The Upper Room

Acts 2:1-2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

As we walked up the flights of stairs at the Ibis Hotel, I wondered where we were going. The winding flights of stairs just kept going. Finally we turned the last corner and there they were. The group of pastors’ wives that we had been praying for over many months. And then I heard the lady from the hotel refer to the conference room we were in as the Upper Room, and the hairs on my arms stood up. Really, Lord?! The Upper Room?! This was no coincidence. This was confirmation from God that He was going to do something amazing. That the Holy Spirit was going to be manifest in this place, just as He was at Pentecost in the upper room for the disciples.

My mind was whirling and my heart screaming, “Yes, yes, yes, Lord! We want to meet you here in this Upper Room in Kenya!” The group of women I saw in front of me so needed the fire of His Spirit. You could see the exhaustion, defeat and sullenness of spirit in them, in their eyes and in their body posture. They were worn out, feeling isolated. My heart ached for them and His love for them overwhelmed me. My heart cried out, “Oh Father, just help us love them and remind them how much you love them. Fill their hearts and this place with your presence.”

We started our time by introducing them to the song Open Up the Heavens by Vertical Church Band. For months our team had used the words of this song as prayers for this retreat. “Open up the heavens, we want to see you. Open of the floodgates, a mighty river, flowing from your heart and filling every part of our praise. Show us, show us your glory, Lord.” That’s what we prayed. That God would reveal His glory to these women and open up the Heavens so His Spirit would renew and fill each woman.

The ladies took to the song quite quickly. We then introduced our team and shared Dime Ministries’ story, some of my dime stories, and how God worked in my life to bring Dime Ministries to life. This took us to tea time. After tea we played some games to loosen the group up a bit. They say laughter is good for the soul and we enjoyed plenty of it as everyone pretended to be a particular animal to break into sub-groups. Oh the joy in seeing these ladies laugh until they cried!! Who knows when the last time was they laughed like this, if ever!

These activities certainly broke the ice and then as more of our team shared their testimony, we could sense that God was uniting us. These Kenyan ladies recognized we were all simply women with the same struggles, insecurities, desires, dreams and prayers.

After lunch it was time to share what God had put on my heart and we dug into the scripture God had given as the theme for the retreat – Hosea 10:12 “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may rain righteousness upon you.” If we wanted the Holy Spirit to move and be present with us, we needed to break up our fallow ground and purify ourselves in order to be in His Presence.

So, I shared with the ladies my hospital experience and how God revealed my own fallow heart to me. There was then a challenge for them to evaluate their hearts and lives and write down any areas they needed to “do business” with God. We really weren’t sure how this message would be received, but I could see in their eyes that God was working. Each woman was intent and there was an air of expectancy. I told the group that we were going to take some time and allow each of them to pray and bring everything they wrote down to the Lord, to be cleansed and purified.

This individual prayer time started out quiet, and then as they settled in and really started talking with God, their prayerful voices grew louder. While each lady spent her own time with God, our team stood in a corner of the room and prayed over the whole group. And then it happened.

All of our voices rose to heaven and the Heavens opened – literally and spiritually. A huge rainstorm came and the sound of the rain and the wind, combined with the prayers of all of us, was deafening. It sounded like a freight train rushing through the room. Our team looked at each other in awe because with the sound there also came an incredible presence. As hearts were purified and prayers lifted up, the Holy Spirit entered our Upper Room in a very real way. The atmosphere was rich with Him! Just remembering it now makes my body tingle!

And then a blanket of quiet came. Voices and wind and rain all subsided. Our team walked around the room and laid hands on each woman, loving them in spirit. We brought everyone together and asked each woman to put her list of issues/sins that she had just confessed to God into a bucket. We then burned all those papers. Just as the hot coal touched Isaiah’s lips and purified him to be in the presence of the Lord, Jesus’ sacrifice burned our sins away once for all. And as the fire burned those sin-covered papers, a great celebration of the group broke out and we spent time praising and worshipping our Loving Father. The heaviness that existed when we first entered that room was completely gone. The ladies I saw now had light in their eyes and smiles on their faces. You could feel the energy, the peace, the joy. You could feel Him!

Before we dismissed everyone for dinner and an evening to themselves, we presented each woman with a gift bag. This brought more tears and more celebration. They broke out into songs of thanks, which brought tears to my eyes.

Oh, yes! God had opened up the Heavens. We all experienced the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in that Upper Room. If our time had ended there with these ladies, it was answered prayer and beyond what we could imagine; but we had yet another day to spend with these dear sisters! I wondered what God had in store for day two and how He could surpass what we had just experienced. He was going to show me that He is truly more than my mind can comprehend!! Stay tuned for another blog about day two of the retreat!!