Archive for Holy Spirit
Tuning into the Voice of God
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God, the author of communication, speaks in a million different ways. We, as His people, have to learn to listen to His voice. One of the sweet ways that I have learned to hear God is by tuning in to what I hear “in my Spirit” as I awaken in the mornings.
For example, on Saturday, just as I was opening my eyes I heard, “The steps of a good man (or woman) are ordered by the Lord.” Knowing that oftentimes my mind is quiet in my awakening moments and I am able at that moment to hear freely from God’s Spirit, I sensed God was speaking to me. Therefore I pondered that verse from Psalm 37 all that day. As I went about my day, I asked God to order my steps and I was alert to the idea that God had some particular things in mind for me that day. I got a pedicure. I wondered if my steps were destined to cross the technician’s path. I listened for more direction from God as I had conversation with a young girl from Vietnam. As I waited in the line at Wal-Mart and felt frustrated at the clerk for being slow, I remembered that God was ordering my steps and I suddenly was alert to what God might want for that moment.
What Can God Do About Our Pain and Disappointment?
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Most of us are more than qualified to write a good country song or two. You know, something like,
The Power to Rise
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Today as I my husband Eddie and I were putting away some groceries, he discovered that the can of flaky rolls with chocolate icing had exploded, popping the end off the can. Well, what could we do other than go ahead and bake them? Let’s just say that we temporarily forgot the diet we had just begun this morning.
Apparently I had left the groceries in the car a bit too long and the rolls got warm and began to rise in the can. As they expanded, the container just couldn’t hold its contents any longer.
And since it is Easter weekend, it made me think of the resurrection of Christ! After the third day, His grave couldn’t hold him any longer and he arose.
You know, I find it is that way with other things in our life. As Christians, we have an innate power that produces resurrection. Yes, it produces resurrection of our physical bodies someday, but in the here and now, this innate power, which is the Holy Spirit within us, is able to resurrect things in our lives that have been dead, numb, and powerless.
The Holy Spirit is a somewhat like the yeast in my rolls. He is alive and active and is working to birth the power of resurrection in our lives. When things get just right, the power is ignited and resurrection happens.
Finding Strength for Your Weakness
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Why Fast?
Posted by: | CommentsAs we end our first week of this season of fasting, it is a good time to reexamine why we are fasting and what happens during a fast.
We are fasting because we feel led to by the Holy Spirit.
We are fasting as a voluntary means of submitting ourselves to the purifying work of God through his Holy Spirit believing that fasting can bring to light matters of the heart that need addressing.
Many of us are fasting food or drink. Others are fasting something else such as TV, shopping, etc.
What can we expect from God? Well, we can expect God to be who He always is. Faithful, holy, loving, patient, kind, gentle.
And we can expect that He will do as He always does, respond to our hearts.
It’s not about Him responding to our actions, but about His response to our hearts.
Our hearts which say we realize that the things of life often have unhealthy holds on our soul.
It is about His response to our hearts as we say, “Lord, I don’t know my own heart as well as You know it. Please purify my heart.”
And as our hearts are purified, we can see God; we can hear God. We can move in the world with God’s heart, and “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” Isaiah 58:11
