For weeks leading up to training camp, my excitement was continuously growing. Everything that I had been preparing for the past few months was starting to finally becoming a reality. I had my expectations of what training camp would be like, and in some ways I was right, but for the most part my expectations were far from reality.
I arrived on their campus clueless, but filled with anticipation for what I was about to experience. I would soon find out that the days ahead of me would be filled with activities that would not only stretch me physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. I would soon find out that this week would be a week full of transformations.
Before training camp, I was content with where I was at with God. I knew I needed to read my bible, do devotions, and pray regularly. However I didn’t always look for ways to grow whenever I would do those things. I was still concerned with what I wanted to do and how I wanted to live. I was always told that God has a plan for me, and I had a desire to live according to His plan. But I still wanted to incorporate my plan into His. I wanted to follow God, but couldn’t give Him complete control.
At training camp, I was reminded of the importance of setting aside time to focus on my spiritual health and just say “Yes” to God, not a partial yes where I can insert my own plans, but a wholehearted yes to everything He places before me. This year is going to be an adventure full of activity and unless I set aside time for God to hear what He has to say to me and set aside my own personal plans, I am going to miss so many of the opportunities that He has in store for me. It became clear that I needed to abandon all that I am, or who I think that I am, to become who God has created me to be. Finding who God created you to be takes an entire lifetime, so why waste any of that time ignoring His voice to try and be who I think I need to be.
However following God is not always safe. He will mess your life up, which is what I always feared, but it’s only because He is shifting and changing it to help you follow His plan and live your life to the fullest. This week, I was challenged with the question “What is God’s plan for my life? And what should I do to live my life according to His plans instead of my own?” These questions have caused me to really look into the role of the Holy Spirit in my life and how He helps answer these questions.
One of the sessions early in the weeks that we attended was focused on letting the Holy Spirit guide you and learning to say “yes” when he tells you to do something. But what does that look like? How do I hear what the Holy Spirit is telling me? The rest of the sessions were focused on how to respond to what He instructs us to do, but I was still trying to figure out who is the Holy Spirit?
After I got back from training camp, these questions still stuck with me. I began to focus my devotions on trying to find answers to my questions, and what stuck out to me was that the Holy Spirit longs to fill each person who has identified themselves in Christ with His spirit. He wants to be invited into our lives to work through us to accomplish things much bigger than we could ever imagine.
The Holy Spirit is someone that I don’t talk about regularly or always recognize as being fully God, even though He is part of the trinity. He has always seemed sort of mysterious to me, and I never really gave Him much thought. But after getting back from training camp, I kept feeling as if I was missing something. There was more to the Holy Spirit than what I knew, and I was ready to figure out what I was missing.
To begin, I learned the Holy Spirit is with you 24/7, 365 days a year. He doesn’t want to simply be a visitor that you see once a week on Sundays or occasionally look to for answers in certain situations, but instead He wants to be your partner and do life with you. He wants to empower you to do great things for Christ. “The more we allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives, the more we will love and serve the Lord Jesus, and the more we will be conscious of His loving and abiding presence.” By giving the Holy Spirit the ability to live within us and control of our lives, the more able we are to impact the lives of others because of the power of the Spirit working through us. We become more aware of His presence in all we do and the immense love that He has for us, so in turn we long to do as He commands us. It’s a never ending cycle.
When we do as He commands, He gives us the strength to do things that are out of the range of our abilities as humans. Without the Spirit controlling our lives and guiding our ways, leading others to Christ would not be as effective. Having the Spirit working through you to reach other people yields greater results because it allows Him to have the chance to prepare the hearts of those around you to better receive what you have to tell them.
Through the devotional that I have been working on and conversations with others my understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and the role He plays in my life continues to increase each day. He is more than a mysterious “thing”, a random part of the trinity. He is powerful. He is relational. He is God. And He longs to fill me with His Spirit so that I can impact the world and spread the Kingdom of God.
What I came across next in my devotions really stood out to me because it is something that I often forget. Along with filling us with His presence and working through us, He gives each person a specific gift. Each gift is given specifically to you according to the purpose in which God created you. So along with figuring out who the Holy Spirit is, I’ve been searching for answers regarding my gifts and the purpose in which I was created. For a while I struggled to decipher exactly how to get these answers, but soon realized that in God’s timing they will be revealed to me. I may not always feel like it, but I was given gifts from the Holy Spirit so that I may do incredible things in the future to bring glory to the Kingdom of God!
After the amazing experience that I had a training camp along with working through the questions that I have had after getting back from training camp, I could not be more excited for the work that God has placed before my squad and I. And I ask that you would be praying that this year my squad and I allow the Holy Spirit to live in and work through us each and every day. I ask that you pray for guidance as we embark into something foreign to us all so that we will be able to do the work that God has placed before us. And finally, I ask that you pray for those who we will come in contact with, that the God will prepare their hearts for the amazing message that we have to share with them. This year is going to have its up and downs, but I know that this is what I am called to do. So with your prayers, God guiding me, and the Holy Spirit working inside of me, I am ready to take on the world and spread the Kingdom of God into the nations!
