So I know I was going to write more about praying like Elijah, but as previously stated, things may change under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and so they have.  This morning as I was praying, I heard a silent whisper, an invisible voice…point me to a place, a pool, a gate, and a choice…

Yes, that rhymes, and yes, I wanted to keep going with it in true poetic form, but for now I’ll write about learning to hear God through prayer and how I knew it was His voice when I heard the silent whisper,

“the pools of bethesda.”

As Christians, Christ followers, people who have confessed Jesus as Lord of their lives and have been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit after hearing and believing the good news, have an incredible gift.  Simple, yet profound and often drowned out by the deceptive voices of the world disguised in busyness and worthy works…many of us have heart-breakingly forgotten,

we can actually hear God’s voice…

“My sheep hear my voice and they follow Me…” John 10:27.

“For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:13.

I could go on with other supporting scriptures and will as long as these words keep showing up on this screen following that voice…

If you are a Christian, then you have heard God’s voice.  You heard it when you first came to Him, through a message, a friend stepping out of their box and fearlessly sharing Jesus with you, His unchanging, soul and spirit dividing, Holy Spirit inspired Word you read, a song, a dream, a silent nudge, a scripture brought to mind, a following your heart, if you will, in order to bless someone.  These are but a few ways God speaks to his beloved kids.  It is the One with whom we were sealed, the gift Jesus promised His followers at the last supper, the One who baptizes with water and fire, the One who empowers, equips, testifies to Jesus, and makes things weird and wonderful all at the same time.  He is the third person of the Trinity,

and He is Holy Spirit.

and so it goes…along a silent whisper in a time of expectant prayer, that the words, the pool of bethesda showed up.  Not only did they show up, but they escorted in with them tears…and a deep soulish cry,

“teach me! show me your glory as much as this frame can bear! Come in power and glory more than I have seen! 

And a heart that is so full, yet yearns for more, to see and take God at His Word, fumbles through pages to find and be found,

at the pool of bethesda.

And somehow this is beautifully woven, tangled, frayed and stretched into praying like Elijah.  Elijah knew God’s voice.  Elijah prayed with fervency and expectancy.  Elijah experienced fire from heaven.  Elijah never limited God. But the man at the pool of bethesda had a vastly different perspective than Elijah.  Did he believe in God?  Just by reading the passage, it is clear he did.  He had seen with his own eyes an angel from heaven appear again and again healing many others who were able to get themselves into the pool.

Don’t miss that…

Who were able to get themselves into the pool…

You see, sometimes we just can’t get ourselves there… in Elijah’s state of faith…yet Jesus lovingly and powerfully shows up just when we think He has touched everyone else but us!

So this morning, as I met with my Lord in the stillness away from distractions and plans of the day, I simply asked,

“Lord, speak, grant me the spirit of prophetic revelation, teach me…”

and the answer droned in silence, yet dripping with the fragrance of His anointing oils, stirred my heart like that of the pool of bethesda.

Maybe its because I am praying hard for many to be healed right now.  Maybe it’s because there was fresh insight to be discovered at this old passage I have read over many times and never really understood.

Yet both are being strengthened in a cord tightly woven…

Jesus does speak.

and when He speaks, be joyfully expectant that He is moving…stirring up forgotten stagnant pools, 

looking on impossible situations pillared by faith with those that won’t limit Him…

for His whisper prepares the tender soil that will bring forth an abundance of what He is about to do!

For those who pray like Elijah,

and those who long to dip but their toes in the pool of bethesda...

Oh Holy Spirit, come in power and reveal Jesus to us at the pool of bethesda as we read, believe, and wait expectantly.

Please read John 5:1-24.

Found, loved, held,

Trish