I dreamt that I stopped my Jeep at an intersection near my house, then noticed a wild lion on the corner. The lion walked to my vehicle and climbed into the passenger seat. I was scared but not harmed, so I drove the lion directly to the place I figured it should go, the Wild Animal Park. On the drive there, the lion leaned closer and closer, pressing my arm, hand, and body into his mane. The dream didn’t last long, but the feeling of fear, mixed with wonder at the closeness I felt to that creature, stuck with me when I awoke. I found myself praying and thanking the Lord for that dream and the feeling that followed it. Perhaps the comparison will seem like a stretch to you, but I found myself asking the Lord to bless me, bless us with similar experiences of connection to the Holy Spirit.
The Scriptures describe a moment like that in Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mom.
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” – Luke 1:39-45
Elizabeth utters amazing things after Mary’s greeting because she was “filled with the Holy Spirit”! As a result of that filling, she knew what God had been up to and was able to confirm it and therefore bless Mary with that truth without having been told the story yet. She knew Mary was carrying the Messiah. She knew Mary was trusting the Lord and believing that God was working in her, as the angel had said. Please pray with me that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit to confirm God’s truth and works in each other through the faith challenges we face as people and a church.
Pastor John Riley