Time to Reflect
Recently I have been so blown away with a new understanding of old concepts as if I had never heard them before. I have also been humbled by God’s willingness to work through me, and just put in utter awe and shock of God’s amazing goodness. When I look back over the happenings of the past week I cannot help but see God at work in every second of every day.
A Quiet Place
It all starts at the beginning of the week with God putting the desire in my heart to go somewhere quiet where I could read His Word and reflect on His teachings and truths. I have learned that when God moves the Holy Spirit inside of you to find a quiet place to hear his voice, you better do it! It doesn’t have to be anywhere special. My desire was to go to the beach or somewhere serene and beautiful but I ended up having to settle with the serene beauty of my single-wide trailer. The good news is that God doesn’t care where you are as long as He’s getting your full attention.
For two whole days I had the house to myself being as the Christmas break was over and my sweet husband had to go back to work. During this time I read my Bible, drank coffee, and read some literature written by very wise individuals including Beth Moore and Billy Graham. Both of these beautiful people of God, in conjunction with God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, have aided in removing a fog from my eyes and mind and opened me up to experiencing so much more of God in my day to day life.
My first day off I enjoyed the reading and studying and felt very at peace with myself. I was happy that I had the opportunity to rest and rejuvenate for two days back to back. God gave me one on one time with Him and He also gave me an unexpected opportunity to worship with fellow believers when I had to take Vic an item he needed for class at the Guido Bible Institute. It was a beautiful experience and a wonderful way to close out the day.
The next day I ended up sleeping in a little longer but still getting in some time reading and reflecting. I enjoyed an opportunity to cook for Vic and myself and then dug back into reading Billy Graham’s book about the Holy Spirit. God has truly spoken through Billy Graham to shed light on a subject that is often misunderstood and misrepresented.
Night Terrors
That evening I began to experience a phenomenon that has come at night like clockwork for the past month or so. The sensation of fear and anxiety over the increasing persecution of the Church has been a burden on my soul lately. With those fears and anxieties come worries of persecution aimed towards me and my family specifically. I have yet to determine if this is something that God wants me to be burdened for or if Satan is using it as a way to deter me from getting closer to God. It may be a mixture of both and it’s up to me whether I will allow God or Satan to claim the victory.
That night I chose to rest in the victory that Christ Jesus claimed for me. After an unsuccessful attempt to cajole Vic to come to bed so that I could feel safer (he definitely is not an enabler of my co-dependent tendencies) I resigned myself to my “last resort” which should have been my first resort. Isn’t it funny how we always get this part backwards? As if Vic could do something that God couldn’t. I finally prayed to God for His peace and comfort and began humming my go-to hymn for peace, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” As I hummed and prayed I heard these words in my head, “Go to sleep child, I am here.” I could almost feel God’s hand resting on my back and sense his presence sitting right there with me as I drifted off to sleep. What a good Father He is!
Blatantly Honest
Let me take a step back and talk about what happened in between reading about the Holy Spirit and my drifting off to sleep with the Father by my side. I took some time to journal about the day’s happenings and also to express my feelings about returning to work the following day. I had heard there was some drama at work and I needed to take some time to surrender that to Him, so I did.
In the process, I also admitted to God that I knew what I NEEDED to do was get up and spend some time with Him in the morning, but what I WANTED to do would be to sleep until the last possible second and deal with the consequences of not getting up when I needed to later. If I was being honest that’s exactly how I felt and I told Him that right there on the page. I’m sure He smiled and clapped His hands giddily because that was also when I asked Him to allow the Holy Spirit to work on my heart while I slept and to change my desire to be in line with His will for my life. I woke up the next morning and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I had 45 full minutes of coffee drinking, Bible-reading, and journaling with my God and didn’t regret one minute of it.
Putting It All Together
Though I learned several concepts individually during my break, God helped me to pull them all together as I drove to work the next morning. Please allow me to share my lightbulb moment with you:
Authors Beth Moore and the Apostle Paul reminded me of this fact: most people know what we NEED to do, but that is rarely what we WANT/TEND to do. We cannot live the life that God wants us to live in our own power alone. If we are left to our own devices we will more than likely choose to do the opposite of what we NEED to do. Being reminded of our fallen human nature, what do we do to overcome the fleshly desire to do what feels good for the moment regardless of the consequences that follow? Billy Graham knew the next step and now I do too thanks to his book, turn to the Holy Spirit!
The Holy Spirit Is A He
The Holy Spirit is a person. I think many of us have the tendency to think of Him as an “it.” If that were the case then this verse in Genesis 1:26 would not make any sense:
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Emphasis mine).
According to Billy Graham (1978), “The Holy Spirit has intellect, emotions, and will” (p. 23). He can speak (Rev. 2:7), intercede for us (Rom. 8:26), testify (John 15:26), lead (Acts 8:29, Rom. 8:14), command (Acts 16:6), guide (John 16:13 RSV), appoint (Acts 20:28), be lied to (Acts 5:3-4), be insulted (Heb. 10:29), be blasphemed (Matt. 12:31-32), and be grieved (Eph. 4:30). Each of those characteristics describe a person, not a force. The Holy Spirit is not unfeeling or impersonal like gravity, He lives within us and is here to help us navigate through life in a way that would please our Father in Heaven (Graham, 1978, p. 22-25). Recognizing the Holy Spirit as a person and not an “it” has changed the way I look at a lot of things and maybe it will for you too.
Putting It All Together Again
Back to tying it all together. When we are trying to do GOD’s will over OUR will, it is important to admit to God that your sinful, fleshly desires are in conflict with the Holy Spirit’s will within you. When we come to terms and are honest with ourselves about the fact that we are wretched human beings and need help to be holy, we can finally humble ourselves enough to receive help from the Holy Spirit. We must ask God to help us back out of the equation in order to let the Holy Spirit overpower our flesh. This is the supernatural step that takes some faith and trust. It is completely and utterly up to God to do the rearranging in our hearts at this point. We cannot do anything but sit back and let God do His thing.
Why is it so important to depend on God’s power (The Holy Spirit) to help us with overcoming our tendencies to do the opposite of what we need to do? Because sin is a supernatural concept. Sin comes from doing anything that is outside God’s will for our lives. Sin is Satan’s tool to ruin our lives and to pull us away from living a life full of God’s love as He intended for us. Because sin is a tool of the Devil, a supernatural being, we need God’s supernatural power to help us overcome it.
Trying to overcome sin (Satan) with human strength would be like a Jedi trying to fight a Sith Lord without using “The Force.” It’s laughable. Our faith in the supernatural is what saves us and sanctifies us. If you cannot swallow the fact that there is a spiritual (supernatural) world around us and spiritual powers working within us then it is going to be impossible for you to live the Christian life. Continuing on with the Star Wars analogy: Before you are saved you are essentially working for the “Dark side”, when you are saved God kicks the devil out and you come to the "Light Side”. I’m not enough of a Star Wars fanatic to know if one force is ultimately stronger than the other, but when it comes to God vs Satan, I do know that God is the ultimate victor.
Other Thoughts
God showed up and showed out in so many different ways last week as a result of my desire to experience more of Him. When you ask God to reveal Himself to you and actually take the time to pursue Him, He is more than happy to make Himself known. I am grateful for the everlasting love of the Father, for the sacrifice that His Son made for us, and for the power of the Holy Spirit that is living within me. I pray that though what I have said may sound like old hat to some (as parts of it did to me) that the Holy Spirit reveals truth in these words like you have never heard them before. I love you and pray that God makes Himself known in your life just as He has in mine. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
References
Graham, B. (1978). The Holy Spirit: Activating God's power in your life. Waco. Tex.: Word Books.
Moore, E. (n.d.). Audacious. Nashville, TN.: B&H Publishing.
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