“They were devoting themselves to the teaching of the emissaries and to fellowship, to breaking bread and to prayers. Fear lay upon every soul and many signs and wonders were happening through the emissaries. And all who believed were together having everything in common. They began selling their property and possessions and sharing with all, as any had need. Day by day they continued in one mind, spending time at the Temple and breaking bread from house to house. They were sharing meals with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all people. And EVERYDAY the Lord was adding to their number those who were being saved” Acts 2:42-47

I have been reading Acts lately. It’s such an awesome book of these radical apostles who get filled with the power of God and take the gospel to the ends of the earth! They are living the dream life. Signs, wonders, and miracles are just normal. They are apart of a  strong community who were devoting themselves fully to the Lord, sold out. It started with 120 people in the upper room waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit. Then the Holy Spirit falls and “they were all filled with the Ruach ha-Kodesh (Holy Spirit) and began to speak in other tongues as the Ruach enabled them to speak out. Now Jewish people were staying, in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound came, the crowd gathered. They were bewildered, because each was hearing them speaking in his own language…”All these who are speaking aren’t they Galileans? How is it we hear our own birth language? …we hear them declaring in our own tongues the mighty deeds of God” Acts 2:5-11. The people were amazed and perplexed. They thought the people might be drunk. But Peter gets boldness from the Holy Spirit, he stands up, opens his mouth, and proclaims the truth in the gospel (Acts 2:15-36). It’s incredible the church grows from 120 people in an upper room waiting on the promise of the Holy Spirit to just in that day 3,000 were added to the faith! From there they keep growing and everyday souls are added! Not just that they saw the miraculous and walked boldly in the power of the Holy Spirit! They were not super special people or well educated. Peter had just denied Jesus before the resurrection. They had flaws,  but they were sold out to the Lord. God saw their hearts. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and figured out they were layman without training, they were amazed. They began to realize these people had been with Yeshua” Acts 4:13. These people walked with the Lord and people knew from the signs that followed.

The Bible says , “He who puts his trust in Me, the works that I do he will do; and GREATER than these he will do, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son, If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” John 14:12-13. It is clear that the Great Commission calls us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, starting with where we are at. It is clear that he calls us to so much more then we can comprehend. “Yeshua sent out these twelve and ordered them….As you go, proclaim, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near!’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, drive out demons, Freely you received, freely give” Matthew 10:5-8. John, also, states “Yeshua preformed many other signs in the presence of the disciples , which are not written in this book. But these have been written so that you may believe that Yeshua is Mashiach Ben-Elohim, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30). At the end of chapter 21 it says that John supposes that not even the world itself would have room for the books being written about all the things Jesus did. And the Bible says, Greater works then these we will do! This got me fired about. I have began asking the Lord, how do I get to the place to see the these things? I know there is such a deeper, more intimate level with the Lord that mighty men and women of old walked in. These were warriors of the faith who got to these places by the favor of the Lord and from pressing into His promises.

I truly believe that walking in this anointing comes from a place of abiding in the Lord and resting in the rivers of life. It is birthed from the Holy Spirit like in Acts. When I was in Africa, for the first time in my life I truly began to get a greater glimpse of the love of the Father and His heart for the nations. I saw a group of missionaries devoted to the Lord like the 120 in Acts and it was beautiful. The fruit came -salvation, signs and wonders and miracles. Why? I believe it is because these individuals were solely and fully sold out to the Lord. (Also, God loves those people He longs to draw near to Himself so much that He uses the most unlikely people to display His glory, because He longs that none should perish, but that all should come to know Him). The root of the fruit came from abiding in the Lord and seeking His face utmost before anything else. The more we look into the eyes of the Father, the more freedom comes and all fear melts away. His perfect love cast out fear! We feel His heartbeat for the lost and it becomes our own. We realize that it’s not even about us, but about being apart of a grand love story of the Lord capturing the heart of His people! I felt and experienced this so strong that is why I accepted the call to the missions field.  This fruit though comes from abiding in the rivers of life aka the Holy Spirit. I can distinctly remember the Lord revealing this to me sitting by the Zambezi river as I was reading in John 15. “Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot produce fruit unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you can produce fruit unless you abide in Me” John 15:3. I was also reading a devotional by Heidi Baker and she said the word abide means to be fully immersed. I sat there looking out on the beautiful, raging river flowing in front of me and realized the water in front of me was such a beautiful picture of the Holy Spirit. We are called to abide and be fully immersed in His waters. “Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life-bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb…” Revelation 22:1. I was picturing this beautiful river flowing from heaven into us. Sometimes as I stand looking at the ocean or at a raging water, I am reminded that God calls me deeper into His rivers. He calls us to go so deep that we die to ourselves. It’s so deep that it’s terrifying, but He is the strength in our weakness. His breath becomes our own and we truly learn what it means to be dependent on the Lord. I know in a whole life time I will never explore all the depths of God’s rivers; but the desire is there to press toward the Mark of the High calling. I know there is so much more; because I can feel it when I am restless. There has to be more. In order to obtain it, we have to press in to obtain all that God has for us. I know God love’s everyone and His love is so good; but I know there is so much more in our walk with the Lord. There’s a deeper place we have to unlock to walk in His full power and annointing. We have to seek it out. I do not know about you, but I want to live out the book of Acts. Greater works than Jesus did, but to get their we have to start by abiding in Him. We have to read His word, pray in the Spirit, and dive deep into His heart from a place of desire. “I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you to give you hope and a future. If you seek Me you will find me, if you seek me with your whole heart” Jeremiah 29:11-12. “Things no eye has seen and no ear has heard, that have not entered the heart of mankind-these things God prepared for those who love Him.” But God revealed these things to us through the Ruach. For the Ruach (Spirit) searches all things- even the depths of God!” 1 Corinthians 2:9-10. God calls us to dive deep into the rivers of His heart. It’s a choice though, but if we want to see the miraculous of God He calls us deeper. Ezekial 47 the chapter is entitled the River of Life. God takes Ezekiel deeper and deeper into this river in the vision. “It will be that every living creature that swarms will live wherever the river goes” Ezekiel 47:9. This is how I picture the church of Acts. They were fully immersed in the rivers of life through the Holy Spirit, so everywhere they went healing came. This is still our call today! Greater works then in the book of Acts. We just need to press in and take hold of the promises. This is the place I am at. I know God has so much more and I want to dive deeper. I have been in a season of growing this last year and I know that there are great things ahead as I learn to abide and immerse myself in the rivers of life. I invite you all to do the same. The nations are calling, the waters are fine, so jump right in and flow with the river. Love you family ❤