The wonderful Holy Spirit

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him:
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord  Isaiah 11: 2

The Holy Spirit is the most wonderful teacher and counsellor and is always looking for opportunities to talk to us, relate to us and even have fun with us. Unfortunately the world and it attitudes have greatly impacted the church and the lives of Christians which work in complete opposition to the ways of the Holy Spirit.

The world teaches and expects us to have attainments and accomplishments with bits of paper to back them up. Our CV or resume must be being added to at all times and it must be as impressive as possible to stand out from others.

However this can spill over into our relationship with God and we can, if we are not careful, start seeing that too as a set of attainments or accomplishments. If we have read our Bible at all that is a good start. If we have read our daily portion that is even better and if we have managed to read the Bible in a year – that is gold standard. Add to that our achievements in prayer and then witnessing or serving in the church or in a ministry and you can see how quickly we start building our spiritual CV.

Now all of these things are very good and worthwhile but if we are not careful our lives start being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ according to how many of these things we have done or not done. I know even now if I have not read a chapter of the Bible I feel like I haven’t done enough to earn my spiritual tick in my Bible reading box.

The Holy Spirit is not interested in whether we have read a chapter or a verse of the Bible but whether he has been able to show us something we didn’t know before. Today I made a declaration of truth that I did not understand. The Holy Spirit knew this and urged me to the word and taught me till I understood what I was declaring.

He wants to be the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge and fear of the Lord in our lives. It can take one verse and he will show us new things over and over again from it. I want to achieve and he wants to impart. I want to know I have prayed for the things I think I need to pray for, he wants to chat to me about people and show me how to pray for them effectively.

He wants me to come with him to minister to people or talk to them about himself and I want some sort of badge to show I have been a ‘good’ Christian.  My problem is I want to make myself feel good by my own accomplishments instead of receiving all the love and acceptance I can possible want from the God who adores me. His amazing love will make me feel so much better about myself than anything I can do or achieve. I have his love - now I must live in it.