Listening to God the Holy Spirit

I've been studying, meditating, and asking God for more clarity on the Holy Spirit's person and work, and being reminded again how
very much I don't know. That makes me want to step back just a little and explain something if I can.

Recently I've been writing about hearing God. My underlying assumptions are that God exists; that he cares about us and provides for us in many ways; and that he communicates with us through his written word and through the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:16 says "For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children." The Message paraphrase says "God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are." Now, for the Creator of everything, who must have infinite mind and power, to care enough about us to look after us, provide for us and communicate with us -- that just confirms what his word says in another place:  "God is love." If you hear words of love from a spouse or someone else who loves you, isn't that pleasant? In the same way, only much more, hearing from God blesses us.

The story of the early church in Acts has dozens of moments when the Spirit spoke or indicated his will to the Jesus-followers. Why? There's his larger story, the overall working out of his salvation for all humanity, but also the little story, when we get to participate and be blessed. Because God cares for us, he sends his Spirit to guide us into his will, which will bless us and bless the people around us. So when the Spirit told Philip in Acts 8:26-39 to go find a certain road, and meet up with a particular man on that road, Philip was blessed with joy in seeing someone from another culture recognize and follow Jesus, and the Ethiopian was blessed with joy also. 

God is not just after the result, he's working out eternal relationships with us. And his Spirit is personal -- not just some anonymous force -- so the Spirit will speak to us in ways we can understand, to tell us the all-wise will of an all-loving God. So it will help us to learn how to hear him, really listen to what he's saying, to receive the most we can from him. 

There are many tools we can use to listen better to the Spirit. First of all is simply to be intentional; to pay attention all the time as I wrote last week, so we will be more likely to hear as he speaks. We'll look at another one next week.