THE GENTLE NUDGE THAT KEEPS YOU IN YOUR LANE

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”  (Isaiah 30:21)

After a recent car accident, our car was totaled and we needed to get a replacement. We found that newer cars come with lane‑assist, something we had not had on our previous vehicle. It’s that subtle steering nudge when you drift too close to the edge of your lane. It’s not loud. It’s not dramatic. It doesn’t grab the wheel and take over. It simply reminds you, “Hey… you’re drifting. Come back to center.”

I have found that the Holy Spirit often works the same way. His promptings are usually gentle nudges -- quiet impressions, small checks in your spirit, a tug toward wisdom, a hesitation before a harmful choice, a sudden thought of someone who needs encouragement. They’re not meant to control you; they’re meant to guide you back into the lane of God’s will.

Lane‑assist doesn’t shame you for drifting. It simply helps you realign. The Spirit does too. He nudges because He loves. He corrects because He protects. He guides because He sees what’s ahead long before you do.

And when you learn to trust those small, sacred nudges, you begin to experience the peace of staying centered -- steady, safe, and aligned with the heart of God.

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry™

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THE WORLD’S A BETTER PLACE BECAUSE…

“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.”  (Philippians 2:13 NIV)

Great historical events might never have “happened” if people’s spirits were not in touch with the Spirit’s movement in their lives:

The world’s a better place because Michelangelo didn’t say, “I don’t do ceilings.”

The world’s a better place because a German monk named Martin Luther didn’t say, “I don’t do doors.”

The world’s a better place because an Oxford don named John Wesley didn’t say, “I don’t do fields.”

The world’s a better place because Moses didn’t say, “I don’t do Pharaohs.”

The world’s a better place because Noah didn’t say, “I don’t do arks and animals.”

The world’s a better place because Ruth didn’t say, “I don’t do mothers-in-law.”

The world’s a better place because Mary didn’t say, “I don’t do virgin births.”

The world’s a better place because Mary Magdalene didn’t say, “I don’t do feet.”

The world’s a better place because Jesus didn’t say, “I don’t do crosses.”

Get in touch with the greatness of your spiritual heritage. Look to the future, and feel God’s Spirit stirring your own. Then watch in wonder as God transforms your life… and makes the world a better place.

-- Adapted from Leonard Sweet in “A Cup of Coffee at the Soulcafe”

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THE FIRE OF THE SPIRIT

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.” (Acts 2:1-6 NIV)

I owe everything to the gift of Pentecost. For fifty days the facts of the Gospel were complete, but no conversions were recorded. Pentecost registered three thousand souls. It is by fire that a holy passion is kindled in the soul whereby we live the life of God. The soul's safety is in its heat. Truth without enthusiasm, morality without emotion, ritual without soul, make for a Church without power. Destitute of the Fire of God, nothing else counts; possessing Fire, nothing else matters. 

--  Samuel Chadwick in “The Way to Pentecost”  

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GOD USES HIS SPIRIT TO CHANGE US

“But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.”  (Romans 8:9-10 NLT)

When we commit ourselves to Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives to empower and direct us. The Spirit of God gives us new strength and vitality and the desire and power to do what is right. As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him…

God’s number one purpose in your life is to make you like Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to make the child of God more like the Son of God. And what is Jesus like? His life on earth embodied the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

-- Rick Warren in “God’s Power to Change Your Life”

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GOD’S GUIDING WORD

“Your Word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”  (Psalm 119:105 NLT)

Many people get very nervous when ordinary human beings speak about being spoken to by God. I get nervous about the idea myself. It has often been abused…

However, we cannot be transformed if we close ourselves off to the guiding power of the Holy Spirit. We must come to believe -- mind-stretching as it sounds -- that God really can and does personally attend to us. As long as we are going to pray to the God who spoke the creation into being, who communicated to prophets and priests and kings -- and ordinary people, who wrote a thousand page book we know as the Bible -- and who refers to His Son as "the Word made flesh," then surely we can accept the possibility that sometimes He may want to get in a word or two with us.

-- John Ortberg in “The Life You've Always Wanted”

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OFFERING WARMTH AND LIGHT

Jesus said, “Remain in Me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.”  (John 15:4 NIV))

We who want to witness to the presence of God's Spirit in the world need to tend to the fire within with utmost care. It is not so strange that many… have become burnt-out…, people in whom the fire of God's Spirit died and from whom not much more comes forth than their own… ideas and feelings. It is as if we are not sure that God's Spirit can touch the hearts of people; we have to help Him out, with many words, convince others of His power. But it is precisely that wordy unbelief that quenches the fire.

Our first and foremost task is faithfully to care for the inward fire so that when it is really needed it can offer warmth and light to lost travelers. 

-- Henri J.M. Nouwen in “The Way of the Heart”, adapted

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THE SPIRIT OF PENTECOST

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”  (Acts 2:1-4 NIV)

Too many churches have become mausoleums for the dead rather than coliseums of praise for a living God. They have lost the spirit of Pentecost! They have lost their enthusiasm. They have lost their joy for Jesus and find themselves suffering from what William Willimon calls “Institutional and spiritual Dry Rot.” If the Church is to survive the next millennium it must recapture some of the praise and enthusiasm it had two millennia ago. 

-- Carlyle Fielding

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ENLARGING THE SOUL

[From the cross Jesus prayed,] “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. For You granted Him authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him. Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only TRUE God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”  (John 17:1b-3)

One who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the one who simply plods around this narrow globe… The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.  Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify one’s whole soul, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. 

-- Adapted from Charles H. Spurgeon 

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THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8 NKJV)

The world is not moved by love or actions that are of human creation. And the church is not empowered to live differently from any other gathering of people without the Holy Spirit. But when believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural. The church cannot help but be different, and the world cannot help but notice. 

-- Francis Chan in “The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply”

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EXPERIENCING GOD

“Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”  (John 17:3 NIV)

When the spiritual dimension is strong in a church, members are able to experience God. They discover that God isn’t just “out there,” that God is “above all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:6) As members become more open spiritually, they become more open to an intimate relationship with each person of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They have an intimate encounter with the Trinity, even if they don’t necessarily describe this encounter in Trinitarian terms. They come to know God more than speculate about God. As a result, they also grow in their ability to encounter and experience God in Scripture, others, their own hearts, and the events of life. 

-- Adapted from N. Graham Standish in “Becoming a Blessed Church: Forming a Church of Spiritual Purpose, Presence, and Power”

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THE REASON FOR OUR CELEBRATIONS

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”  (Galatians 4:4-6 NRSV)

Gracious God, we must acknowledge that 2020 has been a difficult year. It’s been a year of loss for all of us, whether that was a job, a loved one, a relationship, or our sense of peace and security. We thank You for this Christmas season, especially this year. We thank You for the simple beauty of Christmas decorations, for Advent worship and Christmas Carols, for family recipes and time spent with friends, whether virtually or in person. We thank You for the ways You’ve been present with us and You’ve blessed us this past year. But Lord, if we’re honest, this year has been tough.

Lord, we pray that Your Holy Spirit would be at work within us. Help us to focus on the miracle of Jesus’ birth, and remind us daily that this world is not our home. When we feel overwhelmed or worried, we pray that You would quiet our hearts, and fill us with Your peace.

Father God, the reason for our Christmas celebrations is nothing short of miraculous. Thank You for sending Your Son to give us a hope and a future! You are in control, God, Your plans are perfect, and we thank You for watching over us. We offer all of these things in Your Precious Son’s Holy Name. Amen. 

-- Loosely adapted from a prayer by Bethany Pyle

#5000

A TASTE OF HOME

“We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.”  (2 Corinthians 5:4-5 MSG)

Think of the best meal you’ve ever eaten. Recall its appearance, its flavor, its aroma. Chances are you can’t remember exactly how it tastes. All you know is that you loved it. Although you can’t totally recapture the experience of this gastronomic delight, simply thinking about it certainly gets salivary glands going. Just the thought can make you long for more.

That is what God’s Spirit makes you feel about heaven. You’ve been given a taste of paradise through brief descriptions in the Bible. Furthermore, God’s Spirit has awakened a hunger in your heart that your mind can’t full comprehend. Your heart longs for the home you were created to inhabit, a place where death, pain, and sorrow have no hold, where your body is healthy and whole, where peace and praise replace struggle and strife, where you meet God face to face and never have to say good-bye.

Heaven is as real as those God-given longings. But God didn’t’ give you a taste of what’s ahead to leave you discontent with where you are now. He uses longings as a homing device to keep you headed in the right direction. They remind you to view present problems from an eternal perspective. By keeping heaven in your heart and on your mind, you’ll gain strength to handle life here and now, as you rest in the fact that God’s best is yet to come. 

-- From “100 Favorite Bible Verses”

#4905

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT - Part 2

Paul writes to the Ephesians, “Do not get drunk with wine… Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Intoxication and spirituality seem like odd companions in a Bible verse. But Paul is saying it just right: don’t try to get inspiration out of a bottle. God wants to fill and inspire you through His Spirit. If you need comfort, don’t guzzle it. Find the real stuff in the one Jesus called the Comforter. Don’t try to work up courage by drinking. The Spirit is courageous! The disciples ran in fright when Jesus was arrested, but they boldly faced danger every day once the Spirit had come.

Do you drink just to loosen up and relax? The fruit of the Spirit includes peace from God. Not to mention love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

An old commercial used to tout two merits of the beer it was promoting: “tastes great” and “less filling.” At least the beer company got the second one right. Everything this world has to offer is less filling. And at the end of the day, none of it tastes great. But life in the Spirit is a different matter.          

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins”

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FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT - Part 1

“When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for Me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."  (Acts 1:8 GNT)

As Jesus prepared to enter heaven, He told His followers of an event that would change them from the inside out. The Holy Spirit was going to come into their lives… we would be filled with the Spirit. When we become followers of Jesus Christ, He immediately enters our lives. We pray for His filling, which means a full cooperation with Him and all He wants to do through us.

[The Spirit] is the presence of Christ with us, everywhere we go. He gives us special gifts for ministry. He counsels and comforts us, and each day He continues to transform us to the image of Christ Himself -- through tiny, almost imperceptible moments when we think something or do something that is the Jesus way, instead of our old way. And as we are filled with the Spirit, we begin to know what it means to have a truly full life. 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins”

#4902

REAL AND PERCEPTIBLE

“Only God's Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to. You can hear the wind, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going.”  (John 3:8 CEV)

We feel the breath of the wind upon our cheeks, we see the dust and the leaves blowing before the wind, we see the vessels at sea driven swiftly towards their ports; but the wind itself remains invisible. Just so with the Spirit; we feel His breath upon our souls, we see the mighty things He does, but Himself we do not see. He is invisible, but He is real and perceptible. 

-- R. A. Torrey in “The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit”

#4853

THE TRINITY

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  (Matthew 18:19-20 NIV)

Our motivation for living the Christian life is the love of the Father. Our model in life is the example of the Son. The means by which we live this life is the power of the Holy Spirit.

-- The Alpha Course


#4612

THE SPIRIT OF JESUS

"After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." (Acts 4:31)

Without Pentecost the Christ-event -- the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus -- remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on. The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now.

-- Henri Nouwen

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THE REAL AND PERCEPTIBLE SPIRIT

“Only God's Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to. You can hear the wind, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going.”  (John 3:8 CEV)

We feel the breath of the wind upon our cheeks, we see the dust and the leaves blowing before the wind, we see the vessels at sea driven swiftly towards their ports; but the wind itself remains invisible. Just so with the Spirit; we feel His breath upon our souls, we see the mighty things He does, but Himself we do not see. He is invisible, but He is real and perceptible.

-- R. A. Torrey in “The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit”

#4606

SPIRIT BORN

Jesus says [to Nicodemus], "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)

Listen to the wind, Nicodemus.  Listen to the wind.

Again, and again, in both the Old and New Testaments, God's Spirit -- the Holy Spirit -- is described as being like the wind.  Both the Hebrew of the Old Testament (ruach) and the Greek of the New Testament (pneuma) employ a word that can mean wind, breath, or spirit.  When the writer of Genesis explains our divine origins, he tells us that God breathed into the human nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7); that is, God inspirited us.  When the Holy Spirit entered our world in a new way on the Day of Pentecost, one of the manifestations of the Spirit's coming was "a sound like the rush of a violent wind" that filled the house where the believers were sitting (Acts 2:2).  Even so, when Jesus wanted Nicodemus to understand how he could be born from above, Jesus said that it was like the wind.  You might not understand it, and certainly you couldn't control it, but you could feel its reality.

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “New Testament Stories from the Back Side”

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THE SPIRIT’S LEADING

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, ‘Abba, Father.’”  (Romans 8:14-15 NIV)

As we go about life, either we do things that open ourselves to the Spirit’s influence in our lives -- which Paul talks about in terms of “walking in the Spirit,” or “sowing to the Spirit” -- or we do things that close ourselves off to the Spirit.  For instance, Paul wrote, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Galatians 5:25-26)

The Holy Spirit is always ready to guide you toward God’s best version of yourself.  Of course, many times I don’t want to be guided!  I want to blow up at someone, or be greedy, or lie to get out of trouble.  I want to quench the Spirit.  The more my habits are formed around resentment or anxiety or greed or superiority, the more often I will quench the Spirit.  It will take time and wisdom for habits to get re-formed.  But the Spirit of God is tenacious.  All that is needed in any moment is a sincere desire to be submitted to the Spirit's leading.
' -- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be”

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