Yesterday, Andy wrapped up our series "The Ghost" with a final message about the POWER of the Holy Spirit. Wouldn't we all love to live in the POWER of the Holy Spirit? Don't you ever read the book of Acts and get frustrated because the Christian church today (and our personal lives) seem to lack the power that early church experienced? Our lives should look different because the Spirit of God lives in us, but all too often they don't. We find ourselves living self-empowered lives instead of Spirit-empowered lives.
The central point of Andy's message was that the Spirit-empowered life involves WAITING and YIELDING while the self-empowered life involves FORCING and RESISTING.
In essence, God wants us to wait, but we try to force things to happen. He's got His foot on the break, but we're trying to step on the accelerator.
Or, God wants us to take action and yield to His prompting, but we resist and choose to delay. He's got his foot on the gas but we're slamming on the brake.
Either scenario leads to us living in our own power instead of the power of the Holy Spirit.
For me personally, I can think of areas in my life on both sides of the equation. For example, I would one day love to have a ministry to all of the ladies at our church. I don't know exactly what that will look like, but it's something that I've had in my heart for quite some time. I think one day it will happen, but right now I'm getting a "Wait" from the Holy Spirit. If I tried to force it, we could still probably pull something together. But it would likely have a lot of unnecessary difficulty and hardship attached.
On the other hand, Andy and I have been wanting to adopt since the summer after we got married. Almost 7 years of wait, wait, wait. This past October, Andy felt like he got the "Go for it" from the Holy Spirit, so that's exactly what we are doing. This adoption process has been a source of joy for us as a family and we feel confident that God will continue to provide for us along the way.
What area in your life is the Holy Spirit prompting you to wait? Where is He saying, "Go for it"?
"Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Galatians 5:25
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