Lean

 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8....'But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. for He will not speak of His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."

John 16:13

I was listening to a song by worship leader Darlene Zschech recently, and I was moved by something she said as she exhorted those she was ministering to into deeper worship. She called them to "lean into the Spirit." That really spoke to me. She was affirming that the Holy Spirit was very present in the worship, as He always is in true worship, and that He was moving among them, as He always will in true worship. She didn't want anyone to miss Him as He moved. Thus the exhortation to "lean into Him," as He did so. The Spirit is always moving, but we are so often missing Him as He does. Mostly because we are unprepared, distracted, or just outright ignorant that He is. To lean into Him is to stretch ourselves to receive all that He is pouring out at that moment. I sense, along with so many others, that the Spirit of God is moving upon the church in these present days. Moving mightily. Upon His church and through it into the surrounding cultures. I don't want to miss the moving. Not any of it. I don't want any of us to, especially you as you read this. Let us each and all "lean into the Spirit."

How prepared, how ready are we, are you, for His Spirit to move upon you. To fall upon you? At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon 120 people who comprised the church at that time. They were "all together in one place," seeking and waiting upon this move that Jesus, before He ascended into heaven had promised them would come. When He did, they were empowered by His Spirit in ways they never knew were possible. 120 people who had feared to be identified as His followers went out proclaiming Him in power. Thousands came to Christ that day, but many thousands more did not. The Spirit was moving in great power, but they missed it. For whatever reason.....they missed it. Perhaps at some future time they didn't, but we're not promised a future opportunity to encounter Him. When He moves, we have to be ready, in position to move with Him.

The 120 had been fervently seeking the fulfillment of His promise of His Holy Spirit. They were seeking. They were praying. They were leaning. When He came, they were swept up in His moving. And nothing, not them, not the church, and not the world He had come to save would ever be the same again. And I believe that such an outpouring, one we may have no idea as to the magnitude of, may well be coming upon us once more. May we be found leaning into His Spirit.

The Bible speaks of "not missing the time of His visitation." His visitation meant to become His habitation of His people and His church. May we be found, in our prayer time, our corporate worship, wherever and whenever we gather together, leaning into His Spirit. The picture I have here is of a sprinter, heading for the finishing line. When they get there, they lean toward every part of their mind and body, hoping to break the plane and receive the prize. This is how we must be in our stretching forward into the fullness of His Spirit. All of our being reaching for all of Him we may have. We seek the prize of the fullness of His Spirit. May that be the position we're found in when He comes upon us. As He comes upon us now.

Blessings,

Pastor O