Doppelgangers and the Holy Spirit
My heart is so full, and it's because I serve a God who is so good.
NC2 was an amazing experience. I helped lead a cell group with Reuben a.k.a Redhead. It's like his hair has some secret power that makes people forget his name and therefore identify him by the unique color of his rosy hair. [Can hair be rosy? For the purpose of this sentence, I say yes.] Our cell group was called the Doppelgangers and we had an amazing group of 6th-8th grade students. For those of you who are unsure of what a doppelganger is, it is every person's evil twin. Due to this fact, our group flag had a picture of Reuben's face on it-with a bit of a twist. His face had a sweet curly mustache and goatee added to it-because everyone knows that a legit evil twin has to have suspicious looking facial hair.
The theme of this weekend was Paranormal Activity and a major focus of the week was living by the Spirit. By that, I mean dying to selfish, fleshly desires and being alive in Christ-which means letting the Holy Spirit, which dwells within us, lead our lives. Talk about paranormal-we have a spirit that hangs out in our hearts that we can consult about life. Strange? Crazy?
Awesome.
One thing I find so amazing about the Holy Spirit is that He knows the heart-the deepest desires, thoughts, motives-everything. So while I may not know what is going on with someone, He does. And since He lives inside of me, He can reveal to me how He wants to use me.
Example: I need to have a discussion with a friend and it could get complicated. Maybe it's something that they don't necessarily want to hear, maybe it's just a difficult topic, maybe it's just plain awkward. Whatever the situation, the Holy Spirit knows that person's heart and is able to work in it, preparing it for what He's told me to say-and giving me the words that He wants spoken. The Holy Spirit is the way a that a person can be touched from the inside. If that's not amazing, I don't know what is.
That being said, we talked some about what it means to live by the Spirit and what our lives should look like if we're living by the Spirit. God has taught me a lot about this over the years, and He is continuing to do so. Sometimes I look back on conversations that I've had and think to myself, "Was that me talking or was that Christ talking?" Because the simple truth is that if it was me talking, there was something wrong with it. When it comes down to it, every single word I say should be led by Christ, not me.
Just recently, I thought back on a discussion I was a part of. It's not that it was bad or inappropriate, but I realized a lot of what I said was not spoken because I felt God was giving me those words or that particular manner of speaking. It was me trying to joke around, make a point, show my wisdom (ha), or give advice. Instead of speaking my thoughts on the matter in love and out of genuine, selfless concern, it came across as more of a critical, know-it-all, judgemental kind of commentary.
Nothing about that last sentence makes me think of God. Which is the problem. It's not that anything I said would be considered "bad" by human, or even most Christians' standards-but if they weren't God's choice of words coming directly through me, then they weren't the right words. That goes for my manner of speaking too. If it came across as judgemental, critical, arrogant, or sarcastic then it wasn't of God. Because God is not any of these qualities. God is love. God is compassion. God is mercy. God is grace. God is wisdom.
This post is extremely tardy, and for that, I apologize. I feel like I'm extremely behind on documenting the events of this Summer, but I'm going to try really hard to catch up. For now, I'll leave you kind readers with a verse that I've been trying to apply of late:
NC2 was an amazing experience. I helped lead a cell group with Reuben a.k.a Redhead. It's like his hair has some secret power that makes people forget his name and therefore identify him by the unique color of his rosy hair. [Can hair be rosy? For the purpose of this sentence, I say yes.] Our cell group was called the Doppelgangers and we had an amazing group of 6th-8th grade students. For those of you who are unsure of what a doppelganger is, it is every person's evil twin. Due to this fact, our group flag had a picture of Reuben's face on it-with a bit of a twist. His face had a sweet curly mustache and goatee added to it-because everyone knows that a legit evil twin has to have suspicious looking facial hair.
The theme of this weekend was Paranormal Activity and a major focus of the week was living by the Spirit. By that, I mean dying to selfish, fleshly desires and being alive in Christ-which means letting the Holy Spirit, which dwells within us, lead our lives. Talk about paranormal-we have a spirit that hangs out in our hearts that we can consult about life. Strange? Crazy?
Awesome.
One thing I find so amazing about the Holy Spirit is that He knows the heart-the deepest desires, thoughts, motives-everything. So while I may not know what is going on with someone, He does. And since He lives inside of me, He can reveal to me how He wants to use me.
Example: I need to have a discussion with a friend and it could get complicated. Maybe it's something that they don't necessarily want to hear, maybe it's just a difficult topic, maybe it's just plain awkward. Whatever the situation, the Holy Spirit knows that person's heart and is able to work in it, preparing it for what He's told me to say-and giving me the words that He wants spoken. The Holy Spirit is the way a that a person can be touched from the inside. If that's not amazing, I don't know what is.
That being said, we talked some about what it means to live by the Spirit and what our lives should look like if we're living by the Spirit. God has taught me a lot about this over the years, and He is continuing to do so. Sometimes I look back on conversations that I've had and think to myself, "Was that me talking or was that Christ talking?" Because the simple truth is that if it was me talking, there was something wrong with it. When it comes down to it, every single word I say should be led by Christ, not me.
Just recently, I thought back on a discussion I was a part of. It's not that it was bad or inappropriate, but I realized a lot of what I said was not spoken because I felt God was giving me those words or that particular manner of speaking. It was me trying to joke around, make a point, show my wisdom (ha), or give advice. Instead of speaking my thoughts on the matter in love and out of genuine, selfless concern, it came across as more of a critical, know-it-all, judgemental kind of commentary.
Nothing about that last sentence makes me think of God. Which is the problem. It's not that anything I said would be considered "bad" by human, or even most Christians' standards-but if they weren't God's choice of words coming directly through me, then they weren't the right words. That goes for my manner of speaking too. If it came across as judgemental, critical, arrogant, or sarcastic then it wasn't of God. Because God is not any of these qualities. God is love. God is compassion. God is mercy. God is grace. God is wisdom.
This post is extremely tardy, and for that, I apologize. I feel like I'm extremely behind on documenting the events of this Summer, but I'm going to try really hard to catch up. For now, I'll leave you kind readers with a verse that I've been trying to apply of late:
"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."-James 3:17
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