Welcome everyone to this next episode of the Holy Spirit channel and in the first episode
Liz and I talked about, I should say really Liz did more of the talking than me, just
about Rhema and Logos and if you don't know what that is you need to go back and listen
to it.
The second one we talked a lot about the Holy Spirit filling, the filling of the Holy Spirit
and how to kind of let the Holy Spirit take over our flesh and kind of kill the flesh
and feed the Holy Spirit and you use some jars, you should watch that, that was a really
good one.
Well today we're going to look at stories from the Holy Spirit channel, so real stories
and you know we cut really our teeth in relationship together on the mission field our first, let's
see how many years, the first four years of our marriage we were over in Japan and that
meant that we were outside of our culture, outside of our, really our world view and
we had to be so dependent on God, didn't we, I mean even down to the food that we ate,
so it was really a blessing, it was a blessing to start off that way, but we've continued
to try to stay on that Holy Spirit channel and we weren't calling it that.
I think some people might call it the Spirit filled life, which is a great term, but we're
calling it the Holy Spirit channel because we want to help you understand that there
is a frequency and the Spirit is speaking all the time, but if we don't have the antenna
to hear it, we're missing it, so why don't we just even recent, like we don't, I don't
want to just talk, I don't want to talk about old stories, okay, you know, we've healed
a lot of people or the Holy Spirit's healed a lot of people through us, we've seen a lot
of people come into the kingdom over the years, cast out a lot of demons, but let's even talk
most recently what the Holy Spirit's been doing and some real stories from the adventure
of the Holy Spirit channel.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, do you want me to start?
Go for it.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'll start with maybe a couple stories from our time visiting our daughter, Anna, in Florida.
So that's just in the last three, that's like in the last three weeks.
Yeah.
And before I left, I felt that the Holy Spirit said, sit down on the couch when everyone
had gone to bed and pray about your mission trip to Florida.
And I was thinking, I thought I was going to like help with the baby and my daughter
and do a lot of laundry and maybe make dinners and stuff like that, but he was saying, no,
you need to pray about that.
And I think you came out and you said, what are you doing?
And I said, I'm praying about my mission trip.
And he goes, to Florida?
And I said, yeah, the Lord's calling it a mission trip.
So I'm praying about it.
And I just prayed that I would be ready for whatever it was.
But he gave me a warning, kind of a warning, kind of like of fun.
I love missions.
So I was like, oh, well, what's going to happen there?
So I was just praying for myself to be ready to hear and to do the things that he was calling
me to do.
So the first night I got there, I was outside of the airport and my son-in-law had something
happen and he was late.
And this lady was sitting by me who was elderly, an elderly person in a camo in a wheelchair.
And this other lady came with a huge luggage cart full of her stuff.
And she started saying to us, I can't wait to get out of this hellhole.
And then she started telling us this horrible story about her cousin attacking her with
knives that day.
And she had just been helping his mom.
That's why she came.
And she just told us on and on and on.
And all of a sudden, I was like, okay, this is the type of person that usually I ignore.
And the Holy Spirit said to me, don't you dare.
And I was like, okay, this is the mission.
And so I said, okay, hold on to this lady because she wanted to go on and on and on
and on.
I said, okay, we need to pray for all of these people in this story.
So tell us all the names.
He near me said, well, I'm a missionary of the Lord Most High,
the one that was in the wheelchair.
And she said, I think we definitely need to pray.
And we were the only three ladies outside and it was at night.
And so we, in Florida, Panama city, and this lady, um, was very difficult at
first, very, very angry, and we just started speaking God's love over her.
We started sharing with her that God doesn't feel this way about you.
And she started saying that she heard terrible things as a child about who she
was, and she was saying, you know, I'm, I feel like I'm this and that, and it
was very negative things.
And, um, so we started talking to her about, you've got to hear what God says
about you.
And we started speaking that.
And then she said, well, I believe that my mother put a curse on me.
And so this lady and I broke the curse and we did it through prayer.
And I can't say that I've been a curse breaker before, but the Lord had that
happen.
And this lady who was so angry, almost kind of crazy in a way, just calmed down.
She was, she felt loved.
She felt peace.
She had a smile on her face.
She had joy about the future and that's casting out demons.
Sometimes it's not, it's not this big, dramatic thing, but she had demonic
affliction.
And then we just, this lady and I just prayed over her and she left in the peace
of the Lord.
And we said, go on and get in a church that you can hear God.
So her head didn't spin around?
No.
Because that's the impression, right?
Was casting out demons.
Yeah.
But you quietly, civilly, powerfully, boldly, lovingly dealt with, was a felt
need in her life.
And, and we hugged her and she was, she wanted to be hugged and she, it was so
sweet.
She was Catholic.
So she was doing the crucifix.
That was as close as she could get to God.
She did the sign of the cross right there when you guys were praying for her.
Yeah.
And so she was, you know, saying, I agree, I agree in her own way.
And it was powerful.
And, um, and actually throughout the trip, I saw a lot of demons cast out and I've
never really had that happen before.
Yeah.
So tell us another story.
All right.
So this one day, um, well, first of all, I found this coffee shop.
So anyway, just so you guys know that are listening, these are all kind of up to
date stories.
These have all happened in the last three weeks.
So we're not taking you back to like a hundred years ago, stories, like back when
we were, had long hair and looked like hippies and stuff.
We did.
So, okay.
My brother said that I did.
I don't think I did.
If you compare me with others, I didn't look like one of the guys in the Doobie
brothers, but, um, I also didn't look like the letterman.
So anyway, go ahead.
Well, anyway, so what another, one of my favorite stories was, um, I was feeling
kind of low one morning and I had this coffee shop in the city.
It was called Port St.
Joe that I called the coffee, um, what, what'd I call it?
The coffee church, because they had worship music playing all the time.
This lady was a Christian that owned it.
So I would just call it my coffee church, um, because you could just hear praises
of the Lord.
And actually there was a lot of joy there.
You went there and a lot of people I think had burdens lifted because the
atmosphere was praise.
And so we, uh, we, we, I went in there and I was feeling kind of down and I was
thinking about being self-piteous even more than I was.
And I heard the Holy Spirit say, don't go there.
And you know, anytime we have self, like if it's self exaltation, self, um,
promotion or self condemnation, self, um, hatred, or even self pity, all that is
the same.
It's the wrong focus.
So I was about to be self-piteous and the Lord said, don't do it.
Ask somebody around here how they're doing, like to get it off your mind.
So I asked the lady in back of me, I said, how are you doing today?
How's your day going?
She goes, it's terrible.
And I said, so is mine.
And she was like, oh, um, honesty is a good way to start.
And, um, I didn't.
go into mine, I just said, well, what's going on?
I said, you don't have to tell me, but if you'd like to,
I'd love to hear.
She goes, well, I work for the garbage company,
and I've been up all night collecting garbage,
and it was really hard.
And I got home, and my daughter had had this big party
at our house, and she went up to some terrible,
I guess, local place that was for bad behavioral things,
I guess.
I didn't recognize it.
She said they went up to the something.
And her and her friends, and I said, oh, wow, that's so hard.
And you could just see she felt so discouraged.
And I sensed that she was a single mom,
and maybe had a teenage daughter that was doing this.
And I said, I bet it's a lot more than just what happened.
She goes, oh, yeah.
She said, I am very discouraged.
I said, well, first of all, I'm going to buy you a coffee.
So I bought her a drink.
Simple.
And after that, the owner and I, we
were the only ones there with her.
And I said, let's pray for Rachel.
And Rachel, I said, Rachel means lamb, doesn't it?
And she said, yes.
And as we were praying, there was
a song about the lamb of God.
I said, listen, Rachel.
Your name means lamb.
Listen to what's being played right now.
It's about the lamb of God.
And he cares for you.
She was like, oh, wow.
And then we just kind of shared some things.
We joined hands.
And then I felt like the Lord wanted
me to get a little crazy.
So the lady that owns this coffee shop, her name was Lisa.
And I said, Lisa, can I get a little crazy in this coffee
shop right now?
She was like, OK.
So I took Rachel's hand.
Yeah, I took her face in my hands.
And I just said, I said, I'm not praying against you.
But I want to pray against the devil's afflictions on you.
And I just said, God thinks you're so precious.
And he has known you from so long ago.
And he's so precious that he has a song that
has your name in it right now as we're praying.
And so I just prayed against the devil.
And I just said, Satan, I have authority over you.
And you listen to me right now.
You can't be over Rachel anymore.
She belongs to God.
And she needs to be encouraged, not discouraged.
So you need to leave right now.
And so she ended up smiling and not being discouraged.
She felt loved.
And she said to me and my friend Lisa, who owned the coffee
shop, she said, you know, I don't like hugs.
But will you guys hug me?
And so we did.
And it was such a precious time.
And I'll never forget her.
And I'll never forget her name because it
was Rachel, the lamb.
So the Lord really brought through by you having time.
Here's what I'm hearing you say in just a couple of stories.
You're trying to make time in anything that you're doing.
So matter whatever we're doing, the Holy Spirit
wants to use you.
If you're going out to eat, if you're shopping,
if you're at a ball game, whatever,
look around and try to see or hear what God might be doing
and expect that God will give you a word of knowledge
or wisdom about a situation.
If you're not hearing anything, don't make it up.
But if you kind of get an impression,
it just might be the Spirit.
And the more you act on it, the more
God's going to speak to you, right?
Yes.
So I just want to share another cool person in history.
His name is Frank Labuck.
And he was a missionary in the Philippines
in the 30s through probably the 60s.
And he was this guy.
He called himself a modern mystic.
And he said that when we pray, we should pray.
And it's our error when we run away and not listen
to what God said back to us.
So he says, like, hearing what God says back
is so much more important than hearing what we say only.
But a lot of times, we look at prayer like that.
Like, I'm going to talk to God.
But we don't think about, what is he saying back to me?
Because this is a relationship.
So what I love about all that is he
says that we have certain things we do every day.
and we're required to do it. You're required to work. I have
responsibilities too, but it's those times when we're doing
those things when we say, what do you want done right now? What
do you want said right now, Holy Spirit? Because we're on the
channel, and we're doing our thing, and it's not like, okay,
I'm done with my work, so I'm going to go on the channel. It's
like you're doing your work on the Holy Spirit channel, and
you're saying, what do you want now? What do you want me to say
or do? How do you want me to do it? Because we're still about
fulfilling our responsibilities.
So you're translating your regular schedule into an
opportunity to hear from God and respond to others. Maybe that's
the way Jesus was. Because all his stories are him just going
from village to village, preaching the kingdom, healing
the sick, casting out demons, bringing that kingdom that
already but not yet into his world because he's connected to
the Holy Spirit. And that seems to be what the early church did
so well, is that that was the point of Acts chapter one. For
40 days, he taught them on the kingdom, and then he told them
to wait until they were filled with the Spirit. So in Acts 2,
the Holy Spirit comes. Suddenly they're speaking in tongues.
Peter preaches a gospel, 3,000 get saved. And that kind of
launches the greatest movement the world's ever seen. And that
thing, that's a group of men and women who may not even be that
educated. Certainly that first group wasn't. But they know how
to hear from God. They know how to minister in the power of the
Holy Spirit. So you feel like that continues today?
Yeah. I mean, I think there's no ceiling on it. I mean, I think
that we'll just know more and more and more. If you feel like
you've kind of hit a new place of strength in understanding the
Spirit for life, there's so much more. And you can't, there's no
ceiling. And we're getting ready for heaven. And really, this is
about surrender. It's about surrendering your day. And it's
about being available to God wherever you are. It's about
stepping out. And I don't think you can really do this if you
look at your life as something more than being a pilgrim and a
sojourner. If you think you're here to make your life great,
you can't do it. Because we're here as pilgrims. This isn't our
home. We were created for perfection. So we can actually
be a little deceived and thinking, well, we have to make
it the best it can be, don't we? Well, God's gonna make it the
best it can be with us, because he partners with us. And I think
that we can quench the Spirit when we're trying to be great,
or when we're trying to make our life great. And we're gonna miss
it. We're gonna miss it. And we're gonna miss the
opportunities. And we're, you know, our lives are like a
vapor. We were made for eternity, but they're like a
vapor. And we need to be those people that are allowing the
Spirit to lead us as much as possible, because we're only
here for a short time. And then we're gone. And like a vapor,
right. And, you know, I think you and I have heard a song
recently about Jesus. Like we're going to the home plate. Yeah.
And Jesus is there. So like Jesus is waiting for us at home
plate. How did we do? You know, did we did we have a life that
was a lot about us? Or was it about him?
So you that are listening, we challenge you to get on the Holy
Spirit channel. Start each day, asking the Holy Spirit to speak
to you and guide you lead you and everything that you're
doing. Listen for the voice of God, not just for yourself, but
also for others around you. And look, see what the Spirit's
doing. Listen to what the Spirit's saying. Jesus said, I
can only do what I see see the Father doing. That's the Holy
Spirit voice. So there's the voice of the Spirit working. And
so it is with all of you. So I hope this has been helpful to
you to grow in tuning in to the power, the frequency, the voice
of the Holy Spirit.