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.
As I crawled into bed last night knowing it was likely going to freeze this morning, I asked God to protect the vegetable and flower plants I have in the greenhouse. I awoke quite early to hear the windmills whirling in the neighboring orchards so I got up to check the temperature in the greenhouse. It was right at freezing. I have a small heater in it, but…. I put a covering over all of the small plants with the heater under the cover. The plants were smiling as I left!
I so often write these days about the counseling program I’m involved with. I just can’t get away from doing so. It seems every day I am able to see God’s handiwork in the lives of those coming. One person who is coming is one I’ve known for 45 years. As they left yesterday, I was told how much this is helping them far above what they’d ever hoped. It truly is humbling and amazing to be in a position where all of your life events can be tools in God’s hands. I am a very grateful servant!
I have been looking for something to help some of the men I’m working with to address their need for sobriety. This is in a couple of areas of struggle. A couple of days ago I was looking at the books on one of the book shelves in my study only to find one entitled: Freedom Starts Today: Overcoming struggles and addictions one day at a time, by John Elmore. I didn’t recall having it but I found that I’d purchased it a year ago while attending the biblical counseling conference in Fort Worth, TX. (I came home from that conference with a suitcase and backpack filled with resources). As I read through its beginning I found it seemed to be exactly what I had wanted.
I talked with a close friend of mine and asked that he be my accountability for the 90 days the book addresses with the daily commitment to be sober for 24 hours. Each day you write out your commitment to God and then call or text your person letting them know the 24 hour commitment you just made. If you have stumbled in the past 24 hours you report that too. Each day the author has written a short devotional adding to the day’s start. I ordered the books for the guys and will introduce it to them next week. I’m so grateful for God’s Light that He gives. These men I’m talking about are not dealing with their “first rodeo” struggling with sobriety. This book is written just for them. I’m doing it along with them knowing I’m always one slip away from stumbling myself.
Today’s devotional had a statement in it that should become a quote for all of us to hang onto. It said, “Anxiety is a result of envisioning the future without God.” I use to think, years ago, that I was not an anxious person. However, I’ve learned that I do struggle with a level of anxiety/fear. This quote slapped me right across the face as I read it. I stopped and reread it several times. I then took a notepad and wrote it out so I’d have it to pass along to others. In times past I’d pretend that whatever I was anxious about didn’t exist–at least I’d act this way around others. Inside I would be most anxious. I’ve learned in recent years that I am anxious as I face new challenges or live each day in unresolved ones.
Starting the biblical counseling program at our church was a perfect example of my anxiousness. The difference for me was that somehow I knew God was in it, I just couldn’t believe He was in it with me. I kept seeing myself going into it as the broken person I had been–the one I needed to keep hidden. Little by little God helped me break through this lie to find Him using me to help others–counsel them. Things would come out of my mouth which were not of my wisdom–it would certainly be God’s. I would find that I benefit from what I heard myself say as much as the counselee.
Anxiety is certainly an issue of needing us to allow God into whatever is triggering it. I want to keep this quote close at hand from this day forward.
Freedom is a word often used in our wonderful country of USA. We have freedom here like almost no other. Freedom as God gives, on the other hand, is something no man can give. Yes, man can help man find ways to receive this spiritual freedom, but it still comes down to each individual reaching out to God for it. It all starts when one understands that God’s freedom for His kids began with Him giving His own Son for this freedom. When we receive this freedom it is all about living eternally with God and all others who have asked Jesus Christ into their lives.
There are other freedoms that God also wants us to know about. These are the freedoms from the hurts, hang-ups and habits we develop from living in a sin infested world which we are born with and into. The sin we are born with is the sin nature we received from man’s original sin–Adam & Eve (I call it selfishness–the sin of wanting my way). This sin nature we have leads us into our own personal sins. God wants us to find His spiritual freedom from all of this sin. We will never be free from the temptations of sinfulness this side of death, but we can strengthen the freedom we have living in it one day at a time.
No man can do this in isolation. We need each other for accountability. Reaching out for this support goes against our pride and selfishness, but when we step into the richness of this help, it is amazing how James 5:16 comes into LIGHT. This freedom we can have each and every day we are here this side of death. The verse says: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
Everything about Spring this year has been delayed. Winter wants to keep its grip on the weather. However, Spring is here no matter what the outside acts like. When the desire returns to get one’s hands into the dirt, Spring is here! Little by little it is happening.
OK, with that said, I can now write my blog. Sometimes my journey has a moment of intense Spring! Most, if not all of us, have a friend or friends. In addition to this we hopefully have a FRIEND. This is the person who can easily hear every ounce of one’s story and not even flinch. They just nod their head while you continue on with the story until the end. When your done they might ask, “Is there anything you want me to do with this?” I had this moment last night. Kathy is gone to our church’s women’s retreat so I text this friend to see if he wanted to get together last night since his wife is also at the retreat. The night was so good and seemed that way for both of us.
God is so good and I never want to lose sight of this truth. I thank Him for His Son Jesus and for a friend who is like Christ in the flesh when one needs a moment of sensing Christ’s presence through the presence of a friend.
God’s faithfulness is always so rich and true. One of our worship songs we sometimes sing at Celebrate Recovery is titled: “Same Power”. A portion of the lyrics say: “the same power that rose Jesus from the grave, lives in us”. I’ve sung that song many times in the more recent years of Celebrate Recovery. However, when I was prepping for our worship last night, this song was resonating in my mind and spirit.
I know that I’ve longed for God’s Power to be real in my life. I have momentary times when it is genuine and I can log it as a powerful moment in time. The reality of God’s Power however, isn’t momentary. It is eternal and ever present. It resides in us if we have asked Jesus into our lives. The counseling opportunities I get to experience find this true over and over again. I also find that it is so easy for me to see God’s Power at work in other’s lives. This makes me realize all the more how blind I’ve been to God’s continuous work/power in my own life.
Seeing God’s Power and experiencing it is a choice. So many times it is my own stubborn will that interferes. I think my way is the right one so I go that route and then stumble only to find that God was waiting for me to seek His guidance–ask. His Power is always available for the asking–it is another choice I don’t want to lose sight of.
Today is my middle daughter’s birthday. I had gone to school that morning and was teaching a lesson when the principal walked into my room and pulled me aside. She said I needed to head home, my wife was in labor. About 4 hours later Amber was with us. That moment was the start of a blessing that has kept on giving. How I love her!
As I was logging in to write today’s entry, I read the previous day before beginning to write. I had just finished praying over the ones on my prayer list which include the ones written about yesterday. In the process of this my phone dinged a message. As I looked at it I could see it was from one of the very people I had just prayed for. They were asking for prayer. Sometimes God’s timing is so stunning I just sit and marvel at it.
God is endlessly at work and we get to see a very small portion of it. I sure want to learn to trust the immense amount of His Work that I never see. In our human life, trusting is spiritually seeing and I need this reminder so frequently. Oh what a blessed Savior and Lord we get to serve!
Yesterday I wrote about the ones coming for counsel and I know their spouses. I also wrote what I had heard from God when I asked Him what He wanted me to know for today. In the afternoon I had a meeting with the two counselors working in the program with me. Both of them are retired licensed counselors. I asked them if they had tools addressing the issues I had described. They did have some and are bringing them to me today as today is the day when all three of us are counseling together.
This morning I was thanking God for yesterday’s help and He brought something to mind I needed to hear and put into my daily living. He reminded me that the ones coming for counsel, I am to do just that–counsel. The ones connected to those coming, such as the spouse, I am to pray for them. This much I have been doing. However, my praying for them was more of a release of responsibility for I felt helpless. God’s message to me was a reminder that when I pray I am to believe, trusting that God is at work. I’m helpless for a good reason–I’m not the one to provide help. It is sad for me to admit, but most of the time my prayers have been ones of release only.
As I have reflected this morning on the significance of trusting and believing while I pray, there is an assurance God gives my spirit that I have not had. Boy, did I need today’s message!
Yesterday morning I went to see my prayer warrior. She had worked on an assignment putting scriptures to a counseling tool I had been using. It addressed thinking errors we have and I had asked her to put God’s Word to show what He had to say about this way of thinking/acting. She had asked me for a copy of the completed work so I took her one. While there I spent some time going over some areas for which she could be praying for ones seeking counsel.
While there I shared with my prayer warrior a struggle I was having when one spouse of a marriage was seeking counsel and I knew their other half. There are four cases of this. It is difficult to hear one spouse talk of their “marital issues” when one knows the other half and what is being said there. As I was bringing this dilemma to God while journaling yesterday morning, He remined me that He was their answer, not me. I am asked to counsel the one coming to me. He said they are all His children. I am to simply give counsel to the one seeking it. As their Father, He will take care of what I may hear and know, but am helpless to address. I am to let it go and let God do what only He can do.
This prayer warrior is 92 years old and is still very sharp. I cannot thank God enough for providing her support to me. Her wisdom deepens and broadens what God may have revealed to me during devotions. I know her wisdom comes from God’s Holy Spirit and I treasure it.
Earnie Lewis 