ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Believers, the message of Jesus Christ is to let the world know that through the knowledge and wisdom of the Holy Spirit we can experience complete victory, as we wait for Jesus to return. Unfortunately, too many believers are failing to use this great superpower that he sent to us. This power is greater than any natural weapon. There are examples in the Scriptures of God using individuals who were given this power to overcome governments, armies, nations and religious systems. We can reflect on David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, Elijah and the Prophets on Mount Carmel, Sampson and the Philistines, Jesus, Paul and the Apostles just to name a few.

God’s power is the ultimate power! What believers are either not aware of or they lose focus on is that everything starts in the spirit realm and manifests in the natural. There are only two spirits that are operating in the spiritual realm; good and evil, God and the Devil. Individuals are either being led by one or the other; there is no middle ground. The only power that is greater than Satan’s power is the Holy Spirit.

Even though my parents didn’t go or take me to church I would ask people to take me with them. I did not grow up in a Christian home therefore everything was new to me after I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. When I was introduced to Jesus at age 16, I was told if I gave my life to Jesus he would save my soul and make everything all right. Church became my refuge.

Church always fascinated me when I did go because I would hear all of these great sermons and testimonies. At the age of 17, my high school homeroom teacher was a believer and she would take me to her church services. They were lively and people seemed to be pretty happy. So I thought to myself I want what they have.

After I accepted Christ into my life, even though I had the Holy Spirit living in me, I still lived a defeated Christian life. Since I didn’t grow up in the church, I just started watching what the people around me were doing and I mimicked their behavior. I didn’t understand that I should depend on this great power source to lead and guide me because it was not explained in a way I could understand it. I would hear Christians talking about how great the Holy Spirit was and what he was doing in their lives, but they did not explain “how” it took place.

Church was very important to me and I would go every time the doors were open for any service. If there was a revival that lasted five days I would be there every night because I knew I would feel good while I was there. I heard a lot of fiery and inspirational sermons, but when I wasn’t in church and problems would arise I didn’t respond according to how the sermons said I should. I still had a lot of negative issues that plagued me. When I responded in the wrong way or made mistakes I would feel guilty but I didn’t know how to change.

I spent a lot of time repenting at the altar for the same things over and over again. I gave Christ my life hundreds of times. Even though I felt guilty, my attitude and decision making wasn’t improving very much. I also had a lot of hurt and disillusionment in the church because I thought church people were supposed to be perfect or at least close to perfect, even though I wasn’t.

The more I went to church the more negative things I began to hear and see. At one point, I wanted to walk away from the church because it no longer was providing me as many “good feelings”. Satan made sure I knew about the shortcomings of people in the church, from the pulpit to the back door. Then my Christian life started to feel painful instead of powerful.

I read and heard the following Scripture quoted over and over again in the church:

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.(Ephesians 6:12)

What I did not understand was that the only way these spiritual enemies could be defeated was through the power of the Holy Spirit. I also did not know how that was to take place in believer’s lives. I had no knowledge or understanding about this unseen and dark world. I heard a lot of messages on what I should do as a believer, but not about how to carry it out in my daily life.

Another topic I heard many sermons and teachings about was on the fruit of the Spirit and how important it was that the fruit be manifested in my life. I was told or it was implied that I had to produce the fruit. My understanding was I was to constantly do a fruit inspection in my life to see if I had all nine operating in me. I remember becoming weary because it seemed every time I would do my fruit inspection I was coming up short by a few and sometimes I would only have a couple out of the nine that I could see.

I didn’t understand until 39 years later, the Holy Spirit taught me that I was never expected to produce the fruit, but instead the Holy Spirit was to produce it in and through me when I gave him control. This was the greatest revelation of my life because I was trying so hard to produce spiritual fruit in my own strength. I became so excited, I started telling every believer I could because I wanted them to experience this freedom, too. I wanted them to know we don’t have to struggle to live the Christian life because we have the power source – Holy Spirit living within us that does what we could never do on our own.