Years ago, my husband preached a sermon on this question. Spiritually, I KNOW that I can trust the Holy Spirit, but let me pose a couple of scenarios …
The Father approaches Jesus and says, “Well, it’s time … the virgin has been chosen, and I’m sending You down. Now You understand that for nine months and longer until the time will come for You to be revealed, You will be incognito.”
WHAT IF … Jesus had replied, “I’m ready, but can I truly trust the Holy Spirit to pull this off? I mean, it has never happened, and what if something goes wrong?”
Jesus has been crucified. Hanging on a cross. Friends come and lay Him in a tomb. Dead. Buried.
Jesus knew this was going to happen, but WHAT IF … He had said, “Holy Spirit, can You really do this? I know I raised others from the dead, but can I truly trust You to do this for Me?”
Jesus is in a tomb, and even His closest friends and disciples either forgot or didn’t believe He would be raised back to life. WHAT IF … Jesus had thought, “Holy Spirit, are You SURE this is going to work? Are you SURE You can bring me back to life?”
Obviously we know none of these scenarios happened. Jesus TRUSTED the Holy Spirit to do His job!
Why then is it so hard for me?
I recently laid before the Lord, quietly this time, not saying a word because He had already been listening to my pleading prayers, and I wanted to hear Him speak. How often I’ve wished He would come in the flesh and sit across the table from me (without a mask!), enjoy a cup of coffee, and TELL me what to do, what is going to happen. But I must quiet my heart and “listen” for Him. As I was prostrate before Him, I suddenly heard in my spirit, “Let Me handle this!” Oh, I didn’t hear, “Let God handle this” … that would have been me! I knew instantly I HAD to let God handle it.
Being a “fix-it” person, that’s hard for me.
I’ve never been a person to want a new word for the new year, but before 2021 started, I felt God bring to my mind and spirit Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Goes along with “Let ME handle it!”
Now the problem arises: how to be still. It’s not “que sara sara”. I am not to sit back and let just anything happen. I believe I still need to pray and intercede, but in the Spirit and not in my flesh.
We know certain things are always in the will of God to pray for … salvation for the lost is one of those. But what of other things? Healing, financial help, marriage restoration, relationships, children’s issues, and more. God may be working in those situations behind the scenes that we do not know, so we continue to pray and leave the outcome to Him.
When He speaks to us to DO something, then we DO it, but not until! That’s the being “still” part.
Here’s an interesting thought on why it is so important to TRUST Him and not ourselves. I may be praying for a certain outcome, which I think is the best, but the other person(s) involved may be praying on the same issue but praying for the outcome they think is best. So who is praying right? If God should answer my prayer, then He didn’t answer their prayer the way they thought He should, or vise versa. So again, that is why it is so important to pray in the Spirit and TRUST Him to do what’s right.
Jesus trusted the Holy Spirit to bring about the virgin birth. He trusted the Holy Spirit to bring life back into His body on the third day after His crucifixion. He trusted the Holy Spirit to take Him back into heaven. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come and indwell the believers … and He has come!
Since Jesus could trust the Holy Spirit … so can you and so can I! Do you?
*This was another one of Ronn’s favorite messages to preach. I wish I had his version of it, but this writing is my thoughts on his topic.
