Psalm 43:3-4 Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
Devotion
I remember the first time I really felt the presence of God. Not in the shout or moments where you know the Spirit is leading you on to something, but the first time there was weight and a person alongside, that Presence when the Holy Spirit wasn’t just prompting, but came down in force. It all happened when I was 17 and had decided to go to a Friday night prayer meeting at our local church. We were meeting in one of the class rooms in the back of the church. We would sing for a while and then Brother Dowsey McDowell would read scripture and then all would begin to pray. I knew there was more than what I had experienced in church services. They were great. Shouting and praising; dancing in the Spirit, but I knew there had to be more.
I took my turn and sat down in the chair that was used to pray for those seeking with a need. And then it happened. It felt like something descended on entire body, and for the first time I knew peace. I felt so relieved, I laughed and then I cried, realizing all the hurt I had was gone. I then realized that God had something deeper for me and that my life would never be the same. It was that experience that through the years would cause me to take a pause and reflect on the goodness of my Heavenly Father that night and realize that when I was unfaithful to Him, He never turned away from me.
Reflection
Have you met and encountered the Holy Spirit of God? When and where was that? What led up to that encounter?
How are you different because of that moment? What has changed in and around you because of that?
As we begin to draw our time of fasting to a close, where has God shown up?
Prayer
Father, I pray that Your Spirit comes down in real and powerful ways in my life. Come alongside me today and demonstrate who You are. Show me the power of Your pure love, show me who I am because of what You have done, and show me how that can impact those around me with Your will and love. Come alongside me in my interactions with others, in my conversations with You, and in how I treat my family and my friends. Be near to me, show me Your presence and Your power, and make me a different person because of how You love me. But more than anything, I pray that You show up in my life. I acknowledge that there is no church, there is no future without You, and so I pray that You are present and vibrant in all that I think, say, and do.