The Holy Spirit dwells inside of us.
God lives within us. The Holy Spirit facilitates our relationship with God and
our ability to communicate with Him. Generally, Christians understand this to
refer to prayer. We spend time with God praying to Him. We thank Him, we ask
for forgiveness, and then we ask for what we want or what believe we need. This
can include blessings or healings for our loved ones and for ourselves. We may
request a promotion or a raise. We may also ask for things, like a home or a
car. Often, our prayers become a laundry list of things we would like God to
do. Keep in mind, God knows what we truly need more than we do. If that is the
case, then what can we talk about with God. How do we pray?
First, we come to God in humility,
understanding that He is the all-powerful holy one who created us, and He knows
what is best for us. We can contemplate Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us.
We can be in awe of the Holy Spirit who facilitates our communication with God
and who lives within us. We can talk to God about our sins and think about how
He has blessed us recently. However, all this talk and prayer is simply a one-way
communication. Our relationship with God can most benefit us, if we can engage
in a two-way communication, and if we can hear from God. Is that possible? Of
course, it is! All things are possible with God, so how do we listen?
When we think
about God speaking to us or listening to God, most of us understand the concept
of listening to our conscience. Messages from our conscience are never good
news. Those guilty feelings in our conscience remind us that we have sinned or
are about to sin.
However, there are other ways in which God speaks to us. We
just need to learn how to listen. There are actually five other ways the Holy
Spirit communicates with us; through our intuition, our hearts, our minds,
through the Bible, and through the events which occur in our lives.
Excerpts
from A Journey Toward Perfection:
“Our intuition is a gut feeling, and we do not know from where that
feeling originated. We cannot explain why we have that gut feeling, but we do.
Our intuition operates mystically. The Holy Spirit speaks to us in a whisper,
but we recognize it as truth. If we were pressed to explain our gut feeling, we
may be able to stumble through an explanation as to why we feel the way we do,
but we could not explain how that feeling got there. It appeared in lightning speed without the
awareness of our conscious mind. We did not go through the normal logical steps
of reasoning in our mind. Our hearts arrived at a conclusion without the
reassuring processes of our mind…
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”
(John 10:27). The Holy Spirit speaks to us through our hearts, where love is
the language spoken. If we are His sheep, we recognize His voice. Hearing God’s
voice through our hearts is the most joyous experience. When we act in kindness
and compassion, when we forgive those who are difficult to forgive, when we
give of ourselves, He pours His perfect love into our hearts. This is where His
love becomes so real to us, particularly when we contemplate Christ’s love for
us and His sacrifice for us. He touches the emotional center of our beings. Our
spirit can overflow with God’s love, manifesting through tears of joy and
compassion. Listening to the Holy Spirit with our hearts is a very powerful
form of communication with God…
God can also speak to us through our minds, where language is
stored, where we make connections and understand symbolism, where revelation
occurs. If we seek knowledge or wisdom or answers to our questions, God may
reply to us through our minds. For example, an experience in our lives can
bring to mind specific words from scripture to reveal a deeper understanding of
God’s truth. This is why it is so important to immerse ourselves in the Bible.
God does answer us in words, but this communication may occur in our minds. We
know it is God’s voice because the words are filled with His truth. God’s words
connect with our hearts, our conscience, and our intuition to declare His truth
to us. It is an experience, which involves our total being. We recognize God’s
truth through the Holy Spirit. The light bulb turns on…
The Bible, God’s word, is His most powerful means of communicating
to us. No matter how many times we may read a particular passage, we can learn
something new each time. God can reveal new truths to us for specific situations
in our lives through His own words. This is especially true as we go through
various phases in our lives or are in various stages of our journey toward Him.
His words speak to our conscience, intuition, our hearts and our minds. His
words connect to our spirit through the Holy Spirit who reveals all truth to
us. It is the Holy Spirit who helps our hearts or minds discern the truth.”
God also communicates to us through coincidental events which may
occur. God may place people in our lives to guide us and to lead us to wisdom.
It may be a transitory encounter with someone who blesses us in some way. He
may arrange circumstances in such a way that they may appear to be a
coincidence, so pay attention. With God, there are no coincidences. For
example, Sunday morning I found myself getting ready for church,
realizing that I had forgotten my contacts at my mom’s house. I am very
self-conscious about going out wearing my glasses. I have always hated wearing
glasses. It is my vanity, one of my weaknesses! For a moment, I thought to
myself that I can’t go to church without my contacts! Then I realized that it
was my vanity speaking and I laughed to myself. God arranged it so that I would
have to overcome my self-consciousness and go to church in my glasses. Was this
a coincidence? Such a seemingly little insignificant thing, yet I knew what God
was saying to me.
A two-way dialogue with God must be
cultivated. It does not just happen. We must be alert, expecting a response
from Him. We must look for reasons why coincidences occur. We must be attentive
to our intuition and our hearts. We know when God is communicating with us
because it is personal. It is filled with truth and love. We just know that we
know. Perhaps, a Bible verse comes to mind or we realize that there is an
answer to a question we asked. This is where faith becomes activated. We trust
God, and we know that He loves us and wants the best for us. We have faith that
His will is to transform us into the people we were created to be. His will is
to teach us how to love. We know love when we encounter the genuine article.
This is how we know God when we encounter Him. He lovingly guides us through
the Holy Spirit. All we must do is be alert and listen!
© 2018 Helen
Kamenos All rights reserved
http://www.helenkamenos.com/
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