Hard Rest: Day 2: Heaven's Power Unleashed: A Spiritual Reboot

0:00 Music. Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host, Connie Morris, where healing has a voice and truth is no longer silent. Father God, like Jabez, we cry out that thou would bless us indeed. Bless every woman listening beyond trauma, beyond limits, beyond what she thought was possible. Enlarge her territory. Expand her purpose. Let your hand be upon this moment. Saturate every word with oil and truth. break cycles, cancel every curse sent to silence her.

0:46 This isn't just a podcast. This is holy ground. In Jesus' name, amen. Welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast. We are continuing our episode, our series on the hard reset, part one. And today is day two, the spiritual reboot. when heaven downloads power. Today's scriptural focus is found in Acts 2 verses 2 through 4, and it reads, suddenly a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole earth, filled the whole house where they were sitting.

1:32 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. I know it was a Freudian slip. It says, I said, whole house. This time his glory is going to fill the whole earth. Think about it. The first time his glory came, it filled the house, the upper room. The second time it's going to fill the whole earth. What power is that going to be? And guess what? We are living in that time. So we get to experience it. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. Bible says that every knee will bow.

2:17 So there's going to be some bowing of some knees and they're going to be some spiritual tongue talking people who never spoke in tongues before. And we are all going to experience God's magnificent glory. My gosh, I'm excited. So let's talk about this. It says, Noah reset came with water. The next one, wind and fire. Before Pentecost, the disciples were hiding and afraid, uncertain, disconnected from power. Jesus had already ascended and all they had was a promise. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you in Acts 1.8.

2:58 I love that when God says you will, you know it's going to happen. So Jesus told him, you will receive power. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Before they received that power, they were scary cats too. Think about all the things they experienced with Jesus. Jesus was taken up in a cloud right before their very eyes. And then a few days later, boom, the power came. Those people who were hiding, afraid, not knowing what to do next, they were filled with power. And the book of Acts tells you what they did with that power.

3:42 And then we read, then suddenly it happened. Heaven crashed through the walls. The Holy Spirit didn't come to make them comfortable. He came to make them capable. This was God's spiritual hard reset, a complete system upgrade that transformed ordinary people into world changers. Are you ordinary? Yes, I am. Are you ready to be a world changer? Yes, I am. Their fear was replaced with fire. Their confusion was overwritten by clarity, and their weaknesses were reformatted into boldness.

4:26 The same spirit that hovered over the waters in Genesis that descended like a dove at Jesus' baptism, now filled ordinary men and women with extraordinary power. And you know what? Here's the good news. That wasn't just a one-time event. That was the beginning of a new operating system. The Holy Spirit is still here, still active, still downloading wisdom, power, and discernment into those who are willing to wait on him. If you felt dry, if you felt weary or unresponsive, he's ready to reboot your spirit.

5:09 God doesn't want to fix the world around you. He wants to revive the spirit within you. God wants to, boom, blow you up on the inside so that you can be a world changer, so that you do not be afraid, that you don't go hiding, that you don't disconnect from the power of God. Think about that. Heaven came into the room. I love that. I love that. Heaven came into the room. And God says, I got some more of that. And heaven is not just coming into the room. It's coming into the world.

5:50 It's already here. It's already here at a certain level. Think about as God gets closer to coming back for his return, you think the power will be magnified? It has to be. It has to be. Signs, wonders, and miracles has to start coming. I don't know about you. Is that our miracles happening in your life? Are you seeing some changes in your life? Because I'm feeling this pressure that God is getting closer and closer and closer and closer. He's coming. He's coming back. His return is intimate. And so we know that things are just going to start change it in a major way.

6:34 And I think that he might want us to get ready. What do you say? So let's talk about some things here. Just some reflection questions. Have you ever invited the Holy Spirit to be active, not just present in your daily life, right? So many of us may be reserved. We don't want all that happening in our house, you know, coming in the house, making all that noise, but I do. I want him to just show up and show out. And sometimes he show up kind of, and you can see he's, you can see him working. And sometimes you can see when literally like when Jesus in the Bible pushed the tables over, sometimes I can visually see the Holy Spirit just doing that in my life.

7:18 Like enough of that, move that out the way, but we got to give him room to work. And so question number one, have you invited the Holy Spirit not just to be present, be active? I want you in the room, Holy Spirit, but I need you to just show up in a big way. We see that in Acts 1a, that he busted through the walls. Heaven invaded earth. And I just feel that heaven will be invading earth, but are you ready? Remember, this is only part one, getting you ready. What happens when heaven invades earth? We're going to cover that in our part two series.

8:00 Are you relying on your own strength, that's the third reflection, or allowing God to download fresh power? You know how we can get stale. You know how we can get real stale? Like I told you, I'm on an HOA, and I tell these ladies, and I don't know if I'm not the oldest, but I feel like we're in a time warp. They want a certain picture to look a certain way to say this, and we got to do it this way and got to do it that way. I said, ladies, we are in a time warp. Can we get out of it? Can we refresh in the pictures on Facebook? Can we refresh in the way we do things? Can we just do something new?

8:42 We're in a time war. We want to do everything the same way. And you know what? It ain't working. It's not working. And that's what happens when we don't have the Holy Spirit active in our life. We have him present, but not active. Things get to be old and stale. How many know that God is new and refreshed and recreative? You know? And think about this, as the women, we got many shoes, many clothes, and all kinds of things in our closet. If you're a decorator and you're creative, you know God's creative ways. I'm not the creative person, but I know what's beautiful and what I like. You get what I'm saying?

9:23 So you can say, Lord, can you help me with my wardrobe this week? I got to work five days. Help me coronate some things that I haven't wore because, you know, we have a habit of wearing the same thing. And he helps me. Today's going to be this theme, that theme, put this shoes on with that. And I'm like, yes, looking all fresh, like I got a huge wardrobe, but all I'm using is the Holy Spirit. I'm using his creativity. That's just a simple thing. Then I take him with me to work. And if I'm feeling kind of under the weather, I need him to move mightily and I need his wisdom. I'm asking for that. Not just have them active, just present, but have them active in your life. Amen.

10:08 Let's pray. Holy Spirit, I welcome you to take over, reset my heart, refresh my mind, and refill my spirit with power. Just as you came suddenly in the upper room, I invite you to come suddenly into my life, bringing clarity, courage, and fire. I don't want yesterday's down low. I want a fresh and filling of today. In Jesus' name, amen. Decree, I decree that the spirit of the living God dwells in me. Think about that. He dwells in me. I am not running on empty. I am being filled and fueled by heaven.

10:49 I am bold, empowered, and equipped to walk in divine purpose. The reset has begun in me. In Jesus' name, amen. As I close out this particular day, I just want to remind you that the devotionals that are on this podcast are available for your keeping on my website, Diary of a Black Woman Podcast. I will be updating it for August, for the new. I got August and then September. I usually try to keep at least two months of what series I'm discussing on the podcast so you can have something in your hand that you can follow.

11:34 Sometimes I follow the devotionals and sometimes I kind of go outside of it. But either or, you have a copy of some material in your hand that you can use for your edification, your exhortation, and your learning. And so just remember to allow God to not just be present, but to be active in your life. And like I always say, I'll see you on the next episode. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to this episode. And before we close out, I want to speak a word of promise over you from Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14.

12:20 Father God, you declared, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. So today we receive that truth. You said when we call on you, you will listen. So we pray. You said that when we seek you with our hearts, you will be found, so we pursue. You said you will restore us from captivity, so we declare freedom over every place where our listeners feel stuck, silenced, or small. Thank you for always drawing near when we show up in faith. In Jesus' name, amen. Music.