Week: Who is the Holy Spirit?
As usual, we start by pausing and taking a deep breath:
In and out.
In and out.
We remember that God is here, and so together we prepare ourselves to be with God.
Pause
Father God, as we draw near to You, please draw near to us too. Teach us to pray. Speak, Lord, we’re listening.
William Seymour longed to experience the power of the Holy Spirit. Let’s begin by REFLECTING on a few verses from the book of Acts that describe the moment when the disciples experienced the power of the Holy Spirit for themselves for the first time.
Read by Bea
Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a noise like a strong, blowing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw something like flames of fire that were separated and stood over each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak different languages by the power the Holy Spirit was giving them.
Acts 2:1-4 (NCV)
William Seymour was an African American, born in 1870. As a young man, he studied at a Bible school and he learned how to preach to crowds of people, but his deepest longing was to experience the power of the Holy Spirit like the disciples on the day of Pentecost.
In 1906, he moved to Los Angeles and started a simple prayer meeting in the home of some friends. A few days after they began praying, something incredible happened – they were suddenly overwhelmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, some of them began speaking in languages that they’d never learned, and others had dreams and visions from God.
News quickly spread of this ‘Pentecost’ experience, and other people joined them, so William moved the group into a warehouse in a place called Azusa Street, and for three years around 1500 people gathered every day and night to worship and pray. In spite of the racism of the time, William made sure everyone was welcome – Africans, Latinos, Asians and Europeans, rich and poor all worshiped and prayed together as equals and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit equally from God.
It wasn’t long before similar prayer meetings started in other cities, which eventually sparked the global Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Today these churches have over 580 million members and are the fastest growing types of churches in the world. Thank God for William and his prayers!
Let’s pause and talk about today’s question which is: If we could instantly learn another language, which language would it be and why?
The Bible says that God loves to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask (Luke 11:13). So let’s close our eyes and wait for a moment. We might like to open our hands in front of us, as if we are going to receive a gift.
Father God, we ASK You to fill us with Your Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, we welcome You into every part of our lives.
The church William led in Azusa Street brought together people from all sorts of backgrounds. Let’s pray for our local church to do the same.
Father God, we ASK You to help our church welcome and include people, whoever they are and wherever they’re from. As we meet together, fill us with the Holy Spirit, just like You filled those Azuza Street meetings.
And now, let’s say YES to God together.
Heavenly Father, we say YES to having the same attitude as William. We choose to glorify You, rather than ourselves.
Pause
Let’s put a hand on our heart.
Father God, fill us with Your love. Help us to love You, and everything that You’ve made.
Let’s point to our eyes.
Lord Jesus, help us to see You, and to see others the way that You see them too.
Let’s point to our ears.
Holy Spirit, help us to hear You, and give us courage to do what You say.
Phil lives close to a beach in the north of England with his wife, his daughters and his dogs. Phil works for 24-7 Prayer, mostly doing Lectio stuff, and helping to run Prayer Spaces in Schools. He runs a lot, usually for long distances. He likes curry, mountains, reading books and he still plays Pokemon Go.
Bea is 14 and she lives in Hampshire, in the UK, with her family. Her favourite football team is Manchester United, even though she lives a loooong way from Manchester. Bea likes horse riding and running, and when she’s older, she wants to become a vet, or a professional horse-rider.
