 I have a question for you. I'm wondering if anyone here has Old Testament heroes. Anyone? Yes. Moses. Moses, OK. David. OK, yes. Heart after God's own heart. Humility of Moses. Esther. The courage to fast and pray and go before the king. Isaiah. Beautiful. The prophet Daniel. So a second to Daniel, second to Daniel. So as a child, our family, I was born into the fire of renewal. Our family had Bible study as a family in the evenings. But we also, I was homeschooled K through fourth grade. And so first class of the day, every day, was basically a prayer meeting. I didn't know at the time we called it Bible study. And we just spent time praising the Lord, praying together, studying the Word of God. But one of the things that I learned as a child was about Enoch. And so as a little one, Enoch was my hero because he walked with God. And so I just want to take a look at the genealogy. I don't know if you all or anyone here love to read genealogies. OK, we have one person. So two, two. So as a child, we would all kind of fall asleep as our father was reading genealogies to us. But he pointed Enoch out to us. Let me stop our slideshow here. I might need assistance. We can actually close down the slideshow. Did it work? Great. OK. So the genealogy of Enoch, for years, I would just marvel. Every time I read Genesis chapter 5, I had how Enoch just stood out in that genealogy. It says in Genesis chapter 5, verse 21, when Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah, 300 years, and had other sons and daughters. So it's just kind of in the middle of this genealogy, the same thing is almost the same thing as being said about most of the different people who are listed. But Enoch has this one line, Enoch walked with God. And so when we look at that passage and when we look at our walk with God, sometimes we think it's just God and me. But that fits into a much bigger picture. And so I want to point out a few things in this genealogy that will help us as we're praying with, Lord, how are you calling me to share the fire of renewal in my life, but also in the church and in the world? So if you look at Genesis chapter 5, the name Adam means man. The name Seth means appointed. The name Enosh means subject to death. The name Kennan means sorrowful. The name Mahalallel means from the presence of God. The name Jared means one who comes down. The name Enoch means dedicated. The name Methuselah means dying. He shall save. And the name Lamech means poor and lowly. The name Noah means rest and comfort. So if you put the meanings of all of those names together, you see man appointed, subject to death, sorrowful. From the presence of God, one comes down, dedicated, dying, he shall save the poor and lonely, bringing them rest and comfort. And so when you look at your life, your walk with God, he is writing it into the proclamation of the gospel. That proclamation that we see, there are people in this family who did not walk with God. Enoch walked with God. And so there's just so many graces that are poured out on all of mankind that is proclaimed here in chapter 5 of Genesis. And so we sometimes, even in our walk with God, we think, well, I'm going to follow Jesus, but by myself. And so we're not, at that point, we're not even thinking about my walk with the Lord and how it fits into the bigger picture of the gospel. But it's me trying to follow Jesus apart from him. And so I went to confession years ago. And a priest afterwards said to me, Alicia, have you been baptized? And I said, yes. And he said, OK, have you been confirmed? And I said, yes. And he said, great. You have a toolbox. You're walking around with a toolbox everywhere you go. You're carrying this toolbox. Take out the tools and use them. And so I, with God's great sense of humor, I just happened to be doing home renovations at the time. So I went home. And I grew up with a father who works in contracting, construction. And so he was like, Alicia, you know how to hang drywall. This is something you can do. And so he left a few pieces of drywall. I knew how to cut the drywall. That was simple. But I'm sitting there after this time of confession. And I'm looking at, in my hand, the drywall, a screw, and then this power tool. And I just think to myself, wow, Lord, what if I tried to put up this piece of drywall, hang the drywall, without the tool? What would happen? One, it wouldn't work. Two, I would probably injure myself. And three, I was like, Lord, teach me to use the tools you have given to me. And so that's what we come here today. We come asking the Lord, inviting him. Teach us, Lord, help us to rely on you. Help us to use the tools that you've given to us. And so if we look at Acts chapter 1, verse 3, we see Jesus speaking. And Jesus says, wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, you heard from me for John baptized with water, but before many days, you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And Jesus goes on to say, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And we see, even there, Jesus pointing to, you need power to follow me. You need power to be my witnesses. And so Jesus is basically helping His followers to prepare their hearts to be open to receive. When we talk about the fire of renewal, when we talk about the power of the Holy Spirit, it is pointing to this moment of Pentecost. And so as we move into Acts chapter 2, I want to take a moment. We don't always stop and read a full chapter of the Bible at once, but we're going to do that. I actually want to encourage you to, after today, maybe after this weekend, go home and pray with this chapter. But now we're just going to take a moment to soak it in. And I just want to ask that we all, again, just remain in that very prayerful posture. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly a sound from heaven, like the rush of a mighty wind. And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at the sound, the multitude came down. They were bewildered because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one of us in his own native language? Parthenians and Medes, Alamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Frigia, Pamphlet, Egypt, parts of Libya, belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. I just want to pause there for a moment. We're talking today about how do we live and how do we share? And when we think about how we receive and how we share, we're seeing here just this brief moment. They heard the mighty works of God. So just staying tuned to that line, that passage, we hear. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others mocking said they are filled with new wine. But Peter, standing with the 11, lifted up his voice and addressed them, men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words, for these men are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And Lord, as we read this, we just ask that this would be a reality for us in this moment. And in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions. And your old men shall dream dreams. Yay. And on my men's servants and on my maid's servants, in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs in the earth below. Blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day. And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with the mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up having loosed the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover, my flesh will dwell in hope, for thou will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let thy holy ones see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me filled with gladness by your presence. Brothers, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, he would send one of his descendants upon his throne. He foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see in here, for David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet, let all the house of Israel, therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Just wanna pause there for a moment. So we just heard about the upper room, we just heard about this incredible proclamation of the gospel from Peter. But there are a few things that I want us to just pray with now, and one of those verses is just the point where Peter says, you crucified and killed Jesus. So he's pointing out that these people were there at the crucifixion. I don't know about you, but maybe there are some people in your life who you know are not following Jesus. Maybe they're baptized, maybe they're not. You pray for them, you witness to them, you love them, but there's this grace that comes in the next verse. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, everyone whom our Lord God calls to him and he testified with many other words and exhorted them saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. So all who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship and to the breaking of bread and prayers. There's a beautiful opening of the heart at the proclamation of the mighty works of God and then after that opening of the heart, there is this moment of confrontation and conviction followed by this moment of being cut to the heart and saying, what must we do? And so that's the experience of each one of us as we receive the gospel, but also of the person who we are sharing the gospel with. Those people were sharing the fire of renewal with. And so we're gonna take just a little bit of time to reflect and I just wanna invite you, if you have a journal to write down right now, when was the first time I first heard God speak? Maybe it wasn't a proclamation of the gospel, maybe you were reading your Bible. For me, I was a small child and my parents would ask, did you read your Bible? Did you say your prayers? And at first I didn't and eventually I said, oh, yes, yes, I could say yes, I read my Bible. Yes, I said my prayers. And one night they're asking, oh, great, what did you read? Where did you read that in the Bible? Just asking more and more questions and finally one day I could answer all their questions, but finally one day they asked a question that I could not answer. And my father said, oh, that's great, Alicia, you read your Bible, you said your prayers, what's God saying to you? And I was undone, nine years old at this point and I was just like, I've been talking to God ever since I can remember, he's my best friend, but I've never heard him talk to me, I've never heard him speak. And so my father said, well, then ask him to help you hear him. And so I said, okay, and then for nine months, every day I asked everyone, parents, aunts, uncles, priests, to pray for me to hear God every day, Lord, help me to hear you, open my ears, Lord, open my ears, help me to hear you. And then one day, when I least expected it, I audibly heard Proverbs 3-3 and I was like, I don't know what that is, but that wasn't me and ran upstairs from the basement, told my mom, you know, mom, mom, I think God spoke to me. And she said, well, what did he say? And I said, I just heard Proverbs 3-3 and she said, oh, Alicia, that's in the Bible, let's find it. And so we looked it up and it said, forsake not truth and mercy, bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart. And I was undone, overjoyed and my dad arrived home from work and I ran out to meet him, like, dad, dad, God spoke to me, you know, so excited to tell him. And he was like, you know, Alicia, that's wonderful, but you know, it's only to those of little faith that God speaks audibly. And I was like, oh, and he said, you know, it's okay. He speaks audibly to me too. And you know, from that moment on, I could see, oh, Lord, you've been speaking to me since I can remember. You've been speaking to me through my parents. You've been speaking to me through the Bible when it repeats again and again and again the same thing. And I'm asking you, why Lord, why is it repeating? You know, you're telling me this is important, you know, and the Lord, I realized the Lord was speaking to me in so many different ways. And so I just wanna invite you to take a moment, in this case, to write down the first time you remember hearing God speak to you. Maybe it wasn't an audible voice, but just a time when you knew that you knew that you knew, God spoke to me. And that might be something that you need to pray with as well, but wanna invite you to secondly, write down one was a time that the Lord, that I experienced in my life being cut to the heart. And maybe that was a moment of conviction for you. For me, there was a time in my life, you know, I'm born into the fire of renewal, taught by my parents to always look for Jesus in the least of these and to serve and to just fall desperately in love with the Lord. And so that was what I knew, the fruits of the spirit was what I knew of peace and love and joy, regardless of circumstance. But there came a time later in life when I started repeatedly saying, my will be done. And at that time, when I started doing that, when I started saying, my will be done and the Lord making it very clear that Alicia, that's not my will, you know, this is disobedience. And I continued on, my will be done. Two of my friends spoke to me. So Rebecca and Sarah just said, hey, Alicia, you don't seem to have the joy that you typically have. And that, that was all it took. All of a sudden I was like, joy, when did I lose my joy? And when did God stop speaking? When did I stop hearing his voice? And, you know, that moment of question led to a deeper awareness. The moment of being cut to my heart was actually soon after that, going up to receive communion in the oratory and just hearing the Lord speak to my heart. Will you betray me like Judas? Will you commune with me? And then go out and say, my will be done. And so this being cut to the heart for me, just, it was the dynamite, that the power of the Holy Spirit projecting me back to Christ, giving me the strength to take steps into faith to say, I will be done. With every step in faith that I took, even though they were feeble and small, when I first started saying, I will be done, Lord. You know, I will take steps in faith, I will follow you. That was when I started seeing, oh wow, when I started saying my will be done, all of a sudden I felt like I had to protect myself. I had to control things. I had to, it was, I didn't have peace. So I wasn't only missing joy, I didn't have peace. And I also started seeing that blessings, abundant blessings that I had experienced my whole life, just weren't there. And it was when they returned that I realized, oh wow, hey, blessings are back. And when I started hearing God's voice, that I realized, wow, I didn't even realize I wasn't talking to God and hearing His voice and communing with Him. So again, just wanna invite you, as you're reflecting on sharing the fire of renewal, to take a moment, to write down a moment when you were cut to the heart. We're going to spend some time at the very end of the workshop discerning together. How is Jesus inviting me to share the fire of renewal, to live and to share the fire of renewal? And so there's a whole second meditation on Acts chapter two that I just wanna invite you into during that time and in the days to come, really meditating on when did I first experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in my life and just savoring that, thanking the Lord for it, writing it out, returning to that place. And that is all of that, returning to these places of deliverance, returning to these places when the Lord brought us from death to life, from my will to thy will be done. Those are places that help to equip us with the ability to rely on the Holy Spirit to bring the fire of renewal to others. So for me, even though I grew up with what most people would say, this was a very charismatic childhood, Alicia. My family was not formally connected to the charismatic renewal. We would come to festivals of praise here. We came to the conferences, but it was not until my brother was in seminary and his friend from Columbia who had gone to a charismatic seminary started to share this grace of praying in the spirit and praying in unity. Which here in the US, prayer groups, covenant communities, many, many people are practicing praying in unity, practicing, prophesying, praying for healing, the full spectrum of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But for me, that did not come until much later in life. And when I had that experience and met this Colombian seminarian who was sharing with my brother, who was also a seminarian and myself, Alicia, did you know the papal preacher for Pope John Paul II, for Pope Benedict the 16th, and for Pope Francis, is a charismatic renewal leader, author of over 26 books. Read his books, like really, I had no idea. And then as I kept taking steps closer to the heart of the renewal, getting to know people from covenant communities nearby, helping to start a prayer group, the Lord connected me with the National Service Committee, with the Ark in the Dove, with these beautiful ministries where I found the most orthodox and the most charismatic Catholic Christians I had ever met in my entire life. And some of the riches and graces of that encounter was for me, this experience of formation. So I wanna share with you, we don't have technology supporting us, but you all have highlights. These are extremely high level highlights. So just as with that genealogy that we took a look at, you know, the story of Enoch within the story, each one of you has a story. The fire of renewal has touched your life in some way, and your story fits into a much bigger picture. And so if you want a very brief snapshot of that bigger picture, you'll see on the side that says renewal history highlights, just some very, very brief highlights. What I never knew was that actually in 1897, Blessed Elena Guerra, Foundress of the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit, wrote a series of letters to Pope Leo XIII. And in these letters, she asked him to pray for unity, and she asked him to pray for a new and ongoing Pentecost. So can I just see maybe a show of hands here? Did you all know that? Yes. Okay, so many people here did know that, but a few did not yet know that. I was just in awe of this. Okay, this is beautiful. She asked Pope Leo XIII, petitions him asking him to pray. On January 1st, 1901, Pope Leo XIII invoked the Holy Spirit on the 20th century by singing Veni Creator Spiritus. Incredibly, within 24 hours, there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Bethel School in Topeka, Kansas. This is what is now known widely as the beginning of the Pentecostal movement. It took years for that movement to move into mainstream denominations, but it almost immediately spread to Azusa Street. My mom talked for years about, Alisha, you could see the Shekinah, glory of the Lord at Azusa Street during California. Go to Azusa Street, like, okay, mom, sounds great. And then years later, I, after experiencing praying in unity in a prayer group and had a very tangible experience of the Holy Spirit afterward, people were coming up to me and saying, Alisha, he was here, making motions like sounds of wind and just this deep, deep knowing the Holy Spirit was here. Then I started reading the history of Azusa Street. And so I just wanna recommend, if you have not yet, if you've heard of it, but you haven't yet dove into that story, I do recommend that you read up on Azusa Street from there, years later, in 1962, Pope John the 23rd prayed, renew your wonders in this our day as by a new Pentecost. I had heard this portion of the story. I had, I'd known about this prayer, but what I didn't realize was this understanding that Pope John the 23rd as a bishop visited a Czechoslovakian village where for centuries, the full spectrum of the Charismatic gifts were practiced. It was a place with no jails, no hospitals, and no divorce. And so this heart for the kingdom of heaven to come and this experience of, I've seen, I've seen this heavenly grace here on earth just being behind that prayer. And then in 1967, this is not on the sheet, this is not on the sheet, but I just wanna share with you who here has heard of the Duquesne Weekend. Okay, so the Duquesne Weekend, two professors take students to the Ark and the Dove Retreat Center, about 24 students, and 12 of those students had a radical experience of Pentecost. And I just wanna invite you to, again, if you have not read this book, As By a New Pentecost, it gives you the witness and the stories of all of the attendees who were there. And amazingly, if you look at this timeline from 1901 to today, so Pope Leo the 13th praying to today, there are over 600 million people that baptism in the Holy Spirit has reached. Just an incredible number of people who've had this glorious experience of a personal Pentecost. And from 1967, so about 54 years ago, to today, over 160 million Catholics have received baptism in the Holy Spirit, have had this experience. And so just see this dynamic power of the Holy Spirit moving as you look at the timeline. Now, if you look at renewal structure, this is something that just kind of gives us a cue as we prepare to enter into prayer about what has supported this renewal and the spread of the renewal, how, what did it look like over the past 50 years here in the Catholic Church? And where are we now? And one of the bullet points here you can see is the National Service Committee was formed in 1970. So very soon, organizations, groups of people, committees, wanting to serve the work of the Holy Spirit, always in a posture of service came together. And then you can see ICO, ECRIS, ADL, Catholic Fraternity. Other organizations were formed. The ADL is actually the Association of Diocesan Liaisons. Here in the US, 10 years after the beginning of the renewal, the bishops, I mean, you can imagine, this is spreading like wildfire. The bishops were like, what do we do with this? So they had a conversation, they had a meeting, and they issued a statement on baptism in the Holy Spirit. And the conclusion of their statement was, baptism in the Holy Spirit is a normal part of Christian life. And so we see now, from the upper room on the day of Pentecost, almost a third of the world's population is Christian, in name, which is incredible to think about. And in 2019, on Pentecost Day, an organization called CARIS was launched. When it was launched, Pope Francis turned to renewal leaders from around the world. And he said, this organization, he shared with them that the organization would have juridical personality. So the renewal is now not only in the Catholic Church, it's in the very heart of the Catholic Church with juridical personality. And not only that, he said, I commission you to bring baptism in the Holy Spirit to the whole church, to build unity in the body of Christ, and to serve the poor. And that might sound like it's something new, but it actually is pointing back to the Maline documents and the work of the Holy Spirit in the earliest days of the Catholic Charismatic renewal. And so I do want to make sure that we have time for us to pray through, you know, to have this commission bring baptism in the Holy Spirit to the whole church. Well, that's huge, Lord. How are you inviting us to do that? You know, it's always in this walking with God, like Enoch, this very simple way of walking with the Lord. But out of that flow many, many fruits. Another resource that I just want to recommend if you want to write this down, the Maline documents, M-A-L-I-N-E-S, highly, highly recommend. If you are looking for the theology of the renewal, these documents were written by renewal leaders from all over the world, reviewed by theologians, including Cardinal Ratzinger at the time. So just another resource to grow and understanding so that you're equipped to share. And there are so, so many fruits. You know, sometimes we're part of a prayer group or we're part of a community and we don't always see what's happening in the rest of the world. In Brazil, a friend just recently shared with me, they are building a city of mercy for 5,000 homeless people. And this is a work of a covenant community. So just seeing how the Holy Spirit's moving and working through the grace of renewal, companions of Christ, many diocesan priests are looking for community. One of the fruits of the renewal was a group of guys who were praying in unity in the spirit, called to priesthood, said we wanna continue to live in community. So they're not a religious community, they're a diocesan priest, but they practice a life of living out this personal Pentecost and life in the spirit in community. And it's actually spreading, it started in Minnesota and just recently has spread out to Colorado as well as to Illinois. So again, I just wanna encourage us, you know, there's, I think just this particular time, there's an invitation from the Lord and just this sense of our heavenly Father speaking to us saying, dream with me and no dream is too big. Dream with me and no dream is too big. So I wanna invite our worship leaders back up. And I'm actually going to invite us to look to the Holy Spirit to lead. So if you have a word, if you have a scripture, if you have an intercession on your heart, I wanna invite you to just come forward to me to share that as we enter into this time of prayer. All of us in unity, we're going to seek the Lord and we're going to pray with, Lord, how are you inviting me to live and to share the fire of renewal? Maybe it's starting a prayer group. Maybe it's starting a Bible study. Maybe it's just telling a friend your story. So that will look different for all of us, but we're going to just come before the Lord now with open hearts to seek Him together.