"I'm hungry for a mighty move of God"

by Greg Trainor,  Catholic Lay Evangelist

"I'm hungry!"  This has been my prayer for weeks:  "I'm hungry for a mighty move of God!"  There is a song that the music ministry sings in the revival meetings that we have been preaching in the St. Augustine Diocese.  These  are the words of the song:

I'm hungry for a mighty move of God,
I'm thirsty, Lord pour out your Holy Ghost,
I want to see the hand of God move mightily inside of me,
I'm hungry for a move of God.

Since our last visit to Jacksonville, that song has become the prayer of my life.  Lydia and our children are glad that a friend lent me a CD with the song on it because for two weeks I could only remember the first line of the song.  Sometimes I just pray out loud walking around the house:  "I'm hungry!"  God knows what I'm saying, but you have to be careful what you shout out around the mother of two teenagers.  Sometimes Lydia would look at me with the look that says "You're hungry?  We haven't even finished cleaning the breakfast dishes and you're already hungry?"  Then she would realize it was my prayer and not just another call from a bottomless stomach.

"Even greater things than these"

In John 14, Jesus says:  I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (v. 12)  That is an awesome statement!  Jesus promised that because he would go to the Father, he would send the Holy Spirit to the church.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the church would do the things that Jesus had been doing and "even greater things than these."  It is these greater things for which I hunger.  I want to see a mighty move of God!

I see such a mighty move of God in the life of St. Peter, our first Pope.  Peter was always a man with the right intentions, he just was unable to fulfill them in his own power.  A classic example of this is Peter's profession of faithfulness to Jesus at the last supper: Peter said to him, "Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you." And so said all the disciples (Mat 26:35).  Even though Peter had the best of intentions, in the power of his flesh he could not even admit to knowing Jesus before the servants at the house of the high priest:

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, You also were with Jesus the Galilean." But he denied it before all of them, saying, "I do not know what you are talking about." When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth." Again he denied it with an oath, "I do not know the man."  After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you."  Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, "I do not know the man!" (Mat 26:69-74a NRSV)

The Power of Pentecost

But Peter's life after the day of Pentecost reflects the magnificent transformation brought about by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Filled with boldness, Peter and the other disciples rush into the streets of Jerusalem.  When those on the street demand an explanation for the world's first charismatic prayer meeting, it is Peter (emboldened by the Holy Spirit) who preaches the Gospel in the streets that morning before the leaders of Israel.  Three thousand repented and were baptized that very day.  When Peter and John were going to the temple to pray, Peter  speaks to the blind man: "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk" (Acts 3:6).  A crowd quickly gathered as this man who had never walked in his life went walking, leaping and praising God through the temple precincts.  The crowd demands an explanation and Peter preaches the Gospel.  An additional two thousand people are converted.

The flow of the Holy Spirit in Peter's life became so strong that they would even carry the sick in the streets in hopes that his shadow would touch them and they would be healed!  What an awesome flow of the Holy Spirit!  The resurrection power of the Holy Spirit was moving through this man:

Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he came by.  A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured. (Acts 14-16)

This is the kind of move of God that I hunger to see in our day.  I hunger to see the day that I preach the Gospel and people come to conversion by the thousands.  I hunger for the day when our praise report is not merely a handful of healings in a single meeting, but that "they were all cured."  I hunger for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to move forth from within me as I preach and healings, miracles and deliverances take place even as the Word is being preached.  I'm hungry to see people baptized in the
Holy Spirit even as the Word is being preached just as when Peter visited the home of Cornelius (Cf. Acts 10:44-46).

I report to you with great joy that I have been experiencing a greater move of God in my life and in our ministry over the last several weeks.  Many people have remarked that they experienced a powerful move of God in their life as I was preaching.  One prayer group leader told me that he could feel the Holy Spirit moving through his body like electricity during the entire time that I was preaching.  I prayed for a group of teenagers at the conclusion of one prayer meeting and many of them received an outpouring of holy joy and laughter as they rested in the Spirit.  One girl went back to sit in a pew.  She returned to the prayer line later, saying, "That was awesome when we prayed the first time.  Can I get prayer again?"  She was hungry!  She was thirsty for the living water of the Holy Spirit!

Are you thirsty?
 
So much of the charismatic renewal is just holding on to memories of "the good old days." Many of the leaders that I talk with express regret over the declining size of their prayer meeting and other meetings in their area.  Many leaders find themselves discouraged and are just "holding on."  God has more for us than just holding on.  He wants us to be hungry:  hungry for a mighty move of God.

The Holy Spirit has made his home inside of us in our Baptism.  The same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead will flow out from each one of us as we proclaim the Gospel and demonstrate it with signs of power (healings and miracles).  God wants to give you a powerful anointing of his presence and joy in your life.  Are you thirsty for these things?  Seek God for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit in your life.  God promises that he will give it:

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him" (John 7:37-38 NIV).

I have experienced such a strong presence of God in my life in the past few weeks that it would take me pages to come even close to describing it to you.  I have received a fresh, rich insight into the Word.  I pray that you find yourself hungry for a mighty move of God.  For if you hunger and seek after the greater things of God, you will have your fill:  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).  I pray that you thirst and seek God for a deeper flow of living water from within you:

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let everyone who hears say, "Come." And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. (Revelation 22:17)

Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the    thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
(Revelation 21:6)

Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of    the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in    them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14)

The same Holy Spirit that flows forth from the throne of God in heaven as the River of Life. (Cf. Revelation 22:1) made his home in you in your Baptism (Cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16).  The Holy Spirit will flow forth from you with a freshness and tremendous power.  Say "Goodbye" to the days of "holding on."  Open to a fresh and mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit in your life. This flow will renew you and free you.  It will empower you to bring life to those who are lost in sin and unbelief.  You only need to ask and you will receive (Cf. Luke.11:9-13).

Greg Trainor is married.  Greg and
his wife, Lydia have four children.
Since 1986, they have worked full-
time preaching the Gospel throughout
the United States, the former Soviet
Union, Eastern Europe and Cuba.
 
 

Also in this issue of the newsletter:

Understanding Partnership:  Co-workers in the Gospel