Well, we welcome you again to another podcast of Struggling Well. And just a quick kind of note just so you can be aware of it. since the book has come out, Struggling Well with life, I've had several opportunities to teach on the book and I just finished four Wednesday nights at a local church here in Charlotte and it went really well and I was encouraged by it and I hope people were too. and if that's something that you or your church would have an interest in doing, I would encourage you to reach out to our, Tandem Spirituality website and, let us know if you're interest and we'll do what we can to bring it to you too,
right?
Yeah, it was very enjoyable. It was fun to see you in your element again.
Well,
and to see you healthy.
Yes, I am.
That was really good to see you healthy. So, those chores that have been waiting for you,
it's this is the week.
This is the week.
Maybe.
Yeah,
maybe. We'll see.
Okay.
so I again our church is working its way through a series in the book of Romans and we're in chapter 3 as a church. But I've read reading ahead and I come to the middle of the book, chapter 7 and 8, which has always fascinated me in terms of these two contrasts that Paul paints between the living life in the old way of the law or the new way of the spirit. And it's that new way of the spirit that I find myself going, okay, what I know what it says. But how does that actually happen when he says in chapter 8 and verse 4, he did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the spirit. We walk in the way of the spirit. We're under the control of the spirit. And I'm fascinated by that because in the other places in scripture, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of me, lives inside of you if you know Christ. And yet I go, how do you make that happen? And what's it look like to follow the spirit, to live in the way, new way of the spirit? I get the part of being no longer under slave to the law because the law what the law couldn't do for me God did through Jesus and because of what Christ did for me, then it opens up a whole new way of living life. And when Jesus left this world, he said the father's going to send another helper to you who is the spirit.
Mhm.
So, you want to explain that to me?
Oh, sure. Just let me give me a sec. I'm actually in the midst of studying the Holy Spirit myself and it's a topic that or the character of the Trinity that I have probably misunderstood the most and wrestled with the most. And so for me, and I'm just going to try to give context here, it's helpful to see how the Holy Spirit was present at creation with the father, son, and spirit with creation. How the spirit worked in the old testament which is the spirit would come on people and leave people. the spirit came on Saul and then Saul was disobedient and the spirit left him. the spirit led the Israelites through a column of clouds by day and fire by night. That column of clouds would be in the tabernacle. It's just a lot of stuff. So we the Old Testament, the spirit was seen differently. But when Jesus is getting ready to ascend, he says, "I'm not going to leave you without comfort." Because physically he had to go,
right?
But I'm not going to leave you without comfort. I'm going to give you my spirit. So physically he's not with us, but he has given us his spirit. And when we ask him, When we repent of our sin, when we ask him to take up residence in our life, we then tabernacle the spirit and the spirit lives inside of us. So when the spirit is inside of us, it means that we can we have the ability to live a life following the life that Jesus led the way that God designed us to live. However, my flesh and the spirit of God are constantly at war with one another because I still have the freedom to choose how I'm going to live.
Yeah. And so it's to me it's that idea that I have to regularly I was going to say daily, but it's even more than daily surrender my choices to the will of the spirit.
To give him control of my life, to give him control of my decisions, to give him control of my choices, and to seek to live in a way that is pleasing and honoring to the Lord in everything that I do. And I don't know of any magic way to make that happen other than I think there's a consistency of communing with God. There's a consistency of reading his word. There's a consistency of being in prayer with him. There's a consistency of trying to hear his voice. And you and I have talked about this, Suzi. I don't know that I've ever heard an audible voice from God. Not saying that doesn't happen to people. I've never heard the audible voice of God,
but I there have been times in my life when I it was clear to me that God was speaking into something specific about our lives, about my life that I thought, okay, I need to pay attention to this.
And I think that for the believer, there's probably many many times when the spirit of God is listening and we're not quite sure how to discern what if it is the spirit of God. I also think that our own flesh wants to be leading us. And I think that we also have Ephesians is very clear on the fact that we're in a spiritual battle. So there's also
the enemy from without that is trying to influence us with our decisions. And in the book of Romans, Romans 8:26, which is we're not there right now, but Romans reminds us that we are never because we have the spirit of God, we are never voiceless before God. And I love that. in our weakness and our confusion and even when there's silence, the spirit of God is teaching us. He's carrying our sorrows, our prayers, our what needs to be done to the father. So, the spirit is I've gotten a little off track here. The spirit is interceding for us, but teaching us and guiding us and there's a lot of Tons of examples in the New Testament, well, all as well, where people were trying to make a decision about where they should go and they waited and listened to the spirit of God say yes or no. I mean, we see that with Paul. Paul thought he should go to what is it? Macedonia. No. Where was he going?
Well, is the Macedonian call,
right? When he was called to go there,
I had an interesting experience just recently. and I hope this kind of pulls some of these thoughts together. I was required to do a an assignment and answer some questions and I thought that I knew which way I was supposed to go because this was to be presented in front of other people and I felt unsteady about it. I didn't know how to respond. I knew that it would be evaluated by people who I trust and so I just I waited, which is not typically what I do. I'm a run head. I often do things or I have been known in the past to do a lot of things by impulse. So I waited and because I've had my mind so deeply in the Holy Spirit, person of the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Holy Spirit, I just sat and I waited and I said, "Lord, I need for you to I'm asking you to give me wisdom here to know which way to go with this response to this assignment I was given."
And it wasn't like some magical thing came down on me, but I felt such a clear sense of openness of direction. This is the way I want you to walk. And so it really surprised me. But as I moved into that direction to prepare this answer in that direction, I felt a sense of it's not just feelings, but I knew there was peace surrounding it. There was clarity surrounding it. And It was the spirit of God who lives within me moving me in a direction so that as I answered this question that was going to be presented in front of other people. It wasn't just about me. It was about I believe what he was going to say through that answer to other people. It was a unique experience. Again, nothing magical, nothing you know.
Yeah. And so I think you know when people say, "Well, how do you know whether you're yielding to the control of the spirit? How do you know if you're walking in the way of the spirit. These phrases that we typically use to try to describe the Christian life. I really believe the best indicator of whether my on any given point in time in life is my life surrendering to what God wants it to be is it surrendering to his will is in the fruit of the spirit.
You mentioned one peace,
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All those things that are evidence that the spirit of God is truly at that moment in control of my life.
Yeah.
And when those are present, it's not about the gifts of the spirit. It's not about all these other things that maybe are more spectacular in the way that we see them, but it's in those nine fruit, which is one fruit.
Yeah.
Because it's singular. It's those nine manifestations of life being controlled by the spirit of God.
And the thing about knowing whether the spirit is leading you or not is you've got to be in the word because he will speak through the word,
right?
Which he inspired and you've got to give space to hear. I mean, some of you are maybe like me. You jump before you even look and see how high the cliff is. others of you may be more pensive and thoughtful. but I know for me it has really And as I've been looking at the spirit and trying to understand and I'm just at the beginning of this study, it has slowed my heart and my thinking and my responses down because I truly do want to hear. I want to know what direction he wants me to go in. I want to know that his response, how I'm supposed to respond to people, what he's where he's taking me as far as growing me further. I want to hear. But I have to be in a position to hear. I have to slow it down.
Yeah. And sometimes in slowing it down, it means waiting and waiting for God because God's timetable is not our timetable. And so it sometimes is in the solitude and the silence of waiting to hear from God that I just sit.
You know, we there's so much noise in our lives right now. we are beating the dead dog that apparently keeps coming back to life and that is the whole internet, media, phones, all the TV, you name it. All the distractions that we have. Imagine trying to hear someone whispering to you when you are you have your headphones in and you're listening to music or whatever. Imagine trying to listen to someone speak speaking to you when you are busy doom scrolling through. You can't. You just can't. And I believe I'm pretty excited about this journey that God has me on right now because typically and I've said this numerous times in the last few weeks I have thought the father the sona the holy spirit like the holy spirit's like this you know little add-on that I don't quite get and maybe gets a little strange and makes me do things or I it's just not a clear intelligent way of responding to the spirit. So as God has been inviting me to understand this portion of the Trinity, the equal part in the Trinity. I'm excited because not only do I feel like I will have a better grasp on who the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is, but I'm also anticipating that I'm going to be aware of things that he wants me to do because I'm listening to his voice. I'm really waiting to listen to his voice.
Yeah. So, would you as you go through your week this week, spend some time listening. Spend some time quietly listening to what God might be saying to you through the spirit. And if you have any questions about whether you're yielding to the spirit of God, just check out Galatians 5 and the ver the fruit of the spirit in verses 22 and 23. If there if that's present in your life, chances are you're listening to the spirit of God. Have a great week.