I think the best gifts I have received are the ones that I’ve asked for. A family member has asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I shared some preferences. Then when I receive the music I like, the books I would love to own, the chocolate I drool over, then I am very happy. I think maybe the Lord is like that too, sometimes.
When I first encountered the strong presence of the Lord in a church gathering, I was excited. Naturally I wanted to test it out first. There was a lady sitting in the aisle, and since I had the necessary permission from the church, I went over to pray for her. I did not go in front of her though, but stayed where she could not actually see me. I reached my hand towards her, without touching her. Her whole body started shaking, and I was convinced that the Holy Spirit was causing this. Then when I withdrew my hand, she calmed down. I tried it again, moving my hand towards her, and I saw the same response. Withdrew my hand, and again she calmed down. Wow, this could only be the Holy Spirit.
Once I was convinced that the Holy Spirit was moving in my church, my next reaction was that I needed to bring all my requests quickly before him. God was obviously there, and I was aware of a lot of needs around the globe where I longed to see God move. Intercession has always been important to me. I am convinced that God longs to move more and more in different locations and situations, and I am equally convinced that he will move in response to prayers prayed in faith. And right there, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, I figured I had the attention I wanted, and I needed to quickly remind the Lord of everything that I had been praying for. Bringing up all intercession requests was quite difficult, however. Worshiping the Lord, on the other hand, was easy. I was in God’s presence, and I wanted to do what he wanted me to do – and at that time it was to worship him.
Intercession is God’s idea. Praying for the needs of others, including those that we have never met and probably never will meet, is a good and right thing to do. As I continue to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit on a regular basis, I will also continue to make time to intercede. We all should.
Yesterday at church the Holy Spirit put another thought in my mind. So often we gather to worship the Lord and he blesses us. We sense his love for us, he reminds us that he is there for us, he speaks words of reassurance to us. Yesterday the Holy Spirit suggested to me that we should ask the Lord what he would like, instead. Or maybe not instead, but as well as receiving love from him. It was such a simple thought, but it resonated with me.
Just as I might ask for something different from my granddaughter than I would from my daughter, the Lord would ask different things from each one of us. He might ask us to raise our hands in worship, something that some of us still find quite difficult. He might ask us to stand up, or to kneel, or to dance. Or he might remind us that it is easy to worship him when we are surrounded by other worshippers, and that what he would like us to give him is five minutes of worship on Monday morning, and Tuesday morning, and every other day too. Or he might ask us to give something up – like that show we keep watching that disturbs our spirit, but we keep going back to watch more of it. Or to visit someone, to be kind to someone, to give some money away. There are many things that the Lord might like to receive from us at this time. God has blessed us in so many ways, surely we in turn should want to bless him.
Take a few minutes right now and ask the Holy Spirit to tell you what you can give to the Lord to make him happy.
Mary Foulger - Author, speaker and intercessor 