“We’re learning about the Holy Spirit in Church right now, and could use some more teaching about that. So what teaching do you have for us?” That’s what we were asked one morning last week while out evangelizing.
My immediate thought? “Oh crap. I did not sign up for this! I’m still learning about the Holy Spirit my self, there’s no way I can teach others about Him!”
Those thoughts may have been true, but in that moment I was clearly underestimating the Holy Spirit.
Growing up in a Christian home, I’ve heard about the Holy Spirit my whole life. He and my dad seem to be on pretty good terms. I’d regularly hear my dad say “I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to do this” or have him tell me “Follow the Holy Spirit’s leading”, but most of the time these statements made no sense to me. How could my dad be so confident in the Spirit’s leading? How could he expect me to know what the Holy Spirit was leading me to do? The Holy Spirit was just a part of the Trinity, someone talked about in the Bible, not someone who was part of my daily life.
That was the root of my problem, I didn’t understand who the Holy Spirit was, and is. Well, last summer I learned. A pastor explained the Holy Spirit to me in a way that made sense. He told me the Holy Spirit is not a feeling, but more like a person. The Holy Spirit is the helper Jesus sent us when he ascended into heaven. Feelings are fickle, so God did not send us a feeling to be our helper and direct us in doing His work. No, God is unchanging, not fickle like our feelings, so he sent his unchanging Spirit to be our helper on this earth. This Spirit lives in each of us who have accepted Jesus as our savior. Once I learned this the Holy Spirit made a heck of a lot more sense, and I started being able to tell when the Holy Spirit was directing me in something.
For example, one afternoon last summer I just could not get this one girl I knew off my mind. That was the Holy Spirit talking to me. I spent some time praying for this girl, even though I didn’t know why I needed to pray for her. Well, a few days later I learned she’d been incredibly sick that day. This blew me away, and got me incredibly excited about the Holy Spirit. I never would of thought to pray for this girl, but the Holy Spirit knew she needed all the prayers she could get that day, so He got me to pray for her!
Now, back to last week, my team and I were asked to share something about the Holy Spirit with this family we were speaking with. All I could think about was how unqualified I was for this, but the Holy Spirit reminded me just how qualified He is!
I’ve always loved stories. I remember things best if there’s a story attached. So, what did the Holy Spirit do that morning? He gave me a story to share with these people. I remembered the story of Philip in Acts 8, verses 25-40.
One day God told Philip to go to a specific road, out in the middle of the desert. Philip knew God had a purpose in calling him there, so he went, and on that road he found a chariot. Here the Holy Spirit told Peter to go get in the chariot. Philip did, and in that chariot he found an Ethiopian reading the book of Isaiah and struggling to understand it. Philip was able to explain the scriptures to this man and the Ethiopian came to know Jesus as his savior because of that. He never would have known Jesus had Philip not done as the Holy Spirit directed.
The Holy Spirit’s direction was a little strange “go get into that chariot which doesn’t belong to you,” but Philip knew the Holy Spirit was directing him with a purpose, so he obeyed and reaped the reward.
I shared this story that morning, and talked about the importance of following the Holy Spirit’s direction in our lives. We may not know why God has called us to do a certain thing, but He knows and we can trust that His plan is always perfect.
