Holy Spirit ‘Aint Playin – Part 2

So I told you already that living in this new realm with my newfound awareness of the ‘presence’ of the Holy Spirit in my day to day life has been ‘anything but normal’ –and it has. It’s been exceptional.
And finally I’m in a place where I can tell you honestly that it’s gone from being exceptionally weird, to exceptionally fantastic.
 
I’ll just recount for you the whole journey, as I’ve travelled it:
 
My first ‘experience’ with these ‘gifts’ of the Holy Spirit happened long before the Race. It was more than a year ago at friend from the Rotary Club’s dinner party. The setting was the end of the night, about 10pm on the Island of Palm Beach at my 78 year-old buddy John Zin’s house.
 
Zin is an interesting character who loves bringing interesting people together –that’s why we get along so well 🙂 At this particular dinner party he had invited a hodgepodge of attendees and the last people to leave were me (typical) and a group of young black women from a church in West Palm Beach called ‘Prophetic Minds Ministries’ –I knew just from the name that their church was probably pretty different from my own.
 
The women asked if I wanted to join them to pray over John before we left his house. One of the ladies excused herself to go to the restroom before we prayed (and I’m thinking to myself, “Why doesn’t she just hold it and go after prayer? It’s getting late and I need to head home.”). I soon figured out why she opted not to wait. It was one of the longest prayers I’d ever bared witness to! They prayed and prayed and prayed …and then prayed some more. I was a surprised –to say the least. But then what came next surprised me even more: one of the women told me she had a ‘word’ for me, ‘a word from the Lord’.
And I was like, ‘OK…?’
 
So she tells me that God told her that He wanted to take me into ‘deeper levels of anointing’ and that He has ‘gifts’ for me. She said she didn’t know exactly what these gifts were- maybe healing or prophecy –they were gifts of the Spirit. And then she gave me a scripture to read: Ezekiel 47. In the passage, Ezekiel is walking along the River that flows from out of the temple gates. He crosses the River at different points, first ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then waist-deep, then so deep he can’t cross. And at the mouth of the River, where the River meets the Dead Sea- life is flourishing, because of the fresh water the River brings. Usually the Dead Sea sustains no life, but where this River meets the Sea, there is greenery, fruit bearing trees, and life in the water.
 
My prophetic new friend tells me that the River represents the deeper levels of anointing the Lord wants to walk me through. And I now know that the life at the mouth of the River is the fresh joy, hope, & life He is bringing to dark & lifeless places through His Spirit living in me.
 
To be honest with you, when it all went down, I read the scripture, prayed about it, and then forgot about it. What else was I supposed to do? I didn’t even actually think about it again until I was at WR Training Camp… when people started to repeat to me exactly what that lady had said. Lots of people –my new squad-mates, AIM staff members, my squad leaders & coaches, they would come to me and say things like ‘God wants to take you to deeper levels’, ‘God has more for you’, ‘God has spiritual gifts waiting for you’, and so on and so forth.
 
So not knowing what to do, I sneak away from the all crazies and call my Dad.
I’m frustrated to the point of tears and ask ‘What are these people talking about? What am I holding back? How do I get what they are talking about?!’  And my Dad, who adores me & the Lord tells me the truth: ‘I don’t know what God has in store for you. But let Him take you there. You’re obviously already on the right path, just fasten your seatbelt ‘cause it’s gonna be a wild ride!’ 🙂
I love my Dad.
 
So, I took my Dad’s advice. I told God, “Let’s do this.”