I’ve always been intrigued by The Holy Spirit. God is Spirit, He gave us The Holy Spirit when we accepted Christ into our hearts, we have spirit and our spirit will live forever with God upon death. But, what is spirit?

When I was a boy my dad use to tell me he had to kill that spirit of mine. He’d talk about breaking a horse’s spirit so it would obey the rider. That was what he was going to do with me and for each of us boys–break our spirit. Doing this counseling now, I see so many folks who have a broken spirit. This morning as I was journaling and had asked Jesus what He wanted me to know for today, He said, “Your dad never broke your spirit, he severely damaged it. You don’t break/kill something that is eternal, but you can easily damage it.”

As a dad, grandpa and now counselor, I find myself wanting to nurture one’s spirit and help them find the “gifts of the Spirit that are within them”. This is what God wants His children to do for their own children and He wants grandparents to do for their grandchildren. Helping children see who they are and respect who they are is a gift that carries right into eternity. The beautiful part of this is that understanding spirit has the help of The Holy Spirit within us. I have seen this help and experienced this help for myself through the years of my personal counseling, participation in Celebrate Recovery, and participation in the restoration classes I’ve had. I also now get to witness this help with others through the counseling process. It is humbling and fulfilling! Spirit is real and there is immense substance to Spirit once we tune in.