Surprised by Pentecost on Pentecost

Gotta share a great testimony from this last Pentecost Sunday (5/31/20). 

This morning I spoke via Zoom to a church in Northern Russia (1200 km north of St Petersburg).  My dear friends David & Zhenya Verly have been pastoring there for several years and she was my translator.  Previously, they had asked me to share some of my recent supernatural experiences.  I was supposed to speak for 30-40 minutes.  So I gingerly unpacked a couple things… and got a little bolder as I neared the end of my 40 minutes.  But my hosts asked me to share another story they had previously heard from me.  Sooo, I get a little bolder. 

Then the Zoom attendees were free to ask questions.  I could tell that they were ‘rising to the occasion’.  There was beginning to be a buzz in the air.  Literally, they were ‘bubbling over’ with smiles, thumbs-up, nods and laughter, as I ‘gave them permission’ to enter new territory.  So, I got really bold and decided to take the big plunge… into a Holy Spirit New Wine fest. 😊 I invited them to ‘have another drink’ of the New Wine.  We all ‘tipped’ the glass and ‘took another drink’… and before long we were in a most delightful ‘out of control’ experience.  God bless my translator… she was overcome and couldn’t translate anymore.  Incapacitated, she just fell backward onto her husband.  Well, he can’t speak Russian, so I just went ahead and facilitated with generic style language – speaking in tongues, hand gestures and “More, Lord”, etc.  Before long I was rolling in holy laughter like I haven’t done in 10 years or more… and the Zoom attendees were too!  So much fun!!!  We were all most pleasantly surprised by the Spirit!  It was a wonderful experience! 

Pentecost was revisited.  Internet bandwidth and nearly 5000 miles of distance couldn’t stop Holy Spirit.  He was going to break out no matter what. 

After things began to simmer down and when my translator was able to regain her composure, I asked them to share what they experienced.  As people took their turns sharing, their testimonies made me laugh and made me cry.  Some were so funny… and some were so tender.  FREEDOM was in the air!!  Needless to say, we were emboldened to believe for more in the future. 

We were all surprised by an outbreak of Pentecost on Pentecost Sunday.  This touched all of our hearts very deeply.  Despite the circumstantial hurdles, Holy Spirit did something with us that we could never have ‘manufactured’ by our own initiative.  It makes us appreciate Him even more.  And so what was supposed to be a 30-40 minute ministry time ended up being 2 ½ hours… and it was ‘alive’ the whole time.   When we realized how long we had been on Zoom, we all had to laugh… and we did.  Needless to say, our hearts were warmly knit together on our first meeting together. 

I’m looking forward to our next meeting.

Several people have said that when they watched this video clip ‘it’ got on them, too.  If you’d like to join in the fun, click here then go to 3 hrs 00 mins through 3 hrs 17 mins – about 17 minutes of Pentecost New Wine fun stuff – joy, holy laughter, etc.

— MLH

Follow-up: After this amazing Zoom experience David & Zhenya sent this amazing God-story:

“One of the ladies in our church showed up in an unbelievers dream, prayed for him and he was healed!”

“Let me start from the beginning.  Our good friend Mark Hendrickson preached an inspiring message to our church in Russia over Zoom a few weeks ago.  He talked about stepping out of the box of our normal prayer life and moving into some new unexplored realms of prayer.  Our church loved his message and immediately put it into practice.”

“Tanya is a massage therapist and typically works with children only.  So when she received a phone call from a gentleman whom she’d never meet asking for a massage her initial response was, “No.”  However, she felt a little nudge from Holy Spirit to help this man, so she said, “Yes.””

“The man came to her office, she gave him a massage and at the end, she asked if she could pray for his back.  He agreed.  She laid her hands on his back, prayed and the pain immediately left.  He was so excited he paid her double for the massage.”

“The man went without pain for about a week, until he woke up in the middle of the night with intense back pain.  He eventually drifted back to sleep.  As he was sleeping he saw Tanya, our massage therapist, dressed in white, come to him in his dream.  She laid her hands on his back and when he woke up the next morning he realized that the pain was gone!  The man was so excited that he called her to tell her what happened.”

“God is doing a new thing! (Isaiah 43:19)” – D&Z

In search of the real Me!

Remember Jesus’ parable of the man who sold all to buy the field that had the treasure hidden in it? (Matt 13:44)  This parable can be interpreted in several different ways.  

We’re all quite aware that the primary truth in this passage is that Jesus is the treasure, and we must sell all to obtain the Treasure. 

A secondary truth is that we are Jesus’ treasure, and He gave His life to buy you and me back to Himself.  Lock these truths in, because we have no intention of diminishing their transforming power as we move ahead into a slightly different application of this parable.

Now try this third perspective: You are the field, and hidden inside of you is the God-placed and God-designed treasure of great price.  You must sell all so that you can ‘buy’ the field (diligently seek to understand our unique identity) in order to possess and develop the buried treasure (the uniquely made and God-designed you) which is of great price.

If you’re on a quest to discover the treasure called you, there are many great resources ‘out there’: personality tests, seminars, books, personal life coaches, etc.  I’ve tried many of them… and each has its strength.

But I’ve discovered two questions that are very simple yet powerful and could start you on your ‘trip’ into finding the basic motivational giftings that make up the real core you.  Start out with the basic question, then each time you answer, you ask the follow-up question of “Why?”

Two key questions

1. What made you feel most alive in your life?
This can be anything, (spiritual/secular, when you were a kid or last week).  But it will be the event or activity in your life that you measure everything by (e.g., “What I just did wasn’t quite as good as that”, etc)  It was the thing that kept you awake with excitement before or after it happened.  These are highpoints in your life.  Did you find at least one answer?
     The follow-up question is: “Why is that important?”
          Your answer might be: “Because I was with people”… or “because I was by myself.” or….
     The follow-up: “Why is that important?”
          Your answer might be: because I got to plan, care, entertain, instruct, fix, make someone’s life better, or….
     The follow-up: “Why is that important?”

Each answer is followed up with “Why?” until you ‘drill down’ to your core values and motivations.

2. What consistently makes you have tears?
This can be anything: a song, theme, verse, experience, daydream, art, beauty, nature, etc.  What makes you have tears most consistently.
          Your answer might be: when wrongs are made right, when right get vindicated, when genuine love wins, etc.
     The follow-up question is: “Why is that important?”
          Your answer might be: “Because of that one line, that one theme, the symmetry, the eloquence or elegance, the fluidity, the beauty, the bottom-line truth, the partnership, the compassion, the love…”, etc.
     The follow-up: “Why is that important?”
          Your answer might be: “Because of how it unlocks my heart, because it gives me a new start, because it affirms my major life values and convictions, or because mercy & forgiveness shines through, etc”
     The follow-up: “Why is that important?”
          Your answer might be: “Because this dynamic met me at a crucial time of my life… and I find myself gravitating to that theme often now as I share with others.

Each answer is followed up with “Why?” until you ‘drill down’ to your core values and motivations.

The point here is to do some soul searching to find the basic motivational gifts that are innately at work in us.  Finding and operating in these giftings/strengths is where we will find the greatest empowerment and effectiveness… with the least amount of ‘drain’ on our internal reserves.  In fact, Jesus said,

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.” – John 4:34

So, finding the treasure called ‘you’, will empower you to ‘stay in your lane’… you won’t be so prone to follow the money, or need, or open door, or popular opinion, etc.  You’ll know who you are, which will help identify tracks for you to run on and give you wisdom for making better decisions.

You see if we make decisions in accordance with our uniqueness, then all the grace of Heaven is available to support us.  Consider this verse:

“The eyes of the Lord look to and fro across the earth to show Himself strong to the one whose heart is completely His.” – II Chron 16:9

You see, if we’re in the center of His will then His strength is made available to us.  Conversely, if we’re out of sync with His design and desire for us, we may only get the general grace that “falls on the just and unjust alike”.  Unfortunately, this lack of grace can easily lead to burnout, because our objectives will likely have to be attained by our own strength when we’re in this mode.

You may find this little graph helpful.  You’ll have to stand back a little from your life… then from that perspective try to use as much objectivity as possible in evaluating how your heart is doing.  Don’t use a single day… or even a single week to reference your heart… rather, try to think in terms of months.

The questions to ask: How was my heart 6 months ago?  How is my heart now?  How will my heart be 6 months from now? 

Were you able to honestly assess the trend of your heart in the last six months?  What will your heart look like if you extrapolate that same trend out to six months in the future?  Are you okay with that?  Do you need to change something now so that you don’t end up in the ‘danger zone’?

If you’re not sure how to assess the status of your heart, use this little ‘dipstick’ to check the ‘oil’ of your heart.

These matters are of utmost importance because if we don’t come to grips with these principles then we run the high potential of exhausting ourselves… and if we discover the gold in these principles we will find ourselves empowered to ‘walk upon our high places’ and ‘leap and skip upon the mountains’.

For more on this subject consider this short and very simple study with ‘tests’, authored by my father-in-law, Bob Beckett – What is Your Motivational Gift.

For more related to this subject:
Your Inheritance Includes Supernatural Provision
Living Within God’s Grace

— MLH