Commissioned by the Holy Spirit to change the world

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One sure fact about having a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit is that we experience it most fully within the community life of Spirit-filled prayer meetings. Prayer meetings are not just about signs and wonders and other miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit such as prophetic messages and visions. They are launching pads for involvement in the parish community and going out into the world in the power of God to bring more people to conversion and deeper faith. This is where we are commissioned by the Holy Spirit to change the world.

My husband Ralph and I were healed spiritually in 1977 when we began going to Catholic Charismatic prayer meetings and to Masses celebrated in full praise and worship mode (this photo was taken at one of those events).

Let’s fast-forward through our years of doing this in a variety of parish ministries, pausing in the early days of Good News Ministries (1997). Ralph and I were asked to speak to a youth group about the dangers of the occult and New Age teachings. Our goal was to convince them to trust the greater and better power of the Holy Spirit, so we invited them to be prayed over.

One of the girls told us that her arm had been injured in a car accident. Although several months had passed, she was still unable to raise her hand higher than shoulder level. Would we pray for a healing?

Ralph and I keenly hoped that she’d get her miracle as proof of the loving power of God, but neither of us felt strong enough in faith to be instruments of that kind of healing. So we breathed a prayer of surrender, entrusted the outcome to the Lord, and prayed, taking authority in the name of Jesus over her damaged arm and shoulder.

Then we told her, “Lift your hand up high.” And she did! The Lord completely healed her.

Today more than then, young people need to witness God’s loving power. So, too, everyone who is barely alive in the Christian Faith. And those who have no faith need to witness it. And people who are believers but are following any false teachings of the world need to be invited to a miracle-producing personal relationship with the Holy Spirit so that God will purify their minds and hearts.

Miracles are not meant to be extraordinary events. Jesus gave us His Holy Spirit so that we can do what He did. “If you believe in Me, you will do the same works I do, and even greater” (John 14:12). We’re compiling true stories of miracles.