| 10-30-06 Holy Spirit, Come |
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October 30, 2006
"Holy Spirit, Come!" Let's talk about the power of anointed intercession. The power is God Himself; the power is the Holy Spirit. In Luke 4:17-18 we read, "Jesus returned from the desert, in the power of the Spirit." What happens in the desert? Power comes in the desert! It comes from the desert. Scripture tells us that Jesus returned from the desert in the power of the Spirit. The power behind anointed intercession is the power of the Holy Spirit. Intercession is prayer to the Father in union with Jesus through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Intercession is a charismatic gift of the Spirit. It is gift and it is charismatic, which means that it is a gift that is to be used for others. We have gifts of the Spirit, which are primarily for ourselves and then there are gifts of the Spirit that we called charismatic because these are for others. My own spiritual director asked me, "Do you know the Holy Spirit?" "Well, of course I know the Holy Spirit," I said. "Tell me about him," he said. I told him all the things that I knew that the Holy Spirit did. Then he said, "You are telling me of things He does. I am not hearing you say anything about Him. Do you know the Holy Spirit personally?" Well of course, I did not. In fact, I am not sure that any of us can know Him until we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then the understanding comes alive; scripture starts coming alive. The teachings of the Church start coming alive. The catechism comes alive. Everything comes alive. We, ourselves, come alive. I will never be the same, thanks be to God! I will never be the same! Once I asked Our Lady, "What do you call the Holy Spirit? I know that we call the first Person of the Trinity, Father and the second person of the Trinity, Jesus but what do you call the third Person of the Trinity?" She replied, "His name is Holy." Simple! Holy Spirit, His name is Holy. The Church gives Him other names and so does Jesus. The Church calls Him Sanctifier because He sanctifies. He is the fire of God's love because He purifies us of all that has to go. It can be a little painful in our lives when He starts to burn away things that have to do with me, the false image, sin or anything like that. When His work of sanctification is over and He has made room for Himself, that fire is still there but it burns sweetly in union and presence. Jesus referred to Him as the Advocate. . If anyone needs an advocate it is an intercessor. We need that advocate at all times. He is the Director. Our Lady said one time that the Holy Spirit was her director. She said, "He taught me everything about love I ever knew." Those of us that do a lot of retreat work know that we could not do two minutes of it without the Director Himself. He directs our souls. He directs retreatants. He is the soul of the Church. Our archbishop himself said to someone, "If you do not know the Holy Spirit, then you do not know the Church." Now here are a few things that He does. He makes Jesus visible. Jesus Himself said that, "He will bear witness on My behalf." He will bear witness on behalf of Jesus. This is why John could point out, "Behold the Lamb!" This is what the Spirit is trying to do within each one of us so we can point to one another with that recognition that comes from the Spirit and say, "Behold the Lamb, there goes Jesus walking down the street. There goes Jesus! Behold the Lamb!" He makes Jesus visible. He is a director, which means that He will direct our footsteps in paths that we might not wish to take. Jesus was led, led, led constantly by the Spirit. Jesus was led out of Nazareth. He was led to the Jordan. The Spirit led Him into the desert. The Holy Spirit led Jesus directly into satan's camp and made Jesus visible to satan. It appears that for the first thirty years of Jesus' life, the enemy did not know where He was or if He was even here. We do not hear anything about a confrontation with satan until the day after Jesus is baptized in the Jordan. Scripture tells us, "Then He was led by the Spirit into the desert," right into satan's camp for those temptations and, ultimately, that victory. As intercessors we should not be surprised if the Spirit leads us right into the enemy's camp. Do not be afraid; He is leading. He is leading. One thing we have found out is that the enemy is scared to death of Jesus Christ. He hates the Spirit and he has a deep hatred toward the Father. One time somebody asked us, "Why is it that at Bellwether, you do not come under some of the severe attacks that some of us do?" I said, "I think it is because we have learned to become very little. Little children are carried by the Father. Jesus taught us to pray that way, "Father deliver us from the evil one." When we stay close to the Father, satan will not come close to us because he is afraid of the Father. The Father is the last person he wants to tangle with, believe me. It pays to be little; that is the wisdom of the desert. That is the wisdom of conversion. It is wisdom when Jesus said, "You must change and become as a little child." The Holy Spirit reveals! He reveals Jesus to us. We can spot Jesus very easily if the Spirit is revealing Him to us. This is one of the anointings of the Spirit. I can recall a time when several of us were in a store and heard a group of people enter. Without being able to see them, we knew at once, "The Holy Spirit just came in here!" Have you ever had an experience when you can detect almost immediately that the Spirit is involved with someone - that this person is so filled with the Spirit, that you just know? The Spirit within you is helping you recognize the Spirit in someone else. We used to say, "Have you ever felt you were just on the same wavelength with somebody." There is a connection. We, here, are connecting even though we might not know everybody's name or where they came from. We connect because the Spirit recognizes God in others. We met those people who came into the store that day. One was a minister in a local church. He really preaches the Gospel - a very anointed minister. They were not Catholics but they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit helps us to recognize Jesus in others. Another time, at a conference I passed by an Archbishop from Africa who was just filled with God. I knew immediately, "I passed Jesus!" This is all the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants the Holy Spirit to witness to Him in each one of us. In scripture, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit "...will instruct you in everything." We take that very seriously. We ask everything. Through a lot of mistakes we have learned not to assume, not to take the Holy Spirit for granted, not to think we know what God knows, that we have more wisdom than God. We have found out that God loves being God and He does a great job. All we have to do is to stay out of His way and let Him do what He does best. We can just be the children. He will instruct us in everything. He is a detail Person. The tiniest details are of interest to Him because they are of interest to us. We discover a lot about the early church when we read in scripture, "The Holy Spirit and we have decided." We take that very seriously too. We make decisions communally. We do not make them on our own, "The Holy Spirit and we." One of the reasons that communal discernment is such a safe way to make decisions is because it brings with it a mantle of humility. No one person can say, "Well I heard from the Lord!" I cannot pat myself on the back and say, "God spoke to me and this is what He said." Everything is "we." We get all our discernments confirmed. We check it out. The beautiful canopy of humility fosters trust when the Holy Spirit and we make a decision on anything. Vatican Council II teaches, "We, the Church, must remain pupils of the Holy Spirit." We must be children. We must be teachable children, pupils of the Holy Spirit. This is what the Spirit loves to do. He is the Spirit of Counsel after all. He loves to counsel and His counsel is always true; it is always right.
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