Hi Friends! I hope you all are well and warm, because it is still cold outside!  This past Saturday, a fellow intercessor who had never received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, expressed her desire to be baptized.  So we anointed her with oil and prayed for her to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues.  After praying for her, I told her that she had to give it breath.  We went into a wonderful time of worship and praying in the spirit.   During this time, the Lord gave me this  two part vision:

First I saw a clearing in a forested area.  The wind picked up and suddenly leaves that were cut into little squares, like confetti were falling down.  But the wind would get under them and they would move in a swirling action, then fall gently.  It seemed that they sparkled in the sunlight.  Perhaps one side of the “leaf” was reflective, and the other side more like a normal leaf, - knowing of course that leaves are not shaped like tiny one inch squares!

Secondly,  I saw what was a medicine cup, about 2 ounces in size.  It had a handle like a scoop used for powders.  The medicine cup was filled with an orange colored  medicine, having a consistency like syrup.  The  orange liquid was being poured out in a steady stream.  Behind the medicine cup was a brilliant light.  It almost seemed like an eclipse of the sun, with the cup in the foreground making a great contrast to the brilliance of the light behind.

During that time of prayer, I was praying in the Spirit, but my mind was praying for many people who needed healing in their bodies, in their relationships, for wisdom to deal with difficult situations and for salvation.  I believe that this vision came as a result of our tears of intercession, and what the Holy Spirit was doing as a result of praying through us.

I believe that the clearing that was created in the middle of the forest, was made possible by prayer.  The forest represents deception, and the clearing is where the deception has been removed.  When we seek God and his presence, he brings clarity, words of knowledge, discernment, revelation, wisdom and the truth, for God is all those things.

The confetti, was like a shower of his grace.  It was a happy, playful wind, that swirled the leaves lifting them up and letting them fall.  It reminded me of a child playing in a large pile of leaves in the fall, lifting them up in her arms and letting the wind take them in all directions.

Through our worship and Spirit led prayer,  we were enjoying the presence of the Lord and experiencing his favor.  Through prayer we celebrated with God, the clearing of the forest.  It pleases God when we push back darkness, because in so doing, other people can receive the breakthrough or the victory over something that formerly seemed impossible.

The medicine cup and medicine represents healing.  God was honoring our prayers.  I know healing will come to all those for whom we were praying.  God is faithful.  He is looking for people who will have the faith to believe for miracles.  It says in the word, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”  Hebrews 11:6

And “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you could say this fig tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”  Luke 17:6

When I looked at these two visions together, I couldn’t help but remember these two passages about leaves and healing:

Ezekiel speaks prophetically regarding the river that flowed from the altar of the Temple of God, and the trees that grew along its banks.  “And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food.  Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary.  Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”  Ezekiel 47:12

In Revelation, John describes a river being sourced at the throne of God and of the Lamb.  The river is called  “the river of the water of life.” And there was “on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.  The Leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”  Revelations 22:1-2

I believe that God is showing us that healing is available to those who believe.  It is faith that moves mountains and uproots trees.  When we have faith, God performs miracles.  When we  spend time with him, our faith grows, and we can believe for a friend’s healing, for the  provision of a job or opportunity, for the deliverance of someone suffering depression or anxiety, or to believe for a miracle, something that only God can provide.

I hope if any of you have not experienced the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, that you begin seeking God for this.  Please don’t be afraid of it.  I know there are some denominations that claim that speaking in tongues was only for the first century Christians, but there is nothing that can really support that view point, particularly in light of how many Christians world wide speak in tongues everyday of their lives.  The difference that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit makes in the Christian life is enormous.  The Holy Spirit gives us the power to be an overcomer.  John the Baptist said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me, is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.  He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  Matthew 3:11-12

For me, the Baptism in the Holy Spirit changed everything.  When I speak of it to others, I ask them, “Wouldn’t you rather have a Lear jet than a pair of roller skates?”  For me -  the Baptism is just that.  The Holy Spirit prays  through you, with words and sounds that you’ve never learned.  The Holy Spirit prays with your spirit, the perfect will of the Father.  You can worship for hours, telling him in so many more ways, how much you love him.  English is so limiting, but when you speak in tongues, or sing in tongues you are only limited by time and your flesh.  

The other thing that is so remarkable to me, is the boldness that comes from the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.  I have done things, and said things that in my normal flesh I would never have had the courage to do.  But when you yield yourself to the Holy Spirit, things happen.

I hope you will overcome your fears and reservations and take the plunge!   You will never  regret it.  Decide to leave your roller skates behind and take the Lear jet!  

Seek the Lord, and tell him of your desire to learn from him, to be close to him.  Ask someone who has been baptized in the Holy Spirit to pray for you.  Have them anoint you with oil and pray that you receive all that He would like to give you.  So many gifts are given upon the laying on of hands.  Paul, writing to the Corinthians, instructed them about the gifts of the Holy Spirit:

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually a member of it.  And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.  Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?  Do all work miracles?  Do all possess gifts of healing?  Do all speak with tongues?  Do all interpret?  But earnestly desire the higher gifts.”  1 Corinthians 12:27-31

But I cannot end here, simply because Paul did not end here either.  He felt compelled to “show you a still more excellent way.”  He was speaking of love.  1 Corinthians 13 is called the “Love Chapter.”  It is short, I decided to include it here:

“If I speak in the tongues of  men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And  if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, endures all things.”

“Love  never ends.  As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  When I was a child I spoke like a child I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

“So now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”  1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

Be blessed!