Trying to Stay Awake

Today I started my first "real" shift at Peet's, starting at 6:30am. Which meant I woke up at 5am. The sun isn't even awake at that hour. Needless to say, I am a tad sleepy. Caffeine works only for so long, and then comes the inevitable crash. I'm crashing! Note to self: go to bed earlier. Today was a great day though. I really like the people I worked with, and I just love being a barista again!

I would take a nap right about now, but I have a Macroeconomics midterm at 6pm tonight, which I currently should be studying for. Somehow I feel like I'm not going to learn anything new in the next hour and a half that I didn't already know.

This weekend I'm going up to Redding to go to Bethel Church, which I'm looking forward to tremendously. I'm reading a book called The Ultimate Treasure Hunt by Kevin Dedmon, who is a member of the church there and a teacher at their school for supernatural ministry. Ever since my encounter with the Holy Spirit on Sunday, I've been hungry to learn more about the power of the Holy Spirit. This book talks about living a supernatural lifestyle; one where we can go out on a regular basis and use the power of the Holy Spirit to reach and heal people.

A part of the book that recently stood out to me was a chapter about hearing the Holy Spirit. I have had moments in my life where I have heard God speaking to me. Not audibly, but the words were spoken internally to my heart so strongly that I couldn't deny that they were from an outward source - God himself. They were messages given to me that gave me an impossible sense of peace. Peace that allowed me to know exactly what to do, just at the time when I needed direction. I knew it was God speaking to me.

I can understand how people would think that hearing messages from God is some sort of schizophrenic nuttiness. I agree, the idea sounds crazy if you haven't experienced it. But I have been given tastes of God speaking to me, and have no doubt that they were real. The Bible tells us that when we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us, our throughts are aligned with the thoughts of the spirit. So that would mean that if I am open to recieving the words of the Holy Spirit, that he will speak to me through my own thoughts! And those messages from God are meant to be shared. God can speak to people though me. What a concept!

So in Redding, it's not uncommon for groups of people to go out on a "Treasure Hunt" to find God's treasures - specific people who God has pointed out to reach out to. I would LOVE to go on one of these. I have heard and read many stories about how God can work through this kind of community outreach. It would be amazing to experience it first hand - let alone to think about the possibility of allowing the Holy Spirit to touch people through me. I have felt the physical effects of being touched by the Holy Spirit. Heck, it knocked me to the ground on Sunday! I want to be able to see that power in action first hand, in the form of healing and prophesy. That would be so cool.