About The Spirit of God

By John Henry

So now, what about spirituality, being infilled with the Spirit of God, and being inspired by that infilling to serve God? What about being so alive with the Spirit of God that his light shines throughout your own corner of the world? I find that the Spirit of God is what we all search for and what drives many to religions, to drug and alcohol use. Not that the Spirit causes us to sin, rather we all know that something is missing and then try to fill the chasm inside with whatever may temporarily cover up the emptiness. Like a road construction crew trying to fill the potholes caused by a long wet winter, we can make the road smoother, for a short period of time, while really only treating the symptom, never finding a cure.

We seem to "catch" the spirit. Some of us have a parent, a teacher, a pastor, or an older friend that can assist us in being receptive to catching the spirit. For others it seems to take a special event, or crisis to make us receptive to catching it. Catch is a passive term, like a cold, not an active term like a flyball. God wants us to be available for his use, many of us never mature enough to be of use to ourselves, and then we are not available to God.

I once had a self-proclaimed "philosopher" tell me that religion is the "Philosophy of the masses." He could be right about Churchianity. However, Spirituality is having that personal relationship and the openness of Soul that overcomes all mass communication. It is like an intimate conversation between two old friends—no secrets. Like a hotel/motel vacancy sign, having a personal relationship with Jesus means that the doors are always open, the no vacancy sign is taken down, the Spirit of God is always welcome, and we are always receptive to meeting the needs of others.

This means that we must try to live our lives as though God is IN us because he is, through the infilling of the Spirit. Some churches have a sign that says, "If God returns this Sunday, where will you be seated?" I think the real answer is that as we accept the personal relationship with Christ, we have already joined the host of souls that have come home to be with the Lord. The Spirit of

God came upon them, and they were filled with JOY.

John