Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2ch.7.14.NLT
Scripture
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groans that cannot be expressed in words.
Observation
All creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth. We believers also groan because God has given us a foretaste of the future kingdom. We have a hope for a future and must wait patiently.
The Holy Spirit helps us to pray even when we don’t know what to pray. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us in groaning that cannot be expressed in words.
Application
Sometimes it is hard to know how to pray. God wants all people to be saved so that one is easy. But praying for specific issues relating to family, church, relationships, etc can be so much harder. Is what I want the same as what God wants? What is God’s purpose in this situation?
We must be careful of praying the answers we want.
Sometimes we can wait on the Lord and a direction for prayer will emerge. Then we can pray confidently knowing that this is God’s will.
Sometimes we have to just trust the Lord in our praying. The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, and the gift of tongues is often the way forward.
When I pray in my prayer language I know that it is the Holy Spirit praying through me. I have nothing to offer but “groans”, but the Holy Spirit intercedes with me to bring about God’s purposes.
Lately I have been praying”I don’t know” a lot. I pray in tongues and trust that somehow God’s purposes will prevail. One day I will see the groaning answered.
Prayer
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for the “groanings” of prayer we don’t understand but which you use. Amen.
Scripture
Everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave hem the ability.
Observation
It is the Day of Pentecost, and all the believers are in one place. Suddenly there is a noise like a mighty wind and something like tongues of fire settle on each one.
Everyone present is filled with the Holy Spirit and begins to speak other languages in the power of the Holy Spirit. People hearing the commotion come running and are perplexed to hear the disciples praising God in various languages. Some ascribe it to God, others to drunkenness.
Peter stands up and points the hearers to the prophet Joel who had prophesied that in the last ays the Spirit would be poured out on all flesh.
Application
How awesome it is that every believer has the ability to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is God’s Spirit dwelling in us and empowering our speech to God’s glory.
Everyone present was filled- there were no exceptions. The gift of the Holy Spirit is available to all ages, to women and men.
The outward sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit was the gift of tongues; the ability to praise God and to pray in a language you don’t know, a special prayer language.
When we don’t know how to pray, praying in tongues is a means by which the Holy Spirit in us intercedes on our behalf.
The presence of the Holy Spirit was not just for the believers who were there. It was for unbelievers also- those who heard the noise but did not know what it meant. This event led to the hearts of many being softened and prepared for Peter’s message so that 3000 people were saved that day.
The power of the Holy Spirit changes everything.
Prayer
Come and fill me Holy Spirit. Let my tongue be used to praise you and my heart set on fire by your love. Amen.
Updated
A wave-measuring buoy in the Southern Ocean has recorded a massive 23.8-metre wave, according to New Zealand meteorology and oceanography consultancy.
“This is a very exciting event and to our knowledge it is the largest wave ever recorded in the southern hemisphere,” MetOcean Solutions senior oceanographer Dr Tom Durrant said.
The mammoth wave, which formed during a storm, dwarfed the previous record of 19.4m measured by MetOcean Solutions in May 2017, as well as a wave recorded in Australian waters in 2012 that measured 22.03m.
The solar-powered buoy, moored near New Zealand’s Campbell Island, only records wave heights for 20 minutes every three hours.
Because of this, Dr Durrant said it was “very probable” even larger waves could have occurred during this storm.
But storms such as this have do not just affect coasts in the Southern Ocean.
“The persistent and energetic wind conditions here create enormous fetch for wave growth, making the Southern Ocean the engine room for generating swell waves that then propagate throughout the planet — indeed surfers in California can expect energy from this storm to arrive at their shores in about a weeks’ time,” Dr Durrant said.
“[This] storm is the perfect example of waves generated by the easterly passage of a deep low-pressure system with associated wind speeds exceeding 65 knots.
“Such storms are frequent and can occur at any time of the year, which differs from the high-latitude northern hemisphere storms that only occur in winter.”
Dr Durrant said what makes this storm particularly interesting is that its speed appears to match the wave speed, which he says allows wave heights to grow dramatically.
Significant wave height is the value used by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to characterise sea state, MetOcean Solutions said.
“During this storm, the significant wave height reached 14.9m. This is also a record for the Southern Ocean, but falls short of the 19m world record buoy measurement that was recorded in the North Atlantic during 2013.”
Scripture
“Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.”
Observation
Jesus is praying prior to His arrest and crucifixion.
He asks the Father to glorify Him so He can give glory back to the Father. Jesus has been given authority to give eternal life to all who come to Him.
Jesus revealed the Father to everyone who believed His message. He asks his Father to protect the disciples who remain in the world.
The world hates Jesus’ followers. Therefore Jesus asks the Father to protect them. They are not to be taken from the world but protected in it.
Application
Jesus was sent into the world. The word “sent” is apostello from which we get the word apostle. It has the sense of being sent by a king for a particular mission, representing the king in another country. The word “world” here is cosmos which refers to the spiritual and cultural forces which resist God’s sovereignty.
Jesus was sent by our heavenly Father into the world which has rejected His reign. Jesus was sent to establish a kingdom of disciples or followers who would do His will in the world.
In exactly the same way, Jesus now sends His disciples into the world to continue His mission.
We are apostles, missionaries, ambassadors of a kingdom that is not of this world. We have been sent here for a purpose to further God’s kingdom by confronting the powers and principalities that hold people in bondage.
We are to serve a kingdom that is higher and greater than our limited ambitions. We serve the King of Kings, the Lord who established His kingdom by dying for His subjects.
What is God calling you to do today?
In what way will you be His sent one?
Prayer
Lord you have sent me into this place. Hep me to see what your mission is for me today. Grant me the grace to fulfil all that you entrust to me. Amen.
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