Hi friends!
As test week approaches and life continues to get even busier, the Holy Spirit has been consistently laid on my heart. The Holy Spirit is often the member of the Trinity that is overlooked and unappreciated. This summer, more than ever, I learned how to fully lean into the Holy Spirit while I was a Kounselor at Kanakuk Kamps (a story for another time). I always knew that He was there, I just never quite knew the power that He had in me.
Ephesians 1:13 says, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” What a beautiful picture. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit. When thinking of the word “sealed”, pictures of security and the idea that the object will not leave come into mind. Paul says that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. This in itself are powerful.
When we hear the word and believe that the Lord is our God, we receive this gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides us. It walks us through every inch of life and enables us to decipher between what is holy and what is worldly. He allows us to have a close, intimate relationship with the Lord while we are on earth. Now that we have established who He is, let’s look at practical ways in which we can channel Him in everyday life.
Like I said before, I never quite knew what it looked like to lean into the Holy Spirit until I was at Kanakuk Kamps for six weeks this summer. Those six weeks were probably some of the best weeks in my entire life. Those six weeks taught me how to acknowledge that He is there through it all, working behind the scenes. As a Kounselor at Kamp I, along with my co, were in charge of twelve teenagers for a week at a time. We are running around constantly, having deep conversations with those around us, and are basically these kids parents for the week.
While it was the best six weeks of my life, it was the most exhausting. The only way that I was able to push through was the Holy Spirit guiding me. I had to be in consistent prayer starting the moment that I opened my eyes every morning. I had to learn how to redirect my focus towards the divine in the chaos of the day. I had to depend on Him to lead me through tough conversations and to renew me with energy when I felt that I had nothing left. He allowed me to walk in freedom during those six weeks.
Being outside of the Kamp gates is definitely a different story. You are in a Jesus bubble filled with peers who are passionately striving to know the Lord and to share Him with those all around. But once you enter the real world, things get slightly more complicated. You are surrounded by sin. How do you redirect your focus back towards the Holy Spirit when you are surrounded by worldliness? While dwelling in God’s tent (or teepee) forever would be ideal, we are not called to live in a Jesus bubble (Psalm 61:4).
Leaning into the Holy Spirit requires constant discipline. It requires that you give everything that you’ve got into the Kingdom of God. Leaning into the Holy Spirit looks like fortitude in the midst of our daily circumstances. Leading a Christian life is not easy nor will our flesh ever be able to perfect it. I am going to give you some practical reasons in which you can apply this.
- Put in effort every moment of every day “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1). No human is perfect, but we can strive to be.
- Know the Lord’s commands and words by writing “them on the tablet of your heart” (Proverbs 7:3). We know that all scripture is God breathed and if we memorize it, we can begin meditating on it daily and allow it to transform our lives.
- We should begin to learn how to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This is something that has been a struggle for me in my walk with the Lord but once I figured out how to apply it, it began to refine me. When we are consistently walking in prayer, we are allowing our gaze to be directed back towards our creator.
If you apply these three things, you are on your way to leaning more into the Holy Spirit. Do not let the Holy Spirit be the forgotten member of the trinity. He walks through every inch of your life with you. Give Him the credit that He deserves, learn how to acknowledge His presence in situations, and know that the Holy Spirit has been sealed in you.
