Holy Spirit

encouragement for the journey

September 6, 2006
This entry is part 7 of 10 in the series humility

This is #7 in a series on humility.

I’ve got a sinus infection, so I’m going to keep this short.

I thought about writing a post today titled “help me, I’m dying”–not because I’m sick (though my head does feel as if it’s about to explode) but rather because practicing humility is killing my flesh, and it’s hard. It’s easy to get discouraged. Murray offers some much needed encouragement:

Let us be content with nothing less than taking each example of Jesus’ humility as the promise of what God will work in us, as the revelation of what the Spirit of Jesus will put within us. Allow each failure and shortcoming to only the more quickly turn us to the meek and lowly Lamb of God in the assurance that where He is enthroned in the heart, His humility and gentleness will be the streams of living water that flow from within us.

This is a timely reminder to me that I’m not doing this on my own–can’t do it on my own, in fact. Only by the power of the Spirit can true humility be worked in me. Praise God that it is His desire to do that work!

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obedience brings growth

July 27, 2006

Today’s entry from My Utmost for His Highest is well-timed for me. Chambers says that if we want scientific understanding, go for intellect, but if we want spiritual understanding, we must obey. (I should note here that as far I as I can tell, Chambers was not anti-intellectual; rather, he recognized that God’s economy works […]

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He’s got my back

June 28, 2006

I got up this morning ready to write more about Graham Cooke only to discover that my laptop wouldn’t boot. You likely know what that meant: a day spent reinstalling software, trying to figure out what I hadn’t backed up and therefore lost, getting everything back in order. I’m still not there yet, but I’m close. At any rate, in the midst of all this turmoil, this passage from Cooke seems appropriate:

When the soul comes under the rule of the spirit, life and peace are the result. Suddenly, we do not have to know everything–we just become wise about where to stand at any given moment. We do not know how everything will pan out, but we learn to be happy with the process of getting there. We become fixated on holding God’s hand and do not worry about the trouble around us.

While I can’t say I had this attitude all day, I had it at least part of the time. I didn’t get in a tizzy this morning because I knew God would work it out, and at 6 (I had been up for an hour and half at at point trying to solve the problem), the Spirit prompted me to drive to campus to get my Mac mini and bring it home. I figured I would use it to work if I had to take my laptop in for repairs. As it turned out, having the mini was a huge blessing but not as I expected: I was able to copy all my applications and other files over, saving me from a very frustrating hunt for installation CDs, serial numbers, and so forth. When I realize that I could connect my laptop to the mini and copy, I was excited: not only because it was a great solution, but more importantly, because I realized that the Holy Spirit was looking out for me even before I knew I needed the help. Or, to put it another way, He’s got my back. When you see God at work in unexpected ways, you can’t help but be filled with love and gratitude.

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are you blind?

April 17, 2006

My father was telling me recently of a friend, a godly man, who had been very sick; after receiving prayer, he had what could only be termed a miraculous recovery. Though the man was happy to be well, he had a crisis of sorts because his theology didn’t allow for God to heal in that way. He turned to Scripture to study healing and concluded that he was a fluke. He was blind to the truth–or even to the possibility of another perspective…

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