I recently watched a movie called Holy Ghost. This movie was about a man who simply filmed whatever the Holy Spirit told him or his friends to do. It was pretty amazing! The camera man and his friends travel to places that God tells them to go and talk to people who God tells them to talk to. So he visited college campuses, cities, and other countries. This film was amazing because it showed me the power of the Holy Spirit. When these men prayed in faith, awesome things happened. People were healed or physically experienced the power of the spirit, and some people even accepted Christ as their savior just with one conversation. This all happened just because these men stepped out in faith and did what the spirit asked.
One of the more crazy awesome things that happened in the movie were the healings. The men asked the Spirit who to talk to, and then they approached those people and asked them if they are in any plain or health problems. Then the men, in their boldness and faith, prayed for these people. They laid their hands on them and prayed asking God to heal them. And guess what, THEY WERE HEALED! It usually took a couple times of praying, but after each prayer the person’s pain went down until they had none at all! It was amazing and life changing to watch.
I know what a lot of you might be thinking… What? That’s crazy. No way. They must’ve paid people to pretend to be healed. But I am standing here telling you that I BELIEVE IT. I know the Holy Spirit has the power of healing and showing people God’s glory and power. I know because there is plenty of evidence in the Bible.
After Jesus ascended into the heaven, The Holy Spirit came down and filled those who believed that Jesus was the Son of God, who were the apostles at the time. They received the power of the Holy Spirit, the same power that was in Jesus. The other amazing thing was that anyone could receive the Holy Spirit if they believed in Jesus:
“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off- for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:38-39
That’s it, accept that Jesus is your savior and you need him, ask Him for forgiveness for the sins you have committed, repent or change the ways of your life by turning from sin, and then be baptized, which is a symbol that you are being cleansed from your sin and emerging as a new person in Him.
So if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then the Holy Spirit is in you. That also means that you have the power of the Holy Spirit, the power to perform miracles just like Jesus and the disciples did. But how come Christians aren’t going around healing people and casting out demons? I think it’s because a lot of us forget that the Holy Spirit is there and inside of us. He is a small voice that can be easily ignored or unheard with the distractions of life. But if you sit and listen closely, He can show you wonders.
The World Race is the first time I really experienced the Holy Spirit. I honestly had heard so much about this Holy Spirit in church, but had no idea what it meant. So, it was my first month, I was in Jaco, Costa Rica. We were going to a casino to pray for the women who were prostituting there and the men who were purchasing. We were praying before we went in and all of a sudden this picture of an apple popped into my head.
“OK random I guess but I must be daydreaming,” I thought.
But then I heard a voice tell me to tell my group to look for an apple at the casino. I didn’t want to at first, I didn’t want to embarrass myself.
What if the apple was just some random daydream of mine? What if we don’t see an apple tonight and I just look dumb? Surely a picture of an apple can’t be from God?
But then I had that feeling (if you have ever had the Holy Spirit give you a command you know what this feels like) my heart started pounding, my palms started sweating, and the voice got louder.
“Ok fine, I’ll do it”
So I told the group. But guess what! That same night, a group of my teammates saw a man come out of a hotel room, and in his hand was a big shiny apple.
So that little story might not sound like a big deal to you, but it was for me. God showed me that what the Holy Spirit tells me is true and that I should act on or speak out whatever He tells me. If I don’t, I will never see the fruit (in this case legit fruit haha) from what He tells you.
So since that moment, I have been trying to follow what the Holy Spirit tells me. Honestly, sometimes it’s hard. Just this past week, we were at a Christian event where a bunch of church from the area were gathered to worship and talk about God. In the middle of worshipping, I looked over to my left and saw a couple families standing outside of the gate watching the event. I immediately heard the Holy Spirit tell me to go and pray for them. I didn’t want to at first. I didn’t know how to speak Tagalog, I didn’t know how they would react, and what if I looked stupid? After about 20 minutes of internal debate, I finally gathered the courage to go and pray for the strangers. It was great! We prayed for healing over their family members. I even found out some of the people there were friends of my teammate Stephanie who had met them the day before and invited them to the concert. Since she wasn’t at the concert, she wouldn’t have know if they had shown up or not and wouldn’t have known the fruit from her Holy Spirit calling, which was to go and talk to them. Out of the hundreds of people there, I just happened to talk to Stephanie’s friends, all because I listened to the Holy Spirit. Pretty cool right?
I think the reason that most people don’t follow what the Holy Spirit tells them to do is because we are afraid of taking risks, we are afraid of failure, and we don’t have faith that God will follow through. We don’t want to risk looking stupid or being wrong. We don’t want to pray for healing because we are afraid that God won’t heal. I understand this because I’ve had every one of these thoughts, but let me tell you, every time I have done what the Holy Spirit has told me, God shows up and something great comes out of it. Sometimes the fruit is as simple as telling a friend exactly what they need to hear in that moment. Sometimes it’s healing an illness or injury. Whatever it is, God has great plans if you just follow what He says.
One thing that the Holy Spirit has placed on my heart lately is the act of praying over people for healing. In Matthew 10:8, Jesus commands his disciples and followers to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosry, [and] drive out demons.” This is a command from Jesus, it is not a suggestion. He is not just saying “heal when you feel like it” or “only heal if you think you have the gift of healing”, no he tells everyone who believes in Him to heal.
When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit is within us. This means we can perform the miracles that Jesus did, even the miracle of healing. We see many examples of this in the book of Acts when the Apostles and believers healed people. They believed in God and believed in His power and believed that through Him. They laid hands on the person or wound, prayed the big prayer that God would heal, had faith, and they were healed. The cool thing though, was that the apostles didn’t just heal people and leave and they didn’t use it to glorify themselves. They used these miracles to explain that this power is from God, not from themselves, and that God and God alone has the power to heal. Because they had faith and followed the Holy Spirit, many people gave their life to Christ.
A lot of people think that the power of healing was only during the New Testament time, but I believe that it can happen now. The same Holy Spirit that was in them is in us, and God said that faith even as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. I even was able to see examples in the movie Holy Ghost where people were healed through prayer by the Holy Spirit and from that they gave their lives to Christ. I think that is absolutely amazing! We as believers need to be listening to the Holy Spirit and following God’s command to heal the sick. I think that through the Holy Spirit within us, we can move mountains.
So, I have a challenge for those reading this blog. If you are a believer, you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have asked God to forgive your sins, and you have repented and turned away from your ways because of your love for God, I challenge you to listen to the Holy Spirit. Spend time asking Him to speak to you. And then, whatever He says, ACT ON IT. If you have never experienced what the Holy Spirit can do, I challenge you to go to a public place and ask God what He wants you to do and who He wants you to talk to. If you ask and listen to His response, He will tell you. The even better part is if you follow what He asks, you will see the fruit. Through the belief in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, you can move mountains.
If you decide to take this challenge and listen to the Holy Spirit, I encourage you to comment below with the experience you had! Also, if you have ever experienced what it is like to follow the Holy Spirit from a previous time, please comment below. I would love to hear how God has used you. Your stories are powerful, they can change lives! 🙂
