Wooahhh God is so present.
Have you ever just sat in the presence of the Lord? It’s kind of insane how much the Holy Spirit is moving inside of us and we don’t even take time to recognize it. It’s really hard to just sit in the presence of the Lord. Phones. Jobs. Families. Homework. Social media. Netflix. Phones. Phones. and Phones. It’s really hard to just sit in the presence or become aware of the presence. No, actually Satan makes it really hard to become aware of the presence. And popular culture tells us that spirituality is for hippies and hearing words being spoken with no visible mouth is considered insane. No, actually Satan tells us that there is no spiritual warfare in our everyday lives or in our lives at all. He wants us to think that we can only believe what we see. If we can’t see temptation, does it really even exist? If we can’t see that we are craving for comfort beyond this world, do we really even need the presence of the Lord? That’s what Satan asks us. And once we dismiss spiritual warfare and we dismiss our desire for the Holy Spirit to enable us that’s when Satan steps in and causes as much damage to our faith as he possibly can.
But we can fight this. We have a role to play in this spiritual battle over Satan’s temptation. We have two key weapons, the word and the spirit. The word calls out lies like I need a significant other to be valuable. Lies like, it’s okay to sit in sadness, confusion, hopelessness, and apathy. Lies like, I am not enough, I don’t measure up to the people I see around me. Lies like, what matters is what’s in front of me and all I see is hurt and suffering, like, there is nothing more to life than hardship and brief mountaintops. His word GIVES US HOPE and a basis to fight Satan with fact. Written, proven, unshakable, unbreakable, uncontested, undeniable truth. Satan lives for lies but we can define and recognize his lies with the word and send them back to hell where they belong.
The second weapon we have is the spirit. I love The Message version of John 14:16-17 it says “I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!” Guyyssss. HE SENT US A FRIEND. THIS FRIEND IS THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH!!! What is the best way to fight lies? oh yeah truth. And we aren’t in this battle alone. Let’s be completely honest if I was fighting, if we were fighting, alone in this battle we would lose. It is much easier to follow my human instinct to trust in the lies of satan. I can much easier say you are correct, I am not enough, I am not really that valuable, this is the worst it will get and it will never get better. That is so easy to agree with, I do it everyday. But the spirit constantly reminds me of truth. And we get to just sit with him in that. The spirit says Here I Am! I haven’t moved. The spirit says Here I Am! I’ve been waiting for you to acknowledge me because it would be much easier for you to fight with me. The spirit says Here I Am! Closer than your breath, unchanging, never failing, and I will never abandon you.
So take advantage of the weapons that God is providing you with! I am learning everyday how to be aware of this Spirit of Truth resting inside of me. God is teaching me that when we become aware of his spirit HE MOVES. When we see God inside of us, it is much easier to move in step with God. In only the past two weeks when I became aware of his spirit, he has opened up doors in my small group that were shut before, he has affirmed my steps to apply to this incredible opportunity, he has provided almost $1,000 between random people bringing cash and a simple garage sale composed of stuff from my generous small group and close friends, he led my middle school small group through me with only one question, he spoke through me when I ran out of words in my sermon, he SHOWED UP. The presence is real, and it’s available to all who can believe it.
