Yesterday, several of us who are involved in leading worship at our church had a time of targeted prayer for a worship team of junior high students at Olivia’s school. This was the 2nd such time of prayer that we’ve had for young worshipers in the last few days. We laid hands on them and spoke what the Lord gave us for them. It was a powerful time and we’re recognizing that God is moving on them specifically, but on younger and younger people in general. I mentioned a bit about this in the recent post about the Elijah Generation teaching by Steve Freeman.
This morning I was re-reading the most recent post in the monthly European intercessor’s blog, The Daywatch, by Roger Mitchell. In it, he’s studying the work of the Holy Spirit, using the book of Luke, to help us understand who the Holy Spirit is/what He does so that we can better recognize what He is doing NOW (and follow Him…duh!). The first thing mentioned in what I was reading is that the Holy Spirit is the Preparer. Roger underlined this by noting that it was the Holy Spirit who literally put the embryonic Jesus in a teen-aged girl.
As I’m studying German now (yea!), I thought reading through Luke 1 in my German Bible would be a good connection to this whole topic. Reading your Bible in a foreign language that you’re in the process of learning is a fabulous tool…not only for the language acquisition, but for opening up spiritual insights. You are forced to read at a different pace and frequently, you’re faced with translation differences that give you pause…to…reconsider…what…you…think…you…already…know.
This morning my (exceedingly) slow paced reading, and the focus of the work of the Holy Spirit caused me to stop at Luke 1:15 where the angel tells Zachariah that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit in his mother’s womb. It’s not clear when exactly this happened, but in Luke 1:41 it says that John the Baptist lept in Elisabeth’s womb and that Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit at that time.
I’m guessing that John got the Holy Spirit before Elisabeth and that his reaction to recognizing Jesus was the key for his (aged, barren) mother to get filled. I think this is a pattern for our times!
Through listening to Mike Bickle and teachings from IHOP, I’ve been familiar for awhile with the concept of the Forerunner and the spirit of the Forerunner coming on a whole generation and seeing people getting on fire at younger and younger ages. That’s typically been filed in the “yes-Lord,-I’m-glad-you’re-doing-that-somewhere-on-the-earth” folder. Well, I think what’s already raining down in different places on the earth is starting to sprinkle here!
If John the Baptist is the obvious model for the Forerunner, I think the “younger and younger” manifestation is probably the normal progression. Watch out pregnant women!!!