Four Waves of the Holy Spirit:
It is easy to rattle off a long list of what the enemy is doing in your life. But what about what God is doing? Discernment was never meant to help us track the devil's activity. It was given so we could stay close to what the Spirit is doing in the world. Right now, four significant moves of God are intersecting on the earth, and the church needs to be ready.
Are You Living From Problems or Promises?
There is a difference between having a problem and partnering with one. When we receive a diagnosis, a bad report, or a difficult circumstance, the natural response is to align ourselves with it. We let it define our reality. But that is not the way of the kingdom.
Consider this: if you are an overcomer, there should be something within you, the nature and character of Christ, that causes you to rise above what happens to you. The moment we partner with our problems rather than His promises, we stop living as the people God called us to be.
Here is a simple but powerful shift. Take your problem, hold it in your hand, and submit it to His promise. His promises are always yes. And when you place His promise over your problem, you are saying amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Be here in the midst of this.
"For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory." - 2 Corinthians 1:20 English Standard Version (ESV)
The First Wave: Loving the World the Way Christ Loved the World
John 3:16 opens with a declaration that should shape everything about how we engage with the world around us.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16 English Standard Version (ESV)
If God so loved the world, His clear intention is that we would too. But something has shifted in the church since COVID. Many believers have retreated from society. We do not like what we see. We do not want to be affected by the chaos. And so we have pulled back from the very places God has called us to go.
The enemy's tactic is not just to create chaos and division. It is to paralyze the church with a sense of inability so that we withdraw. But the gospel says go. Go into every community, every family, every school, every workplace, and saturate those places with the Father's love.
"He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." - 1 John 4:4 English Standard Version (ESV)
When you walk into a room, hope turns up. When you open your mouth, the kingdom comes. When you pray, demons tremble. None of that is about your power. It is entirely about His.
What Happens When the Church Stops Showing Up?
When you do not turn up, God does not turn up through you. When you do not speak up, His voice goes unheard in that place. The power of life and death lives in the tongue of a Spirit-filled believer. You have the ability to define every environment you step into, just as Adam named and defined the world around him in the garden.
The enemy is keeping you away from tables you should be sitting at. He is using offense, busyness, and fear to make you unavailable. But the church is meant to be fierce, passionate, and present. Not with great words, but with great hearts that long to be used by the Spirit of God.
The Second Wave: Moving From Taking to Giving
John 3:16 does not just say God loved. It says He gave. That distinction matters enormously.
If we are honest, much of how we approach church and faith is oriented around receiving. What am I getting from worship? What is God doing for me? But that posture is not the posture of Jesus. Jesus gave Himself away, to Mary Magdalene, to Nicodemus, to the woman at the well, to anyone who needed Him.
What Does True Generosity Look Like for a Believer?
In the early church, the most remarkable thing the Spirit did was not just the healings and the miracles. It was the generosity. People sold their possessions and gave to one another as each had need. That culture of giving was the soil in which the supernatural flourished.
"And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need." - Acts 2:45 English Standard Version (ESV)
Generosity is not transactional. If you give expecting something in return, that is not generosity. That is investment. True generosity flows from a heart that has died to the "me, myself, and I" trinity and is now living in the fullness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Every day, the prayer should be: Jesus, I know You are going to do amazing things today. Can I just be there? Can I be present when You move? That kind of availability only comes when we stop being preoccupied with receiving and start going treasure hunting for what God is already doing around us.
The Third Wave: Presenting Jesus Instead of Peddling Church
There is a difference between talking about church and talking about Jesus. When we first come to faith, Jesus is everything. He is fresh, He is real, and He shows up in every environment because we carry Him there. Over time, the vocabulary can shift. We start talking about our changed lives, our church programs, our religious language, and somewhere along the way, Jesus gets buried under it all.
Why Kindness Leads People to Jesus More Than Correctness Does
"Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" - Romans 2:4 English Standard Version (ESV)
It is kindness that leads people to repentance, not correctness. Respectability is not a fruit of the Spirit. Jesus was never intimidated by the world around Him because when heaven comes to earth, the world starts to change.
Jesus is the kindest person you will ever encounter. When you make much of Him, when you talk about who He is and what He has done rather than how religious or changed you are, something happens. The Holy Spirit moves. Hard hearts soften. People who have resisted every argument begin to weep in His presence.
The world is searching for fullness of joy in all the wrong places. But you carry the One who is the source of that joy. You do not have to manufacture it or work it up. He who is in you is able to do immeasurably more than all you could ask or imagine.
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us." - Ephesians 3:20 English Standard Version (ESV)
The Fourth Wave: The Whosoever Wave
The final word of John 3:16 may be the most confronting of all. Whoever. Whosoever. That means anyone.
There are people coming into the kingdom who will surprise you. People you did not expect. People you may not have wanted. People from backgrounds and lifestyles that make you uncomfortable. And the church needs to be ready to welcome them with wide open arms.
How Should the Church Respond to People Who Are Different From Us?
Offense is one of the enemy's most effective tools in the last days. Many will fall away from the purposes of God because of it. But you were once a whosoever too. You were once the one who needed someone to look past your mess and see the treasure God placed in you.
There is a nameless, faceless generation about to be birthed into the kingdom. They are sitting in our cities, in our communities, waiting for an invitation to belong and to receive. The question is whether the church will be ready to welcome them.
When we love as God loves, give as God gives, present Jesus rather than religion, and open our arms to every whosoever, we are ushering in the greatest and most glorious day for humanity. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
"So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." - Philippians 2:10-11 English Standard Version (ESV)
Life Application
This week, choose one environment outside of church where you will intentionally show up as a carrier of God's presence. It might be your workplace, your neighborhood, a family gathering, or a conversation you have been avoiding. Go in not to receive, not to correct, and not to preach, but simply to love and to look for what God is already doing in that place. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the treasure in the people around you, and make much of Jesus in how you speak and how you serve.
Before you go, ask yourself these questions:
Am I living from His promises, or have I partnered with my problems?
Where has offense, fear, or busyness caused me to withdraw from a place or person God has called me to?
When I talk to people about faith, am I presenting Jesus or am I presenting religion?
Is my generosity truly generous, or is it transactional?
Who is the "whosoever" in my life that I have been reluctant to welcome?
The four waves are already moving. Love, generosity, the revelation of Jesus, and the great harvest of whosoevers. The only question is whether you will be part of what God is doing.