I have never seen an angel. But I want to.
I know one person who sees angels often and I know a few more that have seen them as people who just appear in a situation to help accomplish a task and then they’re gone as suddenly as they came. So interesting. Although I haven’t seen them myself, I have felt the presence of an angel many times when things happened that could not be explained if adhering to the laws of physics or probability theory. Particularly with accidents that were absolutely unavoidable … but somehow didn’t happen. Or during supernaturally charged events where the seen and the unseen presence of God seemed to be co-mingling in the same space.
Another thing I yearn for is to see a physical miracle in person. To hear bones crack as a club foot is turned around and corrected or watch as a wound heals and disappears. I’ve heard testimonies and read written accounts of such things and it fills me with amazement and want.
For many years, when I considered all the incredible things that others were a part of, I would ask, “Why them? What is it about them that draws God so near that they see things and do things that most other believers are not seeing and doing?” Clearly they have been set apart for some reason. Right? But as I began to grow in my understanding of how the Holy Spirit moves and my exposure to anointed people became more personal and more frequent, I discovered that they were just ordinary people with the same struggles in life as everyone else. And this allowed me the freedom to entertain the hope that maybe God could use me in some equally fantastic way.
As soon as this new thought pattern burned itself into my mind and soul, I found myself living in a state of expectation and the Holy Spirit blessed my life with supernatural sprinklings of visions, dreams, and revelation. In my spiritual journey of sanctification, I was elated to cross into the territory of Extraordinary, but I didn’t know how to get to the land of More. The place of standing next to miracles. The place of praying and healing. The place of Acts.
My breakthrough came when I heard a teaching that explained the flow of the Holy Spirit as being like a river that you could touch or stand in or allow yourself to be swept way. While listening, I immediately saw myself sitting on the banks with my feet dangling in the cool, holy water. Happy and refreshed. And I also saw myself standing in the flow from time to time letting the water rush around me and feeling the exhilaration of being emersed. Feeling the rejuvenation and healing in my body and the restoration of my mind. Those times have been exquisite gifts from God.
But I didn’t see myself completely letting go. I didn’t lift my feet from the riverbed and let the current take me to the land of More.
I am a list person – although, I will confess that most of them stay inside my head. And, at the beginning of each new year, I tend to redefine my life-boundaries. I factor in all the lessons learned, the constants, and the fresh opportunities and I identify my target conquests. Over the last several years, I find that my lists are more and more comprised of elements that I cannot accomplish in my own strength. Desires that require an intimate partnership with the Holy Spirit. I hope that means that I am finally growing up in the Spirit.
Dare I ask the question, “Why not me?”
If my eyes are going to see the unseeable and my hands are going to do the impossible; if my feet are going to carry me to where I meet my purpose and my tongue is going to witness for the glory of God, I must adopt a posture of complete submission to the will of my Father. My ears must be able to hear His voice and my mind must be able to embrace what I hear with excitement and thanksgiving. I cannot be afraid to enter the water and allow the flow to carry me to a sacred destination.
I must be hungry to serve the way that Jesus served. I must be bold to proclaim victory in all circumstances through His blood and resurrection power. And I must be unafraid to be used and directed by the Holy Spirit.
For you, I pray that this is the Year of the Water. That you find your way into a deeper spot. That you are not afraid to step in or to touch it and taste it. That you are driven to spend as much time drenched as possible. For me, I pray for the courage to abandon myself to its power so that I can reach the place of More and experience the truest longings of my heart.
Thank you, Father, for my Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for the Advocate. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for the crazy good journey!
[Special thanks to Stephanie Jones for that most illuminating teaching on the flow of the Holy Spirit.]
Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Acts 4:30 While you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
John 14:12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
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