The Big H

 

I have to say that I am sorry for my absence of late. I went back to work after the first of the year. It is okay, I work in an office upstairs and away from everyone else. We wear masks and follow protocol to keep safe. They are very aware of my health issues. I only see them when I go down to use the facilities or if they come up to pass on some work. I have also added a workout to my regimen as well as some Groundwire chatline help to keep connected.

Anyway, I was explaining to a coworker, in my own special way, about the progression of old age and thinking. I explained it by comparing an air-filled balloon. Then, I got to thinking, it is more like helium and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit being the big H. My granddaughter, Angel, used to love my stories or analogies of how things work. I would explain bacteria in her teeth as little bugs that try to take over her mouth and brushing is like sending an army to battle with them. 😊 So, let me share this with you too.

I imagine that when we are born, we are simply a shell of a person with little concept of God, Jesus or salvation. In terms of a balloon, we are flat and motionless sitting on the floor doing nothing. As we grow and depending on what we learn or know about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we begin to gain substance. Slowly, our little balloon starts to fill with air in direct proportion with our faith. Essentially, what we absorb or take in, fills us up. As our faith grows and we are filled with the Holy Spirit, our balloon expands. During our lifetime, it may ebb and flow getting less than and more than based on what we take in.

For example, if I were a church going person who talks to Him all the time and stays connected, it is as if I am connected to a Helium machine. I get bigger, sore higher and am filled with the Spirit most of the time. I am off the ground and filled with love for others. I have it made.

Eph 3:19: “And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

If I have faith in God but I get distracted by worldly things and wander off from time to time, forgetting to stay connected, my balloon begins to leak the big H (Helium, or in this case, The Holy Spirit). While others are in tune with their Spirit and recognize the direct correlation between the health of our Spirit and our connection to God. Some of us notice this right away and run back for a refill.

1 Thes 5:19: “Do not quench the Spirit.”

Some of us take a while before we make the connection at all. We become distant and disconnected. We start deflating and sinking. We are not filled with the Spirit anymore. The lack of Spirit causes us to lose perspective and become more worldly and dark. We no longer do what we long to do and we do what we do not want to do. Our world gets turned upside down and we never quite make the connection between the light and dark. Between our filling up and our letting go. We bounce around in the world lower and lower or just not really getting where we need to be because we feel empty. We are lost between our sense of peace and our worldly turmoil.

Eph 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

In fact, I will go so far as to say that this is what we humans are normally like without our faith. Without the filling of the Holy Spirit, we slowly lose Our Spirit and begin to sink into darkness again. Like that balloon that slowly leaks the Helium out until it is no longer in air but skips along the carpet and finally comes to rest on the floor, empty of all that lifted it up. As if it never floated above you at all.

1 John 2:16: “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.”

Faith, and ultimately the Holy Spirit is our life’s blood. It acts like Helium does to an empty balloon. And just like Helium and a balloon, if you just fill it once and leave it to its own devices, what does it do?

You can’t have a revival or an awakening and then leave that person to their own devices. You need to be continuously filled with knowledge and the Spirit. You need to be filled with the Truth and stay connected with Christ so that you learn to recognize the factors in the world that cause you to deflate or lose faith and perspective. You have to keep your lifeline filled.

I watch and listen to people who leave program thinking they can let go of that lifeline and be on their own. I plead with them to stay connected to their faith and to continue to be filled so they don’t become a part of the world around them. And, sadly, I have watched them fall because they forget the face of their Father and were led astray. It breaks my heart. They should know from experience that we cannot do it without Him.

Look, I am not saying that you HAVE to read the bible every single day or you are doomed. Having conversations with God about your day, praying to Him and keeping Him in your daily life is healthy too. I don’t always read the bible or do bible study. But I am always talking to Him either in my head or out loud if no one is around. It is very important that you know the bible and what it says to expect in the end so that you are fooled. He is quite frank about that. But it also has amazing common-sense insight into how we should be with each other.

For your own good, you must get to a point where you see the spiritual battle going on around you and you recognize the affects of the world on you when you are not filled with the Spirit. You MUST for your own good.

John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

There are so many ways to stay connected and learn, even if you can’t go to church.

·         Youversion bible app has the bible and bible study plans, videos and podcasts.

·         The internet. You can watch anything at any time just by looking for it on the internet.

·         Your own bible.

·         Online church. I like this because we really do benefit by listening to someone else talk about God

·         Christian friends: Networking with people who want to partner with you to learn and grow together can be fun. You can learn together and hold each other accountable.

Heb 4:16: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Listen, don’t be deflated. Look at all the different ways the enemy would like to take you out of your faith and put you back into the world so that you have no Spiritual impact on the world around you.

Isa 55:11: “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”