It seems the Holy Spirit is the most difficult person of the Holy Trinity to grasp. We have earthly experiences with fathers and sons, but the Holy Trinity has seemed too mysterious to really understand. We see the Holy Spirit appearing everyone in the Bible from taking Jesus into the desert to be tempted (Matthew 4:1) and then sending Barnabas and Saul to Cyprus (Acts 13).

Rev. Richard Smith is the Senior Pastor at Germantown United Methodist Church in Germantown, TN and authors a daily devotional Monday-Friday. A good friend of mine, Ronnie Pruitt forwards these inspirational messages to me each day and I was appreciative to learn Rev. Smith’s words from June 26 about the Holy Spirit:

“To speak of the work of the Holy Spirit is not all that common among us modern Christians.  I think there are two issues here: we don't understand the concept of the Holy Spirit or we feel like we're getting a little too Pentecostal if we focus too much attention there.

Simply put, to speak of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives is to acknowledge that God's Spirit is ever on the move to shape our lives and to shape human history.  It is to recognize that the Spirit of God is proactively stirring our hearts and minds - and those who shape life's crucial decisions - that God's will might get done. 

In your life and in mine the Holy Spirit is steadily at work to inspire us, to lead us, to help us, to transform us.

When you feel strength beyond your strength amidst life's great challenges,

     the Holy Spirit is at work.

When you receive that insight which makes all the difference for good in your life,

     the Holy Spirit is at work.

When you find the moral courage to take a stand on a critical issue,

     the Holy Spirit is at work.

When your conscience speaks a needed word of correction to you,

     the Holy Spirit is at work.

When you discover that you're given the right words in a needed situation,

     the Holy Spirit is at work.

When you amazingly handle some unwelcome moment,

     the Holy Spirit is at work.

You get the picture...every day, in recognizable and not so recognizable ways, God's Spirit is at work in our lives and in our world that each might be proper manifestations of His divine grace and love!”

Thanks, Rev. Smith for real, tangible examples of the Holy Spirit working in our lives!

To read more of Rev. Smith’s devotionals, visit this webpage: PONDERINGS

Blessings, my friend,

Agatha

(click below for MP3 file)