For a week, I had been cleaning out a messy room in our house filled with old toys. I wanted my daughters’ friends to have a tidy place to gather when they came over for a Friday Night Fun Night at our house. We had invited them and they had responded with a Yes, but then both girls had an unexpected family event occur which prevented them from coming. I had worked hard to clean but the fact was, the visitors couldn’t make it.
I’m glad that when I invite the Holy Spirit of God to move in my life, He shows up. He doesn’t have other plans and desires to be invited into our hearts to help, strengthen and create new things.
I love how the prophet Ezekiel called on the wind to come and blow life into an army that had just been raised up. The wind of God represents His Holy Spirit. In the valley of dry bones, no life existed until Ezekiel spoke to them after God told him to speak and the bones came alive. In order for the army to have breath in their bones, God told Ezekiel to call on the winds to blow into them.
Ezekiel invited the wind and it came. It accomplished the purpose which was to awaken and allow the army of people to breathe again.
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary faith. Ezekiel had the faith needed for God’s work to be done. He invited God to move and expected an answer from God.
Ezekiel knew that the situation looked hopeless with bones scattered throughout the valley, but he believed in the possibility that God could do something on a grand scale. He believed God and spoke. I believe that we too must look at our situations and speak life to them. The circumstances must not cause us to forget all of what God has done in the past and all that He is able to do in the future.
In my church’s Monday night prayer meetings, we have been inviting God to be with us as we praise and worship him through songs. He is pleased with our worship then we pray and ask him to heal bodies, broken hearts and bound lives. I know that as we invite Him to move and work in the lives of our family and friends, we will see great things. We will experience what previously had seemed impossible.
On the night of October 21, 2019, our pastor told us to mark this date down as the night that we prayed fervently for all of the men in our church to be spiritual leaders in their homes. This is part of the prayer that the pastor prayed over the men:
“On this day we are asking God to help you and deliver you so that you will not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Be done with whatever it is. You may need to start something new. In the name of Jesus, I renounce this thorn, this snare and this trap. I want Jesus and to be filled with the Holy Spirit and used by the Lord. Help the men to be leaders of spiritual things in our homes and to pray with their wives. Help the men to be a peacemaker in their homes and spread the love of Jesus. Jesus will applaud you and devils will run. In the name of Jesus!”
We have invited the Holy Spirit to move mightily on all the men in our church and specifically on our husbands. I sent my husband this prayer because he was driving to the prayer meeting from work. Once he arrived, the pastor prayed more over the men and we sang praises to God. It was so sweet to worship alongside my precious husband and to lift up Jesus.
As I stood next to my husband with our arms embracing each other from the side, we sang the “Shout to the Lord” song. One of my favorite parts of the chorus is when we sing, “I sing for joy at the work of your hands.” I remember singing this song while being pregnant with my second child and praising God for how He was forming her in my body. Now, I am praising Him for how he is placing a hedge of protection around my children and my husband to protect their minds and hearts. Another song was a short chorus which had these words repeated: “To Him Who Sits on the Throne and unto the Lamb. Be Blessing and glory and honor and power forever!”
I have invited the Holy Spirit to be welcomed in my home and heart. I ask that you consider how you are inviting God into your life. He is waiting for us to open our hearts and minds to the possibility that there is a new thing, a new hope just around the corner. Invite the Holy Spirit to work in your heart and watch as He answers your prayer.
