Well, and what I love about that is that that's what he does.
Yeah.
that's what holy spirit does when you're willing to go, I don't know about this. I don't know what to say. I don't know how this works. I don't know. But I know you can do this, Holy Spirit. It becomes an action born of faith.
Well, hello again, and welcome to the Trim the Wick podcast. I'm, Dan.
And I'm Becky.
And we are back with you again this week and continuing with our series that we're doing, on the person of the Holy Spirit. I don't know about you, but I've really enjoyed this series.
I have, too.
I love talking about the person of the Holy Spirit because this is that tangible thing of God inside us, and it's where we see God moving all around us and we get feedback, I guess, is what you want to say.
It's kind of, at the same time, he helps us gain deeper understanding and then also just stuns us and kind of almost mystifies us with the glory and the beauty and the beyond usness that he brings to our lives.
You know, it's. It's easy to look around and you see how this, you know, the sun comes up in the morning and, you know, the moon comes up at night and. And all those things that is nature and God has put into place. And in a way, you can explain things away. You know, you can go, oh, jeez. You know, this was, this is how it was set up or how it was designed to be
and stuff like that. But when you start talking about the person of the Holy Spirit, he transcends that because it's not always a physical thing. He speaks to us, he leads us, he convicts us of sin and also comforts us and encourages us, gives us joy, all these things that is outside of the natural.
Right.
This week, we wanted to kind of talk about and have a discussion about some of these things where the Holy Spirit works in the natural and does these miraculous signs, healings, these things that.
Are amazing, the places where he gives us a tangible representation of his power and authority.
Right?
Yeah.
And if you guys haven't been listening at all to our series here, this is, I believe, number four or five. So I want to encourage you to go back and listen to those other ones if you want us hear more about how we see the person of the Holy Spirit in its completeness. but today we really wanted to focus on those things, those signs and wonders, those things that the Holy Spirit does that is supernatural, but in the physical.
Right.
So I wanted to start off by telling a story because to me, this shows a lot of the character of goddess. And how much he loves us and loves everyone else. My first trip to Ecuador, which was eight years ago now. Wow.
It's been that long.
Yeah. And the first time I went, I was excited to go, had never been overseas to preach the gospel, had only done it stateside and stuff. And also I was kind of excited because I'd had this experience now with Holy Spirit, right. Where I was understanding the things of the spirit better. I was starting to understand my giftings and prophecy, having my eyes open to some of
the bigger things that God can do. I was with a team that, you know, believed in the gifts as in healing and things, and I was very skeptical.
Right. Well, because at that point, I mean, we had heard testimonies. Right. And, obviously we've all read the scripture and seen that. That Jesus enacted these healings. But again, we were coming from a background that said that holy spirit didn't work that way anymore.
Right.
And so we had been, within those recent couple of years, our experience with holy spirit had changed.
Right.
And so we had begun, like you said, we had begun to understand some things and we were still in that very early. Wow. You know? Wow. He does speak. I do, like, hear him when he speaks these things and he does bear witness with me. And we were starting to flow in some of that understanding. But there was, it's like when you grow in any area of your life, you know what you know, but you don't know what you don't know.
Right. Yeah.
And so there was, there was still this. Okay, well, we. We're around people now that operate this way, that. That have walked with Holy Spirit in full operation in their lives for more years than we have.
Yes.
And they have testimonies, but we had not yet experienced that tangible, provable. Nobody had grown an extra limb or come back to life in front of us. None of that had. We didn't have that experience. We just had the testimony of others.
Right. This is where I believe one of the things where Holy Spirit is so gentle and encouraging. When Jesus talks about the love of God and talks about how Holy Spirit is going to be a comforter and it's going to be a teacher, you know, this is where I lean on. I can go back to this moment in my life and go, this is a tangible moment in my life where I saw those qualities in God through the person of the Holy Spirit in my life.
I went on this trip, and like I said, I was skeptical, even though on some of the nights there were other people that were praying and they were receiving healings and stuff like that, I wasn't doing that. And what was happening is that when I was preaching and I was teaching, I was paying really close attention to what was it that God was trying to say? What did he want the people to hear? And, when you're speaking, and then you're speaking with a translator,
and it was my first time to ever speak with a translator. It's a very unique thing because you can actually hear, because you're saying things in sentences, and then you pause so that they can translate, and then you say another sentence. So every time you speak, you get, like a little moment that you get to hear what you said, you know, in your brain.
It reverberates for you while they're speaking it out. Yeah.
Right. And so I was really trying to be in tune to what God was, not, not just telling me what to preach, but what was he actually saying? And it was so loud, and I was hearing things very clearly, and I was starting to actually hear things for specific people. And going, okay, this is for that person right there, you know, in the third row.
Right.
And this is for the person back here. And this is when I got done preaching. We had a ministry time where people came forward and we were praying for people. And it was like audible voice in my ear of what this person needed to hear or what this person was going through to encourage them and to speak over them. And it was one of the first times in my life where I was hearing and understanding and knew what to do with it.
And then when you watch that, when you know what to do with it, and you speak what you're hearing to this other person and you see them receive it and go, wow, that was exactly what I needed to heal this hurt place in my heart, or that was exactly what I needed to break down this barrier that I've been struggling with for years. It's wild when you get to be part of it like that.
Well, yeah. And, you know, this goes right along with what is being taught in corinthians. first corinthians, chapter twelve. You know, that the gifts are given these things, prophecy, speaking there to build up the body there for good works to the body. And that's what I was seeing. I was seeing that on full display. And I remember that night going back to the, after that first night, we did
a, It was a conference that a bunch of us preached. And I remember that night, just being super excited about what God was doing. not just in the people, but what he was doing to me.
Right.
And as the week went on, there were different things that God was exposing me to. There were different things that God was teaching me and walking me through. And every night I was getting more and more pumped up.
Was it a thing of where the more you walked with it that week you were going, oh, wow, you really are bigger than I thought you were. Yeah, you really are bigger. Okay. You're okay. You can do this. And you can do this. A lot of those. That skepticism was breaking down.
Right. The other thing is, it was increasing my faith.
Yeah.
These things, these signs and wonders, these things that they are to increase our faith, you know, to bring us to repentance, to draw us closer to God, to draw us closer to Jesus and to let us know the father's heart.
It's not just about the big showmanship deal. No, actually, it's not like, here are the fireworks.
It's actually not that at all. because we see it also in scripture where there was this guy named Simon the sorcerer, and he was like.
Can I pay you for that?
Yeah, I see what you're doing. I see, the miracles that you're doing. Can I buy that from you? yeah, it's not that at all. It was an increasing of the faith, and it was building me up, seeing these things happening and being participant in these things. Cause God was just pouring it on me and he was allowing me to be a part of it. I remember the last night I was, preaching in a church, and it was pastor Christopher Columbus was his name. Believe it or not, it was a baptist church that I
was preaching in. And there was about 80 people there, 75 to 80 people there in this church. And we had a nice service. And, you know, God really was just there. I mean, it was just one of those services where it was just like, people were eager, were listening, were just kind of like on edge, you know, to see what God was going to do and hear what God wanted to tell them. And after I was done preaching, I asked the pastor, I said, can we have a time where we pray over the people and let
people come forward and minister? And he was like, please, go right ahead. And so, just like in the couple days before, I was praying over people and I was seeing things, as in, like, I'm, hearing things to tell people and God's giving me words of knowledge, and God's giving me prophetic things to say over people, and people are being blessed. I can remember there's an older gentleman who, he played guitar, but nobody in the church knew he played guitar because he stopped playing guitar, like
20 years before he started coming to the church. And I prayed over him and I said to him, like, why are you not playing guitar? And he looks at me and starts crying. And he's like, I haven't played guitar in 20 years. And he explained why and everything. So we prayed over and encouraged him, kind of environment that was happening, right. You know, there was a lot of people just encouraged and stuff.
And I remember this mom comes up, this young girl, you can tell the young girl wasn't feeling well and she had a fever. And I put my hand on her head and it's hot. I mean, it's. Immediately you can tell she's burning up. And so I was like, okay, God, you know, I don't know, what to do, except for I'm just going to pray. Holy spirit, you heal this girl. And as I'm praying over her and didn't say anything spectacular, you know, I don't even remember what
I said, but I do know it was just a simple thing. And I just prayed over her and immediately I felt the fever break. And I actually have a photo with her and her mom, and, I mean, the. Right in my hand, and I tell the mom, I said, touch her. Touch her, thing. And you just saw her face kind of light up the little girl. And I was, like, blown away. I couldn't. This was the best thing that could happen, you know, I was experiencing something that I had only read about in scripture.
Well, and what I love about that is that that's what he does.
Yeah.
that's what holy spirit does when you're willing to go, I don't know about this. I don't know what to say. I don't know how this works. I don't know. But I know you can do this, Holy Spirit, it becomes an action born of faith. Right, right. I'm praying because I believe God wants to do something here. And I'm just gonna ask him. You didn't make that fever break? No, holy Spirit made that fever
break. And I think that's one of the things that has been beautiful about the more we've learned to walk in this is that we understand that our job is not to affect the healing ourselves. Our job is to listen to holy spirit come in alignment with what God wants to do in that moment. And then. And then just trust him.
Yeah.
That he's going to do what he wants to do. And if he wants to use us, great. If we're the ones that need to stand in the gap that have faith, where the person who needs it doesn't have faith. Right. We get to bring that faith to the equation. But it's holy spirit who does the work, but we have to believe that he is everything that he says that he is.
Yes.
And so it was that trip where you learned to stretch your trust to include, oh, you can break fevers, too.
Yeah. Well, and I, you know, there's, an understanding that you come to where it's like God's telling me to do this and I'm going to do it.
Right.
Like, God was telling me, you know, pray for her. Just do it. Put your hand on her and pray for her. And I'm going to impart the gift of healing onto you to heal her. And at that moment, because he chooses.
Right. The holy spirit, first corinthians.
Yeah.
He gives gifts to those as he so wills.
Yeah, that's right. And he chose to use me at that moment to break that, you know, to put my hand on her, to be that physical touch so that he could do his miracle in her life. And so I was on. I am pumped. I am. So, I mean, my faith is, you know, an eleven, you know, scale one to ten. It's an eleven right now.
And then I look up, we have this moment, and I hugged the mom, hugged the little girl, and, my interpreter, you know, my translator, we're all having this moment, and then they walk away and I see this little boy that's probably about nine years old, and he walks up by himself. And I look and I see hearing aids, and I'm like, oh, okay. This seems to be even another level higher because now, you know, it's not a fever, it's not a tummy ache. This is
a young boy who's coming up. This is a desperation of. I can't hear. And I want God to make me to help. I want God to make me here. I want God to do this.
Well. And in our, you know, in the medical realm, right, a, fever is a very basic, very mundane thing. Okay, we got fevers. Yeah.
I mean, you give them tylenol, you can break a fever. Right.
But hearing loss to the point where you need medical devices to aid this, I mean, this is, this is daunting because this now becomes a. Almost as if you don't understand that it's holy spirit who does this, not you.
Right.
It's very easy to come to a place of fear, of going, but what if I can't make this happen?
Right.
I don't work this time.
Yeah.
And that's where you have to go. It's not about me.
Exactly.
It's never about me.
And that moment when he comes forward and he starts pointing at his ears and speaking in Spanish and he could speak and he was pointing at his ears. I just kind of took a step back and I remember in my brain, I can remember this going, God, you're going to have to do this.
Yeah.
God, this has got to be, this is a testimony to these people. This is going to be a testimony to me. This is something that is so far beyond my cope of even understanding.
Yeah.
And God just said, just put your hands on his ears. So I did. And I, reached out, put my hands on his ears, I prayed. I have no idea what I said, but I know at that time in my ministry of understanding this, it would have been simple, like a God, I know I can't do this, but I know you can heal this boy, something that simple. And I took my hands off and I told him to take his ear, his, things out of his ears, his,
hearing aids out of his ears. And his dad spoke his name from the back of the church.
I love that.
And the little boy turned his head and it was like a fountain of tears that came raining down. Yeah, it was that spectacular. And God did this. And holy spirit heals this little boy takes the hearing aid out. They embrace. We have moments of crying and tearing and snotting because this was an, this was an amazing miracle. And then we were just kind of in awe of what God did.
Right.
And we were able to then go, this is the power of God. This is what his love for you, this is what his love is. And be able to do an altar call for salvation. And we were, and all of these things. But it all started off with just trusting God and trusting that the Holy Spirit can use me and work through me.
Right.
And, allowing the person of the Holy Spirit to be who he is and not. Not pushing that down.
Right. Not quenching the spirit, but also nothing demanding that he show up in ways that you understand.
Right.
Right. It's that simple trust thing of literally coming to him as a child, what you did is you heard him tell you to do something. And like a little kid who trusts his daddy. You went, okay, well, I don't understand, but I'm gonna put my hands on his ears. I'm gonna do what you told me to do, and then I'm gonna trust you to do what you do. Right. To be who you are.
Right.
that's who holy spirit is. he is the one who does that.
And we give him all the glory because that was an amazing thing. And over the years now, since then, I have seen God do some amazing, amazing things of healings. But I've also had times where I prayed for healing for someone and they looked at me and said nothing happened.
Yeah.
You know, and I have wrestled with that because I've gone back to the hotel or have gone back to the room and actually even questioned my mentor one night and said, why does one? You know, I had two elderly ladies one time. One, they both came forward. They couldn't see. They were both blind. One came forward, was healed to the point where she could read things off the wall. The other one came forward and nothing happened. And I'm like, it literally,
it was one woman after the other that I prayed for. Why did one get healed and one didn't? And so these are these understandings of who God is and that it is the power of the holy spirit that, he chooses when people get healed.
Because his thoughts are higher than ours and his ways are higher than ours. And even as he can use the healing, the very tangible sign and wonder he can use, he can also use the ailment.
Right. Yeah.
And chooses to. I mean, when Jesus came across the blind man that he did heal, but he, you know, he asked, you know, why. Why was. Why was this man blind from birth? Was it his mother's sin? Was it his father's sin? And, what was Jesus's answer?
It was neither.
It was neither. There was no sin involved here. This was so that God's glory could be shown.
Yeah.
So we do have to be careful when we're talking about those tangible miracles. I know we've been kind of circling around healing, but there are other tangible miracles that we've encountered, understanding that we don't get to manipulate those, we don't get to use those for our own ends. And we certainly don't need to be seeking the miracle itself.
Exactly.
Because if we're seeking the miracle itself, we miss the God who performs the miracles. The signs and the miracles, they point to God. They follow his disciples everywhere because he.
Says that we are going to actually do these things.
Right. So they follow his disciples. But they are evidences of him. They are not him. And so we need to be very careful that what we're chasing after is the person.
Yeah, I want you to say that again, because that's a great statement there.
They are evidences of him, but they are not him.
Right.
And so. And he. He gives us all kinds of evidences of himself. Right. He's told us that he's written himself into every line of creation. So trees are evidences of who God is. The migratory patterns of birds are evidences of who God is, but they are nothing him. And in the same way, we need to understand that Holy Spirit does what holy spirit does. He acts in the ways that he does. And these signs and wonders and miracles that we all point to and gasp and go, wow, that is clearly supernatural.
Yes.
That is clearly of God. They point to him.
Yes.
They're not what we worship, and they're not what we chase and.
Exactly. Just like we would not worship the trees.
Right.
We're not gonna worship the creation.
Right.
Even though the creation points to God, we're not gonna worship the signs and wonders.
Right.
And that's where a slippery slope can be.
Yeah.
Because they are exciting.
Man, it feels good to be in a room when that stuff happens. Yeah.
and let me tell you, it builds your faith, and that's what it's supposed to do, but it's not supposed to take the place of your faith, and it's not supposed to take the place of who Jesus is.
Right. Your faith is not in that action happening. Your faith is in the person of, Jesus Christ.
Right. So when, as looking forward, you know, I look forward to the times when those things happen, when the miracles happen, when those signs and wonders appear and they point us towards Jesus. But I don't seek those things out. Don't want to be chasing those things and never want to make that the focus of what I'm doing.
But conversely, we also don't want to deny that holy spirit has full reign and authority to act in those ways.
That's right.
Because he does act in those ways.
Yes, he does.
And it delights him as much as it delights us.
Yes, it does. Well, hey, I, would love to hear some stories from you guys. Some testimonies of where you've seen the power of holy spirit in your life to do something miraculous that might seem small or might be huge. And I would love to hear some of those testimonies. So, please write us at Danathew. Two, five, seven.com. let us know, leave us a comment on one of the, podcast platforms so we can get it and respond, because we would love to hear those testimonies.
Let's build each other's faith up.
That's right. Also, we want to just encourage you guys to keep up with what we're doing on our instagram at Trim the Wick global. And we post things all the time. And Becky has her blog that she puts up every week. And, you know, we would love to continue just to minister to you and just to give you opportunities to grow, build your faith, and to come closer to Christ. All right, well, I guess that's going to do it for us this week.
So, we'll see you next week.
All right, love you. Bye.