 Let's just, you have to stand, let's just open our hands, let's give God permission right now that this next hour is for him and for him alone, whatever he desires, whatever his heart for you is that you would receive in the same way the Blessed Mother in her humility and love and trust received the Holy Spirit knowing that it was risky not knowing how she would explain how she could be an unwed pregnant teenager not knowing how God would be providing for this new life that would be formed in her not knowing what it would mean to become the mother of God she said yes Holy Spirit lead us to Mary level trust lead us to Mary level openness and surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit we give you permission Jesus we trust in you come Lord God be with us now in all things we trust you Jesus thank you for your love thank you for your death on the cross thank you for choosing us and calling us out of darkness thank you for desiring to put your very life into our soul we open our hearts there's no place I would rather be so send a fire down in my soul that I can't contain that I can't control I want more of you God say it out I want more of you set a fire set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain that I can't control I want more of you God I want more of you God no place I would rather be there's no place I would rather be there's no place I would rather be here in your love here in your love there's no place I would rather be Lord there's no place I would rather be no place I would rather be here in your love set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain that I can't control I want more of you God I want more set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain that I can't control I want more of you God give us more use your voice use the desire of your heart speak it out do not be ashamed just sing your praise to God it says in the song Lord I want to sing a new song to the Lord right now sing a song you've never sung before the spontaneous praise that's in your heart just let it out to God let's just sing to the Lord for people lights and inhabits our praise and he wants to come very near to each one of us right now so let us just sing come holy spirit and if you don't know what else I'm just saying I love you Jesus some people live their whole lives without saying I love you Jesus and meaning it and if you mean it then sing it out right now don't miss the opportunity to tell the Lord that you love him King my all is your mighty name oh Lord we thank you so be so close to us and doing just want to work so powerfully we just give you these next few minutes as precious as they are Lord we want them to be for your glory and for your purpose and for for your will so we just surrender this time to you we make you the Lord of this time you are the Lord Jesus Christ have your way in us do what you will God we accept all we trust in you we believe that you will nothing but our good trust in you Jesus amen amen go ahead and have a seat I want to say about a third of what I thought I was going to say and then we're just going to get back to that because if you hear God say three words to you in prayer this afternoon they're gonna be worth more than 3,000 words that I could sputter out here so I'm just gonna be a warm-up act for the Holy Spirit how's that you know is anyone from Chicago a couple of people from Chicago you're from Rockford close enough we'll let it count I've been to John Paul's house he's got an amazing family just a great guy 1871 you know what happened 1871 the great Chicago fire destroyed much of the city they actually you know if you people know Chicago you know like there's the they call it the Gold Coast right there's the river that goes down and there's like this whole strip of land that's between Lake Michigan and the Chicago River and at one time that river flowed down from the north through Chicago then emptied into Lake Michigan that's a fact it doesn't do that anymore because what happened is Chicago was being developed as a city all these slaughterhouses and all the human waste from the city of Chicago was dumped into the Chicago River I went online I saw pictures of like small animals walking on the surface of the river because it had thickened into a sludge of dead animal and human waste they called it in river and it was actually combustible when the Chicago fire started the river caught on fire and that's what allowed the fire to spread from the one part of the city of Chicago over to the next that's how disgusting it was and it wasn't just that it was flammable in in in one year in one year 10,000 people died of cholera and typhoid in the city of Chicago because it was so polluted and so nasty and they knew that the future of the city of Chicago depended on fixing this problem there was no way that life would flourish around such a contaminated and polluted river and so the engineers got together and they came up with the scheme we're gonna reverse the flow of the Chicago River nothing like this in the world of engineering had been attempted before and so by building a series of canals and locks where the water would flow the filthy water and it was contaminating Lake Michigan this water that was flowing out the sludge that was coming out of the Chicago River into the into Lake Michigan was polluting the lake killing the fish and making the beaches disgusting that was now going to be the source of the river and this was not an easy task it took years and years but they had to deal with the fact that over 14 years between the Chicago fire in 1890 a hundred thousand people had now died of typhoid and cholera and other diseases because of the Chicago River so they dug a 28 mile long canal and it used to be the river would come down and flow into Lake Michigan but now the fresh water was flowing in from Lake Michigan and it was entering this canal and clearing out the Chicago River and it went down and it connects to the deplane desplanes river right that pronounced correct desplanes close enough what do you don't know you have no idea you're clear yeah you're from Chicago very good and then it flows into the Illinois River and then it flows into the Mississippi River and the clean water cleared out all the muck all the disgusting sewage they moved more rock and stone building that canal than they did building the Panama Canal it's one of the most amazing engineering feats and instead of this shallow sluggish brown polluted filthy disgusting sludge it was now flowing with fresh water and they saved the city they honestly believe that they would have had to abandon the area if they hadn't cleaned up the Chicago River and this is the same principle that's at work in our life with Jesus Christ Jesus Christ lies loves us too much to leave our souls shallow sluggish sluggish polluted with the stink of sin sin so he's wants to reverse the flow and let a flow of fresh water into each one of our lives to clean it out to restore and renew it and let it be a source of life and not a source of death that's what baptism is in the Holy Spirit is and when I first read the story I started thinking about Ezekiel chapter 47 verses 6 through 9 where Ezekiel is taken by the by the Lord and it's the flow of river that's coming out of the temple there's a water flowing out of the temple I believe that this is so symbolic and for so foreshadowing of Pentecost right this water flowing out of the temple and this is what you know is recorded in Ezekiel 47 6 through 90 and he said to me Son of man have you seen this then he led me back along the bank of the river and he said to me this water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into Ereba and when it enters the stagnant waters of the sea the water will become fresh and wherever the river goes every living creature which swarms will live and there will be many fish for this for this water goes there that the waters of the sea may become fresh baptism in the Holy Spirit is the experience that God has given each one of us to say yes to the grace of baptism and receive a fresh flow of his Holy Spirit in our life to renew us to strengthen us to wash away our sin and to set us free to love him and to know him and to serve him with our whole heart mind so in strength that's what baptism in the Holy Spirit is it is an expansion a renewal a deepening of what we received when we were infants or when we entered the church it's new life and it's necessary if we've never said yes to this I so much appreciated what bishops Sam did last night in asking those who'd never given their hearts to Jesus Christ to do that and for those who had to renew that commitment why because the the greatest thing that we have which is stronger than our emotions which is stronger than our affections which is stronger than anything is our wills we make decisions and things can happen even when we don't feel like making it happen if we decide to do it it happens our will is dependent in is independent of our feelings we can choose this so even as you sit here Mike I don't even know if I really know it's gonna happen I don't even know what God might have for me if I say yes to the Holy Spirit all I'm telling you is you can choose and step into that in faith and say God I open my heart to your Holy Spirit and God will say yes how do I know this because he says asking you shall receive seeking you shall find knocking you shall open it shall be opened up into you and he says look if your fathers on earth who are sinful know how to give good gifts how much more does the Holy Spirit I mean how much more more does your heavenly father know how to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him God is desirous to give the Holy Spirit and this is something that we find all throughout the scriptures Jesus saying I came to cast fire upon the earth and would that it were already kindled that's Luke 24 Luke 12 49 he wants us to be on fire with the Holy Spirit he says in Acts chapter 1 before he ascends he says while meeting with him he and join them not to depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak for John baptized you with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit Saint John the 23rd said at the beginning of Vatican 2 renew your wonders in our time as though through a new Pentecost he saw the church needing a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit Saint John Paul the great writes the institutional and charismatic aspects are co-essential as it were to the church's constitution it is like having two lungs that need to be breathing the institutional sacramental church breeze grace into the life of the believer but the charismatic long the other essential element that makes up the constitution of the church needs to be active for the church to be healthy you you can't run this race of faith by breathing through one long you need both lungs to be active it goes on to say it is from this providential rediscovery and charismatic renewal it's a providential rediscovery of what of the church's charismatic dimension it's been rediscovered he looks at what happened with our old-school charismatic brothers and sisters and said what they did was not create something new but they rediscovered a treasure that had been lost for years that was being renewed in our time because why because st. John the 23rd prayed for it this was an answer to prayer one pope prayed for it another pope ushered it in and every pope since then has affirmed it Pope Benedict the 16th said in effect Jesus's whole mission his whole mission was aimed at giving the spirit of God to men and baptizing them in a bath of regeneration and he said this on Pentecost 2008 today I would like to extend this invitation to all let us rediscover dear brothers and sisters the beauty of being baptized in the Holy Spirit let us recover awareness of our baptism in our confirmation every timely sources of grace so he's saying like look baptism the Holy Spirit being baptized in the Holy Spirit takes you back to these sacraments and releases the grace that you received and it does something new it takes it further it activates it makes it alive and real for us today this is so essential Pope Francis himself has said the charismatic renewal you have received a great gift from the Lord your movement's birth was willed by the Holy Spirit to be a current of grace in the church and for the church so he sees those people who are who are lined up and living the life in the Holy Spirit he says look your gift to the church it was willed by the Holy Spirit that you be brought up because this current of grace is necessary for the church to thrive and if there was ever a time of darkness when the light of the Holy Spirit and the grace that he brings needs to be just flooding us it's now we need to be revived restored renewed redeemed brought back to life by the same power the same spirit that rose Jesus Christ from the grave is at work in our lives and through us and our witness he can bring the church back from the dead because let's face it with only 20% of Catholics going to Mass on Sunday the church is dying we're not winning but we have all that we need to win through the Holy Spirit what it's necessary is what is always been necessary it was necessary for Mary it was necessary for us it was all the saints contestified of this what's necessary is an unreserved unlimited yes to the power of the Holy Spirit to do something amazing in our lives even miraculous if he so chooses amen so this baptism in the Holy Spirit it's an experience that's given to the church to release and strengthen the effects of baptism and confirmation a friend of mine Dr. Ralph Martin he's been involved in the renewal he was one of the founder founding pioneers of the charismatic renewal in the United States he spent lots of time over in Rome talking with different bishops Cardinals and he had audiences with pokes one time he was driving in a car in the backseat with Pope John Paul II st. John Paul the great and John st. John Paul was praying and Dr. Ralph Martin knew that st. John Paul the great spoke many languages but he could not determine what language he was praying in that particular moment as they were driving down the road and he was just looking out at the window at people waving at him he was praying he was praying and he asked somebody else who was in the car like do you recognize the language that the Pope is using right now he goes oh he's praying in tongues he does that a lot this gift all these gifts all these charisms are poured out in abundance upon the church and they're necessary for us to be the church we only have to do what Mary and the saints have done and showed us the way which is to say this yes in trust and belief and faith because like I said every sacrament has two sides to it there's God's side and there's our response it's called opus opera on tomb that's God's part that means that you can go to mass with a priest who's in mortal sin and because he prays the prayer in a valid and illicit way and he says the body of Christ and puts the host on your tongue or into your palm you receive grace God is there he guarantees it whenever the sacrament doesn't matter who the priest is it doesn't matter what church you're sitting in if it's done validly illicitly when you receive that sacrament you receive grace but the part on us is our response that's the opus opera on teeth that's the heartfelt response of faith you know like I said when we go to communion it's not just saying yes this is the body of Christ I'm saying yes to all of you as well you realize that when you go to mass and you say and the priest has the body of Christ it's this host the body blood and soul of divinity it's also to the body of church teachings because Christ is manifested in the truth of the church it's saying yes to your neighbor because because I'm one with Jesus and you're one with Jesus guess what we're one I don't get the option to pick and choose whether I not to I get to love you I'm commanded by my lord and savior to love you as I love myself nobody gets a pass from this and this is only accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit the beauty of the Catholic Church is it's got a diversity of expression a diversity of cultures that worship under the name Catholic but when we come around the altar of God that Holy Spirit makes us one I've been at world youth days where I've been out in a field with people I don't speak we don't speak the same language I remember being in Madrid and seeing Pope Benedict you know leading adoration and in that moment it didn't matter what part of the country you were from what your nationality was what banner flag creed color whatever we were one in Jesus Christ only the Holy Spirit can do that only the Holy Spirit can do that and we need to say yes to that that is our this that is our part you know when I was 18 years old I was on a retreat and I went on this retreat because I was my heart was being stirred to get to know God I was getting ready to go off to college and I knew that I was pretty much broken and didn't think I would survive my first year of college unless I got some sort of grounding in my life and God kind of had been working on me kind of like very subtly but profoundly just moving my heart through different encounters I had with people different things I was experiencing like I knew I needed more of God but I and I just was invited to come on this retreat so I went it was at a beautiful camp in northern Minnesota on a beautiful lake and I had to get there a day early because the person who was going to give me a ride out to Minnesota from Michigan had to get out there a day early so I got there early and the team that was putting on the retreat they were driving up to this camp and they said oh you can ride with us let's be up there a day early you can hang out and have fun and you know you can go fishing there's like as soon as I heard that you can go fishing they had now okay I'm in so we get up there and I throw my stuff in one of the cabins and I'm looking for the fishing gear I'm gonna go fishing and one of the guys turns to me and says oh wait before you go off can you want to come pray with us now listen I I didn't pray very well at that time so I wanted to say no I don't I'm going to go fishing but Catholic guilt is real and I couldn't say well I know we're about to start a retreat but don't ask me to pray so I wouldn't I prayed and there was a circle of about 15 to 20 young adults I was I just graduated from high school and they were all within two or three maybe four years older than me and somebody had a guitar and they started strumming on the old guitar this Jesus song you know and one of the charisms that I think a lot of Catholics cling to and hold on to is they learn how to sing without moving their lips you go to your average Catholic church that seems to be the predominant charism right but these people were full-on engaged they were like hallelujah like they're hitting all the notes and harmonizing it was beautiful and I'm like I have never heard church singing like this they really like to sing well they got to the end of the song and the guitar kept playing and the singing didn't stop all of a sudden it was hallelujah I love you Jesus and they're shouting their praise to God and I'm like and feel like this discomfort well enough inside of me like these people are weird I've crossed over into the Twilight Zone this isn't even Catholic anymore I'm like I thought if I just slowly back up in into the bushes and run I might be able to hitchhike home and you know and I could feel all these defenses in me rising and they even got worse because you know the person next to me I didn't know what was going on but I thought they had just bought a car and made a bad decision because they were going like I should have bought a Honda I should have bought a Honda I should have bought a Honda I should have bought a Honda you know and this other another guy he was like all proud see my new bow tie see my new bow tie I'm like what in the world is that I mean like I could just feel like and it was like if I was a thermometer it kept rising and rising and you know you ever see the cartoon with a thermometer just kind of pops at the end I felt like I was about to pop and all I could do was like do this but then in a moment of grace in a moment of grace I opened my eyes and I looked across the circle and there was just this beautiful young woman I'd never met her before but she was there with the biggest smile on her face you know and I really appreciated what Chris said last night about some of you need to tell your face that you have joy because joy is what it's all about but she just had this joy on her face and she was just I love you Jesus I love you Jesus and that's all she was saying and I remember and that's when it was just like the piercing of the Lord Spirit hit my heart and said 18 years you've been alive and you've never said that to me and meant it and I just was convicted and I just said to the Lord Lord whatever it is that she has that gives her ability to love you like that I want that I want to have that kind of passion in my life I want that kind of love in my life I want that kind of joy in my life and it wasn't at that moment that I was flooded with the Holy Spirit because I had also you know in in my high school years dabbled into drugs drinking, lying, stealing, looking at pornography all the things that young people seem to get tripped up on I had it and I'd only been to confession twice in my life my first confession and then I got I went to confession right before I got confirmed and both times I just kind of mumbled my way through it without any intention of repenting without any understanding that there was actual real grace and mercy there for me it was just something I was told I had to go through and so there was this blockage between me and the Lord that net needed to be dealt with three nights later they had a reconciliation service right I went to confession and I confessed everything bawling weeping and with just regret and and sorrow before the Lord at one point during the confession the priest leaned forward to give me a hug and his stole hit me in the face and I thought he was offering me a handkerchief so I grabbed it I yes I hawked a louis on a priest stolen confession true story but when I was done confessing he prayed the prayer of absolution and it was like the classic ER scenario where the bodies lay in their lifeless and they put the paddles on it and go to and the body just flow and the person sits up and goes like what the heck you know that was me God touched my life with such a powerful outpouring of grace and then the Holy Spirit just flooded my life and I mean like I heard God say come follow me and I remember saying to God I'll do whatever you ask I will never say no you've proven to me your love is real your grace is real I want more of this wherever you tell me to go I'm gonna go in the next morning Mark Bircham who's the founder and president of net ministries came up to me and said God spoke to me last night you're gonna be a missionary on net in the fall and I'm like I mean every part of me at even after having such a dramatic encounter was like no way I got a plan and then the words of my own words echoing in my mind wherever you tell me to go God I will go and I stood in that vow and I stood in that grace and I said yes and I started a career in ministry that has taken me to this point there's not been a part of my life where I've not been active in some sort of evangelistic ministry and bringing people to a deeper encounter with the Holy Spirit why because if you have something this great you want everyone else to have it and I can't imagine myself doing anything else I love the Lord that much and I've just been so blown away by his working in my life and what did it start with a simple yes and openness of desire it's taken me years to get where I am as much as I've pleased the Lord I know I've disappointed them there's times I wonder if he had given this kind of grace to somebody else that somebody else might be much more saintly than I am and I think about the times I've squandered the grace but as soon as I get those thoughts in my head I just lay them at the feet of Jesus and say Jesus your love is greater. My favorite saint is Saint Therese Lesue and she said it's not that you take your sin so seriously or believe so that your sin is so great because your sin is great but God's love is greater. God's love and mercy is greater. Your sin is a drop of water in the palm of your hand his mercy is the ocean throw that drop of water into the ocean of God's mercy and try to find it again it's not there you'll never find it it disappears it's absorbed it's destroyed it's absorbed it's taken away by the ocean of God's mercy for you and what he desires more than anything is to set your on your life on fire with the Holy Spirit so that you can understand the height depth width and breadth every part of God's love for you and be filled with all the grace you need for holiness and to serve him and to build up the church that's what it's all about and everything that the church has given us from the sacraments to the scriptures to the to the church's teachings on morality all of it works together for our good let's pray let's just spend the rest of our time this afternoon praying we're just gonna pray come Holy Spirit and before we say come Holy Spirit what I what I think I'd like to do is let's reverse the flow by first asking God to wash out all the working okay here we go if you have something in your life that you think might be blocking God a situation a hurt a pain we're just gonna take some time to just lay those things at the feet of Jesus and just push them out of the way so that God has clear and unhindered access to our hearts and so he can just pour love into us okay so let's empty ourselves so that we can be full let's let go of our pride you know Mary the reason why the Holy Spirit was drawn into her womb was because of her humility the Holy Spirit goes where there's humility so as we humble ourselves before the Lord and say okay Lord I need you I empty myself before you I need your love because apart from you what does God Jesus say apart from me you are nothing God I acknowledge my own nothingness apart from you come with your grace take my nothingness and make it something to the power of your Holy Spirit so let's just pray you don't have to stand at this point just get yourself comfortable where God can flow come Holy Spirit and in your heart we're gonna we're gonna sing a song we're gonna pray in our hearts let go just let go surrender as the Spirit brings things to mind to let go of just surrender it to Jesus it could be your finances could be a relationship could be anything here's my heart Lord here's my heart here's my heart Lord my heart Lord speak what is true speak what is true here's my heart Lord is my heart Lord is my heart Lord speak what is true speak what is true here's my life Lord is my life is my life Lord is my life Lord I need you I need you every hour I need defense my righteousness oh God how I confess I confess bowing here bowing here I find my rest I find my rest without you I fall apart without you I fall apart you're the one that guides you're the one that guides my heart without you I fall apart without you I fall apart you're the one you're the one that guides my heart we sing Lord I need you this Lord I need defense my righteousness oh God sing it from the heart this Lord I need defense my righteousness oh God Lord Jesus we need you empty ourselves before you it's an act of your will taking in faith just empty yourself Lord Jesus I lay down my desires my fears my temptations my doubts lay down the sin that still binds me Lord I lay down my desire to earn your love I just want to trust you lay down the efforts I've made to try to please you without you in control just take away my fears take away my anxiety Lord Jesus we lay it all before you at the foot of your cross we empty ourselves we renounce our possessions those things that we own but really own us Lord Jesus take all that our fears and worries about our finances we renounce it all we give you our will our heart our mind our soul our memory our future our past we lay it all at your feet Jesus we empty ourselves completely before you now knowing that in this in this emptiness you desire something great a deeper outpouring of your Holy Spirit so let's just ask now come Holy Spirit come Holy Spirit pray with me please stand come Holy Spirit praise you Jesus come Holy Spirit praise your mighty name Jesus praise your mighty name Lord Jesus praise your mighty name Lord Jesus pour out your Holy Spirit speak out your desire to God ask him for the gifts you need the spirit of courage a spirit of love a spirit of joy poured out upon us Lord the wisdom that we need to know you to serve you to love you the strength and grace to be holy poured out upon us come Holy Spirit but most importantly Holy Spirit just give us you yourself pour your life the love of the Father into our hearts come Holy Spirit of God we cry out Lord Jesus in our emptiness fill us with new life with your love come Holy Spirit of God Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty praise your mighty name Lord Jesus praise your mighty name thank you Jesus come Holy Spirit praise your mighty name praise your mighty name Jesus praise your mighty name Lord Jesus fire down in my soul that I can't contain that I can't control I want more set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain that I can't control I'll be afraid tell Jesus you love I know people I just not comfortable doing this and I just want to say you're gonna hate heaven because we're gonna be before the lamb on the throne praising him for eternity this is a foretaste of the joy this is like a drop on the tongue of the joy that's gonna be ours in heaven and this is what it's all about every part of us animated by the Spirit moving towards the Father glorifying the Son revealing the love of the Father to the power of the Holy Spirit and so what I want to do right now is I want to pray a prayer and I want you to repeat after me it's a prayer just to open our hearts to God and ask him to baptize us in the Holy Spirit just giving him final permission and I want you to know something that this is just the first of many times you're going to want to pray this it's not a one-off experience just like you know the difference one of the major differences between our us and our Protestant brothers and sisters is they believe you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and make him the Lord of your life once you're good you're set you're going to heaven whereas Catholics we believe we need to do that every day we wake up and we give our hearts to Jesus once again so if you gave your heart to Jesus last night for the first time give your heart to Jesus for the second time today the third day third time tomorrow and on and on and in the same way if you're opening up your heart to the Holy Spirit right now for the first time you're gonna do this a lot this is not a one and done this is the continual renewal that God wants to give us so let us pray and name the Father Son Holy Spirit and just repeat after me please Father as your child in Jesus I desire to be totally an instrument for your kingdom to manifest through my life I desire to receive your promise of the Holy Spirit to those who believe Jesus my Savior and King baptize me in the Holy Spirit so that the power of your resurrection will work in me so that I can be a faithful disciple transform me according to your will Holy Spirit empower me and fill me to overflowing I hold nothing back from you work your gifts in me and through me all of me so that the Father's kingdom may be manifested in and through my life I ask this in Jesus's mighty name amen amen amen let's offer up some thanksgiving to God and let's just continue to pray this is an act of faith but now the flow like waves coming up on the beach God just wants to send waves of grace throughout this chapel right now to wash over us to renew us and strengthen us just open your arms open your heart allow the waves of grace to over overflow as we praise and worship Jesus in the hearts right now as you're right now God just wants to confirm his love upon each one of us so just in your hearts and Father send your love let me experience your love in a new way come Holy Spirit pour the love of the Father into our hearts right now let us know not just with our minds that we're loved but let us know in our hearts come with your peace your joy come Holy Spirit we receive it all is thank you Lord Jesus come Holy Spirit praise you Jesus glory I see this is glorious waterfall of grace just being poured out on us a sparkling rainbow of beauty sparkling like gems of God's grace being poured out on us and as it reaches us it just confirms that you are a beloved child of the Father that you are loved thank you Jesus praise your mighty name praise your mighty name Jesus come into my fears away take my fears oh take my fears away please take your home and me Lord make your more of this tonight amen we're gonna come into this is just oh man I tell you I remember my three-year-old daughter she's now 20 and she's a sophomore here at the University you when you were checking in if you had to get your housing assignment you saw a girl with long blonde hair and in glasses that was my daughter Catherine and when she was just a toddler we went down to the beach and she we climbed over the dune she was short so she couldn't see it but as soon as she saw the ocean her eyes got as big as silver dollars and she just started running and running and running and she she got to the edge of the water here her little toes got in the water and she kept running and the first wave came up and hit her hard and knocked her down and she's like I don't like the ocean and I spent the next couple hours just walking on the beach with her and just getting her closer and getting her toes back in the water pretty soon she was up to her knees and pretty soon she was just loving it and and sometimes we come to the Lord and you know we don't know what to expect and sometimes God knocks us over sometimes it's just this gentle washing baptism the Holy Spirit is not about trying to have the most dramatic experience you can it's about surrendering as much as you can and receiving as much as you can and letting God's life flow through you when we pray tonight I want you know I want you to be thinking because I in my heart here's what I know we're all called to be missionary disciples that each one of you is gonna have a role in rebuilding and renewing the church that you've come from but some of you are gonna be given the gift of prophecy some of you're gonna receive the gift of speaking in tongues some of you are going to get words of knowledge you're gonna be able to pray with somebody and read their heart and share with them exactly what they need to hear some of you are gonna receive the gift of intercessory prayer you're gonna pray for people and the God's gonna answer your prayers in a particular way some of you are gonna receive the gift of healing why because right now God's gospel needs to be preached not just in word but in power and he wants to equip those who are willing to say yes with the same gifts that he gave the apostles in the early church Vatican 2 is a great thing you know Vatican one said if you don't believe in miracles you can be subject for excommunication anathema you don't believe in miracles it's anathema that's like the heart that one of the most severe penalties you can get our salvation depends on our belief in the supernatural I mean what would we what are we looking at when we see a guy who rose from the dead if that's how God redeemed how's he gonna use us to cooperate in that redemptive work through other miraculous signs and wonders just be ready be anticipating be expected and be open to receive but before we end what I'd love for you to do is just spend a couple of minutes with one another get into groups of three whether you know the other two people or not it doesn't matter because all you're gonna do is you're just gonna take a few seconds to lay hands on one another and say Jesus Christ bless this person seal the work that you've done in their hearts the work of the Holy Spirit seal it with your grace so that it's that Satan cannot snatch the seeds of faith and the newness of life that you're you're putting into this person's heart keep them safe from the enemy keep them free from anxiety and continue to pour out there your spirit on them for the rest of this weekend as simple as that because not only do we receive the Spirit of God we've all been as priest-prophet and king in our baptism given the ability to impart the Spirit to pray with others that they would receive it you're not just a receptor of the Holy Spirit you're gonna be an instrument of the Holy Spirit to help spread the power of the Holy Spirit and you're gonna start practicing right now by just laying hands and praying over one another this is like boot camp so let's just spend the next few minutes just go ahead with John Paul continue to play guitar just sit down three of you in a little cluster Ram amongst yourselves you like butter all right I know a few of you are still praying but I want to kind of if I can draw us back together and if you need to if you want to finish up praying you're more than welcome to stay in here and pray look at me look at me look at me look at me look at me this doesn't work for me because when you look at Chris you just like you know you can't look away yeah so tonight like I said this is just the first phase the first wave of the grace of your baptism in the Holy Spirit there's many more waves to come and tonight I really I can't express in my heart I just know this is gonna be an amazing night for everybody and we're gonna be so blessed you know we're gonna have Father Dave lead a healing service and a holy hour for us when people you know talk about who's helped you on your journey you definitely Father Dave is one of those guys we were roommates here at Franciscan many years ago and even back then he was inspiring to me and made me want to be a holier guy and nothing that he's done in his life has surprised me and the fact that he's now our president is just what the Spirit's been preparing him for for the last 30 years and but I know that more important than any title in front of his name or any position he might be offered is he desires to see the world set on fire for the Holy Spirit and he is going to do an amazing job and we just need to be lining up with where the Spirit takes us tonight amen so you guys have a great dinner if you want to stay here and pray a little bit longer you're more than welcome to we do have confessions starting at five so you probably will have to clear out probably around quarter to so they can get the tape and everything set back up but we'll see you back in the field house in a little bit amen thank you all for coming God bless you