, healings and works of power. I recalled having ministered with Randy Clark in Brazil and how incredibly easy it was to pray for people and see them instantly healed. There was an atmosphere of open heavens every place we went. Having returned to America I was surprised by a distinct contrast of the Presence of the Lord. At my first service after returning the church was alive with worship, dancing, flags and general shaking and baking. However, I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I was in a deeply conservative, dry, evangelical environment. It felt non-charismatic. Though seemingly bathed in the light and joy of the Spirit I felt like there was a pall over the whole church in America. The Lord then reminded me of the scripture in Ezekiel 37 about the valley of dry bones coming to life and here is an excerpt: “Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.”   The Lord then said the faith we have now is the dry bones He is going to breath life into and revive. He is going to increase our faith by lifting the dome of unbelief off of America. He is going to lift the kibosh and a stifling of God’s move in our midst. We are going to have open heavens over us – clear skies – on Earth as it is in heaven. I saw in a vision a huge waterfall in the sky pouring water over the Earth, over us. Vast quantities of water from heaven pouring upon us is coming like Niagara Falls. We are going to see things we never thought possible. We are going to see miracles, healings, works of power which will build our faith and lift us to a new level of ease of praying for the sick, praying for miracles, praying effective prayers. A fresh breath of air is coming from His glorious Spirit! Blessings! - Bill Hernandez (Taken from my blog; whisperoflove.org)

What Do You See?

In John 5 Jesus says, “I only do what I see my Father doing.” It seems pretty important that our eyes are open to what is happening in the unseen realm. In 2006, a group of us were in Israel praying for our Saturday night service. As we were praying, I suddenly saw a picture of so many small gold crowns. During this open vision, I began putting them on young girls’ heads. These girls seemed to be 6-8 years old from a country in Asia. I was filled with so much love for these girls. As I put the crowns on their heads, Jesus began to show them their true worth and identity. Fast forward 7 years later, during my first trip to Cambodia, I was helping at a safe home for young girls who were trafficked (many sold by their own family). As I was praying about what activity I should do with them, I felt I should talk to the girls about the value Jesus has given them and buy gold crowns for them to decorate. It wasn’t until my team and I put the crowns on the girls’ heads that I remembered the vision I had 7 years earlier. Many things happen in the spirit realm before it’s manifest in our natural world.   “Faith celebrates as certain what hope visualizes as future. Faith alone explains what is not apparent to the natural eye; how the ages were perfectly framed by the Word of God. Now we understand that everything visible has its origin in the invisible.” Hebrews 11:1-3 (Mirror translation)   God asks, “what do you see?” throughout the bible (Jeremiah 1:11, Amos 7:8, Zechariah 4:2). Jesus challenged the disciples pretty often to see from heaven’s perspective. In our current time, it’s pretty easy to see what’s not going right in our world. But Jesus is always encouraging us to see from a different viewpoint. Our spiritual sight allows us to partner with what God is doing. It bypasses our limited understanding and temporal perspective to see the eternal; what’s lasting.   My prayer is that God would begin to awaken all of your senses to what he is doing and saying. He loves to communicate in ways that are personal to you. He is always available, accessible and faithful to share more with you! I encourage you to take some time to get quiet and listen to what he wants to show you today.    Love, Karena