Trusting God Day by Day: 365 Daily Devotions (46 page)

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ccording to this verse, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Supplication. That means He is the Spirit of Prayer. Each time we sense a desire to pray, it is the Holy Spirit giving us that desire.

Recognize that when we are being led by the Holy Spirit to pray, it is often a lesson that takes a long time to learn. We often attribute far too many things to coincidence or chance rather than realizing that God is attempting to lead us by His Spirit.

One Monday, I began thinking about a friend whom I respect and appreciate so much that thinking about him is not that unusual. But during a three-day period, he kept coming to my mind. I consistently put off calling him because I was busy. (Does that sound familiar?)

On Wednesday, I was on my way to an appointment when I ran into my friend’s assistant. I immediately asked her how he was doing. I learned he had been sick, and that while returning from his own doctor’s appointment, he had received a phone call telling him his father had just been diagnosed with cancer that was spreading throughout his entire body.

I quickly realized why my friend had been in my heart so much that week. I must admit that I had not taken the time to pray for him. I
thought
about him, but I had never taken any action to call him or to pray for him. I am sure God worked through someone else to prepare my friend for the week he was facing, since I was missing the call from the Spirit. But had I immediately prayed on Monday, and perhaps made a phone call that day, I would have had the pleasure of knowing God used me to minister encouragement to someone who was about to face a difficult ordeal.

God wants to use us as His ministers and representatives, but we must learn to be more sensitive to the Spirit of Supplication.

W
hen I met my husband, Dave, I was twenty-three years old and had a nine-month-old baby from a marriage I had entered into at the age of eighteen. When Dave asked me to marry him, I responded with these words,
“Well, you know I have a son, and if you get me, you get him.”

Dave said a wonderful thing to me:
“I don’t know your son that well, but I do know that I love you, and I will also love anything or anyone that is a part of you.”

This story closely corresponds to the reason God adopts us. As believers in Christ, we are part of Him—God the Father decided before the foundation of the world that anyone who loved Christ would be loved and accepted by Him. He decided He would adopt all those who accepted Jesus as their Savior (see Eph. 1:3–6
KJV
).

Through the new birth, we have been brought into the family of God. He has become our Father. Just as our children inherit our traits, we are to have ways and traits like God. His character is to be duplicated in us—His sons and daughters. In John 14:9 Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” (paraphrase).

An adopted child may not look like the adoptive parent initially, just as we don’t resemble God in any way prior to our adoption by Him. But even an adopted child begins to take on the traits of the adoptive parents. People are absolutely amazed when they discover that our older son, David, is adopted by Dave. People continually tell him how much he looks like his dad, which, of course, is quite impossible because he has none of Dave’s genes or blood.

When I was adopted into the family of God, I acted nothing like
my heavenly Father, but over the years I have changed, and hopefully, people can now see Him in me.

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fter I was filled with the Holy Spirit, I found God in areas of my life in which I had not previously invited Him. He dealt with me about every area; there was nothing He was not involved in. I liked it, but I didn’t like it, if you know what I mean. It was exciting, but frightening.

God got involved in how I talked to people and how I talked about them. He got involved in how I spent my money, how I dressed, who I had for friends, and what I did for entertainment. He got involved in my thought life and my attitudes. I realized He knew the deepest secrets of my heart and that nothing was hidden from Him. He had the keys to every room in my house (my heart), and He entered without notice—without even knocking or ringing the bell. In other words, I never knew when He might show up and voice an opinion about an issue, but it seemed to be happening more and more frequently. As I said, it was exciting, but I quickly realized that a lot of things were going to change.

We all want change, but when it comes, it is frightening. We want our lives to change, but not our lifestyle. We don’t like what we have, but we think,
What if I like it more than what I get next?
It frightens us when we seem to be out of control and in the hands of another.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to live our lives for God’s glory and pleasure, not for our own. It means laying down the life we had planned and discovering and following His plan for us. When we give God the driver’s seat in our lives, things can change fast. Even though the changes God makes may seem frightening at first, we will ultimately understand that they were for our good.

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he most important evidences that the Holy Spirit has filled your life are a change of character and the development of the fruit of the Holy Spirit described in Galatians 5:22–23 (patience, kindness, self-control, etc.).

God baptizes people in the Holy Spirit to enable them to live boldly for Him. And when you walk in the power of His Spirit, there will be the right evidence of Holy Spirit baptism. Speaking in tongues was one of the evidences of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, but the most important evidence was then, and always will be, changed men and women.

At the trial of Jesus, Peter denied Christ three times for fear of the Jews (see Luke 22:56–62), but after being filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, he stood and preached an extremely bold message. The result of Peter’s preaching that day was 3,000 souls added to the kingdom of God (see Acts 2:14–41). The baptism in the Holy Spirit
changed Peter; it turned him into another man. His fear suddenly disappeared, and he became bold.

As a matter of fact, it was not just Peter who took a bold stand that day. All of the remaining apostles did the same. They had all been hiding behind closed doors for fear of the Jews when Jesus came to them after His resurrection (see John 20:19–22). Suddenly, after being filled with the Holy Spirit, they all became fearless and bold.

The world is full of people who live with the torment of fear daily. Sadly, most of them don’t even realize there is help available to them through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The baptism in the Holy Spirit changed Saul; it changed Peter and the disciples; it changed me, and it continues to change earnest seekers the world over.

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esus is knocking at the door of many hearts right now, but we must remember that the doorknob is on our side. The Holy Spirit is a Gentleman; He will not force His way into our lives. We must welcome Him.

Open the door of your heart to Him by stretching your faith a little. Be like Peter—the one person in the group who got out of the boat and walked on the water. Peter probably had butterflies in his stomach when he got out of that boat, but as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, he did all right (see Matt.14:23–30).

God has a great, big, wonderful life planned for you and me, but if we are stiff-necked, as God called the Israelites (see Exod. 33:3), or hardheaded (as we say today), then we will miss what God has for us. Stubbornness sets us in our ways, and we never stop to ask ourselves if our ways are really God’s ways or not.

In the Old Testament book of Haggai, the people were living in lack and experiencing many problems, so God told them to consider their ways (see Hag. 1:5). Many times when people are not fulfilled in life, they look for the reason in everything and everyone except themselves. If you are not satisfied with your life, do as God told the people of Judah: “Consider your ways.” Like me, you may find that you need to make some changes.

I was stubborn, opinionated, hardheaded, proud, and everything else that kept me from making progress. But, thank God, He has changed me! I pray that He continues to change me until I am just like Him—and that will be a lifelong journey.

Answer that knock at your heart’s door and allow the Holy Spirit to come into your life in all His fullness.

O
ften when my husband, Dave, and I travel, we hire a guide to show us the best and most important sites to see. Once, however, we decided to explore by ourselves; that way we could do what we wanted to, when we wanted to.

We quickly found that our independent trips were nearly wasted. We often spent a large part of the day getting lost and then trying to find our way again. We have found it to be the best use of our time to follow a guide rather than wandering aimlessly to find places ourselves.

I believe this example relates to how we are in life. We want to go our own way so we can do what we want to do, when we want to do it, but we end up getting lost and wasting our lives. We need the Holy Spirit guiding us through every day of our time on this earth. God is committed to guide us even until we leave this life, so it seems important to learn how to hear what He is telling us.

The Holy Spirit knows both the mind of God and God’s individual plan for you. His road map for you is not necessarily like anybody else’s, so it doesn’t work to try to pattern your life after someone else or what he or she has heard from God. God has a unique plan for you, and the Holy Spirit knows what it is and will reveal it to you.

Perhaps you are like I was and have wasted many years walking your own way without seeking God’s guidance. The good news is that it’s not too late to turn and go in a new direction—toward God’s plan and purpose for your life. It is not too late to learn how to hear from God. If you are sincerely willing to obey God, He will guide you on an exciting journey of learning to hear from Him every day of your life.

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e see many instances in the Bible where God gave people information about the future. Noah was told to prepare for a flood that would come to destroy the people of the earth (see Gen. 6:13–17). Moses was told to go to Pharaoh and ask for the release of the Israelites, but he was also told that Pharaoh would not let them go (see Exod. 7). Obviously, God does not tell us everything that will happen in the future, but the Bible says He will tell us of things to come.

There are times when I can sense inside my spirit that something good or something challenging is going to happen. Of course, when I sense something challenging is about to happen, I always hope it is just my imagination. But if I am right, then having the knowledge ahead of time acts as a shock-absorber in my life. If an automobile with good shock-absorbers hits a hole in the road, the absorbers cushion the impact for the passengers so no one gets hurt. God giving us information ahead of time works the same way.

I remember many times when God informed me of things coming in the future. One time in particular was when I felt strongly inside my heart that one of my children was really struggling with something major. When I asked my child about it, I was told that everything was just fine, but by the Spirit I knew something was wrong. Several days later I received some painful and discouraging news—but it would have been a lot more difficult if I hadn’t had a previous warning.