Worship Takes Work III

When I left off last time, I was talking about being open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Just yesterday my oldest son was talking with me about what it means to be a Christian. He asked, "Are we Jewish?" I told him we were not Jewish and that to be a Christian meant to believe in / follow Jesus. Once we established what it meant to be a Christian I began to talk with him about the role of the Holy Spirit. I told him that when a person becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes to live in that person and he (the Holy Spirit) helps the Christian live like a Christian should live. I encouraged my son to learn how to listen to the Holy Spirit.

When we worship (and remember worship isn't limited to singing a few songs at 11am on Sunday morning...) we need to know how to listen to the Holy Spirit. The very best way to know how to listen to the Holy Spirit is to practice listening to Him on an everyday basis. When you feel led or sense that or have an awareness that you should or should not do something, that is a pretty good indication for the Christian that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. I experienced the awareness of the Holy Spirit this week and when I didn't immediately act on it, I missed the opportunity God was giving me to bless somebody. I missed two other opportunities because I was "too busy" to slow down enough to do what I knew the Lord was telling me to do. In this case, I finally arranged my schedule and did what the Lord was telling me through the Holy Spirit and the person was blessed and so was I.

The Holy Spirit leads us in truth. He reveals more of Jesus to us. He comes along side of us in this journey of faith. The coolest part of learning to listen to the Holy Spirit is to realize that he does not desire to hide himself from you or conceal what it is he wants you to know. He is in the business of revealing himself to you so you may know God more fully and understand his will more clearly. If you want to be a worshipper, then just slow down for a few minutes today and listen to the Holy Spirit. He'll speak to you if you'll listen!