We are not called to fear what following the Way of Jesus may require of us, but that doesn't mean those fears won't crop up. A life of following Christ requires relinquishing those fears when they do come. It means refusing to let your fears of what others think, your fears of rejection, keep you from pursuing the truth about the Holy Spirit and whatever else God is teaching you and calling you to.
...take a fresh look at familiar passages...
...seek out what God has said about His Spirit. Open up your mind and your life to the leading of the Spirit, regardless of what others may think or assume about you.
There is a huge difference between believing what God has promised and praying for things you'd like to be true.
...stake your faith in God alone...
The truth is that the Spirit of God is guaranteed to ask you to go somewhere or do something you wouldn't normally want or choose to do. The Spirit will lead you the way of the cross, as He led Jesus to the cross, and that is definitely not a safe or pretty or comfortable place to be.
...we need to base our understanding of and experience with the Holy Spirit on biblical truth and not on fear.
As disciples of Jesus, being in relationship with Him must be our focus. When we allow others' perceptions of us (or even our perceptions of their perceptions!) to control how we live, we are enslaved.
We are called to live in a way that reflects the reality of the kingdom of God. When we become overly concerned about our appearance, our spiritual reputation, our coolness, and our acceptance, we are living as citizens of this world rather than as ambassadors.
Romans 8:27 "...the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." ...I don't know about you, but I find the thought of the Spirit of God praying for me according to the will of God extremely comforting.
Our desire to live should be for the sake and glory of the God who put us on this earth in the first place.
A sure sign of the Holy Spirit's working is that Christ is magnified, not people.
Let's pray that God would empower us so radically that we would get no glory.
God calls us to pursue Him, not what He might do for us or even in our midst.
His gift of the Holy Spirit is really not for our own pleasure or purposes. The Spirit is meant to lead us towards holiness. The Spirit is here with us to accomplish God's purposes, not ours.
...we were made to lay down our lives and give until it hurts. We are most alive when we are loving and actively giving of ourselves because we were made to do these things. It is when we live like this that the Spirit of God moves and acts in and through us in ways that on our own we are not capable of.
You are not just a person living your life by human power. The Spirit of God is in you...Don't walk away from this. Delve into it and let it impact you deeply...
Living by the Spirit implies a habitual, continual, and active interaction with the Holy Spirit. While this sounds exhausting, it really isn't because all of this living and action is done in the power of the Spirit. It is not by your own strength.
(talking about Philippians 2:12-13)...Yes, it is God who works in you. And, yes, there is work for you to do. Yes, the Spirit empowers you to do the work. And, yes, you do the work. Like many things in life there really isn't a sew-it-all-up solution. I love that. God is big and mysterious enough that we cannot simply put a label on the process and move on.
I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit....
No matter where you live and what your days look like, you have the choice each day to depend on yourself, to live safely, and to try to control your life. Of you can live as you were created to live - as a temple of the Holy Spirit of God, as a person dependent on Him, desperate for God the Spirit to show up and make a difference.
