The Holy Spirit in You

Vision Gone Astray

Today is a fresh new day, beginning a brand new year, 2016.  We are beginning life at a new church with different people and fresh experiences.  My husband and I have been reflecting on the past year, actually past several years.  We believe God called us to something, community and small family fellowship.  In no way do we feel that vision has changed, but perhaps the approach has.  I’ve shared on this blog my experiences with community and life within the church.  It is clear that our goal is to keep families together, not keep distancing them and pushing them apart.  However, we’ve gotten so lost in the concept, that we missed the very One that brought us to that conclusion to begin with.

Our first year in leadership within small group ministry was wonderful, yet we leave it with many lessons learned.  We wanted to recreate what we had years ago with Imago Dei, our old house church.  We saw the value in small family fellowship and they way it brought us, as a community together.  God has been building a passion within me for years for community.  Our community group year began strong.  God was building the same passion within other members of the group.  God was doing something extraordinary.  During the summer months, some of us members in the group began praying and fasting together.  We were so excited for what God was going to do.  Then September hit.  Yes, it’s a busy month, however the beginning of the next community group season was exciting.  It was only a few weeks in to the month and desire began to tank. 

We’ve been asking ourselves why.  Some things were out of our control.  Individual priorities got in the way.  Life circumstances changed.  There was a desire for community and everything it was about, but no passion to keep the fire burning.  For months we’ve been evaluating and asking why.  Well, there’s probably several reasons, but I can think of a pretty large one.  The praying stopped.  It became task oriented.  It was about making sure we met and the tasks were being performed.  We began to rely on our own strength to keep the momentum going.  All of us selfishly had our own desires in life that took precedence.  How many times did Israel take matters into their own hands?  God would still come through, show a part of Himself, then the people ended up back where they started.

God at the Center

John Eldredge has a fantastic audio called Spirit of theAge.  The enemy uses busyness to distance us from God.  How true it is.  I’ve seen it ruin lives, ruin families, and ruin marriages.  It’s when everything else is more important and God just becomes an afterthought.  So often we keep going on our momentum, in our own strength, and we find ourselves operating as streams, coming to God just enough to fill us, but it’s not enough because we are pouring out more than we are taking in.  In the process we become weak and vulnerable.  Then it becomes easy for us to give in to the temptations of the enemy.  We try to live life on our own, and often forget our utter dependence on God.  One of the enemy’s greatest lies is that we are independent beings.  This is something I’ve learned recently.  Our natural gravitation is it be independent (in the flesh), but in reality God is sovereign.  He allows us to make choices, however the Holy Spirit would remind us who is really King in our lives. 

So, as important as community and family is, when it becomes more about that then the One who created that, it’s eventually bound to fail.  It can lead to high expectations of others, frustrations, and maybe even eventually burnout. 

What is my point?  In our culture, there are so many distractions and demands in life.  Some can be avoided, some cannot.  We cannot effectively disciple if we are running on our own steam.  We often forget we have a living Holy Spirit inside of us.  Jesus left us His Spirit so we don’t have to be in the driver’s seat.  He’s driving the car, we just need to get in the passenger seat and let Him drive. 

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”  John 15:4,5

The last part of this verse has been working on me for a few weeks now.  “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”  God is the source of our ministry.  He is the head of our ministry.  He is in charge.  He knows everyone involved in the circle of people we minister to.  He knows each and every detail of every person’s life backward and forward.  He knows the past and has the ability to see the future.  He is perfect, holy, and just.  Wouldn’t it make sense that He should lead us in ministry and not the other way around?  Often times we tend to just find a way to fit God into the things we do.  It should never be!  God should be the center of all we do.  Everything we do should flow from what is already inside of us, the Holy Spirit. 

God is the perfect example of love.  Our ministry might mean crossing paths with other races, large families, small families, singles, married, the hurting, and the broken. God knows how to love everyone with a perfect love and can do so through us in our ministries.  We have a responsibility to lean on God and to include all He has placed in our path, even if it seems difficult. 

“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.,”  Mark 10:27

For us to disciple effectively, to be an effective leader, our minds and hearts must remain open to what God wants to accomplish through us.  When it comes to families, the children are part of that package, in fact, the whole family unit is a part of that package.  I encourage you along with me to pray and ask God, how do you want to use me?  What did He say?  Write it down, journal, and participate in the amazing things God wants to do through you!