These are the notes I drew on for the talk at MEC, Malvern, May 24th 2026. You can hear the talk here. Enjoy the talk, or cut to the marker at 43:58 when I get up to speak.

‘Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.’ (Gal. 5:25) It’s a great joy to celebrate and share about the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, the member of the Trinity who we perhaps usually talk least about. During Jesus’ final days on Earth, immediately before and after His resurrection, He spent a lot of time explaining that although He was about to leave them, He would not leave them alone, but would send the Holy Spirit to empower them to be His ambassadors and witnesses for His Kingdom.

Some years later, Paul, who had so dramatically had his life turned around after meeting with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, urged believers to be filled with the Spirit, and to be careful to ‘keep in step with the Spirit.’

I love that phrase. You can find it in Galatians 5:25, where the word that Paul uses, stoicheo, (stoyk-ee-oh) is a military term that indicated soldiers marching in rank, or falling into step behind a leader. Paul calls us soldiers for Christ, and like Jesus he urged believers us to walk in the power of unity and forgiveness.

I heard someone paraphrase the verse ‘Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit’ like this: ‘let’s dance together!’ That’s a challenging thought for someone blessed with two left feet. To dance together necessitates thinking and moving beyond our own self-interests, paying close attention to the Lord, and also each other, lest we trample on their toes by insisting on doing our own thing.

It’s not enough just to memorise our own steps: we have to tune into their rhythm, and momentum – especially because in the spiritual terms we are speaking of, it is the Lord Jesus who is our partner and leader, and His Holy Spirit who choreographs the dance. This requires a deep continuous awareness; we are listening and feeling for where He is moving and guiding us. As John reminds us in 1 John 2:6 everything depends on living in union with Jesus. If we refuse to respond to His prompts, the whole dance freezes. We don’t suddenly cease to be His if we really have placed our hand in His, but we do risk stalling, or straying down rabbit holes.

Pentecost is a great time for asking the Lord Jesus to fill us afresh with His Holy Spirit so that we experience Him in dynamic, responsive partnership – more like the mumurations of starlings, or one of those dance troupes that move in harmony with each other than a marching troop.

Both our sons are in the army, and if you misstep during a rigid military march, the formation is broken and it sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s a really sad thing when people are so intent on doing their own thing that they step out of formation with our Captain and with fellow believers. But keeping in step with the Spirit is about much more than adhering to a perfectly uniform and rigid external structure.

We are Jesus’ followers, and a great dance relies on following His leading. We are His disciples, mathetai (mah-they-tie in Greek): literally “learners” or “apprentices” – not just people who are content to study a subject remotely from text books as if for a theology exam, but those who are eager and determined to live with their Master and to learn from Him.

The wonderful thing is that the Lord is prepared to call such fallible people as ourselves His co-workers, partners and friends. (John 15:15, 1 Cor. 3:9, Heb. 3:14) It’s hard to imagine there could be anything better than that, but He even says that we are His heirs and coheirs. (Rom. 8:16-17, Gal. 4:7, 1 Pet. 1:3-4) It is an incredible privilege and our deepest hope – and Jesus takes the huge risk of trusting that ‘everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher,’ (Luke 6:40) living and responding to people as He would do, and to make Him known.

To return to our starting idea of stoicheo, whereas a march is about getting to a destination in as disciplined a way as possible, a dance is not just about following a set of rules but about sharing a beautiful, dynamic partnership and collaboration, living and moving as nearly as one with Him as we possibly can with our Shepherd, Friend and Guide, sharing every aspect of our life with Him, just as the first disciples did with their Rabbi. That is the very essence and definition of a great dance – however much we remain L-plated novices mathetai until He finally comes to draw us up to Heaven.

On this Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate what the Lord did in birthing the Church and pouring out His precious Holy Spirit in a very public way on the thousands who had come to Jerusalem to attend the most important of the three great Jewish feasts. This was the occasion the Lord chose, and it was also the time when the Lord knew that Peter was willing and able to explain boldly and clearly what was happening, and to urge people to yield their lives to the One who the Jewish leaders had so recently rejected and crucified.

The story of this revival outpouring story is an amazing one – and it is being replicated to this day in the way the Holy Spirit is sweeping lives millions upon millions into the kingdom of God all around the world. Let’s hear again how it all began, and then move on to consider a whole variety of the ways by which we too are called to open our hearts to receive the fulness of the Holy Spirit and to live and move in His power and freedom.

The reading from Acts 2

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

At that time there were devout Jews from every nation staying in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.
They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages . . . about the wonderful things God has done!” They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.
But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”

Peter Preaches to the Crowd

Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles raised his voice and addressed the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days,’ God says,
‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young men will see visions,
and your old men will dream dreams.
In those days I will pour out my Spirit
even on my servants—men and women alike—
and they will prophesy.
And I will cause wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below—
blood and fire and clouds of smoke.
The sun will become dark,
and the moon will turn blood red
before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.
But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved.’

“People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip . . .

God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this. Now he is exalted to the place of highest honour in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today . . .

“So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and
Messiah!”

Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away — all who have been called by the Lord our God.”

As we ponder the wonderful concept of ‘keeping in step with the Spirit’ let’s start by noting that these first 120 Spirit-filled believers were ‘together together.’ That’s what the original Greek says – though modern translations smooth it out to say something like, ‘They were all together in one place.’ What the Greek actually indicates was that they were together in heart unity, passion and purpose as well as in one physical upper room.

I’m sure we can all think of loving families that pull together, but then, too, of others that though physically together, are a long way from being spiritually united. May the Spirit of the Lord help us to be together together.

To continue the metaphor, when someone is struggling skilful dance partners will absorb the stumble, and help us to find the flow again. I love that. The Lord Jesus knows how to catch and restore us one more time than we can ever fall – provided only that we really are doing our best to seek Him rather than insisting on going our own way – just as Jesus had done for Peter, which was the reason he was able be His chief spokesman for launching the Church in the way we have just read. It is a powerful reminder that we must give each other space and grace when they fall short and make mistakes, or are in great need.

The 120 believers gathered in the upper room were there in faithful obedience to what Jesus had asked them to do: to wait and pray for the Spirit to come – although I’m sure they didn’t know what that would look like until it happened! It came ‘suddenly’ in the form of a ‘sound like a rushing wind coming from heaven,’ a noise that filled the place even as the Holy Spirit came in power upon those who had gathered there. But though this happened ‘suddenly,’ Peter was quick enough to recognise that it had been in the planning for at least 800 years, because this was nothing less than the fulfilment of what the prophet Joel had foretold.

“I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh, and that your sons and daughters shall prophesy, it specifics that your young men shall see visions, (and be given the oomph to go out and work them out, while) the old will dream dreams,; (and serve perhaps more prayerfully and reflectively as mentors for the next generation, and, no class or gender discrimination here, ;on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out My Spirit in those days and they shall prophesy – and whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
(Joel 2:28-32)

Oh yes, Lord, let there be many!

I’m glad Joel ‘categorises’ these stages of life. When God called me into leadership roles and full-time ministry at the age of 21, I worried that I was too young to be leading events and conferences. He had to work hard to encourage me to move in the anointing and authority that He was giving. Paul had to say the same thing to his protégé, Timothy. (1 Tim 4:12)

Nowadays, with health being a struggle, my temptation veers in the opposite direction: to feel that I am too weak to be of any use! The devil would be missing an easy target if he didn’t try and play that particular card. Many of us probably experience this in one form or another. ‘You’re too old, too young, you’re too something or other to be of any use . . ‘. However plausible he makes the charge sound, all such limitations are straight from the devil’s playbook and not from the Holy Spirit. I wonder what he tried to say along those lines for you? How about, ‘You’re too intellectual to be open to the Spirit’; or its corollary, ‘you’re not intellectual enough to be led by the Spirit!’ What sort of an example do you think you are since you. . .?’ – followed by a sharp reminder of some of your more glaring faults.’ And so on.

It’s vital that we do not accept the devil’s assessment. He can find ways to use us even if we can’t keep up with Keely Hodgkinson. The important thing to remember is this: that the Holy Spirit comes in different ways to people, and that we receive Him differently.

In all this, God takes our character and our mental, spiritual and physical make-up into consideration. After all He made us, and He has vastly different purposes in view for each one of us. My path isn’t yours, yours isn’t mine, and one is not better than the other. We risk going a long way off course if we fall into the way of thinking that our way is the best or only way. God loves to see people seeking Him from all denominations.

God filled me suddenly and in a most unexpected way in late 1976 when I was living in the Paris region, but though He takes us again and again by surprise, but from His point of view it is never accidental but meticulously intentional. After all, amongst all His other attributes, the Lord is the divine Architect – and His Holy Spirit is like a master weaver, who guides and orchestrates events and even apparent ‘coincidences’ that were actually planned and set in motion long ago. His timing is exquisite, just as the events of Pentecost were the exact, calculated moment the Spirit had always planned, the kairos of God: the chosen moment.

Pentecost literally means the fiftieth; that is, 7×7 weeks plus one day after the Passover, the time when people celebrated the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, the Torah, and now 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. This was the outworking of a vast and flexible plan – and yet one that impacted individual people’s lives in real-time without for all that denying their free will. So whilst this was God’s macro plan for His Church for all time, its outworking was applied perfectly on the micro level.

People didn’t have to go somewhere special to hear the gospel; they were already in Jerusalem for the great feast of Shavuot, the harvest festival, that came a time when the Mediterranean was calm enough for people to leave their homes and families and to travel safely to Jerusalem, the holy city meant so much to every Jew. Not did they have to learn different languages to hear the gospel; each person heard the gospel being proclaimed in their own language and dialect.

God was meeting with people right where they were. God grants His revelations but leaves room for true seekers to respond in faith; there were some inevitably who remained sceptical and who mocked, supposing the whole thing to be the effect of storming the pubs before they officially opened, just as there were whole villages that received the Lord in the Welsh revival, but others that hardened their hearts against Jesus. ‘Drive out the mocker and out goes strife,’ the proverb says. A mocking scoffing spirit is one thing that God cannot bless, because it is a sign of cynicism, and that is a terrible thing because a cynical person sees or hears what is happening, but hardens his or her heart against it. We have to humble ourselves if we are to receive more of the HS.

And when we do so the Spirit comes with unexpected bursts of creativity, prayer and action. Everything feels alive, and holistically wholesome and wildly free.

The need for encounter – and overcoming the fear of joining the dance

When you consider what the disciples became, full of faith and the ability to minister to people just as Jesus had, one wonders why on earth so hold back from receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and moving into such freedom. People are inclined to fear what He might ask us to give up in terms of security and comfort; or lead us into. After all, He never promised that we would not suffer for making Him known, on the contrary, pretty well all those first disciples would meet with a martyr’s death.

And so we find many people, and many ministers working hard to remain in control – and to exercise their ministry in hierarchical top-down ways, preferring to keep things safe and predictable, never realising what God might have done had He been invited to show us a better way.

Before revival broke out in 1904, Dr Martin Lloyd Jones said that people in Welsh churches were ‘sermoned’ out. It wasn’t more intellectual stimulation that they needed; they had that in spades; what was actually needed was more encounter with the living God. Let’s prepare for encounter, and welcome it; and not move to clamp Him down, even if His coming takes an unusual form, as it did when the Spirit came at Pentecost. As we heard in the reading, the bewildered crowd were crying out, ‘What does this mean?’ (Acts 2:12) They soon found out as Peter explained it all to them.

Yet the disciples themselves were learning on the job; they had seen and heard and even done incredible things with Jesus, but they had never seen tongues of fire land on people’s heads, nor spoken in languages not their own. But what must have appeared extraordinary at the time soon became an integral part of their lives and ministries. Isn’t that what it means to be naturally supernatural and supernaturally natural?

I was due to speak in the early 1990s at a large assembly, at the time when the Spirit had begun to work in new ways across many churches. Half an hour or so into the worship a friend laid a hand on my shoulder and prayed for the power of the Spirit to be with me when the time came for me to speak. I immediately felt a great weight come on me, so much so that I could not move. Well, the root word for ‘glory’ in Scripture is kavod, which means not just splendid radiance but something heavy and weighty.

My first thought was less to give thanks to the Lord for this than to remember that the same thing had happened a fortnight before to a famous speaker just before he had been due to speak – and that he had ended up as it were encased in this heavy presence for two whole hours and missed his speaking slot!

A few minutes later the Lord spoke clearly and said, ‘I have done this to reassure you that the power in this place is of Me. Go and speak!’ I was able to wobble rather woozily up the aisle and spoke with unusual clarity and authority that evening.

I have only known something like that a few times in my life. Another occasion was at a conference that I was leading, when He told me clearly to hold silence instead of continuing my talk. A saturating presence of the Lord came down, and people were just drinking in His presence. Time went by and after twenty minutes, I could see that about half the people were surfacing and ready for the meeting to continue normally. But the other half were still deeply away with the Lord, and He made it clear to me that for their sake I must maintain the silence and not interrupt it, even though some of the people there were beginning to count the stars on the wallpaper by that time.

You can imagine the pressure and temptation I felt as a leader to say or do something to bring the meeting back onto familiar territory, but there are times when even to introduce an otherwise perfectly good song would be to grieve the Spirit because of what He was doing in many people’s hearts. It was a full further twenty minutes before that deep kavod presence lifted and I was free to continue the meeting.

Rather to my surprise, one minister said to me afterwards that it had been the nearest thing to revival that he had ever experienced. Well, deep silence isn’t what most of us might instinctively associate with revival, because we tend to think of that more as something that impacts outsiders, but this has to do with the saturating presence of the Lord, and all He was saying and doing in that.

I have to admit that I approached the meeting the following evening in some trepidation, but the Lord spoke and reassured me that He was putting the reins of the meeting back into my hands under His, whereas the previous night He had needed to take the leadership out of my hands in order to meet more deeply with people.

It’s true that some get so excited about the Holy Spirit that they get carried away and go overboard on particular emphases. That’s how heresies develop – taking a truth and pushing it beyond its proper limits. As a result, and in reaction to seeing excesses of self-display or even counterfeit miracles, many hold back from seeking more of the Spirit; but Jesus wants us to draw on His Spirit’s power for all that we do in terms of moving in the fulness of faith, without straying into presumption and error. We mustn’t let fear hold us back; the Holy Spirit will not violate our will or our personality: He comes rather to enrich and empower us.

We are to be conduits of the Holy Spirit 

The call to ‘be filled with the Spirit’ is not a suggestion. As Corrie Ten Boom put it, ‘The Bible has no suggestions, but only commandments, and this is the most happy commandment of the whole Bible’. The question is not “Have we got the Holy Spirit?” but “Has the Holy Spirit got us?” He is the source of life, we are merely the vessels through which He expresses His life and His heart.

“Whoever believes in Me,” Jesus said, “Streams of living water will flow from within him.” (Jn. 7:38) A stream has to flow. That’s why Paul uses the ‘present imperative’ when he tells the Ephesian church to ‘Be filled with the Spirit.’ (Eph.5:18). It’s interesting that he is addressing the church as a whole in the plural, rather than just individual believers. If he had used the aorist tense, it would mean “get filled right now as a one-off event.” By using the present tense, it literally translates to “keep on being filled” or “be constantly, progressively filled.” It’s like breathing—not something you do once and finish, but a continuous intake. (Strongs Greek 4137)

Immediately after that verse in Ephesians 5:19-21, Paul speaks of us addressing one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing and making music from our hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s vision is that it is as we gather as a community to sing, pray and serve God and each other that we collectively “go on being filled” with the Spirit. It’s a beautiful, shared experience.

The ministry the New Testament endorses above all is of a collective participatory nature that encourages people to be free to contribute their testimonies, songs and prophecies. This leaves room for the emphases that are on the Lord’s heart to be expressed, and for the Spirit to move and intervene as He wishes. We must learn to find ways to make room for this, and to follow His leading, when to hold silence, when to pray, when to break into groups; when we sense there is a particular anointing on a particular person to make a contribution.

Ongoing fulness

Just a few days after the events of Pentecost, we read of Peter being filled afresh with the Holy Spirit so that he could speak with boldness to the Jewish leaders after the disciples had been apprehended and brought before the Sanhedrin. (Acts 4:8) And after they were released, they were filled with the Spirit once again, praying mega boldly before going out and continuing to witness to Jesus. (Acts 4:31)

Sometimes, very often in my case as it feels these days since I have not been so well, we feel not so much that we are flowing with His living water, as that we have become rather drained. Both the evangelist DL Moody and the Welsh preacher Dr Martin Lloyd Jones replied to the question of why they needed to continue to be filled, with the answer, ‘It’s because I leak.’

We do indeed. Even the best of us fail to live in the fullness of the flow that Jesus demonstrated during His life on earth. Corrie ten Boom records how she continued to struggled with her temper even after she had been filled with the Spirit.

She was sensitive and easily offended; she had to choose to forgive the sleights that came her way, and this did not come naturally to her, but despite that, the fruit of her life is great because she focused on the Lord Himself, and on working to attend to these ‘leaks,’ and she is known today as a might hero of the faith – rather as the Scriptures don’t hesitate to call David a man of God, even though he did some highly ungodly things at times.

Jesus is the door – but if our mind is clogged with prejudices, or befogged with fear He cannot open it as wide as He wants, and we cannot walk through it to lay hold of blessings that therefore remain out of our reach. May the Lord help us to identify and to attend to clogged-up areas in our hearts that cloud our witness. Ask the Lord to send His Holy Spirit to bring such prejudices or fears or other such matters to mind in the coming weeks,

SELAH

I liked the visual aid that Elizabeth showed last week: a bottle of Drain Mate! It is a vital resource for blocked sinks, and we often need the spiritual equivalent to overcome blockages that we may be really embarrassed we have failed to overcome, or which we are keen to defend and excuses ourselves, when in reality we need we would be very much better off coming free of them. Do take advantage of the Christian Prayer Ministry slots that she mentioned.

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter. He is infinitely tender but also more than willing to prod and stir us up concerning those areas that need attending to. As always, it begins with a willingness to yield everything to the Lord, and not to hold back some part of our lives from Him, so that more of Him can be at work through us.

Yes, please Lord! Help us indeed to be open to your Spirit at all times, and to let the streams of living water flow!

We’re only able to look at a few aspects of the work of the HS here; the important thing is to be open. It’s often a matter of very gentle prompting, but there are times when following HS’s leading means taking risks. John Wimber used to say that LOVE is spelt RISK!

I remember the Lord prompting Ros on various occasions to go up and share what the Lord was giving her. It happened once on a beach. She kept pacing around, rather hoping the person she felt she had a word for would go away, but when she didn’t she went up instead to her and shared the word. The lady concerned turned out to be a Christian who was going through a tough time. She was really grateful for that unexpected word from the Lord. There is often both internal pressure and outward opposition to overcome at such times.

May we have the courage to act on what He shows us, when God is prompting us to do something that takes us out of our comfort zone. And then in the ordinary times just keep our antennae quietly switched on in case He has things to show us, or people He wants us to pray for or to get in touch with. He is a God who loves to communicate with His children – and we must communicate with Him and with each other.

Sometimes the stakes are higher, as on that world-changing occasion in Acts 9 when the Lord spoke to Ananias in a vision, and told him to go to Straight Street in Damascus, where he would find the man who had set himself the life mission of arresting Christians, and to pray for him. No surprise that Ananias kicked up a bit of a fuss at that point, but the Lord replied, “Go! This man is My chosen instrument to proclaim My name to both Gentiles and Jews alike.” The Lord sees possibilities where we see only impossibilities or danger. Since Saul who became Paul would go on to lead so many to Christ, not to mention writing a significant portion of the New Testament, how utterly crucial it was that Ananias overcame his fears and went where he did not want to go.

Such specific direction is rare, but I have known the Holy Spirit telling me to go and pray with someone I did not know and even me their street and house number to able to go and find them. It was a great joy to do so once I had overcome my embarrassment in going to the house of a stranger.

The water is for the flowers

Whatever the Lord gives us is for us to share. As Teresa of Avila memorably put it, ‘The water is for the flowers.’ We mustn’t let fear hold us back – for instance if we feel a nudge to witness or pray with a colleague, friend or neighbour. The fear of man really is a snare that holds so many of us back from acting courageously. Many fear to be creatively generous with their money too, fearing that that will leave them short – though that is not even remotely true of this congregation, praise the Lord! The Lord is no man’s debtor and we can never out-bless or out-favour the source of life.

Something very precious I have often experienced is the Lord keeping me in the loop; letting me know what is going on either to encourage or to warn me. I can think of quite a few times over the years when the Lord has begun such conversations with ‘you’re not going to find this easy to hear but’ – and He then proceeds to tells me that something is going to happen which I would much rather not happen. But when those things did come to pass, I am so grateful to God for having warned me ahead of time. (It’s rather like I have often found 1 Peter 4:12 lighting up to me before something particularly difficult comes my way: ‘Friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you!’

Here’s something we can all do. Take time to ask the Lord to talk with you to make it a real two-way conversation. Be focused but relaxed. When we are reminded of a particular situation or person, don’t be too quick to dismiss it as a coincidence that they are bleeping on your radar. There may be a reason they have come to mind. Home in and ask the Lord for the detail. Are we being called to pray for them, or to send them a text or make a phone call or to actually visit them? The Lord is thinking about them, and He is sharing something of His heart with you for them.

Such things happen on far more occasions than just in our regular times with the Lord, as the Holy Spirit cuts across our thoughts, and drops ideas in. This too is all about getting used to partnering with Him. And if it’s ideas that are coming to us with unusual clarity, it’s really important to write them down, because our memories can be highly fallible.

SELAH

When I check back with people concerned who have come to mind, eight or nine times out of ten, the reason is immediately apparent. And if there is nothing that strikes them particularly, well you may be going ahead to prepare some blessing for them in prayer, or to keep them from some trouble that might otherwise have come their way. And if it was just a coincidence, well, nothing but good can ever come from lifting them before the throne of Grace!

Hebrews 5:14 reminds us that it is by constant use and practice that we must train our senses to distinguish good from evil – and to be able to distinguish between the good, the merely acceptable and the best.

One thing to bear in mind, is that just as there are days when radio reception around the world is better than others, it should come as no surprise that there are times when our receptiveness to the Holy Spirit’s promptings is less strong, and it is much harder to pray and listen. Body, soul and spirit are so closely connected, and if we are under the weather physically, that will often influence our spiritual life too. It doesn’t mean you are falling away from the Lord because you can’t feel him as easily as you had done on previous occasions, it just means you have got either a short or long-term condition that makes it harder to hear and listen, in which case we either have to dig deeper into His Word to seek Him – or just let Him carry us through those times when we cannot carry ourselves. But do ask others to pray for you at such times – because their prayers can often achieve what our own cannot at those times – and we can do the same for them when they are struggling. Praying for each other makes all the difference!

How else can we strengthen the life of the Spirit? By the Holy Spirit bringing His word to life in new ways.

There will never be a new Bible written, but in each generation the Lion of Judah sheds new light on His word by His Spirit as He leads His people in fresh expressions of faith. Pray for it to light up to you-how right Pauline was to stress that it will if we will but open and read, but that the enemy opposes us doing this. It can’t come to life if the cover is shut,

We either grow stronger or diminish in the life of the Spirit in our walk with the Holy Spirit, too, by the company we keep. ‘Don’t be fooled,’ Paul warned, ‘bad company corrupts good character.’ (1 Cor. 15:33) But we learn so much just from being with those who have walked closely with the Lord; their walk with the Lord, and the quality of their prayer life is contagious. Seek them out, and seek to be mentors yourself.

By the responses we make to the perilous situations in our nation and around the world. The Lord truly sees and values it when we respond not with hand-wringing complaint or despair but with deeply concerned prayer; He sees and takes these precious drops of water and merges them with the outpouring of grace He is sending around the world. He uses them too as a check against the work of the enemy, just as He complimented King Josiah of Judah because he humbled himself to prayer prayers of repentance for his nation. (2 Chron. 34:27-28)

Just as God often speaks to us when in faith and duty we open our Bibles and read, it is the same with prayer. This is when we give God the best chance to make prayer a two-way encounter and adventure.

Almost every time we meet with fellow believers represents an opportunity to pray together. May we be proactive in saying, ‘Let’s pray together!’ because that creates opportunities for the Lord to move in news ways by His Spirit.

Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. (Eph. 6:18)

When the evangelist David Watson spent time with Corrie ten Boom, something that impressed him greatly was the fact that she was willing and eager to pray about everything from missing car keys to international situations. It is so precious when our prayer life is similarly comprehensive, and can span both personal and wider matters with equal confidence.

When Paul tells us to pray in the Spirit on all occasions, some people instinctively associate that phrase with praying in tongues. I don’t have time to unpack the great value of this in detail, but I would encourage every one of us who possesses the gift of speaking and praying in tongues to recognise the value of it, and not to leave the gift as it were on the shelf; it is the Holy Spirit Himself who is praying through us, and that is precious to the Lord and valuable for us. If you haven’t got the gift do consider asking the Lord for it.

May the Spirit of wisdom understanding and of counsel rest on us and deepen in us, so that we do not judge everything by superficial standards but are empowered to make true judgements about things. (Is. 11:2-3) Appearances can often be misleading; it is the Hoy Spirit who shows us truer perspectives.

Seeking the Lord early

It’s great to seek the Lord early when we first wake up if we possibly can. The Lord loves to slip ideas for the day in early on before the busyness of the day imposes its own routines on us. I love the idea of what used to be called the fourth watch, that is from 3-6 a.m., which is a great time to pray issues through, and to seek Him for guidance and before the busyness of the days sets in.

Because most problems have many sides to them, however, we can’t expect to solve them all in one go; further leadings and fresh circumstances usually have to happen and to line up to make that possible. Most challenges in life involve a whole tangle of circumstances and relationships, positive and negative alike, and with all the emotions that go with that. We might want the whole blueprint at once, but that might be like wanting to turn to the answers at the back of the maths book, rather than working through the discernment process by picking up the clues step by step.

Perhaps we could liken this process to prospectors seeking gold or copper, who put a cross on their map when they find evidence of a seam, but then have to seek diligently to see which direction the seam is heading in. That’s what develops our discernment.

Whatever internal unclogging may be needed, there can also be specific unseen external opposition. The powers of darkness don’t see that many people in a given area who are really on fire for the Lord who pose a significant danger to his kingdom; it’s only to be expected, therefore, go hrard that they target those who are.

I have often experienced what felt like glue on the wheels as I was going to minister somewhere. We got into the habit of saying “Tum-tee-tum: it’s obvious what’s going on – someone doesn’t want us to get there!” The enemy is always trying to make us think the pressure is too much and to back back a bit. Very much better if just take hold of James 4:7 and ‘Submit ourselves to God; resist the devil, and find him fleeing before our prayers and praise.

Learning to be discerning

Paul urges us in Ephesians 5:10 to ‘Find out what pleases the Lord’ – and that’s where the leading of the Holy Spirit comes in. It is worth it a hundred times over to consult the Lord before we act. Many times all that’s needed is just to commit our way to the Lord and to trust Him to attend to matters as we get on with doing what we feel it is right to do; but there are times when it is really important that we seek the Lord for the specifics because one course of action will prove very much better than another. And that’s when we have to pause and seek the Lord and wait to sense where His leading lies, and where His peace is not.

Although hindsight is a wonderful thing, there are many situations that the Lord wants to grant us understanding into now. Paul would not have told believers to ‘find out what is pleasing to the Lord,’ (Eph. 5:10) were it impossible to do so. It says rather in Proverbs 3:32 that He loves ‘to take the upright into His confidence.’

That’s when sight turns into insight as we sense more of the reasons and significance of the things we go through and the situations we consult Him about. He loves us to ask Him questions, and His Spirit finds imaginative ways to respond to them That’s an integral part of what it means to be filled with the Spirit, which, as Corrie Ten Boom reminds us, is a command, albeit a happy one, rather than a suggestion.

Jesus deserves our all – and He is looks to us as His friends, partners and heirs. May He alert us whenever we are in danger of as it were trying to straddle two kingdoms, so that we really can seek and serve Him every day wholeheartedly.

Fill me afresh with Your Spirit, Lord, then guide and instruct me from day to day to day I pray.

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash