But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come—John 16:13
Have you ever experienced a series of seemingly random ideas that when put into the proper context point to a Holy Spirit awakening? The older I get, the more I see the hand of God in ways that I dismissed when I was younger. I’ve recently been praying more fervently to see the Lord use me in the everyday circumstances of my life. We read in the Bible that when we surrender our lives to Jesus, we receive the power of the Holy Spirit to work in and through us. In John 14:16 he tells His followers that “another counselor would be with them forever.” One that was just like Him—Jesus.
Imagine if Jesus was present with us right now—right beside us throughout our normal day, guiding, counseling, comforting. I don’t mean in our hearts, but the tangible presence of Him right beside us. How would that change the way we lived day in and day out? I’ve been praying that I would live with that reality in mind.
Then last Sunday, our pastor preached on exactly that. How the Holy Spirit has become forgotten in most hearts and minds when we think about the Triune God. The next morning, I went to Christianbooks.com and searched for a Bible study that would guide me into a place where I might be able to draw closer to this seemingly mysterious piece of the born again-puzzle. What I found (and ordered) was Experiencing the Spirit: The Power of Pentecost Every Day by Henry Blackaby. I’d read Experiencing God by him several years ago, and it changed the way I viewed God, so I felt this would be a good first step.
Then as I was doing my Bible study a couple days later, sitting across the table from my husband, he asked, “Did you know we have Francis Chan’s Forgotten God in our Kindle library?” I didn’t. The whole title is Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit. It was most likely a book he’d purchased years ago—and I know he started reading it, because there are sections highlighted. But Chris is in the habit of juggling several non-fiction books at a time, and sometimes one will go by the wayside. However, I know when he purchased it, it was for me—he just wasn’t aware of it.
If you want to be taken to another level of radical Christianity, Francis Chan is your man. He’s written several books, including Crazy Love, that makes one question how deeply their faith actually is. And if I’m going to be totally transparent here, it scares me to truly surrender every aspect of my life (and I do mean every) to the Lord. Just think about Paul the apostle or any of Jesus’ disciples, and you’ll be reminded that going all in for your faith is not a walk in the park. What will God expect of me if I truly give Him complete control of my life?
Francis Chan has this to say about my fear (and that of many like me): “So, if you say you want the Holy Spirit, you must first honestly ask yourself if you want to do His will. Because if you do not genuinely want to know and do His will, why should you ask for His presence at all? But if decide you do want to know His will, there will be moments when you have to let go of the fear of what that might mean—when you have to release your grip of control on your life and decide to be led, come what may.” (emphasis mine)
I want to live with radical faith. Now I just need to let go of the fear and trust in the Lord’s promises day by day—sometimes minute by minute. It starts with reading the Bible with a heart to truly know God and putting feet to our faith. I wrote up this post and scheduled it for Friday. On Saturday, I opened up Streams of the Desert by L.B. Cowman to find the daily devotional was about fearing the Lord’s direction in our lives. Here is a short passage from January 14th: “This is the blessed life—not anxious to see far in front, nor careful about the next step, not eager to choose the path, nor weighted with the heavy responsibilities of the future, but quietly following behind the Shepherd, one step at a time.”
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”—Romans 8:15
