“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Romans
15:13
When I started my quest for intimacy with God, I had so much turmoil within
me and around me that I could not hear the Spirit of God. Clutter held my
spirit and soul in bondage. I had to learn to regulate my thoughts and emotions,
to journal the inner clutter until I could hear from God. I also had to totally
surrender my spirit to the Spirit of God.
We receive the Holy Spirit into our lives when we receive Jesus as our
Savior. Romans 8:9 makes it clear that if we do not have the Spirit of Christ
dwelling within us, then we are not God’s child! The peace and joy of the Holy
Spirit sustains us through adversity and increases our natural and spiritual
blessings. Isaiah 55:12 promises, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in
peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the
trees of the field will clap their hands.”
Have you ever really thought about what it means to have the Holy Spirit of
God indwelling you? You have all of the power of
the entire Godhead residing within your spirit. Every attribute that is in God
the Father and Jesus the Son reside in us through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is
also our Comforter (John 14:26), our Guide (Galatians 5:16), and our ever-present Helper in time of need (Psalm 46:1). No matter what circumstance we face, the Holy
Spirit within us has the power to meet it victoriously. However, a problem occurs
when we do not take the time to listen to Him!
As Christians, we have two sets of ears. First, we have our physical ears,
which we can train to hear much more than the surface sounds in the immediate
area around us. We can learn to hear the ticking of the clock in a crowded
room, the chirping of a bird amidst the roar of a waterfall, the buzzing of a
bee over the whir of a lawn mower. Train your physical ears to hear and enjoy
every sound around you in God’s glorious world.
The most important ears we train, however, are our inner spiritual ears.
The Gospels and Revelation are full of verses that speak mysteries from God,
and are accompanied by a verse like the one in Matthew 11:15, “He who has ears
to hear, let him hear!” In this verse, God is not referring to our physical
ears. He is referring to our spiritual, inner ears.
Have you ever taken the time to listen to the Holy Spirit within you with
your spiritual ears? Take a few moments right now and concentrate on the fact
that the Holy Spirit lives within you. Go to a quiet place, fold your hands,
close your eyes, and bow your head. Focus your entire physical and spiritual
attention on the Holy Spirit within you. Listen with your inner spiritual ears.
Go ahead! Sit quietly and listen. Do not stop before You hear from Him….give it
some time.
Did you hear Him speak, or are your thoughts too cluttered with the natural
cares of this world? I can totally relate, because mine were too. I also had to
learn the discipline of having a place for everything I owned and keeping
everything in its place. This cut down on the amount of clutter in and around
me. If I did not have a place to put it, I did not buy it! It also made
cleaning simple, since there was a shelf, drawer or closet to put everything
that was out of place at the moment.
Make some time in your schedule to clean up the outer clutter in your life. Then make a habit of sitting quietly with your notebook. Begin writing out everything that comes to your mind. Keep writing until you are empty of all the peripheral clutter and negative thoughts and attitudes in your soul. Let the Holy Spirit transform your thoughts to those of Christ (Romans 12:2). Let His mind be in you (Philippians 2:5-11). Then, start listening to the Holy Spirit within you and doing His will for your life. You will never regret it.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, my life is so full of clutter…inner and outer clutter. Help me
to simplify my life until every moment is filled only with Your will for me.
Give me the strength to cut out all the sins in my life and to live a holy life
as You command (1 Peter 1:16). Help me to walk away
from shopaholic sprees and to buy only that which will fit in one of my
closets, drawers or shelves. Then, help me to keep everything in its place.
This way I can walk in inner and outer peace and more readily hear Your Spirit
directing me throughout my day.
Thought for the Day:
God’s presence in our life makes everything more intensely beautiful.