Personal, Powerful Spirit of God!

I am just gonna start by saying this past year God has been revealing a lot of the areas in my life where I struggle with pride. One specifically is that I often think my own human abilities, words, and actions are the best and I don’t really need to include God when it comes to helping fix others’ problems. I tend to give them Godly advice while silencing what God Himself actually wants to say.

Throughout the year, God has taught me lessons about this, but this one story is SO COOL and my friend and I had a powerful experience with the Holy Spirit in my college dorm room.

So this story has a couple of parts because everything connects. So stay with me! First thing: one morning I decided to take Jesus on a little “date.” Ya know grab us some Starbucks, take him to my favorite library, sit outside, and spend really intentional time with him. I was reading John at the time, wrote some things that stuck out to me, and also read my book Whole Hearted by Rick and Dianne Brewster (PLS READ THIS RN). The chapter I read was talking about hindrances that may make it difficult for you to hear from God. OK now hold that thought!! We will come back to all this.

So fast forward to that night. My friends and I started doing nightly-ish prayers in my dorm room where we could come together and pray for each other out loud (I say ish because the goal was every night but it didn’t always happen). So we were praying together that night and one of my friends was super anxious about the future and was really discouraged that she felt like she couldn’t hear from God. She said she didn’t even know what to pray about anymore she was just so frustrated. My other friend mentioned the verse about how God works all things out together for the good of those who love him. Then I mentioned the verse about how when we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit intercedes on our behalf.

Eventually, the other girls left and it was just me and this friend in the room together. She told me she just didn’t think she was hearing from God and didn’t know what she was doing wrong. And of course, I decide to lean on my own human understanding and think heyyyyy I just read about this I can fix this! So I pull out my book and start telling her all the potential things she could be struggling with that are keeping her from hearing the Lord’s voice. And naturally (surprise surprise) it makes her MORE anxious to hear about all the potential problems she could have. Her anxiety begins to pick up again and her chest starts hurting. She is having a panic attack over all the unknowns in her mind.

In that moment, the spirit prompted my heart to rely on him. I picked up my Bible and just began to read different scriptures over her. It was the wildest thing because I had no plan of what I was gonna read, but as soon as I finished one verse it was like I automatically knew where to go next (hint hint the Spirit lead me). As soon as the Word was being read out loud, her anxiety began to subside.

I told myself I would go to one last verse- the one our friend mentioned early about God working things for good. This verse is Romans 8:28. I was gonna just read that, but something in me decided I needed to start at the top of the passage. At first, I was thinking shoot this is so irrelevant I should’ve just read that one verse. Until all of a sudden, I started speaking:

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

My friend and I both look at each other with our jaws dropped. That was the verse I pointed out earlier! The next verse I read was Romans 8:28. I had no idea the verses were connected. The Holy Spirit met us both in that moment. My friend began laughing! She knew that in that moment, God heard her- the Spirit was interceding for her IN THAT MOMENT.

And for me- needless to say I was humbled. All my advice wasn’t necessarily wrong, but wasn’t what she needed. It actually made things worse. But what did help her in the end? The word of God! The Lord’s word is the only thing that can truly heal or save. I was trying to help my friend connect with God without God! I realized how much I needed him, and how much greater his words are than mine. I also realized in that moment that my friend has the Spirit in her. She CAN hear from the Holy Spirit. If he wants to make something known to her and she has the desire to go and seek his will, she will hear him! Instead of encouraging her in the waiting, I immedietly jumped to fixing what didn’t need to be fixed. I was able to finally encourage her in the truth that she can and has heard from the Lord.

NOW WAIT! Have I lost you yet??? Do you still remember my date with Jesus that morning??

I did a listening journal where I asked God questions and journaled what I thought I heard from the Spirit (I can and will discuss this more in later articles btw). This is the exact entry from the Journal:

Me: Father, what things have I chosen that have hindered me from hearing you?

“You want to hear my voice so desperately and I love that you see me as a wonderful counselor, but I am more than that. I am prince of peace, I am everlasting father, I am your joy and strength and your rock. Sometimes I just want you to come delight in me. You know what it’s like when I speak to you. It’s never when you force it. Sometimes you invite me and I just want to be near you. But as long as you’re listening, I will make clear when I have something to say.”

Me: Father, what Idols have I held in my heart that filter what I hear from you?

(context I was thinking of posting a preaching vid on sc)

“Sometimes you go to me just so you know what to tell others, I want you to come to me for me, not so you can preach and have glory for yourself. Sometimes I want you to preach, but I will also initiate the times when I want you to share and sometimes that’s one on one conversation, not an impersonal Snapchat video. Don’t post right now. I know you’re excited to share but hold onto this info for another time. There’s someone that needs to be ready to receive it.”

Me: I pray over the heart of whoever needs to be ready to receive learning about hearing from the Lord.

COME ONNNNNNNN!!!

And I was writing too based off my John reading about how even when we don’t see the future, God is always working bigger and better than we could imagine. LITERALLY WHAT SHE WAS WORRIED ABOUT! THE LORD IS SO COOL!!!

Literally still comprehending all that. But guys. The Lord HEARS YOU! If you seek him, you will hear him when he wants to speak to you! Sometimes he just wants to delight in you too so don’t be discouraged by what you may perceive as his silence.

That was a looooong story but such a powerful example of the power of the word, the Holy Spirit, and how personal our God is!

-Regan