Come, Holy Spirit

Lord God, Your Holy Spirit is what brings life. Some of Your churches have lost this Spirit. They have become as dry bones. Come fill those churches again. Revive them. Bring Your power. Renew spirits by Your Spirit, not for just a few but for the most! Let those who don't feel Your Spirit be touched by it. Soften hardened hearts, O God. Let us arise again.

It is, after all, Your Church. You have the power to bring Your Church up out of the ashes. I say this about our church...we have been burned and sifted and shaken. We feel we lie in a wasteland. Your breath is needed again to bring life. We must have a sense of Your Spirit again. We are hanging in wait. We are submitting to the sifting. How long, O Lord?

Yes, I believe there is more sifting to take place. I'm so thankful You can raise up an army, Your remnant, from the burning ashes. The ember has not completely been extinguished. There is still a people who desire to see You victorious in this church.

Help Your Church to see not the negative in sifting and shaking, but the positive. Help everyone to not make it a thing about themselves or their feelings or the "wrongs" to others but about You. You are the One doing the sifting. Open the eyes of those who only want to place the blame on others, as is our nature. Remind these people it's about what You are doing...and for our own good.  

We have been cut down like a tree, no more than a stump. It looks lifeless but, Lord God, we know from nature that live trees cut down begin to grow and bud again. Their roots are strengthened in the pruning process. The foundation, as it were, has been strengthened, the roots stretching out yet further for a better foothold.  The Foundation for many in our church is You. You have maintained a hold in the lives of those who have seen the pruning; and we're thankful to be left. Help others to enter into this place. Let us rise above our circumstances in one accord.

Let all in our church have the wisdom to know that great things result when we are in one accord and standing firm on the Foundation of Christ. It is by Your hand that churches come and go. You will work mightily, You will prune and You will grow. You will remove the dross not only from our lives but from Your church. Only by pruning, in both our lives and the Church, can we grow.

You ask when you might see My hand upon this church and I say My hand is upon this church. You desire to see a move of My spirit in a big way. Sometimes My ways are small and they grow. I am waiting to see who will continue to trust in Me, who will not walk away in search of greener pastures where "the Spirit of the Lord resides," where My Spirit is strongly felt. Stand strong and do not falter. Continue in your worship and trust in Me. You will see the day you desire if you hold strong and do not fail. Those who can't wait will move on. My work is never ending. My plans will always come into fruition.

Look for Me in the little things. I'm in all things. I do great works even in the small things, including in My church...I will bring healing. Nothing is as it seems. I work silently behind the scenes. One day you will look back and know that the pieces of My puzzle were being put together, one by one.

A day is coming when there will be a Church that will worship in Spirit and in Truth. It will not worship for the sake of being seen with hands raised but it will worship because it is in the presence and power of You. Let our church be counted as one of them.

Let our prayers be lifted high to the heavens; let them be a sweet incense to Your nostrils. Hear the cries of the hearts of those who only want more of You. Open the eyes of those who have lost their first Love. Are You peering through the lattice? Are You waiting for the cry of all, not just some? Will You find more than 50, 20 or 10 truly desiring Your presence or will You destroy, like You did Sodom and Gomorrha? If there be 10, Lord; if there be 10...

Will You speak to us these words of hope, promise and change for our/Your church:

Song of Solomon 2:10-13 - [and He said]: “Rise up, my love, my fair one... For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines  with the tender grapes give a good smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away!"

Will those words be heard among those awaiting Your Spirit to again not just rest but dwell within our church? Come, Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 44:3 - For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring.