Spirit lead Me

Song of the Week: Holy Spirit by Francesca Battistelli

“Holy Spirit, You are welcome here

Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere”

If you're anything like me, being busy is just a must. My days consist of scheduling and planning and if anything is thrown off, everything else falls apart. Over the past year though, I have had to learn to go with the flow. And when I say flow, I mean the Holy Spirit. When we think of God, we usually think of the Father and Son, but never the Spirit. When we look at the Bible, the Spirit seems to be the most subtle of the three yet it can be so powerful. In Genesis 2, it talks about the Spirit pulsing over the water, waiting for God. The Spirit is a moving and living thing and God uses it in the most amazing ways.

Throughout the New Testament we see many occurrences of the Spirit filling people like Jesus (Luke 4:1), Peter (Acts 4:8), Paul (Acts 13:9), and more. As people are working for God, it is shown to be consistent throughout the Bible that the Spirit guides people. The Spirit even led Jesus into the Wilderness (Matthew 4:1). What we seem to lack is the welcoming of the Spirit’s presence in our own lives. Some even question whether it is even there. My obsession of having a tight schedule was completely torn apart when COVID hit. I was lost and I didn’t know what to do with myself. But as I spent more time in the word, prayer, and in worship, I was able to feel God call me into His comfort. I have seen the Holy Spirit work in many ways but what I have learned from it is that God’s plan is the ultimate plan.

This past Sunday, I was at church worshiping when I felt this overwhelming sensation. The Spirit was moving. It was filling the church and I wasn’t the only one that noticed. The presence of the Spirit was the strongest I had ever felt and I couldn’t tell if it was because I hadn’t been to church in a year or if It was doing something. Anticipating the lesson that was to come out of Nehemiah 2, I was in awe when I heard my pastor say that the Spirit was telling him to preach about something else. Moving to Ephesians 2:1-10, he spoke these verses:

1Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

8God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

The Spirit knew that someone in that room needed to hear these words. That we are loved and saved by God. We cannot work for his grace, the only way that we can get it is if we accept Him into our hearts. This wasn’t the only thing that the Spirit was doing in that room. When I was feeling the presence of the Spirit during worship, I felt like I was home. I was where I was called to be. When I closed my eyes, I felt like I was seeing millions of stars. I thought of Abraham and the moment when God told him to count the stars and to know that that was how much family he would have. Uncountable.

This week I contemplated the story of Abraham and wondered why the Spirit would put such an image in my mind. Connecting to Ephesians 2, Abraham had been used in God’s plan but Abraham was still a sinner. He was told he was going to have a family and instead of being patient he had a child with his wife’s servant. Later, he denied that he was married to his wife. Abraham was an ordinary sinner who had a large purpose. So am I. This last Sunday, I felt like my purpose was solidifying as I remembered that I was where I was meant to be. God has planned out my life and my ministry and has called me to do great things. I have sinned. I have felt shame but God still tells me to look at the stars.

What I want to tell you is to let the Spirit in. Let it fill you, lead you, reveal itself to you. We undermine the Spirit more than God and Jesus because we think that we can do everything ourselves. We read the words that God and Jesus spoke and think that we have to follow them and that’s it. But what we don’t realize is that the Spirit wants to work in us. It wants to carry that weight. It wants to guide us. It’s pulsing on the water, waiting for us to let it come. So whatever you are going through, whatever you are stressing about, let the Holy Spirit guide you. Don’t go looking for the Spirit, let it find you. Become vulnerable to God and it will come. When it does, you’ll truly feel the power of God.