Holy Spirit Connection

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  Psalm 51: 10-12

 

Seeking a Holy Spirit Connection

 

About every three to four years, I feel the need for a renewed Holy Spirit Connection.  I begin realizing that I am dry on the inside, following my own instincts, relying more and more on experience, losing vibrancy in my prayer life, procrastinating in doing the work that God has called me to, even floundering in some of my convictions.  I began studying a book by Anne Graham Lotz about the Holy Spirit, Jesus in Me: Experiencing the Holy spirt as a Constant Companion.  It was complete and convicting and inspiring and life changing.  Thank you, Anne, for your frank sharing, biblical teaching, and useful tools to accompany us on our journey.

After reading the book, I reflected on my spiritual state and found it lacking!  So, I wrote my thoughts and a prayer of confession to cement my renewed conviction to walk once more with a strong Holy Spirit connection:

I do not always walk in the full provision that Jesus has made available to me through His Spirt – the Holy Spirit.  Strength and Power and Light and Love and Grace and Wisdom … a portion of His wealth and provision just a prayer and a held-out-hand away!

I too often walk on my own; following long held patterns of behavior and thoughts that grieve the Holy Spirit.  I do not walk in obedience.  I have not allowed my mind to be as the mind of Christ.  I let fear and uncertainty keep me from obeying.  I allow my people-pleasing nature place others’ opinions of me to carry more weight than God’s will!

Many are the sins I confess now before my God.  I forget to pray as I ought.  I leave too little time for study and prayer in the mornings – rushing off to work on my own strength.  I do not share the love of Christ with those I know need a Savior.  I desire ‘things” and spend much time planning how to acquire them.  I know that I have not begun to embrace the fullness of power and the guidance that the Holy Spirit could have in my life.

Teach me Holy Spirit how to live and walk and be in sync with you each day!  Give me a Holy Spirit connection.  Nurture the seeds of desire within me now to be fully devoted to you and to understand all that you can do and be in my life!  A discontentment is pressing into my spirit!  A yearning has risen within my spiritual life for a deeper commitment to all the best God has for me!  O Holy One, continue to stir the flame for your presence in my heart, mind, and soul.

Holy Spirit, create a clean heart within me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do what it takes to root out the habits and desires and voices and yearnings and fears and doubts that do not draw me into your provision, remaining there each day.

Teach me Holy Spirit how to live and walk and be in sync with you each day!  Give me a Holy Spirit connection.

Roots of a Holy Spirit Connection

 

Years ago, I took a prayer class by Jennifer Kennedy Dean that shaped my life.  Through that class I learned to pray with Scripture and to take seriously those prayers.  She told us that one of the most “dangerous” prayers we could pray was Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God and renew within me a steadfast spirit.” She challenged us to pray it and watch God work.

That was back in 1988 and I prayed that prayer in earnest for about 2 years.  There was much in my life at that time that was impure – both past and present.  Slowly, as I spent time in the Word and in prayer over the state of my heart.  The Holy Spirit revealed those places in me that I needed to confess and to surrender to Him.

It was a most difficult and exhilarating time, both at once.  It is hard to look so closely at one’s life, habits, patterns of thought and mistaken thinking.  Yet, I knew the joy of His presence in a way that I never had in my walk with Him up to that point!  He honored my prayers to take away all that kept me from being in full communion with Him!  Oh yes, we did enjoy sweet fellowship!

As I shed the hurts and disappointments of my life, the misconceptions I held of God and His true nature, the unhealthy images I held of who I was, and began to embrace the renewing and transformation power of God, I knew what Jennifer Kennedy Dean meant when she called this a dangerous prayer, as God did a deep and often painful work in my heart.  I knew I would never go back to a life without the power and love of a Holy God at the center of my life.  I knew I would not live again without a Holy Spirit connection.

Yet here I am today, thirty plus years later in need of the same prayer of David in Psalm 51.  Because I had lost some of that Holy Spirit connection, I needed to surrender again those places in my life that keep me from true fellowship and experiencing the best that God has for me.  I needed to pour out my failures to my Father, breathing in the forgiveness and the grace He offers.  I needed to pray the same words that I cried out all those years ago,

And I found the very same grace, mercy and love I encountered then!  Our God never gives up on us.  He sees our faltering steps, wrong turns, and twisting paths and invites us minute by minute to reach for His Hand and walk with His Spirit.  He steadies us and hems us in (Psalm 139) – honoring our seeking hearts and minds.

I knew I would never go back to a life without the power and love of a Holy God at the center of my life.

As I write and reflect on this journey, seeking more of the Holy Spirit connection, I am encouraged!  I realize that in my years of walking with a faithful God, that while I may falter, it is not exactly in the same way, to the same degree, or with the same amount of harm or disruption to my life.  Through the power of resurrected Jesus, He has transformed me!

For example, when I first prayed the words of Psalm 51, I did not get past verse 10.  My heart was so damaged from the years spent in ignoring God and in an unhealthy marriage, that I could only surrender that much to Him-my heart.  Later I was drawn to the words in verse 11-12: “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” 

You see, I had experienced, in a real way, the beautiful presence of Jesus through the Holy Spirit and I never wanted to be far from that connection again!  I had learned what it meant to be filled with the joy of the Lord, and to have a yielded and willing spirit.  My prayer often became, not to “create in me,” but instead  to sustain in me.  A difference in maturity, trust, and experience.

So, while I look at the words I started with, in this writing, words of a prayer I cried out to the Holy Spirit because of the book I studied.  I am grateful.

Grateful that my Heavenly Father is not saying with exasperation, “When will you learn, my child.”

Grateful that I have years of faith building and struggles and learning that encourage me as I pray.

Grateful that I am on this journey moving forward seeking Holy Spirit connection until that day Jesus comes to take us home.

Grateful that while there are valleys and wrong turns, the Light of Christ has never once left me on this journey.

Grateful that there are others on this journey with me—some guiding and leading and teaching me.  Some that I can reach out to guide and teach myself.

Grateful for a God that calls us out of ourselves into life of Kingdom building.  Becoming more in all ways like His Son Jesus, through Holy Spirit connections.

Thank you for sharing in my journey with me.  As always, if you find yourself stuck on your journey, then consider me for your  coach.  The role of a Faith Journey Coach is to come alongside you to get unstuck.  I will listen, ask questions, pray, and help you dig deeper until you are walking in victory and purpose with your God.  Fill out the information on the “Let’s Connect” page and let’s schedule a 30 minute consultation.